New user from the Netherlands, nice to meet you all!
Hello cartographers!
My handle is Yskonyn (Ice-co-nine) and I hail from the Netherlands.
My goal is to become proficient with CC3+ and to archieve that I have bought Tome of Ultimate Mapping Plus (huge! Omg!).
Browsing these forums I get inspired very easily because of all the excellent maps on show, but I need to force myself to take baby steps. Learning to crawl first, then stand up, walk and finally run. :)
That said, I would appreciate any and all tips you would like to share with me. What were pitfalls you perhaps suffered, but would easily avoid now?
Is ToUM indeed a good source to start learning with? Do you recommend other/additional sources for tutoring (instead)?
Glad to be here and looking forward to your input!
Comments
Hello and welcome, Yskonyn :)
The 'Tome', as we often call it, does contain practically everything there is to know about Fractal Terrains, CC3 and all the add ons, but it's probably easier to use that as a rather large all-in-one reference manual.
I recommend starting with the CC3+ User Manual and working through the excercise contained in it. That will give you a reasonable understanding of most of the basic tools. Similarly, when using the add-ons they often have their own user manuals (or 'Mapping Guides' in the case of the Cartographer's Annuals.)
However, if you are more of a visual learner we have collectively created a lot of tutorial videos and live mapping streams, most of which are available on YouTube and indexed on this thread here.
But sometimes the quickest way to solve a problem is just to start a thread here on the forum and ask how to do it or what went wrong.
Hello !
Thank you @Loopysue . I saw the reference to the 10-minute Quickstart guide on the welcome page of CC3+, but clicking on it my system returned an error about either not finding it or not allowed to open it.
A manual search did find the .chm file manually, so I've been going through it on a leisurely pace.
After this I will follow your advice and go for the CC3+ manual first, then the DD3 manual and then go with the Tome for further specialization, so to speak. Would that be a good course of action?
Hi there, Jim! :)
Are these forums the main way of interacting with the ProFantasy community?
Yes, that sounds good.
Welcome!
For me, I learned the most from the video tutorials.
I spent years (off and on) trying to teach myself with the PDF manuals before I started to watch the videos. Joe Sweeney’s “Parrot Island” video made things click for me and set me on my way.
I would recommend going through the Learning CC3+ videos as well as Joe Sweeney and Josh Plunkett’s series that go through the process. Then the Campaign Cartographer Concepts and Quickies. The Live videos are great and I learn something new with every single one, but I’d get the basics down with the other videos first. (You may get up to speed faster than I did and might end up skipping around.) Also, bear in mind that some of the oldest videos talk about techniques that are now out of date but the fundamentals are still helpful.
Thank you both! Remy Monsen's videos are pretty helpful so far.
Time to start exploring a bit inside the software and have some fun. :) I am in no rush whatsoever.
Hy @Yskonyn welcome!
Joe Sweeney made a series of videos a,b,c,d... about the first steps in CC3. Note that these videos are from the old version of the software, but your knowledge remains current. You can use a lot to create your first maps beautifully.
I leave you the link to the first video, I hope it is useful in some way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLaTKOJC6og&t=149s
Cheers
Also in this link, Josh Plunkett explain how to perform the TRACE technique - using a base map as a reference and working with CC3 on top of that image. This technique for me is absolutely essential as it saves me a lot of time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Fvz98lJ7Q&t=1785s
Cheers II
Welcome on-board!
The advice from everyone above is very sensible, and should help you get started.
The main problems I found early on with the software related chiefly to being more familiar with how desk-top publishing and graphics manipulation software works, whereas CC3+ is genuine CAD software, which works in a very different way. Equally though, it's also far more powerful and - once you get into its apparent quirks - far more useful.
I found the Joe Sweeney videos the most helpful, as I started with CC3, but the more recent videos (which didn't then exist) for CC3+ by Ralf (the live mapping streams) and Remy are just as useful.
Best advice is once you're familiar with the basics, through video tutorials and/or the Manual, just make some maps of your own, and learn from that - including making mistakes, and working out (or asking here!) how to correct them. Good luck!
Solid advice, everyone and thanks for the links! Much appreciated.
You'll be seeing more of me around here. Is 'here' the mainstay of the community, by the way? In other words, do people of this community usually communicate via these forums?
Yup,this is what here we we hang out.
@Yskonyn The community on Facebook CC3 and also for fantasy are also very active. But master @JimP is right, here is where we communicate most.
I always have 3 morning tasks on the computer every day (they are not in order): world football game schedule, my email and the pro fantasy forum 🤣
I don't Facebook. Is the CC3 conversation there good enough to reconsider that?
It's just different, Kertis - like any other FB Group. It's not exactly the best place to do WIP threads or get a problem sorted out that requires more than a simple text question and answer, but it's there for people who can't abide forums.
I visit both, but I prefer the forum. Many people use one or the other but not both. There are more of the Profantasy Team here on the forum.
I don't either. Not going to start now.
I am happy with these forums. :)