I remember being wierded out as a kid by this illusion. Seeing a static image change directions randomly without knowing how I did it just gave me the same feeling as watching liminal spaces as an adult.
Bro, seeing this after so many years and realizing that I still don't know how to change the direction it turns is something that makes me very nostalgic
Cover her body with your hand and look at her standing foot, there are two points where you can't tell which way her foot is pointing. After one of those points occurs she may finally go the other way for you
If I keep my eye on one spot on her body, like her butt, she doesn't change direction for me. I have to shift my focus for her to change direction and then I have to shift my focus again for it to change again.
Don't know if this will work for anybody else besides me but focusing on the area between the knee and foot of the middle leg helps so much in granting control over the illusion. It's like the limbo between the two states clockwise and anti-clockwise. At one point the two states switched between eachother so seemlessly that it seemed like she was just wagging her leg at me. Super trippy!
Ok, wow. I remember this from over 10 years ago. It seems like back then it was easier for her to switch directions this or that way randomly. Now for me she spins almost exclusively clockwise and I need to really concentrate to see her spinning counter-clockwise even for a short time and the picture starts trembling when she does that.
As a person with very clear 3D Imaginations, its literally impossible to see it spinning in any other way as I see the depth in this depthless image. Edit: I love all your responses bros, I am still unable to see it go another way but hey please do continue commenting some of these made me laugh in ways I never knew was possible.
Probably the issue I'm having. She only goes one way to me. I'm trying to trigger the optical illusion but I'm just seeing a darkened 3d model spinning.
@@Dalton_Boardman2000 try to scroll down so you only see the foot spinning, then you maybe get it to look as if it spins the other way, and then scroll back up
Love the fact you can't change the way you look at this in free will. As soon as your eyes see it spinning in one direction, it doesn't change unless you think about some crazy thing to make it switch. Kinda weird how we can't control our bodies like this.
FOR THOSE HAVING TROUBLE: I found watching her knee closely was the key. Your mind will pickup the rythm of the feet spinning round and round and their distance from one another. Keep watching her knee and let yourself space while keeping the image in clear focus. In my peripheral vision i began to see an obvious disruption to the original "rythm" of her feet going round and around. This lead to my mind changing the direction in an effort to "resync" her feet to that original pattern. It took the entire video to see the swap. May have to redo it a time or two.
For those who are curious (from my understanding), this is because things that are depicted as 3d but drawn in 2d can be perceived differently. Artists use this when trying to draw figures from the back even if they do not have much experience drawing from the front. You mark out how the body would be resting, and then instead of drawing frontal features like the face that would normally be facing towards the viewer, you draw the back features such as the hair facing towards the viewer. It sounds odd, but it really helps train the mind's eye when making art in 2d.
No matter how much I concentrated, it is still clock wise :(( Update: i have done all of the suggestions below but nothing changes. It seems my mind was too fixated on the fact that “she will only go clock wise”. Even if i use my mind “power” to try and imagine the other possibility, it still wont work. I guess my mind was already set from the beginning of her rotation. Edit 2: After receiving countless of comments, i decided to take several advice, i ended up managed to make her change direction by blinking for 1 minute, though the result is quite unsatisfied. She changed for a split second, then went back to my initial playout.
@@microvvaveoven no it is not shadow, nor legs. The illusion i caused by her face. I couldn't see her rotating in other direction, because face didn't match. I saw her face rotating clockwise, and even if i saw body doing conterclockwise rotation, the face still kept me seeing otherwise. Now, once i realised that, i can switch it with no problem. Just have to "see" face rotating other direction. All this type of illusions work like that. There is a second one with the horse. The illusion is made by the face. I saw face pointed right, then pointed in my direction, then pointed left, then pointed away from me. This is caused in this video by her ponytail. In my case, to "switch" you have to start seeing ponytail instead of face when she is pointed into your direction, to switch rotation.
I found this the best way to make her spin in the opposite direction to what she appears to be spinning at first. Put your finger in front of the picture and spin your finger round focus almost entirely on your finger then spin your finger in the opposite direction. Just keep doing that and the illusion can almost change direction at will.
I was reminded of this earlier this evening. Been staring at it for longer than I care to admit. I’ve well and truly broken the illusion for myself and I’m very happy cause I can now switch her direction on command! My childhood goal finally achieved!
There are 4 interpretations and none of them is the absolute correct one. Spinning clockwise, spinning counterclockwise, swiveling side to side facing you, and swiveling side to side facing away.
I struggled with it quite a lot but what I found helping was, if you want her to spin clockwise look right (so you see her in the corner of your eye and if she starts spinning that way try slowly moving your eyes to the center again). If you want her to spin other way look left.
