Considering that this is a side view, I would probably try out filling the area with hatching. It just doesn't work the same to just have edge-hatching as it does on overhead maps.
Now that I have another look at it, I have to agree with you Remy. I'll give that a go. it will also be very quick to change - delete the existing hatching, and draw a single polygon over the rest with the drawing tool, too easy (in this style that hatching sits on a sheet immediately above the background sheet but below everything else)!
A clue or two as to what we're looking at here might help! A cross-section down into the pit, as a guess, but I'm thinking some plans will also be needed?
@Wyvern You're right on the money, this shows a cross section of the various caverns that lead off the central shaft shown in the first map. There should be more plans for each cavern but alas the author (and subsequently the publisher) will let the text do the talking for the caverns apart from the lowest one which will have a map (based on the sketches I received I'm glad they did!).
Unless there is a glaring error, I think I'm gonna call this one done! This is a 200ppi jpg, the 300ppi PNG looks much better on my screen but was too large to post.
They are meant to be stairs, right? Perhaps making them with some steps and not just lines?
I was also thinking, since this is a cross section, and that hole in the middle still have a backing somewhere, perhaps apply a faded out version of the hatching as a background (perhaps with a tunnel for the stairs?)
And filling the sides with hatching did look much better than just edging it.
I'd agree with @Monsen's suggestions re the steps and the "back wall" of the hole.
Also, is the zig-zag line a pathway along the inside of the hole? That may create problems with the back wall if so, because parts should obviously run along that wall too, and a straight zig-zag may not work well with it (because it should curve gradually). I think the lower line of cave AC is showing this back wall curvature already. If it is, does that mean those short step (?) lines are actually crossing the open part of the hole to reach the doorway in cave A?
@Wyvern I've given the shaft the same fill with a transparency effect. The AC chamber, according to the authors sketch, is behind the shaft and stairs descend across the shaft to exit on to level 3.
When I re-do the zig-zag lines into a paths, I will re do them as you suggest. I was going to do actual steps, but having them curve is a better idea. I can put some lines in to show steps every so often.
Here is a screen shot of where I'm at at the moment.
I think the text on the left is really illegible now. You might want to turn it white - the letters, I mean. No outline stuff. Its a bit messy against the background.
@Loopysue Hi Sue, it is white with an outer glow. I'm going to increase the size first. Turning off the glow seems like a good idea. I'll give that a crack when I'm working on it next. This is just a screenshot so it's not very hi-res, it looks a lot better in CC3+.
I wouldn't get rid of the glow. The glow makes the whole label more obvious. I would swap it for the darkest grey instead. You may find that this will magically re-show the white of the letters.
You may be able to solve the text problem by copying the affected extant text to a new Sheet with no Effects on below the one the text's currently on. It looks as if you may be getting bleed-through from one of the hatching textures - at a guess the new one added to the back wall of the pit. This sometimes happens when Effects on two Sheets cause interference with one another.
Ok, apart from the text on the hatched background I'm calling this done.
Originally, I did have 2 separate sheets for text, 1 for the white text with the black glow and one for just plain black text.
I tried to copy the white text onto a new sheet but it kept putting it on the same one. So this is where I'm at now after deleting the text and starting again. How do I copy this to the sheet above so I can change the colour to white and apply the glow, with the aim of stopping the hatch bleeding through?
It's good, but I would go for white text with a dark glow, but not absolute black, as that causes issues with the background. The blue is practically invisible :)
Try naming your new sheet "TEXT xyz" where xyz is the new name.
Thanks folks. The blue text will be on a sheet underneath the white text so it won't be seen. It's there purely as a mask to stop any issues with the hatching bleeding through. So what I'll do is copy it in place and then use select prior to move it to the other sheet and change the colour as appropriate. Hopefully that will work this time, I'm sure I tried that last night but it was late and I was tired so perhaps I was doing something wrong, and 'fix' it.
I'm pretty happy with these 2 maps, I don't think they look like "CC3" maps at all. I'm going to play with the ruin symbols on the 1st map, the mix of top down and perspective is not doing it for me at all, it just looks...wrong.
Stay tuned for the 'final version' of this map, the redo of the first and the final map in this series.
