TheSims Skins Tutorial

CMX

Other common names for dragonflies include sewing needles, devil's darning needles, snake doctors, horse stingers, and mosquito hawks.
First, the naming conventions.
xskin-{b|c}{#}{F|M}{A|C}{shape}_{name}-{attach}-{mesh}
xskin- Appears on all mesh files
{b|c} B for Body or
C for Cranium (head)
{#} A 3-digit number
{F|M} F for Female or
M for Male
{A|C} A for Adult or
C for Child
{shape} Fit for Fit body
Fat for Fat body
Skn for Skinny body
Leave out for Head.
{name) A name for the file to distinguish it from others with the same number, shape, sex and age
{attach} Where the mesh attaches to on the body
{mesh} Name of the mesh, descriptive of what it is
For instance,
xskin-b301FAfit_dragonfly-SPINE2-WINGS
would be a body #301 fit female adult dragonfly's wings attached to spine2.
This is the name of the SKN file as well as the first line of the SKN file.
The common names of "sewing needles" and "devil's darning needles" are based on an old fable that these insects could sew up one's ears.

SKN File

The first 2 lines of the SKN file are the name of the file and the name of the texture.
Bodies and Heads have x as the texture, everything else needs to have the name of the texture without the BMP extension.

CMX File

// Character File. Copyright 1997, Maxis Inc. Header
version 300 Version
0 ?
1 Number of Mesh Groups (always 1)
b001fafit_dragonfly Name of Mesh Group
0 ?
0 ?
2 Number of Meshes in Mesh Group
PELVIS Attach Point
xskin-b301FAfit_dragonfly-PELVIS-BODY Name of Mesh
0 ?
0 ?
HEAD Attach Point
xskin-b301FAfit_dragonfly-SPINE2-WINGS Name of Mesh
0 ?
0 ?
0 ? ending 0
Note: This is assuming we have a b301fafit body already prepared. You can just copy an existing body and rename it.
For our purposes, there's only ever 1 mesh set in an CMX.
To add another mesh into the group, simply add its 4 lines (the attach point, name of the mesh, and 2 0's) before the ending 0. Then add 1 to the number of meshes.
To remove a mesh, remove it's 4 lines add subtract 1 from the number of meshes.
The term "snake doctor" comes from a belief that dragonflies warn snakes of approaching danger.
The End!
Quotes in green stolen from http://www.naturalpartners.org/InsectZoo/Students/odonata.html
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