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Team NL @ JJP - Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025)·video·59m 22s·analyzed·Nov 23, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

JJP's animation team detailed Harry Potter pinball production, licensing challenges, and multi-disciplinary creative workflow.

Summary

Jersey Jack Pinball's animation team (Jean-Paul De Wijn, Olaf, Lars, Johnny) presented their work on Harry Potter pinball at Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025. The team discussed the collaborative production process across three game editions, artwork direction, animation pipeline, 3D modeling, and interactions with Warner Brothers licensing. Harry Potter required expanded team coordination, strict licensor approvals, and significant artistic compromise—particularly around storytelling, thematic accuracy, and detail work like lenticular staircase effects and hidden Easter eggs.

Key Claims

  • Harry Potter is the most difficult license Jersey Jack has worked with across 11 games

    high confidence · Jean-Paul De Wijn stated 'this is probably also the the most difficult license or we worked with uh from from my you know 11 games i worked on for jersey jack this was by far the the the toughest to get everything approved um and also approval time was really long.'

  • Approval turnaround from licensor sometimes took six months

    high confidence · Jean-Paul: 'Six months later you get feedback. In some cases, yes. So that's too long for a game to get feedback.'

  • Jean-Paul De Wijn previously handled 80-90% of animations solo; Harry Potter marked first major team collaboration

    high confidence · Jean-Paul: 'Until, I guess, Elton John, I mostly did like 80 or 90% of all the animations in Jersey Jack games, and now we're spreading it up in teams.'

  • Mina Lima (London-based design studio) handled collector's edition artwork and has team of ~10 people

    high confidence · Jean-Paul: 'Mina Lima are two artists who started this company, but they are now the higher-ups and they don't do all the work themselves anymore. They have all these illustrators. It's an entire big studio'

  • Jean-Paul's daughter edited 60 movie scenes plus 6 Voldemort scenes, cutting each to 30-second segments

    high confidence · Jean-Paul: 'She edited all the movies and prepared, like we show 30 seconds of each scene. So if you don't get to make your shots, then you continue to the next scene. So she had to make decisions and cut them up to what is interesting in 30 seconds. So in total, she cut up 60 scenes and then the six times the Voldemort scenes.'

  • Licensor objected to Gringotts bank collection mechanic; changed to 'collecting knowledge' via bookshelf

    high confidence · Olaf: 'they said no this is not not okay because in the world of harry potter it's not about collecting money and You know, we're not. OK, that's that's fine. So we need to come up with something else.'

  • Licensor required story progression to remain linear across eight movies; designers negotiated to allow jumping between movie sequences

Notable Quotes

  • “This is probably also the most difficult license or we worked with...from my 11 games I worked on for Jersey Jack this was by far the toughest to get everything approved and also approval time was really long.”

    Jean-Paul De Wijn @ ~10:45 — Establishes Harry Potter as Jersey Jack's most challenging licensing project, highlighting approval bottlenecks affecting production workflow.

  • “Until Elton John, I mostly did like 80 or 90% of all the animations in Jersey Jack games, and now we're spreading it up in teams.”

    Jean-Paul De Wijn @ ~3:15 — Documents significant shift in Jersey Jack's animation production model toward collaborative team-based workflow.

  • “It's all about theme integration...you will see those details maybe not the first time but if you played a hundred time or the 200th time then you're starting there and you see that detail.”

    Jean-Paul De Wijn @ ~15:30 — Articulates design philosophy emphasizing long-term player engagement and subtle Easter egg discovery.

  • “So you could say that if you buy a pinball machine of Harry Potter, you have the best replicas of their wands as well.”

    Lars @ ~48:00 — Highlights premium collector value proposition: authentic 3D scans from original movie props integrated into pinball sculpts.

  • “I worked with him very closely on Elton John because he was the lead on that game as well. So we worked on a daily basis with each other.”

    Olaf @ ~24:30 — Demonstrates close collaboration between animator and rules programmer (Joe Katz) during game development.

  • “In the world of Harry Potter it's not about collecting money...So we need to come up with something else.”

    Olaf @ ~35:15 — Shows licensor thematic restrictions forcing significant game mechanic redesign mid-development.

  • “Maybe sometimes if there is some time we can make it the Christmas version of that great hall but we have to be fast then next year maybe.”

    Olaf @ ~40:50 — Suggests potential post-release content updates; indicates Christmas-themed variant under consideration.

