How 1990s Magic Eye 3D Images Were Made
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Date: 2025-05-31
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Comments and reviews: 20
tiger12506
I remember my first time very vividly. Dad was a carpet installer, and there was a large magic eye poster in the office of a local insurance agent. When I went to visit after school, he introduced me to it, and when I finally saw it -- WOW! It was also one of the largest and most complex magic eye posters I have ever seen, an image of an underwater wreckage, Titanic style.
Every once in a while I get nerdy about the subject, and learn a little more about how they are made. Did you know that you can make a stereogram with a text file just by shifting a row of repeating letters over in areas where you want a different depth It's really quite simple how they are made. The pixels of the random dot image are just shifted laterally proportional to the depth in the depthmap.
Related to the random dot stereograms are actual photo stereograms, and you view those exactly the same way. Two photos are taken side-by-side of the same scene, the camera shifted laterally (not radially) between the two photos.
There are stereograms that have different 3d images at different focus depths. The ability to cross and/or diverge the eyes is actually a range if you practice enough. Some of my favorite stereograms are those that showcase that part of the viewer's ability. One example is of bars, the deeper you look, the more bars you see sticking up from the image, anywhere from 2 to 6 or so bars (you can go so far that the sides of the image encroach and reduce the amount of viewing area too much. Another of my favorites has two wordart style words crossed, and how proportional you control the effect determines which of the letters meet in 3d space. (the one I saw said stereogram.
I think the coolest thing about stereograms is that the effect is completely unrelated to the flat image. So every random dot stereogram looks like junk to people who can't see it, but to those who can, suddenly it's a duck riding a unicorn in a bathtub while playing the piano. lol. There is NO WAY you would guess that, you HAVE to be able to see it.
I would assume Magic Eye actually created theirs using actual raytraced 3D modeling creating a depthmap, probably using something like an Amiga in the 80s.
If you know how to use 3D modeling software, I highly recommend trying out making one yourself -- there are tons of generators online to go from depthmapbackground to stereogram. I once watched a tutorial on how to do it in Blender with shaders and then made one of my own from scratch, because I'm masochistic that way.
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I remember my first time very vividly. Dad was a carpet installer, and there was a large magic eye poster in the office of a local insurance agent. When I went to visit after school, he introduced me to it, and when I finally saw it -- WOW! It was also one of the largest and most complex magic eye posters I have ever seen, an image of an underwater wreckage, Titanic style.
Every once in a while I get nerdy about the subject, and learn a little more about how they are made. Did you know that you can make a stereogram with a text file just by shifting a row of repeating letters over in areas where you want a different depth It's really quite simple how they are made. The pixels of the random dot image are just shifted laterally proportional to the depth in the depthmap.
Related to the random dot stereograms are actual photo stereograms, and you view those exactly the same way. Two photos are taken side-by-side of the same scene, the camera shifted laterally (not radially) between the two photos.
There are stereograms that have different 3d images at different focus depths. The ability to cross and/or diverge the eyes is actually a range if you practice enough. Some of my favorite stereograms are those that showcase that part of the viewer's ability. One example is of bars, the deeper you look, the more bars you see sticking up from the image, anywhere from 2 to 6 or so bars (you can go so far that the sides of the image encroach and reduce the amount of viewing area too much. Another of my favorites has two wordart style words crossed, and how proportional you control the effect determines which of the letters meet in 3d space. (the one I saw said stereogram.
I think the coolest thing about stereograms is that the effect is completely unrelated to the flat image. So every random dot stereogram looks like junk to people who can't see it, but to those who can, suddenly it's a duck riding a unicorn in a bathtub while playing the piano. lol. There is NO WAY you would guess that, you HAVE to be able to see it.
I would assume Magic Eye actually created theirs using actual raytraced 3D modeling creating a depthmap, probably using something like an Amiga in the 80s.
If you know how to use 3D modeling software, I highly recommend trying out making one yourself -- there are tons of generators online to go from depthmapbackground to stereogram. I once watched a tutorial on how to do it in Blender with shaders and then made one of my own from scratch, because I'm masochistic that way.
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Mephisarisa
Tldr: Magic Eye made my eyes strong.
I went on holiday with my extended family in 1994, and somebody brought Magic Eye II. I was 7 years old and had used glasses for a year, because I was born very farsighted.
Fascinated with the idea of secret images and having already pondered about binocular vision a lot, I obsessed over the book until I got it.
