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the best optical illusion
- Thread starter jellies_two
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Man, after all these years, I've finally managed to get a grip on these weird pattern things! Feels like I've gained a sixth sense.
Someone should cross-stitch and frame this for GAF's Secret Santa event. It'd look great above a roaring fireplace!
Or better yet: Calling all PhD students, here's a brilliant opening statement to your thesis!
Someone should cross-stitch and frame this for GAF's Secret Santa event. It'd look great above a roaring fireplace!
Or better yet: Calling all PhD students, here's a brilliant opening statement to your thesis!
Same thing happens to me with all of these. Weird outlines start showing up, I can't figure out wtf it is, and then the pictures go back to normal.
And now i can't focus on my book. Thanks, Gaf.
Loved Magic Eye as a kid!
Sharks.
I've always been able to see these things. I have a couple of them hanging on my room.
For those still having trouble, this should help. Try to cross your eyes so a third square appears in the middle of the two at the top. Then keep your eyes relaxed in that position. If done correctly, you should see the 3D outline of something in the stars.
Going cross-eyed will get this wrong and invert the image, making it look cut out rather than 3D.
Easiest way to learn this is on a phone. Hold one arm out and focus on your index finger, hold the phone in your other hand half the distance away and off to the side.
Slide your phone into view without focussing directly on it and you will see 4 red dots. As you look at it you will start to focus, concentrate so the 2 middle dots overlap to make 3 dots in total.
It looks to me like a diorama, going inwards, with the object in the middle looking completely 3D. I can only do convergent.
Yeah that's inverted, the background should be far away with the object in 3D floating in front of it. They look a lot better the right way round.
You tried the phone technique?
rokkerkory
Member
Loved Magic Eye as a kid!
Im pretty good at these things. Can usually do it within 20 secs. Can actually zoom into little details with ease v
IceDoesntHelp
Banned
God dammit. First time seeing the magic eye thing, and doing it, holy crap.
Mind blown. So cool.
Mind blown. So cool.
Yeah, the trick as presented in the video shouldn't work unless they have two weird lighting sources that cast the same amount of light on the squares in each location. But that would eliminate the shadow line if so. It's clearly different in nature than the standard still image version, so it's either a shopped video or a whole different illusion. Didn't read the YouTube comments, so perhaps it's exposed or explained there.
Not exactly an optical illusion, but this video is one of my favorite human perception demonstrations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Follow the instructions they give at the start of the video and see how you do. Don't worry, it's like a minute long.
Follow the instructions they give at the start of the video and see how you do. Don't worry, it's like a minute long.
Monochromaticx
Member
Never seen one. Twenty years of trying.
Wolf Dawgz
Member
I don't see any orange squares. Which ones are the "orange" squares, supposed to be?
kitschbeam
Member
jk
PeskyToaster
Member
The three color ones destroyed my mind when I first saw them. Especially the black and white building one. I just sat back in my chair and was like "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit"
Anyone ever watch Brain Games on Nat Geo?
Anyone ever watch Brain Games on Nat Geo?
For those still having trouble, this should help. Try to cross your eyes so a third square appears in the middle of the two at the top. Then keep your eyes relaxed in that position. If done correctly, you should see the 3D outline of something in the stars.
I'm seeing a 3D image of Saturn
Is that what I'm meant to be seeing or am I way off?
anonymous_abc
Member
Same. I can kind of get them to waver a bit but never into what they're supposed to be.
Also, general comment. Please post actual illusions folks. The last time we had a thread like this it was demolished with people posting fake ones. Don't do that.
SwiftDeath
Member
I got nothing
Tesseract
Banned
For those still having trouble, this should help. Try to cross your eyes so a third square appears in the middle of the two at the top. Then keep your eyes relaxed in that position. If done correctly, you should see the 3D outline of something in the stars.
your anus
Loved Magic Eye as a kid!
That feel when you finally get it to work...
I tried looking through the thread, but I couldn't see anywhere that anyone explained exactly how to see the hidden "3d" outlines/shapes (I've seen versions with and without a varying depth to them) in any "magic eye" picture.
All you have to do is pick part of the image that repeats (literally any part) and then unfocus your eyes so that it overlaps with the nearest repetition of itself. I personally find crossing my eyes the easiest way to do this.
edit:
I forgot until reading this that moving your eyes the "wrong way" (not the way the image was designed for) will invert the depths of the image. So I guess you need to be able to do both cross-eyed and "wall-eyed". I suck at wall-eyed, so the best I can explain it is to blur your vision without crossing your eyes - for me I have to stare at the picture and then try to look passed it, as if I was looking at something farther away.
Here are some examples of points you could choose to focus on while crossing your eyes (NOTE: I don't recommend practicing on this example because the outlines will probably mess you up):
Basically, if the outlines I drew weren't there, you would cross/unfocus your eyes so that patterns in the same colored boxes overlapped.
If you haven't ever practiced unfocusing your eyes and overlapping identical shapes/patterns/etc. you might have a hard time doing this, so practice on this image or other "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" images:
Once you have successfully overlapped any two horizontally nearest repeating points of the pattern in a "magic eye" picture, you should be able to notice an outline/difference in depth in the image. This outline/shape can sometimes be hard to see, depending on the quality of the image. I recommend zooming in on and fullscreening an image if you're having a hard time with it, or giving up if it seems too low res/quality. Make sure you are holding your head so that it's tilted perfectly straight/parallel with your screen, and move your eyes/head so the image is in the middle of your view and you are looking straight ahead at it.
