Create a Star Wars-esque hologram scene

QUESTION OF THE MONTH:
“How can I create a Star Wars-esque hologram scene using After Effects?”
Submitted by Geraldine Parker-Thomas, via email

The answer is supplied by Jan Rogowski of the UK-based effects and animation company Red Star Studio. Most of his fantasies have been fulfilled by directing a diminutive receptionist pretending to be Princess Leia. 

“So, you’re waging a long and bitter galactic war, and you’re outnumbered and outgunned by the merciless army of an evil emperor. The forces of the Dark Side have captured your spaceship, and stretched the neck of its captain: defeat seems inevitable. Your only hope lies in somehow getting word to Sir Alec Guinness, a venerable Jedi of great power. But his mobile’s out of range, the post office has been privatised and Fed Ex has yet to go galactic. You turn to your trusty, hologram-recording droid to deliver the message personally; it’s then you realise that holographic projection doesn’t really exist. Damn. Your heart sinks, and in desperation you turn to an old copy of 3D World for comfort. Flicking through its tattered pages you stumble across an article that breathes hope into your soul. So attach those Danish pastries, wield the mighty power of After Effects and repel the evil of the Dark Side! While holographic projection may be the work of science fiction, we can create the illusion relatively simply using a camera, a big sheet of blue paper, an office administrator and a firm grasp of visual effects.

"This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a hologram sequence using After Effects as a platform, but the theory is equally applicable to other applications. From the support files below you’ll find example QuickTime movies, full-res walkthrough images and all the source material and After Effects project files required to create the sequence. If you’re on a PC, copy the Hologram_QnA to c:\ and the After Effects files will work; otherwise you’ll have to load them and instruct After Effects to find the missing footage. Let’s get started!” 

Click here to download the support files