Squeezy
This is a Hologram Video Installation.
Project Showcase First!!
Pepper Ghost (Prototype)
The prototype (cup lid + carved plastic sheet) was pretty successful in Thursday. I begin testing the actual “viewport” of the whole hologram structure so I can create my own pepper ghost animation.
Design Draft
The idea was to add hand gestures for interactions in the installation.
Holograms are literally floating in the air, so using hand gestures feels super natural, like you’re actually touching and moving them.
I wanted to add interaction during video playback because just watching feels too passive. I wanted users to engage with the content, not just consume it. Plus, adding gestures or touch controls makes the experience feel more dynamic, almost like you’re part of the video rather than just a viewer.
Laser Cutting
Since I wanted to achieve a transparent effect, I encountered two issues with using a bottle cap:
- Too small – It doesn’t provide enough space for hand movements.
- Not transparent enough – The curvature causes refraction, making it difficult to see the hand behind it.
So, I decided to cut a flat panel instead.
I also explored the principle behind holograms:
From what I gathered, a single panel is all that’s needed for the effect to work. This reminded me of the hologram concerts we saw in class (I can’t recall exactly which late celebrity was recreated). The key concept was simply a tilted transparent panel in the middle.
With that in mind, my design sketch turned out to be quite simple. The final components are:
And putting them together we get:
The only issue with this panel is that, since it’s made of 1/8-inch thick acrylic, it causes double refraction, leading to a slight ghosting effect.
(This is a sample video for testing purposes. it’s not my original footage.) 👇
Interaction Design
Experimenting Gestures
Animation Draft (👆They are together)
Animation
Since I’m more comfortable with programming languages, I decided to create the base animation in p5.js. This allows for more flexibility and precision in the initial motion design.
Next, I’ll bring it into After Effects for fine-tuning and additional adjustments.
Preview (It seems to work)
I edited the preview in premiere to make sure the final effect was close to what I expected.