This is amazing. I moved my eyes to the right so I could see her in my peripheral, and slowly panned my eyes back to her while telling my brain I see her front leg spinning counter-clockwise. She then was spinning counter-clockwise. And then at random intervals it would just switch. These illusions are insane!
Rotating my phone counterclockwise onto it's side so the picture is crooked is the only thing that would make her go counterclockwise and if I went back it would go back to clockwise. So maybe if you see it the other way do the reverse?
For those who struggle, I have finally found a way: Basically just cover the silhouette until you can't see everything above the thighs, including the hands. Now cover the bottom feet. It should now look as if 1 leg "sweeping" & her back is turned against you. Release your cover on whichever direction you want it to spin towards to. Work smarter not harder.
For anyone that can't see it both ways: imagine that when she is spinning in one direction the foot that is on the ground is her left foot. Now imagine if that foot was the right foot.
This worked for me but only after I paused the video first. I had to pause the video on a frame where it made sense in my head that the planted leg was her right leg, then I'd hit play and she changed to counter-clockwise.
@@takigan what worked for me is I looked away from the video and imagined which way she spinning. Then look at the video and she will be spinning that exact way.
If you swing your phone from left to right, to where your phone is almost vertical on either side, and you continue to stare at her you can see the change in spin right before your eyes. Amazing.
Wanna learn how to switch the girl spinning. Pause the picture, it’s really hard to make the switch while she is spinning. Also if you see one leg in the front try and switch it to the back. That’s the easy part. Once you can do that the image should switch and once you unpause the motion should switch aswell.
To get it to switch I just get it in my peripheral vision (so look at a point to the left side of the screen instead of directly at the screen) then look at points around the screen (starting left, then above, then to the right, then below) it usually reverses direction at some point in that process.
Ok, here's how to get the ballerina to change directions (in your mind). For me, when I first watched it, she was going counter clockwise and I couldn't understand how people thought she was going clockwise until now. If you want to see her go clockwise, pause the video and convince yourself she is standing on her right leg. If you want to see her go counterclockwise, pause the video and convince yourself that she is standing on her left leg.
For those who are trying,the trick is to blink your eyes fast, while seeing and you can see her change directions. It's just when the hands disappear and when you catch them appear again with open eyes.
Try imagining the foot on the ground as the right foot when her actual right foot is pointing to the left making it look like a black 2d figure. Imagine it turning in another direction and focus hard, will snap in a few seconds
Idk why it was so easy for me as a child to to see it change directions. Took me a few minutes to really get the hang of it. If you figure out how the animation works. You can see through it and actually use those small moments to trick your mind into believing it's reversing. I did this by focusing on the legs and arms. The body and head animations are too smooth for my brain to decide just on that
The reason it appears to be spinning different ways for different people is that the video actually can be interpreted both ways, since it's shot without perspective and one or more of the leg overlap frames have been removed. Because it's rendered as a blank sillhouette in orthogonal perspective, either rotation arc can be interpreted as either the left leg in front of the right or the right leg in front of the left. It's sort of like when you rotate a flat plane without perspective, it would just appear as a rectangle getting thinner and wider.
I am watching her now for more than one year I can't see both directions. I heard at some point it will happen. I can't believe it it will, but I still hope. It has something to do with your left and right brain.
It spins different directions for me, depending when the animation starts. If it starts with the extended hand on the right side, she spins clockwise. If I start the animation with the extended arm on the left side I see her spinning counter-clockwise. Very fun image...
@@ironmandave3000 you can see her sides. Click on pause when you think she's from the front and focus, you'll see she's also from the back but in an other direction
@@morinette8162 What's your point? Get 10 people together and watch it at the same time. Some will see clockwise some will seek counterclockwise some will watch it change both directions. Have a nice day.
I usually see it clockwise by default. The way I change it is I look away from the screen and try to watch the spinning from my periphery and concentrate on the counterclockwise spinning, you will eventually see it spinning that way in your peripheral sight in a few seconds and then just watch it directly and there you have it spinning the other way.
When I first heard about this illusion, I never thought it actually worked because it never worked for me but when it’s in a higher resolution like this, it does and it’s so trippy 😵💫 I am very impressed like when it changed I skipped back to the beginning and it was the way it was after it changed
you can switch her move clockwise or counter clockwise by focusing your gaze on her feet. The feet is only moving 45 degrees left to right, right to left, so if you want to spin her clockwise, focus your gaze on her feet moving from left to right and she will spin clockwise, but if you want to see her spinning counterclockwise, focus your gaze on her feet from right to left and she will spin counterclockwise.
