First post and a cabinet announcement! Hi folks, brand-new to the site and am way addicted.
I've been working on the artwork for my bartop cab since August and have finally gotten around to posting here. I've been pretty hesitant actually because there's
so much good work on here that I'm almost embarassed.
As you can see from the images below, I'm making an R-TYPE Themed bartop cabinet, based on an existing cabinet design (WeeCade). I chose the WeeCade because it was one of the nicest, smallest bartop designs I've seen, and I don't feel like making my own cabinet design until I've built one from a tried-and-true plan first.
The Marquee and Side Panel artwork came from original R-TYPE flyer art that I vectorized in Illustrator. The R-CADE title was something I put together using Illustrator and Photoshop, based on the original on-screen "R-TYPE" title. Actually, the vectorization process for the Side Panel is what took the longest amount of time, as it required a ridiculous amount of gradient meshing to get right. Overall, quite fun and a great learning experience.
Looking for some feedback and design advice if anyone has time to give it!
I'm highly critical of myself and think the Marquee might be too noisy (I originally wanted to do JUST the starry background and the R-CADE Title, but the ship is pretty necessary to the theme and doesn't really fit anywhere else). I'm pretty happy with the Side Panel, but do realize it probably needs some more touch-ups before final printing, and I like the Control Panel design (kind of like a spaceship control panel, I guess).
I don't have a lot of tools ('cept for a hand sander and a drill) so I had the side panels laser cut by Laser Alliance in Milpitas, CA. It was quite affordable and painless ($20 a panel). I have since sanded them until they're glossy smooth and I can see my reflection in 'em. I'm going for the piano black, lacquered look. I'll put a pic of those up in a future post.
I went for a 6-button layout, which looks a little crammed for two players, but I have to play those fighters and I think it'll work out okay. I purchased and bought two U360 joysticks and can't wait to get 'em installed.
I'm very much enjoying the synergy and support on this forum, it has made the experience very enjoyable. Thanks all!
Update: I played with the colors of the Side Panel artwork in Photoshop to bring out details, shadows, and highlights. The bright light of the eye is much more obvious now and I think the whole thing stands out more. Bring on the comments if you've got 'em folks!
Another Update: I checked back on the marquee and found that it was too tall, so I changed it around a bit. I removed the "speedlines" because they looked way too noisy to me. The grey bars at the top and bottom of the image indicate the marquee retainer. The bottom marquee is the most recent update, with the ship being a lot bigger.
Before:After: