I've made a freebie Fallschirmjager helmet and uploaded it on Renderosity, however, this one is a much improved version. A little high maybe in poly count at 8144 faces all combined but the detail is better I think. 

Included in the pack will be the helmet, with decals (a couple texture alternatives), helmet liner and chin straps. (Severed head of Micheal 4 not included.)

Any pointers or suggestions from seasoned vendors or otherwise would be most welcome.  :)

Thanks.

Well, my suggestion would be to make better textures. Leather on the strap, dents and scratches on the helmet with an image based texture. No offense, but it looks rather plain. Also, the helmet and straps have no thickness. Thickness would add to the realism by leaps and bounds.

Laurie

The straps look fine for thickness to me, though the loop at the bottom does look a bit angular (fairly minor).  If there is any thickness on the helmet it is hard to tell with the shadow falling the way it does.  

I'd consider some more advanced shaders for the straps and metal bits.  Maybe a distressed texture/shader option for the helmet.

It looks pretty good, it just looks very 3d ish so might not be of use to someone who renders more realistic scenes, which would seem to be where your market is aiming.

Do they have thickness wipes glasses. I don't see it...lol. Ah well, I'll take the OP's word for it ;).

As for the second helmet texture, it's not really workin for me, but I ain't everybody...lol.

Laurie

Here's a look from a better angle.

Quote - Do they have thickness wipes glasses. I don't see it...lol. Ah well, I'll take the OP's word for it ;).

As for the second helmet texture, it's not really workin for me, but I ain't everybody...lol.

Laurie

This is pretty much all I have to work with at the moment. Completely made from scratch by me.

I don't know where to get a better texture. I don't have any pics of helmets. I just have homemade wear and tear textures to put on it. Any suggestions where I could get a decent texture or how to make one? :(

http://stefan-morrell.com/

Go to the Downloads section, page 2 and there's a hard surface texturing tutorial ;). Stonemason can texture as well as he models. It's worth a look, especially if you want to be a vendor. Every little bit helps.

He's using Photoshop, but you can use GIMP, Paint Shop Pro...whatever suits your fancy/you can afford.

Laurie

Images for texturing can be found at:

CG Textures

PlainTextures

Mayang's Textures

Image After

3D Total Textures

Texturelib

These are just a few. There are more, but these should cover just about everything you'd want ;). Be sure to read the license of each site so that you know their usage terms :). I think all but Texturelib have images for free you can use commercially.

Laurie

I noticed one thing that could be improved besides the textures. The edge of the helmet looks too sharp. It should be beveled for a smoother transition.

good call!  that is probably what is giving it the look of not having thickness

Have you seen this site? http://www.german-helmets.com/

You asked for advice, here are my comments.  

First, if your product is for Poser, use reasonable shaders. Bagginsbill posted a leather shader, and there are reasonable metal shaders from him and Snarlygibbly around. If you want to sell your product, make sure that every part looks right. All shaders mentioned here are free to use in commercial products IIRC, but it does not hurt to ask the creator first if you don't find a clear statement.

The helmet itself is too glossy, and needs some scratches or dents to look believable. This isn't glossy car paint on these helmets, just a texture won't look right. Up to now that looks like a Poser 4 product, to be honest. 

Helmets are there for protection. You need to see the thickness of the material, and since it's steel, the edges should be beveled. This thing looks too thin, you need a visible rim. Not overdone, though. 

One thing which isn't visible so far - is the helmet conformig or will the straps go right through the neck if the head bends forward? How do you handle that? 

Besides I wonder how many people may buy a helmet alone, without the clothes. 

These are my thoughts to that. What you have looks very good so far, especially the straps are very well done. I hope I don't sound impolite, my posting is not meant that way. 

Quote - You asked for advice, here are my comments.  

First, if your product is for Poser, use reasonable shaders. Bagginsbill posted a leather shader, and there are reasonable metal shaders from him and Snarlygibbly around. If you want to sell your product, make sure that every part looks right. All shaders mentioned here are free to use in commercial products IIRC, but it does not hurt to ask the creator first if you don't find a clear statement.

The helmet itself is too glossy, and needs some scratches or dents to look believable. This isn't glossy car paint on these helmets, just a texture won't look right. Up to now that looks like a Poser 4 product, to be honest. 

Helmets are there for protection. You need to see the thickness of the material, and since it's steel, the edges should be beveled. This thing looks too thin, you need a visible rim. Not overdone, though. 

One thing which isn't visible so far - is the helmet conformig or will the straps go right through the neck if the head bends forward? How do you handle that? 

Besides I wonder how many people may buy a helmet alone, without the clothes. 

These are my thoughts to that. What you have looks very good so far, especially the straps are very well done. I hope I don't sound impolite, my posting is not meant that way. 

