Hints and Tips.
I figured I'd do this as a place for people to put up some of the more 'commonly' asked things and also as a place for people to easily get some answers etc with out having to hunt through 100 posts to try and find them. If ralf or simon object feel free to say so, but I've noticed we have a lot more people as beginners and not all of them have the Annual etc.
Just don't go posting entire annual stuff etc up, after all the annual is there to be purchased and used but some of the more common stuff that people should know is what I've done this for... so:
1. Removing a weird line that appears on a fractual item..
What is happening here is that two nodes/control points in the fractual are too close and it causes a mess up in the drawing. There are a few ways to 'fix' it.
The first is to just reduce the line width, this free's up the drawing distance, the second is to delete some of the nodes around the area, I've highlighted the section on the attached picture i'm talking about it shows both methods.. The first is rather obvious on how to do but the second isn't.
What you want to do is use the Delete Node Tool and carefully begin deleting nodes in the 'effected' area..
You should end up with it looking like image number 3 (i've done some modifications to make it easier to show you what I mean.
1. Shows the annoying thing I'm talking about
2. Shows it with just reducing the line
3. Shows it once you delete a node or two.
Just don't go posting entire annual stuff etc up, after all the annual is there to be purchased and used but some of the more common stuff that people should know is what I've done this for... so:
1. Removing a weird line that appears on a fractual item..
What is happening here is that two nodes/control points in the fractual are too close and it causes a mess up in the drawing. There are a few ways to 'fix' it.
The first is to just reduce the line width, this free's up the drawing distance, the second is to delete some of the nodes around the area, I've highlighted the section on the attached picture i'm talking about it shows both methods.. The first is rather obvious on how to do but the second isn't.
What you want to do is use the Delete Node Tool and carefully begin deleting nodes in the 'effected' area..
You should end up with it looking like image number 3 (i've done some modifications to make it easier to show you what I mean.
1. Shows the annoying thing I'm talking about
2. Shows it with just reducing the line
3. Shows it once you delete a node or two.
Comments
I don't know about you but some times things scream on a map that they are just one image layered over another.. a hard 'line' between two items.. mostly this occures on things like roads or the such.. The best thing I've found for removing this is two seperate items.
First off in your Drawing tools if you own DD3 & any of the SS2 stuff you will notice and find that you have floor tools that look like they have white gaps in them, these are great for breaking up area's and showing the item that's under it. However they too suffer from the same problem.
So you merge it with the following methord which is using sheets, now there are a few ways of doing this, the best ones i've found are Edge Fade and Blur.. First off an Edge fade can held fade the edges of an item which can make it look a better but it doesn't always work on it's own.
While a Blur can be used along with something like grass etc, is that it causes a 'dark' patch with the texture of the grass or whatever over the other item.. I tend to find a blur between 4 - 9 works well for this depending on the size etc.
The effect you end up with is shown here. a shadowed/more merged edge between the two items.
--Dale--
Here is an example which you have asked for, Bidmaron (it's not exactly that what Rob has shown us but the principle is similar).
Please note that this is work in progress and I still need to add vegetation etc. and get the shadows of the outer walls as well as the symbols outside right.
Click the images to see the more detailed versions.
WIP 1: BACKGROUND and ROAD sheets visible, sheet effects off
WIP 2: BACKGROUND, COURT YARD, ROAD and GRASS sheets visible, sheet effects off
WIP 3: BACKGROUND, COURT YARD, ROAD, GRASS, COURT YARD DIRT, COURT YARD PAVEMENT, DIRT and COURT YARD PAVEMENT CLEAN sheets visible, sheet effects off
WIP 4: WIP3 with sheet effects activated - tata!
Sheet order and effects:
BACKGROUND: no sheet effects
ROAD: Edge Fade, Inner 3 / 100 / 0
COURT YARD: Edge Fade, Inner 6 / 100 / 0
COURT YARD DIRT: Edge Fade, Inner 6 / 50 / 30
COURT YARD PAVEMENT: no sheet effects
DIRT: Edge Fade, Inner 6 / 70 / 40
COURT YARD PAVEMENT CLEAN: Edge Fade, Inner 2 / 80 / 0
GRASS: Edge Fade, Inner 8 / 60 / 40
I hope that this helps.
anyone for adding number 3 / 4 to the list of tips ?
Did you ever have the problem of your outer shadows shining into your buildings / dungeons and leaving the impression that the latter don't have a roof?
Well, the following trick will help you solve the problem.
If it's not already included in your template, create a sheet OUTSIDE SHADOW and copy the inner floors as well as outer walls to the sheet. I tend to change the texture to "solid" and the colour to black (colour: 0).
Make sure that OUTSIDE SHADOW is above FLOORS but below any outside sheets in the sheet list.
Now add another sheet with the name SYMBOLS OUTSIDE and move all symbols located outside the building / dungeon to that sheet.
Make sure that SYMBOLS OUTSIDE is above OUTSIDE SHADOW in the sheet list.
Now add the effects. In my example:
SYMBOLS OUTSIDE: Wall Shadow, Directional 3.5 / 50 / 1 / x
OUTSIDE SHADOW: Wall Shadow, Directional 5 / 50 / 2 / x
PLATFORM (on the right): Glow Outside / RGB 0 0 0 / 1 / 2 + Wall Shadow, Directional 5 / 50 / 2 / x
PILLARS (on the left): Bevel 0.25 / 20 / 0 / 1 + Glow Outside / RGB 0 0 0 / 1 / 2 + Wall Shadow, Directional 5 / 50 / 1 / x
ROOF (on the right): Wall Shadow, Directional 5 / 50 / 2 / x
The result:
Here's the corrected version:
I added the sheet SYMBOLS COURT YARD PAVEMENT (with the same sheet effects as SYMBOLS OUTSIDE) to make sure that the symbols do not disappear below COURT YARD PAVEMENT.
Add a sheet LIGHT. Turn the sheet effects on. Draw a yellow polygon (for example, colour 29) next to a shadow. Make sure that the side borders point in the same direction as the outside shadows on your map.
Turn the sheet effects off. Move the yellow polygon close to a window on your map and edit the nodes so that the light doesn't cross any walls or pillars. Copy the polygon to other areas. Edit the nodes if necessary.
Add sheet effects. In my example:
Transparency 50
Blur 0.5
The final result:
And now, it is someone else's turn to add some tips and tricks ;-)
here is one that I thought I'd just post up because I notice people forget about it from time to time and we see it asked:
<b>Why isn't my Sheet showing up?/Where did X go?</b>
Alright so you did a nice lot of drawing and it's vanished? first off check your sheets, hide all but 1 sheet at a time and search through them 10:1 says you find it.
Ok now you found it but when you go 'show all' it vanished again?.. simple, check your sheet order.
Remember that CC3 does things 'backwards' in the sheet order compared to things like Photoshop or PSP etc.. Rather then drawing the sheets from the lowest in the menu - the highest.. It does it from the Highest (Common) down.. So if you have:
Common
Background
Walls
Floors
it would draw them Common then the Background, then the walls and then the floors..
the problems you'll see there is the walls are covered.. So move them down one so they are below floors and poof there visable.
It's a good tip to remember.