Spinning Sihouette Optical Illusion

This animation was on my laptop for quite some time. I had it for almost a year. Today anonymous user submitted me this gif version, and when I opened it, only then I realized how great this illusion actually is. If you look at the spinning girl’s silhouette below, you will think it is spinning clockwise, probably. When you check her shadow below, momentarily the spinning direction changes in your mind, and now the girl is spinning counter-clockwise. It can be quite hard at the beginning to notice switch of the spinning direction, but eventually you’ll manage. I posted more simple illusion of this kind while ago, and you can see it here. Now, be honest – how long did it take you to see it spin in both directions? Not as easy as the hidden tiger, ayeh? I lost the link to the original artist, but best I could come up with is the place I found it on.

608 Replies to “Spinning Sihouette Optical Illusion”

  1. Really cool illusion! With some practice you can even make her change direction every turn so she looks like she’s going back and forth

  2. OMG – Yes! I can see her spinning in both directions, what a spinout man!!!!
    Took me about 20 secs.

  3. I can see the girl spinning clockwise, but the shadow also looks like it’s spinning clockwise.

  4. i made her spin counterclockwise in 10 seconds – but now i cant make her spin clockwise again! hmppr :D

    Nice one!

  5. That’s really cool!!! It took a little while, but I got to the point where I would look at the girl herself and see her spinning counter-clockwise for a couple seconds. Very nice! :)

  6. Okay, I’ve been a regular visitor of the site for several months now (and have the Mac widget), and this is one of the coolest illusions you’ve had.

    It took me a solid minute to get the direction to switch to counter-clockwise, but once it did switch I learned I could switch it in my mind at will. I found that the key was to concentrate at the very moment when her one leg crosses over the other.

  7. My mind refused it at first, and told me it was animated to spin the other way. Now I can trick my mind into spinning it which ever way I like. At the moment, she’s constantly jumping back to start with her back to us, facing away, with her leg always coming from the back to front (spinning clockwise from back to front, then instantly jumping with her leg furthest away again, spinning anti-clockwise from back to front)!

  8. First post? I can only see it spinning counter clockwise. Even in the thumbnail on iGoogle, it spun counter clockwise.

  9. this is really AMAZING!!

    it took me awhile to make it turn counter-clockwise..but now I can’t turn it back again!!

    I wonder which direction is supposed to be the right one..

  10. Holy Cow!! Took less than a minute. Not bad considering I did’t believe it could be. (and it took me over fifteen minutes to find the hidden tiger)

  11. first comment?? Newayz, It’s not that brilliantly cool… as an ilusion, but I still looks pretty damn coolio!

  12. Took about 30 secs, if you cover the body with paper, the head starts apinning anticlockwise after about five secs. I love this sort of change in viewpoint, it’s like viewing pictures of cubes which can either be pointing towards or away from you. (it also works on transparant objects, such as drinking glasses.)

    with the red dots attached at the top for easier versions of this, i could see them spinning in either direction or just flashing, each rectangle alternating between red and white without looking in the middle, I don’t know if thats me or the illusion.

  13. I like. At first i could only see the anti-clockwise movement, but then if u focud on the bottom right with th shadow hidden, the picture goes clockwise. COOL

  14. The best way to see the shadow spinning anti clockwise is to cover the woman with your hand. It took me ages to see it, but eventually i did. Excellent.

  15. that is crazy! the amazing thing is you think it cant appear to rotate the other way because of the way her front leg and face are pointing as if you know when the extended leg is infront or behind of her body, but it changes too (if you get me). great optical illusion! took about 20 seconds to change direction

  16. Its not an illusion.
    After staring at this image for a few minutes, she changes direction from clockwise to counter-clockwise on her own.
    When she goes counter-clockwise, shes standing on her right foot. She then makes a quick change to her left foot, and goes clockwise.

  17. That is so cool. Yeah it takes a while to get it. you should look at it from the side of your eye. WOOHOO FIRST COMMENT!!!

  18. Hi! Really great! At first sight I did’nt see the illusion but when I put my hand on the silhouet and just looked at the shadow I saw it after a time! Really great! (yeah I’m first :p)

  19. Not much of an illusion really. The direction of spin is changed partway through the animation.

    You can tell by keeping an eye on the position of her outstretched hand in relation to her chest (!?).

    Initially, her boobs are facing you when her outstretched hand is to the right. Then, after a few seconds her back is facing you when her outstretched hand is on the right.

  20. Amazing,I never take the time to comment but this one was worth it,I was staring at it for 10 minutes and making it spin back and forth,really cool.

  21. This is just like the Ames trapezoid, or the Ames Window Frame THAT I EMAILED U!!! Look at your email from nathan@shootpw please.

  22. I first looked and noticed that she is spinning clockwise, I looked at the shadow and noticed that something was messed up. Iwas like WTF.

    (first post!!!!!!)

  23. That’s Hot in more then one way. Yeah! I found that if you trace the shadow of the raised leg in the direction you want to see her spin it helps make it happen. Very nice.

  24. Also try so scroll up and down, it could be just me but it looks sharper. you know like lamer, made of stripes…

  25. thats not an illusion
    she des som spins
    goes to her rite or left
    when you cant see1 of her leg she spins the ofer way

  26. That is just amazing :D But have you updated the magic site? I’m getting quite tired of watching that japanese guy sneezing his head of :P

  27. AHHHHHHHHH! omigosh that’s scary! she just switched directions!

    Love the site. BTW, do you have ESP? because two things i really love are optical illusions and magic tricks. how did you know?

  28. I saw it going Anti-Clockwise first… then i saw it clockwise for a few seconds and looked away… :( the trick is to look away from it quickly and you usually catch it in the right place to see it going a different way

  29. super cool! I too had a hard time seeing it a first but I held up two fingers between me and the right side of the spinning girl – pointing at the girl to see the spin change and then held switched to pointing two fingers at her from the other side to see it change back. I think my fingers were enough of a side distraction to get to me look to one side to catch the illusion. Funny thing – while this comment box is open, it’s covering everything but one of her arms and half a leg swinging around and they look like they are spinning in opposite directions! funny :)

  30. its because since its a shadow you cant see which leg is passing over and which under. so if you look right, it’ll look like its spinning in the opposite direction without watching shadow.

  31. Have to say, Been comming to this site for a while now, and this is the best, at first could not see what you where talking about and then look again, she was going the other direction, took me even longer to get her to go back in the original direction. two thumbs up from me.

  32. it took me like 10 minutes but i got it. its really easy now, you just look away and imagine her looking clockwise then look again and she is doing that, do the same for counterclockwise

  33. THIS ISNT AN ILLUSION.

    As someone else said. If you watch long enough you’ll see the animation blatantly just change direction. And yeah, sometimes her outstretched arm is on the left when her back is facing us and sometimes its on the right.

    Lame.

  34. Whoa!! I’ve been looking at this tooo long!!! I see her spinning both ways and now I can’t tell which way she was suppose to be spinning. WAY COOL!

  35. I saw her counterclockwise first. I think the easiest way to make her switch is to blink at her really fast for a couple of seconds. Sounds goofy but seems to work.

  36. This is a badass illusion, and it’s actually real. I wasn’t sure at first so I opened the GIF in ImageReady and looked at the individual frames. There’s thirty frames, just enough to make a complete rotation then the animation repeats after that. This is not fake.

  37. Ok, that is really awesome. At first, I was like WTF … he’s nuts. This chickie is spinning ONE WAY ONLY! Then … while I was looking at something off to the side of the page, she switched! Thanks … I truly enjoyed that!

  38. I can’t get it, I’d tried staring at her legs for a minute and I couldn’t get my mind to make the switch. I tried doing the same thing except sated at her feet the second time and still didn’t see her switch. She keeps turning clockwise in my mind… D=

  39. Very cool.

    And to “ermergingmatt”, “Ampara” and the other doubters – the animation does not change directions, it is an optical illusion. If you don’t believe me, open up the GIF in a graphics editor and have a look, it is the one sequence of images (34 to be exact) cycling continuously. The illusion works because of the lack of depth cues – you can’t tell whether she facing towards you or away, so your brain “picks” one direction and interprets the rest of the images appropriately.

    Cool trick: open teh image in2 browser windows and have her cycle in both directions at once. Then, try to get them *both* to change directions. For added challenge, at the same time.
    Note: I haven’t succeeded with the simultaneous switch yet, but it’s fun to try. :)

  40. this took mee fooorever!! but it was worth it! i only got two short glimpse of it, now its back to clockwise :/

  41. i can see it… i can make her spin both direction when ever i want i just have to move my head…. it took me three seconds to see it, i while to control it

  42. u no what seriously guys are u all stupid
    its not an illusion it does actually keep changing direction
    Ha Ha omg u people are dumb

  43. I covered up her top half and was able to make the legs spin couterclockwise then slowly revealed the rest of her to make her spin the other way. took a while to get it

  44. wow i love it, it does change direction but it dosent change position or anything its pretty cool
    These people that say its changing direction well derr we know that its just the way it does it thats amazing
    love the site

  45. It took about 30 seconds to see her going counter-clockwise and now I can’t get back to seeing her going clockwise anymore. freaky.

  46. This is so frustrating, i can only see it spinning counter clockwise, I can’t make it spin any other way! Whats wrong with me?!

  47. Sorry I couldn’t pry my eyes off the anatomically accurate nipples long enough to notice which direction the feet were going… I was mesmerized by this “illusion”! Great one!!

  48. That is weird!!! My trick was I kept looking at her feet and suddenly she went counter clockwise!

  49. Umm, I JUST SEE IT COUNTER CLOCKWISE!! HELP!
    Can someone give me some tips. I can’t imagine it going the other way!!

  50. I got suspicious when I read Amparos comment. Then I asked my girlfriend to tell me which way the girl was spinning.
    Funny enough we disagreed quite a lot!
    At first I didn’t even see the illusion. what crap. But then whup, she changed. It even looks as if her leg changes to. Wow I’m dizzy now…

  51. thats cool . they way i did it is, i made my eyes blur slighly then it is hard to see any definition. she then flipped over so she is looking down not up ! then i focused again and she was back to normal. doesn’t take long just look at it like you do with the magic eye illusions .

  52. Her head also tilts to the side she’s spinning to. Cool, but something wasn’t right from the start :) Then I figured it out.

