Street Fighter History - The Cabinet

[opt2not]

If you wanna do the history cabinet, how about putting all the versions of Ryu and Ken on the cab?  In all their different styles.
From the first Street Fighter, through Alpha, III, and even IV if you want. 
Sure the styles are different from game to game, but with some creative layering and maybe some outlines tying it together it might work out.

You could still do the same fireball concept, but maybe layer the different versions of Ryu and Ken in each wind-up pose, traversing up the cabinet sides. With the combat idle being at the top, and if you want, the title logo at the bottom.

[Jdurg]

If you wanna do the history cabinet, how about putting all the versions of Ryu and Ken on the cab?  In all their different styles.
From the first Street Fighter, through Alpha, III, and even IV if you want. 
Sure the styles are different from game to game, but with some creative layering and maybe some outlines tying it together it might work out.

You could still do the same fireball concept, but maybe layer the different versions of Ryu and Ken in each wind-up pose, traversing up the cabinet sides. With the combat idle being at the top, and if you want, the title logo at the bottom.

That's an interesting idea opt2not.  I appreciate your input because unlike myself, you're an actual artist.  Heh.  I can readily do the idea of the different versions of Ryu and Ken from each game since I can grab a screen cap out of MAME, then "trace" the image in Illustrator and once it's a vector, be able to re-size it to whatever size I want.  I would then be able to forego even having "Street Fighter" on the side of the cabinet since the only reason I was looking to put it on the side was because the cabinet was pretty "blank" outside of the images of Ryu and Ken.  I've actually got an idea in my head right now that I'll jot down on paper so I can remember it. 

I just need to finish up the vectorizing of Ken right now.  Ryu's hair was nice and easy, but Ken's is a bit of a ---smurfette--- due to the differing yellow shades and all of the groupings of hair.  Heh.

[Locke141]

Why not use the stone from your first posted draft but make it knight like in the one with grass? The stone should not be to hard to vector.

You would get the taller Ken and Ryu negating the need for the Street fighter logo you don't like up top.
 

[Jdurg]

Alright.  I've spent the past few days searching the web for different images of Ken and Ryu from the various iterations of the Street Fighter series.  I really liked the idea in this thread to have both Ken and Ryu performing Hadoukens on each side of the cab with the Hadoukens meeting up on the front of the Control Panel on the front.  The location of their hands will also help fill up that side of the cab.

I also REALLY like the idea that was posted about using multiple images of Ken and Ryu in their various iterations to really put a focus on the "History" aspect of the cab.

I have been able to vectorize some images of Ryu, and a few of Ken.  I'm done with the Ryu ones, mostly, so I figured I'd mock-up what the art could look like.  The joy with the vectors is that I can size them however big I will end up needing without any loss of quality.  The only Ryu I haven't touched yet is the Street Fighter IV version since that one will take a LOT of time for me to do and be able to capture the high quality in a vector format.  So in the mock-up below, please remember that I haven't vectorized that image yet and it is just a very, VERY quick clean-up in Photoshop and a simple "plop" on there.  I'll eventually turn that into a vector file as well so that I can then get around to positioning, resizing, etc.

Let me know your thoughts on the idea, and any ideas for their use on the cab.

Thanks.

[yotsuya]

I like that a LOT better! Kudos! 

[EMDB]

Much better indeed. Maybe a more bright background like some sun beams like Martijn's streefighter Cab?

[Malenko]

no iconic dragon punch?

[Jdurg]

Thanks guys!  Yeah, I too really like the way this is turning out now.  Of course, I've said this about every other art design I've come up with, but for some reason this latest one really just seems to stick out.  It works functionally and aesthetically for me.  Heh, I do realize that I'm only halfway done as I need to get the SF1 Ken image vectorized as well as the SF4 images of Ryu and Ken.  I will say, this experience has gotten me pretty damned good tracing raster images in Illustrator and turning them into vectors.  It really forces you to think about the layering and how you want everything to to turn out.  Still, it is very satisfying to take a lower resolution raster image, trace it, then resize the vector image to a large scale and not lose a single speck of detail.  That's going to be crucial for when I get the final artwork laid out and submit it for printing. 

