Spinning Silhouette Illusion
At first glance, the silhouette is spinning clockwise. but according to the source website, and the small sample test group I showed it to; you can reverse the spinning.
Here are some hints from the test group.
- You have to look down at the shadow, keep your eyes there for some seconds and then slowly move your eyes upward.
Sometimes my brain even changes the direction when I look at different parts of the figure. Dont stare at her, keep your eyes moving up and down. - when she turns clockwise she has the right foot up.. when counter-clockwise its the left foot.. just tell yourself which foot is up and she will turn in that direction..
via mi
July 5th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Hmmmm, I think I brain my damaged…..
She won’t change direction for me :o(
July 5th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Sweet. I got it to work.
What’s strange is, After I got it to change directions, I had the hardest time getting it back going clockwise. I tried blinking and everything. it took awhile but now I can change it back and forth with ease.
July 5th, 2007 at 9:51 am
the trick is to look at the shadow. when she’s going clockwise her foot makes a shadow in front and when going counterclockwise it makes a shadow behind her.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am
At first glance, it was going counterclockwise to me. But i can reverse it, either way. I’d rather look at a hunky guy doing it, though.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I will see what I can do for you Miss Cellania
;)
July 5th, 2007 at 11:43 am
At last - cheers drunk!!
I must say, she does look a little chilly……
July 5th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
brain not working!!! girl changing direction !!!!!!!!!! haaaaaaaa!
great ilusion! it took me some minutes to see her change direction, but my girl friend only took a few seconds! maybe its a girl thing ;)
July 5th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I don’t care which way she’s spinning. She’s nekkid!
July 5th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Ok, I got it - when you look at the right top corner of your screen, she’ll go counter-clockwise.
When you look at the bottom left of your screen, she’ll go back!
July 5th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Every time i look away she changes. Foolish lady.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
it’s gotten to the point where i’ve just convinced myself that the image is some sort of flash cartoon that is just changing to fool me.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
i just have to look at the shadow of her foot going around. i looked at this earlier on a computer with a slower connection and i must say, it’s easier to make her change when she’s spinning slower because the internet is lagging.
anyway, my boyfriend pointed out to me in a caveman-like fashion that she’s definitely nipping.
that box that she’s in must be a refrigerator.
July 6th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I would have to agree with Unoriginal, no need for it to be flash though, it can be a .gif sequence, and I would bet my shiniest penny that’s exactly what it is.
about 77 spins one way and then around 41 the other way when I counted, but the animation could easily be more complicated than just two stages
(I stole the penny expression from someone that commented on something on this website I think =P )
July 6th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
+download the image editor irfanview
+install it
+right click the GIF from this website, and save it to your desktop
+open the GIF in irfanview
+Go to ‘Options’ then ‘Extract all frame’
+Select a folder to extract to
This will show you each frame that makes up the GIF. Sorry, but it is truly an illusion!
July 6th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Nekkid! Nekkid! Nekkid!
Spinning and …NEKKID!
I like nekkid spinning women.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Yeah, my brother and I looked at it at the same time and I was seeing it spin counterclockwise while he was seeing it spin clockwise… which makes the whole thing even more weird… our brains are just this illusions bitch
July 7th, 2007 at 1:49 am
Wow, for a few minutes there I had is so she spun half a turn clockwise, then half anticlockwise!! (yes, anti…)
Then I remembered how cold she was………
July 7th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Upon first glance I saw it spinning counter clockwise, and maybe I’m just not as good at this kind of thing as other people but in order to get it to change I had to use my hand to block out the image with the exception of the lower right corner where her foot spins by. As her foot would spin in and out of the unblocked portion I would tell myself it was spinning towards me. This makes it easy. Then I slowly show myself the rest of the image and she is spinning clockwise. To get her to go back the other direction I do the same thing on the lower left side. Sometimes she will spontaneously change back to counter clockwise for me, but never spontaneously to clockwise. This leads me to three questions:
1)Will left handed people first see it spinning in a different direction than right handers?
2)Does which eye is dominant determine which way it spins at first?
3)Why does being confronted with my brain’s cognitive asymmetry make me feel like less of a person?
July 7th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
i have to eat my words, whole, with no mayo…
It is an illusion and not a sequence.
and now i feel stupid =P
it’s really really weird for me how if i look at the shadow and tell myself the foot is going in front of the leg or behind the leg it makes her be rotating either clockwise or anticlockwise respectively when i look up.
