Moiré Animation(s) - Xtreme Animated Illusions

Also know as 'Magic Moving Images', 'Scanimation', 'Animated Optical Illusions', etc., the Moiré Animation effect has been around for hundreds of years. So long, in fact, that they even predate the word 'Moiré'. I recently came across a YouTube video that was touting a new animated illusion book and thought to myself, "I bet I could do that in Xara Xtreme!" And whaddya know, I was right.

Here's an example I did as a simple proof of concept project. Next I'll try something a bit more elaborate. Although, once you do one you come to find out that they're really not that difficult at all.

This one is just over 96 frames and shows two repetitions of a 360° CW and a 360° CCW rotation of a simple cog shape.

Enjoy,
HayTay

It looks impressive but you have not actually said what the optical illusion is?

Salaam,

The illusion comes from the apparent rotational movement from a static image made from 6 'slices' of the cog in 6 different positions. The only thing(s) actually moving, from left to right and back again, are the vertical black bars. The final Xtreme Flash animation is made from just two objects, the vertical blinds and the round looking blob thingy after the equals sign in the first post. The rainbow background isn't a necessary part of the 'illusion'. I just put it there for some added color.

For further detail I've attached the actual image of the 6 slices of cog I used. The spaces between the black bars are exactly equal to the width of one 'slice' of the image that appears to rotate, but in reality, doesn't.

I hope that's a better explanation,
HayTay

I'm still finding these amusing in a primitively animated kind of way. Here's a couple more, Moiré animations using Xara Xtreme's Flash feature. I thought I'd try a bouncing ball and a series of rolling balls before attempting something a bit different...

Sliced static images are included so you can see what's actually behind the moving black bars. In case anyone is curious.

At least I'm havin' fun,
HayTay

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These are great.... they make me dizzy as all get out.. (especially the first one) but... just really cool.

Thanks, geminiguy!

They're definitely addictive in their simplicity and XX makes it far too easy to create them.

I noticed that 'BEER' adds excitement to almost any thread so here's a cold one. It keeps refilling so there should be enough for everyone... :D

CHEERS...

Neat... but, if I have too much beer, while staring at that image... I am positive the result will be less than pleasing:D
These are just really cool though... definitely looking forward to more.

Those are fantastic!
A really different way of looking at things and doing animations.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HayTay

Also know as 'Magic Moving Images', 'Scanimation', 'Animated Optical Illusions', etc., the Moiré Animation effect has been around for hundreds of years. So long, in fact, that they even predate the word 'Moiré'.

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Hi I am writing a paper on moire animation (barrier grid or picket fence animation) and just wondered if you could tell me where you got the information about the moire effect pre-dating the word moire? Any help would be appreciated, thanks :)

welcome to TalkGraphics Fiona

If you look at the last date on the post prior to yours, you'll see the last post in this thread was 2009. HayTay has not posted for some time.

Have you gone the Google search route? I like to search for a term then look at the images which determines the content before you visit all the listed sites.

Moire patterns occur if you take two pieces of window screen and rotate them and create rosettes. Moire patterns can also occur in CMYK printing if the angles of the colors are not precise resulting in box like shapes.

Getting back to this old thread, open source software project animbar let's you easily create this kind of animation from a set of input still images. With recent versions, animbar even supports export to animated SVG files that may be included in webpages directly.

Enjoy!

grat stuff, haytay
i never saw these first time round
at last a spammer does soething useful :thx