Here's an easy to make hologram, one that shows four sides of an object.
Princess Leia hologram and R2D2.
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A flying pterodactyl hologram.
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It's made by taping together four pieces of plastic to make a truncated
pyramid as shown below. On a screen such as a phone, tablet or monitor,
display an image or animation that consists of four different views of
the same object. Sit the pyramid in the middle and when you look at
it from the sides, you'll see the image closest to you projected onto
the closest face of the pyramid. And since the pyramid is transparent
the image will look like it's suspended in air.
The plastic pyramid.
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Animation on a monitor.
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Putting the pyramid in place.
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Image projected up to one side.
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Note that strictly speaking, this isn't actually a hologram. A hologram
refers to a thing created using a specific process and involves the
"use of laser, interference, diffraction, light intensity recording and
suitable illumination of the recording" [from wikipedia]. This pyramid
"hologram" is really 4 views using a trick called Pepper's Ghost, the
result being something that is popularly known as a hologram.
I've also shown how you can have fun doing
Pepper's ghost using a smartphone and a video of some ghosts and
an animation of some Star Wars AT-AT Imperial Walkers.
Hologram images to play with
Here are some animations and a still image I've made that you can download
and use yourself. Just make your own plastic pyramid and have fun.
With some browsers you can just click on the file and you'll be asked
to save, with others you may have to right-click and choose to save.
Princess Leia giving here message from Star Wars IV - animation
leia_hologram_h264.avi - 531KB, H.264 video format
leia_hologram.blend - 3.11MB, contains the 3D model and animation for use in Blender, made with Blender 2.71.
If you make a video or do something awesome with this, please let me know
(email address is below.) Also, if you make significant modifications to
the .blend file, I'd like to have a copy of the resulting .blend file for
my own use.
Flying pterodactyl - animation
pterodactyl_hologram_h264.avi - 325KB, H.264 video format
Skull - still images
skull_hologram.mp4 - 168KB, video
skull_hologram.jpg - 29KB, still image file
Video - Pyramid Hologram - How to Make/How it Works with Princess Leia Hologram
The following video shows the above hologram in action, including the
Princess Leia and R2D2 one, the pterodactyl and the skull, as well as
making a plastic pyramid.
