I have a problem, recently PhoenixRising asked about the 3d texturing programs, so I got super curious lol. Anyway I downloaded the trial Body Paint and Deep Paint. Up until now I have been using just simple maps and psp7. Okay where is my problem you say. What I hope to learn to achieve is some realistic textures. What I can't figure out is wich way is best! Zed3d as well as Mec4d are two wonderfully awesome examples of realistic textures I hope to eventually, (sometime in the far away future) achieve. How would you suppose I go about this? 2d, 3d? Wich program of the 3d would be best for this, so far it seems to me that deep paint would be better for this type and that body paint would be better for models, but hey I just started so I could really really be wrong. I find psp works wonderful, but it's so much harder to "fit" everything where it should be, but if it's the best way I'll work it out ;) I hope this makes sense....

Havent tested any 3d painter yet, but guess I still prefer the good old way....plain image composed and edited in an image editor such as psp. I woulndt be really hard to "fit" everything in the right place if u use a template, or another texture in an a layer below. However, the hard point of all this is to make a hires texture look real...you need a good source, many pictures taken with the same lightning from the different parts of the same person...and a lot of work.

Attached Link: http://www.dizteq.com/joestuff/freestuff.html

I have BodyPaint 3D,and love it. Even with the advantage of doing realtime texture work on an unwrapped mesh,I find it very hard to recommend such a program to most people. They are very specialized apps with a high price tag ($800.00-$1500.00),and have a bit of a learning curve. Truth is,for Poser work (especially figure textures),PSP or PS along with UV mapper will take you as far as you want to go. For your "fitting" problems,I find working with a standard template as a background, kind of inhibiting. What I do is take the template into my image editor....promote it from a background to a layer. I then zapp it with this free elimate white filter (link). What remains is just the wireframe on a transparent layer,that can be used on top of your work. You can change the black color of the wire frame to a different color (like yellow or red)to make it easier to see both texture and wire template at the same time. Hope this helps.....have fun. SWAMP

Uh...that should read on a mesh that HASN'T been unwrapped.

Thank you both very much, I was beginning to think the same thing lol. I do like psp very much and find it easy to use and create with it's only the placement of eyes and such that are hard for me, I guess that comes with time and experience! Also thank you Swamp for the link, I downloaded those plugins and will defintaly try it your way! I appreciate you both taking the time to respond! Sincerely, Rita

Attached Link: http://www.runtimedna.com/messages.ez?forum_id=12

I'm going to take a quick moment to let everyone know that Stacey_73, who creates phenomenal realistic textures, is giving an in depth, step by step, go along with her tutorial over at RDNA, with the link provided to the forum for it. She is taking great pains to guide folks step by step through the creation of a texture for V2 and V3, and she's taki8ng the time to answer all the posts and questions ya'll can come up with. Run over and hop in, folks -- you can use these very same tips for creating painted textures yourself as well!

Ynsaen Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I can't wait until tonight when I actually have time to read and try it out!! I muchly appreciate this! :)