f13.net

(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6637/1182934728471eb4.gif)

Okay, she's spinning clockwise right? Slowly look from the bottom of the image up.

What kind of optical illusion is that?

Her boobs are unbalancing?

Uh.

Jesus.

I thought it actually switched directions until it changed back and forth real fast when I blinked.

Do you mean that for some moments she looks like she's spinning counter-clockwise? I noticed that at first, then I looked at it again and it seemed back to clockwise. Then I couldn't 'get' it to turn counter-clockwise. Now, when I hit 'reply' and start posting, its back to counter-clockwise! Arg!

I never see any rotation other than clockwise.

I noticed more how her foot goes up while the top of her body never changes vertical location.

(http://xs216.xs.to/xs216/07264/optical.PNG)

This is the position that it always switches for me.

Maybe it is my years of working around spinning objects that has trained my eyes?

It has to do with the foot shadow, if you can't get it to work, focus (but un-focus) your eye on the space between the foot and the shadow and then it'll flip.   (When I say unfocus, I mean like viewing one of those 3-d pictures)

Of course, now I can't get it to look anything BUT counter-clockwise.  I've broken my brain again.

I can never unfocus my vision enough to get those MagicEye things to work. I am like Willem in Mallrats.

Good eye.  Yeah, the trick is that without the shadow, you can't tell when the raised foot is pointing toward you or away from you, so you can interpret her as turning in either direction.  Once you're looking at the shadow, it's clear that she's turning counterclockwise.

I'm not sure why the initial tendency is to see her turning as clockwise, though.  Wonder if it's a handedness thing.  The thing that would make the illusion really devious would be to have a similarly subtle 3D cue above her that makes her appear to be turning clockwise, so that the direction would depend on which half of the image you were focused on.

Now that I understand the illusion, I can make her switch back and forth by covering up the shadow and focusing on her lowered foot.  It's small enough that it's easy to convince yourself that it's turning the other direction, and once you've convinced yourself of that you can look up at the rest of her and it'll stay that way.

It helps a lot if you are nearsighted. One trick is to focus on something further into the distance. E.g. look above the picture into the distance and the bottom of your view (i.e. the top of the picture) should unfocus itself.

I thought you fuckers were high and then it switched on me. I am afraid.

It's not the spin direction changing that's freaky -- it's the switching of the pivoting leg that is. It's the silhouetting that allows for the direction switching effect since as a silhouette you can't tell if something is pointing towards you or away from you. I'm not sure how the leg switching effect works but it's probably related.

Edit: typos

Ugh, I only see her as spinning counterclockwise, nothing else.  Even trying to block out the shadow and unfocusing the eyes, etc.. still just going counterclockwise to me.   :sad_panda:

Try staring just at the shadow for a bit, then quickly look up to about breast level (as a man, my eyes naturally rest there. YMMV  :evil: ). Wait 6 or 7 revolutions and then look up. When it 'pops' it will blow your mind.

schild marked one of the interesting frames where there's a clear ambiguity which way she's facing because of the silhouette effect. Look at her feet. They can either be pointing towards you or away from you and because of the way the legs looked crossed it allows your mind to pick either leg as the one she's standing on. If you can't "visualize" her switching legs (consciously or subconsciously) I don't think you can get her to switch directions.

Edit: I can get her to switch whenever she's in profile like so:

(http://pandadesigns.com/f13/illusion_profile_right.gif)

Again because of the silhouette it's ambiguous which leg she's standing on.

I can get her to switch with or without the shadow. It's as ambiguous as the rest of her silhouetted shape. I.e. there's no "proper" direction for her to be spinning. It's like the vase/two faces illusion -- both interpretations are correct.

Jesus, the second shadow switches from foot to hand depending on which way she's going. I need to get some acid and watch this.

No it doesn't. I think you may be on acid already :-D

I meant visually it switches. Not REALLY switches. Someone can back me up here... heh.

Man, I can't MAKE IT HAPPEN.

She spins for eternity in counterclockwise.

Trying watching for when she's in profile facing to the right like in my above image. Now imagine that she's spinning 180 degrees and then switching directions right when she's in the right facing profile position. Concentrate on the extended leg, try to ignore the pivoting leg. Also try covering up the feet shadow. I can make her spin back and forth if I think of her switching direction at each profile point (left and right).

I tried watching her boobs, all I noticed was nipples.

I have trouble making her switch when I'm staring at her breasts.

Fabricated was either idling in an IRC channel with 4channers or reads 4chan or reads some boring blogs. ^_^


That's funny, when I'm looking at them, I have trouble giving a shit whether she's spinning or not.

No no! Must make her spin back and forth!

Clockwise only :(

That's a fun one and I've not seen it before.

Rant at Schild:  I THOUGH WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO HAVE NIPPLES!!!

Wouldn't that make breast feeding difficult?

OK, there is a way to tell perspective, look at the head during rotation, you can see it dip and rise, it does actually move in an oval. On the 'bottom' of the oval, she's facing away from me, pony tail towards. That's probably what I saw.

Zombies don't need to breast feed. Zombie babies that is. If Signe were to have undead babies.

OK I GOT IT TO TURN COUNTERCLOCKWISE!

I had to block off the shadow at the bottom and force myself to look at her knees.


The shape of her planted foot locks me into her being clockwise if I see any shadow.

I feel like there is a giant conspiracy of everyone talking about how she's spinning counterclockwise when dammit she's just spinning clockwise.  I see nothing special or out of the ordinary and had no one have said anything I would never have given it a second glance.  Damn bastards...

Wow the "leading" arm switches just like the pivoting leg. This thing is way freaky.

So does the un-pivoted shadow! You bastard! :mob:

Same here.  She only spins counterclockwise for me.

Finally I can control her at will. Shadow=Counterclockwise, Ankle=Clockwise.

Dance, my little puppet, dance!

Now try making her spin back and forth with her "back" facing you.

Huh, it started clockwise, then went counter, then back, then counter again. Now my brain is stuck on it being counter only.

I can only get clockwise.

I've tried all of your shyster tricks and nothing works.  I think you're all nuts.

I'm looking at her foot or at her shadow alternatively. How could I possibly know if her back is or isn't towards me!  :roll:

I was convinced the GIF was changing from clockwise to counter-clockwise. Then I got a 2nd viewer to watch it with me and they saw it change at different times then me.

That is cool.

Ok, now I got it - can make it switch back and forth by looking at the shadow or the outstretched foot.

Ok, so I was about ready to call of you guys nuts... until she switched pivot feet and started turning clockwise.  That is a truly funky little image.

When I first saw it, she flipped directions several times before I realized what I was watching.  Then she got stuck going clockwise.


Thanks, that fixed my brain.  Or broke it.  That's a trip.

Interesting, the outstretched foot doesn't work for me, only the one pointing towards the ground. Must be different for lefties!  :-D

Someone needs to avatarize that gif.  :evil:

I concur with this assessment.

I've already seen it as an avatar on the CoX forums.

None of the little "tricks" worked for me either.  I just tried to MAKE my brain see the image changing directions, basically saying, "Ok, what if these guys are actually seeing something that is happening".  All of a sudden your brain will make the leg move left-right or right-left depending on how you want to see it.

That the pivot foot changes is still what boggles my mind.