| When i first started out, i was given a whole bunch of textures with dubious origins, and while they often worked for the build I had in mind, they didn't fit completely, and it would be quite easy to find other builds with exactly the same textures. I have seen some rather large and somewhat well known builds using the same textures, and to be honest, it gets really boring after a while. Also, it's quite easy to recognize textures that were ripped from other games... so keep that in mind.
So I started making my own. Since you mention you have Photoshop already, I think that's pretty much all you need. The important thing is to build up a library of suitable raw textures to draw from. I keep a number of wood, stone, plastic and metal textures, and will not hesitate to take a photo of an interesting shape or texture if i see one.
You can then play around with these components and work them together more believably through the use of custom brushes, hue and sharpness adjustments, shading, etc.
You can also use Photoshop to make seamless textures too - Pattern Maker in 'Filters' is cool for making random effects, but if you want more control, use 'Offset' in Filters>Other, which will offset your layer a given number of pixels horizontally or vertically, allowing you to avoid making obvious seams. |