FAQs

Holographic stereograms or “moving holograms”

A hologram may be produced from a series of two-dimensional pictures. These may come from video, computer graphics, artwork, and photography, or can even be hand drawn animation.

If the initial images are made in the correct way, the resulting holographic image can be three-dimensional. Alternatively the images may be animated and appear to move as the view changes from side to side or from top to bottom. A combination of 3D and movement is also possible. This effectively creates a "holo- graphic movie." There is a technical limitation to the number of frames from which the hologram is made. The maximum is about 60 frames. This creates a small piece of animation. An example would be a footballer scoring a goal. This is not a route for making full length feature films.

One of the advantages of this type of holography is that images can be appropriated from existing sources such as video and film archives. If the right sequence is chosen, very effective holograms can be made, for example of people who are no longer alive.

Moving holograms can be either reflection or transmission holograms, one-offs or mass reproduced.

The largest, full colour, animated hologram available was until recently 50cm X 60cm - now using Zebra holograms we can produced tiled holograms of unlimited size. Colour movie footage must be produced. This can either be commissioned or appropriated from existing footage.

With the advent of inexpensive digital video, supplying a hologram manufacturer with images suitable for hologram production directly from video or video/computer graphic combinations is no longer an expensive or time consuming process. The Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is generally considered the most versatile format and most hologram makers use this as a standard. Images can be created using any operating system such as Macintosh, Windows, SGI etc. There is no difference as far as the hologram manufacturer is concerned.

2D/3D Holograms and Colourgrams (2D/2D) Holograms can be created from flat art- work. There are two basic types, the 2D/3D hologram and the 2D hologram, sometimes known as a colourgram. These are generally mass - reproduced embossed holograms used as brand authentication or security.

2D/3D holograms are made by producing flat films of the different LAYERS in the hologram. Each layer would be separated by one or two mm. The illusion of depth is created by making holograms of the flat artwork at different depths, hence the name 2D/3D - two dimensional layers, separated in three-dimensional space. Display holograms, either reflection or transmission, can also be 2D/3D holograms and have been made to form dimensional logos and corporate graphics for shop displays. A 2D hologram is completely flat and uses holographic diffraction to generate colour. This type of hologram can be generated from an individual full colour image. An example would be an embossed hologram postcard. 2D/3D holograms have been very popular in the past, but are now generally regarded as old fashioned. More commonly they are used in conjunction with dot matrix holograms for a more sophisticated effect.