While my original idea for art when I first started this build was to have an image of Ryu one one side performing a Shoryuken, and Ken on the other doing the same, I was unable to find the images I wanted to use although now I could probably grab a screen-cap and vectorize one.  Another possibility would be to get Shoryuken images for each character from all of the games, vectorize them, then have them all posted on top of each other on the side of the cab.  That would be a massive undertaking, and the negative for it would be that it would be very difficult to tie the sides together into the front.  With the design right now, I have Ken and Ryu performing Hadoukens which meet in the middle on the front of the cab.  So it ties it all together while still showing off the history of the series.

For the background, I'll still work on that.  Who knows, perhaps something will just "click" in my head and I'll find another idea for the background that I can use. 

[Jdurg]

Okay, I finished up my work with the vectorization of the Ken images.  For some reason, perhaps the tedium of performing all these vectorizations causing me to not be as precise, the images of Ken were a LOT harder to turn into vectors unlike the images of Ryu.  So for a few of my Ken images he kind of looks a bit "special."  Haha.  I was also able to find some really clean images of the SF4 versions which I will eventually also turn into vectors.

Anyway, I mocked up the art for the sides and applied them to the cabinet.  Take a look below.  Again, the marquee still needs to be worked on (might do that next and then at least get that printed out) as well as the control panel and bezel area, but for now I just wanted to take a good look at what this will end up being.

[Jdurg]

Okay, more art!  I think this is pretty much the final look of the cab.  I have made a few changes.  First off, I found a shade of gray in Photoshop that I really like once I apply a stone texture to it.  The output looks really good, and I can use it to keep consistency throughout the cab.  I used this for the background of the Marquee, then used a slightly lighter shade of gray and the same texture on the word "HISTORY" and embossed it via Photoshop.  When the marquee is printed, I also plan on printing out a completely black work for everything except the words "HISTORY" and "Street Fighter".  This way, when the light is off the word HISTORY will be somewhat faint.  When the light is turned on, however, the "HISTORY" and "Street Fighter" will really stand out which I think will be a cool effect.

I put together the control panel without any real measurement.  I know that the P1 stick appears close to the edge, but the spacing appears good to my eye and will allow for enough room at the cab.  For the monitor bezel, I have included the three buttons I plan on placing there; an Exit button which will take you back to the main frontend menu, a cheat button which will pop up a cheat menu and allow you to use cheats in the games, and a pause button in case you need to pause it to grab more quarters or turn on/off cheats for things like bonus rounds.  These buttons will be small push buttons with the area in the bezel being a cone-shaped divet so that the buttons don't stick out.

Finally, for the area under the control panel where the coin door rests, I thought of something pretty cool.  In addition to Ryu's glove wrapping around, I went and took the logos from Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, SF2:Champion Edition, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter 3:Third Strike, and Street Fighter 4 and grayed them and embossed them.  This way it appears somewhat subtle, but still is noticeable without really standing out too much.  I like how it looks and adds more of the history theme to the cab. 

There will still be a few more tweaks and clean-ups, but seeing this all in 3D in SketchUp really gets me excited.  I just wish my shoulder would progress quicker so that I can really get the build planned out.  (I'll either need to find a company that can custom cut the MDF boards and ship them to me, or find a friend with a truck, the right equipment, and the space to do all the work and then be able to bring it to me).

[Jdurg]

With the cab art pretty much done, I now am going to spend some time on the front-end for the cabinet.  I was initially thinking about Hyperspin, but after spending some time looking into that software it seems a bit too "advanced" for my ability.  I then came upon GameEx and really like how simple it seems, and also the flexibility to customize it heavily.  Since my arcade is focusing on Street Fighter games, I'll be able to "group" emulators so that I can have one icon for Street Fighter games, and that will allow me to have the three versions of SF4 that I have show up in the list.  (SF4, 1p version, SF4:AE 1p version, SF4:AE 2p version).  I can then have another "emulator" in there for other fighting games, another one for MK games, and another one for other categories of games. 

