The Sims Galaxy - Skin Help

What is a skin?
A skin is the body bits and textures that make up a character in a game. The game, in this case, is called The Sims.

OK, so how do I make them?
*I'm not very good at explaining things, but here goes:
There are several steps:
1) Go to www.thesims.com and register.

2) Go to "Get Cool Stuff" and then to "Simshow Skins*"
*You could use the Character Makeover Studio instead of Simshow, but I found Simshow easier. It's up to you to find which one you like best.

3) Download all three programs; Simshow, Simshow skins, and Simshow Tutorial, and unzip them in that order.

4) Follow the instructions in the Simshow Tutorial to make your first skin. A very good paint program to make skins with is Adobe Photoshop.

5) You need a zip program such as Winzip. Select the file that you want to zip, click "Add to zip" and type in a name in the first box of the window that pops up at the end of the writing that's already in it (confusing, eh?)

Here is what you should have in your zip file:

- The .skn file that the body uses (starts with an x, eg. xskin-b001fafit_01-PELVIS-BODY.skn)
- The .skn file that the head uses (starts with an x, eg. xskin-c001fa_Mercedes-PELVIS-BODY.skn)
- The .cmx file that holds all the body bits together (starts with a B, eg. B001FAfit_01.cmx)
- The .cmx file that holds all the head bits together (starts with a C, eg. C001FA_Mercedes.cmx)
-The bitmap for the body (starts with a B, eg. B001FAFitlgt_Bingirl.bmp)
-The bitmap for the head (starts with a C, eg. C001FAlgt_Bingirl.bmp)

-A 161 pixel tall x how wide the skin is screenshot of the skin you made. This is for the preview picture on your website (if you put it on your site). Make sure it is in .jpg format, it is a smaller file and takes less time to load on websites than any other format.

-A README file which says what the skin is called, a description of the skin, your name (or nickname) and if you want, your email address.

6) Store your skins in a file on your computer called "Betty's SimSkins" or whatever you want so that you can find them easily later on. If you would like to share your skins with the world, add them to your web site or submit them to www.thesimsresource.com.

Here is some information on how to make your own meshes (body shapes). It is here for my own reference (just in case I forget), but you can read it too:

1) Get BodyWarp and SimPose from Spanki's Sim Shack at http://personal.cfw.com/~cyclone. BodyWarp is for resizing body bits and SimPose is for posing your new Sim.

2) Get MilkShape 3D (no, not MilkShake) from http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/. This is for editing body bits to make them look different.

3) Get the skn>obj program found at http://www.kelahn.com/. This is for changing .skn files (used in The Sims) to .obj files so that you can edit them in MilkShape 3D.

4) Get the tutorial on how to make skins at Jenny's Sims Stuff at http://www.jennyssimsstuff.thesimsresource.com. This tells you how to use some of the programs above.

Thanks go to Boudicca13 for telling me where to go and get the programs to make meshes.