Video: Dice Mirror Optical Illusion

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Here’s one that kept me occupied for days: browsing the net for more stuff, I stumbled upon a peculiar item that kept my attention. This particular die changes its colors somehow, and the mirror that goes with it, doesn’t show what it logically should. I tried, and I tried, but I still can’t seem to understand how the darn thing operates!

You can get the scoop of what I’m talking about via images I’ve included, but the real thing can be seen through the video posted below (inside this article). Tried that? Still no luck? Think it would be easier for me to throw in few bucks, and get my hands on it.

Looking at the video below, do you think you can solve the secret? If you can, please be kind and wait some time before you reveal the answer to others (me included).

Let’s repeat the core: it’s a simple idea really, just place an ordinary die on top of a mirror. In real life, the die has black and red spots like any good die should, but in the reflection it has no spots. When you turn the die, and move it around – still no spots. It’s the damnedest thing and supposedly the effect works with no effort on your part. What’s more, when you flip the dice over – suddenly it has no spots in real life, but spots in the mirror-world appear. Crazy I know, but really amazing. Can we determine exactly how the mirror achieves this unusual effect? If you’d like, you can purchase this illusory toy from our partner store!


dice_mirror_optical_illusion

170 Replies to “Video: Dice Mirror Optical Illusion”

  1. The dots are painted so that when viewed from above, they appear either painted or unpainted, then from the mirror, it reflects the other half of the dot from the below perspective, which is not colored the same way, if that makes sense.

  2. Cool trick, but I’m pretty sure I’ve figured that out.

    It’s all about angles. Even in the photos you can see the slight double colouring of each of those holes in the dice. Example, upper left of each of the black holes on the 4-side. These are coloured so, that in the reflection they appear faded (which actually doesn’t make sense, based on the reflections of the man and his camera equipment which show none of the fading).
    This means this die has two 5-side faces… one completely coloured, and the other completely white.

    The “trick” to convince though, is the slight of hand at the end which replaces the trick die with a completely white die.

  3. If you look closely at the 1 and 4 depressions on the die to the right (the colored ones) you’ll see that the color doesn’t go all the way around the depression. In the video, towards the end, the guy introduces a second die that has no colored nor half-colored depressions.
    It is very basic: if you see a colored depression and the mirror doesn’t it means that only half that depression is colored.

  4. My guess is that the first die seen is a real dice with black dots.
    The hand then swaps it for a special die that has deep dot holes. Half of the hole is black and the other side white. We are looking down on the holes so see the black part, the mirror looks up and sees the white half.
    The hand then flips the die over and now we see the white halves of the holes from above and the mirror sees the white halves from below.
    Finally the trick die is exchange for a die with purely white dots and it is shown to the camera.

  5. Actually, looking at the two photos below the video, I can see shadows in the “dots” to show they appear to be quite a bit deeper than they should be.

  6. THIS SUUUUUCKS!!!!!
    the dice has one side painted and the other side not!!!
    So if you look from upside you see the upper side of the holes, and if you turn the dice, you see the down side of the hole!
    (if you look in the mirror)
    AND: at the end he only shows the upper four, if you watch good at the picture, you see that the holes are only 50%painted…….

  7. The images actually give it away. The dots are only colored on the top or bottom 1/2 of their circles. What you see from the miror is the top part of the dots which you can’t see directly. The dice in the video actually are different dice, one colored, another not colored. They get switched out by the palm of the hand.

  8. They’re definately two pairs of dice, the one that only shows up in the mirror is because the color is painted at the top of the indentations.

  9. This is what I think happens in the dice mirror illusion. There are 3 dice. One is all white. One is all coloured and the third is a trick die with only the lower half of the holes coloured. At the beginning of the trick he shows a coloured die. He switches that die with the trick die, therefore, in the reflection, it appears that there is no colour because it is only reflecting the top half of the hole. Then the trick die is flipped over (which is clear in the video)and you see only the coloured half in the reflection. The trick die has 2 fives on it, one all white and one coloured. Then at the end of the trick he switches the die with the all white die.

  10. I’m not sure, But I THINK it is two dice, one on top of the mirror, one on the bottom, held together with a magnet in the dice. That way the blank dice will have the Black dice under the mirror, which somehow projects it toward the user. When dice A movies, dice B moves too, because of the magnet.Then the user pulls the dice off quickly, flips them around, and sticks the blank on the bottom of the mirror. I noticed he only moved the dice, and never flipped them, which would mess up the magnetic pull on the dice under the mirror.