The way the software seems to work, I can simply point it to the batch files for the SF4 games, and even better, I should be able to write up a batch file that I can use to shutdown windows so that while in the GameEx front end, I scroll over to the icon for "Shut Down Cabinet" and will be able to softly shut down the cab.  I'm really starting to get excited now.  I just still need to go and find a family member or friend who is willing to help me get the MDF, cut it, paint it, and assemble everything.  I'll then fork out the big bucks for all the artwork that I'll need to have printed out.  Thankfully, since basically everything is going to be covered in artwork I'll just need to apply a bunch of primer gray to everything and not worry about finish coats, etc.

REALLY starting to get excited now. 

[DarakuTenshi]

I think you need to drop Ryu's fist off of the front... It's lop sided. Then instead of the embossed logos use the colored logos on the kick plate.

[Generic Eric]

Nice! This is going to be a knock-out




I wonder if you could add subdued ultra, rainbow, super and all the other versions on the marquee (see below) but highlight history in a colorful dramatic way on the Marquee.   

World Warrior
Champion Edition
Turbo
Hyper
Hyper Fighting
Special
Special Champion Edition
New
New Challengers
Grand
Grand Master
Turbo Revival
Turbo HD Remix
Alpha
Alpha 2
Alpha 3
Alpha 3 Gold
Zero
Zero 2
Zero 3
Zero 3 Upper
Alpha 3 Max
Alpha 3 Upper
2nd Impact
3rd Strike
Fight for the Future
Volt

EX
EX Plus
EX Plus Alpha

[kmack1023]

I just wanted to post:  WOW! 

The sides of this cabinet have come a long way from the first post...  the increasing size and detail of ryu and ken really bring the cabinet to life...  I wish I had design skills... or at least sketchup/illustrator skills!

[yotsuya]

I think you need to drop Ryu's fist off of the front... It's lop sided. Then instead of the embossed logos use the colored logos on the kick plate.

I agree. Embossed stuff never really looks good as a printout - only if it's truly embossed.

[Jdurg]

I just wanted to post:  WOW! 

The sides of this cabinet have come a long way from the first post...  the increasing size and detail of ryu and ken really bring the cabinet to life...  I wish I had design skills... or at least sketchup/illustrator skills!

Many thanks.  If you want to be stunned, prior to using illustrator for this work I had NEVER used Adobe Illustrator before.  I just spent some time understanding how it worked and then practiced, practiced, practiced.  Google Image search helped me find good, high quality images of the characters and from there I just went and traced them in Illustrator manually.  For the SF 4 images, it would take me far, far, far too long to properly trace the images so I just grabbed as high a resolution image as I could find on the web and used the Live Trace feature in Illustrator CS5 with the detail settings modified a bit so that it didn't reproduce every single pixel.  This way, when I scaled everything up it would still look good and not be pixelated.

I have to thank opt2not for the idea of putting the different versions of Ryu and Ken on the side of the cab.  That, and although I forget who it was in this thread, there was another poster who suggested I have Ryu and Ken throwing Hadoukens at each other.  This gave me the idea to have the Hadoukens meet in the middle of the front section of the cab which I think looks great.

I like the idea of having the different title screen logos show up on the Marquee.  I may look into getting screen grabs for every game in the series of their title screen, then taking the titles and patchworking them into the word "History".  I'm pretty content with the way the marquee looks now, but I can always give that a shot.  I'm still quite a ways away from the actual build since as I said earlier, I do not have a garage or area in my house to cut the MDF, nor do I have a truck with which to go and buy the boards.  I will need to rely on a friend or family member who has the proper tools and space, as well as a truck, to let me take advantage of the space/tools to build this.  Once the parts are cut, I'll have no problem assembling everything in the room this cab will sit in.  It's just getting the pieces cut that is a problem. 

Since I already have the art designed, the computer built, and the front end is now being worked on, by the time I send the art out to get printed (and THAT will cost me a fortune since all sides except the top and back will be full artwork, I'm looking at close to a grand probably), the actual build will be pretty quick.

Things I still need to do:

1)  Figure out where to get the art printed, finish cleaning up the art and ensuring the sizes are correct, then send the files to the printer to have them printed out.
2)  Figure out how I'm going to get the pieces cut out.
3)  Find a switchable 4/8-way joystick that can be switched from the top so that when I play the few 4-way games on the cab it will use a proper joystick.  Only will need one of them.
4)  Buy the t-molding.
5)  Finish the customized modification to the code in MAME then compile it into my final build.  Also finish up the front-end design and work.
6)  Small little odds and ends.

