Excerpt from HMP 7 Appendix
Creating the Mona Lisa hologram that appears on the cover of this book
The hologram featured on the cover of this book was a collaborative effort among four companies: Dimension 3 (image origination and digital modeling), Chromagem (mastering the hologram), DuPont (who provided the photopolymer material which the hologram was reproduced on) and Krystal Holographics (who mass-produced the hologram). A special thanks to Doug Miller of Krystal Holographics for helping to coordinate the project. To find out how the hologram was produced in more detail, see Appendix A (page 221).
The book’s cover art was designed and produced by Linda Law of Linda Law Holographics (who provided the cover art for last year’s book, too.) Her company specializes in the design and origination of digitized artwork for holography. She is an experienced artist and holographer.
This hologram and the cover provide excellent examples of how new masterpieces can be created using a combination of the latest digital and optical imaging technologies. More importantly, it demonstrates methods that are commercially available today! These are not technologies that are locked in the research lab. They are affordable and feasible to use now. We encourage you to read the book to familiarize yourself with current production methods and then contact these companies to discuss your ideas with them.
Artwork Origination and Digital Modeling
Paul Richer (Dimension 3)
The cover image was created by first scanning a copy of the original un-retouched "Mona Lisa" painting in 36bit RGB with an AGFA ArcusII scanner and Photoshop 4.0 on a 128MB 200MHz Pentium. After some brightness, contrast, gamma corrections, detail optimization and scaling, the image was converted to 24bit RGB and saved in TIFF format on our 56GB fileserver.
Still in Photoshop 4.0 but now on an Aspen Durango 256MB/256bit RAM 500MHz DEC Alpha AXP, we did layer separations and saved them in 24bit TIFF format. Then starts the artistically intensive task of layers retouching in Photoshop and other special 2-D graphic software.
The resulting layers were saved in TARGA format and imported as texture in a 3-D modeling/rendering software for full detail 3-D modeling. During modeling, we rendered a few stereoscopic tests (in stereogram format) and viewed them with our Holo-EmulatorTM system (a 3-D stereoscopic interactive viewer software/hardware we designed to adjust and validate the 3-D picture quality, shape, parallax and depth).
The final rendering was done on four 256MB/256bit RAM 500MHz DEC Alpha AXP (Aspen's Durango) and took 22 hours for the 60 views needed. They were rendered in 24bit RGB TARGA format of 507 x 480 pixel in size.
Since this is a monochrome type (we also do color ones), we had to convert the views to grayscale using special RGB ratios to optimize shading and contrast. Then a final brightness/contrast/gamma optimization specially calibrated for Chromagem's monochrome computer holographic transfer (since we also produce 3-D lenticular printing which uses other correction curves, this is made last so we can use the same files for lenticular printing).
The final step was to compose the 507 x 480 views on 640x480 black canvas to fit Chromagem's imaging device needs, and save the views in 8bit uncompressed TARGA on a 1GB JAZ disk (could have been on a Syquest since the 60 files only take a bit more than 18MB). Sometimes we send them on CD-R instead, or, if short in time, through direct modem transfer compressed in ZIP.
Hologram Mastering and Reproduction
The H1 was produced by Chromagem Inc. from the digital files which were delivered to them. Chromagem, of Youngstown, Ohio has produced some of the highest quality masters for over 15 years. They are extremely experienced at design and mastering for all types of holographic embossing and are now making masters for photopolymer hologram reproduction as well. They specialize in the use of digitized artwork to produce stereograms. Some of the jobs they have worked on include: PepsiCo’s Christmas 24-pack carton (which was the largest production run at the time which used holographic packaging materials; Hershey Chocolate’s recent "Jurassic Park, Lost World" promotion, Kellog’s cereal box inserts (15,000,000 holograms produced) and labels for Miller Brewing Company.
The master hologram was shipped to Krystal Holographics production facility in Logan, Utah, where a production tool was produced and where replication was done. The company specializes in the design and production of photopolymer holograms. They are capable of manufacturing large volumes of holograms using DuPont’s photopolymer recording materials and custom built high speed replication equipment. Once the hologram was produced, they were shipped to the bindery where they were hand-applied. (Automatic application is possible, but the quantities produced for this limited edition book, did not require it.)
The artwork which appears on the front cover of the book was designed and produced by Linda Law of Linda Law Holographics. It illustrates how holograms can be integrated with 2-D graphics. A true masterpiece!