Comments on: It takes about a half a day to get there...

It takes about a half a day to get there...

jonson — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:55:20 -0800

Spanish Castle Magic. Stare at the dot in the center of the image for 30 seconds, then mouseover the picture. Don't shift your glance, because until you do the picture will appear to be in color, despite the fact that it's in black & white.

By: agregoli

agregoli — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:58:09 -0800

Wow. Awesome.

By: Pseudoephedrine

Pseudoephedrine — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:58:11 -0800

Neat!

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:59:08 -0800

Interesting. It works for me for, like, a second, and then appears black and white. Of course, I'm a guy who could never make head-or-tail of those accursed magic eye pictures, so I may not be the best subject for this experiment.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:01:54 -0800

Ooohkay. Can someone explain to me how that works?

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:04:03 -0800

Can someone explain to me how that works? I would guess that it has to do with image persistence and the brain interpolating between the color and B&W cells in the eye.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:07:42 -0800

trippyredballs sometimes go green or dissapear.

By: obeetaybee

obeetaybee — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:07:47 -0800

cool! I noticed the 'color' faded the more times I moved my eyes from the dot and then back to it. I love these types of optical teases.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:09:11 -0800

It works for me for, like, a second, and then appears black and white. So what you're saying is, it works? Love this stuff. Yay human eyes.

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:10:16 -0800

Holy Crayola, that's a strong effect. I was expecting it to be more subtle for some reason.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:12:35 -0800

I was seriously tripping out on that thing yesterday. It was inducing some pretty odd visual effects for me beyond colorization. You can pick any spot to stare at before the switch if you want to check out the color details in other places. Also, every time I see that disappearing red ball thing and I stare at it real good it starts making obviously meaningful patterns and talking to me in Morse code.

By: WidgetAlley

WidgetAlley — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:13:43 -0800

Holy cannoli, that's the coolest thing visual trick I've seen in a while. The colours were so *real*.

By: darkstar

darkstar — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:13:55 -0800

Actually, this results from "retinal fatigue". The castle is an excellent use of it in an illusion!

By: evinrude

evinrude — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:15:22 -0800

That was supercool.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:17:36 -0800

First, I thought something scary would jump out at me. Then, when I moused over, I was like, "Lame, it IS in color." Fooled me...

By: afu

afu — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:29:11 -0800

he's got another one here

By: carsonb

carsonb — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:34:21 -0800

que wapooooooooo! (that's so going into my daily vocabulary) is this kinda like staring at the bright yellow sun for a second, then seeing a big black dot over everything for a few seconds after you look away?

By: parallax7d

parallax7d — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:35:25 -0800

Watching the image slowly fade to black and white was dramatic. Like slowly going color blind.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:35:44 -0800

yeah, years of reading various meme sites trained me to check the thread comments, first, before clicking the link, to make sure i wasn't about to get a pop-out scare from the ring girl or something. still, that was the most impressive manipulation of after-images that i've ever seen.

By: VirtualWolf

VirtualWolf — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:43:41 -0800

Then, when I moused over, I was like, "Lame, it IS in color." Fooled me... Hahah, yeah, I had the same reaction. :)

By: redteam

redteam — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:46:51 -0800

Nice! I haven't seen this one before. This picture and another one you may have seen where you stare at an American flag that's yellow, black, and green are both explained by the opponent process theory of color vision (the other one is the trichromatic theory - RGB). This theory involves three opponent channels: black/white, blue/yellow, red/green. It's a really interesting way to think about how we perceive color. It's also interesting to note that television broadcasts use a process similar to the opponent process theory to display images in a way that is backwards-compatible with B&W televisions. Some links: At Wikipedia at About one other place

By: chef_boyardee

chef_boyardee — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:48:44 -0800

For me it lasts about 8 seconds, then another 5 seconds of marginal color, then it goes black & white. Wonder how long it lasts for others. This is of course assuming you do the full 30 second stare.

By: Windopaene

Windopaene — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:48:53 -0800

Wow that was some freaky goodness!

