Hand drawn art looks like more effort was put into the final product with some thought to the machines aesthetic appeal.
Photoshopped/ digital art looks lazy, rushed, jagged and unappealing to the eye.
Thats my two cents, anyway.

Is an interesting insight\question. Take video games for example. Would you be as enthusiastic about your favorite first person shooter or RPG if it was a straight video with user interaction like that Western arcade game from the 80's? Someday animation will 99% approximate real life video and something would have to be done, I guess, to make it more otherworldly immersive. Most quality animation is based on real life filming of actor's physically and then digitized to get the physics right, that's why it's so expensive to film something like Avatar, traditional film it then hafta animate it. That's not lazy, you'd need to be a supremely intelligent person to "invent" physical motion from scratch. It's an interesting subject, thanks for posting it.

If I can do it, which I or about anyone else can do with Photoshop, then there is not much skill there. It's not art. Go look at Zombie Yeti's work. I'd have that hanging on my wall even if I have no interest in Magic Girl. Stern Star Wars .... not so much. Magic Girl is art, its skill. It's why Paragon is so loved. Heck it's why I just bought this Circus even if gameplay is kinda meh. It's why I love EMs in general. They are now starting to hold pinball art exhibitions at museums as this genre of art gets more recognized than it's been.

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"Hand-drawn" art offers more potential for dynamism and attractive visual abstraction - big panels of solid, vibrant color, for example, or more creative placement of characters. The best pinball art is almost theatrical - think of Rudy holding out the big clock in Funhouse, or the crazy colors and inserts in TOTAN. A lot of pins are downright gorgeous, and it's crushing to get lackluster photoshop collages from such promising themes as Game of Thrones and Star Wars.

The Stern SW playfield is just kind of dull - you have a little row of characters at the bottom, the ship in the middle with the hyperspace lines around it (probably the nicest part), and then two opposing characters up top, facing away from each other. Almost everything else is gradients or huge lines of blocky inserts that slap you right in the eyeballs. The DE SW playfield is a little busy, but it really pops out at you and there's a lot of fun stuff happening on it that's arranged in an entertaining way. Star Wars is a packed universe, which makes the bland sparseness of the Stern playfields really stand out.

In addition to typically looking better, hand drawn art is original and unique. Accordingly, it makes a game more special.

I guess in the past with EMs you know it wasn't created by a graphic artist using a software app. You wouldn't even know it these days. As I stated before digital animation is almost always digitally manipulated film\video. Photos can be considered art. I agree that vibrant colors is more art to me, that's my sole opinion. I think Guardians of the Galaxy art will be more colorful interstellar images, SW is locked into 1970's, '80s imaging unfortunately.

It's also nice that hand-drawn art is fitted specifically to the game itself, so the perspectives, colors, lines, and ways the art directs your eyes are tied to the flow and gameplay.

BTW that circus ringmaster with the whip looks like he is creepin' on that girl.

The answer is simple. It's because pinball is as much about the artwork as it is the game itself. The old machines were all hand drawn artwork and that's one of the big things that made a machine popular and lured people to play it. I sit and just stare at my GB and my AS and look it over real good. It makes me appreciate the machine more because they are just beautiful looking.

Because its damn cool! I believe 'pinball art' could be its own genre, similar to graffiti art.

All about style. Stern's SW art is generic-- as others have pointed out, it'd look just as good on a lunchbox. Pinball art should look like it was made specifically for the game it's used on. Good example is Earthshaker - the shot lanes are represented as broken roads or chasms, bonus lamps as crumbling buildings... there are well-defined layers separating the playfield elements, playfield features like the drop targets are incorporated into the art (as a roadside billboard), and there are "extra" bits like the sun in the middle, which is used only for lamp effects.

Compare the creativity to Star Wars, which is generic art slapped together with a bunch of random inserts.

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Agreed. Love MM\MMR for this type of stuff. Using a catapult round insert that looks like an object that a king's soldier is lifting up and his arm crosses the insert itself. Awesome stuff on that machine, art-wise.

Because it's Yeti, Donny and Franchi

And they create some gorgeous pins

Hand drawn artwork on a pin makes it seem like more effort and passion went into the games playfield design. When it comes to today's latest games I find that hand drawn artwork helps to justify the crazy prices and adds value to the game.

Also, hand drawn artwork tends to bring out a theme better then most photoshop artwork packages.

And other new artists as well such as Freek van Haagen.

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Photo realism isn't the problem with GOT. Horribly bad playfield art is the problem. Bad playfield art = no time, thought, or imagination spent on creating something that flows and you want to look at again and again (just as the game code should flow and be something you want to play again and again).

