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Hi All,
I am a dutch creative director and medior 3d/graphics artist. I am currently working on a original visual pinball table in the Big trouble in little China theme. I am new to the scene (just finished installing VPX and in the proces of building my first cabinet) so all feedback, advise, constructive criticism and help is highly appreciated !I started of with the concept of the table, that resulted in a 30+ paged document. Which covers the first (ambitious, I know) approach to Design, 5 Modes, 3 ball saves, 3d modeling, audio and Pup Pack video’s. Here is the link to the document with all the videos:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a59pgW9CI_C7BDGnLYJxFIjmauxIXhNp2tNhZ0st6wY/edit?usp=sharing
Next steps will be getting this into VPX, Playfield layout and coding (read: copying elements from other scripts) which I know nothing about :) But hey! who knows… Let’s see where this project will go from here. All help is appreciated: Links to tutorials, script or articles.
Would love to share this table with you guys someday!
– Joost ProostYou need to login in order to like this post: click here
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Joost Proost
i cant wait this looks amazing my all time favorite film will be my all time favorite pinball table.
the concept you have done looks unreal please keep me posted.
thanks
Anthony
what a wonder day it is today
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Welcome Joost
I’m Dutch too. Dont understand anything about graphics or 3d modeling.
But with the knowledge I know, I try to help the community.
Good luck buiding your cabinet and hope to see a lot of tables from you!
If you have any questions, just drop me a pm
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Very cool! Glad you found this site to share this wip. Great choice for a theme! For fans of the movie, brace yourself for a Dwayne Johnson sequel that’s supposedly in the works. Hopefully the original screenwriter will be involved.
Welcome Joost!
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Yeah I saw the plans for the remake. I like Dwayne, but nothing will beat the original IMO. I will try to do justice to it in building the table.
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Looks like you have already put a ton of work into developing the concept….Can’t wait to see your progress!
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Hello Joost and welcome! Fellow 3d artist here I manage a small team at our studio in New York. That’s quite a comprehensive breif but I would expect nothing less from a creative director ?
Love this concept and would love to lend help if you need it. I’m not a code guru or even a vpx expert like many of the amazing people here, but I’ve picked up a few things over the last year.
BTW what dcc do you use? Most 3d users around here are blender guys but I’m hoping for a fellow maya user… ?
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Blender was so 2019…..
am I too old or too young, never heard of this movie, maybe I need to stop watching police academy and the naked gun and expand my horizons
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“Blender was so 2019…..”  And Blender owes me a lost weekend.
BTILC is a cult classic. And it was easy to miss. That makes it fun to go dig up. But be in the mood for Kurt and some make-believe. Much better than Naked Gun, Police Academy stuff. If you can handle those – you may love this movie.
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Big Trouble in Little China was IMHO a fantastic movie from John Carpenter.  What a run he had in the 80’s.  He’s done some decent films since then but nothing magical like Escape from New York, Starman, The Thing, Halloween, The Fog, They Live and of course Big Trouble in Little China.  With the exception of HAlloween, all these movies came out between 1980 and 1988 and he even did a decent Stephen King flick (Christine) and another in Prince of Darkness within that span.  PoD was lower budget but has aged very well (IMHO).
I’m a huge fan and I’m not the biggest horror fan around!  There’s just something about his sensibilities and his ability to throw decent social commentary into some of his films, that makes me appreciate him.  His soundtracks (many of his own creations) also add to the right mood.  His movies don’t always look the best, some low budget work being very obvious looking at them near 40 years later, but Big Trouble in Little China does NOT suffer from this (seen through the lens of the ‘80’s of course).  I’ve got mad props for James Cameron as DA MAN but in the Mid 80’s, when some producers in Hollywood were considering directors for their pet projects, when they said “Hey let’s get JC to do this,  it wasn’t necessarily Cameron they had in mind by just referring to both these guys initials. He was that damn good.
Back in the early days of VPFORUMS.COM, there was a thread that talked about which movie could make a great pin and my vote back then, as it is today: Big Trouble in Little China (followed by The Thing).  It will never be made into a pin, it’s too old a franchise and it wasn’t that big an earner (typical with his movies) but the layout is perfect.  It looks to me you have a great concept and I love how you are approaching it Joost.  Good luck with the work, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for it.
