PINBALL
One of my favorite hobbies is Pinball. Playing, Owning, and Creating Artwork for and about Pinball Machines is a great love.
Over the years I've gotten to work on and around a few from logo design, promotional prints, posters, graphics, and even collectibles.
Demo Reel of Pinball Machine Graphics
Game Animation + Design
Pinball machines need very particular graphics because it is all to accentuate an interactive game. Here are some examples of various designs and animation for a couple of pinball machines.
Some require designing, building, and animating the entire interior of the Mystery Machine, while others are animating available assets.
Can you guess which Halloween graphic originally got kicked back because they thought we were using footage from the movie?
SPOOKY FANG CLUB
A number of years ago Spooky Pinball decided to create a 'Fang Club' for their many fans. Membership came with incentives as well as exclusive collectables.
My original contribution to the club was designing the Spooky Fang Club logo. It had to be unique from their regular Spooky Pinball logo, but also capture the fun and spookiness of the company.
For the first couple of years, I was also able to pitch and design their exclusive collectables…
SPOOKY FANG CLUB 2020: SPOOK SHOW POSTER
This first Exclusive Spooky Fang Club (SFC) collectable was a full sized 24x36 "Spook-Show" inspired poster, ala 1950s Horror Movie events. It revealed the SFC Logo for the first time, and featured an array of references from all of their pinball machines up until that point.
SPOOKY FANG CLUB 2021: BELA LUGOSI STAND-UP
The following year, Spooky obtained the rights to use actor Bela "Dracula" Lugosi as the new President of the Spooky Fang Club. Universal Studios horror icons have a legacy in the world of pinball, so I pitched an idea to create a tribute to one of the most loved pinball artifacts of all time: 1992's promotional stand-up for Bally/Williams' Creature from the Black Lagoon' pinball machine.
In designing this new 'stand-up', I was able to use a computer to pre-visualize how it would assemble and test the 3-dimensional parallax effects created by layering the flat plastics together. Working closely with the Bela Lugosi Estate, we were able to dial in the proper look of the horror icon and make it worthy of a Universal Monster's legacy.
The final touch that I had suggested from the start, was to have Bela holding a real pinball. If you have ever owned a pinball machine, you'll know people ask all the time if they can see and hold an actual pinball, so now collectors everywhere could have one on display for all to enjoy.
This is a behind the scenes video documenting the entire process of creating the standup. Don't forget to like and subscribe!
ULTIMATE FAN POSTERS
In celebrating their 30th anniversary, Stern Pinball opened up a yearlong contest for people to post photos of themselves as the Ultimate Stern Pinball Fan; winner receiving a brand new pinball machine!
Inspired by this contest, I created these two prints under my 7 Hells horror art label to promote pinball fandom in general. Both horror related, 'Tilt' is a direct tribute to Stern and their anniversary, and 'Creature' is a tribute to this older machine, and it's rabid fandom.