Author Topic: Opinions and suggestions on my new marquee design... (Read 6087 times)

severdhed · « **on:** July 17, 2007, 07:57:44 pm »

hey everyone, i am finally working on a real marquee for my cabinet. there really is no theme on this one yet, the cabinet is all black, control panel is black, almost everything is black. right now i just have a generic mame marquee that i made out of posterboard and a blue plastic file folder.

so, i have been playing around a bit with photoshop and have a basic idea of what i want to do. I couldnt come up with a theme for this unit, so my wife suggested using our son's name. (Zakary). so after some thinking, i came up with Zak-Man...

here is what i have so far....

link to full size image (big file, 300dpi, 23" wide)
http://www.severdhed.com/images/marquee.jpg

i know the original pacman has some curved black lines in the background, but i can't seem to recreate them and have it still look good. im fairly sure i dont even want them there, but it seems like something is missing. so please give me some suggestions.

thanks

Veinman · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2007, 08:10:04 pm »

It needs fleshed out with a background, even if you turn down the background opacity to like 50 or 60%, something to add some visual interest. Check out some of the stuff at localarcade, like this: http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/k-homebrew-9.htm and you can get some ideas. Possibly modify one of them to suit your needs.

severdhed · « **Reply #2 on:** July 17, 2007, 10:36:12 pm »

i like that idea, i just havent found anything that looks right like that. the pacman maze would look cool i think, but i havent found a hi res version that i could use.

i did however change the background color to black, which i think i like better...(i also fixed the eyes so that they are looking at each other)

i still welcome opinions...maybe this is a stupid idea for a marquee.. my son Zak is only 5months old, so it isnt like he is going to care. although he did play his first video game on this cabinet the other day...pacman. (we helped a little...but he sure did grip the joystick like a pro)

severdhed · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2007, 10:16:55 am »

well, here is another try at it...

i want this to look good on my cabinet. the cabinet itself isnt in amazing condition or anything, i dont mind the "this arcade has been used for a while" look that it has.

am I on the right path here?

needlesmcgirk · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2007, 10:31:56 am »

I like it.

bfauska · « **Reply #5 on:** July 19, 2007, 04:30:17 pm »

The one with the maze is definitely the most successful so far. It seems to me like there should be some kind of separation between the foreground and the background, maybe a drop shadow or something. Or maybe make the maze to scale with the characters and have them in it. Looking good.

hng · « **Reply #6 on:** July 19, 2007, 06:48:34 pm »

center the maze

Lakersfan · « **Reply #7 on:** July 19, 2007, 11:19:11 pm »

The maze helps out tremendously. I like to have something in the backgroud to break up the plain spots. Nice work. My one suggestion is that I agree with hng, center the maze...

Other than that,

severdhed · « **Reply #8 on:** July 19, 2007, 11:40:10 pm »

the maze is centered...it isnt symmetrical. i found it online as part of a full cabinet side art. i havent found a good hi resolution pacman maze that is symmetrical, so i used what i could find. i guess it wouldnt be that hard to create something like that if i had to.

one thing i did do, was fade the maze a little more. i forgot that my monitors are really dark, so while it was barely visible on my computer, when i looked at it on my arcade cabinet, everything is much brighter. there is a drop shadow on everything that is on top of the maze, it just isnt that noticable since everything is so dark.

i think i am going to stick with this, with maybe only minor changes, since i already reconfigured my bios screen, xp boot screen, wallpaper, and frontend to match this theme.

i will try to make the maze more symmetrical, if i can..if not, i will probably order this from mamemarquees next week....i cant wait.

Lakersfan · « **Reply #9 on:** July 20, 2007, 10:40:33 am »

I wouldn't kill yourself trying to center it. Not's not that big of a deal if it doesn't work out.

Post some pics when you get it back from mamemarquees!!

LiquidFire · « **Reply #10 on:** July 20, 2007, 03:28:43 pm »

The last one has a finished look. PLEASE post finished photos of your printing!

(I can hear Pac sounds just looking at it!)

I hope you are lighting it also.

severdhed · « **Reply #11 on:** July 20, 2007, 05:00:31 pm »

i am working on re-creating the maze for the background using the real layout as a guide...i got it done, all but the stupid dots...they are a pig P.I.T.A. trying to get them all to light up with all the rows. if i finish it, i'll post some pics later today(that is unless my wife has something else in store for me when i get home).

thanks for the support and suggestions...i wasnt sure if zak-man was a stupid idea or not..but i'm going for it either way.

