How to make a seamless skin mod?

[keljee]

I'm sure this has been asked a hundred thousand times before, but I must not be a very good sleuth because I've yet to find an answer that satisfies my particular question.

I'm currently in the process of trying to make my own personal use skin mod for the Maitreya body (specifically a furry-styled mod), using CSP to hand paint the textures and saving a local file to check my work in game.

The problem I'm experiencing is seams, seams, seams! There are certain parts of the body where I'd like, for example, a gradiant to wrap around the bicep without a seamline very obviously ruining the illusion. This means I go back and forth after every paint stroke to check my work, and it still doesn't quite look right even after hours.

I've heard tell of painting a basic texture using a 3D modeler and baking it out for further hand painting in a 2D program, but I haven't the first clue how to achieve that with the Lara body in particular.

Any links to tutorials or tips would be greatly appreciated!!! 😭