bob, if you can get to a "borders" or "barnes&noble" look for a book titled Texturing & Modeling A Procedural Approach . i think it's in it's third edition...

Anyway, it's important to understand things like "bump mapping", "scene graphs", "spot geometry", and noise improvements... and how they apply to the gaming industry.

On the downside, the book list for $75(US) and that is too high for me!

in any way it take's a lot of studying to be good enough to beat the competition already in the field. I say go for it and learn whatever you can, then push the envelope further.

see ya around
:)
retrocity