I'm slowly getting back into more pinball stuff after having to deal with the happenstances of life for the last few years. And a PM from pinsider Roar got me back into this project.

The last picture I posted (#199) is still my latest revision. Now upon request, here is a key for that one. There is a numbered picture and a spreadsheet made into a PDF which I think I can upload here. Here goes:
pinballalbumcover15key (resized).jpg

pinballalbumcover15key.pdf

I can play around with this some more since everything is in layers in a giant photoshop file. But it does take work as I noted before to change things around or add in new pics. You have to look at the whole picture and get everything balanced. Thank you again to everyone who gave inputs as it gets hard to notice all the little things when you work on it for so long.

I finally got around to getting a metal print made from this digital file. It looks pretty darn sweet. As far as I can see, all of the artwork came out nice and crisp with perfect detail. It is a 16"x20" metal sign with glossy finish, purchased from Shutterfly. I used to get some stuff printed at Costco, but they closed that down and offered their customers to move to Shutterfly, where you get about a 50% discount and free shipping, so it about $55 out the door.

pinball metal print Shutterfly 2023-01 (resized).jpg

Dammit looks like you are right. I’ll have to take a look at that, although obviously it’s too late. I have too many versions of this pic sitting on the computer, I need to clean them up. Still it looks great, better than I would have thought.

Both are in there already

This is the correct last version. I can't believe I printed the wrong one, just wasn't paying attention. I may have to buy another one!

pinballalbumcover15 (resized).jpg

She is there, front and center underneath the pinball.

Ok everyone, its time to circle the wagons again and do some tweaking. All suggestions and inputs are considered, this wouldn't be where it is without some of the great ideas I have received in this thread. Sorry about the long text to describe, but TL;DR is that I need to make adjustments to the image below and if anyone as ideas as it goes feel free to chime in.

Some Pinsiders have contacted me for the file so they can make metal prints, which is great, I am more than happy to do this. However, after finally getting the metal picture printed as I show, after careful inspection and consideration, there are some things I don't like. Might as well get it as perfect as it can be!

First is the big pinball. I don't like the way the pinball itself looks on the print, so I am going to search for a better pic, or possibly create one. I also don't like the 3 different colors I used for the text glow for the words on the pinball. But then after looking at it, I also thought it might look better to simplify it and just put a 100 on it as shown below. Its pretty obvious what there are 100 of. Or, 200 depending on your point of view Let me know what you think.

Next is a bigger issue to tackle. Most of this relates to the start of the project, where I was just making a fun digital picture. Note that I am not a graphic designer by trade, but I have some self-taught experience in the area. My main failing was not thinking about getting prints from the beginning. There are certain considerations that need to be adjusted for when sending digital files to print. Some geeky graphic design details follow:

First, one bit of good news. The graphics for all of the females look great on the metal sign I did. This is good, because they came from many different sources. Not all 100 images are easily available as high resolution digital files. But after carefully looking at all of them on the 20x16 metal sign, I think they look great. That is, no blurry images. The print file for the 16"x20" sign was 150 dpi, which is a good resolution for this type of printing. The file size for that is 3000x2400 pixels. The original source Photoshop is file is 5760x4536 pixels. This means that a print file up to 36" across can be made and still keep the 150dpi resolution, keeping the detail looking great. You can print bigger than 36", but then the dpi would need to start dropping, and in theory the detail would be less. Its hard to tell exactly how very large prints would look without actually making them so you can see.

There is an issue to deal with when printing, which is know as bleed. You can't necessarily print your image to the very edges, depending on a variety of factors. For example, then I first uploaded my 16x20 jpg to Shutterfly, luckily they have a preview for the metal sign, and I could tell that the edges (and major parts of some girls) were cut off. So I had to do some manipulation of the file so everyone would fit.

The bottom like is, it is difficult to get a just-right print if your artwork goes to the edges. As I worked on this art, I have had various images out to the edges, and this was due to the fact that not all of these women are fully drawn in the original artwork on the pinball machine. So I strategically placed some of them on edges (or hid them behind other things) to disguise this.

I did manage to get the two sides and the top set up so they are complete with some black space extending out. But I had the ones at the bottom cut off at the bottom. This becomes a bit of pain to deal with when sending to print because of the bleed issue, so now I am going to attempt to re-do it so I can have a black space cushion all the way around.

When you see the pic below where I just added in the extra space to start with, you can see the dilemma. I have to sort out that bottom row so we don't have women with their bottom halves sliced straight across. Some of the original images for that bottom row don't have that part drawn, so now I have more work to do to fix that by moving things or possibly creating some artwork.

Another possible way to fix this is to anchor the bottom row behind something else, for example like a hedge. The you could have them behind the hedge with the legs covered, and extend that hedge downward to the edge. If the hedge were tall enough, then you wouldn't worry about the bottom part being cut off by the bleed, because visually it will look fine.

pinballalbumcover16 test (resized).jpg

Here is a possibility to anchor the bottom of the picture and allow the bottom row to hide behind rather than having everyone floating in black space. This isn't prettified yet, just a draft for a concept review.