I have a headache now though, so i’m gonna stop playing with my fragile brain for a while
July 9th, 2007 at 7:45 am
You raised a doubt in my mind KIK000, that is why I posted the deconstruction instructions
July 10th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
i figured it was just a sequence of mirrored images. your subconscience decides which way it wants it to go.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
It is not changing… No matter how long I look at it, she is spinning clockwise all the time. How can I tell myself it’s her left foot in the air when I clearly see it’s the right one?! I hate it when everybody sees something and I just can’t… Makes me feel stupid :(
July 12th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Don’t stare at it, keep your eyes moving around the image, and continue to refer to the shadow for reference. It will happen, don’t worry!
:)
July 12th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
i feel like this is an elaborate ‘emperor’s new clothes’ moment…
ive been looking at it, looking on comments, using the suggestions, looking around it…and still nothing.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
My brain is functioning too well for this to happen.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I got it after a bit, I think the trick is to watch the foot that is on the ground from a distance, as i found it pretty easy to switch directions that way, and even got it to stop spinning and move back and forth in front……which I guess is what the image is actually doing.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:46 am
I think I know how this image is working.
If your brain imagine that you’re standing above her, then when her arms and legs are lower in the picture, they must obviously be pointing forward. Since someone standing upright below you with their arms stretched out towards you and away from you, will appear to have their hand pointing towards you lower than their hand pointing away from you.
With that interpretation, she will be spinning clockwise.
However, when you look at the shadow of her foot, it is obvious that her foot must be pointing backwards in order for us to see the shadow. And then she is definately spinning counterclockwise.
So once your brain has initially decided that she’s spinning clockwise, it is easy to persuade your brain that it’s wrong, by looking at the shadow. And since your brain has already seen her spinning clockwise, it is easy to switch back, by NOT looking at the shadow.
Unfortunately for me, the first time I saw her, she was spinning counterclockwise. Probably because I saw the shadow right away. And since there is no way to “force” your brain to see her spinning clockwise, I’m more or less stuck with seeing her spin one way.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Just rotate your head in the direction you want her to spin. Your inner ear should give your spatial sense the right spin in a matter of seconds. It’s a lot easier and more intuitive than just staring and telling yourself which way she’s spinning.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Well I looked for a long time and all I got was horny…but then it finally happened. You have to switch her direction right when her swinging leg hits her other leg…right when it hits just start thinking of it the other way….
Very cool.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Much like those pixelated images you have to stare at the mall until you see the hidden image I’m missing it. I do however, feel like I’m getting sea sick.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
It works! Very cool
Cheers
Nick
www.weefly.com
July 13th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Perhaps the coolest play on perception I have seen.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
when i first look at it, it is turning counter-clockwise then it goes clockwise and i can’t get it back
July 13th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
i like it…it’s interesting. had me fooled for a bit, just had to watch in for a min or so without my mind wondering. lol…proved tougher then I thought. You changed the spin when her leg was behind her body, I didn’t notice when I was watching the shadow….I though it was an illusion but you changed the spin not me….2d image with misdirection not my perception by focusing on the shadow, that just made me miss why it changed…lol, you had me going for a bit there!!! I thought I was crazy….peace!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Weird…I saw it as counterclockwise as soon as I looked at it, and was actually really surprised when I read that “at first glance it appears clockwise.” I actually had to think hard to get it to spin clockwise. Bizarre.
July 13th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Also, the way I got it to switch was to look down at my keyboard and not look at the image, pointing my index finger down and spinning it in the direction I wanted her to go. Then I slyly eyed her lifted leg and, still focusing on my finger, looked up with that in my mind right as her legs crossed. It worked.
July 14th, 2007 at 2:31 am
Easiest way to do it:
Cover the dark image and just start at the silhouette for a few seconds
Picture in your mind which foot you want to see in the air
Thats it
Worked twice for me
July 14th, 2007 at 3:40 am
It works, odd thing is it goes opposite directions sometimes.
July 14th, 2007 at 4:49 am
It is NOT a illusion. It is a TRICK.
July 14th, 2007 at 5:05 am
It is NOT a trick. It is a ILLUSION.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
It is a trick, it changes directions every time you move your mouse off of the screen.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
i think this might be the record responses to a post on Militantplatypus :D
About the trick try to see the silhoute with a friend! it will be diferente for each one! it´s an illusion!
