New here! Getting started with Campaign Cartographer – any tips?
I’m new to the forum and just starting out with Campaign Cartographer. I’ve always been interested in fantasy map-making, and finally decided to give it a try 😄
At the moment, I’m still figuring out the basics—tools, styles, and how to make maps look more detailed and realistic. It feels a bit overwhelming, so I’d love to hear from experienced users here.
Any beginner tips, tutorials, or things you wish you knew when you started?
Looking forward to learning from this community!
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Video Tutorials — ProFantasy Community Forum
That is one of the best places to start if you learn by watching. If you learn better by reading the PDF's are full of information.
Tommorow is a live stream which may be a bit much to jump into, but you will meet a bunch of great members and a few staff will be there most likely. They are amazingly helpful. Sometimes the chat will have an entirely different topic going than that of whomever is presenting. (the chat doesn't record with the video which is a shame. )
Top tips in my opinion.
Learn the difference between sheets and layers and what they do.
Figure out your tool bars, so the workspace suits you.
Different map styles ( Overland, dungeons, Symbold Sets etc etc, have different fills and tools so you need to experiment to find the things you like)
Good luck on your mapping journey.
Welcome, and congratulations on your first steps! I have 2 tips:
The videos linked by @Don Anderson Jr. are great. I was stumped at making anything good until @Ralf told me to watch these videos. It made a huge difference for me. I normally don't use tutorial videos, but these are really good.
This forum is the best tool to continue after the videos. The people here are friendly, helpful, and sometimes even knowledgeable. 😛
Good luck!
I agree, the videos made a huge difference. I spent years trying to teach myself using the PDFs, but it didn’t click until I started watching the tutorials.
Also, this forum is very helpful. If you have questions, ask away! Post your maps in progress for tips, both mechanical and aesthetic. If you’re experiencing weird effects, post an image of it and the FCW file, and lots of us will be happy to help.
Yep, have to say I bounced-off the program after simply trying to wing-it initially, which is a common problem for anyone coming to CC3+ from only simpler graphics-manipulation programs (pretty much most things used for computerised mapping other than CC!). Joe Sweeney's videos were what made it all click for me, and although they're all for the prior version, CC3, they still cover all the basics in a way that makes/made sense for me. Beyond those, or the PDF written tutorials if those work better for you, it then becomes a question of familiarity, which means mapping for yourself, ideally between frequently to regularly, including making mistakes, working out how to solve them, and so forth, with the help of the community here, should that be necessary.
It is all pretty overwhelming at first, but like most technical tools, so long as you learn the basics well, and progress from there (rather than as many, including myself, do/did, just leaping-in in hope!), you should be fine. Start with one type and style of mapping that's of interest, and go from there. And good luck!