An Optical Illusion

The Coyote Illusion

Brad — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:29 +0000

Presented below is a video that was another finalist for the 2013 Best Illusion of the Year contest hosted by the Neural Correlate Society. The video shows four yellow circles spinning at the same speed around both the Roadrunner and and the very hungry Coyote. Watch what happens when the four circles spinning around the Coyote are replaced with eight. They are still moving at the same speed, but your brain perceives them to be moving much more rapidly. When four more are added, to bring the total number of circles to twelve, they seem to move at an even greater speed.

This video was created by Alan Ho and Stuart Anstis from Ambrose University College, Canada, and UC San Diego, USA.

Hexagon Dream by Flying Mouse

Brad — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:39 +0000

This grouping of impossibly-connected hexagons was created by tee shirt designer Flying Mouse (aka Chow Hon Lam). This design was originally submitted for a tee shirt design on the Threadless community in 2007. Flying Mouse’s tees have proven to be tremendously popular and have won many prestigious awards. Nearly 100,000 people have purchased a tee shirt featuring one of his designs.

Three Fold Cubes

Brad — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:51 +0000

The following video was created by Guy Wallis and David Lloyd from the University of Queensland in Australia. It was selected as a finalist for the 2013 Best Illusion of the Year contest hosted by the Neural Correlate Society. The video presents an ambiguous pair of cubes that can be interpreted in multiple ways. As the cubes rotate around, your mind thinks it knows what is going on. Then they begin to rotate again and an entirely new interpretation is presented.

Pencil Vs Camera by Ben Heine

Brad — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:24 +0000

Ben Heine mixes drawing and photography to create a scene that is half real and half imaginary. In a past interview, he stated his works in this series (called Pencil Vs Camera) are “…all about illusion, 3D, dreams, augmented reality, and fantasy.” On this empty street, he creates the illusion that a non-existent trolley is heading toward the camera.

Photograph courtesy of Ben Heine. Visit BenHeine.com to view more of his work.

Arachnids Overshadow Seattle

Brad — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:06 +0000

In 2012, Marlin Peterson created a large trompe l-oeil mural on the roof of a building in Seattle, Washington. When viewed from a high vantage point, it appears that a pair of extremely large daddy long legs spiders are sunning themselves on top of the building. The mural was designed to be viewed by visitors to Seattle’s Space Needle. It has also been admired by many helicopter pilots and airplane passengers that have had the opportunity to pass overhead.

This work was commissioned by Grants for Artist Projects (also known as GAP). GAP is part of Artist Trust, a Washington organization that provides artists with grants for the development, completion or presentation of new work.

Ambigrams Revealed

Brad — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:57 +0000

Ambigrams Revealed is a new book from graphic and ambigram designer Nikita Prokhorov. The book features a series of ambigram case studies that are judged by a panel that includes the author, John Langdon, Scott Kim, and five others. It also features a 40 page “Ambigram Showcase” toward the back of the book that contains a large collection of ambigrams created by talented artists from around the globe.

Prokhorov notes in his introduction that:

…after reading this book, you’ll know what it takes to design an ambigram, and undoubtedly, will start sketching long before you get to the last page.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys ambigrams, symmetry or graphic design. You can order a copy of Ambigrams Revealed from Amazon or directly from the publisher’s website.

Magic Floating Cube

Brad — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:00:10 +0000

At first glance, this small cube with the words “Happy Birthday To You!” written on it does not seem real. It almost looks like an animated cube added to the video in some sort of post-production process because the peculiar way that it moves.

The end of the video shows a slightly different angle revealing the true construction of the cube. It is inside-out, but your mind perceives it as being a normal three-dimensional object. It has a construction that is similar to the Dragon Illusion and Crazy Nuts Illusion originally created by magician Jerry Andrus.

Life of Pi 3D Chalk Art

Brad — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

In March, internationally recognized street artist Tracy Lee Stum created the following 3D chalk drawing in Los Angeles, California. The image was inspired by Life of Pi, a movie directed by Ang Lee that won four Academy Awards (including Best Director). Tracy’s art recreates a pivotal scene from the movie in which a large whale jumps out of the water and over the main characters in their boats. It took her and her team two and a half days to finish the work that ended up being 15 feet wide by 35 feet tall.

A video in which Tracy discusses the project in greater detail is provided below. To view more of her chalk art, visit TracyLeeStum.com.

Active Volcano by Akiyoshi Kitaoka

Brad — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:00:37 +0000

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 Psychedelic Motion Illusion and the Purple Nurple Optical Illusion. More motion illusions can be found on Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s site.

Hidden Face Illusion by Oleg Shupliak

Brad — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:00:13 +0000

Oleg Shupliak is a talented Ukrainian painter that specializes in double meaning or hidden image paintings. In the example below, a man paints a scene of a cozy cottage on a canvas as he kneels between two trees. The entire scene also happens to make up a larger image of a man’s face. Among other details, the trees act as an outline for the face, the leaves become hair, two cottages transform into a pair of eyes and the painter himself doubles as a nose.

More of Oleg’s hidden image paintings can be found here.