Alien is photo realism and looks great. GOT looks like what a playfield would look like if you asked me to do it. I work in banking for a reason.

Had to give you a thumbs up. Love my GOT. Love the cabinet art and translite on my LE. But the playfield is complete ass. Fortunately, when you turn it on, the lights are so f-ing bright, you don't actually see it.

For the record, I LOVE playing the game. It has fantastic flow and have spent hours at a time on an LE. That much sadder the art was such a miss. I guess Stern may have been limited in what they were allowed to use or do based on licensing...

GOT is particularly egregious given how many stunning visuals are in the show. It's possible their hands were tied by HBO, but still, there are so many nifty things that could've made it onto the playfield. Oh well.

My theory is that HBO pissed them off with their rules, so instead of plastering their logo all over the place REALLY BIG like they did on TWD, they made the logo almost microscopic...and only put it in, like, one spot, I think.

I can confirm that was the case, first hand knowledge.

This is the double edged sword of licenses. They bring the name recognition and theme and assets and all the goodies, but pick the wrong studio to work with and you might be pretty constrained.

I wish when picking licenses that freedom to create was one of the criteria. If Ghostbusters was photoshopped collage it wouldn't be half as cool, but it wasn't. There are big licenses that still let you go ham.

There are literally thousands and thousands of great license ideas out there. Any one of us could come up with a dream list of 20 without trying I'm sure. Pick the ones that let your artist run wild, make your work the best it can be.

I know for me, it has a lot to do with lastibility. 20 years from now, games with drawn art aren't going to look nearly as dated as games with photorealistic art.

I would love to see a pin with the art of Dirty Donny or others already mentioned with the light show of my WOZ and some bad ass clips on a monitor with attention to detail of sound like Aliens put into a pin. Plus add a shaker motor well integrated with code for a all out sensory overload.

Isn't it interesting that with video games people want life like and in pinball we want artist interpretation?
To me SW looks like a Sega game maybe its been said elsewhere but I that was my first take on it.
Reminds me a lot of the art work on say Trilogy (face dropping).

Still have high hopes for a great playing game...love the Prem cab art work ....but that cant be seen in my home arcade anyway.

I like some of you have translites as art work in my gameroom in honer of the artist yet dont own the game itself.

I like to think of it more of a problem of original vs template. If an IP handcuffs a game to use pre-approved assets, designers are forced to shoehorn them into a presentation package that they weren't originally designed for. With all original art you have the ability to make all design decisions in context which may lead to an overall more cohesive/appealing final outcome in relationship to the product.

Cough ..... Raven ..... cough

It's not about, "Hand Drawn", it's about good composition and good art! We expect quality for a friggin $5000-$8000 toy! Who cares if it's done digitally or hand drawn???

This stuff is so interesting, I've always wished I could sit in on the process and revisions. I remember Pat Lawlor talking about his preference for a "soft license", which allowed him to do the mansion hunt theme on TAF. It'd be neat to actually read what kind of restrictions HBO (and Disney) placed on Stern, just to get an idea of what they were working around.

Not me.
I still want/crave 2D creativity as far as the eye can see, in ALL facets of entertainment.

Side-scrolling sprite driven games that were highly detailed (for whatever the system could push at the time) were always my favorite.
When Super Castlevania IV came out for the SNES I was floored. Dracula X improved upon that standard and Symphony of the Night just crushed all those that came before it.

Same goes for Animation.
Traditional old-school 2D is still king in my book.
While the Japanese elevated the animation game in the 70's, 80's and 90's, those veteran's efforts from the 30's-60's are still quite impressive to this day.

Once Disney started vagazzling in scenes with the Silicon Graphics computers I was out.

Nowadays it's all kids know and that's fine; the technology to accurately produce "hand drawn art" digitally, is the best it's ever been.
Practically seamless.

Still,
If and when I ever get time to build my OWN machine and get all the artwork nailed down, you better believe I'll be reaching for the rubylith and screening it by hand!
Cab stencils too!

I figured that might have been the case with GOT. That sucks - talk about a lost opportunity.

And hand drawn doesn't make it great. There are plenty of hand drawn messes out there too. BSD for one - it's terrible. (Although that doesn't stop me from wanting one so badly I can't see straight.)

I don't understand the negative comments about GOT. I've got the LE, and I think it's a beautiful game with a beautiful playfield. There are no faces, just the clean lines of sigils, swords and gears. The background is a tastefully-done map, same as POTC and LOTR. Could the art have been better? Sure, but it's not "bad" by any means.

Ugly gradients, textureless colors (tan: the game), loads of copy-pasting, almost no dynamism except for the explosion between the flippers. It looks like the box art for one of those $5 computer mystery games you can buy at Target.