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyJean-Paul De WijnpersonOlafpersonLarspersonJohnnypersonMina Limacompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Jersey Jack animation team presented comprehensive behind-the-scenes production detail at Dutch Pinball Open Expo, emphasizing collaborative creative process and thematic depth for collector/enthusiast community.

    high · Team presentation format with detailed animation pipeline walkthrough, licensing negotiation anecdotes, and subtle design philosophy discussion targeting pinball industry audience.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Harry Potter three-tier edition strategy (Arcade/Wizard/Collector's) shares identical playfields and artwork layers across Pro/Premium variants while collector edition features Mina Lima premium artwork differentiation.

    high · Jean-Paul: 'we're back to three models. We have a cheap model...the games, the play fields play all the same. So there's nothing taken out of the lower tier model. So they share the same artwork, the middle, the Wizard Edition and the Arcade Edition and the Collector's Edition. It's the artwork done by Mina Lima.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jean-Paul intentionally designs subtle Easter eggs and thematic details (lenticular staircase, spotlight decals, hidden compositions) expecting discovery only after repeated long-term play rather than immediate observation.

    high · Jean-Paul: 'you'll see those details maybe not the first time but if you played a hundred time or the 200th time then you're starting there and you see that detail...it's all about theme integration'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Warner Brothers required redesign of Gringotts bank mechanic due to thematic misalignment; changed from 'collecting money' to 'collecting knowledge' via bookshelf to maintain franchise consistency.

    high · Olaf: 'they said no this is not not okay because in the world of harry potter it's not about collecting money...So we need to come up with something else. And we did. So now it's we're collecting knowledge. It's it's a bookshelf.'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.178

0:00
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for showing up. We're down to our final presentation of the Dutch Bimble Open Expo 2025, which is for the Dutch animation team, if I'm not mistaken, that is working for Jersey Jack Pinball. Please give it up for Jean-Paul De Wijn, Olaf, and excuse me, I'm not familiar, Lars and John. Thank you. So there is, yeah, there is a foreign people so we'll do it in English, right. Thanks for showing up. This year I brought a bigger team. It's a, you know, it is a big license. Josie Jack finally came out with the Harry Potter license, which was anticipated for many years. And we needed a bigger team because there was a lot of work to do. It's in a shorter amount of time. And so we had Olaf, who was lead animator on Elton John. Lars is working with Olaf in the studio. So he's a very good 3D and cinema 4D user.
1:39
And Johnny, I know, used to be a colleague during my television years and is also working in 3D and animation. So over the years, Johnny helped me out in some small aspects. but this is the first game where we worked with such a big team. Until, I guess, Elton John, I mostly did like 80 or 90% of all the animations in Jersey Jack games, and now we're spreading it up in teams. This was a big collaboration, as you will see.
2:19
So we're back to three models. We have a cheap model. We have the arcade version, which is the less expensive version. So no topper, no inner art blades, but the games, the play fields play all the same. So there's nothing taken out of the lower tier model. So they share the same artwork, the middle, the Wizard Edition and the Arcade Edition and the Collector's Edition. It's the artwork done by Mina Lima, which I'll talk about in a... So this is collector's edition done by Mina Lima. It's a studio based in London. They are actually responsible for the book covers of the original Harry Potter books. and they did a lot of actual assets in the movies themselves. So they created items in the movies. I visited Mina Lima. They have a store in London where they upstairs, they work on their illustrations and they have a team of like 10 people. And so last year in the summer, I was visiting London on a vacation and Eric arranged that I could visit them and talk to the... So Mina Lima are two artists who started this company, but they are now the higher-ups and they don't do all the work themselves anymore. They have all these illustrators. It's an entire big studio, which still earns a lot of money from the Harry Potter license. So here you see some of the things they made in the movies, like props and actual uses.

high confidence · Jean-Paul: 'they don't want the the studio didn't want to mix up the story so we had to to cut the movie but still tell it linear... we explained that it's going to be boring if you play Pinball Machine and always have to start at the first movie'

  • Lars created 3D wand replicas from original movie prop scans with integrated lighting

    high confidence · Lars: 'These are also 3D scans of the original props used in the movie. So you could say that if you buy a pinball machine of Harry Potter, you have the best replicas of their wands as well... we added some lights... we needed to find some kind of construction of a wire going through those wands'

  • “Six months later you get feedback. In some cases, yes. So that's too long for a game to get feedback.”

    Jean-Paul De Wijn @ ~11:00 — Exposes significant production inefficiency caused by slow licensor approval cycles affecting iteration capability.

    • Eric Meunier
    person
    Jasperperson
    Joe Katzperson
    Dane Henryperson
    Warner Brotherscompany
    Harry Potter pinballgame
    Elton John pinballgame
    Willy Wonka pinballgame
    Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025event
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jean-Paul De Wijn transitioned from solo animator (80-90% of prior JJP games) to art director/team lead on Harry Potter, establishing team-based production model with Olaf, Lars, and Johnny.

    high · Jean-Paul: 'Until Elton John, I mostly did like 80 or 90% of all the animations in Jersey Jack games, and now we're spreading it up in teams. This was a big collaboration.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Quidditch topper originally designed with Hogwarts castle motif but rejected due to backglass duplication; redesigned with house flags for color differentiation and visual distinctiveness.

    high · Jean-Paul: 'we just decided not to use this one because on the back glass is already a a hogward so it would be a duplication so the other concept was this um quidditch topper and which brings a lot a lot more color'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Olaf hints at potential Christmas-themed Great Hall variant under consideration for future post-release update or seasonal content, pending development schedule.

    medium · Olaf: 'Maybe sometimes if there is some time we can make it the Christmas version of that great hall but we have to be fast then next year maybe.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Extended Warner Brothers approval cycles (up to six months) created workflow inefficiency, forcing team to work on alternative tasks during waiting periods and delaying iteration on rejected concepts.