… and you reminded me, I’m do for my yearly viewing of BTiLC, The Thing and Escape from New York.  It’s just a coincidence that all 3 also star Kurt Russell, but if you like him and like John Carpenter flicks, don’t forget to check out their first collaboration: Elvis the movie.  Terrific TV flick and it proved that Russell wasn’t just a Disney kid star.
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Wow that’s great @Mlager8. I could use all the help I can get. It’s hard enough making a decent table on your own, let alone a good one. It takes all kinds of different skills and thus different people to make a great table. So all collaboration is welcome!
As a CD I have a strong vision and love to see the concept, storytelling, rhythm (story beats) and overall design/style through till the end. I can do simple motion graphics / UI / Creative Treatments myself. Setup the base of the table. And some 3d placeholders for testing out the gameplay.
But I guess I really could use help with coming up with a game logic/ruleset, table coding and productional tasks like: optimizing/shading 3d models, lighting and audio cleaning up (for the in game audio callouts).
@Mlager8 I made the “3d models” (low poly Main Ramp + Truck) in Cinema4d but can export to FBX or OBJ with MTL (or perhaps other formats). They could really use game optimization, texturing and normal maps. Which is something I have an idea on, but certainly not to good at.THX Jochem
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@theloafer So true! Great to see others that love the movie (and see it for what it is: a fun, over the top 80’s classic). This movie was begging to be a pinball table. The whole story structure, epic boss fights, magical elements, vivid color scheme, atmosphere and even Jack’s quotes are a perfect fit for a table with a rich PupPack, to teleport us back right back to the 8o’s for that nostalgic Ghostbusters/Back to the Future era. I mean listen to the OST and you are half way there.
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@theloafer don’t you dare forget they live! it dosent hold up as well but damn I love that one. I made my wife watch it a few months back and I had to explain it’s a great movie masquerading as a terrible one. If you can get past the low budget 80s feel it’s actuslly pretty damn good!
@vpjachim well as I said, I can only be of limited help with the coding side of things, but I can certainly help out with the other task you have mentioned. Whenever youre ready let me know or get a pm chain going.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
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I listed they Live!  It’s just not part of the rewatch list because I saw it about a month ago. Of all the movies to come out of the 80’s, it probably has the best social commentary of them all.  Also, well, it has the best single alley fight scene in the history of all of cinema!  Even South Park spoofed it to perfection.
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@The Loafer
I’m just going to agree with everything you said. HUGE John Carpenter fan here…. and BTILC is one of may favorite movies.
I remember when Mortal Kombat first appeared thinking…”hey they stole from BTILC for Raiden”. :)
This project looks cool, and yes…. so much material and potential!
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I listed they Live! It’s just not part of the rewatch list because I saw it about a month ago. Of all the movies to come out of the 80’s, it probably has the best social commentary of them all. Also, well, it has the best single alley fight scene in the history of all of cinema! Even South Park spoofed it to perfection.
Ha I see now you listed it, I just must of missed it. I was not aware of the south park spoof but I’m sure as hell going to look it up right now. Rowdy Roddy Piper in paper cutout form has piqued my interest…
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Thx @terryred love your and @nailbuster work on the PupPacks and followed your tutorial to setup the whole VPX system that inspired me to start this project. Love to hear your professional opinion and feedback along the way.
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Hi there Joost, also a Dutch member here…
Very nice proof of concept you got there
 Great movie…I like it a lot!
I can’t script but I can edit clips for your pup pack and add VFX, 3D titles and that kind of stuff.
I did some PUP clips for the WOZ table and  worked on SST most recently (graphics and light modeling on that one)Let me know if I can help
Succes kerel!
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Wow, you have a lot of great people interested in this build, that usually means success. Â I will watch the movie and get back to you. Â What the hell is they Live???
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They Live is another little known Carpenter film. Rowdy Roddy Piper! “I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass ..but I’m all out of bubblegum.”
I think that was borrowed from Duke Nuke’em btw.  You HAVE to be in an 80’s frame of mind for these flicks.  So find some Lowenbrau or St Pauli Girl beer first. That’ll help.
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