Opinions on my artwork so far? UPDATE 3/31

[darktemp]

The artwork portion of this project is holding me up a bit.  What do you like and what would you change about my marquee, cp, and instructions?   I'm running out of idea's and I'm about to start work on my sideart.  Also the instruction card shown below is just a small portion of it.  This is a 10" portion of the 26" image and it still needs instructions does anyone have a good template for that?

Thanks

[darktemp]

Not much to critique on my control panel (you've all seen this before) unless you think something should be added or if it doesn't fit with the other artwork.

[mahuti]

http://localarcade.com/arcade_art/details.php?image_id=318&mode=search

Those are my instructions. I'm too worn out to critique right now, though.

[DrewKaree]

This is gonna sound odd

I don't like the marquee with all the mini-marquees on there, but I DO like the instruction card.

That being said, it seems to be a conflict of styles you're looking to put on your cab.  Your CPO is fairly simple and clean, but the instruction card and marquee are VERY populated pieces. 

I WOULD lose the "MAME" logo on the instruction card though.  If anything, that belongs on the marquee, and seems out of place on your instruction card.

[mahuti]

I agree with all of that. I'm never a fan of the multi-marquee... they have the texture of a background, none of the impact of a true "marquee" which should represent one main theme.

I think your instruction card may be a bit busy to actually contain instructions without being dialed back a bit.

[El Bucle]

Yeah, the instruction card does seem a little busy for an instruction card.  It would be kinda strange for it to stand out that much.  Then again, it would look pretty cool if you put a few opaque boxes on top of the character collage that would contain the instructions text.  That might balance it out and make it blend nicely.

As for the marquee, it draws your attention, but it doesn't draw it to any specific point.

CPO looks good, and with a few tweaks to the instruction card and the marquee they'd all fit together nicely.

Looks good so far, good luck! 

[Felsir]

I agree with what is said by mahuti and DrewKaree.

The instruction card could be a good idea, the images seem to look similar themed. However there are so many characters that it's become a blurry mess of pixels unless one would look very closely at it.
Leave out a few characters and it would be a lot better.

[neuromancer]

I like the marquee as the background, if it has something else as the foreground.

Placing a lot of text overtop of graphics is hard though, so I think the instruction card would need to be lightened up a lot.

Maybe the instruction card would make a good marquee?

Bob

[darktemp]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.  I'm going to rethink some things and post my progress in a few days... hopefully.

[darktemp]

Well I've decided to scrap the instruction card altogether and I'm trying different ideas for the marquee.  Since I spent a long time on my mini marquee I decided to just modify some of the marquees from the art library.  A couple of my all time favorite games and marquees are below (modified colors to fit my cab), which do you like more?

edit:  forgot to mention these are not complete, but I want to decide which one to use before investing more time and I can't make up my mind.

[DrewKaree]

The top one seems to go with your CP.

[RoboG2]

I second DrewKaree.  I always liked galaga anyways...

[GGKoul]

I second DrewKaree.

[darktemp]

Well here it is months later and I've picked up working on my artwork AGAIN.  This time I've got a theme I really like and I just finished up the marquee.  I will also be basing my cpo and sideart around the amazing SI deluxe vector by Zorg seen below, but less obstructed so it doesn't look repeated too much.

ALL opinions are welcome.  I might be losing the red "warp trails" so let me know what you think of those too.

[Bones]

I like the "warp trails".

Maybe if the buttons are red on your CP the marquee would also benefit from a splash more red red.

I am no art judge but I like this.

[zorg]

Well here it is months later and I've picked up working on my artwork AGAIN.  This time I've got a theme I really like and I just finished up the marquee.  I will also be basing my cpo and sideart around the amazing SI deluxe vector by Zorg seen below, but less obstructed so it doesn't look repeated too much.

ALL opinions are welcome.  I might be losing the red "warp trails" so let me know what you think of those too.

amazing, nice work I like it

[DrewKaree]

Very nice!  I agree with Bones on the warp trails, and the possibility of them going with a little red on your CP. 

Only thing I personally would do is play around with the shade of green and/or blue of the "Defender".  The blue in the letters almost blends right into the background....maybe an outline in red, perhaps?  As for the green, it's really a personal decision there, I'm more of a dark green kind of person myself, and that's the ONLY reason I'd change it.

Hey, is the starfield on its own layer?  What about trying a yellow, instead of white?  How might that look?  Just something that came to me before I ended this

[walls83]

I like it but I agree the "DEFENDER" colors blend in alittle to much.  Maybe make them a flouresnt blue and green.

[DrewKaree]

Am I remembering something totally off the wall here - was "Defender" a yellow face with red for the shading/shadow?

Man, I am SO losing my mind today.  I hate all-day-long rains and the blah feeling it brings...yeah, THAT'S the ticket!

[walls83]

http://www.geocities.com/walls83/examplemarqueedef.jpg


Here is something I whipped up real quick.

