Jason,
I work in Lightwave 3D on a dual-processor 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 that Jim Cameron gave to me for the purpose of building my CG models. Even that computer, though, has difficulty dealing with those high polygon counts. When I tried an animated fly-thru of Titanic's boiler rooms, I could render only 10 frames at a time, else the program would crash.
I am aware that my models are too polygon-intensive for animation, but I use them for other purposes. In my Marconi Room model, each wireless component can be disassembled like the real thing. In my Turkish Bath model, each of the screws of the coathooks can be removed from their countersunk holes. In the boiler rooms, each rivet in the boiler casings is individually modelled. I need this level of detail because I use the CG models as forensic tools, to brief divers on what they should find and catalogue what they have found. In this way, for instance, I was able to tell by comparison that the stoking indicators in Britannic are of a different style than the ones used in Titanic. I also can learn how an apparatus works by building it from scratch in a virtual model. I learned about the wireless apparatus by building each component, so much so that I was able to fill in gaps left unintentionally in the period documentation.
You will never see my CG models used in an animation (although I did compose a brief animation that re-created John Chatterton's dive route in Britannic's No. 6 Boiler Room for the upcoming History Channel show on Britannic), but I can render single-frame images that can be used for illustration in books or on TV. Some of my Marconi Silent Room single-frame images were used in the un-aired Cameron edit of the Discovery Channel's "Last Mysteries of the Titanic," and I will use them as illustration for the book that I intend to someday write about the Marconi apparatus.
I taught myself how to use Lightwave and the only way that I know how to build an object is to create every detail. I am not expert in using image, transparent and bump maps to give the illusion of detail. I cannot build the entire ship -- as you have done -- because I would create too much detail in the model. For my sinking simulation, I borrowed someone else's model. I wish that I could build the entire ship, as you have done.
I also wish that I worked in Studio 3D Max. When I worked on "Ghosts of the Abyss," the animators used Lightwave and it was from them that I learned the art of computer modelling. Nowadays, most animators working in film use Studio 3D Max. That means that for the fly-thru animation of the Turkish Bath Cooling Room in LMoT, the animators at Earthship Productions had to build their own version of my CG model, using orthographic views that I rendered for them. If I had Studio 3D Max, they would not have had to copy my effort...I could have shared my models with them directly. But, I work primarily on a Mac and Studio 3D Max does not run on a Mac.
Parks
I'm from Helsingborg as well. Where are u from? What's your name 
