Disappearing Dots

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color- pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you’re lucky! It’s amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don’t disappear. This should be proof enough, we don’t always see what we think we see.

If these dot illusions get to you, you need to check this one out.

145 Replies to “Disappearing Dots”

  1. There is a cycle of pink ones disappearing one at a time like you see when you watch from the side. I know this because I screen captured several times to figure this out. So one does disappear at a time when you cycle around the circle, but they don’t all disappear. That part really is an illusion.

  2. There’s no trick, it really is just one pink dot disappearing at a time. What happens is if you stare at a single image long enough, you will “burn” it into your vision and you will start singing the inverted imagine on top. Try this with a solid bright colored shape. Stare at it hard for 30 seconds, then look at a white wall, you’ll see the shape, but with an inverted color.

    Next, by burning the inverted pink dots into your vision, and swapping between the pink and neutral gray, your brain fills in the gaps, but the two inverted colors (pink and green) cancel out to make the gray (which happens to be the background). The dots then disappear, except for the pink dot that is currently not there. Since there’s no pink to cancel the green, you see the green dot!

  3. ok.. here’s the deal.. it’s not disappearing. the whole circle of dots is rotating so fast you can’t tell the difference. and yes the green dot, that shade of green is the negative color to that shade of pink, so as it’s rotating and you see the blank spot as green because your eyes are seeing the negative on the empty background.

  4. wow!that was a trip but when you think its sorta chill.

    :-) weeeeeeeeeeeee!weeeeeeeeeeeee!weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  5. im readin every1s comments and i can c the green dot movin in circles, i no there is no green dot so dont correct me. i no how to explain this but am to tired! but yea what serenekaos said, exactly, its 2 do wit negative colours and our eye focus. pretty darn cool tho eh?

  6. You know what’s really cool? Look at the middle for about ten seconds, then look to the right on the screen. It was cool for me.

  7. thats weird… but when know that the dot is actually green and you really concentrate on it, you can see that its green

  8. It’s an animation and illusion. If you stare at the + in the center, the pink dots “disappear.” But, underneath the 3rd dot from the right (10 o’clock position) there is a little blinking red line. The pink-to-green stuff is an animation. :)

  9. whoops, please switch around my last comment: the dots disappearing is an animation and the pink-to-green is an illusion. :)

  10. its like pacman, the green one swallows all the pink ones!!!….I have no life…

    hey is it jus me, or is there a red line at the left????

  11. Whats happening is,when the pink dot disappears, you see the “green dot” because of the inverted image it leaves in your retinas. You see the green dot, but it doesnt exist.as for the disappearing pink dots…i have no clue

  12. when i stare at the dot the green dot rotates around taking the pink with it but then as it goes around again, the green dot brings all of the pink back! its so cool!

  13. The reason why you think the dots are disappearing is that when you close your eyes, you see pink flickers. the same thing, the flicers made them look like they were not there!
    jk. lol. but i like this one

  14. u guyz suk, the reason is the when a pink dot disappear, a small part of it is green, so if u stare at the centre and not concentrating on the pink dots, of course u’ll c them as green

  15. OMG…it really is an animation…from the red line blinking as the comment #32 said who is anonymous…its animated yet an illusion at the same time!!!but the + you look at is just a concentrate thing so someone can fool you into thinking that the dots are dissapearing…there not, and the pink dont come back to the dots…they’re pink to begin with…its burning in your retna’s, and its leaving a negative color! As for the animation…look at the red dot at 10 o’clock on the illusion…then look at the dot at 3 o’clock on the illusion…its animated cuz when the 2 o’clock one is burning into your retna, and it changes to the negative color, a peice of the 3 o’clock dot changes to a negative color also, but only a peice of it not the whole thing!!!amazing huh, and cool as hell!!!!!

  16. WHOA!! It reminds me of Pac- Man when you look at it for a while and the pink dots disappear when the green “gobbles” them up. lol Pac- Man 4ever!!

  17. This is stupid~~!! I’m serious its made to run that way. If it was just a picture and moving on its own because of our eye sight then if you copy the image and put it on paint the dots don’t run clockwise. Yes the dots disappear when you stare at the center but it doesn’t move like this.

  18. once all pink dots have dissapeared, quickly go back with your head and you will the see green dots moving away from the centre

  19. it’s fake people, just a .gif file. block all of the picture with your hands except one dot and you will see what I’m talking about.

  20. Damn this illusion is soo popular. The bloody pink dots go and green ones come back. Its all about your eyes losing focus.

