Any Oriental style symbol sets out there? (CC3+)
Nureaf
🖼️ 2 images Newcomer
I was wondering if there is any symbol sets for oriental style trees, mainly cherry blossoms. A large section of my map is based on Oriental Adventures (D&D) and while the supplied buildings and settlements will do just fine, there are no trees that fit with that style of countryside.
Comments
There may be cherry blossom trees in some of the free third party asset packs available - most likely Dundjinni or the CSUAC, which you can get to from the resources thread here:
And, depending on the scale, there are a couple of related Cartographer's Annual issues in the 2018 annual here. These are city scale styles, not dungeon scale, so the resolution is slightly less than half that of dungeon symbols. Although this can be balanced by the fact that most CC3 symbols have resolution ranges that vastly exceed those available in the free packs.
https://www.profantasy.com/annual/2018/september18.html
Unfortunately these are all top down views, I'm looking for world map symbols. As for the "free content" from the Registration page, all I see is bundles for outrageous prices in the Offers tab and only the most recent update in the Downloads tab. :(
EDIT: So I found the free monthly content in the Downloads tab, but is there any way I can get last months content still? I could really use the elven themed symbols for my map.
Overland scale doesn't really go down to that level, but what you really mean is isometric rather than top view. I don't think PF has any like that (though I might be wrong), but you may find some isometric cherry trees in some of the free third party assets.
The first link I gave you was to a forum thread that contains a set of links to pages that have only free art assets. There aren't any prices on those at all, so I'm a bit confused by what you mean when you talk about "outrageous prices". There's a lot of information in that thread, so you need to scroll down to see more than just the free annuals. I would suspect that your best bet, now that I know a bit more about what you want, is the Dundjinni assets.
I see what you mean about the free monthly content. I had already installed the first month before this second month became available, so I can't tell if the new download link also contains the first month in an accumulative sense (ie both months in one installer). Have you tried installing what is there right now to see if you also have the first month included? If you only have the Orc structures and not the elven ones after you install it you might need to contact Profantasy to ask for the first month again.
Yes, just go to your Downloads page - it is under the Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus - and includes both the Orc and elven symbols for the Mike Schley style
Yeah, I looked through the thread. But the outrageous prices I'm referring to is in https://www.profantasy.com/service/registry.asp under the Orders tab. Master Mapper bundle is almost $300 and the "everything else I don't own" bundle is over $700. 😥
I actually just sent an e-mail to the General Questions address about obtaining the content for June while I installed the orc pack. I'll go and check to see if the elven pack was included... (30 seconds later) Yes, both packs were installed. I should have looked at that before sending the e-mail, lol.
That's good. Maybe send another email to say you found it?
Yes.
Eh, I won't burden them with additional e-mails, I'll just reply to the one they send back.
Regarding the free monthly content, there's a new page on the PF website about this here. I'm not sure you can access it from any of the PF website links currently, but it was given on Ralf's recent blog posting about the new Orcish symbols.
From that new webpage:
This content is available as a separate download from your registration page (click the CC3+ downloads button to see it) and will be rolled into the full CC3+ setup and upgdates regularly.
It does seem that only the current month's set is available as a download directly (just July's content is available from my own registration page today, certainly), but I assume that downloading the full CC3+ package would include June's symbols now. That might become problematic if you forget to download the set one month, but perhaps it's smart enough to realise if you haven't yet downloaded a given month's set after the month ends?
If you've not found anything suitable for cherry blossom trees in an overland mapping style from Sue's suggestions, you might need to try a search for icons or mapping icons online to find something suitable in PNG format (or that you could convert to PNG, so you get a transparent background for the artwork), and either use that, or convert it into a CC3+ symbol using CC3+. A couple of quick Google searches using "oriental tree mapping icons" and "cherry blossom mapping icons" came up with quite a number of artwork options, certainly (all vector artwork, however, and often not in PNG format, but I was only doing a very quick chase-round!).
I didn't realize you could create your own symbols. If that's the case, I could find some placeholders for now. I'm a seasoned photoshop user due to the nature of my job so I could always create a png from some fantasy style artwork if need be.
I just really enjoy working with the style of the Mike Schley collection of symbols so I'll find something for now and keep my fingers crossed for the addition of more Oriental themed symbols to accompany the Oriental buildings already available.
Oh yeah, and the download for this month's free content does include June's content as well. Both the Elven buildings and Orcish buildings are installed using the MCJuly2021 update file, which is very convenient might I add since I would have missed out on the Elven buildings (which I REALLY needed for my map). In fact, I even added an Orcish territory to my map that I had no plans on making because of the new monthly symbols, lol.
Sorry, Wyvern, both sets are available for download in the download page, as is quite clearly stated by me and others above.
In case anybody else stumbles in here looking for the same thing, here are some good options I came across with different artistic styles and angles.