  11. I’m going to guess that it works on the same principle of camouflage that birds airplanes and marine animals use. A penquin is black on top and white underneath, so a predator below was trouble distinguishing the white underside from the sky, while a predator below loese the black top in the murky water.
    imagine that each black dimple contained a large number of tiny shelves, black on top, white beneath. Viewed from above, the dimple appears black. viewed from below (ie via the mirror the dimple now appears white. The color to the top dimple, not reflected, depends on its orientation to the viewer.

  12. I think for this video three dice were used.
    1. A coloured dice (with numbers from 1 to 6) to roll it in the hand and show the black and red dots.
    2. A dice with half coloured dots which look coloured from above and white from below (or through the mirror). You can see this in the picture showing the numbers 5, 4 and 1 if you take a close look at the number 1 dot.
    This dice has no number 2 but twice the number 5 – a coloured one at the top and a white one at the bottom. So you can flip it upside down and show the “white” dice and the “coloured” reflection. In the video you can see that the numbers 4, 6, 3, 1 on the sides go clockwise on the “coloured” dice and counterclockwise on the “white” dice.
    3. A white dice (again with numbers from 1 to 6) to roll it in the hand and show all the white dots.

    PS: I don’t know it for certain – it’s only what I saw on the photos and the video

    Take care!
    Dan

  13. After reviewing the video again, I retract my explanation. the dimples do not change as he moves the die around in his hand, as my theory would have predicted.
    Back to the drawing board.

  14. My only explanation is that one side of the dot’s “wall” is painted. So when looked at a certain angle, only one wall can be seen, e.g. the colored side, but the mirror view shows the opposite side, the blank wall.

    Notice in the bottom right photo, the four black dots do not completely fill the entire circle, on the left side of the dots the black part cuts off suddenly.

  15. OK, I’m going to guess that there is slight shading on one side of a portion of each dot on the die, and shading on the mirror, and when you see the die in the mirror, the shading doubles, making it appear black. Then when the die is flipped, the portion of the dot that is shaded isn’t viewable in the reflection.

    OR something else.

  16. ** SPOILER **(may be)
    I think the trick is that the holes of the dice are half painted. We only see the painted halves on the original dice, and the non-painted halves on the reflection since it’s a reflection. You can notice the holes-not-fully-painted on the large picture.
    And of course he does a few switch-the-dice-so-quick-that-no-one-would-notice tricks.

  17. I like it, and I’m still puzzled.
    I though it odd that all the pictures show the same dice faces i.e. 1, 4, 5, but watching the vidio it looks like all the faces might be affected.
    I also find it odd there is no 2 face shown until right at the very end where the dice could have been swapped. If the dice is just turned over, the 5 should be replaced by a 2 (given opposites always add up to 7).

  18. It is slight of hand and there are three Dice. One is a regular Dice, one is a regular dice with out any colour, and the third is a double 5 dice, with one five not painted, the other five is fully painted. All the holes on this dice are deeper then normal, and only half of the holes are painted on the 1 6 3 and 4 sides, (the top half of each hole is painted when the blank 5 is up) If you look at the images closely you can see an oddity in the colour and they are no even as they should be.

  19. My first thought was that the top half of the holes was colored, and the bottom half was white, so that it would look different at the different angles. When I saw the video, I could tell that wasn’t it. Perhaps a polarized coating on the mirror?

  20. Also, you can see on the 1 hole that the red refects on the opposite side of the hole. the dice needed to be have a flatter finish and if the holes were more beveled then they are to make round edged, helping the illision.

  21. Hmm..yup, magic trick. since we were asked to wait, I won’t state what I believe is happening here, but I’m sure others understand.

    Have fun figuring it out :)

  22. Rather poor ‘sleight of hand’ at the start to swap a real dice for the “special one” and then again at the end to swap the special dice for a dice with colorless spots.

    The special dice has colors on the lower edge of the holes so they don’t reflect, but from that fixed camera angle you can see them. If you look closely at the photo you can make out that the holes are not completely filled with black color.

  23. It all has to do with the 5.

    The 5 is full colored. All the others are 1/2 collored.

    The dots of all the other numbers are half colored. The inner-lower part is not colored (which ya see not reflected), the inner upside is, which ya see reflected).

    Furthermore there are three dices involved. You can see he has more than one “thing” in his had when he picks up the dice.

    Good illusion.

