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{{trope}}
[[File:SeeInvisible_249.jpg|link=The Order of the Stick
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# '''The invisible character is visible to the audience.''' No special effect required, just have the other actors pretend they can't see the invisible ones. Used often in live action, especially when the invisible characters are [[Intangible Man|intangible]] as well (lots of ghosts are shown this way). Usually accompanied by some verbal cue ("They can't see us!"). It's common to cut to another character's POV to show he's seeing empty space.
# '''The invisible character is rendered as a vague distortion of the background.''' A.K.A. the ''[[
# '''The invisible character is partly transparent.'''
# '''The invisible character is shown as an outline.''' Especially common in comics and animation.
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== Visible to the Audience ==
== Film ==
* ''[[
* Most renditions, in text and on film, of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]''.
* ''[[Ghost (
* ''Ghost Dad''
* Chevy Chase in ''Memoirs of an Invisible Man'', particularly when he was the only character onscreen. Other scenes had him completely invisible when needed.
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*** Which, oddly enough, made this the movie most true to the original book.
* ''[[Heart and Souls]]'', although Thomas Riley is the one person who can see the ghosts following him around, which makes him look insane to everyone else.
* ''[[Amazon Women
== Live Action TV ==
* Claude in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is visible to the audience most of the time during his episodes, but when he's introduced at the beginning of an episode, the audience hears his voice and sees him pick up an object, rendering it invisible. Also, the audience has seen him fade in and out of visibility. This causes his fans to believe that after he ran out on Peter, he's in every scene—''we just can't see him.''
** Lampshaded by the writers: when asked if they were bringing Claude back, they replied "We already have. Didn't you see him?"
* Al, in the ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' TV series, as a temporal hologram, is visible only to Sam (and occasionally animals and small children).
* In the ''[[
** In "Gone" however Blinvibl!Buffy is invisible to the audience as well. Buffy has fun showing off via talking skulls and baseball eyes.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' episode "Vanishing Point" Hoshi becomes invisible to the rest of the crew, but looks exactly the same to the audience, except when she looks in a mirror.
* [[Randall and Hopkirk Deceased]]: Marty is only visible (usually) to Jeff and the audience, and invisible to everyone else.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
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== Distortion ==
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Ghost in
** Averted in the movie, and occasionally in the series. In the movie you can only see the disturbances that a cloaked character causes, like footprints, falling objects, etc. In the series you can see distortion sometimes, but not always — usually when the audience shares the perspective with the invisible character. There's always distortions for a few seconds when a character turns invisible, though.
* Latios and Latias in ''[[
* Espio the Chameleon in ''[[
== Film ==
* The invisible car in ''[[
** At least when the car is moving, as presumably the cameras and computers have a hard time keeping up. When it's still, it's undetectable.
* ''[[The Shadow (
* ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
* The Shadows in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' occasionally appear this way when they're not totally invisible.
* The Jem'Hadar from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
* The stealth tanks in the first ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' game, especially in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiMR77_ARFk the associated FMV.] Years later, ''Renegade'' used a cheaper version of this effect (and added stealth troopers).
* ''[[Doom (
* ''[[Dystopia (
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[Halo (
* ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces
** Same with the Shadow Troopers in Outcast, but not as easy to impale them with the saber if it wasn't for the fact they were wielding one themselves.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', one Heartless called Stealth Sneak can turn invisible, having this effect.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* Infiltrators using their tactical cloak, and Geth Hunters in ''[[
* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series, when a character is using stealth camo. The amount of distortion differs between NPC's and the player characters--a stealthed boss will be completely transparent aside from the distortion around the outline, while Snake or Raiden in stealth mode will also have a distinct green tint so you can at least see yourself. In ''Metal Gear Online'', a sharp eye for these can help in stealth team battles.
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' has the Cloaking Device, which leaves a faint distortion when the user moves around.
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*** The Ghost's attack is ''very'' hard to spot though, as it only gives off a small muzzle flash.
* Used in ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' for the "Stealth Module" ground skill. Only teammates can see the distortion, to enemies it's totally invisible. Accompanied with an [[Invisibility Flicker]] when attacking.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** Unless he's using the Cloak and Dagger. That works normally when charged or when standing still. If the charge runs out and he moves, the same visibility effect happens as when he is shot.
* At one point in ''[[Touhou
* Jungle in ''We ♥ Katamari''.
* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'', there are "invisible" enemies that distort the image of whatever is behind them, and this distortion gets stronger at the edges, almost giving them an outline. Imagine a human-shaped glass figurine and you're pretty close. Only, light doesn't reflect off these guys, making them way harder to spot than glass.
* The Nanosuit cloaking device in ''[[Crysis (
== Western Animation ==
* The Gleipnir and Fenrir from ''[[Ace Combat X Skies of Deception]]'' have this.
* Thrust in ''[[
* ''[[Wolverine and
* The [[Invisible Streaker]] in ''[[
== Real Life ==
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== Partly Transparent ==
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
== Video Games ==
* Rogues using stealth in most D&D-based video games, including ''[[
* ''[[
* All characters with [[Flash Step|Flash Steps]] in the DS ''[[
* All stealth units in ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Tiberian Sun'' (completely invisible to the enemy, of course).
