magic eye sailboat

The Hidden History of Magic Eye, the Optical Illusion That Briefly Took Over the World

Design history 101.

Words by Liz Stinson

Published on July 1st, 2022

This story is part of our Weekend Reads series, where we highlight a story we love from the archives. It was originally published in issue #02 of Eye on Design magazine.

For a flash in the 1990s, Magic Eye, the world’s most famous—and infamously frustrating—optical illusion, was everywhere. Posters bearing the brightly colored op-art hung from the walls of Midwestern mall kiosks. Postcards filled gift store racks. Books with taglines like “ A new way of looking at the world,” lined and then disappeared from store shelves as people snatched up more than 20 million copies of the series.

Magic Eye was something of a paradox: a deliberate graphic mess that relied on grids and precision to achieve its intended effect. The fact that it was so difficult to see the 3-D shape hiding behind the hypercolored patterns was a major part of its appeal. To find the secret image, people adopted a signature Magic Eye stance: bent forward, hands-on-hips, staring—dumbfounded—at the visual static in front of them. The others who crowded around (there were always others) passed along tips like an unsuccessful game of telephone— Cross your eyes. No, squint. Try relaxing. Click. Suddenly the image would appear. Every illusion is solvable, as long as you know how to look at it.

For a time, people were obsessed with the visual trickery of not being able to see what was directly in front of them. And then, just as quickly, they weren’t. “ Fads have a predictable life,” says Tom Baccei, who would know better than anyone.

As the man behind Magic Eye, Baccei and his small team of designers orchestrated one of pop culture’s most bewildering whims, turning an obscure perceptual experiment into a publishing empire. To be honest, he finds the whole thing just as curious as you do. “ It was the right place at the right time,” he said recently, speaking from his home in Vermont.

But in the more than 25 years since Magic Eye first hit bookstore shelves, the 74-year-old, self-styled retired hippie has come to learn a lot about what happens when you follow the unexpected bends in the road when they come your way. “ Life is a real pinball machine,” he continued. “ The most successful people understand that and they don’t try to force the game. They follow the bounces and try to keep ahead of them as much as they can.”

The story of Magic Eye begins at a technology company in a quiet office park outside of Boston. At the start of the ’90s, Baccei was working as the U.S. manager of Pentica Systems, a British company that sold in-circuit emulators, small devices that were used to debug early computers. At the time, Pentica was looking to boost sales in the United States for a product called the MIME in-circuit emulator, and it was up to Baccei to create an advertisement to run in a national trade magazine.

Baccei came up with a concept in which a mime would stand at the end of a conference table, his arm digitally altered to appear as if it were plugged into a series of wires that connected to a computer. “ It was a play on the phrase ‘chairman of the board,’” he recalled, chuckling at his old idea. Baccei wrote the copy and hired a photographer and a pantomimist who would star in the shoot. As fate would have it, this mime, whose real name is Ron Labbe, was also a 3-D photography enthusiast and had brought along one of his stereo cameras. Baccei found himself intrigued by the idea of three-dimensional photographs. “ I asked him where I could buy one of the cameras, and he pointed me to a magazine called Stereo World .” Baccei picked up the next issue, and that’s where he came across a story about autostereograms, a little-known perceptual concept invented in the 1970s by visual neuroscientist Christopher Tyler.

“Fads have a predictable life.”

Tyler had studied under Béla Julesz, a famed neuroscientist known for his research of the human brain’s visual system. In the 1960s, Julesz pioneered the concept of the random dot stereogram, a visual trick that shows how humans can achieve the sensation of stereopsis, or 3-D vision, by looking at a pair of 2D images filled with randomized, black-and-white dots.

In his experiments, Julesz placed these two images side by side, and then horizontally shifted a section of dots on one of the images. At a glance, the pair of images looked flat. But when viewed together with a stereoscope or by diverging the eyes, the section of shifted dots appeared to be floating in the foreground or background of the static dots. Julesz explained that this “ cyclopean vision” was the result of the brain registering slight disparities in the images hitting each retina. Instead of viewing these images as separate, the brain fuses them together to create a single image and avoid the sensation of double vision. By intentionally shifting where an image is placed relative to its background, Julesz was able to trick the brain into seeing depth and create the illusion of 3-D geometry.

At the time, Julesz’s research was heralded as a massive advancement in the understanding of 3-D vision. But it wasn’t until the 1970s when Tyler figured out how to achieve the same 3-D effect with a single image that the roots of modern-day Magic Eye were formed.

Baccei was mesmerized by autostereograms as well as by the image that ran next to the story in Stereo World—a black-and-white rectangle filled with what looked like TV static, but revealed a series of random circles and dots when you diverged your eyes. “ I thought it was the most compelling optical illusion I’d ever seen,” Baccei said. He was so compelled that he decided to create his own for Pentica’s next advertisement in Embedded Systems Engineering magazine.

On his old PC, Baccei designed an autostereogram with the phrase “ M700” (the name of a Pentica product) obscured by an array of black-and-white dots. At the bottom of the ad, he urged readers to solve the puzzle, adding a disclaimer that to see the hidden message you had to diverge your eyes, as if you were looking at a faraway object. The ad was a hit—and not just with the engineering crowd. “ I remember the fax machine going into overdrive,” recalls Bob Salitsky, who worked with Baccei at Pentica and later developed the software that helped Baccei make Magic Eye images at scale. “ We started getting requests for all kinds of custom orders.”

