Point me & others in the right direction?
 

Hello everybody...

Basically ever since I played WoW and now have moved on to LOTRO, i've seen MODs and UI Skins. There have been some really great ones out there, and I for one are always very appreciative of what you guys and gals do when developing these things for others that don't develop these things.

So as one of those people that just download all you guys hard work and are greatful for it.

I would like to try my hand in developing my own UI Skins for LOTRO.

So the question is: Where do I start?

I have read the 2 Stickys in this thread, there was alot of information there, and i'm sure i'll be refering to it soon. However at this point i'm an extream noob when it comes to SKINNING the UI... so those posts I fear are a bit advanced to me at this point.

So where do I start?

What do I need?

What will help me best in making my own SKINs?

Any information, tips, and suggestion would be greatly appreciated!

Start by downloading the default ui skin art (see news post on main page) and a nice TGA image editor (most people around here probably use Photoshop). Then go to work. Make up some fancy images. Use the alpha channel of the TGA to create transparent backgrounds (black in the alpha channel = 100% transparent).

Use the default SkinDefinition.xml file as a reference to replace the default art with yours. You might have to experiment a little to figure out which art is what in game, but most are labeled pretty obviously.

And thats the basics. Download a handful of skins from this site to use as a learning crutch and you'll be well on your way.

Thanks for the tips! Appreciate it!

Anything else that might prove helpful, feel free to add..

Okay, I downloaded the Default UI Skin Art, found the SkinDefinition.xml file in there as a basis to start playing with it.

PROBLEM: The files are all .TGA files... It appears I don't have any programs on my computer to call those up.. What do I do? I'm assuming thats what I need Photo Shop for?

PROBLEM: The other thing I am curious about is how do I edit XML files? Notepad? I think this is correct, cuz i've already edited some of the SKINs for my current resolution, etc. etc.

Again, thank you in advance! I appologize for the very NOOBish questsions. I have played WoW and now LOTRO and constantly took it for granted and downloaded other peoples hard work, time, and effort.. Now I would like to learn this whole thing for myself and help contribute!

Thanks

any text editor can edit the xml files. personally, I use MetaPad.

Photoshop is the program of choice for doing any sort of graphics work, but there are some other apps out there that can do it for free. Do a google search for TGA image editor. GIMP is a nice app with lots of features that might do the job - I haven't used it extensively.

Hey thanks for the quick reply!

So i'll most likely use Notepad, thats the editor I used to use when I made HTML code sites, so I think i'll be comfortable with Notepad.

Due to being tight financially right now, I decided to go with the GIMP Editor. It does look decent and tons of features that I don't quite understand yet. LOL

So basically what I did I went through each of the files in the Art download. I guess I am still very much clueless. I am starting to think this maybe harder then I thought and feeling maybe this was a bad idea? Because it still hasn't come to me yet as to what I do next.

But regardless, thanks again for all your quick replies and help!