Awesome 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.

Believe it or not, that’s not a painting. Gunpla hobbyist mumumuno53 painted a Gundam action figure to make it look like a retro anime illustration. The cardboard props are nice touches. Or are they cardboard?

Spanish artist Pejac’s simple acrylic paintings creates illusory silhouettes that use windows as frames and the view outside as the background. The painting is completed when it’s photographed in certain angles.

Designed by Alex Chinneck, Take My Lightning But Don’t Steal My Thunder appears to be a stone building with its upper half suspended in mid-air. The polystyrene structure is actually supported by a thin steel frame at its corners.