The parallax effect

Here at Ingenious we love parallax - an optical effect that can be used to create an illusion of depth from a 2D scene. It’s a great way to showcase products, enrich a website and provide a sense of immersion as part of an animation.

Parallax is the perceived difference in distance between objects in the foreground and background. By separating an image into different layers and moving those layers at different speeds and scales to each other, the viewer’s mind is tricked into perceiving 3D depth within a 2D image. 

The parallax effect grew out of the multiplane camera technique established in the 1940s and was used in traditional animation such as Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The digital version first appeared in the 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol and went on to be heavily used in many video games of the 80s and 90s including 2D versions of Super Mario Bros and Sonic.

Ingenious Design are experts at creating parallax animations and have found it a highly effective tool in bringing a wide variety of projects to life.

Follow link here to some examples we created for our client ACCO Brands.

And if you think a parallax animation could work for you, do get in touch!