Storytelling with Origami Butterflies

Catherine Wang
Nov 6 · 21 min read

Project Goals:

  • make a 60 second video that teaches someone how to make an origami butterfly
  • video cannot be edited except merging unedited clips together
  • no diagrams or text — how can you convey directions without bluntly stating them?

__________

10/15/2019

Assignment Goal:

  • find a version of the origami butterfly to learn to make
  • memorize the instructions for that specific butterfly

I was really relieved for getting the origami skill, because I don’t need a lot of materials to make an origami butterfly. However, that also means the video can end up boring since every origami video seems to just be a white background and a piece of origami paper.

Before figuring out creative video ideas, I needed to pick a butterfly to make. After a quick Google Search, I found 6 different butterflies that had complete step-by-step instructions on how to make them.

For the initial trials, I cut out 3.5 x 3.5 inch white squares from tabloid paper.

(left) six different designs laid out in rows + columns, (right) from left to right, easiest design to hardest design

I narrowed down to two types of butterflies based on the criteria of “pretty to look at” and “uniqueness of shape”.

However, after looking at Chelsea’s origami butterfly and seeing that it wasn’t one of the major search results from Google, I wanted to find a lesser known design for my video. Other reasons for not choosing the above butterflies was: either the design was too simple or too complicated for a 60 second video.

Back online, I realized that many of the photos of pretty butterfly designs mainly came from one book: Michael LaFosse’s Origami Butterflies. Although I was discouraged when there wasn’t a free pdf version online, I found a different resource. Time to sign up for a library card.

__________

10/21/2019

Assignment Goals:

  • choose a butterfly design suited for this project in terms of complexity and eye-pleasing shape
  • take multiple photos that document the skill I have to teach

Before picking up the book from the Carnegie Library, I went to the art store to buy some proper origami paper. There were a couple different patterns and colors to choose from, but I just picked a set that had multiple colors and no pattern. An intricate flower pattern would be distracting to the viewer, and having two-toned paper tells the viewer which side of the paper I’m working on.

After getting the book from the library, I narrowed down to one design. This design was one of the most simple ones to fold and had a simple but catchy triangle pattern on the tip of its wings.

The green butterfly ended up being my final butterfly design.

To take my photos, I had a simple setup.

I knew I had to have my own makeshift tripod for filming the video, but I didn’t think I needed one at this stage of the process. I stuck a tabloid sheet of paper on my desk, placed two pieces of tape on the edge of my desk to indicate where the frame of the photo should cut off, drew a rectangle in the middle of the paper as the area I needed to crop out, and marked the middle of the rectangle with an X.

After placing my visual cues, I folded the origami butterfly step-by-step and documented them by placing the folded paper on the X. After taking all the photos, I could crop the images to the rectangle so that distractions such as my laptop and charging wire can be eliminated. Moreover, since it is hard to control the direction/intensity of the studio lights, I casted heavy shadows on my origami butterfly if I took the photos at too close of a distance. Therefore, I took the photos from afar and edited them to be sharper in focus if they ended up a bit blurry. I might bring my desk lamp from my dorm or shoot the whole video in my dorm room.

before vs. after cropping

I also included a couple of photos where I am in the middle of folding the paper (so showing step 3.5 instead of straight from 3 to 4). This will help the viewer see exactly how the paper transformed from one shape to another.

My final set of photos that documented the step-by-step process of folding an origami butterfly:

I do realize that I have 29 photos, which is the maximum number of photos that would be appropriate for a 60 second video. There are some folding steps that repeat, so I might save some time by cutting down on those steps. I may also start the video with a pre-folded sheet of paper, which would condense the first 5 photos into 1–2 photos. Moreover, I can potentially omit one or two finishing touches of the origami process, such as folding in the tiny tip of the butterfly’s head or making an extra fold on the back of the butterfly.

__________

10/23/2019

Assignment Goals:

  • make a storyboard out of photographs of the origami folding process
  • recommended amount of photos: 5–30

For this assignment, I worked with adding three elements to my storyboard other than the folding of the butterfly: color, context, and point of view.

After buying the set of origami paper that had 10 different colors, I wanted to utilize more than one color in the tutorial. For example, I could change the color of the background. When I want a fold repeated on both sides, I can manipulate the background to show that.