Another possibility might be to use the bottom banner to show a list of all of the pinball machines represented, maybe in alphabetical order. The text would be small but still should be readable and might be a fun addition.

pinballalbumcover16 test logos (resized).jpg

This is the latest revision

- better pinball graphic
- just the 100 text in the pinball
- bottom right section is reorganized
- bottom left partially reorganized

The goal is a nice bottom row without cut-off legs and such. I have had some luck rearranging things, but you always have to deal with the fact that most of the images are not complete because of the way the artwork came out. For example, there are not too many like Satin Doll in the lower left that are complete figures. So this whole piece has things positioned strategically to hide these issues. So as I move them around, I have to deal with that. For example, I need to do some artwork to fix Star-Jet's feet and shoes on the lower right. There are some other minor artwork updates I have done in various places, but these so far are minor and you probably wouldn't notice them.

All suggestions welcome.

pinballalbumcover16 test2 (resized).jpg

Here is the latest revision, this should be it, or very close. No cut-off legs on the bottom row. Same 100 women, just rearranged within the overall picture. I will be reviewing it a few times to make sure everything is clean, then that should be ready for print.

pinballalbumcover16 test3 (resized).jpg

Thanks for these inputs!

I have spent some more time inspecting the entire picture and have made a fair number of small adjustments so all of the women are positioned optimally and with minimal issues like cut-off body parts. Its fun work because its easy to look at these pictures and admire the great artwork these artists came up with.

As I have been looking at it again, I am getting the same thoughts for 2 and 3. For 1, that is "Butterfly" by Segasa (Spain). The extension of her wing out away from the rest was a bit of an artistic license, something to catch the eye and allow a small diversion from the symmetry.

For 2, I have wrestled with the words on the pinball since the beginning. I am starting to think that there should be no words on it at all. After all, it will be obvious it is a pinball. And it is obvious these are women from pinball art. It is not obvious that there are 100 of them exactly, well you could count them but who would do that? However, if I take that number off, then it leaves the door open to have a different number than 100. Which leads to...

3, yes this has been bugging me since I redid the bottom section to allow black space for printing. It is now imbalanced with that black area under the flipper. One way to fix it would be to lower the flipper downward, but that would take some major surgery to get everything balanced. I also had the same idea as you, some reclining figures could fill that in. If I divest myself of the "100" I can add some more in. I will have to go on the hunt for some new ones that will fit that area, or again do some major rearranging.

Both Eclipse and Panthera are certainly there I never saw the golfers from Fore until now, they are good ones too. The way I originally intended it was that the "Big 4" are prominently featured just on top of the pinball, and they are made a bit larger than any of the others. These are my 4 personal favorites: C37, Elvira, Strikes and Spares redhead, and Ann Margaret from Wizard.

Stay tuned for more...

Latest revision, some big changes in this one. Hasn't been error-checked yet, I am seeing double from staring at this too much (4 boobs where there should be 2). Already spotted an issue, Iron Maiden's torso is dangling in mid-air, have to figure out how to fix that.

pinballalbumcover16 test4 (resized).jpg

I call those Easter Eggs, some of them are inadvertent and others were intentionally done by me(like the strategic placement of the neighbors to the topless Twin Win). I had a list of them for the earlier version but I’ll have to redo it because there were a lot of repositions.

She is there, you will have to look harder

The girl is in there, but no Creech himself. (Correction - the girl is also not in this latest version) If you go back toward the beginning of this thread and look at the early versions you will see that indeed Creech was there holding her, so it was 100 girls plus a Creech. It seemed the majority vote was that he shouldn’t be in there and it should be all women. I’m about 50:50 on it.

For the most part I steered away from the post-market nudity to keep it g-rated. Although the topless Twin Win is in there but with strategic coverups as I noted. Sexy Girl is also there but I modified that drawing with some strategic fabric additions to cover her up a bit.

There is a post a bit above where I talk about the details of the digital file and making prints, but the answer is yes it could be. I confirmed that it makes a nice print at 20x16. I believe the standard translite size is 18.5 x 26.5, so it will look good at that size. The aspect ratio is different, so that is why the black background is extended all the way around. The outer dimensions need to be resized to fit different size print shapes and that is done by extending the black background in one direction. Basically, the digital file needs to be optimized a bit for each printing scenario, which is easy to do in Photoshop.

As a side note, I know someone who has been building a digital collection of modified pinball art which includes all of the r-rated (and some x-rated LOL) stuff. That would make an interesting similar picture.

It's not me though. I would do it...

It Would Be Wrong (resized).jpg

Here is the latest, I put Creech back in, at least for my version I kind of like the idea of the solitary make Creech hanging out with the 100 women. Iron Maiden was taken out to keep the total at 100.

pinballalbumcover16 test5 (resized).jpg

The flipper on the bottom was off-center and that was bugging me, corrected now.

pinballalbumcover16 test6 (resized).jpg

Cheetah is in there, with her cheetah! Have to look harder

I hadn't seen Jungle Queen or Quicksilver until now. Jungle Queen (or Jungle Princess 2 player version) is especially nice and I found a good image for that one. I like that one so much, I may swap it out for someone else in the pic, we'll see.

Thanks for those inputs. Yes there is an interesting history I think and it’s not just me, but also the Pinsiders who provided ideas and insights, all very much appreciated. It’s been fun working on this.

I’ll fix the key for Big Bang Bar. Once it is finalized (again), I’ll have to make a new numbered key drawing and update the list.

Yes, Creech-less version can easily be made by request.