Mighty Optical Illusions

Shigeo Fukuda’s “Encore”

2009-07-02T18:57:52Z

Ambiguous Violin Player

Japanese artist Shigeo Fukuda is the most prolific and versatile of all the illusion artists. Fukuda’s sculptures and installments were some of the most important additions to our optical illusions site. It is worth mentioning that his artistic opus is more than incredible, and that his works are displayed all over the world. Still, Shigeo is most known in Japan, where most of his work is on display.

He has created illusionistic art (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) in all manner of categories: impossible objects, ambiguous sculptures, distorted projections, anamorphic art, etc. Additionally, he is the author of three Japanese books on optical illusions.

Ambiguous Piano Player

Now that we have covered some background on Shigeo Fukuda, we may proceed with his installment that deserved today’s spotlight. Title of this ambiguous sculpture is “Encore”. I have included all three photos of this incredible sculpture, each one being taken from slightly different angle. If you observe the first photo (same one that appeared inside your widget), you will see a perfect profile of a violinist playing a violin. Now, looking at the second photo on your right, you may think its impossible this is the very same sculpture pictured in the first photo. Well, I can assure you, it is.

Encore by Shigeo Fukuda

What we are seeing as a result, a representation of a pianist and violinist in the same sculpture when viewed from two vantage points.

“Encore” truly reveals the importance of a vantage point. Further, this sculpture utilizes “visual” vantage points – where understanding can only be accomplished visually. Such works of art make evident how orientation and position can work together to produce more than amazing results. The latter photographs illustrate, in tangible form, the many faces a 3-dimensional work of art may have.

As you have witnessed, this sculpture makes the most of the human visual system, making the surreal exist before our very eyes. Below you may see a gallery with few more photos, taken at on the different location Enjoy!

Three Barack Obama Afterimages

2009-07-01T18:49:10Z

Barack Obama Afterimage

When the ship starts sinking, all the rats leave it. Same thing happened to my country (Croatia) today. Economic crisis, politic affairs and all sort of bad things came upon us one after another. Recognizing he can’t handle the situation any more, our prime minister resigned. Our government has fallen today, and all this couldn’t happen in worse moment.

Motivated by all this breaking news I’ve been listening to all day, I decided to post something Obama related. At least to give myself a hope for better future. I realize Barack isn’t a Superman, nor anything near a heroic savior United States hoped for, but you have to admit his figure was represented as hope for US, like nothing else was.

I’ll keep monitoring how things evolve in the following days. In the mean time here are some afterimage optical illusions for you to play with. If you aren’t familiar with afterimage illusions, you should check this category first. Its very simple - all you have to do is stare at the center of these images (for a minute or so), and afterward switch your view to some blank, white surface. White wall, or piece of paper should be more than fine. After few seconds, negative image should appear, enabling you to see what was hidden inside those afterimages. If you can’t see it clearly, repeat the procedure, or simply blink repeatedly and the results should appear more sharply.

Another Barack Obama Afterimage Optical Illusion

..and another one

Ultimate NEW Chalk Drawings Gallery

2009-06-29T20:20:36Z

Probably you are already familiar with the news break of Michael Jackson’s death. I give it to him, he was truly one of the biggest music contributors in our history, yet I feel somehow divided about the atmosphere floating around his name currently. Things he was accused for while living, are the most disturbing ones human being can digest. He was never a positive individual in my opinion, yet millions of people talk about him like he was a saint. I would like to ask them would they every let Michael babysit their kids? Am not sure whether all this is inappropriate to say at the current moment, and this is why I started this topic with the fact I still have divided thoughts on this. Still, it puzzled me so had to share it with you guys. If you wish to comment my standings, please do so without flaming. Brainstorming, discussions and reflections are more than welcome, though. Now when I spilled my guts, we can continue with optical illusion of the day.

