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How did you choose your artwork? (and help with mine!)


vaderag

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I'm in the process of building my cab... Marked up the wood today, and Hyperspin machine is in progress too, but the one thing I can't decide on is what the final cab artwork should be...

I'm not really looking for suggestions here, bit more now other people decided on what they wanted to do. So, how did you decide???

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I just started writing down the names of iconic, classic games and the games that I personally loved and came up with the idea of putting them all together like a comic book. Once I had a couple hundred I went looking for good art for them.

Ended up with artwork for 110 games that I photoshopped together as my side-art.

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The difficulty in having in deciding is that I'm not a huge fan of some of the 'combo' graphics I've seen, although some can look great. Mine is bound to look rubbish.

Equally tho, I don't want to be tied to one design...

I had been leaning towards a street fighter theme, but now I wonder if I should go more down the combo... I do think a combo machine needs a good 'name' for the marquee tho too, and that's challenging!!

One other question. I've left this to last... Is there any difficulty adding artwork post build, or should I be thinking carefully about this alongside the build and control design?

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The difficulty in having in deciding is that I'm not a huge fan of some of the 'combo' graphics I've seen, although some can look great. Mine is bound to look rubbish.

Equally tho, I don't want to be tied to one design...

I had been leaning towards a street fighter theme, but now I wonder if I should go more down the combo... I do think a combo machine needs a good 'name' for the marquee tho too, and that's challenging!!

One other question. I've left this to last... Is there any difficulty adding artwork post build, or should I be thinking carefully about this alongside the build and control design?

I'm also not a fan of a lot of the combo or montage graphics which is why I went with comic book borders between them on mine. To keep all the artstyles separate.

You can start working on it as soon as you know your exact cab measurements, but you can't really add your artwork until the build is actually done, just before you install your T-molding.. And leave yourself some time. I had over 100 straight hours of work invested in just designing my art and that's not even counting the marquee design (which I did first). That's more than I spent on the cab itself.

If I ever build my own cab I might want something like a robot made out of game characters on one side and a robot made out of game/system/manufacturer logos on the other.

That sounds like a cool idea.

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Honestly its what ever you like man.  I had tons of fun making my artwork and I am clearly no pro at it haha.  Here is an example of what I did for my controller panel.  Most people wouldn't like what I put cuz the majority of my stuff is from consoles but I didn't make it for everyone else, I made it for me.  Sure now looking at it I don't really care for the ninja turtles / simpsons art I did.  I would want to re-do it or choose different charters but who doesn't like changing / modifying things anyway.  Overall though, I love it.  I liked doing higher quality / new version images of the characters with backgrounds from the actual games behind them.  Then I just did a simple patter behind everything that shows a little between each photo and around the buttons.  The image doesn't even do it justice.  To me it looks awesome on my arcade with the plexiglass over it.  The second image I attached is actually one I found online that I stole the idea from.  So honestly I would go search in google image search for arcade art and find something you like then go from there.

post-16523-0-86937500-1455474830_thumb.jpg

post-16523-0-77600100-1455474845_thumb.png

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100hours... Oh crap!

Better start now then!!

Are there any blank templates around in which I can start knowing I'm at the right kind of resolution etc??

Yeah, literally over 100 hours, but remember I also had to find, put together, photoshop, arrange, design frames, color match & position, composite and the endit 110 different pieces of art.

So in my case I took on far more than most. I doubt it would take you even remotely as long as mine.

If you have it printed by Brad/Lucien then he has the guidelines to get it to print awesome in his stickied thread in the artwork section. If I remember right artwork needs to be at 300dpi, RGB color... can't remember what else.

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Honestly its what ever you like man. I had tons of fun making my artwork and I am clearly no pro at it haha. Here is an example of what I did for my controller panel. Most people wouldn't like what I put cuz the majority of my stuff is from consoles but I didn't make it for everyone else, I made it for me. Sure now looking at it I don't really care for the ninja turtles / simpsons art I did. I would want to re-do it or choose different charters but who doesn't like changing / modifying things anyway. Overall though, I love it. I liked doing higher quality / new version images of the characters with backgrounds from the actual games behind them. Then I just did a simple patter behind everything that shows a little between each photo and around the buttons. The image doesn't even do it justice. To me it looks awesome on my arcade with the plexiglass over it. The second image I attached is actually one I found online that I stole the idea from. So honestly I would go search in google image search for arcade art and find something you like then go from there.

Out of interest, how did you find lining up the buttons and artwork? One of my biggest fears is getting the artwork and the buttons not quite lining up... This is why I was wondering if it might be worth doing the art first so I can actually drill through it in place...

