Awesome Illusions

The ever vigilant Captain Disillusion explains the editing trick that Vine star Zach King rode to fame: the invisible cut. It’s when you film a scene continuously then cut the middle part just right to make it look seamless.

Artist Howard Lee shows actual objects beside his photorealistic hand-drawn copies, then he breaks the illusion and gives us a glimpse at how he drew the copy. You can render his trick useless by pausing the video, but it’s still fun to watch.

YouTuber Wallace TheMadKing created this headscratcher of an illusion that looks like a propane tank floating in mid-air at the end of a chain. Stick around long enough, and he’ll show you the extensive work he went through to pull off the trick.

Filmmaker Jeff Desom teamed up with model maker Oli Pesch to recreate miniature sets of famous movie scenes, and then populated them with “holographic” images of actors projected onto an angled semi-transparent screen. This is how 3D movies should look. More here.

From the “what is this sorcery file” comes a cake that’s been frosted in a manner that makes it change colors as it’s viewed from different angles. Apparently it has to do with the combing technique, and wasn’t coated with Plasti-Dip, but you never know.

YouTuber Brusspup is back with another set of printable perspective illusions. He throws us off by presenting the real objects and then replacing them one by one with the prints. Save us Neo! Download the images here, here and here. Print them at either 11″x 17″ or 8.5″x 11″.

Artist Natalie Nakles used markers and pens to draw this disturbing illusion on her hand, making it look like bones and muscle have been exposed when placed over a dark background. Somehow it looks both cartoony and totally real at the same time.

Red Bull freerunners Jason Paul and Pasha Petkuns combined their athleticism with a variety of optical illusions, camera tricks and an upside down house to make this fun stunt video. Behind the scenes here.

Karen X. Cheng and Ross Ching hit the hilly streets of San Francisco to mess with our heads, capturing action on the steep sidewalks tilting the camera to compensate for the grade. The track is I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ by Scissor Sisters.

Vsauce explains why the bright side of the moon doesn’t always align with its apparent position relative to the sun. Our vision is influenced by visual clues and previous experiences, making us susceptible to optical illusions.

The vanishing bottle is one of the simplest yet fun to watch magic tricks. But the world famous magician, entertainer and educator Shawn Farquhar put a spin on the trick by doing it slowly. Keep an eye on his left hand starting at 0:36.

Professional magician Jamie Raven got into Britain’s Got Talent with some Inception-level trickery. Jamie started off with a couple off sleight of hand party tricks, but his final treat is so good it’s spooky. Skip to 1:40.

Similar to Taichi Saotome’s epic sword fight, Auditore Dubai used projection mapping, 3D animation and precise choreography to make a man fight his shadow. A presentation from the Hamdan International Photography Award.

Physics and illusion tinkerer Brusspup compiled this assortment of tricks, hacks, experiments and generally fun things you can do with fire. Proceed with great caution if you decide to try any of these yourself.

Digital studio Dawn of Man recently treated New Yorkers to silly sights of sleeping giants. Its Projection Napping project showed videos of gigantic people trying to rest within the confines of the city’s walls.

OK Go’s commercial for Chinese furniture store Red Star Macalline features a remix of I Won’t Let You Down… but it let us down a bit because the tricks here are actually from The Writing’s On the Wall, so no synchronized umbrellas for you.

Nikolas Baumgarten’s Zoomquilt is a website with an infinitely zooming image made of fantasy illustrations. The loop closes in on itself after a few minutes, but it’s still a nice effect. Also available as an Android live wallpaper.

Josh Carmody’s clever stool does have legs. It’s just that there’s only three of them. The diagonal cross brace and the stool’s proportions make it seem like it has four legs when viewed from certain angles. Contact Josh to order.

(Loud) An awesomely trippy 3-dimensional illusion that appears on an overhead LED display at the Center Bar at the SLS Las Vegas hotel. The effect only works if you’re standing at the proper angle though. Read how it works on Make:.

Quirkology is back with another perspective–based trick. Watch as he makes a flame float from one candle to another. It’s very easy to replicate, though you won’t be able to do it live. Unless your ninja sidekick is top notch.

Optical illusions made using animated GIFs that have movement from the foreground to the background or vice versa. White lines are added over each frame and then partially erased on the spots where the subject is moving. More here.

Nah, this isn’t a parody of a The Orb song. It’s just a simple magic trick that Weird Al Yankovic recently learned. You can pull it off too. All you need is a shirt and a trip to the kitchen.

YouTuber brusspup is back with another batch of nifty animated optical illusions, including ones of Superman, a T-Rex and the Creeper from Minecraft. Check the video’s description for links to the images.