Personally I think that the right choice for a texture map can dramatically change the "character' of your actors/actresses. The lighting is the other factor that seems to make a big difference. We can see that in the variations of "characters". I bumped into this difference using one of the "natural" texture maps, the character was not working with the standard texture, but once I changed the texture map, the whole character 'came to life". Also I think the textures help with the final "style" of the work, in other words, the anime style textures as opposed to the more photorealistic textures. I think after reaching a certain stage of "learning" a texture map becomes very very important to the end image. My own progress was to first learn what it was that changed if I diddled with different parts of the set up. I then looked at what others were able to do and tried to get the same effect, this forum as well as the others have been a wealth of information in that regard. I still think the main ingredient is patience...:-)