* [[Ecco the Dolphin (
* The Specters of ''[[Doom (
* In ''[[
* ''[[Eve Online]]'' ships with cloaking devices are semitransparent to the player controlling the ship and completely invisible to everyone else, including teammates.
* Your [[Player Character]] looks like this when under the Invisible [[Status Buff]] in ''[[
* A player's own cloaked units in ''[[Starcraft]]''.
** And an enemy's cloaked units once they're within range of a unit with the Detector property, such as the Terran Missile Turret or the Protoss Observer.
* Mario using the Vanish cap in ''[[
* In ''[[
** In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', stealthed rogues, druids, night elves, and pets are shown like this. Stealthed enemy characters are completely invisible unless they come too close, though.
* In ''[[Rise of the Kasai]]'', [[Hot Amazon|Tati]] and [[Badass Grandpa|Grizz]] become shadowy and transparent when they stay still and hug the wall. The player can still see them, but enemies will walk right by without noticing them, allowing them to kill them from positions the other playable characters can't.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' allies who are cloaked will be invisible to the enemy but semi-transparent to you. Your character will also appear semi-transparent to indicate to you when cloaked.
** A few stealth powers, like Cloak of Darkness and Shadowfall, make you look more like a cloud of smoke to yourself and your allies.
* Espio the Chameleon in ''[[
** Oddly, not only will he be undetected by enemies, but [[Guide Dang It/Platform Games|he also passes through lasers ]] (of the [[Laser Hallway]] variety only) as if they aren't there, and this is necessary at at least one point (when looking for all 20 of the casino chips in BINGO Highway, as the last one is behind some lasers).
* The active camo in ''[[Halo: Reach]]''. The user's transparency decreases when they move.
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Gary Coleman Show]]'', in which Gary is a child angel.
* Invisible spirits on ''[[
* ''[[The Hobbit (
* In ''[[Bionicle]] 2: Legends of Metru Nui'', when Vakama is seen after discovering his [[Mask of Power|Kanohi Mask Power]], he is completely invisible to the raging [[Big Bad|Makuta]], however the viewer can see him quite clearly as a see-through, colorless figure.
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== Outline ==
== Video Games ==
* Characters in ''[[
* In the second ''[[
* ''[[Wing Commander (
** In ''Wing Commander III'', in the "fly-by" cutscenes, cloaked Excaliburs show up as wireframe outlines.
** In ''Wing Commander IV'', thanks to special optics for the Dragon fighter you can visually track cloaked ships, which use the wireframe outline mentioned above to display them.
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
** Though averted with villains occasionally. They will be completely invisible to the audience if we aren't supposed to see them.
** From the same creator: In ''[[
* ''[[Space Ghost]]'': Jan and Jayce all were drawn in white outline.
* Komodo of ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'' is drawn in white outline.
* Ditto for [[Wonder Woman]]'s [[
* Spoofed in an episode of ''[[
{{quote| '''Angelica:''' Any idiot can see a dotted line!}}
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== Completely Invisible ==
== Film ==
* ''[[Harry Potter (
** However in any shot where he's putting on or taking off the cloak, it falls into the category of [[Special Effects Failure|distortion]] due to the use of the [[Chroma Key|green-screen technique]] to make the cloak appear invisible.
** The [[Harry Potter (
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** Bilbo was invisible to the audience while wearing the ring. However, when Frodo wore the ring, we saw a distorted version of reality with him in it.
* The monster in ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''.
* The title character of ''[[Harvey]]'' is present only through his action on the environment, such as moving books.
* The demonic presence in ''[[Paranormal Activity]]'' makes itself visually known by moving the bedroom door and the planchette on a Ouija board, shifting the bedcovers, or dragging the female lead out of bed and down the stairs. Later on, they dust the hallway floor with flour, and it leaves white, bestial footprints. [[Hell Is That Noise|(It has other tricks as well.)]]
* The titular ''[[
* When we finally get to "see" Invisible Boy's power in ''[[Mystery Men]]'', he vanishes completely from the scene, only showing the objects moved by him.
* ''[[Hollow Man]]'' — even his vomit was invisible. Plenty of tricks were used to still get a view of him though.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
* Most adaptations of [[
** The [[The Invisible Man (TV series)|2000 series]] — the camera would usually cut to Fawkes' POV to show what he was doing.
** In a case of [[Special Effects Failure]], the original ''[[The Invisible Man (
* Cloaked ships and characters in ''[[Star Trek]]'' and the ''[[Stargate Verse]]''. Though early cloaked ships sometimes produced a distortion effect, which was actually a plot point.
* Clara of ''[[Sanctuary]]'' used the ''footprints'' method of tracking usually, using the outline when she was 'found' by turning on the sprinklers. Later uses enabled her to partly 'uncloak' some part of her body to alert the viewers where she was.
== Video Games ==
* Different from being transparent, ''other'' [[Player Character|Player Characters]] in ''[[
** Characters with the "invisible" status buff in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' leaves only a shadow. You can still see where the unit is (though the AI might not) but that unit cannot be targeted.