  53. Ow come on, follow her legs, it’s not an illusion! It’s just how she moves. Once in a while she switches her direction, nothing special about that.

    Good from the ones who could make her move with their own thoughts… respect.
    ———————————
    Ow kom op, volg haar benen, het is geen illusie! Het is gewoon de manier waarop ze beweegt. Soms verandert ze haar richting, daar is niks bijzonders aan.

    Goed van degene die haar konden laten bewegen met hun gedachtes… repect.

  54. Wow, that is amazing.

    For a long time I could only see her going counter-clockwise – I had to look just at the shadow of her foot to get it to go the other way.

    Spectacular illusion.

  55. If you can’t see it, concentrate on her leg for about ten seconds, then look at the bottom corner of you screen and quickly scroll down. Try it a couple of times.

  56. Try covering one eye with a darkening filter (e.g., sun glasses), leaving the other eye uncovered. In a few seconds this with force one of the two directions — clockwise if you cover your left eye, counterclockwise if you cover your right eye). For an added bonus, the silhouette becomes 3D.

    This Pulfrich effect is due to a time lag experienced by darkened eye, which takes slightly longer to register the image.

  57. I usually love your illusions, but I have to say there is something a bit creepy about this one. It almost feel Steven King-ish to me.

  58. I only say her spinning counter-clockwise. I’ve stared at this for a while now and I can’t see it any other way. She’s obviously spinning backwards, her right leg is her center of spin, and her boobs moving from left to right give the whole thing away, shadow or not. I just don’t see her going clockwise.

  59. The .gif file can’t just move by itself, because every time I try the illusion it happens at different times.

  60. Sorry. She is DEFINITELY spinning in the counter-clockwise direction (judging “clockwise” from a place ABOVE her head looking DOWN). You can tell what direction she is spinning based on her SHADOW. If you ignore the shadow, yes, you can get her to appear “in your mind’s eye” as if she is spinning either clockwise or counter-clockwise. HOWEVER, think about it: you can see the shadow of the leg that is scribing an arc ONLY through a portion of her spin. And what portion is that? Based on the laws of physics, we should be viewing only when her leg is BEHIND her (from our–the viewers’–perspective).

  61. this isn’t an illusion … the animation changes, watch the legs. What … are you all just so excited because it is a nake woman?

  62. If u look @ it real close, then u can c her spinin in one direction then swich her evry time wen u want. I got her goin in a figur of 8, try swapin her wen her legs cros! :]

  63. this is my favorite illusion!!!

    when her leg is on the left side quickly turn your eyes to the right side and when her leg reaches the right turn your eyes to the left. cool right?

    you can make her turn whatever direction you want clockwise or counterclockwise

  64. Left leg (up) goes counterclockwise, right leg (up) goes clockwise, very cool, but freaky! It is all about depth perception.

  65. I got it to work after just looking at the shadow of the spinning foot. Once it “kicks in” and goes counter clockwise, it’s hard to see it as clockwise again. Nice effect.

  66. For anyone still thinking the animation just switched direction, it doesn’t.
    Try opening the image in an animated GIF editor – you’ll see there are only 34 frames and she only spins once (then it repeats) – it is a true and great illusion.

  67. I can only see her spinning counter clockwise. I dont get how she could look like she is spinning any other way.

  68. Yep I thought she was spinning clockwise at first until I also looked at the foot shadow… Nice illusion.

  69. You guys are all on dope. The chick and her shadow all hint a counter-clockwise move.
    Any psychologist wants to make an essay?

  70. Holy! It just switched sides as I re-read my post lol.
    Ok, I take it back, nobody’s on dope :D

    PS: Now where’s that psychologist?

  71. Its soooo….. weird ive been watching it for ages and she just keeps changing!! lol I cant believe it it doesnt make sense =S
    It cant be a setup coz me and my friends saw it different ways at the same time!! lol its awsome! I cant figure it out

  72. anybody else notice that when going counter clockwise shes on her left leg and when she goes clockwise shes on her right leg?

    not much of an optical illusion if you ask me.

  73. What a hoax. There is some logic–maybe Javascript that randomly switches the pictures between clockwise and counter-clockwise animations

  74. this is bull… i watched it with only her head showing, her ponytail changes directions on which way it’s facing. this is fake.

  75. Alright, I think the secret to this illusion is scroll the image so just the top of her head is showing and you will see that she is only moving left and right , back and forth and your brain is completing the rotation. It occasionally gets confused and reverses the direction like the inside-out box illusion. You can also quickly scroll the image in and out of your screen view and she will change direction every time.

  76. The picture changes. She starts of spinning counterclockwise, with her ass bunching up to the left, then it switches and the ass bunches to the right. Its not an optical illusion, its just a changing picture. Boo, thumbs down.

  77. Stupidest thing ever The only illusion is that fact that people fell for it. The animation changes counter-clockwise for about 5 seconds, then switches back.

    This was lame.

  78. Im not sure if it is like this for everyone, but I could only see her moving counter clockwise. My guess is that all left handed people (including me) only see her moving counter clockwise due to us using our brains a different way.

  79. the animation is fake. the only reason they tell you to look at the foot shadow is to distract you for when the switch happens. all you need to keep track of is the arm that is outward on the spin..it changes when the girl faces the side so it’s harder to detect the fakery.

    lame.

  80. No illusion at all. Watch what leg she is spinning on. It changes from right to left when she changes directions…

    Nice try….

  81. This is not an illusion. The legs switch and the directions change. Your not doing it does it itself. Just watch the legs.

  82. I just look at the shadow ;) It’s easier to tell by looking at the shadow and the position of the feet.

  83. It helps to picture the lightsource. If you mentally place it behind you she spins one way, but if you place it behind her shining towards you she spins the other.

  84. A good bit of animation, but its not an optical illusion, you can’t make her switch directions at will… it’s an animation, just watch her long enough and you can see that. Also, when she switches directions, the leg that is extended also switches. Clockwise = Right leg, Counter Clockwise = Left leg.

  85. That’s trippy I keep seeing it as counter-clockwise and I got it to go the other way only once. Anyone know why this works the way it does?

  86. This is weird. I saw it spinning counter-clockwise FIRST. I had to stop looking at it entirely and come back to it to see it spinning clockwise. Now I can’t get it to look like it’s spinning counter-clockwise anymore :( Mindfuck.

  87. To those of you saying that the image changes direction, it’s not. The key is that it’s a silhouette, so you don;t have any depth queues about what is the front and what is the back. Imagine your left hand facing towards you and your right hand facing away; without colour and details, their outlines would be identical. That’s all that’s happening here. It’s easiest for the direction to ‘reverse’ when you look away, as the context of the spinning is no longer there. Which is why it is easiest to make the switch when her leg is ‘facing towards’ you (which is an identical outline to when it’s facing away). In effect, as you watch, the body turns ‘inside out’, reversing the direction. It’s like the hollow head illusion, which you see as a normal head as our brains aren’t used to seeing inverted faces.

  88. You can make this move in any direction with your mind. try closing alternitive eyes, or looking from the side. or get very closer to the screen. very clever. this is not a movie that changes direction. you have to see the illusion and tell your min which way you want it to spin.

  89. I have a tendency to incline to the anti-clockwise direction as the shadows is correct.

    I think the trick is to use the shadow and don’t believe your mind.

  90. It’s really sad to see the ease at which people get fooled these days….
    No one is realising that it is not an illusion at all.

  91. Very cool. It’s a bit creepy to see here go one time left and one time right… but it’s hard for me to let her switch when I want to.

  92. The easiest way to make the image go whichever way u want is to look up above your monitor with the imagine only in the very edge of your vision, then instead imagining her actualy spinning, imagine her instead swinging her leg from outside in or inside out when the legs are about to cross. once you trick your mind into thinking she just swung her leg into that directin then you got it, it goes on its own.

  93. If you spin your head from left to right while looking at the picture you can even make her stop oO – but maybe my computer is just laggy ;)

  94. this one isn’t a mind bender guys. due to the color contrast a split second change of direction is hard to miss, but it is still there. no illusion, just a change in direction

  95. I watched for 5 minutes, cant see it any other way.

    Opened 3 windows beside each other and they all spin the same way in unison.

  96. For those of you who cannot see her going both ways, try the following trick. It took me several minutes, but once I used this trick it worked like a charm.

    TRICK: Hold your hand over the top 3/4’s of the animation, just showing her from the knees down. She should change directions within a few turns.

  97. sorry but only a few people seem to realize this is FAKE!

    Try watching it with other people… you will all notice at the same time…

    There is no “switching back and forth”…

    When the switch is made she is standing on the opposite leg as well…

  98. This IS a REAL illusion!! Here is how I did it. Click on the scroll bar of your browser to stop the animation when the hips are almost lined up. Then mentally change the leg that is raised in the air from front to back (or back to front) then she will appear to go in the other direction.

  99. This is a scam, it’s a GIFF based on some kind of flash and it changes direction on some arbitrary point

  100. Hm, I never saw it move clockwise. I can’t even make it switch directions. It just moves counter clockwise for me.

  101. If you think the woman is not spinning, then you need to go into the preferences or options area of your browser and re-enable animations. The image is definitely an animation, and the illusion definitely will trick your mind. But your browser needs to allow animated images before you can continue here.

  102. Wow! This was a doozy! I just couldn’t get it at first. Here’s a tip for those of you struggling-look at the girl in your peripheral vision. Scroll up or down keeping half of the girl visible on your screen. Then look at the top of your screen so that you’re looking at the girl only in your peripheral vision. This worked for me, hope it does the trick for you.

  103. All of you that says the images is changing the direction by itself
    You’re all wrong.
    It’s really an illusion.

    #1, people report the change in direction at different times (ie some spot it at 20secs, some at 60 secs)

    #2, if you don’t believe the me, open the gif up in a gif editing program, it’s doing the same loop.

    do yourself a favor, and confirm your findings before calling other people stupid, stupid.

  104. Ok, this is NOT AN OPTICAL ILLUSION. Took me awhile to convince myself (and roomate), but the animation SWITCHES the way she’s rotating between Clock-Wise and Counter Clock-Wise. The is not to pay attention to the shadow, but to focus on when she is facing (to you or away) and make not of which leg is down and which is stuck out. When she’s going Clock-wise the left leg is down and the right is out and when the animation switches, the right leg is down and the left is out. Best to get a friend to watch it with you and if you can both pinpoint when the leg/rotation change then you’ve realized it’s NOT AN OPTICAL ILLUSION.