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:55:59 -0800

Yeah, that was dramatic. Upon mouseover the color burst in so fully and vibrantly that like some others I was only impressed for a fraction of a second before "reasoning" that of course it really was in color and the whole thing was just a gag. Then I shifted my gaze and the BOOM of black & white was even more dramatic. Thanks.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:07:49 -0800

Hold something over part of the image while you're staring at it. Then when you mouse over, move the object out of the way at the same time. You get a totally trippy part black&white, part color effect! Cooooool man, the colors.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:10:01 -0800

That is SO cool! Like magic! :) Delightfully unexpected. I love things like that. Fun. Thank you.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:26:57 -0800

I was expecting to be underwhelmed, but no, I was oh so thoroughly whelmed. Thanks!

By: maryh

maryh — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:32:59 -0800

Like muddgirl, I was totally expecting some guy in a demon mask to pop into frame and start screaming. When will I learn to trust? Very cool, jonson.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:34:12 -0800

When I moved my eyes away and back, the photo would shift between bw and color. Totally amazing. Thanks for the great post! It will be interesting to get my other half's reaction.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:46:03 -0800

Did anyone else see the monkey?

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:51:05 -0800

So, any idea how to make one of these? The colour image you stare at seems to be something more subtle than simple negative of the source image.

By: Kifer85

Kifer85 — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:05:46 -0800

you know its not in spain, but you have to admit its a groovy name...

By: 3.2.3

3.2.3 — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:06:06 -0800

ok. i don't get it. when i mouse over, it's in black and white. then i stare, and it becomes color. however, i'm drunk posting. but the pink dot goes green works just fine.

By: jenovus

jenovus — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:12:25 -0800

Jimbob, I believe the image you stare at is the negative of the hue values for every part of the picture, so that when your eyes overlay the "negative" over the greyscale it lines up. So, I'm guessing that to make one, you should: 1) Make a greyscale version of the picture you want. 2) Subtract this from the original color picture. 3) Take the negative of the difference. 4) Do the fancy mouseover tricks! Someone please give this a shot to see if I am thinking this through correctly.

By: jenovus

jenovus — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:13:11 -0800

"negative" should be "negative negative"

By: painquale

painquale — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:16:29 -0800

That's the best afterimage effect I've ever seen. Awesome. I really liked that when you shift your eyes back to the dot after looking away, the castle is back in color again, but less so.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:49:02 -0800

holy crap, wow.

By: sjvilla79

sjvilla79 — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:54:56 -0800

Interesting. Works great.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:57:28 -0800

back when things were weird in the run-up to Iraq I was going to put one of these

on my car as a somewhat subtle political (counter-) statement.

By: FidelDonson

FidelDonson — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:41:40 -0800

stop hacking my eyes pls

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:46:42 -0800

oops. i read that wrong and started freaking out. for some reason i thought the castle was in color, but the trick made it look black (rather than the opposite.) i started getting worried when it stayed black and white and never turned back to color.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:32:55 -0800

There's about a billion ways to make this in Photoshop, but here's the way which I think is most instructive: 1) Draw a dot on your image 2) Take the image, turn it into greyscale, save that out. 3) Take the color image with the dot on it. Convert it to L*A*B color (Image->Mode->LAB. Fill the l channel with 50% grey. Invert the a and b channels. Convert back to RGB and save it out. Do the mouseover stuff however you want.

By: slf

slf — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:34:43 -0800

Oh, how very cool! What brilliant colour it was too.

By: redteam

redteam — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:22:10 -0800

Nice one, aubilenon! Thanks! Like you said, your process is instructive because L*A*B color space (also referred to as CIE LAB or CIELAB color space) works with the same three axes from the opponent process theory. Luminance (B&W) and the two chrominance channels: a (red & green) and b (blue & yellow). Here's what it looks like: More info: About Good ol' Wikipedia

By: talitha_kumi

talitha_kumi — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:33:15 -0800

I love it.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:17:36 -0800

aubilenon: how do you fill the L channel with 50% grey?

By: antifuse

antifuse — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:17:54 -0800

/me is not smrt with PS

By: missbossy

missbossy — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:26:10 -0800

Like it.

By: Cookiebastard

Cookiebastard — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:36:47 -0800

I thought it was pretty lame, until I turned scripting on. Then I realized I was pretty lame.

By: twine42

twine42 — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:52:54 -0800

ARGH! Stop messing with my head!

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:04:10 -0800

Er, are my eyes and brain broken? Because however long I look at that image it's in colour first, then when I move my mouse over it's swapped instantly for a black and white version. ie. ' It will look like it's in color until you move your eyes.' is just not true, as far as I can see.