[shponglefan]

Okay, I finished up my work with the vectorization of the Ken images.  For some reason, perhaps the tedium of performing all these vectorizations causing me to not be as precise, the images of Ken were a LOT harder to turn into vectors unlike the images of Ryu.  So for a few of my Ken images he kind of looks a bit "special."  Haha.  I was also able to find some really clean images of the SF4 versions which I will eventually also turn into vectors.

Anyway, I mocked up the art for the sides and applied them to the cabinet.  Take a look below.  Again, the marquee still needs to be worked on (might do that next and then at least get that printed out) as well as the control panel and bezel area, but for now I just wanted to take a good look at what this will end up being.

I like the art and the concept of the fireballs meeting on the front side of the cabinet.  That should look really awesome when finished.

One comment I have is regarding the way the character art overlaps.  With the exception of the bottom close-ups, the top three figures tend to look like they are trying to occupy the same visual space.  This creates a "crowded" look to the artwork.

Better separation of the overlapping figures can be achieved via a few tricks:

1) Making the character art the furthest back more de-saturated, less contrasted, and less sharp (i.e. blurred).  Conversely, character art closer to the front should be more saturated, higher contrast, and sharper.  This mimics how we actually perceive things in real life, particularly outdoors.  In this case, the SF1 characters are actually darker than the SF2 and SF3 versions.  So the effect makes the SF1 characters appear closer, when they shouldn't be.

2) Size differences.  Generally things the further back should be smallest, and vise-versa things the closest are the largest.  The case of the artwork, it looks like the SF1 characters are furthest back, but are slightly larger than the SF2 characters.  Changing the size of the characters to reverse that effect will give strength the illusion the SF1 characters are furthest away.

3) Subtle use of drop shadows.  Shadows can also help give the illusion of the separation of visual space.

Overall, it's a good start and concept, and with some tweaking it could really stand out!

[yotsuya]

Okay, I finished up my work with the vectorization of the Ken images.  For some reason, perhaps the tedium of performing all these vectorizations causing me to not be as precise, the images of Ken were a LOT harder to turn into vectors unlike the images of Ryu.  So for a few of my Ken images he kind of looks a bit "special."  Haha.  I was also able to find some really clean images of the SF4 versions which I will eventually also turn into vectors.

Anyway, I mocked up the art for the sides and applied them to the cabinet.  Take a look below.  Again, the marquee still needs to be worked on (might do that next and then at least get that printed out) as well as the control panel and bezel area, but for now I just wanted to take a good look at what this will end up being.

I like the art and the concept of the fireballs meeting on the front side of the cabinet.  That should look really awesome when finished.

One comment I have is regarding the way the character art overlaps.  With the exception of the bottom close-ups, the top three figures tend to look like they are trying to occupy the same visual space.  This creates a "crowded" look to the artwork.

Better separation of the overlapping figures can be achieved via a few tricks:

1) Making the character art the furthest back more de-saturated, less contrasted, and less sharp (i.e. blurred).  Conversely, character art closer to the front should be more saturated, higher contrast, and sharper.  This mimics how we actually perceive things in real life, particularly outdoors.  In this case, the SF1 characters are actually darker than the SF2 and SF3 versions.  So the effect makes the SF1 characters appear closer, when they shouldn't be.

2) Size differences.  Generally things the further back should be smallest, and vise-versa things the closest are the largest.  The case of the artwork, it looks like the SF1 characters are furthest back, but are slightly larger than the SF2 characters.  Changing the size of the characters to reverse that effect will give strength the illusion the SF1 characters are furthest away.

3) Subtle use of drop shadows.  Shadows can also help give the illusion of the separation of visual space.

Overall, it's a good start and concept, and with some tweaking it could really stand out!

Excellent points! 

[Jdurg]

Okay, I finished up my work with the vectorization of the Ken images.  For some reason, perhaps the tedium of performing all these vectorizations causing me to not be as precise, the images of Ken were a LOT harder to turn into vectors unlike the images of Ryu.  So for a few of my Ken images he kind of looks a bit "special."  Haha.  I was also able to find some really clean images of the SF4 versions which I will eventually also turn into vectors.

