Zookeeper Sideart Stencils
There was a topic recently on klov about someone wanting to get the sideart from the Taito arcade game Zookeeper vectorized so that they could make stencils.
I posted on the Zookeeper Stencils topic, mentioning that I could do the vectors, but I wanted to see the sideart scan to see how complex the artwork was. The Zookeeper artwork is very complex, with all of the little splatters, and the irregular line work. I posted on the topic asking how bad the party wanted the vector tracing of the sideart, but I never heard back.
I was surfing the other night and came across VectorZorg’s artwork again, and noticed that he had about 70% of the Zookeeper artwork already vectorized. The only part he didn’t have finished was the splatters on the sideart.
So I emailed him and started a dialog to see if I could get a copy of the file that he had and finish the remaining splatter effects. He emailed me back asking who was interested in the Taito Zookeeper Stencils, and I sent him a link to the thread.
You can see a larger version of the Zookeeper sideart if you click the thumbnail. I just took this from VectorZorg’s website. I’ll post any updates if I get them here first.
Update Nov. 18, 2008
Due to some unforseen health issues, Brian Jones has some time on his hands and it appears as if he is about one hour or two into finishing up this piece of vector artwork. All that was left were all the little textured blobs on the bricks, moon and everywhere else.
My guess is that stencils for re-painting Zookeeper artwork will be available sometime in late January of 2008 if not sooner. Will keep you posted as I find out more.
Circus Charlie – Vectored Ringmaster
Today I started on vectorizing one of the Circus Charlie photos I straightened. The ringmaster artwork was fairly simple, and was one of the more clear photos I got.
The vector artwork will have to wait on the textured splatter effect on the colors. For now the colors are just solid. I would imagine eventually I will need to find a piece of NOS Circus Charlie sideart and get it scanned and use the scan for a raster effect.
Got photos of Circus Charlie Sideart
After about two months of follow up with a collector that had full sideart, late last week I got a series of decent photos that I can eventually use (when I clear my plate) to vectorize the sideart.
So, I took the time to vectorize the lettering, which was time consuming enough. Hope to have more to add to this section about Centuri / Konami’s Circus Charlie vector sideart soon.
Most of Pengo Sideart Traced
I had emailed a contact about getting some vector Pengo art that I thought they had. It appeared to me as if they had traced the cardboard bezel at one time, and I thought it would be a good place to start to get some vector versions of the ice mountains, sno bees and the Pengo character himself.
But come to find out, the image of Pengo bezel I saw was just a nice raster scan. So, knowing that I already had some different pieces of the sideart traced from other individuals (Pengo character, Pengo Lettering, Sega Lettering), and seeing that the artwork was fairly simple, I decided to see if I could crank through tracing it in one night.
I got through all of the major sideart details except for the sno bees on the right side of the artwork.
In one more night of work I should have the sideart decal artwork traced good enough to post an image here. Now, there will be some other details to iron out. The Pengo character doesn’t fit up with my photo (which could be due to distortion because I know the tracing is very good), there is a half tone pattern to make the gradient in the letter and the mountains in the original artwork that I will need to address, and of course the color matching.
But at least I will have the Pengo vector artwork to add to my collection. If I want to get into those details later on I can, if I find that there are people out there who want a set of the Pengo artwork I can do some reproductions. I would think there would be a significant demand, I don’t think there is any NOS Pengo sideart out there. I have found 2-3 people who have expressed some interest, Tim Hill, James Hagen and a couple of other arcade collectors in online board posts looking for sideart and control panel overlays. But we shall see.