    high · Jean-Paul: 'Once you have created something and you have to wait for a long time to make changes, in the meantime you're working on something when you're waiting, waiting, waiting...Six months later you get feedback. So that's too long for a game to get feedback.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Team discusses challenges with lenticular image brightness and technical limitations, noting difficulty achieving sufficient brightness in small-scale applications despite thematic effectiveness.

    medium · Jean-Paul: 'it's really hard to get it bright you cannot get get it really bright and sort of turn out pretty dark but there were some issues here as well on on approval'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Warner Brothers imposed exceptionally strict approval and content restrictions on Harry Potter pinball, including linear narrative requirements, thematic accuracy mandates, and extended approval cycles (six months in some cases).

    high · Jean-Paul: 'this is probably also the the most difficult license or we worked with...this was by far the the the toughest to get everything approved um and also approval time was really long. Six months later you get feedback.'

    • 4:25
    So Eric is a big Harry Potter fan. Eric Meunier is the designer of the game. And he came up with the idea to ask them for the artwork. personally I was not very a fan of their work to put on a pinball machine but apparently it was a good choice because a lot of people like the collector's edition and so that's a good thing I was wrong in that sense because I advised not to do that but they did a great job And then we have the Wizard and Arcade Edition, which share artwork done by Jasper. Jasper was not able to come today, but he worked on other games, which I'll show as well. So he did this art package and the play field, which is also used in the Collector's Edition. So here you see the three models and sharing the same playfield artwork. Only the apron different, also the inner art blades also done by Mina Lima. And I guess we didn't choose to also let them do the artwork on the playfield it's uh you know it's it's uh something uh it's pretty intricate work to do a play field um so first we have jasper on art who's not here um so i'll so so he what he did is during his internship in my studio he did the uh collector's edition back glass for guns and roses uh he also did the inner art blades which turned out great because the it really fits with the the art done by Dane Henry who did the play field and so Jasper was asked also to do the the artwork on the on the godfather just the play field art and then so later and we Eric wanted to have Jasper do the do an entire package for Harry Potter. So this is how we start. This is the play field, the canvas without anything on it. And this is where you have to fill in all the spots and fill it with art, but also fill it with titles on the inserts and arrows and all that. So that's something I do. Jasper is not so familiar with graphic design and yeah so that's that's the this is the layer I created and then his art layer goes below this layer so here is the play field without the insert art and if you combine that you'll get the end result with inserts and art Here we see the side art. So Eric really wanted to have the bad guys on one side and the good guys on the other side, and then we have the darker green side and the warmer tones and the good guys on the other side. I think it turned out really well and worked by me. So my role in this project was art direction. I did work on the art as well and on animation.
    8:23
    So my role is to, you know, I created, so this is the flow chart. You see how many rules there are in this game, and it's my sort of job to explain from,
    8:37
    to bring the rules to the player and explain the rules to the player and that goes in many you know steps like a rule flow chart but then it you also see that we keep the same design on the play field the same layout for those for this these particular inserts and then on the screen as well so there's a connection to to all those uh and that's uh yeah you got to keep it in line right so um so here's in in that this is just uh an example of um the actual style guide images we have and then uh lars modeled these um these models for us uh olaf animates them or uh makes them you know applies the sorry polished in
    9:32
    and so and then I get these renders back and create animations within you know we call that sort of post this we do in After Effects and you see rejected proposal where they don't didn't one liked the green they didn't like the swirl they didn't like the the there's the circle splash coming out uh and the titles over their horcruxes so please redo it and don't and and um and this is the the result in in my opinion it's a bit you know it's much cleaner uh or i mean uh and there is it's less interesting it's uh yeah so you see what we can do but then there's uh this is probably also the the most difficult license or we worked with uh from from my you know 11 games i worked on for jersey jack this was by far the the the toughest to get everything approved um and also approval time was really long. So once you have created something and you have to wait for a long time to make changes, in the meantime you're working on something when you're waiting, waiting, waiting and... Six months later you get feedback. In some cases, yes. So that's too long for a game to get feedback. So that was, you know not not uh ideal let's uh call it that um so this is um okay it's passed nice so we in in the hobbit oh no not in the hobbit in harry potter so you we play uh we also had to tell the story linear so they don't want the the studio didn't want to mix up the story so we had to cut the movie but still tell it linear. And we were happily able to at least chop up the linear. We explained that it's going to be boring if you play Pinball Machine and always have to start at the first movie, and then it's going to be a battle to reach the sixth movie. So we were able to mix that up, and so you play movie six linearly, or you play movie four linearly. So we chopped up all those movies in 11 scenes. So five scenes of the fall term, five scenes of the spring term, and the final exam is for each movie is a battle against Voldemort.
    12:22
    So the sixth member in the Dutch team was my daughter. She's here. She edited all the movies and prepared, like we show 30 seconds of each scene. That's our sort of max time.
    12:42