Anyway, I mocked up the art for the sides and applied them to the cabinet.  Take a look below.  Again, the marquee still needs to be worked on (might do that next and then at least get that printed out) as well as the control panel and bezel area, but for now I just wanted to take a good look at what this will end up being.

I like the art and the concept of the fireballs meeting on the front side of the cabinet.  That should look really awesome when finished.

One comment I have is regarding the way the character art overlaps.  With the exception of the bottom close-ups, the top three figures tend to look like they are trying to occupy the same visual space.  This creates a "crowded" look to the artwork.

Better separation of the overlapping figures can be achieved via a few tricks:

1) Making the character art the furthest back more de-saturated, less contrasted, and less sharp (i.e. blurred).  Conversely, character art closer to the front should be more saturated, higher contrast, and sharper.  This mimics how we actually perceive things in real life, particularly outdoors.  In this case, the SF1 characters are actually darker than the SF2 and SF3 versions.  So the effect makes the SF1 characters appear closer, when they shouldn't be.

2) Size differences.  Generally things the further back should be smallest, and vise-versa things the closest are the largest.  The case of the artwork, it looks like the SF1 characters are furthest back, but are slightly larger than the SF2 characters.  Changing the size of the characters to reverse that effect will give strength the illusion the SF1 characters are furthest away.

3) Subtle use of drop shadows.  Shadows can also help give the illusion of the separation of visual space.

Overall, it's a good start and concept, and with some tweaking it could really stand out!

Thanks!  I'll fiddle around with the artwork today and see what I can do.  All great points, and I appreciate the feedback.  I'm really getting excited about this now and when I'm done, this thing is going to be incredible thanks to all the feedback and suggestions you guys are giving me. 

[yotsuya]

Thanks!  I'll fiddle around with the artwork today and see what I can do.  All great points, and I appreciate the feedback.  I'm really getting excited about this now and when I'm done, this thing is going to be incredible thanks to all the feedback and suggestions you guys are giving me. 

Keep up the good work! You're getting really close to something special. 

[Malenko]

Id say if you have Ryu's hand spilling over to the front, you should have Ken's hand doing the same; in addition to what shpongle said.

[Jdurg]

Alright, I've made some little test modifications here.  There are some difficulties as the individual versions of Ryu and Ken are vectors, so the recoloring or anything else would either take some new re-tracing in Illustrator, or some heavy modification after the image is rasterized then edited within Photoshop.  Adding the drop shadows is actually pretty easy to do, and quite good looking.  Still, with this update something just doesn't "click" for me.  Not sure what it is or what else needs to be added, but it's just not "WOW"ing me at the moment. 

Thanks again for the input everybody.  This really will turn out to be incredibly awesome.  For the front end, I was originally going to use Hyperspin but I'm leaning more and more towards GameEx since it seems much simpler to modify to suit my needs.  I figure I'll be able to put together a pretty sweet Street Fighter theme for it, plus, being able to add an "emulator" which is simply just a batch file written to shut down the computer will be pretty neat.  I'll be able to add it as an icon, then when one clicks on it, the computer will shut down.  This way, I'll pretty much be able to hide the fact that it's Windows 7 completely.

[harveybirdman]

maybe try to offset the first two images, I realize the third image has to be where it is due to the wrap around, but that everything else makes a perfect line makes it hard for my eye to except it.

[Jdurg]

The only problem is that there is limited space to move the characters left and right without cutting off huge portions of the character.  Due to size restrictions, I cannot make the cabinet any wider from back to front.  If I do, it simply will not fit through any doors in the house, and I can't fully assemble the thing in one room and then have it be forced to remain there forever, or destroy it.  So that's the biggest limitation of what I have, and also why the very first cab I attempted to build 5-6 years ago ended up failing since I foolishly forgot to check and make sure I could get it through the narrow pathways in the house.  Heh.  (That's also why I already have a coin door and all buttons and joysticks that I'll need).  Another thing I'm trying to avoid is leaving large, "empty" spaces in there since that will immediately draw your eyes to the empty space.  Yes, I could fill that with something else, but then it won't really look like it belongs there and instead would look like it was forced into there).

