Stargate

Well, after getting royally hooked on Stargate SG-1 (and now Stargate Atlantis) over the summer, I remembered an old tutorial on how to model a Stargate. After tracking it down, I began the process of building my own as part of my initiation into Lightwave modeler. While it's not quite finished as yet, I think I've gotten as far as I can by my wits alone, so this post is part "Hey, look at this cool thing I just did," and part, "Can anyone help me? Please?"

Anyway, the pictures:

Untextured:

[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Stargate%20untextured.jpg]Front[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Stargate%20Rear%20untextured.jpg]Back[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Stargate%20Close%20untextured.jpg]Close-up[/url]

Textured
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Stargate%20High%20Off.jpg]Front (Chevrons off)[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/SG%20High%20On.jpg]Front (Chevrons on)[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Rear.jpg]Rear[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Chevron%20High%20Off.jpg]Front close-up (Chevrons off)[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Chevron%20High%20ON.jpg]Front close-up (Chevrons on)[/url]
[url=http://homepage.mac.com/david_of_mac/.Pictures/Works%20In%20Progress/Rear%20Chevron.jpg]Rear close-up[/url]

The 'gate is fully animatable (and, after testing this baby out and finding how tedious animating the dialing sequence is, I'm going to be pulling out my trusty copy of [i]Inside Lightwave [6][/i] to see about some way to automate the process), and I'm inordinately proud of how the texturing turned out. Also, though none of the pictures here show it, I made three alternate spinning rings with different point-of-origin symbols. For the nit-pickers, I even accidentally added no less than three minor errors to find and bug me with. And I have no intention of fixing them, unless and until I make a version 2.0. And since I'm not even finished with this one yet, that's a ways away. :D

And, now for the part that everyone's been waiting for, the obligatory "Begging for help from the learned elders" portion of the post.

One: There's a pattern of groves in the texturing of the original Stargate. I'm kind of at a loss as to how to paint proper-looking bump maps with good-looking semi-circles and randomly-connecting lines.

Two: I'm not entirely happy with the chevron glows, especially on the big light that isn't actually a chevron but is part of the whole chevron-unit. It looks less like a clear thing with a light inside (which it should), and more like an opaque thing with a quickly-painted glow map on it (which it is). I'd really appreciate any ideas on how to reverse that little equation.

Three: The event-horizon. That damnable puddle. I can't even get the pattern of ripples on the surface to look right, much less the blinding while patterns in the center. Everything I find on the internet says "Make a ripple procedural in the bump channel and point a spotlight at it." Well, apparently, either I'm stupid or it isn't that simple. This is the part I'm really interested in help on.

And, that's it. Well, not quite. I took advantage of quite a few places on-line to get as far as I did, and I'd like to provide a little acknowledgment so I can sleep soundly tonight.

First off, to Ed Giddings, for his years-old [url=http://www.quantumss.freeserve.co.uk/QSS3D/Tut_SG.html]tutorial[/url] that got me started, and the extremely high-quality renders of [url=http://www.stargate3d.fsnet.co.uk/]his own (far more up-to-date) Stargate clone[/url]. Honestly, it was some of the best reference material I could find.

Secondly, to the maker of the [url=http://home.kendra.com/urania/stargate_sg1/sg1_font_glyph.htm]Stargate Glyph Font[/url]. In-freaking-valuable to my making the glyphs on the inner ring, and a pretty neat font in its own right.

Also, to the dedicated minds behind the Richard Dean Anderson Website, specifically the section dedicated to [url=http://rdanderson.com/stargate/glyphs/glyphs.htm]Stargate glyphs[/url]. In addition to providing reference for two other point-of-origin symbols, the bank of Stargate addresses allowed me to successfully attempt my dialing-sequence test (which, in retrospect, might not be such a good thing, given how tedious it was to animate. ;) ).

And, finally, to the kind souls who put up the opening sequences for SG-1 and Atlantis on-line. Like I said, reference was sparse, especially moving reference.

Oh, and the cast and crew behind the movies and TV shows. Because, without them making such cool stuff, I wouldn't have anything to try to recreate in my effort to eventually make my own cool stuff. You guys rule.

So, anyway, comments? Tips? Recipes for Minbari flarn?