Mapping class 101

Tonnichiwa

Hello everyone

First off let me say that I am not really sure where to put this particular topic so I guess the best place is the Show and Tell thread.

I was reading through the boards when I noticed a lot of people seem to be having problems learning how to map. So I got the idea of having a sort of work along thread where everyone signs up to a sort of mapping class, then once we have all the interested people, we all decide on a map style (it should be one that everyone has access to, like, Herwin Weilink's style or something).

The class would begin by telling people to do a task or two (or three) every day or few days. Everyone in the thread follows along and does what they are told to do, thus learning how to map and what each function of the mapping does. If someone knows of a better way of doing something than the way the mapping technique is told, they can speak up and teach everyone that technique. Everyone then lets people know they are ready to move along to the next few steps and we then do those.

Eventually all of our maps will be done and we can show how we did by posting our results in the thread. I'm sure that even though we would all be using the same style for the map that the maps would be very different from each other and we could all learn something new.

Does this sound like something anyone might be interested in?



EDIT: This is the area I will be putting bullet points of things we have already done in the class so people can just glance at it and tell what we have covered so far.

1. How to save, and export your map.
2. How to upload your map to the Profantasy website forum.
3. How to get to and use the New Drawing Wizard to pick a drawing style.
4. How to use Sheets.
5. Paying attention to the Command Line.
6. How to draw a landmass.
7. How to draw a Background Bitmap Fill.
8. How to access the Symbol Catalog.
9. How to read and understand Symbol Identifiers.
10. How to change colors on a Varicolor Symbol.
11. How to create a new Sheet.
12. How to move a Sheet up and down the Sheet List.
13. How to move a Symbol to a new Sheet using the Change Properties button.
14. How to erase a Symbol.
15. How to use the Undo button.
16. How to move a Symbol to a different position on your map.
17. How to use the SYMSORT command on the Command Line to have CC3+ sort your Symbols for you. (explained by Dogtag)
18. How to select and de-select an Entity/Symbol for Editing.
19. How to place Symbol's better in your map.
20. How to use the Trace Command.

AEIOU

I'm interested. I don't know where I'll find the time but this is a great idea so I'll make every effort.

[Deleted User]

Count me in, for sure. A great idea. I have all the profantasy products

cobra mustang

I have just CC CD DD and FT but I'll play along.

Loopysue

Me too I have CC3+, DD3, CD3, FT3 and Perspectives.

Barliman

Sounds like a fine plan, to me. I taught myself by working through the manual, but, it's been months since I made a map, so this would give me some incentive.

Calibre

I'll join in. I have CC3+ only atm.

Cal

Tonnichiwa

Great! It's good to see people are interested. Now I think I will leave this thread up for another day before we get started to see if more people want to join in.

Just so people know, this isn't going to be a super fast class. I didn't want to rush people who have very little time. This should be fun because you can't really learn anything if you are stressed out and mapping is much more fun when you aren't worried

To new people on the forums who are lurking and not bothering to say anything, you are most welcome to join in. If you want to make a profile and say hi, please do, we are a friendly bunch and love to see what people create.

If you are more comfortable lurking, that's cool too. You can follow along at home and I think you will have a great time watching us all try to learn mapping better.

JimP

No juggling ? Well then, leave the mapping in your capable hands.

Tonnichiwa

Hi JimP, were you planning on joining in? We'd love to have more people

Shessar

I won't be joining in because I have too much going at the moment, but I'll certainly be reading along. This is a cool idea tonnichiwa!

Have fun mapping everyone!

Tonnichiwa

Thanks Shessar

Even if someone doesn't want to do it yet is reading along, if you have a better way of doing something, please don't be shy about telling everyone. I'm no expert at mapping but I figured with our combined knowledge we could start a thread that may help a lot of the new people that are buying the software to learn how to use it better. With all of us giving our insights and experience with mapping this could be a great help to everyone. I know I could stand to learn quite a bit more about this program.

Loopysue

Any ideas on a 'syllabus' yet?

Tonnichiwa

Well, everyone has cc3+, and for the most part, before you can learn how to make dungeons or cities or anything else, you need to learn the basic functions of cc3+ which you usually learn by making an overland map. So I thought it would be a good idea for the class to pick an overland style they want to work with that is available from the basic cc3+ install and then go from there.

cobra mustang

My vote is for an Island. Less complex stuff and people can tailor them to their own settings.
Later we can do larger land masses then a later class can be exporting a fragment of a landmass.

Each mapping 101 project could have a set of effects that users vote on that they want to try work with. Maybe once per map creating a custom symbol each in a specific style that we could collaborate and make a symbol set.
shared by the group.

Teresa

Hi everyone. I'm usually more of a lurker, but I would love to come out of my shell and join this despite not having much free time. I'll be more on the receiving point of the classes, though, as I have basically just been learning CC3+ by following the manuals and essentials. I agree with tonnichiwa and cobra mustang's suggestions - everyone has at least CC3 and you can learn almost all the basics there. I also think creating a symbol and messing up with one or two effects per class is a great idea. I myself am creating a set of symbols and drawing tools to create my own template as a way of understanding CC3 better. Despite having learnt a lot while creating maps and floorplans/dungeons following the guides (which was a fundamental step), I find I am learning much more now.

Loopysue

Then I vote on the Edge Fade Inner effect being the very first effect - that being the single most useful (IMHO)

Graxx

I want in pls new user just getting started would love details of the class pls tyty! (CC3+)

Mac or PC available?

thx!