  105. I have animation enabled on my browser, but I still don’t see her moving. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!!

  106. It’s an excellent illusion. I would only see the image rotating counter-clockwise at first, but after a bit of work, and some leaning to and fro, and learning where and where not to look, I understood that if I viewed the sillowhouette from differnt angles (perimeter vision, etc) , I could make it show itself however I was wanting to see it. Very good illiosion…

  107. somebody upthread said they were seeing her shift left/right from behind. I can’t get that, but by concentrating on the forward foot shadow (that dips in and out of view) I’ve got her shifting left/right/left/right etc from the front (never turning her back). Pretty cool.

  108. Um, Chad? Maybe you should try reading the other comments? It’s an optical illusion. It’s been proven. Posts like that don’t make you look very clever. On the contrary.

  109. If the animation switches, how come some people can only see it clockwise and some can only see it counter-clockwise?

  110. At first I also thougt it is not a real illusion, but now I can let her turn around both directions. It’s easy if you cover her whole body and only look at her head. Now you will see that the direction changes very often! Just believe ;-)

  111. WOW! I was reading your words and looking on the picture in the same time. First I didn’t realize it, but when I looked again, the whole body was rotating counter clockwise.

    Amazing

  112. i was staring and staring and stared some more but couldn’t see it go the other way and then SNAP! she flipped for all of 15 seconds and turned back the other way… breaking my heart in the process for now she wont allow me to see here go around the other way.

    typical silhouette of a woman!!!

  113. this illusion is so good, it makes some people think it isn’t an illusion at all. they’re becoming sentient.

  114. The trick is that depth cues have been removed. It’s impossible to tell whether the leg and arm swinging around is closer to the camera than the girls center of rotation, or farther than it. Also, the girl is entirely blacked out to remove all surface information that would betray depth (and therefore direction of rotation).

    This silhouette with such depth compression could be accomplished with a point source of light VERY far away from the girl, or by photographing the girl directly with a very long telephoto lens and then blacking her out in each frame. The point is, the extended foot (or hand) doesn’t change size during the rotation.

    If you concentrate on the extended leg and where it crosses the other leg, you’ll find with some practice you can toggle the apparent rotation CW and CCW at will.

    Hope that helps.

  115. If this is fake, howcome when I focus on the shadow, the girl just keeps turning 180 degrees from left to right and when I turn my focus on to her body, she turns to whichever way she was turning when I stopped looking at the shadow?

  116. Ok… THIS is the most awesome optical illusion EVER created… YES, I can confirm as well as anybody that, after opening this in ImageReady, that the GIF is, indeed, looping in one direction. It is NOT changing direction… it is because it’s a silhouette. YES, along with the hidden tiger, this site is becoming QUITE incredible…

  117. If anyone wants proof that it is actually an illusion, simply get another family member/friend/roommate/whatever into the room with you, and both look at it at the same time. See if you both see it going the same direction. See if you both see it change at the exact same time. I guarantee you that you will see it change at different times, and will think it is going in different directions sometimes. This could not happen if the image was changing (it’s a darn good illusion though)

  118. Man this thing drove me crazy, all I could see was her going clockwise, after about 15 mins I gave up as I could only see her leg twisting in one direction, so I clicked on your other illusion the candycane one, which worked right away seeing it turning in both directions, It was after that could see her turn counter clockwise, Now I can see her spin in either direction at will or just kick back and forth

  119. At first, I was having no success, but now I can flip her any time I want. Amazing.

    Also, I find it hilarious that people just COULDN’T believe the illusion was real felt the urge to post that it was a fake without even viewing the image in a gif editor. You called it, guys! We’re so stupid!

  120. Amazing, took a while though. Much easier in a graphics program where the gif rotated faster than in the internet explorer.

    What puzzles me is why at first some people see it rotating clock-wise while others do anti-clockwise. Somebody knows??? Has to do with which is our “dominant-eye”??

  121. Wow, it took me forEVER to get her to turn counterclockwise. Every time I want her to spin the other way, I have to start with the shadow of her foot. Beautiful illusion and very cool!

  122. Her foot positions look more plausible when you see her spinning clockwise. The outstretched leg is lower in the image when it’s close than when it’s far, as is usual for perspective, and the feet are seen from the top most of the time, as is usual.

    When you see her spinning counterclockwise, the outstretched leg swings low each time it goes on the far side, which looks more athletic, and both feet are seen from the sole side most of the time, which is highly unlikely. However, if you include the reflection or “shadow” below her in your view, then counterclockwise is the only possible spin that could cause that reflection, or that “shadow” as Brightflash pointed out.

    So, depending on how much you see at once and whether your vision tends to reject implausible athletics or impossible reflections or shadows, you’ll tend to see one direction more than the other, regardless of whether you’re right or left eyed.

    Open a second window and see how hard it is to get the dancers un-synchronized.

  123. Here’s a tip to help you see it both anti and clockwise:

    Imagine that the leg sticking out is not a silhouette but visible in the normal sense. Imagine – if you can – that the leg disappears behind the other ‘black’ leg and then passes in front of the black leg . This should help you to ‘switch’ from anti to clockwise!

  124. This is simply awesome!
    I manage to change the direction if I only look at her foot! If I look at the whole body it is much more difficult!
    Please, if someone knows how it works tell meeeee!

  125. I can get the illusion to work just fine (although it took me a minute or two to master switching them back and forth) but what I really don’t understand is all the people claiming it’s the gif that switches directions. That’s complete nonsense. ): Why are people so stupid?

  126. What freaks ME out is she changes legs as well. SO whichever way she moves, she is always trailing the foot…

  127. Actually this is a really good illussion. How do I know this? I saved the Gif-file and opened it with a gif making/editing program.
    The gif shows only one rotation. And when you take one of the stills from the gif and look at it, you see the girl standing with her back to you or away from you, depending on how you think she is standing. therefor it is a real illusion and the animated gif will spin in the direction you are convinced of she is spinning..
    How it works?
    the figure is in plain black, the shades in plain grey. The rotation movement of the body is done so, that you never have a accurate feeling of depth. Because there is nothing in the image that tells you what bodypart, which leg of wich arm is in front and wich is in back, your brain just interprete it itself. so if you think, oh, I am looking at her back, she will spin accordingly to the right. If you are convinced you are looking to her frontside, she will spin accordingly to the left.
    :) I think it is really cool how our brain works, and this illusion is beautiful! Great work! ;)

  128. If you stare very closely with the side of your eye, you will see her move anti-clockwise! What a sexy illusion. At first I didn’t get it, but now it is as clear as day! I must meet the magician that created this!

  129. GRRR i cant see it at all. I think my mind is too caught up with the extreme, with the complicated things that i cant see the minute things. GRRR

  130. I spotted it quite quick. I was watching the curvature of the lady’s butt and then about 5 secs later it started moving the other direction

  131. just look at her shadow to make her go counter-clockwise and her crotch to make her go clockwise

  132. It is not a fake, it is a “real illusion”. The trick behind is, dass the woman is only turning 180° then changing legs at the maximum point on the left or right and then turning back 180°. There is even no real 360° turning but the illusion makes it visible.

  133. this does not make n e sense she is spinning clock wise … in the real world the shadow will some how do the opposite of what the object is doing some what like a mirror image … yes think about it …

  134. That’s not an optical illusion. Her right arm & right leg are out when she is going one way, and then her left arm and left leg are out when she is going the other way. The picture changes, not your mind.

  135. You people are high. She’s spinning counter-clockwise…and that’s it. She doesn’t switch legs. The gif doesn’t change. It doesn’t look like she’s going clockwise. Buncha freaks!

  136. This is weird, I am very confused. Once she is spinning one way, and all of the sudden she is spinning the other. Wicked illusion.

  137. uh i don’t believe it. if you watch her head while covering up the legs then you can see the direction of the head spinning DOES change.

  138. I do see her spinning in both directions if you stare at it long enough. I think this is a fake however, because when you look at her spinning Clockwise, she is standing on her LEFT leg, and when you see her spinning Counter-Clockwise, she is standing on her RIGHT leg. If this was an illusion, does it make sense that she would switch feet too? What do you think?

  139. This is fascinating! It’s symbolic of our visual perception of our reality. Your brain does it’s best to interpret the info. but ultimately it’s all relative! And no, it doesn’t switch direction by itself because I can switch at will. Look at the outer foot shadow and imagine it spinning the other way. Don’t buy it? Open the pic with a gif editor to see the frames.

  140. I used two tricks to get it to work, one was to think of the shadow of the foot as the think that was turning her, and have her turn the other way. Turning my hand in the direction I wanted her to turn helped.

    The other trick is kinda like the directions, look at the shadow, but think of it as though she is bouncing on the shadow, then think of the shadow as a guide of the direction.

    Pretty soon it took effort to not get her to keep switching.

    Oh, and to get her to switch back and forth on almost every turn, think of the bounce and when the shadow touches the foot you can switch her turning direction.

    I found that at work I couldn’t get her to switch, but at home more relaxed and tired I could. Probably because one side of my brain is way more dominant at work for some reason, like the side thats used for looking out for slacking off looking at this.

  141. To the ppl who still can’t see the AMAZING change of direction: KEEP TRYING.
    And the gif doesn’t changes, your depth perception does.
    Tip: try defocusing the animation, look aside, whatever. Eventually you will somehow start seeing her suddenly change legs and spin the other way.

  142. The animation does NOT change. I extracted the frames of the gif, so I can verify this. She only does one rotation. This IS an optical illusion all, not the GIF changing. It can look like the lifted leg is going either way.. That’s the point of the optical illusion!

  143. I thought for sure this one was fake. To test for sure, I had a friend watch it at the same time. She switched rotations at completely different times for him as she did for me, which means this is definitely not a fake.

  144. This is an illusion, the images actually does not rotate. It seems to roatae in one direction, and what gives you that sense is the full body. Easily you can say left-right imagine left and right of the body.
    What changes the direction is your perception, and to do it you have to focus on the floor. have problems? Scroll half way down and leave only the feet and shadows> You will get it faster.

