Animate a Pendulum, Part 1: the Arc and the First Swing

Students draw a pendulum, build a locked guide layer for its arc, and animate the swing out to one side with deliberate frame spacing.

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1 Start
2 Spacing Is Timing
3 Hands-on: Draw the Pendulum and Its Arc
4 Hands-on: Swing It to One Side
5 Make Sense

1 - Start ~4 mins

Illustration for Start Swing something on a string in front of the class. Watch where it seems to hang for a moment, and where it rushes.

What you saw

It hangs at the top of each swing and rushes through the bottom. An animation that moves the same amount every frame looks mechanical, because real things do not.

Today you build the arc and the first swing. Next lesson you mirror it and export the whole thing. wickeditor.com again, no account needed.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Spacing Is Timing ~4 mins

Every frame shows for the same length of time. So the ONLY way to make something look faster is to move it further between frames.

Frames are…	It looks…	Where on a pendulum
Close together	Slow	At the ends of the swing
Far apart	Fast	Through the bottom

So the plan is

Bunch your frames near the ends of the arc and spread them out through the middle. Even spacing is what makes an animation look like a machine.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Hands-on: Draw the Pendulum and Its Arc ~13 mins

Draw the pendulum hanging straight down, then add a guide layer for the curve it will follow.

+15 XP

4 - Hands-on: Swing It to One Side ~13 mins

Build the swing out to one side, following the arc. Aim for four to six frames.

+15 XP

5 - Make Sense ~4 mins

You have half a swing, and it should already look less mechanical than the bouncing ball did.

Key point

The guide layer gave you a path, and the spacing gave you the timing. Together they are what makes movement read as real rather than as a slide.

Where on your arc are the frames closest together, and does that match where a real pendulum slows down?

+10 XP

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