Skytopia : Greatest Optical Illusions Pictures. Ever.
Eclipse of Mars title

A collection of nine unique optical illusions
- honed and refined to perfection.

(by Daniel White)


This page was previously exclusive to paid viewers. We'd like to say a big Thank You to everyone who has paid to see this page over the past few years. Due to the minimal number though (1 in every 20,000 approx), it seemed best to open this page to the public (commencing from 01/02/2010).

Hosted on this page are some of the greatest optical illusions of all time, and they're brand new, created by Skytopia. We've taken some of the best illusions according to the Illusions poll* from the old illusions page, updated them, and created some entirely new ones. Prepare to be astounded!

We are still accepting donations; If you enjoy them, a donation of your choice would be very much appreciated:

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IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU PRESS F11 IN YOUR BROWSER NOW TO VIEW THESE ANIMATIONS IN FULL SCREEN! Also make sure you have flash installed to see the illusions at all.

INDEX

Vision Distorter v3
Eclipse of Titan
Two-Way Water Mill
Vanishing Blobs
Magic Zoomster v2
Eye Spy
Tube Of Illusion v2
Starstruck Horizon
A Moment of Blindness




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Vision Distorter (v3.0)

Gawp in awe as your very world twists, squashes and distorts!

Now at version 3, this optical illusion includes all the old favourites along with four new ones! Hours of fun for your friends and family. Originally, this came from the rotating spiral illusion in the 19th century. But I've spruced it up by using a different line technique, added multiple type squashes, and also made it smoother, faster and more effective than comparable ones seen on the web elsewhere. If you want to see each one at full resolution, then try clicking the small star symbol in each box below (e.g. "Grow and Shrink!*") to see each distorter at any size you like.

Simply stare at the centre of each illusion for about a minute or two (the longer the better really, but it's diminishing returns at about 2 minutes). Once you've done this, look at something else, and your vision will go haywire! Things will really look as though they're shrinking or growing!

Click on the buttons below to shrink, grow, stretch and contort your world in different ways!

GROW &
SHRINK!*
SQUASH H!*
GROW!*
SHRINK!*
THIN
FACE!*
FAT
FACE!*
SQUASH V!*
MOTOR-
WAY!*


Eclipse of Titan

See how true cyan and green should look!!


This illusion is an update to the award winning, Eclipse of Mars, (which appeared as illusion of the month at Amos Storkey's Illusion page, and ranked top in the optical illusions poll).

The idea is to stare at the white dot in the centre of the red circle for at least a minute (the longer the better - say 2 minutes!). You may blink, but don't move your head, and never take your eyes off the white dot. As you begin staring, you'll begin to already notice a strange glowing effect as if the surface of Titan is melting from the heat. Don't stop now though! Keep staring away, then finally, after a minute.... SLOWLY.... begin to move your head backwards.

Witness the Eclipse of Titan!!



...and then curse our television and monitors for being unable to reproduce this depth of saturation exactly. Also curse your vision which, also, will never otherwise be able to experience the true Cyan quale, due to colour pollution from the other colour cones in our eyes.

The blue gradient bit to the right is not part of the illusion, but just there to show you that the colour you have just witnessed is not anywhere in the colour palette of your PC/monitor.

Out of all the shades a monitor (CRT or LCD) can reproduce, cyan happens to be the worst in terms of sheer colour saturation, with green following close behind. The amount of red pollution is clearly evident if you take the shiny side of a CD, turn the light off to make the room dark, and fill the screen in bright cyan or #00ffff. On the CD, you should see a great deal of red, aswell as the green and blue. This shouldn't be there, since the only light coming from the monitor should be blue and green! If you were to fill the screen with bright green #00ff00, you'll also see some blue pollution and a massive amount of red pollution.

Click me to witness a fiery version called the "Eclipse ofNeptune". Remember, the longer you stare the better!
Click me to witness the original Eclipse of Mars which started it all (a pure cyan equivalent to the Eclipse of Titan). See the old illusions page for details of this original classic.
Click me to witness the Eclipse of Triton (a green equivalent to the Eclipse of Titan)




Two-Way Water Mill

Clockwise or anti-clockwise - you decide

This illusion started life as the "Wheel of Confusion" on the old illusions page. But this one has a lot more going on of course. Everything may appear to rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise, or travel up or down, or left/right.

Instructions: Follow the red dots, and the whole contraption will work clockwise (the lift travels upwards, the waterfall down, and the wheel rotates clockwise). However, follow the yellow dots, and the reverse is true! (lift travels down etc.). In addition, the yellow rings at the bottom work in a different way. Sometimes they rotate one way, and sometimes the other. See if you can 'spot' both ways.










