Mr. Hacker

This Simple Optical Illusion Makes Pictures Move

I've been experimenting a lot with optical illusions lately, and this one absolutely blew my mind. You’ve probably seen scanimation before — that visual trick on paper where you slide a striped mask over an image and it suddenly comes to life. But I wanted to see if I could take this classic trick to a whole new level. It turns out this magic actually has a long history and a scientific name: barrier-grid animation (sometimes also called a kinegram, motograph, or historically, Ombro-Cinéma). I spent hours playing with the math and formulas behind the moiré effect to understand how these moving pictures on paper actually work. And the results are amazing! Using tools like MIT's FabObscura system, I figured out how to generate completely custom patterns. We are no longer limited to the classic slit animation or picket fence animation. I even found out that you can use masks made of tiny holes instead of stripes, and the optical effect animation is just as incredible. It is just amazing how math can breathe new life into this long-known illusion. If you want to try this paper animation tutorial at home, it's super easy. You just print the image, make an acetate overlay animation for the mask, and watch the magic moving images appear right in your hands. To save you time, I put the formulas that create the most unusual and interesting patterns into a Google Sheet. You can grab it below and start making your own animations without any screens! 📊 Google Sheet with my custom formulas: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gQF5I2vG1vJ4gJ0wZ1Nf3PRHFw2My5yL63bkCEDhTaU/edit?usp=sharing 🛠️ Scanimation generator #1: https://scanimation.org/ 🛠️ Scanimation generator #2: https://kinegram.app/ 🖼️ Examples of ready-made scanimations: https://opticalillusionsq.com/animated?page=1 ▶️ Examples of scanimation videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW5bcsax78I 💻 MIT software on GitHub: https://github.com/tichaesque/FabObscura 📄 MIT research article: https://hcie.csail.mit.edu/research/fabobscura/fabobscura.html 📸 The guys at MIT created a camera that makes kinegrams while filming: https://hcie.csail.mit.edu/research/kinecam/kinecam.html 🎬 Tool that makes scanimations from your videos: https://scanimatizify.studiodev.xyz/video/ Subscribe to the channel and check out my other videos. See you in the next one! Genius Optical Illusion: You Won't Believe This is Just Paper and Plastic