    Oh god, i listen in Science… :S
    X

  21. If you have a mac, pull the pic onto your desktop then open it. Then if you scroll through the different slides to make this illusion, make the 4th slide it think you will see a greenish tint. So, could this possibly not be an illusion? But i love it, it is awesome.

  22. If you think about it…

    if u stare at a pink dot for a minute and look at a blank sheet of paper, it will be green.

    Plus, all the pink dots fade away ’till you can’t see ’em, as that classic dissapearing shade illusion.

    Thus, when each pink dot dissapears u see the green left over, and the rest of the pink dots have dissapeared.

    All that appears now is what looks like a moving green dot.

    I’m smart ;D

  23. COOL! it has two illusions here, when u stare at the black + u will se the pink dots disappear, and see a green one cincling around the +.

    Another thing i noticed is that when u stare at the + but try to follow the moving dot for a couple of rounds, then blink with your eyes, you will see a full circle of GREEN dots :O

    awesome illusion! keep up the good work

  24. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but if you screen capture the image and just stare at the black cross in the middle the green dot will not appear, however if you stare long enough the pink dots will still disappear into the gray background. KOOL !

  25. serenekaos is right. i looked at my wall after staring at this and saw a bunch of green dots around a white cross.

  26. Its good, but the reason is very clear, that’s because humans eyes tries to balance the colors by combining the opposite color to the color you stare at, for example when you stare at a white lamp a black dot appears in your sight (when you look around) if you stare at a pink color the opposite color (green) appears in your sight, it’s easy to try.

  27. If you stare at it long enough, the purple dots appear to completely vanish. (I’d give a long scientific explanation for this, but I don’t feel like it.)

  28. OMG. seriously you guys. It’s not an illution. It’s animated. If you click on the picture you’ll see that it’s a GIF-file. GIF=ANIMATED

  29. actually all the lilac spots disappear, leaving only the lil flashing green dot
    this is originally just a picture without any flashing, and in that pic if u stare long enuf all the spots will disappear too

  30. It’s caused by over-stimulating of the eyes. Because the lilac is so intense, your eyes even it out by projecting the colour opposite to lilac in the colour spectrum, which is green. If the lilac dissappears the eyes still project the green, causing you to see green. If you stare at the cross long enough, then blink and look away, you will see a circle of green dots, caused by the same phenomenon

  31. Ok, for the people who say that it’s not an illusion because it’s a GIF-file; it’s not about the circulating vanishing dot. It’s about the fact that all the dots disappear when you look at it for a while

    Big fan of the site, this illusion is my favorite one =)

  32. when I pressed “Next Random Illusion” the green dot stopped moving and wasn’t green anymore: in fact, it was invisible!

  33. one more thing about this illusion

    if u move your head towards it u will find that yello dots are shrinking from blue ones towards centre and if u move your head outwards then vice versa

  34. How the hell can people say this is fake? If it were fake the they would disappear even without focusing on the cross.
    Plus, anyone else notice a string of green circles imprinted onto your vision after looking away?

  35. ….i managed to see both pink dots and a green dot … am i just insane?? lol
    I focused on the blakc +, and saw a moving green dot as well as the pink ones. eh i like it all the same, even if i can’t get it to work right. i’ve always managed to get these things wrong lol

  36. If you stare for a bit and get your eyes adjusted, scroll down a bit. For a second your eyes will see green dots still going in circles where the pink circles should have been.

  37. This IS bogus! Its an animated gif.

    If you open it in a program that can edit it (irfanView or similar) the properties shows it is actually 12 images, and it is possible to stop it from playing.

    1. ofcourse its an animated gif the trick is not about that, you are suppossed to stare at the cross until the pink dot fade, people are fucking stupid

    1. It’s NOT FAKE. The animation is just so that the disappearing dots going in a circle is to CAUSE the optical illusion when you stare at the + for a while.

    1. O__O the moving part=grey when i loko at it then it looks green once i sort of look at it without moving and rolling my eyes

  38. Its fake,
    now… copy the image and paste it into a word document. The illusion does not show up!
    Its A FAKE
    Its actually a video…

    1. Henry u liar it does work i copied then pasted it and sure theres no green dot but the orignal version is just so the pink dots could disappear

    2. um, i think harry knows it’s fake and he’s just being a loser for attention. nobody’s is stupid enough to think that this is fake

    3. It’s not a video; it’s a GIF.

      You’re like that annoying kid in class who wasn’t paying attention and asks the teacher a stupid question.

