
Real Life Model of M.C. Escher’s “Waterfall” - mikecane
http://laughingsquid.com/real-life-model-of-m-c-eschers-waterfall/
======
ars
Despite how it looks the yellow paddle wheel is not actually at the start of
the track. The rectangular box at the start is not connected to the actual
start of the track. It's far away from it, and it holds the yellow wheel and a
bucket to catch water.

Next, ignore the beams, and focus only on the water track. Despite looking
like it's climbing up, it's actually totally flat (i.e. you could make it from
one sheet of wood). But tilted slightly so water flows from the start to the
end.

Additionally the entire structure is not actually sitting on the garage floor,
but rather is high up in the air, and the camera angle obscures this.

Hidden under the structure is a pump and an outlet at the true start of the
track.

He pours water into the catch basin at the end of the track, and that same
moment someone else starts the pump. If you watch closely you can see how it
looks like the water he pours is being "swallowed", and does not actually flow
down the track.

The water from the pump flows down the track, and out the spigot over the
wheel and into the bucket.

Next you place beams carefully cut at angles to make them look like they are
holding the track - but actually they are open on top.

But this is a pretty amazing piece of work.

~~~
biot
When he walked towards the camera at the end, I was really hoping he would
change the perspective to reveal the illusion.

~~~
dasil003
It pissed me off when they did that in Inception. The whole point was that
should be possible in a dream.

~~~
afterburner
But it was; the walking worked, despite how it looked.

~~~
dasil003
Right up until the camera panned. Suspension of disbelief shattered, and to
what end?

~~~
PakG1
Are you kidding? If they didn't do that, how would they demonstrate a trap
that made any sense? That would have been far worse, I think.

~~~
dasil003
Yeah maybe I totally forgot what actually happened, I just remembered my
irritation :)

~~~
jinfiesto
I was more irritated by the fact that the entire movie was clearly ripped from
the chapter "Harmonic Labyrinth" from GEB.

------
mrb
I can't believe no one noticed it.

The texture of the upper parts of the wood contraption feels unrealistic;
there is almost no grain. The contraption itself is too bright compared to the
ambient level of light; the white buckets are darker. There are 2 main sources
of light: one on the right casting a shadow of the structure on the ground
toward the left, and one light on the left that should cast a shadow on the
ground toward the right... but it is missing (contrary to shadows on parts of
the structure itself)!

This is obviously CGI. You would be surprised what a person with a few days of
work can accomplish with off-the-shelf CGI software.

The poster's background suggests this. He writes "ImD-student" in his profile
which may refer to the Interactive Media Division at the USC's School of
Cinematic Arts. He also subscribed to the "indymogul" youtube channel which is
an online video network and community dedicated to DIY filmmaking.

~~~
reneherse
With this in mind, it's interesting to look at the "set design": miter saw,
clamps, drawings, sand paper, wood scraps, sawdust and broom all strategically
placed around the scene to add realism.

For giveaways thought, in addition to the strange shadowing and textures the
parent mentions, there's the human factor. To me the acting seems just a bit
off.

Kudos to the guy who made this though; I imagine just modeling that structure
(and its shadows and reflections) in CGI was a fun nut to crack!

------
evo
I gave it my best shot in SketchUp, and in the process discovered why I am not
a 3d artist:

<http://imgur.com/EMUJL>

I think if you look closely you can see the barest edge of a bucket behind the
central part of the structure, where they'd drain the actual initial liquid.
(You can see that the fluid seems to arrest before that transition in the
video, as well.)

~~~
fxj
and he edited the video so that the fluid flow looks smooth when the water
reaches to upper most brigde. look closely at 0:43 there is something strange
happening to the fluid flow. but alas great work!!

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jbri
From what I can figure, it's the usual perspective trickery (flat water track,
vertical tower, perspective makes it look like they line up), and then there's
a nozzle pouring out water from the tower top.

Note that the water doesn't appear to flow in front of the wooden knob at the
ledge it's supposedly falling off.

EDIT: Looking again at the HD version it seems I'm mistaken. ars' comment
appears to have it correct, though.

