Recommended Image Editor (for Textures)

[Radion]

If any of you have seen my parts, you will know the textures are horrible, horrid, and horrifying. In reality I\'ve only released one part, but I am currently planning and modeling a mega-release. The Olympia Series will consist of 7 sections, 8 parts per section. So there will be 56 parts, and all of them need textures. Up to this point, I had been using Paint.NET, but that hasn\'t turned out well, as some know. And so I ask of those with experience in texture creation, what program do you use?

I ask this in all seriousness. I really want my series to have decent textures.

If it is of any use, I use Blender to model.

As a frame of reference, here is a habitation module I textured in Paint.NET:

Thank you

[Luigibro606]

I used Paint.

I only ever use Paint.NET if I need translucency, which KSP/Unity doesn\'t support.

[Killerhurtz]

Gimp is a good program.

Learning to bake textures in your 3D modelling software also helps.

[OtherDalfite]

I use GIMP 2 for all of my artwork needs. It\'s pretty advanced yet easy to use. I don\'t know about UV texturing though.

[Killerhurtz]

UV cannot be done in any normal program - it\'s the mapping of the faces to a 2-dimensional plane (UV is actually the letters of the two coordinates used to designate the map). So yeah, it\'s usually in the 3D software.

[Darrknox]

You can unwrap in any standard modeling package, I was CS5 for my texturing needs though.

More info here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=Making_an_asset_from_start_to_finish#Step_5_-_Unwrapping_Your_Asset (<3 Killerhurtz)

[Killerhurtz]

No problem. I felt it was direly needed.

[dbellmo2]

Gimp is free and a very powerful image editor.

MS Paint works, but is very crude.

I\'m partial to Adobe\'s PhotoShop, only because I grew up using it (both legal and pirated). Being a responsible adult now, I coughed up the cash and paid for a license.

[KingTramp]

Really I\'ve not got much idea of the free software because I do this type of thing full time so speed and ease of workflow are key.

Adobe Photoshop would be my go-to program for this kind of thing because it has exactly the tools you need. Which is basically taking various source images then manipulating, layering and blending them together to get the look you want. I mean, you\'re not going to try drawing a solar panel by hand are you?!

And for making UV layouts, I\'m a big fan of http://www.uvlayout.com/, it makes the process much faster, easier and almost a little bit fun when compared to other tools (except maybe Zbrush\'s UV master, but that doesn\'t give you as much control). Really worth trying out if you do a lot of UV\'ing.

[Darrknox]

@KingTramp Another application for UV unwrapping is really only necessary I\'ve found, for organic models. Most of these assets are low poly basic shape creations. For anyone using 3DS Max (I noticed you used Maya, so I\'m not sure about that); >> http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69736 is all you\'d really need.