For Racing FE's Logo Artwork Project

[Howard_Casto]

Ok this is for my upcoming checkered flag FE as well as front-ends in general.  We want to make logos and/or marquees for all the driving games... which isn't as big a list as you might think. 

Refer to this list for our initial games:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140494.0.html

If you want to work on some, just list the rom names to the  ones you are working on.  I'll post the list of finished ones as we go.  We'll worry about exact dimensions once we have the logos cleaned up, but for now make sure they are much wider than they are tall, like a marquee and as large as possible.  We want to cut out the BG for the logos at least... I'll attach an example file so you can see what I mean.

(Note, if you can't find art to make the logo wider than 512 pixels, put an *... that denotes that the quality is kind of low and we really need a better source.)


Finished: 

MAME (and via nonno and cannonball since they have the same games)

abcop
acedrvw
aquajet
bigrun
polepos
*polepos2
raveracw
ridgerac2
ridgerac
*blmbycar
*calspeed
cbombers
cischeat
contcirc
*crusnusa
crusnwld
cybrcycc
dirtfoxj
drivedge
enduror
f1en
f1gpstar
f1gpstr2
finallap
finalap2
finalap3
finalapr
fourtrax
groundfx
gtmr
gtmr2
hangon
*hangonjr
harddriv
hcrash
hotchase
hyprdriv
*maxrpm
midnrun
orunners
outrun
pdrift
pocketrc
racedriv
racehero
radikalb
radm
radr
roughrac
roundup5
scross
sfrush
shangon
shtrider
sidebs
sidebs2
*slipstrm
smgp
speedrcr
speedup
spyhunt
spyhunt2
superchs
suzuka8h
suzuk8h2
turbotag
victlapw
wecleman

UPDATE:  8/9/14  MAME initial list done!

Model 2
Daytona
indy500
manxtt
motoraid
overrev
srallyc
sgt24h
waverunr

UPDATE  8/9/14  - Model 2 Complete!  (Except clones/hacks)

Supermodel
daytona2
dayto2pe
dirtdvls
eca
Harley
lemans24
scud
srally2

update 8/10/14  Supermodel Done!  (Except for a lone hack)

Tirforce
gppe02 (Mario kart gp 2)

update 8/10/14 Triforce done!

Dolphin (gamecube)
GFZE01ax  (Fzero-GX hacked to AX)
GFZE01 (Fzero Gx)

Demul (Atmoiswave Naomi, ect...)
ftspeed
maxspeed

atvtrack
smshdrv

18wheelr
crzytaxi
f355
jambo
wrungp

clubkrte
wldrider

initd
initdv2e
initdv3e

podrace
sgnascar

UPDATE 8/11/14 - Demul done! (Except clones of course)

Misc (Stand along Type X loaders, Pc games ect)

bg4t (Battle Gear 4 Tuned)


UPDATE:  Version 1 of the pack (contains all of the logos listed above) now available!

Download HERE

https://www.mediafire.com/?fjz7mp8xueuuze5

[Howard_Casto]

RESERVED:

[Howard_Casto]

RESERVED:

[Howard_Casto]

Hmm... there is a site that has a lot of these... they just need to be cleaned slightly.

http://www.arcade-gear.com

If you go to a game, it's usually got a logo at the top.

[BzZziLLa]

HMMM... I wish you would have said this sooner as I have already resized my stuff a little lower than 512 for my maximus theme. I can however upload or send you everything I have so far. Let me know.

[Howard_Casto]

Well thus far I've been having pretty good luck... as you can see the list has tripled in size since an hour or so ago when I started.  Help would be nice of course.

[BzZziLLa]

I mostly have the marquees for console games. I haven't got into mame yet. I'm saving the best for last. I'll upload some shortly.

EDIT: Ahhh I see you want to cut out the backgrounds. That will take some work.

[Howard_Casto]

Well you can do a lot more skin-wise that way. 

Check out a preview below. 


Anyway, I'm done with the "D"s  on Badmouth's list.  I'll pick it up again tomorrow if I have time.  If anyone wants to work on a bunch of these... just post what you are working on here so people won't repeat work. 

[BzZziLLa]

Here ya go. I'll help some more as time permits.

[Paul Olson]

Howard or BzZzilla, can one of you explain the steps to clean these so they look good? I will try to help some later this week, but I have never done it. I subscribed to the Adobe CC with the intention of learning some of this stuff, so I may as well put it to use. Is it just setting the background to transparent?

