Category Archives: Lightwave

Stargate Command Plaque

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“SGC Logo Plaque” for Lightwave 2020 (FBX & OBJ Included), Released March 15, 2021 (CC0)—279 KB

As a quick little side-project, the other night I built the SGC Plaque. Joseph Mallozzi, who was a writer and producer on the TV shows, has been posting high-res behind-the-scenes photos, concept art, and documents since the shows were still on the air, and recently posted a construction diagram of the plaque, which made it pretty easy to model in only an hour or two, most of which was spent squinting at the measurements and comparing with some photos of the finished plaque to see how things changed between the drawing and the actual piece.

There was also a 3D rendered version used on the show as a screensaver and decorative element on computer displays which was colored differently, so I made both versions. I didn’t sweat getting the textures exactly right (and there were some shape differences with the digital version I didn’t bother changing), just going for the spirt instead of a perfect duplicate. The gaudy ’90s texturing is pretty rough, and now we’ve entered a glorious era where flat color in CGI actually look okay.

The physical and digital versions of the plaque on the show
My 3D model in both color schemes

Stargate 2020 (Film Version)

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Orthographic diagrams of the model
Alternate views with the chevrons locked, and unobstructed views of the Earth and Abydos versions of the inner ring glyphs
Showcase animation of the model and effects.

“Stargate 3.1 (Film Version)” for Lightwave 2020, Released March 22, 2021 (CC0) —44 MB

Conversion Kits:
FBX Version (CC0)—78 MB
FBX Animation Templates (CC0)—0.1 MB
OBJ Version (CC0)—87 MB
Texture Reference (CC0)—24 MB

Since last summer, I’ve been working on a new 3D model of the stargate in Lightwave, my third attempt. Since I last built a stargate model in 2006 (with small updates afterward), my skill as a modeler has increased, and reference material is far more plentiful. That includes behind-the-scenes photos, low-res but still useful construction diagrams from auction websites, HD home video releases of the movies and television shows, and, most importantly, high-res photos from Les Enfants de Mac Gyver, a group creating a duplicate of the SG-1 stargate setpiece using pieces of the screen-used version purchased at auction as well as their own copious research. There are many sections of this model where I simply wouldn’t have been able to even guess at what went where without their detailed and plentiful photos of their stargate being assembled, disassembled, and otherwise worked on.

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Virtual Sets and Educational Animations for UC Scout

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For the past couple of years, I’ve been working at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as part of a team producing video lectures for on-line classes in the Scout and University Extension programs. As my time there comes to a close, I wanted to post a retrospective summary of what I’ve been doing. Day to day, the majority of my time was spent assembling and editing individual lessons, though at one time or another I at least touched on all aspects of production, including filming, quality assurance, and asset creation.

As far as 3D work goes, while I did have the chance to produce short explanatory animations for various lessons, something I volunteered for in the first few days on the job was creating virtual sets for our courses. Our presenters were shot on greenscreen, and I though it would add a level of visual interest to place them in a realistic environment, rather than up against some sort of plain color or gradient backdrop. 

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100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 100

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cdcr-100-a_day_in_the_life_credits

Perhaps it’s appropriate that my final image would be an ambitious misfire. I’ve occasionally created accidental long-exposure-style images from time to time. I’ve wondered about doing a sci-fi long exposure since I saw one in the 2002 edition of the Ships of the Line calendar (which sadly doesn’t even have a thumbnail online I can link to). My big mistake was having it be a daylight image. The ships orbiting Babylon 5 are so underexposed you can hardly see them even if you know they’re supposed to be there. There were also some technical gambles I took with lens flares and antialiasing that didn’t pay off. I think the concept is worthy of a second attempt based on what I learned, though.

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100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 97

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cdcr-097-final_approach_credits

As a little birthday treat, I decided to recreate one of my all-time favorite VFX shots. I got a lot of speckling after I had to reduce the render quality to get something that I could put up today, and the decision to use a photo of the Earth with such a prominent aurora in the background was a daring choice that didn’t really pay off, but the most important part of the image to me was how the shuttlebay interior turned out, and it looks good.

100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 95

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Full-Sized Image

Another adaptation of a season 1-era Babylon 5 publicity shot. These would probably be easier to match if I knew the focal length used for these shots. Of course, it’s also unlikely that Ted’s model is a point-for-point match with the original model, especially since it’s based off of the remade model, which I’m certain has a few proportional differences.

Though I suppose I could’ve tried using Lightwave’s new-to-me camera-matching tools. It looks like there are fairly clear perpendicular lines for all three axes around the solar panels. I may revisit this in a week, when I have some free 3D-time.