texturing

Ok this is a super general question... but how do you texture? i know all sorts of methods, but they never seem to look right. I am great at modeling because it just comes naturally to me even in real life with clay, and pottery! But nomatter what i do i can never get my textures to look right! So what methods do you use to make realistic looking textures. Ill give you an example... i just made a simple UFO and i want it to have a smooth, polished metal texture. But in general, what do you find to be the best way to fabricate realistic textures from scratch?
thanks David

7.0 XL integrated with bodypaint... my problem is getting the textures to look right you know? somthing just looks generic about the finished product... i guess i can never get the right combo of reflection, colormap, bump, ect.

Hi David,
for anything metal, I start with the SLA Danel Shader, and then just play around with the reflection and specular parameters until I'm happy. If you want a brushed metal look, play with the anistropic properties.

You can also download shaders from a variety of sources (Deepshade is a great place to start). Start at the Maxon Website, and go to the shaders page where you'll find links to a lot of shaders.

m A r K