For hundreds of years, the origami paper craft stayed pretty much like it always had been. For models that were particularly complicated or intricate, a drawing or sometimes even a book was published illustrating the technique. “How to Fold one Thousand Cranes” was published in 1797 and was the standard, until the father of modern origami, Akira Yoshizawa created a system of arrows and lines that described each fold without the need for words. Now, in the age of the Internet, further developments have been made in the form of animated origami.
Akira Yoshizawa’s new way of diagramming was a huge breakthrough in that it completely bypassed the written language, which opened the doors for origami models to be shared all over the world. Yoshizawa’s notations have become so popular that they have been incorporated into the large majority of origami diagrams and related publications ever since.
When dealing with origami diagrams, you generally only need to record the key folds in the development of each model. Even if you have very little experience, the steps can usually be followed without much difficulty. But, because only key folds are recorded, beginners may sometimes struggle to visualize how the paper should be folded between key folds on the diagram. If a beginner gets stuck, there is little else to do but keep trying or seek out someone else to help. However, with the advent of the Internet, help is at hand the majority of the time because of the increasing number of websites that provide animated visual instructions to fill in the missing pieces.
And so enters animated origami. With traditional animation techniques, cartoons are drawn on layers of acetate sheets with each segment of movement is captured frame by frame onto film. This process is also used when animating origami diagrams, although the artist will produce sequences of digital drawings with computer software rather than using sheets of acetate and a camera. The software allows the animator to change the look, size and playback of the origami animation in a way that would have been impossible using traditional methods.
A computer program called Splash was developed in the 1990s that could both animate and output graphics of incredibly small file sizes. The program later developed into the now well known, Flash and today, the Flash player and its associated animations have become completely imbedded across the Web. With Flash’s widespread presence and ability to produce smooth animations, interactivity and small file sizes, it has provided a natural platform for the production and animation of origami diagrams.
The Internet is continually changing the way people communicate, learn and share ideas. This is especially so with web-based animated origami models. It helps join the ancient Japanese art form of origami with cutting edge technology and hopefully helps more people discover the joy of this wonderful art form of fascinating folds.