Spinning Cat Optical Illusion - Rotating/Moving Cat Illusion - Visual Phenomena and Optical Illusions

Spinning Cat Optical Illusion - Rotating/Moving Cat Illusion

SOOPRcow

I Have posted this illusion earlier before, but I am posting it again because of some personal reasons :)

This illusions is simple – all you have to do is see the cat rotate in both directions. At first you may think it’s impossible, but after some practice you’ll soon be able to switch the direction with each round. I’m also interested to hear your comments about the original direction you saw the cat spin at? When I first saw this, it appeared to move clockwise. Now each time I see it – it’s just the opposite (concentrate on it’s tale to switch).

72 Responses to “Spinning Cat Optical Illusion - Rotating/Moving Cat Illusion”

Anonymous said... 22 July, 2010 Fake... its on a timer
Anonymous said... 22 July, 2010 i really do not see it. ill concentrate on the tail for a million yrs and ill still not see it
Anonymous said... 22 July, 2010 Actually, the cat never stops spinning clockwise, it always does, how you perceive the cat determines how it "appears" to spin
Anonymous said... 22 July, 2010 I do not see it either. I keep focusing on the tail and.... nothing
Anonymous said... 23 July, 2010 I always see it rotating clockwise first few times i see it, try to cover the cat with anything and slowly uncover it from right to left and its rotation shifts.
Anonymous said... 23 July, 2010 advise: if you tend to see it rotating ccounterclockwise try to cover it and uncover the image from its right to its left and the rotation you perceive shifts
Anonymous said... 23 July, 2010 It worked for me, I had to concentrate on the front paws...I couldn't get it to work on the tail but the front paws works...also before you perceive it to go around force your mind to not have the paws go back but go towards you.
Anonymous said... 23 July, 2010 the illusion only works caz its all black if it was a different color it wouldent work when it spins and for a breff moment you dont see the paws the paws seem to go right through the cat like the vice on a clamp but it spins on a diffent angle and dont look at the tail look at the back not the tail it works better on the back
Anonymous said... 25 July, 2010 Not on a timer. If it were on a timer, then I wouldn't be able to have it "change" direction just by crossing my eyes really quick.
Anonymous said... 04 August, 2010 look at the cat in your peripheral vision and you can make it switch
Anonymous said... 06 September, 2010 It takes practice, but it's amazing once you can get it to change directions. Other than the obvious optical illusion, I wish there was an explanation.
Anonymous said... 16 September, 2010 wow i saw it change can it do other things perhaps maybe? any other ullisions?!
Anonymous said... 18 September, 2010 it is so not fake you guys just can't see it. maybe you guys aren't smart enough
Anonymous said... 28 September, 2010 the peripheral vision technique works amazingly, but I can't make it switch while I'm staring directly at it
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 yep, use peripheral vision then you'll see it. after than look directly at it
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 Yup, gotta look away from it. By looking at it peripherally you can actually make it seems like it constantly is shifting directions and never doing a complete spin. I could not make it change by looking directly at it. Look to the side.
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 the peripheral vision idea works really well-it's so cool
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 Trying briefly crossing your eyes.
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 Guys, Stare at the bottom of the cat.If you stare at it close enough or long enough,think of a direction to turn,and think that the body is going to twist.I'm still trying to figure this out,but i know it has to do something about the tail
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 I flash my eyes from up to down or from paw to down then from down to up tail to up and it works for me. Try scrolling up and down fast.
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 the only way i can get it to switch is if i cover the cat so u can only see the front legs
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 Advise: Look at it almost cross eyed to make it switch
Anonymous said... 01 October, 2010 i can make the cat dance,,,try looking at it at the time the face of the cat turns every time he turns your looking at the back of his head and not his face .
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 when i first saw it ...it was going counterclockwise...it was really hard to make it go clockwise but the peripheral vision trick usually works!
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 i swept my eyes to the bottom corners to make it change. got it to do it whenever i want. but what makes it switch
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 yup peripheral vision works, I can change the cat's direction almost at will with it.
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 It's easy. The image makes a 180, then turns and goes the opposite way. It never does a full 360, your mind simply percieves it to do so. Try it with your own body. Spin it 180 degrees, then stop and turn back, and repeat. Then apply it to the image of the cat,and make use of its hands. Whenever they point left or right, try and envision the cat turning back.
