By Vurdlak on December 24, 2007, with 113 Comments
Just found this animation in my mailbox which was submitted by one of our fans – Brad Snyder. I’m not exactly sure how it functions, but the illusion should be similar with our famous Spinning Girl illusion. Apparently the gem we see below is rotating in only one direction. Because it is shallow, it gives you impression it changes direction every few seconds. Don’t take me for granted, though. I have a feeling I don’t get this illusion in its full sense. I would appreciate if some of you managed to understand it, and post a clue for me and others via comments section. If my intuition is right, this can easily be one of the greatest illusions on this site. If I was wrong, don’t hate me…
(35 votes)
duurrrrr it goes see through whiles it is spinnin that was easy
get a life people
me,tom,jack ‘n’ tom
waz ere 2ka
in da ouse 09 !!!!!!!
it goes see through whiles its spinnin that waz easy get,a life people lol
me,tom.jack ‘n’ tom waz ere 2k8 in da ouse !!!!!!!
this is awesome! ive also seen this type of illusion with a dancing figure of a woman
The bottom tip of the jewel is making a 360 degree circle giving the illusion that the direction is changing when it rotates toward the back although its not….pretty cool
look at the video it makes it more understanding
It all depends on which side of your brain is dominant, because it is spinning on both direcions, some people see it spinning right, others, left. Some people see it go backwards and forwards because they are paying too much attention to unnecesary detail
the illusion is that goes from solid to transparent
Im not sure what the illusion is supposed to be.
Was the initial design supposed to be solid or “hollow”?
Look at it one way and u see through to the backside the entire time. The “field of view” being inside the object. (it spins one way)
Look another way its solid and it looks like the top switches directions. (which ruins the illusion of it being a solid object)
So the question is, which way is meant to be the illusion or how was the “illusion” created?
I think the answer is its not supposed to be “solid” and is simply a case of the “fov” being inside the object. Is that supposed to be an illusion?
We this in my science class it has to do with what side of your brain your using.
To the guy that said “i’ve seen more complicated illusions than this”… “case closed” – you’re an idiot.
********************************
The upper and lowever portions of the cone are spinning in unison. However, the top of the cone is 100% opaque, whereas the lower portion is translucent. You can see the top of the cone through the bottom portion when the top if farthest away from your perspective.
********************************
That’s how it works. Now scroll back up and check it out again and you’ll clearly see how it works.
this is actually pretty simple. I have accidentally done this with light wave. Thew bottom of the diamond is made of single sided polygons but they are inside out. so you are seeing the back side of the diamond. the top is double sided polys so you see them all the time. but from the bottom of them when tilted away and the top when tilted towards you.
Well we humans tend to see objects as convex…like faces … because they are more likely to be convex…the structure of this is quite simple…imagine that the diamond consists of only two sides…
the bottom and one “back”…the differences in the colors of the stripped lines does the rest…its like the necker’s cube…it depends on what we choose to see as the “front”…
Congratulations to “The Architect!” at being the only person to correctly understand this.
It isn’t an illusion at all. It’s just a rotating model where the bottom edges are one-sided, meaning that they work like a one-way mirror. From one side, you see them, from the other, you do not. Where a proper model would have the edges facing outwards, this model does not.
there is 2 ways to look at it.you can look at it the way that most people see where it looks like it keeps going back and forth in different directions and the way where it looks like its counter clockwise the whole time. that is cool!
Im convinced that it’s a combination of the background color, along with the two alternating colors of the gem… because after a while the colors end up matching the background, this giving it the illusion of changing direction. It only happens when the gem gets to a certain color spot.
Actually, neither stops spinning. The bottom does not continue all the way around the rim of the top, it is only halfway around. So you see the back of the bottom rotating, which makes it appear to be changing directions.
If you follow one of the corners on the top of the diamond you can see that it is in fact only rotating in one direction.
It works for me. All you have to do is continuously look at the very bottom of the diamond and it changes direction.Nice!
