cinnamon thoughts.

Colorful Optical Illusion

I like optical illusions. When I first saw the Big Spanish Castle (via BoingBoing) I was really impressed because I’ve never seen this kind of illusion before. So I created my own versions using pictures I took about a year ago.

All you have to do is:

1. Make sure the picture changes when you move your mouse over it (i.e. JavaScript needs to be enabled).
2. Move your mouse off of the picture.
3. Stare at the black dot for about 30 seconds.
4. Don’t move you head or eyes!
5. Move your mouse over the picture
6. Instead of the black and white version you see a colored version with natural colors!

If you want more of this browse to the following sites:

• Small Spanish Castle
• Mountain
• Butterfly
• Kinkaku illusion

The last site has more interesting pictures that make your head spin. Have fun!

John (the “Spanish Castle guy”) created a list of many optical illusions like the one above. (This is where most of my traffic comes from at the moment.)

Learn how to create this illusion using Gimp.

tags: color adaptation , optical illusion , Spanish Castle 

Posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 19:02h (CEST) by Daniel Gattermann. This Post is filed under Optical Illusion, Photos, Science. You can follow responses through the comment feed and view other blogs commenting on this post. You can also leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to “Colorful Optical Illusion”

1. Trackback from Snell-Pym » Interesting sites
   July 19th, 2006 at 00:32h (CEST)

   [...] Cinnamon Thoughts – Colorful Optical Illusion which is a nice visual trick. [...]

2. hahg says:
   August 7th, 2006 at 18:33h (CEST)

   this one doesn’t really work that well.. maybe i’m doing it wrong

3. (post author) Daniel says:
   August 7th, 2006 at 19:32h (CEST)

   Be sure not to blink or move your eyes while staring at the dot. Then it should work.

4. hahg says:
   August 8th, 2006 at 20:59h (CEST)

   others all work but i can’t get this one to work..

5. (post author) Daniel says:
   August 8th, 2006 at 22:12h (CEST)

   I’ve reworked the original images and added two more. Now they are more like the Spanish Castle. Tell me which ones work (best) now. I’m curious (and to tired to test them myself)!

6. Trackback from Optical Illusion's Effect Lasts Overnight
   October 3rd, 2006 at 01:34h (CEST)

   I didn’t believe this optical illusion’s effects would really last overnight but they do! [...]

7. Anonymous says:
   November 17th, 2006 at 02:39h (CET)

   this is soooooooooooo ausome!!!!!!!!!! how did u do it?

8. (post author) Daniel says:
   November 17th, 2006 at 21:52h (CET)

   John has a tutorial on his blog. It’s focused on Photoshop though many tools should work. For example Gimp. In step 4 you have to use the mode “Value” instead and change the colors afterwards until they look like in the picture used on the tutorial (you can use “Hue-Saturation” for this). Actually you could use the picture in the tutorial and make it look like the final version to learn how to modify the images with your graphics editor of choice.

9. kia says:
   January 3rd, 2007 at 18:05h (CET)

   nice i like it

10. Awesome says:
    June 7th, 2007 at 00:50h (CEST)

    I really like optical illusions!!!!!!! ive been searching the web for all kinds. THX FOR MAKING THESE REALLY AWESOME ONES! IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR GOOD ONES, STILL AM. :)

11. Cookie says:
    February 14th, 2009 at 20:08h (CET)

    I ashamedly confirm this doesn’t work when you’re drunk..

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