Wanna-be PA Question: How do you texture?
Inkubo
Posts: 745
DAZ has a hidden forum, I assume, for people who are already PAs. But there isn't one dedicated to aspirants. So I'm posting in the Commons in case this is the best place, but I won't be surprised if this post gets moved.
OK, learning to model is one thing that's well covered by YouTube videos and such. But once you have a model, what's the best way to get started texturing it for sale?
I have avoided buying shaders from DAZ because few are Merchant Resources, and I don't want my library to be cluttered up with textures I couldn't actually use on models I'd submit.
Are the ones that come with DS fair game, so for example I could use the Titanium shader on a bit of metal without violating ethics or copyright? Or do I need to learn Substance Designer and create every material from scratch?
I'd appreciate any guidance you can offer on how to texture models for submission to DAZ, while stying "legal" both in terms of ethics and law.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
These youtube tutorials you're watching, do they not cover the texturing process of your given program? How you texture is really up to you, but you have to have a sense of perspective on your overall scene. For instance, if you're just doing a simple prop, you can run it through substance painter. If you're doing an environment however, its probably not a good idea to run everything through SP because the amount of textures (Diff, Spec, Gloss, Norm, Bump etc) would stack up really quickly. Most artists use a combination of hand painted and tiling textures. For the latter, you should look into getting a subscription to a stock texture site like textures.com or 3d.sk. There's more advanced methods to save on Runtime memory, such as atlassed reverse modular texturing, which breaks your scene into component parts and just repeats them. Best to get the basics down first though.
You *can* use merchant resources, but that's the least of your problems really, you can get good quality textures quite inexpensively. What is more complex is UV mapping, good UV's are required to have textures sit correctly on the mesh (Again, this should be covered by those tutorials you're watching). Overall your questions is wide open to interpretation - I would not create a car using the same pipeline that i make a building. I'd concentrate on your UV's, finding decent stock texture resources and getting the end result looking sharp in your box modeler.
Yes, to refine my question, it's more of "where do I get the textures from." I have no problem UV mapping and applying them...just want to make sure I only apply what I could actually use in a submission.
Your answer about stock texture sites may help!
99.999% of vendors use textures.com (cgtextures), it's still the cheapest and most varied. If you don't particularly like money, you can use 3d.sk or one of their other sites. There's also poliigon.com which is run by BlenderGuru, it's not very cheap but it also focuses more on PBR than textures.com does. Beyond that, you can find resources here and there, but don't start pulling textures for image searches or random stock sites you've never heard of, for obvious reasons. Good luck!
What specifically do you want to texture? Clothes, props, environments, or people? They use different resources and have different skill sets.
You can also create your own textures from scratch using a program like Filter Forge (on sale now) or Genetica. This is not difficult if you use one of the thousands of in built texture templates, to either use "as is" or to adjust yourself to make unique. The generated maps come with bump, normals etc.
These type of programs are best at creating textures for buildings or similar. For human skin you are best using the resources KindredArts pointed out.
You can find merchant resource textures and materials at other stores like Rendo too.
There is plenty of information on learning to texture. I have found free tutorials in the past all over the web with a simple google Search.
If you want higher end info about getting into the professional side of being a PA as a texture artist there are also pay for tutorials. I have been a PA for ... ouch 16 years (Now I feel old!) and I still put THIS on my wishlist.
https://www.daz3d.com/the-complete-guide-to-texturing-clothing-bundle
Because there is ALWAYS more to learn. Being a PA and trying to progress that into a business requires a lot of research and to constantly keep learning. That is my only advice for that.
Happy Holidays all!
There are older texture merchant resources by Moyra in the store here, and there used to be several merchants specializing in such things over at Rendo (haven't kept up but might still be there). There's a few freebies with unrestricted use on sharecg (or used to be), and for a while a merchant name Zai had her own storefront for that. Filterforge is the one dedicated tool for making tilable texture components that I know of.
And one thing I am finding out for myself; don't expect even the merchant resources that are available to be one hundred percent ready out of the box. You WILL have to tweak them in an image editing program to be sure they're right.
