Marsh symbols?

Hello, I am using the Mike Schley template for my map, but there isn't a good icon for grassy marshland. I looked through the stickys, but they have so much info and odd terms that I'm not too sure where to go.
Any pointers are appreciated.

Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    When you say icon do you mean a symbol or a fill?

    And have you got some kind of image to show us of the map with the missing 'icon' so we can think along the right lines?
  • Oh, probably mean a symbol, like they do for trees and towns.
    I'm not sure what the best way to do the symbol would be. The swamp shows water and trees. I'd like something that looks like water and long grass.
    Or is there a better way to show a region of grassy marshes/ salt marsh, etc?
    I tried the marsh tool, but that just makes a filled in space that you have to trace, and it really doesn't look good.
  • Some of the vegetation symbols contain trees found in marshes. A topographic symbol for marsh is a spray of lines at various angles with a horizontal line under it. On my cell so I can't search my computer hard drive.
  • What about the Mike Schley Scrub or Scrubland symbols, with maybe a bare - so dead - tree or two? If you set those over a patch of Swamp, Marsh or even the Sea or Ocean fill for something more watery, that could fit the bill, perhaps? Failing that, I'd suggest a search through the various CC3+ Vegetation symbol sets that you have installed for something more to your taste.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    I think I'm not seeing this very clearly. There's a marsh fill in the built in Mike Schley overland style. But then I think to myself - is it an overland map?

    An image would be enormously helpful - of the map, or the affected part of the map that is - so we can do more than just make vague suggestions and never really get anywhere.
  • Hi folks, ok, here's a few pictures of what I am working on. The original, then adding the polygon marsh tool, then putting some of the different scrub tiles over it. It just doesn't look right.
  • Then with the marsh background at close zoom.
  • And then with some scrub tiles added.
    I'd like to see something that looks less like swamp and clutter. A lot of grassy marshes don't look that marshy until you are right in them. A tall grasses symbol, maybe with some cattails or a little water would be nice.
    Thanks for any help.
  • The scale of the bitmap fill is the problem.

    On the menu, top right, click on FS and a requestor will open.

    Select Bitmap fills.

    Scolll down to what you are using in the maps above for the land.

    Where it says: Scaled Width: [ ] Height: [ ] the numbers in those two areas are what you need to change.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Jim is right in one sense. Those fills are quite badly pixelated, but... this is a massive zoom into a map of Europe (as I remember it, I think, now you've shown this tiny bit)?


    I'm not sure I know how to explain this, but if this is maybe 1/100 of the area of your map, the fills are perfectly scaled. Its just that you are expecting to add too much detail for this map.


    If you want to add the marsh and all the details for that tiny bit of Europe, then it would be better to do maps of smaller pieces of the large one, so that all these fills would look far better.

    You see, you could easily scale that fill down so that it looked sensible for that teeny tiny bit, but if you also scaled the land fill down so that the same teeny tiny bit looked great, it would look like a horrible crazy green patterned carpet whenever you zoomed out to see the whole of the map.

    I've probably made a mess of explaining that.
  • No, that makes sense, it's what I suspected.
    That's why I'd rather have something like the trees, so I can set those for the large scale maps, and then use the fill version for smaller scale maps. But there isn't a good representation of marshy grasslands.
    I was hoping there was one somewhere that I could add.
  • I'm not a graphic artist, but it seems it wouldn't be too hard to make the symbols with paint.
    Are there guidelines on format, size, etc, so they can match the tree symbols, for instance?
    I'd like to make a few different versions for the random option, and a block version, like the forest.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    edited November 2018
    Symbols should be .png files.
    The size of a symbol for overland use should be 20 pixels/drawing unit, i.e, if you make a symbol that is supposed to cover a 1 by 1 mile area, it should be 20x20 pixels. Now, the exact size of an overland symbol is always a bit tricky, because a symbol is used to represent something there, it is not an exact representation (A single tree symbol isn't meant to show a single tree, it is meant to show a small forest for example, so don't go out and measure an actual tree, the size we are talking about here is the size it would occupy on the map). For overland symbols, it is usually good to check out similar symbols. For example the Swamp Tree symbol is 125x118 pixels (About half the width is the shadow from the tree though). The swamp tree is quite a small symbol, but I believe it is representative for the size of the symbol you want to make. Many symbols are much larger.
  • Thanks, I'll see what I can come up with.
    Can we share them here?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Original artwork is fine - stuff you draw yourself from scratch.

