Pinball Dreams - is making 3D translites

[swinks]

"Hi pinheads,

Really happy to announce that our 3d translites will finally hit the market. First title will be Medieval Madness and will be available end of jan / beginning of feb. It'll be a fully licensed Williams/PPS product. More 3d translites for major Bally/Williams titles to follow in the near future

Took as nearly 2 years till we reached the actual quality level. And as PPS and Williams seem to like it very much as well it is now ready for the market and is being produced at the moment.

The making of:

1. We made a high res scan of the original translite

2. We cleared the graphics and finalized them in Photoshop

3. Color matching as close as possible (original print was silk screened obviously)

4. Then we started to separate various layers in Photoshop (13 layers in total in MM) - problem simply is: you cannot just cut out graphics and put them on another layer. Because of the "movement" in the final product you'd simply see the blank space behind. So all layers had to be filled - graphic had to be extended by hand

These above mentioned steps took around 100 hours so far to make it as perfect as possible...

5. Then we send this Photoshop file to a 3D artist. He rebuilt the artwork in "real 3D". Why ? The reason is quite simple - to achieve the best 3d impression possible. In MM for example the lance of the trolls isn't just stuck to a certain layer - it simply goes through various layers - from background to the foreground. So the entire motive has been reconstructed in real 3D which results in a stunning 3D effect throughout the entire translite

6. Now the translite is ready to be printed. They are printed in offset print to achieve the highest possible resolution (offset resolution is up to 4x higher than digital prints) But please have in mind - a lenticular foil is applied to the prints afterwards in order to create the 3D impression - we used a 60 lpi foil (which means 60 lines per inch). So it cannot be as sharp as a standard translite - without this foil it wouldn't work. But I'm sure many of you have seen a Tron or Avatar translite - this is what you can expect (although these titles haven't been produced with the real 3d technique - these are simple layers put behind each other)

To follow are some impressions of the creation process. Its is of course not possible to make photos or even a film of the final product cause you'd simply won't see the 3d effect... "

"3D translites will be available for US customers at planetary pinball and for outside US customers directly from Pinball-Dreams.com
You can preorder your copy of the translite now - please drop us a mail with your complete contact: info@pinball-dreams.com

We will collect US orders and forward them to our partner PPS. You can also preorder directly through PPS - a preorder list will be set up in the next days.

Prices for the translites are:

Outside US customers - 195 Euro
US customers - 195$

Plus shipping

Have fun - really hope you'll enjoy this cool new product

Regards

Henrik
(Pinball-Dreams.com) "

"So...we already prepared artwork for: AFM, No Fear, Monster Bash, Creature, White Water, Dracula, Tom...of course it is not clear yet which titles we are allowed to do...creature of course would be a blast but seems difficult due to licenses...lets see"

[Zarnet]

Very nice, but expensive in the current climate.

[Pinball]

I also recall reading that there is a layering issue with part of the MM translite.