This Illusion Where Dots Seem To Change Colors (Even Though They Don't) Is Messing With Our Heads

Take a look at the animated image below. Created by illusion master Akiyoshi Kitaoka, it's a rectangle adorned with horizontal purple and red-orange stripes, which switch places in the center.

Now here comes the mind-fricking part of it: those two dots moving across the image that seem to alternate between blue and green? They're actually the same exact color the whole time.

We couldn't believe what we were looking at. So we took things into Photoshop to see if we could replicate the effect with the exact same color swatches.

First up is the colors of the the top dot when it animates all the way to the right side:

 Next up is the bottom dot in the same position:

First up… yeah, that's the same exact color swatch on the left both times. Yep, that greenish hue and that neon blue are actually the same color. Wild. 

Next, it's slightly harder to tell when everything is blown up like this instead of packed into tiny stripes, but if you look where the left and right color blocks meet, the cool color on the left starts to change relative to the other a little bit. Go ahead, look carefully straight down the center of the two above images and try to keep in mind that the color on the left is exactly the same.

The effect is known as a Munker illusion. Normally a static image, Kitaoka uses animation here to really sell how changes in the brightness of background can alter how you perceive the color in foreground objects.

Basically, what we're saying is this illusion is really freaking good and Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a dark wizard.

You can find more of his work here.