How to start working on Artwork for a Control Panel.

[Superdude]

Hello, I am new to the artwork scene here.  I am almost done with my marquee and wanted to get an idea of how to do artowork for a control panel.  I already know how to build one.  Currently I use contact paper but would like to spice it up a bit.

I currently own Photoshop and I dont have enough money to buy illustrator.  Would I then create an Image the same size as my control panel and place down my templetes for the track ball and joysticks/buttons?  Then I would just go crazy doing the art thing?

I havent seen too many posts on what are the basic steps in creating a control panel for the artwork.  

[mahuti]

Yes make the art at size, about 150-300 dpi. The higher the better... if you have the processor power go with the higher dpi. If you have a recent version of Photoshop, it has a lot of vector drawing tools that may come in handy, you won't really need illustrator. You might want to test your control panel button layout before you do your artwork, make sure all of the parts will fit where you want them to, and make sure the configuration is comfortable. If you don't you might have to redo the art if the layout's uncomfortable.

[Frostillicus]

[shameless plug]

I have written a tutorial for artwork  - it centers on illustrator but has some valid points that apply to most any program, along with some hints/tips/etc.  Look for it in the downloads...misc section of this site.  I've gotten positive feedback on it    - it's mainly geared for beginners/intermediate users.  Give it a look-see, maybe it could help.

[/shameless plug]

[CthulhuLuke]

Well there's a lot of things that go into CP's, and all of these factors will kinda determine how well your CP will turn out, and how well it will match your cabinet, etc.  First of all, see if you have any themes going on your cabinet, if so, its usually good to follow at least one.
  So here's some basic principals you're wanna get down for a good piece of artwork on your control panel:
- Color scheme, do you want one color to stick out more than the rest.  Usually you can keep a good color scheme by making the text and background that color *tints work well also*
- Style of composition.  This applies to whether you're gonna go with the old school look, the gauntlet 4-color 4-player look, or if you're going to have a really cool background and have lots of characters in front of it.  If you have no real aim of the controls yet, usually a cool background with good images in front of it works really well.  www.leafstation.com  Chuck does a really good job at this.
   There's a few more factors, I'll write em all up in a tutorial someday, but I'm lazy and tired now.
  Just basically, to start, collect all your favortie pictures you think you'd want on a control panel, and start just putting some pictures together, see what looks good together, see if you see any schemes you like, etc.  It'll come to you randomly probably, I always have the best results just experimenting.
     -Good Luck, if you need critique, just post what you got, or any ideas I can start you out maybe
      -Luke

[Chris]

From a practical standpoint, here's what I did:

First off, I did my control panel layout in Visio at full size and used that to create a drilling template.  Then, I exported that pic at full size in the same resolution as my CP overlay art was going to be.  Next, I created the background image for the CP overlay, then added the exported Visio.  Now I finished the rest of the art around the Visio image.  After the art was complete, on a separate object layer I added a nearly invisible dot at the center of each button to help me align the art after printing.  Finally, before printing, I set the Visio image object to be invisible.