Author Topic: Cab Formerly Known As The "Metal Slug Cab" (Read 15587 times)

Flinkly · « **on:** November 03, 2004, 11:28:37 am »

ok, ok, so i don't have an arcade cabinet, but i am nearing the end of my project, so i thought i might as well start posting my ongoing arcade project here in the announcements page.

javeryh · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2004, 11:57:57 am »

Sounds good. Post pics as you go...

Flinkly · « **Reply #2 on:** January 07, 2005, 12:01:07 am »

ok, ok...

i've made a couple revisions. As for art, i'm going with a metal slug theme. i'm unsure about all my other surfaces, but i'm going to use the large upright metal slug as sideart and the logo for metal slug 5 as my marquee, of course without the 5...maybe i'll stick a crosshair in it. As for a control panel design, i'm hoping to get someone to make me a design. i'm looking for a normal 2 player 7 button layout with 3 admin buttons and the start buttons. i guess you guys could give me input if anyones up for it...

here are the picks i'm looking to use as art so far...just so you can kinda see what i'm talking about.

Witchboard · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2005, 12:25:20 am »

That first pic is just screaming to be side art if you can get it vectorized.

Flinkly · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2005, 12:39:26 am »

except...i keep thinking that if i make it 6 feet tall and strap it on the side of a cab...how far out will it stick out? but i don't want to squish it or anything...i could cut a bit more of the back end...a little. also, i'd love to make the outline of the cab near the same as the slug. ah, it all sounds so awesome.

just to confess, i did want a cab like pixelhugger plans on building, since the curves are so appealing, but i think this is the route for me.

Witchboard · « **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2005, 12:43:38 am »

Well, not knowing the shape of your cab, I can't really make any suggestions on how to crop the image, but it would still look nice.

TOK · « **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2005, 08:08:46 am »

I think you're going about this wrong. If you've spent two months sweating the art, you're never going to get done. Get some wood, decide on your control panel, side shapes and monitor size and start the real work. Get the cab playable, and worry about fluff like giant robot stickers later.

Sorry if that comes off as jerky, it's not my intent. I see this lack of prioritizing at work all the time, and those projects always flounder.

Drop the mouse, pick up the saw!

hulkster · « **Reply #7 on:** January 07, 2005, 10:12:08 am »

cool cab idea.

is it just me or does metal slug get old after a while? i love the game, and its awesome art direction and crazy explosions and game play, but does anyone think it gets old?

networkgod · « **Reply #8 on:** January 07, 2005, 10:14:57 am »

What if you cut the cabinet in the shape of the robot?

That would be a sweet custom cab!!

ChadTower · « **Reply #9 on:** January 07, 2005, 10:15:18 am »

Metal Slug Themed Cab:

P.O.W.

Flinkly · « **Reply #10 on:** January 07, 2005, 11:23:38 am »

Ok, first off, I was thinking of making the side panels somewhat the same shape as the metal slug I plan on using as sideart, I must have not made that clear

ChadTower · « **Reply #11 on:** January 07, 2005, 11:45:52 am »

Quote from: Flinkly on January 07, 2005, 11:23:38 am

Lastly

Flinkly · « **Reply #12 on:** January 09, 2005, 06:43:06 pm »

well, i rasterbated my sideart just to see how it looked and to see how large it would make my cab...i've got to wait till monday to print it out though, and then it'll take me some time to cut it all out and put it together. i rasterbated it to be a little over 6 feet tall. the width is what i'm worried about because i don't want my cabinet to be a monster space taker-upper. anyways, feel free to give advice or opinions (or evn vector work...).

MinerAl · « **Reply #13 on:** January 10, 2005, 10:17:32 pm »

Just playing with your side art pic in photoshop...

If you make it 72" tall from head to bottom of it's feet, it is 53" from tip of the gattling gun to edge of the fade. It is about 44" to a line drawn straight down from the point where back of head and body meet.

I'd put it with its feet on the floor and have a big graphic name written in the space left over above it, perhaps with a game-esque explosion to fill in the rest.

Looks like it'll be seriously sweet no matter what you do with that art.

