Double one-handed origami bird-folding video

Chris sez, "This is a video of me doing one-handed origami, making a flapping bird in each hand at the same time, one with my left hand and one with my right. I put just a single one-handed video up on YouTube last year and there was like a stream of folk complaining it was fake, so I figured out how to debunk it". Link (Thanks, Chris!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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arkizzle

fake
pentomino

I’ll be impressed when you can make two padlockigami swans one-handed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGOfcWIhGDk

In slightly greater seriousness, I wonder how many padlockigami swans you can make at the same time.
SLIQUE

@#5

I am a Stone Roses fan and that was very funny indeed.
pauldrye

Isn’t “debunking” the process of proving something fake? Technically, I think this is “bunking”.

@5: Yeah, that was a good one.
Van Diemen

You can tell it’s not fake because at 1:42 he drops a piece of paper, & you can’t fake that reaction.
artfreakydude

who can tell if he’s a righty or lefty!? I’m gonna say righty. Funny how youtube flamers can push the limits of achievements and creativity…wait…are youtube flamers a good thing!? nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo……
Chatzi

There’s something about the movements that makes me think it’s in reverse. As in he’s unfolding the birds.
manicbassman

#11 kindly explain how he would end up with two perfectly flat squares of peper then?
meek

If it was reversed, wouldn’t there be creases in the paper at the beginning of the video? I want to believe!
gnosis

Wow, if only you were around after the bomb in Hiroshima, you might have been the one to save Sadako!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki
dougrogers

So somebody download the video, convert it and play it backward, if you’re skeptical. I would suggest the hand movements would appear unnatural, and birds would be leaping off the table into his fingers.
jwerner

Once again, thumbs prove their worth.
FertBert

Fake. Totally, fake!!!!
saehn

It’s real, I’ve done origami for years. If you think it’s fake you probably haven’t done much of it. ;-)
seanz

This would be hard for us thumbless folk!
Avram

Arkizzle #5, Fertbert #17, would you care to back up those assertions? Any idiot can type “fake”.

And many do! For some reason we seem to be plagued with people claiming that any interesting video or photograph is faked, but lacking any ability to articulate their suspicions in any convincing manner. I find it immature and annoying, and I know Teresa’s not fond of it either.
Takuan

I lean to faked (filmed in reverse). The finger motions in extension and flexion seem suspect. Closing a finger thumb grip is usually faster than the opening (setting up for next closing). Really not sure. Also the “drop and pick up” might have been a throw down… perhaps we need to get a larger piece of paper and using a string of a thousand cranes, gently lash the folder down and suspend him in a bathtub UNTIL HE TALKS!
iamcantaloupe

All of you who are claiming this is a fake are missing one crucial point: Both pieces of paper appear to be uncreased (except for the one fold already present, natch) at the beginning of the video. How do you fake that?
Antinous

How do you fake that?

It’s fairly obvious that he’s folding them with telekinetic mind power.
xobmai

Fake or not (I’d say not), the complex folds were generally not performed concurrently. It’s an impressive bit of ambidexterity – I was surprised that both cranes came out so well – but to my mind not in the same league as a decent musician who really does have to handle more than one thing going on at the same time. Not that you’ll be seeing me demonstrating my own abilities on YouTube anytime soon…
HarshLanguage

#24 – So you want him to not only fold a bird in each hand at the same time, you want him to coordinate each step so the folds occur at the same time in both hands?

Geez, Boing Boing is a tough crowd!
davesss

Great skills! What’s the music? :)
KeithIrwin

As someone who has made many origami cranes and knows a thing or two about editing video, I can say that this is clearly not filmed in reverse. If it were there would be all sorts of creases and folds which would be visible in the beginning of the video. Consider, for instance, one of the last steps in the normal time line: the head of the crane. In the video, he folds the end of the neck down and pinches it to create the head, just as one would do going forwards. In reverse, that would be pinching and then unfolding. Pinching is going to increase the strength of the crease whether done in forward or reverse (since it’s the same motion either way). There’s no point at which he smooths out the neck area. If you make a head like that and then just unbend it, it will tend to curl back the same way if you don’t take some time to smooth it out (try it), but at no point earlier in the video does the head appear at all. As such, a reversed time line does not make any sense.

Beyond that, the finger motions are consistent with folding when he appears to be folding and unfolding when he appears to be unfolding and not vice versa.

Personally, I believe it to be genuine and not faked. But I can say with authority that it was definitely not reversed.
arkizzle

Haha! Avram, my man.. I was merely throwing in the cursory “fake” to appease the gods of balanced webitude.

I don’t even remotely think it’s fake, and certainly didn’t expect anyone to get moddy on me for saying it. If you look at my past comments you will note my over-long, rambling treatises on comments or posts I don’t agree with. If I genuinely thought it was fake I would have donated plenty more than the single word above.
oasisob1

Waterfall by Stone Roses.
Takuan

http://www.coldbacon.com/pics/kliban/bksubjective.jpg
Capybara

I’ve dabbled in origami for a long time, and for what it’s worth: I just gave it a shot and managed it:
With my left hand in my pocket, pacing around the room so that I wouldn’t use any surfaces, resisting the instinct to use my torso and mouth to help, I managed a very ugly but recognizable crane with my right hand, so this is definitely possible: anyone else who knows how to make a crane should be able to verify this (Keithirwin- give it a shot). The hardest thing about it was using too big a piece of paper, so that it was hard to control in my small hand (now my thumb hurts), and I dropped it a lot more than he does and it was very slow, but it’s absolutely possible, and with practice one could work how to do it much more quickly (not having to turn it over 6 times to figure out how to make a crease best for each step).
waded

Any video can be faked, so I don’t see how another video debunks it… but you’re skilled either way Chris. :)
Pugnax

I’m gonna make a video of me unfolding two origami birds at the same time to a soundtrack of Don’t Stop.

(Hopefully some Stone Roses fan will get this)