AnimationMay The Prophets Forgive Me

Mustang13Camaro68 · May 7

As if I need another project that won't get enough attention...

I've read that the wormhole was made by Rhythm & Hues. They might have used Wavefront Dynamation or their own software.
But I've never found an in-depth article on its creation, or even screen grabs.

Since I like to choose projects no one else is doing, I started analyzing the sequence frame by frame and thinking how the wormhole might have been created - which led me to see if I could approximate it without using particle simulations.

Pretty sure it was done with multiple simulations & some textured vortex geometry all composited together. The growth and shrinking as it appears and disappears looks to just be scaling it up and down.

Plenty more to do, but this IS the Work in Progress section. Gotta fix the terrible camera move and work on animating it bursting to life. I also want to do what the show never did and go THROUGH the opening and into the tunnel in one unbroken shot.

trekki · May 8

Good start, I like it.
Keep us informed.

BolianAdmiral · May 8

Very nice.

markmassey · May 13

Nice man.. not seen anyone recreate the bajoran wormhole to a level anywhere near the the one in the show.. like the stargate kawoosh I'm betting that they used a fair bit of practically shot effects for it as well, not just cgi effects... you're off to a good start.... cant wait to see you progress..

Mustang13Camaro68 · May 16

Updated with the wormhole growing at the start, a terrible geometry lens flare experiment that's not working, a better but still a little bumpy camera move and some placeholder parts of the tunnel/interior of the wormhole.

Starship · May 17

I still have the old wormhole built by the Wolfpack team more than 20 years ago. It still renders very well despite it´s age, but it isn´t animated.
Looks like a good start Mustang!

Mustang13Camaro68 · May 17

Starship wrote: »

I still have the old wormhole built by the Wolfpack team more than 20 years ago. It still renders very well despite it´s age, but it isn´t animated.
Looks like a good start Mustang!

Interesting. Gonna have to look that up for reference.

trekki · May 18

Nice

Brandenberg · May 18

Yeah, Really Nice. I would love to know how to do that. A few years ago, someone did the Stargate power up with the liquid billowing out into the room before settling back to the rippling liquid effect inside the gate. You guys are talented.

count23 · May 18

off to an excellent start, so few people try to do the wormhole, I guess because it'ssuch a complicated effect for a such a niche requirement.

I think you and NeonVisual are the only ones who have, and yours looks more accurate (i presume because you know the platform they'd have made it in better than Neon did).

Can't wait to see te end result.

Mustang13Camaro68 · May 19

Thankyou to trekki, BolianAdmiral, markmassey, Starship, Brandenberg & count23 for the nice comments!

-Youtube squashed this video to 16x9 when it didn't the previous 2. Thanks Youtube! Guess I'll have to render 16x9 from here on out.
-Made the camera move slightly better again. Might just have to live with the "bumps" I perceive when it changes directions.
-Tweaked the geometry and shaders of the clouds some more. There's still some geometry intersections I need to fix.
-Need to add the dome in the middle iris-ing open.
-God Rays of light in the center are terrible. Gonna have to redo that material or think up a new way to do this.
-Replaced the geometry lens flare with a much, much better one. Flares Wizard in the Blender Market is great!
-2nd pass at the tunnel. Need to make the "tentacles" move around and add the rain drops and circular ribs onto the tunnel walls. Tentacle material is only OK. Not yet a good match to the original. UVs on Blender curve objects aren't great. Never got a great handle on how Blender does UVs anyway... Maybe I'm just too used to 3DS Max's UVs - they're just more useful.

Going on a camping trip next week, so possibly one more post and then expect some radio silence for a while.

Brandenberg · May 27

Looking right on. I think the prophets will forgive you.

Starship · May 29

Mustang13Camaro68 wrote: »

Interesting. Gonna have to look that up for reference.

Here it goes the rendering.
It was released by Jörg (wolfpack member) in 2003, in 3ds max 4 format. I resaved it for 3ds max 2016. If you need the file, just let me know.

Mustang13Camaro68 · June 9

Starship wrote: »

Mustang13Camaro68 wrote: »

Here it goes the rendering.
It was released by Jörg (wolfpack member) in 2003, in 3ds max 4 format. I resaved it for 3ds max 2016. If you need the file, just let me know.

