In order to reduce render times when the detail isn't needed I've begun the process of normal mapping the details from a high res version of the airship to a low res version. I've been testing out the process on the bridge of the airship. I had to look up several tutorials on the web, I think its a good idea to watch and read a few different tutorials so you get a better understanding of what you are doing rather than just blindly following the directions. The two most useful ones can be found here:
http://youtu.be/2P6C8ZodYnA
http://www.3dtutorialzone.com/tutorial?id=10
What Ive found is that your scene file size can be reduced dramatically but when you start rendering with FG and GI with mental ray production quality you're only saving a 10 or 20 seconds a frame. This could be a problem with my settings I'll have a look into.
Below is an image comparing the results of the normal mapping.
As you can see the low-poly model has lost some definition in the panels but this can be corrected through tweaking the normal map in photoshop or by adding a displacement map to the model. Below is the normal map used in this case.
So next for me to do is to explore the settings thoroughly to see if I can reduce the render times more substantially otherwise it won't be worth remodelling the ship to do this.
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