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Sage Symbol Savant

BACK

I remember the first time I responded to Linda on the list. She was like many other New Users and different at the same time, you could feel the eagerness to learn, not just create. Today she is one of the greatest assets to the CC2 Community. Over the past five years I have ran an annual Symbol Challenge. The first year I had no real idea how it would grow, but grow it did. Each year Linda would send something special. With her contribution she would say something along the lines of, please do not include me in any of the drawings or contests. This is just to add to the collection being created. Since this is the first year that the decision of Symbol Savant is in the hands of the Community, I decided to award a new Category of the Symbol Savant, sort of an appreciation award for all the support to this hobby we all enjoy.

I wonder how many of really know Linda, so I thought I would ask her to submit to an interview. Please take a moment to get to know one of the mainstays of the community a little better!

Interview from February 2006

Linda, thank you for agreeing to doing this. Let me start with some background. Where are you located in the world and could you let us know about who shares your home and life? 

I live on the island of Hawaii, locally known as the Big Island, because it is the biggest of the Hawaiian Islands and it's less confusing! I live here with my husband, my two sons and my cat! The boys are both attending the local University. My husband is a disabled veteran but is quite active in the Veteran's community here. We both do a lot of volunteer work for various the Veteran's organizations. I'm originally from Canada :)

What work did you do before you got involved with CC2?

I've enjoyed great variety in my work related activities. I started out doing office work in the early 70s, then I moved on to owning my own restaurant in Vancouver. I met my future husband on a vacation and ended up in Hawaii in 1983. Once the boys were old enough for school I managed a local flower export business and dabbled in real estate. 

What profession do you work in outside of the CC2 community?

I worked full time for ProFantasy Software from 1998 until July of 2004. Currently I am doing Technical Support for them which averages out to about one week a month. I have also been doing freelance work for Code Monkey Productions as well as other odd jobs here and there.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time that isn't connected to the computer?

Wow - not connected to the computer? Surely you jest! My favorite non-computer related activity is reading. I have always been a reader from the time I was seven - I was hooked. I have gotten into genealogy in the past few years and I really enjoy that but it is mostly done on the computer.

What type of books do you read?

For entertainment - Lord of the Rings, the Thomas Covenant series, the Outlander series, anything by Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancey. I have a huge collection of cook books because I like to experiment with different kinds of foods. We typically eat anything from Japanese to vegetarian.

Can you share with us some of the projects that you have worked on in CC2 that you found to be interesting and/or exciting?

I love making symbols. I can't really say one set of symbols was more exciting that another. I really enjoyed all of the projects we were involved in.

Besides the base program of CC2 Pro and the soon to be released CC3, which do you consider the best additions to CC2?

I don't think there is any one "best" add-on. It really depends on what you want to do. However, I consider DD2, CD2 and Character Artist as must haves :)

All of the additions are well thought out and add a level of functionality, which addition(s) do you think are not fully appreciated?

I would have to say Perspectives.

As a child were you interested in art and/or maps or did that come later in life?

LOL. I was your typical nerd - head of the class, bookworm. I was never interested in art and never ever thought I would be. 

A few related questions. How long have you been interested in Maps/Mapping?
When did you fist became interested in computer graphics and what was it that led you into this work/hobby?
When did you first become part of the CC2 community? What brought you to the CC2 community?

My brothers introduced me to Greyhawk way back in 1980 and we played for several years but then I put away my dice to have babies :) Around about 1997 I started setting up my Greyhawk campaign so I could be the DM for my sons and their friends. My youngest son decided to take the Temple of Elemental Evil's map booklet to school for Show and Tell. Well that was the last I ever saw of it. I was frantic because what good is ToEE without the maps? One thing led to another & I soon found a thriving Greyhawk community on the Internet. I managed to get copies of the maps and through this community I met Lonny Eckert. He convinced me that I could make maps with this new Windows program called CC2. I could even pre-order it and have it in time for Christmas in 1997 :)

Lonny wanted to form a group of people to convert the Greyhawk map into CC2 format and I decided that if I was serious about a Greyhawk campaign, then I should get CC2 and help out. Christmas 1997 arrived and so did my CC2. Lonny had set up an e-mail list to help new users, so I signed up right away. :)  I needed help as I had never used a graphics or CAD program before! It took a few days to get going but then one day it just clicked and I've never looked back. If it weren't for my son losing my ToEE map booklet I might not have found CC2 until much later.