  24. If yo look closely at the pictures, you can see the glow in the reflected part of the 1 dot.

    Also ya see in 1 (not reflected part) a small piece white. It should be full red…

  25. Looking at this many times, I believe there are three dice involved. One is colored which is seen at the beginning. He then brings out a second die which is a trick one. It’s painted so when seen from above it looks colored but when seen from below, there is no color. This would explain why the reflection in the mirror isn’t colored. He then brings out a die that doesn’t have any color making us believe all three dice were one die. Very cool trick but very simple. All you need is the right angle, some simple tricks and special dice.

  26. I won’t ruin it, but there are two “tricks” involved here. The first is obvious to anyone that’s ever done any magic. Here’s a hint: consider what the hand is hiding every time it covers the entire (or most) of the mirror.

    The second part took me some time to figure out. However, it you watch the video (and freeze it) enough times (and in the right place), the secret is visible (although very difficult to tell). I found it was most obvious with the 3-spots.

    Here’s a few additional hints: there’s nothing tricky about the mirror. MOI regulars might be tempted to think that what we think is the reflection/mirror is really not. But, I can say, the “planes” are not being messed with here.

    Last hint… and this one might be a giveaway, so don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know. This trick requires viewing from above the mirror.

  27. Neat trick and if you are convinced its the same dice throughout the performance, it does seem impossible.

    Someone was right with saying 3 dice:

    first with colours in bottom half of dimples.
    second with colours in top half of dimples.
    third with no colour at all.

    The mirror is plain.

  28. answer and thought process to achieve it enclosed.

    a snail said mentioned the sides of the dice. if you take this in to consideration and look at the video and the pictures again i’m sure that you will see that there must be 2, perhaps 3 different dice (as chae thought 3)

  29. if you look at the picture at the top then look at the number 4 on the dice look closely in the top right corner of the number 4 on the dice you may think its shadowing but i think its the imprint to make it look black. and if you look at the top of the one you will see the most slightest bit of red ever.

  30. Interesting slight of had and a “fixed die”. Note that when we see colour in the holes of the reflected die only the “five” side of the top die is exposed. considering the viewing angle it seems clear that for the other four sides of the die on top, the “dots” are painted in such a way that: looked at from above ( our view angel) they seem white, but from below ( the view angle of the mirror) they seem coloured. Each dot must be specially painted, in that they are half coloured and have white. then the slight of hand is the all white die and the “flipping” of the special die so the colour is on top and the “white” is in the reflection.

    Nifty trick designed by Lubor Fielder years ago.

  31. If Patrick Barrett is correct, there has to be 3 dice, one of each type with and the 5 must be at the top for both dice, and 1 with out any paint.

    For this to work the viewing angles would need to be spot on.

    One other point I noticed, the bottom of the dice except at the end is always flat against the mirror. This probably helps to keep the viewing angles correct.

  32. the dice have a thin white strip on the numbers under the five, thats why he doesnt turn the dice around and what not. notice the picture and the video are both on the five, or at least thats what i think. lol

  33. I FINALLY GET IT! THERE ARE 3 DICE!
    2 tricky ones with the same dirty secret.
    Dice A: The one the guy was tossing around at the beginning. It’s normal.
    Dice B: It’s rigged. There are 2 Five sides. Five side 1 is completely white. 5 side 2 is completely black. All the other sides are only half colored. So in trick 2, the mirror reflected the uncolored sides. In trick 1, it reflected the colored sides.
    Dice C: The one the dude switches out for Dice B with at the end. It’s all white.

  34. Sorry my english: 3 dice: One with all black spots, other with all white spots, and the third one: it has two “fives”, one oposite the other, one “five” with black spots and the other “five” with white spots. Its holes are “half painted” in numbers 1,3,4,6. There is no a face with the number 2. The illusion only works at an angle close to 45 degrees. Regards from Argentina!

  35. I love the way that the 4 and 1 are juxtaposed between the coloured and non-coloured. You can see this in both the stills and in the movie (though easier to see in the stills)

    This proves it’s a ‘trick’ die as it has a ‘5’ point on opposite sides. (no 2 on the trick die)

    The kit probably also comes with 2 normal dice, with and without colour.

  36. I think that there is mor than 1 dice because if you watch the video his hand is clenthed every time he turns the dice also notice how he ALWAYS keeps the dice at a vertical angle :) for the color changing i believe that the holes in the dots are deep and white so in the mirror it looks like a regular dot but it’s really the SIDE of the dot. Am I making any sense to you guys? lol

  37. Has anyone else thought about the mirror having some kind of film on it that would cause the color change to our eyes? Particularly if the lighten was chosen for similar reasons… anyone else?

