Marvel vs Capcom bartop art (WIP)

[TheGreatRedDragon]

I was never much of an arcade patron, the scene was just before my time, but thanks to the wonders of the internet and MAME I've discovered a fondness for arcade games, particularly for fighting games with Capcom's superhero stuff being a the top of the heap alongside Mortal Kombat. Interest led me to here and got me fired up for a bartop for the last year or two. This would be a Project Announcement thread but for one issue: No money! So until I get the scratch together all I can do is make the artwork which is just fine by me.

The kit at the top of my list is Haruman's EVO XR so that's what I made this art for. I had a few ideas for themes but MvC rose to the top of the list as I'm a big comic book fan, as well as a fan of Bengus' art which I felt would be a cool challenge to vectorize. I still plan on doing Mortal Kombat themed art as well, and I'll pick whatever one I like best.

Here's what I have so far:



The general aesthetic is stolen from Martijn's Street Fighter builds. I love the yellow color scheme he uses for how much art pops against it, and button surrounds have a bit of a comic book look without being all Comic Sans about it. I also stole the joystick surrounds from SlammedNiss.

I chose Wolverine, Ryu, Hulk and Zangief because they're so ubiquitous in the 2D era of the series. All of the art is based on Bengus's promo art for MvC 2, which has inspired me since seeing ads for MvC2 in old gaming magazines back in the day (ages before I actually played the game). For that game he created more complex rendering with pencil hatching which was both difficult and fun to translate into the hard lines and bold colors of vector art.

The "VS" logo and the label font are from SFIV. Technically inaccurate but I wasn't really satisfied with any of the actual MvC logos and I think it's a good fit, it adds a little edge to the art.

Close up of the control panel:



The control art is designed with a mix of Japanese and American-style controls in mind. I like Japanese sticks (with bat tops) and American buttons, so the joystick surround is smaller than it would be with a HAPP/IL joystick. Control placement is just a best estimation of what can fit where, calculated from the blueprints of the cabinet and the dimensions of the parts.

Rough mockup:



I wasn't planning to do a kickplate but the lack of art there in the mockup looks a little glaring to me, so I may work up a little piece of Spider-Man and Chun-Li.

The Wolverine render:



I spent a very long time working out the lighting on his arm, and of course most of it ended up being cut off in the final art. Oh well.

, if any Martians reading this thread from space don't know who Bengus is.

That's it so far. I've been sitting on this for a couple months digesting and I feel pretty good about it so now I'm turning it over to all you experts for as much criticism and input as you can muster. Thanks for looking.

[Malenko]

I like it!

The art could also work for MvSF . If you do add kickplate art, I'd suggest someone from Capcom other than Chun Li, or it really will be all Street Fighters. Roll , Felicia, and Ruby heart all scratch the female Capcom itch. You also only seem to have the "good guys" so maybe Venom, Spiral, Marrow, or the Sentinel for the marvel side of the kick plate? Bonus points if you hide servbot or Norimaro in there :p

I think the VS logo looks fine and not out of place and kudos for keeping the joysticks away from the crotch areas of characters.

[TheGreatRedDragon]

I like it!

The art could also work for MvSF . If you do add kickplate art, I'd suggest someone from Capcom other than Chun Li, or it really will be all Street Fighters. Roll , Felicia, and Ruby heart all scratch the female Capcom itch. You also only seem to have the "good guys" so maybe Venom, Spiral, Marrow, or the Sentinel for the marvel side of the kick plate? Bonus points if you hide servbot or Norimaro in there :p

I think the VS logo looks fine and not out of place and kudos for keeping the joysticks away from the crotch areas of characters.

Thanks!

Truth be told MvSF is my favorite game in the series and that's the primary reason for the Street Fighter bias. I just used the MvC name because it represents a franchise rather than one game and, most importantly, it looks better on this marquee.

I mainly picked the characters I did because they're the most prolific. Wolverine, Ryu, Zangief and Chun-Li were in all four of the 2D crossovers, and Hulk and Spider-Man were both in three (excluded from XvsSF for obvious reasons). But real estate is very limited on the kickplate so what characters end up there really comes down to the artwork, specifically how well their headshot isolates. Spider-Man works really well, but Chun is merely adequate. So I'm undecided.

And yes, I spent quite a bit of time arranging the CP art to avoid joystick boners and ugly coverup. I wanted to have huge splash pieces there but getting it to look right meant most of Hulk had to end up cropped out.