~~~
ollysb
Looking at the sides of the channel you can see that they get lower towards
the "top". I can see how the channel is flat on the floor and that the
supporting vertical struts are simply cut to the correct height for the
camera's perspective. I'm at a complete loss as to how the water drops onto
the wheel though.

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nettdata
While this is pretty impressive, in the same vein I have to give Dyson (as in
the vacuum cleaner guy and inventor of other things) huge respect for re-
creating an Escher uphill waterfall as a garden piece, one that I would gladly
display.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3046791.stm>

Better hi-res pic here: [http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/james-
dysons-uphill...](http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/james-dysons-
uphill-water-flow-illu.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890)

~~~
huhtenberg
> _Derek Phillips, the Dyson engineer who spent 12 months building the
> feature_

To be fair - this guy should be a target of your huge respect, not Dyson who
merely financed the design work.

~~~
nettdata
Actually, I only have normal respect for him, as he wasn't the one who was
putting up the cash to see it done, he was only doing his job. And it DID take
him a whole year to pull it off.

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dmcg
All so cynical. Take it at face-value, pay the guy to set up huge versions,
and cancel fusion research.

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alanfalcon
If anyone's having trouble picturing what this will look like from another
camera angle, there was a relevant link on HN recently:
[http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/19/133017843/your-...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/19/133017843/your-
lying-eyes-can-this-be-happening)

HN comments: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2137152>

------
ars
Better link (high quality version):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v2xnl6LwJE>

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Sniffnoy
OK, I'm stumped.

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FernandoEscher
If you watch the platform near the wheel, you'll see that the water is
actually going down since forward it the platform is in a lower level. I'm not
an expert but, I haven't ever seen a pump making water flow that way, so maybe
the water is always going down and the illusion is made by the camera position
over a near flat object. Maybe you could tell the track position by watching
how the water flows through corners... a pretty weird way if you watch
closer...

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olalonde
This video might help understand the illusion works:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUasuxHZXZo> \+
[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Kokichi+Sugihara)

------
AdamTReineke
I can't figure it out. And I'm sure this is not how he's doing it, but could
you potentially use water mixed with very fine metal particles and then use a
bunch of small electromagnets turned on and off quickly to pull the
water/metal mixture along the path?

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
I am unsure if you could do it that way, but the water is likely mixed with
copper, judging by the color.

~~~
MaMa
Probably just blue dye to make it visible to the camera

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
Agreed, it is likely for the camera. A lot of blue dyes for water fountains
and such are copper sulfate. Dyes for tanks or fish ponds are increasingly
methylene blue, food dye.

I thought I would just extend the poster's thought experiment, not imply that
magnets were indeed used.

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sev
This clip is false.

~~~
ars
Well obviously, but the question is how did he do it.

~~~
sev
I was trying to allude to the "This sentence is false." fiasco :)

~~~
rflrob
Ah, but the beauty of "This sentence is false" is the self reference, which of
course breaks when you make the subject anything else. What you could do is
say "this is not a waterwheel", and attempt to get at the whole "This is not a
pipe" fun-ness.

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obilgic
Guys I know how it is made, but my english is not enough to explain it.

~~~
FernandoEscher
Give it a try

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jarin
The most amazing thing about this (and other similar illusions) is that even
if you know it's fake and know how it's constructed, YOUR BRAIN WILL NOT LET
YOU SEE IT.

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OwlHuntr
so confused.

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nika
No fair. Gotta move the camera to the left at the end a little bit so it is
clear how he built it.

Maybe the structure is actually fairly flat, only a few inches off the floor
at the highest point, but laid out, with shadows painted on the floor to make
it look like it is vertical.

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maeon3
The shadow cast on the yellow water wheel is not from the pillar you think it
came from.

