Artwork for various displays

The HUD and gameplay of my JokersWild Tribute machine are heavily inspired and in some sense pretty close to the original slot machine. My drawings are somewhat simpler but I think I managed to catch the essence. The vector drawings were converted to a PDF file and sent to a specialist that printed the design in colour on a semi-transparent piece of plastic (so that it could be backlit obviously).

After several attempts to copy the lower in a similar way, I decided that it would not work out. Fed by the construction that I will be needed to drive the reels, the distance between the reels will be pretty different on my Tribute machine. Also the resolution of my drawings and the printwork would lead to some messy design. The only part mimicking the original slotmachine is the gambling game on the right-hand side of the panel. A much more simple set of price tables is printed and I decided to loose the layout of the complete reels that is on the left-hand side of the original machine. Finally I decided to build a cabinet that would have a marque on top, so I designed some artwork for that particular display too.

All-in-all I’m pretty happy with how the artwork turned out. Next I needed to come up with a way to illuminate individual pieces of the drawing. The first attempt was to start with a solid piece of 12mm think MDF and using a Dremel with a router piece to route all the individual boxes. This became a sloppy piece of work pretty quickly and finally I decided to quit the apprach of routing holes in a solid MDF panel and try to 3D print some sort of grate.