I basically agree with what's already been said. Hand drawn art generally allows for more personality and better integration with the theme. When I play a machine IRL, sometimes I take the time to look over it and I find tons of fun little details I never noticed before. I especially love when artwork is integrated with the design of the game, like the clown's fingers being flippers in Cyclone, or the different shots in Whitewater being different rivers and waterfalls. It's not impossible to pull this kind of stuff off with artwork based off of photos or pre-existing assets, but when you give a good artist the playfield and no limitations you're just going to end up with something that has more creativity and is just plain fun to look at.

I thought after POTC Nordman said Stern [or maybe just him] would never work with Disney again. Constant micromanaging of the assets.

I sorta disagree. I'm into gaming just as much as I'm into pinball, and I'll take an artistically stylized game over hyper realism any day of the week.

Look at a game like Grand Theft Auto V. It's a fantastic looking game now, but in 5 years, it'll look dated and old. However, you look at a game like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and that game will look just as good today as it will 10+ years into the future.

I think video games have to tread carefully into photorealistic graphics as to avoid falling into the uncanny valley.

I agree with what has already been said. Hand draw or custom artwork just adds something to a game that looks unreal and is specisl to look at and enjoy.

If i can make something similar at home with photoshop, in just a few minutes, then i think it sucks and is a loat opportunity to make something special.

It's part nostalgia (ie. pins have always been hand drawn with black key line art) and part about presenting a finished game as a whole, cohesive and finished work of art.

The photoshop collage games just don't have that look.

This one is always the first to pop into my head...

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Even back in the day, the photo inspired backglasses (Gottlieb) are the most dreadfull. Not all hand drawn art is good, but it's "art" after all.

Kevin O'Connor is my favorite, he has done such beautiful art.

I really don't care that much about art... until it's bad art. Then I care a lot. But it is part of the overall package. AC/DC is pretty bad art, but such a great game that it works. I ragged on Star Trek because it was pretty a boring art package on the playfield, and that game stunk... until they made it great with code. Now the art doesn't matter.

There are all kinds of examples like this. Star Wars is just the latest one. If the play and rules are amazing, none of us will care. But for right now, all I have seen is the art, and I don't care for it. If it was hand drawn would that be better? (And yes, I know it is a photorealistic drawing, still looks bad).

Exactly. Pinball is so closely tied with nostalgia (as is arcade gaming), and as such, hand-drawn art was really the FORM for the arcades. It's really about staying true to the medium. Remember, back in the day of Atari, the box art/side art/etc WAS what gave us the imagination to want to play those pixelated, simple games. The artwork on the side of "Missile Command" puts you in the imaginative place of believing what you're doing is something of consequence. I mean, honestly the arcade game "Tron" sucks hard, but I'd love to own one just because of the cool artwork and design of the game! Same goes for "Dragon's Lair" (c'mon, it's not that great of a GAME, but as a work of art it's unbelievable!).

What's funny to me is that Gary Stern is often noted as being an incredible stickler as it relates to what HAS to be on his pinball machines to be "Sterns" (3 pop bumpers, 2 slingshots, etc...) and yet he seems to have been so slow to come around as it relates to understanding that the art aspect of pinball is every bit as important as the game mechanics and design. Personally I never even considered buying a Stern until MET came out just because I couldn't get down with the Photoslop stuff. Art + pinball cannot be separated in my mind.

Yes I agree. The art draws people to the game, especially in an arcade setting like back in the older days. I guess now you could make an argument that it is more of the theme that draws you to the game which is probably true. Back in the day though there wasn't very many if any themes, just the art that caught your eye which is why the art work was so important. The artwork had to be catchy to lure people to the machine so they would drop their quarters in it.

I guess being a pinball machine owner now that theme is more important to me. I do believe that the artwork is still very important also though because I want it to look nice in my home. I enjoy looking at GB and AS really close because it's amazing how much stuff that you will see that is cool in the artwork. That is especially true in the hand drawn artwork.because the artist always sneaks in some cool stuff that isn't so obvious unless you are looking at the game closely. Dirty Donnie is just unbelievably talented. He killed it on Aerosmith and Metallica.

I don't prefer it. I don't need an artist's interpretation of what a real person looks like if there are photos available. I much prefer the AC/DC (Pro) translite to the Metallica (Pro) translite

How many prefer the Rolling Stones over The Rolling Stones

It's artistry either way. If you're creating it for a specific purpose it's easier to tailor it to that purpose instead of using art not created for the specific application.

I can appreciate the talent of an artist even if their work isn't my thing. Like Christian Marche. The pointy people isn't my thing but I appreciate his talent.