Discoveries for beginners
Loopysue
ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
I thought it would be a good idea to list a few simple and alternative techniques discovered along the way. Anyone can join in. Its just a bit of fun for beginners like me, and the methods described are only ever just ONE way of doing things.
RIVERS: My hands aren't what they used to be and have a tendency to shake, so this is an easy way for me to get the desired effect. River police, please feel free to comment or put me right on a few things.
1. Draw a wiggly line in from the coast (or from the hills to the coast) along the river valley, giving it the approximate shape of the river you want to create.
2. Cut the line into sections using the BREAK button, taking care not to cut too huge a section out of the line in any one place. The tinier the breaks are the better.
3. Change the properties of each segment of line using the CHANGE PROPERTIES button, by adding width and texture in the dialogue that opens up when you click 'do it'. Start with the thickest segment at the coast and gradually reduce the LINE WIDTH inland. Depending on the scale of your map you will quickly find out what interval to use, but on my oversized maps I reduce the width of each section by 0.05, or 0.1, depending on what I can get away with and how long or short the river is.
4. Either while you are adjusting the width of each section, or after you have finished, use the CHANGE PROPERTIES button to give it a suitable fill style.
5. Using the NODE EDIT button, make sure that all the different pieces of your river line up properly, and that any tributaries you have drawn join the main river without any gaps. Its easier to do this before you make the river smooth.
6. Right click the FRACTALISE button and pick 'Straight to smooth', and smooth all the different bits of your river.
[pictures to follow]
RIVERS: My hands aren't what they used to be and have a tendency to shake, so this is an easy way for me to get the desired effect. River police, please feel free to comment or put me right on a few things.
1. Draw a wiggly line in from the coast (or from the hills to the coast) along the river valley, giving it the approximate shape of the river you want to create.
2. Cut the line into sections using the BREAK button, taking care not to cut too huge a section out of the line in any one place. The tinier the breaks are the better.
3. Change the properties of each segment of line using the CHANGE PROPERTIES button, by adding width and texture in the dialogue that opens up when you click 'do it'. Start with the thickest segment at the coast and gradually reduce the LINE WIDTH inland. Depending on the scale of your map you will quickly find out what interval to use, but on my oversized maps I reduce the width of each section by 0.05, or 0.1, depending on what I can get away with and how long or short the river is.
4. Either while you are adjusting the width of each section, or after you have finished, use the CHANGE PROPERTIES button to give it a suitable fill style.
5. Using the NODE EDIT button, make sure that all the different pieces of your river line up properly, and that any tributaries you have drawn join the main river without any gaps. Its easier to do this before you make the river smooth.
6. Right click the FRACTALISE button and pick 'Straight to smooth', and smooth all the different bits of your river.
[pictures to follow]
Comments
Step 1 - use the smooth line drawing tool at the right, draw out your river. You can connect it to your coast, or not, which ever you choose.
Step 2 - use the fractalization tool/ smooth two or three times on your river line to give it the winding, wandering feel.
Step 3 - change the line fill( the last box on your top bar) to whichever ocean bitmap fill you are using. Then lick on the landmass edit, and using your river line as a guide, starting at your coastline, cut away the land around your line. Bring it to a point at the end of your river line, then back down the other side, and connect back to your coastline(shaky hands actually work well here). Right click, do it. Hit the redraw.
Step 4- erase the river line you first drew, then hit redraw again.
I can't post images from my phone, but you can see an example of this technique in my Merydyan map in the show and tell forums. You can combine your river technique to this one to form tributaries too!
By default, the user manual is installed in the C:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3Plus\Documentation\ folder (on a computer running Windows 7 or higher).
The only difference between my technique and his... is at the end. Instead of drawing a smooth poly water mass around my line, I use the land edit tool. I pick a point on my shoreline, close to my riverline, follow my line up to its source, then back down the other side. When I get back to where my shoreline is, I right click, and when the command tells me to pick a point to connect to, I pick the second point on the shoreline on the opposite side of my line. This will erase all of the land mass inside the area I drew. You then hit the redraw and that area fills up with the water bitmap you're using.
Once I figure out how to do the tutorial screen captures, I will set up a tutorial for what I do
Will this work using Windows 10? I think that's part of my problem...new laptop with new OS and and lot of the ways of doing things has changed. Plus I don't know if I have something to paste the screenshot into. I've tried to do a screenshot in the past, but could never find it once I made it.
Just do the screenshot, open Irfanview. Paste with ctrl-v and save.