Where does the iris retract to?

[PTeppic]

But there is nothing amazing about the iris....

It is just a standard leafed-aperture, the same as in most camera lenses, for example. The only slightly odd part is where the leaves open to at full-open. This, in a way, is the whole subject of this thread, of course. But I think we came to the conclusion it goes into the body of the gate, as a late modification by the SGC?

At the end of the day the gate was made by Earth technicians, in Children of the Gods, and originally in pure titanium. And that, as a metal does NOT have any amazing properties, except perhaps strength. The trinium, I think, adds further strength and allows a lesser weight to be used. Apart from that, nothing special.

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Yeah yeah yeah, but to me IT IS amazing, because a lot of what the scientists can really do today is still amazing, interesting and wonderful. And to me, what is made with the iris is certainly and actually impossible to realize with our technology.

Btw, it is even more amazing as the petals of the iris are wider than the thickness of the gate, though the petals still manage to hide into the structure of the gate. It would have been perfect if the petals would have been as large as the thinckness of the gate, but this isn't the case.

And finally, from the point of view of the shows, it's even more amazing to know that the earth scientists were able to :

1 - understand how the gate works.
2 - even make it works.
3 - the more astounding part of all, as the scientists managed to have objects of titanium magically shrink into a gate.

So I guess it is the door that in some kind of way absorbs the petals of the iris.

And again, sorry, but to me that is still amazing. And even if our scientists could truely do that, I's still find it great.

Oh well, just nitpicking...

 

[PTeppic]

Originally posted by Ko'or Oragahn
1 - understand how the gate works.
2 - even make it works.
3 - the more astounding part of all, as the scientists managed to have objects of titanium magically shrink into a gate.

1) they had about 60 years to work it out, though as we know just by applying direct current and rotating the inner ring by hand, they did it in half that. Not really rocket science!
2) it took three super-computers to "Mac-Gyver" the way for dialling without the DHD
3) yeah - mostly artisitic licence by the producers who forgot about physics! The iris is actually applied by optical effects onto the gate prop. If you look closely, in some episodes it retracts backwards!

 

[digi_rage1]

PTeppic

You mentioned earlier the whoosh of the stargate activating. Actually it is very easy to create the effect. Of course the cost of using a jet engine over the tank of water to create the whoosh itself is expensive, the compositing of it is very simple and takes only minutes to make. I have done quite a few similar thing using Pinnacle System's Commotion 4.1 Pro, which some visual effect studios use.

As long as you have the real whoosh of water in the tank and the stargate on blue screen, simple...

Ryan

 

[PTeppic]

True, though the series began 6+ years ago when things were not so easy and powerful or quick.

Also they do now have about half a dozen whooshes, for different angles, and not just enhanced digitally. I think.

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Sigh. People quickly forget that Terminator 2 was made in 90, but showed one of the most impressive effects of the time.

Filming and adding a "woosh" effect don't cost that much at all.
They were simply lazy.

 

[PTeppic]

Can't disagree with the quality.

BUT it cost a LOT in 1990 to do what they did with a couple of hundred SGI machines over several months, as I recall. The sort of thing that can be done at lunchtime on a desktop PC these days...

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Before we forget it, we're mainly dealing with series which are quite young and still being done.

Companies don't pay computers to render the scenes. Companies only pay people who create the models, build them, skin them, animate them and blend them with the footage.

Companies also buy better machines. Now, since they already have them, there's no reason at all why making these simple FX would cost that much more.

Any small company could do that. Even you, with a computer, with various softwares and a need for quality could do that.

For nearly each episode, they already had to add all the explosions, beams, bolts, rays, shields and other things like that, plus the 3D sceneries and other ships and devices.

And they're doing sci-fi series for god's sake. Making helmets disappear would be as easy as making an iris retract and is way more easier then animating replicators (or any other CGI alien) or creating a whole CGI environment.

They simply have to create the opening/closing animation for each type of helmet and that will be done. This will be stored and will never have to be redone.
After that, the only thing they'll have to do will be to rotate the helmet in order to correspond to the facing position of the Jaffa and probably change the lighting in the 3d scene if needed (but that could be done later during the compositing process), shrink or expand the size of the helmet with a software like Combustion when adding it to the footage (compositing process) and make it fit with the neckring of the Jaffa's armors.

Even in 3dsmax there's a function that can do that for you.

Things far more difficult have already been made for various and older other series, be they sci-fi or fantasy, and even for SG-1.

They were simply lazy, and I truely hope that this will change for the sixth season, because it was one of the coolest things in Stargate, and they have no excuse at all. :evil:

 

[Svarog]

I thought there was a full-size life model of the gate they used, doesn't that have an iris?

 

[PTeppic]

There are two full-sized gates. One for the permanent SGC set, the other is mobile and used in the field for everywhere else...

I believe that the dialling ring and iris are added by CGI or optical effects: if you look closely at some of the episodes, the ring spins the "wrong" way, and the leaves of the iris also close in the opposite direction to normal. I noticed when I was trying to get stills of each glyph... :blush:

 

[Svarog]

I read somewhere that the gates both had a working inner rign that could turn both ways and stop at will. I never read anything about an iris attached though. However in Australia channel 7, which airs it, adds an interesting note onto each episode. Once it said the iris is made of the same element as a bike. Since a bike is unlikely to be composed of trinium or even titanium i assumed it was talking about the real life iris.

 

[shu_hunter]

I saw somewhere the real iris. It doesn't retract or anything, it's just there to plop in front of the gate when yu want people standing in front of it.

~Shu Hunter
:upto: Stargate fan{atic}

 

[PTeppic]

Svarog/shu_hunter,

I would guess, in the light of new information that a closed iris would be useful on set to reduce the CGI/optical demands in post-, particularly with people moving backwards and forwards in front of it the whole time.

I.e. CGI/optical of the iris actually closing, then cut to the prop iris, closed, for pro-longed gateroom (or "embarkation room - we're walking..." ) footage.

 

[gr8scott]

Where does the Iris retract into??? Good question. Hadn't thought of it before. Probably the same place the Jaffa Serpent Helmets retract into.

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

Perhaps the metal can be altered with electricity.

I've seen a TV show a piece of metal that had some
kind of shape memory, kind of like those flexible frame
glasses, only this metal.

I guess with the Stargate that the retracting metal is
spooled up like an elaborate window shade. And these
spools reside in some unseen hollow cavity.

When electricity is a applied the metal tries to return to
the shape it remembers by un-spooling, thus forming
the petals of the iris.