Retro Pixel Artwork

[ssdesigner]

I am so excited to slap this on my new cab! I found this on Etsy and the seller provided adobe photoshop files with each and every character as a layer. So I can move these characters around, scale them, delete, add. So cool. I have been searching and searching for weeks trying to find something like this. Let me know what you guys think. Does the yellow background work? Maybe a starfield background? Open to ideas on the joystick and button art as well.

[Mike A]

That looks really bad. Collages almost always look bad.

I am trying to temper my response.

This could be one of the worst collages I have seen used as side art.

There is no rhyme or reason to it. Just a bunch of random characters slapped together.

[nipsmg]

I'm with you Mike A.  I never got the draw to this artwork.   Looks like someone slapped a bunch of stickers haphazardly on top of each other. To each his own I guess.

[ssdesigner]

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and that's what makes bouncing ideas around fun and interesting! I've been a graphic designer for 30+ years and while I normally prefer simple over busy, there is just something about these characters all lined up like they are going to battle against the characters on the opposite side of the cab. I love how they are all facing their opponents and seem to be in perfect unison.

[Mike A]

They are not facing the opposite side of the cab. They are facing the front of the cab. And some of them are looking in different directions.

Different styles of artwork crammed together. This is a horribly amateurish conglomeration.

The excitebike guy is riding on a Tetris brick that is sitting on another character's head. WTF.

Tails looks like a smudge.

Mario is in there a bunch of times.

Why is that dolphin out of water at random?

You can't be serious.

[ssdesigner]

I guess you just take fun way more serious than I do. I try not to overthink things and sometimes just let them be what they are.

To each their own, as they say.

[Mike A]

You definitely don't have more fun than me.

I hope you are happy with the artwork once it is applied.

In the future if you really want constructive input you should ask before you buy something.

Once a person spends money on something their natural instinct is to defend that decision. It is harder to be objective, and they are unlikely to abandon it.

The control panel should be much simpler. No characters would be ideal. Same thing with the marquee if if has one. Just the name of the cab.

Post pics of your build and ask lots of questions.

That is my 2 cents.

[opt2not]

Yeah, I too am in the camp of less is more.  I'm not feelin' this at all.

The first cardinal rule about collages is to have the subject matter be of the same art style. Otherwise it looks really cheap and kitchy. Though these are all sprite art, you have a mix of way different styles. Some from the 8-bit era, some from 16...some from arcade that has a much higher color count. 
It does look like a mismash of stuff.

The second cardinal rule for making a successful collage is to have a "flow", a composition of all the subject matter so that it leads the eye and has clarity of what in the collage.  This doesn't have that. It's all a blob here, so much noise, zero negative space for getting clarity of silhouettes, and even the placements of each character doesn't really make any visual sense. You got that huge wiley bot in the middle of the image, and a bunch of smaller charcters tucked around it playing peek-a-boo.

Also, what's going on with the pixel stretching?  Is that a product of the preview, or are these sprites deformed in some way that is causing most of the sprites to have non-squared pixels? I see rectangular pixels mixed in everywhere and it's making the sprite art look really ugly.

Lastly, I'm just wondering...if you're a 30 year graphic designer, why would you pay someone on etsy to cut out sprites for you?  All these sprites are readily available online, and a lot of them are available in sprite sheet format, so all you got to do is remove the background color (which is usually pink) and you have your isolated character art. Also, as a graphic designer, where is your color theory and color contrasting? Yellow background with a slightly faded pacman maze texture, behind a mostly warm collage/clumping of characters... that's warm on warm colors. (not to mention the pacman maze texture is flat and way too subtle -- and way too small/repeated).
I dunno man, I'm calling shinanigans on that 30 year graphic designer comment. I'm trying to be as constructive as I can here, but to be honest, this is looking really rough. Fun or no fun...I would expect a lot more for a graphic designer with that amount of tenure. 

[pbj]

Looks like when I put my cartridges in crooked.