My first battlemap...

Eugee

Hi everyone! My second post here, and my first "here's what I've figured out how to do" post. I spent all night last night reading the entire help file, did that video tutorial (the Temple of Terror) repeatedly till it all made sense, then I started fiddling with a simple crypt I've done with Dundjinni, to relearn how to do the various effects. Like I said, I spent all night. I'm not complaining in the least though--it took me messing with the sheets one time to recognize that while CC3 looks initially to be much more complex than Dundjinni, there is stuff I can do here that would make me weep, otherwise. My biggest challenge has been to make effective looking ledges, so far. (I put a lot of ledges in my battlemaps, *shrug*.)

I was a little annoyed at my inability to figure out the right way to do this, when I finally decided to back up and look at the base elements. I put down a floor (on a floor sheet), then I put down cave walls around it (on a wall sheet), then I drew another floor (same as the first) on a "Raised 1" sheet that was between Floor and Wall. The floor had no effects, the walls had a black outer glow, while the raised had a faint inner glow and strong outer glow. Then I added the water, and faded the inner edge, added a white inner glow, and made it see through. Then tweaked the grid lines to white and finished arranging all the layers, finishing with Floor < Raised < Water < Grid < Walls.

I know this is an abyssmally simple map, but I'm very happy with my ledges, and it was my first big achievement. I'm used to just stamping down shadows and erasing edges in Dundjinni. I miss my catchall eraser, but I'm managing.

EDIT: Removed my attachment and just linked to the image, as I made it 100 px/sq to show some detail. (It's 1000x800)

Test Battlemap

Dkarr

Very well done.

You are absolutely right. There are things that CC3 can do with sheet effects that I'm totally thankful I don't have to figure out anymore.

Mogul76

Nice effects, Eugee. I'm learning CC3/DD3 myself and this is a very useful post for beginning cartographers like me. Thanks! If you're the Eugee who also posts in the Dundjinni message boards, I'm not worried at all that you'll manage to cope with the many features which CC3 offers :-)

Eugee

One and the same. I love Dundjinni, but I think CC3 is really going to reduce my post production work, as well as make *adjusting* my maps a lot easier.

Simon Rogers

Those ledges work rather well. How did you do them?

Eugee

The bottom floor is the background, and has no effects on it. The ledges are a layer of floor above that, with a Glow on them, then the outer walls are another layer above that with a Glow effect. The water has an edge fade and transparency, and the grid has a transparency, too. The textures are kind of bland, but I've since expanded my symbol catalogue.