More newbie questions (landmass borders, background lightening)
Hi all, I've been using CC for many years, but only occasionally, which of course necessitates relearning some stuff each time. Mostly I muddle through, with the odd search in the help files and here, but I have a couple issues I can't solve atm, although I suspect they are very simple...
1) I have created landmasses, on the correct (Land) sheet, with the correct fillstyle and a black border (and glow effect, etc but not relevant to this). The black border I have noted has all been placed on the Coasts sheet, which is useful to separate it. However, how do I change the thickness of the black line (or indeed colour). I've used change properties, selected the right objects (by hiding other sheets, the border goes white when selected), I've tried changing the pen thickness and the width (and the colour), but absolutely no change (I can change the fill texture on the Land sheet without problem though). In case it's relevant to the solution, I created the islands with sketch landmass, and the main continent with fractal landmass. I'm sure this is a case of me using the wrong option somewhere.
2) There are areas where I'd like to tweak the outline I have drawn slightly - moving a few nodes, deleting others, and hopefully rubber-banding a node to a new location? I *think* this is possible, I have a feeling it may involve MPoly, but I can't figure out how? (again, does sketch/fractal make a difference?)
3) I have a water fill effect background on it's own sheet, and first drawn. It's using one of the existing fill textures, but I'd like to lighten it a little. I can't get the effect I want with HueSaturationBrightness sheet effects (or I'm using them wrong!). I tried putting another sheet with the ice fill over the top, and trying to make it very opaque, but couldn't get that to work. Is my best bet to clone the original fill tile, edit it in a paint package and use that as the fill instead?
Many thanks!
1) I have created landmasses, on the correct (Land) sheet, with the correct fillstyle and a black border (and glow effect, etc but not relevant to this). The black border I have noted has all been placed on the Coasts sheet, which is useful to separate it. However, how do I change the thickness of the black line (or indeed colour). I've used change properties, selected the right objects (by hiding other sheets, the border goes white when selected), I've tried changing the pen thickness and the width (and the colour), but absolutely no change (I can change the fill texture on the Land sheet without problem though). In case it's relevant to the solution, I created the islands with sketch landmass, and the main continent with fractal landmass. I'm sure this is a case of me using the wrong option somewhere.
2) There are areas where I'd like to tweak the outline I have drawn slightly - moving a few nodes, deleting others, and hopefully rubber-banding a node to a new location? I *think* this is possible, I have a feeling it may involve MPoly, but I can't figure out how? (again, does sketch/fractal make a difference?)
3) I have a water fill effect background on it's own sheet, and first drawn. It's using one of the existing fill textures, but I'd like to lighten it a little. I can't get the effect I want with HueSaturationBrightness sheet effects (or I'm using them wrong!). I tried putting another sheet with the ice fill over the top, and trying to make it very opaque, but couldn't get that to work. Is my best bet to clone the original fill tile, edit it in a paint package and use that as the fill instead?
Many thanks!
Comments
2. Use the node edit tools (Node Edit, Insert Node, Delete Node), found near the bottom of the leftmost toolbar.
3. Feel free to edit the fill styles in a paint program if you wish, but the 'Adjust Hue/Saturation' effect does basically the exact same thing as your paint package would do. I would recommend perhaps using the color tools of your paint program to figure out the appropriate HSL values to use, as this can sometimes be a bit of a guesswork when using the effect.
1) I was actually trying for a thinner line, but the same method worked!
2) Got it!
3) I can't seem to get the effect I want, but the current background is growing on me, so I think I will leave that at least for now. Good to know I was trying the right thing though.
Many thanks for your help!
I've already created my landmass, but now I want to delete the light blue border. Then I intend to add some nodes to fine-tune the landmass, and then I want to redraw the border afterwards.
If I just add nodes, I can move the landmass, but the border doesn't follow the new landmass. So, remove border and then re-add once I've made the landmass how I want it?
But how??
Do note that if you just want to edit the landmass, it is usually easier to use the 'Edit' function of the drawing tool that you originally used to draw the landmass, as this will edit the landmass including outline, without the need to manually remove and replace it.
I am using CC3+ for the first time, and learning the software by drawing landmasses. The landmass I have drawn however, has an unusual, horizontal blue line across near the upper right corner. Have I done something incorrectly, such as not connecting the final points together precisely enough? What is the best way to precisely close up a landmass to prevent such distortions in the future? Thank you for any response, guys.
I have attached a saved print screen image to show everyone what I'm talking about.
There are a couple things that cause that line: Two nodes that are too close together or several nodes that cross over each other forming a loop. The easiest way to fix this is to click the landmass tool, type E to edit the landmass, and following the command line instructions, redraw that section of coastline.
http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4872&page=1#Item_1
Scroll through and you'll see that I, too, got that annoying blue line. Try as I might, and in spite of following the advice people gave, I couldn't get rid of it. Or, if I did eliminate it, another would pop up elsewhere.
Then I tried an experiment: I hid every sheet except "coastline" (working from memory, here) and then deleted the entire blue coastline entity. Un-hiding all sheets, I then added a thin black glow to create a "coastal line" and modified it with another glow and an outer glow. I was very pleased with the result. In fact, I like it better than the default blue coastline that comes with the style. I'll post the file when I get home tonight, so you'll have an example. In the meantime, this video by Joe Sweeney describes the techniques:
(BTW, that problem seems unique to that coastline entity in the CC3/CC3+ "standard" overland style. I couldn't recreate the problem with the entity deleted, nor could I recreate it in the Schley style, no matter how hard I tried.)
Edit: Here we go. The first is with the coastline entity removed and sheet effects off:
The next is with effects on:
No blue line artifact, and I think the result for the land/sea transition works nicely. File attached if you want to see how it was done.