It's hard to create the illusion of a 3 dimensional object from a 2 dimensional image and I'm not talking about the recent craze of 3-D TV's, mobile gaming consuls and computers. There is a way to do it though. Parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling was first used for video games and it gave the illusion of 3-D from a 2-D image.

How does this work though? When scrolling the background images move slower than different foreground images, which creates an illusion of depth to the viewer. You will notice this type of scrolling on old video games like Moon Patrol (the first game this technique was used on) or more popular games like Sonic the Hedgehog I & II and Street Fighter II.

Recently some websites have been receiving a face-lift using parallax scrolling, truly transforming the look and feel of the site, like the Nike website. The background and various images move at different speeds allowing for the 3-D illusion. The best part about this is, it is not with old 80's video game graphics, but can be seen on Full HD display's. This rather old technology can is being applied in a new ways and makes for a very exciting web experience.

picture from cnet.com