I added the missing switch drop shadow and lowered the white level of the bezel logo.
Anybody (Besides @Syh. 
) bothered by the new Atari logos? They will, of course, be excluded from the plain version.
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I feel attacked!
Actually I don’t mind the logos here, tbh.
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@Syh… just inviting you into the conversation my friend. Your opinion is important to me. 
Here it is in all it’s scaled down, hidden finished glory.
Actual difficulty aside, this was easier to design than most because the console was almost the correct aspect ratio… very few liberties had to be taken.
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I personally love the Atari logo.
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As you may know, if you have been here a while, when I started on this journey I was embarrassingly rusty at vector art. I expected my skills to improve quickly, and they have. To date I personally think that my DOSBox graphic shows the most improvement. I want to keep pushing myself, so I dove in deep to see what I could do with the 2600 graphic.
See if you can pick out the many subtle changes.
Spoiler
I added a gradient at the top of the switch-box to simulate a shadow from the rear wall of the case.
I added a subtle inner shadow to the strokes on all extrusions on the switch panel to simulate a bevel.
I created blends inside the holes on the cartridge slot to give detail and worked on the shading a bit.
I added a radial gradient at 45 degrees and 400% aspect ratio along with an inner glow to the faces of the switch posts. (The gradients are at opposing angles from left side to right side.)
I also changed the top color of the switch panel extrusions.
Finally, I changed the size and placement of the holes in the cartridge slot and simulated a beveled edge on the center face.
(Plus a couple of things I probably forgot)
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I have a question to ask you guys.
A while back I changed my mission statement to include non-relative raster effects at 300dpi to allow me to use some effects like film grain etc.
I have been struggling this whole time with beveled text in Illustrator. It just doesn’t do it well. The bevel effect constantly “self-intersects” and looks horrendous, so I have been faking it.
For the most part it has turned out OK. (Not great. 
A serious thorn in my side.) In my opinion it has lessened the quality of some of the graphics.
I am thinking of including imported text layers from Photoshop in my mission statement. What I plan on doing is creating insanely too large graphics in PS at 300dpi and importing them, then shrinking them to the desired size in Illustrator. This will allow scaling to a great extent if the PS source is used, since text is vector in PS.
Here’s an example inspired by recent conversations in HSM’s thread.
Nintendo GBA! My first handheld and LCD. I did take a few liberties to increase the screen size.
When I set out looking for graphic references I found that the most commonly used existing graphic is actually pretty damn good. I used it, along with photographic references. (Number six in my mission statement. 
)
I spent more than a day trying everything I could think of to get the text to look good but in the end did the PS thing.
Thoughts??
edit: I am thinking that since text is vector in PS, and raster output at 300dpi is part of my mission statement, this doesn’t technically violate it.
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This looks awesome!!! Nice stuff!
I think using the photoshop for some of those effects seems like a good idea, if they are high res there will still be a fair bit of wiggle room 
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Thanks! I just took another look at one of my reference graphics and realized that the screen actually needs to be quite a bit larger. We will lose the Nintendo logo at the top but have a larger game screen.
Good news I think.
Personally I’m fine as long as the gameboy advance logo is visible
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Final I think. 
I did some extra work on the GBA bezel edges while I was at it.
I also made the change to my mission statement. At some point I will probably revisit all the graphics that have small beveled text. 
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This is too cool, I want to play some some GBA Moto Racer! Where can I download the backgrounds (GBA and 2600)? 
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For N64, 2600, and GBA, I still need to do the plain versions, RA overlays, night version TopLayerImages, (For at least the GBA.) and 4K verticals. If you need any of these it may be a bit before they are in the repo. If all you need is the standard shader versions I can commit them to the repo now.
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N64, 2600, and GBA are up in my HSM graphics repo. I will post as the RA Overlays etc. go up.
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New trio of RA logo, plain, & night versions are up in my RA Overlay repo. I still have to develop the 4K vertical versions.
Just in case anyone is wondering about the MAME graphic, it is still very much a WIP.
Hey everyone! Just had a thought I’d like to share.
While I very much enjoy doing these graphics, and this project has in a very real way, improved my quality of life…
I would just like to take a moment to remind everyone (And myself. ) of something.
Out of the box HSM’s shader, with the Carbon Fiber background, the perfectly executed bezel & frame, frame shadow, background vignette, screen vignette, tube glass overlay, screen edge shadow, and of course the reflection that stands up to very close inspection, is one of the most thoughtful, well executed works of art I have ever had the privilege of using.
@HyperspaceMadness My sincere gratitude for giving me something I can eagerly spend so much time on.
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In support of the requested preset feature now in the newest build of the shader, I have created Overlay-Hybrid graphics for the logo versions of all systems except the GBA and Wii. (GBA will soon follow. )
They can be found in a new Overlay-Hybrid folder in my HSM Graphics repo.
I will very soon include instructions in the folder README.
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Thanks @Duimon, This is really nice to hear.
A fair amount of trial and error and good user feedback went into making it look ok. The carbon fiber and frame I had seen in a couple of places, so I took my inspiration from there, my main direction was to try to keep it simple and make it non-objectionable since everyone has varying taste in overlays. Then people can dress it up the way they want.
I hope for it to be our swiss army knife where we can each leverage the features to have an easier time dealing with all the different resolutions & aspect ratios and offload some of the frustrating parts of making these bezels to the shader.
Thanks @Duimon for your awesome backgrounds that you’ve put in meticulous hours into, The composition & all the details really make them shine, They really are something special
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One more update before I retire for the evening.
NDS WIP…
I figured I had better do something with the new features!
Edit: Updated the screenshot. (Background vignette was dimming the power LED and the outer bezel highlights. I forgot to turn it off. 
)
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Here’s a second NDS WIP shot.
I added a missing ambient highlight to the lower hinge edge, tweaked the hinge gradient and it’s drop shadow, added in start & select buttons, and tweaked the outer bezel glow/shadow.
In the shader parameters I adjusted the bezel corner highlight rotation, added a very thin frame with an increased corner radius, and adjusted the screen positioning.
I think it’s looking really good!
I plan on doing a top/bottom version geared towards portrait displays.
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New one by request. I think it is ready for release!
Or with a bezel logo.
SEGA Master System!
I REALLY took liberties with this one. More than most, it is representative, not realistic. I could have done what I did with the ZX and 2600 (plopped a realistic console on the screen) but I wanted more balance. (I completely eliminated most of the console and concentrated on the decals.)
I like it!
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