A texture artist is an individual who develops textures for digital media, usually for video games, movies, web sites and television shows. These textures can be in the form of 2d or (rarely) 3d art that may be overlaid onto a polygon mesh

Polygon mesh

A polygon mesh or unstructured grid is a collection of vertices, edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer graphics and solid modeling...

 to create a realistic 3D model

3D modeling

In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...

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Texture artists often take advantage of web sites for the purposes of marketing their art and self-promotion of their skills with the goal of gaining employment from a professional game studio

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 or to join a team working on a "mod

Mod (computer gaming)

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

" (modification) of an existing game in hopes of establishing industry or trade credentials .