“I thought it was the most compelling optical illusion I’d ever seen.”

Emboldened, Baccei started spending his hours outside of Pentica designing more of what he called “ gaze toys,” or autostereograms with simple hidden images in the background. It was around this time, in 1991, when Baccei met Cheri Smith, a freelance artist who was working at ImageAbility, a computer graphics company outside of Boston, training clients to use its sophisticated 3-D, animation, and computer graphics workstations. As Smith remembers it, Baccei had seen her artwork in the office’s hallways while he was there on business, and asked who had made it.

Baccei had been using clip art in the backgrounds of his autostereograms and was interested in improving the aesthetics of his gaze toys, but he had no artistic background. He showed Smith an example of his autostereogram, and she was struck by its potential. “ I told him, ‘This could be really beautiful artwork,’” she recalled recently. “ He said, ‘You really think so?’ We then enthusiastically started to discuss how we could combine our skills to create more complex and beautiful 3-D images.”

Not long after meeting, Baccei and Smith designed another autostereogram advertisement—this time with a hidden airplane—which ran in American Airlines’ inflight magazine, American Way . Baccei started getting calls mid-flight from flight attendants asking for the answer. “ They were giving away bottles of champagne to the first person who could identify what was in the picture,” he said.

Soon after placing the ad in American Way , Baccei says he was jolted awake in the middle of the night with an epiphany. “ I realized I was selling the wrong thing. People wanted more autostereograms, and they’d buy it.” Baccei mortgaged his house, and with the help of Smith started Magic Eye as a sub-company under one of his existing businesses, N.E. Thing Enterprises.

In 1991, N.E. Thing Enterprises began working with Tenyo Co., Ltd, a Japanese company know for selling an array of magic products. This relationship led to the christening of Magic Eye. “ We called it Magic Eye because it translated well to Japanese—and because it had ‘magic’ in the name,” Smith recalled. At the time, Tenyo was selling Magic Eye autostereogram posters, postcards, and other retail products. When the company released the first three Magic Eye books later that year, Magic Eye became an overnight sensation.

Soon distributors and publishers from around the world were contacting Magic Eye to license the work. One of those people was Mark Gregorek, a licensing agent from New Jersey who had first seen Baccei’s autostereograms, when a friend sent him a fax of the American Way ad. “ I spent days staring at this stupid picture, and I couldn’t see anything,” Gregorek recalled. “ It was driving me nuts.” Then one day he was working in his home office and had the piece of paper in one hand while he glanced out the window at his daughter in the backyard at the same time. “ I wasn’t looking at the piece of paper in front of me; I was looking past it to the yard,” he said. “ And that’s when I saw the airplane appear. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life.”

The next day, Gregorek called up Baccei and told him that he wanted to make him rich.

By 1993, Baccei and Smith had set up a small business with a handful of employees in Massachusetts, and Gregorek (who is no longer affiliated with Magic Eye) had secured Magic Eye a deal with the publisher Andrews McMeel to publish its first book in the U.S. A few of those employees were designers who helped Baccei and Smith translate Tyler’s esoteric optical illusion into the kind of colorful, attention-grabbing images that would sell lots of books.

A year or so prior, Baccei had enlisted Bob Salitsky, a programmer from his time at Pentica, to assist him in creating a more advanced software program that could automate part of the painstaking process of making autostereograms. Instead of using random black-and-white dots in their autostereograms like Julesz and Tyler, Salitsky’s enhancements to the software allowed Magic Eye designers to make images with something called “ Salitsky Dots”—colorful, asymmetrical blobs whose position was calculated to render the hidden image slightly sharper than it would otherwise be.

“When you see it in 3-D, it puts you in an altered state.”

To make a Magic Eye autostereogram, the designers would first decide what shape to hide in the background of the image. Simple objects with defined edges like cars, sailboats, and certain animals, worked best. They’d then build a greyscale version of the shape, which allowed the program to assign depth values to its outline. Lighter areas signified pixels that were closer; darker areas were for pixels farther away. This depth map is what pops out when you look at Magic Eye just right.

Next, the designers would create something called a starter strip, a vertical column filled with a colorful pattern that repeats over the hidden 3-D image like camouflage. Salitsky’s software combined the 2-D pattern with the greyscale depth map by shifting each patterned strip horizontally depending on the depth information in the 3-D image. To make a 3-D shape appear closer, the software would repeat the starter pattern in nearer intervals; to make part of the shape seem farther away, they’d repeat it in greater distances. “ When you do this properly, the repeating pattern overlaps, giving each eye different depth cues that we have embedded into the image, tricking your brain into seeing the intended 3-D illusion,” Smith explains.

Most people don’t think of Magic Eye an exercise in considered graphic design, but that’s exactly what it is. Its gift shop roots make it easy to overlook its place in the long lineage of perceptual psychology tricks that have helped researchers make sense of the brain’s most confounding habits. “ When you stare at something and it’s just pattern, and then suddenly you’re seeing something that’s not there, but it is there—that’s magical,” said Labbe, the mime who went on to work at Magic Eye as an artist in the mid-’90s and now owns a company called Studio 3D .

To Smith, the magic of Magic Eye goes well beyond the initial “ ah-ha” moment. For some people, she adds, it’s almost like an addiction. “When you see it in 3-D, it puts you in an altered state,” she says. “It increases your alpha waves and makes you feel happy.”

