To increase your texturing skills, I would strongly suggest you to take a look at racer445's tutorials : http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photoshop/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/ http://www.nextgenhardsurface.com/index.php?pageid=racer445
Since you're talking about reactor and I think Maya is reactor-less? I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say you're using max? http://www.escalight.com/tutorials/3dsmax-tutorials/earthquake-part-1.html
I think that you will learn much more with Video Tutorials. The money that i spend for Art School was thrown out of the window. @School i learned maybe 3% of my complete knowledge. 97% is selfstudy and watching Video Tutorials.
@imbueFX first, thanks for that informative post. Will your tutorial for beginners cost anything? Don't know how 3dmotive works. Or is it more like a monthly subscription? I think your tutorial would be THE place to start for me. Cheers, Sharky
Here's a tutorial for doing the rounded normal baking in 1.5.0 beta. http://www.mightybake.com/tutorial-rounded-baking/ . Object courtesy of @malcolm. Here's a quick preview of each of the different directions. Suface Normals Geometry Normals Rounded Normals (New)
www.c4dcafe.com has a multitude of free tutorials, there is also a good bodypaint dvd on sale but you might be able to figure out whats what buy doing some of the tutorials, I use c4d at work and max. Nice community too
It's difficult to known what the issue is exactly from this image, if you could explain it in more detail I may be able offer further advice. In the mean time you should read this tutorial: https://www.marmoset.co/posts/toolbag-baking-tutorial/
Kanga - looks nice, you should consider doing a tutorial series on Gumroad or something with that similar to the Mike Pav vids, I think a lot of people would benefit from it.... and now I realise I'm the 'tutorial plz' guy :P
Gnoop - Sorry to hear that you dont find the new suite satisfactory, we´re really pushing for more tutorials and learning materials and it will come in due time! Did you mean tutorials on dirt and weathering effects for the old or new suite?
Thanks FUMAN. Yeah i will redo this to lava/fire weapon. As for specific tutorial I dont know any. I dont even know how it will work in the end. If result will be worthy I will make a quick run-down tutorial with steps.