Are the Alyssa Faden's clouds all from "CA95 - Alyssa Faden Overland," or does she have more clouds in another annual? They look so different here.

Heading out soon to spend the holidays with family. Happy holidays to you and everyone here.

This is very helpful advice. I will go back and redo the forests at the bottom of each map.

Here’s a tutorial video focused on Trace. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet myself. It’s older but if it’s just focused on the Trace command, hopefully it won’t be out of date.

I think that front and back parts of the northern courtyard are supposed to be a whole story above the east and west sides, but in looking closer at my sheets, I didn't draw them that way. (I used too many images for inspiration that had different floor plans, and I think I muddled them up.)

I moved those two roofs to higher sheets. Does that capture it a little better?

Holy smokes, it worked! (Once I read the PDF mapping guide to figure out that the Dracula Dossier maps are created under Floorplans and not Dungeons, that is.) These CAD files are .DWG files, and CC3 was able to import without any problems. Now I have to decide if this is the venue I want to use, and whether it would be easier to delete the stuff I don't need from the CAD import, or started from scratch drawing over a bitmap. Anyway, very excited to have new (for me) options to play with.

Hi Ryan,

Welcome! I see that your hometown was chosen as the inspiration for Mayberry because it was where Andy Griffith grew up. Very cool.

I also started with Fractal Terrains. It took me a while to get my head around how FT and CC3 do and do not interact with one another. I finally started watching some of the older tutorials, and it was watching Joe Sweeney's that Ricko recommends above where things really start to click for me. Before that, I was trying to teach myself using the PDFs and I wasn't really absorbing it.

Joe Sweeney has some videos that show how to use Fractal Terrains, and here are some more from ProFantasy from a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuhB_LXr3Sg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNR-BBPSRo

There are some others that show how to take what you've built in Fractal Terrains and then elaborate on them in CC3. They're a bit advanced, though, but if you want to take a peek, here is one from early 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd78fcQc1YA

(The beginning covers taking part of a continent from FT to CC3.)

But don't get intimidated if it seems like a lot. I started with Joe Sweeney's, then watched some of Remy Monsen's that were about specific techniques and tools, and then graduated to the ProFantasy's "Live" sessions. The Lives are great, and I always learn something new from every one, but you never know (unless it's the main focus on the session) what techniques you'll learn from them. I'd recommend getting a good foundation from the other videos first.

And also, this forum is very welcoming, and we are all happy to answer any questions you have.

Funny, that’s what I was doing all afternoon. Went down to the Old San Francisco Mint to take pics, because the floor plans I found online had conflicting info about the exterior. (Some had fountains outside that I don’t remember seeing — must have been when it was an operational mint up into the 1930s.) Then I went to the main branch of the public library to see if they had floor plans of the original main branch (1917-1993, which is now the Asian Art Museum) — and they did! Lots of mapping inspiration.

Thank you, @Wyvern!

I do have Character Artist, but I haven't used it much and didn't realize those were there. This vastly expands my heraldic symbol options! Here it is using the traditional dragon with a tower icon background. I also tried one with a wyvern off to the side. Which is your favorite?

I actually did have a cave hole there, but it was kind of small and I used a fill that ended up being kind of a washed-out gray at this zoom. I deleted it and drew in an oversized black "cave mouth" polygon.

Sure! I like having multiple options.

Oh no, I am so sorry to hear that. Thank you for staying in touch with his family sharing the news with us. I first started becoming active here a year ago, and Jim was always one of the first to reply and give me feedback and encouragement. Such a kind cartographer. I will miss him.