Swimming Pattern Animations

I got these three animations from somewhere, and I think the time has come for me to show them to you. What you are about to see is a simple animated dot, which travels in all kind of directions across a fixated background pattern. The pattern is motionless, yet when your eyes concentrate on the moving ball, the background comes to life and the pattern you first perceived as static, starts to dance and wiggle. There are three examples showcased below, and I invite you all to try them and report which one(s) you found most effective!

You’ve probably recognized the pattern as one being often used in all kinds of optical illusion examples. From #Seemingly Bent category items, all the way to “Seemingly Moving Illusions” which are categorized inside the #Animations category. I still don’t truly understand what is so special with rectangles on grayish background, yet they aways do the trick! It must have something to do with all them subtle black and white shades each rectangle is equipped with, if you ask me…

37 Replies to “Swimming Pattern Animations”

  1. Interesting. If you follow the ball but not with the centre of your vision, the squares don’t appear to move…

  2. None of them were very effective for me. I think the power of the original illusion is that you’re focusing on the pattern and notice the effect. In these examples you’re focusing on the dot, so all you really notice is the dot.

  3. Cool! for me, it works far better if I follow the dot by moving my head, and trying to keep my eyes fixed.

  4. Agghhhhh In the very first picture with the stationary dot I see all the grey blocks in motion. Is that supposed to happen or have I succomed (sp) to your covert hypnotic spell????????????

  5. Someone should make a video game that incorporates effects like this into the gameplay. Especially that first one.

  6. i cant believe how the mind plays simple little tricks on us. just think about the rest of our mind. all in all we only use 10% of our brain what about that other 90%?

  7. Can you make the ball go round in a circle?
    Watching the mouse cursor circle over (certainly the first) pattern is really wierd

  8. I think the first one is absolutely the most effective. Makes me a little dizzy if I watch for more than a few passes. Love it! Thanks.

  9. My eyes feel weird when I do that…
    I used to use a similar trick on bathroom tiles when I was younger. It seriously freaked me out.

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