Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a method of providing a skin model for use in rendering a skin comprises receiving a skin definition file that contains information associated with a skin, and one or more other files that are associated with the skin; providing at least some of the one or more other files directly into computer memory, without the files entering a computer file system; and processing the skin definition file to provide a hierarchical data structure that describes the skin.