Here’s some progress on my helmet :
Crits are welcome
I also have a question : is this (see below) the proper way to unwrap a helm-like shape?
Thx and greetz, fritz.
I think we would visualize the helmet better if you just kept a uniform world color right now (the cloud’s low resolution is annoying to look at the sharp details of your texture)
Awesome work so far. The bump map is so far very well done. I would add a few scratches though because thats what happens to metal all the time. (not necerily roughtness like you have which is very well done).
I love the front but it seems the back is a bit sharp (bevel or subdivide it?). Make the edges a bit smoother (so the soldier wont cut his skin while putting it on. I know the spartans were though but I dont think they enjoyed pain any more then us 
)
Nice work so far 
I can already imagine a fully armor spartan hoplite with his helm on
Very cool.
Very good texture’s. I also think a greek hoplite is due for an apperance.
Nice work. No crits from me.
nice helm love the bump mapping.
That is a fantastic UV unwrap. Looks very clean. Though, I would have done a standard “sphere” unwrap, from top view, instead of an LSCM unwrap. Would not give you the seams across the sides that you currently have.
Nice start on the textures too. Needs to be ditier and less specular, but you have a nice start.
BgDM
Needs better lighting and a better background.
The unwrap is real nice.
How did you do the engraved lines?
Thx for the comments guys. I will certainly work on the lighting and background. But I’m not too sure about the hoplite part since I haven’t learned to model a decent human being (yet). To JDA : I did those engraved lines with a simple bumpmap.
Greetz, Fritz.
Ok notice how the lines all are jagged?
That needs to be corrected.
Your using a grayscale bumpmap correct?
Post a link to the bumpmap so I can
check it out.
Voila here’s a pic of the bumpmap. I think the jagged lines are caused by bad unwrapping ratjer then a bad bumpmap.
Greetz, Fritz
Show the lines bumpmap.
That IS the lines bumpmap. If you watch very closely you should see the lines.
Greetz, Fritz
They look solid gray with no soft edge.
What you want to do is apply a
Gaussian blur to the lines.
Do that and post the results.
I tried to apply a gaussian blur but the result is the same : the jagged lines aren’t gone btu thanx 4 the advice anyway!
Greetz, Fritz.
I’m wondering if the jaggedness of the bumpmap has anything to do with the fact that you have 2 seperate UV maps there (around the face area). I really don’t know much about texturing yet, so it’s just a shot in the dark for me…
Please post the texture
with the lines after you
applied the blur.
voila, here it is.
Greetz, fritz
Blur it again using a blur tool.
Also get NormalMapGenerator.
http://www.ati.com/developer/sdk/radeonSDK/html/Tools/ToolsPlugIns.html
What paint program do you use?
I could blur it again but then the lines would be all fuzzy and too large. And I’m using Photoshop 7.0 to create my textures. I also have a question: what is the diffirence between a bumpmap and a normal map?
Thx and greetz, Fritz.
If I’m wrong about this someone please correct me!
A bump map uses shading to create the illusion of depth on the surface of whatever you are modelling.
A normal map actuall displaces the mesh to create “real” depth on surface of the model.
Bump mapping provides faster render time, but if you render too close (or try to get too much depth) to the object the illusion is broken, you will be able to see that the surface is actually flat.
Nvidia has a photoshop plugin that can create normal maps.