I noticed that my eyes got very tired after focusing on a few images in a row, and that going cross eyed instead didn't make them tired at all. (But cross eyes reverse the depth map of the image)
The coolest thing was; I learned how to focus and unfocus my eyes at will as a result of the ocular fatigue. It still ffeels like a magic trick, and I love to show people how my irises contract and expand at will.
I still needed glasses for most of my life, but I think that this skill has probably helped my eyesight improve over the years.
Then I got optic neuritis and thsn I got astigmatism and now I have eye strain. But my eyes still work together like champs, with the help of prescription glasses.
reply
Tldr: Magic Eye made my eyes strong.
I went on holiday with my extended family in 1994, and somebody brought Magic Eye II. I was 7 years old and had used glasses for a year, because I was born very farsighted.
Fascinated with the idea of secret images and having already pondered about binocular vision a lot, I obsessed over the book until I got it.
I noticed that my eyes got very tired after focusing on a few images in a row, and that going cross eyed instead didn't make them tired at all. (But cross eyes reverse the depth map of the image)
The coolest thing was; I learned how to focus and unfocus my eyes at will as a result of the ocular fatigue. It still ffeels like a magic trick, and I love to show people how my irises contract and expand at will.
I still needed glasses for most of my life, but I think that this skill has probably helped my eyesight improve over the years.
Then I got optic neuritis and thsn I got astigmatism and now I have eye strain. But my eyes still work together like champs, with the help of prescription glasses.
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anxietyprimev6983
I remember flipping through my dad's old Magic Eye book for like five or so years back when I was a kid and not being able to see anything, until I was standing on the front porch one morning and staring at one of the pages frustratedly for the millionth time and suddenly I could just see them. It was like the god of optical illusions took pity on me after seeing me fail miserably at the whole thing for half my childhood and gifted me a boon. Either that or my eyes just suck, cause ever since then I start seeing double if I let my eyes relax too much. But it was totally worth it, cause now I can pretty much see them immediately, and everybody knows that means I won childhood.
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I remember flipping through my dad's old Magic Eye book for like five or so years back when I was a kid and not being able to see anything, until I was standing on the front porch one morning and staring at one of the pages frustratedly for the millionth time and suddenly I could just see them. It was like the god of optical illusions took pity on me after seeing me fail miserably at the whole thing for half my childhood and gifted me a boon. Either that or my eyes just suck, cause ever since then I start seeing double if I let my eyes relax too much. But it was totally worth it, cause now I can pretty much see them immediately, and everybody knows that means I won childhood.
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steeviebops
I could never see these, always felt like I was missing out on something at the time! I have no binocular vision (amblyopia. I can choose which eye to focus with, but can't use both at the same time. The other eye is just peripheral vision to me. Therefore, I can't see the depth in these images, nor in 3D movies (the glasses just make it look like a darker 2D movie to me. I always had to disable the 3D effect on the Nintendo 3DS, enabling it just strained my eyes without giving me any benefit. Even today, I have difficulty with Face ID on the iPhone, if my eye drifts off then the phone won't unlock! Disabling the Require Attention option gets around that.
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I could never see these, always felt like I was missing out on something at the time! I have no binocular vision (amblyopia. I can choose which eye to focus with, but can't use both at the same time. The other eye is just peripheral vision to me. Therefore, I can't see the depth in these images, nor in 3D movies (the glasses just make it look like a darker 2D movie to me. I always had to disable the 3D effect on the Nintendo 3DS, enabling it just strained my eyes without giving me any benefit. Even today, I have difficulty with Face ID on the iPhone, if my eye drifts off then the phone won't unlock! Disabling the Require Attention option gets around that.
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nardo218
I had the red book. I couldn't see the images as akid, no matter how many techniques people told you to try doing. Put it near your nose and slowly move back, stand back from the picture and slowly walk forward, look at it on a 45 degree angle. Nothing worked. My eye doctor told me it was prolly bc my right eyesight was much poorer than my left, and only my right eye had an astigmatism (eyeball shaped like a football. So I guess having that can screw up your depth perception Prolly explains why I'm terrible at tennis and basically can't hit a ball flying at me.
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I had the red book. I couldn't see the images as akid, no matter how many techniques people told you to try doing. Put it near your nose and slowly move back, stand back from the picture and slowly walk forward, look at it on a 45 degree angle. Nothing worked. My eye doctor told me it was prolly bc my right eyesight was much poorer than my left, and only my right eye had an astigmatism (eyeball shaped like a football. So I guess having that can screw up your depth perception Prolly explains why I'm terrible at tennis and basically can't hit a ball flying at me.