Yes, i am going to back light it. my current marquee is back lit, although it may be hard to tell from that pic. the black part is poster board, which has been painted black, the blue part is actually cut out of the poster board with an x-acto knife, then a semi-transparent blue plastic sheet was taped to the back side. this should be an easy swap and all is good. (if i can convince my wife to let me order it...she is pretty understanding of my obsession, but with a new baby in the house, money is a little harder to come by than when i started this project)

severdhed · « **Reply #12 on:** July 20, 2007, 09:12:39 pm »

well, i re-created the maze, this time modeling it after the actual pacman maze. i also fixed the eyes of the characters so that they are looking at each other like they are supposed to be. i made pacman's eyes white, because they look stupid being red. i also made the characters smaller so that they fit into the maze itself. what do you guys think? should i get rid of some of the dots around pacman?

and here is the full size version

http://www.severdhed.com/images/marquee-symmetrical.jpg

any other suggestions?

enchntr · « **Reply #13 on:** July 21, 2007, 01:03:16 am »

I think you have yourself a winner here. I like the maze background now that it's centered. Also, the power pellets kind of ground the marquee in the corners, which is a good thing.

hng · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2007, 10:52:00 am »

centered maze = more gooder

I'm not sure on the sizing of the characters... it might look better if they were "oversized" for the maze, but then again, maybe not. could you make one like that and post 'em side-by-side?

severdhed · « **Reply #15 on:** July 21, 2007, 12:23:30 pm »

here you go:

small characters:

big characters:

hng · « **Reply #16 on:** July 21, 2007, 04:37:17 pm »

I prefer the bigger version. With the small ones, it looks like you are unsuccessfully trying to convince us that they are in the maze. In the Big version, it looks like the maze is the background, and the text and the characters are in the foreground.

two other things kinda bother me...

should the power pellets be a different color?

the top "row" of the maze doesn't have the ummm... uhh... "bits"(?). I think if you added them, it would look weird, perhaps reminiscent of torn out loose leaf paper. Instead, you could just "stretch" the upper portion of the maze to make it look like the next row would be off screen.

just my opinion though.

severdhed · « **Reply #17 on:** July 21, 2007, 05:13:28 pm »

looking at them side by side, i think i like the larger characters also.
i thought about making the power pellets a different color, but on the pacman rom that i have, they are the same color as the regular pellets, just larger.

i didn't put any pellets in that top row, because there arent any pellets in those locations on the real game. i could reposition the maze and just move the whole thing up a little bit...i more of the maze created than what you can see, it can be moved up or down and repositioned.....

WunderCade · « **Reply #18 on:** July 22, 2007, 11:50:42 am »

I think that looks fantastic as long as it is going on a Pac-Man style cabinet. It would probably look 'not so great' on different style cabinet like the black one in your first post.

severdhed · « **Reply #19 on:** July 22, 2007, 02:05:52 pm »

well, thats the only cabinet i have...and as long as I want to stay married, probably the only cabinet i'm going to have. Im not going for authenticity here..i just want a marquee that that isnt made of poster board. We occasionally have people visit, but this thing is mainly for my amusement. When my wife suggested that i name it after our son, that is the best i could come up with.

I don't know anyone who is going to say "that is the wrong style of cabinet for that artwork", other than some of you guys...and I'm OK with that. I modified the cabinet so that i could make a control panel big enough for 2 people to use, You just cant get 2 player controls on a 23" panel and have room for 2 adults to play comfortably. THis project is about functionality over form...it has to be playable first, then i'll worry about how it looks.

Looks like i may have to wait another week or two to order this marquee though...the electric company raised their rates significantly, and it has been in the 90s lately, so the AC is on alot. so our electric bill is through the roof....

so i have a little more time to tweak it.

any other suggestions?

BobA · « **Reply #20 on:** July 22, 2007, 02:25:38 pm »

Looks really good. I prefer the larger characters too. Only guys who notice the type of cab vrs the marquee are collectors and the guys that hang out here.

Malenko · « **Reply #21 on:** July 22, 2007, 03:28:05 pm »

dude, I like it!

hng · « **Reply #22 on:** July 22, 2007, 03:29:32 pm »

looks real good, but the top corners still aren't quite right. I played with them a li'l bit... I don't like the way my left side came out, but the right side kind of illustrates what I* think would look best.

