Texturing with other programs

Hi I was wondering for those who paint with other programs instead of Blender, what is out there that is either free or very cheap? Is there anything that can paint directly on a 3d model? It’s hard for me to paint in 2d UVs.

thanks

But… Blender can paint directly on the model. Why not use UV paint within Blender? There are also some amazing developments just around the corner. Have you seen http://durian.blender.org/development/image-re-projection/?