   New to game development.
  I am horrid at programming but am very handy with graphics, I was curious if someone could point me in the right direction of creating textures and other graphical elements in the game development world.   
  All of the artists at work (game company) use photoshop for their textures and GUI elements.  It costs money, but if you want to get into it properly that's the best recommendation.   ;  There's alway's The GIMP http://www.gimp.org as an effective alternartive to PS.   ;  Thanks.  I actually have photoshop, because of the last job I had.  Gimp Ive tried but the only thing I liked about gimp was the scripts that were available for some interesting effects for wallpapers and sigs.Ive really wanted to try out painter 9 but havent heard from anyone other than like extremely good artists that use it as a digital canvas.  So Im kinda leary about dropping the money on it.   ;Quote:Original post by ConspiracyTheorumIve really wanted to try out painter 9 but havent heard from anyone other than like extremely good artists that use it as a digital canvas.  So Im kinda leary about dropping the money on it.I am pretty sure there is a trial version, probably worth taking it for the 30-day spin, which should be long enough to get a feel for it.   ;  Where I work artists use:1. Photoshop (textures)2. 3D Studio Max (modelling/mapping)3. Engine editor (load the 3ds room and plug everything in)4. Internal program (Gui)The 2 last things you cannot get if you are not working in the industry, and 3dsmax is quite expensive. If you find you are good at texturing and want to do more, you may want to do modelling, just try to get any program any way you want (trial, deal with you college) and see if you like that. I heard about poser too but never saw it. You may want to check out Maya and Lightwave too   ;  Again many thanks.   Ive got the XSI Free Edition and Maya PLE to play around with.   ;  Ick.  Avoid Poser.  Your stuff will come out looking prepackaged, and professionals won't be too impessed.  It's better than nothing, sure, but it's much more impressive to employers if you learn to model on your own.As for Painter 9, definitely get the trial and test it out.  I bought a big tablet on eBay, and shortly afterwards I splurged and bought Painter 9.  It's been the single best software package that I've purchased.  If you have an artistic bone in your body, and you want to work digitally, Painter and a tablet will be your best friends.Even so, Photoshop is generally enough for most game texture work.  I never use Painter at work, but then, I'm only a backup texture artist (I spend my time in many other parts of the process).  Our head artist uses both, and a few other things.Painter is wonderful for digital painting, like matte paintings and huge "artistic" textures.  If you're not doing high end work or backdrops, though, you're probably fine with Photoshop.   