No problem. I was working on the computer about all day, got the bowler just about changed over to show 10 frames, fought a bit with Peter, but at least we're talking again! Run this shitty pic through a butt load of filters, trying to figure out the lower rack of cups.
The other thing. I also cut out the balls, added a white ball I made, and cut out the catcher. Animating it would be a piece of cake you know, anyone could do it, with a lot of full table sized pics in the image manager. This sound like a lot, and it is, 60 pics easy for smoothish movement. The files would be small, maybe 60k each. 60X60 three and a half megs. it's not the only way, just the easiest way I know. Reels won't work because I'm not talking about just a graphic of the catcher moving back and forth, I'm talking about building a catcher and texturing it with a photo texture and having it not only move back and forth but carry the ball with it. I am only going to do what you asked except for the white ball, and I took the extra space and used a rip of the backdrop to fill that space. I had to copy the pic to the rip of the backdrop, and then cut it out again for a new pic. In a nut shell now you have a nice rounded dome shaped game on the backdrop without the rest of the rectangle black. I'd post an attachment, but you wouldn't be able to see it anyway, and I don't want to show it first my self.
This is going to be a good one John. I added some walls just to play with it, but I did not save that. It's really cool the way the ball loops in this. And the pic is so clear. I would like to, after release, mod it with a animated high resolution plunger (This one will be cool, it will show the knob and shaft outside of the table and look real) and an all ball visible and in it's place routine ( Ive been working on that effect. It involves walls around kickers that go up when a ball is in them and down when not, This works for having balls lined up in a lane without them ever falling thru each other). With six balls this will be an option, but I could do 6 on my 1 gig p3.
I must admit that I don't understand the catcher. Is it that if you catch the ball in the catcher that you can then in any amount of time move it to the slot in the bottom rack of cups of your choice? I don't think this is a need to know thing in the modeling of this system, but it may be. If was smart to scramble the kickers and move them off the grid to keep me from playing with it too damn much.