How to make this StarGate animation more realistic?

Support Lighting and Rendering
1

Hello fellow Blenderers !

Here is an animation i did a few month ago that i want to improve :

I already changed the vortex effect and otehr details, but i am still not satisfied with the realistic aspect of the render. Do you have any tips to make it better in Blender ? I think the lights are the main issue, but maybe the textures need some changes ?

For people who don’t know teh TV show it’s from, the whole scene happens in a deep military base, so no natural light is possible.

Thanks !

2

I don’t understand this sentence… how could it be possible that someone doesn’t know… :wink:

Anyway: you might think about some fluid simulation and/or particles…

or even look here:

(just published follow-up from the former attempt from 1 Sept 2022 which i just happen to saw the other day :smile_cat: )

so happy kawooshing …

3

Thanks for the kawoosh tutos, but as i said I already solved this part in my coming remaster of this animation.

I just need to know how to proceed with the background/stargate, textures and lights to make it better :slight_smile:

4

Yes, but i don’t know to what extend and as far as i can see that was the part which did need the most improvement… so see it as a compliment… :wink:

On thing i’m not sure of is the activation of the chevron markers… didn’t the lock in before the dial was going to select the next one ? (And maybe a view of the chevron dial application monitor/scree in between would make this even more perfect :grin:.)
Otherwise maybe some dirt or dust on the surfaces and in the air ??

5

Yeah the Kawoosh was the worst part to me, hence why i spent weeks improving it now :wink:

My new anim will also include the missing smoke :slight_smile:

I haven’t include any dial app monitor because i wanted to ficus on the Gate itself

Hmmm, there is already some dort and dust on the walls, but i haven’t think to put some in the air. I’ll think about this yeah

6

Yeah… that’s the crux with realistic render… detail, detail, detail and more detail … it’s never boring :smile_cat:.

7

A few things spring to mind when I watch the animation.

  1. The lighting is very flat and too uniform.
  2. There is no depth of field.
  3. Textures are too low resolution - especially on the walls.
  4. Materials are too diffuse - there should be some variation in their roughness, glossiness etc - especially on things like the metal doors, striped corner protectors and even the walls.
  5. Some of your objects are showing polys (e.g. the railings) - you probably need to subdivide a bit more
  6. Your edges are too sharp in many cases, add some bevel or chamfer. Sharp edges only exist very rarely in the real world.
8
  1. The lighting is very flat and too uniform.
  • I tried to imitate what we see in the show. The light is pretty much uniform, but i see what you mean.
  1. There is no depth of field.
  • DOF is having the focus on an object and blur around right ? There is some in the video. Does it need more you think ?
  1. Textures are too low resolution - especially on the walls.
  • It’s in 4096p, made with substance painter. I can’t get a better resolution ; or maybe do you know a way to ?
  1. Materials are too diffuse - there should be some variation in their roughness, glossiness etc - especially on things like the metal doors, striped corner protectors and even the walls.
  • Hmm true, metal is not absolutely polished everywhere. I need to work on some roughness variations.
  1. Some of your objects are showing polys (e.g. the railings) - you probably need to subdivide a bit more
  • Noted
  1. Your edges are too sharp in many cases, add some bevel or chamfer. Sharp edges only exist very rarely in the real world.
  • Yeah i see what you mean, nothing is a perfect 90° angle cut.

Thanks for your review :slight_smile:

9

For the walls, perhaps try a procedural texture rather than an image map - procedurals are effectively infinite in resolution.

Maybe something like this - although there are tons of materials around.

10

Looking at this, I would say it’s the color management settings. By default, Blender’s filmic color space tends to give a somewhat faded result. You should go to the color management tab and play with these 3 settings. Your scene could use brighter highlights and overall more contrast.

color_management
color_management333×637 38.8 KB

If those setting are not enough, you can also do color correction more finely in the compositor and really adjust the contrast in detail.

You have well enough of it. In fact, if it was any stronger, it would make the scene look like a miniature, with the camera super close to it.

However, you could get a more realistic result by adding other effects that simulate a real camera:

  • Motion blur.
  • Bloom (aka glare). Adjust its treshold so only the brightest highlights (like the lamps) glow a little bit.
  • Lens distortion, in the compositor (keep it subtle, just enough that it’s barely noticeable).

[quote=“moony, post:9, topic:1411452”]

When texturing a large wall like this, The way to do it is usually to use either repeating seamless textures or procedural textures, that way you are not limited by resolution. Then, you use texture painting to create masks and have different textures appear on different parts of the wall. The mask itself will be limited by resolution, but its not directly being rendered so it doesn’t matter that much.

So you could, as an example, get a basic concrete texture, make a modified dirty version of it and blend between the 2 using a hand painted black and white mask.

11

The DOF is fine when the camera is close up to the stargate and the chevrons are engaging - but the corridor walk through at the start doesn’t appear to have much of any. As such it looks like a video game.

12

Yes, but it should be kept subtle. In a scene of this scale, only the largest cameras could produce a really strong defocus in real life. I think the thing making that beggining shot look like a video game is the camera movement, which is really smooth and would be hard to reproduce in real life.

13

Work on the shader settings, the material of the gate is somewhat plastic-looking. The lighting on the wall doesnt match the blue “blob” when it appears. Perhaps place several point lights along it? And from the animation standpoint, “dialling the number” sequence looks too dragged out for me. I do not know if it is lore accurate though

14

Don’t forget you can do a lot in the post editing of the render.

15

@etn249 I have already played with the color management, but i guess i need to play more with it ^^ I never did masks on textures in Blender but i’ll give it a try

@DeckardX08 about the lights, i tried to replicate what we see in the show. Hence the strange light when the kawoosh (aka blob) appears