The Empyrean 3D map
3D Web Development
Nov '25 - Jan '26
The Empyrean 3D map is an interactive experience set in the world of the book series The Empyrean. Visitors explore a 3D map and can visit three locations from the books, each one an interpretation of how the place is described in the story. Selecting a location moves the camera smoothly towards it and shows information about it, while sound and a playful physics element add to the atmosphere. The experience is built with React Three Fiber, with the landscape and models made in Blender.
Challenge
Adapting locations from an existing book series meant staying faithful to the source material, through both imagery and text, while still adding my own spin. Readers already have a picture of these places in their heads, so each one had to be recognizable. At the same time, the models couldn't be too large or complicated for Three.js to run well in a browser. The challenge was finding the balance between models detailed enough to recognize and models light enough to load and run smoothly.