Spinning Girl optical illusion was the one responsible for skyrocketing our traffic back in the old days. Then we have received Spinning Man version. Unfortunately that one didn’t gain as much attention, I hoped it would. Let’s see if spinning some cats helps. User called Pech Misfortune (oh, the irony) created this animated gif using ImageReady in addition with 3D Studio Max. The illusions is simple – all you have to do is see the cat rotate in both directions. At first you may think it’s impossible, but after some practice you’ll soon be able to switch the direction with each round. I’m also interested to hear your comments about the original direction you saw the cat spin at? When I first saw this, it appeared to move clockwise. Now each time I see it – it’s just the opposite (concentrate on it’s tale to switch).
when the cat turns to face me, it seems to freeze for a split second. maybe that has something to do with the solution
I can only see it clockwise unless i focus on something else to the left or my screen then it reverses.
Clockwise for me. I got it to go counterclockwise for a minute, then when the computer slowed for a minute it went back to clockwise.
I guess since the maker used 3DSMAX, we will all see it clockwise at first because it was made in 3D. I’m quite sure the tail and paws become bigger and smaller while it turns, giving us the impression of rotation in a specified direction.
I can, however, make it turn counterclockwise, but only if I don’t look at it directly. As soon as I do, it turns the other way.
At first, it appeared to be turning counter clock wise. After a short period changed to clock wise. I watched it for quite a while, and it kept changing. Interesting and very good optical illusion. Yes indeed.
First saw it go anti-cloockwise then I made it go clock wide by looking between his legs, bottom bit and slowly going cross eye.
I can only get it to move clockwise.
when i think about math, it turns counter clockwise, when i think of something fiction or imaginative, it goes clockwise
i saw it going counterclockwise first then it turned the other way bepanding on where i let my eyes travel during watching it.
I think I figure it out, the cat never makes a full 360 turn, it just goes from left to right, when I look up but see the cat in my lower field of vision, I can switch the movement anyway I want. I can also see the cats paws change from a left to a right orientation. If i want to the cat to go in a counter clockwise orientation, I wait for the paws to be protruding from my right, If clockwise I wait for the paws to be turned to my left. Very Clever!!!!
To me it just spins anti-clockwise… it doesn’t change direction lol :S
anitclockwise to start with
@chris the freeze is the split second when the animation stops and restarts
ok i made it turn clockwise… how? lol
I dont think it is rotating in anticlockwise ..for me it is clockwise. May be some poor illusion
Oooh this is cool. I can switch back and forth at will. That doesn’t happen with the dancing lady that we had a while ago.
Cheers,
B
Clockwise at first; had to look away and look again to see it counterclockwise. It stayed counterclockwise until I fully looked away (i.e., it wasn’t in my peripheral vision), and then it went back to clockwise.
I see it spinning counter-clockwise. Is there something wrong with me?
Clockwise for me too, however, whilst reading the description, the cat started spinning the other way at the edge of my vision. By the time I got to the bottom of the description (paying more attention to the cat than the words, although looking at the words so that the cat remained at the edge of what I was looking at) I can now get the cat to always face in my rough direction i.e. do half a circle clockwise, and then change direction when the cat is pointing left so that its rotating anticlockwise until the cat points right, then reverse the direction again and keep repeating this.
I can get the same effect with the girl (which I think is better than the cat) with her waving her leg about. The man one is a bit more freaky, probably because there is too much detail in the face.
That’s funny! In the widget I saw it spinning clockwise, then after opening it up and coming back from the loo, it was spinning anti-clockwise!
Yeah, I’m not really getting it from this either, or the spinning girl. I know what its trying for though, I had an old game called Drowned God where in a certain sequence a bizarre mask on a computer screen is spinning around, and it keeps seeming to switch which way. Not sure if that was intentional or not. Also, it was in full color and with 3D depth to it — it really looked like a thin Halloween-type mask.
She just keeps spinning counterclockwise!! grrr…
I can only get it to move clockwise, been trying for about 5 minutes now. As Chris said earlier, it does seem to freeze for a moment when its facing me
I believe that the cat is moving back and forth. This must be how the illusion works, it’s not really going in circles. Once the “back” of the cat faces towards us, it stops for like a sec (if you look carefully you will notice). Then I was able to see the cat go left, then right, vice-versa. :)
I hope you all get this. Hard to explain. LOL!
But when I saw this illusion, I thought cat was going clockwise. :)
I concentrate on the front paws…
At first it was spinning clockwise. Then I made it rock back and forth half turns always facing me ;)
I saw it first counterclockwise. after a while i could also switch direction. Amazing.
yeah I looked to the left and it switched to counterclockwise and then when I looked to the right it went back to clockwise!
it’s easy for me to see it spinning anti-clockwise. If I concentrate I can see it spin in the other direction, although iot seems to revert back to anticlockwise if I stop concentrating.
I read the comments from the spinning girl, and found it quite funny that some people thougt it was the animation that shifted direction, and not their perception of the animation.
Strange …. neither Internet explorer or google chrome displays the animation perfectly on my pc.
I see the cat go one way, then the other. It keeps switching for me every 3 secs. It usually switches when the cat is sideways That’s a cool illusion!
anti-clockwise it is look at the trail marks
Couterclockwise the first time (and most of the time).
But is easy to reverse the direction: you just have to scroll the page until you don’t see its legs and tail. It’ll appear to be ‘bouncing’ from left to right (kinda like the spinning man).
Great illusion, by the way!
Okay this is just freakin me out. Can’t stop watching it! At first it was counter clockwise then it switched. Now it does both. Very cool illusion.
I saw it initially as counterclockwise. Had a very difficult time getting it to switch, even though I knew how this was supposed to work. Blinking rapidly helped me to see the change.
Very cool illusion.
You said it would be irony, that the User would be called Misfortune. Well, in German “Pech” means Bad luck…
counter clockwise for me. i can get it going clockwise, but naturally switch back to counter if i stop concentrating.
when I watched it, it went clockwise. then I read the post and wasn’t paying attention as much. it seemed to stop for about half a second and switch. now I can’t make it go back!
i can only see it go counterclockwise. can’t get it to go clockwise
I can see it doing everything. It spins clockwise for a while but I can make it go counter clockwise easy. Plus if I don’t focus on it I can see it going back and forth, sometimes I see its back when its doing this and sometimes the front.
I don’t get why everyone can see this in clockwise? I’m only seeing it in counter-clockwise
(from left to right his hands goes toward us, so if we watch it from above it would be counter-clockwise … then again, watching it from below makes it clockwise)
Mine freezes for a moment too and then changes the direction.
When the cat is spinning anti-clockwise, it freezes for a split second when it is facing away from me. When it is spinning clockwise, it freezes when it is facing towards me. Maybe that has something to do with it?
I love this illusion, it baffles me every time! (:
its hard to control it… but i can see it go both ways.. when i take my eyes off it and watch a distant object from my laptop.. and try to see it unfocused then sometimes it switches… i hope u understand what i am saying… hard to explain..
The easiest way to reverse rotation is to stop thinking about the front of the cat… OR maybe to think about it more… Imagine that the front of the cat is on the other side than you think and suddenly it rotates backward.
If you look at it from the top of your screen, it turns right.
If you look at it from the bottom of your screen, it turns left.
when its rotating anti clockwise… it freezes for a second when the cat is facing away…
when its clockwise… it freezes for a second when the cat is facing us…
First time i saw it, it was counter-clockwise, but i can switch it whenever lol
When i first see it, the cat is always spinning counter-clockwise. if you wait till the cat has its back to you, it’s easier to make it go in the opposite direction.
OMG I GET IT NOW!!! haha because it’s black, your mind tricks you into thinking that it’s turning the other way, as you can’t distinguish the contours and such. I wonder if the clockwise/anti-clockwise thing is a result of the whole left-hand/right-hand thing… I’m a lefty and i saw it go anti-clockwise to start, the others saw it go clockwise… *shrugs*
that was wierd….i could only see it going clockwise, then i scrolled down to see the comments. when i scrolled back it, i could only see it going counter-clockwise
i can only see it counterclockwise cant get it to go the other way
I always see it counterclockwise. I have to try super hard to see it clockwise.
Funny how everyone is seeing it turn clockwise at first. I actually am seeing it turn counter clockwise and am trying it to turn clockwise. I wonder if it is because I am left handed.
i can only see it going counter-clockwise! nothing i do makes it switch!!
I can see that! Great ilusion. But I can’t control when it changes. For me, changes randomly.
I’m getting the weird continuously turning forward effect. Every time the cat rotates, I see it always rotating forward, but never resetting- once from the right, then from the left, repeat.