Its “ drug-like” draw might explain why the first Magic Eye book sold out immediately. Baccei recalled getting a call from his publisher soon after the 1993 launch, telling him the original 30,000-book run was gone. “ Within 24 hours they’d ordered a print run of 500,000 copies,” he said.

The fad caught fire, and Magic Eye had a head start. For more than a year, he and Smith worked fifteen-hour days, seven days a week, cranking out images for licensees like Disney, Looney Tunes, and even eye doctors, who wanted to latch on to the trend. There was a sense of urgency, if only because Baccei believed this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “ Tom and I both knew this wasn’t going to last forever,” Gregorek said.

They were only partially right. By 1995, Magic Eye’s retail sales started to slow. What had once been a booming industry with posters selling for $25 apiece was turning into an overrun market where optical illusion posters could be bought for less than $5 at department stores. Using a mathematical analysis called an accumulative S-curve, Baccei calculated that Magic Eye had, indeed, reached its peak, and it was now on the downward slope. “ It showed that the returns were diminishing at such a rate that the end was in sight,” he said. People were moving on to Beanie Babies, Furbies, and Tamagotchi. Or maybe they were getting headaches from too much Magic Eye. Either way, Baccei decided to sell his majority portion of the company to Smith and his other employee Andy Paraskevas, who officially renamed the company to Magic Eye in 1996. Today, Smith still runs the shop out of a little office in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

For Smith, Magic Eye is still very much alive, even if the initial fervor has died down. She and her small team have turned Magic Eye into a creative agency of sorts, where they make custom work for companies who want advertisements, posters, and products emblazoned with Magic Eye’s distinct brand of visual chaos. They’re currently working on a 25th anniversary edition of a Magic Eye book, and recently made a poster for Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One.

Smith attributes Magic Eye’s continued existence to the quality of the company’s autostereogram artwork, though even she acknowledges the importance of nostalgia in keeping the company alive. Appropriately, Magic Eye’s website is like taking a visual trip back to the 1990s—all low-res visuals and animated clip art. At the bottom of the page, a disclaimer reads: “ WELCOME TO the Home Page for Magic Eye Inc., producers of the patented Magic Eye 3-D images that ignited the world-wide 3-D craze of the 90s.”

Now, 25 years later, the 3-D craze has turned into something quieter and smaller but there’s still something entrancing about staring at the hypercolored static, searching for something you can’t see but know is there. As satisfying as it is to best a trick, there’s a perverse pleasure in trying, and failing, to bring something hidden into view.

This story originally ran in issue #02 of Eye on Design magazine. Pick up a copy to see more exclusive images.

Share: Twitter Facebook Pinterest Email

Related Articles

“exploring unfamiliar histories of visual culture” — four corners books shares its favorite publications.

Run by Richard Embray and Elinor Jansz, Four Corners Books is a London-based publishing house that seeks to bring art…

Five Beautiful Book Covers and the Stories Behind Them

Artwork. Advertisement. Encapsulation. Billboard. Brand.  A book cover is many things — and the best ones tend to be all…

Steven Heller Gets Personal in His New Autobiography Growing Up Underground

This article is an excerpt from Growing Up Underground, the new coming-of-age memoir by Steven Heller published by Princeton Architectural…

Why Did So Many Mid-Century Designers Make Children’s Books?

What do you do when you’ve secured your legacy as one of the great creative minds of the 20th century?…

How the Maharaja Mascot Became Air-India’s Adventurous, Yet Controversial, Design Star

It is safe to say that for anyone who grew up in India in the decades following the 1950s, Air-India’s…

We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business

This interview was originally published in Floppy Disk Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium, a new book published…

Five Powerful Examples of Contemporary Independent Publishing from Africa

For the organizers of Afrophon’, a recent art book fair in LUMA Arles, France centering contemporary independent publishing from the…

For a Brief, Strange Moment in the 1960s, Dresses Became Posters

In 1966, Scott Paper Co., an American company that made a range of paper products, released an advertisement for their…

A “One-Man Print Archive of Culture, Community, and Social Change” — Café Royal Share Five Favorite Books

Café Royal Books is a one-man print archive of culture, community, and social change based in Southport, UK. This impressive…

Open Manifesto —the Quiet but Persistent Australian Design Journal—Was Ahead of Its Time

You probably don’t need me to tell you that the publishing world is a tough business. While the internet —…

Here’s Why John Updike Designed His Own Book Covers

Last summer, while browsing the fiction aisles at Powell’s Books in Portland, a fat black spine caught my attention. At…

Letterform Loupe

Right on is a powerful little paperback that boldly visualized student protest in the 1970s.

Letterform Loupe is our new column from the team at Letterform Archive, which takes a closer look at typographic design —…

• Eye on Design City Guides
• AIGA Eye on Design Conference
• @AIGAeyeondesign
• © Copyright 2023 · AIGA

Or Filter By Your Interest

• Illustration
• Graphic design
• Packaging design
• Design + Art
• Design + Sexuality
• Design + Music
• Design + Money
• Design + Mental Health
• Design + Diversity
• Design + Politics
• Design + Education

Design Series

• Where Designers Work
• First Thing I Ever Designed
• Design Diary
• Type Tuesday
• Poster Picks
• Love Letters
• Design Quotes
• Central Europe
• Eastern Europe
• Scandinavia
• Southeast Asia
• South America
• Western Europe

Loading …

Sorry, no results were found..

