For human figures: Snow Sultan has made seam guides for most of the major characters. This makes it a lot easier to match textures where the seams meet. You shouldn't try to shade too much with your coloring job, like you would in a painting, because the lights on the 3D mesh ought to reveal most of the form. I'd start with a flat-painted skin (or a superhero suit) to get a feel for how the maps go together, THEN work with photographs to get the super-detailed realistic look. 2 points which bug me in a pre-made texture map: highlights painted on lips (it makes the models look like they've been drinking chalk) and highlights on eyeballs with the same iris in both eyes. If your main light is on the other side, the figure looks glaringly fake. Light sources for hair, eyes, lips, and skin have to match. For props and such: Get UVMapper from Steve Cox. You can import any .obj and it will generate a template for you using any of a half-dozen mapping systems. Once you can make your own templates, you can texture anything. Carolly