Few days ago I have my Ultimate Mural Gallery with you. I’m happy to inform you this was only an intro to much more expected post (at least by your emails) containing NEW SIDEWALK DRAWINGS. There are just too many of them (laying on my disk that were never before published) to tease you by posting one at the time. This way I give you a complete gallery of never before seen 3D Chalk Drawings. If this is still not enough, I dare you to check all of our archived ones inside this category. Don’t forget to rate history posts you are seeing, since when all the posts on this site receive enough of the ratings, I will release most comprehend list of the TOP OPTICAL ILLUSIONS ever! As our website has the most concentrated audience of optical illusion lovers, I believe this list will truly represent top optical illusion, the internet has witnessed.

Have no fear, Mr. 3D Chalk Drawing Superman is here!

Check our newest 3D Chalk Drawings gallery below:

Rusty’s Landscape Optical Illusion

2009-06-28T16:30:45Z

Donald “Rusty” Rust is an artist with a repertoire as extensive as his talent. He is an immensely prolific painter, who adeptly renders intriguing camouflage wildlife scenes, landscapes, seascapes, still-life’s and portraits. If you think you never heard of him, well he was the one responsible for our most commented optical illusion ever - The Hidden Tiger. Many other successful illusions from our archive were created by Rusty as well. This time Rusty draw a landscape with a Native American portrayed inside it. But our little Indian isn’t the only living thing inside this picture. Can you see what else Rusty tried to hide from us (for reasons unknown to me)? Shouldn’t be too hard for you, optical illusion veterans .

Donald "Rusty" Rust hid something in this painting. Can you tell what was it?

Maybe There is Hope for us Afterall

2009-06-27T01:18:40Z

Impossible Nuts Illusion

Many of you probably saw this video already. Today I watched it once again, and after all that violence, corruption and shit happening in the world, I was really touched. Somehow it put a smile on my face, and gave me some hope that there is still a chance for us, inhabitants of this wonderful planet. By seeing what is happening in our everyday life, watching news, seeing violent movies, I really started looking at us humans as a virus ruining this amazing planet. Only way mother nature could fight back against us, was by inventing some new “weapons” like: Ebola, Aids, other diseases, nature disasters, growing male impotence, homosexuality (today higher number of individuals are born with same sex affinities, which results in lower reproduction - this wasn’t meant to be offensive in any way), and god knows what else… “Luckily” we are a resistant breed. In my opinion everyone should see this video. At least you’ll feel much better after seeing it. Maybe there is still some hope left for us… and yes, I know its offtopic.

This why I’ve also included impossible object above to keep you occupied, and show something illusion-related inside your widgets. If you find it familiar, its because Janek submitted something simmilar two years ago. Btw, I’ve embedded the video in HD quality. You should really see it like it is (in high res), but if you have trouble sitting behind slow internet connection, you can turn the little red “HD button” off - should be much faster. My advice is that you press play, then pause and wait for it to load and then play it.

Ultimate Mural Gallery

2009-06-29T20:29:09Z

I’ve been collecting all kinds of 3d chalk drawings and murals for long as I can remember, and over the time this collection really grew big. Currently there are more than dozen murals I never got time to share with you. So today I bring you the biggest mural collection up to date. Beneath first two examples, you may find attached gallery with dozen of 3D wall paintings that are so incredible, you will have a really hard time believing they are not real. Which one is your favorite? I picked the beneath Mural as the most astonishing one, because only after seeing the second photo (which shows us how the wall looked before it was painted), only then my brain could process the first image as a flat painting. I still have trouble understanding how such a realistic result could ever been achieved. Simply amazing!

Believe it or not, everything you see is a painting on a flat wall!

This is exact same wall before the Mural was painted on it

Check the mural gallery below to see more of the stuff we never published before:

Count the Colors, Read the Solution

2009-06-24T15:01:14Z

This is an oldie, but we rarely see this kind of optical illusions in its full effect. Ok, this is what I want you to do: count how many different colors you can see in this spiral below. Unfortunately color-blind individuals will only see a grayish pattern, so this won’t work for them (those of you can remain occupied reading this article). Rest of you, be sure first to notice that there are two different shades of pink, and then you may start counting. Most of us will end up with 4 different colors (2 pinkish ones, blue and a green). Well this was the wrong answer! Yes, you heard me right. There are actually only 3 colors present here. To see what I mean, check the second picture. It shows you how this image would look like if we removed those pinkish colors in background. Amazing, isn’t it? You may recall candy stripes we posted waaay back. It’s almost the same!

