you will probably have to retopo it. Did you do the model?

Why would you have to retopologize it?  The problem is with the UVmap, that it is not "flat".  You'd have to redo the UVmap, which makes any existing textures invalid (they won't line up with the new UVmap) or you can get into texturing with some program that does projecting painting - however for any model of a curved surface, some amount of distortion is inevitable unless you map it with a very large amount of seams.

was just a guess. LOL I have run into that before with purchased models that I had tried to retexture. In those there were large polygons with smaller ones between and the transition between them appeared to be what caused the stretching. That was why I had asked if he modelled it. If he had he remap or retopo without a problem. it looks like his map pulls to one side as well as stretches.

Yes I created the model, and mapped in in UV mapper, but I have no idea how to retopo it.  LOL I dont even know what retopo means.  :(

do the polygons run straight or do they follow the center line the way your map does? You can get that in Zbrush sometimes. The UVMapper forum would have more expertise as to what is up. Nice bunch in there too.

pjz99

what caused me to think that was the way the map 'leans' in to the right, I thought that maybe the mesh might do the same. Don't know if that would effect the mapping or not, seems like it would though.

Try a spherical uv map (in uvmapper) and see if that doesn't make things better.

If you want to projection paint it here is an open source app for that. Not tried it yet but looks promising.

http://www.crackart.org/index.php

The helmet portion was done with a spherical mapping.  I'll take a look at the projection paint app.  Thnx again for the feedback.

pjz99 is right, uv mapping a sperical shape is always going to be a tradeoff, the whole purpose of uv mapping is to take a 3D shape and turn it into a flat surface so that a flat image can be applied to it, think about trying to flatten out a basketball without stretching out the surface, the only way you can do it is to slice it into a lot of pieces. so what you end up with is a map that's hard to deal with because you end up with seams between the split pieces. or you can try to map it as one continuous piece which is what spherical mapping attempts to do but than you are effectively squashing the surface flat, which means stretching, resulting in distortion.

In this case if it were my model I think I would split the whole helmet map down the middle with each side being a separate piece, than you can flat map them and stretch them out along the edge where the seam is somewhat to help minimize the stretching and that ridge down the middle would hide the seam for the most part.

Attached Link: http://www.morphography.uk.vu/uvmapping.html

Hey guys, thnx for all the advice.  I went with the idea of splitting the helmet in two pieces.  I still get a little stretch, but nothing like it was.  Thanks again.

how did that crackart look? did you check it out? I got an email from the developer last night saying that they were about to release the next alpha for it and that it would be able to use photos for texture sources at that time.