Will you review my CP art and help me figure something out?

[marvin_rock]

- is my current thought, I'm at about 95% planning on moving forward with this - note, it will be for just a control panel build, with a possibility to move into a pedestal in it's future life.  I think I WANT to do "button surroundings" I think they are called, but I'm not quite skilled enough in GIMP to figure those out yet and haven't even tried.

Do I have any noob mistakes in here?  I believe I made everything to scale, the Trackball is a 3.5 in circle, which I'm not 100% sure is accurate, feel free to correct me on that, and I plan on rounding out the front edges of the CP as well.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

One thing to keep in mind is component footprints. Especially for the player two side.
The trackball takes up a bit of space under the hood

[marvin_rock]

I have a vague understanding of what you are saying, but why wouldn't I have just as much room on each side?  I thought I had it relatively mirrored.

[JDFan]

I have a vague understanding of what you are saying, but why wouldn't I have just as much room on each side?  I thought I had it relatively mirrored.

the trackball sits between the 1 player buttons ( which need little space ) and the 2 player Joystick (which needs more room) - so just be sure there is enough space to fit the trackball base and not hit the player 2 joystick base !

[PL1]

Strongly consider marking the centers of the button holes and the trackball.

Some do this as a separate layer and include the bases of the controls so you can print a template for drilling and see how much wiggle room you have.

Looks like there's probably enough space for the trackball, but the size of the cutout depends on which trackball you'll be using.

Have you already installed and configured your desired emulators/FE?

If not, your chosen/needed admin buttons and/or labels may change.   


Scott

[Monkeyvoodoo]

I have a vague understanding of what you are saying, but why wouldn't I have just as much room on each side?  I thought I had it relatively mirrored.

Here's an example of mine. I had to take in account the footprint of the track ball unit vs. the P2 joystick's base. I also had to watch out for the P1 space (it's a servo stick so it needs a tad bit of room for the motor. I might have to router out space in the side)

You could get the footprints from slagcoin and ultimarc, print them actual size and cut them out. Place them on something about the same size as your CP and move things around to find the best spacing.

[EMDB]

[...] is my current thought, I'm at about 95% planning on moving forward with this - note, it will be for just a control panel build, with a possibility to move into a pedestal in it's future life.  I think I WANT to do "button surroundings" I think they are called, but I'm not quite skilled enough in GIMP to figure those out yet and haven't even tried.

Do I have any noob mistakes in here?  I believe I made everything to scale, the Trackball is a 3.5 in circle, which I'm not 100% sure is accurate, feel free to correct me on that, and I plan on rounding out the front edges of the CP as well.

I think the design is a bit minimalistic but that is a design choice and a matter of taste I guess.

Button surroundings are just circles with a fill and one or more strokes (colored edges) which are united afterwards. At least that' s how I created them in Adobe Illustrator without any experience with the tool. As you can see I used the slagcoin template in a background layer as a positioning template. I agree on adding the cross hairs to indicate the drill locations:



If you want to do the design in Gimp make sure you create the image in correct dimension (in 300DPI) so it is not pixelated if you resize it afterwards to match the printing resolution. A vector based application like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop would be better.

EDIT: if I click on the image the text at the bottom seems already pixilated (the edges are not very smooth) and the actual printing requires a much higher resolution.

[marvin_rock]

Strongly consider marking the centers of the button holes and the trackball.

Some do this as a separate layer and include the bases of the controls so you can print a template for drilling and see how much wiggle room you have.

This is completed and in a layer just underneath the colored circles.  Those were because the SO wanted to get an idea of button colors with the art.

Looks like there's probably enough space for the trackball, but the size of the cutout depends on which trackball you'll be using.

I have a 6x6 square that isn't showing to make room, however, I don't have anything for the joystick, as I didn't know it's dimensions or even think about it.

Have you already installed and configured your desired emulators/FE?

I've got Hyperspin setup, but I'm honestly unsure what buttons I'll need, those seemed like the most common.  I think I might want to add a favorites button, since I use that pretty often in Hyperspin.[/quote]

[thatpurplestuff]

Love the artwork, but the fact that Pac Man is slightly off to the right kinda bugs me.  It may just be me being anal but visually with him being so close to the center he should actually be centered above the trackball.

I think it looks good without button surrounds, but if you're going to add them I would stick with your minimalist theme and don't let the surrounds take over the design.

[marvin_rock]

Love the artwork, but the fact that Pac Man is slightly off to the right kinda bugs me.  It may just be me being anal but visually with him being so close to the center he should actually be centered above the trackball.

I think it looks good without button surrounds, but if you're going to add them I would stick with your minimalist theme and don't let the surrounds take over the design.

Pacman fixed! 



I'm still not 100% on the config/menu buttons I have up top  I'm thinking about printing it without the labels, and labeling them later maybe?  Not certain yet.  Decided against the button surrounds mostly because I don't think I have the artistic chops for it.  It's a maybe, but would definitely take me a few hours.

Also, since the parts and such came in, I was able to verify there is PLENTY of room for trackball/player two.  I'm hoping to begin the hole cutting/wiring this week.

[EMDB]

Is this the actual size of your artwork?

The player 1 and 2 icons have a black circle. For the left it covers a part of the topmost beam. I would place the images above the buttons myself. And indeed loose the admin button texts as they might change or be different for different emulators...

[marvin_rock]

Is this the actual size of your artwork?

The player 1 and 2 icons have a black circle. For the left it covers a part of the topmost beam. I would place the images above the buttons myself. And indeed loose the admin button texts as they might change or be different for different emulators...

It should be the actual size, I'm printing it via the exported .pdf, but the .png is to upload/share the artwork.

They are a black circle because here are my buttons

Underneath the artwork I have a layer that is effectively a 2x4, so I'm pretty sure I should have enough room for all the buttons in between a set of 2x4's (I'm not 100% how I'm going to build the CP box just yet.

[jmike]

Nice work Marvin-rock. The Pac-man centered looks much better.

Is this for your pedestal build? I should be able to do some work on my CP box this weekend so I'll post some pics up for you.

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this but having the "EXIT" button above the trackball might be a mistake, especially when playing Golden Tee or bowling. You don't want to quit out of the game by accident.

I originally had my Admin buttons the same way but it took away from the art/trackball.

Good luck.

 

[eds1275]

I would lose some of the admin, or put them off to one side or the other.

On mine, player 2 down and start is pause, player 1 down and start is exit. My frontend uses player 1 start to select. I don't like to give people the option to go into the menus...

I LOVE the art by the way. Very retro-feeling. Very 80's neon light-looking. One suggestion I would have would be to replace the blue ghost with the blue "scared" ghost that pac-man can eat like the one on the right here.