This story is part of our Weekend Reads series, where we highlight a story we love from the archives. It…

• Design + Gender
• Weekend With
• Rejected Designs

Screen Rant

10 best quotes from mallrats.

Kevin Smith's second movie wasn't as critically acclaimed as his debut feature Clerks, but Mallrats has a bunch of memorable quotes.

Kevin Smith’s debut feature Clerks inspired a generation of indie filmmakers to scrape together a budget for their own quirky little comedies. After Smith’s first movie became a hit at Sundance, he was able to secure a larger budget and backing from a big studio for his second.  Mallrats essentially transplanted the Clerks formula – a day in the lives of two pop culture-savvy guys discussing relationship problems – into a shopping mall.

RELATED:  5 Reasons Mallrats Is An Underrated Gem (& 5 Why We're Excited For The Sequel)

While Mallrats was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Clerks , it has since been re-evaluated as a cult classic and it has a handful of its own memorable quotes.

“I Can’t Express Myself Monosyllabically Enough For You To Understand.” - Brodie Bruce

Before Ben Affleck was an A-list leading man, he played a couple of hilariously hateable supporting roles in cult comedies, like butt-paddling senior Fred O’Bannion in Dazed and Confused and, indeed, smarmy Fashionable Male proprietor Shannon Hamilton in Mallrats .

When Shannon asks love rival Brodie Bruce if he wants to say something, Brodie quips back, “Yeah, about a million things, but I can’t express myself monosyllabically enough for you to understand them all.” This is a perfect insult.

“You Should See Yourself Right Now: A Grown Man With His Hand Down His Pants.” - T.S. Quint

When T.S. needs to exact a little revenge, Brodie has an inventive but disgusting scheme to get payback. It involves sticking his hand down the back of his pants before a handshake with the target.

As he prepares the gambit, an embarrassed T.S. says, “You should see yourself right now: a grown man with his hand down his pants.” Brodie quips, “Yeah, I probably look like my old man.”

“You Dumb B******, It’s Not A Schooner, It’s A Sailboat!” - William Black

Ethan Suplee’s simple-minded supporting character William spends the entirety of Mallrats staring at a Magic Eye poster, trying to see the sailboat that everybody else is able to spot straight away.

When a little girl and boy look at the poster and the girl says, “Wow, it’s a schooner,” William fires back, “Ha-ha-ha! You dumb b******, it’s not a schooner, it’s a sailboat.” The little boy has a sharp rebuttal: “A schooner is a sailboat, stupid head!”

“What, Like The Back Of A Volkswagen?” - Various Characters

There’s a running gag throughout Mallrats that Shannon Hamilton likes to have sex “some place very uncomfortable.” Every time it’s mentioned to a character, they cluelessly think the uncomfortable place is the location of the sex act and ask the same question: “What, like the back of a Volkswagen?”

RELATED:  10 Ways Clerks Established Kevin Smith's Style

The joke is paid off when Shannon’s sexual secrets are revealed to the entire audience of the game show and one of the game’s contestants asks the same Volkswagen question in front of the whole crowd.

“Adventure, Excitement... A Jedi Craves Not These Things.” - Silent Bob

It wouldn’t be a Kevin Smith movie without a healthy dose of Star Wars references . Clerks ’ Randal makes a hilarious point about the subcontractors who would’ve been killed in the destruction of the second Death Star, while the heroes of Zack & Miri Make a Porno attempt to self-finance and produce an adult parody of the George Lucas classic.

Silent Bob spends the whole of Mallrats trying to use the Force to lift a cigarette into his mouth. When he finally speaks, he quotes Luke’s wise master Yoda: “Adventure, excitement... a Jedi craves not these things.”

“Hasn’t It Become Abundantly Clear During The Tenure Of Our Friendship That I Don’t Know S***?” - Brodie Bruce

Oftentimes, the ones who are the most confident in what they say are the ones with no real point to make. When Brodie learns that T.S. actually listened to something he said and took it onboard, he’s taken aback.

As Brodie sees it, his track record should’ve told T.S. that something was amiss: “You’re gonna listen to me? To something I said? Hasn’t it become abundantly clear during the tenure of our friendship that I don’t know s***?”

“The Customer Is Always An A******!” - Shannon Hamilton

When T.S. asks Shannon if he’s familiar with the phrase, “The customer is always right,” Shannon contests its logic: “Let me tell you something. Let me give you a little secret, okay? The customer is always an a******!”

This line is relatable to anybody who’s ever worked in retail (like Smith himself, who used to work in the Quick Stop convenience store where Clerks takes place).

“He Seems To Be Really Hung Up On Superhero Sex Organs.” - Stan Lee

Stan Lee cameos in Mallrats at a crucial juncture to give Brodie some timely relationship advice: “Do yourself a favor, Brodie: don’t wait. Because all the money, all the women, even all the comic books in the world, they can’t substitute for that one person.”

RELATED:  Kevin Smith's 10 Best Recurring Actors, Ranked By Appearances

Despite this profound wisdom, Brodie’s first questions upon meeting his idol are whether Mr. Fantastic can stretch his penis and whether the Thing’s genitals are made of rock. A concerned Lee later tells T.S., “I think you ought to get him some help. He seems to be really hung up on superhero sex organs.”

“Snootchie Bootchies!” - Jay

The reappearance of Jay and Silent Bob in Mallrats connected Kevin Smith’s second movie to his first and began the stoner duo’s long-running tenure as the heart and soul of the View Askewniverse. Mallrats established Jay’s nonsensical but unforgettable catchphrase: “Snootchie bootchies!”

