This might be a retarded newbie question, but I just got Bryce 5 a few days ago on the advice of a friend, and I'm having a bit of trouble. I'd like to be able to create my own textures, but I can't figure out how. Is there a way I can do this in Photoshop 6 or Bryce?

What kind of texture are you trying to create? You can use images as textures and I often use PSP for this process. In the materials lab load a material in the diffuse column then choose the "P" to load the little man image, click on the pink button above the "P" (and the image) its the texture source editor click on a block or on load to import your image. Then you have an alpha channel here as well but that is another story... Cheers

In Photoshop create a new file that is at least 400x400 pixels, it doesn't matter how much bigger as long as it is square. Create any texture you like and save it as a jpeg file. In Bryce select a simple white texture from the simple and fast texture menu. Click on the upper left dot in the diffusion row. A texture will appear on the right, click on the little "P" button and then the button directly above it that says "texture source editor". This will take you to the picture import lab. Click on any gray box, or click on "load", select the texture you created and it will appear in the left and right box. Click on "Copy" in the left box and "paste" in the center box to create the bump map. Close this window and change the "Texture mapping mode" to conform to the shape or terrain you are texturing. Adjust your diffusion, ambience, specularity, etc... to suit your tastes. When you are ready to save your new texture click on the material library link next to the nano preview window and at the lower left of that menu click on the triangle next to "Installed" and select "User". Click on "Add" and name your texture and you're done. For complex textures you can add up to 4 channels for bump, ambience, reflection, etc.... That's the quick and easy way.

Im a beginner too since 2 weeks and I never been the kind of quy who read instuctions manuals but I did it with B5.Actually Im reading about textures and it is quite interesting and a little too complex to explain in a forum while you have all the infos in hand under HELP/help topics in B5.There also very good tutorials you can find through this very site.Your friend was right and I hope you`ll bring good rendering with a deep knowledge of texture component and material editing.