Weird animated faces switching images

Someone at Trackybirthday.com used photos of people in the Washington State Legislature to create these weirdly fascinating animated gifs that flash quickly between two people. (Update: image removed because a commenter said the animation might be seizure inducing.) Office Party

[#1 posted by wnoise , January 26, 2009 10:34 AM]

Headache inducing.

[#2 posted by wolfwitch , January 26, 2009 10:37 AM]

Is the point just to be annoying as hell or cause seizures?

[#3 posted by theawesomerobot , January 26, 2009 10:38 AM]

hmm, might want to put that behind a link for the epileptic ;)

[#4 posted by Anonymous , January 26, 2009 10:39 AM]

Mmmmmmkay.

[#5 posted by membrain , January 26, 2009 10:45 AM]

I, for one, loled!

[#6 posted by lava , January 26, 2009 10:47 AM]

the faces blend as you watch it - fascinating effect!

I've played with such flashing images before - to induce a 3d effect on a 2d image by rapidly switching between slightly different perspectives.

http://www.lamidesign.com/plans/planscat/upcomingimages/0404prog02.gif

http://www.lamidesign.com/plans/planscat/0357/0357SteelCaseMetal3d.gif

second one feels like an earthquake. Nauseous yet?

boingboing had posted something about this before

[#7 posted by NoahRodenbeek , January 26, 2009 10:47 AM]

squint your eyes, you can make out a unique face int here. This is very interesting. I want to see three faces. Four!

[#8 posted by technogeek , January 26, 2009 11:05 AM]

There have been extended versions of this in the past; I remember several decades ago the Visual Language Workshop at MIT did a movie which shot one frame each of many individuals, and then did some postprocessing experiments to average those in various ways to come up with composite faces. I believe they aligned on the pupils of the eyes rather than on head shape, so eyes stayed in one place while the face changed around them.

[#9 posted by gnosis , January 26, 2009 11:09 AM]

I LOLed too.

[#10 posted by igpajo , January 26, 2009 11:11 AM]

I'd love to see this an application where you can upload pictures of people you'd like see flashed.

This one makes it look like the ears are flapping!

Why people in the Washington State Legislature?

[#11 posted by nanuq , January 26, 2009 11:11 AM]

Wow, someone who switches rapidly between demographics. We may finally have the perfect vice-president.

[#12 posted by MrCoelho , January 26, 2009 11:16 AM]

if you time your blinking right you can stop the flashing altogether. I think the way they've positioned the photos so that the eyes and mouths are in close to the same spot in both photos makes it so that the most prominent of each of their features are combined to create a pulsating, flared nostriled, pointy eared, moustached beasty. very cool and hideous

[#13 posted by Anonymous , January 26, 2009 11:19 AM]

You may want to link out and post NSFE: Not safe for epileptics.

[#14 posted by Ian70 , January 26, 2009 11:24 AM]

Small things amuse.

[#15 posted by ill lich , January 26, 2009 11:24 AM]

So simple. . . and yet so annoying.

[#16 posted by Xopher , January 26, 2009 11:25 AM]

May I just say "ow"?

[#17 posted by Patrick Dodds , January 26, 2009 11:29 AM]

Is the phrase "small nostriled" @ no. 11 subject to copyright? If not, I'd like to bid.

[#18 posted by Anonymous , January 26, 2009 11:34 AM]

igpajo:

Why people in the WA state legislature? It's like that their pictures are public domain.

[#19 posted by Jake Bullet , January 26, 2009 12:08 PM]

This reminds me of the Lindsay Lohan doesn't change facial expressions YTMND site from a few years back.

[#20 posted by richlb , January 26, 2009 12:15 PM]

Reminds me of the "Everybody have fun tonight" video by Wang Chung.

[#21 posted by grimatongueworm , January 26, 2009 12:15 PM]

How about a tag - SEIZURE WARNING!!!!

[#22 posted by Angstrom , January 26, 2009 12:21 PM]

I hope this does not start a trend

;)

[#23 posted by Wbb882 , January 26, 2009 12:48 PM]

The first mashup they show on the link is TERRIFYING!!! I went in a few deep and then said "no way" and exited. CREEPY.

[#24 posted by Anonymous , January 26, 2009 1:13 PM]

Please put flashing images behind a link with a warning for people with epilepsy or other photosensitive conditions! Thank you!

[#25 posted by A New Challenger , January 26, 2009 1:28 PM]

PARTY HARD

[#26 posted by zipthwung , January 26, 2009 1:43 PM]

animated gifs are great time wasters.

here's my last one

I like the helmet hair.

[#27 posted by pa , January 26, 2009 2:05 PM]

This reminds me of http://augenkrebs.de.vu/ (Augenkrebs is german for "eye cancer").

[#28 posted by holtt , January 26, 2009 4:45 PM]

Funny how there's concern about causing seizures, but say... its' fine to change road hazard warning signs...

[#29 posted by circa86 , January 26, 2009 5:38 PM]

Just wait for iPhoto09, this functionality is basically built it. ^_^

[#30 posted by daemonsquire , January 26, 2009 7:09 PM]

@ noahrodenbeek #7, at least one of these has more than two faces, I'm certain of it--there's Merlin Olsen, Ol' Four-eyed Firetie, and Captain Kangaroo all hiding in there! Click and drag to reveal! Also, here's a three-face gif I made some years back with me old bandmates.

Zipthwung's helmet heads at #26 is a thing of lasting beauty. I'm trying to come up with a name for that creature... Jimmy Page, Our Maopravader, Lord and Saviour... feh...that's weak... really: I've got something to do, I know I do...

[#31 posted by J France , January 28, 2009 6:46 PM]

Seizures, nightmares, nausea.

It induces many things, and I love it!