  145. i got it. to go clockwise you have to picture her as though you’re looking at her from slightly above her and the spin counter-clockwise, from slightly below. what a trip.

  146. This is so SICK… I could only see her move counter-clockwise for about 5 minutes, and now I can only see her rotating clockwise… I tried so hard but I can’t get it back the way it was… VERY frustrating

  147. This is frustrating as hell…everyone seems to be able to see it except me. She is rotating clockwise, and clockwise only….

  148. If you read the instructions at the bottom, out of the corner of your eye you can see her turning in the opposite direction.

  149. the animation changed! when i first came to the page she was balancing on her right leg n turning anti-clockwise..n seconds later she changed her balance to the left leg..turning clockwise!

  150. I figured out a really easy way to make her change directions. This should also disprove any theories that it’s not a real optical illusion. Start spinning your finger the same direction as the dancer at about the same speed. Now all of a sudden, change the direction of your finger. The dancer should turn accordingly. If she doesn’t right away, keep trying, it works.

  151. i see that her left leg is always straight down and spinning clockwise so the rest of her must be following suit. Maybe i’m a moron but thats what i see.

  152. It’s obvious that the gif changes. When the lady changes direction, she also changes THE LEG SHE’S STANDING ON. That’s all the proof you need.

    I’m so glad people here realize this.

    Why is it that when people open it in gif editing programs that they can’t see the change? I’ve never had a gif editing program. How does the gif make the alteration randomly??

  153. Interesting, the number of people who claim this illusion is fraudulent. Aren’t ALL illusions, by nature, fraudulent?

    The trick isn’t about which way the woman is turning — it’s about which way your mind tells you she is turning.

    Think about it. In reality, she isn’t turning at all. In fact, there isn’t even a ‘she’. You are looking at pixels on a flat screen. The ‘spinning woman’ is itself an illusion, an illusion created by your mind based on past observations.

    Now, for those who are willing to suspend disbelief (i.e. reason), you can try a couple experiments that might help you see the woman rotate a different direction.

    First, I’d suggest that you not look at the picture directly. Face the screen but look into the corner of your eye (bottom/top, right/left). Or you can do just the opposite — face various objects and look at the screen from the corner of your eye. For some, this can trigger the change.

    You might also try thinking about something else entirely. Face the woman, but do not concentrate on her. Do math problems in your head, contemplate a favorite memory, compile a grocery list, or sing a song. Do something to get different parts of your brain working. This, too, can trigger the change.

  154. (is my comment going to be seen with so many?)

    At first I thought she was spinning to her right, clockwise. Then I could see the other direction spin. After some practice, I see that she’s not spinning at all! She is flapping back and forth with her right foot turning into a left foot and back again. But whether you think she’s facing toward you or away may still be a trick!

    A lot of news sites have posted this illusion as proof of your brain dominance, they say clockwise means your right brained. I would think it might mean your right handed, which would mean left brained, so they’re possibly backward. Anyone know for sure?

    carl@astralresearch.org

  155. it’s fake, look at it long enough and it will change direction.

    Just take a timer, after a few times you will see that it changes at a fixed time.

  156. it looks like she gets dizzy in the end and starts to fall over! very nice illusion but i think she actually DOES change directions… hmmm..

  157. i just cannot do it.
    its just turning clockwise and now i its been almost 5 whole minutes… any tips for what to look at? i am certain to see this.

  158. I’ve looked at this thing for roughly an hour now, tried every trick mentioned numerous times, set it so I have 15 copies of the damn thing tiled on my desktop, I still cannot see her spinning any way other than clockwise. It’s driving me nuts.

    Apparently if you see it moving clockwise you use the left side of your brain more, meaning you’re an analytical, logical person. I guess I am, but I always considered myself more the artistical, intuitive type. Oh well. And this is still driving me insane!

  159. It’s on a ramdom timer. Watch her extended leg and when it reaches an outside wall she randomly changes directions. If it where an eye glitch she would change when her body alligns into a straight shiloette and her boobs disappear. The shadow only follows in the front so there is no constant to tell you about her changes. Also when her body is facing you and turns to the left her leg changes ddirections on the left side. If it is turning the opposite direction then she turns when her extended leg is on the right. I think I disproved this illusion.

  160. No, you haven’t disproved it. It can, in fact, be very easily proved to be a genuine illusion by having someone else look at it at the same time and see if it changes for both of you at the same time. I’m the same person who posted just above you that I can’t see it change. I still can’t, but I got my mother to take a look at it, she saw it constantly switching at random intervals while all I saw was the same old clockwise spin.

    It’s genuine.

  161. it took me a while to learn to see her spin the opposite way (i usually see her spinning clockwise at first glance) but once i could see her spinning both ways, she changed direction every time i blink!

  162. Wow…. it works kinda odd for me. When I first looked at it she was moving counter-clockwise.. and once I got her to move clockwise it took me a good 45 seconds to get her to start turning counter-clockwise again. Whenever I switch, it stays like that until I switch it again… cool :)

  163. WOW!!!!!!! That’s awesome. How your brain can intrepret the same rotating image going in two different directions is amazing!

  164. sorry kids…..she really is changing directions. watch her legs. at one point, she’s spinning on her left leg. a few seconds later, she’s spinning on her right. watch close, you’ll see.

  165. Wow! That is cool! I was a bit dumb at first though! It took about 5 minutes 4 me 2 see the change wow its amazing!

  166. She is not switching directions, other than in your head. If you watch closely, at one point all directional identifications, like toes, ponytail, profile, etc., disappear as she turns. At that point, you can make her switch directions yourself. Try this experiment: hold your hand (steady) so that all of her is covered except for her foot (the one that touches the floor). If you concentrate, you can actually watch her foot swing between 10:00 and 2:00, and you can actually make her change directions. When her foot points to 10:00, take your hand away and she will spin clockwise. Take your hand away when it points 2:00, and she will spin counterclockwise. Depending on whether you remove your hand a fraction of second sooner or later, she can spin the other way. Just try it.

  167. thats not an illusion she really does spin counter-clockwise! she spins clockwise long and then she turns for about 10 seconds

  168. If you’re ahving a hard time making this work, just focus on her feet and lower legs at first. If you first feel like she’s spinning clockwise, imagine that instead of her leg going in behind her other leg it’s coming out towards you, then it’s easier to see the change.
    After some practice, you can make her change direction at will..
    (good one!)

  169. The key is locking onto her extended leg, like when a ceiling fan is above you going fast and you try to lock onto a single blade and follow it so the whole thing doesn’t look like a blur. When you’re locked on, you’ll know, because it’ll look like shes going to go one direction, and when the leg is facing right at you, she’ll change directions and go the other way. The trick to keep her going the same direction is to look up when shes going the direction you want. When her extended leg is on the right of the screen, and you look up and focus on the whole image or her torso, she is going to be going clockwise. If her extended leg is on the left of the screen when you look up at the whole image or her torso, she will be going counterclockwise. The reason for this is because the brain creates models of things inside our minds. Since this image is symmetrical on both sides, it can fit two models that we have about someone spinning. It can’t fit them both at the same time because its not *always* symmetrical, which is why we can’t alternate whenever we want to, like when looking at a cube that has been drawn with two squares and lines connecting the corners. When the image we see is equivalent to the two models we have in our minds, when her leg is facing you, you can switch her direction. Our brains are simulating what we see by use of mental models that we encode like crazy when we are babies and children. Optical illusions like this one are but one evidence for this.

    Hope this helps
    Joshua Sawyers
    Jcs76@pitt.edu

  170. Besides seeing her change direction and change from left leg to right leg, there is another phenomenon:
    The viewing point seems to change too. Sometimes it looks as if you are viewing from a high angle looking down. Some other time it looks like she is dancing on a glass plateau and you are looking at her from below.
    Amazing!

  171. I started convinced that its NOt an illusion & thats the way the gif moves. Then a friend & I looked at it together & we individually called out when we ‘saw’ the figure changing directions only to realise that it wasn’t the gif that changed. Wow. This is fabulous

  172. Very nice one ! You can see the girl changing her spinning direction at any time ! (sorry for my english, I’m french)

  173. Wow!!!! How flipping great is this!:O… i downloaded the gif earlier and have come back to it :) i just HAD to come on here and comment!:)… i wasn’t convinced when watching the gif… i thought maybe there was something like a piece of code i didn’t know about in gifs that read the computers clock or something and decided it would change depending on the time, -well.. i sort of did ;)
    So, basically i wasn’t convinced by this so recorded a video of it, low and behold i could skip to different parts of the video and just WOW! it was different each time – now i’ve managed to get the silhouette to spin whichever way i want ;) i simply think “shes bouncing on her right foot” if i want it to change from how i normally see it ;)

    Thanks for reading

  174. It’s not an animation. Get a few different people together and it changes direction for different people at different times.

  175. The direction in which she spins actually depends on whether you are right or left hemisphere dominant and so although most people will be able to see the switch, some people will only be able to see it one way.

  176. Holy crap thats fantastic. Took me a while. At first I thought it was just a lousy prank and the .gif switched halfway through.

  177. Honestly, this was the hardest one to do, but the link to the knight at http://www.interventions.org/ it helped me fixate on a certain part and make it change. Then i couldnt change it back for a while which was frustrating, but i used her foot as a fixation. now i can change her back and forth no problem. very wierd. Thanks

  178. Everybody who is saying it isn’t an illusion, you guys are the biggest idiots I have ever seen. The animation never changes, our brain tries to make out the flat image into what direction she is changing. Hell, you can even make her foot go side to side if you wanted to! You can imagine when the foot goes in front of her body, and when it goes behind. Due to it being a silhouette, our brain has to figure out which direction she is going. Freeze the animation when her flat leg almost matches up with her spinning leg. Instantly at that point, our brains must decide which direction she is going to, or if she is going side to side.

  179. Wow!
    It took me 5 minutes to figure it out!!!!!
    And still I had to hide the top of the body to concentrate on the legs!!
    but i can see it now!!!

  180. Erm… it’s not really an illusion. The leg she’s standing on switches as does which arm is raised higher. It’s probably got a random time algorithm built in and it “mirrors” the shadow. This is NOT an optical illusion but a cleverly programmed hoax.

