Three Moves, One Final Shape

Three moves can make one shape look completely different. But watch this... if you freeze after each move, the final picture stops being a guess. Can you keep track all the way to move three?

Start with an arrow-shaped tile pointing up, with a black dot beside its left corner. The instructions form a queue. Read from left to right, and do ONLY the first transformation. Rotate the whole tile a quarter turn clockwise. The arrow now points right, and the dot travels with its corner. Copy that finished picture into the next frame before you begin move two. Every instruction acts on the CURRENT picture, not the starting one. Transform the complete figure: outline, shading, dot, and every marked part. Moving only the dot breaks the rule. After each move, check direction, side, and marker position.

Let's work through an example. A white arrow points up, with its left wing shaded blue and a star inside that wing. Apply these three instructions in order: rotate ninety degrees clockwise; reflect in a vertical mirror line; then rotate one hundred and eighty degrees. Which option shows the final figure? First, rotate the complete arrow ninety degrees clockwise. It points right. The blue wing and star travel together, from the left of the upward arrow to the upper side of the right-pointing arrow. That finished figure starts move two. Second, reflect that picture in the vertical mirror. Left and right swap. The arrow now points left. The blue wing and star stay at the upper side, because a vertical mirror does not swap top and bottom. Third, rotate this whole result one hundred and eighty degrees. The arrow points right again. Upper becomes lower, so the blue wing and star finish below. Choose the right-pointing arrow with its lower wing blue and the star inside: option C.

Three transformations, one reliable method: use the result of each move as the start of the next, and transform EVERY part. Pause, copy, check... then move on. You can master the whole sequence!