Creating a texture from scratch

Development Asset Creation
1

hello all. I have searched and searched all over the Internet for a good guide for this and everything I have found hasn’t really been good at explaining this to me.

What I want to do is basically create a texture from scratch. I want to use photoshop to paint it on whatever object I want to use it for. Let’s say, a sword for instance. I see how most textures work with adding stuff for every little part but it seems like the have drawn it on the object and then flattened it out.

All I’m wondering about is how exactly would you export your model from blender or 3ds Max to photoshop, and then basically paint the object. And then import what you have painted back into that modeling program. The only thing I am unsure about it painting the actual object in Photoshop. Well getting the 3d model flat in Photoshop.

So if anyone could point me in the right direction. It would be much appreciated.

2

To the first question: more often than not, textures aren’t made 100% from scratch. Generally you’d use a lot of elements from other images to build up your texture along with hand painted elements. Having a good stable of photoshop brushes is helpful as well. Websites like cgtextures.com are great for finding source images also. Even if you want to make 100% hand painted textures as an artistic choice, having good reference images is paramount.

To you second question: there are any number of workflows that are used, but in general the process of ‘flattening’ the model is called “UV unwrapping” and is handled in your 3D software. The details are somewhat dependent on what software you are using, but there are usually some pretty good tutorials on youtube for these.