July 14th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
this post is on Digg and Reddit, so I would image it will continue for a bit Roberto!
July 14th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
b p: See the above post on directions to break down the GIF. It is not a trick, other than one on your mind
:)
July 16th, 2007 at 8:42 am
you can do the same thing with a slowly spinning ceiling fan. It will change directions after a while. You may need to be almost eye level with it, I’m not sure, but I used to amuse myself in the balcony of church as a little girl by making the fans change direction… hee hee hee…
July 16th, 2007 at 9:36 am
That is cool Izzy! I didn’t know that.
July 17th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I checked other websites and it is indeed a fake. It spins one way then after a while changes direction. It can be identified by th shadow of the foot
July 17th, 2007 at 3:27 am
It’s not a trick. Download the gif, gif’s don’t have imbedded randomized programming.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:36 am
also, here’s a method to change direction….
flash your eyes for a moment, then flash again, take the mental images and imagine the direction you want her to turn, like a strobe, but flash open quickly, and close longer..
July 17th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Cowboy: follow these directions and tell me where the trick is.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Weird and original. Very nice.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
There’s probably something wrong with my eyes. I still can’t get it, stared for 5 minutes.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Even having used a mirror i could not see a mirror image turning in an other direction.
Very strange is it not? When looking off the mirror from the corners of my eyes the figure turns counter clockwise as it should do. The brain seems unable to interrupt just a glance of what you see. It does not work looking from a other object towards the figure.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
hehe. i was looking at the image for 30mins or more and all my friends has gotten it already to turn the other way around. and when i got it to turn, i actually felt goosebumps and chills all over my body. hahaha! scary stuff you got here dude~
July 17th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
What’s god’s number again? I have a bug to report…
July 17th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
At first glance I saw it going counterclockwise but after I read the text I saw it going clockwise and now I can’t see it going clockwise anymore.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
*can’t see it going counterclockwise anymore
July 17th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
That’s trippy..oh man i did it.. wow.. great stuff… haha omg..
July 18th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I am a lefty and at first could only see it spinning counterclockwise. Finally I can see it clockwise and am having trouble switching back. I wonder if handedness has anything to do with which direction you see first, or it just depends on which part of the image you look at first.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
i think that the shadow is the entire secret at first glance you don’t notice the shadow because it is rather in significant, but the longer you look you notice more things. it is clear in the shadow/reflection that she is turning one specific direction, so as soon as you brain sees that part, it corrects the entire image. just my thoughts though.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
It’s all in the foot. The foot on the leg that’s not raised to be specific. The real foot is spinning clockwise so staring at it will cause you to see her spinning this way. The shadow foot spins counterclockwise. Alternate staring at the real foot and the shadow foot to see what i mean
July 18th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Worked the 1st time for me…refreshed the page and no longer worked…mah
July 19th, 2007 at 3:15 am
You guys are noobs….its an animation and celvery changes legs at intervals, stare at it and you will see.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Crash you sad individual. Not only are you wrong but how can you be a ‘noob’ at optical illusions…?!
July 19th, 2007 at 10:57 am
It’s sad that you don’t know how to host your own pictures.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:18 am
What are you talking about chad?
July 19th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
As mentioned, the image is likely first seen as rotating clockwise. For those of you for whom this is not the case, my explanation that follows will help you understand why this does not matter, nor does it make you special. :P
If the image appears to rotate clockwise, the point-of-view that the mind is assuming, based on perspective, is from some location slightly above the ‘girl’. When viewed from an angle such as this, however, the shadow or reflection seen below her is incorrect. The cast shadow or reflected image of the raised foot should be always visible and in fact should contact the image of the girl on the rotation where it is not currently visible (as though the shadow or reflection of the raised foot were being reflected on the ground behind her straight leg). Thus, the image as a whole is not in concert with what the mind understands of the physical 3-dimensional world. As such, you can– or the mind can on it’s own– try to find another explanation.
This second explanation is that the image of the rotating girl is being viewed from some location below the girl, as through a transparent surface, such as water or a glass floor, in which case the laws of perspective tell the mind that she is rotating counter-clockwise. Unfortunately, in this situation, there would be no shadow or reflection, since transparent mediums do not catch or reflect light or lack thereof. Which will cause the mind to find another explanation, and finding no other, it reverts to one of these two situations.
