EucalyptusNow over on the Profantasy community forum posted an excellent little tutorial on creating decorative symbols by tracing graphics from other sources, and we thought it would be great to share this on the blog. So break out your mapping tools and follow along.
This is a tutorial for creating vignettes / decoration symbols out of rounded polygons by tracing existing images.
I’ve more or less stumbled upon this method, after I wanted a spider to decorate a map and could not find one exactly like I wanted, so I drew/ traced it.
Step One: Determine what you want for your map.
Based on the opinion of a certain younger member of our household, I’m going to use a unicorn as an example. It should be suitable as a crest, stamp or as a general map decoration.
Step Two: Find a suitable source image:
This image could be any drawing, picture or even photo. The most important thing is that the general shape of what you want to trace matches what you want.
Please keep copyright in mind if you are planning to use the created symbol for a map you are going to publish. I try to use public domain images whenever possible.
After some searching around, I’ve found this public domain crest on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blason_ville_fr_SaintLo_(Manche).svg Continue reading »
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As we’ve announced a while ago, we are working on a new Symbol Set by Mike Schley, titled “Isometric Cities” and we are getting close to release now. The artwork by Mike is all done, Sue Daniel has created all the varicolor versions of the symbols, and yours truly is working on the bitmap fills and integrating everything into one coherent package.
The style consists of a large number of isometric building symbols. Each comes in four different views, which can be easily rotated to show the buildings from the four cardinal directions.
The symbols range from glorious gigantic structures like the cathedral above, to small details like graves, boats and market stalls. Naturally – because they are all created by Mike – they fit the Symbol Set 4 and 5 styles very well, and can potentially be used to illustrate cities that you’ve already create with Symbol Set 5 in an isometric view.
Look for the release Symbol Set 6 at the end of the month or in early November. Of course we’ll announce it here and in our newsletter, so keep an eye on those to not miss this new wonderful Symbol Set by Mike Schley.
The new set of free monthly symbols brings a counterpoint to the dark and shadowy villain of last month, the bright and shining patron found in the High Temple. But perhaps the shiny marble facade does hide a more sinister motive? Marble benches, bright mosaics and colorful windows, burning incense on the altar and holy books aplenty, and an awe-inspiring statue of the Lord of Gods – all of this is included in October’s monthly content.
Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley is available for purchase here.
To download the free content go to your registration page and on the Downloads tab, click the download button for Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus. Mike’s new symbols are the last link in the list. All the content of year two up to and including September 2022 is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
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Dear map-makers! What did the community share with us in September? Lots of cool maps of course. Let’s take a look at some of them.
EukalyptusNow takes the lead with the wonderful, atmospherically-lit Swamp Rat Inn. Check the forum thread for non-lighting versions of the map itself.
Wyvern created this wonderful map of Lovecraft’s Providence in the Cthulhu City style.
The Lizard Lair by Tommy Kehlet uses Sue’s Marine Dungeon style.
I just love the color pop on James Stewart‘s weird and spooky reality rift map.
Matt Finch‘s map of a wooded settlement is unnamed, so we’ll just go with the name of the D&D campaign it is for, “The White Shadow”.
I really have a soft spot for the Worlds of Wonder overland style Jeff B used in his Turia/Uldiar Region map.
Quenten Walker‘s small floorplan of Vlad’s Dive nicely captures the cramped, rundown feeling of a slum dive.
And finally, Ricko Hasche created another wonderful Ravenloft-style map, this time of Castle Smirnoff.
The October issue of the Cartographer’s Annual is now available. itrevisits an old favorite style: Jon Roberts’ overland entry from the Annual 2011, adding new bitmap fills, drawing tools and settings to take advantage of the newer features of CC3+.
The Jon Roberts Revisited style gives you all the tools and symbols for overland regional, continental or world maps. The 5-page mapping guide takes you through the whole process of creating the map.
The October issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2022 yet, you can do so here.
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Dear map-makers, we hope you enjoy the waning days of 2022’s summer with some chilled map-making. Let’s see what the last month had in store mapping-wise.
We’ve got an update for Fractal Terrains 3+ that takes care of some concerns with the river generation commands.
As the update concerns some core functions of the software, it will profit from some wider beta testing and we therefore decided to make it generally available for all FT3 users to try out.
So if you have had problems with river generation in FT3+ in the past, or just want to give this new version a try, download FT3+ 3.5.2 from your registration page.