  181. It’s not an illusion, it’s your wonky brains. Sorry, it’s smart programming and use of a silhouette but the left and right legs alternate touching the ground AND one of “her” arms is raised and that switches when the program changes direction. If this were a true illusion she would simply appear to be rotating in the opposite direction rather than her limbs “switching” sides, right?

  182. My friend just had me come look at this and I think his eyes are messed up. It works for me. If you don’t focus on the rotating silhouette and look to the far left side of the screen she will appear to rotate clockwise. If you look to the right hand side of the screen she will start to rotate counterclockwise. It’s the strangest thing. The trick is not to focus on the silhouette, just see it out of the corner of your eye. Works every time, within a second at most.

  183. Erm.. sorry about that. I figured out why it didn’t work for me.. lazy eye… I put my glasses on and got it to work.

    *duh*

  184. FOR EVERYONE WHO THINKS THIS IS FAKE OR CAN’T SEE THE ILLUSION: Scroll this webpage so that all you can see are her feet. This is a good starting point. I’ve gotten to where I can choose which way I want the illusion to turn while looking only at the feet, but as soon as I scroll up it stays that direction. If you STILL think it is fake, you are a RETARD.

  185. FAKE FAKE FAKE… Is what I would say if I was an idiot like some of you, well; idiots.

    Fantastic, my all time fave illusion.

  186. this is not an illusion
    it tripped me out the first time, but i realized that its not real

    the girl switches legs
    she turns around the other way herself
    just look at it, if she spins her right leg around, in a few minutes she spins her left

  187. first.. wow 294 comments.. that alot

    second. it took me forever to finally c her moveing counterclockwise… now she wont go back.. but if you still cant see it try looking away from the cpu at 90deagrees so u barly see her spining at all.. i tried all the other methods that ppl suggested, that was the only one that worked for me.. and of corse now she wont go back!! go figure

    o and it is not, not an illusion, you see her going one way, then she switches to another BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE ILLUSION IS MENT TO DO. and if you go frame by frame, you will see it is not fixed..

  188. In spite of mr. Anonymous’ efforts through his repeatedly comments to assure us all that this is a real illusion, I can do nothing else than break his bubble because this isn’t a true illusion. It is very nicely done, but the picture does rotate both ways, reading all the comments above I just want to say, come on, it’s nice to be optically fooled and this site has a lot of real optical illusions, but nevertheless ain’t this one of them. No doubt about it. Sorry.

  189. Just follow the changing of the legs, when turning clockwise her right leg is lifted and when she’s turning anti-clockwise she’s switching to her left leg to hold up. I must compliment the creator because the switching isn’t at a certain interval, but random. Great entertainment though.

  190. Oh hell that’s cool. It must be one of the best ever! It works better if you watch her arms…

    How on earth does that work????

  191. I saw the girl spin both ways easily… I thought this was a lot easier than the hidden tiger illusion

  192. It’s definitely an illusion. I sat with a friend and we watched it together side-by-side. We both saw the direction changing at different times.

    Also, I can almost control what I see now – clockwise, anti-clockwise or forcing her to go back-and-forth without a complete turn.

    doug

  193. this really is an illusion, it isn’t made 2 move a certain way. because the silhouette is all black, and because there are no lines that tell which leg is which, your mind chooses whether it is spinning clockwise or anit-clockwise. most people should be able 2 change the direction. it helps if u imagine the leg is in front or behind. you can even make the straight leg go in 1 direction and the rest of her body go in the other! i did it! accidently though.

  194. I found all 6 F’s the first time I read it. Same with the “the’s” in the first triangle.

    I can also make the “spinning” girl go whichever way I want. I can even make it so she never turns around.

    I’ve never had my IQ tested but all throughout school I’ve been labeled as “advanced.”

    I’m not bragging about this, just sharing. I find the mind very fascinating. I would like to know if anyone else can choose which side of their brain to use while watching the girl animation.

  195. I was watching the star wars episode of family guy when i saw a similar illusion (the scene when they are looking at the Death Star Plans)

    i made a more primitive version of this if you look at the small circle it rotates one way if you look at the big one it will rotate the other way but in reality they are just moving left and right and increasing/decreasing in scale.
    http://www.glossygames.com/sphere.html

  196. i originally got this by looking at her supporting heel… made it easier…

    eventually i could make her go one way then the other after about 1-2 spins… like a dance…

    then i even fuzzed my eyes so that her top half went one way and the bottom went the other… it was seriously weird!… try it :D

  197. Focus on her toes.
    When her toes point to the furthest direction away from middle of the picture(left or right), quickly move your vision to the shadow’s heel. Then just..turn it around.

  198. when you look at the script above and while only upper half of the spinning girl visible, you’ll notice that she starts to spin in the other direction

  199. It’s quite impossible for me. I wonder how that happens. Are there anymore like that?

    PS: I’m getting giddy!

  200. It took me 6 minutes to make her spin the other way! I finally made her spin counter clockwise by staring at her feet.

  201. that’s not an optical illusion. The figure switches periodically regardless of what you look at. Don’t believe me? Hide part of the picture and watch.

  202. Great illusion! Took me forever to get, but I didn’t just jump on here and call it fake like all these morons.

  203. Hi…
    There are 3 ways to see this image:

    1. clockwise
    2. anti-clockwise
    3. goïng from the left 2 the right (from the back AND front)

    Those who think the gif change are maby frustrated about not seeïng this!

    I see them all, allthough the last one is difficult! (you have 2 switch verry fast clock and anti-clockwhise)

    Greets

  204. It’s rare because when I looked at her I ‘ve seen it spinning counter-clockwise first whereas you article states that she is spinning clockwise…. It’s after a while then I could see her spinning clockwise….

  205. someone fwded a mail that said if you see the girl spin clockwise you’re using the right side of the brain and left for counter-clockwise rotation. Any truth to this or just nonsense? thanks

  206. She’s rotating CLOCKWISE. Those who see diferent – are in inlussion, i opened GIF wit animator so i see all 34 frames -and all images she is rotating CLOCKWISE :) That’s why i never saw she’s rotating anti-clockwise :)

  207. I’ve seen this kind of illusion before..
    And now, it took me, about 15 secs, to change her direction and make her go back and forth : )

  208. I looked at the top right corner and saw her switch directions then I looked at the photo and she switch again.I also looked at her leg and she would switch directions sometimes.

  209. Everyone is saying they changed the movement by looking at the legs…I changeed it by looking at the head. Anyone else?

  210. THIS IS AN ILLUSION.

    THE ANIMATION DOES NOT CHANGE.

    IT IS ONLY 34 FRAMES LONG.

    TEST IT YOURSELF.

    IF YOU BELIEVE IT’S JAVASCRIPT CHANGING THE IMAGE, RIGHT CLICK AND VIEW THE IMAGE IN IT’S OWN WINDOW.

    IF YOU BELIEVE THIS ILLUSION IS FAKE AND NOT A TRUE ILLUSION:

    YOU. ARE. WRONG.

    Great illusion. Everyone who doesn’t believe it is just experiencing such a strong level of cognitive dissonance (thinking “there’s no way this can be real so it has to be a trick”) that they have to try and discredit it.

    Sad.

  211. Lol this took me SO long to get. I originally saw it months ago and could not get to go any other direction than counter, but now i can get it to change relatively quickly. hard though.

  212. If you look at her top torso area (neck breast and lower chest, the arms will seem to move in a different direction or switch arms. It’s a very easy way to change her direction.

  213. when you look away you can’t judge whether the leg is behind or in front of the other one. Hard to work the rest out, though.

  214. I think that there is nothing doing with the leg, follow the girl carefully and notice, that the girl really changes the way herself, not your eyes.

  215. It’s an illusion, I can’t believe that so many in here calling other people stupid while they are not really know what’s going on.

    Because it’s a silhouette, you can’t tell if she’s pointing the leg at you or toward the other direction.

    To make it a bit easier to understand, let’s make the animation has only 4 frames.

    first frame: leg’s pointing toward you.

    Second frame: leg’s pointing to the right.

    Third frame: leg’s pointing toward the other direction.

    fourth frame: leg’s pointing to the left.

    Now if you perceive the frame going in this order, it’s counter clockwise, but since you can not tell the difference between frame 1 and frame 3, and if you think frame 3 is when the leg is pointing toward you, then frame 4 it’s pointing to the left (as it should) then isn’t this where she’s turning clockwise?

    If you still don’t understand, read it slowly, and imagine the four frames animation again, you will see why it’s an excellent illusion.

  216. To anyone who is convinced that this is an illusion: WRONG

    Even if the gif file shows the image running in a linear fashion, the fact is that the image does switch directions. It has nothing to do with your mind. There is some king of script enabled that is reversing the frame sequence at random intervals.

  217. For me, she starts out spinning counter-clockwise, and spins clockwise if I focus on her leg for a bit. After about 20 seconds IO gain the ability to switch her direction merely by blinking.

  218. THIS is simple!:

    The girl can change in ONE second! (back and forth)

    Its a “blackout” -theorie

    -look NOT DIRECTLY on the dancing girl – look AT THE SIDE. (monitor)

    when you look at side- you look in same time to the girl.

    then you can see her going back and forth IN SECONDS !

    she is making a HALF-circle. back and forth.

    when her legs are crossing.

    (im a little dumb child and i cannot write in english…sry)

  219. her leg is going left to right moving back and forth infront of the back one, she never spins its just the top part and the foot that does, her leg however just swings left to right

    but it one frame it quickly jumps back so it looks like her foots going right round the back one when its not its just resetting at the right

  220. Even if this image were based on a photograph of a real person spinning in one particular direction, it is now simply a 2 dimensional silhouette

    If, in one frame, the silhouette can be seen either as 1) a woman with her right leg in the air (and in the context of the animation turning clockwise) or 2) a woman with her left leg in the air (and in the context of the animation turning counterclockwise), than those two perceptions are equally valid.

    Do you know the illusion that shows the silhouettes of two heads facing each other and the space between the two faces is the profile of a vase? To say that one of the 2 perceptions of the woman that I mention above is real, while the other is an illusion, is like saying the faces are real, and the vase is an illusion, or vice versa. Neither of those things is true, both perceptions are equally valid, they both exist at the same time.

