Long time wannabe
Hi there! My name is Jeff. I first downloaded CC3, DD3, and CD & FT Pro in 2007, but seemed always to lack the time to really get into it. This means that, every couple years, I go back and re-read the CC3 Plus manual and re-start the "Our First Map" tutorial on pg. 24.
To put it another way, after twenty years, I still have no idea what I'm doing. I hope to rectify that starting now, and in the process build connections with other, similarly inclined folks.
A bit of background: I am a career IT geek, gamer (tabletop and computer), military veteran, dog lover, husband, father, and grandfather with more years behind me than in front. I am a lifetime learner and have a strong creative impulse yet (to date) lack the ability to express it well.
Thanks for reading!
Comments
Hi Jeff :)
Welcome to the forum. We'd love to see your work as you progress, and if you have any issues or things that aren't clear you can always ask.
Welcome, Jeff!
I was in a similar boat with a more truncated timeline. Bought everything except the annuals in 2017, but tried and failed to teach myself through the PDF manuals. Finally around 2023, I decided to peek at some of the video tutorials, and that’s what worked for me.
You can check them out here:
Hi Jeff!
Perhaps the key thing once you're past the initial "how do I do this again?" phase is to make more maps, and keep making them. That way instead of trying to remember how to do too many things every time, a lot will become second nature, mapping will speed up, you'll start to develop your own way of creating maps, and it will stop feeling like a chore.
For some context, I got the program (CC3 then) back in 2013, tried it out and hit a wall with it, because I needed to generate some maps for publication, and wasn't making fast enough progress learning the program to do so. I only really started again in 2016, when I watched a lot of the video tutorials, and worked out what I needed to be doing, after which things became a lot more practical. And I'm still learning now 😁!
Thank you all for the kind welcome and encouragement! I'm really looking forward to diving in, seeing everyone's work and what is possible, and eventually getting feedback on the maps I hope to create. 😁