Whatever we perceive may not be a physical reality. Through vision, that is seeing we draw a picture of the world in our mind as per the interpretation of the mind of the immediate environment. Optical illusions create a doubt about the appearance of the real things. We can say that whatever we see isn’t the reality. Adobe illustrator can be used for making optical illusions with finishing touches in Photoshop.

To give a simple example of optical illusion, cut out a dragon with a big head out of colored paper sticking it together, place it on a table or a window in a standing position. When a person moves around, there is a feeling that the dragons head is following in the room.

Let us take another example of creating illusion in photos of any size but best with the larger ones. Take a nice photo, say of a landscape with natural surroundings. Open the photo editor program. Open the photo, click on menu, then on layer, then on duplicate layer. Decide on the bottom layer. Click on image, then on adjust, then on desaturate. Choose a grey shade of color from the palette, say 50% grey. Decide on the top layer. Click on edit, then on fill, then foreground color mode choosing luminosity, opacity100%. The next part of illusion includes clicking on image, adjust and invert this would reverse the photos position. Next step is to creation of a new layer, drawing a dot in the center of this new layer. The next step is copying a JPEG file from the main memory, turning off the second layer of the photo, copying another JPEG. The final step is to upload the JPEG files, turning them into rollovers. Large photos create better optical illusions. Many kinds of optical illusions can be made with creative imagination.

Let us take another example of an optical illusion made with paper or pencils of a bird in a cage. Out of paper, cut two squares, four inches each. Then draw a basic outline of a bird in the middle on one paper. On the other paper draw a cage in the center. It should be able to fit the bird drawn in the first paper. Take a pencil that is longer than the paper. Its ends should stick down. Tape it to the back of one of the papers. Tape the other paper to back part of first paper. The pencil should be between them, the drawings facing outwards on respective sides. Holding the pencil between the hands, rub vigorously, rotating the papers back and forth. When the pictures flip in front of the eyes, it seems that there is only one picture floating of a bird inside a cage.