Help Squared ;)

[Lycius]

Ok here's my problem. I have a ridiculously detailed campaign world that I will be rebuilding to use in Neverwinter Nights 2 when it's released. Our current map is below, and was originally hand drawn by a friend and expanded with photoshop by my wife.

I have CC3 but really have no idea how to make it do what I want it to do.

I have having a very hard time with the built in help file because it's very poorly organized IMO. What I need is a walkthrough on how to properly setup the page to begin a map so that it's not going to pixelate all to pieces if I zoom in to a detailed view. The overall size of the main continent is roughly 3k miles from top to bottom.

I guess my question would be. Should I even bother with this until the release a manual for CC3?

http://www.brynsaar.com/images/brynsaarmapnamed.jpg

[RPMiller]

At the very least you could start tracing in the continent and the different areas. That is something that is easy and doesn't require a lot of different functions. That way you will be able to add in more detail as you learn more.

[Lycius]

So the initial size of the map should be something like 4500x4500?

[RPMiller]

Whatever you want to set it to. If you have an actual distance you can use to verify, you should scale it to that size. Remember CC uses real world distance in the sense that the scale is 1:1 mile for overland so your idea should work nicely.

[Robbie]

And don't feel compelled to jump in and map your entire game world first time in. I thought about doing that but instead decided to start with a smaller kngdom and will eventually map my way out. Sometimes focussing on a smaller area of the map can give you a better opportunity to get more intimate with the nuances of campaign cartographer without having to worry about ecology and geography of an entire continent.

[RPMiller]

That is an excellent point. I would concur. Maybe just do a small test map to learn the functionality, or after you trace in the map, focus on a specific area to add detail to.

[Lycius]

Ok so I'm going to try some different stuff when I get home but I have another question. How do you blur contours?

I love the look of using various contours for depth in water but I want to blur them? Also, how exactly do you use a glow instead of an outline on a landmass?

[Robbie]

Put your contours and sea background on a separate sheet (not necessarily layer) and apply a blur sheet effect.

[Lycius]

Can someone please tell me how to remove an outline from an already drawn landmass without having to delete it and draw it for the 500th time?

I can hide the outline but I can't get a glow sheet effect to show up and I think it's because I outlined the stupid landmass.

[Lycius]

Ok so apparently not because an unoutlined landmass doesn't glow either.