Some other ideas I had was a color coded progress bar, where a different color indicated a different phase of the origami and the progress bar would be bordering the frame.

Right when I was about to take my photos, I realized that diagrams are not allowed, so I refrained from adding anything extra. However, I did use multiple colors of origami paper to fold the butterfly. I drew a storyboard that included the color changes and notes that recorded what folds I wanted to emphasize.

Whenever I folded the butterfly in half, I would switch the color so that the transition between different colors would be less jarring. At the end of my storyboard, I added a photo of all three of the colored paper, sort of like a table of contents:

I know a 60 second video is too short for a table of contents to be necessary, but for a more difficult origami pattern, I think the different colors can help the viewer keep track which folds they were stuck on and which folds they learned the quickest.

When I looked at previous year’s origami videos, there seemed to be a lack of context. Most videos started with just the first fold, and the white seamless background they used wasn’t a memorable location. In a way, I understand. Origami is an activity that you go out of your way to do, unlike tying your shoe laces or wrapping a gift. However, origami butterflies can also be useful for dorm decoration or birthday cards. For this iteration, I didn’t think of the uses of the origami butterfly. I simply took a photo of my workspace and what the environment looks like when I am folding the butterfly.

I had the origami book on the top left and the three different colors of origami paper on the top right. I may remove some of the extra items such as my kombucha and my knitted pumpkin if the space looks too cluttered.

For the next iteration, I will think about the origami butterfly when it is in use. I may add a few frames of butterflies hanging from the walls of my dorm or make a get-well-soon card with it.

Point of view in this context means having the video demonstrator’s presence be known to the viewer. In the previous photos, because I took all of my photos by myself, my hands never appeared in the frame. This time, I had multiple people helping me at different times to take my photos. I followed the same framing as last time (the two pieces of tape + the rectangle for cropping) and instructed them how to frame the photos consistently.

One caveat: I should be careful when my hands block the view of the folded origami. It was difficult in keeping the folded origami flat on the table, so when my finger was holding the paper down, it often covered parts of the origami butterfly. I will try to use more tape to hold the origami down.

Camera zoom can also represent the demonstrator’s eyes and provide visual cues to the viewer. I may want to zoom in/zoom out so that my hands don’t take up too much of the camera’s frame or to emphasize an intricate fold.

__________

10/28/2019

Assignment Goals:

  • record clip(s) of the instructional video

My spliced video of 2 minutes and 17 seconds:

To be honest, there was little progress during this assignment that improved the instructional clarity of making an origami butterfly. I was struggling with many factors that I did not see as a problem until I started shooting my videos.

Because the video requires sound, shooting in the studio filled with other design students would produce videos with distracting audio. Grace and I went to Porter to find a quiet classroom to film in. Many of the classrooms were only available for 30 minutes to an hour because other organizations had reserved the classroom previously. Therefore, I filmed fairly quickly and was left with less clips to splice than I was hoping for. Next time, I should find a less-sought-for location.

I also had trouble adjusting the tripod I borrowed from CFA Photography. My camera lens were too zoomed in for me to prop the tripod on a table, so I shot the video with the tripod on the highest height and me sitting down on the carpeted floor. Therefore, instead of getting a bird’s eye view of the tabloid white background, the piece of paper added a sense of unnecessary perspective. Next time, I should work in an environment that would allow a seamless or a larger single color background (I grabbed tabloid paper in a hurry so that I can have a temporary backdrop in a porter classroom). In addition to lacking a proper zoom, my camera kept on stopping its recording process without providing a reason why. I was able to borrow Grace’s camera to record and am now in the process of fixing the settings of my own device.

Although I have made the same butterfly countless times, it is still difficult to have all of the steps demonstrated within a 60 second video. At first, I started with a pre-folded piece of paper to reduce time. I used gestures to show where the folds should be. However, with Grace standing behind the recording camera, she pointed out that it isn’t clear how the folds are measured in the first place. I then recorded the beginning sequence again but with non-pre-folded paper. However, I think the first couple of folds can be more clearly demonstrated through a different method.

General craftmanship errors emerge when I try to fold the origami too hastily. The haste comes from trying to fit all the steps into the 1 minute video. Therefore, for this iteration, I omitted a couple of the final steps, such as bending the wings in two different directions and flattening the butterfly’s head, so that I can make an overall butterfly shape with less intricate instructions.