The reson the illusion works is that, as a whole, the image in incorrect in both situations. Without a shadow at all, it is not likely that anyone would be able to swap directions so fluidly. Since it is there, and makes both images disagree with the mind’s knowledge of 3-dimensional space and the interaction of light with that space, the mind can willfully disbelieve either case. Thus the switching. And since both the image and the shadow/reflection are both monotone, there is no other indication as to the rotation of the girl.
For those of you who believe the scripting of the image is ‘tricking’ you by changing the rotation, watch it with someone else. You will find that they see the image change when you do not, and vice versa.
For those of you who cannot see the image switch rotational directions, I give this possible explanation: There is in fact a shadow/reflection represented in the image as a secondary, translucent image. Since this is in agreement with what the mind understands of light and shadow, the image of the girl rotating clockwise, viewed from above, with a shadow or reflection, albeit an incorrect one, is much stronger as far as the mind is concerned than the other, less agreeable possibility of the counter-clockwise rotating girl seen from below which should have no shadow.
In any case, try to remember that this is not, in fact, a 3-dimensional image. It is a series of 2-dimensional representations of a possibly 3D situation, meant to be viewed exactly as a film, cartoon animation, or a flipbook, any which can give the illusion of movement. The only thing that makes this appear to rotate or move back and forth is the fact that the final 2D image returns almost to the origin of the series such that the first, when seen again, can logically follow.
Since people are so used to seeing 3D representations on their screens, it is natural to let your mind fool you into seeing this as such. Remember, your computer screen is flat and can never produce anything in 3 dimensions. It can only fool the mind into believing that such is the case, as with stereoscopic imaging. I will suggest the Flippant Venus Plunge as a canonical example:
http://www.well.com/~jimg/stereo/stereo_list.html - Link NSFW
July 20th, 2007 at 12:28 am
it was counter clockwise for me and it didn’t take long for me get her to change directions. im just curious if anyone got her to keep her leg in the air in front, as if she was waiving it back and forth. i was able to do this pretty easily and i was wondering if anyone else has….or if im just that sweet
July 20th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Same thing with radar dishes at dusk. You need to be just below or just above the rotating object; if level you can not tell which way the rotation is. Too high or too low, no mistakes will made.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
She’s really spinning clockwise. When you see her spinning counter-clockwise, her non-spinning foot looks kinda awkward. Still doable, but it’s not as smooth and as realistic as when she’s spinning clockwise.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
It’s going clockwise.
Period.
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
oh mz god, it works. Briliant!!!
Greetz Chandler
July 24th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Due to your idiotic security code, my previous comments were lost. Since I won’t bother typing them again, instead you get to enjoy this pointless text.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
how stupid some people are….
are oblivious they are to the inner workings of the human mind.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Hahahha, this is fake. It’s an animation that changes direction pretending to be an optical illusion.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:15 am
@jeremy: go here: http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/archives/3790#comment-82504
@me: sorry about the captcha, but I can’t let the spambots win.
July 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am
So, someone may have pointed this out, i don’t feel like reading a ton of annoying gibberish you people write, the leg touching the ground is spinning in one direction along with its shadow; while the rest of the body spins in the other direction along with its shadow.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:56 am
That is an amazing illusion. At first I thought my brain might not comprehend it as I had been trying to get it to work, but before I knew it, she was spinning the opposite direction. I was frantically trying to get her to spin clockwise again, but she wouldn’t…
She kept changing in a seemingly random fashion in my mind. It is kind of creepy…
July 27th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
i got it too work by looking at the shadow in a glaze , slowly loosing focus. cool trick
July 27th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
THAT’S IT SPINNING BROAD IS DEAD!!!! I’M COMING AFTER HER AND HER WHOLE FAMILY!!!!
July 28th, 2007 at 5:40 am
I´m Comming with you André!! i´ll Kill the Chick!! and Burn her shadow and bury the shadow ashes in a shadow graveyard! i´ll bring the fuel! you bring the lighter!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:16 am
very interesting!
July 29th, 2007 at 8:57 am
She even rotates upside down for me.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:35 am
It was accidental for me, I looked up to see something and it changed and I was like wow.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
You want to notice something really creepy? Watch her ponytail. When she spins in one direction, it points down and to the left. In the other direction, it points down and to the right. That’s what blew my mind, that her ponytail changes direction!
