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What could be better than a fidget spinner? A zoetrope-spinner. Although, a zoetrope spinner with cats is even better
This craft was born thanks to the efforts of one of the designers at Instructables, Jonathan Odom. The author's logic is flawless: if the spinner is spinning anyway, why not add animation using a zoetrope? Well, the fact that it should be a cat animation is a matter of course. Who doesn't love cats?
In fact, the idea is not particularly original and in a sense it was borrowed from another Instructables user under the nickname Darlingtom. The main difference is that Darlingtom used the concept of a phenakistiscop - a similar motion picture generator, but with a disk rather than a drum design.
The design of the zoetrope spinner, modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360, is quite simple: an upper and lower wheel, each equipped with a bearing, a drum with twelve viewing slots, and a pair of bearing caps to make the spinner easier to hold. Jonathan borrowed the running cat animation from Edward Muybridge, a famous 19th-century photographer and one of the creators of chronophotography. Of course, the animation can always be changed by replacing the tape with frames with another insert. All parts of the spinner except for bearings are 3D printed.