The final obvious obstruction to the clarity of my folding is my hand blocking the viewer from seeing the origami paper. This problem emerged in my previous iteration, and I did not use this iteration to improve upon this problem. I did see Jackie folding a larger sheet of paper than the standard size of a 6 x 6 inch square. Bigger size paper seems to be a smart idea, since it is easier to see smaller folds and the hand takes up less space in the camera frame.

Thankfully the editing part of the assignment took the less time. I had three main clips that I needed to splice together, which wasn’t too hard to do. I looked through all of the footage to see if there were any fillers or pauses in the 2 minute clip. Unfortunately, I think it is the speed of my folding which is making the video too long and boring. I tried folding with Chelsea’s origami paper she got from Japan, and it was much easier to fold. Maybe I will borrow some paper from her.

I also tried to cut out some extra parts, especially at the part where I fold the four corners of the origami paper. I cut out clips where I turn the paper to fold each corner. However, since that part of the video is the only part that I heavily cut, it might be jarring compared to the long runtime of the other clips. I want to find a balance between quick cuts and slow runtime for more difficult folds.

  • cutting isn’t bad as long as it is executed well — Michael’s pancake video was really well spliced.
  • it is best to have a proper/planned conclusion to your video — Gary’s pancake video ended with the pancake in the pan. It would have been more completed if the pancake ended up in the pan.
  • Try more ways to show how to fold origami! — Maggie used cut out paper hands to show how juggling worked. Although it was redundant compared to the rest of the video, it was definitely worth a try.

__________

10/30/2019

Assignment Goals:

  • make another video iteration (ideally under 2 minutes)

The results of this assignment — 1:53 video

Because my last video was 2 minutes long, I really wanted to see if I can shorten the length this time. I knew my origami pattern had more steps than the standard, simple butterfly. However, I did not want to make the same exact butterfly as the other design students doing origami.

I said 2 minutes, but the final video of course has to be 1 minute or lower. Other than the choices/changes I end up making for this iteration that I have written below, the main problem still remains: the complexity of the butterfly design. This is definitely the root of the stack of problems I have piled up: rushing while folding, making quick cuts to make the video shorter, abandoning more creative ideas to fit the actual folding process into the video etc. etc. After presenting this iteration to my peers during critique, I will finally abandon this difficult design for a more simple one in the next iteration.

I borrowed a different tripod from the photography equipment room because I had the return the previous one. This one had a twisting mechanisms that makes it easier to put on/take off the camera from the tripod. I should start seeing if other tripods have the same mechanism.

I chose my studio as the location for filming because the lighting in the studio is actually really good! My hands aren’t discolored nor are the shadows too dark. This lighting situation is not consistent across all design student’s desks. The desks closest to west wing have overhead lights that are farther away so that there is less contrast between bright light and harsh shadow. I used two sheets of tabloid paper as the video’s background.

For audio, because I was so focused on shortening the video time, I completely disregarded the sound in the video. There are people chatting and laughing in the background, so I just muted the video when I played it to other people in the next critique. In my next iteration, I shot in a completely quiet study room, but I might shoot in the studio for the final iteration during irregular hours so that I have the best of both worlds: zero background noise + appropriate lighting.

I tried adding context by adding function to my origami butterfly: I had the butterfly be a decoration to a “get well soon” card. I used the colored card stock from the intersection project. There are two obvious reasons why this idea won’t work exactly as intentioned: I forgot that I couldn’t add text to the video. I wondered if I could add words if it doesn’t enhance the actual folding of the origami, but I decided against it. I might scribble lines that look like words, but that could look messy. Moreover, my current video length isn’t allowing me to add anymore extraneous information. This context idea will have to sit on the back burner for now.

