Advice for a Newbie
Hi, I've had CC since oh around 2006, that said, I've never really taken the time to use it.
I'm trying to make a map of the world I'm writing my fantasy stories in so that I have a good reference, as well as if I of course, one day actually complete my writing projects and try to publish. Anyway, I need some advice.
- I'm focusing on only fleshing out one continent since it is the main setting for my stories. Should I make a map of the entire continent OR should I focus on doing regional maps? The follow up question to that of course is, if I do regional maps, is there a way to combine them to make one big continental map?
- And the second main question. If I do a continent map, and the mountain range is near the coast or a desert is near the coast, how do I get my desert terrain to line up with the default terrain AND/OR get borders around the desert/mountain parts that are infact overlapping the edges of the default terrain?
I'm trying to make a map of the world I'm writing my fantasy stories in so that I have a good reference, as well as if I of course, one day actually complete my writing projects and try to publish. Anyway, I need some advice.
- I'm focusing on only fleshing out one continent since it is the main setting for my stories. Should I make a map of the entire continent OR should I focus on doing regional maps? The follow up question to that of course is, if I do regional maps, is there a way to combine them to make one big continental map?
- And the second main question. If I do a continent map, and the mountain range is near the coast or a desert is near the coast, how do I get my desert terrain to line up with the default terrain AND/OR get borders around the desert/mountain parts that are infact overlapping the edges of the default terrain?
Comments
I use html to tie the resulting maps together.
World all 12 is one of them. There are 14 such pages on my site. Some of the thumbnails look out of place as I tried multiple mapping styles. I am slowly fixing that.
The template and bitmap fills I use for my surface maps are here: Color chart, bitmap fills I use
The tutorial I wrote to make sure such maps match on their edges, roads, rivers, etc: joining maps
I hope that answers all of your questions.
1. How do you or can you import your own images as symbols, floor textures or wall textures. I have an extensive collection I've built up in the last few years and wouldn't want to waste them.
2. I was working on doing a cave complex and it has a small river flowing through it. What is the best way to add that. I tried the water but it does a smooth polygon which doesn't look right and I'm not sure how you would feather the edges to make it look more natural.
Any help would be much appreciated. I've spent some time leaching all of your excellent maps off this site and want to be able to give back to the community.
Thanks very much,
Mike
2) You can fractalize an object like a river of continent. Look on the left side of CC3 for an icon just to the right of the firecracker. Hover your moust over it. The tooltip should show 'fractalize'. I would be careful and not fractalize too much.
@Bryden88
- Concerning whether to do regional or continental maps, that's really a matter of taste and what focus your stories have.
- To attach a terrain fill to the coast (or a border to an exiting terrain), use the "Trace" function of the drawing tools. Take a look at the command line. After you've started a drawing tool and clicked the first point it tells you to hit "T" to trace an existing entity.
@mfrizzell
1. There are two separate functions to import your bitmaps, depending on how you want to use them. Note that you need the images in png format. BMP (Windows bitmap) is also possible, but png is much better.
a) If you want to import bitmaps as symbols, use "Symbols > Import pngs...". You can also just open your folder with the pngs in the catalog window, but this won't give you the general symbol functionality for them.
b) If you want to import bitmaps as fill styles, use "Tools > Import bitmap fill styles".
2.
a) You can change an exiting polygon from being smooth to a fractalized one, as Jim describes. If you want to change the water drawing tool itself. Click "ADvanced" in the drawing tool dialog and change the "Draw method" accordingly.
b) If you want to soften the edge of the water, you can add an "Edge Fade Inner" effect to the WATER sheet. Open the sheet and effects dialog, select WATER, activate sheet effects and add the appropriate effect to the sheet.
Hope that helps.
Sigh. Maybe I just need take some spare time... and type up more tutorials. Hmm... Maybe I can go somewhere and get some 'spare time'.
Your help is very much appreciated.
- Right-click the Floors drawing tool button, click "Advanced".
- Select an existing floor drawing tool.
- Click "New" and give your new tool a matching name. Leave it starting with "Floor," so it shows up under that tool.
- Click "Properties" and under "Use fill style" choose the bitmap fill you've imported into the map from the dropdown list.
- Save the tool.
You can also create a floor (or wall) drawing tool using the "current fill" by choosing the *current settings* option as the fill style. This tool will always use the current fill style you've set through the fill styles dialog.
Hope that helps.
- use Draw > Insert File to import your old map (which already has the fills) into the new map, then erase it again (use Undo, or select by Prior). This will create all the bitmap fills in the map.