MadMax,
Mousey and I were having a similar discussion last weekend. The truth of the matter is, if you want a really good 3d model with great texturing then the only way is hard graft and plenty of practise. Of course it depends what you want to achieve, but complex stuff will take a long while, so start off with simple stuff like crates, houses, box shaped items etc.
Then when you are happy - move onto more difficult shapes for texturing.
3D is far more complex a discipline than 2D graphically, you can purchase software which says it will 'paint' directly onto the model, but hey, you get what you pay for!
Also , beware, you have to get the UV mapping absolutely right to have any chance of a top result. Otherwise you'll get streching textures with poor overlapping and blurry results.
Try the demo of RightHemisphere's "Deep Paint 3D" (Texture Weapons has been superceded but I have forgotten by what). RightHemisphere have a thing called Mercurian Mapping (or something) which allows you to set it up and spray textures onto UV mapped surfaces.
www.righthemisphere.com
(I think - they have some excellent tools)
Of course "Deep Paint 3D" is about £700 (or there abouts!), it has a plugin for Photoshop and Max, and works stand alone.
The demo is only for 15 days, but I managed to get pretty okay results in about an hour (with their excellent tutorials).
'MeshPaint' is a poor mans version of "Deep Paint 3D" , which is rather unfriendly, and I can't remember where you can get it from.
"Ultimate UnWrap 3D" is an excellent, low cost unwrapping/texturing prog. which has B3D import/export too. You can find this on the links page on the forum.
Also look at Quill3D from Dave Bird, this has some good B3D and texturing capabilities, as well as a modeller and other things (lightmapping and level builder).
Whatever you do, do not believe that the road to excellent models and texturing is a speedy one, it takes time and supreme effort to get results, but when you do, it's worth the struggle.
regards,
IPete2.
Mousey and I were having a similar discussion last weekend. The truth of the matter is, if you want a really good 3d model with great texturing then the only way is hard graft and plenty of practise. Of course it depends what you want to achieve, but complex stuff will take a long while, so start off with simple stuff like crates, houses, box shaped items etc.
Then when you are happy - move onto more difficult shapes for texturing.
3D is far more complex a discipline than 2D graphically, you can purchase software which says it will 'paint' directly onto the model, but hey, you get what you pay for!
Also , beware, you have to get the UV mapping absolutely right to have any chance of a top result. Otherwise you'll get streching textures with poor overlapping and blurry results.
Try the demo of RightHemisphere's "Deep Paint 3D" (Texture Weapons has been superceded but I have forgotten by what). RightHemisphere have a thing called Mercurian Mapping (or something) which allows you to set it up and spray textures onto UV mapped surfaces.
www.righthemisphere.com
(I think - they have some excellent tools)
Of course "Deep Paint 3D" is about £700 (or there abouts!), it has a plugin for Photoshop and Max, and works stand alone.
The demo is only for 15 days, but I managed to get pretty okay results in about an hour (with their excellent tutorials).
'MeshPaint' is a poor mans version of "Deep Paint 3D" , which is rather unfriendly, and I can't remember where you can get it from.
"Ultimate UnWrap 3D" is an excellent, low cost unwrapping/texturing prog. which has B3D import/export too. You can find this on the links page on the forum.
Also look at Quill3D from Dave Bird, this has some good B3D and texturing capabilities, as well as a modeller and other things (lightmapping and level builder).
Whatever you do, do not believe that the road to excellent models and texturing is a speedy one, it takes time and supreme effort to get results, but when you do, it's worth the struggle.
regards,
IPete2.