Hey Everybody!
Hey everybody!
My name is Ryan Thomas, I'm 35 and I'm from a small town in NC that is famous for being the town Mayberry is based on. The earliest memory I have of creating maps was back in middle school creating maps by hand and putting them into RPG Maker on my 2003 Gateway desktop.
I've been looking at the Pro Fantasy Software products for a while and purchased Fractal Terrains 3 last night. I have other map-making programs, but once I discovered CC3+ and all the add-ons available while looking at the Cartographers Guild, I started looking into them. I will eventually purchase CC3+, probably next month, but for now, I am focusing on learning the FT3 software.
I'm looking forward to learning about all the software Pro Fantasy offers and have been enjoying playing around in FC3 so far.
Also, a fun fact about my town, we are home to the world's largest open-face granite quarry.
Comments
Welcome, great resources here.
Fractal Terrains is pretty cool.
Campaign Cartographer is a tough learning curve, but there are so many resources, and amazingly helpful people here.
Enjoy! Oh and bookmark the Video Tutorials page.
Welcome from right down the road. I've done a map or two of my local area, but I'd like to do more in NC. Maybe we could collaborate. Have fun!
Hey! That's pretty awesome finding someone right down the road from me. That'd be pretty awesome! I have a lot of old maps of my town and the area I live in because my great-grandfathers owned a lot of land in my area and in the city limits.
Welcome @RyanosRealm
I recomend Mr. Joe's videos, here is the link to the first one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5-T12055Y
These are the oldest videos on how to use the program, are very complete and are a solid foundation in using the program..
After these, on Remmy's channel https://www.youtube.com/@RemyMonsen or even on the official Pro Fantasy channel https://www.youtube.com/@ProfantasySoftware there are many more explanatory videos.
As for the rest and any other questions, we are here on the forum.
Salut!
I made sure to bookmark that page last night. I have a pretty good background in learning programs and software, my parents were once the head designer and installer at a sign company, and I've been messing with Corel Draw Photoshop and many other programs like that for fun my whole life, and in high school I learned how to use AutoCAD when I took 2 years worth of drafting. I'm really looking forward to learning everything about all these programs! I'm mainly going to use them for my TTRPG worlds, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be playing with everything and making stuff just for fun with everything!
Thank you! I've been reading the forums and this is a great community that is helpful and friendly! I'm glad to be a part of it and hope to be able to get as great as all of y'all. Once I get the hang of everything, or if I have any questions at all, I'm going to be posting more on here including the world I've been working on for the past few years for some TTRPG games.
Hi Ryan,
Welcome! I see that your hometown was chosen as the inspiration for Mayberry because it was where Andy Griffith grew up. Very cool.
I also started with Fractal Terrains. It took me a while to get my head around how FT and CC3 do and do not interact with one another. I finally started watching some of the older tutorials, and it was watching Joe Sweeney's that Ricko recommends above where things really start to click for me. Before that, I was trying to teach myself using the PDFs and I wasn't really absorbing it.
Joe Sweeney has some videos that show how to use Fractal Terrains, and here are some more from ProFantasy from a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuhB_LXr3Sg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNR-BBPSRo
There are some others that show how to take what you've built in Fractal Terrains and then elaborate on them in CC3. They're a bit advanced, though, but if you want to take a peek, here is one from early 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd78fcQc1YA
(The beginning covers taking part of a continent from FT to CC3.)
But don't get intimidated if it seems like a lot. I started with Joe Sweeney's, then watched some of Remy Monsen's that were about specific techniques and tools, and then graduated to the ProFantasy's "Live" sessions. The Lives are great, and I always learn something new from every one, but you never know (unless it's the main focus on the session) what techniques you'll learn from them. I'd recommend getting a good foundation from the other videos first.
And also, this forum is very welcoming, and we are all happy to answer any questions you have.
Thank you all so much! I haven't even had the FT3 for 24 hours, and I already have so many resources to start with on learning how to use it! You all are amazing!
And yeah, Andy is from here. I'm related to him through my grandmother's family. In the show he goes by Andy Taylor, Taylor was his mother's maiden name, and my grandmother's. My grandmother and Andy are cousins. Our town has much more to offer than just being his hometown though. A lot of buildings in the city are very old and made out of granite from the quarry. Before we became Mayberry, we were known as The Granite City.
After playing around with FC3 all day yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet and I purchased the Fantasy Mapper bundle and the Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I'm ready to start my journey into all this software has to offer!
Good luck.
Not gonna lie, there will be frustrations. But people here will help.
Something didn't go right for me a few days ago. I took a step back then went at it again. When you get a fresh finished map it's worth it.
Honestly, between watching videos on YouTube yesterday, I would look all over the forums here, and the fact that there are so many active and helpful members here, is one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and buy it. I have a lot of map-making software programs, and this is the only one I've seen that has such an active fan base that's helpful too, most of the others have a discord server that's full of people wanting to be trolls, and nothing beneficial comes from there.
In my opinion, it’s well worth the investment. Fractal Terrains is great, but limited without also having CC3. The community here has been so helpful to me. Lots of experienced mappers ready to give advice. But also: the staff is fantastic. I’ve never used a software product where so many people on staff were so ready, willing, and able to offer support on techniques, not just software bugs. As I understand it, most or all of the folks on staff were end users before moving the company.
Yea I didn't even think about the company aspect. I had CC2 from waaaaay back. Then I bought CC3 and a bunch of other programs, with the physical discs. Probably 10 years ago or more.
Never had any problems and I LOVE that you can go to your downloads page and grab them any time you have to instal to a new device. So easy. Profantasy is among the best companies I've never had to deal with...if you understand that I mean that in a great way.
This is not a paid advertisement and I recieve no renumerations.
I agree! ProFantasy is probably the best map-making companies there is! I have been a member of the Cartography Guild for quite some time now, and I have seen Joe in there along with Loopysue and Monsen, and they're always helping people out with not just software questions, but general mapping questions also. This was definitely a purchase that was going to happen eventually. So far from just playing around with CC3+ right now, it kind of reminds me of AutoCAD and old school Corel Draw combined. I'm loving it!
I have noticed a side effect from mapping with CC3 for a year (your mileage may vary). I have always been interested in cool architecture, but now when I am out and about, I am much more aware of little architectural details. Specifically, I find myself wondering, "What would that look like from a birds-eye view...and what techniques would I use to render that in CC3." 😉
I'm sure I'll be doing the same thing! I'd like to find some of the old maps of my area and see if I can scan them and recreate them in CC3+
If you need electronic image versions to trace into a CC3+ map, North Carolina Maps may help, if you haven't bookmarked their site already, that is!
Funny, that’s what I was doing all afternoon. Went down to the Old San Francisco Mint to take pics, because the floor plans I found online had conflicting info about the exterior. (Some had fountains outside that I don’t remember seeing — must have been when it was an operational mint up into the 1930s.) Then I went to the main branch of the public library to see if they had floor plans of the original main branch (1917-1993, which is now the Asian Art Museum) — and they did! Lots of mapping inspiration.
Thanks! I have a few maps from the 20's that were my great grandfathers, I own them too.
That's pretty cool! I'm snowed in currently, so I'm taking all this time I have to learn and get the basics down at least.