CP art and layouts, opinions welcome. *Updated 8/22/07*

[Zero_Hour]

After countless, false starts, delays, general procrastination, relocation, and whatnot....

It seems as if I'm really going to build my cab. I'm going for a 3 panel rotation design made famous by 1UP's Pac-Mamea and the Frostillicus Arcade cab. Special shout out to Dudeman for hooking me up with his CP files to get me over a major hurdle 

With that in mind, I have been working on a Marquee and CP artwork for the beast. Here is what I have so far. Would love to hear ANY feedback.

First up, the Spinner / Trackball / Tron trigger stick panel. I think this is my favorite of the three. I like how Tron seems to be attacking the missiles, which was completely accidental. 


Here it is with the controls overlaid. I went with the 3 buttons in a row to keep Missile Command easy to play. Now I'm blanking on what spinner / trackball games need 4 buttons... or if there are any that need more?


Next up is the LS-30 / Dual top fire sticks. Probably the most visualy boring of the three, probably because I wanted to stay with the red theme, and really couldn't find many elements that I thought would play well off of each other, and that I liked. I really wanted to avoid referencing games I know I'll never play.


Again, with controls overlaid. I placed the topfires centered for Battlezone, and Assault two of my favorites. Sad to say, but I don't forsee the LS-30's getting used too much by anyone but me, so the player 2 stick being flipped probably won't be too much of an issue.


And of course, the obligatory "Fighter" panel. Using Happ Perfect 360s I bought  a long time ago. My initial combo of Tron and Missile Command led me to go for a similar mashup on this panel.


With controls. I debated 6 or 7 buttons, and decided that I just don't play enough Neo Geo 4 button games to justify the extra button. I may also add a dedicated 4 way stick, and that would require some tweaking of button and stick placement, but I think I have more than enough room to accomplish it if I decide to go that way.


*EDIT* Here is my Draft Marquee :

[patrickl]

Wow that's great work. Love how you created the 3 different color schemes. How is that going to tie in with the rest of the artwork though?

[Zero_Hour]

Wow that's great work. Love how you created the 3 different color schemes. How is that going to tie in with the rest of the artwork though?

Thanks, the Red/Green/Blue idea is about the only thing that has remained constant over the loooong time I've been planning this project. I've come up with about  a half dozen names, messed around with a few different ideas for CP layouts, and too many attempts at the artwork to remember.

I attached the Marquee artwork to the first post, so you can get a feel for how I want to tie it all together.

At this time, I'm not planning on side art, but I'm pretty sure I could work up something in the same vein as the Marquee if I ever decide to add it.

[bfauska]

Great art choices.  I like the color themes, and you did a good job of working in several popular characters w/o making it seem crowded or busy. 

With a cabinet name like rEvolution, are you planning on having a rEvolving monitor, to go with your rEvolving CP?

[Zero_Hour]

With a cabinet name like rEvolution, are you planning on having a rEvolving monitor, to go with your rEvolving CP?

Only in my dreams. Even with the number of examples here, I feel that would be biting off way more than I care to chew. I'm making up for it by using a big honkin' 27" Dotronix monitor, so the vertical games should look alright on that.

Glad you like the artwork. The marquee was where I was concerned about crowding too much in,  but by taking advantage of the various elements of my CP's and tweaking their positions and sizes when I moved them into the marquee, I think it turned out OK.

[Malenko]

I love the look of the frogger panel, but if its a "fighter panel" why no fighters on it?

[Zero_Hour]

I love the look of the frogger panel, but if its a "fighter panel" why no fighters on it?

No fighter characters I like enough to put on it that would work with the green theme. In fairness, I'm probably going to do a dedicated 4 way stick on that panel as well, which will cement its' use as my primary control panel, so I think the Frogger and Galaxian references won't be out of place there. Putting Dirk on my LS-30 panel was probably the most out of place decision, as far as the character art goes, but it's starting to grow on me.

[oqqalz]

First off, I love your themes.   

The only one I might change is the red one, the one with dual joysticks per player.  I think the red Smash TV player would be more appropriate than Dirk.

[leapinlew]

I don't really care for the frogger panel.

• Frogger looks like he's crap'n out a joystick.
• Frogger is running from bugs. If anything, he should be running towards the bugs and they should be flying away. I mean, I know frogger is a frog that can't swim - but he does eat bugs.
• I like the 3 panels, but they are all kind of the same. Know what I mean? Big oversized CP covering art.

The quality of the work is really good.

[Zero_Hour]

lew,

You make some good points. Thanks for the input.

1. I'll definitely fix the Frogger / joystick issue when I place the dedicated 4-way.

2. You have to admit, those are some pretty badass bugs. Unless I had a spaceship to shoot them with, I'd probably run too. 

3. I guess that one comes down to a matter of taste. I wanted to keep them congruent, with not a lot of character art. I think I understand what you are getting at though - maybe underlays for the controls to set them off from the art? That might be worth investigating.


oqqalz,

That's a really good suggestion. I'll have to do some digging to see if I can locate some Smash TV artwork to mess with.

[bfauska]

I think that you may be on to something there with the underlay idea.  I think panels look more finished if the buttons are grounded by something.  It looks more planned out and designed, rather than looking like you found a cool picture and then put buttons through it.

[somunny]

That Tron/MC panel is really great looking.  Nice job so far, ZH.

[Zero_Hour]

Well, I thank everyone again for the input.
With that in mind, here are my revisions...

I added underlays for the controls on all panels, which also tie into the text effect I used on the marquee.

