Optical illusions do not leave indifferent neither adults nor children, plunge them into a peculiar world of magic and at the same time make the brain boil from the impossibility of what they see.
Sometimes tricks are not so difficult to perceive. Among them, the so-called tracking dragon, made of paper according to a certain pattern, is extremely popular.
Illusion: Gardner's Dragon
This trick was invented by the famous magician Jerry Andrus for Gardner's donations, so he is often called in honor of the creator or owner of the fund. From the previous name of the illusion, it becomes clear what exactly it consists of: the paper dragon constantly looks at the observer and even turns his head.
To achieve maximum effect, the figure must be placed above the light source, and during movements, the viewer is recommended to close one eye and not depart more than 2 meters from the figure (optimal distance is 1 m).
What it takes to repeat the illusion
In order to make a figurine, you will need a paper dragon Gardner, a template with the image of which is presented below.
The blanks come in three colors: green, blue and dark pink, and also contain detailed assembly instructions with bend indicators and a picture explaining how the result should look (back view).
In addition, you will need scissors, glue and photo paper, which has a more suitable texture for this purpose.
How to make a Gardner dragon with your own hands
Next, you need to print the workpiece on a color printer, its size should approximately coincide with the A4 printing sheet. As mentioned above, it is best to do this on photo paper, but if it is not there, as well as the desire to spend money, then any one, preferably with a high density, will do.
After this, the workpiece must be carefully cut, while maintaining the white field around the figure intact, in order to be able to read the instructions and make out the assembly diagram. Bend the template in accordance with these instructions.
At this stage, the Gardner dragon is almost ready, it remains to fix the base by inserting the plugs in the slot. Only the head of the figure needs sizing, while it is important to remember that the colored part of the workpiece must remain inside.
How it works
This illusion is based on some of the nuances of the human brain. The special coloring of the dragon's head makes you visually perceive it as a convex object, despite the fact that the paper is concave inward with the colored side. This is due to the fact that the brain is trying to recognize the shape of an object based on everyday experience, as well as its possible trajectory of movement.
Therefore, when the observer moves, he has the impression that the Gardner dragon turns his head slightly (this effect is possible only at a short distance). The location of the eyes in the figure, as it turned out, is also of great importance, since on some variations of the templates created according to the example of the illusion considered in this article, the figureโs eyes glance slightly.
Variations
In general, creating a paper illusion (Gardner's dragon) with your own hands will not take more than half an hour, but it is better not to trust this lesson to children under 5 years old - they may not understand how to fold the blank and spoil it.
It is not necessary to dwell on the dragon - there are about 10 more templates with the image of other animals. Among them there is a dog, a cat, a frog and even a human skeleton, but not all of them are successful.
Therefore, having sufficient artistic skills, it is better to draw your own version, guided by Gardner's original template, to understand the principle by which the illusion works.
Similar optical tricks
Since the Gardner dragon is completely exposed and there is nothing more to say about it, you can talk about other interesting illusions (some of them can also be repeated independently with the proper skills).
For example, an artist under the nickname brusspup animates monochrome images by overlaying on a black grid of parallel lines. Moving it, he gets a kind of animation. In addition, he also owns the idea of โโa soaring cube.
This is a very simple trick, which will require only a sheet of plain cardboard, some paper, scissors and scotch tape. The volume of the cube is achieved according to the same principle that applies when assembling the head of the dragon Gardner - that is, the figure is obtained with the concave colored side inward. Then the workpiece is glued to the cardboard using a sheet of paper twisted by a plait, and due to rotational movements, it seems that the cube is floating in the air.
In addition, brusspup draws extremely realistic images, distorted in such a way that it directly seemed to the viewer that in front of him lies a very real thing that you can pick up. However, when the object is rotated, the effect disappears.
There are a great many optical illusions, while a considerable part of them plays on color perception and sense of volume, so the looking dragon is, of course, not the only one of its kind, but extremely popular because anyone can make it with its own hands. However, it is worth noting an extremely interesting fact - people with schizophrenia are often not able to recognize such tricks.