Artistically-Challenged person seeks help with marquee :)

[datac0re]

Hey everybody, I've been going through this forum and looking at all the incredible marquees that some of you have put together, and was wondering if any of you artists out there would have some time to help me out with mine. Basically, I'd like a simple, elegant design with the words "Arcade Paradise" on it.

The marquee dimensions are 23 3/4'' x 6 3/4'' and the cab is black and green. I have a blog with pictures of it where I'm documenting the process, so you can check it out if you want to try and match the colors:

http://newtzie-mame.blogspot.com

You'll see my attempt to come up with a marquee that, after looking at it now, doesn't really seem original enough for me, since I mostly just fiddled with the "fusion" marquee on Arcade Art as my background.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!
-Brian

[emdkay]

Hey everybody, I've been going through this forum and looking at all the incredible marquees that some of you have put together, and was wondering if any of you artists out there would have some time to help me out with mine. Basically, I'd like a simple, elegant design with the words "Arcade Paradise" on it.

The marquee dimensions are 23 3/4'' x 6 3/4'' and the cab is black and green. I have a blog with pictures of it where I'm documenting the process, so you can check it out if you want to try and match the colors:

http://newtzie-mame.blogspot.com

You'll see my attempt to come up with a marquee that, after looking at it now, doesn't really seem original enough for me, since I mostly just fiddled with the "fusion" marquee on Arcade Art as my background.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!
-Brian

Hey Brian,

I can produce any type of marquee design for you, or supply the printing when you're ready.  Feel free to send an email message if you'd like more information.

e-mail contact form:  http://www.emdkay.net/contact_us.html

Thanks!
Brent

[maraxle]

Here's a quick stab at one.  Sorry if it sucks, but it might give you some ideas.  I am a minimalist when it comes to marquees and such, so it's not fancy at all.  I can give you the PSD or a high-res TIFF if you want it.

[JackTucky]

I had a standard MAME marquee from Emdkay, but now I want a custom one for an Outrun standup cabinet I converted to a dreamcast cabinet.  

My kids love Crazy Taxi, 4x4 Evo, and Daytona USA.  If anyone can throw something simple together for me, I'd appreciate it.

I'll find a place to print it for me after that.

The cab has the Outrun sideart still on it.

The cab has an original Outrun Marquee on it, but it's pretty bashed up.  The last one on ebay went for over $30.00.

Thanks!

Art

[datac0re]

Thanks for the effort maraxle! Unfortunately, that's not quite the style I was looking for... a good example was one I saw on here somewhere... I think the text on the marquee was "Monstrosity" or something like that... very bold and powerful, but still very simplistic.

Thanks again for trying!!! I really appreciate it!

[datac0re]

Hey gang,

Well after a morning of trying different ideas, I managed to put together my own marquee design. I posted a pic of it on my website. Go check it out!

http://newtzie-mame.blogspot.com

-Brian

[DrewKaree]

Your newest effort looks SWEET!

After looking at it in larger form, however, I'd recommend leaving off the pac and Q-bert characters.  They seem to be "tacked on" and don't belong with the rest of the marquee.  

The marquee has a sort of understated coolness to it, and while it IS for an arcade machine, the characters just don't "jive" with the simple, clean, and classy lines of the rest of the marquee.

Oh, if you DO remove them, perhaps stretch the letters to fit the space AAAAND....cool original name!

[datac0re]

Thanks for the compliments Drew

I was kinda on the edge about Pac and Q myself... Originally I didn't have them, then I tried adding the two of them as well as Donkey Kong and the Burger Time Weenies, and I had them located at the four corners, but I didn't like that at all... So I stuck just the two on the sides, but I'm really considering taking them off...

[DrewKaree]

Can you up it without the characters?  Oh, and is that Photoshop?  If so, would you be willing to drop me a copy of that?  I'd like to see how you set it up

[datac0re]

Can you up it without the characters?  Oh, and is that Photoshop?  If so, would you be willing to drop me a copy of that?  I'd like to see how you set it up

I'll see what I can do about posting the marquee. It is in Photoshop, but right now the file is over 100 megs. Granted I have some extra junk in there right now that's just there and hidden due to the different variations I was trying, so I may be able to bring the file size down a bit.

At the very least, I can explain how I made it when I get home from work today.

-Brian

[datac0re]

Ok the file is still too large to post, so I'll just explain what I did.

The background layer is just black - really simple.

The second layer is the white horizontal line through the middle. All I did was make the line, rotate the layer 90 degrees, and then applied a "Wind" filter to it from each direction a few times to get the edges, and then rotated it back to horizontal.

The third layer is the clock face. It's the face of the astrological clock in Prague. I found an image of it here:

http://www.danheller.com/images/Europe/CzechRepublic/Prague/Buildings/AstroClock/Slideshow/img2.html

I dumped it into photoshop and cut out everything but the clock face, and then copied and pasted it into my marquee drawing.

The fourth layer is just the text "Retrospect" written in a font called "Earth."

The fifth layer are the three pictures of screen snapshots found here:

http://rtcw.no-ip.org/cabinet/part6.shtml

Basically I cut them up into strips so that they would completely cover the letters.

Then, in the layers window, I alt-click the line between the text layer and the snapshot layer which makes a clipping mask. Basically it makes the snapshot layer only show through where the text is (really handy!)

Finally I apply some blending options to some of the layers, like drop-shadows, bevels, and outer glows.

And that's it!

[DrewKaree]

datacOre, sorry about using your thread for that, but MAN he's getting annoying.

Thanks for the quick tut on how you did it.  The layer inside the letters is what I was looking to learn to do, and I've done it backwards from your method, IIRC, and wanted to know how you accomplished it.  I haven't visited your site yet today, but did you try it without the two characters?

How large is your marquee going to be?

Were you going to have that vectorized or is Photoshop going to be good enough for that?  I am not sure how to insert that layer in the letters in Illustrator, but if you have that font, I could prolly vectorize that for you - it looks pretty easy, and I think I can outline the letters just through using the font.  Dunno if you have Illustrator, but if ya don't, there's the offer.

I've got a banquet to go to, but after that, i'm gonna give that a whirl, and I'll see how it turns out. 

     *edit*  I just re-read your how-to, and just realized the white line has the "Wind" edges!  Mebbe a LOT harder to vectorize!

[subzero23]

Could anyone else with the art-skills help me with my request too?
It's simply to high-qualitize the word Ultracade from the ultracade.com website, the multi-colored one. Thanks

[datac0re]

I haven't visited your site yet today, but did you try it without the two characters?

Yep, I took off both characters, and I like it better that way. I think I'm officially calling in done at this point.

How large is your marquee going to be?

It's 8.5 x 23.75. The photoshop file is already sized for those print dimensions at 300 dpi.

Were you going to have that vectorized or is Photoshop going to be good enough for that?

Nope, and yep