How do I make mountains blend into the grassland in CC3?

[Carto-noob]

I just got CC3 and am working on my first map using the video tutorials on ProFantasy's site. They do not contain an answer to this question, however... I can't get my mountains to blend in in a satisfactory way. Any advanced users have any tips? They look too stark on the land and are too piled on top of each other. I'll try to post a pic below...

Mountains.PNG

I think that worked... sorry I'm new around here lol.

[Sharpe]

Just like any object you put on the map, you may have to send it to the back. I don't use the program, but that's certainly what's going on here.

[Carto-noob]

Thanks, Sharpe. I fixed the layer problem... Now I just need to figure out how to blend them with the grassland so they look less fake.

Mountains.PNG

[Anoril]

Hi!
I don't know other way than placing forest or hills at the bottom of your mountains...In CC3, there is no way to "disolve" a symbol. You can try playing with sheet effects (like border transparency and so) but I got fallout with symbols.

Good luck!

Paul

[Carto-noob]

Hmm... i might have to play around with it. I know I've seen the technique on someone else's map on here to blend them in, but I don't know how he did it. :/ I guess I'll have to dig through the old CC3 threads to find something useful...

[Midgardsormr]

Experiment with some of the sheet effects. My computer's busy rendering a Maya scene right now, so I can't open CC3 up to look, but there might be some kind of edge blur effect in there that might do something.

Though with the isometric mountains, that will probably not work out so well, since it will also blur the sides and peaks. Hmmm… Try adding a contour beneath your mountains and slightly larger than the area they cover, filled with the same grey, and blur that. You might also want to play with the transparency a bit so that the grassland texture comes through. Or you could open that texture in the Gimp, desaturate it, then fill the grey contour with that texture instead of a solid color.

[Carto-noob]

Thanks, Midgardsormr. I was able to apply a blur to a countour underneath the mountain range and it looks much better now. I'm sure it could use some improvement, but that'll probably come in time, lol. For now, I'm satisfied with them... Now, to use the technique on my other mountain ranges.

mountains 2.PNG

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

I've always found that splattering some trees around the base of the mountain is a good way of making things "blend" without actually blending: Boslok's Cartographer's Choice map is a good example.

[Carto-noob]

I added some forests and some rivers to it. Anyone see any obvious problems?

mountains3.PNG

[Midgardsormr]

Not a problem, per se, but I think the forest symbols should be smaller. Maybe 2/3 to half that size, and nestle some right up against the base of some of the mountains.

Also, I forget how to do it, but there's a way to convert the rivers to use rounded corners instead of the sharp ones you've got now. You might also fractalize them one more time. And the coastline, too.

When you're laying in your mountains, be careful not to put two of the same symbol right next to each other. For the most part they look good, but there are a couple of places where I notice the repeats.