Thousand Cranes

Thousand Cranes is a free origami workshop that teaches you to fold twelve traditional paper models, one animated 3D step at a time. Fold along with a real square of paper, and every figure you finish adds a crane to your jar. It runs in your browser on desktop and mobile, with no sign-up.

How to play

1. Open the Workshop and pick a model. They are listed in a suggested order from Beginner to Advanced, and each model's sheet shows the techniques it uses.
2. Choose a paper, then start the lesson. You will need a real square sheet of paper to fold along.
3. Watch each step play, then fold it yourself. Next and Previous move through the steps (the right and left arrow keys do the same), and Replay or the Space bar plays the current fold again.
4. Drag to turn the paper in 3D, and pinch or hold Ctrl and scroll to zoom. Reset view puts it back.
5. Prefer words? The Text only view lists every step as a written caption.
6. Finish a model to earn stickers, a crane for your jar and new papers.

Try from memory hides the steps so you fold from what you remember, and mastering a model that way earns the PRO star.

History

Senbazuru, a thousand origami cranes strung together, is a Japanese tradition of folding
a wish into paper: one crane at a time, until the thousandth. Thousand Cranes borrows
the idea as a workshop. Each figure you finish drops a crane into your jar, and the jar
is the long game. Every model here is traditional, passed hand to hand long before it
was written down, and none is an original design. Not all of them are Japanese: the
pajarita, the little paper bird of Spain, was being folded there by the 1840s, and the
fortune teller is a playground classic almost everywhere.

Usage Tips

• Twelve traditional models in four levels, from Beginner to Advanced. The Workshop tab shows
  them in a suggested order, and each model's sheet says which techniques it uses and
  which one is new.
• Every step is an animated, rotatable 3D view. Fold along with a real square of paper:
  drag to turn the paper, replay a step as often as you like, and step back when a
  fold goes wrong.
• Pick the paper for a lesson on the model sheet. More papers open up as you fold more
  models.
• Finished figures earn stickers for the badge tin and a crane for the jar. The
  collection keeps every figure you have folded, and the paper drawer holds the papers
  you have earned.
• Try from memory is a harder way to fold a model you know: the steps are covered and you
  fold it from what you remember. Mastering a model this way earns the PRO star.
• The Gallery tab is a place to show what you have folded. Build up to six linked rooms, a
  studio, a long hall or a tea room, then put figures on shelves, plinths, hanging lines and
  alcove spots, choose a paper for each and finish the walls and floor. Walk through the rooms,
  look over them from above, or work on the plan alone.
• Choose from three workshop themes, each with a dark twin, using the swatches in the
  header.
• Install it as an app. It works offline once installed.

Technical Notes

• Models are driven by a rigid-fold engine: each crease is a hinge, and a step is a set
  of angle tracks on those hinges, baked ahead of time into plain data. The browser
  plays them back and does no solving.
• Where a fold needs a few hinges to move together, the baked angles come from a
  closure solve that keeps the paper's edges joined as it folds.
• Some steps, such as an inside reverse fold or tucking a flap into a pocket, cannot be done by rigid paper
  alone. Those are shown as diagram steps: a clear before and after in place of an
  animation that would be misleading.
• The 3D view is rendered with WebGL, so it needs a browser with WebGL enabled.

Accessibility

Every step has a written caption, and the Text only view lists all of a model's
captions on one page, so a model can be followed without the animation. With reduced
motion turned on, each step snaps to its finished state instead of animating. Every
control is a real button, reachable by keyboard, and the theme swatches are at least
44 px square.

Questions

Is it free? Yes. Everything is free, with no sign-up.

What paper do I need? Any square sheet works. Origami paper is easiest to crease, but you can cut a square from ordinary printer paper.

Does it save what I have folded? Yes. Your collection, jar and papers are stored in your browser on this device.