I'm currently looking for a good modelling program (Free) I'm a little experianced with Blender and know how to create mugs/beds/Chairs/Tables ETC. The basic stuff. The modeling of a bed is easy dependent on how it's gonna look but the texturing is what is a stop block for me. I really like added different textures and that's easy as well but then comes to UW-Unwrapping. I know how to Unwrap but making the Map for it (Spec map etc) that's what stops me.

What i usually do is

Make a table
Texture it
Unwrap it
and done.

I never create spec maps for my models so they don't get that realistic look. Reason is because i really don't know how to and even for small things like a table it is really really really time consuming creating that map.

Do you know of a program that can automaticly create that Spec map bump map all those maps?

So i can just AS said above

Make a table
Texture it
Unwrap it
let it automaticly apply those maps and done?


if not, do you have any good tutorials on how to create the most needed spec/bump map to create a better looking texture other than all flat with no depth to it?

I use Gimp / Paint.net as there are plugins available that generate the maps.

http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

what are those plugins called. I use Paint.net everday so?

For Paint.Net
I use the
NormalMapPlus plugin for the bump
and
Specular plugin for the spec

I don't have the links but they are the names of the plugins.

for Gimp you can use insanebump plugin which creates the specular, normal and diffuse etc.
Normalmapplus for paint.net

Thanks guys! appreciate it.

Blender is great, almost too great as it is a very complex system. If you're going to make beds, chairs, etc. look into MilkShape. It is a basic 3D modeling program, but it includes a great system for placing textures on the model without having to unfold. You create the textures in Gimp or Photoshop and save as the .DDS file format that Game Guru uses.

You select the faces that you wish to texture then open the texture editor where you will see your texture. Draw a selection box about the portion of the texture that you want to apply to the selected faces. Repeat this for each section of the model and your texture is applied and ready.

MilkShape also has two great .X export modes that work perfectly with GG. MilkShape is $25, but well worth it.

Wings 3d all the way. Its free and very very good for box modeling. Can UV map with it etc and its easy to learn. As for spec map etc. Awsome bump is also free and very good and still been updated. Another real good and very cheap piece of software is Mindtex. Its like 15 bucks and can do normal mapping spec etc real easy and fast.