http://altermidgard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/custom-playmat-retrospective-part-1.html
http://altermidgard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/custom-playmat-retrospective-part-2.html
So, so far I have looked at the first 35 mats. from 0 to 34. Today I want to finish the pre 2013 mats off and look at the SWYC mats, EX series, and maybe get though all the 2013 mats as well if we are lucky so lets dive right in.
The one I forgot from last time and should be somewhere in the 20's
Mat 35: Inzektors LINK
Like the Zoroark mat this post features a making of video, also like that mat it turns out videos are quite time consuming to make so you wont be seeing me doing many until I get some sort of overhead camera and permeant workspace. I still have this mat I think the person who asked for it kinda forgot about it, but whatever, I'm sure it will find a home at some point.
South West Yugioh Champion Series Mats
Mat 36: SWYC 2010 Stun LINK
The South West Yugioh Champion Series Mats are rather unsurprisingly part of the prizes that are awarded to the winner of the event each year. They are the only mats I do that maintain elements across more than one mat (the text and logo area). This is mostly because I figure if I'm going to be doing hand drawn mats I may as well have each one be as unique as possible.
Mat 37: SWYC 2011 Smash LINK
Interestingly this mat doesn't have a post of of its own, I guess at the time I figured it was pretty self explanatory. Every year its basically down to me to figure out how to fit whatever design the winner want around the logo and sometimes it can be something of a game of Tetris. Most people who do hand draw mats tend to avoid text, there are very good reasons for that...
Mat 38: SWYC 2012 Burn LINK
... Primarily its because theres a size threshold that once you go below the colour bleed ends up being larger than the text itself and you have to move over to lines instead. The 2011 mat is the anomaly of the group since its the only one without a bright abstract background. Its also quite obvious from the art style this is one of my more modern mats, I've come a long way in three years.
Mat 39: SWYC 2013 Bump LINK
You know I said may mats are hand drawn and unique? Yeah maybe I pushed things too far, still I'm glad they didn't go with their first idea of having100 Mars bars drawn on a mat, that would have been a tad time consuming. Its also probably the last SWYC mat for a while (no I didn't scare everyone off) since players stopped bothering to attend the other qualifiers if they had qualified already which wasn't reslly the attitude the organiser was looking for.
EX Series Mats
Mat 40: Mat EX 0001 Lightsworn LINK
EX mats are designs that in some way go above and beyond the rest of the range. It doesn't nesasarly have to be the level of detail although that is most definitely the case in this instance. It can be down to the mat forcing me to use new techniques or learn something new that I feed back into the design if standard mats, or it could just be that i feel like the mat deserves the tag EX. You may have noticed that there is currently only one EX mat which is this one, I have ideas for others but its just finding the right opportunity. The Dragonball Vs Scryed mat should probably be in this club as well since its the mat that served as the experimental platfrom for the way I would be doing the 2013 mats
2013 Series mats
At this point I took the opportunity of a new year to start a new numbering system, mats now get my signature and the year written on their back followed by a 4 digit number starting at 0001. Mainly because the general public probably wouldn't get programmer humour, while i don't think I will do 1000 mats this year one of this things you learn when programming is that its easier to plan ahead than have to go in and mess with properties later because you didn't consider all the possible outcomes, "Program our clocks and date timers to go past the year 2000? why would we do that, it would take up more bits and no one will be using our code by then anyway!" Yeah that worked out well.
Mat 41: Mat 2013-0001: One Piece LINK
I can see why people like One Piece and it has done a lot for the way things are going this year since the panel style has proven popular. That said its not really my thing I think it comes down to the fact that while its only just over halfway finished the author has known the ending since the beginning, don't get me wrong having a strong road map is better than making things up as you go along and hoping you can tie everything up at the end, but if you know the ending why not get it out the way at the beginning and then get on with the important job of telling the story without having to worry about people being disappointed at the end?
Mat 42: Mat 2013-0002: Muppets LINK
Its not often I have a major accident with the colours, in this instance because it was with black it threatened almost having to start over. Much remover later and things were back to normal but it was tense there for a while. When using this panel style its important to get a good idea of the size of each panel in the small scale sketching phase as it will determine how the character inside will have to be placed and how big they can be.
Mat 43: Mat 2013-0003: Hunders
This mat hasn't had a blog post written about it yet, once these retrospectives are out of the way I can get back to looking at individual mats again, at which point this post will be updated with a link and less generic piece of text.
Mat 44: Mat 2013-0004: Batman LINK
This mat could also probably qualify for an EX tag if it wasn't for the fact the One Piece mat did the panels thing first. Still even without that honour its was one of the most technically challenging and time consuming pieces I have worked on with its portraits of real people and use of lighting. This post is also one of the best places to start if you want to learn more about the way in which I make mats as it has quite a detailed walkthrough.
Mat 45: Mat 2013-0005: SWYC 2013 Bump LINK
See the SWYC section above for more info. Its funny how these things work out, Having just had to draw realistic people in the Batman mat I get to use the skills I have learnt straight away on another pair of people.
Mat 46: Mat 2013-0006: Raspberyl LINK
All the panels and borders lately have finally got to me and even when I am doing something a bit more standard I cant resist adding something to the edges. I really should get round to playing the Disgaea games at some point, although still have Phantom Brave to finish first. I've been wondering lately how I managed to use up so much red but I'm starting to see where it went.
Mat 47: Mat 2013-0007: ???
Yeah no comment on this one
Mat 48: Mat 2013-0008 ???
Similarly this one also gets some question marks
Mat 49: Mat 2013-0009 Madara Vs Hashirama Naruto Mat 2 LINK
So we finally arrive at mat 50! (remember we started at 0) And its a doozy. The blog post is also quite useful if your interested in finding out how many layers one of my mats has, and on top of all that its only the second mat to feature a third layer of protection, the first being the Ligthsworn mat which served as a test subject. One inch black boarders at the top and bottom of my mats seem to be a theme this season, they certainly add a sense of added style or cinematography to the proceedings anyway.
Mat 50: Mat 2013-0010: Elite Champion 2013 Brothorhood
While there may not be any SWYC mats for a bit that doesn't mean event mats are done with and this is the latest, look out for a post about this mat in the near future
Mat 51: Mat 2013-0011: Muppets Go Yugioh
Also more on this later
Mat 52: Mat 2013-0012: Keldeo
The latest mat to be completed
Mat 53: Mat 2013-0013: DMG returns, coming soonMat 54: Mat 2013-0014: Coming soon
And breath, finally up to date and not only did we reach mat 50 but I didn't even have to include digital mats! I will have to have a think about when the next retrospective should be, covering 50 turns out to be quite time consuming.
Next time we will finally be back to business as usual.
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