So these limitations are really why the characters need to be pretty much in a straight line on the cab sides.  I would really love it if I could make the area larger from back to front, but I just don't have that option available to me if I want to build this cab.  The end location of this cab is in the corner of a square room where my poker table is set.  (The table was a creation of mine that I built from scratch.  Was my very first woodworking project, and it is simply beautiful).  I plan to have the cab in the corner of the room with the physical room corner centered with the center of the back of the cab.  I am able to move the poker table a bit away from that corner in order to create enough space to move around the table and sit at it.  Again, making the cab wider from back to front will interfere with movement in the room which cannot be done.

[Jdurg]

Hey.  This might be looked at as a cheap bump, but I do have some items to add.  I haven't worked on the art in a while as I've been busy with work and applying for a new job.  Sadly, the actual build may be on hold a few months longer as it looks like my shoulder surgery isn't healing like it should.  I might need to have further surgery to remove the scar tissue that is currently binding my shoulder.  The physical therapist is recommending an MRI to check for adhesive capsulitis.  A condition where scar tissue is binding my shoulder joint which would explain my severe pain and greatly diminished range of motion.   

Still, I have worked on front end work and will be going with GameEX.  I have paid for the lifetime license and am working on the art for my front end.  I've got the MAME games and the SF4 games working perfectly on my laptop, and will just tweak it a bit for my cab's PC build.  I'm getting really excited since all of the really mentally tough parts are being finalized.  I can't wait to heal up and get going with the actual wood working.  Once this cab is built, it will be amazing. 

[kmack1023]

Could I trouble you for some of the assets used in this build?  I'd like to get started on a fighter cab soon...  But kind of stuck deciding how big to make the CP and how to mount it...

[zanna5910]

Might I throw my 2 cents in there?

If it is about the evolution of old to new, it would be cool (maybe) to add some transparency to the oldest ryu, then 2nd, then 3rd, with the bottom being fully opaque, so it kind of looks like it evolves into the new.  Something to play around with maybe.

I would also suggest that the marquee speak of the history more, rather than just use the old logo. 

Again, just my 2 cents, but it is really coming along nice.

[Felsir]

For some history, have you seen this? http://www.polygon.com/a/street-fighter-2-oral-history

Still, with this update something just doesn't "click" for me.  Not sure what it is or what else needs to be added, but it's just not "WOW"ing me at the moment. 

The thing is that the selection of images isn't screaming sideart to me. Take a look at the art Martijn used, linked elsewhere in the thread, you'll notice that the characters "pop" and look dynamic. I also understand what you're going for- the evolution of Ryu, but the clash of styles makes it a messy collage in my opinion. There is a ton of SF art out there, with more dynamic poses for Ryu and Ken.

[Jdurg]

Hey guys.  Sorry I haven't posted much lately.  Been having some insanely stressful weeks at work (applying for a new role within the company, while also dealing with an insanely stressful role I currently have), and also have had some setbacks with my shoulder.  The physical therapists think that scar tissue has rapidly built up around the shoulder joint, and bound it in place.  That would explain the tightness I feel, and the continual, debilitating pain.  Looks like I'll have another date with an MRI tube, and perhaps another date with the surgeon's knife to break it apart.  Ugggh.   

Anyway, back to the cabinet.

For the artwork, I am actually quite happy with the images I have.  It is really better looking when looking at all sides combined and in the Google Sketchup cab.  Seeing the progression of Ryu and Ken from their SF1 days to their SF4 iterations is great, and the hadouken meeting up in the front of the cab really stands out to me.  I did not, and still do not, want to have any other characters on the cab as Ken and Ryu were the "original" playable Street Fighters, and they have existed in basically all the main iterations in the game. 

I am not artistically talented in any regard, so drawing the characters myself is out of the question.  As a result, I had to look for images online, or take the pixelated images from the games themselves and spend countless hours tracing them within Adobe Illustrator.  It's critical that the images are vectorized since taking a low resolution image and stretching it out to what the full size image would be ends up resulting in a pixelated mess.  So the images I have of both Ken and Ryu were all painstaking traced by myself.  All except for the SF4 images.  I was able to find some fairly high resolution images and used the auto-trace functionality in Illustrator to give it a unique little look to it. 

