Ok, so i just created the worlds greatest low poly model (well, not quite, but it sounds exciting doesent it?) anyhow, i placed out the UV''s and started drawing the sucker by hand. Tedius as hell it is, but wait, oh my, by beautiful cloths look as bland as a 3d snes title. Someone help me here, is there anything availiable to walk you through building clothing textures, skinning your charactor, or any programs availiable for this? I didnt believe the game programming industry used the "photograph" approch, or am i wrong? Thanks in advance for your help. PS: im using the create UV based on camera method, selecting the faces individualy (all 644* of them) *before triangulation

If you aren''t gonna use it for commercial purposes, you can probably find an online catalog with shirts/pants, etc. Just find some high-res ones, maybe do a little image editing to straighten them up a bit, then lay ''em out on your model.

Well, yea, this is going to be commercial, and i dont feel like spending money on something i would like to know how to make myself. But since your hinting grabbing it off of catalogs, im guessing that the photograph approch is the way to go?

Well, with my experience, photos don''t really go that well with games. Although it does seem that some people use photos, textures that are done by an individual by hand always seem to fit in better. That is just my opinion, I''m not a professional and I have only done minimal 3D work.

Divinus Entertainment
Land of Relics Art Director
http://divinus.net

Occasionally photos are used, I don''t think it''s that common though (tends to stand out too much). Most are done from scratch by people 50 billion times more talented than me in Photoshop (and like programs).
If you need help, you should search for specific tutorials for whatever 2D program you''re using.

And rest assured, if your cloths look like a 3D SNES tile, you''ve got me beat :D

Problem being, im a perfectionist and wont be satisfied untill i have FFX quality artwork (well, with low poly models of course). Thats my major problem in all fields of work, lol. Has anyone used Corel Painter 8? The company i work for had a couple spare licenses (cut back on the company) so the boss told me i could "have" a copy untill/unless the company needed it in the future. It has thousands of neat brushes that seem to make threadlike textures pretty well, but i still have a few problems.

1: making the textures "gradiant lightwise" so to speak, such as the texture on the pants of the main charactor on Chrono Cross. I know this is not done with light.

2: creating proper fades, realistic looking that is.

Also, i would like to know if bump mapped textures is reasonable, and how much of a performance drawback it creates.

I think you guys would be surprised how much photos *are* being used...
the trick is to make them look like they are NOT photos.
Usually you can spot photos because of the lighting, and because of the camera artefacts. For instance, the variations of colour, the grain, etc.
All that stuff, well, you need to deal with it yourself, and I am afraid there isn''t any magic "press the button" method. But truly, starting from a photo and using it as a base to make then your own work is a common method.
Take a photo of a rock texture, then mess with it enough and you get a nice kick ass texture that you can then modify to make it tile, to add little widgets, etc.
Seriously, look at the textures of Halflife or counterstrike, and ask yourself, is that a hand made texture, or a photo where they tamed the colour bleed. Yep, photos.

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

Photoshop''s high pass filter can do miracles!

thanks, i think you may be right. Im going to play with the highpass and such, see if i can immitate some of the effects.

Have you ever read this tutorial? It talks about fixing photos to make them look less like photos.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010523/hajba_01.htm