A Brilliantly Confounding Dual Axis Rotating Shape

Game developer Frank Force created a brilliantly confounding optical illusion of a spinning shape that appears to be simultaneously rotating around both the horizontal and vertical axis. The object also appears to be spinning in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. He submitted this illusion to The Best illusion of the Year Contest and won the prestigious “Illusion of the Year” for 2019.

Holy cow, I won Best Illusion of the Year! Thank you to the contest organizers, other participants and fellow illusion chasers. This spinning shape appears to defy logic by rotating around both the horizontal and vertical axis at the same time! To make things even more confusing, the direction of rotation is also ambiguous. Some visual cues in the video will help viewers change their perception.

Here are the illusions from some of the other finalists from the contest.