How Many Colors Are There?

This is the same picture, with pink shades removed.

Cleverest Stupid-Girl Arround

2009-06-24T13:49:01Z

Update - I just learned that the artist behind this is Nagfa, you can find another interesting photo on his blog that works in a simmilar fashion.

Wait a minute... What?

I forgot to post the newest optical illusion yesterday, which I hope you shall forgive me. What I was doing instead, I was playing with some universal widget creating tools. I’ve added my result at the bottom of my sidebar, so you may check what I managed to compile. Nothing revolutionary really, just something you can easily add to your website, blog, etc. If you wish, you may try it. You can see the separate page here. Now let me dig up something illusionary for today. Ah! Found it. The idea behind today’s optical illusion is very similar to the Love & Hate illusion from 2006. The shirt this girl is wearing has the ambigram printed, which can be understood in two different ways. I’m still not exactly sure whether ambigram shows the different meanings, or an anagram does this (one of them shows the same word from each direction). Still, the result is cute. But the question remains: would you ever wear a t-shirt that claims you are stupid?

Want this universal widget? Get it!

As I explained before, this new widget brings nothing revolutionary to this site. Still, it may serve as a nice addition to your website or blog. It will serve newest optical illusions to your visitors. Even if you have no inspiration on a particular day, and miss posting new content - your readers will remain occupied with some fresh content on our your site. Use it freely as you wish, its free.

I would also like to inform you that I’ll be leaving for my summer vacation at the beginning of July. Rest assured though, I will continue to publish new stuff daily, only from different location (same each summer). In times when broadband internet is available in almost each corner of the world, running a website remotely is becoming pretty easy.

Can you Create This Object?

2009-06-21T21:56:46Z

I’m not particularly inspired today, thus you shall receive this short question and a belonging optical illusion that goes in companionship with it. I can guarantee you that the picture below wasn’t manipulated with, and that the object you see can truly exist in real life. Only question that jumps out, is how? It may take you some time before you understand the logic behind this “impossible” wooden object, but after seeing all of our previous examples you should be an expert by now in solving something like this. Does it have something to do with special materials? Or is the secret in angle under which the photo has been shot? This is for me to know, and for you to find out ;)

How would you create this impossible object, without tempering with the image?

Magic Eggs Optical Illusion

2009-06-20T19:28:51Z

My cousin sent me our newest exhibit. We had some egg illusions in the past, but have to admit they were pretty lame. Well, I hope our newest one brings a change to this lousy tradition. In its core, this optical illusion is very similar to the famous Missing Part test. Additionally, it may remind you of those missing China men, extra Leprechauns, Mad Scientist soccer team… you know what I mean. To make you understand what is going on around here, let me explain first. In the first card (A) we have one chicken and 8 eggs. Cut this card in 4 pieces (like outlined below), and then again assemble it in a different matter (card B), resulting with proper rectangular image. You will get our original chicken, but the number of eggs this time is different. Additionally, there is a missing piece in this newly assembled card. Why is that? If the surface of both puzzle cards is equal, how can one be missing a piece? Hint: are the surfaces really equal? You tell me! Remember, there is more than one optical illusion present here.

Yesterday I’ve implemented Akismet spam protection. Since then, it already prevented more than 700 spam comments! Was this precise timing, or what :) Also, our RSS subscriber number is currently exceeding 87,000. If this isn’t a sign of quality service we bring, then I don’t know what is!

Update: seems that the original creator of this illusion is Archimedes Lab. At least their version has the copyright hard coded within the picture. Thnks Michael.

By Permutting the triangular pieces an egg disappears. How does it happen?