By Vurdlak on June 21, 2009, with 138 Comments
I’m not particularly inspired today, thus you shall receive this short question and a belonging optical illusion that goes in companionship with it. I can guarantee you that the picture below wasn’t manipulated with, and that the object you see can truly exist in real life. Only question that jumps out, is how? It may take you some time before you understand the logic behind this “impossible” wooden object, but after seeing all of our previous examples you should be an expert by now in solving something like this. Does it have something to do with special materials? Or is the secret in angle under which the photo has been shot? This is for me to know, and for you to find out ;)
How would you create this impossible object, without tempering with the image?
(52 votes)
Well this is an easy one, took me a couple mins to figure it out but i got it. first off there’s 3 pieces of wood, cover the end and what do you see? two blocks of wood side by side thats all there is. the third piece with a different grain to look like the end piece of the piece of wood on the top. If you look closely to the piece of wood on the right, you’ll notice a small notch cut out of it to help level out the third piece and make it appear that its apart of the wood, which its not. the screws and hand are just there to throw you off. Good day and good night I am the best! Muhahahah!!
It was Photoshopped. End Of
there is only two pieces of wood used. one is on the top the other the bottom you get the illusion of the top piece going out from the pattern on the piece of wood but it is actually straight and the cornor is actually light which gives you the look of the bottom piece’s side. its easily made
I would have to temper with it……[O-O]
het is doorzichtig
As mentioned; The photo is not altered. I think painting the block could be done, but that could have been done in photo shop.
I think it is two pieces of wood. The front piece is as tall as the second. I show the idea at http://www.ohboychainsawcarving.com/puzzle.html
The arrows at the bottom left show where division shadows are in the origonal pic. under the hand is the transition point. the curved arrows indicate where it is sanded. The screws in the picture do hold the objects together. I feel that the illusion could be shot from more than one angle. If you could see just the wooden block it would be easy to see.
Please Vurdlak, let us know how this works!
Just take a piece of paper, print a pic of this illusion, put your hand on it, snap a photo of it, and there you go! Hehe… just kidding. Doug gives the best explanation actually :D
As I discribed earlier, 3 pieces. The bottom of the big shadow between the fingers is the end of the top piece. It is cut at an angle and slopes down to the index finger. Then the 3rd pices is just screwed to the back. The hand makes it look like a shadow and our mind doesn’t think that it should be the end of the board cut at a slope down to the finger. Well done!
I have two theories on this one
1: there are two blocks one on top of the other and it is painted (or for somereason is natural) to look like this or
2: it is two block like this and somone used sand paper to make the outer block gradually flatter..
I go more on the second one though I don’t know if any of these are possible.
I think you are all wrong. Look at the fingers. Compare the height of the middle finger to the index finger. The middle finger is definitely pressing down on the top of the piece of wood. I also don’t think you could fake the shadow of the index finger so well without photoshop.
It is two pieces of wood side by side. If you don’t look at the lower left, everything looks completely normal. The appearance of that end of the blocks is due to some clever woodwork shot from just the right angle.
The right block has a notch cut out on the far side. It is angled so that the right side of the notch looks like the edge of a “top” block. The notch goes almost completely across the block, leaving only a veneer of wood for the front face of the right block for the first 1/4 inch.
You see the complete end of the right block, but that again is a thin veneer. The little bit that looks like the top of a “bottom” block is actually a thin extension of the bottom of the left block. Look at the lack of grain in this piece. It can’t be part of the right block.
That’s the only explanation for all the elements of the photo.
They did a fantastic job in matching the grain from the end of the left piece to the top of the right piece. That’s what makes the illusion work so well.
After looking more closely at grain of the left end of right block, it looks like a separate piece of wood glued to the veneer extension of the right block. What looks like the top of a “bottom” block may be the top of the small third block.
now i know it!
after rotating and mirroring the picture I’ve got it.
it’s like this: http://sidener.com/photos/blocks.jpg and the whole front side is just a thin wooden plate covering the construction!
Argh, Vurdlak, please let us know what the solution is. I need to know!
WOW….ok…i just went out to my shop and made me one…the trick takes only 2…count em 2 pieces of wood..and a LOT of sanding….the screws are there just to give it added security as i glued my wood together before sanding them. very well done illusion!
it is just an agle while clicking the image
I see pencil lines….my guess, is the top peice of wood is somehow, flat
Easy. It’s inverted. That is, where an angle looks like it is sticking out, it is going in. It’s all in the lighting to look like two pieces of wood when it’s really multiple pieces. What looks like an end is not the end of the piece it seems to be but is an end of a piece with the other sides painted black. Hard to explain.
