Create Moving Image Optical Illusion in Photoshop

Ever notice how sometimes images can play tricks on you? In today’s tutorial I will demonstrate how to create an optical illusion that appears to move, even though in reality, it is standing still. Let’s get started!


Tutorial Details
Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Beginner
Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour


Step 1


Create a new document with dimensions set to 1280px by 800px.

Step 2


Hit CMD + R to enable rulers if you don’t have them turned on by default. Make sure they are displaying pixels. Create a new guideline every 50 pixels both vertically and horizontally. You can create them by going to View > New Guide or by clicking on a ruler and by dragging it onto the canvas. If you prefer to use a dialog box then you’ll have to turn it on several times and simply type in values starting from 50px to 1250px in case of vertical guidelines and 50px to 750px in case of horizontal guidelines.

Step 3


Fill the background layer with #564734 using the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Grab an Ellipse Tool (U) and create an ellipse on a new layer (hit CMD + Shift + N and Enter to create a new layer). My ellipse has 46px by 34px including a 3px black and white border. So, I’d recommend something that has between 43px by 31px at first but it doesn’t have to have exactly these dimensions. Its dimensions don’t make a huge difference but your ellipses have to be placed close together. Large gaps will produce poor results.

Step 4


Double-click on the thumbnail of your layer with ellipse and apply the following style. Turn on Stroke. Change Fill Type from Color to Gradient. Change Angle from 90 degrees to 180 degrees. Click on the gradient bar and anew window should pop up. Create two additional indicators in the middle of the bar. Set first two indicators to white (#ffffff) and the last ones to black (#000000). Also enable Color Overlay and change its color to #564734 for instance.

note: the above image size is not so big so please Download it to view it clearly

Step 5


Now grab the Ellipse Tool (U) again and create a new layer above your previous layer (hit CMD + Shift + N and Enter). Draw a smaller ellipse inside your last one. Its size is up to you. Just make sure everything looks like on the image below.

Step 6


Group these two layers by selecting them and hitting CMD + G. Right-click on the group and choose Merge Group.

Step 7

Move your first layer there where the two guidelines cross in the top left corner as shown below.

Step 8


Hit CMD + J or go to Layer > Duplicate Layer in order to duplicate this layer. Place the copy right below your first layer. Once it’s exactly in the middle of the two crossing guidelines hit CMD + T. Rotate the copy by 30 degrees. You can do that in the top toolbar (see the screenshot below).

Step 9


Keep copying THE FIRST ellipse and rotate each copy by multiples of 30 degrees. Place each copy on top of everything else (that’s also very important). Once you get to 180 degrees you won’t be able to type in 210 degrees so just use negative values. So, third copy would have 60 degrees, fourth 90 degrees, seventh 180 degrees, eighth -150 degrees and so on. Once you are done you should have 15 copies in total. Select each copy by selecting the first one in layers’ palette, holding Shift key and selecting the last one. All the copies in between should have become selected. Hit CMD + G to group them.

Step 10


Go to Layer > Duplicate Group and duplicate it. Select your Move Tool (V) and drag this group like one the image below.

Step 11


Open up your newly created copy of the group and remove the very bottom layer (which should be your very top ellipse). Then duplicate the third layer counting from bottom of this group which should be your third layer counting from top of the ellipses. If you’re unsure which layers should be removed and which moved then take a look at the image below.

Step 12


Repeat the 11th step several times until you get the final image.

When Does This Effect Work?


This effect will work in several instances.

1.You can use many different shapes to achieve the same effect. Circles and ellipses seem to work the best but rectangles or squares would do the trick as well
.
2.Each shape should be lighter on one side and darker on the other. This could be a black and white border like in my case or just a gradient with any color as long as there is a visible contrast between them.

3.You can put something inside the shape to make it more detailed.
Your image should consist of many similar shapes and each one has to be really close to one another.

4.Your image should be large enough so that it makes your eyes constantly move.

5.You can create just about any pattern from these circles or ellipses.

6.You should rotate your shapes step by step so that their darker sides (black in my case) are right next to the lighter ones (white in my case). It is very good idea to rotate each circle a bit (like 15 degrees or 30 degrees). If you don’t rotate them it should still work fine but it would ‘move’ vertically or horizontally.

7.Other than that you won’t get this kind of effect or it wouldn’t be as much observable.


How Does This Effect Work?

When we look at the image below, our brain tries to convert it from 2D to 3D. This is because the borders around the ellipses are inconsistent. This confuses us and creates an illusion of movement.

Final Image

Take a look at the final image below.

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Create Animated 3D GIF in Photoshop CS6

Step 1

Open the logo in Photoshop. Note that the PNG file contains transparency—this is important when we convert to 3D. There’s no need to adjust the image size since we will change it at the end when we save it as an animation.



