world of Eternum

[J.Edward]

Happy New Year everyone.

Last map for the year, and it's a big one. I think the full res was 32 x 23 inches.
This one took quite a long time to produce. Much longer than I had planned for it to. And more than I budgeted for.
But, I think it came out well, so it's all good in the end.

Again, this was a deeper view based off of a map made by Voolf - Aeternum
As I said, We've both worked with Trenton Hoyal on maps before.
It was interesting to explore a place another guild member has already explored.

Trenton wanted a lot of different types of biomes and environments, but did have specifics for certain things.
I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope next year is better than years before. Cheers, J

Aeternum 2024 6.5k jstevenson.jpg

[J.Edward]

Also, here's some crops at full res.

Aeternum 2024b crop01 jstevenson.jpg - - Aeternum 2024b crop02 jstevenson.jpg

Aeternum 2024b crop03 jstevenson.jpg - - Aeternum 2024b crop04 jstevenson.jpg

Aeternum 2024b crop05 jstevenson.jpg - - Aeternum 2024b crop06 jstevenson.jpg

Aeternum 2024b crop07 jstevenson.jpg - - Aeternum 2024b crop08 jstevenson.jpg

[- JO -]

I'm in total admiration of your talent and the beauty of this map. There's such diversity in the biomes and the different elements (the towers, the volcanoes, the forests, the sort of magic ball in the sea to the north...) and all these elements are coherent and fit in perfectly with the map... It shows the extent of your talent.
Thank you for sharing it with us,
Thank you for your wishes for 2025, which I return to you with all due kindness.
And I'm already looking forward to discovering new maps of your composition.

[Turambar]

Super impressive. The amount of detail you pack into this map is incredible, and really brings the world to life. I can already see a lot of story lines springing up out of the details of the map (there is no way that the Vindius Dam doesn't break and flood Devos, right?) My only critique is that the map is slightly dark and border seems a bit mismatched with the map. However, these are minor gripes and I can easily see this winning map of the year for 2024!

[Diamond]

I agree with Turambar about the darkness of the map, BUT I love the border.

I'd love to see your workflow, how you're able to bring a monster like this into being from beginning to end. That in itself is impressive, and the map is of course gorgeous.

[J.Edward]

I'm in total admiration of your talent and the beauty of this map. There's such diversity in the biomes and the different elements (the towers, the volcanoes, the forests, the sort of magic ball in the sea to the north...) and all these elements are coherent and fit in perfectly with the map... It shows the extent of your talent.
Thank you for sharing it with us,
Thank you for your wishes for 2025, which I return to you with all due kindness.
And I'm already looking forward to discovering new maps of your composition.

Thanks Joel. Hope your new year is exceptional.

Super impressive. The amount of detail you pack into this map is incredible, and really brings the world to life. I can already see a lot of story lines springing up out of the details of the map (there is no way that the Vindius Dam doesn't break and flood Devos, right?) My only critique is that the map is slightly dark and border seems a bit mismatched with the map. However, these are minor gripes and I can easily see this winning map of the year for 2024!

Thanks Turambar Yeah, there are a lot of grandiose features in here, as the client had a lot of very large scale things in this world.
It's odd. The map looks brighter on my work pc, and I just checked and it is darker here on this pc. I will have to check on some other maps and see if my settings are off.
Maybe all of my maps have showing up darker, idk.
The border is another thing. I had one plan for the border when it was just a sketch, but it looked totally wrong once the main body of the map was done. I tend to do the borders last.
But, the client had some specific things they wanted, that I would not have chosen if it were entirely up to me.

I agree with Turambar about the darkness of the map, BUT I love the border.

I'd love to see your workflow, how you're able to bring a monster like this into being from beginning to end. That in itself is impressive, and the map is of course gorgeous.

Thanks Diamond Yeah, it apparently is darker than it should be... than it appears to be on the work pc. Disconcerting and needs to be checked.
The client has a big thing with changing seasons, as it's a large part of parts of the world. He really wanted the changing season color change going around the border. I did my best with that, though I would not normally have different colors in a border. I usually stick with a single color scheme.
I am a creature of habit, so sometimes it's good to have clients get me to do things differently.

My workflow has changed a bit over time. For something this large scale I have to do some extra steps in the layout process. It's like I have to create several layers of layout with different things in them to help me understand all the various parts of the puzzle.
I started doing some layers of loose terrain lines before drawing any terrain to get a better feel for what will be up, down, flowing here and there. It helps a lot. I also made a good iso grid. I didn't use them in the past, but they can be helpful. I created a pattern file for PS so you can just have it is a pattern in layer properties. Then it fits any size map and is resizable. Probably simple things everyone knows, but I still learn basic PS stuff.

[Turambar]

Thanks Turambar Yeah, there are a lot of grandiose features in here, as the client had a lot of very large scale things in this world.
It's odd. The map looks brighter on my work pc, and I just checked and it is darker here on this pc. I will have to check on some other maps and see if my settings are off.
Maybe all of my maps have showing up darker, idk.
The border is another thing. I had one plan for the border when it was just a sketch, but it looked totally wrong once the main body of the map was done. I tend to do the borders last.
But, the client had some specific things they wanted, that I would not have chosen if it were entirely up to me.

Makes perfect sense. Nevertheless, this is a really lovely map. Each time I look at it I get lost in new details.