The other limitation is the size of the cabinet.  It has to remain somewhat "thin" in comparison to a cab that would have a CRT monitor in it due to the restrictions in my house.  I am not able to fit anything through a door, or through the narrow hallways and passages in the house, that is greater than 29" at its widest point.

At the start of the build, my hope was to find a good image of both Ken and Ryu performing a Shoryuken that I could put on each side, and have the artwork of both Ken and Ryu seemingly morph from their SF1 version to the SF4 version.  (So their feet and lower legs below the knee would be SF1 style, their legs above the knees and just above the waist would be SF2 style, their chest and just below their shoulders would be SF3 style, and above that would be SF4 style).  Sadly, images of all four games' versions of Ken and Ryu simply weren't able to be found.  I also cannot afford to have the art design outsourced since I'm unfortunately going to need to pay to have someone cut the physical cabinet for me since I live in a small Cape Style home with no garage to work in.  So at the current moment, I am quite happy with the art I have and this time away due to work/health issues will be good once I finally get back into it.  (Lately I've been working on the front-end art and setup.  I'm using GameEx as that is the style that I was originally looking for, and is somewhat easier to modify than Hyperspin in my opinion).

zanna5910 - The marquee may still have room for updates.  The current plan is the have the original Street Fighter on there, with the HISTORY in the background.  When the marquee light is turned on, the Street Fighter words as well as the HISTORY will glow brighter as I'll have the rest of the marquee having an additional black layer of board cut out behind it so that the words I want highlighted will really glow when the light is on.  However, I can think about other options there for the Marquee before finalizing it and having it sent to be printed out.

kmack1023 - What type of assets are you looking for?  Dimensions, artwork, CP layout?  Just let me know, and if free time ever finds its way to me, I'll send them your way.

[Jdurg]

Really quick update here.  Been doing some searching online and have found a few companies in business who are able to build custom cabinets and ship them out.  There is one company I'm looking into (name will be withheld for the moment as I want to narrow down my choices after reaching out to many) is able to sell kits that would make assembly quite easy, and the price seems to be quite a bit LOWER than what I had anticipated.  So I'm pretty psyched about that.  Saves me the hassle of having to find a friend who will actually live up to the "I'll lend you a hand when you need it" promise.  So stay tuned.  The physical build of the cabinet may happen sooner than I thought.  And with the cab being in the form of a "kit", I may be able to increase the size a little bit and allow for more options with regards to the art!   

[kmack1023]

The dimensions of the cab and CP would be great!  I don't think I'd have the finances to get something cut and assembled for me, so I'm really just looking for some dimensions of a control panel that I can take over to a friends house, with a sheet of MDF, to put some of the parts I've bought along the way into as a sort of mock up CP before I start really digging into the whole cab design....

I have a U360 and 8 buttons I'd like to toss into a mock up CP before buying another set of the same...  A CP I can then use to connect to my computer outside of a cab and start tinkering with the software setup... 

[Jdurg]

The dimensions of the cab and CP would be great!  I don't think I'd have the finances to get something cut and assembled for me, so I'm really just looking for some dimensions of a control panel that I can take over to a friends house, with a sheet of MDF, to put some of the parts I've bought along the way into as a sort of mock up CP before I start really digging into the whole cab design....

I have a U360 and 8 buttons I'd like to toss into a mock up CP before buying another set of the same...  A CP I can then use to connect to my computer outside of a cab and start tinkering with the software setup...

Hey there.  Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten.  I'm just going through a few more art options, and cabinet dimension options before I fully finalize it.  With the ability to perhaps have a custom "kit" created that I can assemble/disassemble where needed, I may be able to go with a slightly larger design which would allow for more artwork and some more CP spacing.  So those dimensions aren't fully completed yet.  When they are, I'll be sure to let you know.