Good luck

Al

Flinkly · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2005, 11:26:19 pm »

yeah, my rasterbated image ended up being about 67 inches tall. i don't know how i'll work that gattling cannon in, but i'm pretty detirmined to do it. i could just make the cabinet a little deeper than it needs to be. the gattling cannon is right down where the coin door would be, and i don't want it sticking out very far due to someone brushing past it and breaking it off. but great idea of filling in the rest of the space with something else like an explosion or a logo...i'll look into that.

oh, as for the rest of the cab, like frontend...i'm thinking of running emulaxian with the wheel of fortune and making it look a bit industrial with the marquees over the top of that. poosibly adding a metal slug character or two acting something out, kind of like so many avatars i've seen on here with ms characters. as for screen shots and game info...i'm just going to cut that out.

as for a cp...i was thinking of making a scene for it from the game...but instead of cluttering things up too much, maybe i'll just make it look industrial with some artsy rivets and distressed materials (artwork). hopefully i can find a byoac artist to help me out with this, since i've spent so much money on this, i'd love to get it right the first time (pixelhugger?!?).

as always, give me your opinions and maybe even help.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #15 on:** January 12, 2005, 10:02:27 pm »

I really like the idea of using the outline of the artwork as the shape for the cabinet side. Excellent idea! If the gattlin gun is too low consider re-angling it upward when vectorizing....maybe enough to use it for the sides of the CP. Of course you'd need to know what to replace the resulting hole with but I'm sure there are lots of images of that robot you could reference. I love that artwork. Quite a big vectoring job.

Here's a rough modification to the JPEG. Remember that none of the dimensions in the original file are set in stone once you have vectorized it. The cannon can be shortened (if you don't mind taking a bit of artistic license with the image) as shown here. Same could be done for other elements that make it difficult to get the right aspect ratio (depth wise) for a cabinet. The Metal Slug logo could also be moved toward the front to make it less space consuming as well.

Good luck with your project. This will be one to watch. Very cool idea... and if it materializes in the shape of that robot I'd have to agree that it'll be one of the coolest around.

Flinkly · « **Reply #16 on:** January 12, 2005, 10:53:38 pm »

well, you've proven it again, but i'll say it again since this is a relatively new thread:

you are a god among men...

i never even thought of the idea to shorten the gattling gun, and no one would ever know the difference.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #17 on:** January 13, 2005, 07:02:34 pm »

OK, Flink-

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CHEEEEEEEEZ?

It's about time that I posted one of my soon to be trademark supercheesy Photoshop comps in someone else's thread for a change.

The usual "please disregard the obstusiveness and bad perspective 3D cheats" disclaimer applies. I just don't have time to actually model this, so I had to rely on Photoshops lame-o distortion tools to fake this together. Basically like drawing with oven mits on. Anyhow... thought this might be a sort of "test of concept." Provided the dimensions can be tweaked to allow proper positioning of the CP and monitor I think the overall shape and effect of your idea works very very well. The protuding parts definitely need to get shortened to avoid a hugging effect.

Witchboard · « **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2005, 09:29:07 pm »

Haha.. that's cool. Yeah, I see people either breaking the sides or their heads where it's coming around. Agreed that there will have to be some transforming work to pull in the graphic.

Flinkly · « **Reply #19 on:** January 13, 2005, 09:34:58 pm »

what if i just make the cabinet itself deeper than it needs to be?

clanggedin · « **Reply #20 on:** January 14, 2005, 12:54:09 am »

I think you should make it a sit down cab in the shape of one of the tanks. You have to enter it from the top too!

Hiub1 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 14, 2005, 03:22:36 pm »

PixelHugger that is an Fing AWESOME cab! I would dig that man, hell I think SNK should take a look at that. That is a cab that would draw LOTS of attention.

GGKoul · « **Reply #22 on:** January 14, 2005, 04:31:16 pm »

Hey... stop taking Pixel away from working on his cab.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #23 on:** January 14, 2005, 04:34:49 pm »

GG-
Excellent avatar!

Hiub-
It's all Flinkly. I just added the cheez.

networkgod · « **Reply #24 on:** January 14, 2005, 06:35:11 pm »

I have your solution!!

Cut the cabinet using Pixel's pixel pushing... then if someone does snap the gun off...

BEAT THEM TO DEATH WITH IT

the blood splatter on the cabinet will add a sense of "reality"

=)

Flinkly · « **Reply #25 on:** January 14, 2005, 07:33:28 pm »

just a thought...you guys can tell me if it's a good one or not, but i could go and talk to some people at snk to see if they have some vector work that i could get from them for this and some other things, cause i'm sure they might, but i'm not sure if they would care enough.

GameOver · « **Reply #26 on:** January 14, 2005, 09:47:42 pm »

YOWZA! Makes me wanna rip the sides off a my cab & dress it up like Mario or somethin'!

That is a REALLY cool mock-up PH. Wouldn't be surprised if we see a few character inspired cabs after this. Heck, I may try one!

