I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I saved up a lot of PTO where I usually take a bulk of time off at the end of December. I knew I wanted to use a day or more to bust out the tablet and get some progress going on the Final Fantasy VII map project. I think also playing through Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion has jump started my urge to get some of this done. Actually scratch that, so instead of getting things completed on the map, I went through and just rough sketching and mapping out where things go. This should help later on when I finalize and do an official completion of an area. Also, I think by doing the planning and placements, it should give me a better idea of how I want to go about a certain area. But also, by seeing things on a map that was previously empty makes it feel like I am getting something done on the map. The parts of the map that’s highlighted in gold are what I worked on.
As far as planning goes, this is what I’m doing. I’m pretty much going over with a layer of lines to see where the cliffs and beaches will go. But it’s also helped me revisit old parts of the map that I haven’t looked at in a long time. Example below, the little island that’s west of Fort Condor.
I’m not sure why I had the island backwards in my initial map layout. I looked back on my in-game reference pictures from the airship view and sure enough the point of the island should be facing south. Luckily it’s easy enough to fix. But as you can see, the white lines or blue lines that I switch to in certain areas to help me see the cliff faces on parts of the land mass.
MIDGAR
Before this update, I actually had briefly worked on Midgar during the year. The last time I updated it was 8/21/2022. It wasn’t actually working on the asset to be placed on the map but just planning out Midgar on the map with the lines. Once I got started working on Midgar, the next thing I knew it was hours later. It looks simple now but I actually can’t wait to actually work on Midgar for real.
I drew a test reactor on the sides to see how I wanted to do it. I’m really enjoying the subtle blue/turquoise from the Mako energy at the bottom of the smoke. The one thing I’m intimidated by is how I will do them in perspective or placed in the different points on the outside of the ring.
OUTSIDE OF FORT CONDOR
I’m honestly NOT sure how I missed a range of mountains just north of Fort Condor. It’s in my in-game reference pictures and it’s even shown in the map on the back of the FFVII strategy guide.
My one concern is that I drew that mountain range years ago. I actually started with those mountains after I finished doing the land mass layout. Hopefully it’ll look seamless after I add it in.
THE OTHER CONTINENT
This was a HUGE step tonight. Of all of the times I’ve started, restarted, scrapped this project, I’ve NEVER worked on anything on the other continent. Even if it’s just line work and planning, it’s helped me actually think about how I am going to work through some of these areas. And also, it’s forced me to do new things which will be helpful and also help me feel more accomplished. lol.
The other areas that I worked on are:
- Costa Del Sol
- The mountain path/waterfall to Mt. Corel
- Materia Cave 3
- The mountains around where North Corel is going to sit
- Outlining the Desert where Goldsaucer and the Desert Prison sits
- Lucrecia’s Waterfall Cave
- Adding in cliffs and the beaches
I can kind of gauge where some of the pain points are going to be. I had ended the night with Lucrecia’s Cave and I had already known that, that asset is going to be a pain in the ass. Just the way the mountains surround it and it’s a higher elevation. So, doing that sort of perspective is going to be hard for me. Another pain point will probably be the mountains of Nibelheim. They’re styled different from the mountains I’m used to drawing. I’m excited to work on Cosmo Canyon and the Northern Crater, it’s probably mainly because it’s a different color of landmass vs the green/brown I’ve been working on through out the project.
This was a long day of drawing and planning, but it felt pretty damn good. I’m actually surprised at myself, I thought I had a lot more and better in-game reference pics but either they’re misplaced or just gone. Guess I’ll have to boot up FFVII and fly around to take more. I definitely don’t have updated reference pictures of anything west of Gongaga which includes Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim and Wutai. I have Rocket Town reference pics but I want to go through the continent in order just so I have the placements of the towns in between Gold Saucer and Rocket Town in place. I was sketching assets for Nibelheim and North Corel in my sketch book months back. Which I’ll include my sketch book assets in a different post.
For now though, this seems like a good chunk of the map that I can feel proud of. It may just be lines now but it’ll turn into something awesome. Still can’t believe I had started this idea back in 2015. Sigh.