Many thanks! I hadn't thought about the head bend problem. That might present a problem. I'll have to think of a cure, not sure yet what to do with that. Not sure if conforming it would be an acceptable solution. It might cause it to bend unnaturally.

I have a slightly modified version with a beveled edge which I'm working on now.

Glad I posted to this forum before going further.

Speaking as a vendor, people can buy entire rigged figures for $10 or so, complete with morphs and textures.

Vanishing Point has had an entire gemran outfit with a helmet free for years.

A helmet alone just won't sell at all for $7 in today;s poser market.

Maybe offer a few different texture sets with it, and add more german gear to create a marketable product?

Attached Link: German Helmets

This site is a good resource for German Helmets from WWII. 

Maybe this would be a good guideline if you want to release this commerciallly?

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=70638

Sound advice that I can't really add to so I'm just here to agree with Gareee.

LOL! It might also be good to research and see if someone else already has a german set out, and if so, how it could be improved upon. Maybe poserworld has something?

OT In terms of WWII military equipment, I'd like to see more Japanese stuff.

You've never seen a German Fallschirmjager helmet? Or you don't think this looks like one?

Here's a couple pics.

*"You've never seen a German Fallschirmjager helmet? Or you don't think this looks like one?"*Nope, not ever.  As it happens, I saw one online today - for the first time in my life - and I think yours is a very accurate representation.  Absolutely top marks on that score.  I'll bet the average punter wouldn't know of it and think yours is just a weird looking German helmet, though.  

Therein lies the problem.  As, has been pointed out in this thread, there are plenty of other good, free German helmets around, why would anyone pay for yours?  Consider this, there are - or were - some for sale items in the Marketplace here which consisted of what amounted to almost the entire WWII German army.  You could say yours is unique in that nobody's made one like it so far but how many people - other than afficionados - are going to pay for a helmet they've most likely never seen before?

I am not in any way denigrating your skill as a modeller but I strongly suspect you'll have the devil's own job selling many of 'em.  I hope I'm wrong. 

Well, thanks for being honest. Honesty probably helps more than anything. When I get this thing ironed out, taking into account some of the advice I've received, I still intend to sell it. Maybe I'll ask $2.00 or something. Better to go ahead with it than scrap all the work I've put into it at this point.

IMO minimize the shininess of it.  You wouldn't want your helmet to give you away.  Maybe go for an eggshell look.

Why don't you try building an entire uniform to go along with it? Or at least other accessories, to make it more appealing to prospective buyers as an item in a set. 

Consider also that there is a 3-product limit in the MP here for new merchants, until your total sales have reached a certain amount. At least, that is how it used to be, unless they've changed the rules since last time I sold anything - which has been quite a while. 

ExistentialDisorder - yep still there, also theres a $5 minimum price as well. Many sites have similar rules. Gary - nice work there. Good attention to detail.

Well other than the lack of the the rounded edges, it looks like the photo. Great work. If you're really striving to be a merchant, I as a consumer, would say look at what's missing from the market and see if you can model it?

Want to stick to German WWI & II stuff? See what's missing? Are there a lot of german emblems available? They put them EVERYWHERE. Maybe model some of those? I dunno what's out there in that area either. It's just my 2 cents.

Also note, I've beveled the edges to give it more appearance of thickness. Let me know what you think.

As far as the limits for sale items I guess I'll need to package some more stuff with it and maybe do some other sale items to bring it up to 3. :(

Thanks for everyone's help on this. I think I'm getting closer to a decent sale item. Still lots of things to fix but its getting there.

Steve has a point.  I haven't sold anything for a while but I learned the hard way.  If you do something, make it unique enough that people want it, but not so unique nobody will buy it.  I did quite well out of staying away from regular human textures and doing robotic stuff for the Gen 3 girls and guys.  Everyone had the models and my textures were unique enough to make them stand out from the crowd but not unique enough it put people off.  I hit on a couple of ideas nobody had really tried with Poser before and used them in my sets.  I hadn't invented anything; I was using well known ideas that nobody had really picked up on.  That gave me enough of an edge to get my stuff noticed.  Of course, I also worked my ass off making them the best I could manage.

My earlier efforts at purely human textures were variable but never really sold enough to make it worth the work I'd put in.  Too similar to everything else out there and I wasn't an established vendor.  A couple of packs sold almost nothing.  In fact, I did a texture for Neftis's Neftoon Gal.  Sold one copy.  Too unique for a too tiny market.

So, if you want to sell, make stuff people want at a price they can't resist.  If you give them added value with extras and addons, it makes things even better.  If  you can find a product that does all the above and is unique enough - and, of course well made - you have a winner.