    So if you don't get to make your shots, then you continue to the next scene. So she had to make decisions and cut them up to what is interesting in 30 seconds, and then the next scene, next scene. So in total, she cut up 60 scenes and then the six times the Voldemort scenes. A lot of work, of course.
    13:09
    And so this is the intro where you start your movie. And in the top corner, you see an icon of the scene you're playing at the moment and the rules, what you have to shoot for. and in the center you see the movie playing. And then you see a timer,
    13:32
    what is it, an hourglass, when that runs out, or in this case the scene is completed, you get to, this is your shot made, and the scene is well done, and you go to your next scene, Whomping Willow, and so on, and so on.
    13:48
    So that is just that section, but it's to show how much, of the movie is actually in there. There's obviously eight movies and a lot to tell. So we have those six movies and the seventh movie is one of the wizard modes and the Battle of Hogwarts, the actual ending. Destroying the Horcruxes is the super wizard mode that uses the footage of the eighth movie. So you won't destroy Voldemort just during the game. It's actually the end of the game.
    14:31
    So this is... Okay, so another part of what I did is I designed the topper for the Wizard Edition. This was one of the ideas that I present. Also you know previous if we work in these layers but we just decided not to use this one because on the back glass is already a a hogward so it would be a duplication so the other concept was this um quidditch topper and which brings a lot a lot more color to the topper and because of the because of the house flags so I my I modeled this in 3d applied the textures and so you yeah you create all the pieces to create your your final artwork because you don't have these assets within this exact angle you want to have it so you you create it by the programs you you use right so this is then the presentation to Warner Brothers how it looks on a game and yeah so what you see on the game now and then we have some cool little details in the game which you probably know don't notice if you see the game at first glance on the staircase we have lenticular images which shift in two and they shift in two frames like the moving images or the paintings in this staircase in the movie so I took frame captured from the movie two frames because that that's all it is and then so when the staircase turns you can can see this effect it's a small detail but yeah it's all about theme integration as you can see the resolution is pretty low also what I experienced is that because it's so small it's really hard to get it bright you cannot get get it really bright and sort of turn out pretty dark but there were some issues here as well on approval on likenesses. Like we had, they came up with the story that the actors in the paintings had a special approval thing. So, and also that kept, and we kept waiting and waiting for approval in this. And I sent them this picture and said, well, on the prints, you can actually, it's even hard to even recognize these people. is that okay then? And then it got approved, and we're like, yes, it's so tiny and minor.
    17:32
    Another cool detail Eric came up with is to cover up the spotlights we use in the game with decals. So a lot of metal is covered up by more art, and so I mocked up these as well. and it's something you probably don't notice at first, but you'll see later on when you really inspect the game.
    18:02
    Next up is Olaf. Thanks. Yeah, where to start? Maybe it's good to tell a little bit about my introduction with Jersey Jack. I've been introduced by Jean-Paul. It was during Wonka. he needed uh uh you know the oompa loompas to to animate and he thought yeah uh you know maybe olaf can help out with this uh so yeah he called me and uh you know and lars is sitting next to me and you know we collaborate on that and he's very technical with 3d and you know i'm doing the designs and stuff i said well let's make it work so we worked on uh on willy wonka and uh and that went very well uh then a few uh what is it a few months a year later uh you called me if uh if i knew somebody who could help out with the elton john because you were working at godfather and he said yeah you're probably too busy because i was doing a lot of commercial work and stuff and i said well wow i'd love to to work on that you know uh it's very colorful and uh you know i think it's a very creative thing to work on well uh and then i became the lead on uh on that game so that was great after that i helped out with some work jean-paul did for avatar and i started as a lead on uh on on harry potter so that was that was fantastic uh here i'm gonna hire that microphone a bit um uh yeah so uh that was fantastic and i'm not sure if there's some sound because i think it's is the sound working oh oh there's no sound okay well let's do it this way it will work i think so uh no i think it's it's interesting to just show some ui stuff because I was working on the UI and the UI involves a lot of work and just show some bit of it and just dive into just one part of the of the UI a little bit further and just explain a little bit about that.
    20:40
    Wow. In a nutshell, that is all the work that's been done the last few months. But yeah, as you see, before it becoming something like this, it all starts with this. and I think it's interesting to show this because this is the input I got from Joe Katz at the time he was sitting there in his office and next to him he had this first build of the machine Eric just delivered that he's still walking around with his with a screwdriver and and fixing things and and you know just working on that and Joe is a very experienced playing pinball player and of course very experienced programmer he's starting to play the game and see what kind of shots he can make and what could be interesting and just applying rules to uh to certain things and he just writing things up on screen you know uh but this is a great input this is a programmer art yeah that's what we call it it's programmer art uh and i worked with him very closely on alton john because he was the lead on that game as well. So we worked on a daily basis with each other and we did the same thing on this game.
    22:11
    Yeah, so this is the starting point. And one of the things that I started working on was the first basic layout. Let's say, you know, if you see this, hopefully the other don't animate anymore. It's just no movement because it's better to... Well, okay. No movement.
