Japanese Commercial with Origami

I found this video at Metacafe.com. It appears to be a Japanese commercial for Filemaker Pro. I believe the racer is by David Brill. How much of it incorporates actual origami and how much is just computer animation? Does anyone know what artists contributed to this video, if any?



Also, check these videos out:

When Good Frogs Go Bad

Robert Lang Interview

Chronicles of WCOG (January 2006 Meeting)

You can see photos here. Just look for the album labeled "Westcoast Origami Guild 2006".


Just realized that I forgot to link this other video in the "Festival" archives, from last February. It's from a Chinese New Year Festival Yami and I did at the Chinese-American Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

2006 Rhombic Calendar

Lar deSouza posted the following to the O-List 5 days ago, and I just now took a look at it today:

Happy New Year to one and all!!

I've skipped doing this the past couple years, but then there's been
others who've taken up the slack. For those not familiar with
it, our late dear friend, Thoki Yenn, worked out how to skew the
angles to fit a calendar onto Nick Robinson's most excellent rhombic
dodecahedron. With vector software it was a simple matter for me to
fit things neatly and convert it to a pdf format. Interested folks
can find the file here.

It's six letter sized pages, each with two months on it, and a last
page with Nick Robinson's diagrams (unaltered) in case you can't find them.

I know I've seen these at WCOG meetings before, with John Andrisan always coming out with interesting printings. But I had never taken an interest, really, until now. It's really a cool concept and a nice, fun, easy fold. Thanks to Lar and thanks to Nick and Thoki!!! The photo is taken of the one I folded tonight. I used semi-glossy all-purpose photo paper. It folded very nicely.

A wallet/cardholder

While surfing on Technorati, I found The Fitful Flog and tried my hand at The Three Card Monti. Here is my result. Read Oschene's description of his model.

His purpose in making this was to cut down on the number of cards he has to carry in his wallet. I liked his idea of attaching the savings cards barcodes to it.

Update: step-photos are now available.

Origami Computer Animation

Found this when ChildofSai posted his new origami video to Origami-L.

Year of the Blog

Er...I mean dog...Happy New Year of the Dog ( beginning January 29th). Yami invited me to help him and Joe out last year, at the New Otani Hotel. It was much the same this year, with me once again teaching among other things, papergliders. I also "taught" the 20-unit flower. Joe taught a cute barking dog action model (Jan 29th being the start of the Chinese Year of the Dog). Yami mostly entertained people with his ring and chain trick. He must have been practicing that diligently since the last time I saw him, as his "batting" average improved quite a bit. When it fails, he usually tells the woman he was showing it to, that he gets nervous in the presence of beautiful women. His friend Hideko did most of the teaching at his table (teaching Yami's doodle bug). Joe gave away FIT's to the fortunate few who were last to leave us. As usual, he had plenty of giveaways that he folded for the purpose of sharing origami with the world. One of my favorite parts is the free meal at the end. We buffeted at The Azalea Restuarant. If anyone ever hangs out with Yami and Joe, it's never a dull moment. Yami showed off to the waiters and to patrons. Joe and I passed around origami giveaways. After my meal, I folded up my napkin into something inappropriate (Won Park showed me this at OUSA2002) and discreetly dropped it into Yami's lap. He stood up and proceeded to show patrons at the next table; then pointed to me and said, "Michael made this." I was mortified. I didn't get a very good shot of the "improper napkin-fold", but you can see a half-drunk Yami pose for the camera with it (it had kind of come undone, at this point, and I didn't think to refold it for the sake of posterity).

How to make the 20-unit flower

Phyllis Snyder of the Westcoast Origami Guild says she and Fumi Wakao were taking a class at the University of Irvine. They met a man who asked if they knew how to do a rose. Phyllis showed him a version of a Kawasaki rose. The man then showed what appeared to Phyllis to be the simple 2x1 3-unit flower with the twist tie. But the one the man was doing went on...and on...and on. 20 units total. He didn't invent it; but he did reverse engineer it. And apparently, it was originally a ball, from which he did the single pipe-cleaner twist-tied rose. The past year, this model has made it's way around from when Phyllis taught it to friends at the Matsuri Festival in Phoenix, to it being taught at OUSA2005. Things travel fast.

If anyone can identify the creator, it'd be much appreciated. As far as I can tell, it's gone the route of the 3-unit flower, and traditional models.

I've had some requests on how to fold this model. Since the assembly might be easier to show than to diagram, I thought I'd video it with my digital camera, and see how that works.


It's a roughly made video without audio instructions. The model itself is simple, but it may need experienced folders to follow the directions (I did make this for some O-Listers). It was a quick make while "on the job" at the New Otani; so the camera work was done on the fly, by whoever I could grab to film it. So forgive the lack of close-ups and more detailed, spoon-fed instructions.






What I love about teaching this model, is that I can teach people in bulk, with newcomers joining in at any given point...because it doesn't require me to be "hands-on" the entire time. You teach the simple unit, very easy to do, and that keeps the folder occupied for the next 10 minutes, folding 19 more. When someone new comes to learn, I can delegate teaching authority and ask one of the students, "Hey, can you teach her how to fold the unit?" or "Can you show her how to assemble the pieces?". It helps me, and it helps the folder who wants to be able to remember and teach her friends later.

If anything in the video is not clear enough, or if you have questions, you might consider leaving questions and suggestions in the comment section on this post, since your comment might not be a unique one, and will address what others are wondering about, themselves.

Again, I am just assuming that the experienced folders will be able to fill in whatever blanks are left in.

What a Wonderful Origami World!

Our December, end of the year WCOG meeting, complete with the annual library tree decorating.

The Three Little Origami Pigs

While using Technorati to browse for origami blogs, I came across
this cute idea.