[Howard_Casto]

Basically you get busy with the magic wand tool and you might have to use the select tool to manually cut out some bits. 

At least half of the ones I've looked up thus far already had some sort of logo available.  It might have not been transparent, but the background was a solid color, so they were easy to cut out.  Flyers are a good resource... they typically have the logo on them somewhere. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I'm starting up again.  I'm still going down Badmouth's list... I intended to stop around 1000 miles rally, so I've got dibs 

[BzZziLLa]

Howard or BzZzilla, can one of you explain the steps to clean these so they look good? I will try to help some later this week, but I have never done it. I subscribed to the Adobe CC with the intention of learning some of this stuff, so I may as well put it to use. Is it just setting the background to transparent?

I found final lap, final lap 2, and final lap 3 already complete on deviantart (fortunately). I then took an RC cola "R" and added it to the end of Final Lap lol.

For four trax, i cropped and resized the image to get the appropriate size. Then i used the magic wand and got rid of most of the crap around the logo. Then i zoomed in and shaved off the stuff around the edges and saved it as a png.

[SegaOutrun]

nice, you went with the daytona theme after all. Would the hyperspin wheels work as logos? If so I have all these artwork already.

let me know if the work and ill uploaded them

[BzZziLLa]

nice, you went with the daytona theme after all. Would the hyperspin wheels work as logos? If so I have all these artwork already.

let me know if the work and ill uploaded them

I know! I love the daytona theme. And yes! Upload those hyperspin wheels. We can cut out the logos.

[BadMouth]

These aren't the hyperspin wheel images are they?

I'm not crazy about collecting and hosting someone else's images, even less so about packaging hyperspin images with a different front-end.

[Howard_Casto]

I've been doing mine manually except in the rare instance where a promotional logo is available. 

Just for the record BzZziLLa:

You are getting a tad lazy on us.  Those do indeed look like hyperspin images because they do lazy crap like take the logo for the first game and tack numbers on for the sequels.  I know 2 and 3 have a totally different font than one. *EDIT*  I looked into it, it's actually Namco that got lazy.... their flyers recycle the title font and marquee images aren't currently available, so I apologize*EDIT*  It's easy to find a clean source for the real text as well... just pull up a flyer like so:

[Howard_Casto]

Ok all that embarrassment aside, I'm going to start on a batch since I have an hour or so.  I'll try to get down to finish the "R"s in the mame list. 

[Howard_Casto]

OK BzZziLLa I added yours to the list.  For the record I had to re-do Final Lap R because that wasn't the proper "R" and fourtrax.... that one was actually available via the logo wiki. 

[BzZziLLa]

OK BzZziLLa I added yours to the list.  For the record I had to re-do Final Lap R because that wasn't the proper "R" and fourtrax.... that one was actually available via the logo wiki.

You didn't like the RC cola R?!? haha.. Personally, I thought it was an improvement. 

[Howard_Casto]

It isn't about good or bad, but rather accurate or inaccurate.  If the art isn't available sure, we need to improvise something, but if it is... use the official logo.

[Brian74]

Howard,  thanks for taking the lead in this. If I had and photoshop skills, I would lend a hand. But I will be here for support.

[Howard_Casto]

Eh I appreciate it, but I'm wearing out.  I think I've got about 5 left on badmouth's mame list though, so I'm hitting the home stretch. 

I will say this Badmouth, your list needs some additions and possibly a few subtractions.  I know games like Turbo Outrun aren't in there and a couple of the games really need a yoke.  One thing at a time though... it's a good list to start with. 

I'm not exactly sure what to do with some of the more modern games like Daytona usa.  First off, none of the versions really have a marquee and 90% of the "clones" are actually rom hacks.  The only official material I can find in any form is the original game, Limited edition, and Deluxe Edition.  It looks like Deluxe Edition = '93 version and maybe Limited edition = Saturn Ads. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I'm done with the mame list.  Should I host these on my site, or what?

[BadMouth]

Ok I'm done with the mame list.  Should I host these on my site, or what?

If you want, I can put them on the google drive account I made for BYOAC stuff and give you access to modify the folder.
Just PM me a gmail addy.

[Howard_Casto]

Well maybe I should power through this weekend and finish up the arcade stuff completely.  Ignoring the clones/hacks there aren't a heck of a lot more to do. 

