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The Basics Of Texturing Using Anim8orThis is only the basics and is meant for new people to give them a few things to think about and give them a nudge in the right direction. Any additions from experienced users are welcome, and any comments/questions from new users are also welcome...
First, we'll look at simple texturing (as opposed to UV unwrapping etc)
Model a cube, lets make it 10x10x10 and convert it to mesh
Now, lets locate it correctly:
edit>locate>centre around origin; then
edit>locate>stand on ground
use the eye icon and the frame all views to get your cube a good size. Then go to point edit mode.
First texture, nice and simple:
Open up the materials tab (located on top row), double click on 'new' to create a new texture.
Let's just make a nice and simple red, leave everything else as default.
Now, make sure you have the 'face select' active (the triangle one under the 'z')
Now, using 'select' (just to the left of 'drag select') select the face in the front view.
Now click the 'apply' button just above your texture. Your face stays yellow, just click anywhere outside the model but within the window to see your texture applied (you will have to look at either 'smooth shaded' or 'flat shaded' to see it - those are two of the three buttons to the right of the scissors).
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Now, supposing you wanted a more complicated texture...something like this:
Save this pic somewhere on your comp.
okey dokey, lets see shall we...
Right, double click your material (the same one) and press the tab ('-') to the right of 'diffuse'.
Load the texture above from wherever you saved it, select it and press ok.
Now it just so happens that it fits into the model quite nicely, usually this isnt the case, you have to make it fit yourself.
Reselect the face you want to texture, and reapply the texture. Now instead of clicking outside of the model to see it, click instead the 'UV' button.
Now you see a yellow circle, hold the right mouse button inside the circle and move it about.
Now press ALT and hold the mouse button and drag it about, experiment a little.
If you bugger it up, just reapply the texture and start again.
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Ok, lets add a bumpmap.
Put this pic on your comp somewhere:
A bumpmap is a way of faking raises and drops in your model without having to actually model it  They are just black and white, one being raises, the other being drops (I forget which way round it is, just experiment).
Ok, double click the texture again, and press the 'textures' button.
Press the button to the right of 'bumpmap' and load up the image above.
Leave it at 30 for now (that goes from 0 to 100).
Now changes such as bumpmaps, environment maps and transparency maps dont show up on the model until you render it. So you have to look at the sphere that shows your texture to see what it will look like. (This is changed in the next version which is still only beta yet, but should be out soon).
Now, have a look at the texture, then change the bumpmap to 100 and look again.
You see the difference? This bumpmap is designed to fit this particular texture to make it look as though the tiles are raised...neat, huh?
Now change it back to 30 and render it, just to have a looksee.
The model with bumpmap set to 100:
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Now just a little experimentation with transparencies.
Double click the texture and set Trans to 0.4, (this value goes from 0 to 1).
See the difference?
Cool, set it back to 1, lets do it with a trans map.
Put this pic somewhere on your comp:
now load this up into your trans, leave it at 100 for now...
Woah! Cool or what?
I made a new (plain black) texture for the other faces of the cube so you could see more clearly, what changes have been made:
Now, in the new texture, any black will come through as totally see through.
Now set the trans down to something like 10.
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Having fun?
Good, lets add an environment map...
Copy this pic into your comp:
Now, load up an environment map, and put this pic into each of the boxes (all of em, why not  )
Set it to something low, like 15.
Cool, eh
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