I hope this works out for you, Flinky. That mech inspired proto cab R O C K S! I'm sure we'd all likke to see this thing come to life. Good luck. (sorry, I don't know anything about vector stuff or I'd help out).

quadmasta · « **Reply #27 on:** January 15, 2005, 02:55:04 am »

I got sick of not knowing how to vectorize something so I started on the slug. If someone can tell me why I can't save to a lossey image format from Illustrator and can tell me how to export to a JPG, I'll post a pic of what I've got so far with and without the original JPG in there.

RayB · « **Reply #28 on:** January 15, 2005, 09:11:56 am »

Quote from: quadmasta on January 15, 2005, 02:55:04 am

If someone can tell me why I can't save to a lossey image format from Illustrator and can tell me how to export to a JPG, I'll post a pic of what I've got so far with and without the original JPG in there.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to... unless you're using the Trial edition maybe? You could always just import it into Photoshop...

quadmasta · « **Reply #29 on:** January 15, 2005, 10:42:42 am »

EdiT: Gee, why don't I look under the EXPORT function. That'd be smart, huh?

How am I doing so far?

Flinkly · « **Reply #30 on:** January 15, 2005, 02:19:09 pm »

first off, maybe i should have got pixelhugger to make me a mockup earlier, so more people would be interested in my project.

second, you guys are making me feel really good about my project, and i'd love to start a new rave in cabinet design where people make characters as their sideart (i guess this has been done before, but not quite the same way.

third, thanks quadmaster for trying the trace. you should have seen my try, not even worth saving. oh, and gork(i think, it's from the artwork thread i have for this) you were right about autotrace, it was horrendous. oh, and i also tried the streamline product from adobe, but my result looked more artsy than anything, i guess i could post my best try at that.

last, no one has given me any input if i should ask the makers of the artwork, the snk guys, if i could get their vector work if they have any...i know it sounds like a long shot, but maybe they would care for some reason...

tmasman · « **Reply #31 on:** January 15, 2005, 02:25:55 pm »

Don't bother asking the originators... At best they will ask you not to do it. Or they'll ask for royalties for using their artwork.

Your best bet is to buckle down & trace it yourself, hope some one is nice enough (or likes it as much as you do) to trace it, or put up some $$$ for some one to trace it for you.

In any case, good luck & don't back down! This should be a nice example of what can happen when you step outside of the cabinet, uh, I mean box.

quadmasta · « **Reply #32 on:** January 15, 2005, 02:26:38 pm »

The only reason I'm tracing the Slug is because I'm rebuilding my cab soon and wanted to do a Metal Slug themed cab

You've got about a snowball's chance with the SNK guys giving you copyrighted vector art but it never hurts to ask.

Flinkly · « **Reply #33 on:** January 15, 2005, 02:36:14 pm »

yeah, thats kinda what i thought about asking them...like opening a can a worms that i'm probably not going to get anything good out of.

i have asked some of the artists around here if they had time or the want to help me with my project, but most of them already have alot of other orders to fill. i even asked pixel, which is why he's added so much to my thread already, but with his own cab and other responsabilities, he doesn't have the time. and before anyone else say's it, i apologize for even asking to take away time from his own project. i'd love to see that beast (pixel's mission control) finished just like the rest of you.

quadmasta · « **Reply #34 on:** January 16, 2005, 01:21:26 am »

update

Don't mind the colors. I'm not good at gradients so I'm going to have to get a friend to color it for me. Anybody wanna help with the effort? My eyes hurt

LordDamo · « **Reply #35 on:** January 16, 2005, 10:30:53 am »

MAN MAN MAN!!!! What a really cool cab idea! Just a thought on how to do your sides, transfer your final image shape onto one of those see through sheets that go onto overhead projectors and project it onto your wood, then trace around the outline.

I did this for a murial I did for one of my brothers bedroom wall and it worked reall well, hope this helps.

Quote from: hulkster on January 07, 2005, 10:12:08 am

cool cab idea.

is it just me or does metal slug get old after a while?

Ummm, no. I can a bit - but leave it alone for a while and play something else. When you come back to it later, its heart pounding fun all over again

quadmasta · « **Reply #36 on:** January 16, 2005, 12:14:13 pm »

updated again. I can't make out the emblem on the rear of the gun.

Edit: gradients implemented. I zoomed in to where it'd be 72" tall and it's got a lot of flaws. If someone that's better than me at Illustrator could maybe fix 'em, I think that would be awesome.

quadmasta · « **Reply #37 on:** January 17, 2005, 02:14:59 pm »

foot's done. found out what the text on the gun was supposed to be too

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #38 on:** January 17, 2005, 03:19:29 pm »

Looking good! Nice gradients.

Flinkly · « **Reply #39 on:** January 18, 2005, 06:39:33 pm »

thanks quadmasta for all the time and effort.


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