New to CC? Here is some very basic stuff to get you up and running
Lillhans
🖼️ 7 images Surveyor
This is me
I'm username Lillhans, and I am nobody in particular.
I was recently tagged in a thread as someone who "clearly know" my stuff when it comes to mapping with CC3 as well as other platforms - choosing it over said other platforms even. The other person who was similarly tagged as such in that particular thread is a long-term content creator and trained artist (who could tell you all sorts of crazy things about hachures, and other amazing trained-artist-and-map-illustrator-things).
This is funny because when it comes to other platforms, pen and paper included, I cannot be bothered to try and get any good at it. I am not a trained illustrator in any capacity and the reason I am enjoying CC is because I don't have to be: I have figured that it allows me to fake it until such time as I make it or that I at least am being happy with the results.
It's also funny because...
This is what I know about mapping in CC
Sheets is where you put stuff and manipulate its visual quality using sheet effects. Sheet effects are the crafting minigame of CC (in my opinion, they are the main story). Don't want different stuff behaving the same, visually? Put them on different sheets. The sheet stacking order/order of appearance is top to bottom = back to front of view.
Layers is where you group your stuff and collectively make it visible and/or lock it from further editing - regardless of what sheet you put the stuff in. Layers are sorted alphabetically becuase - YOU GUESSED IT (already a pro!) - order of apperance is settled in the sheet stack.
Stuff is polygons or lines & friends, which you draw using tools. It can also be symbols (prefab stuff). The stuff you draw yourself can be edited in many ways. Symbols typically can be scaled and rotated and such. Stuff appear in the order it's put in the map, first to last = back to front of view.
(drawing) Tools are either prefab or you customize.
Go!
Yeah, obviously, there is more to it but the rest is just the equivalent of learning in which of your buddy's kitchen cabinets they keep the coffee cups.
Anyway, here are two bonus tips for minimizing frustration as a new user.
Tip 1: Accept and embrace that maybe, just maybe, you are a bit sh** at using the software at the present time
Which means, of course, that you can decide whether you want to spend your time being frustrated or getting better at it. There is also the third option, for extra credits: being frustrated that you have to learn things. I would suggest that one of these options is going to see you making quicker progress finding your way around the coffee utensils than the other two.
Tip 2: Absolutely check out Joe Sweeney's introduction, and watch it a couple of times, but also...
...you should have a try at some fancy-ass pop art, using these tools to create stuff in sheets and fool around with layers and whatnot.
Doing simple shapes and manipulating them is a sliced-bread-goodness way of getting familiar with the tools at your disposal without the added dimension of creating a map that looks like It Came From Mario Paint. The latter, in my own experience, can be a bit of a bummer for one's morale - because we came here to look like top-shelf mapmakers after all (secretly, I think it's great that we can "fail" with CC but that's for another topic).
Also, since the "landmass tool" is just a polygon with a fancy fill which was set to populate a predetermined sheet and layer you're not really missing out on anything - on the contrary.
Also, pop art!
and 4 others.
Comments
This is funny because when it comes to other platforms, pen and paper included, I cannot be bothered to try and get any good at it.
My mistake! Somehow I'd come to the opinion that you were well-versed in other packages -- like @Loopysue. That you aren't frankly makes your innovations with CC even more impressive in my opinion.
That speaks volumes, then, for the strengths of Campaign Cartographer!
A great beginner guide, Lillhans.
@Monsen We need a sticky at the very top showing newbies what to do to get tp know the program ie read the manual, watch some videos (esp Joe Sweeney and others - yours I like, but I wish you would do more), experiment, and read three times daily, Lillhans comments above, as they cover the most confusion that appears on these threads.