How to create a Star Wars style hologram | HitFilm Express

hello I'm Axel and in this tutorial we're going to look at how to create that awesome holographic map that you saw in our fan film rebellion you did see rebellion right if you haven't then what are you doing here go watch that first then meet me back in hitfilm when you're done okay so here we are in hips home for express where we will build our hologram and here is the finished effect that we'll be creating I've included our maps and the zip file you can download so go ahead and download and unzip that 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 floorplan 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 hollow 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 hollow projector prop 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 to do 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 1 & 2 place the green dot at the bottom of the stack for now we will reposition it later our next step is to a range 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 are some space between them starting with the second floor increase the Z position by 50 per layer so floor three will be 104 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 not 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 the z-axis points up and down position the trail layer between floors 1 & 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 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 percent advance 10 frames or so then set the scale to 60 percent 60 percent 20 percent advance another 10 frames and set the Z scale to 100 percent then reposition the point so the map is above the hollow 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 hollow 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 it's easier to see what we're 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 customise 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 hollow projector point and zero out the offset this positions the center of the effect exactly where that point is over the hollow 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 hollow project 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 on to our raised grade layer in the center controls for the blur set use layer two the hollow 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 minus 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 ctrl D if you're on Windows this gives 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 then 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 hollow 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 hip film Pro then there are some other option 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 hit phone for 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 it's 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 the tutorial informative and thanks very much for watching [Music]

Channel: FXhome

Views: 48,862

Keywords: HitFilm, HitFilm Pro, HitFilm Express, filmmaking, VFX, editing, software, video software, video editing, visual effects, free, free software, compositing, how to, films, filmmaker, editor, compositor, color grading, 3D, Mac, Windows, PC, Rebellion, hologram, effects, sci fi, sci-fi, budget, low budget, Star wars, Fan made, Fan Film, Budget effects, Axel Wilkinson, Axel tutorial, Star Wars effects, create a hologram, create holographic, holographic projector, holographic

Id: Q0Eg2vupryA

Length: 9min 48sec (588 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2017

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Category	Information
Title	How to create a hologram in HitFilm Express
Author	HitFilm
Views	274
Duration	00:09:49
Rating	5.0
Upload Date	2017-02-16 17:02:15
Category	Film & Animation
Keywords	HitFilm HitFilm Pro HitFilm Express filmmaking VFX editing software video software video editing visual effects free free software compositing how to films filmmaker editor compositor color grading 3D Mac Windows PC Rebellion hologram effects sci fi sci fi budget low budget Star wars Fan made Fan Film Budget effects Axel Wilkinson Axel tutorial Star Wars effects create a hologram create holographic holographic projector holographic
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Video ID	Q0Eg2vupryA

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