Lets Talk DMD

[Mmmbacon]

I think this is an under appreciated art form. While I'm no artist myself, I definitely can appreciate how hard it must be to convey certain things through this medium. It's limitation are somewhat like asking an artist to draw with one hand tied behind his back. That being said, I think there is a ton of great dot art out there. So, here's to the dot animator , cheers my friend!

What are some of your favorite animations? I think my favorite is from scared stiff (which has above average 'dot art' if you asked me) when you lock the ball and the Stiff in the coffin reaches up and snags it. Still cracks me up.

Anyone know how/why this odd little plasma was chosen for pinball? Any actual animators out there could comment on the process, I would love to hear more.

 

[Pete]

I love hit the car on Creature from the Black Lagoon, the animations are so funny.

 

[spoonman]

I love hit the car on Creature from the Black Lagoon, the animations are so funny.

I agree, CFTBL has some of the best DMD animations I've seen.

I also love how the mouth zooms in when you get the Snack Attack loop.
And the whole CFTBL "movie intro" is neat as well.

As far as cool ideas on older tables I like how the heart beat (EKG) is handled on Bride of Pin*Bot.

I'm sure I'll think of more too.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Some personal favorites:

• The extra ball sequence in Attack from Mars. No matter how many times the alien gets slammed upside the head with a pinball, it's still funny.
• The glass-shattering sequence in Monster Bash when the Bride does her second "warm-up".
• The MX missiles chasing the gophers around in No Good Gofers during Cart Attack.

Also, does anyone else like the animations from the 90s tables better than the new Sterns? It is just me, or does a DMD start losing something when it's forced to try to play actual video?

 

[smbhax]

On the Dracula pinball game, sometimes the DMD shows a zoomed-in view of Dracula's eyes looking back and forth--and I think there's something you can do to make them go cross-eyed momentarily, or at least that's what I *thought* I saw once, and it made me giggle.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

On the Dracula pinball game, sometimes the DMD shows a zoomed-in view of Dracula's eyes looking back and forth--and I think there's something you can do to make them go cross-eyed momentarily, or at least that's what I *thought* I saw once, and it made me giggle.

The cross-eyed thing randomly happens on its own. What you can do is when that happens, quickly press the ball launch button to get a "Fluffy the Vampire" animation, worth an earth-shattering 20 points.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

I agree with you serenseven about new stern DMDs theres almost too much going on its hard to make out what your looking at SPIDERMAN I noticed this immediately.

 

[Mmmbacon]

You hit on my second favorite, the AFM extra ball sequnce, still funny. I think the squishy sound when it hits its noggin take it over the top. Greatness!!

Some personal favorites:

• The extra ball sequence in Attack from Mars. No matter how many times the alien gets slammed upside the head with a pinball, it's still funny.
• The glass-shattering sequence in Monster Bash when the Bride does her second "warm-up".
• The MX missiles chasing the gophers around in No Good Gofers during Cart Attack.

Also, does anyone else like the animations from the 90s tables better than the new Sterns? It is just me, or does a DMD start losing something when it's forced to try to play actual video?

 

[spoonman]

For some reason I like the EXTRA BALL animation in Monster Bash.
The disco dancing Dracula goes perfectly with the music. Good times..

 

[Tom]

Also, does anyone else like the animations from the 90s tables better than the new Sterns? It is just me, or does a DMD start losing something when it's forced to try to play actual video?

the dmd animations for sterns x men table is pretty good imo, but that table doesnt use video dots