Spiral Pole

The Poles in which Carousal Horses are carried upon seem to vary quite a bit but most seem to follow a spiral type design. I spent too long modelling such a simple thing, I modelled a Spiral (above) but then had lots of trouble baking it onto a more low poly cylinder. I then spent ages trying to make this work, I think it would of eventually but the spiral was at such an angle I couldn't make the top flat, without making N-gons and distorting the shape. After lots of struggle George showed me a much easier way, to create a spiral effect by making a light map in photoshop, and then importing it into either Crazy-bump or X-normals. This worked much better, quicker and allowed me to use just cylinders . Previously I didn't know how to do this in photoshop (especially rulers), so found it really helpful.