Surreal tilt shift video makes real derby cars look like toys

Viewers have been left mesmerized after seeing a video taken via tilt shift – and it makes real-life race cars look like Hot Wheels toys.

Turns out a new POV can really change your perception of a video.

Taking Reddit by storm earlier today, the footage has amassed over 23K views.

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But the video isn’t all that it seems.

Captioned simply ‘Tilt shift makes demolition derby cars look like toys’ – it does, in fact, appear to show model cars being played with by invisible hands.

Apparently, it’s all down to a videography trick – tilt shift.

The filming technique involves filming from a high angle with a shallow depth of field.

The focal length and frame rate make the subject look slightly jerky and unrealistic.

The foreground and background blur to create the illusion of a small world, per Digital Photography School. 

What was actually captured was purpose-built real cars taking part in a demolition derby event.

The high-up perspective was captured by a drone.

And if that’s not camera trickery enough, the world’s fastest camera recently shot at 156.3 trillion frames per second for the first time.

As is often the way with these threads, the comment section is full of surprised Redditor’s reactions.

“I promise you that I really thought they were [toys],” said one comment with over 2,600 upvotes.

“I thought they were hotwheels [sic] until I saw a human. Still think it’s hotwheels,” said a second.

Some seemed to go a little deeper in their observations: “It looks like a dream.

“Like the way things look in focus up close but all the detail is gone in the background.

“At least it’s how my dreams look sometimes.”

“If you lowered the frame rate a bit more people would really think it’s stop-motion,” said a third.

If you’re a fan of optical illusions, this bizarre effect lets you know if you should drive in the rain.

Plus here are our top picks of car-related trompe l’oeil that are fooling the internet.

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