Animate a Pendulum, Part 2: Reverse, Balance and Export

Students reverse and mirror their frames into a full swing cycle, delete the guide layer, refine the timing and export a looping GIF.

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1 Start
2 Why Reversing Works
3 Hands-on: Reverse and Mirror the Swing
4 Hands-on: Clean up, Refine and Export
5 Make Sense
6 What You Covered

1 - Start ~3 mins

Illustration for Start You have a pendulum that swings one way and stops. Today you give it the return swing, balance both sides, and export it.

If your project is gone

Rebuild a short version at wickeditor.com: line, bob, guide arc, three frames out. About six minutes, and you can do the rest of the lesson from there.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Why Reversing Works ~5 mins

A pendulum's return swing is its outward swing backwards. So you do not draw it again — you reuse what you have, in reverse.

Part of the cycle	Where the frames come from
Centre out to the left	You drew these last lesson
Left back to centre	The same frames, reversed
Centre out to the right	The same again, mirrored
Right back to centre	Reversed once more

Why bother

Beyond saving work, it guarantees both sides match. A hand-drawn return swing is never quite symmetrical, and the eye notices.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Hands-on: Reverse and Mirror the Swing ~12 mins

Build the return, then the other side, keeping the frame counts equal.

+15 XP

4 - Hands-on: Clean up, Refine and Export ~13 mins

Remove the scaffolding, tune the timing, then get the file out.

+15 XP

5 - Make Sense ~5 mins

You built a looping animation out of one hand-drawn quarter of a swing.

Key point

Animation is mostly about reusing what you already drew, and putting your effort into the spacing. The drawing is the small part.

Look at your GIF next to the bouncing ball you made earlier. Which looks more real, and what is doing that?

+10 XP

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