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- May 31, 2007
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How to make a high quality loading screen in less than 30 minutes
Time needed:
For newbies: approximately 25-30 minutesTime needed:
For experienced ones: 15 minutes at most
For pros: less than 15 minutes
Tools needed:
An image (any size - we'll resize later)
Adobe Photoshop
Warcraft 3
1. Resize the image to 1024x768 and save it as imagename-resized.jpg.
This is required so that it fits the computer screen!
2. Make it TGA and then put some blur filters in photoshop if you want it to look a little more natural and have no pixels flying inside it and make it auto color under the image menu in the adjustments category. Save it as imagename-firstpart. (Filters suggested are under the filters menu in the Blur category. I use the first one named "Blur" and the Smart Blur filter with Radius between 0.1 and 2.5 and Treshold between 6.5 and 7.5 - make it as you think it will look better you can experiment adding other filters as well!)
Making TGA is necessary, but adding filters is just my opinion on how to make it look "high quality" - if it is 1024x768 as starting size or 800x600, 1280x1024, you could add no filters at all if it looks alright!
3. Now make it JPEG and open in MsPaint.
Converting can be done via the Save as... and then change type to JPEG. Needed so that you can cut the parts
4. Copy the four parts as described, one by one as I write them:
a)512x512 The TOP LEFT part - Name it LoadingScreenTL.jpg After saving delete it so that it looks whit in the image (to save it you shall select it and then choose copy as... - so after this, while you have it still chosen press the delete key)
b)512x512 The TOP RIGHT part - Name it LoadingScreenTR.jpg After saving delete it so that it looks whit in the image (to save it you shall select it and then choose copy as... - so after this, while you have it still chosen press the delete key)
c)512x256 (**256 is the height!!!**) The BOTTOM LEFT part - Name it LoadingScreenBL.jpg After saving delete it so that it looks whit in the image (to save it you shall select it and then choose copy as... - so after this, while you have it still chosen press the delete key)
d)512x256 (**256 is the height!!!**) The BOTTOM RIGHT part - Name it LoadingScreenBR.jpg After saving delete it so that it looks whit in the image (to save it you shall select it and then choose copy as... - so after this, while you have it still chosen press the delete key)
These steps are necessary.
5. After doing so,you shall end up with a blank image, close it WITHOUT saving changes!
I suggest cutting each part so that you know what you have exported for modding!
6. Now convert all parts to TGA.
If you have enough place for you loading screen you can skip following steps and go to step 9, though not recommended!
7. Afterwards convert all the TGA images to GIF using the Save for web... option under the File Menu.
Do it the way suggested so that no quality is lost and the image is ok!
8. Last one, reopen the GIF formatted icons and save them in TGA now in a new folder (so not to convert the old ones)! You'll see the size of the images is reduced and the quality is about the same.
Boring indeed, but this way your loading screen will take 4 times less than it would do if you imported as in step 6!
9. Import to your map and delete the war3imported from the file path.
As always you shall remove the war3imported path for the game to read!
10. Import the LoadingScreen2.mdx I have uploaded here. Remove the war3imported from its path as well.
Same with the one before
11. Choose as loading screen the LoadingScreen2.mdl and test it.
Test is always recommended to know if everything works properly!
12. Save your map!
Ready! If you want to use the loading screen again, just make a folder somewhere and save the final parts and the model and that's it!
Congratulations you have a high quality loading screen in no time!
I hope this will help everyone to make the loading screen high quality and low size!
Last edited:
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