🪶 Counterweight

$ man counterweight

Each frame already holds some shapes. One more is waiting under the frame — press inside the frame where it belongs, drag to adjust, let go to place it. Four frames, then a score.

A shape pulls on the picture by its weight — how big it is times how strongly it reads against the paper — and by its arm, how far it sits from the middle of the frame. The frame balances when the pulls cancel out, so a small pale shape has to sit further out than a big dark one. That is the whole rule, and it is the whole score: closer to the balancing spot is more, and the score fades to 0 the further out you land.

Every frame ends with the answer drawn over your attempt: a ring on the spot that balances, a line from your shape to it, and the thin lever line — the middle of the frame is the pivot, and everything already in the picture pulls from the small dot at the other end of it. The dotted circle is where the score runs out; land on it and that frame is worth nothing.

The reveal moves on by itself after a pause sized to its own sentence — but the pause is a floor, not a clock: press the sheet and the reveal stays for as long as you like, press again for the next frame. A held reveal costs nothing.

At the end of the round, if every shape landed the same side of the mark, it says so — and how far the other way to go next round. Beginners nearly always place the counterweight too close to the middle; that habit is the thing to fix, not any one frame.

Studio tip: squint. Balance is a judgement about big masses and how dark they read, and squinting throws away the detail that is not part of it.

And a caveat worth having: a picture that balances perfectly can still be dull, and plenty of good ones lean on purpose. Learn where the pivot is first — then lean off it because you meant to.