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hawthornrabbit
The sight of those Magic Eye books is deep nostalgia for any 90s kid, it takes me right back to my childhood library. I was so thrilled when I learned how to do them - but incredibly frustrated at my dad who didn't understand how stereograms work and thought it was something like a Rorschach test where people are seeing some fictitious pattern in the dots. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get him to understand that there are two images embedded within the stereogram that combine into a single 3D image when your eyes align on a certain point.
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The sight of those Magic Eye books is deep nostalgia for any 90s kid, it takes me right back to my childhood library. I was so thrilled when I learned how to do them - but incredibly frustrated at my dad who didn't understand how stereograms work and thought it was something like a Rorschach test where people are seeing some fictitious pattern in the dots. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get him to understand that there are two images embedded within the stereogram that combine into a single 3D image when your eyes align on a certain point.
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anthonyherrera6471
I cannot see them unless. ahaaa there is a sheet of clear glass on top and then a fixed reflection of white can be seen on that glass. I stare at that white object reflection intently. And 7-15 seconds later the 3d layer will fall away leaving the 3d image next to the glare or relected white object u stare at. Dont blink and move your eyes over to the center of the 3d image. Always works for me. But must be behind glass and a light bulb behind me to stare at on the glasses reflection
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I cannot see them unless. ahaaa there is a sheet of clear glass on top and then a fixed reflection of white can be seen on that glass. I stare at that white object reflection intently. And 7-15 seconds later the 3d layer will fall away leaving the 3d image next to the glare or relected white object u stare at. Dont blink and move your eyes over to the center of the 3d image. Always works for me. But must be behind glass and a light bulb behind me to stare at on the glasses reflection
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RavennaWyrmwood
Took me twice as long to watch this video because I kept pausing to check what each stereogram was
Seriously though this question has bugged me for years also. Thanks for the deep-dive.
I still have a Magic Eye book on my shelf. Every few years I think about throwing it away however, I invariably pull it off the shelf and read it cover to cover before putting it back wondering why I would ever dispose of such a joyful thing.
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Took me twice as long to watch this video because I kept pausing to check what each stereogram was
Seriously though this question has bugged me for years also. Thanks for the deep-dive.
I still have a Magic Eye book on my shelf. Every few years I think about throwing it away however, I invariably pull it off the shelf and read it cover to cover before putting it back wondering why I would ever dispose of such a joyful thing.
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Sypher474
I've never been able to get these to work with the proper method of relaxed eyes converging in the distance beyond the image, but have always been able to get them to work the opposite way by going crosseyed instead. Rather than popping out of the page, images sink into it instead. Still very cool! There are plenty of stereograms out there designed to be viewed this way, which is nice to get the proper pop-out 3d effect
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I've never been able to get these to work with the proper method of relaxed eyes converging in the distance beyond the image, but have always been able to get them to work the opposite way by going crosseyed instead. Rather than popping out of the page, images sink into it instead. Still very cool! There are plenty of stereograms out there designed to be viewed this way, which is nice to get the proper pop-out 3d effect
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ClifBratcher
I was at a convention in the 90s they had a booth at. They put up a sign on a big poster to the effect of If you correctly tell us what's on this, you'll get a free book
After days of people staring and arguing, they handed out a handful of books and dropped a bombshell.
The poster was a piece of fabric they found stuck to a wall when they set up. They trolled the whole convention.
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I was at a convention in the 90s they had a booth at. They put up a sign on a big poster to the effect of If you correctly tell us what's on this, you'll get a free book
After days of people staring and arguing, they handed out a handful of books and dropped a bombshell.
The poster was a piece of fabric they found stuck to a wall when they set up. They trolled the whole convention.
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waldyro
I had a Magtic Eye brand software for windows that was probably from mid to late 90s. It allowed you to select the image pattern and it gave you 3d objects to choose from. I don't think It allowed you to create or use your own 3d images, but I did figure out that if you replaced the original 3D image file (probably bmp) it would generate the magic eye image with the replaced image.
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I had a Magtic Eye brand software for windows that was probably from mid to late 90s. It allowed you to select the image pattern and it gave you 3d objects to choose from. I don't think It allowed you to create or use your own 3d images, but I did figure out that if you replaced the original 3D image file (probably bmp) it would generate the magic eye image with the replaced image.
