StarGate Portal
 

Hey, so ive been working on my short and reached the part where i need some sort of a StarGate portal, which will open up drop something and closes up.

if u guys remember the movie StarGate SG-1 television series. want something like that.

I’ve searching the net for it and sadly wasn’t able to find any.

If u know any tutorials online please do share, but if there isn’t then is it possible that you guyz could suggest me a way to getting what im looking for.

i just want something that will look obvious that its a portal, that’s pretty much it.

Thanks

you could try some kind of animated ocean shader which will give you a moving surface then when you create your shader use a ramp and focus more on texturing thorugh the incandescence channel also maybe give it some kind of glow or map to it some type of custom animated displacement map just some quick ideas

I think Anasis method is the way to go, and you can animate the texture. If you need help with that I have a book that covers it and I will type it out tomorrow.

Thanks for the quick reply

anasasis: thats an awesome way of doing it, ive done wat you've said and it works alright. i liked the effect it gave me But i have no idea how to animate the shader?

elephantinc: it would be really great to know more about the that book, i'll wait till u send it 2morrow :D


:beer:

This is the book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/04...pt#reader-page
Amazons read this book thing covers the first two pages of it but it doesnt quite get to the animation part

Ok, you need the texture to be a ramp, so part colour, part black. You need to go to the place2D texture node for the ramp, go to the first frame and right click over the first field in the translate frame attributes (this is the field for the U coordinates position) and choose set key
Move to the frame where you want the portal to be closed completely and change the 0 in the field to 1 and set another key
If you then press the arrow next to that field you may have to fiddle with the settings
You will also have to organise the Uvs for it to work
Because of what you are doing you may be better off connecting the ramp to the transparacny of the ocean shader, depending what effect you want to create

Im sorry I cant help more but im not that experianced with it. It requires a lot of trial and error. Maybe some one else can help a bit more?

The lights on this ship are an example of texture animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-A5TImFsbw

ive gotten wat i was aiming for thanks elephantinc and anasasis for sharing :D

elephantinc: And i'll be purchasing that book you have told me about, it seems pretty interesting to make texture animation. Something new to learn ;)... oh yeah "THEY ARE COMING" lol good one


:beer:

The texture animation is only in the first few pages, its fairly simple (well the book makes it seem that way). It coves all kinds of random visual effects. Its both the coolest 3d book ive read but its also pretty useful
In fact the book has a few other techniques that might work for this, if adapted a bit

and thanks :)
Here is a sort of follow up, a shot from a quick test animation that is rendering now
http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?i...hanteater2.png
(btw, my monitor is so much lighter than everyone elses, so as a result my image may be too dark for you, for which I apologise.