    As far as viewing the 34 frames individually, they can be perceived as rotating either way just as the animation can.

    People that can’t see both sides of the illusion and therefore assert that she is “really” only rotating in one direction (therefore indirectly accusing everyone who can see her rotating in both directions of some kind of stupidity or gullibility) are insecure or arrogant or both.

  221. Hehe, this is a neat illusion! I can’t seem to get the girl to switch directions, but I have the same effect if I stare at a ceiling fan long enough :)

  222. at first i saw it counter-clockwise. then i read an explanation and i hardly could understand how can anybody see it rotating clockwise. it took me awhile, but eventually i managed to see it. and it’s cool, but not much.

  223. Anonymous
    May 1, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    To anyone who is convinced that this is an illusion: WRONG

    Even if the gif file shows the image running in a linear fashion, the fact is that the image does switch directions. It has nothing to do with your mind. There is some king of script enabled that is reversing the frame sequence at random intervals.

    I agree with u
    thats what i thought the first time
    because my laptop is so shitty, i can see the script change it
    my laptop is so bad that it lags when she changes directions..
    in other words, this isnt a mind illusion, but the person who made it is fooling everyone into thinking it is.
    whnen my laptop lags, she changes direction

  224. My teacher showed us this at a lesson and now I find it back here!
    I see it most of the time spinning clockwise, but if I focus on her foot I can see it anti-clockwise… I can’t seem to get it back clockwise however…

  225. If you cover up everything but the feet it sort of looks like she’s just oscillating back and forth (instead of spinning).

    I can’t believe people don’t think this is a “real” illusion. The skips in animation are annoying (I have too many windows open), but that’s not when she changes direction.

  226. This one didn’t work for me. I just saw the woman spin counterclockwise from the start. In fact, I can’t make myself see the opposite. I guess I’m just wired differently.

  227. For me it works like this: If I blink with the right frequency she becomes an oscillating 2D-shape and as soon as I stop blinking the direction is reversed.

  228. Wow that is bizarre. I was staring at it for the longest time, all I could see was counter. Then when I covered everything and just looked at the feet and shadow, I FINALLY saw clockwise. I still can’t get it to “switch” without covering everything but the feet/shadow and then slowly raising my hand to reveal the rest.

  229. I have created a somewhat more polished version of Mr. Kayahara’s original concept. Please see ‘Braindancer’ on my website.

    Since I started from scratch to redo Noboyuki Kayahara’s original work, I decided to make two animations, each with its own native rotation, one c/w, the other cc/w. You can switch back and forth, and also give the spinning dancer a spinning male partner.

    These are Poser 4 models which I rendered in 3D Studio Max and imported to Flash where I created the animations.

  230. This is definitely a real illusion. I was watching her turn anti-clockwise whilst my mother who was stood behind me was seeing her turn clockwise. She then changed direction for me but not for mother, then changed for my mother but not for me, and so on.
    I found the easiest way to make her change is to just look to the side briefly.
    Awesome.

  231. To get the direction to flip “at will”, try changing in your your imagination which of her legs is outstretched. left leg out = CCW
    Damn now I can’t stop it flipping!

  232. ok look … guys who ever saw this ..its not an illusion.. theres no trick.. the picture spins clockwise to counter clockwise at the whim of your brain. If you are one side of your brain.. it goes right if you are using the other side of your brain it goes left. Try this.. look at the picture but draw something.. or think about drawing.. it will go clockwise.. not think about complex math equasions and solving them it will go counter clockwise… try it.

  233. I have seen this “illusion” a couple of times. The is no illusion! All it is a girl spinning anti clockwise, it never flip, changes or anything. Drawing does not change it, blinking does not change it, looking to one side does not change it. It always goes anticlockwise!

  234. left or right brain, it doesn’t matter, I saw her spin in both directions. it may take a min or two, but it seems that her legs switch places after a while.

    left leg is down when spinning clockwise and counter clockwise when the right leg is down

  235. This IS an illusion. I can make it change whenever I want to, you just have to know the right timing. Try to keep her facing backwards. When the legs cross over is when she can change direction. Instead of her leg coming around and towards you, try to make it go back and forth without coming around, if you know what I mean.

  236. its switching ._. definitely i kept my eye on it one moment she goes counter the other she goes clockwise .-. no illusion

  237. TACTIC: try and look down at your keyboard, whilst only seeing her feet at the top corner of your eyes and just think with all your mind to make her spin in the opposit direction, feel it and believe it and when the leg gets to the botton left corner imagine it swinging the other way, look up whilst still imagining her spinning the opposit way and it should work, i’ve sucessfully taught 2 people this method ^^

  238. When I make my both eyes staring at it, she looks like spinning counter-clockwise. When I cover her body with my left eye closed, making me see only her foot, she looked like spinning clockwise! :))

  239. this is a really great illusion. there is absolutely no depth information in the animation. your brain tries to resolve the image as spinning in one direction or another. once you can see it as flat and symmetrical it’s pretty easy to maker her flip back and forth.

  240. This is one of the best illusions ever. Thanks!

    Also wanted to mention that you left the ‘l’ out of the word ‘silhouette’ in the title.

  241. this works for me: when i look at it and concentrate i see it goin conterclockwise , and when i look away for a minute, i see it switch out of the corner of my eye :) i love this illusion

  242. i want its html code so I can post it places if you know it can you just like put spaceas in it or tell me where it is

  243. It definitely can be seen both ways and is definitely not a trick. I have a gif version of the slides where I can manually go from each sequence on my own. Sometimes it spends left and sometimes it spins right. Another weird thing is I have it shown on two monitors and sometimes both goes cw, or both goes Ccw and sometimes they both go in opposite direction. So I wonder if we have this set up in like a 4×4 grid(16 images) will everyone see them all go same direction, or will it be a mix? I guess it depends on how some people’s brain are wired.

  244. Wow that is amazing! I saw it switch from clockwise to counterclockwise pretty quick. It’s the way her leg and arms are sticking out I think. Wow good illusion!

  245. Don’t worry about her switching directions. Just watch her leg in the air. It’s amazing. One minute her left leg (and arm) are lifted in the air and then her right leg (and arm) are lifted. That’s when you perceive that she’s going in the opposite direction. I’ve stared at it continuously trying to find the exact moment when she switches legs but can’t figure it out. This is awesome!!

  246. See it for what it really is: The leg swings back and forth, only in your mind does it spin in one direction or the other!

  247. tell me why i saw her spin the other way in the faster version lin johns discussed. wow. that wasnt hard to spot at all in the faster version. the slower one i still can figure out.

  248. just do this when she turning counter clockwise make your hand clockwise and will turned and if you want to turn her back just do the opposite of my idea ^_^

  249. ok i have illusions for u ok spin right foot clokcwise, and draw a 6 in the air then your foot will change direction and theres nothing u can do about it! thats what i found one day. injoy!

  250. … Focus on where her two legs meet, the crotch area, and the scissor-like effect of her motion … Then, you will surely see it !! …

  251. this is a brilliant illusion. it was pretty quick for me to change from the original clockwise turn to counter-clockwise the first time, though it came as an accident. than it just takes skills to change it.

    the original one is even more fun to look at as it is faster but i manage to change it as well within seconds.

  252. The trick is that she is not spinning 360 degrees, but rather turning 180. Each time she turns in a dirction, she throws the opposite leg forward, looking as though she is rotating. With that in mind, I can now make her spin in either direction at will.

  253. You can make it look like it’s spinning in the opposite direction, if you look at her feet for a few seconds while drawing a circle under her feet with your finger, without taking your eyes off her feet. Try to look at both her feet and your fingers (spinning in the opposite direction). You will soon find her spinning in the opposite direction, without any extra effort. Try to do it again in the opposite direction. It’s fun.

  254. This is a real illusion. I saved this, opened it, and viewed the frames. It never switches. It is a loop of one direction. Enough said.

  255. Too easy… look at the shaddow and then you can make the lady spin both ways after a while. Imagine the shaddow spinning one way and then the lady looks like she is spinning that way as well and then do it in the opposite direction.

  256. this is to show that the human mind is very complex. it is clearly evident that no one person think alike, we all think differently.

  257. do this: you put your hand on her head, shell turn one way, you put your hand on her feet,shell turn the other way. i kept on doing that and i would not let her turn fully around LOL!!! =)

  258. This is a very interesting Animation.
    It is the best which makes us reply :D.

    I found a method upon changing the direction
    of the spin, by looking at the Leg when it seems like going behind or shorter than the one just having a shadow, try think it spins in opposite direction, and the image you see will actually turn other direction as it spins.

    Cool :D

  259. No need to do silly techniques… All you have to do is focus on her hands… Just follow them with your eyes, after few moments… magic will happen.

  260. Holy crap why did the artist feel the need to include a nipple. HAAHHAHAHHAHA!!

    (also my brain keeps switching the direction but i seem to have no control over it.)

  261. well i looked at her left leg for 10 seconds and suddenly she started spinning the otherway and she still does -.- when i look at herleft hand she ( in moments ) look like she’s going the other way again

  262. thats totally freaky! i tried looking at her feet but it didnt work for me so i started reading the text again and it worked, weirdness

  263. well for those who cant see it change directions, my condolences.
    for the rest, i found a way to see her not actually revolve but pivot back and forth.
    at first glance she appears to be turning clockwise, when her raised leg reaches towards me i look at the shadow of her foot, it then starts back the other direction.
    I then read the words above the image and my brain descrambles and shes going clockwise again. rinse and repeat
    does this make any sense to anyone?

  264. Scroll so you can not see the shadow below , now watch the upper thighs , where the legs cross in front of one another. The image is ACTUALLY switching direction. The extended leg passes in front of the anchored one consistantly , but then the image will “wobble” a bit quickly and the extend leg will pass behind the anchored leg , very briefly , then it will wobble again and revert to the original motion.

  265. I discovered another trick to this, it appears that the woman’s rotation depends on which hemisphere of the brain is being used. Try thinking math equations and she’ll start rotating counter-clockwise, then switch your thoughts to envisioning a stroke of paint or similar and she’ll switch to clockwise.

  266. all you have to do is squint so all you see is her legs, the imagine the foot is going form either left to right or right to left and it will switch directions.

