Looking Is Not Enough
The story behind The Whole Message
Inspired by Holography Art on Wikipedia
Built with Three.js · ShaderMaterial · TextureLoader
Techniques Holographic GLSL Shader · Lenticular Blending · Thin-Film Interference · Fresnel Effect · HSV Color Space
Direction Simulate a holographic sticker where three hidden images only appear at specific view angles, requiring physical movement to decode the whole message
Result A shimmering metallic surface you tilt to discover an eye, sun, and jellyfish hidden in angular sweet spots — looking is not enough, you have to move
The Story
Dennis Gabor invented holography in 1947. He named it from the Greek: holos (whole) + gramma (message).
The whole message.
Unlike a photograph, which captures one perspective frozen in time, a hologram encodes all perspectives at once. The complete angular information of a scene, compressed into a single recording. But to see those perspectives, you can’t just look. You have to move.
Holography art emerged in the 1960s as artists recognized the medium’s unique properties. Not just an image, but an experience. Not a frozen moment, but a relationship between viewer and viewed that only exists in motion.
The Take
The experience recreates the magic of holographic stickers - those shimmering trading cards and gift labels that reveal different images as you tilt them.
A metallic surface. Rainbow interference patterns rippling across it. And hidden in the hologram, three distinct images: an eye, a sun, and a jellyfish.
You won’t see them by staring straight on. The default view shows only the iridescent base - that silvery shimmer of interference patterns. To find the hidden images, you have to move. Tilt your perspective. Orbit the hologram.
Each image has its own angular address. The eye appears when you look from the left. The sun reveals itself from the right. The jellyfish floats up from below. At center, you see only the substrate - the message without its meaning.
The whole message requires the whole journey.
The Tech
Three.js with a custom holographic shader. The entire effect is achieved in a single fragment shader that simulates lenticular optics and thin-film interference.
Three textures are loaded: eye, sun, and jellyfish. The shader blends between them based on view angle.
The vertex shader:
- Subtle wave displacement for holographic depth
- Slight bulge based on view angle (lenticular effect)
- Output world position and normals for lighting calculations
The fragment shader handles the complex visual simulation:
Lenticular blending: Each image has a “sweet spot” in angular space. Calculate distance from current view angle to each spot. Use exponential falloff to create sharp but smooth transitions between images.
Thin-film interference: The rainbow shimmer comes from simulating interference patterns in thin films (like oil on water, or actual holographic media). Phase varies with position and view angle, producing the characteristic color shifts.
Fresnel effect: Brighter iridescence at glancing angles - the same effect that makes bubble edges more colorful.
Parallax: UV offset based on view angle creates subtle depth variation between images.
Scanlines and noise: Very subtle, adding that authentic holographic texture.
The hologram mesh physically tilts based on mouse position, reinforcing the sense that you’re handling a real object.
View detection triggers discovery feedback. When you find each hidden image, a flash confirms your discovery. Find all three, and the outro message appears: “The whole message requires movement.”
The Experience
Move your cursor (or drag on mobile) to tilt the hologram.
Start at center. You’ll see the metallic base with its rainbow patterns. Pretty, but empty. No message.
Now explore. Move left - watch for the eye to emerge from the shimmer. Move right - the sun blazes into visibility. Move down - the jellyfish drifts up from the depths.
The counter tracks your discoveries: “1 / 3”, “2 / 3”, “3 / 3”.
Each discovery triggers a subtle flash - confirmation that you’ve found something hidden. That moment of “there it is” that makes holographic stickers so satisfying.
When you’ve found all three images, the final message appears. Looking isn’t enough. You have to move.
This blog post was AI generated with Claude Code. Authored by Artificial Noodles.