creating custom content, adding textures

Noved1

hello, i have seen (and bought) many of the beautiful armors and clothing here, and from other sites like Runtime Dna, and i have to now ask, how would i go about getting my own content in myself? now i do have some knowledge of how this can be done. for example, i sculpted an item in "sculptris" (until i can afford Z-brush). it is supposed to be a shoulder piece that i painted and it looked good in sculptris, but when i exported it as an OBJ, and when i tried to render it, i got this see through checkered thing. i was told that is because of maybe no UV map? how would i get the amazing quality i see others making?

p.s sorry if i am kind of rambly

jestmart

You need to UV map it. Sculpting is not the best way to model, the mesh is often denser than needs to be and the edge flow can be quite sloppy. Give Wings or Blender a look.

Noved1

i have blender, do i model in that, and then just uv map it? and that is the gist? though i am not sure of the uv map process

Jaderail

The model needs to be at 100% finished mesh wise (It really is up to the person which modeler they use). At this point you need to UV flat wrap the model if you are going for the standard flat texture map that Poser and Daz3D use. Any UV map is better than none but Flat wrap is the standard. From the UV map you then make the Diffuse texture (color), Bump, Displacement, or Normal Maps with that detail if it is not built into the Object mesh. Other maps can also be made, such as Specular, and Refection.
You should have also created your material zones before you UV map as for most Texture maps (UV's) each material zone is cut into the UV map as a different area so users can make new texture maps without to much guess work.

I hope this helps you move ahead in your goals.