By: twine42

twine42 — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:10:15 -0800

jack_mo - it's funky colours while you're staring at it, then when you mouse over it's supposed to go to true colours.

By: sriracha

sriracha — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:12:16 -0800

So that's why the world looks funny after spending hours reading the Blue...

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:28:32 -0800

Very, very cool. Thanks.

By: Marquis

Marquis — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:38:46 -0800

Jack, yes, you're broken. For most people - as with myself - after staring at the weirdo inversed colour image for 10-30 secs, mousing-over will summon an image that absolutely looks like it's in full colour (and then you blink and see it's black and white).

By: redteam

redteam — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:45:29 -0800

antifuse, here's what I've been doing: I found an image, drew a dot in the center of it, copied it and put it on another layer. I desaturated the image on the new layer (Shift+Ctrl+U or "Image > Adjustments > Desaturate") and set that layer to not show. Then I went back to the original layer and converted it to "Lab Color" ("Image > Mode > Lab Color"). Then the levels needed to be modified. I went to "Image > Adjustments > Levels", gave both output levels on the "Light" channel a value of 128, and switched the output values in the "a" and "b" channels. Almost ready! I had to redraw the black dot on the Lab Color layer. I stared at it for a while with the mouse cursor over the check box that would make the desaturated layer visible again. After 30 seconds I clicked on that box and the effect worked! I'm still trying to find an image that displays the effect really well. I need one with a good dose of blues and greens.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:07:28 -0800

Color me wildly whelmed as well. Great post.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:57:20 -0800

jack_mo - it's funky colours while you're staring at it, then when you mouse over it's supposed to go to true colours. Yeah, I understand, it just doesn't happen for me. And since so many people are raving about it, I've tried staring at it for minutes on end, at various angles, through squinting eyes, &c. Whatever I do it just switches straight to black and white from the purple/blue/brown, except for one time when the b&w image had a greenish cast to it for a millisecond... Jack, yes, you're broken. It would seem so! I wonder if this means I'm slightly colourblind, or that my eyes move around uncontrollably without my being aware of it, or that I have a brain tumour, or something else?

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:10:07 -0800

#jack_mo: wonder if this means I'm slightly colourblind, or that ... How do your eyes function with the trippyredballs? Do you see green balls? Do you see most of the balls disappear?

By: Sparx

Sparx — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:59:13 -0800

Bandwidth exceeded. Curse you all - no technicolour castle for Sparx.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:23:49 -0800

How do your eyes function with the trippyredballs? Do you see green balls? Do you see most of the balls disappear? The ones above? I see magenta balls, with one green ball running around the circle (as in replacing the magenta balls as it goes), quite fast, in a clockwise direction. I'd kind of assumed that was an animated .gif, though? Seems too regular to be an optical illusion. (I'm pretty sure I'm not colourblind - I write about art for a living and no one has ever pointed out that I've mixed up colours before...)

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:27:03 -0800

And when I say magenta, I mean #FF00FF - those balls aren't anything close to red for me.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:39:36 -0800

jack_mo, that's what's supposed to happen. If you try to look at the green ball you'll see it isn't really there, just an imprint from the vanishing magenta balls. As for the castle, are you sure you're keeping your eyes still the whole time? Because you have to keep them on the dot while you're looking at the castle to see it in color; the moment you move them off the dot it changes back to b&w.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 03:24:38 -0800

Jack: maybe you have the problem that I have... when I try to focus really hard on a single spot without moving my eyes, I find that my eyes move all over the dang place. With this image, I find it works if I simply relax my eyes and just have the thing in front of me for x amount of time... then mouse over and poof, colour! In other news, I still can't get my own pictures to do the same thing in any reasonable manner. :(

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:43:44 -0800

I see magenta balls, with one green ball running around the circle (as in replacing the magenta balls as it goes) Okay, that's scary because for me, the magenta balls just slowly vanish. I don't see any green ball or anything moving. The castle was amazing though.

By: MikeKD

MikeKD — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:58:53 -0800

The balls one is doubly trippy. If you stare at/focus on the cross, eventually the magenta balls 'disappear' and you'll just see the green ball going in circles.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:19:27 -0800

I think CunningLinguist is freaking himself out because his browser is set to disable gif animation. Either that or his visual perception is really messed up.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:09:08 -0800

Here is another one, found here. It automatically switches after 30 seconds.