Thread "use of optical illusions, color tricks in comics" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 3:01AM, Jan. 27, 2023

Check this out

Does it look like the blue part is levitating a few millimeters above the screen ?

Are my eyes messed up?

Anybody got any more stuff like this. I think it's cool and would like to figure out how to use it on purpose in a comic.

Posted at 10:01AM, Jan. 27, 2023

It just kinda hurts my eyes, but I'm sure if I look at it long enough my sight will become all messed up. And not only because such links would just lead ppl on to a series of ads and scam sites. I don't have any examples for you when it comes to comics, but there are a bunch of optical illusions I assume people are free to use…? Not sure if any is copyrighted or if just one version of it. I myself thought about bending reality in ways in my comic, but not any time soon so I'll just figure out the how tos when I get there.

Posted at 4:01PM, Jan. 27, 2023

Why do I get the feeling the FBI might need to monitor your internet activity?

Posted at 5:01PM, Jan. 27, 2023

I would search 'Op Art' and have a look at that. The name that always sticks in my mind is Bridget Riley, who did some great stuff with both B&W and colour.
I'm sure Jim Steranko used some of this in his Nick Fury sixties stuff, but there must be other comics that tried it.

Posted at 10:01PM, Jan. 28, 2023

You are onto something here I think!
Like Scarf says, there used to be OP-art illusions and things used back in the day but what's interesting to me here are digital art based optical illusions which are different from what you were able to do with printed work.

Screens are ALL back-lit, while paper isn't. All colours and tones on a screen are created by lit pixels and that creates effects that are unique. And different colours work in different ways…

Here the blue is a similar tone to the grey so it just gives us a standard contrast effect which you can do with any colour and either a matching tone grey or its contrasted opposite (which contrasts because it also has the same tone). The lit aspect of it make it pop a lot more and makes it more effective.

Red is a colour you can do things with too- for whatever reason it doesn't seem to compress well in jpegs, it sort of fractures and bleeds… I don't now why that is, it's either a mathematical issue with the format or our eyes are more sensitive to red so we see the imperfections of the compression better. Either way you could use that too if you wanted to do weird stuff with blood effects and gore especially.

It takes a bit of thinking but there is other stuff you can do when you think about the particular properties of screens and what that allows you to do that you can't do with paper.

Posted at 10:01PM, Jan. 28, 2023

I looked up the red blurring thing.
It's a complex mix of things and it's not just due to jpeg compression.

Our eyes ARE more sensitive to red.

The colour compression is equal to all colour:
Compression affects colour primarily and less so tone (brightness and darkness), because our eyes are much more sensitive to tone than colour so it can be compressed more without you noticing it as much.
However you notice the compression effects more in bright colours, and that's where red comes in.

-More god stuff to know if you're working wit these issue to make effects!