Select the Crop Tool and extend the top and bottom to give our scene more space. Hit Enter to commit to the changes.



Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select just the ‘envato’ text (the leaf is excluded) and click on the “Add Layer Mask” icon in the Layers Panel. This will isolate just the text.



To make things easier, I’ve renamed the only layer to “Text.” Go ahead and make a copy of this layer, rename if “Leaf,” and click on the Layer Mask (this targets the mask, making it editable). Press Command/Ctrl + I to invert the selection and thus, isolating the leaf. The result should look identical to the original image that we opened. The only difference is that the text and leaf icon are now on separate layers.



With the “Leaf” layer still active, go to Layer Layer Mask Apply. This will remove all delete all pixels that were hidden by the mask.



Next, go to 3D New 3D Extrusion From Selected Layer. This will automatically bring up the panels we need to work in our 3D scene.. If not, you can always go to Window Workspace 3D to force those panels open. Notice that the “Leaf” layer now appears as a 3D object llayer.



In the 3D panel, select the “Leaf” object (denoted by the extruded star icon) and go to the Properties Panel and set the Extrusion Depth to 35. Also, deselect Catch Shadows and Cast Shadows.



On the canvas, use the onscreen widget to position the leaf in the exact center of our scene (denoted by the intersection of the red and blue lines)



Currently, our canvas is showing the Top View. Select “Default Camera” in the 3D panel to reset the camera. Notice that the leaf object does not appear to be in its proper position. We will fix this in the next step.



Currently, the leaf appears out of position. To fix this, use the camera tools in the top menu to move the camera until the logo is properly placed. By moving just the camera, we can make the leaf object appear to be back in it’s proper position. It is important that we do not actually move the leaf object like we did in .



When you do this, you will see all the layers displayed as separate video layers in the timeline. In this case, we will have two video layers.



Since we want to animate the “Leaf” object, we need to access its properties in the timeline. Twirl-down the “Leaf” layer to show all properties that can be animated. For this aniamtion, we will focus on the “3D Scene Position.”



Click the stopwatch icon to Enable Keyframe Animation. This will add our first keyframe to our timeline (denoted by the yellow diamond).



Since Keyframe Animation is enabled, Photoshop will automatically add a keyframe when we make changes to the scene’s position (or rotation). Before we start rotating our scene, we need to indicate how long it will animate for. Do this by dragging the Current Time Indicator (denoted by the blue slider) to another point in the time bar.



Back in the 3D Panel, select the “Scene” layer and go to the Properties Panel. In the Properties Panel, select the Coordinate icon and change the “Y Angle” value to 360. This will rotate the scene around its Y-axis 360 degrees.



Notice that a new keyframe has been added to our timeline. Using the Current Time Indicator, you can scrub back and forth to see how our 3D object animates. Since our “Leaf” object was placed in the exact center of our scene, we should see the leaf spinning in place.



Our goal is to have the “Leaf” object appear to continually rotate around its axis while only showing the front face of the object. To do this, we first need to make a copy of our “Leaf” layer. In the Layers Panel go ahead and copy this layer. Notice that a copy of this layer also appears in our timeline.



Next, scrub through the timeline until the “Leaf” object makes three-quarters of a turn.



Grab the beginning of the “Leaf copy” video layer and drag it to the red line. This video layer is now cropped and will start animating right after the three-quarter turn.



Now, scrub over the first part of our animation and find the point at which the object makes its first quarter turn. This time, drag the ending of the “Leaf” video layer so it stops at the red line.



Finally, slide the “Leaf copy” video layer over to the red line. Scrub through the timeline to check that the animation is smooth.



Before we render any frames, we have to tell Photoshop which frames we want rendered. Use the Current Time Indicator to scrub through our animation to locate the point where our object appears to make a full rotation. Use the slider immediately below the timebar to set the end of the work area. Now, only these frames will render.



With our scene complete we can set up the final animated GIF. We will cover two options to save out our animation: Option 1 will quickly save out a low-quality GIF; Option 2 will take more time, but allow us to produce a high-quality GIF.

The first option is to go to File Save for Web. This option skips the rendering process and will save out the frames as they appear on our canvas. Go ahead and change the settings as you see fit. Click Save when done.



Here is an example of the final animation using Option 1. Notice that the edges of the leaf appear jagged.



The second option will require our scene to be rendered first. It is highly recommended to save at this point. Now, go to File Export Render Video and make the changes as shown. Make sure to select “Photoshop Image Sequence” as the output. This will render our scene as individual frames.



navigate to the folder we just created with all of our rendered frames. Select the first frame and click “Image Sequence” at the bottom of the window. Click Open. You will also see a dialogue box for the Frame Rate, just click OK.



The rendered images should automatically appear in a new timeline as a new animation.



Final Rendering

The last step is to save out the animation as a GIF. Just repeat Step 11 and you’re done!.

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