CC3 Continental Map: The Northlands

[Midgardsormr]

Yes, that's it precisely! Thanks for saving me the effort of trying to get a good scan out of a tiny paperback novel. There are two things that need to be solved to do it: creating the tufted border and getting a decent texture across the top of the forest. I'm experimenting with applying the hue/saturation/lightness effect to some of the bitmap fills. I haven't found a solution yet, though.

[ravells]

If you have photoshop or similar, you might want to try this:

Go to Mayang's free texture site and have a look at the moss and lichen textures.

There is a really good one here (pic below) which looks like treetops. You might want to 'cartoonify' it a bit in photoshop so it doesn't jar against the general style.

At the end of the day, though if you're after that illustrative style, then you'll need to draw it (unless you're a photoshop genius). I'm not familiar with CC3, but it'll be pretty much drawing the boundary of the forest giving it a fill and then drawing your tufts on top of it - I would guess.

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Looking at the forests in the really big map (the first one that jaerdaph) posted, this is what I would do to make the forests:

1. Draw the outline and fill it with the main green colour.
1a (Optional - if you want texture) Copy and paste the outline on top of itself to a new layer and use a cloud or noise texture filter (or you could try the mayang texture below). Set layer to overlay (or multiply) - best just running through them all and seeing which layer filter works best - and reduce the opacity of the layer to suit.
2. Copy and paste the outline on top of itself to a new layer and make the fill transparent. Use an 'inner glow' effect using olive drab and set the level to overlay. Adjust transparency to suit. Use the paintbrush tool to put in little additions to the inner glow so it doesn't exactly follow the outer border.
3. Copy and paste the outline again to a new layer and do an inner glow with a very dark green. Set the layer to dissolve and move down to about 30% transparency, that will give you the dots around the inner border. Put in the other little dots further into the forest by hand.
4. Merge the layers when you are done.

I'm afraid I don't know if CC3 has the abilities to do this, if it hasn't you can always use Gimp (which has) and import the image into your CC3 map. As you will see, a really good way to generate rich textures is to copy a shape, paste it on another layer and give it a different fill while setting the layer to overlay or multiply (mainly).
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Looking at the second Link that jaerdaph posted, to me it looks like a straight drawing job (sorry). It would probably be a lot easier to do in pencil and to scan that into the puter.

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The third link is a little small and hard to see, but it looks like what the cartographer has done is to draw the outline and apply a cloud filter fill using different tones of green and then applied a drop shadow to the shape.

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Ravs

[NeonKnight]

http://www.gamerdad.com/images/RPG_a...es.CC3_Map.jpg

If anyone has techniques for creating something similar to those forests in CC3, I'd be interested as well.

Well, what's interesting is the third map (the one above) specifically says it was done in CC3, so I would be interested in knowing how it was done as well.

[jaerdaph]

Well, what's interesting is the third map (the one above) specifically says it was done in CC3, so I would be interested in knowing how it was done as well.

I just discovered it's actually the first map in the Profantasy CC3 product page gallery.

The map is labeled as "The Southern March (custom CC3 overland map by Allyn Bowker)" Here's a larger version:



Allyn Bowker compiled and contributed heavily to the Tome of Ultimate Mapping for CC2 Pro and I believe he is still active on the CC user's list. Unfortunately, this example map isn't included with CC3. Perhaps I should bug him about sharing?

Edit: You can actually download the CC2 Pro version of Allyn's map here:

http://www.profantasy.com/library/de...rt=10&Image=12

The Tome of Ultimate Mapping has drawing tools and instructions (for CC2 Pro though, it hasn't been updated yet) for making this kind of Forgotten Realms 3e style map.

[jaerdaph]

If you have photoshop or similar, you might want to try this:

Go to Mayang's free texture site and have a look at the moss and lichen textures.

Good stuff, and thanks for the link. I needs to find the time to learns the GIMP.

At the end of the day, though if you're after that illustrative style, then you'll need to draw it (unless you're a photoshop genius). I'm not familiar with CC3, but it'll be pretty much drawing the boundary of the forest giving it a fill and then drawing your tufts on top of it - I would guess.

Yeah, I think hand drawing in CC3 would be the way to go. The Tome of Ultimate Mapping (which kept me up reading in bed to 3 am last night) has some tutorials and tips on doing this which are pretty much what you just said.

I'm going to try playing around with some stuff today as time permits and post results back.

[ravells]

I've just resigned myself to the fact that there's always 'one more' piece of software to learn. 3d modelling is even worse!

The mastery in Allyn's CC3 map's forests (to me) is the consistency of 'wiggle' he has in the forest border. If it looks right, nothing jars the eye. I'm not sure if he used the 'fractalise edge' function to do it, but from memory of CC2, fractalising didn't give you that sort of wiggle (although there were some esoteric looking settings you could play with). The rest of it looks pretty straight forward, just a green fill with a bit of texture - possibly a copy and paste of the same shape on top with a paintbrush type texture (it looks like the same texture used in the Wastelands to the north) and the opacity turned down. Finally add a drop shadow with high opacity with the light source at about 300 degrees or so.

Ravs

[RPMiller]

I remember when he posted that. It is 100% done in CC2 if memory serves - he was quite adamant about being able to do that - and he used the bitmap fills for everything which he loved. I haven't seen a post from him in ages on the list, I forget why he stopped posting though.

[jaerdaph]

Okay, I made a lot of different types of forest samples today, some with sheet effects. Here's a sample of something I did that might fit the hand drawn style in Midgardsormr's map. This doesn't use sheet effects.

Very simple, really. Just a solid green color fractalized polygon outlined in black, and path lines in a darker green color within the shape.

[jaerdaph]

I remember when he posted that. It is 100% done in CC2 if memory serves - he was quite adamant about being able to do that - and he used the bitmap fills for everything which he loved. I haven't seen a post from him in ages on the list, I forget why he stopped posting though.

Hopefully they have him locked away in a dungeon somewhere updating the Tome of Ultimate Mapping to CC3 so we can get the tools to make the CC3 version of that map! Seriously though, I hope he's doing well.

[Midgardsormr]

Thanks for the input. I was coming up with something similar to what you've done there, Jaerdaph. I was thinking about keeping the green very unsaturated, to match the very subtle coloring of the mountains and hills, and putting in a large hand-drawn tree to reinforce that the area is a forest.

I just need to figure out how best to get the tree into CC3. At the moment, I'm having trouble with the transparency at the moment--do I need to explicitly define an alpha channel in a png?

In terms of the forest borders, I've been experimenting with the displacement effect, and I think it might get the job done. Eventually. If not, I can try sketch mode, but I'm not terribly confident in my ability to draw with a mouse. Maybe I should buy my wife a tablet for Christmas...

I'll try to remember to post some images tomorrow morning.