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 i can change it every time. look at the outside of the paws and you will see an outer circle. you can change it almost erey time.
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 Look at it upside down...it will change directions. The common perception for most people is counter clockwise
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 if its spinning clockwise what i do is close my eyes and imagine it spinning the opposite direction then open my eyes look at the cat then it works sometimes it doesnt work
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 UGHH i saw it change once but now i can't see it going clockwise again! It's a tricky one
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 when I think about the guy I love that cat switches constantly. I don't look at the tail...thats a bunch of crap I can look anywhere and it switches. Practice it! When I first looked at this it went cloakwise, because I am right handed. Now I just think of different things and it switches depending on what side of my brain im using. :)
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 I figured it out!!! There is a slight difference in the lengths of the cat's back legs. Whens the cat's back is facing you it will switch the lengths of the legs. Whichever leg is shorter is the direction that the cat will spin. That's why you are told focus on the tail. So you DON'T focus on the length of the legs!
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 After a while I can't make it spin completely; it keeps on switching
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 Imagine that it keeps turning it's back to you- you can easily make it do a half-circle.
Anonymous said... 02 October, 2010 agree about peripheral thing. i can make it go back and forth using peripheral vision.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 To me it appears to spin to the right. If I get REALLY close to the image & stare at it long enough it seems to start jumping from side to side.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 There's a 'spinning dancer' version of this-can be found on wikipedia. you can even click counter/clockwise were the lower foot is labeled L or R. it's amazing how that cues how you see the spinning. Also a pretty good explanation of how this works
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 I did it! the trick is too look a little down from the picture, so ur basically looking fromt he pereferall view of ur eye, do it for about 3 seconds and u see it change.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 When i was looking at it with my little brother when mine switched to the left, he said no it was still spining right. So its not fake
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 i did it with my friend and while i saw it spinning one way she saw it spinning the OTHER way, and it would switch randomly and sometimes we saw it spinning in the same direction. So it DOES work, however i don't understand how. I recommend looking at it with someone else.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 Since the image is all black, the illusion makes you think the "paws" are rotating either toward you or away from you. The image is, of course, in two dimensions, so the "rotation" is just your mind "filling in the blanks" for the rotation. If you want to make it switch rotation, blink rapidly when the cat is at the far left or the far right of the rotation, and concentrate on "seeing" the cat rotate in the opposite direction.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 If that does not work, try closing your eyes for a second and picture the cat spinning in the direction you want, then open your eyes onto the cat. If you try it a few times, you will get it to work.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 move your eyes from the upper corner to corner
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 The animation is not 3D, it's flat. Your mind makes it look 3D and spinning.
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 IT STILL WONT WORK!!!!!!! WHY WONT IT CHANGE DIRECTIONS?!?!?! IT'S GONNA DRIVE ME MAD!!!!!
Anonymous said... 03 October, 2010 Takes a super duper long time to figure it out, but when you do, you can switch by will. Well, it takes a lot of work to switch by will for me. I squint my eyes so I can only see the tail, and I imagine the cat going the other way, so after a few seconds I open my eyes all the way and SHAZAMMMM!! he's going the other way.
harmoon said... 29 October, 2010 that black cat ain't crossin no one's path but his own! I saw it spinning anticlockwise at first, which is interesting considering it is animated spinning clockwise. the actual direction is evident because, although very slight and seemingly undetected by everyone else, there is visible foreshortening of the head and feet/tail. foreshortening is when objects farther away look smaller. it makes it appear as if the cat is stretching out a bit as it turns counterclockwise (it is less noticeable in the clockwise direction because it is a natural optical effect). if you don't see it try holding a straight edge horizontally at the tip of the tail. i guess he crossed our paths though, and in two directions at once, oh no... and right before halloween too
Anonymous said... 29 October, 2010 its at a timer -_- i opened this in two different windows one was five minutes earlier than the other and it switched just five minutes before the other this is bullshit!
