By Vurdlak on March 13, 2006, with 154 Comments
This is really a wonderful Illusion, originally invented by some English guy I think. This little dragon is made out of paper – simply print it, cut it out, stick it together, and stand it on a table or shelf. When you move around, the dragon’s head seems to follow you around the room (if you stare at it’s eyes). Have a look at the video below to see what I mean. The effect is frightening! You can print the dragon yourself by following thumbnails below (be shure to fold dragon’s head to outside, and not the presumed inside fold!) This is awesome!
How does it work? If we move around when viewing a solid object, our brain knows how the object we are looking at should behave. However the dragon gives us the wrong clues, because we mis-interpret what its shape is. We assume that the nose of the dragon is pointing out towards us, but in fact the dragon’s head is concave. Below is the dragon illusion blueprint, click on the image to view it full size, save it and cut it as the instructions say!
(294 votes)
similar to a house illusions seen on coolopticalillusions.com, my old oi website
I am so making it! someone gave a link to the how to vid on youtube and in the discription it has even more colors it comes in so there is red blue green purple orange mint & black I am going to make them all and put them on the shelf above my computer it will be sooo hacking cool (yes I watch fred figglehorn aka Lucas Cruikshank but I am just a kid not a grown up so ya)
Hey, Alexandra, you’re a kid too? High-five! Or paw-five! I’m 11 years old!
Alexandra and bunnygirl! im 9! and i love fred!
Do you need glue to make this?
@Mephisto:
Yes, you need glue!
This illusion works!
If you have difficult to prove that it works, just pick you a video camera (phone, web cam, etc) and record a short clip.
Remember, this only works at 2D! You must close an eye!
Way cool man.
Omg This Is Sic It Real Cool I Want 1 ! Just To Spook My Friends Out It Would Be Absolutly Assome Can You Send Me 1 Cause I Cant Find 1 On The Internet Tankxx
Omg My Friends Will Be So Skyed
wow…awesome
i made it and it works! :) if u close one eye and kind of squint like you would for a stareogram it looks awesome
I made it and it works, but nowhere near as good as the one in the video.. quite gay acctually but cool illusion.. But seriously Dont waste your time people.. you will be disapointed with the result no matter how well you make it..
HOW DO YOU MAKE THOSE?!
REALLY cool. Couldn’t see the effect, so I thought that I made something wrong, but it really helps if you closes one of the eyes.
WOW THATS SO SO SO GOOD BUT STRANGE AT THE SAME TIME
I LOVE THIS ONE! enough to fool someone! XD
SO COOL BUT SAD BECAUSE I CANT PRINT 1 OUT COS MY PRINTER DON WORK ARRG :(
I hope it gives Blow Jobs!
i’ll rip its fukin head off, this trick is a sink
If it doesn’t work, try looking at it with only one eye open.
Haha, it works!But at certain angles it doesn’t work, so I wonder where to place it, hmm…
i had one but they black and whit edont work as well as coloured ones
It does not work… there is this red x in a white box. same goes for many of the pics in this website. I tried right click show pic and stuff like that, but it still does not work. how do I make it show up?
there is one in wonderlad
That is just too cool! 8^o
IT WORKS AMAZINGLY WELL!
I can’t believe how rude some people are in their gripes about it not working. You’d think they’d paid $20.
When first viewing it after assembly, i didn’t think it was working well at all. I had to squint and couldn’t get it in the right light.
After a couple minutes of playing around with it, i’m amazed at how well it works, both horizontally and vertically.
Here are my tips:
1. For OPTIMAL effect, COVER OR CLOSE 1 EYE, to shut off your brain’s access to true depth perception, forcing it to interpret on shape and light only. 2 eyes will work. 1 is better. (I didn’t notice this recommendation on the sheet until i’d gotten it to work, but it makes it much easier.)
2. Bright but difuse lighting. Lighting which is too harsh can create shadows which break the illusion.
3. On the dragon’s head and mouth, tape/glue the tabs as shown, but DON’T sharply fold the paper where unnecessary. Seeing creases doesn’t help.
4. Use thicker paper than the cheapest printer muck, but not too stiff. I used really cheapo paper, and it’s too easy to get in situations where light comes through from the rear.
5. When cutting along the edge behind which the tabs will be attached, CUT OFF THE BLACK OUTLINE so that the colors blend unbroken.
At first i squinted a little bit and stared at his eyes, taking in the rest as peripheral. Once i could see his head as convex, i found that moving from side to side and up and down fairly quickly actually increased the ease of doing so.
It wasn’t until that point that i noticed the bit about closing one eye, which just made the effect more dramatic.
I may have to try my hand at designing my own critter.
good.. thanks
Heh! There’s one at the Science Centre in Singapore. (I preferred it when it was Singapore Science Centre. It just sounds weird as Science Centre, Singapore.)
I printed out the red one, and it works great!
