Your opinion on these shockbox-inserts please

[Arcade-TV]

I reckon once you see people post pictures of these inserts with their collection that is all the motivation you'll need.

i guess ur right...
i don't even have most mvs games i make inserts for but i like the challenge, love the artwork and finally found a great way to do something useful with all the hi-res images that i have.
i will keep 'em coming, don't worry. started some new ones like more metal slug, the shooters and some puzzle games.

post a list of what you need, this way it's not random-waiting for you!

 

[Kid Panda]

how about.... super baseball 2020?

 

[Arcade-TV]

how about.... super baseball 2020?

yeah, i'd like that!
we have something here called "retroboerse". it's like a real big flea market for oldschool and retrogames.
last time i got 2020 for megadrive for 2 bucks and i was amazed how good EA managed the design of the game, both cover and manual are real nice. but the yellow design of aes titles like 2020 or mutation nation is also very catchy!

 

[theMot]

post a list of what you need, this way it's not random-waiting for you!

The MVS games I have are:

Fatal Fury RB special
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Samuri shodown 2
Last Blade
Last Blade 2
KOF 96
KOF 98
Blazing Star
Metal Slug
Metal Slug X
Shock Troopers
Neo Geo Cup 98
Neo Turf Masters
Windjammers (urgh)

 

[theMot]

I like the artwork of this but I think the back should be black to match the spine and front. Kind of like the Metal Slug AES cover.

 

[Arcade-TV]

I like the artwork of this but I think the back should be black to match the spine and front. Kind of like the Metal Slug AES cover.

i can do that when i'm back.
see, the thing is all the MS artwork that i had came with white backgrounds, even the Marko on the front cover. cutting out graphics is one of those time consuming processes that slow down the completion of an insert. after i cut Marko i was too lazy to do it for the tanks.
when u look at the flat image the black and white parts seem distracting... but when u put it in the shockbox and see it threedimensional it might make sense then, cause you're always looking at one side at a time. this way the black and white areas are seen separated... black from the front, black from the spine and white seen from behind. just like the Art of Fighting inserts.
anyways, i'll see what i can do about it when i'm back.

THANKS!!!

 

[Arcade-TV]

i've written some comments in picasa to keep track of requested changes. feel free to do the same when you spot something you want changed while browsing.

 

[ForeverSublime]

Puzzle Bobble. . .

First, thanks for the criticism about a silent audience. Saying things like that motivates people to post. I had begun writing a response, but then said, "what does it matter?" and logged off.

Puzzle Bobble covers:

The drop shadow on the logo jumped out at me immediately. It helps the yellow cover not be so. . . yellow, but on the others I'm not so sure. It doesn't agree with my eye, like there's a blob in the middle of the artwork. Similarly, it doesn't agree with my brain. That shadow drops back behind the whale, and the characters are there, and they've got a drop shadow that goes into the foreground. It's like there's two floors, and the whale is in the 4th dimension. I could be wrong, but that stuck out to me.

The blue has pop, but Bob gets lost. He gets no respect (tangent, if the dinos are Bub and Bob - did they ever come out with a character named "Puz"?). The green works, but it's boring. I like the pink and red. . . they fit the period and remind me of early to mid 90's respectively. The concept of the pattern is a good one - I can imagine yellow with white polkadots, or crosshatching or checkers.

 

[supergoose]

I will leave feedback later this week. Lots of it.

I'd also like to talk to you about the strikers and shock troopers inserts. There are huge improvements to be made. Already went looking for a better camouflage background for shocktroopers and re-installed an old version of photoshop, so i can send you some mock-ups.

The king of the monsters insert is superb.

But as i said, i'm really busy at uni and shouldn't even log in here until late july.

 

[Arcade-TV]

It's like there's two floors, and the whale is in the 4th dimension. I could be wrong, but that stuck out to me.

haha, i'm sorry but i was just messin with you, wondered how long it takes till finally somebody speaks.
congrats, your brain works just fine. the bubbled whale should cover the bottom logo in this perspective.
and we can talk about as many variations in color and patterns as you like, i just made so many to give you more options and show some examples.

 

[Galsia]

This will be one of the last inserts before my vacation.
I've spent the whole day making this fully vector-based! Only the screenshots are pixel-graphics, everything else is anchors 'n curves.

[...]

So... what's your favourite color?

I like the green and blue ones. Not sure yet which color I'd print, I think green spine looks better though. Now for some questions:

How did you vectorize the dragons? Did you do it by hand? If so, how did you achieve the "hand drawn effect" on the black lines?

How comes the font you use in "PUZZLE ACTION GAME" or "TAITO CORP." for instance seems to have a pipe character instead of a capital "I"?

Also please don't feel disgruntled by the lack of feedback, you're doing those artworks justice by making your inserts, I will for sure print a lot of them to dress my collection, and help/comment when possible.

