These video's are so awesome, i just love the enthousiasm that you show. It keeps me going to finish my build and gives me a ton of new ideas everytime i see your videos....maybe i should stop watching them and finish my homebrew first?.....Nah....
This app really brings me back to After Effects - it really is animation and you're right about the center dot. The biggest tip about animation is that you're right - it should dazzle and excite, but when it's used for a purpose - lining up the magic shots in the attract mode, or even during the play, or when you introduce the staircase, or whatever - it's communicating to the player 'shoot here, stupid!' and then rewarding them for following instructions, or if you want to give them options - 'don't shoot there, shoot there' like in a video game where you've got an angel and a demon barking orders, and you don't know which will give you the mega bonus until you try - it's really the basis for setting modes, setting bonuses; dang I wish I had the money to build my own.... If nothing else, I might offer this: if you're not great at setting animations like I am, I'd encourage people to set up spreadsheets for the various modes, and then consider adding various animation patterns to match those modes - again, pointing out specific shots or light shows as both reward and unlockable for doing so. (You're right that you won't need the center button; there's PLENTY here to play with)
Working on my own homebrew pinball machine retheme right now. I’ve been watching you’re videos and you’ve encouraged me to give it a go. Looking forward to seeing more updates!
Great overview, thanks for putting this together Steve. I knew this tool existed - years ago Scott Danesi was showing me his Total Nuclear Annihilation and explained how he did his awesome lightshow animations, and he pointed out a really cool one and said it was just a star shape being rotated over the playfield. My mind was blown. Such an elegant solution for creating large, complex animations. I'd never actually seen it done until now, so I really appreciate the look behind the curtains. My own solution is more like stop motion animation where you create frames and individually toggle the lights themselves, and you can create fades, adjust speed, and layer lightshows on top of each other with different priorities. I think what I have developed works great for those sequenced target lights, like strobing 3 in a row, but is a pain for any full playfield lightshows. I really need to program my own version of this shape overlay method. I'd especially love to have those concentric circles emanating from a captured ball along with a bass heavy "whoomp" sound effect. Now I feel inspired to do some coding...
Great video; thanks for demo-ing the great tool! Quick question - any word on when FAST Pinball is going to release their new audio and cabinet boards? I’m almost done with building the cabinet, so am at a place of needing some controller boards, but have been holding off for a while to see if they update their starter kit bundle.
So they aren't going to be adding them to the starter bundle, so don't wait around for that - they hope to have them ready to purchase a la carte within the next month or two, just working on getting all the necessary code to support them in place then they'll start getting them up for sale.
Budget for the whole machine or just the cost of parts for the LEDs? I've spent over $5k on my machine so far - but just LEDs for a machine you already built wouldn't be too much -you'll probably want around 100 or so lights, depending on what type you pick that could be anywhere from $25-$200 ish?
Great job showing the process Steve!
Thanks for all your hard work
That’s pretty slick, Steve. Thanks for sharing.
These video's are so awesome, i just love the enthousiasm that you show. It keeps me going to finish my build and gives me a ton of new ideas everytime i see your videos....maybe i should stop watching them and finish my homebrew first?.....Nah....
😂 glad you're enjoying them!!
Fabulous. Cannot wait to see this on the actually playfield!
Me too!! 😅
SO glad I found your Videos!
Regarding to speed of animations. You always can change the speed in mpf later on.
Another great vid, Steve! Thank you!
This app really brings me back to After Effects - it really is animation and you're right about the center dot. The biggest tip about animation is that you're right - it should dazzle and excite, but when it's used for a purpose - lining up the magic shots in the attract mode, or even during the play, or when you introduce the staircase, or whatever - it's communicating to the player 'shoot here, stupid!' and then rewarding them for following instructions, or if you want to give them options - 'don't shoot there, shoot there' like in a video game where you've got an angel and a demon barking orders, and you don't know which will give you the mega bonus until you try - it's really the basis for setting modes, setting bonuses; dang I wish I had the money to build my own....
If nothing else, I might offer this: if you're not great at setting animations like I am, I'd encourage people to set up spreadsheets for the various modes, and then consider adding various animation patterns to match those modes - again, pointing out specific shots or light shows as both reward and unlockable for doing so.
(You're right that you won't need the center button; there's PLENTY here to play with)
Working on my own homebrew pinball machine retheme right now. I’ve been watching you’re videos and you’ve encouraged me to give it a go. Looking forward to seeing more updates!
hi steve Thank you for this great video which will be useful for my project.
Great overview, thanks for putting this together Steve. I knew this tool existed - years ago Scott Danesi was showing me his Total Nuclear Annihilation and explained how he did his awesome lightshow animations, and he pointed out a really cool one and said it was just a star shape being rotated over the playfield.
My mind was blown. Such an elegant solution for creating large, complex animations. I'd never actually seen it done until now, so I really appreciate the look behind the curtains.
My own solution is more like stop motion animation where you create frames and individually toggle the lights themselves, and you can create fades, adjust speed, and layer lightshows on top of each other with different priorities. I think what I have developed works great for those sequenced target lights, like strobing 3 in a row, but is a pain for any full playfield lightshows. I really need to program my own version of this shape overlay method. I'd especially love to have those concentric circles emanating from a captured ball along with a bass heavy "whoomp" sound effect. Now I feel inspired to do some coding...
Wooo!
Great video; thanks for demo-ing the great tool! Quick question - any word on when FAST Pinball is going to release their new audio and cabinet boards? I’m almost done with building the cabinet, so am at a place of needing some controller boards, but have been holding off for a while to see if they update their starter kit bundle.
So they aren't going to be adding them to the starter bundle, so don't wait around for that - they hope to have them ready to purchase a la carte within the next month or two, just working on getting all the necessary code to support them in place then they'll start getting them up for sale.
These videos get longer,I'm going to hit play one day and it's going to be 6 hours long 😂
😂 hey, I'm doing my best here! 😂😆😅 but yeah ino ino
I built a DIY pinball machine but I would like to add a light show. Where do I begin on a budget?
Budget for the whole machine or just the cost of parts for the LEDs? I've spent over $5k on my machine so far - but just LEDs for a machine you already built wouldn't be too much -you'll probably want around 100 or so lights, depending on what type you pick that could be anywhere from $25-$200 ish?