The workbench
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A sprint cycle, after Muybridge's locomotion plates.
Select a frame to alter the rhythm of the movement.
Press space to play or pause, ← → to move through frames in the strip.
The dark interval separates one image from the next. The afterimage is a rendering of persistence — the previous image fading beneath the present one.
Sequence
12 framesWhat is arranged, stated plainly.
- The frame structure matches its generated sequence.
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Motion experiments
Three investigations
This is an exploratory visual instrument, not a clinical perception test.
When Does Motion Begin?
At slower presentation rates, separate images may be visible. As the rate increases, they may begin to feel like continuous movement.
Make It Feel Heavy
Timing can change the apparent weight of the same drawn object.
Break the Illusion
Continuity can weaken when transitional information is removed, displaced or interrupted.
Why does this feel like motion?
“No single frame contains the movement. The mind creates continuity from sequence.”
- Persistence of vision
- An image lingers on the retina for a fraction of a second after it is gone. Frames arriving faster than that decay never appear as separate pictures.
- Apparent motion
- Shown two positions in quick succession, the visual system prefers to read one travelling object over two flashing ones. Wertheimer named this the phi phenomenon in 1912.
- Sequential imagery
- Order carries meaning. Rearrange the same stills and the gesture changes — the sequence, not the drawing, holds the movement.
Slow the playback until the illusion collapses, then raise it until motion returns. The threshold you find is your own.