[yotsuya]

I like the sides and marquee, but I’ve never been a fan of characters on the control panel. Is Hulk a vampire? He’s got a joystick coming out of his heart. Maybe eating that button will cure him.

What about your own take on the Mortal Kombat control panel? You’ve got something good started, your version of this might take it over the top.



You’re doing a nice job here, kudos to you. Keep tinkering, I bet this will come out nice.

[SNAAKE]

looks great

[TheGreatRedDragon]

I like the sides and marquee, but I’ve never been a fan of characters on the control panel. Is Hulk a vampire? He’s got a joystick coming out of his heart. Maybe eating that button will cure him.

What about your own take on the Mortal Kombat control panel? You’ve got something good started, your version of this might take it over the top.



You’re doing a nice job here, kudos to you. Keep tinkering, I bet this will come out nice.

Haha is there any place a joystick could land on a character and not look weird? I don't think every CP needs characters and I really wanted to avoid the MS Paint collage effect where characters of clashing art styles are floating in an infinite limbo, but on a "Versus" themed cabinet and with Bengus's beautiful artwork at my disposal it was hard to resist slapping those two on that big canvas. I did make an effort not just to replace the joysticks in minimally suggestive locations, but also to have the button surrounds overlap the characters just enough to establish depth. That's why they slightly overlap Hulk's face and Zangief's hand, so they don't look like they're biting/grabbing at them. But now I see some tangents that I miss and have to nudge away. 

As far as Mortal Kombat goes, it's tough to think of something that's not a cliche or hews too close to an actual cabinet. The obvious temptation is to do a red and black theme, either in the form of Chinese restaurant or fire-and-brimestone, but I think that's a little overdone. At the same time, it would be really weird to have an MK theme with a bright yellow background. I'm gonna have to follow a couple rules: No stone texture, no fire, no Scorpion vs Sub-Zero. When I think of MK I think back to a certain Liefeldian brand of Xtreme from the early-mid 90s, so that's probably the tone I'll aim for. Maybe I'll redraw some of my favorite sprites with a comic book aesthetic, stick them on the side panels. The MK CP is a classic and I'd love to do an interpretation of it. But now I'm just spitballing.

I've also got an idea kicking around for a Donkey Kong bartop and my brain can't stop working at it. I haven't even come close to starting my first cabinet yet and I'm already thinking about my second. It's a disease.

[yotsuya]

I like the sides and marquee, but I’ve never been a fan of characters on the control panel. Is Hulk a vampire? He’s got a joystick coming out of his heart. Maybe eating that button will cure him.

What about your own take on the Mortal Kombat control panel? You’ve got something good started, your version of this might take it over the top.



You’re doing a nice job here, kudos to you. Keep tinkering, I bet this will come out nice.

Haha is there any place a joystick could land on a character and not look weird? I don't think every CP needs characters and I really wanted to avoid the MS Paint collage effect where characters of clashing art styles are floating in an infinite limbo, but on a "Versus" themed cabinet and with Bengus's beautiful artwork at my disposal it was hard to resist slapping those two on that big canvas. I did make an effort not just to replace the joysticks in minimally suggestive locations, but also to have the button surrounds overlap the characters just enough to establish depth. That's why they slightly overlap Hulk's face and Zangief's hand, so they don't look like they're biting/grabbing at them. But now I see some tangents that I miss and have to nudge away. 

As far as Mortal Kombat goes, it's tough to think of something that's not a cliche or hews too close to an actual cabinet. The obvious temptation is to do a red and black theme, either in the form of Chinese restaurant or fire-and-brimestone, but I think that's a little overdone. At the same time, it would be really weird to have an MK theme with a bright yellow background. I'm gonna have to follow a couple rules: No stone texture, no fire, no Scorpion vs Sub-Zero. When I think of MK I think back to a certain Liefeldian brand of Xtreme from the early-mid 90s, so that's probably the tone I'll aim for. Maybe I'll redraw some of my favorite sprites with a comic book aesthetic, stick them on the side panels. The MK CP is a classic and I'd love to do an interpretation of it. But now I'm just spitballing.

I've also got an idea kicking around for a Donkey Kong bartop and my brain can't stop working at it. I haven't even come close to starting my first cabinet yet and I'm already thinking about my second. It's a disease.

