Critique my marquee art!

[ragnar]

I was wondering what everyone thinks of my marquee.  I will be using a similar theme on the CP art.  It is for an arcade called either Insomnia or Gamesomnia.  The image says Insomnia.

My orignal intent was to pick some of my favorite video game character sprites and blow them up and place several on the marquee.

In the image, Goro from Mortal Kombat looks pretty damn cool but I think the Pacman ghost and Mario look like crap.

So:
1) should I go with higher resolution character artwork (dropping the in game sprite thing)?
2) Should I skip characters altogether?
3) Should I just do 2 characters on the marquee?  Bottom left and bottom right much like Goro?
4) Does the transparency work for everyone?  Goro for example is on top of the text.

Anyways, thoughts and comments are welcomed. 

[tommyinajar]

Yea the pixelated Mario and ghost don't look right, And to me the Mario and Pacman look out of place w/ Goro and the flames. Maybe stick to "heavier" characters from the fighters and more mature games, if you like MK and the flames. But hey one man's beauty.... something-something.

[ragnar]

Yea the pixelated Mario and ghost don't look right, And to me the Mario and Pacman look out of place w/ Goro and the flames. Maybe stick to "heavier" characters from the fighters and more mature games, if you like MK and the flames. But hey one man's beauty.... something-something.

I'm probably going to do art from multiple games beyond fighters, but I think the small sprites are not going to be used.  They just don't look right.  I got a bunch of stuff from the arcade art library to tinker with.  i will be doing hte ghosting effect though.

[javeryh]

I'd skip the characters every time.  My favorite cabs are the ones that look completely thought out from start to finish with a cool theme - not a collage of clip art.  You picked a cool name - Insomnia - now try and build something around it that fits.  Start HERE for the font (I don't like the font you chose at all - it does not say "Insomnia" to me - it says "Birthday Invitation" or something).  Check out the attached pic to get an idea what I'm talking about.  Once you find the font you like then you can add the background - and that's all you need really, IMO.  Carry the theme through to your CPO or side art if you are planning on having that stuff and you will be good to go. 

That's my $0.02 for what it's worth...   

[Turnarcades]

+1

[leapinlew]

I agree with Javery. Had I read this thread sooner, he would have been agreeing with me!

I think your background could be a giant eyeball. A play on Insomnia would be eyes wide open

[bkenobi]

I like the eyeball idea, but to make it the right aspect ratio, you need a pair of them!

[ragnar]

Ya, the font is going to change.  I'm pretty much the only one that liked the font I chose.  1001fonts.com hassome good fonts.  I'll check dafont also.  Is there a gimp/svg/photoshop specific site that hosts fonts?  Or are True Type fonts sufficent always?

I did find alot of hi-rez artwork that is night themed.  Like sunset or stary sky type images.  The issue with eyes (which I think I looked for) is that I could not find any super high rez images of eyes.  And if I did, they were often from medical web pages and not necessarily something you want to look at while eating anything.  What I really wanted was neurons but there are no hi rez images of neurons.  The benefit of nebula images is that there are alot of high rez images out there.  I could take an eye and do a ghosting effect with it though as to be ghosted against the nebula.  There are also alot of images in high rez of circuit boards, especially old arcade board for some reason.

If I use chacters in the artwork, they will be clip art.  I am thinking mario and donkey kong at the top kinda like how Goro is positioned.  But I will be making them semitransparent as to hint at a dream state.  As in, when you do fall asleep, you can only think of the games  That's the idea anyways.  I want them to be almost unnoticable.

[ragnar]

I like the eyeball idea, but to make it the right aspect ratio, you need a pair of them!

I was thinking of finding a good hi rez version and doing a left/right flip to make two eyes.  What about eyes that are slitted liek a cats eyes?

Lower rez images would work ghosted with a nebula i think since they would not stand out as much.

[ragnar]

hi rez cat eye

[bkenobi]

Search for "Claudio Paulo Pinto" and see what his eyes look like.  Might be right if you can get a high enough res image.

[HaRuMaN]

Go to deviantart and do a search on eyes.  Tons of images to choose from.

[bkenobi]

Cats eyes could be very cool!

[EightBySix]

Cats eyes could be very cool!

...but then you would be restricted on the amount of fox piss you could have around.

[javeryh]

...or something...

[bkenobi]

I don't like the font, but that layout looks really cool javeryh!

[ragnar]

Cats eyes could be very cool!

I could place the eyes on the left and right and text in the middle.  Maybe ghost the eyes with the nebula?  Well, this is going to be fun later today :-)

[javeryh]

I don't like the font, but that layout looks really cool javeryh!

yeah, I just picked the first font I saw - as a placeholder.  You could also get something you like and then mess with the lines like this one:

[ragnar]

javerah,

That looks awesome!

[leapinlew]

javerah,

That looks awesome!

