SF4 arcade stick custom art
Today I started working on a new project: customizing my Street Fighter 4 TE arcade stick! At this point, I am only focusing on creating some custom artwork. In the future, I may possibly go beyond that and upgrade the joystick and buttons. But baby steps first…
Here are 2 SNSD designs that I made featuring Taeyeon, the leader of the group. I would really appreciate some feedback as to which one you like better, as I’m having a hard time deciding which one to finalize and print.
To make this custom stick a reality, I will be enlisting the services of ArtHong’s store, both to print the artwork for me as well as to provide the plexiglass coverslip replacing the stock plastic on the TE stick. He has a lot of information on his site in case you’re interested in reading more about how to customize your arcade stick. In particular, his Photoshop art templates are a good resource to help you get started. Also, Likkuid’s template is an easy way to create mock-ups of the stick with your art to get a better sense of what the finished product will look like.
Here are my two designs:
#1 — This one has a lot of white space and feels quite plain to me, but it’s clean and simple. I like the flow of this design with all the military weapons on the right half facing the same direction.
#2 — I really wanted to fit these two photos of Taeyeon into my design somehow, but it was tricky to squeeze them in without a photo being butchered by the buttons. This was the best arrangement I came up with. My first impression was that the layout is messy, particularly when viewing the head-on template image. However, the 3D mock-up looks a lot better, which is why it’s important to have a simulation of the final product.
I’ve asked a few people about their opinion and everybody prefers #2. Do you have any suggestions? I’m leaning towards #2 as well but I’m still torn. I may end up printing both designs.
Related posts you might find interesting (automatically generated)
- Taeyeon arcade stick completed! The mailman delivered a nice surprise yesterday: my custom artwork...
- Taeyeon arcade stick #2 Shortly after I finished my first artwork modification of the...
- Anatomy of an arcade stick The response was unanimous: every person I asked preferred TaeYeon...
- Penny Arcade on my wall Penny Arcade comics are hit-or-miss, but they do have some...
- Meeting Daigo Umehara This weekend I’ll be at Season’s Beatings 4, a large...
#2 is amazing.
No Hyolee artwork though?
Al
12 Aug 09 at 8:11 pm
Maybe next time ;)
I already had the high-res images of Taeyeon so it was easier to make these first.
Protocol Snow
12 Aug 09 at 9:30 pm
Good luck with the templating. I used Art’s service too and it was great and easy other than having to wait a while for shipping.
Don’t be scared of changing the buttons. Once you get get the front face off, you’re halfway there anyway. The pain is getting all the “quick” release wires off the buttons so you can switch them out. But they’re easy to pop back in.
Louise
13 Aug 09 at 6:11 pm
Yeah, I realized that today when I opened the arcade stick up. Now I feel like a fool for typing that, since I have to remove all the buttons in order to replace the artwork!
By the way, I haven’t read your blog in a while and rediscovered it while browsing through an old NeoGAF thread. Congrats on doing well in the Ladies of SF tourney!
Protocol Snow
13 Aug 09 at 9:20 pm
If you need help with the quick disconnects, I suggest Tingboy’s HRAP2 modding tutorial on shoryuken.com
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=132472
Of course I’m assuming the quick disconnects look like the ones in the HRAPs. Good luck w/ modding!
Samuel Wang
14 Aug 09 at 2:29 am
Yep the quick disconnects are similar. I’m done prepping my stick and am just waiting for my artwork and plexiglass to get here. I took photos of the modding process and will be posting them later today even though there are good tutorials on SRK already.
Protocol Snow
14 Aug 09 at 10:14 am
[...] response was unanimous: every person I asked preferred TaeYeon design #2 so I placed my artwork and plexiglass order with ArtHong. It’ll probably be two weeks before [...]
Anatomy of an arcade stick at Protocol Snow
14 Aug 09 at 5:23 pm
[...] these screencaps from 1080P HD .ts and .tp files while looking for high-res images to use in my arcade stick design. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting crystal clear screencaps. Even though the recordings were [...]
SNSD — 2 months of “Genie” promotions at Protocol Snow
17 Aug 09 at 8:23 pm
[...] finished product turned out exactly like my original design. In the pre-production stage, I was initially uncertain about all the white space and overall look, [...]
Taeyeon arcade stick completed! at Protocol Snow
22 Aug 09 at 12:01 pm