    22:34
    Oh, hopefully not. Because if it's moving, then you don't see the progression. But let's see. Let's see what happens. Well, at first, it's just the layout, just a very basic layout. It's inspired by the architecture of the building. And at the lower part, you see the first score because that is something that needs to be close to the logo. It just had a little bit of that hint of the Harry Potter thing. If you zoom into that, you still see some, you know, some notches of, what is it?
    23:10
    Racking of the, how do you call it? Some dents and wear on it. So yeah, that's it. And we tested a couple of them. Oh, this is great, JP.
    23:21
    It's working. And you see, so we tested a couple of things. okay hey i can do things with it you know the corners but i wanted to focus on the left lower left part so it's this is the starting point uh and then uh that is the quidditch area uh then we we started to to create uh you know all kinds of elements like for example this chest you know we know that we wanted to something like this but there's other positions as well that is possible you know like a Peter the chaser keeper all these kind of elements and they're all created in 3d with a quality to it so it can also be used bigger on screen but it even has this that much detail that it can be used on artwork on the play field as well so it can it can have multiple purposes and I think that is interesting same thing we did with the scoreboard so yeah this is a transition, a translation of the scoreboard in the movie, translated it to this. It's much more compact, so it can be placed in a corner. And yeah, but there needs to be a timer there as well. So I thought maybe, yeah, let's do something with the Nixie lights. Well, there is no electricity in Hogwarts. It's only candles. So yeah, let's do something analog. Well, no, this doesn't work So then it became this just very simple. It's the scoreboard with applied graphics on it. So you take it out of the, you know, the environment, just don't touch that, apply on top a layer.
    25:08
    Yeah. You mean that the licensor came back? Also, yeah, that's also a thing. So licensor is also very involved, of course. And they also tell these things like, OK, there's no electricity and things. So you do during working with with the licensor, you learn a lot about your license in the theme. Well, this is a translation of a spinner translated into that same feel of the Quidditch player play field. and these are two types of play fields because first you need to earn your position so that's a tryout and then you need to start a game and before that's happening it's just an empty arena and when the the match is starting it is a full you know with with all the curtains and stuff all the graphics on there so that's the inspiration and we took that and we just made made our own 3d stadium and you know the great thing is it is smaller than that in the the actual play you know the ui but you still feel all those details when watching it and that's what i truly love with pinball you know you guys are playing them many times and also collecting them having that at your home and you will see those details maybe not the first time but if you played a hundred time or the 200th time then you're starting there and you hey you see that detail of a flying uh player around the the arena as well so it's not only the clapping audience it's also the you know the the the flying uh uh people of guys uh yeah some flags so yeah that is that is what what's happening well this is something for the tryout so that's the first step earning your position and that is that uh arena you see but you're a little bit outside so you're not entering the arena but you're just close by and uh i i thought let's use a school board with uh chalk chalkboard uh to dive into that Hogwarts school theme combined with uh well so yeah that's all the thinking behind it and I think it's it's interesting to uh to talk uh talk about it well this is the rule with all the all the things see so it's not only is also uh a border around video that's happening see here is the the moment you unlock uh a match or you start a match you see here it's it's happening then we have the the intro of the match and some footage some montage and some goals of course to to emphasize it and make it more celebratory there are some little effects around it as well and here's that scoreboard and the build out you see at the left two words you'll have to restart a match so it's empty again and come on let's restart it again. Well, this is the multi ball because when you're doing very well, you unlock multiple so yeah, that is also great about this game. It's very deep, there's a lot of layers. So a lot of graphics to create. And here you see some inspirations. So there are balloons, I see some some searchlights, a specific arena, and also some metal.
    28:55
    Now let's see how that's been translated. Oh yeah, this is also interesting, the scoreboard. I thought, here we are on the money. This will be, for a licensor, all okay. So you send this over.
    29:16
    You see the scoreboards, it's been matching. It's matching the scoreboard some way of the scoreboard in the movie. but they they liked the wood better so they said no that needs to be wood so it been changed it been changed so that the reason why it is why it is and this is the the moment you know multiballs lit And now we see that It the intro
    29:51
    And here the search light, see? And the cool thing with this is you can change from Ireland to Bulgaria. And Ireland has their own jackpots and Bulgaria also. So you can switch.
    30:05
    And here are some, you see the balloons, they're here. So yeah, and the search lights and everything.
    30:14
    And when you see some footage, you see that border, it's now in a different style. See, so that is coming from the stage of the arena there. So yeah, a lot of love also. Yeah, I have to say that because when you're working on it and it's getting better and better, you push it and we need to have a better border.
    30:38
    Let's create this. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well. Other things is also interesting because we were really fond of, I was really fond of this. It's Gringotts.
    30:53
    So we're now not talking about the left, lower left corner, but it's that middle part at the right. And that was for collecting value.
    31:01