Well, this effect is well known by 3D mappers :
The cone rotates clockwise around its top-point axis, and clockwise around a vertical axis. But the trick is that the top hexagon is always shown over the other faces, even when it should be hided : that creates the feeling it’s spinning the other side, because it gets mmirrored. It’s technically called “textures clipping”.
Hope it’s clear, have a good day ;)
What….i’m getting so messed up in this illusion XD
This is exactly same as spinning lady who in reality isn’t really spinning. the figure is first drawn of lady standing still and then next drawing is made showing arm and leg slightly out to left and then another drawing slightly more out to the left and then maybe 30 more drawings going all the way to the left, and then 30 more drawings going all the way back to the lady standing still drawing, and then wait x amount of time (the time in which the arm and leg would be hidden from person viewing the spin in real time) then start the arm and leg drawings going from still position to the right same as on the left side. So what you are almost really seeing (but not quite) is movement from point of origin to left, back to point of origin, and then your looking at the point of origin for a while, and then your seeing movement out to the right and then back to point of origin. What your looking at is not really moving at all which explains why your brain is able to make it reverse the spin (that really isn’t happening) Your just looking at a bunch of still pictures, funny how it is so easy to fool a person
This one can be easily solved by using computer print screen function. If you click print screen soon as top of gem starts to rotate counter-clockwise, then open the frozen image in paint(click edit, paste in paint) you will see that the lines of the gem body are not lined up with the lines of the top. If you look at a real transparent gem spinning the lines would never be out of alignment like this. In answer to your question as to whether or not this could be the greatest illusion on this site the answer is no. The spinning lady is the greater of the 2 illusions, because of the fact that she can spin in both directions. You can look at this spinning gem till your blue in the face and it will always be moving body of gem clock-wise, and top, back and forth. To be able to rotate clockwise and counter-clock wise at unlimited varying intervals is a level above what the spinning gem can do…
woah, brain hurtful, im getting a headache! lol!
concentrate on the point under and you will figure it out.
To me it appears as if it is spinning one way and then when it reaches where it would be facing the back it turns around and rotates in the opposite direction when turning to the other side (L or R). But then I read one of the other comments saying it only spins one way and I looked back at it and it only changes for me sometimes now. D:
cool
You were wrong. I hate you. :] Just kidding! I really don’t see anything, though…
Fun! This and the spinning girl are a couple of my favorites on this site. It’s amazing how difficult it is to force my brain to switch gears long enough to see the the image spin the other way.
exactly as someone said above concentrate on the point if you follow the gray side you can actually follow its full circle.
you can see it changing direction because you can see the underside of the top surface of the object.
I don’t know about that e-mail or any others I forgot about. They all ended up having mail that ended up being spam I don’t need. I should make a new one, but anyways:
I don’t like the spinning woman one; it’s bullshit. I can only see it spin clockwise. Fuck that.
As far as this gem goes, you see it spin both ways because IT’S A GEM… like a gift (in no tie to it’s historical meaning of giving a hand or item as a gift for marriage). It’s a “gift” of presence of how nature works… simply… and not really manipulatively. The truth is that it didn’t matter which way it spun. Because it’s computer-generated, we won’t know if the “spinner of the object” is spinning it clockwise or counter-clockwise. Am I correct? It appears to be spinning one direction, but because no one is literally spinning it, we won’t EVER know which way is… lol
Now, if anyone can take A REAL gem and spin it in the direction it is spun for us, and use computer works to remove the person spinning it fluently with the fingers, let’s see if we can STILL tell! If I am wrong, okay, but if I am right, it would be interesting JUST TO SEE a real-life person spinning a gem and then putting it on video for Myth Busters or something. I wanted to see that show but I am never watching it.
I also think it’s therapeutic to watch it spin. I don’t know how Myth Busters can prove monitors don’t harm the eyes or which TVs actually do, based on WHAT lights up the screens, but I’d like to know and see prove… like the molecules deterring the eyes or something… I’d LOVE that… and to be smart enough to know it’s true or still false.
Stare at the center where the triangles forming the top of the gem meet. It only spins in one direction when I do that.