📺Convert Any Video into a Hologram
Transform your 2D videos into stunning 3D holograms using AI-powered depth estimation tools and Looking Glass displays. Create immersive holographic videos in minutes!
Introduction
With the power of AI depth estimation, you can now transform any 2D video into an incredible holographic experience. Whether it's family videos, animation, or cinematic footage, bring your content to life in true 3D!
This guide will walk you through converting 2D videos into 3D holograms for your Looking Glass display. We'll use AI-powered depth estimation tools to create the necessary depth information, then combine everything in Looking Glass Studio for viewing.
Requirements
If you want a user-friendly app, try Owl3D.
What videos work best?
There are a few things that make videos convert especially well. In particular, focusing on a single subject and keeping the depth range limited and stable is key. In general, the Looking Glass is best at showing people, characters, and objects — not landscapes or large scenes. For videos, try the following:
Select videos with a particular subject rather than landscapes or dynamic scenes with many actors
Keeping the subject at a fixed distance to the camera — so an interview video is perfect
Shoot with a large aperture, like you're shooting portrait photography (for example, f/1.4), so that the background is blurred — this makes the background look nicer in the Looking Glass
Videos with dramatic lighting and shadows on a backdrop make the 3D effect pop
Convert videos with Owl3D
Owl3D is a turnkey desktop app that handles AI depth estimation and packs the frames into the RGBD format that can be loaded into Looking Glass Studio and viewed as a hologram on your Looking Glass display. It is ideal if you want a fast, self-contained workflow. If you want a workflow with more customizability and developer functionality, you can try Video Depth Anything.
This tutorial adapts steps from Owl3D's tutorial and is up-to-date as of July 1st, 2025. For latest instructions, see Owl3D's documentation here.
Download and install Owl3D
Download the installer for Windows (x64) or macOS (Apple Silicon) from the Owl3D website
Run the installer and choose a location with ≈ 15 GB free space so the depth-AI models can download on first launch
Generate depth with Owl3D
To create a hologram-ready RGBD clip:
Launch Owl3D and click Convert (top-right) or drag a video onto the window
Under Output 3D Format, select RGB-Depth (Looking Glass). This produces a side-by-side frame with color on the left and a 16-bit grayscale depth map on the right
(Optional) Open Advanced Settings to tweak:
Backend → Balanced, Precision, or Ultra
3D Effect → Strength / Pop-Out
Temporal Stability → reduce “depth wobble” on slow shots
Choose an output folder and click Start. On completion you’ll get
yourfile_rgbd.mp4(or.mov, depending on codec)
Convert videos with Video Depth Anything
The easiest way to convert your videos is using Video Depth Anything, a cutting-edge AI model designed specifically for video depth estimation. It can be used via Hugging Face on your web browser or can be downloaded and run locally.
Alternately, you can use Owl3D, which has a user-friendly interface.
Generate depth on Hugging Face
Hugging Face deployments can be taken down, resulting in the below web links to no longer be valid. In this case, it's recommended to either use the model locally or use another conversion option like Owl3D.
You can access Video Depth Anything on Hugging Face on your web browser, but we've included an embedded version below for your convenience. If the embed doesn't work, access Video Depth Anything here.
Be sure to toggle on "grayscale" under "Advanced Settings" before converting your video!
To generate a depth map for your video:
Upload your video
Under "Advanced Settings" toggle on "grayscale"
Select "Generate"
Download both the "Preprocessed video" and the "Generated Depth Video"
Generate depth locally
The below instructions are taken from the official GitHub repo and are up to date as of July 1st, 2025. For latest instructions, see the GitHub repo readme.
Alternately, you can install Video Depth Anything locally with the following commands (requires Git and Python).
git clone https://github.com/DepthAnything/Video-Depth-Anything
cd Video-Depth-Anything
pip install -r requirements.txtThen, download the required model checkpoints from the repository here and place them in the checkpoints directory.
Once this is set up, run the Python script to process your video, ensuring you're setting the depth map to be grayscale.
python3 run.py \
--input_video path/to/your/video.mp4 \
--output_dir ./outputs \
--encoder vitl \
--grayscaleThere are several optional parameters. You can see a full list here. Some particularly helpful ones are:
--encoder: Choosevits(small) orvitl(large) model--grayscale: Outputs grayscale depth maps (required for RGBD)--max_len: Set maximum video length (-1 for no limit)--target_fps: Adjust output frame rate
Combine color and depth
You'll need to combine the original video with the depth video side-by-side with the color video on the left and the depth video on the right. You can do so in video editing software like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. You can also do so with FFmpeg using the following command:
ffmpeg -i original_video.mp4 -i depth_video.mp4 -filter_complex hstack output_rgbd.mp4The resulting video should have frames that look as follows:
If your video is arranged in this way, you're ready to view it as a hologram using Looking Glass Studio!
Load your video into Looking Glass Studio
With your video content ready, you can load it into Looking Glass Studio to view it on your Looking Glass device. For instructions on how to load content into Looking Glass Studio for iOS, please see our guide here.
Initial setup
Download and install Looking Glass Studio
Connect your Looking Glass display via USB-C and HDMI following our hardware guides
Ensure the display is in Desktop Mode before launching Studio (Portrait and Go only)
Import content
Simply drag your RGBD video file into Looking Glass Studio
Alternately, you can select the "Import holograms from your computer" button and select the videos you want to upload via the file browser
When prompted, select "RGBD Photo and Video" as the hologram type:
Click "OK"
Adjusting RGBD settings
Once imported, you can fine-tune your hologram using the properties panel:
Depthiness: Controls the overall depth range
Focus: Adjusts the z-depth position
Depth Position: Specifies where the depth map is relative to RGB
Options: top, bottom, left, right
Depth Inversion: Toggle if depth appears reversed
ChromaDepth: Enable for special depth colorization effects
You can also pan and zoom on your hologram by moving your mouse cursor over your Looking Glass window and clicking and dragging, or using the scroll wheel
See more instructions on how to use Looking Glass Studio here.
Troubleshooting
Video appears flat
Increase Depthiness in Looking Glass Studio
Try processing with higher quality depth settings
Depth seems inverted (far is near, near is far)
Enable "Depth Inversion" in Looking Glass Studio
Some depth estimation models use different conventions — for example, black to white instead of white to black
Playback is choppy or slow
Ensure Looking Glass Studio is running on your GPU — see instructions here
Reduce bitrate or frame rate
Close other applications during playback
Color and depth videos won't align
Verify both videos have identical dimensions and frame rates
Use FFmpeg with the
-rflag to match frame rates if needed
Objects appear at wrong depth
Adjust the "Focus" slider in Looking Glass Studio to place your subject on the focal plane
Support
If you need support, you can access the following resources:
View our support page
Contact our support team at [email protected]
Join our Discord community
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