Hey guys!
So recently I've been on the buzz of Holographic stuff. If you've seen my first holographic video you'd know what I'm talking about. So here is the second attempt, this time I went for a more handheld style:
[click the title for info on how this was done]
This was done the morning after #ADANairobi11 because I got really psyched up after that event. So, I got out and did this.
Shot with my phone (Sony Ericsson W595 which shoots a very tiny 320 x 240 px). I got out, put it ontop of the car and started shooting. After some Curves (done to each channel rather than RGB) I got the bright, cyan-ish look. Finally a vignette. That's it for the footage part:
I also added a vignette and a black-transparent gradient at the top to darken the top area, a nice trick to keep attention in the center.
Next, I created the base, which was basically a solid with about 97% linear wipe with 40.0 feather. Then applied CC Cylinder to make it round and there we have the base.
I then duplicated this and threw in CC Rain and Transform effects. I created rain at an angle and used rotation on the transform to make the rain go upward. I then decreased the linear wipe so it faded a bit higher than the base.
(If you look closely, you'll notice that I forgot to fade it in, so the Rain layer is present from the very beginning of the video :-S)
I used color key to remove the black. (I initially used the Screen blend mode but the black kept flashing between frames so I used Color Key effect.):
I wanted to have the cylinder visible at an angle rather than looking flat. So I positioned it in 3D space until it looked like it was on my hand (as strange as that may sound, it worked). The problem now came with co-ordinating anything in 3D space, but I eventually found a work-around.
I precomposed these bad boys. Next, I wanted something to put in the center, so I imported this image we used for the Fight Parody test:
I applied CC Ball Action and set the Grid size and spacing down to make it look more digital. The Ball Action did most of the work here. For its animation, I used the Twist control for the intro turn and the Rotation with an expression (time*200) to make it turn continuously. Both set to Y axis.
Then added a Hue/Saturation set to colorize to add the color.
As for the twitching, I used a preset I recently created "Interfere" for it. Here's the final footage (GIF):
So I put this right in the center of my cylinder and I was all set. I didn't have to move it in 3D space, I just scaled and positioned until it fit appropriately :-D
I also added the messy part at the end for when the hologram vanishes.
I also added the messy part at the end for when the hologram vanishes.
Now, I went back to the footage layer and used a Null object and tracked my hand manually. The video is only a few seconds long and I was sure to keep my hand relatively still so it took only a few minutes to do the tracking.
I then brought in the comp with the effects and positioned them where I wanted (on my hand) then parented to the Null object so they moved together. Sweet!
Okay, the bar was an idea I got watching the load screen from Mass Effect 2! Something I noticed was that to make something look really tech and what not, add lots of random, pointless information displays like gauges and sliders and progress bars and random numbers. That is precisely what they did for ME-2, check this out!
I then brought in the comp with the effects and positioned them where I wanted (on my hand) then parented to the Null object so they moved together. Sweet!
Okay, the bar was an idea I got watching the load screen from Mass Effect 2! Something I noticed was that to make something look really tech and what not, add lots of random, pointless information displays like gauges and sliders and progress bars and random numbers. That is precisely what they did for ME-2, check this out!
Interesting stuff. You can pull most of these off using loopOut / loopIn and some simple shapes with masks. Or, especially, with my presets Linear and Radial Scan. (blatant product placement)!
So I created a rectangular solid and applied a mask that was slightly smaller, feathered it out. Then created another box and keyframed it moving from one side to the other, then applied loopOut("cycle",2) to the position.
I then added some text paragraph of numbers, then I applied some text animation of "Character Offset" and just keyframed the value from 0 to 120 or something, just to have the numbers change randomly.
I then made the two 3D objects then rotated them in the Y axis, then placed them where I needed them in the first layer and parented to the null. Sorted.
Now, for the loading section I came up with it waaaaay later. I created a new text layer and applied CC Sphere to it then added a time expression to the Y rotation.
In order to make the "loading" come up the sphere, I keyframed the position of the original text.
As for the loader, I created a solid and created a square mask. I then selected one of the edges and skewed it.
On to Opacity keyframes and loopOut and I had my loader. I copied it twice and offset their position and timing to give the flow.
I had to go back in and offset all the other layers and fix them, which took quite a while but turned out well.
So I added random animations to each property to give it an appearance animation, and also an Out animation.
I also added Linear Scan to add the scanning effect.
Shockingly simple process, but it's all the little things coming together that produces the effect.
Any questions or suggestions on how the process could've been made easier?
Would you like to explain how you would've done it?
Drop a comment below for everyone to see, and I'll respond as soon as I can.
Enjoy!
davdalx