How to Create an Optical Illusion

Optical illusions have fascinated people all over the world for hundreds of years. Many baffled onlookers have tried to reproduce the images that they see. Some have succeeded, others have fallen short. The following steps will guide you through producing your own optical illusion.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A camera
• Play-Doh
• Brightly colored piece of construction paper
• A chess piece
• A screw
• A button
• A wooden roller
• A fork
• A dice
• A Lego piece
• A checker piece
• A key chain
• A pen or a pencil

1. Place the Play-Doh in the center of the construction paper. With the wooden roller flatten the Play-Doh.
2. Put all the objects you collected for this project onto the Play-Doh. Place them where you want them but be sure you do not press them down yet. Now, press each object down but make sure it does not break through the other side of the Play-Doh.
3. Remove each of the items carefully from the Play-Doh. Take a picture of the Play-Doh in a room with bright lights, from above the illusion.
4. Develop the picture and turn it upside down. The images in the Play-Doh should jump out at you, creating your own optical illusion. If your picture turned out better than you expected and created a truly amazing optical illusion, you may want to blow the picture up to poster size, frame it, and put it on a wall for all your friends and family to see.