Anonymous said... 29 October, 2010 If you are having trouble seeing it-- when it spins around where its back is facing you put your finger up close to the screen at the edge of the gray circle on the side you think it is spinning towards. This made it change every time for me and if you do it back and forth, side to side, it will seem to never spin all the way around, but do a half turn back and forth.
Anonymous said... 29 October, 2010 Idiots, it's not on a timer. If you work with it, you can get it to switch whenever you want (assuming your brain is wired the right way - nothing to do with IQ or anything of that nature). Come back to over and over, look at it, decided when you want it to switch, and that's when it will switch.
Anonymous said... 30 October, 2010 haha, amazing, i practice a bit and now I can switch the rotation whenever I want. even time I see the cat just turn half way left and right. The trick is really simple, switch your eyes in the opposite direction with the cat's upper legs promptly enough... Hope you soon catch it...
Calvin said... 30 October, 2010 this is the trick... stare when the cat turns back.. and you will see it looks like it face in the front too...
Anonymous said... 18 November, 2010 I didn't concentrate...I chatted with a friend then clicked back to this page and the cat changed directions all on it's own...I'm inclined to say that it is indeed on a timer.
Anonymous said... 19 November, 2010 i too got it and its really amazing.......just wow!!
Anonymous said... 19 November, 2010 the only way i can do it is by staring at something else on the page
Anonymous said... 07 December, 2010 its not on a timer. i can get it to switch back and forth before even finishing a rotation... just look above the image instead of directly at it... and if you can't do it, stop telling people it's fake. cause it ain't it's pretty amazing really
enoimerah said... 10 December, 2010 I can get it to switch at will. The first time I saw this it was actually the dancing women one...apparently, which direction you see it spinning at first determines which side of your brain is more active. If you can't get it to switch using the other methods in the comments, a suggestion is to think of a math problem...and then think of something creative (daydream...imagine something happening, like that coffee cup sitting next to you tap-dancing or some such) this is to switch the side of the brain that's in use and usually causes the image to "flip" in accordance.
Anonymous said... 10 December, 2010 I figured it out. The cat isn't rotating at all; it's turning from right to left and back again, kinda like a top loading washing machine. Stare at the top left hand corner and you'll see what I mean.
Anonymous said... 10 December, 2010 look at the cat directly and it will be difficult to perceive the opposite direction. But use your peripheral vision to "look" at the cat, and you can change it's direction easily. If you think this is fake, you're being stubborn.
Anonymous said... 11 December, 2010 cross your eyes when the tail is coming towards you and pointing to the side. You don't need to actually focus on the tail.
Anonymous said... 12 December, 2010 My eyes see the cat's figure and know it's spinning clockwise. I cannot see it spinning counter-clockwise because its head and tail give it away. I'm starting to think those that see it counter-clockwise are just thinking they are but really still see it as clockwise.
Anonymous said... 28 December, 2010 focusing on the tail actually prevented me from getting this. i had to focus on the neck/body to really get it.
Anonymous said... 29 December, 2010 ATTENTION PEOPLE!!! Here's the real deal, (and it took me about a day to figure this out) ....In the animation above, the cat is actually not rotating/spinning. Rather the cat is facing back at us and turning left to right, left to right, left to right, etc. If you can't see it, it will help to imagine the tail having a different color. The try to see the tail moving left to right (rather than assuming that it is rotating). There! See ;) -Mr. Jacky
Anonymous said... 05 January, 2011 I've seen these before but it's a lady spinning..It determines which part of your brain is dominant \..whether your right or left hemisphere..If you can easily see both, you have a good balance between your emotional and mental stuffs..Just can't remember which way is for emotional and mental
Anonymous said... 19 January, 2011 Believe it or not, the cat is not actually spinning. It is actually pivoting from left to right. Place your hand vertically down the center of the cat and watch closely, you'll notice its not spinning.
Anonymous said... 20 January, 2011 What I do, is I stare at the cat. First I see it rotating Counter Clockwise. Then, I stare at the Ads by google. While i sate, i use my peripheral to look at the cat, and imagine the cat spinning the other way, and its works instantly, but I have to hold it like that before I can look at it and keep it that way. I discovered this because while i was reading comments, the cat switched directions. Try it out
Anonymous said... 13 April, 2011 i can seeee... nothing. Plack outline of a hitmonchan with a tail
stixandstones said... 19 April, 2011 FAKE...So on a timer
Anonymous said... 19 June, 2011 nope it's not a timer. i looked at it with other people and i saw it change but they didn't.
Anonymous said... 02 November, 2011 The first time I made it switch/flip it went clockwise. The second time and all subsequent times I perceived it flip counter-clockwise.
Anonymous said... 14 January, 2012 its not fake u hav to imagine it spinning the other way.