I should really model the power pods that were on space-based stargates in “Atlantis.” It would greatly open up my options for Stargate renders, especially ones involving the Puddle Jumper. In this case, I got away with it by using tight framing.
Incidentally, “Tight Framing” is the name of my cinematography-themed spoken-word jazz concept-album.
I took this picture in Fairchild Gardens years ago, thinking it’d be a good place to put a Stargate. Then when I looked at it after I got home, I realized that it actually wasn’t, since you’d have to sort of sidle along it to get to the front. But, hey, maybe on this planet they just thought it was a decorative ring someone buried for some reason and only found out when someone dialed in.
(I imagine that, by acclimation, falling four feet into a pond was deemed to be the stupidest way the SGC lost a MALP)
Much like the defiant squadron-leader Sinclair, I’m also shouting “Not like this!”
Metaphorically.
At the prospect of missing a day.
Photo finish!
This is actually a test of some of the ideas I had when building my Battle of the Line analysis. This lays out the scene based on being consistent with the live action footage (Delenn looking up at Sinclair’s fighter in the hologram chamber, and Sinclair passing into the cruiser’s shadow just before impact).
I have no idea who made this Psi-Corps Mothership, and Google was unhelpful.
Oddly, the Hyperspace effect I made a little while ago doesn’t emit significant light when in linear color mode. It’s odd because LCS usually makes radiosity and such much brighter. Though it just occurred to me that since Hyperspace is an alternate dimension, I could render it using old-style settings and just say that that’s just the way physics works in that realm. Yes, I like that idea.
Edited 2016-10-18: A.Kurin at F3D has reminded me that the Psi-Corps Mothership is by Marc-Laurent Magnier. Thanks!
I’m going to admit, I was tired and in a hurry when I laid this out. I was going for a contrast in size, but it doesn’t really read. Looking back, I probably should’ve gone with an angle along the length of the Vorlon ship, with more perspective.
By popular request, a shot of the Enterprise-E during the Dominion War.
As the U.S.S. Sisyphus loses power in the face of the… cube? Higher dimensional structure? Viewscreen test pattern?… Captain Baxter realizes that it’s going to be one of those days.
I thought a picture inspired by the Improvised Star Trek would be fun, and give me a chance to do something slightly off-beat. I had a brain-fart when I was setting up the image, and misaligned the cube, so it’s not quite a real Belvedere Cube. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to model a Squircle.
I have no idea why the glow textures for the model didn’t apply, prompted the unplanned energy drain on the ship. Everything looked correct in the settings, but, hey, conversions are weird.
Okay, one more jumppoint. The Drakh shot from the other day was going to be this scene, but I changed my mind before I was sure that something I did to the jumppoint made Lightwave hang when I loaded other scenes into a scene it was already in. And then since I already did my original angle, I made it a square.
I could probably easily spend another week working on this jumppoint, putting it into real scenes and realizing things I missed (there’s a reason none of the points in this shot are in front of the planet), and then doing it all again until I’m satisfied. And there’s got to be some way to do that transparent-from-the-sides effect in-camera…
90% of the way there on that jumppoint. Well, 90%, plus the recolor-jobs, and I’ll probably tweak the animation timing again. And again. And again…
The most pressing thing to fix, though, is the shape. At times in Babylon 5 and Crusade, the jump point vortex appeared to be tapered, rather than a straight-edged cone. It was definitely the case in “The Lost Tales.” I attempted to replicate that by modifying Yuri’s model, but I think I might’ve blown my order-of-operations (it’s a little bit more complicated to change than you’d think because this version of the vortex is a multi-part model).
Still, I might just be able to run off the picture I planned for Sunday tonight. Though Lightwave got oddly temperamental about loading more stuff in with this newly-modified scene setup. I’m hoping it was just a freak arrangement of factors, though I can’t ignore the age of my computer being a contributing factor. I feel like I’m coaxing an old jalopy at this point. Just needs to hold on for a little longer…