Well, WW 2 military stuff isn't all that common, expecially clothing items. WW 2 is also a pretty popular era from my experience. You see TV documentaries and all sorts of stuff on it all the time. Military stuff in general sort of pales in comparison to all the bikinis out there for V4. So I think military is a decent niche that has potential. Plus, most importantly, its what I like to make. I want to enjoy what I do and if I have to make bikinis for V4 in order to sell anything I'll put a gun to my head.

The two biggest problems as I see it now are the UV lines in the helmet where I split the model's textures and what happens to the chin strap when M4 bends his head forward.

Nobody's suggesting more bikini's! Egads I'd shoot you first! LOL! Also I don't think anyone's knocking the World War stuff, just saying that if you look around you'll find it's already got quite a few entries in both the marketplace and the freebies arena. We're just suggesting you look at all of those things and see what they missed making. When I suggested emblems, I was talking about all those emblem stands you'd see on speaking podiums during that period and on walls of eagles and such.

I wonder if I could sell this on Turbosquid? I've seen some real mediocre stuff on that site, apparently going for decent prices. Not sure if they are getting what they are asking but a lot of the stuff being sold doesn't look incredibly great.

You could even ask outrageous prices there too!

I'm sure there are people who will appreciate detailed, accurate stuff. If they already have a uniform, it probably has a helmet included, so a separate one would have to be special I'd think. Gas masks, skis for Alpine troops, medals, binoculars...probably a lot of accesories that are hard to find perhaps.

Your latest version looks superb.

BTW, as Steve said, nobody's suggesting you change track with the content you make. 

Gary - it's like Sam says and theres nothing wrong with your model. Yea, you could go to the squid and try it there as, but what you need is as lmckenzie describes. A reason to make people WANT your product and to do that it needs to have value. Put yourself in the postion of a poser user looking for a WW2 jerry helmet. Ask questions like... How and where will you find such a helmet. Whats the helmet going to be used for. Would you be willing to pay a small amount for a more accurate helmet than whats in freestuff.

I keep getting lines where my UV map coordinates were cut out. Is there a way to get rid of these? I'm using Poser 7 with Wings 3D models.

Quote - I keep getting lines where my UV map coordinates were cut out. Is there a way to get rid of these? I'm using Poser 7 with Wings 3D models.

You have to match the area around the edge of the emblem with the pixels on the other side of that cut. If you can't do that, then weld the emblem section back to the main helmet and map the helmet as one piece (well, two. Personally I'd cut down along the helmet edge). You really need to keep seam matching in mind when you're uv mapping. That's why on most figures the cut on an arm is down along the bottom or the leg cut is on the inside...always on in a place where it will be the least noticeable. Either way, if you want it to be invisible you need to blend those pixels on either side of the cut.

Laurie

If your helmet is a figure, why not add some ornamentation to it crests, pointy things, non-german stuff, wings, or whatever?  Take it from being a german-only helmet to a wwi-wwii era in genral helment.

I think I have a solution. I have seen others here selling hat packs. I may try to do the same, maybe create a WW2 German Headwear pack.

So is it true then that I must have at least 3 separate sale items in order to become a vender here?

I like the Headwear pack idea. That sounds like it could work.

I could be wrong (as I don't sell here), but I think you're limited to a max. of 3 items for sale here until you've reached a certain sales total.

Check your local, state, federal and/or Emperial laws and codes about selling Nazi-related merch.  Some places won't even allow historical items to be traded or sold.

Which is, of course, silly but we live in a world of silly people doing silly things.

Gary, thickness and all everything they are saying is ok an important only if someone thinks they are going to do close up work as you are doing to show it off. 99% of all renders using a helmet is going to be a distance shot with one or more figures. If anyone at that distance can tell the edges aren't beveled, then they are superman. Texture is everything and you are right there with yours. I say sell it for 5 bucks or more. Helmets were shiny unless purposefully dulled with mud or lots of paint. I have seen literally thousands of wwii photos and you will always see a shine. This is why the germans and americans had either helmet covers or helmet nets. It allowed extra camo to be added, but also helped dull the shine.

I think it looks great! Maybe someday I will finish my improved german uniforms and assorted accesories. Good luck with your item

Thanks ranman38! I don't know if you remember me I'm the one you made the Kriegsmarine hat for. Good to see you still around and working on your German uniform. I've decided to try to branch out a little from making animations for computer games to making 3D models so others can do the same. I think I've become addicted to 3D modeling more so than games.  

I do remember you Gary. :) Have you been to ontarget3d? Addicted is too tame a word for what I am. :)

I think I have been to Ontarget3D before. IIRC Helgard directed me to it once also. Very cool site. One of my favorite 3D artists of all time, Panko seems to have a lot of his stuff there as well. What are the terms of sale items there and do you all take new artists stuff?