Nearly finished with this one. A bit of tidying up to do, a compass rose and scale bar, a little text and it's more or less done.
Can anyone point me in the direct of some swirling patterns? Apparently, there are swirling patterns on the walls and floor...doesn't matter if there are none...
There are some coloured swirls in the CA3 Magic symbols. I thought there might be some among the Elemental & Magic Symbols in DD3, but I've had no luck trying to quickly track any down.
Thanks @Wyvern. I'll have a look in the various fills folders when I get home. Due to using the software commercially, I can only have it on one machine which is a bit of a drag.
@Monsen I'll have a look at the command as well, thanks for the tip!
One of the edits I'm going to make is to the amphitheatre, I'm going to change the outline to a path (it was drawn with the regular CAD tools), trace it with the rock fill drawing tool on a layer above the existing fill layer and then copy the Glow (inner) effect from the pit to it.
@Loopysue All good, they are supposed to be on the walls and floors but as you rightly point out, in this view only those on the floor can be seen.
@Monsen you're a genius! Is there anything you don't know about this software? That CARCD command did the job.
Well, unless I get some feedback based on the above map that changes things, I'll be likely submitting the below version. This is as good as I can do at the moment and it's bloody good value!
Comments
Considering that this is a side view, I would probably try out filling the area with hatching. It just doesn't work the same to just have edge-hatching as it does on overhead maps.
Thanks @Loopysue, @Medio, @JimP & @Monsen,
Now that I have another look at it, I have to agree with you Remy. I'll give that a go. it will also be very quick to change - delete the existing hatching, and draw a single polygon over the rest with the drawing tool, too easy (in this style that hatching sits on a sheet immediately above the background sheet but below everything else)!
A clue or two as to what we're looking at here might help! A cross-section down into the pit, as a guess, but I'm thinking some plans will also be needed?
@Wyvern You're right on the money, this shows a cross section of the various caverns that lead off the central shaft shown in the first map. There should be more plans for each cavern but alas the author (and subsequently the publisher) will let the text do the talking for the caverns apart from the lowest one which will have a map (based on the sketches I received I'm glad they did!).
Hi Folks,
Unless there is a glaring error, I think I'm gonna call this one done! This is a 200ppi jpg, the 300ppi PNG looks much better on my screen but was too large to post.
Those lines reminds me of the TCP 3-way handshake.
They are meant to be stairs, right? Perhaps making them with some steps and not just lines?
I was also thinking, since this is a cross section, and that hole in the middle still have a backing somewhere, perhaps apply a faded out version of the hatching as a background (perhaps with a tunnel for the stairs?)
And filling the sides with hatching did look much better than just edging it.
Thanks @Monsen Good suggestions all, I'll do my best to incorporate them.
This makes more sense now!
I'd agree with @Monsen's suggestions re the steps and the "back wall" of the hole.
Also, is the zig-zag line a pathway along the inside of the hole? That may create problems with the back wall if so, because parts should obviously run along that wall too, and a straight zig-zag may not work well with it (because it should curve gradually). I think the lower line of cave AC is showing this back wall curvature already. If it is, does that mean those short step (?) lines are actually crossing the open part of the hole to reach the doorway in cave A?
@Wyvern I've given the shaft the same fill with a transparency effect. The AC chamber, according to the authors sketch, is behind the shaft and stairs descend across the shaft to exit on to level 3.
When I re-do the zig-zag lines into a paths, I will re do them as you suggest. I was going to do actual steps, but having them curve is a better idea. I can put some lines in to show steps every so often.
Here is a screen shot of where I'm at at the moment.
That's coming on pretty well.
I think the text on the left is really illegible now. You might want to turn it white - the letters, I mean. No outline stuff. Its a bit messy against the background.
@Loopysue Hi Sue, it is white with an outer glow. I'm going to increase the size first. Turning off the glow seems like a good idea. I'll give that a crack when I'm working on it next. This is just a screenshot so it's not very hi-res, it looks a lot better in CC3+.
It's not showing up as white.
I wouldn't get rid of the glow. The glow makes the whole label more obvious. I would swap it for the darkest grey instead. You may find that this will magically re-show the white of the letters.
You could add an additional white glow that goes a little farther and is less opaque.