Dogtag

CC3+ is a Windows application, but people do run it on MacOS using CrossOver. There are several discussions on the forum about it, too, if you need more info.

JimP

I am uncertain as to how much time I will have. We are going to use the cold weather to insect proof my ham radio shack and get an actual line power set up with circuit breakers out there.

But I will at least stop by here when I have time.

Note that I have a tutorial on my web site on how to make a small part of an overland map into a larger and more detailed local map. It isn't the same method as in the Tome. A search in these forums should give you a link. Note that all of my Crestar maps should link to http://crestofastar.drivein-jim.net/ not an older site which is long gone. The article numbers will differ as well. So if you need one, just let me know which post here and I will fix it so it links to the newer page and site.

Tonnichiwa

Cool, I've never owned a ham radio myself but I always wanted to buy one. Living up in the rainy, cold, northwest of the USA means there is a fairly large club of ham radio operators here. I've known about them for years and occasionally drive by someone's home with tons of antenna on their roof but I've never met any of them. Good luck with getting everything set up the way you would like. And thank you for offering your tutorial and website to the class.

So I just got in from chopping wood and getting myself a cup of coffee so now I'm gonna settle down into my uncomfortable computer spot and see what we can do about getting this started.

Welcome everyone to Mapping 101

I am tonnichiwa, a user of Campaign Cartographer since January 2014. I lurked on this site for a while before joining up and since I did I have learned a lot about the Profantasy suite of products. My main focus has been overland maps but I have dabbled in dungeon design, the Cartographer's Annual's, cities, and perspectives.

We actually have a good turnout for this, which I admit surprised me as I wasn't really sure how many people would actually want to do this.

Our classmates that have signed up are

tonnichiwa
AEIOU
qwalker
cobra mustang
Loopysue
Barliman
Calibre
Graxx
Teresa
taustinoc
POUTROR

And five watchers who may pop in from time to time

Shessar
JimP
Lorelei
Wyvern
Dogtag

So, again, welcome everyone. (and welcome to anyone who may be lurking!) I am keeping everyone's name in a notebook so I can mark when everyone has checked in that they are ready to move on to the next lessons in the class. I also wanted everyone to know who their classmates were just because.

So there have been some great ideas from people in this thread on what we should do first so lets get an idea of what people think.

So far we know that we need to do an overland style that is available in cc3+ because that is the one program that absolutely every class member has.

cobra mustang came up with the idea to make an island because it is easy so no one is overwhelmed by trying to make an entire region or continent in the first go.(I love your idea for coming up with symbols that we can all use, too)

and Loopysue would like the first effect that is taught to be Edge Fade Inner.

Is everyone in agreement with that?

So before we can do either of those though, lets pick an overland style.

What overland style would people like to use?

JimP

Maybe a basic one, with info and walk through, on how to add bitmap fills instead of a basic color ?

taustinoc

Provided you allow plenty of time for each lesson, you can count me in. I have no current use for an island map, so it's a perfect learning project. I'm more interested in seeing what CC can do than any specific tool or technique, and I'm still very new. I would like to eventually figure out how to build my own libraries of symbols (or add to existing ones), but there's no rush.

Loopysue

Maybe since much of the existing tutorials are done in Schley it would be best to use Schley (even though I adore HW and rarely use Schley!)... and don't worry taustinoc, I've no wish to go at any kind of a breakneck speed

taustinoc

Schley is certainly one of the more attractive styles, and most popular from what I can see. Good place to start.

Barliman

Posted By: LoopysueMaybe since much of the existing tutorials are done in Schley it would be best to use Schley (even though I adore HW and rarely use Schley!)... and don't worry taustinoc, I've no wish to go at any kind of a breakneck speed

I'd be happy with either one.

Tonnichiwa

Welcome Taustinoc. No, I don't plan on making this thread go fast at all. But I also don't want it to slow to a crawl so everyone loses interest and quits. Basically the idea is to give it a while between lessons so we can all learn from it and experiment a bit before moving on. Though I don't yet know what the ideal time would be for that. I guess we'll figure that out as we move along.

That's a good idea Sue. My vote is also for the Mike Schley style.

But I would like to hear from others as well before we move on so that we are all on the same page.

On a side note, if more people wish to join and say so in the thread I will add their name to the first name list so we all know who is participating.

Monsen

Excellent initiative.

But if I may come with a suggestion: Start out easy, don't have too many objectives for the first (couple of) maps. Remember that things like effects are basically just icing on the cake. They can make a good map beautiful, but they can't do too much to a poor map. It is much more important handling basic tools and mapping techniques before diving into more advanced stuff. Starting with the basics allows you to ensure that everyone is on the same page when discussing things like the finer points of effects.

cobra mustang

Weeeee let's go!

Loopysue

Maybe - and this is only a suggestion - maybe to give it a bit of structure we could make it a weekly thing - a map a week? I think a month is probably a bit too long, and people might get bored and drift away.

Or we could mutually set ourselves a task each fortnight?

Depends how busy everyone is, and how complicated the tasks are.

Monsen

Posted By: Loopysuemaybe to give it a bit of structure we could make it a weekly thing - a map a week

Another random suggestion from me. A map a week may be a lot for some people, but how about a milestone a week, where people check in and present their work so far and so on (and four milestones to a map). Should keep people working on similar things, which is helpful when you discuss and compare your efforts so far.