Where is the ball?

Got another great vid from a friend of mine yesterday. Even though you may think: “What is a magic trick doing on an optical illusions dedicated website”, you’ll quickly change your mind after the clip has ended.

But wait! There is more to it then you probably noticed at first. Be sure to replay the video couple of times, and each time concentrate on another background figure. Are the wooden mannequin, Rubik’s Cube, radio and whole bunch of other items lined as you originally presumed?

Even though magic tricks and optical illusions have whole lot in common, you’ll certainly agree that Chop Cups video has much more to do with illusions, than magicians and tricks. This has to be one of my favorite clips of all times. Btw, it gives me a great pleasure observing the “Top 10 Optical Illusions” chart in our sidebar. It’s like watching a live-growing organism, providing me with real-time feedback of what kind of material my audience really appreciates. Apart from ratings, comments and “top 10 illusions”, I’m thinking of engaging you guys even further. More stuff coming soon!

Optical Illusion by Yamaha

Suzanne pointed me to this video commercial recently, created exclusively for Adelaide’s leading motorcycle superstore – Coast Yamaha. The motorcycle featured in video below was loaned from Clive Langley. I have to admit, I never expected such a twist!

I have to give credit to this motorcycle company – They truly understand the power of optical illusions in advertising. In a few years, when I’m done teaching marketing PR’s how illusory campaigns easily become viral, and how powerful impact they have on their audience, hopefully I’ll manage to shift on to the next level.

Next task: lure them to send in their content to Mighty Optical Illusions website, resulting with more fresh content for our audience (You), and wider reach to their brands. My ultimate goal for near future is to get quality, professionally created illusions, while in the same time being payed for the actual content. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not getting payed for this article. But just think about it for a second. Wouldn’t it be a “win-win-win” situation (visitors-me-advertisers), if for example Yamaha had previously recognized the size of our audience, and contacted me with offer to publish this video? Perhaps they don’t need to, as this kind of stuff is virally posted across the net, free of charge. But maybe, just maybe this will change in the future! Check the Billboards section for example – wouldn’t it be logical I got payed for each of those posts?  Unfortunately, I wasn’t…

Now admit it, how many of you saw that coming? Big thanks goes to Suzanne Green for sending the clip! “Firstly I have been a fan of Mighty Illusions for a few years – and I love them. I thought of you when I saw this, done by a local ad agency and very impactful. I hope you agree.”

Pumpkin Illusion by Tony Bailey

Just in time for Halloween, Tony Bailey sent me his very own made Pumpkin Illusion. It’s always motivating to hear how our little website has inspired someone into creative thinking, and assembling their own optical illusions. My guess is that Tony used the idea from Three Figurines video, but this doesn’t need to be the case.

On “All Hallows’ Eve”, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the “head” of the vegetable to frighten off harmful spirits. Although this particular holly day is most popular across United States (I presume so), it’s starting to become more popular in Europe each year. In Croatia we always had trick-or treating, but lately many night clubs engage in “Halloween” specials on 31st October.

Although I’m a great fan of USA, I dislike this artificial Americanization on other societies. Check the video below, and experience what other people in Tony’s neighborhood see when they walk by his house. Do you see the pumpkin embedded or embossed?

Impossible Nuts Illusion

Many of you probably saw this video already. Today I watched it once again, and after all that violence, corruption and shit happening in the world, I was really touched. Somehow it put a smile on my face, and gave me some hope that there is still a chance for us, inhabitants of this wonderful planet. By seeing what is happening in our everyday life, watching news, seeing violent movies, I really started looking at us humans as a virus ruining this amazing planet. Only way mother nature could fight back against us, was by inventing some new “weapons” like: Ebola, Aids, other diseases, nature disasters, growing male impotence, homosexuality (today higher number of individuals are born with same sex affinities, which results in lower reproduction – this wasn’t meant to be offensive in any way), and god knows what else… “Luckily” we are a resistant breed. In my opinion everyone should see this video. At least you’ll feel much better after seeing it. Maybe there is still some hope left for us… and yes, I know its offtopic.

This why I’ve also included impossible object above to keep you occupied, and show something illusion-related inside your widgets. If you find it familiar, its because Janek submitted something simmilar two years ago. Btw, I’ve embedded the video in HD quality. You should really see it like it is (in high res), but if you have trouble sitting behind slow internet connection, you can turn the little red “HD button” off – should be much faster. My advice is that you press play, then pause and wait for it to load and then play it.

A properly thrown curve ball spins in a way that makes the air on one side move faster than on the other. This causes the ball to move along a gradual curve. From the point of view of a batter standing on home plate, though, curve balls seem to “break,” or move suddenly in a new direction. This year’s winning illusion may explain this phenomena. Arturo’s animation shows a spinning ball that, when watched directly, moves in a straight line. When seen out of the corner of the eye, however, the spin of the ball fools the brain into thinking that the ball is falling towards the left. We had another VERY SIMILAR example posted few months ago.

So, as a baseball flies towards home plate, the moment when it passes from central to peripheral vision could exaggerate the movement of the ball, causing its gradual curve to be seen as a sudden jerk. Be sure to observe the falling ball directly, and indirectly (from aside) while reading the text embedded inside the animation. See the difference? Other winning illusions will be posted shortly. More can be found here.