I made and use this one It's tilable so I just have it as a pattern in PS. You could mostly start out with a flat gray as well and add grunge/overlays after defining lighting/details.
i usually just define the seams carefully, then relax it all a bit and then straighten the edges that need straightening :P. pretty simple, especially if your using the chuggnuts uv tools (don't know if that's spelled correctly).
the rainbow kills it,- otherwise nice texture work. There seem to be quite a few faces wasted also some of the triangle counts are imo a bit high compared to what the wireframe shots intend to shape and define of the object.
I definately get more involved than required on the stuff I work on, specially personal stuff... I rarely put it on paper, but I always think of backstories for anything I work on while working on it.
Uh.. simply define the shape you want to make with edges and points, then extrude them in or delete them. It's really simple. I recommend you give the whole connecting edges thing a shot. It's pretty important.
to me, the concept of purpose and end result is what defines anything as art or not. i see the video game as more of a medium or means to evoke a feeling or message - to me, it's like calling a tube of paint a piece of art.
Hmmm, maybe if I were you, I would add some extra polygons, where the normal map won't be enough to define the volumes and silhouette : But someone else might have a different opinion. Anyone ?
chest area is coming together nicely, definately push some more color and tone into that pale complextion. Let Johnny Nitro be your guide, yum. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/raw/johnnynitro/photos/photos/
can you maybe somehow set the folders to invisible in explorer? never tried but perhaps there's a way to define a rule somewhere? filenames with a leading "." are by default invisible in a unix environment and that's where maya came from originally.
Oh I could definately scan a few pages from it if you want, I got a signed copy of it as a farewell gift from my former AD who happens to be the new Storm penciler, yay!