  267. first i saw her only spinning clockwise and
    then finally she turned but now i can’t get her back clockwise xd

  268. Yes! I can now make her change directions! For a while she would be going anti-clockwise for a long time and then suddenly change to clockwise and then after a while anti clockwise again.

  269. This is an amazing illusion. I first thought, that the gif itself periodically changes the direction.

    I found a weird method for controlling the way she spins. Nod your head forward and down, but so that you can still see the image. If you want the dancer to spin clockwise, spin your head gently clockwise. And if counter-clockwise, then spin your head gently to that direction.

    And I now kind of understand why I definitely can see that dancer tilting her head right when spinning clockwise and left when spinning counter-clockwise. This gif fools you by getting you think that you see this dancer from front, when you would think it is her back if she would spin to other direction.

  270. A test of your brain and it’s perfectness.
    If your brain is broken and can’t perceive perspective very well it switches direction.
    If you’re perfect like me and it goes clockwise the way it’s animated then you’re all good.

  271. I’m so proud! I actually can make it turn either ways. Takes me a while, but it happens! It always happens at the same point too, which is odd to me. :) Great illusion.

  272. If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

    If you can switch between seeing her turn either way at will without shifting your gaze, your IQ is above 160 … which is almost at genius level!

    This was devised at Yale University for a 5 year study on the human brain and its functions.
    Only 14% of the US population can see her move both ways. I am not in US… :-) And I am also MENSA member…

    I saw both direction right away – first counterclockwise.

  273. Tobs has the right idea (no control over it). I decided tio test this to see if it only spun one way. If you open it in photoshop (any version) and go from slide to slide, you’ll notice that it does switch at about the 15/20th slide. This has been proven to not be an optical illusion, just your brain thinking it is an illusion is enough to make it seem like one. It is just a cleverly-organized set of pictures.

  274. Soooooo, how long did it take all of you to see it both ways. I counted the seconds, and it only took me five! Go meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

  275. Oh hey, it works. If you picture doing some artwork it’ll go counter-clockwise, if you do some math equations it’ll go clockwise.

  276. Ah, i can make it switch. its not that hard after you see it on facebook a million times and you eventually get it :)

  277. she has been spinning counter clockwise for me from when I first looked at it and I can’t see it the opposite direction. I have stared at it for 10 minutes and took all of the advice here, but nothing, still appears to be spinning counter clockwise.

  278. This was NOT proven to be fake. It took me a few minutes, but it finally did work and my eyes can switch her back and forth now.

  279. No the gif is not switching in a specific time, it’s a clean loop. open it in photoshop and try stopping in a frame where there’s no space between the legs. since it’s a silhouette you can perceive it as facing you or against you. if you see it as frontal then the next frames will make it appear to rotate clockwise, and vice versa.

  280. The trick is that EACH FRAME is an optical illusion — because there is no depth(it’s a silhouette a duh) each and every single frame can be seen as going in either direction. it’s crazy.

    in other words, it’s not fake! amazing isn’t it? the guy who created it is a genius. look up “spinning dancer” on wikipedia. :D

  281. You seem right. The instant I try to recall the quadratic equation, she spines clockwise. When I think of the beautiful imagery provoked by Gibran’s words in The Prophet, she spins counter-clockwise. Fascinating. Beyond that, simply by setting my expectations, I can interpret as spinning in either direction, or facing anteriorly and pivoting left and right. Having difficulty envisioning facing posteriorly and pivoting left and right but seems like it should be possible.

  282. This is incredible when it’s spinning clockwise you see her left foot down and when it’s spinning counter-clockwise her right foot it’s down.

  283. I can make it switch between clockwise and anti-clockwise by staring and shortly focussing on the shadow of her foot directly between her.

    Really cool once you get the hang of it :)

  284. When she’s spinning clockwise, she is standing on her left leg. But when she’s spinning counter-clockwise, she is standing on her right leg. Weird!

  285. The funniest thing, but I just looked at her out of the corner of my eye and now she won’t STOP spinning the other dang way. Interesting topic though, thanks for posting!

  286. because I get to see rotating back and forth but if the image down to only see half of the hip bailariana below may realize that actually does not turn completely if going from left to right only 180 degrees, well that was what I saw
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    1. I can make her spin any direction I like but it took a little bit of practise. At first I could mainly see her spinning clockwise but now I can make her spin any direction or just move side to side without spinning at all.

    2. Dude! if you look at the reflection of her feet, she’s not actually spinning. She just moving back & forth. Gosh, Americans are so stupid.

    3. Gotta love the idiot who calls Americans dumb claiming she isn’t spinning when the reflection shows that she cleary is spinning.

    1. She is NOT switching. She is going in both directions from the beginning till you last look at it. I found her spinning clockwise at first, and I stared for a few minutes, and I saw that she also spins counterclockwise AT THE SAME TIME SHE IS SPINNING CLOCKWISE. So no she doesn’t switch, it’s all in your brain. She is spinning in both directions all the time.

  287. No. The gif switches. There’s nothing in your head that does it. When she’s spinning clockwise, she’s spinning on her left leg, but when she’s spinning counter-clockwise, she spinning on her right leg. Take another look. Because you can tell when she’s facing frontwards, or backwards.

    1. @Melanie: It’s only because your it changes the direction in your mind that the girl is spinning first on the right and then on the left direction (or vice versa), in an animated GIF the duration of the animation change remains the same which is not the case with this one as it’s really an illusion, try to understand it :)

    2. i thought the same thing until my love and i were both watching it and seeing her spin different ways. i totally thought it was just the computer until i watched it alongside someone else

  288. One of my favorites, I always enjoy it when i come across it again.

    Tip watch her ground foot to spin her right, watch her ground foot’s Shadow to spin her left :) I hope you get it. Have fun.

  289. everyone!! this is not a trick! the girl is actually not spinning, she is moving her legs in the shape of an 8. your brain PERCEIVES it as spinning because that’s what you expect to see, when really she is not spinning. the direction of her spinning depends on your strongest hemisphere. if she’s spinning clockwise, your right brain is your stronger hemisphere. if you see the girl switch directions, one of your hemispheres is temporarily overpowering the other. THIS IS ALL TRUE!!!

    1. Wow Becca is right, the figure is spinning her leg round and turning her head. I love how the person who made this went to great expense to make sure the the leg change went undetected

  290. O_O Oh dear god. I’ve somehow managed to force my brain to see her both ways at once and now she’s just this spinning column of craziness..

  291. iv got a tip. look at her leg that is sticking out and try to picture that when it moves across, it does not go behind her other leg, just focus on the top of her legs and you can just see her moving from side to side rather than spinning round

  292. I like to share the method I use to see her spinning either way:
    1. Look at the spinning lady,
    2. Tilt your head to one side (eyes almost touching shoulder) when her leg is in her leftmost or rightmost position
    3. Magically the spinning reverses.

    Try it, it works everytime for me.
    Raymond from Spore

  293. If you don’t believe it, sit with two people together, and tell what way she’s spinning…
    ps little trick, if you have a laptop, tilt the screen a few times, the spinning changes even faster!

  294. Nothing is spinning here. It’s a two-dimensional image that changes its shape. Your brain interprets those signals as being, essentially, a shadow of a spinning 3-dimensional object. But there isn’t any actual 3-D object involved, so there is nothing spinning. The whole point is that there is more than one way for your brain to interpret the available information. There isn’t any fact about which way she is really spinning, and it doesn’t make any sense to say the image changes direction.

  295. she isn’t spinning at all. her front leg is just moving from side to side, giving the illusion that she is spinning one direction or another. depending on whether you are more right or left brain oriented, you may see it either clockwise or counter clock wise. study it long enough and you will be able to switch direction at will, and see that she isn’t actually spinning.

  296. if you think that she’s not spinning at all but moving back and forth, you’re wrong. if you think that she’s spinning in an 8-motion, you’re almost there. but if you think that she’s spinning BOTH clockwise and counterclockwise, you are most definitely right. I had a temporary left-right brain switch, and in the middle of the switch, I saw her LEFT moving one direction and her RIGHT moving the other. obviously, you cannot tell which is which but you can safely say that one leg is always moving the opposite direction of the other, which leads to your brain to decide which one the left should be or the right. depends on your left or right strength. but the reason you get confused is because of that same reason, because one leg is ALWAYS moving opposite the other. that’s why you get switches in between as well when you look at the shadows. it’s a very well crafted illusion, I’d say. well done on that.

  297. Its is a two dementional object that is shifted and your mind percieves it as two different Rotations the image doesn’t change your perception does.

  298. Watch the heel. After a random number of rotations to the right, the silhouette rotates to the left for a different random number of rotations. Yes, she spins both left and right. No, this is not brain work, but eye work. The hand, er body, is quicker than most eyes. Sorry, we learn nothing about left and right brains from this silhouette.

  299. This is a great illusion. I got sent it in a chain email and wrote a blog post about it, which led me to THIS blog post. In fact the original creator is the Japanese web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara, who created the image in 2003, and you can see the original image at

    http://www.procreo.jp/labo/labo13.html

    (this is the website the original image was posted on, not my own blog — my blog’s hyperlinked in my name :) )

    I see the original image is copyrighted, but fortunately Kayahara seems not to be litigious in nature!! Still, let’s give credit where credit’s due — this is really quite a masterpiece!!

  300. This is an illusion, it has to do with how u view her heel. U can see it as not spinning at all or as spinning counterclockwise to clockwise
    if you look at the heel, the shadow and the silhouette only meet when the feet is facing left, when the feet is facing right, the silhouette and shadow do not touch (or come close to it). This always stays the same, so that means the image is not changing. I can change her spin at will now and can at times make her not spin but about to spin and then swing her leg the other way. So just concentrate on the heel.

    1. ITS NOT AMAZING OK? ITS JUST SOME JEDI MIND TRICK! STOP DROOLING!! THAT GOES FOR EVERYONE!!!!! ;)

    2. OMG THATS NOT POSSIBLE MAKE IT STOP WHICH WAY IS IT ACTUALLY SPINNING THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW IT HURTS ME IM GONNA HAVE NIGHT MARES FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  301. Her right leg is outstretched in one direction, and her left in the other… Or maybe I’m just crazy. :P

  302. There’s nothing to do with brain. It all with our eyes,when the girls spins at anti clock wise just then look at her feet she will start spinning at clock wise.Originally the girl is not spinning at any direction.She just moving from left to right and right to left.Make your head horizontally down and look at her movement you will find the trick.But its great

    1. brothers if u concentarate at her feet movement , you will find that she is moving in both directions, ie left to right and right to left,,,, she is not rotating at 180 degree

    2. It is the brain that does it. It has nothing to do with her legs or feet. Try it yourself. Just hide her entire body and leave only her head, you can make her spin in either direction. This is one of the mensa tricks to test intelligence. The quicker you can make her change directions and more often indicate a higher iq.

