Play Mind Games with Your Cat with These Optical Illusions

Mother Nature Network (mnn.com)

Don't say it too loudly around your own feline, but cats tend to be easily tricked by all manner of quick-moving illusions or sleights of hand (i.e., laser pointers, shadows, movements under the sheets, etc.).

For an ounce of pure comedy, watching a cat try to pounce on these amazing optical illusions. It speaks to just how convincing the tricks are that they work across the species barrier.

To be mesmerized by the illusions yourself, check out this video.

The illusions were created by YouTube sensation brusspup, who has been filming illusion, magic and science videos since 2008. You can view his catalog of mind-bending videos at his YouTube channel here.

Also see: Your cat thinks you're a much larger cat with good taste in food

Unlike magicians who never reveal the secrets behind their tricks, brusspup is more than happy to divulge how his illusions work. He has even offered templates for the cat-fooling illusions in the video mentioned above, which can be downloaded online for free. Specifically, there is a running cat template, sprockets template and a rotating sphere template.

To make the templates come alive, however, you'll also need a transparent sheet lined with properly spaced black bars to run over the templates. The sliding sheet makes the image appear to move by cutting it into frames. Each animation is made up of six frames, so the black bars should be wide enough to cover five of the frames on the template at a time.

"So when one slice of the animation is seen through the clear space, the black bar is hiding the other five frames of the animation," explained Brusspup to the Mail Online. "As you move, it continues to reveal the next single frame of animation through the clear space while hiding the other five."

Brusspup's cat makes frequent appearances in his videos, such as in this video showcasing some sweet anamorphic illusions. The illusionist and his feline friend seem to share the same gene for curiosity.

Also see: Researchers may have found world's oldest optical illusion