Vanishing Blobs


Now this incredible illusion has an interesting history. Many years back, I chanced upon a still picture which looked like a ball of 'fluff' (click it on the right to see full size), where the outer ridges faded away to white. The idea was to stare at the centre, and it would gradually disappear. It was cool stuff at the time, and I made my own enhanced version much later with lots of little coloured blobs, and called it "Vanishing Fluff".

Years later, I found Michael's brilliant "Motion Induced Blindness" illusion. At the time I was shocked that anything so bright as those small dots could disappear.

All well and good, but how about if we combine the two effects into one illusion? Can we get away with making massively large objects disappear?! Yes, OH YES, indeed... have a look at this monster...
Press F11 to view full screen, and stare at the center of the animation, and keep staring until you see the red and yellow blobs disappear!
If you can't make it work, try sitting closer to the screen. If you still have trouble, then try this easier version







Magic ZoomsterV2


An enhancement on even the old version by making even BIGGER, and adding yet more layers.

 Scroll down to the center of the zoomster, and move your head backwards and forwards to observe the stunning effect in action! Again, make sure F11 has been pressed so you can see full screen!

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Eye Spy

This illusion works if you or someone you know wears spectacles. Why not fool them into believing you have a 3D monitor, when of course, it's simply the effect of chromostereoscopy (chromatic aberration). Without glasses the 3D effect is tiny (though may be still noticable), but if you must see the effect for yourself, then you could always buy something like this (no, I'm not affiliated with them :)

Here's another example of a picture which uses this technique.

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Tube Of Illusion v2

The Tube Of Illusion is back with a vengeance, and it's bigger, more colorful and illusive than ever before. . . . You'll need those 3D red/cyan (or red/green) anaglyph glasses you sometimes get out of cornflakes packets or magazines. If not, then there's a stereo version below that where you need to cross your eyes instead.

If you are interested in creating your own 3D stereoscopic/anaglyph pictures, try our easy to use Stereoptica program.








If you don't possess any 3D anaglyph glasses, then you can try crossing your eyes with this one instead. It takes practise (try focusing on something near you - you should see 3 tubes ), but the results are definitely worth it! Also try this site for practise.








Possibly the best illusion here, providing you have some of those 'anaglyph' (red+green/blue) glasses - put them on if you do!). Then click on the picture below, and then press right mouse button followed by selecting "Play". Watch and enjoy.

(If you don't have any anaglyph glasses, or you want to see it in colour (albeit smaller), then the stereo version can be downloaded here - SWF, 25 meg). You'll need to practise crossing your eyes for that one though.



FLASH ANIM DOWN TEMPORARILY, BECAUSE THE BANDWIDTH COST IS HUGE AT THE MOMENT. COME BACK LATER IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT HERE, OR IF YOU REALLY MUST (AND YOU HAVE 3D GLASSES), DOWNLOAD IT IN FLASH FORMAT HERE (13 megabyte).
















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Starstruck Horizon

Upgrading the 'Vanishing Fog' from the old illusions page, we have produced these nifty variations. I went through several different designs (about 40) to see which worked best, and the below three made the shortlist. I reckon it would be hard to top 'em.

This one below is the featured version. As before, stare at the red dot in the middle of the top picture (keeping your head perfectly still), and then after a minute or two, scroll down to the less-contrasty version just below it. Then stare into the middle of that one, and you'll find that a spangling star will start to 'twinkle'.





Bevelled Chequers

This one is similar to the above, and cooler in one way. Give your eyes a short break, and then stare into the middle of the left pic, and after a minute, look at the right pic, and either stare into the middle as before, or follow the little circle round to truly witness what looks like a strange light source rotating around the scene!


Waves of Confusion

A different effect again. This time, there's a wavy look, and the curves will switch in an odd way between vertical and horizontal!








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A Moment of Blindness

Find your blind spot. In style.


This has been through 3 iterations now. The original duff one is a static image, where nothing moves, and requires plenty of moving to get right. Realising the weakness of the original, I created the "Find your blind spot" animation on the old optical illusions page.

This NEW IMPROVED version is bigger, so it looks even more scary when the thing vanishes into thin air the vacuum.

 First of all close your LEFT eye. Keep it close, and focus your remaining eye (right unless you're a cyclops) on the orange star, and watch in sheer horror as the bright green planet disappears before your very eyes! If you don't notice the effect after around 5 seconds, try to sit further or closer to the screen. Also try to make sure your head isn't tilted where one ear is higher than the other.






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More illusions to come in the future (but only the cream!)

If you enjoyed those, and would like to reward for our hard work, a donation of your choice would be appreciated:

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Skytopia home > Project index > Greatest Optical Illusions


The illusions on this page have been created by Skytopia and are copyright 2007 onwards D. White.
If you wish to use any of them, then please contact me for permission.