I’m wondering if I can train myself to see a continuously rotating backward cat, if I work on it.
It was counter- clockwise for me, took me awhile but I can switch all the time now!
i saw both wayz….weird
For me most of the cat is counterclockwise.. the tail is clockwise because i tried to make the whole cat turn by focusing on the tail :)
Initally, all I was seeing was counterclockwise. I took a few minutes and looking off to me left upper screen for it to change, and not concentrating on it. I like it.
I saw it clockwise at first, but can change it easily to counter-clockwise. It’s all in the mind: intention governs our world.
i can only see it go clockwise, i’ve been staring at it for ages how do u make it go the other way?
At first it was rotating counterclockwise all the time and I couldn’t figure out a way to switch it, but I was just looking at the picture itself.
Then I found that when I would read the text above the picture, if I scanned the text from left to right, then the cat would rotate in that direction, but when I scanned the text the other way (like when slowly returning my eyes to the start of the next line), I would notice the cat change direction. When it was rotating in a particular direction, it would stay that way if I *slowly* moved my gaze down to the picture.
Did some measurements. Aren’t the head and paws slightly smaller when “looking away” from the screen, from the clockwise perspective?
That in itself would be a tell-tale hint that the clock-wise “turning” is really not an illusion, but a natural (and correct) way of the brain to interpret perspective projections.
Thus the only “illusion” would be if you somehow saw the rotation counter-clock-wise (assuming an angle of staring the cat in the face.)
If your still having trouble getting the cat to move the opposite direction, try staring into the middle of the rings just the the right of it.
wtf i cant get it to go counterclockwise :( :(
I seen it going anticlockwise, until I read your comment on the top, then it went clockwise.
the cat will stay still and face me and not move until i look at it then it spins to the right.in order to make it stop spinning i had to read out loud and not have focus on it.
Sorry, everyone, but this is no illusion just simply a gif on a variable timers. Don’t believe me watch 4 yourself. The 1st time it takes about 3 min to change, no matter where u focus. Then is goes counter 4 about 1 ¾ and back to repeat the cycle on a different timer to make u think it is a illusion. ( is this for real “ my brain did not but in to it” it’s a crock) :(~
@Chris: that is probably just the start/end of the animated gif
It went clockwise while I was reading. then it went anti now it just does semicircles.
Scrolling up and down the page helps to change it’s direction
The direction it spins in tells you weather you are a left or right brained person. I forget which way round they go.
The cat was rotating clockwise for me at first and then I started reading the text above the picture and the cat switched for a second and switched back when my focus was interrupted. Does this have anything to do with brain hemispheres?
It’s spinning to the right and I can’t get it to go left, so that’s it. I know it can go to the left, but my mind won’t see it.
counterclockwise. How do you see t the othr way!
I saw it anti clockwise first… and it really was near impossible for it to be seen any other way… there were just too many reference points suggesting the one direction. just as i was about to give up tho, it started spinning clockwise
Actually if I look at the print above the frame or just beneath the bottom part of the frame, it seems to switch.
I’m reading comments and it’s funny because I initially saw it moving counter-clockwise. It took me a very long time and concentration to switch its direction to clockwise.
First i saw it counterclockwise. Now, every once in a while it goes clockwise.
It goes to the left for me. That’s anti-clockwise, right.
Does this have sonething to do with the left/right side of the brain?
It does spin both ways but it took me about 3′ to get it to spin the other way around and then only because I was looking at the far left of the screen like someone above said. I originally saw it spin counterclockwise.
now that i see it very easily it’s hard to make it go in a circle
Interesting, very interesting.
I first saw it spinning counterclockwise. Then after looking away a few times, I saw it spin clockwise. I was then able to reverse the spin by looking away for a second or two, then looking back.
hmm oddly enough i can see it going clockwise only when I have a smaller screen blocking the top half of the pic. but cant see it the other way now. Aint that wierd
i make it go eaither way
if you just look at the dark gray to left the cat changes direction and turns clockwise and if you look at the dark gray at the bottom it turns anticlockwise (i find it helps if you read somthing close to the left side or to the bottom
i can make it spin both ways
i can do that with the girl as well
the spinning man is confusing…
I can’t see it. It only goes clockwise for me
How clever is this illusion…I can make it switch bacwards and forwards with a blink of the eye!!!
OMG ITS GREAT, I OPEN TWO WINDOWS,AND I SAW, BOTH RIGHT,BOTH LEFT AND THEN I FOCUS AND SAW BOTH ON DIFERENT DIRECTIONS
It is spinning both side! :)
Anti-clockwise for me. I find it helps to close your eyes for half a second when the cat is facing the Right/Left in order for it to change directions.
I guess I’m just odd… I can usually see these things but all I can see is COUNTERclockwise!
It started anti-clockwise. It keeps changing regularly but I have no idea what I’m doing to make it happen. It just keeps changing.
I love this one! Very frustrating when it won’t turn the other way….& then…. it does Yes…
anticlockwise for me
Can only see it move counter-clockwise. Not yet able to see it move clockwise
For me it seems to switch in the middle, 180 clockwise, 180 counter clockwise. but if I focus to the left or right I can get it to do a full rotation.
I can see the girl both ways, but I can’t for the life of me get this one to spin clockwise. Only counter-clockwise for me, I’m afraid.
Ha, never mind, got it now.
Clockwise only, but I love cats anyway.
Now I see it counterclockwise, cool!
the only direction i can see it move is anticlockwise
its too hard! my brain hurts!
I was just the opposite, lol, I saw it first as counter-clockwise. Now when I look, I can only see clockwise.
The cat rotates clockwise. The gif file has 34 consecutive images, beginning with the cat facing the viewer and each image rotates clockwise until the cat completes a full turn and is facing the viewer again. I know this! But when I look at the cat above, I sometimes see it switch direction and then switch back. This change in direction is not in the programming. I think this is a trick of the brain’s perception of what it sees. Good illusion!!!
Look at the side or close your eyes and imagine it going to the other way and then open them. Once you get it you can reverse really easily. Very cool
Very nice post…its clockwise first, then becomes anti-clockwise when i focus on something to the right.
Anonymous is right. Just look in either bottom corner of the picture and let it change in your peripheral vision. Amazing
Yey, love these types of illusions. Can make em turn on a split second :P
Hey, It works! Originally it was moving counterclockwise for me.
i can only see it going counterclockwise!
yes I DID IT! All I do is look to the left of the screen, squint for maybe 3 seconds, blink and then its spinning the other way! :-)
I found the best way to switch direction was to look away for a few seconds.
I also noticed that while reading the text above it and viewing the cat out of the corner of my eye it would appear to oscillate from side to side rather that rotating fully.
That’s soo hard!!
focussing on the tail doesn’t help…
YEAH IT DOES!!!
Wooh… that’s sooo cool!!
hehehe…
i just got it!
Pretty cool.
As to why the “spinning girl” illusion got so many views, Vurdlak,is because it was a great illusion, with the subject being the silhouette of a beautiful girl who appears to be nude (you can kinda see her nipples)
Absolutely love this, I got really frustrated with the spinning woman because I could only see it rotate clockwise :(
It started out clockwise and after reading the comments I looked to the left of the screen and could change it. Interesting to note while looking at the left of the gif it does not rotate fully but bob from right to left and back again.
My first impression was of the cat spinning clockwise. One way I’ve been able to easily switch direction was to concentrate on whether the paws were coming into view or receding back in behind the beast. front, back, front, back, front, back, front, front, back, front, back… hmmm. Perhaps the direction of rotation is determined by which side the paws are on when we first see the picture (come into view)?
Clockwise! And each time I reload the page, it’s clockwise again…
I dont’t get it to work :(
Amazing illusion.
Just look in to your keyboard keeping the cat on your preriferical vision. Relax and keep your mind on the keyboard. After wile the cat will rotate to the other way!…
Congrats!
At thirst i saw it go counter clockwise and then clockwise, at 1 point I could make it turn a different direction every 180 degrees… this is cool
Hint:The cat is not actually spinning a whole circle.
I can make it bounce from left to right!
while looking straight at tit it appears to only rotate clockwise. However, if I look off to either side it appears to “wobble” from left to right but never makes a full circle in either direction.
first unti-clockwise , then with little effort i could switch directions. it’s very nice illusion
All I can see is counterclockwise.
Counter-clockwise first, them clockwise, now back to counter-clockwise. Very cool.
