[Skinning Interface] All my questions

[Ravenore]

First, salutations from my humble homeland. I'm not an English speaker (I'm from Barcelona) but I'll try to be as understandable as possible.

I recently started in this thing about modding; like I spent 3 days now reading The Helper website in order to get an idea of what I am able to do and what can I do to pimp and create a kind of "fan-fiction" campaign. The path is long, but I'm eager to learn.

Now, to the questions. I started to "pimp" my campaign by basically creating a loading screen, so I start to introduce myself to the Wc3 Image Extractor II features little by little. I comprehend how to import, export and convert the files to .BLP
My first result was this (the text betrays my roots):
Screenshot of sample
I followed this tutorial http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/loadscreen.php wich already contained the .MDX file and such.

Now, when I saw the first test of the loading screen, I missed the "curly" iron bars from the original loading screen. That pushed me to rip the ones from an original loading screen (the Orc Tutorial) until I realized that I could simply import the bars, and even the loading bar from the Wc3 Image Extractor II. Then my creativity sprouted, but it crashed against some "issues".
I wanted to have the skull to "bite" the loading bar, so it doesn't sit behind it. The sprite I'm using is this:

My first testing was this (ignore the rest of the transparency - I already know that I need to put it all black)

But then I remembered that the in-game loading bar stretchs and squeezes itself while loading, so, I skipped this testing (but if someone knows how to prevent the game to squeeze the loading-bar, it will be very apreciated).

Until now, I just sticked to this other sample, the bar with several fangs on it (again, ignore the transparency):

Happy with the improvised loading-bar, I saved it in TARGA, converted it to .BLP as I did with the background tutorial, opened the World Editor, imported it to its proper place and even out of the blue I renamed the path like the original file name, Loading-BarBorder.blp.

I saved it all, and tested the map as usual, but the customized loading bar didn't replaced the original and instead the normal loading bar was shown. I wonder if I did something wrong around the Import Manager for example:

-Do perhaps I need some special .MDX file like with the LoadingScreen.mdx file for the background screen?
or
-Perhaps my custom path wasn't properly written?

If you can solve this question, I will have green light for further editing the entire loading screen, because, I also want to customize the "curly iron bars" from the original loading screen (I want to put some bandage-tied bones to fit with the troll feeling of the campaign) and to better edit the loading bar so it looks like a bone filling with blood while loading, instead of showing that blue "water" (or whatever it is that blue thing).

Also, the last question:

-Is there a way to keep the "curly iron bars"?

Because the tutorial here http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/loadscreen.php makes them to disappear and I want to preserve them so I can show the rest of my customized loading screen

Thanks in advance. Sorry for the long post and typos I may commited. Hope you can help me, because it's kinda discouraging to don't be able to find answers due to my inexperience in this thing about modding

Edit: Sorry for the first confusion *feels ashamed*

 

[Rui]

Please keep the introductions in the Introduction forum. I sent a part of your post (containing your introduction) there.
You can check it [self="http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66781"]here[/self].
~Thread Renamed (to "[Skinning Interface] All my questions")

 

[Thrikodius]

The curly iron bars are a part of the loading screen image. You need to add them directly on you loading screen. BTW the loading screen looks awsome.
The custom path for the Loading-BarBorder is UI\Glues\Loading\LoadBar\Loading-BarBorder.blp.

 

[Ravenore]

The curly iron bars are a part of the loading screen image. You need to add them directly on you loading screen. BTW the loading screen looks awsome.
The custom path for the Loading-BarBorder is UI\Glues\Loading\LoadBar\Loading-BarBorder.blp.

Hai, cool I recently discovered the Interface Editor thing amongst the Advanced tools, and now I see all the things wich I can change to the paths of my customized sprites

But, I have a little problem there... I see I can change them, and all of them are for the "human" race. Is there a way that the Interface Editor thing matches the race I putted for the Player 1?

Another question, if I do all these changes, is there a way to import them to the next map without changing the paths again in the next one?

PS: Thanks I am also editing the interface for my fan-fictional campaign. Just something "provisional" until I tweak details and that stuff. Here a teaser:

 

[emperor_d3st]

Looks very good

 

[Ravenore]

Agh!

God, I'm having bad time trying to replace the ugly human disc where the sun and moon scrolls I tried everything, and there is no signal of these files around the Game Interface list (within the Advanced tab):

HumanUITile-TimeIndicatorMask01
HumanUITile-TimeIndicatorMask01
HumanUITile-TimeIndicatorFrame

Any clue of how to replace them? I already made the sprites for those files, but the game seems unable to catch'em. Here is how it currently displays:

*goes to sleep - eyes hurts too much*