  38. I agree with the majority.
    Three different dice. One with coloured dots. One with white dots. And one with half coloured dots. Notice the slight of hand as he changes dice.
    As for the half coloured dice, it has 5 dots on both the top and bottom. At first, the numbers around the outside of the dice read, from left to right, 1, 3, 6, 4. After the change, the 5 is still on top, (although in white dots) and the outside numbers are in the reverse order suggesting that the dice is now upsidedown.

  39. So, as much as I would like to tell people how this trick is done, I don’t want to straight out ruin it. Also, I read Jeff’s comment after I figured it out.

    Anyway, I can give this one hint since Jeff gave a bunch:

    Look at the picture they posted on here with the die on the mirror without the hand and the mirror lying down on what I’m assuming is a table. Look closely at the 4 and 1 die faces, more specifically, the holes ;)

  40. It’s a good trick, that many are on to. It could be performed a little better, but not by me. Clue: When the die sits on the mirror, the 5 is always on top. Another excellent choice Vurdlak. Thanks.

  41. Some observations:

    Looking at the dice on top of the mirror: the colored version of the dice is literally mirrored with respect to the non-colored version. Check e.g. the position of 3 and 6. Once the 3 is left of the 6, in the other version it is on the right side.

    The side with the 2 is only visible in the beginning.

    Also other YouTube movies show that the holes are apparently not half filled. They are either colored or blank.

    All movies show that the person is pretty anxious not to lift the dice from the mirror. As if the other half is attached to it via a magnet.

    In some movies in the end the opposite dice appears when the dice is finally moved from the mirror.

    What puzzles me is that the mirror is non-transparent from the bottom. Most half-way mirrors are either transparent or mirroring from both sides AFAIK.

    So my guess:
    At least 2 dice
    Magnets on the 2-face
    A half-way mirror
    Some sleight of hand

  42. Building on what has already been suggested, I think that there are 3 dice, one with coloured dots and one with white used at the start and end.
    Also there is one with a 5 on top with white dots, a 5 on the bottom with black dots.
    This has on the sides, holes that have edges that are half white, half black and the bottom of the holes are mirrors to reflect the colours of the hole wall beneath. So this dice would have to stay below your eyeline for the mirror to reflect up to the mirrored hole back, which reflects up again to the holes’ edge.

    Why does it take so long to place the dice on the mirror at the beginning? The end looks like he’s sliding the trick dice off the mirror, to drop away leaving the white dice in his hand. This is pure guess work though.

  43. I agree with Nathan,
    and also I think there are two or three dices to switch,so that the top has no color at all, while others dots are half painted

  44. For those who can’t believe that the die on the mirror is a trick-die, I’ve got a question.

    What is the order of numbers on the sides, with the 5 shown up?
    Give me the clockwise order for both situations!

    PS: Remember, I’m talking about the die on the mirror!

  45. I thinks i figured it out

    don’t read if you don’t want to spoil the fun.

    There is 2 different dice

    one dice is colourless
    one dice has color on half of each dot, visible only from an angle.
    see how it is always the five dot on the top.
    There are 2 time the face with 5 dots. (one black and one on the oposite white)

  46. one dice, two sides with 5 – the two pictures show the 1 and 4 flipped (left and right) while a side with 5 remains on top

    1 and 4 are half painted on the inside. One side has 5 fully painted, one side has 5 with no paint

    good one

  47. I’ve watched this trick performed on other websites, by other people, one such individual revealed the trick, and all I’m saying is that Youtube is my friend, and that the person performing this trick must be pretty good at the ‘ol slight of hand… Jeff is wrong about the mirror.

    and someone else is right about the dice, if I say more, I’ll have revealed the trick :P.

    it’s still a pretty awesome trick :D, and it’s still got me thinking, even after seeing how it was done XD.

  48. At the outset of the clip the operator handles the die with all his fingers but later has two fingers bent which would seem to suggest he’s holding something. Another die?

  49. Two things there.
    First is the angle. Notice that the camera is always shooting from above. It does not show the dice directly. In my opinion, i think that there are 3 dice involved. One dice will be completely blank, one will have the dots, and the last trick dice will be coloured in semi. Note that the dice isnt the dice with the dots as stickers. It is dug into the dice, hence, it is easy to colour only the top half of the inside dice. So when shown on the mirror, it would only reflect the top half of the inside below, whilst on the dice, you will see the bottom half of the dice? Does that make sense, or have i just confused everyone?

  50. that’s just a magic trick. I don’t really consider it an optical illusion. Does David Copperfield do optical illusions? I didn’t think so.