Jay’s proudest moment as a father in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is when his estranged daughter Milly adopts his catchphrase. He uses the line a few times in Mallrats , but the funniest is after hitting LaFours with a baseball bat and crying out, “Come, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod! Snootchie bootchies!”

“You F****** Think Just Because A Guy Reads Comics, He Can’t Start Some S***!?” - Brodie Bruce

The character of Brodie Bruce is a departure from stereotype in that he’s a nerd obsessed with comics who’s also confident and outspoken. Whenever he feels threatened, he becomes brash and obnoxious, which Jason Lee plays up brilliantly.

After getting into an altercation with a fellow mallrat who looks down on his superhero fandom, Brodie yells at them, “You f****** think just because a guy reads comics, he can’t start some s***!?” Now that the MCU’s success has brought comic book obsession into the mainstream, this quote has aged well.

NEXT:  9 Funniest Quotes From Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Mallrats (1995)

Ethan suplee: willam, photos .

Quotes 

Little Girl : [looking at a Magic Eye poster]  Wow. It's a schooner.

Willam Black : Ha ha ha ha. You dumb bastard. It's not a schooner... it's a Sailboat.

Little Boy : A schooner IS a sailboat stupid head!

Willam Black : [becoming enraged]  You know what? There is NO Easter Bunny! Over there, that's just a guy in a suit!

Willam Black : Brenda?

Rene : [hitting him]  DICK!

Stan Lee : [passes by magic eye picture stops]  Oh, a sailboat.

[Pats William on the back and walks off] 

Willam Black : Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

[Runs and kicks the picture over] 

Willam Black : When Lord? When the hell do I get to see the goddamn sailboat?

[subtitle, "William eventually saw the sailboat."] 

Willam Black : Yeah?

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Cross your Magic Eyes to play this stereogram platformer

The eye-bending new game from Daniel Linssen

If you spent a portion of the 90s going cross-eyed to look at Magic Eye 3D pictures of dolphins, elephants, and sailboats emerging from fields of noise, you might enjoy the new platformer from indie developer Daniel Linssen. It's called Stereogram, because it's made of moving stereograms. Let your eyes go slack and gaze into the distance of an optical illusion as you jump around pretty little Magic Eye levels in this platformer which reminds me of VVVVVV.

Stereogram (the game) is a platformer where you you run and leap across 100 connected screens ('rooms'), jumping and wall-sliding and riding elevators and bouncing off doodads and such. It seems like it introduces more movement abilities as it goes, though I've not reached the end yet because I need to keep resting my eyes. Because, you know, if you look at the game normally, you'll only see two separate little screens of incomprehensible shifting noise.

Stereograms are an optical illusion which encodes two similar-but-different 2D images with cues that, if you look at the pictures in the right way, will trick your brain into seeing a third screen with the actual image and the appearance of 3D depth. You need to gaze through the images, kind of, not actually looking at them, which creates the illusion a third image hovering between the two with the 3D image. (For reference, the Magic Eye images so popular in newspapers and coffee table books are technically autostereograms, using only a single image.)

While my eyes don't work at all with VR goggles or 3D movies, stereograms are weirdly easy for me. Moving stereograms can be a lot to look at so I appreciate that the view here is fixed, with each room wholly filling the screen, and the camera not moving as you move. It's pretty easy to lock your eyes onto a room and pay attention to the moving parts.

The colour palettes of the noise patterns are very pleasing and moody, looking like animated textures rather than just noise. The little details like falling leaves and streaking raindrops are very nicely done too. For a difficult medium, it looks great.

Stereogram is available pay-what-you-want (with no minimum) from Itch.io for Windows.

It is a shame that the game doesn't have saves, so you can't close it and come back later. You can mute the music and leave it running in the background, but my eyes feel a bit blown-out after playing it in stops and starts all morning.

You might also fancy checking out Quake II AbSIRD , a mod which renders Id Software's FPS in stereogram 3D. Fast-moving first-person stereograms are a mighty bit of eyemurder, mind.

The latest video game jobs on GamesIndustry.biz

MORE SECTIONS

• Social Casino

MORE FROM THE SUN

• Newsletters

‘Magic eye’ optical illusion has left viewers arguing about what they see – which animal do you think is hidden?

• Cheyenne R. Ubiera
• Published : 23:20 ET, Feb 23 2022
• Updated : 10:20 ET, Feb 24 2022

A REDDIT thread shared a mind-boggling optical illusion that stumped thousands of users as they took to the comments to share their thoughts. 

The poster by the name SusAmongGoose shared a photo on the thread BlackMagicF*ckery with the caption, “believe me, something will pop out of your screen.”

The post featured multiple leaf-like images. From far away, it looks messy but the caption on the actual image itself instructs the user to look very closely.

“Put your nose tip on the middle of the picture and slowly (yes, I mean very slowly) pull away).” read the caption.

By doing this, the photo gives off a 3D effect when the user pulls away and it reveals a hidden image inside.

If you can focus your eyes very carefully, you might be able to make out the silhouette of a giraffe. However, others in the thread argue that there are multiple giraffes while others said they have seen a sailboat.

The post gained over 9,000 upvotes in less than a day with nearly 1,500 comments.

“Love it when people re-discover Magic Eye, ” read the top comment referencing the popular series of books with the same name.

