Provided is an apparatus and method for generating a hologram pattern with a reduced amount of computation. The apparatus may include a reference depth layer setting unit configured or having a capacity to set a reference depth layer using data associated with a three-dimensional (3D) object, a first hologram pattern generating unit configured to generate a first hologram pattern corresponding to the 3D object in the reference depth layer, and a second hologram pattern generating unit configured to generate a second hologram pattern in a hologram plane using the first hologram pattern.