  51. the top side of the die is painted, and you can see it on te right picture!!!
    the holls are not perfect round :P you can see that they are with two different colours
    but it’s still cool!!

  52. a_snail got the clue, if not the result. There are three dice, one with colors done correctly, one with “half colors”, and one with no colors. The die with half colors is used to make the illusion with the mirror. This die also has two fives, both fully colored. The two is missing. You will notice at about the 21 second mark in the video, the four is on the left and the one is on the right, and the mirror shows no color. At the 31 second mark, the three is on the left and the one on the right, and mirror is showing colors. Between these two marks, he flipped the die – so there must be two fives.

  53. hmmm… when it showoff there is no ‘2’ showed
    ‘5’ always on top
    and in the picture… ‘4’ and ‘1’ seemed reversed
    if the dice has color, the number on the side 4,1,3,6 and otherwise 6,3,1,4

    and my best theory is there are 3 dices…
    first is the all coloured dice, which is top ‘5’, the side 4,1,3,6 and the bottom 2, which is shown first time

    and the second is the magic dice that can be shown with color or not in such angle, the top is 5 colored, the side is 4,1,3,6 half colored, and the bottom is 5 uncolored, this dice is shown with mirror

    and the last is the white dice, top 5, side 6,3,1,4 and the bottom 2

    so it’s a spoiler or that’s just my false theory

  54. The spots have something similar to angled “louvres” that are colored on one side but white on the other. This is how the refelction sees the opposite of what you see on top.

  55. It isn’t a magic trick, optical illusion, or slight of hand — the die is a Vampire! Be afraid. Be very afraid!

  56. I think there are two dice and a semi transparent mirror. Each dice has a magnet in it so that the two are held together on each side of the mirror.

  57. It’s 1 die with the inside bottom facing side of the holes painted.The colored half of the holes are only visible as the reflection when viewed from above.When the die is flipped upsidedown then the white inside half is visible.

  58. ps. …. theres several doubles of specific numbers…example “5”…some fully white and some fully black inside.

  59. I think i have a reasonable idea of how it is done. One die only.
    If you look at the still image, the holes are cavities with one vertical half paited black and other left white. Therefore from the top it appears black, but the mirror shows the underside that is white.
    PS watch how you spins it around on top of the glass, but is careful never to turn over?
    sorry to spoil the sales for your partner store, Vurdlak.
    PPS. love the site.

  60. 2 dice. One that has deep dots, and can be painted or not painted on the opposite sides of the inside of the dots. So reflected, leaves an illusion that the color is not reflected. And then of course, he trades the die at the end for the other die that has no color in the dots at all.

  61. The mirror is probably a magnet! The dice probably have the same reaction a screen does when it comes in contact with the magnet. It sounds less thought thru I know, but that’s my idea.

  62. it appears to me that the die has the “5” painted on 1 side and a “5” not painted on the opposite side . the dimples for the other numbers are 1/2 painted such that the angle of the view shows no color and the reflected view show the color.

  63. There are two dice(one colored dots and all-white), one on top of the other.

    See the last part before the guy lifts the die (0:40 of the clip). He seem to have dropped the other die before lifting it off the mirror.

  64. Lu Chen didn’t do the trick good. He revealed two dice in the end. This can cause the secret to reveal more easily.

  65. It’s a 2-way mirror and 2 dice with magnets to hold them together through the mirror. So it’s not a reflection you’re seeing but the other die through the glass.

    The rest is slight of hand.

  66. fun… thunder is completely wrong, Pika is dead on, semi transparent mirror and magnets for the WIN :P.

    youtube solves the problems your brain has in putting two and two together… the solution is there…

    I like the illusional mirror, gonna have to see what else can be done with it :D.

  67. well… at least the one I seen on youtube was done that way >.>… the person there claims to be using this set.

  68. i believe thunder
    look at the image
    the one on the right, below the video

    look CAREFULLY
    see the white parts where the holes are?
    its half painted
    its there both on 1 and 4, red and black

    the mirror is just a normal mirror

    1. it is just 2 dice on top of each other. 1 with color, and the other without color.

  69. See, I believe this has something to do with the concave nature of the insets on the dice. The inside ring isn’t painted; perhaps, when viewed at a certain angle, the viewer only sees the white part as reflected by the mirror.

  70. My guess: A half transparent mirror and very, very cunning sleight of hand. The reflection is darker than usual, there is a hint of the carpet or whatever it is on the right hand side image. And you dont’s see the index finger of the left hand of the “magician”.

