I know this might be a little off topic, but Foyleman, I was reading HL2 mods for dummies, and reading trough how to create your own textures. It all made sense except for the picture of the brick wall that you used. You said the best way to make a texture is to use an actual picture. So I went out and took some pictures of some walls and none of them came out nearly as good as yours did! Im wondering how you got the picture of the brick wall with no external lighting hitting it. When I took some pictures, no matter where I took them there is always some change in lighting on the wall that wouldn't look good as a texture. How did you overcome this problem?

I took the pictures during a good time of day when the lighting was direct on the wall without shadows. Then just take the best picture you can. Clip the part of the whole picture that looks best and use that.
Really, you can only take pictures that are good... rarely do they come out perfect. Then it's up to photoshop to help you make the best of it.
Since I used brick, I was able to look around town and find the best wall possible, then take that picture. There's enough brick out there that you can pick and choose the best.
Actually... the brick came from a local bank. I went in and asked the bank manager if I could take the picture. I didn't want the cops coming and thinking I was some terrorist or thief. lol.

Cool thanks. I want to make my own textures because pretty much every texture in HL2 looks like it is from an abandoned house. They all look dirty. Yeah the game is very dystopian so Im not going to have an easy time making some sort of clean grand palace! LoL.

Send over some screenshots when you have something working.

OK