I've designed and built a few starship interiors just for the heck of it, and I use a combination of both modeling and texturing. I guess it really depends on the style you are going for. Take the case of the Star Trek example above... all flat (which would mean image maps combined with luminosity mapping). Then again there are the consoles and control of the stuff in Final Fantasy... mostly holographic displays (image, luminosity, transparency mapping). The same holds true for the sci-fi displays seen in Minority Report and in Red Planet... even Zion Control's "White Room" from Matrix Reloaded. If that is the kind of look you are going for, then surface work is all you need. :o) If you are looking for harder edged kind of sci-fi controls, similar to the the Nostromo from Alien or the USS Sulaco from Aliens or even the Nebuchadnezzar from The Matrix (or from Sphere, Event Horizon... etcetera), then you will have to do a bit of modeling. My own "Antares" (available from Renderosity FreeStuff), is predominantly modeled, with only minimal texture work. What I am trying to say is that you need to start from a concept. I usually start from a layout of the bridge and think about the primary functions of the starship. Once I have decided what kind of ship it is, I then know who will be sitting around it, then I start modeling from the functions of each seat. Take for example my "Argo" bridge design starting from the Helm Controls I detailed how the controls might work. Then I designed the Navigation and Planetary Survey stations. One of them was busy surfing the Renderosity website at the time. Eventually, I worked my way over to doing Captain's Seat and the Science Officer's Station. Most of this was modeled... the display panels (all original graphics) are only secondary for me, because that was the look I was going for. You really need to decide the kind of look and feel that you are going for in your design. Take it from there. Hope the unsolicited bit of design input was helpful. :o) Cheers! M

Mind Over Matter
"If you don't mind, then it don't matter."