Thanks for posting that. Interesting for the time, I couldn't have done any better back then.

Mustang13Camaro68 · June 9

Another update. My real job, my freelance work and Memorial Day travel has kept me busy until now.

Brandenberg · June 9

You have a gift. Nice work.

wibble · June 9

In the name of the prophets, you shall be forgiven.

trekki · June 10

Yes, it is nice!

count23 · June 10

Mustang13Camaro68 wrote: »

Another update. My real job, my freelance work and Memorial Day travel has kept me busy until now.

that is coming along _really_ nicely.

Mustang13Camaro68 · August 6

Been a while, but here's a new update with some new additions and fixes.

evil_genius_180 · August 6

That's outstanding. Looking a lot like the effect from the show.

count23 · August 6

my only crit is the petals are wrong. In the actual effect they fold out, here they seem to fade away as they approach the core of the wormhole.

It may also be worthwhile adding a gradient of white inside the centre of hte wormhole vortex, as you fly really close it it you can kinda see the blue swirl behind the flash before you transition to the interior. retexturing all the centre to be hte same white near the centre shoudl help disguise that.

Mustang13Camaro68 · August 6

count23 wrote: »

my only crit is the petals are wrong. In the actual effect they fold out, here they seem to fade away as they approach the core of the wormhole.

It may also be worthwhile adding a gradient of white inside the centre of hte wormhole vortex, as you fly really close it it you can kinda see the blue swirl behind the flash.

The blue swirl showing through is something I didn't mind, but I'll try your suggestion & see.

Yeah, the "petals" are exactly what you noticed, a gradient from top to bottom controls how big the opening is and another repeating gradient around the side makes the individual "petals" themselves.
It got me closer, but it's not the exact effect. Was trying to avoid making & animating individual petals.

Hilk_v001 · August 6

that look great ! just like in the series.

markmassey · August 6

I think this is looking fantastic.. with a couple of fafter effects filters you could mistake it for the one off the show lol..

I agree with above comment about the petals at the mouth of the wormhole.. there is a burst from the centre lie a splash and the whole thing spreads outwards and colapses into the centre of the wormhile. you could probably do something similar with what you have by scaling and translating the dome you have in the centre... I might suggest slowing the specs of light that are shooting out..

but seriously i still think this is the most acurate fan made version of this effect ive seen....

Starship · August 6

It looks excellent, but I´m with the others about the petals, which still claims a bit of work.

Mustang13Camaro68 · August 6

markmassey wrote: »

I think this is looking fantastic.. with a couple of fafter effects filters you could mistake it for the one off the show lol..

I agree with above comment about the petals at the mouth of the wormhole.. there is a burst from the centre lie a splash and the whole thing spreads outwards and colapses into the centre of the wormhile. you could probably do something similar with what you have by scaling and translating the dome you have in the centre... I might suggest slowing the specs of light that are shooting out..

but seriously i still think this is the most acurate fan made version of this effect ive seen....

Thanks for the critique and praise. Agree that the fireflies coming out of the center are too fast. I'm going to work on them so they fade out a bit sooner too.

Mustang13Camaro68 · August 25

-Big update to the tunnel! Tentacles procedurally move around and I've added the rain drops and animated circular things onto the tunnel walls. All colors are way off, but I'll work on that for the next update.
-Adjusted the Iris-open clouds some more based on comments. Its still OK for now. To get closer to perfection, I'm gonna have to re-do it with many moving pieces instead of just textures, but I'll save that for later.
-Still not happy with center yellow light, but its gonna have to do for now.
-I want to find a way to add the subtle criss-crossing lines nex tho (hard to explain unless you've stared at this a thousand times).

evil_genius_180 · August 25

I'm still impressed. I tried doing a wormhole (not the DS9 one) for a fan film I was attached to about 10 years ago and it wasn't easy. So, my hat's off to you.

Mustang13Camaro68 · August 25

Thanks! This project has really pushed me into Blender shader and geometry nodes.
BUT - Youtube tutorials are my saviors.
These 3 were enormously helpful in getting the tunnel stuff to work

evil_genius_180 · August 26

That's one great thing about Blender, there are so many helpful tutorials out there.

Greetings!

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