Pedantic. Nice use of vernacular outside the standard lexicon eh. Kudos on that, as I enjoy hearing/reading advanced use of vocabulary.
As to profile, actually, moving the TL 36º would change the profile outline from either a port or starboard orthographic view, by reducing its projection out into said profile.
As to the minutia detailing of a starship (or any model), you could do that, as there's no limit to what you can build (other than the computer that could support and render such a large amount of data in a timely fashion, otherwise you end-up w/what is often referred to as a render-choker). I have seen guys build every nut-and-bolt on smaller scale craft such as planes and cars, but on something as immense as the scale of a starship, it would take you forever.
Sure sure there are uber-detailed
hero models, but more likely
(and not a rule by any means, as there are no hard-and-fast rules), the only time you would build that amount nuts-and-bolts detail in VFX would be if the shot called for it, and then, you would only build/detail that section (as a separate mesh (model) that was going to be needed for that particular shot.
But like I said, if one has the time and CPU/RAM power, and patience, for that level of detailing, have at it. However, at that point, stuff like that becomes an exercise unto itself really, IMO.
As to normal modeling, you'll never miss it. I used to uber-detail stuff, and still do build in (other than pro-level) above-normal amounts of detail into my projects, but my nuts-and-bolts daze are for the most part behind me, as they just don't pay off (artistically) that much (as the details just get lost in most renders), for the amount of effort, and
time, that has to be put in. Doesn't pay off for me any longer anywho.
But, if a shot required it, I'd push around whatever amount of polys were called-for.
deg
