Export from FT3(+) to CC3 - usage of bitmap fills for contours instead of solid colours?

WeathermanSweden

With the (new) export possibilities from FT3 to CC3 by using templates I wonder if it possible to set the fill styles of contour lines and where to do it?

E.g. with the Herwin Wielink export you get bitmap fills for the sea and the land. Would it even be possible to create bitmap fills for mountain regions within the export?

Thank you,

André

jslayton

Generates entities in a few categories like "Land Contours", "Sea Contours", "Rivers", "Rectangular Grid" and so on. It has no notion of more fine-grained ideas like specific styles for specific kinds of contours (e.g. use fill "Mountain" for climate type "Mountain"). It's a good idea, but there isn't a way to make FT directly output such things.

A follow-on idea would be to have FT generate contours from Image Overlays to allow direct painting of fill styles, but that's a whole different kind of thing.

Kaz

I've had some recent success doing just this, but it's not automatic. I did it by creating masks:

• Export a Climate map from FT3 with shadows turned off (Lighting and Color>Intensity>Shadows: None)
• Bring that render into your photo editor and select by color, and create a new mask layer from each biome type.
• Export each mask layer as its own image.
• Open a new CC window, import the first mask onto its own Layer and Sheet, "Mountains" or whatever.
• Scale doesn't matter -so- much on this part, but conformity does. When it asks for the origin points to place your image, use keyboard commands 0,0 [Enter] 1,2000 [Enter] - this will make sure all your stuff lines up right, as long as you use the same numbers for each layer.
• Now that you have your Mountains mask image on the Mountain layer/sheet, type TRACED and select the edge of the image, and Do It. Default settings should be fine.
• Now you have a set of contours on that sheet you can fill however you want. Change Properties>Layer>Mountains>Do It.
• Hide the Mountains sheet, create a new layer/sheet for the next biome. Rinse. Repeat.
• If you're going to blend all your layers with Edge Fades, you should also create a mask layer containing ALL your landmass in one image. Add this in the same way you did your climate layers, and give it a fill of some kind of generic grassland, and NO Edge Fade. This will catch holes between the biomes, and leave you with a solid coastline. Stack the layers from (as best you can) low to high altitude. Deep water, then shallow water, then your coastline, then everything else on top of that.
• Keep in mind that TRACED can't make polys with holes in them, so if you have say a small arctic biome on top of a mountain that's completely surrounded by a ring of tundra, the tundra contour will generate as a solid circle, not a ring. This is why altitude-based sheet stacking is important.

This method is far from perfect. If anyone has tips on how to improve it, I'm all ears. I hope this helps, though!