3D Hologram Clock

Experience a new way to visualize time with the 3D Hologram Clock. This clever design utilizes the properties of light refraction to elegantly display a spinning globe and digital time. With only a few materials required, you can make your very own 3D Hologram Clock at home!

Tools:

1. Ruler
2. Scissors
3. Exacto knife
4. 3D printer
5. Smartphone of your choice
6. Printer

Software:

1. Adobe Premiere Pro (or any alternative)

The following programs depend on your workflow for 3D printing:

1. Onshape
2. UltiMaker Cura

Materials:

1. Clear plastic (such as Plexiglass)
2. Clear tape
3. Paper

Create a drawing file using Onshape or any alternative software.

1. Start by creating a sketch of the pentagon from the origin point by using the inscribed polygon tool, which can be found on the toolbar
2. Use the dimension tool to set one side of the pentagon to 8 cm (This number can be changed if you want a different size)
3. Make another pentagon from the origin point and dimension its sides to 1 cm (do not change this number)
4. Connect the corners of the pentagons with the line tool (The result should look like image 1)
5. Complete the sketch by pressing the green check mark located on the top left
6. Right-click on 'sketch one', which can be found on the left side, and select Create Drawing of sketch one
7. Select the ANSI_A_MM template provided and select no views at the bottom, and click "OK" (image 2)
8. Insert the pentagon, make sure to set it 1:1 ratio (image 3)
9. Export this drawing as a DWG file
10. Use a DWG to PDF converter to convert the drawing to PDF
11. Print the PDF with a 100% scale

After printing, we will use that as a template for our pyramid

1. Cut out the trapezoid from the pentagon and stick it onto a piece of clear plastic with clear tape to create 4 identical pieces
2. Arrange the 4 pieces in like a pentagon shape that is missing one of the piece (image 3)
3. Then tape the slides that are between each piece (image 4)
4. Gently hold up the taped structure and fold it into a pyramid shape
5. Finally, complete the pyramid by taping the last side

To test the pyramid, place it over a screen with a pre-made 3D hologram video on YouTube.

The base of the clock is used to hold your phone in place and allows the projector to be mounted on it.

1. Take measurements of your phone's dimensions, length, width, and thickness (make sure to note where the camera bump is, if your phone has one)
2. Using these dimensions, we add 0.5 cm to the length and width to ensure the phone fits, and add 0.15 cm to the thickness to make sure the phone is not too far away from the projector. Our measurements were 15 cm x 7.5 cm x 1.3 cm; so our new measurements would be 15.5 cm x 8 cm x 1.45 cm.
3. Use Onshape (or other alternatives) to design a rectangle using the length and width (image 1);
4. Make the wall thickness 0.5 cm
5. Press Shift + E and select the rectangle in the centre to extrude it by 0.5 cm (the selected part will be grey; to deselect the part, press the grey area, then it will deselect) (image 2)
6. Create a new sketch at the bottom of the extrusion
7. Create a border with a length of 0.5 cm around the edges except one side (image 3)
8. Extrude the walls by 0.5 cm plus the thickness of the phone, which in our case is 1.45 cm plus 0.55 cm (image 4)
9. (1.45 + 0.5 + 0.55) cm
10. Rotate to "Back" using the cube on the top right of the screen
11. Click Sketch and click on the back wall of the base (image 5) add 3 rectangles from the top
12. top and bottom rectangle so have a thickness of 0.2 cm and the middle should have a thickness of 0.15 cm
13. Extrude the top and bottom rectangles by 15.5 cm (the extrude should line up with the edge of the case if not change the value until it does)
14. Click top make a new sketch of a rectangle with its edges with 0.5 cm from the top edge of the wall and 1 cm from the edge and use extrude to remove 1 cm (image 6)
15. Fillet the edges around the side of the rectangle base (image 7)
16. To account for the camera bump (if you phone has one) create a sketch of a rectangle on the bottom of the base then extrude by the height of the bump (image 8)
17. This step can be very different for each phone

You have now finished modelling the base of the clock! It's time to export the model for 3D printing:

1. Export the file as an STL file, this allows you to 3D print the model
2. Use Ulticura, or any alternative program, to open and slice the STL file
3. Print the file with a 3D printer

Using the finished 3D printed base (image 1):

1. Measure the inner width of the base, which does NOT include the walls, and cut a piece of clear plastic (preferably Plexiglass) to that width (image 2)
2. Fit the cut plastic into the top slot of the base, trimming the plastic to ensure a good fit (image 3)
3. Make a mark of any kind on the plastic and cut along to fit the plastic snugly

To create the clock and spinning globe:

1. Download a digital 12 hour clock on YouTube
2. https://youtu.be/VSBmKf2S5qI is a good example
3. If you're using this video, ensure you hide the borders by cropping the video, this can be done in the Premiere Pro "Effect Controls" window with "Crop Top/Bottom/Right/Left"
4. Download a spinning globe video on YouTube, ensure it loops
5. https://youtu.be/aiQdLP2mBJE is a good example
6. Using Adobe Premiere Pro or any alternative, insert the two videos by clicking on the "Project" window, then drag and drop the two videos in (image 1). Put the two videos together. First, resize it so that the globe is decently big, with the clock being smaller.
7. Ensure you lock the aspect ratio, in Premiere Pro, you need to hold shift while resizing
8. To make sure the videos are aligned to the y-axis, hold shift while transforming it
9. Position the clock so that it is underneath the spinning globe. (image 2)
10. Copy and paste the spinning globe looped video until it hits the 12 hour mark (image 3)
11. Export the video by going to File > Export > Media
12. Ensure you disable audio

Now we need to make it into a 3D hologram shape to ensure the light refracts correctly

1. Open another project in Premiere Pro or any alternative, then insert the exported video
2. Get a sample 3D hologram video from YouTube to get the correct position and sizing
3. To do this, we will play the video in full-screen and take a screenshot
4. Insert the screenshot into Premiere Pro by saving the screenshot, and then by dragging and dropping it into the "Project" window
5. Decrease the opacity of the screenshot to 50% or to a point where you can see the exported video and screenshot at the same time
6. Resize and position the globe and time so that it matches all four sides of the screenshot
7. To rotate videos in Premiere Pro, you can go to the "Edit" window, and it will be under "Rotation" (image 4)
8. The left video should be rotated 90°, the bottom should be 180°, and the right should be 270°
9. Now we need to flip each video so that it appears correctly when it refracts, to do this, we will flip each video
10. To flip the video, we will go to the "Effects" window, not to be confused with the "Effect Controls" window, open the "Video Effects" folder, "Transform" folder, and then finally "Vertical Flip"
11. Your final video should look like image 5

To display the hologram, you will need to export it to your phone

1. Using a file transfer service of your choice, such as OneDrive, AirDrop, Google Drive, upload the video to the service (this might take a while since the is more than 30 GB)
2. Play the video on your phone, ensure you have auto lock DISABLED to rotate it to landscape, then turn ON auto lock.
3. Ensure your phones brightness is at the maximum so it's easier to see
4. Slide your phone into the base, and place the pyramid on top, ensuring it's upside down

This concludes your 3D hologram! Congratulations!