Clockwise. I have watched it for 25 minutes turn around & around clockwise and I can’t get the dang cat to change direction!!! :-(
if I focus on one side of the picture and not really on the cat, the cat rotates in the direction of the side I am looking at. I look to the left side, clockwise, if I look to the right counter.
i actually saw it making half-circles at first. took me a while to see it making spinning counterclockwise.
then it was easy to change between counterclockwise and clockwise
awesome illusion
Concentrate on it’s TALE??
I first saw it clockwise
i can make it change by closing my eyes and picturing it spinning in the other direction
At first, it only went clockwise, but if i focus on something to the left of the screen, it reverses direction, then, if i focus on something to the right of the screen, it goes back to clockwise.
yo who likes big macs?!?!?!?!?!
and for me i seey a spaynin cayt
yuo cayn wacht it fawr a lawng taime aynd ait aint gaytting bayring!
After I was unable to change the positions back yesterday, I tried again and I’ve been able to. I find focusing on the middle section helps a lot.
yeah it was going clockwise when I first saw it, BUT once concentrating on it, I did notice it swapped directions so I counted the revolutions prior to the change.. It was around the tenth revolution it would change direction…
dont concentrate on the tail , concentrate on the cat’s hands .. You’ll see , it will work.
the first time , i saw it Anti-clockwise,now i can see it in both directions
It was going anti-clockwise at first, then I stopped to read the text. When I looked back down, he had switched to clockwise!
I can only see it go anti-clockwise
I see it counterclockwise. It switches direction if I concentrate on something left of my computer screen, but I can’t look at it directly or it’ll switch back to the original direction.
Wow. It was definitely clockwise, and I was about to declare all of you insane, then I looked up from the computer and back, AND IT SWITCHED. Nice illusion!
It switched directions when I focused elsewhere on my monitor.
This is crazy. At first i saw it counter-clockwise, and when looking at the directions of its nose and tail, i thought it didn’t make sense that it could be seen the other way. After looking in a direction that put the cat in my peripheral vision, it turned.
then as i looked at it going clockwise, and the direction of its tail and snout, i couldn’t see how it was possible that I once saw it going counter-clockwise.
How does it work? :S
this is fake…. i actually see it stop for a second and turn around when the back of the cat is facing you. this is a complete lie!!!!
I don’t get it!!! How does it spin in the opposite direction?
this is definitley a lie!!! you should show a real optical illuision
OMG it worked!! that’s so wierd!
First both a woman and a cat turn counterclockwise, then after a brief interruption of my attention it starts clockwise…. Concentrating on an image does not switch direction – peripheral glance or momentarily interruption of attention do it for me… Spinning man just never turns his back!
I go with an0nymous, I can only see cockwise until I focus to the left, but can only hold the reverse spin for a few moments I think it may have something to do with how strongly “handed” you are, ie whether the brain is strongly right or left handed.
There again i may be spouting rubbish, if that’s so I’m sorry.
Gosh! This took me more time than the Spinning Girl one.. but, once it started happening, it was fun reversing it every second! :D for me it happened on concentrating on the upper paws! :)
Hi! There is a third option: you can look at the cat as if it’s rotating only half a spin. You have to imagine the cat is always facing you. When it gets the left side you have to blink hard your eyes, and imagine the cat is going back to the initial position, and the same when it reaches the right side. It’s easier if first you try it with peripherical vision.
With the other spinning illusions, I could force the switch after a while, but no matter how hard I try with this cat I can’t do it.
Clockwise at first, then counterclockwise but I can’t get clockwise again
This illusion works because it is just a shadow
nothing telling you front from back
I saw it move counterclockwise first, it took me forever to get it to go clockwise…. I DONT GET IT!!! =D
Its counterclockwise for me. And i can’t get it to go clockwise D:
Clockwise at first, but now I can only see it CCW! Very irritating :S
I see it counterclockwise, and it’s impossible for me to make it switch! I’ll have to come back later and try again..
I watched it for minutes, at a given time it turns the other side… I think… Anyway, I’m not convinced this is a proper illusion to be honest.
for me, its turning counter-clock wise..unless when i look at something to my left and it starts spinning clockwise but only for 2 seconds.
Was rotating only anti-clockwise for me in the beginning (maybe because I’m left handed?? :) ) but had to look in the upper right corner then started rotating clockwise, looking in the upper left corner and it moved anti-clockwise again.
Counter-clockwise for me and I can’t see the other way no matter how I stare at it.
Its going counter-clockwise…and I can’t get it to change! HELP!
Did this with a real cat a few times. It doesn’t matter which way it spins, their eyes still jiggle and they fall over when they stop.
I absolutely love this illusion. I think to make it switch it helps to think of the limbs as pointing away from you as they point directly towards you and then envisage them as coming out from behind it as they emerge.
I’ve found that if you look dead center at it, then look as far left as possible, and view it with your peripheral vision it changes pretty much automatically. To get it to go the opposite direction, look the other direction.
nahh you just gotta think of it as pointing at you, not spinning
i can switch it pretty easlit
Counterclockwise for me, and I cannot get it to go clockwise no matter how hard I try.
I only can see it Counterclockwise! What does that mean?
It goes clockwise for like a minute, and on one turn, it keeps going, but switches directions very quickly!
That stupid shadow outline makes it nearly impossible.
For me, it was clockwise, then it was counter clockwise, then clockwise again, and now it’s just swaying back and forth, with it’s back facing me.
When I first saw it, it was clockwise…now it’s counter-clockwise and I can’t make it go back!
Well, the first time it was clockwise then it became anti clockwise then i refreshed the page and it was clockwise again then i refreshed the page again and it was anti clockwise…
When I look it turns counterclockwise and i can’t seem to get it to turn clockwise
If the image were symmetrical this would make sense, but I don’t see how it could possibly be going any direction but clockwise
its amazing!! i just close my eyes and when i opened them i can switch the direction.
It’s really cool if u can get it to continuously turn around half circles with it’s back turned to you.
the first time i saw it i thought it was counter clockwise……..but the illusion is really cool
the tail is what throws me off
It not real the cat spins clockwise at first then instantly switches position after a minute or so of watching it.
If I don’t look directly at it, say look at the paragraph, i see the true animation is, it just moving from side to side.
Just close your eyes, imagine the spinning cat moving clockwise and then open your eyes. Repeat the same action but now imagine it counterclockwise… it is magic. You can programme your mind!
If I look to my right the cat doesn’t go all the way around,it swings left and right, left and right until I look directly at it then it makes complete circles. The same thing happens if I look to the left as well. Even when I was reading the instructions it was doing that.
When i first began to watch this I saw it turn counter-clockwise. Then when i watch the description of you saying you saw it clockwise I started to see it the way you did! this illusion is rigged.
anticlockwise for me at first, had to really concentrate to get it to go the other way at first, concentrated on the paws, now it’s easy! love this!
I see all of these spinning illusions initially spinning to the right. I have to really concentrate to change the direction and see the spin go to the left. Looking just off to the side and seeing the cat in my peripheral vision helps me to do this.
i played with it for a while and could make it change directions everytime i wanted it to,,after a little practice, i was able to make the cat keep his back to me and rotate back and forth kinda like doing the cabbage patch with his back to me.
Actually, the first time I saw it, it was spinning counterclockwise. I’m still trying to keep it clockwise for a long period of time but it just keeps coming back !
when i first saw it (small icon), the only movement i saw was clockwise…but when i switch to the bigger picture, all i can see is counterclockwise spin…
i like this one…if you go crossed eyed you can make it change directions….its cool one
I can actually make the image turn from left to right or vice versa without it spinning behind.
At first I would blink just as it was parallel then I wouldn’t have to, it helps if you look up at the test just as the cat is half way in the illusion of a spin.
oh geeze, now I can’t see it go clockwise or counterclockwise, I see it invert itself when it gets 3/4 around a turn it flips in the other direction.
Love this illusions that you can pretend to control. :)
I can only see Counter-clockwise :))
“Clockwise” is ambiguous, since the apparent motion is in/out of the screen, not flat on the surface of the screen as a clock would be.
In any case, I see it moving right to left towards me, then recede in the distance left to right. No amount of practice has (yet) made me see it the other way.
Do the sizes of the cat’s parts grow and shrink with “distance” (depth into or out of the screen)? If so, then the illusion has a bias. If not, then I’ll have to say the illusion is very effective, because it seems to me the paws and feet grow and shrink with distance!
I can see both directions at the same time and I can change the appreciation if I want.
When I opended another window with the optical ilusion and had it separated from each other, I don’t see the ilusions directly, just at the middle, and the cat turns to the side that I want
I could even make it look like dancing!! (Not so hard to do)
NOTE: my english is bad, traductors are my friends
At first this was just going counter clock-wise for me, but then clockwise when looking at it through the corner of my left eye.
