Persona 3 Nyx Playmat

I'm nothing if not dedicated. Like the Reborn mat I put quite a bit of time into researching this project, luckily I already had played about a third of the game so I had a prettily good idea what I was getting into.

It was a good thing I did too since If I hadn't we would probably be looking at an additional character and totally diffrent personas. While its not alway possible I find playing, reading, or watching the media the mat will be based on is usually the best way of getting a feel for the characters involved, how they move, interact, their personalities, and drives, which in turn helps inform the overall design and layout of the image.

Which in this case is based on another of the spirals I am so fond of with a serious consideration for trying to fit as many characters on the mat as possible while still making sure that Nyx was the main focus and that she loomed over our intrepid heros. These are probably some of the smallest characters I have done and as such have to mostly be made up of blocks of colour, the in-game art style really informed this look and was a big help, and its also one of the reasons why they are facing away faces at this size being little more than dots and lines, not that that stopped me trying to do the really tiny details and checker pattern on the death card. Doing the designs for the personas was also quite interesting as you don't really realise it while your playing but you never really see their backs in the game, which made orpheus and his harp slightly tricky and Isis very much so.

The colours are probably my favourite part of this mat though, from the heavy use of black to the creepy green sky and sickly lime coloured moon, from the tiny gradients in the characters hair to the almost right but a tiny bit suspect lighting (mainly the global illumination could be a tiny bit stronger in places, the dynamic lights are fine). Most of which was possible due to several new tools that I had just acquired, especially in the areas that have turned to out to be particularly bright, something that will turn up again in a number of the later mats.

Still haven't quite finished the game totally though...