New User - New Map

[dfmoss]

I am new to mapping, new to CC3 and Fractal Terrains and new to the forum.

Attached is my first attempt at a world design. Hopefully it will show up!

Any comments or pointers are welcome.

Thanks,

Don

[RPMiller]

Welcome to the community! Glad to have you here and we'll do our best to help you make your mapping better.

You have an excellent start there. Are there some specific things you would like help on?

[ravells]

A good start! I like your island chains.

As Rob said, if you can tell us what sort of look / feel you're after, we may be able to give you some suggestions.

Ravs

[dfmoss]

Thanks for the comments.

I guess my biggest issue right now is how to move from the FT Pro world map to actually mapping a smaller area in CC2/CC3. I do not want to use some of the symbols in CC. I do not care for the mountain symbols, in particular. I like the style of USGS type maps much better. I am not sure how exactly to accomplish this in CC.

The mountain symbols are great for any map that would be provided to players in a campaign, but I prefer more detail for the DM's map.

I may be a little too demanding in my mapping, especially at my current skill level.

Any pointers are welcome.

Don

[RPMiller]

You are in luck! We happen to have some professional cartographers among us that produce modern maps for a living so I'm sure they will be able to help point you in the right direction.

Perhaps what you can do in the meantime is take a look around the site and other threads in the WIP and Finished Topics and see if any of those really give you ideas of what you would like to achieve. Then we can got those cartographers/artists to come over here and help you out.

I can get you started as far as producing the smaller map sections. First I'll mention there are some tutorials on the PF site for doing this so you can use those if need be as well.

Next, I'll mention that you can actually save multiple files straight out of FT by using the save as multiple files option. The down side to this is that you may not get breaks in places that you would like to have them.

This is what I do:
Zoom into the specific area in FT that you want to create the regional map for.
Save this as a view so that you can some back to it again later.
Now export that view into CC.
Edit as desired.

If you want to start bigger, export a larger area and then once in CC save that area.
Now draw an array of boxes to delineate the smaller areas. And save it as a new file.
Now using trim trim everything outside the first box that you want to work with, and save that as a new file.
Reload the map with the boxes and trim everything from the next box and save as a new file.
Repeat until you have the larger area saved as multiple files.

[RPMiller]

Also, here is a link to a map that might be the look are are trying to achieve:
http://cartographersguild.com/forum/...362&highlight=

[dfmoss]

Rob,

That is an amazing map! And very close to what I am aiming to achieve. WHat program was used in it's creation?

I will look around the site, and use some of the instructions posted above and then post someof my results.

Thanks,

Don

[HandsomeRob]

Hey thanks,
The relief and coastline is from Fractal Terrains, but everything else is done in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I've got a tutorial posted here that goes into specifics a bit.

Let me know if you need some help, I'll try to provide it.

Thanks again,
Rob