Only when im not paying attention and looking away my brain sometimes sees her spinning counter clockwise. But when focusing and seeing the details, theres an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest shes spinning clock wise, and can't be easily switched.
If you slow the video down at 0.25x speed, you can get a better understanding of “why” and “when” the brain flips the ballerina in the opposite direction. Wait for the ballerina to spin her foot until it’s directly facing the camera (i.e. pointed at you), and then imagine that she is actually pointing her foot away from you and turning in the opposite direction. Those are the moments when the brain needs to reevaluate what it’s seeing on screen, because there isn’t enough “info” in those brief instances to discern whether the person is facing towards or away from us.
So the way I like to think of how she spins one way or the other is determining which foot is on the ground, her left foot or her right foot 🦶. Since she is leaning backwards, her spin would naturally fall toward the leg that's sticking out. If her left foot is on the ground, then her right leg is sticking out. Thus, she naturally falls clockwise, using her right arm to maintain her balance. If her right foot is on the ground, then her left leg is sticking out. Thus, she naturally falls counterclockwise, using her left arm to keep her balance. This all comes into place due to the way she is leaning. It would be practically impossible to turn clockwise if her right foot was the one on the ground. When I insist that a certain foot is on the ground, my brain takes a bit to realize the orientation of the other parts of the body. Once, I subconsciously determine it's impossible to turn the way I saw she was turning before, it switches directions.
UPDATES: I learned to see her rotating in both directions... and it's simple! I just need to click in the video timelapse at another moment and if she starts with the leg in the right i can see her rotating clockwise and viceversa. 🤩
Being a "shadow " this doesn't contain the 3. dimension information, so you have to add it to make her spin in a certain direction. Like a pure horizontal shadow of an actual body which also look the same in both spinning directions of the body.
I love this illusion so much. I was worried for about 2 minutes as i was unable to accomplish it.. then it happened. And then it happened again. Fascinating.
For me it was the opposite. For ages I could only see her moving clockwise, it was when I tried ignoring the lower foot I finally started seeing her turn anti clockwise.
It took me like ten minutes... u almost gave up. I finally got her to spin counter clockwise by only having her feet in my peripheral vision while reading text comments underneath. Then, BOOM! just like that she was spinning counter clockwise. My brain switched it back to clockwise gaming pretty quickly though.
The image is the same shade through out the body. So depth cues are ambiguous. On the clockwise motion, the "Right Leg" is perceived to be lifted, and on the counter-clockwise, the "Left Leg" is perceived to be lifted. Switching perspectives is easier if you do not focus on the actual image, but rather the shadow, since looking at the actual image seems to have a bias effect of some sort, where you want to keep perceiving the same perception. Looking at the shadow helps dissociate our bias from the raw spinning image we want to 'manipulate' in our minds.
You can actually make it rotate the opposite way using a mirror. When I put it in front of the mirror I noticed that it wasn't mirrored. I was able to change the rotation by looking at the phone and it changed.
I can switch direction by moving my eyes form Side to Side 👀 If you want her Clockwise - move eyes to the Right, pointing them on the edge of the picture, and vice versa 😉 It's much easier when you use your PERIPHERAL VISION. Another hint - you can start blinking A LOT until you see her moving opposite way.
For me the easiest way to get the dancer to change directions was to hit the back or forward 10 seconds button. Some times I would have to hit it twice to make the switch for the dancer to be in the proper position for my brain to switch it.
I found that the apparent direction changes with a well-timed blink. I could make it change about once per-second by blinking a few times. It seems to depend on what position the lifted leg is in right after I blink. I can't say that is it for certain. Now some research....
Her outward foot appears closer to the other foot when it moves left, and further away when moving right. Assuming we are viewing this at an angle parallel to the ground, we can therefore also assume the outward foot is further away from view when moving right. Which would put it at the top of the "clock". When you are able to see it counter-clockwise, suddenly she's tilted about 20 degrees and we are looking up at her. She's no longer spinning perpendicular to the ground which wouldn't make any sense. So if you are having trouble seeing it counter-clockwise, that's just your brain knowing what's right.
You are mistaken. Perhaps your thought process luxury primarily in one hemisphere of your brain but if you expand your thought process you can access both left and right Hemisphere and see your spinning both ways. Are you familiar with Jill bolte Taylor my stroke of insight?
Ok at first i only saw her spinning one way and I was confused as to how anyone could see her spinning the other way… but then i looked down at the comments with only the ballerina in my peripheral and when I looked back it was almost like she started spinning in the other direction! That’s pretty cool
I find it quite effective to look away from the animation for a second and imagine a 3d model of then ballerina spinning in the direction you want - then glance at the image out of the corner of your eye while picturing your imaginary dancer until they line up with one another