+1

[bkenobi]

Still don't like the font, but that cell shading style looks sweet for the eyeball!   

[ragnar]

javeryh,

Do you have the eye image file that you used and if so, could you upload it?

Thanks,
ragnar

[opt2not]

Cats eyes could be very cool!

Owl eyes too! Goes with the theme of insomnia since most owls are nocturnal.

[javeryh]

javeryh,

Do you have the eye image file that you used and if so, could you upload it?

Thanks,
ragnar

I just used the pic that lew posted!

[ragnar]

I don't like the font, but that layout looks really cool javeryh!

yeah, I just picked the first font I saw - as a placeholder.  You could also get something you like and then mess with the lines like this one:

javeryh,

How did you get the image to look the way it is?  Did you convert the image to SVG or something?

[Turnarcades]

Play around in any art studio. This effect is right there in Photoshop along with a load of other filters.

[ragnar]

I spent some time tinkering today.  I have a few versions that were made but I think this was the best one.  Even though the text is simple, I actually like it!  Having the eyes centered looks better than shifting things so that the word is centered.

Notice how the left side is photo quality and right side is using effects.  Almost as though to say that one is transitioning from an aware state to an sleep deprived state!  I do have this image in a 300 dpi PNG version that is sized appropriately.

I figure a marquee like this from across the room when backlit will show mostly the eyes which I think would be pretty damned cool.

Thoughts?

[leapinlew]

Thoughts?

I like the direction your headed, but this is too difficult to read.

[ragnar]

The comment here was consistent with what everyone at work said.  The conclusion is that the text is to dark.

So I did 2 things in this revision.  I made the text stand out more.  I also scaled everything up so that the eyes fill more of the marquee.  I am not sure why it took me this long to make the scaling change.

Two images.  One at 72 dpi (the first one) and a smaller one at 15 dpi.

Comments welcome.

[bkenobi]

I like it.  Good stuff!

[PsychoMikey]

Looking good, looking good.

I would maybe make the eye's actual I's in the same font. see attached file.

[Rick]

What I like:  the eye thing.  I think it's a wicked theme.  What I don't like:  the fact that in using the letter "I" from the word "Insomnia" causes the title to be offset by one character.  Personally, I like Javeryh's image idea, as you only have point of focus and can adjust the word and image appropriately.

I'm sure there's some artsy-fartsy way of saying what I just said, but I hope you get what I mean.

[Malenko]

I liek yours, but I like javeryhs (just needs some color). However, it is YOUR cab so do what YOU like more.

[ragnar]

PsychoMikey,

That is a nice piece of work you did!

I am going to probably revamp things a bit more with the image I have and order it.  Maybe by the end of the week.  Regarding the image I have, the ovals for the eye slits are very similar is size/shape of those in the cat image.

I think I might lighten the text a bit though.  I want the eyes to pop more.  I have also thought about an intentional mispelling.  Instead, calling it INSONMIA.

[leapinlew]

PsychoMikey,

That is a nice piece of work you did!

I am going to probably revamp things a bit more with the image I have and order it.  Maybe by the end of the week.  Regarding the image I have, the ovals for the eye slits are very similar is size/shape of those in the cat image.

I think I might lighten the text a bit though.  I want the eyes to pop more.  I have also thought about an intentional mispelling.  Instead, calling it INSONMIA.

Insomnia is a human thing, which is why I picked a human eyeball. Cats are about as far from Insomniacs as you can get. I've never met someone who said their cat doesn't sleep enough...

[ragnar]

Well, insomnia also implies that you are up late at night and in a tired state or near dream state.   A black cat at night can be a scary thing and exist in nightmares.  It's not a direct correlation but I still see some correlation.  Maybe I just think that the slits look cooler.

Good point though about the eyes.  I'm in no rush to order the marquee so maybe I'll give human eyes a shot.  

Reading more on insomnia.  Insomnia is having trouble falling asleep or the inability to stay asleep.  In both cases,  Insomnia is typically followed by functional impairment while awake.  If video games are keeping you awake, the cause would be related to "sleep hygiene".  Sleep Hygiene can be defined as the controlling of "all behavioural and environmental factors that precede sleep and may interfere with sleep

[Ginsu Victim]

It doesn't work. Something about it just doesn't seem right.

[ragnar]

It doesn't work. Something about it just doesn't seem right.

The latest version of the cat eyes?  I think the text needs to be muted a bit.

I've been thinking about changing the background effects.

[Ginsu Victim]

At first glance, I couldn't see the first "I", so reading it was difficult. The slanted eyes for "I" and the other font don't really go well together.

[opt2not]

How about just having the eyes in the background, and clearing the rest of the face out, making it black? Like 2 eyes peering out from the darkness?

My other suggestion would be to separate the background image from the Title-text, having the text stand separated, and have the eye image perhaps above or below the text.

Just a thought...