These animations were made to introduce the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect for a talk. They depict a CMB photon passing through a gravitaitonal potential well associated with a large scale structure overdensity.

During the matter dominated era of the universe, the potential is static so there is no net impact on the photon energy. Gif animation of a ball representing a photon rolling in and out of a static gravitational potential well.

During the dark energy dominated era, the potential is decaying, so the photon effective exits a shallower well than it fell into. This results in a net gain of photon energy. Gif animation of a ball representing a photon rolling in and out of a potential well which becomes shallower with time. The photon's color shifts from yellow to blue to represent a net gain in energy.

The above drawings are updated versions of the original drawings below. The originals were made using a … creative but clunky combination of Noteability and photoshop, while the newer gifs were produced using Procreate. Cruder version of the other cartoon for the matter dominated era. Cruder version of the other cartoon for the dark energy dominated era.