Getting Dimensions right on CP Overlay

[nipsmg]

Hi everyone..

I have a feeling there is going to pretty much be a "LEARN ILLUSTRATOR" kind of response to this question, but here goes.

I'm planning on designing my own CP overlay.  Getting this printed will most likely not be cheap, so i've GOT to get it right the first time.  I plan on having glows around buttons, the arrow symbols around joysticks, etc.  My question is: HOW do I get these all lined up where they need to be?!

I've got some experience in CorelDraw!, none in Illustrator, and a decent amount in photoshop.

Would getting directly over the panel, snapping a picture from vertically above, then cropping it to the size of the panel, then resizing the image to the actual "width" in photoshop work? then I c ould mask off the portions where the controls are?  Is there too much room for error in the approach?

Any help would be appreciated.. If the response actually IS "Go learn illustrator", anyone have any good resources for tutorials that can get me started?

Thanks!

--NipsMG

[fredster]

Here's what I suggest,

You have to give yourself some extra on the edges, about 3/8 - 1/2" all around anyway.  Don't make the holes white. Put a circle about 3/4 of an inch there instead.

You will have to verify your coordiantes are good by the rulers.  Once you establish the size, try at least 150-200 dpi for the resolution.  If you are using photo shop, make the initial size of the canvas 3/4 to 1" bigger all around.

Once you put the overlay on, you trim it to size with a stencil knife anyway.

To put your holes in, you may want them to print you another panel that is b/w with just the circles on it - made from the same overlay (use a different layer)

Put it on the panel and drill your holes.  That way you can make sure it's exactly the same as the "good" overlay.

When you put on your overlay it will line up perfectly.  The extra will give you some fudge for imperfections in your control panel.  

[sTyLeS]

When I was designing my overlay, first I had to have the control panel dimensions and layout set. I used Visio to design the shape and layout...there are actually Visio templates you can download off of this site that have common components like buttons, Happ joysticks, etc. Then, I saved the Visio design as a Gif and imported it as a layer in PhotoShop. Now I could create my image in PhotoShop and move various components around, like joystick arrows, and get them to line up exactly with the original design. If you want, I could post an example of what I'm talking about.