Hey man,
I'm sorry that my comments got you riled up and stuff. If you look at where I said that stuff, it was being said to the site owner who was discouraged by the quality of your helmet. The idea being that his (yours)helmet was one way to look at it, and cheer up, you'll be able to look at his helmet, and decide how it's not perfect to you, and then make the perfect helmet because you've got great helmet reference pics to start off with.
I already know your methods, or at least what was revealled in the thread they were originally posted in. What you posted here was pretty similar to what was already there. I know it's a challenge to get a fake, non-proportioned helmet to work in the real world. I went through it too. I was under the impression that you'd used the actual game model and put it as an overlay onto your 3d scanned head, which was why I'd talked about the "more technology" less art.
There are many who say that no matter what you do with a computer, it can't be considered art because of the naturally corrective properties inherent in it. I don't agree with that view 100%, but I used that as my basis to say it was a technical work, rather than an artistic one, because more than likely, you slaved to match the 3d one you'd made, rather that freehand it to capture any artistic essence of it.
For comparison, a Nitemare Armor halo helmet is artistic in that it really doesn't try to strongly resemble the actual halo helmet in the game. That makes it an artistic interpretation of the helmet. Yours looks like what my Halo 3 helmet is hopefully going to head towards (with my meager budget, time constraints, and questionable ability) where technical accuracy is more important than getting the "feel" of the helmet.. because I don't consider myself an artist and won't be satisfied with just getting "the feel" of it.
Unless you've never seen any of the armor on ebay over the past two years, you've probably already seen my helmet. It was done just before Halo 2 was out, and before there were many reference shots online. Mine is the Steeldreams helmet, and was initially rushed and then later "repaired" as reference photos came out, however, I never rebuilt the molds, we merely touched them up. There's a ton of stuff I still want to fix on it, but I'm saving the effort for the creation of my Halo 3 helmet. In case anyone else missed it.. it's definately a different helmet now.
The production value of yours is much higher than mine, I don't deny that for a heartbeat. It's also much more accurate than mine. However, does that make it perfect?
The bevels I mentioned in my post exist as artwork on the figure only. It's not that a higher resolution would have revealed them. They exist as bevels though. Your version is an interpretation I don't agree with. I think it's cool that we disagree on that. You interpreted 90 degrees where I interpret slopes and angles.
That doesn't devalue it at all, it's just not something I agree with, thereby making it less than perfect in my estimation.
The photograph you provided as reference of the 90 degree lines is an artist rendering. In theory at least, the artist had the same kind of reference material that I have now.. the in-game helmet plus high-res renders.
Well, when I interpret the high-res pictures, just like they did, I saw something different than they did. With our "combined 35 years experience" of making steel armor for museums based only on our interpretations of 2D photographs and artwork of destroyed museum pieces, I'd say that leaves us in a slightly better position to interpret a design like that than most artists might be. We've taken great pains to get what's called the armourers eye over the years, and our focus has been on copying someone else's art (the original armourer) and redisplaying it, rather than adding our own "flair" because the accuracy is paramount.
In the end, it's all about interpretation.. I see bevels, you see 90 degree angles. I think the difference is fine.
All in all... I got nothin' but love for you and yer helmet, and I hope you accept my explanation as the apology it's intended to be.
My initial asessment wasn't fair, but at the time I made it, it didn't have to be fair, you weren't here... know what I mean? I was more concerned with Adam giving up than being fair to someone I figured I'd never meet with abilities I'm still jealous of.
Figures, don't it?