    Joe had a great idea for that. so it was collecting a value and then you can cash out that value um there was also an animation being made for that already see some money in the bank and then the bank is that and then it's closed you cannot do that anymore and then it opens again and you can collect well um they said no this is not not okay because in the world of harry potter it's not about collecting money and You know, we're not. OK, that's that's fine. So we need to come up with something else.
    31:35
    And we did. So now it's we're collecting knowledge. It's it's a bookshelf. That's also cool in a way, you know, did a lot of effort on those. It's not in this animation, but it's it's it's going in and another book is taken out. And then it's a book of sometimes it's a school year or it is the Death Eater. And, well, it has all his reasoning behind it. But I think it is still became something nice.
    32:11
    In the background, you see the that's the great hole and it's not taken from the movie. That's 3D, so it's not no AI. It's 3D. You have to say that nowadays.
    32:26
    because you know so yeah this is just some and now it's very dark but it's lit and then the candles everything and then so yeah that is the background and I think it's cool maybe sometimes if there is some time we can make it the Christmas version of that great hall but we have to be fast then next year maybe yeah and something else maybe it's also nice to talk about this one it's also been what is it rejected and because of a very understandable reason but it's still it was a fun thing to oh well yeah it's It's one of, yeah, it's a tilt animation. You should not tilt instead of, you should not. Yeah, so what they didn't like about that is that you cannot replace the text in the movie. So we put the text tilt on the hand. But we did keep her and the story behind tilting. and she is also in the play field in the Tilt area inserts. So when you tilt, you still see this, and then there is a title over it. Yeah, correct.
    34:05
    But nevertheless, it was a fun ride. It was great to work on. So I'm really grateful to be part of it.
    34:14
    So thanks, JP. Thank you. At least I don't have to do all the talking anymore. Johnny, do you want to talk about your work?
    34:39
    Okay, well, I'm Johnny. I brought to the scene by JP a couple of teams ago. I worked on Toy Story, did also the Lord of the Rings, and now we're at Harry Potter. Hobbit. Hobbit as well. Lord of the Rings, Hobbit.
    35:01
    No, what I did was a couple of more insert stuff, so you get awards for hitting some targets and stuff. You just saw a moment ago the hourglass. Normally we get some assets from the licensor and they give us a 3D model and you maybe need to shade it and lighten it, but this time we didn't. didn't or not for this one this one I only had like a second or maybe two seconds of clips from the movie where you could see the hourglass so I needed to make them make a 3d model out of yeah those couple of seconds and as a reference and that turns out of this on the left you see it's not moving now right now but on the left you see like the basic model how you build up a model of for the hourglass of this one and then on the right you see like how you can shade it and how the glass can work with refracting and reflecting as well as the snakes with the greens and stuff. This is only also happening for the potions some potions awards you can get throughout the game. You get different types of potions but also for this one you had a couple of designs of how they're looking but we didn't get the 3D assets so that's why I made them as well. On the left side again you see how it is made, how it's built up in phases and polygons and on the right side it's shaded with the glass textures and is a little bit worn. And for rest I also did like title animations. For this one example is like an extra ball. It happens like maybe three or five seconds max. It's a lot of work because you need to build up in several stages. First I started with the 3D title. I needed to have the 3D title as a mat to have like an effect on it that it goes from the red feel to the silver feel. But then again also in this example you see Harry Potter with his elbow over it and therefore I needed a mat of his arm movement so it feels like the more behind it and it feels more like together in the scene. It was on the edge because the licers were against putting things in the scene or feeling like it's in the scene so therefore it's not like shaded with a shadow underneath it. They might not have seen that we put the tire like the cape going over you know sometimes they don't catch these things so yeah it's nice. It's a small detail. Sometimes we also use like, we can make like, how do you call it, effects like wizard and dust particles and stuff. But sometimes we also use stock imagery that's more based on footage. In the middle screen you see like a magic feel coming up and I also used that to make it more magical.
    38:44
    Here you can see it in total with different animation. So you can see it's only a couple of seconds, but it's a lot of work to even do a couple of seconds. Here you can also see it with multiple from owls. We had a clip from the two guys, sorry I forgot their names, the Weasley brothers. It ended towards another shot but we needed to stay there with the camera so I decided to make a scenery with just an image to make it really simple and fill it out with all the effects with the fireworks they are throwing at everybody. And you see that in Layered
    39:40
    Up. And this is the final image. Johnny did the intros for all five multiballs, right? Yeah. There is, we have Owls, we have, what else?
    40:08
    Hogwarts. Hogwarts multiball, Explorer Hogwarts multiball. Death Eater. Death Eater multiball. Trios.
    40:17
    Trios. No. Golden Trios. Oh yeah, that's Olofs. That's one of the other. Yeah. I also did like titles for Protego.
    40:30
    Basically, workflow is the same thing. Start with a 3D title, and I need to create some mats to do the effects on the title as well to make it disappear from,
    40:42
    to nothing, I mean. But for Protego is also the thing you have like a shield coming up. I needed to make an effect for that too. and all that took a bite together makes it all think the potato but even with this one it's like three seconds but it takes a lot of time again to make those titles and that's a small part I did for sorry helicopter yeah now's the turn to Lars
    41:21