    Its when you use other peoples artwork that you need to be a bit more careful and ask permission.

    For example, I have asked permission to use the CD3 fills to make new house symbols. If they are of a satisfactory quality these will then be shared through Profantasy, and not by me directly.
  • edited November 2018
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: Monsen</cite>Symbols should be .png files.
    The size of a symbol for overland use should be 20 pixels/drawing unit, i.e, if you make a symbol that is supposed to cover a 1 by 1 mile area, it should be 20x20 pixels. Now, the exact size of an overland symbol is always a bit tricky, because a symbol is used to represent something there, it is not an exact representation (A single tree symbol isn't meant to show a single tree, it is meant to show a small forest for example, so don't go out and measure an actual tree, the size we are talking about here is the size it would occupy on the map). For overland symbols, it is usually good to check out similar symbols. For example the Swamp Tree symbol is 125x118 pixels (About half the width is the shadow from the tree though). The swamp tree is quite a small symbol, but I believe it is representative for the size of the symbol you want to make. Many symbols are much larger.</blockquote>

    Hi Monsen, Thanks for those details. Where did you find them? I wanted to look through the existing png files and get a better idea of how to make mine, but I can't find a folder with them.
    Also, my paint.net program is listing 96 pixels/inch. Is that a good setting?
  • Just as a test, I made this file. Is there a better way to do this?
  • And this is how it looks zoomed out.
    I think it's not bad, but could be better. Any suggestions?
  • That is the basic topo map symbol I mentioned. The underline is what makes it different from grasslands. The underline is for marsh.

    For the maps, I would add some water areas.
  • edited November 2018
    That's what I was aiming for, but there isn't a built in option. It might be a bit too subtle.
  • Water fill under bitmap fills to the map. Not necessarily to the symbol.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    edited November 2018
    Posted By: WriterSPHi Monsen, Thanks for those details. Where did you find them? I wanted to look through the existing png files and get a better idea of how to make mine, but I can't find a folder with them.
    Also, my paint.net program is listing 96 pixels/inch. Is that a good setting?
    They're in the Tome, and I am pretty sure they're in the help files too. The existing .png files are all located in the CC3+ data directory, for example @Symbols\Maps\Mike Schley\Vegetation

    As for 96 pixels/inch, that is a print setting and is completely meaningless in this context, only the actual dimensions (width/height in pixels) matter.
  • Thanks Monsen.
    So I made 2 different Marsh symbols and thought I would drop them into the same folder with the trees. Unfortunately, the program didn't see them as options the way I hoped. Is there a way to fix this?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Its not a good idea, generally speaking, to mix up your own symbols with the standard symbols. If there is an update that overwrites that folder you will lose them.

    The general practice is to create a new folder within the Symbols folder called "User" and then to have a folder system within that to hold your own symbols.

    The symbols you have put in the standard folder won't show up in the catalogue because the catalogue is a file, not the folder. A catalogue file references the symbols in one or more folders. Again, it would be better to make a separate new catalogue for the symbols in your User folder in case the catalogue is overwritten during an update.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    If you have the Tome you will find all the information you need about using the Symbol Manager and making new catalogues in there, or you could watch the Joe Sweeney vid - the same one I learned the basics from.



    If you watch the vid the import resolution he sets for his symbols is 100. That's because he's creating new Dungeon scale symbols. You more likely need overland, which is 20 (pixels per map unit)
  • Thanks for that video link. I think I got it all working, and I think it looks pretty good.
    Here's a look zoomed out a distance.
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