Creating a World - Best Practice Process Help
Hi,
I am new to this entire suit, but have read through the manual of CC3+ and some forum posts and tutorials, but I cannot find what I am looking for, which is...
I want to create a world, with a world map, continent maps and detailed locale maps (and cities and dungeons eventually). This is to be part of a book, and will by the characters be discovered bottom-up, meaning smaller maps before larger maps. However, I want them all to fit together nicely, so I need to have an idea of how the big world will be so that I know what the borders of my smaller maps need to look like.
Therefore I want to know if there is any best practice process in which order to create maps, in which program, so that the mountain ranges, coastlines, rivers and forests appear similar on both world, continent and local maps. Should I start with world map in Fractal Terrains and export that into CC3+ (is that possible? I do not currently own FT3), or is it just as simply to create local maps first and then extrapolate? I have seen the tutorial for getting CC3 maps to FT3, and it seems overly complicated, making me think there are easier ways. Or should I just make the entire thing in CC3+?
Is it possible to create "zoom-in-and-detail-this-area-maps"? Meaning that I can start a new CC3 map from a part of another one, where the general features remain but I detail further, adding smaller cities, rivers, woods, etc?
Hope this is not answered before, but the search feature did not reveal any. Maybe I'm just a bad searcher, maybe it's new.
I am new to this entire suit, but have read through the manual of CC3+ and some forum posts and tutorials, but I cannot find what I am looking for, which is...
I want to create a world, with a world map, continent maps and detailed locale maps (and cities and dungeons eventually). This is to be part of a book, and will by the characters be discovered bottom-up, meaning smaller maps before larger maps. However, I want them all to fit together nicely, so I need to have an idea of how the big world will be so that I know what the borders of my smaller maps need to look like.
Therefore I want to know if there is any best practice process in which order to create maps, in which program, so that the mountain ranges, coastlines, rivers and forests appear similar on both world, continent and local maps. Should I start with world map in Fractal Terrains and export that into CC3+ (is that possible? I do not currently own FT3), or is it just as simply to create local maps first and then extrapolate? I have seen the tutorial for getting CC3 maps to FT3, and it seems overly complicated, making me think there are easier ways. Or should I just make the entire thing in CC3+?
Is it possible to create "zoom-in-and-detail-this-area-maps"? Meaning that I can start a new CC3 map from a part of another one, where the general features remain but I detail further, adding smaller cities, rivers, woods, etc?
Hope this is not answered before, but the search feature did not reveal any. Maybe I'm just a bad searcher, maybe it's new.
Comments
It is easier to make everything fit together when you start top-down, as opposed to starting with the detail maps, because in that case you need to concern yourself much more with the fact that they need to fit
very detailed description how you would do this.
I am very happy with it.
Just saying.
//Kay
Try not to use a dense number of symbols at continent or hemisphere level. Redraw time will climb drastically.
For such large areas I use colors for mountains and forests. With a small circle and a name for the largest cities, with only main rivers drawn in.
As I get down to nation area, I start adding more details. City areas have many more details.
Are you all just using CC3(+)? No one using FT3? Was wondering if it is any point in buying it.
This is just my own preferred workflow however, you can start from scratch in FT3 as well, and FT3 is a great tool if you also want temperature and climate maps for your world.
For some island groups, I opened up an old map in another copy of CC3 and copy and pasted the islands into the new map.
Note that Crestar is believed by the inhabitants to be a sphere; however, its two flat planes. Tech level 23, oh what a give away, is running so that there is no time spent by ships, people, flying, etc. going from one end of a flat plane to the other end. Could that be scrith down there ? Bwahahaha !