 

[supergoose]

Imo the puzzle bobble inserts are missing the outlines of the bubbles in the background, which makes the spine look a bit empty and boring.
Also, i'd keep the developer/publisher logo in one solid colour. Either black, blue or white since that is what snk used to do. Anything else makes it look too busy in my eyes.
The outlines of the artwork look a bit fuzzy compared to the logos and everything else you made in vectors. You did a really good job there, but i'm not yet sure about the fuzzy outlines. When blown up as a jpeg it looks a bit odd. I'd have to see a printed version to make up my mind.
Lastly, i think the neo faces logo and the taito/developer/publisher logo shouldn't be right next to each other on the front. I'd put one in the left corner and one in the right. Or maybe even in the middle ... Depending on the artwork.

That aof2 insert looks a bit odd. The front artwork seems to be covering a portion of the spine and the plain white background makes it look a bit empty. I don't have a japanese copy of the game at hand, but the back looks pretty good to me. Well, other than the plain white background.

Edit:
I hope i don't come off like i'm bitching too much about your work. Just a few quick impressions ...

 

[Arcade-TV]

looks like finally this thread comes to life. i'll work that out with you when i get back.
the pb insert will look best when printed. the fuzzy lines won't be very visible then.
i used a mix of automated vectorization and finetuning and coloring by hand to do the dragons.
yeah, i kinda miss the bubble outlines too, they're present in the ngcd cover and kinda belong there in the background.
the taito logo usually comes with a blue pyramid and black or white text. guess we might end up in a bunch of different versions of this one, but that's a good thing.

 

[supergoose]

Did you take the pb artwork from the cd version? I'm pretty sure i have the english mvs flyers for the game, if you need a scan.

 

[Arcade-TV]

i used the jap flyer that came with the mvs kit, found on jap-sai.com

 

[ahcmetal]

Keep this project rolling! The work is exceptional...that King of the Monsters insert is amazing. I've always liked some type of border around the cover art myself, it seems to frame the art and ground it nicely. BTG, World Heroes 1 and KofM look great with the borders. Though I will say that the Art of Fighting insert looks great as well, it seems very balanced and classy.

My only thoughts so far would be the AoF2 cover seems to be missing something...the image feels a bit like it's just hanging there. Secondly, the World Heroes 2 cover is a tad bland perhaps?? The original AES cover also wasn't very exciting in my opinon either, so possibly there just isn't really any exciting art out there to draw from anyways. A new take on a Shock Troopers insert would be great too see in the future as well!

 

[ForeverSublime]

Imo the puzzle bobble inserts are missing the outlines of the bubbles in the background, which makes the spine look a bit empty and boring.

Ah, that's why I could imagine polka-dots. That's what was there to begin with. Dumb me.

 

[Arcade-TV]

Hey Guys, I'm back, I'm pretty relaxed and it's raining outside: 3 good reasons to do some brainstorming before we get started...

 

[Arcade-TV]

Updates: Puzzle Bobble, Metal Slug

 

[Arcade-TV]

How comes the font you use in "PUZZLE ACTION GAME" or "TAITO CORP." for instance seems to have a pipe character instead of a capital "I"?

Are you looking at the PDF or the Jpeg?
There's a BUG in Adobe Reader: When straight lines without anchors between cornerpoints are viewed in a scale lower than 100% those lines appear very think and bold. When you zoom into detail you will see that those lines are ok, also when printed!

 

[Arcade-TV]

My only thoughts so far would be the AoF2 cover seems to be missing something...

Yeah, the pencil-drawn tiger and dragon clipart in the background - I don't have them and it would knock me out for days to rebuild these :-/

 

[Galsia]

Are you looking at the PDF or the Jpeg?
There's a BUG in Adobe Reader: When straight lines without anchors between cornerpoints are viewed in a scale lower than 100% those lines appear very think and bold. When you zoom into detail you will see that those lines are ok, also when printed!

Yes I was looking at pdf, just tried with a jpg and I don't see weird characters anymore. Thanks for the tip.

Good job on Puzzle Bobble, the background is now way better than with shadows. Also, regarding the Art of Fighting 2 insert, maybe you could try to switch the white background to another color, something yellowish perhaps. A texture with light grain could be nice too.

 

[Arcade-TV]

Yes I was looking at pdf, just tried with a jpg and I don't see weird characters anymore. Thanks for the tip.

You're very welcome. Use the PDF for printing though!
In Adobe Reader, to check for things like that:
Go to Menu -> tools -> select and zoom -> marquee zoom and hand tool
if those tools are not in your menu bar.

 

[theMot]

Im liking that all black metal slug insert Alex, well done.

 

[supergoose]

Both inserts do look a lot better now.

About the puzzle bobble one:
- theres some white text that might look better in black. Such as the japanese "neo geo ..." under the faces logo on the spine the white thext on the front and the "puzzle action game on the spine. I'd love to see most of it in black and i think you could do away with the white outline around the faces logo, too.
- the puzzle action game on the spine might look nice if it was dark blue (look at the guy who's trapped in the bubble on the front of the insert) with a very, very thin light blue drop shadow. Or maybe a dark blue that's similar to the outlines that are on the back of the insert... Edit: or light blue letters with a dark blue drop shadow ...

I'll be back home in about 5 hours. Will try to post a mockup later tonight after unpacking. Gotta hurry now...