#34 - Summary - Venator Star Destroyer
Now that the Venator Star Destroyer model is complete, I will outline what went well, what problems are remaining and overall why I am satisfied with the model as it is.
The tool I found the most useful for creating this model was the mirror tool, largely because it cut some of the work literally in half, but also because it made positioning many of the objects much easier. For example, with the bumpers around the ship, I was able to reflect one bumper down to place another directly underneath, then reflect them again onto the opposite side of the ship. One problem I did have with this tool was that it would offset the rotation tool, making it very difficult to rotate the reflected bumpers into the right position near the end, and unfortunately some of them are not quite right, but it is by such a small amount that it will ever be noticeable in the animation, and it was still much quicker than duplicating them and moving them over. In fact, it would only be noticeable by zooming in very close to the bumpers in the work space. I did not have this problem with the engines. I only had to create half of the engines, and then I could mirror each one onto the other side of the ship, as there were five different engines, two of each. On the subject of reflection, I did have a problem with the symmetry setting on the multi-cut tool. It worked fine for a lot of the places I needed it to, but in other places it would not recognise the symmetry of the model, so I had to do both sides individually. This tool only saved me half the time it could have. Speaking of engines, I was able to effectively create them using only the extrude tool with the exception of reversing some faces and bridging a gap on one engine. Using the extrude tool I could pull out the edges, fatten them, then push them back in and extend the cylinder, until I reached the end. I also added all of the details using only the extrude tool, and the engines all look quite good.
As I have mentioned in past posts, there are some places, mainly on the inside of the engines and at the back of the ship, as well as the base of the turrets, where I have not copied the detail of the schematic. This is entirely because adding these details would cost processing power by creating polygons that will never be noticeable at all in the animation or, in many cases, on the model itself from any viewing position. Some of these details were missed, or improvised, simply because they were not visible on any schematic. I took care to make them match the design pattern of the rest of the ship. The only other small problem is to do with the size of the schematics, although I was able to overcome this so it is not something I need to go back to. The schematics were not to scale with each other so I had to balance the shape and size of the tower between them all, but I am confident that the resulting shape is as accurate as it needs to be, and it looks suitable on top of the rest of the model. Some of the shapes of smaller elements of the model, such as the turrets and the shield on the bottom, are slightly different to the schematic for another reason. For the turrets, it would have required a large number of polygons which would never be seen to get the right shape, so I left them flat and tidy at the back. For the shield, it has the right pattern but more of it, and it just looks so much better. Remember the schematic I used is not official, so this seems like an appropriate change in line with a standard Star Wars ship.
Other than what I have mentioned above, I had no real difficulties with the creation of this model. There were no points where I got stuck, or had to ask for help, and I did not spend too long on any one element of it. All of the elements look how I think they should, so I am happy to leave it how it is until the texturing stage. I did actually check the poly count, and this model had over 15000 faces, so I went back and deleted a few that couldn't be seen, like the ones under the turret or in the end of the engines. I cannot afford to delete anymore however, as most of the faces (around 10000 of them) are for the engines details, and I cannot afford to have these engines any less detailed as too much of the ship is already going to be textured. I removed about 1000 faces and that will have to do.
The tool I found the most useful for creating this model was the mirror tool, largely because it cut some of the work literally in half, but also because it made positioning many of the objects much easier. For example, with the bumpers around the ship, I was able to reflect one bumper down to place another directly underneath, then reflect them again onto the opposite side of the ship. One problem I did have with this tool was that it would offset the rotation tool, making it very difficult to rotate the reflected bumpers into the right position near the end, and unfortunately some of them are not quite right, but it is by such a small amount that it will ever be noticeable in the animation, and it was still much quicker than duplicating them and moving them over. In fact, it would only be noticeable by zooming in very close to the bumpers in the work space. I did not have this problem with the engines. I only had to create half of the engines, and then I could mirror each one onto the other side of the ship, as there were five different engines, two of each. On the subject of reflection, I did have a problem with the symmetry setting on the multi-cut tool. It worked fine for a lot of the places I needed it to, but in other places it would not recognise the symmetry of the model, so I had to do both sides individually. This tool only saved me half the time it could have. Speaking of engines, I was able to effectively create them using only the extrude tool with the exception of reversing some faces and bridging a gap on one engine. Using the extrude tool I could pull out the edges, fatten them, then push them back in and extend the cylinder, until I reached the end. I also added all of the details using only the extrude tool, and the engines all look quite good.
As I have mentioned in past posts, there are some places, mainly on the inside of the engines and at the back of the ship, as well as the base of the turrets, where I have not copied the detail of the schematic. This is entirely because adding these details would cost processing power by creating polygons that will never be noticeable at all in the animation or, in many cases, on the model itself from any viewing position. Some of these details were missed, or improvised, simply because they were not visible on any schematic. I took care to make them match the design pattern of the rest of the ship. The only other small problem is to do with the size of the schematics, although I was able to overcome this so it is not something I need to go back to. The schematics were not to scale with each other so I had to balance the shape and size of the tower between them all, but I am confident that the resulting shape is as accurate as it needs to be, and it looks suitable on top of the rest of the model. Some of the shapes of smaller elements of the model, such as the turrets and the shield on the bottom, are slightly different to the schematic for another reason. For the turrets, it would have required a large number of polygons which would never be seen to get the right shape, so I left them flat and tidy at the back. For the shield, it has the right pattern but more of it, and it just looks so much better. Remember the schematic I used is not official, so this seems like an appropriate change in line with a standard Star Wars ship.
Other than what I have mentioned above, I had no real difficulties with the creation of this model. There were no points where I got stuck, or had to ask for help, and I did not spend too long on any one element of it. All of the elements look how I think they should, so I am happy to leave it how it is until the texturing stage. I did actually check the poly count, and this model had over 15000 faces, so I went back and deleted a few that couldn't be seen, like the ones under the turret or in the end of the engines. I cannot afford to delete anymore however, as most of the faces (around 10000 of them) are for the engines details, and I cannot afford to have these engines any less detailed as too much of the ship is already going to be textured. I removed about 1000 faces and that will have to do.
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