Afternoon everyone! First off I wanted to say this a great community so far! I've only been here a couple days and have already started learning quite a bit. I've just recently become interested in game development and was lucky enough to find this site early in my search. I'm a technical communications major at a state university and my emphasis is on instructional usability. While this is all and good for educational teaching tools, it's not quite something a game developer needs to know. :) I've always loved tinkering around in Photoshop and would now like to start getting serious, specifically with texture art, skinning, and user interface design areas within Photoshop. I was curious to know where the majority of the skinners/texture artists got their start with Photoshop? I'm pretty knowledgable of the interface but would love some direction to be pointed in with these specific interests of mine. Looking forward to seeing your responses, cheers!

Well i found photoshop and bought it, within 2 days i learned how to make seamles textures for games (modded morrowind) and right now i'm learning modeling and starting my own online texture selling business. The best way i found to start learning photoshop is to just dive in and starting experimenting. Try to get lots of experience from the many tutorial sites out on the web (google search it). After you think you've learned the basics try posting a "texture artist for hire" thread in the help wanted section and get more experience that way. And if you ever need any help AIM me at metalgearsolido8 or e-mail me at metalgearsolido8@hotmail.com , i would be glad to help.

everything that jarrod said plus...

once you get experienced with photoshop, try to get as many photographs of things as possible(for reference material). photoshop is a very fun tool and the results are very rewarding. when i first got photoshop, i made at least 50 seamless textures within a week of my purchase.

You say that you're in college, right? Take a class at your school! I'm a CGT major and actually HAD to take a class that forced me to dive into Photoshop. Having a semi-rigid curriculum and deadlines helps motivate you to really learn the software.

here is a site with lots of good photoshop tutorials that are really fun to follow along: www.good-tutorials.com