However, with a little practice, I can now reset it to go either direction as I choose:
1. Look at it and determine the direction it is going
2. Look a few inches to the side so that you are looking at it through the corner of one eye
3. Blink rapidly
4. Whilst blinking it changes direction, and remains in the direction once you look at it directly
Would like to know if this works for other people! I tried blinking while looking directly at it, but that didn’t trick my brain into anything.
correct me if i’m wrong, but there is nothing of an illusion in this. It’s just an animated gif that (randomly?) changes direction.
Proof: look with 2 or 3 persons at the same time and you will notice that all of you see the chasnging of the truning direction at the same time!
counter clockwise for me. then all of a sudden it went clock wise!!
when i first saw it , it was spinning anti clockwise, the i blinked a few times and it span clockwise, if you keep blinking really fast at it, you can make the cat just turn from left to right and not spin ! aww poor dizzy cat lol !
At first it was counterclockwise, and i had to focus on the right side of my screen (focusing on the tail didn t work for me!) to finally see it rotating clockwise! Very intriguing!
I’ve never been able to change the direction of these illusions before.
Until Anonymous said that they changed it by looking at the left/right of the screen, now I can do it whenever.
Thanks,
Awesome Illusion.
I just discovered this site today. Amazing. Great. Awesome.
Spinning cat anti clockwise. No method to change, it just happens now and then while looking.
counterclockwise was my first, then i concentrated on the tail and it started going the other way- i can do this with ceiling fans 2!!!
Counter clockwise
I can now get the cat to swing from side to side, it took a bit of doing but I get better at it all the while.
Good illusion,
thanks
Barbara
I got the Girl and the man to spin both ways, but I only got this damn cat to spin counter clockwise.
I just see it going back and forth instead of actually rotating
Oh my! Finally understood why I couldn’t have it change direction. I was listening to music and apparently that made one side of my brain work. This is amazing…
For me is like this: I close my eyes and then open them pointing lower than image – the cat is spinning clockwise; close my eyes and open looking upper than the video – the cat is rotating counter clockwise
This is pretty clever, however it works. I noticed it was easier to get it to change direction when I was reading the text above and glanced down to see it. Each time I changed where I was looking (up or down) it changed… not too sure which way I saw it rotating to start with though: think it was clockwise :-)
Counterclockwise here, really need to focus to turn it around
When the cat turns right aim your sight just to the right part of the picture and the same when the cat turns left, just look the half of the picture and you’ll see the effect perfectly.
put your finger infront of the cat and focus on it then spin your finger in the oppsite direction of the cat that is how i got him to change direction
When I first saw it, it was clockwise. I looked away and now it’s counterclockwise and I can’t get it to go back.
Anticlockwise for me
Now I look away, and go back to it, it’s clockwise, then look again and it’s anticlockwise and it keeps switching! So confusing! Amazing trick, like a previous one of a man or a woman i believe?
It only moves anti-clockwise for me. Stare at it’s tail, look to the left of my screen but nothing works. Cat or I are defective.
Wow, that was neat! All I could see was clockwise at first. Then when I looked away at a different part of my screen, and kept the cat in my peripheral vision, then I saw it switch directions.
wow was that difficult to get moving the other way… My trick was cover everything but the tip of the tail and then you can reverse it.
It started out as counterclockwise, and it took a lot of focus to get it to got the other way, then it took a lot of focus to go back around, these just don’t come easy to me :)
I can see both, clockwise, then counterclockwise. Like you say, with some practice you can see the cat rotating in both directions.
If I look directly at it, it seems to be spinning counter-clockwise. When I look off to the left and not focus on it, it changes to clockwise. What’s really fun is shifting my eyes on it and off, before it finishes a rotation. It just appears to go back and forth, left to right and back again, without completing a full rotation.
I can manipulate my mind to either move it clockwise or anti clockwise anytime. Also you can make it appear as if moving left to right and right to left back and forth. Though this requires some practice.
I did it. If you keep trying it will work. Just focus on the lines which the kat leaves. If you place them behind or before you will turn the kat around ! dont focus on the kat ;).
counter-clockwise first for me, then I had look slightly away from it to get it to go the other direction. I am left-handed so that may be why I saw it go counter-clockwise where most others see it the other way first
If you focus, you can make it change directions and sweep back and forth from facing to the left and then to facing right, then back again.
fun
Counter clockwise for me.
I can’t get it clockwise for now
i found that if you look at it as if you are looking at a stereogram it changes
For me is like this: I close my eyes and then open them pointing lower than image – the cat is spinning clockwise; close my eyes and open looking upper than the video – the cat is rotating counter clockwise
k i got clockwise for the longest time, then it finally switched to counter clockwise wen i turned the sceen away from me, then i turned the screen baack, and now he is just swinging back and worth, clockwise for half a turn, then counter for half a turn lol
Started out clockwise. I first got it to change by reading the text above it like someone else previously said. So cool.
I see it changing direction depending on the music I’m listening to (at least, that’s all I can figure; it’s the only thing that’s changed)!
Nice one. I still can’t keep him from spinning any other way than counter-clockwise though.
i just see clockwise i cant see different
what i do to switch is look at the tail moving for about 10 sec or more then look away for like 5 seconds then look at the cat again
Started out counter clockwise. Finally changed the direction after concentrating on the cats paws. To see the cat turn clockwise perceive the paws as below your perspective. To see the cat turn counter clockwise perceive the paws as above your perspective.
Very nice illusion.
My head hurts after making its top half go one way, and its bottom half go the other :S
Only countaclokwyz 4 meeeez
hahaha! i concentrated on the tail and ended up having the tail spin clockwise and the rest of the cat anti-clockwise! awesome :)
I saw clockwise, then anti-clockwise, but now it is stuck clockwise for me. :P
i saw it spinning counterclockwise first. then as I was reading your words it switched and then as i looked at the tail it switched again
What always works for me is if you look down on your keyboard with a portion of the image still just visible in the top of your vision and concentrate on it going the other way in your head, and try to imagine it, focus on your keyboard whilst imagining it spinning the other way and viola!
I didn’t get this. I called my dad and then he said it but it was still going the same direction for me! And then it started going clockwise for me and it went counter clockwise for him at the same time. AMAZING! First I thought it was fake!
wow thats great
My boyfriend swears this doesn’t work, and that the cat is only spinning in one direction. He can’t make it switch and he won’t believe me.
I originally saw it spinning clockwise. The way I get it to switch is by scrolling the page and looking at something else, then coming back to the image. It’s just luck – I can’t force my eyes to see it the other way once i’ve already started looking at it.
I just noticed that I can “choose” the direction of the rotation. If I see the cat rotating clockwise, I’ll just close my eyes for a moment, then move my eyeballs to the right while my eyelids are closed, then open again to see the image rotating counter clockwise and vice versa. The whole closing eyes thing must take only half a second. I think all of you can do it.
counterclockwise for me. stared at the tail for a long time but nothing changed. got frustrated and looked up… then it changed. it only appears clockwise to me if i’m looking at it through peripheral vision.
its only counter clockwise for me. altough it worked on the woman one for like 5 seconds?
nice illusion
it will only spin clockwise for me :(
This is actually a prank not an illusion, the image is made to switch directions when the image isn’t visible on you screen or when your mouse pointer is far away from the image
Try it and you will believe me, the cat is made to switch direction, just like how most stuff work on this site.
Pretty Cool, took me a second to switch it so it span to the right, but it helped after seeing the spinning girl
The problem with this illusion is that the cat actually IS going clockwise, the perspective is out other wise – the cat visibly gets closer and further away (put your cursor at the tip of its ear and see it’s head shrink back as it turns its back to you) which ruins the illusion element slightly.
I can actually cntrol this , at the middle point where cat heading n owhere , i just hardly focus and make it spin the direction i want it to spin XDF:)
As Alex Ettels says, you can control it easily.. If you look at the middle.. it rotates left, then right, then left, then right.. You can actually control it so that it never makes a complete turn.. (if you want to call it like that).. You just have to manipulate your mind thinking: Its going towards the inside now, then outside.. In conclusion.. Use the actual fact that its an optical illusion to your favor.
i dont get it, it just spin in one direction for me :S
I tought the same at first, but i spent some time looking at it and i switched from clockwise to counterclockwise.
Try sliding the screen so you can just see the ears , it reverses direction when I do this and then sliding the rest into view slowly. Works for me.
that’s because it switches it. it spins one way and if you look at it for long enough, you can see that it switches it and starts rotating it the other direction.
I had the same problem pia, it helps if you look at the text on top and just watch the kitty out of the corner (or bottom) of your eye. When you do that you can see the cat going back and forth instead of around.
