Awesome Illusions

Arron Bevin shares this frustrating optical illusion. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything unusual about the image, but that’s the illusion itself. Once you figure it out, you won’t be able to unsee it. Clue: it’s all smoke, no mirrors. Give up? Here.

Captain Disillusion explains how animator Kevin Parry managed to pull off the seemingly seamless viral video of him playing catch with his reflection in the mirror. In a nutshell, it took multiple takes and painstaking video editing.

Glen Lewis-Steele’s made-to-order LED lamp looks like a cube that changes its shape as you move around it. In fact, it’s not even a cube, and the LED isn’t inside it. But perhaps its greatest illusion is that it doesn’t look like something that should cost as much as a laptop.

The sequel to the flawed but fun heist movie sees the team of illusionists blackmailed by their nemesis (Morgan Freeman) and a tech prodigy (Daniel Radcliffe) into pulling off an impossible heist.

Artist Chris Carlson takes to his chalkboard canvas once more – this time with a recreation of a classic video game. At first it doesn’t look that immersive, but look at the shadows around Chris’ and Ryu’s feet, and it seems as if he’s been dropped into the game.

The always charming Tim Rowett of Grand Illusions shows off a silly plaything he created that produces a very long (though not truly endless) stream of fabric-covered springs from a small container. We’d like a longer bazooka packed with 5x as many snake-springs.

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.