Dah-Dah-Dah-Dah… Bongos…
July 31st, 2007 at 12:27 am
Try this:
1. Close your eyes and imagine as vividly as possible the desired direction of spinning.
2. Open your eyes again - just look at the head or legs if it helps
August 1st, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Did anyone notice:
She turns clockwise with her RIGHT leg held out and counter-clockwise with her LEFT leg going round… weird
also, i saw her spinning ccw first, then needed a minute for the “normal” direction… maybe my brain is upside-down or something… :o)
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:42 am
sorry everyone, I’m a graphic designer and I can say for a fact that the image only spins in one direction. You can tell by looking at which side all of her attributes are on when she is turned. Perhaps if she were perfectly symectrical, she might be thought to move both directions, but sorry, she is not.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:19 am
the fact of the matter is, it’s all brain perception. i took marc’s advice:
“Easiest way to do it:
Cover the dark image and just start at the silhouette for a few seconds
Picture in your mind which foot you want to see in the air
Thats it”
and it really did work for me. Once i got it working, then i could easily switch the spins by blinking and telling myself which way i wanted it to go. If it was really a trick, then how could i switch it so easily and fast, but not before?
bottom line, this is just a series of images, and u really can tell ur brain which way u want.
Amazing!
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:21 pm
She should be realy naked and alive.
Then it would be amazing!
Mit freundlichen Grussen.
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:26 am
Creepy! I swear there’s someone shifting the spin direction now and then!
August 4th, 2007 at 5:39 am
dunno if anyone posted this yet, im too lazy to read all the other comments but figured out a really easy way to have her change direction… for me anyway scroll down on the page to where all you see is her foot and shadow and nothing else, concentrate on the foot and because it only pivots and doesn’t move side to side you can easily switch back and for between clockwise and counter clockwise. Once you have decided which way she is going scroll up. you can switch back and forth so easily this way you can even make her switch back and forth so fast so that she is not even spining really…
August 5th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Very cool! It definately works on the mind.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
sorry boss,
for me , she is not changing the direction.
August 6th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Yeah… So you’ve all been duped. I downloaded this image opened it up in Adobe Fireworks CS3 and it actually changes direction in the animation, that is why it kinda stutters before it changes. Sorry guys.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:12 am
This seriously works and is not a random trick!!
For anti clockwise look at the hips for clockwise the pivoting foot
I think it’s got something to do with right/left sided brain activity and shadows IMAYOCO.
Checked it out in gif animator it’s legitimate.
August 12th, 2007 at 9:07 am
HOTLINKING ADVERTISES YOUR WEBSITE
August 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
STUPID
August 15th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Wanderfull!
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Hmm…
I found it easiest to look at her lowered foot and just tell myself, “toes pointing toward me… away… toward… away… etc.” The odd part is when the foot is going one way and the body the other. Haha.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
It’s going clockwise.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Tips: rotate your index finger as you look at the shadow, it helps me.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:09 am
Great exercise for your brain, I wonder if perception is a skill that someone can improve.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
strahill nailed the secret for switching, for me, in his post of July 5. Thanks, man!
September 15th, 2007 at 5:39 am
i Saw that girl the other day in the street! se was doing that and was hit by a bus! she started sping the other way when the bus ited her!!
September 18th, 2007 at 9:59 am
I tried this strategy and now I have lots of visitors coming from forums.
thanks.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I was stuck in clockwise, thought I’d never see the other. Then I turned my screen upside down - still saw clockwise (from above), but that’s the opposite way (CCW) for the girl. By rotating the screen I was able to train myself to see both directions.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:04 am
That’s a wonderful plugin. I’m sure there’s room for adding some additional features to it. Thanks.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Great exercise for your brain, I wonder if perception is a skill that someone can improve.
October 4th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Am I weird? I can ONLY see it see spin counter-clockwise? Everyone says they see it spin clockwise first but I just can’t get it to…..what does this mean?
October 4th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Apparently, it means you are left-brained.