* The third boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
* Using the Invisible ability in ''[[Soul Series|Soulcalibur IV]]'' renders your character invisible, even to you the player- all you can see is the effects when swinging a weapon. Of course, this is because it's usable in Special Versus, too, and human players aren't so easy to fool as the AI.
* The Illwrath ships in ''[[Star Control]] 2'' have this as their special ability. However, since the "camera" is always aimed at the point directly between the two fighting ships, you can get a pretty good idea of where one is hiding.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
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== Western Animation ==
* Invisibo, from ''[[
** Due to budget constraints, however, Invisibo appears for most of their first fight as a rod clearly dangling from a piece of rope. Yes, in a cartoon. Fortunately, due to how bad that looked, the producers let them have a higher budget about halfway through the fight.
* "The Invisible Monster" in ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' left burning... er... ''blob''-prints where it "stepped" and blew up anything it touched, so there was a clear delineation of where it had been. How Dr. Quest and Race were able to make it visible by [[Fridge Logic|dropping paint balloons]] onto it is never explained.
* In the ''[[
** Some fans say this is due to the disbursal of the beam. it's highly concentrated when up close and spreads into less visible beams the farther it gets from the source.
* There's a ''[[
* Mirage in ''[[Transformers]] (G1)''. He turns invisible with an effect that looks like he's being surrounded with a laser cube, then the viewer only sees footsteps or items he's carrying.
* Ravage in Beast Wars was not only able to turn completely invisible, save for his laser blasts, he was also able to turn his entire ship and everyone on board invisible.
* Phantom Limb's arms and legs in ''[[
{{quote| '''Dr. Girlfriend:''' ...what the hell are you doing?<br />
'''Phantom Limb:''' I'm [[Large Ham|WRINGING MY HANDS]]...[[Mundane Made Awesome|menacingly]]!<br />
'''Dr. Girlfriend:''' Yeah, well nobody can see that! }}
* In the ''[[
** Also in Spongebob, in one episode that parodies several superhero groups, [[Action Girl|Sandy]] gains a suit of invisibility. While trying to get around the villains because the other [[Idiot Hero|heroes got defeated]], she gets hit by a boat and falls off a large cliff because nobody saw her.
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* Ea from ''[[Toumei Shoujo Ea]]'' (English title: "Invisible Girl Ea") takes all the methods, for the most part. She shifts between visibility and invisibility to the audience, except when her powers are malfunctioning, wherein she distorts like the predator or shows up as a translucent blue ghost.
* Similarly, Shizuka in ''Translucent'' uses several of the tricks. The story focuses on how Shizuka has contracted "Translucent Syndrome", a nonfatal, noncontagious disease that turns her mostly translucent on a monthly cycle. In the manga, this is shown via either sketching in the background lines behind her, showing her without any shading at all (or as a very pale gray), or showing her without any lines at all (merely using shading). People who get more serious versions of the disease can end up with "Fully Transparent Syndrome", which is traditional [[Invisibility]] stuff — which in the manga is shown by the "completely invisible, even to the audience" subtrope, with the exception that extreme positive emotions can cause a faint screentone outline to appear. The one character who has FTS in the series wears a hat, gloves and glasses to show people where her head and arms are.
* The title character of ''[[
* In a {{spoiler|Post-time skip}} [[Filler]] episode of [[Fairy Tail]], Lucy turns invisible after bathing in some potion which had gone off {{spoiler|(having been unused for 7 years)}}. For the most part, she is completely invisible, with the audience only being able to see the towel wrapped around her, and is occasionally Distorted Background (with very faint glow surrounding her). She is also at one point {{spoiler|after being completely wiped from existence}} fully visible to the audience, but everything else is covered in a purple haze.
== [[Comic Book]] ==
* Over the course of fifty years, Susan Richards from the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] has had her powers portrayed in every method but the first. The original [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] comics used outlines; the movies used Predator-style distortion; and later comics, cartoons, and video games have alternated between partial transparency and total invisibility, [[Depending
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* Princess Peach still casts a shadow in ''[[
* Hector the Reflector, a ''[[Yoshis Island
* In ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Red Alert'', cloaked units are shown as shadows to their general (copying the style of how submerged submarines are shown; indeed, there are normally no cloaking land units in the game barring bonus crates).
* In ''[[
* King Boo in ''[[
* The [[Pokémon]] Kecleon can turn invisible, but the red zigzag stripe around its body can be seen.
* In [[Quake]], the Ring of Shadows turns you invisible except for your eyes. Observant players will be able to spot this, while monsters will ignore you, presumably thinking you're a benevolent spirit... until you attack them, then they know to attack the floating eyes!
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[
* The shading method was also used once with Jade (using the Snake Talisman) in the ''[[
* [[Bugs Bunny]] subverts it in "Water, Water Every Hare" when he becomes invisible; the only giveaway besides flying items is the munched-up carrot that he eats.
* Dexter in the ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Barney accidentally gets turned invisible. He puts on a green hat so Fred can see where Barney is standing at any given moment.
* In the episode "Mad Dogs and Aliens" of ''[[
{{reflist}}
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