At the end of the last class

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At the end of the last class You should have
ended up with a lineplot in illustrator with a
set of walls drawn in
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But what are we missing?? All the details that
make a cave map look like a cave !
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The Symbols that show us what is happening in the
cave Remember We use symbols to explain what
is really happening in the cave. Slopes really
dont look like Ys and ceiling drops dont look
like Ts but we use these symbols to represent
those features Ultimately we all have to agree on
what those symbols mean!
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Symbols can come from anywhere We can use - NSS
Symbols - CRF Symbols - MSS Symbols - UIS -
Whatever!!!
UIS Symbols
Australian Symbols
MSS Symbols
NSS Symbols
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You just have to remember Whatever symbol set
you decide to use you must either supply a key,
so that others understand what you mean by that
symbol Or Refer to a standard accepted set of
symbols
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Illustrator has some very simple powerful tools
that make using symbols very easy
Or else very complex cave passages would drive us
crazy!
These tools include symbol sets, brushes, and
brush sets
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So lets start by taking a look at a often used
symbol
The Slope symbol
We can draw it each time we need it
With the pencil
Or with the pen
But it would take a lot of time, and each one
would look different and possibly incorrect!
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A much better way is to use the symbol palette in
illustrator!
It stores symbols for reuse within a single map,
or across a group of maps
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It is very simple to make a new Symbol
First make a very good copy of the symbol you
want to use take your time. Remember, this will
be reused time and time again so you want it
looking good
Highlight the entire new symbol
Drag it into the symbol palette
And drop it in You are done!
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And to use is just as simple
Place your pointer over the symbol you want
Drag out
And Drop!
If you want to rotate into the Proper
orientation, grab the Corner and spin it
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You can do whatever you want with symbols Mix and
match between different caves
These are three different sets I have for three
different projects
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Once you have a full palette of symbols created,
you may want to save them to use elsewhere! By
clicking the toggle on the top of the symbols
screen, you open a menu box with a few
options One of the most important is to save the
symbol library You can name it whatever you like
and save it with all other symbol libraries
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Then, in other drawings, you can open up Saved
libraries and reuse, saving a lot Of time
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A second Symbols palette will open up, with Name
you saved it under.
You can drag off the new palette just like the
original
After you use a symbol from the opened palette It
will be added permanently to the symbol
palette For your drawing
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To make a long line of symbols
You could pull a bunch of symbols And line them
up and spin them, But it would take a long time!
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Brushes are much more efficient, easier, and just
as easy to make and use
With it, you can use the brush tool to drag a
line that replicates your symbols in the location
and direction you want
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Brushes are easy to make first, pick a symbol
or an element that you want made into a brush
Like our T symbol
click the toggle on the brushes palette and pick
new brush
We typically use Pattern Brushes
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Leave scale at 100 and spacing at 0 This will
leave the symbol at full size and leave no room
between successive symbols
The Pattern Brush option box will open with your
symbol already in place
Set to add space
Now pick up the brush tool and try!
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Highlite the new brush
Pick up the brush tool
Drag the brush
And you have a pattern!!
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But wait it doesnt look like this
In fact it looks a lot more like the ledge
symbol then the ceiling symbol. Which is good
but not exactly what we wanted
What do we do about that ?
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Because the brush we created is helpful as the
ledge symbol lets keep it First we name it!
Name it ledge brush
Double click on the brush to open the options box
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Second with the first brush highlited, click
the toggle and specify duplicate brush
A ledge brush copy will be made Double click it
to bring up options
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Play with the spacing untill you get what you want
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Dont forget to rename your brushes
As they can be hard to tell apart in the brush
palette
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Other Symbols
Think about what you are trying to create. Just
this symbol
when joined together with no spacing makes a
great train track
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Other Symbols
Make up symbols to use if necessary I used this
symbol to denote rocks purposely gathered into
piles
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Other Symbols
Flowstone
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Other Symbols
Entrance - dripline
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Once you have built up a library of different
brushes, you can save them just as we saved the
symbols!
And you can open other libraries of brushes as
well
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In fact, one of the most powerful things about
brush and symbol libraries is they can be shared
with other mappers, and downloaded over the
internet
Examples of other brush sets I have available
Other symbol sets
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Other symbol and brush sets available from
internet
You do need to make sure they are the same series
as your illustrator version
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Some Hints
Just as in drawing walls a tablet can help the
use of brushes
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Some Hints
Direction that you drag the brush makes a
difference Here you can see the leg of the T
is in a different direction based on the way you
stroke!
This can often screw you up, and there is no easy
way to change it, other then to draw from other
side
I will sometimes start a brush stroke, check the
direction and then continue
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Some Hints
Sometimes you have drawn the pattern too jagged
and it causes the brush to not replicate well
This can be fixed by using the smoothing tool,
which can be found on the Pencil sub bar, or by
pushing the alt key when using brush
Dragging the smoothing tool along the path
reduces the anchor points and smoothes the path
making symbols look better
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Some Hints
Sometimes a bad stroke end can leave a strange
remnant at the end of your stroke.
This can ususally be removed by cutting the
stroke short with the scissors tool
And deleting the malformed sections
By placing the tool
Clicking then separates the end
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One last word I usually have the symbols and
brushes in a sinigle layer that I call the
geology layer. Thats because these symbols
ususally represent the geology of the interior of
the cave more so then other layers
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It is the second most important of the first
three drawn layers (walls, geology, details)