It worked for me if I looked at the top corner of the gray box and saw the cat out of my peripheral vision. Stare at the top right corner to see it rotate clockwise and then stare at the top left to see it rotate counter-clockwise.
this is so crazy!! at first all i saw was clockwise, but i was determined to get it to switch. it eventually did. most bizarre thing ever!
omg sooo crazy. i only saw it moving clockwise at first and then i just moved my eyes upward and looked again and it was counterclockwise
how do u make it switch its clockwise!
I see it rotate to the Left only
Its all about the tail. I find that if you look mostly away from the cat, your brain just switches the direction
Wow, this is flippin’ awesome! It first appeared counterclockwise to me but now that I mentally switched it, I can’t make it go back! Very cool.
It started counter clockwise for a long time then I looked to read what was above and now it’s clockwise. I assume it’s a .gif trick where after a certain amount of time it changes direction.
This one sucks. When the object is all black it’s harder. The spinning man one is way better and easier to see.
When I first saw this the cat was going clockwise and I have failed to see it reverse.
It works for me best if I look at the upper arms. Move your eyes quickly left to right opposite the cats direction.
I’ve been staring at it, and it just keeps seeing in counterclockwise direction for me. I can’t make it switch. Meanwhile, my mother sees it rotating clockwise, and then it switches to counterclockwise, and it just keeps switching for her. My grandmother just sees it make 180 degree turn to the right and then 180 degree turn to the left. That’s a really neat illusion. I wonder what it means about the way the brain works.
doesn’t work. Believe me. you could sit here for hours and it won’t work.
its only spinning counterclockwise. left to right
Same… It keeps spinning to the right
right…its still going clockwise…im not giving up though lol
That was weird! I couldn’t see it for the longest time. I found this version and that helped to switch the image. Also, sometimes I can see it peripherally. Looking at the tail didn’t help me. If you blink your eyes really fast, then you can make it go back and forth.
i still dont see it either. maybe im retarded
If I blink my eyes close to the screen, then it doesn’t work. It helps if you look at least a foot or more away.
Actually,the distance might not matter. If I blink like crazy when the front paws are pointing far right or far left, then it switches.
Yeah, I can only see it spinning clockwise and have yet to figure out how it could possibly be seen as spinning the other way
that’s cool ive seen the woman before but if you look at the cat with your peripheral vision
you can see it sway back and forth instead of spining so if you want to change the direction it is spinning in you can wait for it to sway one way and look at it normally and the direction changes it worked for me at least its something i just figured out
It’s hard!the spinning girl is easier.=))
its a trick. retard
It spins in one direction – counter clockwise. You have multiple reference points, there is no way , I think, for it to deceive the mind.
you have to look away and get it barely into your peripheral vision and as it will slowly turn the other way slowly look back.
Crazy illusion, when i first saw this illusion it was spinning clockwise and for my friend it was counter clockwise. Now everytime i see it, its counter clockwise and i can’t seem to get it to spin clockwise again.
I only saw it going counter clockwise.
I Used the scroll on the side and slowly went up until I could barely see a piece of the cat.
Then I saw clockwise.
but now I stuck seeing counter again
I control it right now.. hahaha
yea this is bullcrap its spinning counterclockwise from a topdown view above it. thats it.
It spun counter clockwise for me only
Holy crap, that thing totally switched directions!!! How?!?!?
I really don’t get it either. I have been staring for 15minutes trying different perspectives, different distances, the same distances, concentrating and nothing. It just spins in one direction. I didn’t like this one much…
It pretty cool after awhile i was able to make the cat spin either direction , also i could make it go 180 back in forth until i was ready to see it rotate a full circle clock wise or counter clockwise. My favorite one so far.
This I think is a trick the image just starts spinning the opposite way at timed intervals—anyone?? I would like to know if this truly works for people? :) Thanks!
Finally! I got it! Just block out the entire top part of the cat so you can only focus on the bottom of it’s toes and tail. This will distract you from the entire body of the cat. You’ll start to see the only the toes and tail turn the other direction and then you can lift you hand to see th e rest of the cat spinning the other way.
you gotta close your eyes, think of something else, and keep doing that untill it does
If you focus on it for a long time without blinking it will change direction
It is awesome what the human mind can do. For those who are having difficulty, try focusing your vision on the right or left corners of the website page. If you look at the right corner it spins clockwise. Look at the left corner and it will spin counterclockwise. Good Luck!
Sorry…correction left corner= clockwise and right corner = counterclockwise
The tip about looking at the text above and watching the cat out of the bottom of you eye works (and I’m one of those who could never “see the sailboats” in those Magic Eye posters!) While looking out of the bottom of your eye, try this: as soon as the upper paws are about to start going “behind”, think about “stopping” them and spinning the cat the other way. I actually was able to get it to go back and forth a little (once I focus directly on the cat, I lose it.)
When I first saw this it was rotating counter clockwise, and I am trying to figure out how to get it to switch.
Ha, finally did it, the trick for me was looking away from it and have it in my peripheral vision. And tell yourself that forward rotation is actually the back rotation. know, that sounds confusing.
try closing ur eyes and imagine the cat to rotate on the other direction.. then open your eyes again
Holyy COoww.. =0 I spent around 5 minutes watching it go clockwise.. and then i looked at the word clockwise above. and it suddenly switched to counterclockwise.. =0 =0
This is the way you make the car switch sides!!!
****Note you must look at the tip of the tail
Look to see When the arms are extended fully (9 oclock) *****make sure your not staring at the tip of the arms your eyes must be at the tip of the tail***** once the arms reaches 9 o clock, look at the tip of the tail and blink
Then do the opposite
look to see when the arms are extended and reaches 3 o clock…. look at the tip of the tail and blink again…………..
Pretty cool when you get this trick down!!!!!
This illusion seems to work on our tendency of visual motion suggestion and filling in gaps. One way to switch the illusion of direction at will is by mentally preparing to look at this as a shape morphing instead of motion. So take out the pre-conception of the word “spinning” out of your mind and try to see it as a shape morphing its ink blogs. It would also help if you don’t see it as a cat.If you can’t take the image of a cat out of your head, then try to take out the word “spinning” and replacing it with the word “swing.” Now imaging that you are looking at the back of the cat, and simply see the cat swing its side profile to the right and left in one seconds interval without its ever facing you.
Our mind is the emergence of million years of evolution. It is complex but it can be explained in term of symmetry and energy efficiency. Watch for my book, explaining intelligence and consciousness, coming out next couple of year.
I don’t believe this one bit. i think it changes on its on because i watched it spin counter clockwise and i looked down at the comments, and when i came back up it was clockwise. so i said…hey maybe it does work but i watched it again and it just clicked the other way and i wasn’t even looking at it. Optical Illusion FAIL
it’s turning clockwise, no counterclockwise.
ehhhh….. its not spinning anymore, just moving from left to right
This is not a FAIL. I just showed this to a co-worker who is former Navy. He knew what this was right away. He says something similar is shown to pilot trainees to explain vertigo. When it spins the other way for you naturally, it’s normal. If you can make it spin opposite directions on command, you’re vertigonous, more susceptible to vertigo. He said ALWAYS trust your instruments (especially artificial horizon) when flying. This kills lots of inexperienced pilots (JFK Jr., for one), when they become disoriented. Don’t always trust your eyes! Look at your instrument panel!
one way to make it change is close your eyes/look at something else for a while and imagine it turning the opposite direction. when you look back at it, its direction will have changed
Not a fail, I was watching it with three other people and we all thought it was going different ways at once. You fell for it too, dude. Optical illusion WIN.
If this is a real optical illusion then look at it with a friend. if you both see it change at the same time then it is a big fake. if one person sees it change and the other doesn’t then what i said above is all wrong.
i thinks it spind in one way. and then there’s a moment when it changes its direction U_U i have notice it twice!!! lol
I do not see the illusion at all. Am I supposed to be doing something?
you cant stare directly at it until u master it..look at the corners of the box while look at the cat..but not directly at the cat…until u can get it to switch..then once u master it u can get it to rotate either way on even make it stop half way and rotate back and forth with practice lol..:)
I can’t get it to change directions
It’s a really nice illusion. It first rotated counter-clockwise for me and almost immediately changed. I couldn’t make it go the other way until I scrolled down the page enough to see only the ears, at which point it reversed. Now, I can make it switch depending on which part of the cat I look at. Great stuff!
This is a good illusion. Look at the cat through your peripheral. Focus your attention on something else but let the cat be in the corner of your eye. You will be able to see the cat “switch” directions.
see, now that I have it mastered, I now have the problem of not being able to see it make a full turn in a circle anymore.
