# City-Tech.Tokyo \| 3D holograms on Looking Glass

Duration: 2023.02.27 ~ 2023.02.28

### Project Overview

Steampunk Digital exhibited at City-Tech.Tokyo, a large-scale tech event held at the Tokyo International Forum from 27-28 February, 2023.

At the event, the company introduced Monocle Prime, a 3D scanning application for the iPhone, which is currently under development.

To attract the attention of the participants, a Looking Glass was used for the exhibition, and 3D models scanned with Monocle Prime were displayed as 3D holograms on the Looking Glass. Here are the steps involved!

## Download Quilts For Looking Glass

[Visit Looking Glass Factory](https://lookingglassfactory.com/)

Looking Glass is a 3D holographic display developed by Looking Glass Factory that can be viewed with the naked eye, and can display 3D holograms of 3DCG, animations and even 2D photos taken with a smartphone’s portrait mode or a camera app that can record depth information.

For the City-Tech.Tokyo event, we exhibited three 3D models with 3D holograms using Looking Glass. Download these three samples and enjoy 3D holograms with Looking Glass!

### Muffin

[Download](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9Rv10ykUpMOqGFbfs29sH7Q5G6I9V6_/view?usp=share_link)

### Skull

[Download](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nA6PFuPYxRHaNgkOd-ZcqM3iBGNxuJy0/view?usp=share_link)

### Dress

[Download](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n8gSU-ZNzSLyOP4zefRFFNLS6X4ortgz/view?usp=sharing)

## Tutorial: From Monocle Prime to Looking Glass

A concise walkthrough of the workflow we used in the exhibit.

## Step 1: Open from Prime to Gallery

- Start Monocle Prime and select a 3D model
- In the 3D viewer, open the top-right menu and tap 'Open in Monocle Gallery'

## Step 2: Export GLB from Gallery

In the Gallery, click the “Download GLB” button to export the model.

## Step 3: Blender setup

- Import the .glb into Blender
- Set up an HDRI environment texture for lighting

## Step 4: Turntable animation

Create a turntable animation

- Select the 3D model and click the Item tab
- Change rotation mode to XYZ Euler
- Select the Z axis input field and type '#frame'
- Use '2\*pi\*frame/60\*2/9' to set rotation speed

## Step 5: Looking Glass add-on

Configure the Looking Glass add-on

- Download and enable the Looking Glass Blender add-on
- Set up a render camera and place the model within clip start/end
- Rotate the camera X axis to 67.4°
- Adjust the focal plane to partially slice through the object

[Get Add-on](https://docs.lookingglassfactory.com/software/creator-tools/index-1)

## Step 6: Render multiview quilt

- Go to Addons and select the Alice/LG Addon, switch from Single View Camera Mode to Multiview
- Render an animation quilt from the Looking Glass add-on panel
- This produces a PNG sequence with 48 views per frame stitched together

Your browser does not support the video tag.

## Step 7: Encode to WebM (VP9)

Combine the rendered image sequence into a video. Recommended settings:

- WebM
- VP9 codec

[Download WebM](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9Rv10ykUpMOqGFbfs29sH7Q5G6I9V6_/view?usp=share_link)

Note

- Maintain the same filename suffix generated in Blender (e.g., qs8x6a0.75)
- Premiere did not recognise the image sequence
- We used After Effects to convert the image sequence to .mov, then HandBrake to .webm

## Step 8: Upload to Looking Glass

- Open Looking Glass Studio
- Ensure the Looking Glass device is connected to your PC
- Drag the WebM file into the 'Add hologram' area
- Click sync playlist to store hologram on Looking Glass

Your browser does not support the video tag.

## Monocle Prime 3D Model on Looking Glass

Play the sample spin video to see the final result.

## References

## After Effects importing still images

[https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/after-effects/using/preparing-importing-still-images.html](https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/after-effects/using/preparing-importing-still-images.html)

## Looking Glass Blender tutorial

[https://lookingglassfactory.com/tutorial/blender](https://lookingglassfactory.com/tutorial/blender)