Most read in Lifestyle

I turned my yard into my dream space in 6 days - I'd never mown a lawn before

Don't bother with biotin for female hair loss, use my solutions for growth

You have 20/20 vision if you can spot the animal hidden in the bark in 6 seconds

My size P boobs get filthy looks on the school run - moms think I want their man

“Right? Haha these were the height of design in 1992,” replied another user.

The Magic Eye books featured autostereograms, which are static images that give off the illusion of a 3D effect.

It’s unknown if the original post was taken from the Magic Eye series but many users felt nostalgic upon seeing the photo.

“Ahh magic eye,” wrote a user. “Would break a nerve staring and never see anything now back to haunt me on Reddit .”

While some bragged about being able to see the hidden images “right away,” others weren’t so lucky.

“These never worked for me… Don’t know why!” said another user, with many in the thread agreeing with them.

We pay for your stories!

Do you have a story for The US Sun team?

Email us at  [email protected]  or call  212 416 4552 .

Like us on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/TheSunUS  and follow us from our main Twitter account at  @TheSunUS

• Optical Illusion

• Sports & Outdoors
• Hunting & Fishing
• Rods & Accessories

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Return this item for free

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Fiblink Saltwater Offshore Heavy Trolling Fishing Rod Big Game Conventional Boat Fishing Roller Rod Pole with All Roller Guides (Heavy Power, 5-Feet 1-Inch)

A:5'1" 30-50-pound Straight Butt--1pc

A:5'1" 50-80-pound Straight Butt--1pc

A:5'1" 80-120-pound Straight Butt--1pc

B:6'-straight Butt--2pc

B:7'6"-straight Butt--2pc

C:5'6‘-bent Butt-2pc

Purchase options and add-ons

About this item.

• Solid Construction--Top-quality,extra-tough 1-piece tubular E-glass graphite composite blanks,especially for playing with big fish and provides better cranking,designed for battling.
• Stainless Steel Roller Guides--Heavy-duty Roller Guides minimize strain on you and your line,smooth polished line protecting stainless steel roller guides, wear free line flow, and providing saltwater approved corrosion resistant and power control.
• Extreme Exposure Reel Seat --Machined aluminum alloy reel seat keeps reel in place without corrosion,heavy Reverse Knurling Nut to Make the Bonding Stronger.Aluminum gimbal butt with cap provides great leverage during long battles.
• Unique Design--5'1"heavy duty short rod will be easier to transport and great for salt water trolling,atuns,mahi and others.High density EVA foam handle and foregrips gives a comfortable grip,the handles remain easy to grip even when they are wet.
• Fiblink Warranty--One Year Warranty Just feel free to contact seller if there is anything wrong with the Fiblink Fishing Rod, we will solve your problem as soon as possible.Money back for non-artificial damage and 100% satisfaction service!

Frequently bought together

Top rated similar items

Product Description

• This incredibly strong Saltwater Offshore Rod is built on top-quality,extra-tough E-glass graphite composite blanks, specifically designed for applying maximum pressure when battling huge saltwater fish.
• Top-quality,extra-tough 1-piece tubular E-glass graphite composite blanks, with a parabolic taper specifically designed for applying maximum pressure when battling huge saltwater fish.
• 2 Piece bent butt trolling rod meets IGFA stand fishing, silver fiberglass blanks and decorated with blue,equipped with a solid aluminum bent butt and EVA handle, more in line with contemporary trends.
• Heavy-duty Roller Guides minimize strain on you and your line, providing added leverage to bear down on tournament-winning fish.
• Aluminum alloy reel seat keeps reel in place without corrosion, an aluminum gimbal provides considerable advantage in keeping the rod butt solidly planted in the fighting belt to minimize fatigue during prolonged battles, an aluminum butt section allows for easy access in and out of rod holders.
• EVA foregrips give you added comfort and a solid non-slip hold against hard-pulling fish.

Straight Butt Saltwater Fishing Rod Feature:

Bent butt saltwater fishing rod feature:.

Product information

Technical details, additional information, videos for this product.

Click to play video

Saltwater Offshore Heavy Trolling Fishing Rod

Looking for specific info, customer reviews.

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers like the quality, value, appearance and performance of the fishing rod. For example, they mention it's sturdy, works well and looks and feels much more expensive. That said, some complain about the alignment of the guides.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers like the quality of the fishing rod. They say the poles are stout and the eyes are aligned. They mention that the rod is well made, durable, and will last a long time. Some customers also mention that it's good for shore fishing in Florida.

"It is a good rod, comfortable and resistant . I caught several giant fish and it worked great" Read more

"Trolled with it recently and caught mahi and Bonita and rod felt solid the whole time .I put heatshrink over existing handles because the factory..." Read more

"...The base of the rod that locks it into the rod holder became loose after a fight with a small tuna...." Read more

"This rod is going to last me a long time . Compares to a more expensive rod. Very satisfied." Read more

Customers appreciate the value of the fishing rod. They mention it's a great buy, with impressive quality for the price. Some say that the rod feels and looks much more expensive.

"...So this makes for a SUPER value ." Read more

"I bought this rod a few years back and it’s been well worth the money I’ve caught some of my personal bests with it and had a lot of great fights..." Read more

"This rod is going to last me a long time. Compares to a more expensive rod . Very satisfied." Read more

"...more I need to 3050s one 5080 and I have one 8120 they’re all great rods for the money they’re really good I enjoy mine tremendously" Read more

Customers are satisfied with the appearance of the fishing rod. They mention it's a very nice rod, appealing, and well built. Some appreciate the good design and the aluminum reel seat and butt. Overall, most are happy with the quality and performance of this product.