Now that my brain has figured out the trick, all I am able to see it as is it flopping side to side, or back and forth, if that makes sense.
So, I see it start to turn clockwise, but as it comes to face the back/front, it then just flips the other direction, and it will do that over and over again. To be able for me to see it make a full turn now, I have to concentrate on it’s butt/lower stomach area and really concentrate on the depth it should have on both sides if it were to turn a certain direction (if that makes sense), then I can see it make a full turn. But as soon as I take my focus off of that, I see it just move back and forth again.
I have looked at it with a friend and it changed direction for me but not for him.
I think you’re all high. I’ve been staring at this for 15 min and its been going counter-clockwise the whole time. Nothing about it changes. Lay off the weed, kids.
me and my gf were both looking at it and it was spinning in different directions for each of us at the same time.
It started out as counter-clockwise for me. My husband and I did this together so sorry DJ, not an illusion fail lol. To get it to switch easy, look up and right while keeping the spinning cat in the corner of your eye then look back when you switch it.
This is real. I watched it with my girlfriend. I see it rotating clockwise and she only sees it counter clock wise. Something triggered, and the direction flipped for me. We now both see it counter clockwise. In another instant, it changed back to clockwise for me. I don’t know how I did it. But I’ve seen it changed.
This is not fake! I spent quite some time trying to figure it out, but I can honestly tell you it’s not fake.
The key is when the cat’s front legs get close to its body. That’s when you can change the direction of the movement.
This is a true optical illusion. Actually, at first I was like “wtf” this isnt real. But I tried to scroll above that it got to the point my screen only viewed half of the cat , which I mean from head to the 2 lifted legs. I can now see it. It isn’t rotating either at 360 degrees clockwiese or counterclockwise but at 180 degrees back and forth. Try it.
i can manipulate it at will its so awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
It only spins clockwise for me. I seriously can not make it spin the other way.
In regards to previous comments:
The first time that I saw this optical illusion (yesterday) I was at work and had two other coworkers looking at the illusion with me. For me, it took FOREVER for the cat’s direction to change (it eventually did)but my coworkers learned the trick much sooner. Each of us saw the cat going opposite directions at once. Eventually one of my coworkers got so good at changing the cat’s direction that it just seemed to “dance” back and forth.
Me and my friend spent a while just staring at it, she saw it clockwise and i saw it counter clockwise until i saw it clockwise. it can go both ways, which is why its confusing. when the cat goes forward imagine it backwards going the other way. i can change it anyway whenever it goes in the middle.
its just testing your brain, i’d say i won (: my friend failed tho… haha
Took me a while to get this initially. I wasn’t looking directly at it when it switched the first time. But it’s not a scam.
If you look at it long enough you can learn to make it do what you want. It can go back and forth without ever making a full circuit, or it can spin a certain number of times one way and then switch on command. Takes some practice, but it works. Watching the paws might help, imagining they’re coming from or going to the back (whichever’s opposite of what you think it’s doing now).
Some people find this one easier https://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spinning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html
haha… discover simple way to change its rotation… dont look at it directly…. look at the side of your computer screen (you could still see the spinning cat but focus on the side of the screen.) and you could easily alter its rotation….. this is a neat illusion… SUPER LIKE!!!
It spins both ways because the image looks the same either way. There is no depth in the image so our minds put it there making it spin one way or the other. With enough practice you can make it appear to change directions at will.
Once you can make it go back n forth over and over again from left to right is when the real fun starts. Makes you feel like you have special powers.
Heres a trick I’ve found that works….If the cat is going counterclockwise, close your eyes for a split second and imagine the cat going the other direction when its facing the back-left, if it’s going clockwise do the same with the front-right…I’ve come to the point I can easily control the cat at will…
Watch this optical illusion with a friend and you will see it is real coz ive seen it with a friend and we did saw diffirent rotation at the same time. Me im seeing a clockwise rotation while my friend sees counter-clockwise.
It took about 10 minutes before i could make it go from clockwise to counterclockwise at will. Now i have figured out how to make it turn left to right and then right to left with out go completely around…great illusions
Omg. This is awesome.
When you carefully look to cats tail , positions is like reversing.
When you are looking with it being closer to the top, it usually spins clockwise. When you move down far enough, it switches to counterclockwise.
Just so you know, it’s a “tail” not a “tale” A tale is a story, a tail is a part of an animal.
This is really a cool illusion. I can make this cat change direction at will. I can even make it sway from left to right, left to right without even rotating. Cool.
I say fake.
I scrolled so that all I could see was the head. It was spinning counter-clockwise, so the face would appear to the left, then the right, then left, then right… Then all of a sudden it went left, then right, then BACK to right, then left, then right, then left. This is no illusion, just a spinning cat that changes direction of differing intervals…
It doesn’t seem to change at the interval every time, but if you refresh the page, you’ll notice that the intervals are the same as the first time.
I guess it’s real. The trick behind it is that one way, it resembles a cat spinning clockwise WHICH YOU LOOK UP TO, and a cat spinning counterclockwise WHICH YOU LOOK DOWN TO. So generally exactly the same pictures CAN cause both impressions. It’s still hard to switch for me, but I can do it.
this seems to be a peripheral optical illusion for it seems to change direction when my eyes were diverted. great illusion but hard on the eyes
I watch this cat for like 10 mins and I can’t make her go counter-clockwise :(.
the illusion is easy to control…peripheral is the key
it changes when you stair it for a while…..don’t take ya eyes off it and u would see it does..
If you watch its legs after a while then you will see them cross.
just moving left to right
took me 20 minutes but I finally mastered it (:
HOLD AN INDEX FINGURE MIDWAY BETWEEN YOU AND THE SCREEN AND FOCUS ON IT TO SEE TWO CATS. THEN TRY TO MAKE ONE CAT GO CLOCKWISE AND THE OTHER ANTICLOCKWISE. ANY DOUBTS ABOUT THE ANIMATION BEING FAKE WILL DISAPPEAR IN AN INSTANT.
What i do is wait until the cats hands are exactly pointed to the left or right. at that time during the continuous spin, because of the angle of the cat, your eyes and mind can not tell if it is going clockwise or counter clockwise. at that exact moment you must either blink and turn your head away, then quikly look back. I can now switch the cat on command
i solved it yay!!! when its going left look at the upper fight corner of your computer screen…and when its going right look at the upper left of your computer screen an then you’ll see it just going side to side without a rotation but if u look at it constantly it rotates non stop
This is the way you make the cat switch sides!!!
****Note you must look at the tip of the tail
Look to see When the arms are extended fully (9 oclock) *****make sure your not staring at the tip of the arms your eyes must be at the tip of the tail***** once the arms reaches 9 o clock, look at the tip of the tail and blink
Then do the opposite
look to see when the arms are extended and reaches 3 o clock…. look at the tip of the tail and blink again…………..
Pretty cool when you get this trick down!!!!!
its real— i did this with a friend. just stare at the legs and tail for a couple minutes. we both started counter clockwise, but then shes like WOAH. and i didnt notice anything. i looked at her, back at the screen, ten seconds later happened the same thing. it happened at different times for both of us. i cant seem to make it go back though, but she can.
ok i had my mom look at it and it was going one way for me and another for her rarely the same for both of us
FAKE! watch the legs! the higher legs is on its left when it rotates clockwise, then the higher leg is on its right when it rotates counter-clockwise. The image is actually being switched. anyone that has friends that see it two different directions is lying.
HOLD AN INDEX FINGER MIDWAY BETWEEN YOU AND THE SCREEN AND FOCUS ON IT ALL THE TIME TO SEE TWO CATS. THEN TRY TO MAKE ONE CAT GO CLOCKWISE AND THE OTHER ANTICLOCKWISE. IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS. ANY DOUBTS ABOUT THE ANIMATION BEING FAKE WILL DISAPPEAR IN AN INSTANT.
Actually i figured the Illusion out my way but im not sure. it worked when i looked away from the cat. my Peripheral vision made it look like it turned the other way. and i tested it a couple of times. and the reason for me it because when you cant see the cat fully when his back is other towards you, or his 4 legs pointing at you while rotating, it makes it seem its going the other direction.
Ive been staring at this for a while… all I see is the cat rotating counterclockwise…
I looked at it for 10 minutes, at 5 minutes I was able to make it switch from left to right by looking at the tail.
At 7 I was able to make it flop from side to side.
At 10 I was able to make do all 3.
