I have used Photoshop for roughly 3 years now to create Web Graphics, Edit Photgraphs, Comic Stuff, Ect. But, Can this help me in getting into the game development industry, and if so how? Would really like to put this Photoshop knowledge to good use. Any information is appreciated! Thank you.

Yes. Photoshop is industry standard for all 2D work ranging from menus, splash screens, development artwork and of course texturing.

Texturing would probably be where you will need to focus the most attention, although if you want to get into the industry you should really learn how to model, too.

I have tried, and tried to learn modeling! I've gone bald, and given up on it. I will not try it again no matter what! Photoshop has been my way of presenting my artistic talents. Its what I love.

Here's a little Forum. I did the Graphic Logo. Nothing to run home, and tell mom & dad about though.

http://s8.invisionfree.com/GOREHOUNDS_DRIVE_IN/index.php

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Original post by JimBean69 I have tried, and tried to learn modeling! I've gone bald, and given up on it. I will not try it again no matter what! Photoshop has been my way of presenting my artistic talents. Its what I love.

Take a class on modeling.

I spent about 2 months trying to learn on my own. a couple years later, I started school again, and in my first two days of class, I learned everything i taught myself in those 2 months of my own.

Should we really have to learn modelling?

I mean, generally, you are right. Be as many-sided as you can be, but I am a 2D artist as well (http://gportf.uw.hu)
and I tried to learn Lightwave (on my own). It was not
a pleasant experience. I find joy while I work in Photoshop (I use it as Jim) on my 2D sprites or digital paintings, but
I did not find any joy while I tried to form a simple bowl...

I do not doubt that very good results can be achieved through
3D but I still don't like it.

On the other hand, as I see things today, there are 2D and 3D
artists as well all around, this profession (seemingly for me)
getting splitted to different areas because each areas became huge.

Being a 3D artist requires the same basics but very different
practice as being a 2D one. I dare to say, maybe a 2D artist
wouldn't be as good in 3D and a 3D artist wouldn't be as good in painting as the other. It is all about specialization, I think.

But it is only my opinion. :-)

On the contrary, most 3D modellers I know (That are any good) are very proficient at 2D art. They have to be, really.

Also, you may be put off by your choice of program. While I cant really comment on Lightwave, as I haven't really had a chance to use it, give GMax a try and see if it feels a little bit more comfortable. Also, dont get too cocky with your first attempts, model simple things like cups and ashtrays before you move on to doing a fully animating human.

There are also some great tutorials out there that should really assist you with making 'the switch'. I swore blind about 3 or 4 years ago that I'd never touch 3D, but now it's my main canvas, and can be quite a lot of fun.

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Can this help me in getting into the game development industry, and if so how?

no. It's not really the softwar that matters, but the skills. Knowing how a guitar works doesn't qualify you as musician.

You have to present game related art, nothing else will do. Do textures, skins for models, models.
Gameart related forums like Polycount ( http://boards.polycount.net/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=2 )
or www.cgchat.com should give you a better idea of what it takes, browsing through some of the portfolios in those communities would seem like a good idea too.

About modeling... you don't 'really' need to know how to model, but the benefit is inmense, or rather, not knowing it really cripples your chances to get a job nowadays, a lot.
Lightwave is really easy to use but if you can't get into it just move to the next app.
It's just the interface you should have to fight with, modeling itself it's just an extension of 2D, if you can draw something properly in 2D, you should be able to model it equally good in 3D.

Like Puppy said, start with simple things, read some tutorials, look in those forums i posted and learn how other people build their models. Don't let the UI scare you off, all the tools you need to build a perfect model in any 3D app are about box, extrude, cut/knife, rotate, move, mirror.

They are called a bit differently depending of the app, but function pretty much the same. You can ignore the other 100 functions for a long while.

"if you can draw something properly in 2D, you should be able to model it equally good in 3D."

Yes, I can draw nearly anything, and I might (who knows) model them but at what cost?

I mean: You ask me to paint a figure with swords in hand (a usual thing I do), it might cost 1 or 2 hours to reach a level that is good enough (if it has to be very detailed, it will cost a way more). How long would it take in 3D?

I was struggling in Lightwave, it was quite a torment.
It required me to to think totally differently when pencil in
hand. Maybe that was the point. I had to use the mouse and drop dots and connect them and form planes and so. It was more
a construction than drawing.

(not to mention that the damn thing had frozen every half an hour, but it might be my config, my windows or so)

To tell the truth I am not at all objective here :-).
I LOVE 2D and I don't like the trend that everything turns 3D nowadays. Sometimes I do not even understand why is it so.

(Ok: I understand that once I have a model I can do animations a way faster then in 2D, and as the processing capacity increases we will have more and more detailed things):-)

Well... uh. I am rambling here, sorry.

Probably you are right. I plan to learn some 3D modeller for nearly 4 years now, but I always found some reason why I shouldn't do it... I see my fate that independently from if I want it or not, I will have to.

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I had to use the mouse and drop dots and connect them and form planes and so

i don't think i ever dropped a dot (point/vert) by hand to make a polygon :)

Sounds like you have been aproaching modeling from the wrong side maybe. See it more like sculpting, drop a box and start shaping it to whatever you want. Extrude arms, subdivide it to have more polys to go from etc.
You should never have to build something poly by poly, that would really take to long.