  71. This isn’t an OPTICAL illusion it’s a MAGIC illusion. If you try this with a normal die and mirror it doesn’t work.

    This is VERY misleading and I’m now quite skeptical of this whole site.

  72. Xsper has it right.

    There are three dice:
    – one fully painted that is shown at the beginning.

    – one where only half of the pips are painted. (this die also has two fives on it)

    – one that is not painted at all that is shown at the end.

    some sleight-of-hand switching, and voila!

  73. Just like Grausch said: It’s an ordinary mirror, but a special die. It has two fives opposite each other, one black, one white. The pips on the sides are all half painted, and the holes are set especially deep so the mirror won’t pick up the inside faces. If you enlarge the picture and look very closely, you can see the half painted pips (this is most obvious on the red pip in both pics).
    In the video he does use sleight of hand to show us two unaltered dice.

  74. Why would James think there is only one die? He obviously knows very little or nothing about basic sleight of hand. This is a very old principle.

  75. “It’s the damnedest thing and supposedly the effect works with no effort on your part.”

    If that’s the case, it’s one die and no sleight of hand required. I first thought partially painted pips, but in the video there is plenty of angles shown with the blank die to convince me otherwise. At least of the 1,5,3,4 sides. Considering that this is coming from think geek and the funky way he pulls it off the mirror I suspect some technology and possibly magnets.

  76. Hmm.

    If the dice has two ones, two fours and two fives, you can do it with a real life mirror.
    One set of 1-4-5 fully colored. One half.

  77. Two dices, one painted, one blank, magnets inside, ordinary mirror, one dice over the other, rotate it left to right or vice versa, turn it around, upside down, you got the painted down the blank on top, and with the right angle of the camera ….bang…you got it.
    But I guess it only works with a cam. In real life it ‘d be (I believe) imposible to do it.

  78. i think he has a megnatised dice and a thin mirror so you can see through the mirror and when he picks it up he makes sure not to let the camera see that he flips the mirror and thus switching the die and looks like you’ve changed the die, and the first die is coloured and the second one is colourless

  79. Great trick! The only way I can try to explain it is if both dice are magnetized, but both are ON TOP of the mirror. Some “tuned” internal reflection must fool us with weird reflection angles. Check that the mirror is always shown to us at the same angle (not the angle that the plane of the mirror makes with the table, as that one does vary, I refer to the orientation of the mirror in its own plane)

  80. It’s easy to see that the four and one side’s pips are actually cylindrical holes with only one half painted. There are at least two sides with 5, one painted black and one unpainted.

    In the bottom-right painting you can see that the unpainted sides of the holes are visible at the edges, making the pips look slightly deformed.

  81. Graucsh is completely right about how many dices the magician uses and he also reveals himself if you pay full attention to the second number 42.
    You see him grab the dice with the middle finger while at same time you see a slim reflection of the “not painted” dice held by the index finger.

  82. Right, as Graucsh and Xsper said, there are three dices:

    – one fully painted that is shown at the beginning.

    – one where only half of the pips are painted. (this die also has two fives on it)

    – one that is not painted at all that is shown at the end.

    he changes the dices in between …

  83. just before he shows you the die at the end… when he has the die on the mirror, moving it around. Notice he never flips it, just spins it. Also take note of the 3-face just before he shows the unpainted one, you can see half of the dimple is painted. What gave it away for me is the strange way he holds his hand when he is putting down or picking up a the dice, anything other than one finger and a thumb is highly suspicious when it comes to “magic” tricks.

  84. Hey if you look you see that when the dark 5 is up the sequence of the sides is 4-1-3-6 that is the 6 is to the right of the 3

    When the light 5 is up the sequence is reversed it is 6-3-1-4

    at 19 seconds you see the 3 and right of it the 6.

    at 41 seconds you see the 3 and right of it the 1.

  85. it’s a special die. Notice in each of the pictures AND vidio (with the exception of when he’s flipping the die around in the beginning) the #5 is always on top. The die used in the demonstration has a 5 both on top and on bottom. One is painted black, the other painted white. The rest of the numbers are half painted. Notice in the picture on the bottom right (with the carpet), see the divits in the 4 on the left hand side, you kind of see white inside the divit. Same for the number 1, if you look at the rigt side of the divit, you can see some white. The mirror is normal, the die is not. I suspect the first die in the video was replaced with the special one after it was flipped around.

  86. I think that the dice pips are half painted and when the dice switches from being painted to not being painted it is because the guy switches the dice.