  • That seam in the background is distracting — don’t really know why it is there.
  • The beginning frame is unexpectedly zoomed in — is the paper square? What is the paper’s orientation? Where is the context?
  • my hand covers the butterfly often so that it is difficult to see what exactly I am folding
  • having a consistent background (both color-wise and material wise) is important to not distract viewers — gift-wrapping people had to deal with different angles, so they might show carpeted floor + wooden desk. This divides the screen in half and makes the composition of the frame less appealing.
  • showing the materials clearly — Jackie’s origami video is consistently shot at an angle lower than bird eye’s view, so her square paper started to look more like a rhombus or a rectangle. To show that the paper is indeed a square, it is better to film a top-down view of it at the beginning.
  • unexpected actions show expertise — Proud’s finishing move in making her tea is her taking a small teaspoon and stirring the steeped tea a couple of times. I found that movement so precise and delicate. It showed that the tea-maker really cares about her craft and that she is willing to take extra steps to make good tea.
  • video cuts can provoke different reactions — When I watched Hayoon’s video on making tea, I found her cuts really interesting and amusing. She had shots showing a table with a tea kettle, and she occasionally zooms really close to the lever of the teapot or other delicate actions. Her zoomed in shots feel slow and her cuts abrupt, so she actually created a sort of comedic timing! I found myself laughing even though the content was just making tea.

_________

11/2/2019

Assignment Goal:

  • Make final video iteration with a much simpler butterfly design

First result of this iteration:

First step: I had to quickly find a different design to work with. I remember a simple design from my first medium post. Because I did not save the tutorial for that design, I spent an hour trying to find it again. At the end of the search, I roughly figured out the design from my own photos.

However, the design is not a too convincing butterfly: it looks more like a folded triangle. Therefore, I added my own folds to the butterfly wings so that the butterfly has a bit more dimmension. This way, I am not making the standard butterfly that my peers are already folding and have the design be simple enough for a 1 minute video.

(left to right) 1. Simple design 2. Simple design with extra fold 3. modification of extra fold
new origami design I am working with

To find a quiet place with decent lighting, I decided to reserve space in the Hunt Library study rooms. Because the study rooms don’t have windows, I don’t have to care about the lighting changing on its own. Also, even though the study rooms have colored walls (bright red, blue, or green), it won’t affect me because my camera is pointed towards the table.

I was planning on shooting this video as least on two different days, so Grace, Chelsea and I decided to reserve 2–3 hours this Friday and Saturday starting at around 7pm.

Initial Examination of Room + Expectations

On Friday, I reserved the red room for myself. I first had to push away all the rolling chairs from the study table. I also realized the lighting of the room was pretty horrible (turns out the bulb needs to warm up and gets brighter eventually), so I decided to turn off the lights and depend on the light source coming from the hallway. The shadows are much harsher and the tone of the video is darker in the study room compared to the studio, so I still need to decide which environment to shoot in: somewhere well-lit or somewhere quiet?

These are some notes I took during the shooting process:

Since this time I was working with a much simpler butterfly design, I thought I could shoot the video in one take. My one take video ended up 1:46 long. Instead, I decided to cut out redundant folds and rely on zoom in shots to show more delicate movement. This way, I can be clearer with my folds and pause when I want to emphasize something.

New Shooting System to Making Filming More Formulaic

Through previous reflections, I made a simple system for myself that I can use for future iterations: I will shoot a one take video of me folding my butterfly, which will go well over the time limit. However, this allows the origami paper to stay in one place in the frame and I don’t have to decide when to start/stop folding. I will then film zoom in shots individually with a new sheet of origami paper. Because the zoom in shots are just gestures, each clip should only be a couple seconds long, making them really easy to re-shoot.

Immediate Feedback from Origami Amateur

My roommate Anouska is incredibly unfamiliar with origami and was sitting in the room next door, so she was the first person I approached to look at my video. Because this was a one shot video with no shots, I wanted to know if the steps which continuously lead to another are clear enough for her. First time around she paused the video whenever there was confusion, and second time around she tried making the butterfly herself.

The way I folded the waterbomb base is slightly different from other students, so I was afraid my way was confusing. My roommate found it comprehensive, which surprised me. Two main causes of confusion was my hand covering the origami paper and when I flipped the origami paper over to fold something on the other side.

Video Cutting Process

Other than making a system for filming, I also created an editing formula. Although this formula was slightly adjusted with each video, the iterations after this particular one are cut in a similar manner.

To cut down on time, I showed where the folded paper is ending up and the second half of the fold itself. When the viewer watches, they know where the fold starts and ends. Other actions I cut midway was flipping the paper, because the second half of the flip implies the first half.

Reflection after Making Video

These are notes I took after filming this iteration that pointed out: 1) What I did well 2) What are the next steps.

