How to get realistic textures without actual photos?

YellowYeti

So i'm just wondering if it's possible to get a good realistic texture without using actual photos because i can't afford to go out and buy a new camera to go and photograph things. And i feel like using other peoples textures is kind of cheating/frowned upon(especially if i want to make a portfolio and say it's mine). If it also makes a difference, since i know that substance designer and painter can do something of the sort, i do own those 2 programs and i think their bitmap2material (i haven't gotten around to using it yet so i'm not entirely sure). Thanks for any replies!

McGreed

It's not cheating if you use other textures as base for your final result, it's the main reason for http://www.textures.com/ existing, so you have something to work with.

Klunk

you can collect your own library of grimes and grunges or create them from other images then use those to modify downloaded textures to add some ownership. Create your own tiling image from someone else's  photo would certainly make it  your texture, "Good artists copy; great artists steal"

oglu

i did a lot for the mudbox lib... 
http://area.autodesk.com/mudboxcommunity/library?page=9&type=stencils&category=&time=&sort=created

slosh

You can pretty much make any env texture in substance from scratch so you've got your answer right there.

YellowYeti

@slosh do you mean designer or painter? And if so do you happen to know of any tutorial videos or sites that talk about how to do that? And thanks everyone for the replies! I'll definitely take the advice of mcgreed and klunk.

slosh

I mean Designer if you're talking about tiling env textures.  And just check the allegorithmic tutorials...they will give you a good start.

YellowYeti

Oh ok cool, thank you!

CreativeSheep

Depending on your smart phone, if you own one, some smart phones can take 20 MP photos which are better then alot of DSLR, if you own one, you can take pictures, any place, anytime so you're basically set.