M1

What is Persistence of Vision?

Persistence of vision is the term used for when an image is momentarily visible in the retina (1-25^th of a second). It is what makes animation possible because it allows the human eye to view the next image in a sequence a fraction of a second after it has shown. Your brain is then tricked into thinking it is the same image, so it puts them together which gives the image the illusion of movement.

This is also the reason why you do not see the black spaces between some pictures because your eyes are still processing the first image you saw. For example if I drew several images of a stickman catching a ball but added some black spaces between each image, your brain would not perceive those spaces as they were and instead only process the next image.

Persistence of vision also applies to 3D animation and in some animations it is possible to see little stutters. These are the black spaces between the frames and these are only visible if the animation is not fast enough. Animation cannot be too fast though, as the human eye can only perceive about 20 FPS (Frames per Second). This is also how we are able to view the world fluently.