New take on "Animated Backglasses"...

[ImagineVP]

I have started creating some new backglasses for some of the tables on my cabinet (3 monitor) that go far beyond twinkling lights. Most of these are created/animated from the original artists offerings whose talents and work I highly respect and hope they would like my animated interpretations of their still graphic work. Some will be completely new creations while most will be re-creations from the original artwork. Purists might not approve or like what I am doing, and that's ok, I feel ya. Just know what I do with their art is a huge message that what they created was awesome and I will try to do my enhancements to hold true to the original concept... just in motion.

Please note that these are all work-in-progress with some far more along than others.

These are all 1920x1080, no audio, and when finished, will be :30sec long and loop seamlessly. I will also create a new static image from the finished animations to use as a static backglass for those softwares that cannot use video assets "in-game" like Pinball FX3. For those setups, these animations are still very useable in the front end and work awesome as "attract mode visuals" while on the front end selector.

Always welcome feedback either way and cool ideas/suggestions. 

 

Animated KISS backglass for PinballX cabinets

Here's an example for a KISS backglass I'm tinkering with as well for when I can finally find and install a 2015 Stern KISS table for my cabinet. cough cough help cough cough...

- This one is what really started my craze for animating my cabs backglasses. This piece I created from scratch from a single pic of the band and was used for marketing their 2019 show here in K.C.  What's seen here now is a quick cut up to remove the other elements (dates, times, location) for the purpose of what it will look like. (the "explosion to the screen" will be gone for sure.) Timing of all the other elements will be altered. More pyros bursts... and always... more cowbell.

 

BALLY - Attack From Mars animated pinball backglass

Loads more to do here.

- Both UFO's will be animated. The UFO that is animated now will change as the light pattern for both will look like the lights are rotating instead of flashing as they are now.

- Aliens will have full limb articulation and motion.

- Current explosions are place keepers for now.

- More motion to come for the surrounding city/scene including a passing elevated train.

 

UNIVERSAL - Jurassic World animated pinball backglass

This is just a working concept at the moment.

- When completed, this will look like the Dino is "walking" with the logo rattling with each step and the camera view floating with each step as well.

- More lava and debris to come.

- This scene actually might change to be used for Jurassic Park Pinball Mayhem while I create a version more true to the night scene view from the mouth as the original artwork depicted.

- Maybe some circling Teradac... flying lizards.

 

UNIVERSAL - Back to the Future animated pinball backglass

BTTF is pretty much final. That could change in 2055 though.

 

BALLY - Champion Pub animated pinball backglass *sneak peek*

Here's a sneak peek of a work-in-progress for my Champion Pub animated backglass.

- This is one of my favs! Both the game itself and the fun time animating everything. Lots goin on in there for sure Kid!

 

- Final version... maybe

 

Willliams - Medieval Madness animated pinball backglass -very early work-in-progress

- Very early work-in-progress, maybe 20% complete.
- All fire elements are just place holders at the moment.
- All character movements are just testing purposes only... as is just about everything at this point! 
- Lots of work yet to be done on the castle and characters in the scene.
- King, and Dragon will have full body/appendage articulation. (which is fun just playing around with the appendage controls!!)
- Enjoy the sneak peek, this is a fun one! 

[Wildman]

Nice work ?    I love animated shit ?

[Thalamus]

I LIKE !!

[Jaggy]

[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]
Eager to see this in action

[ImagineVP]

I think I'm good with the above final version of E.T.

[NailBuster]

Nice stuff... if you ever get bored and want to help make some transparent loading videos for PinUP Popper

https://youtu.be/37VIgq9huH4

 

[ImagineVP]

15 hours ago, NailBuster said:

Nice stuff... if you ever get bored and want to help make some transparent loading videos for PinUP Popper

https://youtu.be/37VIgq9huH4

 

Wow. The video capabilities of that front end makes people like me envision all kinds of cool possibilities! Nice work. What’s the minimum requirements to run that smoothly? My cab is not the powerhouse that a lot of people here are building into their cabs. 

[Kern]

Wow, amazing job!

[NailBuster]

1 hour ago, ImagineVP said:

Wow. The video capabilities of that front end makes people like me envision all kinds of cool possibilities! Nice work. What’s the minimum requirements to run that smoothly? My cab is not the powerhouse that a lot of people here are building into their cabs. 

requirements are 'medium',  you can install pinup and try it out as it won't mess around with your other frontends/emulators settings.    http://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php

if you can run pup-packs ok, then you should have enough PC to run the Popper front-end.

 

[xenonph]

Damn they all look great!!!

Love them all!!

Great work!!

Carry on.

 

 

[slydog43]

I really like what you have done, great job

[ImagineVP]

Medieval Madness update coming soon! =)x 

 

[ImagineVP]

Starting to come together.  There's still a LOT of work I want to do.
Here's what I've added since the last updated video:
- Trolls w/ blinking eyes w/ basic jittery movement, blowin smoke and shakin the spear at ya!
- Dragon's fire breath revealing castle tower damage and destruction!
- Knight hanging on the Dragon's tail being all stabby... tastes like chicken.
- Wizard casting spells... never knew why he's facing away from the action though. Artists. Pffft.
- The Kings sword ignites when touching the flame in the logo. 
- Castle gate opens/closes.
- Fixed some clipping issues with the Dragons belly when taking a deep breath as well as some wing issues I'm still working on. Artists. Pffft.
- and added a scrolling night sky with a moon.... for a cow to eventually jump over. 

