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| The Gate Room on Earth as seen in "Stargate SG-1" |
In case you don't know it, "STARG
TE SG-1" is a movie spin-off science fiction TV series (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
) about top-secret US Air Force teams exploring other planets through an ancient galactic wormhole portal, the network of the "Stargates". What is fascinating to me is the totally new, kinda realistic concept: the action does not take place hundreds of years in a hypothetical future, with any required technology available to humankind, but rather it plays in our time, and earthlings only start to understand the things that have happened in the past and keep happening - for example, the earth is threatened by an alien parasitic race, the Goa'Uld, who represent the ancient Egyptian gods; and SG-1 keeps finding more and more planets inhabited by more or less primitive humans deported by the Goa'Uld; some sort of an "interplanetary underground organization", the Tok'Ra symbiotes, are fighting the Goa'Uld. There's much more to it, please check the series' official site or the Gaters.net fan forum if you're interested.
In addition to its innovative episode plots, STARGTE SG-1 has been awarded several times for its outstanding
special computer-graphic (CG) effects, such as giant spaceships, explosions, the watery event horizon, et cetera.
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| my incomplete gate model with LEDs engaged |
Of course, after getting to know the series, I was tempted to create some STARGTE graphics myself, namely
the Stargate itself, the DHD (Dial Home Device, the Gate's "user interface"), and the Ring Transporter which in the series
appears frequently as a means of short-distance matter transport. After maybe 25 hours of POV-Ray SDL coding, I had a
fairly acceptable, animated Stargate and DHD; the Ring Transporter only took 5 or 6 hours as it is far less complex. After
that strenuous part, I was able to composite these objects into real photographs or videos rather easily. As far as I know,
there's only one other guy who made an acceptable Stargate model in POV; admittedly, his model is much more detailed.
Another project I'm doing is an actual metal model of the Stargate (lower right image), about 25 cm in diameter, with functioning chevron lights and (if possible) a turnable inner track. I started it in January 2003 but stopped when problems occured (with the two-component glue not persisting and so on). I hope I will find the inspiration to finish it sometime.
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