Are you a Volu Pro or a Vologram Messages client?
Volu Pro and Vologram Messages include premium features (longer sequences, 3D skeleton, different file formats, and even WebAR), and allow you to use your own camera: smartphone, professional, or any other — no app required! If you're a Volu Pro or Vologram Messages client, follow point 1 to set up your camera for the best results. Otherwise you can skip straight to point 2, as Volu takes care of your camera settings for you.
Getting started with your setup
The video you record sets the quality bar. If you share a bad, low-quality video, you'll get a bad, low-quality vologram.
✔️ You can use any camera or smartphone for your capture, but remember to record in portrait (vertical), not landscape (horizontal).
✔️ Use a tripod and make sure the subject's body is fully visible (2 m / 6.5 ft from the subject works well).
✔️ Note down as many of these parameters as you can: height of the subject (e.g. 1.68 m / 5.5 ft), focal length (e.g. 50 mm), and the model of your device (e.g. iPhone 13 Pro, or Canon 70D).
✔️ Set your camera to the highest resolution and shoot at 30 fps. Make sure HDR is turned off.
✔️ During the recording, maintain the same distance between the person and the camera.
✔️ The best way to test your setup is a free 5 s capture with Volu — that gives you a good idea of the results to expect.
✔️ Lastly, review all these points once more just before recording 🙂. We promise it leads to better results!
Good lighting is fundamental
No need for professional lighting, but better lighting produces better results!
✔️ Make sure the light faces the front of the person: turn on your lights 💡, open your windows, or face the sun if you're outdoors ☀️.
✔️ When did you last clean your lens? 📷 Now's a good time!
❌ Avoid dark rooms, lighting from the sides or — worse — from behind. Captures at night won't come out well 🌛.
Use a static background
This helps our segmentation algorithm and avoids confusion with background elements. No need for a green screen — just a background that doesn't move and is not the same colour as your clothes or body.
✔️ A simple wall works fine 👍.
❌ Avoid moving objects or other people in the background. One person at a time 👯.
Make sure you capture your full body
Because half a body in AR is a bit creepy.
✔️ If you're wearing a long skirt, make sure the camera sees your feet / shoes clearly.
✔️ Stand around 2 m (6 ft) from the camera 📏 and always face it 🤳🧍.
❌ Avoid capturing half bodies 🙆.
Keep your arms, hands and legs visible
The clearer your arms and legs are, the more accurate your vologram will be. Limbs that are partially hidden or pointing towards the camera may be shortened or misrepresented. Some examples below.
✔️ Keep body parts as visible as possible.
❌ Don't point at the camera or create unwanted occlusions.
🚫 Don't do this
Our AI managed to reconstruct the arm, but not the hand 😅 — it ended up projected onto our friend's sweater. Try to avoid occlusions with your own body.
🚫 Don't do this
Here our friend pointed at the camera, which created occlusions and was wrongly reconstructed. Keep your hands from pointing directly at the camera.
🚫 Don't do this
The hands were only partially reconstructed and the fingers ended up projected onto the t-shirt. Terrible lighting too! We give this one a 👎.
✅ Do this
This worked great. You can see the full shape of the arms and legs — our AI didn't have to guess anything, it was all visible.
✅ Do this
No need to keep your arms still — open them while you talk and our AI will reconstruct them perfectly.
✅ Do this
A great standing pose you can combine with others while being recorded. Arms are perfectly visible, and therefore perfectly reconstructed.
⚠️ Careful
Crossed arms usually work well, but the movement of crossing them can cause occlusions and artefacts. Keep them as close to the body as possible.
⚠️ Careful
As before, his hands are very close to the body — avoiding occlusions — but moving them there can introduce unwanted errors.
🤩 Have fun
But the point is to have fun! Keep all these rules in mind — then break them if you want to experiment and get fun, wild results 🤣.
Objects won't be reconstructed
Animals and other objects aren't recognised, so they cause strange effects — probably holes in your model. The same can happen with large earrings, bracelets, big shiny watches, conference lanyards, and so on. Glasses are usually fine, but they may get "printed" onto your face. Choose your own trade-off between creativity and perfect results — and if in doubt, try a free short capture with Volu to see how it'll look.
Small details won't be reconstructed
At limited resolution it's very hard to capture individual fingers, but Volu gets your full hands. Similar issues can happen with high heels or some hairstyles.
⚠️ Important
In our experience this tip is the one most often overlooked. People feel unnatural at first speaking without gesturing with open fingers in front of their bodies — so practise as much as you need. Try a free capture with Volu first, paying close attention to your hands.
🚫 Don't do this
Our friend kept his right-hand fingers wide open and they ended up chopped off ✂️.
✅ Do this
Here he kept his fingers together, so his hand reconstructed fine. Thumbs are typically not a problem, by the way.
Avoid motion blur
Very fast movements produce blurry images without much detail, which hurts the final result. For all you expressive people out there: yes, this includes your hands!
Confirm everything looks good
After capturing, watch the video and re-read this list to confirm everything looks great. Try a 5 s capture with Volu first — it's free! Repeat until you're happy.
✔️ Pro tip: with Volu you don't need to wait for one vologram to process before capturing more. Capture a few and they'll all come back almost at the same time!
Break the rules if you're feeling creative
Just keep in mind the results might be wild too 🤣. In other words: if you're after real pro results, follow these tips one by one — or be ready to re-capture!
Ready to capture?
The best way to learn is to try. Run through this list, make a capture, and see what comes back.