Validusia Station Progress

As some of you may know, a while ago I went ahead with a massive, full scale Validusia starbase in as much detail as I can realistically put on it.

Since then, a lot of progress has been made, but due to the new workflow I adopted it sometimes feels as though the build is progressing far slower than it actually is. This is because of all the planning and pre-produced assets that have to be made for the station. Here I wanted to go into a bit of detail as to why this apparent lack of progress is needed, and the importance of the vital part of a project like this: Planning and pre-production:

When making a object of this size and with the limitations I placed on it, having your workflow laid out properly beforehand is a must. With Validusia, I'm taking lots of smaller pieces of detail, or sections of the main octagon that links pieces of the starbase together for example, and pre-producing these by finishing them completely, including lights and textures. This ensures I only have to construct a relatively small section of the total starbase that I can then build the rest of the station out of. I first adopted this workflow when retexturing the Praetor, and that is without a doubt my best work yet, incorporating a high level of detail for a minimal amount of texture maps and model complexity.

Now the issue with this workflow is also the best thing about it: The more care you put into the kitbash pieces you'll eventually build your station out of, the better the end result will look. And since it's easy to get lost in these small pieces, making variations, improving some texture parts here and there, or optimizing the model complexity but cutting needless polygons, the pre-prep is a lengthy process. And while I've got 42 beautiful, well-detailed (and most importantly finished) hangar variations that can easily be copy-pasted to where ever they're needed on the station (or any future starship that needs a hangar for that matter) the fact that it takes serious time to actually make these individual pieces remains, and it makes it seem like the overall build is making little to no progress.

Of course, nothing could be more wrong. I'm using all the techniques I've learned over the past years as a 3d and 2d artist while working on this station, and I can safely say that since my first mega project, the Executor, I've improved immensely, but the speed of the build bothers me. Where as before I built each section by hand, seeing the build progress as you spend more time, now my (vastly improved) method consists of spending lots of time on small details that affect the entire station. This makes it easy to think nothing of importance is happening (small details, big station), and my brain is great at tricking myself into actually believing it.

Validusia is as much a pre-prep for all future starship designs as it is a pre-prep for the station build itself. If we ever need hangars, hull details, textures, greebling, city-scape, large gas refineries or any other pieces Validusia has in any future build, these pieces will be textured and ready to be re-used, reducing build times substantially. While this is invaluable, and having a large set of pre-produced greebles at the ready is amazing (And I wish I had learned this workflow years ago) it non the less means that for this particular build, all that has to be made, and that is what's been taking so long. I go out of my way to make some variations of pieces we don't specifically need right now, but likely will in the future. All this while the final construction isn't visually coming together until the very end. 

And I hate that this is how the build is progressing. While this is undoubtedly the best and most effective workflow for larger objects for both quality and optimization, I want to make more visual progress. So I'm going to start taking more time to work on the starbase. I'm impatient and while I don't want to rush a single piece of it (because it'll affect every unit we build henceforth because of the re-used assets) the apparent progress bothers me, and no doubt other people were hoping to see more progress as well, that too bothers me. 

I hope this has explained a bit why the station is taking so long and why you don't see swaths of the station model already finished. I'm doing the work up front and getting better results later, and while frustrating, it is the best way forward. I've included a compilation image of the Praetor retexture in the hopes you guys will agree this method does indeed produce the best results, even though while in production, progress isn't always evident.

Thank you for reading this rather lengthy post, now back to building!