Hello, I’m Axel, and in this tutorial we will look at how to create that awesome holographic
map that you saw in our fanfilm, Rebellion.
I assume you have already seen it.
If not, what are you doing here?
Go watch it right now, then meet me back here when you are done.
OK, so here we are in HitFilm 4 Express, where we will build our hologram.
And here is the effect that we will be creating.
I’ve included our maps in the .zip file you can download, so go ahead and download
and unzip the file, and open the project file there to follow along.
Once the project is opened, take a look in the media panel.
Notice that I have created a folder for the images of our floor plans, just to keep things
organized, and that our individual images are created with transparency baked into them.
Transparency is essential for a Hologram effect, and in some cases, you can just reduce the
Opacity of your layers to add some transparency to them.
But in this case, where we want different levels of transparency in the images, with
the area outside the floor plan completely transparent, and the inside area more transparent
than the walls, controlling the transparency in the images themselves is a great option.
So, on to setting up the hologram.
Right-click the Hologram Wide clip, and Make Composite Shot.
Let’s name it Holo Map.
Select all the images, and drag them to the timeline.
With all of them selected, change them from 2D to 3D.
Scrub the playhead through to find the frame where the holo-projector lights up, If you
right-click on the timecode and switch to Display As Frames it should be at frame 149,
and then with all our images still selected, trim them back to start on that frame.
This just ensures that the hologram doesn’t appear until we want it to.
Then, right-click on any of the layers and change the Blend mode to Add.
The Add blend mode is very useful for creating bright effects, and you will find it comes
up a lot when creating a hologram.
Now let’s reorder the layer stack, so the floor numbers ascend, and the symbols, target
and trail are all between floors one and two.
Place the green dot at the bottom of the stack, for now, we will reposition it later.
Our next step is to arrange all these images in 3D space, but to simplify this process,
we first want to create a control point that can be used for all of them.
Open the New Layer menu, select Point, then right-click and rename the point to Map Control.
Then, convert the point to 3D.
Select all the images again, except for the Green Dot, and parent them to our Map Control
point.
Now if we rotate the Map Control point 90 degrees on its X axis, all of the images are
facing upwards.
Let’s set that to 95 degrees, so we can see the maps a bit better.
The next step is to offset the layers, so there is some space between them.
Starting with the 2nd Floor, increase the Z position by 50 per layer, so floor 3 will
be 100, floor 4 will be 150, etc.
You might be confused at this point, thinking the vertical axis is Y, and changing the Z
position should control their distance from the camera, t up and down.
And you would normally be absolutely right.
The difference here is that we rotated the layers using the Map Control point, which
rotates their Z axis as well, so now it points up and down.
Position the Trail layer between floors 1 and 2, at 25.
Then set the target and symbols layers at 10, just above the first floor.
Our last layer to position is the Green Dot.
We didn’t rotate this one with the rest of the images, and that was deliberate.
We want this one to be oriented differently, so we can now scale it down to 25% and use
the top view to position it among the Red Target layer, where the trail dots end.
Switch back to the Camera view, and adjust the point up and down to finish off its position,
Then, parent it to the Map Control point as well, and open its Layer Properties, and set
its alignment to Toward Active Camera.
With all of our layers positioned relative to one another, we can now animate their visibility.
First, rotate the Map Control point, using Rotation Z, to arrange the map however you
wish (250).
Notice how the dot stays facing the camera as everything else turns.
Then let’s animate the scale.
At frame 149, where the effect will first appear, unlink the Scale property and enable
keyframing for it.
Then set the Scale to 0, 0 ,20%.
Advance 10 frames or so, then set the Scale to 60%, 60%, 20%.
Advance another 10 frames, and set the Z scale to 100%.
Then reposition the point, so the map is above the holo projector.
That sorts out the animation, so the next step is to make this look like a proper hologram
through some grading.
We don’t want this grading to affect our footage, though, so we will disable the Hologram
Wide video layer.
But before we do, create a new Point Layer, renamed to Holo Projector, and position it
over the bright point on the prop.
Then, disable the video layer.
Let’s start by brightening things up a bit, so its easier to see what we are doing.
Open the New Layer menu and create a Grade Layer, then right-click and rename it to Glow.
Trim it back to start at the same frame as our images, then set its Blend mode to Add.
Now search for the Glow effect, and add that to the glow layer.
In the Glow effect controls, change the blend mode to Add, then whack the Intensity right
up to 5.
Now we are going to add a Light Flare to our Glow, and customize it a bit to fit our scene,
so it looks like a light is shining out of the projector prop.
Set the Flare Type to Soft Spike, then in the Hotspot Position select our Holo Projector
Point, and zero out the offset.
This positions the center of the effect exactly where that point is, over the holo projector
prop.
In the Global controls, shift the color a bit toward blue so it matches our images.
In the Hotspot controls, reduce the Brightness to 0.65, and increase the Scale to 1.5.
For the Other Elements bring Brightness down to 0.2 so they almost disappear.
Then find the Diffuse effect, and add it to our Glow grade as well.
Next we want to create some rays coming from the holo-projector down here, and linking
it to our image.
We can do this using a Zoom blur, applied to a grade layer.
So create another grade layer, rename it to Rays, and move it below the Glow layer.
Trim its length to match our other layers, and set its blend mode to Add.
Now in the Effects panel, search for Zoom blur, and drag it onto our Rays Grade layer.
In the Center controls for the blur, set Use Layer to the Holo Projector point.
Again, using this point centers the effect on the projector prop, so the rays look like
they are emanating from the prop.
Look at the green dot as we adjust the Strength, and notice that positive values push away
from our center point, but negative values will pull the lines toward our center point,
so we will set it to -100.
Disable the floor plane grid, as we don’t need it.
This gives us a good start, but the lines don’t reach all the way to our origin point
at the projector.
To extend them, just select the zoom blur and duplicate it, by pressing Command+D, or
Control+D if you are on Windows.
This gets us a bit closer, so just keep on duplicating until it reaches the projector.
Once the rays have come to a point, add one more duplicate, the on the top Zoom Blur,
set the Strength to 100, a positive value, to stretch the rays back out through the hologram.
Select and duplicate that top blur to further enhance the rays.
That gives a suitable length to the rays, but they are a bit subtle, so let’s just
select the entire Rays grade, and duplicate it.
That does create a bit too much of a line through our green dot, though, so on the lower
Rays grade layer, let’s disable the top blur.
Now we are ready to composite this entire hologram onto the video.
Select the Hologram Wide video in the media panel, right-click and Make Composite shot.
Name this one Finished Hologram.
Then, drag the Holo Map comp onto the timeline above the video, and set its blend mode to
add.
Start a RAM preview to ensure it plays back smoothly.
If you are a user of HitFilm Pro, then there are some other options we could use in this
effect, like the Light Rays effect, Anamorphic Lens Flares, and a variety of cool distortion
effects.
Those effects are also available in add-ons that can be purchased for HitFIlm 4 Express.
And of course, in HitFilm Pro 2017 you could use 3D models, imported and set up as part
of the hologram as well.
But for this tutorial, I wanted to stick with tools that are available in the free version
of the software.
Let’s play the timeline back, now its done rendering, and marvel at the modern technology
of holograms.
Except, of course, that this was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, so I guess
this is ancient technology, and we earthlings are just a bit slow on the uptake.
Anyway, I hope you found this tutorial informative, and thanks very much for watching.