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If you are making a custom panel from scratch.  You are completely right on making the art first.  Figure out how big its going to be dimensions and make that your art work size on photoshop or what ever you use.  Then make the artwork first... cut the holes based on how you place them on your artwork.  If you are using something pre-fab then someone some where must have some measurements  / layouts you can start with.  

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If you are making a custom panel from scratch. You are completely right on making the art first. Figure out how big its going to be dimensions and make that your art work size on photoshop or what ever you use. Then make the artwork first... cut the holes based on how you place them on your artwork. If you are using something pre-fab then someone some where must have some measurements / layouts you can start with.

Yeah, it's a custom panel... This means I need to move even quicker if I want to play stuff ;)

Can I ask, what are all the control buttons you have along the top?

I'm thinking P1/P1, coin 1/2, exit/save/load maybe?

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Well I have mouse left and right since I have a tracball so it allows me to use that as a mouse when not in hyperspin.  Exit and Pause come in handy obviously, P1, and P2 start / coin.  Select is actually "Enter" which comes in handy if you are in any PC games but its also handy when you get into a mame game that needs to be configured quickly.  The menu button actually is "Tab" which brings up the configuration for Mame and then "select" allows you to make selections within the menu.  I also use select on some of the consoles that have a "select" button.  

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Well I have mouse left and right since I have a tracball so it allows me to use that as a mouse when not in hyperspin.  Exit and Pause come in handy obviously, P1, and P2 start / coin.  Select is actually "Enter" which comes in handy if you are in any PC games but its also handy when you get into a mame game that needs to be configured quickly.  The menu button actually is "Tab" which brings up the configuration for Mame and then "select" allows you to make selections within the menu.  I also use select on some of the consoles that have a "select" button.  

 

Can't you just assign P1/P2 or P1coin/P2coin to left and right mouse button? Or is there something that makes that not work?

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Right now I have: P1, P2, Coin 1/Enter and Flipper buttons. And I can hold down the P1 key to shift to ESC, TAB, Backspace, PgUp/Down, volume up/down etc... which works fine if you already know what they do, but frustrating for visitors wanting to play it.

I'm going to rebuild my CP and add some dedicated buttons for things that a person just walking up to it would need labeled.

Dedicated Volume Up & Down, Coin mech with coin buttons, dedicated Back button, dedicated favorites button, mouse/trackball buttons, maybe a dedicated pause button etc...

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Honestly its what ever you like man.  I had tons of fun making my artwork and I am clearly no pro at it haha.  Here is an example of what I did for my controller panel.  Most people wouldn't like what I put cuz the majority of my stuff is from consoles but I didn't make it for everyone else, I made it for me.  Sure now looking at it I don't really care for the ninja turtles / simpsons art I did.  I would want to re-do it or choose different charters but who doesn't like changing / modifying things anyway.  Overall though, I love it.  I liked doing higher quality / new version images of the characters with backgrounds from the actual games behind them.  Then I just did a simple patter behind everything that shows a little between each photo and around the buttons.  The image doesn't even do it justice.  To me it looks awesome on my arcade with the plexiglass over it.  The second image I attached is actually one I found online that I stole the idea from.  So honestly I would go search in google image search for arcade art and find something you like then go from there.

 

I don't suppose you found a straight up top view of that second image? I'm liking the feel of it, but want to whack together a mock of it to see how i feel once i've stuck my own in there...

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I wuld love art like this.. although I would modify I think... but I love the unique feel of it....

 

 

I swing both ways with that. 

I, like you, like the unique feel of it, and the graphiti gives me throwbacks to the old SFII CE cab

 

But for me there is too much going on there - i want a clean look, something that doesnt get in the way of the eye candy on the screen...

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I swing both ways with that. 

I, like you, like the unique feel of it, and the graphiti gives me throwbacks to the old SFII CE cab

 

But for me there is too much going on there - i want a clean look, something that doesnt get in the way of the eye candy on the screen...

EDIT: Nevermind. No reason for me to bag on that machine like that.

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No sorry man that's the only image I found of it and simply used it as inspiration. Dedicated buttons is absolutely the way to go especially when it comes to visitors coming over. I almost did additional buttons for favorites in the hyperspin menu. For volume I got a Griffen control knob which I love and also found a cool piece of software that puts an overlay on the screen to show volume levels. Now the overlay doesn't work on some emulators due to direct x taking over control of everything. Hyperspin and any emulators that you use open gl it works great.

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I'm in the process of building my cab... Marked up the wood today, and Hyperspin machine is in progress too, but the one thing I can't decide on is what the final cab artwork should be...