  87. the die have not changed, only your viewpoint. you are looking down on the real world object, but up in the reflected image. change your viewpoint to prove this correct. lift up the real world object and look up at it. you will see the same image as the reflection. doh

  88. There are two fives. One white and one black, on opposite sides. At 38 seconds, if you pause it just right, the guy tips the die a little by accident and you can see the reflection of the bottom (which is a black five). The rest is just concave illusion, half painted black half white. But a clever trick nonetheless!

  89. Haha this is soo easy, the holes are filled only 50% so when you look from the top they seem coloured but the other part is reflected in the mirror which is not coloured and vise versa :)

  90. This is a simple magic trick for camera only.

    Equipment needed: 1 x mirror, only slightly silvered, 1 x black spotted die with a magnet inside, 1 x white spotted die with magnet inside and with the white spots mirror-imaged to the first die.

    There is always one die above and one die below the glass. You simply need a little dexterity to slide them on simultaneously. The apparent reflection you see is actually the other die under the ‘mirror’. The magnets inside the two dice keep them aligned when you twist the top one. (Note only twisting works: you never see the two separated from the glass as the bottom die would fall!) You slide them off together and slide them on together reversed for the second part of the illusion.

    Proof that they are two different dice: Look at the positioning of the 6 and the 3 when they are on top or being rotated in the fingers. On the black spotted die, moving from the the 6 to the 3, the 3 diagonal goes from left to right. Look at the white spotted die and, moving from the the 6 to the 3, you’ll see the 3 diagonal goes from right to left instead. Two dice!

  91. I wish somebody would tell us the truth…lol, can we contact Magician himself? …but magicians don’t reveal their secrets, do they? ………………………………………………………………oooh, but this one should have some mercy with us, though on 80% I believe half-painted story with 1 dice

  92. it are 2 dices on each other
    every time if he wants to pick it up he first let fall the dice.. it is not half painted

  93. Yeps, I’ve been practising some magic tricking as well and how the guy picks up the dice in the end of the video suggests that he drops the original dice and shows the one that was hidden below nameless and little finger when rotating half painted dice on mirror.

    Why it looks like he’s dropping the original is the thing that instead of directly picking up the dice he first pulls the dice to the edge of mirror and after that he raises the dice. (unnecssary incovinient to pick the dice like that… with coins the move would make sense to get better grip).

  94. Between seconds 32-35 he pick up the non-painted dice (in that point he makes a bit longer pause keeping the hand hidden and after that the finger movements seem much more restricted). And two fotos clearly shows that reflected dice is half painted since fotos were taken from wrong angle. Too bad that there was those errors in video.. e.g. dropping half painted dice could have been done by rotating mirror a bit to prevent showing dropping the dice and fotos should have been taken from the same angle that video was taken..

  95. this is one of the silliest discussions I’ve ever seen. first post gets it exactly right then months of useless discussion.

    half painted holes, only sleight of hand is keeping the dice angled down so you can’t see the holes.

    20 to 28 dollars (on sale right now) for a die with half painted holes and a small mirror.

  96. I didn’t watch the video, but it’s probably magnets. The mirror must contain a magnet, and the dots inside the dice are probably magnetic too, so they get out when they react with the mirror or something..

  97. Watch closely – you do not see a side with 2 on it. This means there is two sides with the same number. In this case, there is two sides with 5 dots, on opposite faces, one side with all black dots, and the otherside all white dots. This allows the indented dots on the remaining four faces, 1,3,4 and 6, to be coloured in a way that creates the illusion when viewed in a mirror… In conclusion, this dice has 3 dots more than a regular dice should!

  98. Sorry to Michelle and Bruce, just noticed you two had both posted the same observations as me, ie. there are two sides with 5 dots, one white, one black. All this talk of half-transparent mirrors and magnetic dice is laughable!

  99. Obviously, sleight of hand with two ‘special’ die which interact with the mirror. One die with the visible notches are filtered as blank in the mirror while the white die which was switched at 29/30 sec mark has some type of material to reflect this color via the mirror. Nothing special here. Thanks for the brief entertainment.

  100. it’s called the hand switch… no trick other than his two fingers. I can’t understand how the half painted would ever really work, especially when colors reflect so a hint of red would most likely show. All he’s doing is slight of hand. Nicely fooled the lot of you though. Well done.

