Create a Futuristic Floating Hologram Effect

Jan 19th in VFX by Michal Jagiello

This tutorial will show you how to make a futuristic floating hologram over a cellphone. The techniques included here will help you understand how to track one object to another. The final result is something that may make your indie science-fiction film look better or it may just inspire you to create something new.

PG

Author: Michal Jagiello

I'm interested in all aspects of moviemaking: shooting, mixing and camera operating, starting from when the Matrix was released. For 3 years I've been recording some funny, amateur stuff. Now the time has come for more serious work: time for compositing and adding video effects!

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User Comments

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  1. PG

    Snorri3D January 19th

    Awsome! what a great site and good tuts.
    keep up the good work :D

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    Emin January 19th

    Nice effect, really awesome

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    DKumar M. January 19th

    Really fine tutorial Michal… end result also gives some refreshment !!

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    hid37 January 19th

    I’m impressed, it’s great!

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    halli January 19th

    nice effect…

    http://www.quickurl.biz

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    Marshall January 19th

    very good!

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    Lo January 19th

    Good motion tracking tut…. might wanna explain the keyboard shortcuts more though…. but all in all good work.

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    Nokadota January 19th

    Ooh, very nice effect here. And you’re right, I would like to use this for some sci-fi ideas I have.

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    Don January 19th

    Too cool! Excellent work!

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    chico January 19th

    IMO effect’d be better if the hologram was the whole body not just an video…

    ( Reply )
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    Khaled Dostzada January 19th

    Good tutorial, but it was really geared toward beginners.
    I really got annoyed by the super slow pace, it was very condescending.

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    Michal J. January 19th

    @Khelad

    What do You mean by “super slow pace”? And yes, it was for the beginners.

    Regards

    ( Reply )
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    LGFN January 19th

    You’re tutorials are one-of-a-kind! The best of the best!!

    I just have one minor request: if possible please write next to the video how long it is, as when I browse through the tutorials I should be able to see if I have the time on hand or it should better wait for a future opportunity.

    It will help me, and I think others too, majorly.

    Keep up your good work!!

    ( Reply )
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    MaorZ January 20th

    nice one! :) good job man..
    just I think you need to mask some of the phone.. look at the preview video.. somewhere at 00:01…
    http://Www.youtube.com/MaorZ

    ( Reply )
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    Billy January 20th

    SO many tutorials since the first week have been for “beginners.” Sorta getting annoying. Maybe they should have just called it the “aetutsforbeginners.com.” Come on….seriously! Let’s get some more advanced stuff going! Some more particular….some more form….maybe some horizon, some lux or some shine. Let’s dispense with this stuff for beginners for a while. Lots of stuff out there on the internet for beginners. If you own After Effects you should be past “beginners” stuff within a week.

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    efszijukej January 21st

    First of all, thank you for the tutorial, for your invested work!

    Billy, i agree you, but instead of 3rd party plugins, perhaps advanced useage of AE would be better. For ex. creating exact effects of an ad. How to create realistic rain in a spot? how to convert it to a night scene? How to switch background if you had a footage non blue/green screened? Etc.

    Cheers

    ( Reply )
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    Ben January 21st

    Well, the good part was the motion tracking i guess. Realy shows the benefit of having a 3D tracker. About the composition. Uhm well, I suggest you do a bit more thinking before you composite. A hologram is made of light projected (somehow) in the air. Therefor the shadows of the hologram should always be lighter then the environment (after all, it is light that you see).

    About the ‘fading connection’, if you ever played with a radio or tv you should be familiar with static noise. It doesnt fade in and out, its static (hence the name). Use hold keyframes, it helps.

    Bottomline, pretty good tracking (especially without a 3D tracker). So kudo’s for that. But the composition as a whole is not convincing and needs a bit more thought imho.

    Looking forward to some more advanced tutorials.

    ( Reply )
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    Ben January 21st

    P.S. I also suggest playing with blendmodes for the hologram video. Convincing holograms are pretty hard to produce, they need to be transparent while still being clearly visible. Cutting the hologram in horizontal lines (with the grid effect) can also help sell the effect.

    This can only be done with a powerful lightsource, you might want to add one (maybe on top of the phone). And some falloff light on the table as a result of that.

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez January 21st

    @Billy – We will be publishing more advanced tutorials, don’t worry about that. The tutorials should never be considered exact recipes. We simply hope that they will inspire you to create something of your own. I think Michal has definitely inspired some healthy dialog here so I think he’s achieved this goal.

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    Michal J. January 21st

    @Ben
    Thank you for some ideas. Cause… we are still learning, right? ;)

    @Billy
    I never meant to annoy you, really.

    ( Reply )
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    Cristian January 21st

    Lovin’ it. Great Tutorial!

