Textures from scratch...

[major woody 11]

If I whant to make my own textures from scratch - how do I start then - what resolutions etc.? Is there a tutorial out there explaining how to create textures in Adobe Photoshop? What I've tried so far looks like s***  

[Jackal326 1181]

Well, to start with they will look rubbish. Like everything it takes practice, and years to master. So don't expect to be creating masterpieces after 5mins of work.

As for the resolutions etc. it depends on what you're trying to texture. If you're attempting to texture something huge (i.e. with a lot of faces) and very detailed, such as for example an M1A1 ABRAMs Tank, then you'll probably want two or three 1024x1024 textures (thats in pixels measurements). However if its something small, like a traffic cone, then a simple 256x256 will suffice. Remember though that all textures must be ^2 so 128, 256, 512, 1024 & 2048 should be the measurments you'll need.

[Messiah 2]

as some advice, start your textures at as higher resolution as you want in photoshop, as this will allow you a greater range of scaling in the future (i.e. you can then choose the final resolution tga the addon will use, rather than being stuck at the res you started).

I typically draw my textures at 4096x4096 and then scale them down to either 2048x2048 or 1024x1024 depending on the addon - Jackal's explanation is bang on the money in that regard.

Learn to create texture panels, where the entirety of your model's skin is drawn on one or two texture panels, with a very optimized use of space - i.e. as little free space as possible - free space is wasting the texture panel.

like jackal said it takes patience - I look back now at my previous texturing work and I'm ashamed of what I used to produce - its a skill you have to home, and I think Jackal will agree that you always learn new things and new techniques.

hope that helps a little.