[FT 3] Best ways to reshape an area?

Hi all,

With the holidays coming, I've decided to spend some of my days off (finally) learning CC3 and FT3. I only recently bought the latter and I've been having a blast just creating random worlds. I've started working with the various selecting tools and the raise/lower functions and, not surprisingly, I have a couple of questions. Attached is a graphic from a world I created to noodle around with.

The central basin was originally a large inland sea that I decided to raise. I used the rectangular selector and then the global raise function to create new land. As you can see, there's a noticeable border around the raised area, particularly in the east and south. What's the best way to deal with artifacts like that, so they don't look unnatural? Along the southern border, I used the freehand tool select an area (I also wanted to get rid of the lower portion of the central big lake, which looked weird) and raise it. It looks better, but, if you look carefully, you can still see portions of the outline of the selected area. Also, of course, the rectangle border is still to the right and left.

What's the best way to deal with these obvious borders?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. :)

Comments

  • Instead of a global raise, try the paint raise/lower functions. Repeated application of a large brush with a small value over an area works much better than a small brush with a large value. If you do want to raise/lower a selected area, feather (selection>modify>feather) the selection first. Even a feather value of 1 will help in blend in better. The more you change the altitude, the more feather you will need to blend it.

    Also, for best results try the "RMF with Perlin's Improved Noise" fractal function. Some of the others give unwanted artifacts (such as tire tracks).

    I'm still learning FT myself and have been putting up tutorials at Old Guy Gaming whenever I run across something worth sharing.

    Good luck and have fun!
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    If you haven't done a global blur, try that (a value of 2 or so should work well). If the whole-world blur is too much, trying just selecting around the edges that you're trying to get rid of and then do a global blur to just affect the selected areas.

    I recommend http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/CGTutorial/index.html as a useful tutorial. The most useful parts for your purposes are probbaly the recommendations for the increased editing resolution and use of the prescale offset editing tools, I think. Getting rid of the continental shelf in that inland sea will be very difficult without using the prescale editing tools, in fact.
  • edited November 2011
    @ Old Guy:

    Thanks for the suggestion of "RMF with Perlin's improved noise." I saw that in another thread (perhaps your suggestion) and have been using it with later worlds. It does look more natural. Regarding "paint raise/lower," how do I set up a large brush with a small value, as you describe? BTW, I have your blog bookmarked. :)

    @jslayton:

    Thanks for the tip about blur and the link to the tutorial!
  • Go to "View > Toolbars & Docking" and make sure that "Paintbrush Options" is checkmarked. Then, when you select paint raise/lower, you can change the settings on the "Paintbrush Options" toolbar. If you are painting Land Offset, I would start with height/width of 50 and a value of 200. Then gradually drop all three settings as you do more detailed work. If you are painting Prescale Land Offset, you want a value in the 0.01 range (maybe even 0.001). In either case it's important to remember that changes to settings don't occur until that text box where you enter the new setting loses focus (after changing settings press tab or alt-tab to change focus).
  • 6 days later
  • Thanks much, Old Guy. That will come in handy; I hadn't found those settings.
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