Super Clever Optical Illusion Video Featuring Ray-Ban Sunglasses

At least once a week I enjoy watching something that totally blows my mind. I love challenging my brain and my perspective, and this video featuring Ray-Ban Clubmaster sunglasses does just that. Not really sure what it's supposed to teach me about sunglasses, but it sure as heck is sweet to watch.

It's amazing what can be done with simple perspective manipulation.

Jaron Schneider's picture

Jaron Schneider is an Fstoppers Contributor and an internationally published writer and cinematographer from San Francisco, California. His clients include Maurice Lacroix, HD Supply, SmugMug, the USAF Thunderbirds and a host of industry professionals.

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14 Comments

Love the video and the illusions. I wouldn't have known it was about the sunglasses though unless I had read it here first. Very cool effects, very bad advertising, lol.

I think it's called viral advertising. :)

Thanks for posting this fine example of anamorphic perspective. LOL-it's OK to use the big words we learned in Art history!

Now I'm jealous because you found a school that actually taught things like Art History o_o
Instead of Art History I got classes that were supposed to teach us how to be politically correct o_o;

I don't think this is real. When they zoom up on the globe and the baseball, the front of them are in focus but the papers behind it are not in focus. If it were really just a flat piece of paper, it would all be in focus because it wouldn't really be behind the globe, just beside it, the same distance from the camera.

When they pick the whole thing up at the end, suddenly the globe, baseball, and book are all part of the desktop, though they could have had multiple prints.

But the big thing that threw me, was when they were turning the baseball, it ghosts right through the typewriter and book.

Uhh... even if it's a flat piece of paper, it was not shot straight on so that might explain why the parts that are actually farther away were not in focus.

Dunno, it looks like it totally went under the typewriter and the other pieces of paper. Or did you think everything was just a piece of paper? The other things in the other shots ARE real, it's just the thing they rotate on a certain shot that isn't real (except the ray-ban ofcourse).

Well, even if this is all fake, it's still pretty cool. :)

Nick you're right, a DSLR cameras have a focal plane that is fixed, so when you angle or tilt a camera down and shoot at a large aperture the DoF only shows the plane that is at the same angle as the camera sensor. 4x5 cameras and to some extent tilt shift lenses have the ability to change the sensor plane.

If you want to get technical: http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/FVC161.pdf

The DOF is the same on the paper as it is the desk. Also, as it is a sheet of paper, you're seeing the edge of the paper slide underneath the typewriter and the book.

If it is really just a piece of paper, the dof of the front of the globe should be the same as the picture of the paper directly next to it, since it is all just one piece of paper, but they aren't.

And sliding underneath the typewriter might be possible depending on its build, but sliding underneath the book doesn't seem as likely.

During different parts of the video some things are real objects and some things are the 'fake' paper ones. For example, the globe is on paper at first, but then when they rotate the baseball paper, a 'real' globe is back on the desk. I have seen this before, very cool video!

Nice brain bender I thought they would do the same with the clubmasters

it's ok , didn't think was THAT mind blowing. Would be more challenging to comprehend had they used only flat 2D objects instead of a mix of real and printed

That is a pretty awesome ad, and those are pretty <a title="awesome sunglasses" href="http://www.inthesunshop.com" rel="nofollow">awesome sunglasses</a>!!!