October 6th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hmmm interesting
October 9th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I figured out how this works. I’ll give you the short version. Because when she swings her leg around she follows almost the exact same arc every time. If you just imagine the person switching the direction she is spinning (when her leg is farthest away from herself), and follow that arc she would take with your eye, then you should see the person switch the way she is going. Do not look at anything above her legs! Otherwise the illusion is messed up. The shadow or the legs is the only part that makes it work, because they follow the same pattern each time. Also if she starts to spin too much, just look above her legs and that will make it stop.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
by the way if you look at the leg that is spinning, and then when you see her switch, check which leg is spinning again, she should either have switched from right to left or vice versa
October 10th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
All the guys around here agreed that she is definitely turning — without clothes on. My brother the psychologist uses his 5 degrees to tell us that it’s a left-brain (counterclockwise)/right-brain(clockwise) thing. His little brother the artist (me) has painted hundreds of reverse-painted astronomicals on glass, often using silhouettes. All silhouettes are “reversible.” I often take sketches from my more-traditional paintings and use them as silhouettes against interesting, often astronomical skyscapes. Whether human or animal, almost all suddenly seem like they’re looking away, when almost all the sketches were of figures looking toward the viewer. Any silhouette can be looking toward you or away. Interesting tid-bit: when viewing my work, women often see apparently naked women silhouettes as looking away, and men more-often see them as looking toward them (and if they’re not “cold,” women are much more likely to assume they’re wearing a leotard or something). Convert such a figure into a moving silhouette, and you have this interesting little lady. I isolate any small area of the figure and reverse the direction in my mind, but then, I’ve played with silhouettes a lot! Some say that easily switching views denotes high IQ, but it’s just a different way of processing incoming info. Artists should be naturals at it, and, trust me, we’re not all geniuses.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Anonymous your a liar that image is made up of 34 frames, and she never switched direction in any of them, get another person to watch it with you, you’ll both see it switch at different times
October 10th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
and before you go saying it’s a fake, ask someone else to watch it with you. Enough said.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
My brain is damaged
October 12th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
all i can see is counter clockwise, and what ever I do she stays in that direction.. is that odd? =S
October 12th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Initially, I could only get her to go clockwise; looking at a reflection of the image in the monitor and then glancing back would make her apparently go anti-clockwise, but only for a few seconds. However, looking at the shadow and glancing slowly up and she’s going anti clockwise and she won’t stop going anti clockwise no matter what I do and I don’t thing that will change now. Weird! It was clockwise for ages now stuck anti-clockwise, I need to get out more!
October 13th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Clockwise-clockwise-clockwise. No hints/comments of the above mentioned can change that!
October 13th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I just look at the feet and think front, back. Then she changes directions, but then again am lokally well known for my intensely cluttered desk and “inspired” doodles.
October 13th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Freaky! :D
October 13th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Just look at the shadow when the foot is on the left side… then it changes!
or look up and down and try to consentrate on the foot(shadow)
October 13th, 2007 at 10:14 am
As soon as i moved my eyes the lady turned from with to against. and when i moved my eyes again, she turned back to with. Then again, it was easy to get her to go against. and so it went on with-against-with-against-with-against.. for a endless time. But i got a good feeling each time she went with. i like going with.
October 13th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Perhaps not that miss ing Link after all->I seem to have a left brain too. I watched with no spesial focus and she changed direction several times- seemd standing all still on the top of her jump on these occasions. Hmmmmmmmmmmm
October 13th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Sadly, this is not an optical illusion at all. One has only to focus for a period of time on the stabilising/rigid leg and foot to notice an ever so subtle transference of ‘weight’ from one leg to another. Nice try!
October 13th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I have just (sad, but true) taken the time out to read ALL the previous posts…. My God, how on Earth can so many people be so gullible? And lads, please don’t use the excuse “it’s ‘cos she’s nekkid”.
October 13th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Dude… dude… this is ridiculous. Three months?
October 14th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Yeah..I know! A bit slow on the up chuck!
October 15th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Bela: follow the directions here: http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/archives/3790#comment-82504
October 15th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Well, bela, did you take the time to read my post? I took it to that gif animator, it is made up of 34 images. They never switch the whole time. get another person to watch it with you! You will both see the switch at completely different times.