Also, I haven't posted in a bit as I've been thinking of some other ideas for the art as well.  After spending some time away from the art and then coming back to it, I think everybody's points have some good merit to it.  So I mocked up another path I'm thinking of taking.  I think perhaps some fog and clouds/smoke around it would enhance it a bit, but life and work has really taking the forefront for me lately so I haven't had as much time to spend on here.  But this idea I've got going may end up looking really good if I get some haze and smoke around the edges of it.  Would also allow me to choose different color backgrounds to use.  The dark blue here is just mock-up number one.  What do folks think of this one?

[Jdurg]

Wow.  Creating smoke/clouds in Photoshop is a lot easier than I thought.  Again, what's seen below is a very rough mock-up, and perhaps adding in some shadows to the characters will look a bit better, but again, feedback/criticism/friendly insults are always welcomed.  Heh.  I'll probably once more take some time away so that the "oh wow, I just thought this up so it has to be cool" bias will go away.  But this is looking somewhat nice and does the purpose of getting all the iterations of Ryu together.  The same will be done for Ken's side.

[Malenko]

I like that concept much better

[yotsuya]

My first thought - why is Ken fighting himself? 

[Malenko]

My first thought - why is Ken fighting himself? 

That's Ryu  NEWB!

[yotsuya]

Hahaha! Is it too late to suggest a Blue Lightening Cab theme? 

[Jdurg]

Haha.  Yeah, right now with the influence of beer, whiskey, and pain medication, the cab looks awesome.  But I'll have to take some time away and come back like I did with my last design to determine how much I like it.  I might fiddle with the background color a bit to find one that really works.  I'm worried that the dark blue might contrast too much with Ken's red color.  The clouds around the montage of the various versions of each character really looks cool.  I figure for the front I could use the logos from each of the games as areas in the clouds which would look really cool.  When my shoulder isn't killing me, my job isn't sucking every last bit of energy out of me, and my mind is fully focused, I'll work more on the front of the cab.

Also need to give one of the arcade cab building companies a call to discuss the physical build.  I already heard back from one who normally doesn't sell just the cab itself, but they are willing to make an exception.  The only problem is they can only provide fully built cabinets.  I'm still trying to get in touch with another company (who has close ties to Game on Grafix) who provides custom kits which are to be assembled on location.  I'd really like to have something like that since it will allow me to put it together in the end location and perhaps have some more room to work with art.  Something my very tight confines in my house is preventing me from doing.

But I'll work more with the recent art mock-up and see how it goes.  I may end up liking this more than the initial design I was so happy with earlier.  Time will tell.

[Malenko]

a dark purple would probably work best

[Jdurg]

Boy, I really wish I could fit more RAM in my laptop.  It's an older laptop (bought it back in 2007 and it does use Windows Vista 64 bit edition), but it only has 4 GB of RAM.  When working on the very large Photoshop files for my cabinet art, it slows the computer down to a crawl for the next ten to 20 minutes until the page file can be handled properly.  Uggggh.  I'll have to look in the service manual for the laptop to see if I can even fit more RAM in here.

Anyway, I took a look at what a dark purple background color would look like, and it does meld well with the art.  I also discovered a strange quirk within Photoshop.  I created the smoke/cloud look using the simple Filter=>Render=>Clouds option.  When you have a high DPI cloud image, it winds up generating a bunch of crappy looking clouds that are small in size.  If you go and change the DPI settings for the file to something small like 20 or 30, it generates much better looking clouds.  So I had to take the full size, 150 DPI resolution image file, change it to 30 DPI, render the clouds, then change the DPI back to the 150 I've been working at.  The only thing this does is basically make the Hadouken itself look like crap, so I'll have to spend the time creating a vector for it in Illustrator so it won't get fuddled by the DPI work-around.  A nice side effect of vectorizing the Ryu and Ken images is that the DPI changes don't bother them.  I keep them as vector objects in the file and only rasterize them right before I submit it for printing wherever I decide to do that.

My first impression of this mock-up is that I should get rid of the drop shadows for the SF1-3 images of Ken and Ryu.  Makes the area seem just a tad bit too busy.  I may also switch the SF1/2 images so Ken/Ryu from each iteration are back to back.  Might look a little bit better.  Got plenty of time to decide.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts or suggestions.  You guys have been a HUGE help to me here providing me with plenty of inspiration and ideas.