I'm not really looking for suggestions here, bit more now other people decided on what they wanted to do. So, how did you decide???

 

Well, for me...after getting beyond the actual, physical part of creating the cabinet...the hardest part was, in fact...now what? What exactly did I want this cabinet to say, to express, etc?

 

I knew that I didn't want to go the route of jumbled up iconic characters, games company logos or something a bland as labeling it "my arcade". 

 

What I wanted was something that was not reflective of any one, specific game or genera of games...but rather the essence of classic arcade games themselves. I thought, what better way to express that...than to theme the cabinet around the arcade experience from my youth?

 

With that in mind, I then blended that thought with my love for TRON and TRON: Legacy. In the story of both films was an arcade owned by one of the main characters called "FLYNN'S".

 

BOOM...there it was! I then started researching everything I could for images related to the fictional arcade "FLYNN'S". I found concept art from TRON: Legacy that depicted "FLYNN'S" in it's abandoned, run-down state and also in it's digitized TRON-world state.

 

That's what I did and my inspiration for it. In the end...really, it's all about what YOU want it to be. Stick to that, and you can't go wrong! 

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I love the thought process there!

The trouble is, the arcade experience of my youth isn't quite what I want...

My key experiences were Alex Kidd and Bubble Bobble in an old arcade. The machines were beaten up, plain black with that fake wooden vaneer on the sides... No artwork.

Great memories, but not exactly what I want my passion project to look like!!

I have masses of memories of playing Master System, SNES, NES and Mega Drive which fit what the cab will be, but I don't want to go down that line as its a cab, not a console!!

Which leaves me with a conundrum!

All of the above is why I was leaning towards SF as I have good memories of it on SNES. But also bubble bobble was on my list, but arguably less iconic. I would also love donkey Kong or pacman, but the cab shape is wrong for dk and almost feel pacman is over done (and I don't actually like the artwork, just the game!!)

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I have masses of memories of playing Master System, SNES, NES and Mega Drive which fit what the cab will be, but I don't want to go down that line as its a cab, not a console!!

Which leaves me with a conundrum!

Good man! It would be immoral to put console flavored art on an Arcade Machine. I'm pretty sure the Bible says you will go to hell for doing that.

 

All of the above is why I was leaning towards SF as I have good memories of it on SNES. But also bubble bobble was on my list, but arguably less iconic. I would also love donkey Kong or pacman, but the cab shape is wrong for dk and almost feel pacman is over done (and I don't actually like the artwork, just the game!!)

That sounds cool "Bubble Bobble vs. Street Fighter". Like the other versus Street Fighter games, have the cab split down the middle with a face-off. Bubble Bobble art & characters on one side. Street fighter art and characters on the other. Bubble Bobble side leaning towards blue/purple/green. The SF side towards yellow/red/white (reverse the characters and color on the marquee though). With your favorite SF character facing off with a Bobble (SFxT style) in the center of the control panel.

My machine is called the "Pac-Man Battle Royale Arcade Party Shodown" because one year ago I was sitting on the couch and suddenly thought "It would be cool to have that new Pac-Man Championship Dx+ game in an actual arcade machine... I wonder how I'd do that?". Had never really messed with emulators or even heard of Hyperspin, but 3 months later (to the day actually) I had built a cab, built a PC, setup HS/HL and designed, photoshopped and had my artwork completed, printed and installed!

Sometimes the right idea just inspires and lights a fire under you.

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Good man! It would be immoral to put console flavored art on an Arcade Machine. I'm pretty sure the Bible says you will go to hell for doing that.

That sounds cool "Bubble Bobble vs. Street Fighter". Like the other versus Street Fighter games, have the cab split down the middle with a face-off. Bubble Bobble art & characters on one side. Street fighter art and characters on the other. Bubble Bobble side leaning towards blue/purple/green. The SF side towards yellow/red/white (reverse the characters and color on the marquee though). With your favorite SF character facing off with a Bobble (SFxT style) in the center of the control panel.

My machine is called the "Pac-Man Battle Royale Arcade Party Shodown" because one year ago I was sitting on the couch and suddenly thought "It would be cool to have that new Pac-Man Championship Dx+ game in an actual arcade machine... I wonder how I'd do that?". Had never really messed with emulators or even heard of Hyperspin, but 3 months later (to the day actually) I had built a cab, built a PC, setup HS/HL and designed, photoshopped and had my artwork completed, printed and installed!

Sometimes the right idea just inspires and lights a fire under you.

I love that idea... I'm not 100% on how it will actually look, but I might have a think about that idea!!
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