I wasn’t saying to use the Mortal Kombat theme itself, I wanted you to look at how there’s no characters on it, but it uses elements that fit in with the theme. For you, it would probably be colors.

Look at a bunch of classic control panels for different ideas. Or don’t, it’s your call. But I’ve just never been one that’s been big on the aesthetic of having characters on control panels, mainly because they have parts sticking out of their body and I think it just never looks right. Since you’re very early in the design process and you asked for suggestions, I thought I’d throw that out there. But I think you’re doing a nice job and ultimately whatever you come up with will look good.

[yotsuya]

I will say I do like the Vs. It’s almost like a callout to the actual player one versus the physical player two instead of characters. Whatever route you end up going, I definitely think that should stay.

[TheGreatRedDragon]

I like the sides and marquee, but I’ve never been a fan of characters on the control panel. Is Hulk a vampire? He’s got a joystick coming out of his heart. Maybe eating that button will cure him.

What about your own take on the Mortal Kombat control panel? You’ve got something good started, your version of this might take it over the top.



You’re doing a nice job here, kudos to you. Keep tinkering, I bet this will come out nice.

Haha is there any place a joystick could land on a character and not look weird? I don't think every CP needs characters and I really wanted to avoid the MS Paint collage effect where characters of clashing art styles are floating in an infinite limbo, but on a "Versus" themed cabinet and with Bengus's beautiful artwork at my disposal it was hard to resist slapping those two on that big canvas. I did make an effort not just to replace the joysticks in minimally suggestive locations, but also to have the button surrounds overlap the characters just enough to establish depth. That's why they slightly overlap Hulk's face and Zangief's hand, so they don't look like they're biting/grabbing at them. But now I see some tangents that I miss and have to nudge away. 

As far as Mortal Kombat goes, it's tough to think of something that's not a cliche or hews too close to an actual cabinet. The obvious temptation is to do a red and black theme, either in the form of Chinese restaurant or fire-and-brimestone, but I think that's a little overdone. At the same time, it would be really weird to have an MK theme with a bright yellow background. I'm gonna have to follow a couple rules: No stone texture, no fire, no Scorpion vs Sub-Zero. When I think of MK I think back to a certain Liefeldian brand of Xtreme from the early-mid 90s, so that's probably the tone I'll aim for. Maybe I'll redraw some of my favorite sprites with a comic book aesthetic, stick them on the side panels. The MK CP is a classic and I'd love to do an interpretation of it. But now I'm just spitballing.

I've also got an idea kicking around for a Donkey Kong bartop and my brain can't stop working at it. I haven't even come close to starting my first cabinet yet and I'm already thinking about my second. It's a disease.

I wasn’t saying to use the Mortal Kombat theme itself, I wanted you to look at how there’s no characters on it, but it uses elements that fit in with the theme. For you, it would probably be colors.

Look at a bunch of classic control panels for different ideas. Or don’t, it’s your call. But I’ve just never been one that’s been big on the aesthetic of having characters on control panels, mainly because they have parts sticking out of their body and I think it just never looks right. Since you’re very early in the design process and you asked for suggestions, I thought I’d throw that out there. But I think you’re doing a nice job and ultimately whatever you come up with will look good.

Sorry my bad, I got confused because I mentioned above that I actually was considering a Mortal Kombat theme, and am planning to give it a go. So I thought I was getting input on that idea lol.

I get what you're saying about character art. It's a tricky issue because on one level there's no getting around that there's a vaguely phallic thing sticking out of Hulk's chest, but on another level the theme really lends itself to having big bombastic pieces of art blowing up at each other in an epic conflict between cool and awesome. Do I go for a cleaner design that might not serve the theme as well? Or do I play into the theme and resign myself to jiggling a chest penis?

And you are right about Vs, that was my intention. Just pushing the idea of the cabinet as an electronic coliseum or fighting pit. "Two men enter, one man leaves" and all that.

[yotsuya]

I like the sides and marquee, but I’ve never been a fan of characters on the control panel. Is Hulk a vampire? He’s got a joystick coming out of his heart. Maybe eating that button will cure him.

What about your own take on the Mortal Kombat control panel? You’ve got something good started, your version of this might take it over the top.



You’re doing a nice job here, kudos to you. Keep tinkering, I bet this will come out nice.