"It is a good rod , comfortable and resistant. I caught several giant fish and it worked great" Read more

"Its a very appealing fishing rod . The roller guides and tip should work well...." Read more

" Great rod . Looking for a cap to the butt of the rod and having a hard time getting a replacement. Only reason for a 4 star." Read more

"...that the force is better transferred to the fish, in short, it has good rings , good paint, easy size to transport and using it with a 2 speed reel..." Read more

Customers are satisfied with the performance of the fishing rod. They mention that it works well for jigging big tuna, and that it performs well with their shark reeling reel. They also appreciate the roller guides and tip.

"...I caught several giant fish and it worked great " Read more

"Its a very appealing fishing rod. The roller guides and tip should work well ...." Read more

" Working well so far for jigging big tuna.I've pulled in several large tuna and a monster pompano with this rod and it has performed well...." Read more

"The Trolling Rod has performed well . My last trip fishing I caught a 3lb Bluefin Travally on a gold Rapala lure...." Read more

Customers are satisfied with the stiffness of the fishing rod. They mention that it is sturdy and can handle the pressure of a fight from a big fish. Some like the way it feels and that it's made to bend on really big fishes.

"...This is a short pole, 5 feet, and it is made to bend on the really big fish . I have 2 poles that are 60+ years old each...." Read more

"...Other than that love this rod! Really stiff ! Most likely ordering one for myself." Read more

" Great stiff rod , tip came at a jaunty angle when it was delivered. There’s the $60 vs. $600 difference" Read more

"I like the way they feel . The only problem I had was I ordered 2 and got 2 different types same weight class but different lengths" Read more

Customers like the comfort of the fishing rod. They say the slip joint is snug, the fit and finish looks great, and the fore grip is nice and long. The rear butts fit well in rod holders and secure reels properly.

"It is a good rod, comfortable and resistant. I caught several giant fish and it worked great" Read more

"...The slip joint is snug , and I wonder if my 2-piece rod will turn into a 1-piece at some point...." Read more

"...& secure reels properly, fore grip is nice and long, rear butts fit well in rod holders ( 11" from bottom of gimble to end of foam by reel )..." Read more

"...ones , just a little off but other than that rod looks great and feels great ...." Read more

Customers are dissatisfied with the alignment of the fishing rod. They mention that the guides are not aligned, the reel seat does not line up with the line guides, and the roller guide at the tip is misaligned. Some customers also report that the reel mounts are not in line with theline guides on rod, so the reel sets off.

"...Of the three I purchased, two allow the reel to index way out of alignment , the third is loose but mostly straight..." Read more

"I only give it 4 stars because the guide at the tip is not aligned 100% with the other ones , just a little off but other than that rod looks great..." Read more

"...The shorter rod will be easier to transport and matches up well with my vintage deep sea reels...." Read more

"...Planned on going fishing in two days. The reel mounts are not in line with the line guides on rod, so the reel sets off to the side of the rod, not..." Read more

Customers are dissatisfied with the corrosion on the guides of the fishing rod. They mention that the roller guides are rusting.

"...Obviously cheap materials, there is substantial corrosion after less than a year of light use and regular rinsing." Read more

"...roller guide at the tip is misaligned, I’m thinking these guides will rust in salt just Crome plated pretty cheesy, save your money buy something..." Read more

"The roller guides are rusting up after 2 weeks without even using the rod yet. May be OK in fresh water but rollers are definitely cheap...." Read more

"...used once trolling offshore, washed them good and now the roller guides are rusting ...." Read more

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• TripAdvisor

• Testimonials
• Travel Tips

Moscow by Night

One of the most popular tours of my guests is a walk through Moscow at night. This tour helps tourists to see Moscow not as a bustling hive, but as a majestic Empress full of ceremonial glory. Moscow night tour lasts nearly for three hours, but at the end of the walk it seems to be gone only an hour. During the excursion around Moscow at night, guests can enjoy not only the beauty of illumination, but also to learn more about the history of the city and its architecture, see  legendary cathedrals, buildings and squares of Moscow, famous over the world, and to make great shots of attractions.

Night Moscow is full of magic. It is fascinating and enigmatic. If you decided to visit Russia in winter season, you will feel the fairytale atmoshere of the capital decorated with festive New Year and Christmas decorations. Walking through Moscow's streets at night you would never believe that just a few hours before you wandered through the same ones, only in the light of day. It is amazing how the city can change in the glow of night illumination. The incredible beauty of the city at night fascinates.

Excellent illumination turns the capital to the city of a fairy tale, dream-city of the children's book.

A wonderful excursion begins with perhaps the most famous places in the whole Moscow - Red Square , located at the north-eastern wall of the Kremlin. History of Russia's main square has its roots in the end of 15th century.

Nowadays, parades and celebrations of important events in the life of the Russian Federation are held at this famous square. At night Red Square stuns with its magnificent illuminations. Solemn and austere in daylight, it looks elegant and festive in the glow of night lights.

Patriarchy Bridge

Our path lies to the Patriarchy Bridge than. There is a beautiful view of the night Red Square, The Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the monument to Peter the Great at this point.