    3. Yes, it is just moving to right to left ad left to right, when I decomposed the .gif image to see all 34 frames of animation, I had the following thinking: “This is a animation of a special class. in this class, the animation has 2 sub-classes: the first do something with the image, the second, “undo”.” the first and last frame are the same. that allow brain detect the two spining ways.

  303. This is the first time i’ve ever payed attention to the dancer (Its always turned clockwise for me when i glance at it) and honestly… very easy to switch…

  304. i noticed her changing directions by watching her hand that is out furthest from her body, i saw it switching directions. this is because it is moving faster than it should in an actual spin .

  305. If you can’t get it, cover up the top of the picture with your hand and just focus on the bottom of her legs. Imagine them coming toward you vs. moving away from you. ONce you get that much the rest will fall into place.

    Our brains make a lot of assumptions.

  306. It’s difficult to make your brain understand it, but try to imagine the arm, leg, and hair as always behind or in front of the girl. I can’t figure out how to make it instant, but doing that helps convince my brain.

  307. Try to switch head positions from normal(vertical) to horizontal position. Try both sides, left and right. You should easily fool your brain and make her spin to other direction…

  308. Anybody else see her spinning ANTICLOCKWISE originally, I did, everybody here seems to see clockwise.

    I cant make her switch :(

  309. all you did was pause her for like not even a second and made her switch and you can tell cause her face does turn the other wat

  310. I was trying to make her spin counterclockwise… and then I somehow did. And she wouldn’t go back to clockwise… gotta say I panicked for a minute |D

    1. I noticed that, too! I don’t believe it is a real illusion because if you just watch the body it switches directions. Rip-off.

    2. LOL…..To all the morons who noticed the illusion…..its not an illusion at all the girl itself is changing direction in around 40-50 secs.

    3. I can make her switch every 5 seconds or so, so it’s not a timed switch over although it does look like it

  311. I noticed it is a ice skater.. >.>

    Look the end of her foot, ‘seems to be going in a circular fashion’ Well actually every once in a while her foot stops touching the ‘ground’

  312. If anyone takes the time to open this gif in a gif animation creater, you can watch the elaborate compilation unfold frame by frame. Not only does her head and legs spin in opposite directions but there’s a subliminal ad for Pepsi in frame 27.

  313. If you want a real mind fuck open two at the same time and try to spin them in different directions; challenge block one and when you get the other spinning in a different direction look at the blocked one without the original switching back

  314. too bad its not an illusion if you cover her head or her feet and focus on her spinning the way it “appears” she is…. you’ll notice at random intervals the gif flicks and she starts going the opposite way it’s not an illusion its just a gif of a outline spinning two different directions

  315. I heard that illusion is to do with the sides of the brain- anti clockwis; right brain. clockwise… well you get the idea. and you can swicth from left brain to right brain whenever you like! preety cool

    “remember the titanic”

  316. the first thing i’ve noticed with the girl is it’s turning spinning counter-clockwise, but then when i looked at the description you’ve atached, i suddenly noticed it spinning clockwise! then i coudn’t see it spinning counter-clockwise anymore, no matter how i stare at the girl..

  317. i can only see her spinning clock-wise… is it just me or does someone else just see that, too? i would really like an answer so i know im not crazy. either that, or i dont know my left from my right lol!! :P

  318. are you sure it is an optical illusion and not 2 gif picture combined? I think when the girl spin clockwise and counterclockwise, it raise different hand, one is the left hand, and the other is the right hand

  319. wrong. Notice the little “glitch?” that is the woman stopping and changing directions. looking at the shadow and the woman has nothing to do with it. you wait long enough and you will notice it.

  320. i dont think its an illusion, i think its timed to switch the way its rotating, just my humble opinion

    1. Not timed at all, it is an illusion which you can manipulate with your mind. The fact that the figure is a shadow helps to obscure directional cues. Your mind works to make sense of the image and fills in details you are most comfortable with. The thing you must do is confuse your mind for just a moment, then the figure changes direction. Read my comment further down, for tips on how you can manipulate the rotation at will… even stop the full rotation entirely.

  321. i can change the direction of it evrytime i want , you just gotta close ur eyes concetrate on imagining this in ur mind and changing the direction of it , when u open ur eyes the girl will be rotating the way u imagined her this is a really cool illusion ,

  322. Very intriguing illusion. I found I can spin the figure clockwise, counter clockwise, or not spin at all; oscillate left to right approximately 90 degrees each way. The key is to watch the leg which extends to the floor. As the toes of that foot rotate toward you, just at the apex of the arc, when the shadow meets the foot, you can determine which way you want the figure to rotate. Once you’ve mastered that… takes abut 30 sec, you can oscillate back and forth at will.

  323. i did not get it at first than i saw some stupid comments and laughed and tried again and guess what it work thanks

  324. Well, I gotta say theres nothig to incredible to this once you figure it out, but it is a great illusion, the figure only moves left to right, then right to left non-stop but aince her shadow is placed in an impossible location, using your eyes (or head) she make appear to be spinning clockwise if at first you looked at her body, or counter clockwise if you first accidently looked at her shadow

  325. It’s not separate frames with it rotating one way and then the other. It’s just that when it turns so that the leg is in the middle, the foot could be facing front or back. but we give it the dimension for it to be spinning in a specific direction.

  326. I think it should be defined clearly which is clockwise and counter-clockwise by determining from where we see (from up or down).

  327. It’s been two years since I first saw this and I still can’t make her go clockwise :) I did check all the frames but when I view the animation it always goes counter-clockwise. I wonder what my mind is missing.

  328. Look at her foot and imagine it going in the opposite direction. If you need to, hold your hand up so you can only see her foot on the ground.

  329. Well it is a real good illusion, and it took me about 7 seconds to see it change, only thing now, i only see going counter clock wise and cant get my brain to see go clock wise again… lol… tricky business i guess

  330. the spinning girl actually starts spinning the other direction every so often. its not an illusion. look at the top of her foot and the angle it makes. it changes. cant fake geometry.

  331. In answer the question of which way the girl is actually spinning in this rendering… She’s spinning counter-clockwise. The reflection below her definitively shows her direction of spin. To see her outstretched foot in the reflection as we do, her outstretched foot would be farthest away from us to become visible in the reflection. If you see her spinning clockwise, her outstretched foot would be in front or her at a time when the reflection clearly shows her foot being behind her which makes no sense.

    Without the reflection, you wouldn’t know either way. With the reflection, it shows she’s spinning counter-clockwise. Your mind can see it both ways until your mind applies logic at which point it can be hard to see her spinning clockwise again.

  332. Holy cow! The entire image actually FLIPS in your mind! It literally MIRRORS it! AMAZING! For anyone having trouble flipping, concentrate on the shadow of the foot. concentrate on it for a little bit and look back up. FLIP!

  333. Very simple. Look at the dancer, and then close your eyes. Visualize her moving in the opposite direction. When you open your eyes, she’ll be moving that way. Close your eyes and visualize once again, this time moving the opposite way. Open your eyes…
    I can have her switch directions almost instantaneously using this methodology. It is pretty freaky though :D

  334. it spins both ways?

    Hand and foot are going from right to left when facing us, how can i go counterclockwise without there being a reverse of this please explain

  335. I think the whole thing is an exercise in gullibility. In my opinion the gif is programmed to randomly switch directions. The only illusion is that people think they can control it.

    1. You have to train your eyes a little, but it’s a good illusion. I found that I could change her direction by focusing on her legs. Imagine only her legs are swinging back and forth instead of in a circle.

  336. PHILIP! YOU ARE WRONG! She isn’t spinning at ALL! She just going from side to side. LOOK at her feet and you will know. She isn’t going 180 degrees.

  337. It TOOK ME A LONG TIME BEFORE I SAW IT ROTATE COUNTER CLOCKWISE AS WELL. I did what a previous poster said to do: COVER UP EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE LEGS. Let your eyes stare at this for a long time if you need it. Next thing you know you will see it spinning counter clockwise. EXPOSE THE WHOLE PIC WHILE FOCUSED ON THE LEGS STILL. NOW YOU CAN LOOK AT THE WHOLE GIRL AND WAH LAH! It’s counter clockwise!

  338. THIS HELPED ME: COVER UP THE UPPER BODY. ONLY FOCUS ON THE LOWER TORSO. DIVIDE THIS IMAGE AGAIN IN HALF. SET YOUR EYES JUST OFF CENTER WHERE HER FOOT APPEARS TO KICK OUT.
    (LEFT OR RIGHT SIDE). STARE AT THIS POINT AND YOU SHOULD SEE IT WITHIN SECONDS. YOU WONT LOSE THE COUNTER SPIN WHEN YOU REMOVE THE BLOCKED UPPER HALF.

  339. I’ve seen this one before.. I can see her appear to have changed directions and spin counter clockwise for half of a rotation at best. It doesn’t matter how long I look at it. I cross my eyes, try to look through it, close one eye, cover up half of the image.. still no dice. She spins clockwise. I don’t understand how she could appear to spin the opposite way when the silhouette of her boobs is so well defined.. you can literally watch them (and her) turn in a very deliberate and unmistakable CLOCKWISE direction of rotation. What am I doing wrong? Is it mind over matter? If I tell myself that she is spinning counter-clockwise will those boobs change direction once I truly believe it in my heart?

  340. I can make it spin both ways, but how does it work? I am very curious to know how it can appear to spin in different directions.

  341. The Change in the straight hand first start with the right is straight , then the left is the straight and this is the effect of the illusion :)

  342. Actually, it can to be spotted on the leg. The curves on the leg could be the focal point. The artist might have done something to make you think it’s supposed to be on the shadow. Though it does work on the shadow, in my case the leg is still pretty stronger.

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