Just like the previous poster pointed out though, try covering one eye and focus on the eyes and it really looks like it’s following you.
Mate, works briliantly…got it sitting next to the tv to freak my mother out
Called reverse perspective. Theres a video abt the guy who made reverse perspective in a recent post abt 2/3 weeks ago.
Sorry its 1 month go. Its called Video: Another Reverse Perspective. Go check it out i thinks its rather cool.
Oh my goodness! I watched this video over, and over, and over again ‘cos I liked it so much! I think I’m gonna go make one now. :D
Ha ha! This is so fun! I’ve made a red one, and I am going to make the two others. One trick that works for me is that if you are are a room with a ceiling (spelling?) light, put a torch underneath his chin, then the brightest spots will be on the top of his head nose – where the light would be if the ceiling light was shining on his head. A piece of trivia: whenever I went too far (and saw the white back of his head) I would throw him in shock. One again, this is so fun!
thats pretty freakin awsome☺
Look at youtube for the answers and how to make/fold the dragon.
search words as dragon 3d..
i let my pupils make over 25 dragons we had fun looking at them, really scared 25 dragons looking and folowing u around the classroom.
Love it.It seems like it’s really complicated like there’s some kind of machine behind it or it’s magic when you don’t know the secret,but when you do,you find out that it’s a simple mind trick.
One time!
lol, there is something like this in a local restaurant. there is a painting of a pirouge. the painting follows you.
Amazing. Our brains are really weird. I feel bad for all those people who are blind and miss out on all these awesome optical illusions. We take optical illusions for granted.
Great!
cooool !!!
man this is so awesome!!!!!! i Think im gonna go make one xD
they are sooooo cute
WONDERFOOOOOOOOOLING !!!!!!!
HAH HAHA enjoyed it dude…nw trying myself..
hurray !!
keep posting
I printed one from the other website, thats more cooler than this one.
i am printing this one out! I think it’s cool!! I don’t care what ‘stuckey’ says!
great illusion still confusing how it works.
may be will understand if I try to create it.
any way thanks for sharing this.
It’s really cool, he’s on my bedroom shelf!
PS, misspelled “sure” as “shure”.
The face is caved in :P
The dragon illusion was created by Magician Jerry Andrus who specialized in tricks based on unusual perception.
it will work when ur far in real not on the video. The video still work in near but in real if u get near it will not work.
Meh. works WAY better on camera than in person. Spent 20 mins carefully cutting and taping. I can get it to work, if I squint and close one eye, but I’ll lose it sometimes when turning. Also, you have to start at it and visualize convex for a few seconds before you can turn it…and you have to start at the perfect angle. You really have to concentrate to have it keep following you. Still haven’t got it to follow vertical yet.
This works incredibly well…I made one, by printing out the diagram, & then gluing it to a thin piece of cardboard…I then cut out the dragon, folded it, & watched, as it came to life….Amazing!
Thanx very much!
I want one so bad! But I don’t have a printer :(
I just made one, i told my mom to come see what i made, she was astounded, she didn’t get it at all, then i flipped it around and she was still confused, lol, gonna have to make one for my niece.
I AM YOUR SPIRIT!!!! SHOW ME THE KEY TO YOUR BODY!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAA!!!!
im not kidding, give me the key to your life or i will make a boy with no head or legs to come into your room at midnight and kill you!
Love it! It’s really creepy in dim light and one eye closed. I chose the green one and named him Efraim. :)
i see this one time and i try to wreck the illusion for myself, then i regret it cause i can’t see the illusion again, but this i was able to switch back, i think it’s the spots,
As Peter Grynch (above) states the illusion was developed by Jerry Andrus who was an an American from Oregon state. Jerry came up with many optical illusions that can be found in science centers around the world. Check out a memorial website devoted to Jerry http://jerryandrus.org/ to see some of the amazing items he discovered, invented and or perfected. He will be missed by many.
Bob
i made one once and they are cool.
It works n_n, Thanks :D
This actually answered the downside, thanks!
Hi,
i love these.Can one be done with a human picture? Thx
those things always kinda creep me out…its bad enough when actual people stare at you, now art is doing it too!
its incredible how can a piece of paper, overpass a computer fx at many ways, with just.
THINK, MATERIALIZE, CUT AND GLUE, HUMAN MIND IS OVER COMPUTER WITH SIMPLE IDEAS…
imagine its saying where you going
wow!! cool! i want to have one of these!! ^^
wow awesome
Cool
I want one =3
It works!
These do work very well. You do NOT have to close one eye to see the effect, but it is best viewed from at least 6 feet or 2 meters away.
Personally I find that putting them just above head height and stepping back about 6 feet and then blinking a couple of times is the easiest way to make them come into effect.
If you find they don’t work, you have probably folded the head wrong.
awww this is gr8. i can see it by closing on eye. The best and easy way to see it following you is…….. just switch on your mobile phone camera.