How would this marquee look?

[darktemp]

This one is a little different.  I normally don't like busy marquees with a lot of different little characters on them, but I ran into a graphic at videogamemuseum.com and thought it would work well as a marquee.  This is a slightly modified version of the one downloaded off their site, but if I decide to use something like this I would redo all the sprites.

Anyway, before I did all that work I thought I would see how you guys think it would look printed out (I'm aware it would be blocky at 300 dpi ).

[darktemp]

marquee

[AGGIEZ]

marquee

I like busy and that's a little too busy for me.

[Witchboard]

I like that better than just having some sprites hap-hazardly slapped here and there.  I would change the font though.

[TalkingOctopus]

I think that there are way too many sprites from too many games put on your marquee.  There is just too much detail.  I think you may be better off choosing a theme and using just a few charaters from it.

Making good artwork is hard.  I wish I had spent more time on mine.

Good Luck.

[REBIRTH]

I'm not a big fan of busy, but I have to say that is the nicest "busy" marquee I've seen.  As another poster said, it is much better than sprites placed willy-nilly all over the place.  I voted a 3, I am not into all that business, but it was done nicely.  On suggestion if you do go with this - is increase the font size for the actual cabitnet name... right now it is getting lost in that see of characters.

[RetroBorg]

Perhaps change the arcade font make it bigger and make it partly transparent, but in the end, it's your marquee, your cab, if you like it, go for it.

[DaveMMR]

(not speaking as an artist) - I would make the word 'Arcade' bigger.  As is, it gets lost in the shuffle.

[CthulhuLuke]

looks like a good layout and a good start, but I'd suggest a few things.  First of all, why do you have Sei in japanese in front of arcade?  just curious.  Ok, get your marquee a good looking background.   there are plenty of great images from the wallpaper:sci-fi section of www.deviantart.com     Also, try to give the Title of your marquee a center stage.  It will make the name stand out and your eyes will naturally focus on that stage, then admire all the good details as they unfocus from the name.  Just a suggestion that might be cool, if you're going to go for such a vast number of characters from different consoles and games, why not shrink them down slightly and make a monstorous marquee with 200-300 characters.  That'd be kinda interesting if done right, I could help out if you're having troubles.  Just click the Chat Room on the left and I should be in there. *asleep till 2 pm pacific probably though*  Another suggestion would be try adding cheezy graphic lines.  Its hard to explain exactly what I mean, but those little extra lines you see on like sci fi pictures, that lead to a title or something, they can trick your eye into seeing an organized picture out of a chaotic scene.

[Santoro]

I agree that it is one of the best 'too busy' marquees I have seen.  

Interestingly, I don't seem to recognize one character on it, though I am sure that that is purely a function of my age.

[JoyMonkey]

I think I can make out Sonic, Strider and a bad guy from Golden Axe. I think the pixelated characters blend into each other a little too much, maybe a slight drop shadow on each might help?

[darktemp]

Thanks for the advice guys.  I was originally planning on using this on an 8" x 4" instruction card instead of the marquee, I might just go back to that.  While I do like how it looks on screen, I agree that it probably wouldn't look that great printed out that large.  The artwork has been a lot harder to design than I thought it would.  

First of all, why do you have Sei in japanese in front of arcade?  just curious.

It's actually just a place holder, I didn't even know what it said.  I wanted to call it Super Terrific Arcade with super terrific written in Japanese.  Does anyone know how that is written?

Just a suggestion that might be cool, if you're going to go for such a vast number of characters from different consoles and games, why not shrink them down slightly and make a monstorous marquee with 200-300 characters.  

 

I actually like that idea, I might try it out.  I'll probably go back to my original plan of a fairly simple marquee.  I'll start small and make the instruction card first.  If anyone has any joystick, button, and trackball art that is at a 3/4 view like the buttons in the left frame, let me know.

That'd be kinda interesting if done right, I could help out if you're having troubles.

Definately, if anyone could lend a hand that would be great.

[darktemp]

I think I can make out Sonic, Strider and a bad guy from Golden Axe. I think the pixelated characters blend into each other a little too much, maybe a slight drop shadow on each might help?

Yeah  I didn't recognize a lot of those characters either.  When I redo this for the instruction card I will be using more arcade characters that are recognizable.

I'll try the drop shadow idea on the instruction card but it might be a while before I'm done because I'm going to be ripping a lot of sprites.  In the mean time I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use for my marquee, cp, and side art (the side art will be hand painted to save a lot of cash).

[CthulhuLuke]

I think I can make out Sonic, Strider and a bad guy from Golden Axe. I think the pixelated characters blend into each other a little too much, maybe a slight drop shadow on each might help?

Yeah  I didn't recognize a lot of those characters either.  When I redo this for the instruction card I will be using more arcade characters that are recognizable.

I'll try the drop shadow idea on the instruction card but it might be a while before I'm done because I'm going to be ripping a lot of sprites.  In the mean time I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use for my marquee, cp, and side art (the side art will be hand painted to save a lot of cash).

I think any SNES kids here would remember almost all of those guys.  The characters are from Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 3, Megaman 7, Megaman X,  Tales of Phantasia, Xenogears, Sonic the HedgeHog, Star Ocean, Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island 2, Mario 3, Strider, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Super Ghouls & Ghosts, Metal Slug, Act Raiser 2, Ogre Battle, Altered Beast.  *I think I just won a prize*

[SNAAAKE]

why is it all pixeled ?
Use higher resolution pics.

I suggest you make the arcade logo bigger,find a nice background instead of plain blue and maybe add scanline.Something like this  

[Felsir]

Scanlines definitely looks better IMHO.

I was wondering, how did you make the scanlines? Is there a filter in photoshop for this that I'm not aware of?

[SNAAAKE]

http://www.n-sane.net/tutorials/scanline/index.php  

[Felsir]

http://www.n-sane.net/tutorials/scanline/index.php  

Thanks!