Help a newbie out with skinning.

Alright, I'm not a complete newbie and I am farily good at making models. But I don't know howto skin right. I have two problems (I'm using 3d Studio Max 4.2 btw). One is how I am exactly supposed to texture map my model correctly. I really have no clue where to start even. Do I need to put a special modifier on it? I was able to apply simple materials to the models and use the default UVW map modifier to make them fit, but that's about it. What I want to know is how I would, say, out a texture on a sphere which is a basic metalic but with a word on it or something, and be able to put the word on only one part of the model, instead of it repeating itself around the entire thing.

My other problem is how to export textures (if you can) to the kind of thing that you see in Tribes 2 .png texture files (like the textures were unwrapped off the model and layed down). Since I have a lot of different texture files for materials, I don't understand how the Torque Engine would recognize a bunch of them, and I was under the impression this was true and it could only use the single texture map thing.


Anyways, any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Just another hurdle in the project I am working on, and I definatley intend to get over it. We have some great ideas, and I see no reason why we can't put them into a game.

:)