Cool trick… now I gotta go bash my head on the wall to feel normal again.
sweet … the chap or gal up there said u let it be in the corner of ur eye .. and it will switch … and it duz
the thing is the cat is making semi circle .. it duznt turn around completely ..so semi circle clock wise .. then semi circle anti clock wise … took me sometime to get it !!
cheers guy/gal up there .. cant remember wot ur nick was : )
This illusion seems to work on our tendency of visual motion suggestion and filling in gaps. One way to switch the illusion of direction at will is by mentally preparing to look at this as shape morphing instead of motion. So take out the pre-conception of the word “spinning” out of your mind and try to see it as a shape morphing its ink blog on the corner top right, simultaneously it grows two long ink blogs at the bottom left corner, and conversely within second on the order side. It would also help if you don’t see it as cat.
If you can’t take the image of a cat out of your head, then try to take out the word “spinning” and replacing it with the word “swing.” Now imaging that you are looking at the back of the cat, and simply see the cat swing its side profile to the right and left in one seconds interval without its ever facing you.
Our mind is the emergence of million years of evolution. It is complex but it can be explained in term of symmetry and energy efficiency. Watch for my book, explaining intelligence and consciousness, coming out next couple of year.
If you don’t think it works or think it’s a timed animation try doing it with a friend/parent.
After a while i was able to change it at will but i still didn’t believe that it was real so i got my boyfriend to stare at it too. After 20 minutes it hadn’t changed directions for him even once yet for me it had changed many times. He says this illusion is stupid but I bet he’ll be trying it again soon XD.
who’s your boyfriend??
I spent a total of 15 mins going insane. I got it to go left after staring at it for 5 mins…then I got it stuck going right again. I can’t do it looking at the image directly, but if I glance to the top of my monitor and to the bottom of it, I can get the cat to go both ways. Lol, I guess everyone is different. Kinda feels good after you get it…kinda like, HA! Take that cat.
Whoever suggested keeping the cat in the corner of your eye but looking slightly away helped me a little bit. But if i keep it out of my sight and not visualize, but “know” or sense what direction its spinning then look back it works most of the time. But thats just because of my perception lol!
Wow this is a first. I see it spinning clockwise on one half of the turn and then counter-clockwise on the other half of the turn.
Wow, I mastered it. I can change it at will now.
SECRET IS WHEN CATS BACK IS TURNED TO YOU CONCENTRATE THE hand EITHER GOING LEFT OR RIGHT AND IT WORKS!
At first after five minutes I changed it but then I couldn’t change it back it kept spinning in my head in the same direction over and over, after like 10 min, I used my left hand with pointed index finger I started to do the motion but in the different direction to what felt in sync with the motion, and voila it changes quicker.
Holy @#$% !!!
I fierst saw it rotating counter-clockwise then I looked away and it rotade clock-wise. Now, it is rotating counter-clockwise again.
Are you randomly changing the spin on the website or is it really my brain switching ???
What does that mean ?
i DO NOT BELIEVE THAT IT IS AN OPTICAL ILLUSION
i think that this person is just changing it like every five minutes. this person is just doing a lie.this is not an optical illusion.
I also saw it turning clockwise at first. I had to use the peripheral vision trick to make it switch. This seemed harder to reverse than the dancer illusion. As for this not being an illusion…well, then you don’t understand the meaning of the term.
AAAAAAAA!!!!! my brains i cant control the direction’s
wat in the world!? wen 1st looked at it it regularly changed direction..after i scrolled down n read all the comments as well as the description of this “illusion” it stopped working..it only rotates counterclockwise n i cant make it rotate thhe other way no matter wat
I had great fun with this illusion a few months when I sent it over AIM to my roommate. After several frustrating minutes of failing to see the cat rotate in another direction, I sent it to him to see if he could do it. Next thing I know, I’m hearing cries of “okay, now it’s this way…gah! it changed! okay, now it’s that way…ack! it changed again! make it stop changing!!” Apparently, not only could he see it both ways, but he had little control over when his brain would perceive it to be rotating in one direction and then switch to the other.
I was highly amused.
When cat is facing you = 6 o’clock
When cat is facing opposite = 12 o’clock
To see it go left, look at the top legs when it hits 12 o’clock, then follow it. You see it going left.
To see it go right, look at the top legs when it hits 6 o’clock, then follow it. You see it going right.
I THINK it is really going to the right, but you can see it going left when you see it spinning at the right moment. I think your eyes will follow that direction onwards.
Tricky dicky this thing was. xD
This is not a timed animation. The illusion takes effect when you attemt to stare at the bottom left of the frame while you partially focus at the cat’s hands when they are on the verge of making a frontal swing either from left to right. Using such technique the cat’s rotation changes rapidly and can even be painful in the head. Great illusion.
I have perfected the illusion. I feel very accomplised. All you have to do is when it turns its back, make your brain choose the direction.
When I first saw the cat spinning it was counter-clock wise. But now I only see it going clock wise. I don’t know how to figure this out!!!!
OMG it changed directions when I was looking away….weird!! still can’t figure it out though!!! lol
the trick is there’s a time that i spinning counter clockwise. watch the time that it counter clokwise
I have seemed to master it so much that I can make the different parts moving in separate directions if I look at them individually and make then change direction at will even in the middle if a “spin”. It’s really trippy
Van explained it a bit, but to put it in an understandable terms:
When you first look at the image, you immediately assume that the object is going to be 3D, so you perceive it going in only one direction. The reason is that you’re concentrating the .gif as a whole.
How it works is that the light in the background makes your brain think that the cat is floating in mid air and thus we perceive it as 3D going in one direction. But if you drop the 3D perception and concentrate only on the image, meaning forget about the light in the background, it will change direction. You can see it morphing back and forth as a 2D would (though I believe trying to see it in 2D is harder). However, once you figured out how you can change the direction, the cat will appear to switch direction every time it gets to 180 degrees. In order to make it stop changing, reapply the 3D perception once more, meaning add the light in the background into your mind. This will make the cat rotate back to only one direction once more.
I got it kind of going 180 degrees back and fourth, kinda looks like a windshield wiper. I can’t get it to spin 360 again. FML
Amazing! But I can’t get it to reverse without closing my eyes and IMAGINING the direction of rotation in RELATION TO the timing “pulses” of the “arms to the right” and “arms to the left”. I count off in my head “left, right, left, right”, then I close my eyes, repeating the cadence, except I add “FROM left, TO, right, FROM left, TO right”. Then I open eyes see it rotating that way! If I start with “FROM right, TO left” it reverses rotation. But I cannot get it to switch while I’m looking NO MATTER WHAT! This is an indicator of some sort as to how the illusion works in the brain.
I look either right above the top of the pic (not the top of the cat, but the top of all of it) and get it to spin. If I look down at the bottom of the pic it’ll spin the other way.
conterclockwise is how i saw it, and im having a hard time switching them…
Well yu guys are lucky. I’ve masterd it to the point at which it no longer makes a complete 360 rotation. it just rocks back and forth. =/ no fun at all
If you just keep blinking… you’ll see that the cat doesn’t turn around at all, it’t just do a half-spin from right to left and left to right…
See Ya!
When my brother and I first saw it the cat was moving clock wise. Now if I focus on the dark square in the lower left corner it moves counter-clock wise but my brother says if he closes his left eye and focus on the cat he can see it turn counter-clock wise but loses focus when he blinks.
This is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!
After a while, it kept facing left, right, left, right… over and over again! XD
after training my eyes how to do it.. i only see it swinging back and forth now spinning so now i cant even enjoy it!!
You can see it going around, Jake, but you cant look at the paws. Its all in the paws. You have to look at the tail or head once you get it to change direction.
i imagine eyes on the back of its head going the opposite direction works for me :D
haha that’s interesting, it’s difficult at first but once you train your eyes it is an easy switch
props on how brilliant it is
OMG!!! it’s so cool!
sweet – i took the advice of looking away and having the cat just in the corner of your vision. then i can tell myself “it’s spinning clockwise” and when i look up, it is, and vice versa. i never could get the spinning girl – she always looked to be going clockwise.
After 20 minutes of staring i understand it…its really your brain doing the switching…all you have to do is when the cats back is turned to you, imagine the cat turning in the direction you want it to turn
IF YOU DONT LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT LIKE LOOK A HALF INCH ABOVE IT YOU CAN SEE THE CAT SPINNING IN HALF CIRCLES BACK AND FORTH!!!!!!!!!!
OK MAYBE A COUPLE INCHES!!!!!!!!
WOW!!! aweosmeeee it was soooo hard to see it change at first! (:
Got it. Defocus and look up and to the left, keeping the picture in the corner of your eye to the right. If you want it to go counter clockwise, decide and look when the cat’s front paws are at 2 o’clock. If you want it to go clockwise, decide and look when the cat’s front paws are at 10 o’clock. Or, you know, whatever….