  101. Actually theres no switch of dices, there’s only 1 dice with a black 5, a white 5 and numbers 1,3,4 & 6 half colored. The dimps in every face are deep enough so as to paint only one half of it, leaving the other one clean. If you look in the picture yo can see how the internal part of the dice is painted in one part and not painted in the other.[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e150/KrystalBlackrose/Dice.gif[/img]

    1. Actually, there are three dice. The first is fully painted, so he can show it without the un-painted halves showing, the second is, of course, the half painted, and finally the third is all-white, so, again, he can show it without showing the other color. If you watch the clip again, toward the end, you’ll see how he shows the final die’s faces and it doesn’t have the other half.

    2. You’re right! Optical illusions take me a long time, but once I get it, I can’t miss it.

  102. I would agree with shay but there does have to be two dice cause at the end he rolls it around in his hand and no half painted holes which would be visible but not hard to see when the dice is switched

  103. Howdy. I guess there are 2 dice, one gimmiked, one normal. The gimmiked one has one face (5 for instant) black, the opposite (again 5) white and the sides one (1-3-4-6) coloured just in a half of the ring (this you can easy see in the last pitcure, where the ring appears not all coloured). At beginning you show the normal one (full colored) and you “palm” the second one (mean that you hide it in the hand, as you do for coin triks; with a change you put the gimmiked dice on the mirror that show on up spectator the colored face and to the mirror the white. For changing wiews you simply tourn the dice with the white number on top, in this way you simply invert the prospectives.

  104. There are 1230 die, one for each frame of sequence, and he uses invisible magic elves… now all you trolls STFU :)

  105. looks like slight of hand , stoopid , switching with die that has dots on under side , showing mirror in such a bizarre way is tip. If Im correct , that is weak. look how he rotates in only certain direction , lame . Possible Im lame for commenting on such an obvious scam

  106. He actually has 3 Die. One of each color, and one with two die stuck together? The “double die” sits on top of the mirror. The rest is slight of hand.

  107. There are 3 dice
    One colored.
    Another completely white.
    And the last one has two fives and the edge points as follows:
    – Half white border
    – Half the colored border and
    – The center is reflective.
    This can be seen in the second picture, it shows a small cut in the color of the points of the faces of the sides.

    I guess so

  108. The sides of the die are meant to be looked at from an angle, so that one angle (half the dot) is colored why the opposite angle (the other half in the mirror) is blank. You can see this in the bottom right picture where the reflection has a tent of red in it. As far as the top of the die with 5 dots, there are two sides with 5 on them. One side is colored and the other side is blank. You see this between 37 and 38 seconds when he accidentally lifts up the corner of the die while turning it. When he lifts it up there is a reflection of a colored dot, indicating that the bottom side is colored.

  109. My guess is that the die is not totally normal, rather it is marked with special inks that change colour depending on angle of incident light (ever seen a car that appears to do the same as it drives past you?), and the glass of the mirror has a polarising filter, to transmit light only with a given orientation, like that used in polarising light microscopes, some camera filters, and expensive sunglasses.

  110. One 5 is painted the other is not.The other sides holes are only painted on one side.The mirror reflects only the top of the hole.

  111. @Brian
    You are right. I was so plain for me to see.
    It is only one die. It has 2 fives,(1 colored and one not), and the holes of the 4 and 1 are only half painted. That is why you can see them white in the mirror and colored in plain sight as well as White in plain sight and colored in the mirror.
    You can tell in the right pic (look at the red dot).If the holes were fully painted you would not see slight white in the hole, It would be fully red. Very simple but awesome Illusion.

    1. Regaurding my earlier comment. I reviewed the video again and I think I am wrong it might be more than 1 die. Normally I can tell what illusions are pretty quick but this one stumps me.

  112. Notice how in the bottom 2 pics there are small white parts on the side? and how all pics and film is angled the same? well the mirror only reflects the small white part and when you flip the dice the other way the mirror reflects the colored side. I knew it from the first pic. Easy once you understand it haha :)

  113. this is easy. what we see is the bottom of the ‘dent or curve’ of the dot,but the mirror shows the top,so the top is colored which reflects in the mirror and we see the color but on the real dice we see white,as we are viewing the bottom.

    why didn’t he show us a side from hand and then put it down to show us the reflection? he always covered the dice when he lifted it because the ‘angle’ was altered and we would see the real deal

  114. He switched the dice when he tapped the mirror. He tapped the mirror to cause a flash (as seen in the beginning) to draw your attention away from his hand while he switched the dice…

  115. It’s multiple dice, one white, the other colored. Great use of the hands but nothing more… there is none of this ellipse of color, there is also no half colored die business either. Just a good ol’hand trick.

  116. It’s the human’s perception that changes, maybe.
    But one thing’s sure, the dice changes its colors when it receives different intensities of light.

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