I think you need two text sheets: one for black against white, one for white against ground pattern. You can adjust the effects until you like them.
You may be able to solve the text problem by copying the affected extant text to a new Sheet with no Effects on below the one the text's currently on. It looks as if you may be getting bleed-through from one of the hatching textures - at a guess the new one added to the back wall of the pit. This sometimes happens when Effects on two Sheets cause interference with one another.
That is what I started doing. Same if I have some small text as well as large text. My gurps space star ship is an example.
@DaltonSpence , @JimP , @Wyvern, @Loopysue, @Theschabi
Thanks for your help folks.
Ok, apart from the text on the hatched background I'm calling this done.
Originally, I did have 2 separate sheets for text, 1 for the white text with the black glow and one for just plain black text.
I tried to copy the white text onto a new sheet but it kept putting it on the same one. So this is where I'm at now after deleting the text and starting again. How do I copy this to the sheet above so I can change the colour to white and apply the glow, with the aim of stopping the hatch bleeding through?
movesht is the command on the command line.
1) I change the sheet listed in the sheet popup.
2) type movesht enter
3) select the text I want to move.
4) do it.
5) the sheet popup will show up again. Make sure thge new sheet is selected, then click okay.
The text should now be on the new sheet.
Depending on the map for sheets I have: Text; Text, white; Text, black; Text, white, small; Text, black, small.
Not sure what outer glow I would put on the bluish lettering though. I'm not good with picking colors out.
It's good, but I would go for white text with a dark glow, but not absolute black, as that causes issues with the background. The blue is practically invisible :)
Try naming your new sheet "TEXT xyz" where xyz is the new name.
@JimP, @Loopysue
Thanks folks. The blue text will be on a sheet underneath the white text so it won't be seen. It's there purely as a mask to stop any issues with the hatching bleeding through. So what I'll do is copy it in place and then use select prior to move it to the other sheet and change the colour as appropriate. Hopefully that will work this time, I'm sure I tried that last night but it was late and I was tired so perhaps I was doing something wrong, and 'fix' it.
I'm pretty happy with these 2 maps, I don't think they look like "CC3" maps at all. I'm going to play with the ruin symbols on the 1st map, the mix of top down and perspective is not doing it for me at all, it just looks...wrong.
Stay tuned for the 'final version' of this map, the redo of the first and the final map in this series.
Ok folks,
So this map is done.
Thanks everyone.
Hi All,
Here is the beginning of the final map of this commission.
@Monsen does something look familiar??
Here is another update.
Nearly finished with this one. A bit of tidying up to do, a compass rose and scale bar, a little text and it's more or less done.
Can anyone point me in the direct of some swirling patterns? Apparently, there are swirling patterns on the walls and floor...doesn't matter if there are none...
Don't know avout any swirly patterns off the top of my head, but maybe you can draw some simple ones using the chained arcs command [CARCD]
There are some coloured swirls in the CA3 Magic symbols. I thought there might be some among the Elemental & Magic Symbols in DD3, but I've had no luck trying to quickly track any down.
Thanks @Wyvern. I'll have a look in the various fills folders when I get home. Due to using the software commercially, I can only have it on one machine which is a bit of a drag.
@Monsen I'll have a look at the command as well, thanks for the tip!
One of the edits I'm going to make is to the amphitheatre, I'm going to change the outline to a path (it was drawn with the regular CAD tools), trace it with the rock fill drawing tool on a layer above the existing fill layer and then copy the Glow (inner) effect from the pit to it.
What kind of swirly pattern are you looking for?
From what perspective?
If it is on the walls you would not see it, other than in a perspectives map, and this is top down.
@Loopysue All good, they are supposed to be on the walls and floors but as you rightly point out, in this view only those on the floor can be seen.
@Monsen you're a genius! Is there anything you don't know about this software? That CARCD command did the job.
Well, unless I get some feedback based on the above map that changes things, I'll be likely submitting the below version. This is as good as I can do at the moment and it's bloody good value!
Finally finished. Once I've been given the OK to invoice, I'll post the final versions in my Gallery, Commissions album.
This publisher is great to deal with...sent the invoice this morning, about an hour and a half ago and they've paid it already. Bloody brilliant!