This one baffles me. Whenever I see these, I get a bit confused. Sometimes when I see them, they appear to be spinning on one direction, then I’ll open it again later and they spin in the oposide direction. Pretty cool actually.
Vurdlak i`m sorry if this affends you, but tale is spelt “tail“
I could not get this to go clock wise no matter how hard I tried. I can’t do it. I have tried every tip in these comments. it is probably the most frustrated i have ever been. >.<
The trick is to turn your computer upside down and keep doing that, now all I see is the cat going back and forth. dang it!
The trick with me was to close my eyes for a moment and at the same time picturing the cat turning the other way and open my eyes again, after a while you can time it so the cat appears at the same position.
Look at just the legs and the tail. now, when you think the tail is going in front of the legs, try to picture it as being behind the legs, and the other way around. after a while it should turn!
ahhhh creeeeeeeeeeeepy
Super cool. I saw it going counter clock wise first. It was hard for me to see it go the other way, but if you look out the corner of your eye you can see it!
I finally see it!!!!
And omg it freaks me out xD
i onli take 3 secs to changthe cat i differ words from color one uses rite side of brain and ither uses left side i thought abcdefghijklmnop then i thought red blu yellow green orange purple and so on
For me, the spinning girls is easier than this one. :L
it was hard at first but now i can change it easily every two seconds!!
i can change with the spinning girl one faster than I can blink, but having trouble with the kitty. :( strange.
At first I saw it going anti clockwise, and then I blinked at the right time and it turned clockwise… now I can’t change it back :(
i get get it to turn in a different direction, its annoying, but ill just keep trying right?
I found it makes it easier to use you periphereal (spell check) vision while trying to make it spin the opposite direction.
“Focusing in the corner of your eye” certainly helps. =)
i’ve managed to get it to turn, i find it easier if you focus on the top corner of the screen then change to the other corner when the cat is just about to be sideways… FUN :)
it’s only going right!
Truly amazing. Can change the direction of the spin by looking away for a split second. Best illusion EVER!
I’ve seen this before with a ballerina instead of a cat…way harder to switch this way! o.O Wonder why…
At first I saw it turning to the left, then i looked up to read the paragraph and when I looked back down and it was spinning the other way :0
Same here!
Im pretty sure this is fake, the brain perceives nothing, this is just one big and powerful .gif image, i recorded this picture on video and the video showed that it actually does switch, but my cellphone does not have a brain [shocked faces] so how can you explain this?
I have had multiple people in the same room watching this gif and we all saw it going different directions. Some saw clockwise, some counter-clockwise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories
Turn your head to the left and look at it through the corner of your eye. it works every time!
Wauw this is cool! Tip if you walk by your computer it will switch! :D
i made the tail and the body spin in different direcctions WTF?
I think i know how this works!!!
If you see the cat is spinning right direction, you are been cheated. I bet that the cat is spinned in left direction.
The only way I can seem to get it to switch is by looking at the last few lines of the paragraph directly above the image.
If I have my eyes follow the lines the right way (from left to right) the cat spins that way, if I have my eyes follow the lines backwards, the cat switches direction.
No matter what I try, it doesnt switch.
htf are you people doing that? I’m jealous.
Sometimes it looks as if it’s going back and forth instead of around in a circle.
try putting your finger in between your eyes while looking at the cat then slowly look at your finger it should change direction. :) enjoy.
Hey this illusion is a great lie…U turn it urself after every 2 minutes i guess
Hahah! Made it go right, then left, and now it’s stuck…it looks like it has it’s back facing the viewer and doing some kind of dance D:
I couldnt get it at first but i fin looking above your computer and imagining it turning the opposite way helps
All you people that say it’s fake, ur dumb, sorry but you are. It took me some time, first I saw it only going right, now i can change the direction any second, minute, hour, whatever, it’s fun you can actually feel your brains change or something haha ^^
This is so cool! My favorite optical illusion so far… the first time i saw it, it was turning clockwise… and i don’t know how to change it. but it works!
This is the first time I have seen your website and have been paging through for a few hours. By far, this cat illusion is the best. I am able to “make” the cat turn a half or even quarter turn and then back again, so that it appears to never even make the full circle. Amazing!!!
This is insanity what does a spinning cat have to do with anything?????????
i cant change it back again?!
wow this is simply amazing. i think i broke it though, so hard to see it fully spin around.
wow awsoem!!!!
here’s a hint. try picture the cat facing you and not it’s back
This is just creepy it goes clockwise then anti-clockwise and then its paws go up and down and it also walk from left to right now my eyes are hurting !! xx
yipiiiiiee…. I finally got it after trying hard.. n now I can switch it easly… the power of eyes…
I DONT GET THIS!!! NONE OF THE IDEAS WORK!!! :(
help. :< (sniff)
WOW!! FINALLY! I GET IT! what i do is i put my “hand” (mouse) above and 2 the right of the cats head. then i stare at the “hand” until the cat is facing it. the second it is, i look at the cat and suddenly its spinning the other way! WIERD! SEIRIOUSLY, HOW DOES IT DO THAT?!
I didn’t believe it was possible – I thought the whole thing was BS…but it hit me. It took me ages but it hit me. I don’t know if this will help anyone else who can’t see it, but what I did was focus on the forelegs, and when I saw them coming towards me I told myself they were going away. I did this over and over again, and it took a while, but at some point it happens, and they actually do go in the direction opposite to what you first perceived.
i made it go both ways look at the tale to make it go the opposite way then look at the ears to make it go back
awesum i can nw change the direction of cat both the side
if u see the cat double the other cat is red
I figured it out! for all y’all who are like…dahfuq? look to the corner of you eye once then look back…you’re so very welcome! see if you can make it do the thriller dance! (like go halfway let then switch and spin halfway right…then again….and again….)
This is kinda cool
to me it is spinning to the left when i first even saw it cant make it turn right i only did once when i wasnt even looking at the pic butt out the corner of my eye??? why is that??
Whoa weirdness!
I was like woah?! when I was focusing on the cat’s
head and it spun backwards
when opened with photoshop at frame 10 everything gets all wrong… i just can’t make up my brain if its with back on me or with the face… because at frame 10 till frame 20 every pose can be back or face at the same time… great illusion!
Amazing! I was getting very fustrated as I could only see it going anti-clockwise and even when I tried all the tricks to get it to switch, it wasn’t working! But I tried the corner of your eyes again and managed to get it going clockwise! I find it hard to switch but then once it has I find it hard to imagine going the other way! brilliant
This one is easy; in fact, I can see the cat actually pivoting back and forth, left to right to left, and not turning around at all!
The first time I looked at this one, I was able to change it at will instantly–in fact, I managed to keep it ping-ponging back and forth with only its back to me for over three minutes before it snuck in a paws-forward revolution. It was never that easy with the girl.
Try looking at it crosseyed. I can control it switching back and forth…
its like ping pong but theyv crated it to move its an good alson but not that goood to be quit onist ……
I have to turn my head from.side to side while closing left eyr when turning.left and right turning right..
Blink for like 1 second as they arms are sticking out at a 90 degree angl
I think the solution has something to do with the outline … there is non. If you look at the text and u focus on the cat bellow with your peripheral vision you can see that the cat may not spin but making path of 180 degrees. Because there’s no outline (contour) when the tail is not on your right or left side you can’t even tell if it’s back or front, so I think it’s supposed to be something like that
It is so fucking insane! It is so cool! Whoever made this, did a brilliant job. I was literally mystified and I kept saying what the fuck happened :D AMAZING. The tricks these images play on us are love.
I’m truly glad you enjoyed it that much.
The cat doesn’t actually rotate. It really just expands and contracts along an axis of symmetry. In fact it isn’t even a cat at all. We only view it as a cat because our brains subconsciously follow a logical progression of perception. A gif is simply a string of images moving very fast, and those images combined are a cat. However, freeze the gif and you simply get a random shape. In this way, you can reverse your brain’s progression by starting the animation from a different point. This is a very well done illusion. (If you can’t reverse the rotation, try going crossed eyed, looking off to the side, or blinking quickly.)
This is not real. Think about it. How could something turn one direction, or also the other direction? That can’t just switch with your vision. it has nothing to do with being all black, that would make more sense if it were symmetrical. This annoyed me bc I looked at it for way too long after I knew this.
Sometimes it spins left, sometimes it spins right, sometimes it stands with its back to you & hulas from left to right. It depends on where you focus your eyes & whether or not the image is partially obscured for a time.