How to add large symbols to a city map
Driechel
Traveler
Hey there. I just got CC3+ as part of the Humble Bundle, and I'm trying to make a city from a game I'm playing in. The city has a very large mountain that it is nestled up against, and I'm trying to figure out a way to include something like that in my map. (I'm also trying to figure out a lot of other things, because CC3 is great, but complicated for a newb) Would this be better handled by making a map of the mountain and the general outline of the city as an overworld map and then drawing the city map on top of that? Or am I thinking too big for a first project?
Thanks for the help!
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I did a blog with an example map of a city on a small mesa, if that is any help. The assets used were all CD3 - no extra annuals or other add ons.
I know your city is at the base of a mountain, but you could use the same technique to make that mountain, or the visible side of that mountain.
Hot DAMN that is gorgeous. I think I'll give that a shot. Thanks!
Thank you :)
Just shout if you get into difficulties.
How did you draw the lines? I've dabbled a bit with Dungeon Painter Studio, but I've not played around with a software that was this...granular. Reading that you made a vector program sounds complicated, and a little terrifying.
I used the freehand drawing tool. Freehand Sketch
I can't remember if I had a line width setting. If you use List from the info menu you will find out if the lines have a width, and also if it was black or a dark brown that I used.
Not sure what you mean about me making a vector program?
Oh, the way I read it originally made it sound like you basically wrote a program to get the texture on the mountains just right. Whoops. I think I'm getting the hang of drawing the texture with the secondary layer as you described.
Oh that was probably just me not explaining things in a very logical way ;)
How did you use color key to make those shapes in the CLIFF ROCK sheet? I've read the section on color key in the Ultimate Tome, and I've seen how it works with your map, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to make it work with my map. My understanding is you had the green grass background, then put the brown over that, and cut it up using the magenta. When I try using the magenta to cut, it ends up leaving a different color, not a hole to the next layer. Am I missing something?
The colour of the Color Key has to be the same as one you use as the cutting shape. If it is just slightly different it won't work. I usually use the magenta in the top row, which is what the Color Key is set to by default.
The other thing to check is that you have the replacement opacity of the Color Key set to zero percent.
Do you draw the rectangle, then draw the magenta over it? I've tried it both ways and I'm getting very mixed results. Does the layer it's on have an impact, too?
Maybe I'm missing something super incredibly basic. Here's what I'm doing:
I've got a layer I'm calling Mountain Base for, well, the base of the mountain. It has Color Key on it, set to that horrid shade of purple.
Now I have a square of brown on it. It is, to my knowledge, the only thing that should be on this layer that is immediately beneath the Background layer. All other layers are hidden.
Made a circle. Made it that same pink as mentioned previously.
This, for reasons that blow my mind, works. So I try the same with a bitmap now, which I saved based on the Bitmap A Earth 1 texture mentioned on webpage. I draw another circle on it, and it doesn't show up at all.
They both appear to be on the sheet and layer. So...what's going on.
If you turn effects off, you should see your magenta circle on top of your bitmap box. If not, then the circle is likely underneath the box and so can't be seen by the Color Key effect.
The pink shapes have to be on the same sheet as the thing you are trying to cut.
I GOT IT.
Now to ride this elation for five minutes until I forget how to draw a straight line or something.
Does anyone have a good tutorial for Blend Mode? Even the Tome of Ultimate Mapping only has a half page dedicated to it, and I have no idea what most of the options for this mean.
(I also feel like the title for this post is becoming increasingly inaccurate.)
I don't know of a proper tutorial off the top of my head, but you can check out this blog post for a few examples. Also note that the blend mode effect is the same feature as you find on layers in most graphics apps, so there shouldbe plenty of tutorials on the general concept out there, if not CC3+ specific ones.
Ralf did a Live Mapping session just over a week ago where he covered most of the sheet effects. The Blend Mode is at 28:40 or thereabouts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y9NRUm2jHg
Basically, the mode you pick from the dropdown box at the top of the edit dialog for this effect gives you a set of different ways to blend the pixels of the texture on this sheet with the underlying map. They are closely related to the kind of blend modes you might find between layers in a bitmap editor, so overlay and multiply will do exactly what setting them in GIMP or PS would do.
The opacity just controls how opaque the things on that sheet are.
Is there a way to modify the width of things like the fractal path and freehand sketch? You mentioned it as a possibility earlier on and I'm not seeing it in my poking attempts so far.
Yes. Click in the box at the top of your CC3+ screen that has "W:" in it (to the right of the colour box). This calls up the Line Width Settings pane, and you can adjust the width of any line you're about to draw to whatever you need. The actual width is in Map Units (so miles or kilometres for an overland map, feet or metres for most other types).
Either set the line width before you draw, or use Change Properties
on the paths in the drawing.
You mean the line width?
You can either set the line width before you draw the line by clicking the little box at the top with W: in it, or you can use change properties once it's already drawn.
Another way, without altering the actual width of the line, is to add a glow to the sheet it is on that is the same colour as the line.
Cave progress shot! The lines are a little too even for me at this point, but I still like the way they lead the eye. I'll add a few more of the vertical crags seen in the Orde sheets in a minute, but for now I like what I've got going on. I'm thinking of trying to add a set of increasingly opaque dark blobs to mimic the cave entrance, maybe with some of the inner blur effect used on the mountain's base against the background to let things blend a bit better. This is actually beginning to look like a decent thing! I'm trying to add to the city itself when I'm dealing with technical nonsense so maybe I'll get to show that in a bit here.
Looking good, Driechel :)