Neil Dawson’s sculptures look like they could be drawings from a cartoon.  This private commission, created in 1991, resides in Taranaki, New Zealand.  It looks like a large floating orb is being held in place by a rope tethered to the ground.  In reality, the entire sculpture is made of steel.

To see another remarkable example of Neil Dawson’s work, be sure to revisit his Horizons sculpture.

(via Neil Dawson)

Today’s post is a little different than all of the other posts on An Optical Illusion.  Instead of featuring something that will trick your eyes, this video features several examples of audio illusions that will play tricks on your ears.  Explained in detail are the McGurk Effect, the Tritone Paradox, and the Shepard Tone Illusion.  The latter is named after psychologist Roger Shepard, the creator of other great visual illusions including the Impossible Elephant and Getting Down to Business.

In this new twist on an old optical illusion, two spaceships can be seen flying through a wormhole.  The spaceship in the front appears to be significantly smaller (maybe half as big?) than the one behind it.  Surprisingly, however, both spaceships are the exact same size.  The wings of the spaceship in the back are close to the sides of the wormhole which gives the impression that it must be larger than the one in the front.

To see more examples of this illusion, be sure to check out a relative size illusion involving three SUVs and another that uses animation to get the point across.

(via Optical Spy)

Art Directors Anaïs Boileau and Samuel Volk oversaw the production of this recent advertisement for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) called Botanimal.  The copy that accompanies the ad (which can be seen in the lower right corner, but is much too small to read here) is as follows:

“Donate to save a tree and save 875 000 species for free.  Rainforests only cover 7% of our planet but harbor more than 50% of the world’s species.”

That’s a lot of species!  How many animals can you find?

Continue reading the full post to see five close-up images which will allow you a better opportunity to spot all of the hidden animals.

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While this video from Apple is probably a tad bit too long, it does feature some pretty good anamorphic optical illusion tricks.  The video is captured from a single camera moving around a sterile white room in what appears to be a single take.  The style of this commercial is reminiscent of Ok Go’s recent music video for their song The Writing’s on the Wall.  At the time of this post, the Ok Go video has received more than 11 million views on Youtube, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment.  My guess is that someone in charge of Apple’s marketing took notice of its popularity and decided to create an anamorphic video of their own.

What do you think of the video?

The man in this photograph is putting the finishing touches on a homemade rectangular wooden frame.  As he tightens the final screw, however, he cannot help but notice that something seems peculiar about the carpentry.  The two pieces of wood in the center cross one another in a very unnatural way.  How did he build this?

(via Erik Minnema)

This old collectible card from 1926 was produced by a company called Major Drapkin & Co.  We have previously featured a couple of optical illusion cards from the same company, The Rod Illusion and His Own Size?, but this one is from an entirely different series.  Instead of being a traditional optical illusion, this card simply features a hidden object that you are asked to find.  So, can you find this sailor’s cutlass?  In case you were wondering exactly what a cutlass is, I can save you a Google search by telling you that it is a short sword meant for slashing.  They are not asking you to locate an Oldsmobile.