So last night I folded one;






































then today, I filmed the following:




(Diagrams for the first photo models can be found in NOA #315- created by Ms. Chiyo Fukuoka).

Operation: Peace Crane

About a week ago, the OFF-topic post regarding Fallujah and white phosphorus made it's way onto the O-List. An Italian film has stirred up the moonbats(and the not-so-moonbatty) into believing our soldiers used a chemical weapon in the battle to wrest Fallujah free from the clutches of terrorist insurgents and foreign fighters. I challenged the poster on it, off list. An admin weighed in with the expected "lay off politics" warning. Then someone else posted, and I read more into his post than was there. So even though I knew better, I went off on a mini-rant of my own. Since then, I had re-read the post and made my apology to the person I flamed. But the off-topic stimulated agreement that political expression in origami is acceptable, as long as it relates back to origami.

This brings us to this past weekend. I was invited once again to Japan Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Last year, Yami, Joe and I teamed up with fellow WCOG members, Phyllis Snyder and Fumi Wakao. This year, Yami, Joe and I were given free tables to help Rafu Shimpo promote peace cranes and get visitors to the Expo to help fold tsuru and tack them onto a giant 8 foot crane that volunteers had built. Problem with getting people to stop long enough to fold a tsuru is that many wanted to keep their crane. And then there was also this problem: I ended up being by myself. Joe and Yami both contacted me the day before the Festival to let me know that they were sick. Both were suffering from the kind of ailments that come with old age. Joe did want me to pick up a bunch of giveaways that he had folded; so Saturday morning, I drove out to Gardena to his house; then swung by my storage place to pick up my own origami stuff before making it out to the Expo. It was so crowded in the West Hall, that I parked in South Hall and made quite a trek. 3 car-trips that had me sweating and my back and arms feeling like they would break.

I was pretty busy non-stop...sometimes teaching 3 different models all at once. I still like the multi-piece flower with pipe cleaner, as it's a project that doesn't need hands-on instructing the entire time. And any new arrivals to my table can just jump in any time. I can also delegate people to teach it to new arrivals when I'm pre-occupied already. It's that simple.

I was happy to see some of my friends make it down: Kirsten and her family; Cathleen; coworker Sara; Oliva and family; the VNSO crew; a client of mine, Stacey, and her family (that's her daughter Malaika at the end with the eyes popping out of her head when the Robert Neale $butterfly comes to life. That's also her hiding behind her dad, Neil toward the end).

Heading into the Expo and still fuming over the white phosphorus conspiracists...I printed out some camouflage patterns from Operation Peace Crane, as well as Esseltine's Kamiflage (click here for his new link). And as a subtle political statement, I folded some tsuru out of this paper and added them to the giant crane. (I also did a couple out of the American flag; the printing was created by John Andrisan).

I've tried to keep my politics and origami separate. This video does touch upon politics, but not in an overt fashion. It is neither pro-war/anti-peace, nor pro-Bush/anti-Bush, nor siding with a political party. I also didn't want this video to be about the war in Iraq and the Greater War on Terrorism; but one that is about war in the general sense. As the mission statement says on Operation Peace Crane,

Normally, origami cranes are folded using colorful origami paper, and traditional patterns. We hereby propose a new movement by spreading the crane with camouflage patterns of military around the world. Using the camouflage on the cranes represents the irony of war and peace that are inherent in our society, as if one cannot exist without the other. Today, we must confront the stark reality that the military complex is a worldwide industry, sponsored by the government (not to mention tax payers), which in turn supports the lifestyles of the unassuming public.

I chose the quotes I included at the end of the video very carefully; and what I did want to get across politically, is a positive message that is pro-peace, pro-military, and pro-victory. And that is a message that I hope all Americans can get behind and stand together on.

Aquarium of the Pacific Autumn Festival 2005

The adorable girl in the video is one of my dear and delightful gymnasts, Emily:

WCOG Meeting Oct 8, 2005

wcThis wasn't my first choice in music, because it is very slow (not as slow as the Barry Manilow version); but, hey! It has October in its name. I was actually hoping to include a fun, Halloween themed music, but no one brought any Halloween origami; too early in the month, I suppose. We also had a lighter turnout than we've had in a while, perhaps due to this Saturday, not feeling like the 2nd Saturday of the month.

WCOG (9/11) Tribute Meeting

California State University Long Beach Origami Festival2005

You can see photos from previous years in one of my old yahoo photo albums. Kudos to Alison Redfoot for her tireless work in putting this together every year. I must say, our free lunch was the best lunch...ever!

Saturday in the Library Dungeon (July WCOG Meeting)

OUSA Convention June 24-27, 2005

"I've Been to OUSA, Man!":




"Wander My Friends...Into the Fold":

WCOG June Meeting 2005

"Shut Up and Fold" (WCOG May meeting)

Lessons in Origami

I taught a few workshops back in April for a Charter school, culminating in a silent auction, including donated pieces.

Cherry Blossom Festival, Monterey Park, California April 16-17, 2005

The Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival was the first cultural festival I had ever done. This was probably around 2001. This is also where I met Kathern Inouye who has done much in her 80+ years to promote Japanese and Japanese-American culture. She was my contact source for the Festival, and subsequently, every other festival I have done. A very remarkable, endearing, and generous woman. Yami and Joe have joined me these last couple of years. I think we had one of our best festivals ever. It included 2 on-stage performances. Subsequently, this is one of my favorite videos, ever. It's long, but I have always loved this song. A friend of mine, Kenichi, used to street perform in Little Tokyo's Japanese Village Plaza; and I first heard the Okinawan song, "Hana" from him. He'd always perform it for me whenever I saw him out there.




I had this idea to have volunteers from the audience have a quickfold contest: Whoever could fold a banger and make it >bang<>