Optical Illusion

Description

The editor to the code is available here

South India is famous for decorative engravings on stone walls. One of the more common motifs is a multi-layered flower. I took that as the inspiration for my optical illusion.

Due to the interaction between an ever increasing rotation, the retention of image in our eyes, and the locked screen fps, we get to see interseting patterns that aren't really present. Clicking the canvas increases the number of petals and leads to more varied formations.

I also wanted to add an auditory illusion to the rotating flower so I added a Shepards tone to it. (The illusion of a tone constantly increasing)

Reflection

I always found the contrast between the texture of the stone and the texture of an actual flower very interesting. The flower is meant to be soft but when carved into stone, is cold and hard. I tried to achieve a similar effect by adding some small black specs to the canvas to contrast the curves and pinks of the flower, but it doesn't really work. But the animation adds an intersting twist which I could've only imagined till now.

Credits

I borrowed a piece of code from this implementation of Shepard's tone by Michael Bach