In case the switching leg is messing you up, there is a very simple reason that no one will get the logic behind anyways, so i don’t know why im going to write it.
before you see the switch, you will notice that her leg that is swinging on one side, then the other, relative to which side she is facing to you. when you see her leg switch, notice that the swinging leg is still on the same side. This may sound a bit confusing. Example: the swinging leg will first be on YOUR left side, then right. HEr leg seems to switch because if you see the leg go on YOUR right, left, right, left, ect. You will notice that when she switches the pattern switches, to right, right, left, right. In fact, if you did not see her leg switch is when you should start to beleive that the illusion was a fake
October 16th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I don’t know about gif files, MILITANTPLATYPUS, but I do know that the gif changes. Watch the movie again. When she’s rotating clockwise she’s standing on her LEFT FOOT. When she’s rotating counter-clockwise, she’s on her RIGHT FOOT. This PROVES that the gif changes. It’s obvious. She ALWAYS rotates toward her extended arm and leg. The gif changes. It’s not an illusion, it’s a trick. Find out how it does this.dALB
October 16th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
An animated GIF is made up of frames that repeat. Once the list for frames have played out, then the animation will repeat.
The instructions that I have listed above, show you how to break out and see all of the frames that make up the GIF. I can do this for you, and post them, but I didn’t think people would believe me; so I posted instructions on how to do it.
Once you can see all of the frames, you can see the two frames where the spinning woman makes the ‘transition’, and it becomes clear how your brain can interpret her spinning in either direction.
I would really encourage you all to try breaking out the frames. Irfanview if free and safe, and the entire process doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Hello !! I am studying electrical and computer engineering and a couple of days ago I found this image in a friend’s blog (I come from Greece), so I was tempted to analyse it using MATLAB image processing toolbox… As it’s already been written, this is a gif image consisting of 34 frames of two subsequences, one spinning right and one left (many more things could be said on this…), but in any frame someone can perceive the shifting (possibly due to the fact that we have an animation of 34 images during 2 sec and between 2 frames the ambiguous movement can be perceived because of relatively slow motion…if total duration was about 1 sec, may be shifting could not be perceived-remember that in a movie, we see 25 frames per second but we cannot perceive the gap between frames). I would also like to say that according to computer vision, the light source and the reflectance surface are modelled in an unusual to human vision (or physical environment) way…Could you really tell where exactly is/are placed the light source/sources ? Additionally, again according to computer vision, in order to reconstruct the exact 3-dimensional geometry of an object (given only 2-dimensional views of it), we must use at least 2 steady light sources and the object should reflect an amount of light, otherwise we cannot find a UNIQUE solution (the 3D geometry). This is what happens here : we have an object that does not reflect light beams, so more than one solutions can be found (hence the 2 different interpretations)… Also, watching closely the original image, I noticed that at the 13th frame (critical for perceiving the shifting), there are white lines on the silhouette. It looks like (personal speculation) someone has cut that parts (foot and leg) and replaced them (quite carelessly) with others and it seems in a moment that the girl has two left feet !!
October 16th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
wow, I am very impressed Lady in Black!
October 16th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
How can you guys take such a thing of beauty and rip it apart with your speculation and “analysis”, as if she were nothing more than pixels on a screen?! Did anyone stop to wonder, WHY she just dances all day, ’round and ’round on her toes in the dark in the nude, randomly switching directions for no apparent reason? I think the question we really need to ask ourselves is, not when and how she dances, but why we feel the need to belittle such a thing of beauty. You guys really need to take a long, hard look at yourselves.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
It is really beautifull and impressive !!! But believe me… math is hidden behind every beautiful thing (art and music) and humans always seek an explanation !!! Take as example fractal images (complex analysis lies behind)…they seem to have come out of a dream…really wonderful !! I don’t believe that when such a beauty is explained, its magic has been lost…Everyone knows the explanation of moon eclipse, but it is always spectacular and beautiful !!!
October 16th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
man, I feel so bad now.
I don’t even know her name…
October 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
But, don’t look at the frames, look at the moving gif and notice that the foot she stands on changes. How do you account for that? Does this show up in the individual frames?
Also, I suppose it is possible that looking at one frame at a time, you wouldn’t know which way the woman was facing, but as she spins, you can see clearly that she spins in the direction of her extended leg every time - jus that the leg changes.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Pretty cool
It is 34 two-dimensional images superimposed on a shadow gradient to create the illusion of 3D field depth.
The brain sees what it wants and needs to, and gives us what is actually not there – a 3D shadowed image in orbital rotation.
The woman is not spinning at all.
