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AtomSmasher:

--- Quote from: Avrus on January 25, 2008, 10:51:05 pm ---Lots of places I can get artwork printed Fozzy, it's the creation of the artwork that's the issue.  Creating artwork isn't like building a cabinet.  Building a cabinet you can kind of work your way through, go back and touch it up, and with enough paint and distracting flashy bits it will look good.

Artwork, you either have the skill or you don't.  No matter how much you polish that turd in Photoshop, well it's still a turd. 

I had 4 people I know lined up to do artwork and they all ended up backing out.  Pixelhugger is too busy (and probably realizes how much work is involved).

So I'm jammed!  I've got a black cabinet that took a lot of time, effort and money, and no shiny artwork.

--- End quote ---
Thats why I used the vector graphics from the site I linked earlier to create my artwork.  I can't draw worth a damn, but I can resize and rotate like a master  ;)
emerica:
I agree with atomsmasher. Using the art at localarcade.com is a lot easier than trying to create your own. I used it in some extent to make a marquee for my cab following the superman theme (although I never had it printed).

My problem with cp artwork is trying to line up the joysticks and buttons in programs like illustrator. It seems like the field is just way too big for me to figure it all out dimension wise. It appears that if everything does not line up right then the whole panel will not look right.


--- Quote from: ids on January 25, 2008, 05:53:15 pm ---Looks awesome, and great price too.  I'm struggling with artwork ideas too.  I don't want to cover it up with caricatures, don't want it too loud or too subtle, too geared towards a given game or genre, .... now that I spell it all out, I realize I'm asking way too much!  Maybe this is why some people just buy a pre-built cab; don't have to struggle with a million decisions and possible regrets.

--- End quote ---

This is what makes diy fun. Its those big decisions that makes it all worth it. Be patient and you'll find what you like. Your the only one that has to like it. I don't think that we build these machines to impress the neighbors.
Avrus:
I don't think you appreciate the depth to which my artistic ability sucks.  You know that new material they made that's 10x darker than any previous material?  Make it 60x darker and it represents my absence of artistic skills.  l :laugh2:
Crowquill:
Vash--Definitely check out the Artwork forum. Someone can probably help you out there, but you'll need to narrow down what you want a bit more. Check out the artwork people have done and find what you like about each one whether it's a graphic or a color scheme. I'm not saying you just copy and paste graphics together, but you could have something influenced by it. If you have the control panel arwork for MAME you might page through those as well to see how it was done on the original games.

Ultimately you'll want a cohesive design for the whole panel and marquee and perhaps even side art. That's one thing that's so amazing about early-80's cabs--the whole cabinet had a unified theme and artwork. Having mis-matched pieces is one way to make your cab look very "home-built".

A few good questions to ask yourself:

What basic "style" do you want? (Photo-realistic, simple graphics, cartoons)

What color(s) should it be? (Mainly worry about the background color to start)

How much space do I have to work with and where do my controls fit into that? - You may start with great artwork, but if the trackball lands in the middle of Superman's face, it's not going to work so well for your panel.

Hope this helps.


waveryder:


--- Quote from: Crowquill on January 30, 2008, 04:56:02 am ---
A few good questions to ask yourself:

What basic "style" do you want? (Photo-realistic, simple graphics, cartoons)

What color(s) should it be? (Mainly worry about the background color to start)

How much space do I have to work with and where do my controls fit into that? - You may start with great artwork, but if the trackball lands in the middle of Superman's face, it's not going to work so well for your panel.

Hope this helps.




--- End quote ---
Amen to that!  :applaud:
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