Jerry Andrus' clever dragon illusion: make one yourself!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I’ve been a big fan of magician Jerry Andrus for years, not so much for his magic tricks as his inventive and totally original illusion gadgets. I just found a new one (to me) which you can download and make yourself in just few minutes. Several sites have a JPG or PDF file with the necessary drawing (google Andrus dragon); here’s one:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/dragon_illusion/

Print the file on card stock on a color printer (“fit to page” if necessary), carefully cut it out (pretty meticulous, but it’s worth the effort), fold and tape (or glue) the result into a self-standing sculpture. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully (I printed out two copies; one to cut and one to instruct). The final object should have the dragon’s face INVERTED (concave), not the way you might expect it to fit together naturally. And there should be no diagonal fold across the neck.

In spite of the 3D picture, I goofed several times before I got it right, so don’t feel bad if you have a little trouble.

Now hold it at arm’s length, close one eye, and look at it. After a second, your eye should see a convex image. Now, slowly rotate or rock the dragon back and forth, up and down. Hard to believe what you’re seeing is possible!

A great educational toy for kids to make, although they might have to be old enough to handle the tiny curves on the cutout and provide some direction. If they cut crudely, it will still work, but a very young child might have to have an adult help glue/tape it together, which is the critical part. A good project for science class or Show and Tell, any age.

Cute, huh? Do you see it?

How old is Jerry Andrus, anyway? 95? He has a series of magic DVDs out and some magic “how to” books from 50 years ago, but I wish someone would write a slick, coffee-table type book of his illusions: How they work, the history behind their invention and construction and some Andrus bio info. Maybe it could be made like the Scientific American Paper Airplane book, with some illusions you can make yourself. What a timeless entertainment that book could be!

And if you’re a doper, Jerry Andrus, using a pseudonym on SDMB (could be), think about it.

I am dragon, hear me ROAR!

2

I did that! It took three trys to get it right (I am not good at following origami instructions, either).

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Way Kewl that you posted this. I love those illusions. The first time I made one for myself, I nearly jumped out of my chair it was so freaky! I encourage every one to do it. Take your time, and it will work.

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This one’s been around for a while. The key to making it work is the angle of the light.

5

I keep envisioning someone putting a large version of one of these by the side a road, and cars running off the road as drivers look at the illusion.

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This is the same illusion that Disney uses for the sculptures in the waiting area for the Haunted Mansion (at both parks). (about 1/3 of the way down that page)

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Hm, that makes sense. I made it from regular typing paper, and it basically didn’t work. I was disappointed: it looked so cook in the video.

Daniel

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This thread has been done some time ago … here’s the [thread=286303]link[/thread]. It is a really cool illusion. I’ve had one of the suckers on my shelf since the earlier thread.

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I’m just waiting to get another colour print cartridge, then I will be so into tryin’ this out! Thanks for bringing this up again, Musicat! Haven’t seen it before, myself. :slight_smile:

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Many years ago Scientific American had an article about Jerry Andrus, and it included an address to mail away for a couple of Jerry’s illusions. You got a mini Paradox Box (same concept as the dragon) and a cardboard disk to put on a turntable, here’s a link to a download of a similar illusion.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/magic/optical.html

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You don’t need color for the illusion to work. I just printed it out in grayscale and put it together, it looks great. The key is in the construction. Imagine making a plaster cast of your face. The cast is an inside out image of your face, and if you were to rotate it around your brain would see a bust of your head, turning to face you. Now imagine that the paper cutout is a cast of a dragon’s face. In a sense, you are wrapping the cutout around the dragon’s face, even though there isn’t actually a dragon available.

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It involves the way our brains are wired to see light and shadow. We expect shapes to be convex, and our brains interpret light and shadow in that context. Because the illusions are concave, it fools our brain because light and shadow don’t act on a concave surface the same way they do on a convex one. The placement of each is different and we interpret that as the shape “moving”.

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Yeah, I’ve had one on my desk since the earlier thread as well. Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten the illusion to be anywhere near as cool (read: creepy) as in the video.

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The illusion works best when there are no three-dimensional cues to reveal the illusion to you. I have mine on a shelf over six feet away with a white wall as a background.

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I remember seeing a similar version in Omni Magazine back in the late 70s. Still a cool illusion.

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I had mine on top of the fridge - the height and distance meant you could see it w/o closing one eye.

I think I needed the space and ended up mailing him to a credit card company in one of their pre-paid envelopes. I guess I need one for work now. :slight_smile:

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It doesn’t seem to be in my case. I tried lighting from above, below, sideways, holding it upside down…the illusion still works well. It does take my eye a second or two to make it convex sometimes; that might be a factor from the light. But once it looks convex, the light angle doesn’t seem to matter.