That is a 2-dimensional repositioned silhouette that is interpreted by our mind as a rotating 3D image.
The perceived spin direction is whimsical.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
wow, fine work
October 27th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for very interesting article. btw.
I really enjoyed reading all of your posts.
It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s
point of view… makes you think more. So please keep up the great work.
Greetings.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Awesome! Thanks for making me spend half an hour here :-)
For me it’s damn near impossible to make her switch if I keep looking at her. I need to cover her up for 95% and then focus on the piece of foot that comes sticking out and tell myself “It’s NOW going in FRONT, and… GO!” and then she turns that way.
I love how our brains work. Can you imagine what the world would look like if we DIDN’T have our brains fill in the many, many blanks in this world? A cow, for instance, might not see a turning human in there, but just a moving black polygon - which is basically what it is (well, the moving part is up for discussion).
Also, very ironic while we’re discussing visuals: I had the HARDEST time getting past this security code:
how is that NOT fcyO7, fcvO7, fcy07 or fcv07 ???
I had to make a new post to get a new code and everything. Psshh..
October 27th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
URL of said code:
http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/index.php?image=1a488fdfdf585b94de2c2f8098300161
October 28th, 2007 at 6:12 am
is she drunk? .) its so sweet i thing..
October 28th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
hersohbet
October 28th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
SOhbet
October 28th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
turkiye
October 31st, 2007 at 9:50 am
realy nice article, great site, thanks for very interesting informations
October 31st, 2007 at 11:56 am
is she drunk? .) its so sweet i thing.. thanks best regards
October 31st, 2007 at 11:58 am
thank you very much
November 10th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Sohbet, Chat
November 11th, 2007 at 8:02 am
yellowpages
November 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Thanks
November 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Thank you
November 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
the history
November 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
thank you
November 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
danke
November 16th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
thank you
November 16th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
thanks
November 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
ick… if u cover up her top half…. then u can keep swithing the direction… 0.o
November 28th, 2007 at 1:27 am
thanks
November 30th, 2007 at 7:30 am
thank you
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:14 am
thanks you
December 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
thanks
December 6th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
i FINALLY got it to work!!! amazing
your tips really worked for me
December 11th, 2007 at 3:08 am
This girl needs Prada Sneakers.lol…
December 12th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
you people are crazy, this dancer is spinning clockwise and thats that. The only way i could even think she’s spinning counterclockwise is to focus on the top right corner of my screen, but by doing that you lose focus on the details like her pony tail and the direction the up foot is faced, the only thing that really changes is how you perceive the motion of the up foot in general, look directly at it and you’ll see a nipply dancer spinning clockwise.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
thanks for dude..
December 17th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Nei, det funker ikke jeg gidder ikke mer..
December 18th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
thank you
December 19th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Its the shadow that makes her look to be going clockwise. When she’s going anticlockwise the shadow should be further away when the raised foot goes across.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I am able to notice the switch in direction every second or everytime i blink (after some practice) its amazing
seems like i got my mind in control :p lolz
December 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
thanks nice text
December 28th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
very nice :) Thanks for this!
January 1st, 2008 at 4:54 am
Nei, det funker ikke jeg gidder ikke mer..
January 4th, 2008 at 12:42 am
It’s a javascript thing to reverse the animation.
If you look at her toes.. you can always see the big toe come first and then as it turns away the toes obviously get smaller. You cannot discount this and there is no other way to interpret it. Pick a foot and watch the toes.
The only way it can reverse is by reversing it.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:42 am
download the image to your computer
view it through your favorite photo viewer - that way no javascript can be running
she will still reverse
January 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Check out this cool website and create your own spinning toy and u can watch it rotate in both clockwise n counter-clockwise direction …
no javascript .. this is all coz of the way mind perceives 3 Dimensional figure from this 2 D image
January 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Check out this cool website and create your own spinning toy and u can watch it rotate in both clockwise n counter-clockwise direction …http://www.zefrank.com/string_spin/spin_1.html
no javascript .. this is all coz of the way mind perceives 3 Dimensional figure from this 2 D image
January 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
good stuff on your site, great work
January 24th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
nice work, good job man
January 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
didn’t work for me. Can’t take my eyes off her breasts. LOL.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
film line…
What a lovely metaphor. Thank you. Now back to work!…
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
Thursday keyboard…
Good work. Keep it up….