I remember when you joined the community, I am surprised that CC2 was your real first exposure to Computer Graphics. 

I had purchased Corel Draw 3 just before CC2 came out. I'm not sure I even had it installed! Needless to say that was one of the most under utilized programs I've ever purchased!

Do you remember/describe that feelings that you had when that first map was finished?

Yeah :) I felt really good about it. The first map I did was the map of the Saltmarsh area.   I was totally amazed that I could make something that looked halfway decent.

What software program or programs do you use and why have you chosen them?

I choose software for the tasks that I need to get done. CC2 and the add-ons for my maps. Microsoft Office - I use Excel and Access for a lot of my gaming stuff. Outlook for e-mail. Legacy for my genealogy. The Sims2 for fun. Paint Shop Pro and Milkshape for making things for The Sims2. Acrobat for PDFs. ZMud for mudding. TaxCut for taxes. TableSmith and a small assortment of small programs for my campaign.

Hot button Question, What Browser? LOL!

LOL. I use IE6 and I Google!

How would you define the graphics work that you do for the CC2 community and for yourself? Is it art or would you describe it as something else?

For me it's a combination of things. I've always been into computers, so having a software program that allows me to make pretty maps is perfect. I get my computer fix and I get to be creative. CC2 maps are art, but they are also technical. You can do so much with CC2 that it's not strictly art. It makes your maps very functional. You can use links, search for text, print to whatever scale you want, create an index and zoom without losing quality.

Where do you draw the inspiration that guides you in the creation process?

My inspiration comes from CC2. It's just such a great program to work with. I just love making things in CC2.

How has your impression of the community changed over time, or is it still the same for you?

The community has changed over time. This is to be expected because computing itself has changed. CC2 has grown up alongside the Windows revolution. Remember - CC2 has it's roots in the DOS days. Most of the CC2 community had used the DOS version and almost all of the community at that time was computer savvy. No one expected anything to do with computers to be easy :) Especially CAD. Well, time passed, computers got easier to use, more and more people started computing and CC2 became more popular. So we don't have that same small, close knit community we had in the beginning. This is normal and to be expected. We just need to be flexible and grow.

What advice would you give to beginners as a basis for getting started?

Never be afraid to ask a question. If you aren't getting something - ask!  Do the tutorials because they really will end up saving you a significant amount of time. Start small. Unfortunately most people decide that their first project should be their campaign world map when actually it should be a small village or a small area map.

What pitfalls should be avoided?

One of the things people grasp right away with CC2 is that you can zoom in without losing any detail. For some reason they equate this to being able to put infinite detail on their campaign world map - to only have to make one map. Just because you can do it does not mean you should :) You are better off making an overview map of your campaign world with scant detailing on it. Then do a series of regional maps linked to the overview map. Add more details to the regional map. In some cases you would want even smaller area maps or you could just link your cities directly to the regional maps.

The other thing I notice is that some people use tiny symbols on large area maps. As a general rule of thumb the symbol scale on any given map is the width of the map divided by 1000.

That is one of those things we hear over and over again, but is there a point that you should not use Symbols on a Map  (too large of a map or too small...)?

Personally, I prefer the world view maps to not have symbols on them. I like the overview maps to show the elevations, major rives and roads, major cities, country borders and a limited amount of text. It's supposed to be an overview. I save the details and symbols for the smaller, regional maps.

What advice would you give for someone that wants to improve their skills?

Practice, practice, practice. The first symbol I made took me 37 hours to make! I made a LOT of errors. But I learned something every time I redid that symbol. I never gave up. I didn't get discouraged because I knew I was learning a new skill and I knew that if I was just persistent that I would succeed.

What internal feature of CC2 do you think is the most under utilized? (Everyone knows mine is Symbol Creation. so I was curious as to what you thought!)

I also think symbol creation is overlooked. There are also a lot of really great commands that don't get used much. I couldn't live without DEFSYMD, OFFSET1, MIRCPY, LAYERCPY or TED. I use them so much I have added them to my custom layout. I still use the original selection method because it's faster for me, less clicking. I'm probably the only one who still uses it but it probably saves me an hour a day and at least several thousand mouse clicks :)

Thank you for giving us a look into your life and experiences and thank you for all your Contributions of time, knowledge, and skill to the Mapping Community. I am not sure it means much, but I a proud to name you the first Sage Symbol Savant! Thanks for everything!

Thank you, John. I really appreciate the award! .

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