Built in Russian-Byzantine style in honor of the victory of the Russian people over Napoleon's troops the magnificent Cathedral of Christ the Savior seems to be a magical castle from a fairy tale, full of mysterious charm. Its white silhouette stands out brightly against the night sky. It seems that the walls of the Cathedral lit from within by the divine light. It is really a stunning effect.

Sparrow Hills

Next place that deserves special attention are the Sparrow Hills . There is a unique view on Moscow at night with bird's-eye view from this place - at least 85 meters over of the Moscow-River. Looking at the capital full of illumination, lit by millions of lights, stretching out at the feet, you feel on top of the world. It seems that you are a magician, surveying your luxurious land. You will have the opportunity to see a spectacular view of the Luzhniki stadium - the largest one in Russia and one of the largest stadiums in the world. This stadium was built in 1955-1956 years. It was here the Olympic Games took place and a lot of sport competitions and concerts of well-known artists and bands were conducted.

At night the stadium is light up along the whole circular length at night. It seems that the stadium is a great shining pearl in the illumination of thousands of lights. From this point of Moscow you can see the erecting buildings of Financial Center Moscow-City by projects of English architect Norman Foster. Some buildings are ready; some are in the process of erection. Completion is planned for 2015. We all look forward to completion to enjoy the magnificent view of monumental modern buildings at night in the rays of illumination.

All of Stalin's skyscrapers , erected in the mid 50-ies by the orders of Stalin are visible from the top of Sparrow Hills, including Moscow State University , known for its night laser lights. Each skyscraper has a unique lighting. Panorama from Sparrow Hills is sure to impress guests: dazzling shining of metropolis with millions of lights makes the capital an unforgettable and beautiful. Magic night in Moscow fascinates.

Novodevichy Convent

My guests are particularly impressed by the panorama of Novodevichy Convent .

This magnificent example of the Orthodox women's monastery was founded in 1524 by Prince Vasily III. There are a lot of stories and legends of Moscow connected with the monastery. It played a prominent role in the cultural life of Russia. Today Novodevichy Convent is both working monastery and a branch of the State Historical Museum. Night walk along the pond will fully appreciate the beauty of the Novodevichy convent at night. Rising above the dark surface of the water, it seems to be full of shining, light and peace. The lights of the five-headed Smolensky Cathedral and the monumental bell tower of the monastery illuminate the dark sky solemnly, cutting through the darkness and giving hope.

Victory Park

Three hours driving and walking tour ends in Victory Park on Kutuzov Avenue with a stop near the Arch of Triumph.

Victory Park was opened in Moscow in 1995 and is coincided to 50 years of victory over the fascist invaders. The original nighttime illumination of Victory Monument will not leave any spectator indifferent.

Excellent coverage of the Arch of Triumph on Kutuzov Avenue, built in honor of the victory over Napoleon in 1812, will complement this impression.

The tour will introduce you to such streets and squares as Tverskaya and New Arbat streets, Pushkinskaya Square, Gagarin’s Square, Lubyanka Square, and October Square. Also you will see such famous buildings in the night illumination, as White House, Former KGB, Stalin’s Skyscrapers, Old building of French Embassy, Bolshoy Theater and many others.

Moscow at night is a truly fascinating spectacle. City Lights beckon and create a holiday atmosphere. If you have seen Moscow at night - you looked into her very heart, saw her real - a beautiful, bright, exotic queen.

Previous Tour

Moscow in one day, best highlights of moscow.

• Ice Rink at Cathedral of Christ the Savior On the first days of 2008 the temperature of air in Moscow lowered down to -16..-18 C (+3…0 F), but was not snow on the grounds yet. This picture of Cathedral of Christ the Savior with view of frozen Moscow River (Moskva-Reka) that looks as like ice rink I took very early morning after seeing off my current client from USA to airport.
• Moscow Evening Photoshoot Celebrating 2nd Wedding Anniversary Moscow evening (twilight) photo session on July 1st, 2019 during night tour with my Dear clients from Iran, Mozhgan and Siamak, celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary in Russia.

Related Photos:

About Me in Short

My name's Arthur Lookyanov, I'm a private tour guide, personal driver and photographer in Moscow, Russia. I work in my business and run my website Moscow-Driver.com from 2002. Read more about me and my services , check out testimonials of my former business and travel clients from all over the World, hit me up on Twitter or other social websites. I hope that you will like my photos as well.

See you in Moscow!

• Russian Visa Invitation Letter Support
• Moscow Airports: A Virtual Guide (Written by a Real-life Guide)
• Exploring Moscow for the First Time? A Personal Guide is What You Need!
• Don’t miss a great chance of seeing fairy-tale town of Suzdal

Recently Posted:

Innovation Center Skolkovo – Territory of the Future

Develompment of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, the modern scientific and technological innovative complex located in the Mozhaysky district of the Western Administrative District of Moscow of an area of approximately 400 hectares.

Featured Photo Albums

• Picture of a Day
• Moscow Must-See Sights & Attractions
• Tour Guide and Driver Portfolio
• Photographs of Dear Clients & Friends

Last Published Photo:

Lights of Nikolskaya Street in Winter Twilight

People walking up and down Nikolskaya street in winter twilight decorated with LED creating a festive atmosphere in any season. The picture is taken near GUM building (at the right) and Red Square.

Take One of Exciting Tours:

• Moscow Highlights
• Discovering the Golden Ring of Russia
• Arts & Culture Tours
• Night Tour of Moscow

Related Information:

• Terms and Conditions
• Recommended Tour Guides
• Useful Links