Neon/Transparency Effects
approximative colour consistency
example 1a:
click the arrows to move the blue 'S' inside / outside the black lines with the cutout 'S' (variation of Hans Wallach's 'Neonworm' of 1935)
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example 1b:
click the arrows to change the inside beams colour to red / back to black (adopted example to that of 1981 by the psychologists Christoph Redies and Lothar Spillmann)
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example 2:
click the arrows to change the inside beams colour to red / back to black
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this neoneffect weakens when other shapes interfere like just those added tiny rings - notice the difference according to the size of the rings
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this is not due to the fact of the other shapes but where they are placed. in the example below the rings are spread somewhere on the blue circle lines. the neon effect is again stronger than above.
below the tiny black circles can not even produce a slight effect as two examples above.
also simple lines instead of circles put at the ends of the ring lines prevent seeing an obvious white square
whereas open circle -, even if there are only two - tend to let the brain assume white squares again
example 3:
move the 'overlaying' figures with the arrows more to the left and back again. are they actually one shape / piece?
effect
when certain areas of a nonsolid area - like lines - are replaced by lines of a different colour which outlines would make an own shape if you would connect the outer points you seem to see a hovering neonlike shape.
the 'neoneffect' is a very beautiful one. it's hard to believe that it's really only your brain that is constructing that floating area.
depending on interfering other shapes like little rings (and as always on the colours of the shapes and the background) this effect is more or less strong.
in example 3 you tend to combine the two small rectangles (or ovals) into one big rectangle that seems to lay transparent above another rectangle (that your brain also makes up as one out of two irregular shapes).
when the 'floating' figures are moved aside the line that seemed to belong to all, this effect is gone
explain
the brain tries to construct simple shapes.
example 1
the outer points of the blue line are connected to an outline such creating a blue 'S'. as we've heard before, the brain wants to see whole shapes rather than multipart shapes and wants so see the whole shape in blue. but as there is only white paper/background beneath, this blue is weakened to a light neonlike blue.
example 1b is similar, the lines are arranged like sunbeams.
the effect will also happen with other patterns / shapes but with lines it's very obvious for a good demonstration.
example 2
as soon as other elements interfere at the connection point of the black and blue circle line bits, the effect is weak or gone at all
example 3
- when you have two rectangles side by side you tend to see one big rectangle with two different coloured parts.
- when you put two of such figures above each other the line in the middle shared by all lets you assume the smaller figure floats transparently above the other.
- when you move the two smaller shapes aside the before shared center line, the effect is gone as you can watch especially good at the example with the 'river'.
advice
when you do a design always take a step back, turn the design upside down, nearly close your eyes, etc. to see if you haven't unvoluntarily 'constructed' some not intented shapes or if you have made a clear layout or illustration.
especially with photographs or illustrations it often happens that the viewer who sees it for the first time doesn't recognize the content at once because of such misleading 'eye/brain constructions'.
- you sometimes experience this yourself, e.g. when you are not sure where a text continues that is wrapped around images or when in a magazine you read a multiline headline that is supposed to run across a doublepage first on the left then on the right page and don't get the meaning.
- or you see a distorted body because the photographer hasn't paid attention that an object in the background has the same colour gradient like the model's hip.
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