Stargate's event horizon effect (Cycles)

Support Materials and Textures
1

In another thread, somebody asked about how to make an object appears as it comes out of a stargate-alike event horizon thanks to Dynamic Paint… and I got this idea to do it without Dynamic Paint. While I was at it, I made the material so that it’s easy to make the object disappear and appear.

The node tree of the material:

snap76.png1091×435 63.1 KB

The Color Mix node is here to switch in between entering or exiting the event horizon depending on the factor, respectively 0 for entering and 1 for exiting.

Since Suzanne is a static object, I simply used the X coordinate of the UV map created with “Project from View (Bounds)”. When Suzanne touches the event horizon for the first time, the Color Mix factor is keyframed to 0 and the value in the “Greater Than” node is keyframed to 1. So that any point which is beyond the right limit of the UV map uses the fully transparent material. It means none since the UV coordinates are in the range 0 to 1. Then the value of the “Greater Than” node is keyframed to 0 when Suzanne is totally on the other side of the event horizon.

So, while Suzanne crosses the event horizon, the rubber ducky material is progressively replaced by the fully transparent one, starting from the right and that’s what makes her disappear. The effect synchronizes itself automatically with the event event horizon… At least, it works (almost) perfectly with both Suzanne’s movement keyframes and the node’s value keyframes set to Vector.

IMHO, it shouldn’t be that hard to synchronize the effect whatever the situation. It would be just a matter of tuning the keyframes and the values of the “Greater Than” node. To accelerate the transition, you bring the keyframes closer and you enlarge the range of the values to slow it down. (Below 0 and/or above 1.) As long as you keep using the whole range from 0 to 1 the effect works. (That’s pure theory but I’m very confident.) :eyebrowlift:

To use this effect on a rigged mesh, all that is needed is to replace the UV coordinates with Object coordinates. There are a few things to change because a character is usually built facing the negative side of the Y axis and the object coordinates range is from minus something to plus something… But that’s doable. It will just work, even if you make the character put their hand inside the event horizon and pull it out. The Object coordinates are relative to the origin of the object and so is the “threshold”. I can see it working just fine… in my head. :wink:

The blend file to deconstruct:

Forum Stargate.blend (188 KB)

Enjoy! :smiley:

EDIT: I forgot to say: If the inside of Suzanne’s head appears all blue that’s because the material is double-sided. Rubber ducky on the outside and blue light inside. That’s all. Nothing complicate.

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cool idea. if you wanted to run with it, you could add a fluid sim.

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:no: No, no, no! I don’t want to do a new episode of Stargate. So, no fluid simulation for the event horizon. This little (ugly) video took already too much time to render. (It seems can’t do anything below 1 minute of rendering per frame any more.)

I just wanted to brag… err… illustrate some idea and concept. :wink: The quick fake ocean material is good enough. All that really matter is Suzanne’s material. Besides, my little trick wouldn’t work so well if the event horizon wasn’t absolutely flat so… :no: No, no, no! :wink:

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That is great, ten times better than (my) dynamic paint kludge. I’ll have to find some scene I can use it in.

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That’s pretty neato!

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Kaluura, I’m still struggling to get this to work. That is, it works nicely with your Suzanne, but with my objects it fills in each face from its edges. Or, if I use object coordinates instead of UV, only half the object becomes visible. I’m guessing that it’s the UV map that is the problem. You said you created it with “Projects from View (Bounds)”, but I don’t know what that means, and I can’t find any reference to it. Can you suggest what I’m doing wrong?

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@Shumphries: Project from View (Bounds). To get such a UV map, you must be in orthographic mode, aligned with an axis such as the front of the object (or the side which will enter/exit the event horizon first) is on the right of the screen. (Try all of [NUMPAD_1] and [NUMPAD_3] with or without [CTRL], you’ll find the right one.) Then, in Edit mode, you select everything and press [U] Unwrap --> Project from View (Bounds). That’s all that is needed to re-use the node tree shown in the snapshot.

To be able to use Object coordinates, you can add a few math nodes to convert the coordinates which are in the range (-something, +something) into the range of the UV coordinates which is only (0, 1). Or else you can simply change the “threshold”.

Object coordinates are relative to the origin of the object, they go from negative to positive when the origin is inside the object and, very important, they are relative to the dimensions of the object. For example, a cube of 2x2x2 with the origin at the center of geometry has object coordinates in the range (-1, 1) on all 3 axes. Note also that rotation doesn’t affect object coordinates. Hence, my little trick works only when the object goes through with one of its local axis perfectly perpendicular to the event horizon. (Beyond that, you’ll need more maths.)

If you have a specific case in mind, I can explain what values and why. Just ask. :wink:

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Thanks! That’s working very nicely now. I just need to do some curve-tweaking. Thanks for your help (and patience!)