Two Actual pieces of wood…any one can c it.Save the photo and give it a 180 degree ( 2 consecutive rotaion in any direction) and u’ll b able to figure it out.
cheeers
yes. k.o i dunno
smart illusion XD
Of course it is tampered with. You can make things appear in 2D what can never be in reality. That we can now use photo images doesn’t change that perspective tricks give us awesome optical illusions as M.C. Escher knew.
The bottom block can’t simultaneously be BESIDE and BELOW. It’s been altered. The hand is not covering anything, the grain blends where the images were merged.
The hand adds that extra touch of “realism.”
Actually the second peice of wood has been cut at an angle to make it look as if it is a straight line gooing straight down, it’s quite obvious
I don’t get it, its just a block of wood.
hey! ur a cheater they just cut the wood then why is it that there is a hand maybe they are covering the line on the wood so CHEATERS!!!! he should take of the hand!!!
ya wdf wow he is probably covering the proof of it is not imppsoible with his hand!
haha very good, the use of shadows creates this illusion very very clever.
to lovelygirl : Illusions often hide parts of itself. Otherwise it wouldn’t look good.
to Megamaxmax : Blind you are.
An answer from an expert! Thanks for cnotribiuntg.
interesting,in the near beginning of the top block, (left side)
you can see the wood is bending and twisting, so it IS shot from a special angle
at least i think so
eithr that or photoshop, but still, really col
this piece of wood is flat.. The lines one the left are drawn.. Really good one :)
I get it. But really, nice one
the hand is probably covering the part of the wood that is a is a different
It may be a painting which the hand is over to look real and where the shadow is its actually painted on… maybe.
This might not be very har d to do if you have a couple of tries.. If you use a camera where you can change the ISO settings, you are able to make things look invisible because of the long time it takes the shutter to capture the picture.
On the upper right part of this construction I feel like i see “through” it..
well..
if you look at it carefully…
it’s actually two blocks..
one on top of another…
they colored the block to give it a camouflage effect and to look like a twisted wood…
This is a clever use of glue, veneer and the right photo angle.
Take a look at the piece of wood under the index and middle fingers – this continues all the way to the end, but just before the end there is an inlay of veneer cut from end grain. The glue line is kind of black there and it is cut into the solid wood in a 45 degree angle to illustrate the end of the second piece of wood under the thumb. There is also added a small piece of veneer on the last maybe 10mm of the first piece so that the two surfaces look different from each other.
The right side screw is penetrating both pieces – but the left side screw is actually just going through one of the pieces.
The hand is added for good measure and there is no photo-trick to it – the photo is not altered in PhotoShop or the like.
This is a case of clever carpentry!
It is not clever carpentry!
if someone looked at it for a second they would see that the top grain of the bottom piece of wood is apart of the side grain of the top piece of wood, its a photoshop job.
Cheadle is right, it can’t be anything else than photo editing. I love illusions like this and this is a great one as it uses real images instead of drawings.
Actually the fartest block is just a regular block. But shorter than the closer block
the Block closest to us is also just a regular block. However has a notch cut out approx 1 inch back like this
_______
__ |_______| block 1
|__|/_______| block 2
The illusion is the camera angle which makes it look like the blocks are stacked when really they are side by side.
McD, so how does that make it look side by side at the top, on top of each other at the bottom, and the grain run from the top of the bottom on into the side of the top one?
sad
sad is that no 1 can get it..on the top block on the right it appears to be covered by a thin mirror..check it back..that’s it..done
I’m soooooooooo stupid..well….at the top block to the right he cut the corner to an angle to give that look…check it out
it’s a photo with the hand over it….. look at the shadows
i think its just 2 peices of wood on top of each other.
My Dad Build One of These
I love these “impossible” illusions.
The timber is cut at 45deg, and a wedge removed to expose the timber behind. Very clever
Of course you can make that object, you must be able to or it wouldn`t be there…
Follow the line where the 2 diff grains are separated and u can see that some lines are drawn on the top stick.
I think it may be 3 pieces of timber joined together & then the bottom & side pieces planed to a wedge shape to give the illusion? If you look at the timber on the front piece it looks cleaner at one end?
The wood illusion rocks!!!
I think the ‘impossible’ part of it – the lower that seems to not have an end – is really just at very smooth angle. So, block one is a perfect rectangle. Block two is really a triangle with a very sharp corner leading to the left of the first block.
Or, it could be photoshop. But that’s just SO oldschool. XD
move your hand i cant see >: (
Its 2 blocks of wood ontop of each other, top block is slightky shorter than bottom one at both ends and i think they have placed a piece of wood veneer in a triangle shape in the top right corner at front of top block, basically if you squint youll see the 2 blocks ontop of each other and youll see the triangle I mentioned.
It’s actually just one block on top of another, though I can definitely see the illusion. (I found this out after about 10 minutes of staring intently) xD
Two blocks, two screws, easy.