New Project, and marquee feedback needed

[BASS!]

Hello everyone, I'm hard at work on my ultimate arcade project and have been nearly beating my head against the wall as to what will be good for this project. I am open to any ideas and feedback you care to give and would like to hear what you think. This is a huge marquee and will require a large amount of space to fill ( 23.25 x 15.75 ). My main problem is this. With this much room to fill, how over the top should I make it? My art skills are pretty good, and I think Im ok at photoshop, but I have yet to really design a marquee for a project. I was thinking I would either use the maximus arcade logo or text that says Ultimate arcade.
  The main background image I just nabbed off the net, and the arcade explosion is worked into the piece, with a few little changes. This file is enormous (over 4gb in photoshop) so if you would like to participate I would love to send it to your (ftp?....). Thanks for reading, Cheers
Sam
UprightBASS!

[rotheblog]

Granted you composited everything, but I think this is one of the better pieces of user artwork I have seen on this forum in the past 6 months to a year.

I wish the Maximus Arcade logo was larger, but then you'd lose some of the background...At the very least, it doesn't look like it's centered, so I would do that and maybe you can make it a touch bigger without loosing the general idea of most of the marquee.

Jeff
http://www.rotheblog.com - Classic arcade news and information

[Ginsu Victim]

I think the lines detract from the image and make it look somehow "off". Otherwise, it's very nice.

[HaRuMaN]

I think the lines detract from the image and make it look somehow "off".

I would agree with this.  Makes it look like the printer somehow messed up.

[Ginsu Victim]

Makes it look like the printer somehow messed up.

Exactly what I was going to say, but didn't know if anyone would agree.

[phishpac]

pull the lines, make the lettering larger, and you will have a great marquee.  It's awfully tall, but do your thing.  I dig your artwork.

[BASS!]

Thanks so much for your feedback! I wasn't thinking anyone would even really notice it. Im doing some work on it now and will post the rework in a minute. I just threw the lines in to play with the extra space at the top, and didnt even think about the fact that it looked like that. If anyone wants it when I'm done, I would be happy to send you the blank image for your own use:-)

[BASS!]

K here is the first option, taking the suggestion of making it bigger.

[BASS!]

K, now more energy for tonight. Thanks again, and i'm still not sure if this is exactly what I wanna do, if anyone has any other ideas I would love to hear it.

[Ginsu Victim]

Much better without the lines. That looks awesome.

[rotheblog]

I agreed about the lines, but I guess I though those were in there for some other purpose, maybe some sort of lines for yourself for folding, cutting, or maybe you were going to put text in there.  But if they were design elements, good job dropping them.

I see two new versions....I personally like the larger maximus arcade text version, but the second version back to smaller text makes me think you like the smaller.  To each his own, that is really a preference call.

When I look at the design, I didn't notice this before, maybe because of the centering, but that front bottom left "chip" is really drawing a lot of my eye, either after the logo, or starting left and swooping up to the logo.

I would personally drop it, and flip, rotate, skew and warp some of the other ones from the original flattened bmp image into that space and make it a touch more symmetrical.  I like the dimension it adds, but it just is so huge and in the forefront.

[Ginsu Victim]

Never thought about that chip until you brought it up.
It never bothered me until now.

[BASS!]

Thanks again for the praise!

I agreed about the lines, but I guess I though those were in there for some other purpose, maybe some sort of lines for yourself for folding, cutting, or maybe you were going to put text in there.  But if they were design elements, good job dropping them.

I see two new versions....I personally like the larger maximus arcade text version, but the second version back to smaller text makes me think you like the smaller.  To each his own, that is really a preference call.

When I look at the design, I didn't notice this before, maybe because of the centering, but that front bottom left "chip" is really drawing a lot of my eye, either after the logo, or starting left and swooping up to the logo.

I would personally drop it, and flip, rotate, skew and warp some of the other ones from the original flattened bmp image into that space and make it a touch more symmetrical.  I like the dimension it adds, but it just is so huge and in the forefront.

I did accually put that chip in there just as a eye-grabber. When you create a peice there are 4 main areas that the eye looks at, the center is the first, and the bottom left is the seccond. I just wanted to make it a bit more blatent that the planet was exploding in arcade characters. I'm going to try a couple options tonight to try out your suggestions. One is going to be to add a camera blur and the other a motion/camera blur, so that it can remain in the forground and not draw all of the focus.  I threw the smaller logo in just to test some fading, I've decided you guys are right and am going to stick with the larger logo. Thanks for letting me bounce stuff off you, this is so helpfull you have no idea. Also Im going to do some ultra high res snaps of the detail, just to show you what the print is going to look like.

Sam
UprightBASS!

[BASS!]

K, first option taking the front shape out completely. Took a while, had to tweak some adjustment layers.



Next to follow

[Ginsu Victim]

Looking better every time...

[IA1NY]

After thinking about it for a while, imho I actually liked the logo being about the size of the exploding planet.  It really made it look like it was coming out of or through the explosion rather than sitting in space with the explosion happening behind it.  I think you need to emphasize the left red planet less and emphasize the exploding planet more.  Perhaps scaling the explosion and logo up together.  I like the red planet's color, just don't want to see as much of it.  You might try toning it down too.  I like the sense of movement shown by the lower left hexagon, however it's taking focus from the logo.  Move it away from the logo slightly and  deemphasize it.  Don't totally remove it, the version with it removed seems more safe, less powerful.

In a nutshell:
-Keep the relationship of the logo to the explosion the same as V1. 
-Scale both up so that the logo is about the size as in your latest version, and move both up so that the logo is centered 2/3 up the panel. 
-Center these two Lt-Rt. 
-Move the red planet up and out so that the bottom of the planet is about 1/4 of the panel up from the bottom and being covered less by the logo. 
-Move the lower left tile so that it is slightly cut off by the panel side and down slightly.

This might be my monitor, but it looks like the lettering of the logo wants to look metallic.  It seems a little washed out if this is the case.  Dropping the value slightly might help out if this is the effect that you want.

I know I've said a mouthful, but I do like the concept.  I know it's going to be really cool once you're done.  Keep up the good work.

[BASS!]

First off, I'd like to say. Thank you ginsu and roth! You guys have helped me finish this thing that I have been spending way too much time on. After staring at it for a while I think this is about as good as I'm gonna get it. I could do so much more, I know, but good enough is good enough. Now on for the finale I chopped a couple peices so that you could see some of the now 5gb of detail. I have roughly around 200 layers in this goofy beast. If you would like the background for use in your own project, I would love to help you tailor it.




Now off to mamemarquees to do some printing. I promise I'll post some pics once I get the sucker. Thanks a million, and feel free to ask if you need a hand with your own piece.

[Ginsu Victim]

Good thing you stopped working on it. You could just go on and on forever on these things.

What I see looks great. What you started with was already awesome....it just needed some tweaks.

Now I don't have a bad thing to say about it. Excellent work.

Can't wait to see it installed.

[BASS!]

Thanks so much ginsu! Yeah thats the thing, I could go on tweaking it forever. Now I just need to find a new monitor for my arcade machine.