- I haven't forgotten about that UFO either...

Still... maybe 50% complete! =)x  

Thoughts? Ideas? Always love to hear input… good or bad.

 

 

[Wildman]

Sweet  Nice Job ?

[Thalamus]

Looks great. Wonder how it performs though

[ImagineVP]

7 hours ago, Thalamus said:

Looks great. Wonder how it performs though

? Performs? Not understanding what you're asking. Probably due to lack of sleep... but still I'm clueless. OMG... is this what it feels like being blonde? =P 

 

[ImagineVP]

Here's a simple JAWS one I did a while back, but due to its simplicity, I didn't post until now. I had thought about animating the woman swimming across the screen only to be taken out by the shark, water turning blood red as JAWS descended back down into the depths... but decided to add a simple water tweak instead holding more true to the classic art.

 

 

[NailBuster]

to clarify something.  are these actual directb2s backglass files?  or looping mp4 files for frontend to display for backglass?  either way, they look great, just wondering...

[ImagineVP]

31 minutes ago, NailBuster said:

to clarify something.  are these actual directb2s backglass files?  or looping mp4 files for frontend to display for backglass?  either way, they look great, just wondering...

These are NOT b2s files with any sort of interactivity. Just looping h.264/mp4 files for either the front end selection for like Pinball FX3 or they can run seamlessly during in-game play on Pinball X tables. (which is VERY cool looking while watching friends play and waiting for my turn). One day I'll look into b2s stuff to see if there's a chance in hell I could ever attempt to program for them. I'll admit, the possibilities are very cool indeed. But I also do foresee problems going that route, especially with the seamless looping nature of them. I don't see how I could pull that off when different actions are triggered that reset the loop. Something is going to jump. To address that, I would think I would have to build these with a static background with only a few foreground elements triggered for a quick animation. Still cool... but I think most would be lost during gameplay where your attention is focused on the playfield.. not at the backglass for a couple of seconds of animation. The more I think about it... I think I like them more as just a single cool looping video. At least for the very complex ones like Medieval Madness and Champion Pub where there's a ton of things going on in it. I could see Back to the Future as a b2s where an event triggers the Delorian's door to raise and close, and the fire behind the tires ignite from a flameless street. Little stuff like that maybe. idk. Where can I find some good basic info on how to program for b2s? I'm sure here somewhere, I'll try to read up on it and see if that sparks anything inside me or under me.

 

[NailBuster]

for interactivity.... you really should look at PinUP Player.  you can have your mp4 looping like you do now on the backglass and then do lots of cool things on table 'events'..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHyy1aXLLuA

 

[ImagineVP]

It has come to my attention that what I am doing here, by animating these backglasses, I am opening myself up to possible copyright and intellectual properties infringement... if I were to share these for download. While I may do this for my personal machine, once I share them, I would be disassembling and distributing a copy-protected piece of work.

While I haven't received a cease and desist notification, I am now wondering if my hobby could harm me. Not sure what to do. Ideas? Comments? Any history that addresses this issue here?

I obviously am not attempting to resell these in any manner, so I would think there is no harm to the license holder or original artist... but I'm not an attorney.

[Thalamus]

I don't think you get into trouble with these. I'm having hard time seeing that this is anything else than fan related and if you are not charging money for you work.

[ImagineVP]

3 minutes ago, Thalamus said:

I don't think you get into trouble with these. I'm having hard time seeing that this is anything else than fan related and if you are not charging money for you work.

I think the issue here would be that I would be altering a piece of copyrighted work and then redistributing it without permission. Now since I am not profiting from it, no financial harm would be done to the license holder... but still. I'm sure an intellectual properties attorney would have an easy case and figure out some ridiculous amount of damages for their client by me doing so. I do think I would be safe doing what I'm currently doing by sharing my progress of work that I'm doing for MY machine. That would be simply a fan altering their own copy for their own private use. It's the uploading of the piece, specifically for others to freely download, is where it could get tricky. I would think that at the moment I would be ok since I am sharing my personal work "to view" via YouTube which doesn't allow for the download of the video, just sharing of the URL to view. Also, this is different than those sharing files from across the web of the original artwork(s) or animated versions of it that simply have lights flashing replicating the original artwork in use on a physical pinball machine. By doing that, you're just simulating what the original artwork looks like in its intended physical use. I'm not doing that at all, hence the disassemble aspect. Of course this all predicates on the original property owner and their feelings on what I'm doing with their artwork.

[Thalamus]

Up to you.

[NailBuster]

about 99.9% of all the stuff in virtual-pin-land is using someones IP/copyright.  Many different countries have different rules, but since most of this is considered 'fan-art'/not-for-profit they usually won't enforce it as it usually just upsets their 'fans' which is the opposite of what you want.  Worst case like GB, you get a warning and you comply/take down anything that may 'upset' them.