Awesome Captain Disillusion

For his latest lesson on the harsh realities of reality, Captain Disillusion takes on a classic internet video, in which a Rochester Institute of Technology student attempted to create the urban legend that an Escher-inspired staircase actually exists somewhere on the campus.

By now, just about everyone on the internet has seen the video of the Plinko-like machine that appears to magically sort thousands of colored marbles neatly into a rainbow. We always figured it was fake, and now Captain Disillusion explains how he thinks it was done.

Captain Disillusion takes on another seemingly impossible viral video, though it takes him at least 37 seconds before he’s able to figure out how motion artist Kiyan Forootan pulled off the illusion of a see-through dancing character. Basically, Kiyan is a computer graphics master.

Captain Disillusion usually takes on videos which at least appear to be somewhat believable, but this time he went after stuff like the ridiculously fake “Gateway to Sedona” because he was incredulous that the video actually has true believers.

The always educational Captain Disillusion takes a break from debunking viral videos and questionable crowdfunding to kick off a new series about the masters of visual effects. The first episode looks at the ahead-of-their-time visuals in the Back to the Future trilogy.

There are millions of trick shot videos on YouTube (and we’ve featured our share of them.) Now, Captain Disillusion is here to burst our bubble – and all of those basketballs, footballs, tennis balls, and golf balls, as he shows us some of the tricks of the trade.