Okay, I can see the snowflakes in 3d without too much trouble, but I still can't see a Magic Eye image. I managed to get something on the Magic Eye website to sort of work, in that there appeared to be a hole in the image which was roughly the shape of what it was supposed to be - but I never would have recognised it if I hadn't cheated and looked at the expected image.

Can someone please tell me - when you see these things, what do they look like? Do they really look like the grey-and-black sample images, or like a weird 3d jigsaw that resembles those images?

Weird 3D jigsaws. I think simple images seem to work best -- I usually have trouble making out complicated shapes.

You know, you went to all that work explaining things, particle_person, and it really just made things more confusing. And the snowflakes--all I see is two. Sometimes kind of one big blurry one. But never three. Le sigh.

Just to throw a monkey wrench into things, I am a CHAMPION Magic-Eye-er (my sister and were Magic Eye devotees before it was invented, by tripping ourselves out staring at the pattern in the Bertucci's placemat until it went all 3-D -- this was before the Internet, OK?), and I cannot get those snowflakes to do anything.

For me, the trick to Magic Eye is finding two adjacent blobs somewhere in the middle of it all and blurring my vision while looking at them until they "lock" together, and after it's locked, the whole thing falls into place. But that's probably a fairly useless explanation. I know for me it has to be in the middle of the image (so that yin/yang thing they have doesn't really work for me, because there are all these edges and corners getting in my field of vision). And it's not going cross-eyed, it's the opposite -- if I do it cross-eyed, which I can do, but it's a lot harder, the "3-D" stuff sinks into the page instead of popping out. This is kind of gross, but if you actually pull the edges of your eyes outwards a little bit as you're staring at it, you can start to see your vision blurring the way it's "supposed" to.

OK, I finally got the snowflakes to work by going cross-eyed -- and now I'm having a harder time doing the ones from the other site the regular way. And I also have a humongous headache. Damn you, snowflakes!

In any case, though, I think the snowflakes are actually harder than the regular Magic Eye-esque images, because it's only two huge overlapping images surrounded by regular, non-overlapping stuff. Whereas in the Magic Eye ones, if you pick two blobs from the center to try to make overlap, you won't be thrown off by the non-overlapping stuff around it. Even glancing at the top or bottom of the screen wrecks it for me, even if it's already "locked." That's why that yin/yang thing is useless for me, because when I look down there I'm too close to the corner and it stops working.

And now I'm going to barf. I still blame the snowflakes.

Same here. I can make the snowflakes work, but I have to physically move my head away from my computer about a yard. They're just too big for me to focus on easily. But I Magic-Eye-izise everything. If people want to practice, tiled floors are great because there aren't really edges getting in your way.

Well, jeez, I'm so sorry I tried to help. *flounces off*

Hey, particle_person, the fact that the snowflakes gave me a headache didn't stop me from spending like an hour looking at every single one of them. They are kickass. And I think many (most?) people may have an easier time doing it cross-eyed than the other way. I don't know why that's not the case for me. Maybe I have a lazy eye or something. Like Melissa Joan Hart!

My dad has an actual old-timey stereoscope -- one of these things. Lord only knows where he got it. It's pretty cool. It's like a ViewMaster's grandpa.

One of the instructions the old Magic Eye books gave was to "look through" the picture. That sort of works for me, I guess. What I do is just unfocus my eyes - it's like when your eyes are really tired, and they stop focusing? Do that when you look at the pic. It might work.

Yes, I know I wouldn't do any better with Japanese but still - Engrish

I don't know if this helps, but I can only get the magic eye to work for me if there is a slight glare of light on my monitor that I focus on, then I can see the image. It didn't pop out as much as I hoped but I could see it.

Aww, that's where I got the subtitle for my LJ.

That's how I've always been able to do it too. If there's a framed magic eye picture, I look glare or reflection on the glass and the 3-D image behind it pops right out. It's a lot harder in Magic Eye books. I would have to look at the pictures near a strong lamp or something, so that there'd be a glare on the page.

You guys, someone lolcatted The Wasteland:

Heeeeeeeeee.

Hee. That might just be the best thing ever.