Pendulum animation

As a start to animation in Maya, I have animated a swinging pendulum using a pendulum rig. For the animation, i aimed to use pose to pose, timing and slow in and slow out from the 12 principles of animation. For pose to pose, i set out the main key frames first, setting the end of the pendulum into position then moving onto the next pose. For timing, this would be when the pendulum takes time to slow down and start swinging in the other direction, rather than just instantly changing trajectory in the opposite direction. For slow in and slow out, this would be when the pendulum reaches the peak of a swing and starts to fall in the other direction, it would be added here to make it look more realistic.

Overall, I’m happy with how my animation turned out. I feel like i was able to get the pendulum looking smooth when it is in motion, and i feel like it helps to make things look more realistic. The most challenging part of this animation was trying to get the platform tilt to look correct, and trying to adjust it to the swing of the pendulum.

Below is a video of my finished animation.

After receiving feedback on my pendulum animation, i have decided to lose the first half of the animation where the pendulum picks up speed as it doesn’t make much sense why it does this. The rest of the animation looked good so i have left it untouched.