    Well, thank you. All right. My name is Lars. I've been working for Jersey Jack also since Willy Wonka. I actually did the facial rig of the Oompa Loompas. From there on, I was helping Olaf a lot with most of the 3D modeling. And he polished it into something really cool. But the cool thing is with this project, it was the first time that also I did some sculpting. So, in Elton John, he had this cute little alligator, or crocodile, from Crocodile Rock, and that was still made by another sculptor. And it was my task to actually unsculpt it to an animatable object, which could play guitar. And from there on they said, hey, maybe you have some experience with sculpts. I said, yeah, but not in this way, can we do it the other way? So from there on, I am actually creating the sculpts for the pinball machine as well as the 3D animations. And the cool thing is that many of the sculpts which are part of the pinball machine are also used inside the animations. So if you see the snitch flying around across the screen, it's the same snitch that you will find on the plunger, which is really cool. Now, when it comes to creating these sculpts, sometimes we have a lot of luck. This is a 3D scan which was provided by the licenser of the Sorting Hat. And it's kinda detailed, as you can see. Talking about 20 million polygons or something. So, in this case it is very easy to create a sculpt out of it, because I just stick a screw underneath it, and that, I'm done. So this is a very easy thing to do, but of course that's not always the case. So let's go to another one, and this is pretty cool. These are the wands, which you will see on the playfield as well. And these are also 3D scans of the original props used in the movie. So you could say that if you buy a pinball machine of Harry Potter, you have the best replicas of their wands as well. So, in this case you can see, well we have all these, the wands. There are two things that we needed to change, of course, we needed to have mounting points so they could fit on the entire construction. But also here at the tip of these wands you can see we added some lights. So we needed to find some kind of construction of a wire going through those wands, which was interesting to do. and in some cases you have to completely start from scratch. Now, for the Quidditch area on the playfields, Eric had the idea of just having a broomstick flying around. The licensure said, no, you can't just have a broomstick. A broomstick in Harry Potter can't fly without a person sitting on top of it. So we started off with a person which I would like to call Jackie from Jersey Jack And the first thing that we needed to do was change her pose And that a cool thing you might not know about all these sculpts which are inside a pinball machine, but it's different than 3D printing. I like to 3D print. I'm a bit of a modeler myself, but if you're doing something like this, it's going to be very expensive. Every hole that you see here is a problem when you're making a mold. So we need to get a pose with as little holes as possible in the model. So a ball would be best. Yeah so Eric is actually acting out all these poses for me. I haven't got videos about that. But what we actually did to have the clothing acting correctly is I actually went to a clothing design program. So right here you can see how the clothing is actually working on the character and I'm using this as a reference to do the rest of the sculpt. So from here we got Jackie laying on her broomstick holding a ball very tight so there are no holes so it's cheaper. And here you can see we actually have some wind simulation. Here we go. So this is the pose of the character while it's in 3D. From there on it's a matter of making sure that every objects are completely neat to each other and we are also defining where all the screws and the mounting points are. so right here you can see we got the final model and for people who haven't seen Eric's presentation on Pinball Expo 25 yeah that had to go we're not allowed to have the 11 on the back of Jackie it was the 11 pinball machine of Jersey Jack Eric really wanted to have it on it but we couldn't because Quidditch doesn't have 11 players. Anyway, from there on we actually do some 3d printing and this the skulls are actually tested inside the prototypes of the pinball machines. So what you can see here is I already split up the model in different parts so it can actually being well molded in the factory. And here we have a final result of Jackie flying around. Now, you can see the different parts. So these are parts that you can just stick on and being glued together, so it's easier to paint and easier to mold. With this model, we also create something called a color guide. In the factory where Jackie is being produced, they need to know what to paint her with. So I came up with all the Pantone colors and just split it out over multiple pages so you know exactly what color is being used on the sculpt. And as an extra reference, I love this part. It's cool. Yeah, I'm a big Gundam fan and I like to paint my models. So I actually supply or from the States, they supply a painted model as well to the factory. So when the sculpts are being created, they can actually see it on hand. Now, I cheated a bit, because this one is not painted for the factory, this one is now in possession of the Dutch Pinball Museum. So, I actually gave it to Gerard, so if you want to see it, maybe it's on display, I don't know, but he has it. Anyway, this is the final result of Jackie flying around on the pinball part. And well, it took quite a bit to get to this point and it became the holidays so at a certain point I surprised Eric with this little gem. So all these parts are being created and Jean-Paul provided some really cool images of also some other sculpt that I did for the Death Eater and here they are mounted inside the factory. So yeah, for this project it was really cool to work on the sculpts as well as the 3D models for the animation and yeah it's just excellent to work with such a great team of people who really put up the level of, oh yeah, 120. So yeah, thank you. Yeah, I added this picture for you, yes, to show you how cool it is to see your toys being duplicated and actually being mass produced. Yeah, this is the factory in Chicago, which I visit once a year. Didn't go this year. I have and I yeah, so for now, this is this is my last project for Jersey Jack. I've put some people in place here. I think they're doing a great job, but I needed some time off and, you know, going to focus a bit on myself and other projects. And, yeah, we'll see where where that goes. And, you know, I'll always be connected with Jersey Jack. and um i'm always welcome back that's uh at least uh that's my that's what i think