[darktemp]

Wow thanks for all the feedback.  I tried most of the suggestions but it looks like there have been posts since I started working so this is through DrewKaree.  I tried the yellow starfield and went with the darker green and a slightly lighter blue in the defender so it pops a little more, but it might need a little more work.

It's interesting some of you mentioned adding a splash of red to the cpo because I was planning on adding a touch to the sideart in the form of blood and fire and to the cpo as well.  I also made the alert siren red.  I'm going for a dark blue, green, and possibly purple scheme but it just needed a little something to pop. 

I'll try some of the other suggestions later today, keep them coming.

[zorg]

http://www.geocities.com/walls83/examplemarqueedef.jpg

Here is something I whipped up real quick.

how can I tell.... erm...  the colors are ...  erm..... after all it's just a matter of taste

and hummm .... sorry for this bad comment

[oldsage]

Wow thanks for all the feedback.

[DrewKaree]

Sorry, I just had to see them next to each other, and it was hard to scroll up and down

Lemme see here.

Definitely like the darker green....I think the lighter green looked "off" because it didn't appear to be lit like a shadow would be.

Did you say you changed the starfield to yellow?  If so, it appears not to make a difference, but perhaps at a larger size, it does. 

[darktemp]

Yeah the yellow is more visible when it's full size and I do like the darker green much more.  I think that's the final marquee unless anyone has more suggestions.  I'll get the cpo and sideart up soon.

[namedos]

To start with I think your control panel is great.  I love the old school characters and how the twist of having them show up at different angles.  Every time I look at it I find a new one.

There is a "space theme" connection between the CPO and the marquee but they don't really go together.  I'm not being critical I just don't get the connection.  Even though your primary colors are blue, green and purple I don't think there is anything wrong with using some other colors.  IMO the text gets lost if it stays blue and green.  With backlighting any light colors really pop out and with text it adds a glow factor.  I would try a red or yellow in place of the green.  Probably yellow if you keep the warp trails.

Taking it in a different direction and staying with the multiple game reference, how about keeping the star background and the moon base.  Then you could have the red warp trails include red text spelling out several different games as they drop in on the moon base.   Just trying to think of something that would tie in more with the CPO.

How about taking your CPO design and putting letters on it instead of the characters to spell  out whatever you are going to call it?

Probably too many suggestions, but in my opinion your CPO really stands out and I think you could take advantage of it in some other ways.  Good luck.

[DrewKaree]

I figured I'd try outlining the letters to perhaps try and make them stand out a touch more.  This is obviously not as time-involved an example as you would do, since you're more concerned with it, it's just something to see how she looks.

From the left (I only did the "EFEN" because they were fairly straight letters, and didn't worry too much about the curves) I have a 1 pixel yellow line, then a 2 pixel yellow line, 2 pixel red line, and finally, 1 pixel red line.

[DrewKaree]

I personally like the 1 pixel lines.  I noticed on the 1 pixel red line I wasn't too careful and it's a bit off in alignment...mebbe purple might work too for you.

[namedos]

DK, I think the outlining adds a lot to it.  Makes the letters stand out a lot more.  Personally, I would definitely go with the yellow so as not to detract from the warp trails but I like the 2 pixel lines as it stands out more.

[DrewKaree]

Here's a bit more.  Didn't know what color purple you are using, so I just threw one up for illustration.  L to R - 2 pixel yellow, 1 pixel yellow, 1 pixel purple, 2 pixel purple.  2 letters of each.

Also, I saved this in .gif format, so it may look get hosed in the tranlsation.

[darktemp]

namedos,

first I should point out that the great cpo artwork at the top was done by rom and is fantastic.  However, I will probably not use it on the final cabinet because it doesn't fit in with the art style of the marquee (thick lines, retro art, and only a few colors).  Rom's cpo art is really sharp and detailed and has a lot of gradients so it doesn't fit in with what I was trying to make look like an actual early 80's cab.  So what I'll be doing is printing that out as well as the "yet to be created" cpo based on Zorgs SI art and probably end up using the space invaders one.

DrewKaree,

I must say those lines are kind of growing on me.  I want to keep the art as simple as possible and not too busy but those outlines look pretty good.  I'll mess around with that and see if I can make it work.

[DrewKaree]

DrewKaree,

I must say those lines are kind of growing on me.  I want to keep the art as simple as possible and not too busy but those outlines look pretty good.  I'll mess around with that and see if I can make it work.

I figured you didn't have enough to do, and figured throwing that monkey wrench in there might keep you busy for a little while longer

I worked on my artwork for 3 weeks, with probably only 2 days where I didn't do SOMETHING on it....set it down to work on some other stuff.....looked at it recently, and I'm prolly gonna scrap it and start again from scratch!  On the plus side, when I start fresh, I'll have a new PC built (FINALLY!) that'll make the big-ass filter take WAY less than the 10 minutes my old PC takes to render

Glad you liked the darker green too!