I am completely lost when it comes to skins and meshes. I've scanned the forum and cannot find any thread that explains the whole process in detail. I've found a good amount of skins, but I don't know what mesh goes with a skin. I've got a headache and hoping someone can help me out. :banghead:
Which parts are you confused about?
I'll try to post a pretty elementary breakdown here...
In your custom character folder each character will have a folder.
In each folder you will find a character.nif file, a keyframes.kf (or character.kf) file, and a folder called "skins".
the character.nif file is the mesh itself. the actual 3d model.
the keyframes.kf file tell the mesh how to move in-game.
In the "skins" folder there will be different folders, usually one called "standard"
In the "standard" folder you will find the skin files (lets take a simple male_basic mesh for example)
You'll find male_basic.tga, male_basic_refl.tga, male_basic_glow.tga, and probably a file called lightmap.tga, or male_lightmap.tga
male_basic.tga is the detailed skin itself
male_basic_refl.tga is the reflection mapping, so if there are any metal or plastic parts on the skin, this would be used
male_basic_glow.tga is the glowing parts of a skin... maybe the character glows in the dark, or has glowing eyes...
the lightmap.tga file shows how light bounces off the character in-game, and will manipulate how you view the reflections and glows.
When you download skins and meshes there will usually be a readme file that will point to the mesh you need to put the skin's folder into.
usually many skins are interchangeable among meshes (although they may not fit perfectly)
for example the majority of normal sized male meshes have skins based on male_basic.tga
other common skin types are: male_heavy.tga, male_hulking.tga, male.tga (for VX meshes), female_basic.tga, female_versatile.tga, female.tga (for VX meshes)
I hope this helps.
You should also have a custom characters folder. For FFv3R the directory tree will look like this:
Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
└─Custom
└─Art
└─Library
└─Characters
└─[whoever the custom character is]