Tagging on to what Delerna said...

Yes, you can do a lot with the tools already demonstrated in this thread.

However, you will run into more difficult problems.  For example, many time you'll want a line or image to cross more difficult boundaries from one UV island to another, or across a seam.

If you try to paint something on an avatar head or body, it gets very difficult to get the lines to appear the way you want.  So eventually you will want a "3D painting" application such as 3D Coat or Substance Painter (both mentioned previously).

It is fun, though, isn't it?  It's fun when you learn how to control a piece of software and manage to make it do what you wanted it to do.  Even if it's not perfect artistry, I know I have a lot of satisfaction from learning the basics of "How" (and why).

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Oh been meaning to say several times but kept forgetting.
None of what I am showing is to state that sending image maps and UV maps from iClone or CC to a 2D editor is the best way to do this. I was just showing how it can be done directly from reallusion's software without having to use anything more that a 2D editor...….and I don't find it all that difficult. 
Other software's are definitely worth looking into if that's the way you want to go.



i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Thought I might take this topic up a level.
At the bottom is a video demonstrating how I do texturing very often. It is a way that makes it quicker to check that each part you do to the texture is how you want it.
I have 2 screens on my computer but I showed what I do on a single screen so you can see how you can do it if you only have a single screen.
In this case I am using Krita to do the texturing because Paint Dot Net cant do this process (unfortunately)
I don't have photoshop but I guess it may do the same as Krita here. But I can't say it does.

Here are the steps I do
1) Send the props Base texture to the Krita
2) Send the props UV Map to the Krita
3) In Krita go to the UV map and select the black color and delete it
4) Then select all of the UV maps image and copy it. It must be the same size as the base texture. So resize it if needed.
5) In Krita go to the Base texture and paste the UV map into it. It gets added as a new layer above the Base texture.
6) Now I can select the Base textures layer and select colors and draw on the Base texture using the UVMap as a guide.
7) Now hide the UV Map and then save the image. It doesn't save it to the hard drive. Rather, it updates iClone directly.
    That way I can see what I have done immediately.

Krita can have any number of layers and you can add new things to a new layer and save it. That way you see if it looks OK on the prop.
If not you can just delete that new layers texture without affecting what has already been done and approved and then re-draw the new bit again. Or use the eraser to remove the parts not needed.

Anyway the whole point I am showing is how to use the 2D editor to update the props image as you progress with your drawing.
Easier than having to save the image on your drive and then goto iClone and load the new version.





i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Good to see your work and well done.
Relating to your comment on determining where UV edges will appear on the prop.
You may already know about this?    but you can adjust the prop so it shows you where its edges are (see the image if you don't know where it is).
Depending on the prop and how the UV map is made this can help you guess a bit easier where things need to be placed on the 2D image so it appears in the correct place
Still will be trial to find exactly where it needs to go but it can help you to guess where a bit easier. Not always, there is dependencies on where your looking to put it and how well the UV map identifies where that part is. But it is something that may help.








i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Very nice.  Thanks for sharing.  :)

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

I wanted to post a preview of my poker chips now that I had a little time to create all the chips and colors.

It took a little trial and error to create the proper UV maps. What I did first to help line up the stripes on the side versus the top and bottom stripes was to verify which set of stripes in the top image matched a stripe in the side template by hiding one of the set of stripes. 



Then when I applied the image onto a chip in IClone I could tell which stripe was missing a side. After that it was just guessing was I too far to the left or right until they finally matched up close enough for my needs.

I could work on chips forever, now I have to build a deck of cards. I wish there was a way to automate this. I have the card images from a card counter black jack program I started but never finished, but 52 cards is going to take a while. 



Cards are flat so they should be much easier than chips. 

Thanks for everyone's help explaining this.





Creator of the free website:
PixelDatabase.Net
A Free Online Text Based Image Editor

Hey Delerna! Wow - these animations of yours keep getting better!
Quite convincing indeed .... (and all the pics and explanations from you and others on this thread are a big help to us newer folk - thanks heaps!)  :)

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :(  - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

sorry, going on and on. But just wanted to highlight this a bit more.
If you want to create your own models then having a high understand of UV mapping is highly important because not UV mapping the model well can badly effect being able to texture the model well.
However, your talking about texturing models that have not been made by you. So really, the only thing you need to understand about it is that you use it to show where on the 2D image you need to paint things so they appear on the model in the correct place. Everything else about UV mapping is not needed if that's all your going to do. I guess its nice to understand as much as possible, you might be able to see why your texturing is not working right on a particular model if you understand what can cause bad effects by how the UV map was created. Can also help you to understand what you need to do to improve the texturing despite how it is UV mapped (to a degree anyway). But being necessary???? Not really, besides, I am sure you will start to notice and learn these things as you progress from this starting point. I know I did ... and am.


i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Oh. Might as well show my latest video of the snake. By the way. It shows each of the snakes spinning along the grass first and at the end it shows more of the animations.
Standing up, poking tong, opening mouth etc

Had some suggestions from Sonic7 that helped me improve it.
Although the software I used to produce the video from my iClone project outputs is not high detailed.
I'm dissapointed with that software.




i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

And now a bit more detail
Here is my 2D imaging of actual textures I used for my  snake. The UV map layer and an extra layer for each color I wanted for different snakes.
.




And here are the results of adding those textures in iClone. Notice that I also used the green version of the texture in the Bump map of all the texture versions. May have been better to convert it to greyscale but I don't mind how the snake looks as it is so didn't worry about doing it. Not yet anyway. Also notice the metallic map is black. Make it whiter and the snake will look shinier. Also the roughness map will make the snake look more rough the darker it is. The thing is. All of these image maps relate to the UV map. If you want to control the shininess of the object so it is different on different parts then use the UV map so you know where to color the 2D tecture so it affects the part of the model that you want it to affect. That's the main point of UV maps. It identifies where you need to put your texturing on the 2D image so it shows up on the part of the model that you want it to show up on




















i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit