CNC:  JULY 2008 - SEPTEMBER 2008 INSERTS & PREP: OCTOBER 2008 GREYBACKS & PRINTING: NOVEMBER 2008 CLEARCOATING:  DECEMBER 2008 PROGRESS & PRODUCTION PHOTO GALLERY Xenon CNC cutting is underway as of the first week of July. This photo gallery will periodically update to let everybody have a glimpse on the progress of the Xenon playfield project. XENON IS SOLD OUT IN PREORDER

American Hardwoods Inc. 17/32 Mapletop Gameboards
(formerly Weber Inc.)  Exclusive to CPR and Stern.  The best playfield wood made in the world.
Here is a look at some of CPR's wood stock, fresh from the latest run from AHI for Churchill and CPR.
This wood stock is the same recipe that your original Xenon's were made on, as all Bally playfields.


CPR's new etch... emblazoned by the dot matrix stamper at AHI on every gameboard to mark our playfields as authentically ours.


JUNE 2008  Xenon Artwork raster dump from master blackline under construction.  You can see the daunting task at hand with
one of the most challenging playfield redraws imaginable.  Hundreds of thousands of vector polygons have already formed the
image you see here, with hundreds of thousands more required to finish this off... then color fills can be laid in.
The intricate sketch-style of this piece is amazing, and all of the detail will be faithfully reproduced, don't you worry.
CLICK ARTWORK IMAGE TO ENLARGE


FACTORY ORIGINAL - A Xenon playfield which was chosen as the "one" to use as a design master.
This one is continually measured and marked up, sanded, and marked again as CNC programming and such are planned.


FACTORY ORIGINAL - A Xenon playfield which was chosen as the "one" to use as a design master.
Holes and dimples can be laid out by following the positions as seen here.


XENON REPRO - Here is what a blank reproduction Xenon playfield looks like, raw from the CNC.
Further drilling and dimpling will be preformed at later stages.


REPRO ENHANCEMENTS  - You will notice that your factory original playfield is missing two holes.
To the right of the upper saucer, under the ramp/tube there are two printed rings where Bally left the holes uncut.
They were obviously meant for two GI bulbs, but omitted in production for whatever reason.
The CPR Xenon repro will have these two holes restored, allowing the end user to decide to use them or not.
Add two new sockets to your GI chain, make them white, make them blue, add LED's, or ignore them.  It's your call !


Insert Bins, which feed the hungry woods with lots of colorful new inserts.


INSERTS INSERTS INSERTS  The top of the Xenon playfield only has four!  The rest is barren.


INSERTS INSERTS INSERTS  The lower portion of the playfield is where there the insert action is.
Each insert is hand-glued with epoxy.  The "mucking" you see around each insert is where each insert also undergoes epoxy
crackfilling (also by hand, one by one @ about 30 seconds per) to seal the seam around each insert and make it continuous with
the wood surface. This step is woefully skipped on almost all other reproduction playfields, leading to dishing, rings in clearcoat,
rising inserts, or sinkholes in the clearcoat around the inserts.



AUGUST 2008  Xenon Artwork raster dump from master vector blackline.  Blackline is 100% complete !
From this point all the color layers will be added one by one.
CLICK ARTWORK IMAGE TO ENLARGE



UPDATE
ARTWORK TWEAKING & ALIGNMENT TESTS
A U G U S T   2 8,  2 0 0 8


What you are seeing here is a new step that we have introduced to our playfield design process.
Xenon will be our first "digital" playfield where we married the CAD data and vector artwork together in the same software and
kept them together through the whole artwork reproduction process.  Our previous playfields were the opposite:  The physical design of the
wood cutting had to follow fixed/completed artwork.  So it was forever cutting and re-cutting test boards to tweak the holes and inserts
beyond simply matching the factory layout, but also matching the artwork of the films.   From Xenon onwards:  Our physical design
of the playfield cut comes first, is considered fixed and final, and then has the new artwork designed AROUND it.  This means that
exact placement of all the holes in real life on the wood have the artwork specifically drawn around them...The egg comes before the chicken!
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE



So... when the blank whitewoods are going through production, the artwork is specifically designed to align exactly to that cut.
Not the cut being designed specifically to align to completed artwork - the way most repro playfields are done today.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE


The benefit of having full layout control of "digital" artwork rather than repro/factory films is in the tweaking.
With digital playfield artwork, things can be slightly moved around.  Rings can be centered better on holes.  Angles along drop
target banks, or ramp entrances can be improved over the factory default design.  Lines and curves are cleaned up substantially.


Bringing it all together as a test.  These photos are NOT of a printed playfield.  The Xenon blackline was printed to a clear film at
50% black so it is partially transparent.  This is laid on top of a print-ready whitewood and aligned as if it was going to be printed.
Voila!  It's like a playfield overlay except you can partially see through it.  The wood is backlit with a shop light, and as this picture
shows, you can look closely and inspect all the inserts for being centered under their applicable artwork rings.
This pictures shows exactly what you want to see in a test like this.  The black ring around the insert goes beyond the edge of the
glowing insert (see the dark ring at each outside edge) and then the black covers into the insert (see the backlit black over the
insert itself).  If there was any problem with centering, you'd not get that perfect black ring around the outside edge of the insert art.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE



Showing how artwork angle can be slightly tweaked to follow things like drop target banks.  Factory original Xenon playfields have
artwork touching the cut at the top by the "1", yet a wood gap at the bottom by the "4".   A simple re-angle of the line keeps the
gap constant along the edge of the bank cut.   Little tweaks like this were done all over the Xenon repro design.


Another little tweak is on the art at the ramp entrance cut.  Again, the factory artwork is a couple degrees "off" from the actual ramp
cut angle.  As you can see here, we tweaked the artwork so it borders perfectly in line with the same angle of the ramp cut so an
equal amount of wood borders the front of the cut.


The slings' holes artwork on factory originals usually slips into these holes, cropped up in spots where the border rings are lost
in certain places.  We slightly expanded and shaped the rings to ensure they stay outside the cuts, and perfectly centered them.


How many of you have a great big ball-wear-streak across these inserts?   Never again !  Your repro will never wear through.





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UPDATE
SPOT COLORS MERGED WITH ARTWORK
S E P T E M B E R  10,  2 0 0 8



Here is a look at Xenon in its complete color form.  The art package is complete, and all layers have been created for printing.
Some colored fills were placed behind the colored inserts so you can get a feel of the overall look.
The final step is the white layer (not shown here), which also lends some accenting to the "X-E-N-O-N" inserts above the
flippers, as well as the "X" logos below the front pop bumper.
You may also notice that the man & woman holding hands at the Tube Entrance look like they have white skin.
This is not a mistake.  The artwork is actually transparent there, and their skin is actually bare WOODGRAIN !
Many people may not notice that on their factory originals.  Especially if their wood has darkened down significantly.
CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD 200dpi JPEG DUMP from MASTER FILE



TO BE CONTINUED...