I hope nobody is expecting these to be perfect.... some are a tad messy and a few games there just wasn't any art available so I had to improvise.  The source images are clean though, so if your favorite game needs a bit of cleanup you can just open the png and go to town.  My goal is to get us some kind of logo for each game though with it presentable enough to where you aren't ashamed of it. 

Now for the console stuff, somebody else can handle it... I'm done.  Haven't been this tired of google since I used to do controls.dat. 

I'll release Checkered Flag as-is next week and get back to 2k6... done or not I'm releasing a new exe next weekend. 

[Howard_Casto]

Preview: 

[Paul Olson]

I worked on Dirt Devils for a while tonight, but it looked like crap. I will try again tomorrow.

[Howard_Casto]

I've already done dirtdvls... check the list. 

It's not prefect though... the edges could be a bit cleaner.

[Paul Olson]

I've already done dirtdvls... check the list. 

It's not prefect though... the edges could be a bit cleaner.

lol, I did check the list, and chose the supermodel ones because those were the only ones that didn't say updated at the time.

[Howard_Casto]

Well in case you haven't noticed, I'm going straight down bad mouth's list.  So working on supermodel right now would probably be a bad idea, for example. 

Like I mentioned, I'm not being super picky about these.... we can clean them up later, but I spend around 5-20 min on each one. 

[Paul Olson]

Well in case you haven't noticed, I'm going straight down bad mouth's list.  So working on supermodel right now would probably be a bad idea, for example. 

Like I mentioned, I'm not being super picky about these.... we can clean them up later, but I spend around 5-20 min on each one.

I am definitely doing it wrong! I spent about 40 minutes on mine last night. I decided to try to use the background eraser to see what it did. Turns out it doesn't erase too well:

[Howard_Casto]

Actually that's pretty good using the eraser tool. It has an feather on the edge, so it doesn't delete completely unless you overlap. 

For dirt devils in particular I cheated a little bit.  I found a pre-cut-out gif on the net... enlarged that and then used the magic wand to select it's background to cut the flyer. 


What I use are the wand/lasso tools.  Magic wand to start and then the polygonal wand and manual lasso wand in subtract mode to manually define the edges that the computer didn't get quite right.  Once you have the entire background selected, you just hit the delete key.  Also make sure anti-alias is on for all the tools... it isn't a rendering option but rather your jagged lines are smoothed.  Oh yeah and the smooth selection option in the selection menu... that works pretty well for some things. 

The eraser isn't particularly useful unless you are touching up edges or something. 

[Howard_Casto]

Hey would a youtube video help?  I've been doing this crap for over a decade now... I forget that there are photoshop beginners out there. 

[Paul Olson]

Hey would a youtube video help?  I've been doing this crap for over a decade now... I forget that there are photoshop beginners out there.

Yeah, that would probably help quite a bit. I have had all the adobe stuff queued up on Lynda.com for a couple of months now, but just haven't had time to watch the videos. A specific task video would be great.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok the next problem marquee I'll try to record a bit.

I'm on the home stretch though... only about 15 or so arcade games left.  At least on the list BM posted. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok this is a raw video, so there aren't any edits... all my mistakes are still in there.    I use some keyboard shortcuts so read the description about that.  The video cuts off  at 10 minutes (I really need to buy bandicam at some point) but all that was left was the cropping, which anyone can handle. 

The end result is attached below.

[Howard_Casto]

Whew! 

All arcade games are done except for the Monaco GP remake, which I'm putting in the "misc" category and will cover when we do a big batch of pc racers. 

I'm trying to figure out how to do this.....

I'm thinking I maybe want to gather up snaps/titles/flyers and misc for the games as well.  I can probably just do a batch file to copy the appropriate images from the official mame packs for most of it.  I'll see if I can release this sometime tonight or tomorrow.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok the first pack is done.  I put it on the first post. 

Note that like I've mentioned previously, a few of the images contained are by no means perfect.... I just wanted to make sure we had a logo for each game.  If you think you can improve some of the images feel free, just remember to send me the updated image so I can add it to the pack.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok people... is there a resource for model 2 and supermodel snaps?

The reason I did logos is because all the other art is interchangeable with mame.  When you get to the snaps though, mame can't load the model2, supermodel and demul games, so I need a new resource.  I can take them myself of course, but I don't want to waste my time if they are already available.