3D Newbie - Help Please

[Jim]

Hello, first of all I'd like to admit I'm not actually working with Reality Factory, but I think it will be alright for me to post this here since it's art stuff. (I'm using Beyond Virtual)

I thought I'd come here for help because I'm kind of a newbie... and the folk over at the BV forums well helpful, are a little more advanced then me and use tools I cannot afford for the most part.

Heres some shots of the fx editor and object viewer from BV with some things I made...

http://www.spreaditthin.com/cpg142/thum ... p?album=14

And heres some things I've made in milkshape 3d...

http://www.spreaditthin.com/cpg142/thum ... hp?album=5


I can model vert by vert in ms3d... but I have no idea how to do some things

-specular maps
-normal/bump maps
-creating good 2d textures with PSP X

I dont know how to make a good material...

And also, how do I make a skybox, the BV demos all use a sky sphere rather then box, how do I make a good sky texture? so it's not all stretced out funny... thanks.

[Jim]

Any takers? I came here cause it always seemed like all the people here were really helpful...

basicaly im lloking for information on making more advanced materials (ie rather then just applying a jpg or unwrapped... shinnyness and stuff) I dont know how with milkshape...

and to make sky textures