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    Billy January 22nd

    Lloyd….my comment is based partly on the fact that your form tutorial (the 2nd one, i think) was AMAZING! That is the stuff I thought this site was going to put out. Since then there has been a couple decent ones but nothing like that one. It has regressed badly into the realm of the beginner. Videocopilot has managed to keep the interest of the person advanced with AE by NOT catering to the beginner with 80% of their tuts. Maxafter….same thing. Some beginner stuff is OK but tut after tut after tut is pointless. There is so much beginner stuff on the internet…..yet another site is not needed. Advanced stuff…that’s the ticket!

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez January 22nd

    @Billy – Thanks for your feedback. Honest feedback like yours is very important to us and rest assured that we are listening. Due to the fact that we have a lot of PSDTUTS and VECTORTUTS readers who are just getting started with After Effects our plan is to cover all levels. However, one of the the things I plan on implementing soon is a difficulty rating so that you can skip a tutorial if you feel it’s not a level you’d like to try (although I find that I am always learning something new by watching how other people do basic stuff). As you’ve probably noticed we are publishing tutorials very frequently. This way you should hopefully not have to wait too long until another tutorial of your difficulty level is published again. Having said that, we are still working on a system that works best so bear with us as we get that sorted out.

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    Ahmed Mohsen January 22nd

    thank you for the tutorial

    there is more tutorials on my blog
    http://motionsociety.com/blog

    ( Reply )
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    Billy January 22nd

    @Lloyd….thanks for the feedback as well. You guys have a great site, and I fear I am coming across as a ungrateful. Not my intention. It is just there are so many amazing things that AE and it’s plugins can do (and I am not the most creative person on earth :( so it’s great to see what others with much more creativity can come up with. Keep up the great work. Just looking forward to challenging my horizons!

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    Mike January 22nd

    Very Good…Thanks

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    ravi January 24th

    not very nice…

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    Cristhian Bedon January 26th

    Nice effect, would seem great to try.

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    SomeRandomGuy January 31st

    Thanks a great tutorial, and this is a bit advanced tut, but you were still telling some basic stuff that help new guys, and i think that you could be great at making tuts

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    Nokadota February 1st

    Why are people complaining? Obviously not everyone is a pro at After Effects, therefore these beginner videos are very much needed and appreciated by those who want to get into it. Instead of being condescending with your, “I’m such an expert” comments, either wait until the admins release the advanced tuts [which probably take awhile to record, being advanced obviously] or go somewhere else.

    ( Reply )
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    tillimanjaro February 7th

    I agree with Nakadota.
    People get a bit spoiled with a the great tuts here and else on the net.
    I used be psyched on every tutorial , there used be none.
    I still do. Even when its for beginners..

    ( Reply )
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    Ahmed Dashti February 9th

    Wow! Thanks! you helped a lot.

    ( Reply )
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    Michal J. February 10th

    Ahmed, I’m glad I could help.

    Thanks for support, mates!

    ( Reply )
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    Praveen February 11th

    Thatz a Gud One Bro….
    keep Rocking………….
    Thanks

    ( Reply )
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    Nikh LaVida March 4th

    Grand Tut…. thanks for it…
    Keep them coming….

    ( Reply )
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    Dan_Hin March 7th

    about the advanced tuts thing:

    Billy is right. the internet is overflowing with beginners/getting started tutorials which are all easy to find, and once you’ve done a few (and read up of course, I can recommend AE CS3 studio techniques, for example) then ways of advancing your technique dry up very quickly.

    I too would love to see some really advanced techniques, and also some “finishing touches” tips; how do the pros make their showreels look so good? I have a feeling it ain’t by buying plugins.

    Finally; I for one am definitely in the “no plugins if possible” camp. There is so much potential in the “out of the box” plugs that ship with AE that 3rd party plugins feel a bit like cheating. And of course, I note that this site is AEtuts, not Trapcode tuts…. ;)

    ( Reply )
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    CgBaran Tuts April 22nd

    Wavv nice effect

    ( Reply )
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    Spit June 9th

    Beginner TUT or not, we all learn something new from this… Nokadota is right, people get spoiled way too much their argument end up having no basis, Michal… Nice TUT thanks, even though I have been using AE for years, I always learn a lot from beginner TUTs… Thanks Again…

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    Speshal ED June 13th

    Pretty cool tut…needed some tweaking though like a mask underneath to make a glow on the base and a light burst coming out of the phone check out my video

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHjkJUVBrlU

    ( Reply )
  40. PG

    Dude, thanks a lot. August 1st

    Thanx

    ( Reply )
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    yusif August 22nd

    naci effect

    ( Reply )
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    koolwinter October 8th

    hi loved it but what program did u use

    ( Reply )
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