After I went back to the design studio to show this new video to my peers, I realized the lighting of the video was a lot darker than I thought it was when I was recording. This added to the confusion of where the origami folds are occurring. Moreover, the patterned background is a huge distraction that I can avoid with just a pure white background.

Therefore, I went back to the Hunt Library to film another iteration with better lighting.

Second result of this iteration:

Although I can see the folds more clearly in this artificial lighting, Version 3 has peaked my interest in experimenting with natural lighting. I liked the coolness of the video versus the warm tones in Version 4. During this iteration is the moment where I decided to make my final iteration filmed in natural lighting (that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a final attempt with artificial lighting though).

__________

11/3/2019

Assignment Goals:

  • make more iterations until I am sick of filming + cutting

On Sunday, I woke up early to try filming in natural lighting. In the case that natural lighting ends up being too bright or dark, I shut the blinds to film another version with artificial lighting.

Version with natural lighting + no zoom-in shots:

  • the hands + paper is shown pretty clearly and have a natural color
  • the colors are pretty cool — seem to evoke a relaxing atmosphere and in reality most colors are toned down
  • there is a white seam in the background (the place where my two tabloid sheets of paper I used for the white background intersect)
  • especially for the final two folds, the dark shadows casted by my hands make the folds difficult to follow
  • can the tone of a video look too sterile? One of the pieces of feedback I received was that the white background + cool tone made the video look dead

Version with natural lighting + zoom-in shots:

  • Some folds are shown through careful gestures so that the viewer knows where the folds start + end.
  • Zoom-in shots generally slow down the pace of the video so that the viewer isn’t overwhelmed by the combination of zoom-out shots + juxtaposed cuts.
  • the zoom-out folding process is overall clear enough for the viewer to follow, so the zoom-in shots seem unnecessary.
  • sometimes the gestures aren’t even clear what they are implying. Yes, I am pointing at this origami corner or drawing a horizontal line with my finger, but the fold can be demonstrated much more clearer if I just perform the fold itself.
  • Sometimes the transition between the zoom-in shots and the zoom-out shots aren’t very clear. It takes more effort to link the two together during the filming and the video-editing process.

Version with artificial lighting + no zoom-in shots:

  • I ran out of green and pink origami paper, so I ended up using purple. That was a horrible choice, because the purple showed up very dark in the video and some folds blended in with the dark paper.

Feedback from Upperclassmen:

Sophomore Langston came by the freshmen design studio, and I was able to show the natural lighting + no zoom-in shots video to him. He thought the background and lighting choices were nice and that the tone doesn’t seem too sterile (it should be sterile to a certain degree because it is an instructional video). His feedback was almost a sign of relief because I was planning on waking early the next day to re-shoot the natural lighting video based upon peer’s critique. However, many errors he pointed out could be fixed in the video-editing stage. This does not mean that I did not consider previous comments. I just found their comments not convincing enough for me to abandon what I have already for a newly film video.

  • He suggested I show the finished butterfly in the beginning so that the viewer know what they are making. I saw my other peers show the butterfly in the beginning, and I think it made their videos much more appealing to watch (there is a clear goal that they are trying to meet). I can just cut the end of my video and fit it in the beginning, so I don’t have to re-film.
  • Some of my cuts seemed too fast paced, so I just have to leave a bit more pauses between folds so that the viewer can digest the information better.

My final iteration which incorporated peer + Langston’s feedback:

My final iteration with the correct video dimensions:

Project Reflection

  • I find it difficult to abandon ideas by myself: I only gave up on my difficult butterfly design after my origami peers watched my 2 minute video. I need to be familiar with the idea that there are appropriate and inappropriate times for complication in design projects. Complicating the butterfly design hindered the rest of the video-making process, and I could’ve focused on other areas of complication such as smooth video-cutting which I actually enjoyed doing.
  • Do not underestimate the pre-filming process. Poor lighting, patterned backgrounds, miscellaneous clothing, and various other distractions prevent the viewer from seeing the actual instructions. Finding the right room/space to film in was half of the battle, because it determined the audio quality and color tone of my video. My final iteration was filmed in the studio, and I was so glad when I walked in seeing only one person studying in the corner so that I can have the space all to myself.
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