    50:23
    what i've been told so no it's uh it's been uh been wonderful but uh yeah it's after uh 14 years it's been uh yeah maybe some time for something else and uh yeah so that's uh that and um questions and maybe answers
    50:45
    No. I have one question. The sculpts on the topper, compared to the toppers for games like Avatar and Elton John, it looks kind of cheap, maybe like something Stern would have done.
    51:07
    Jack, is there? No, I didn't see him. No, so I guess you might want to say something. So I must say I agree with you. The hard thing about doing art direction from a distance, like Europe to U.S., it's hard to actually see the results. And this thing came together. the idea was created in the US and then we have to create it and do this vacuum forming. If we would have seen the model in time or actually get because it is then created in the US if you see it in time you can make the changes you would like to do or even take different steps and do it in a different way and then vacuum forming. So in that sense, you know, it's also one of the reasons why I thought it's great to be an art director for Jersey Jack Pinball, but I think it's better to have one in Chicago to see printed art coming in and judge it by its colors and not send it over to my office in Nijmegen and I see it and then make the changes but they and then send the art printed in the U.S. again to Nijmegen it's it's it just doesn't work uh as efficient as it should be so um I yeah I think the topper could have been better but uh yeah maybe the next one will be better better Irish guy. Yeah, the mic is over there. It's all just speaker. Yeah. I spent my whole talk, this whole talk, thinking about questions. I think about it because the facts would have to be a good question.
    53:11
    What I wanted to say is I felt that when LCDs came out of the pinball, there was a lot of inconsistency in design. Thank you very much. I felt there was a lot of inconsistency in design. No judgment on anyone. There was people moving up from DMD to LCD, probably didn't know design language. But as an animator myself, one thing I really like is the visual consistency of what you're actually making. Things like Dialed In really, it just really impressed me. And I think it's a thing, it's an area that's, I wouldn't say overlooked, because in pinball there's so many different areas, manufacturing, design, artwork. But I really think, I have no question, so I want to congratulate you on bringing really great fidelity to animation design. and yeah, that's all I have. And also, I've just heard that you're leaving after 14 years. So congratulations. The best of luck to you and your team. But thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. That's it.
    54:12
    So I had the privilege of you telling me stories about what is allowed and not allowed by licenses. Why are they such a pain in the, you know, what?
    54:23
    It's mainly to protect their license. It's to protect what everybody is doing with it. Let's say you wouldn't have to pay anything for the license and do whatever you want to do with it. Then it will take its own direction and everybody starts adding stuff to the license. That's what you try. what we also did uh what you try and then some licenses are more strict and some are like oh yeah that's a great idea there's no no harm or no issue with it but with this license harry potter is still very active and very lively and they protect it there is a huge team on on protecting everything i can get that production a bit of it but i think it sometimes curbs your creative expression a little bit much. You say, well, there are only six British players and you're not allowed to put 11 on it. Is that like protecting the license?
    55:26
    It sounds to me like nitpicking. It is. I have one more question. Why have Jersey Jack not instilled into their contracts review durations? I know they really want the Harry Potter license, but waiting six months for revisions is really bad for design.
    55:44
    Is there any type of insight on that? Sorry, so the question is? So a lot of the times you mentioned that Jersey Jack, or sorry, the licensor would take a long time to come back with revisions. Yeah. Why have Jersey Jack not brought into their contracts review times with the clients? You know, obviously, they really want these licenses, so we have to play ball. Yeah. But I think it's an interesting, I just wonder if you have any insight on that. Yeah, I cannot give too much insight on that. um there are contracts yes where they uh say we we give feedback within three weeks uh but it doesn't mean that if if after three weeks they haven't responded that they cannot change it like uh
    56:27
    yeah maybe they are busy with all the stuff but yes it it should you know it should work like that yeah yeah but we even had the occasion where johnny had the uh the hourglass and the sand and we used white sand and then they came back hey the sand is green in the movie and um
    56:47
    and and and i i sort of was like oh i missed that entirely it should be green yes so we change it to green we re uh re send it in for approval and then they were like ah the green doesn't really work let's make it white so there they are not uh consistent in their uh storytelling And that took also another so many weeks, and then it's changed back to another so many weeks. And eventually you lose faith in the clients, and then you work less. Yeah. That's exactly what happens. Yeah.
    57:23
    Yeah? Is there a marketplace for licenses, or do you have an idea? Yeah, yeah. Are the licenses available? I think there's even shows in Vegas where Jack goes to and meets people of the Warner Brothers and all these studios and they discuss what licenses are available and you secure licenses. And then there's even, yeah, they have weeks or shows like this for just licensing people.
    58:05
    Games are not always released with full code, so you get updates. Do you guys then make everything until final version or do you get later on more work? For example, it's now 1.0, for example 1.1, do you have then extra work or how does that work? If the code gets updates, maybe in rules, if we get to do more animation work.
    58:38
    Sometimes, yeah. But most is done and in there. If there's going to be changes in code now, it's mainly bug fixes, scoring adaptions, that kind of thing. yeah what else it looks like we're out of questions sure so please give your warmest regards and a warm applause