New CP Design

[Boz]

It's been a "long, hard, schlog" (-Don Rumsfeld 2002) forcing myself to learn Illustrator for the sole purpose of creating a control panel overlay. I can't say that I'd use this app often, but I have some of the basics down. A fellow BYOAC'r provided me with his very-well-laid-out control panel design and this was all I needed to start understanding the concepts for creating and manipulating shapes and paths.

My design is based on his. Even though I got a hold of his .AI file, all the shapes on mine I did from scratch (more for the learning element than a sense of personalization).

I haven't put any graphics on it yet, but this is my layout... offered up for critique.

60" W x 24" H x 6" D
Buttons are 1.60 on center
Some of the lines you see are in non-printing layers (so they won't show up when I go to the printer)
The background is only 90% opaque (so I can see the non printing layers), but will be solid black.

I'm open to suggestions on additional artwork. My cab is following the Battlechasers (comic series) theme. I have a vector Red Monika and several rasters of the main series characters.


PS: this thing, when printed full-size, looks like an aircraft carrier deck or an actual wing itself. 

[gamecreature]

You did that chrome in AI? I've never tried that.

Can't offer much more feedback until I get a better idea of what you're planning so I'll offer two suggestions - Keep it Simple and Keep it balanced. By Balanced, I don't mean everything has to be symmetrical, but that you see your piece as a scale and your artwork as things that you're dropping on that scale. Make sure masses on one end have a counter balance on the other.

[releasedtruth]

That chrome is some serious bold chrome, that's for sure. I like where you're going with this. If you wanted any sort of advice I might suggest ghosting a few characters into the background with an overlay layer, maybe it's a nearly transparent white on black look, give it texture, but not too busy. Use vector data of course.

[Boz]

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting there.

You did that chrome in AI? I've never tried that.

Actually, it's less my ability than it is a "button and rollover" graphic style. I took a queue from Bones' "Last Stand" cabinet. He's the one I got the original AI file from to help me learn the app.

I posted a full-sized JPG of the control panel if you care to view.

[gamecreature]

Actually, it's less my ability than it is a "button and rollover" graphic style. I took a queue from Bones' "Last Stand" cabinet. He's the one I got the original AI file from to help me learn the app.

Got a link to share?

[Boz]

Actually, it's less my ability than it is a "button and rollover" graphic style. I took a queue from Bones' "Last Stand" cabinet. He's the one I got the original AI file from to help me learn the app.

Got a link to share?

I post all my big images on

Control panel image above is linked.

[Boz]

Got a link to share?

Wait... were you talking about a link to the AI file I got? Bones emailed it to me, you might wanna ask him for it.

[Boz]

Now I need some input.

The character I found for the Player 2 position (the blue one) is obviously a little different from the other characters in that it's a bust-only shot. I think it throws off the continuity of the panel a bit, though for all the work I spent trying to get a workable image of this character (plus the fact that I *really* like the ominous appearance), I'm a little remiss to change it.

Should I crop the other characters to bust shots and position them similarly?

In an aside, all character images (except for Red Monika) are raster artwork at 300dpi. They actually look pretty good in Illustrator though final printing may be different.

[gamecreature]

Got a link to share?

Wait... were you talking about a link to the AI file I got? Bones emailed it to me, you might wanna ask him for it.

OK