      Wasn’t it pretty apparent that it was moving?

  39. Harry,
    I don’t understand why you’re calling it “fake”. Of course (duh!) it is a video (animated gif). The disappearing effect still shows up in a frame viewed in Word.
    The pink dots seem to disappear because the green afterimage that you perceive (not actually there) blends with the pink to negate it. If you move your eyes from the +, you can see the green afterimage.
    There is no moving dot. One of the dots disappears in each frame to reveal the green afterimage from the pink dot that used to be at that spot.

  40. hi waz up i do not like my shell
    ouch somebody stepped on me ouch ouch ouch
    help me im dyin help me oh please help me ahhhhhh
    wat am i gonna do
    chow world but remember im too old to die

  41. lolololololol
    I saw the dots dissapear then reapear (check that spelling) with the green dot

  42. This illusion’s effect is wonderful!

    When I copy and paste it onto Microsoft Word, it is not animated. If I could embed the image, it might show up like it does on the website.

  43. Pingback: Quora
  44. It’s fun, once you’ve gotten it to work, to blink once, let the green go around and ‘erase’ the pink, blink again, etc…or I’m just bored :)

  45. Ventriloquism in God and science. Ventriloquism is illusion when the brain of the audience and as well, the actor, alters its focus to believe in what is not there, thus making what is not there take actual form within the imagination process…thus invention creates what did not formerly exist. What of imagining ourselves well when we are not? Can we change the structure of illness to wellness in ourselves by altering our focus as in this case? What of helping others? Can we learn to strengthen this ability? Can we learn to visualize what is normally invisible, say for instance, the God Particle? In the opinion of this ventriloquist illusion with green dots and red dots a simple experiment with profound implications. I Tried it enjoyed it, and was moved by what it may imply. Thank you so much for this.

  46. the dots did not turn green for me, only one did, and after a while, it was like watching a green dot rotate around a + sign

  47. actually the pink dots are disappearing by themselves not with our eyes because I have a mac computer so you can take pictures by typing “command then shift then 4” and I took a pic of this and it wasn’t moving anymore…

  48. Ok to prove this is not fake. First follow the moving dot around with your eyes and they will remain Pink. Then focus on one pink dot ant it will turn green. Then stare at the center and wait a few seconds and the all of the pink dots will vanish leaving only the green dot.
    U can do this in any order as well.
    So there is proof it is real :P

  49. Some people are actually morons…
    • Firstly, yes it is a GIF file and yes it is animated.
    • Secondly, yes there are pink dots with one removed in each frame of said animation.
    • Thirdly there is no ‘green’ dot in any frame of said animation; this is the illusion – the mind attempts to reconcile the after-image of the lilac with its opposite.
    • Lastly illusions don’t need to be static images for heaven’s sake! Try the rotating mask illusion wherein a mask will appear concave when actually convex when rotated on an axis.

  50. Ya u are right it not green it’s really ur eyes just getting use to the bright color after it goes away

  51. This phenomenon can be explained by, lateral inhibition in our eyes. Lateral Inhibition increases localization, and it occurs via inhibitory interneurons.

    1. Finally a comment by someone (Jennifer Avina) that understands vision science, rather than the plethora of responders accusing it is fake just because they don’t understand. The eyes are contrast detectors in both time and space. This animated gif is produced by someone who understands this and can use it to create an illusion.

  52. This is the first illusion on here. This is 100% optical illusion, 0% Harry’s lies. I stared at the center and there was a green dot! Then the lilac dots faded out. I’m sure that the “green dot” is ACTUALLY the lilac dots flickering in a circle, really fast. SO AWESOME! ~smartguy484, to explore everything of everything on the internet and elsewhere~

  53. Hey, if u hav a animation editor, the animation will be still movin,
    + if u take LOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTS
    of screenshots, and u press -> fast enough, it will be like slides
    (all of my chats have been typed on a PS3 not PC)

  54. The color green is produced by a neural after-effect. The image actually contains a circle of pink dots, and occasionally one of the pink dots briefly turns gray. The adaptation of the visual system to the color pink causes the momentary flash of gray to appear green.

    The apparent movement is caused by the flashing transitions happening in sequence in a consistent direction. Normally this only happens when there is actual movement, so the brain assumes that that must be what is going on.

    The sense of an object (the “green” dot) that is “moving” results from the brain’s attempt to find the simplest possible explanation for the dynamic visual signal.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *