As
the title says, were going to lay out the basic size of your
map plus another couple of steps.
Go
to the file tab on top & select the first item called 'NEW'
You
will now get a small box appear near the middle of your screen.
It looks like this.
Rocket
science not needed, simply set to your desired width & height.
In this case 2040 x 2040. I never mess with resolution &
suggest you use transparent background. Background will be gone
soon anyhow. When size is set, hit 'OK'
Holy
snapping turtles Batman! we now have a canvas to start your
map on. Isn't she purdy???
Except
one thing, you don't really see too much of the space on the
canvas. Just like when you make a window to max size, do the
same thing with the button on the canvas window just to the
left of the red X.
You
now have this.
You
now have your pallet sized as you want
NAMING
YOUR FIRST LAYER
Now
before the fun really begins, you need to do the following.
Even though you only have one layer, click on layer pallet,
be sure your on the only layer. Looks like this.
Lets
rename this layer. eventually there will be allot of layers,
so rule of thumb, no matter how much or how little is on a layer,
name it & don't give it a stupid name.
Simply
double click where it says 'Layer1' & the following will
pop up.
Simply
name the layer in the name field, then hit 'OK'. I always logically
call my base texture. 'base texture'
Name
it, hit okay, you have this.
That's
it, you now know how to name a layer, as ALL layers are named
by this easy method.
SETTING
YOUR BASE COLOUR
Go
to the left hand menu, select the paint bucket tool. That's
the one between the spray can & the letter A, looks like
a paint bucket tipping over.
SEE
BELOW LEFT SHOWS SLECTING THE PAINT BUCKET TOOL.
ON
THE RIGHT YOULL SEE THE TOOL HAS BEEN SELECTED SO IS INDENTED
Now
on the right hand side near the top you'll see the area where
we pick the background texture, says 'Styles'
Now,
were going to deal with only the top one, the one that's shifted
more over to the left.
To
select from the patterns you have already popped into your
program click on the black arrow that has the white outline
in the right side of the top style box. ITS IMPORTANT YOU
CLICK THE ARROW.. NOT BESIDE IT.
You
will now see this.
There
are your 4 style types. First is the paint brush that you
would select if you want solid. the second one is the one
with the stripes, that's for gradient. The third with the
9 little squares is for patterns, forth Ghostbusters blot
out is for blank. Select PATTERN, which as it happens is what
mine was set to, as you can see its indented already.
Now
stay in the style area as you see below.
Now
were actually going to pick the pattern itself, now that we
set what style of fill, we select the fill itself, this is
done easy.
Click
on that top box again in style area, but this time NOT IN
THE ARROW, but in the area to the left of it, looks brown
in the example above.
You
now will see this window pop up. This is a good window! (Note
it wont have 'dodamgrass113 as the default pattern, it will
be something else)
You
see in my computer by default (The last pattern I used) it
went to Dodam's grass #113 texture. To the right of that is
a small bar with an arrow pointing down, click this &
well see the choices of patterns we have.
You
will see there's a scroll bar along the right hand side of
the choices, this to pan up & down to see the choices
we have. Its listed alphabetically. Lets go down & find
the one we want, 'dodamsnow1'.
There
it is, I now simply click over it. (Notice the green box around
it as I choose it)
We
now are back to this.
Notice
we have selected the pattern we want.
Now,
the only thing I ever really use in here is the scale button.
This manipulates how the texture looks. As a rule of thumb,
never make a texture more than 100%, it looks horrible. I
tend to use 70-100%, but this is up to you. You literally
have to play with this yourself to see what you like. Its
cool because with one texture you can get different looks.
Once
we have selected the scale we like, in this case 75%, hit
'OK'
Were
back to this screen
Now,
we have the paint bucket tool selected & its loaded with
the snow texture we want to use.
Hover
your pointer to the middle of your pallet & simply click
once.
You'll
see this.
Holy
cow! It snowed!
Now
lets look what this looks like at 100% scale, because when
you load a pallet size that's bigger than your screen. (2040
x 2040 in this case) It scales it down.
Along
the top tabs select 'VIEW'
Once
here select the third item down, 'Normal View'
You
now see the snow as it will appear on your map.
Looks
like this. (Ill crop image to fit it into this guide!)
I
like it.
Now
if you don't that's cool. Here's what you do if its not what
you like.
You
can change the pattern, or the scale of the current pattern.
Since you just finished selecting a pattern if you go back
to this step & reflood
fill.
Don't
be shy, I often try a bunch of these over & over. As a
matter of fact later on once you add other layers, you might
then find changing the base makes it look better.
If
you wanted to fill a layer with a solid or gradient colour,
simply select either of those styles when on this
step
NOW
SAVE YOUR WORK!
CLICK
HERE TO GO TO NEXT SECTION...........
