The vibrant flowing colors of this peripheral drift motion illusion appear to swirl and move as your eyes move around the image.  For another great motion illusion, have a look at the Psychedelic Motion Illusion. (via Kaia Nao)

The yellow arrows on the purple background below appear to move independently to the left and the right.  Specifically, the top and bottom rows of arrows seem to have the most significant amount of motion for me.  If you are having trouble getting this static image to move, try staring at it while moving your […]

Over the past few months, we have had several requests for a mobile version of An Optical Illusion.  We listened.  Now you can view a simplified version of the site on your mobile device.  At the bottom of the layout, you will also have the option to turn the new layout off and view the […]

In this work from Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, each of the four fields appears to expand and move toward you.  Like all of these motion illusions, the more you move your eyes around the image, the stronger the effect.  Try to hold your eyes still by looking at one location and the movement will cease. Visit […]

This illusion concerns apparent rotation generated by pure translation.  Square patterns consisting of four segments appear to rotate when they move straightly at a constant speed across the grid background.  More surprisingly, the rotations in opposite directions can be generated by exactly the same square patterns.  This illusion might be explained by the well-known inchworm […]

In one of professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s latest works, each of the nine disks appears to expand.  This image can cause an uneasy feeling if you look it too long, so if you start to feel dizzy or nauseous make sure you scroll down or look away! The effect reminds me of that seen in the […]

The orange and purple circles appear to be spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. To see more motion illusions, be sure to check out the Beating Heart by Akiyoshi Kitaoka and the Moving Pink Square from Daniel Picon.