Origami: 20 models to fold step by step and unfold

Loading the model

This device cannot show the 3D model. You can read the guide steps below as text.

1 / 13 A flat square becomes a birdTwenty-six moves turn one square into the flapping bird. Every line you see on the paper is a crease it will need.

Drag to turn. Scroll or pinch to zoom.

01
A flat square becomes a bird
Twenty-six moves turn one square into the flapping bird. Every line you see on the paper is a crease it will need.
02
Start easy: a cup
Six folds. Pick any model from the list at the top, then play, pause or step through with the arrows.
03
Valley and mountain
A blue dashed line is a valley fold, toward you. A red dash-dot line is a mountain fold, away from you. Hands show where to hold.
04
A reverse fold
The swan's neck turns out and the head goes inside. Both halves of a flap fold at once, in opposite directions.
05
The waterbomb collapse
Six creases meet in the middle. Push there and the whole sheet collapses into a triangle in one motion.
06
The crane
About 30 moves: a square base, two petal folds, then three reverse folds for the neck, tail and head.
07
The crease pattern
Unfold the crane and these are its creases. At every inner point mountains and valleys differ by two (Maekawa), and alternate angles add up to 180 degrees (Kawasaki).
08
Twelve folds
Copy paper folded in half 12 times is 4,096 layers, about 41 cm thick. The Guinness record, set in 2002, is 12.
09
To the Moon
Keep going: 42 folds of 0.1 mm paper would make a stack taller than the distance to the Moon. The paper runs out long before.
10
Miura fold in space
Slanted cells let a solar array open with one pull. A Miura-folded array was tested in orbit in 1995.
11
The biggest crane
Wingspan 81.94 m, folded by 800 people from a 100 m square. The person by the table is 1.7 m tall.
12
A thousand cranes
A senbazuru: 1,000 cranes on strings. Put your own time per crane in the lab below to see how long it would take you.
13
The jumping frog
The pleat at the back is a spring. Press and let go and it hops; the jump length is a model estimate.

1 of 13