Overall "magic eye" patterns get pretty boring when you figure out how to do them, but "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" is an easy/free way to view images/movies in 3d. I've even played games in 3D this way using a dual monitor setup, but I have to sit pretty far from the screens to do it comfortably.
Google for "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" and practice on the images that come up. Then you will be able to get it.
All you have to do is pick part of the image that repeats (literally any part) and then unfocus your eyes so that it overlaps with the nearest repetition of itself. I personally find crossing my eyes the easiest way to do this.
edit:
I forgot until reading this that moving your eyes the "wrong way" (not the way the image was designed for) will invert the depths of the image. So I guess you need to be able to do both cross-eyed and "wall-eyed". I suck at wall-eyed, so the best I can explain it is to blur your vision without crossing your eyes - for me I have to stare at the picture and then try to look passed it, as if I was looking at something farther away.
Here are some examples of points you could choose to focus on while crossing your eyes (NOTE: I don't recommend practicing on this example because the outlines will probably mess you up):
Basically, if the outlines I drew weren't there, you would cross/unfocus your eyes so that patterns in the same colored boxes overlapped.
If you haven't ever practiced unfocusing your eyes and overlapping identical shapes/patterns/etc. you might have a hard time doing this, so practice on this image or other "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" images:
Once you have successfully overlapped any two horizontally nearest repeating points of the pattern in a "magic eye" picture, you should be able to notice an outline/difference in depth in the image. This outline/shape can sometimes be hard to see, depending on the quality of the image. I recommend zooming in on and fullscreening an image if you're having a hard time with it, or giving up if it seems too low res/quality. Make sure you are holding your head so that it's tilted perfectly straight/parallel with your screen, and move your eyes/head so the image is in the middle of your view and you are looking straight ahead at it.
Overall "magic eye" patterns get pretty boring when you figure out how to do them, but "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" is an easy/free way to view images/movies in 3d. I've even played games in 3D this way using a dual monitor setup, but I have to sit pretty far from the screens to do it comfortably.
Google for "stereoscopic cross-eyed 3d" and practice on the images that come up. Then you will be able to get it.
Came for this.
As always, mind blowing.
thesuperfunk
Member
I've spent an hour going through these magic eye things and all I got was a headache. 
narcosis219
Member
Enjoy ;P
Help?
I see an outline but it doesn't look like anything... like a heart that's skewed to the right...?? what
Low res/blurry/compressed/etc. pictures can be really hard to see properly, because they don't exactly match the original image.
Try this one (still a little blurry looking to me):
Even then, I really can't tell what it is either. I see the part that looks like a heart, and the on the bottom left it looks king of like an open mouth or upside down V shape. It seems like there is some circle near the top right. But I can't tell what it's supposed to be.
Sometimes I think the base image behind these "magic eye"/stereograms is too complicated/layered, and just plain hard to recognize without any real color to it.
Edit: My best guess is a coiled snake, with its mouth on the bottom left? I don't think that's actually what it is though. Feels like looking at the clouds and imagining things to me.
Ah. The mouth I saw is
her feet crossing
legs
the crossing/layering of the legs
It's a naked lady on her back
This one is cool and it also creeped me out. I have a headache after looking at all the magic eye pics(and vid) on this thread..
narcosis219
Member
So I'm about to throw up, but I can start to make it out... Is it supposed to be a chick with long hair bent over and looking back?
Soodanim
Member
This is the king. I've done the whole "Open in Photoshop and move bits of each square next to each other" thing. But I just found a quicker way for those on phones: just move your eye really close. It becomes clear.I prefer this example of the same illusion. The A and B squares are the same color.
This fucker has been the bane of my existence for years, and despite seeing it both ways at times I've only just found the solution to switching her direction: looking at the shadow.
As always, mind blowing.
Its a girl laying back, you kinda see her legs which is what looks heart shaped.
MarkMclovin
Member
When David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty dissappear.
How the fuck did he do that?
How the fuck did he do that?
Imp the Dimp
Member
Can't decipher those magic pictures to save my life.
Magic Eye has always come easy to me... but I've never been able to go cross-eyed so I can only do half of them
Soodanim
Member
Didn't he just rotate the platform everyone was on?
Did this to a tee. Same shit. I'm still converging, what the fuck. Ok from their site with this same Saturn illusion
"Hold the center of the printed image right up to your nose. It should be blurry. Focus as though you are looking through the image into the distance. Very slowly move the image away from your face until the two squares above the image turn into three squares. If you see four squares, move the image farther away from your face until you see three squares. If you see one or two squares, start over!
When you clearly see three squares, hold the page still, and the hidden image will magically appear. Once you perceive the hidden image and depth, you can look around the entire 3D image. The longer you look, the clearer the illusion becomes. The farther away you hold the page, the deeper it becomes. Good Luck!"
I see depth, I can look around the little picture made.
HORRORSHØW
Member
witches, the lot of you.
Wait, I didn't read this right. Yes, this is what it looks like to me. The object is 3d, in front of a background that looks far away. It looks like there is a 3D model embedded in my screen, just like how graphics look on the 3DS basically. But it doesn't pop out of the screen, its like a little world inside my monitor. That's the way its always looked since I've been finally able to see it.
TheRedSnifit
Member
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