Those are attractive!
Any idea of the rights on them?
Licensing is always the big problem with finding artwork online.
One thing that you can try (depending on your scale needs) is to use a varicolor tree symbol. That way, you can change the tree foliage color and still keep the same general artwork style. For example, just by changing the current drawing color, it's possible to get a whole catalog of trees in a particular color. And it's easy to change to similar colors to get a somewhat varied effect:
The main nuisances are needing to change colors manually and somewhat grayish results, but it's a cheap way to stay stylistically similar to the rest of a style (assuming that such things are a concern).
Oh yes!
[face-palm moment]
There are times when I have to shake my head at myself for not thinking of the most obvious things!
For the exception of cherry_blossom_1, I found them all on free download sites with open licensing. The one I just named is from the game CityVille, so that one might be an issue.
Here's a little screenshot test of the trees I posted above.
Hmmm. They look ok.
Have you tried using the varicolour trees in the style with the brightest pinks in the palette?
Not yet, I've been tinkering with some other stuff but nothing looks quite right, clashes too much with the art style of the Mike Schley symbol set. I'll go and do that now.
Glad you've been able to make some progress with this already @Nureaf . I know not everyone's so comfortable with creating their own artwork (it's why many of us come to CC3+, after all!), but once you have the PNGs, converting them to CC3+ symbols isn't too difficult, if a bit daunting the first time you do it. And the second time. And... But it does get easier!
@Quenten - There's some confusion here, as the downloads page shows just this link: "CC3+ Monthly Content (July 2021)". From Sue's uncertainty on the point, I assumed your comment meant you were still seeing a separate June 2021 link, and that was what you were describing - i.e. two separate links. Luckily, Nureaf's comment after mine made clear both sets are now in the one install link. I didn't spot this when installing the July set, though the details do flash through quickly, and I already installed the June set last month, of course. Thus I assumed the link only contained the current month's symbols, which is what my remarks were based on.
If you're interested in placing lots of individual trees fast, consider the SYMFILL command (Tools>>Symbols In Area on the menu). For the Mike Schley example, draw a polygon that you want your forest to be in. Then use SYMFILL on that polygon a setting of "random" for layout pattern and a symbol with "vc" (varicolor) in the name. Repeat as needed with different colors and symbols groups (e.g. "Scrubland Tree vc", "Decid Tree vc", "Decid Tree Bare vc", and so on) until you get the effect you want. When you get the density that you want, use SYMSORT (Symbols>>Sort Symbols In Map on the menu) to get them aligned nicely.
If you realize that you want a road or river through a forest block after the fact and want to clear out an area around the new item, try the SYMDELNEAR command (you'll have to type this one on the command line), pick the river or road and the Do It. Instant cleared area!
Here is an example map done using the above ideas:
I drew a big polygon between mountains and coast, then did SYMFILL with different colors and tree styles, followed by a SYMSORT and deleting the base polygon. I then did SYMDELNEAR to clear out the areas right by the roads and that's the result. Less than fifteen minutes total (too much of which was finding the catalog and picking the initial SYMFILL settings for a 1000x800 Mike Schley map, shown below).
That's really useful, I'll have to try that out in the future. But for now I think my map is done except for the occasional needed tweaks I'm sure to notice in the future. But for my very first map, I'm pretty satisfied. Got the map uploaded into my gallery along with a map of the political territories.
And before people start jumping down my throat about there being a desert south of the tundra, it's because of the elevation differences of the two areas and the natural weather systems that are in place. The tundra is placed high up between the two mountain ranges which tapers off on the sides allowing for the presence of fishing villages. Also, the small desert area in the plains is part of the lore I created for my home brew world in D&D. Pesky creatures those magical bad guys can be.
@Wyvern The July 2021 covers both June and July. That is why I wish their would be separate catalogue entries in the Downlad list for the Free Monthly issues, like they have for the Annuals.
@thehawk In Australia we definitely have rivers coming from nowhere and going to nowhere - Cooper Creek in west Queensland is a famous example. It rarely overflows into Lake Eyre (once every 5-10 years), yet flows strongly in the middle section, even with the notoriously low rainfall in the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lost_River
My contention is not whether these actually exist, it is that they always seem to get extra attention when they show up on maps. The Greyhawk map comes to mind.
I only said that because I've seen people get all iffy about stuff like that before. But hey, we are making maps for fantasy worlds were dragons and elves exist. Nothing needs to make complete sense, right?
There is also the February 2016 Annual Empire of the Rising Sun style that you can use for trees. The trees have the option of varicolor so you can make some interesting colors for them. This is an example of a few of the maps I made when the style first came out.
@jslayton That SYMDELNEAR is going to get a try out when I edit the world map I did for a publisher. That will save me quite a bit of work.
So many commands have been written because I was too lazy to do things in the way that competent and experienced users of the software would have done...