I suppose this is two different questions:
(1) What's your estimate for the most hours you've poured into one map?
(2) What's the longest span of time you've spent on one map, from the start to declaring it finished?
What's the longest you've ever spent on one map?
I suppose this is two different questions:
(1) What's your estimate for the most hours you've poured into one map?
(2) What's the longest span of time you've spent on one map, from the start to declaring it finished?
(1) I broke the 400 h
(2) 1 year and 4 month (same map, it burnt me out).
(1) Same as @ThomasR, I've broken the 400 hour mark on a particular long term map of mine.
(2) Three Years (Same map, collaborative effort)
One of the main reasons this map has taken so long (God's world, 4th version as of now) is that it's a collaborative worldbuilding experiment. It has proven difficult to map, as a whole.
(1) I don't know how many hours I've spent on a single map. My City of Birdseye involved about 6 months of full-time Sketchup modelling, though, so it's probably that one.
(2) For the map that's taken the longest time, that'd be Ostrom: 1 year and 9 months. Thankfully I had a very patient client
Wingshaw
Formerly TheHoarseWhisperer
I would guess a bit over 100 - 120 hours actual time spent working but longest just over time would have to be decades since my own world never ever ever gets done.
“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden
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16 hours. 4 hours a day over 4 days for the hand-drawn map of the city of Kasai, for Paizo Publishing's Jade Regent Adventure Path, where I drew over 8500 buildings. The second most is about 8 hours, which is double my normal speed in creating a map, though that map required lots of 3D work, which takes more time. 3 to 4 hours is what I generally spend on 99% of the maps I create, whether hand-drawn, vector drawing or 3D. While I enjoy making maps, I more enjoy finishing them.
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(1) Easily over 100 hours, but after a certain point, you stop counting.
(2) About a year and a half, if I only consider those finished.
For instance, my personal campaign map and the first map I ever posted when I became a member of the Guild is still unfinished.
I haven't worked on it in the past 4-5 years and likely won't ever. The geography didn't make sense and it looks awful. I'll have to start from scratch.
My Deviantart: https://vincent--l.deviantart.com/
1) I'll have to confess, I don't usually have the patience for the kinds of massive projects some people here make. I only started getting any maps finished when I took my scale down to pieces that I could finish in 30-50ish hours. I don't think any of my finished maps have taken me longer than that. Occasionally commissions go over that line, but there the extra time is spent on discussions with the client and not really the map itself.
2) That's a bit trickier. Techically, no more than a few of months, but I have had some maps that I've made several versions of in the span of a couple of years. I kind of consider these to be just one singular map that I still have not nailed yet. One of these days...
Originally Posted by Kellerica
Exact same here. I don’t have patience to spend hundreds of hours drawing mountains. I like trying to figure out how to make maps relatively quickly without compromising aesthetics. I think having high quality shading and colour is one of the best ways to make an awesome map without spending a century making it, because that way the map is not relying on incredibly detailed and time consuming line work.
I may have spent close to 100 on a project before, but not too much more I don’t think.
1) I’m pretty sure I’ve broken the 400 hour mark with the map of Thra and am closing on the 300 mark with Orbisvapor.
What can I say, I love big projects
2) think It’s about 2,5 months (again on the Thra map) but I only started seriously mapping in august this year..and yep, I’m thirsty for more!
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