The Origami Forum

How would you rate the models in "Works of Satoshi Kamiya" from easiest to hardest?

Hmm. I can't really put them in an exact order, but I'll try.
Splash!
Coelophysis
The Yellow Bird
Eagle Ray
Carnatosaurus
Pegasus
T Rex
Orca
Kirin
Smilodon
Blue Whale
Barosaurus
Mammuthus Primigenus
Unicorn
Inoshishigami
Hercules Beetle
Wizard
Divine Dragon
Ancient Dragon

Just remember to not take these at face value, because everyone has diffrent skill levels, and some models may be wasy for one but not for another.

I kinda of think that first three should be like this:
1.Splash!
2.Yellow Bird
3.Coelophysis(the head is pretty hard)

I think eagle ray comes first. Apart from the steps where you don't understand what to do, the folds are easy.

For splash!, i tried it, but the paper was too small to shape the swan/bird, so I missed out on like all the last shaping steps.

Tried the Yellow bird, got confused at step 57.

I also tried the carnotaurus, but failed at step 39, I think I did a sink wrong somewhere.

I got stuck on step 106 of Divine Dragon. I did what I did for the eagle ray, trying random things til my paper looks like the next picture. I messed up the Divine Dragon, though.

I got up to step 59 of the Ancient Dragon, because I did that step wrong, messing it up.

Also, could someone help with the long-tailed version of the Eagle ray? As in, like what steps should I change and which creases should extend and what to look out for?

It's hard to really order them in order of difficulty. First off, different people have different perceptions of difficulty. I would consider the Blue Whale the hardest piece in the book. It is also the only one that I have never fully folded.

What makes something hard to fold? Does it mean something that is hard to fold from a certain size? (In that case the dragons are pretty hard) Does it mean something that is hard to make look good unless you use special ultra-thin paper and mold the heck out of it? (Pegasus) Does it mean something that is just not the least bit of fun to fold so you want to stop? (Blue whale) Or something with a boring fold sequence? (Wizard and Mammoth). The Bahamut is one of my favorite pieces, so it is not difficult for me to fold it.

With all that said, here is my ranking of difficulty in order from easiest to hardest. Note: apart from ranking Splash! as the easiest, plastgeek's list and mine are nothing alike.


Splash! - Okay, this one's fairly easy.
Yellow Bird - Not much harder. The legs do get kind of thick.
Eagle Ray - Just be careful of the paper tearing when you make the spine.
Carnotaurus - Very straightforward. More like a Kawahata or Miyajima piece than your typical Kamiya fare.
Kirin - Pretty cool sequence. Nothing too difficult.
Pegasus - Cool to fold, but it just doesn't look that great.
Hercules Beetle - Very straightforward. Complex, not hard.
Inoshishigami - The pleating is kind of tricky, but it's really cool how it all comes out.
Unicorn - Never a boring step. Some really cool complex (but not hard) collapses. Forming the hooves is the only really difficult part.
Orca - Should be higher on the list, but it is so creative, and the ingenuity just makes it that much easier to get through.
Coelophysis - It's harder than you may think.
Smilodon - Not hard at all if you use foil. The hard thing about it is that it's 3-D.
Tyrannosaurus - Has an open sink that will drive you out of your mind. My favorite T-Rex in all of origami.
Divine Dragon - Not really that hard. Just really really good and super complex. Okay there are some funky closed sinks and unwraps.
Mammoth - BORING, except for the cool closed sink.
Wizard - Mostly boring. Then there's some weird stuff toward the end. The way the fingers are folded is pretty cool.
Ancient Dragon - Needs large thin paper, has many layers, isn't that fun to fold.
Barosaurus - It's just really weird to fold
Blue Whale - The pleats are really annoying to fold and you have to do it in 3D.


And THAT'S why origami is not typically classified by difficulty.

Yeah the Yellow bird's legs get pretty thick.
I'm pretty sure I could finish it but the legs steps are crazy because it's too thick!

Nice commentary Origamimasterjared!

The Divine Dragon has closed sinks and unwraps? I didn't see any. What steps are they?

Ah, right. That was a difficult open sink...Step 123.

Yes, I also agree that the blue whale is extremely annoying to fold, because of the pleats and especially the diagonal creases. It is not fun at all, and doesn't look very impressive.

Personally, my favorite model in the book is his Orca. The folding sequence is just brilliant, and if done precisely, (ok, i used a protractor on the angle trisecting), looks stunning even with scratchpaper. The ancient dragon looks pretty nice if you fold/shape it correctly, but the steps are extremely tedious and it's hard to find a paper that's strong/big enough. Coelophysis' head is surprisingly tricky.

Mars wrote:Yeah the Yellow bird's legs get pretty thick.
I'm pretty sure I could finish it but the legs steps are crazy because it's too thick!

really? this model can be finished with ordinary kami. yes, it splays, but you can sink one of the lower flaps and tuck the opposite into it to get a little lock.

or just use glue.

i finished the unicorn. i was surprised by how unannoyed i was by the precreasing sequence (usually the precreasing on a kamiya piece drives me nuts).

Well about the Yellow bird legs,
I didn't use any special type of paper for origami, I used regular copy paper.
Still a cool model though!

I dunno, the wizard actually isn't that difficult... simply a box pleated design... ... I think that you overrated the complexity of the mammuthus primigenus... apart from that, though, I think that you were pretty accurate about the order of complexity. I would know, I have folded every single model in the book except the modified (long tailed) manta ray perfectly.

Hi everyone,
I have finished the Pegasus, and I just went straight on for the Unicorn. It looked pretty bad, but I still managed to fold it. The only part that I skipped was the hooves. It's not that hard.

the hercules beetle wasnt that hard, just had a lot of steps. Also, you have to use foil or really thin paper

I'm probably unorthodox but I have reasons:

The Yellow Bird
Splash
Eagle Ray
Pegasus
Coelophysis
Barosaurus
Unicorn
Kirin
Smilodon
T Rex
Carnatosaurus
Inoshishigami
Orca
Hercules Beetle
Mammuthus
Ancient Dragon
Divine Dragon
Blue Whale
Wizard

Wizard is just hard to make look good. And what's with everyone thinking the Chocobo was even mildly difficult on any step? Grab a cheap piece of 15cm kami and you can fold it well. Kirin too. Though Kirin my be confusing to new folders. Splash just needs a large piece of paper to make look good. And ancient/divine dragons are pretty straightforward after you know the maybe one or two folds that are difficult in them. They are just a time waster.

Whoops, never noticed this was a partial necropost.