lets say I have some ok custom mesh models that Ive spent some time on. ie gollum. how in the world do I texture something with 100 triangles. ie how are those skins made into TGA textures??? TIA

I''m not exactly sure but look for some tutorials on half-life model skinning and try and apply that to your model.

How have you done your model ?

If you used a famous software, eg 3DStudio, then it is a feature of the software.

If you modelled the object/character yourself with your own 3D format, then you''re gonna setting texture coordinates yourself.

You need to ''unwrap'' the model so that all the tris lay in the same plane, and render the flattened mesh into a texture. There are several apps that can do this for you (try http://home.pb.net/~stevecox/uvmapper.htm).
Then you can draw a proper texture over the wireframe.

thanks everyone,
I have my own mesh design/format,
but I guess I should convert it
to an .obj file????
or which format do you suggest
using?

thanks