New to the forums, looking for some direction towards building my UI concept.
 

Hi guys, new here and new to customizing WoW in general. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction to get started on building an idea I have for a custom UI skin, I am not looking to develop any new addons or change the functions of the current UI, just to drastically reskin/rearrange/resize it.



The image above shows how I want to move everything around, and the boxes I have laid out can be deceiving as I am wanting to develop my own skin, something with texture and "feel" too it, something to match the aesthetic of the game. I know there are addons that let me move things into boxes that are very plain but like I said I want to create my own skin and then move the quickbars and everything to align with them. The art aspect I am fine I work as a graphic artist so I am okay making that on my own what I need help with is the building/applying it to WoW portion. I am not opposed to using a addon or two to complete it but id really rather not rely on addons to build the entire UI.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice you guys can lend me in figuring this out.

Right off the bat I will say all you need for the action bars is Dominos or Bartender4. They include moving the menu icons and xp bar. I linked both because this thread might get derailed over an argument of which is better, this way you can decide for yourself.


The Minimap is rather straight forward as well, Sexy Map or one of the hundreds of Minimap addons in the appropriate category. Most should, if I recall correctly, allow you to move the player de/buff frame.


Since you want to use custom textures I recommend oUF for the unit frames. You can use a pre-existing layout or make your own; or you could even use a pre-existing one and change it to look the way you want.


For scrolling combat text there is Scrolling Combat Text or MikScrollingBattleText.


Anything else, such as de/buff tracking, you could use WeakAuras2 or any of the multitude of tracking addons. WeakAuras however allows, I believe, to use custom textures for just about anything. This should cover your miscellany for the most part.


As for the chat window it is movable. I do not personally do much with it except move it here or there so I have no recommendations on that.

Thanks a ton! Great insight.