First Time Mapper, First Time Poster, Long Time Struggling Learner
MatthewBertram
🖼 5 images Traveler
My name is Matthew Bertram, I'm a 30 year old scuba diving instructor from Florida. I'm new to the world of mapping, but not new to the world of creativity and imagination. I've always been fascinated with maps and how they were made by explorers of centuries gone by, as well as maps made for fantasy worlds. I aspire to be amongst the people associated with the latter, as I have lots of ideas in my heads for different worlds and stories for TTRPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons among others.
I have always struggled with learning new tasks. I am autistic, I suspect I also have dyslexia and ADHD but it's dangerous to assume those sorts of things without a proper diagnosis. Either way, my learning difficulties still lurk in my life. I desperately wish it weren't so, but life is life and just because something isn't your fault doesn't mean it's not your responsibility. Sure, things like scuba diving and music came naturally to me over time (even though I'm not really sure how but I've gotten to the point in my life where if something goes right with you it's best not to question it), but with learning things like drawing, sewing, and now mapping I just can't quite seem to grasp the big picture.
For those of you here with learning disabilities (whether diagnosed or suspected), how did you get into mapping? When I first opened CC3+ (I purchased it as well as several other assets via the Humble Bundle) I was immediately confused, frustrated, and overwhelm with the sheer breadth of new information being shown to me. Not that it's a criticism against the program itself, but it left myself wondering if there were any others in the community that now have a grasp or at least some experience with the program that deal with the same things I do.
I look forward to making new friends, learning new things, and creating the fantasy worlds of my dreams in CC3+!
Comments
Hello brother welcome!
I suggest you start with Joe's videos, they cover the first steps in the program very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLaTKOJC6og&t=157s
Apart from that, profantasy has tutorial videos of the most varied styles available on the same page.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfantasySoftware
If you have any other questions, just search to see if any topic has already been created on the subject or just ask.
Cheers
Welcome, Matthew!
I agree wholeheartedly with Ricko's recommendation to start with Joe Sweeney's videos. I owned the software for many years, trying to teach myself how to use it through the PDF manuals and fiddling around with it, but could not make any sense of it. I would peek at this Forum and admire everyone's beautiful maps, but could not make any sense of the software. Then I stumbled across Joe's videos and everything clicked.
Joe's videos are old, but still relevant and give a good foundation for the software. Once you've watched those ones, I would recommend checking out more videos here:
https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/10519/video-tutorials/p1
The viewing order of those videos that I think may be most helpful (in order to get a foundation before tackling more advanced subjects):
The ones in the section called "Blog Videos" accompany a blog article on the same topic, so I would recommend tracking down those blog posts. And the ones under the Live Tutorial section are fantastic, but most are not focused on a single technique or tool, and some are more advanced than others. I would try to get a good grounding from the other videos first, and then consider the older Live videos before the newer ones unless you see one on a specific topic that you think will be helpful. The Live videos are also really enlightening about the possibilities with the range of add-ons.
I resisted watching the videos for a long time because I was impatient and thought I could read the PDFs faster than watching a video. And that clearly didn't work for me: I bought the software in 2017 and didn't start watching the videos until mid/late-2023, and didn't make any maps until then either. But honestly, watching really made everything fall into place for me. Plus, I just love seeing someone start with a blank canvass and bring it to life to become a work of art. It's like watching Bob Ross painting videos. I've not only learned techniques from the Live videos, I've also been creatively inspired by them, too.
Greets!
Welcome to the insanity 😁
Ask anything; we will help
Cal
Start with the main Campaign Cartographer 3+ first.
Just about everything else is related to stuff you will learn in CC3. Except Fractal Terrains.
Character Artist might be a fun tool to get you used to the layout and how symbols work.
Then just play, take your time....I've taken 20 years to get OK.
Welcome, Matthew :)
If you have a mapping problem just ask and we will help.
I made the mistake of installing everything I got. That made things worse as there are instructions and samples that come with things. Once I found those, that really helped.
I hope Joe's works for people. What I can say is that his videos were not helpful to me. The videos, along with a setting bug in CC3 really kept me from making maps as they were both frustrating.
I think this might be a better introduction on the basics of CC3 and how to use the default style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st_MEY3I12o
You make a good point, @JulianDracos. While Joe’s videos were helpful to me to get certain basics to click (like sheets, sheet effects, and layers), I forgot that his videos predate certain features. For example, he makes a point about adding symbols from back to front, but that’s because (I assume) he made the video before the Sort Symbols on Map function was developed.
There are a lot of features that have been added since Joe's day. They were good videos, but we're getting to the point where trying to learn from them now after all these years is not as helpful as it used to be. When CC4 comes out they will be obsolete - as many others will be.
Seems like that should be the first live mapping then.
Seems like that should be the first live mapping then.
I imagine there will have to be quite a series of Live tutorials covering new features and functionality. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ralf and Remy film more of the short, single topic tutorials even before launch so that a flood can be released right away. (And if they haven’t thought about that, here’s me planting the seed.)