Haha is there any place a joystick could land on a character and not look weird? I don't think every CP needs characters and I really wanted to avoid the MS Paint collage effect where characters of clashing art styles are floating in an infinite limbo, but on a "Versus" themed cabinet and with Bengus's beautiful artwork at my disposal it was hard to resist slapping those two on that big canvas. I did make an effort not just to replace the joysticks in minimally suggestive locations, but also to have the button surrounds overlap the characters just enough to establish depth. That's why they slightly overlap Hulk's face and Zangief's hand, so they don't look like they're biting/grabbing at them. But now I see some tangents that I miss and have to nudge away. 

As far as Mortal Kombat goes, it's tough to think of something that's not a cliche or hews too close to an actual cabinet. The obvious temptation is to do a red and black theme, either in the form of Chinese restaurant or fire-and-brimestone, but I think that's a little overdone. At the same time, it would be really weird to have an MK theme with a bright yellow background. I'm gonna have to follow a couple rules: No stone texture, no fire, no Scorpion vs Sub-Zero. When I think of MK I think back to a certain Liefeldian brand of Xtreme from the early-mid 90s, so that's probably the tone I'll aim for. Maybe I'll redraw some of my favorite sprites with a comic book aesthetic, stick them on the side panels. The MK CP is a classic and I'd love to do an interpretation of it. But now I'm just spitballing.

I've also got an idea kicking around for a Donkey Kong bartop and my brain can't stop working at it. I haven't even come close to starting my first cabinet yet and I'm already thinking about my second. It's a disease.

I wasn’t saying to use the Mortal Kombat theme itself, I wanted you to look at how there’s no characters on it, but it uses elements that fit in with the theme. For you, it would probably be colors.

Look at a bunch of classic control panels for different ideas. Or don’t, it’s your call. But I’ve just never been one that’s been big on the aesthetic of having characters on control panels, mainly because they have parts sticking out of their body and I think it just never looks right. Since you’re very early in the design process and you asked for suggestions, I thought I’d throw that out there. But I think you’re doing a nice job and ultimately whatever you come up with will look good.

Sorry my bad, I got confused because I mentioned above that I actually was considering a Mortal Kombat theme, and am planning to give it a go. So I thought I was getting input on that idea lol.

I get what you're saying about character art. It's a tricky issue because on one level there's no getting around that there's a vaguely phallic thing sticking out of Hulk's chest, but on another level the theme really lends itself to having big bombastic pieces of art blowing up at each other in an epic conflict between cool and awesome. Do I go for a cleaner design that might not serve the theme as well? Or do I play into the theme and resign myself to jiggling a chest penis?

And you are right about Vs, that was my intention. Just pushing the idea of the cabinet as an electronic coliseum or fighting pit. "Two men enter, one man leaves" and all that.

No problem, I give you a lot of credit putting this much thought into the art and doing it yourself. Keep up the good work!

[opt2not]

Finally an art post from someone who gets it. Looks good! I honestly don’t have much advice to give you, which is a first. Keep up the good work!

[TheGreatRedDragon]

No problem, I give you a lot of credit putting this much thought into the art and doing it yourself. Keep up the good work!

Thanks. I've lurked this forum a lot and I see a lot of people who grew up on arcades and want to replicate that experience, and I also see a lot of people who want a cool gamer-y toy for a mancave. I'm not really motivated by either of those things. While the appeal of playing games I love with the interface they're designed for is definitely a motivator, above all to me an arcade cabinet is a really fun art project. So beyond the basic conception ("I want a cabinet like this that does this") designing the artwork is where it's at for me. And I'd hate to have a cabinet with anything less than the best artwork possible.

Finally an art post from someone who gets it. Looks good! I honestly don’t have much advice to give you, which is a first. Keep up the good work!

Thank you, I appreciate it. I've read a lot of your posts and they've helped clue me in on what pitfalls to avoid.

[Mike A]

Your artwork is put together nicely. I like the colors. I wouldn't put any characters on the kick plate. How about just a continuation of your color scheme?

[TheGreatRedDragon]

Your artwork is put together nicely. I like the colors. I wouldn't put any characters on the kick plate. How about just a continuation of your color scheme?

I'm kinda thinking the same thing. I've tried laying it out with some characters but the space is so limited that it just feels shoehorned.

Here's that janky mockup again with some color on the kickplate. The gradient wraps around from the sidepanels.

[Mike A]

Looks good to me.