With the other vendors I talk to on a regular basis, none of us use textures.com (though I know it used to get a lot of usage). Only very occassionally. Most make their own textures using FilterForge or Substance. Even MR's have restrictions on use that make distributing them as a shader pack, for example, not allowed. If you want to make shader packs, you need to make your own textures.
Personally, I just use MS Paint and floodfill, then let the mesh handle shadows and details and whatnot.
Kidding :D Substance is what most folks use these days. There's also a lot of Mudbox. FilterForge gets a *lot* of love, and the latest version is on sale here today. And then every vendor has their special tips and tricks. Photoshop, I suspect gets frequent use from everyone.
Sorry! I really meant to say "environment Vendors", the clothing/prop peeps would probably opt for a painters i guess? I'm pretty sure no-one doing environments would sit solely on a painter though, they must be using a stock site. I just assumed we all had it because i see a lot of the same textures popping up. I've never actually used Filter forge, but i have used substance, is FF pbr too?
Ah, ok that makes sense :D FilterForge is good for making tiling textures and whatnot from scratch. Their filter library is here https://www.filterforge.com/filters/ and it has *tons* of stuff you can make and you can make your own filters too. A lot of them will create normals, AO, etc as well as diffuse maps, but I think the filters have to be set up for that. I've noticed it used a lot for just diffuse bases that are then worked elsewhere, but as much as I'd like not to use it, I totally use it a lot XD Procedural texture creation is the best way to put it I think...
I am not a PA, but texturing is one of MY FAVORITE parts of creating stuff. I rarely use the textures I get with a product "as is". I also do not usually use "stock photos", but like others have said, I go to something like Filter Forge or take my own photos. That way there is no concern about copyright or licensing. Also, strangely, something no one is mentioning, you will want a graphics program like Photoshop or Gimp.
I don't know about other PAs, but I've never used textures from any source other than my own digital camera.
One of the most overlooked parts of texturing is the UV mapping. Map everything well, and that's half the battle.
You learn to live with cries of "daddy's taking photos of the walls again!" whenever you go out.
One day I want my own drone, to get decent top-down ground pictures, but until then, there's textures.com. Trouble is, the textures from there become recognisable - I've seen the same dirt track texture in at least 3 different sets here . . . (plus mine, lol)
I've seen textures.com textures in movies, games, everywhere. I've seen stefan use textures that i wanted to use before on his bigger sets (like Urban sprawl). If you look closely too, you can see facade textures in GTA 5 ... unless i'm going crazy. They put a lot of care into their seamless textures though, they're hard to top.
Very good point! I have seen a few addons here that are just bloated with every type of map and material substance can add and it's really overkill in most caes.
Yeah, texture optimization wasn't a huge deal in 3dl but i would say its much more of an issue in iray. I'd guess that most users are probably using cards that have 4-8gb of onboard memory, otherwise its going to CPU. Putting a 4k map on absolutely everything is most certainly over the top. If you need to paint everything, at least make it modular. I think stefan is actually doing that now, he uses substance painter a lot, but he also tends to re-use a lot of meshes/materials. You don't really have to sacrifice quality, it's just a case of proportion that's all.
I'm so gullible I was like "What??" for a moment. Cracked me up :p XD
Thanks, everyone!
Nobody dealt with the question of whether any of the shaders that come with DS are free for all to use. I suspect some of them are distributed with the Iray engine and are meant for anyone to use, but that's just a guess.
Me too. Wanted a second laugh so read it again. ;0). All the comments are great.
Not for Commercial resale in a texture package and cannot be included with a model. There are some merchant resourses shaders you can use but those hold the same rules unless you alter them to use them.
I am not a PA but I own Filter Forge 6 Pro and Photoshop MS C6 and I think for original artistry photoshop wins hands down. Why not photograph oblects/textures and use PS layers to make originals? Here are some links that you may find interesting. The first (pilfered from Jaderail ;) is ashader tutorial by RKane_1. It also contains a link to shader recipes which is a 404., so the second link is to the Shader Recipes thread.
Shader Tutorial
Shader Recipes
Shader Usage