*I'm really good at solving other peoples problems, but my own life is a mess... go figure

WunderCade · « **Reply #23 on:** July 22, 2007, 05:13:00 pm »

You must be a tad bit of a perfectionist.

Have you tried putting dots in the top corner maze runs? Also you could take the Ms. Pac from the Ms. Pac marquee, shrink her down, and have her sit atop the "Z" to fill the top left corner. Just some thoughts.

Quote from: hng on July 22, 2007, 03:29:32 pm

looks real good, but the top corners still aren't quite right. I played with them a li'l bit... I don't like the way my left side came out, but the right side kind of illustrates what I* think would look best.

*I'm really good at solving other peoples problems, but my own life is a mess... go figure

severdhed · « **Reply #24 on:** July 25, 2007, 09:20:11 pm »

well, when planning this, i forgot to account for the marquee retainer, which covers approximately 3/4" on the top and bottom...so alot of the little issues with the maze will be covered up anyway..so here is a rendering of what I am leaning towards using now... the brown areas represent the marquee retainers and will not actually be printed.

Lakersfan · « **Reply #25 on:** July 26, 2007, 02:03:40 am »

Lookin good. Very authentic looking. Can't wait to see the final printed pics.

hng · « **Reply #26 on:** July 26, 2007, 04:16:50 pm »

Looks real good. You're completely right about the retainers covering up the weird part of the maze at the top.

severdhed · « **Reply #27 on:** August 13, 2007, 08:42:51 pm »

i kinda let this one slide for a while, but the marquee bug has bitten me again. money is pretty tight right now so i am thinking of having staples print it and see how it comes out, since it should only cost me about $8 there. I wasn't completely happy with my previous attempts, so i made a few changes. cleaned up some text and fixed some alignment issues, and changed the background a little. i am planning on getting this printed tomorrow (i think)

what do you guys think? is it better this way, or was it better with the darker background.

i thought this way is a little better because you can see the drop shadows on the text and characters, and it brightens it up a bit, but i want your advice.

bfauska · « **Reply #28 on:** August 14, 2007, 01:18:48 am »

I like it. I think it's more interesting to look at and I don't think that the newer look takes anything away from it. Nice improvement.

Zero_Hour · « **Reply #29 on:** August 14, 2007, 02:34:57 am »

Definitely adds some visual depth to the piece. Thumbs up.

severdhed · « **Reply #30 on:** August 14, 2007, 09:12:09 pm »

well, i dropped it off at Staples to get printed on glossy photopaper. i can pick it up tomorrow after 1pm. I am hoping it turns out OK. I am sure I will eventually get a good one printed from mamemarquees.com but right now, the price is right at Staples (approx $7)

this way I can see what it actually looks like on the cabinet and if I dont like it, i can always change it before getting the good one printed.

i'll post some pics tomorrow once i get it installed

severdhed · « **Reply #31 on:** August 15, 2007, 05:44:09 pm »

well, i picked it up tonight, it only cost me $4.45 which is awesome. the print quality looks really good, and looks great in the cabinet. once the marquee light is on however, it looks very washed out. I pretty much expected this, but it is better than my posterboard mame marquee. My wife likes it and sees how nice it could look, and I will eventually get it printed at mamemarquees. but right now, $5 was the right price. I think for now I will just leave the marquee light unplugged. hopefully it wont be too long till i can order a good one. at least now I know i will like what it looks like on the cabinet.

bfauska · « **Reply #32 on:** August 15, 2007, 10:58:29 pm »

That turned out very nice. I wonder if you could line 2 of them up and backlight the pair to keep it from getting washed out. $10 for a marquee would still be a good price.

severdhed · « **Reply #33 on:** August 16, 2007, 11:25:04 am »

they might be worth a try. although, looking at mamemarquees.com, if i go with the Premium, and dont add plexiglass (since i already have some) it should cost $15.95. I have no idea how much shipping would be to Pennsylvania, but i can't imagine that it would be that much. (if anyone could shed some light on how much shipping would be, please let me know) So i could put another $5 into it now, or wait and get a really nice one that I know i will like for around $20. I am also worried that it may be difficult to get them to line up perfectly, since i have to trim them down by hand with scissors to remove the white borders.


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