I revised the green panel, to adjust for certain "Frogger Issues" that leapinlew pointed out, adding in my dedicated 4-way, but those damn bugs are still getting the best of him. 

Finally, and the reason I didn't have these done sooner, is that I removed Dirk from the red panel, and replaced him with The guy from Smash TV, as per oqqualz. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge, as I couldn't find any hi-res artwork. Although Photoshop does a pretty fair job at reducing pixelation when scaling, it was still too nasty to use on the panel. I also could only find the Blue Character to work from. So, I reread the Vector tutorial that Frostillicus wrote up, and dove into Illustrator head first. I've previously only used it to clean up pre-existing ai files, so this was really my first time working up something on my own from a raster file. The results are far from perfect, but I think it turned out OK.

Let me know what you think of the revisions.

[bfauska]

Looks good.  I think that your Smash TV guy looks just as good as the other guy on that panel (who's name I'm sure I should know, or at least his game.)

The separation of the buttons looks nice.  The only thing I would think about changing is the color/pattern inside the shapes.  It looks like you are trying to look like metal panels, and I think the most you can expect from the print out is that it will look like you are trying to look like metal panels.  It won't actually look like metal panels, just an attempt.  If you went with something more artsy or even just a solid or gradient color it may look better.  It's obviously personal preference, but I think that fake materials are seldom a better choice than something that is supposed to look like an image instead of a thing.

I am sure that the previous paragraph sounds like gibberish, and even if you do understand what I'm trying to say you may very well think it's crap.  Either way I think you have a nice set of CPOs in the works. 

Good job.

[Zero_Hour]

bfauska,

The other guy on the red panel is from Ikari Warriors, to complement the LS-30's that will be on that panel. If he has a name I've never heard it.

Scratch that, I just did a search, and according to Wikipedia, he is Ralf Jones - though I don't recall either character being referred to by name in the game, so who knows? Maybe it's a situation similar to how Jumpman became Mario? 
But I digress...

Very good point about the ability to print out the brushed metal pattern. It would suck to have that be the let down upon printing, since I'm using it on the marquee as well. I'll have to do some experimenting in Photoshop, and see what sticks.

Of course if anyone has had success printing out that type of pattern, I'd love to hear about it.

[Malenko]

Scratch that, I just did a search, and according to Wikipedia, he is Ralf Jones - though I don't recall either character being referred to by name in the game, so who knows?

Ralf and Clark are part of the  Ikari Warriors team in KOF (leona, they were named Vince and Paul in US and Europe, I dont think they had names at the time of the IW games, but were named in the KOF series.  They are also in Metal Slug 6

[leapinlew]

I dont remember seeing your cabinet design, but is there a way you can integrate 1player and 2player into an area other than the CP? Be less wiring to do.

As for the frogger panel... I think it would be more cool if there were fighter characters used. Maybe Blanka and Reptile if you insist on the green theme.

I like the inserts the buttons are using. That looks nice.

[Kangum]

both the frogger and the missle one look good. the only thing that doesnt sit right to me is the lens flare.

[Zero_Hour]

lew,

Haven't posted the cab design yet (probably won't since It's unlikely I'll have the whole thing done in a manner that lends itself to posting). There is the possibility that there will be space right under the monitor for an admin panel, but I won't know that for sure until I get my monitor decased.  With all the other controls I'm wiring up, 4 extra player start buttons really doesn't bother me, but it's another decision in the 'things to consider' category.

Kangum,

I have to say I'm surprised that the thread has gone this long without a lens flare comment. I was certain I was going to get one. Usually, I'd be the one giving it. The Tron panel is actually the only one I really like it on, but it lends congruency to the other panels / I haven't been able to come up with anything else I like better, so they remain.

[Malenko]

I actually like the lens effect on the Tron and Frogger panel, it seems a bit much on the ikari panel though

[Zero_Hour]

Another week, another round of revisions.

1. Went for something a little more simple for background coloring. Sometimes all the options in Photoshop can be your worst enemy. Why I didn't try this in the first place I don't know, but I'm very happy with how these turned out.
2. Added an additional graphic element to each CP, in an attempt to make it "feel more like a panel".
3. Modified the Marquee to replace Dirk, and reflect #1 above.

Without further ado...

[theCoder]

A few comments.

1)  The only non-fighting game I know of that uses more than 3 buttons is Defender.
2)  There is a lot of different "big" color going on.  What colors were you planning for your cab/t-molding?  Is there a way, for example, to make them all red, blue, or green, presumably to match the color of your t-molding? 
3)  You might want to go with something a little more violent/manly/muscular for the fighting panel.  Flying bugs chasing a frog doesn't inspire me to grit my teeth and body slam the bad guy.

Good luck with the build.

[Zero_Hour]

Thanks for the input Coder.

I should then be able to pull the extra button of the Tron Panel, and streamline things a bit.

T-Molding will probably be Black, possibly chrome. It would be a nightmare to try and color match / coordinate 3 colors of t-mold given the nature of the color scheme I'm using. Since there will only ever be one Panel Visible at any one time, I have to go neutral on the trim. I'm committed to the 3 primary color theme for the panels.

I know some of you hate it, but I don't think I'm going to be ditching the Galaxian / Frogger mix on the Fighter/4-way panel. Blanka and Reptile would be fine choices for that color scheme, but I really don't want fighter characters on any of my panels. I'll be using that panel to play a ton of classics, so I have no issue with them "wussing" out my fighter sessions.

[SukkaFoo2]

Samurai Showdown also has Gen-an, a green character.