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salionshatterstar
I had a dickens of a time seeing those images at the beginning of the video, so I grabbed the book of my shelf to double check I could still see them. Turns out either my tv's too big or my room's too small - I just couldn't sit far enough away; -)
Even once I can see the image, though, sometimes I can't figure out what it's supposed to depict: -P
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I had a dickens of a time seeing those images at the beginning of the video, so I grabbed the book of my shelf to double check I could still see them. Turns out either my tv's too big or my room's too small - I just couldn't sit far enough away; -)
Even once I can see the image, though, sometimes I can't figure out what it's supposed to depict: -P
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jkellisart
I was 11 or 12 I used to make my own on Paint Shop Pro. They weren't nearly as complex as the 3d modeled ones, but I could get some depth by offsetting consecutive layers, usually 3 or 4. It was trial and error but I made dozens that worked to one degree or another. I was as obsessive as a kid as I still am.
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I was 11 or 12 I used to make my own on Paint Shop Pro. They weren't nearly as complex as the 3d modeled ones, but I could get some depth by offsetting consecutive layers, usually 3 or 4. It was trial and error but I made dozens that worked to one degree or another. I was as obsessive as a kid as I still am.
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0x80O0oOverfl0w
Yeah I never saw these, later in life I found out I have terrible depth perception so perhaps that's why I was that punk kid at the mall that walked in between posters and people trying to see the image. It was actually quite entertaining, but it doesn't take much when you're 18 lol. Good times.
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Yeah I never saw these, later in life I found out I have terrible depth perception so perhaps that's why I was that punk kid at the mall that walked in between posters and people trying to see the image. It was actually quite entertaining, but it doesn't take much when you're 18 lol. Good times.
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lazygamereviews
Despite growing up in the '90s, I only have the faintest recollection of once having seeing the simplest dot form of these. I'd never seen any of these more complex illustrated things. Feels so bizarre watching this when it sounds as if they were everywhere and I just somehow never saw them.
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Despite growing up in the '90s, I only have the faintest recollection of once having seeing the simplest dot form of these. I'd never seen any of these more complex illustrated things. Feels so bizarre watching this when it sounds as if they were everywhere and I just somehow never saw them.
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lazygamereviews
I used to do this in the 80s as a kid by looking at the wallpaper in my bedroom and allowing the repetitive images to overlap. If I crossed my eyes even more, the image would become more three-dimensional but what was funny is every time I did it the image would actually get smaller as well.
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I used to do this in the 80s as a kid by looking at the wallpaper in my bedroom and allowing the repetitive images to overlap. If I crossed my eyes even more, the image would become more three-dimensional but what was funny is every time I did it the image would actually get smaller as well.
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enginerd69
Excellent video! I’ve always wondered how they were created and where they got started. They’ve always been easy to see for me thanks to a slight lazy eye that my eye muscles normally compensate for. The images usually show up in 30sec or so. Still enjoy seeing them after all these years!
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Excellent video! I’ve always wondered how they were created and where they got started. They’ve always been easy to see for me thanks to a slight lazy eye that my eye muscles normally compensate for. The images usually show up in 30sec or so. Still enjoy seeing them after all these years!
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YeahItsThatBad
I loved these as a kid, I eventually got to the point that I could easily see these images by slightly crossing my eyes. I was able to easily see the images at the beginning of the video, I even remember seeing some of these images in the Magic Eye books. Blast from the past.
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I loved these as a kid, I eventually got to the point that I could easily see these images by slightly crossing my eyes. I was able to easily see the images at the beginning of the video, I even remember seeing some of these images in the Magic Eye books. Blast from the past.
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MrGuy4
I can't see magic eye pictures, despite the fact that my eyes work perfectly fine. I've tried every single position, holding my phone out at different distances, and so much more, but I just can't see it. Am I just not able to comprehend how to do it right
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I can't see magic eye pictures, despite the fact that my eyes work perfectly fine. I've tried every single position, holding my phone out at different distances, and so much more, but I just can't see it. Am I just not able to comprehend how to do it right
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AmyraCarter
The reason some people recommend crossing your eyes is to refocus them after staring too long at the layered image.
I myself have depth perception issues, so these images just look like hallucinogenic patterns to me, but are neat, nonetheless.
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The reason some people recommend crossing your eyes is to refocus them after staring too long at the layered image.
I myself have depth perception issues, so these images just look like hallucinogenic patterns to me, but are neat, nonetheless.
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