CC3 - Detailed Land Edges?

[Thasius]

Hey guys! First up, have to say I love this website. The guild? The concept? Amazing. Giving a place for folks to practise a some what dying if not dead trade is fantastic. This isn't the place for introductions so I'll quit that before I get started and move onto my question.

After looking over some of the maps here I was inspired to create my own for a book I'm writing. I went out and brought my self a copy of CC3. I played about with it all of last night and I think after all the tutorials I've a pretty basic but well rounded understanding of how it works. The map Ystraad is what really got me inspired. I've been struggling however to recreate the basic land shape.

When I make my own islands, particularly the smaller islands, they don't have much "shape" to them. Even the larger islands end up rather bland in comparison to the Ystraad map. I've fiddled with every setting I could find and have not managed to make much of a difference. The smaller the island is the less detail I get. I've even tried making a HUGE map, 5000x5000. I still ended up with the same problem.

I've read through as many posts on this forum as I could find but did not manage to find anything which related to my problem. Does anyone have any pointers or a good tutorial I could run through? The official tutorials while great for basic information didn't touch anything more complex with regards to shapes.

Thanks in advance!

[NeonKnight]

Ok, I think (THINK) I see what your issue may be.

But, to be 100% certain, please post up a copy of what your map looks like 'right now', and I will then be more than ready to launch into a full expose of what you may or may not be doing.

[Thasius]

map.JPG

I hope you can see from that clip of my map.The smaller islands just look blocky and without character. I've been playing with settings all evening and have managed to make a mess. I tried the photoshop tutorial used to gain a similar style and managed to get better results. I probably should not of rushed off and brought CC3, but now I have it by the gods I'll get at least one map out of it!

Any help would be very welcomed!

[NeonKnight]

OK, A few questions.

Do you have Cursor Snap on? If so, this will 'lock' the points to the grid. (See Example 1)

Further, when drawing you Islands, zoom in. This allows your points to be much, much closer than you would be able to make them if you were zoomed out.

Finally, when you have made your islands, to stop them from looking so 'sharp', use the 'STRAIGHT TO SMOOTH' feature to round the coastline.

Let me know if that helps.

[Thasius]

I ran through your suggestions and ended up with a much better result! I also changed some settings in the "Draw Method". I'm still not exactly where I'd like to be with the map but it's whole lot better! Considering I only got the program yesterday, I'm getting there. Thanks a lot for your help. Now to progress past my black and white island. Plenty more info on this site, would be real nice if the tutorial section of the forums was sorted into programs mind. Real headache sorting through them all! I need a whole bunch of little trees and a good range of mountains. Anyone selling a set? I'll be publishing my book in a good 6-7 years so I'll need full permissions

[NeonKnight]

Glad I was of help.

Again, shout out if you have any other questions!

[Valarian]

You could also zoom in and refractalise the island to give more definition. Beware doing this too much on a large map though as it'll slow down the refresh.