Custom Slot Machine?
 

I'm working on a commercial project for a casino. The emphasis is on jobs and revenues created from the property, and I have been asked to create an animation that mimics the spinning and stopping of numbers on a slot machine to correlate with numbers in the copy (i.e. 300 jobs, $xxx dollars in revenue, etc.). I have the Adobe Production CS3 suite (AE, Premiere, PS, Illustrator), can anyone suggest a best way to achieve this?

Most of this shouldn't be that tough. I'm going to assume that you want a close up of the slot machine.

You can create the face of the display in PS, AE or even AI. I'm a complete pikey when it comes to AI so others may have better recommendations there. In that face you can create three windows through which the "tumblers" will be visible.

Things get a little dodgy from here since AE is really a 2d app so you'll have to do some faking out. Behind each window, place a layer containing the bells, lemons and other fruit arranged in a strip that will move behind the windows. Move those layers up or down behind the window having them come to rest on the image you ultimately want to show. You'll probably want to make all the layers 3d so that you can create shadows from light layers, and be sure to add motion blur.

The main problem will be making the flat layers with the fruit resemble the curved surfaces of the wheels on the real machines. Perhaps applying a distorting effect to these strips can simulate the look. I'm thinking that the "spherize" effect would be a good place to start, depending upon the options it gives you. Optimally, something that would make it look like the face of a cylinder would be best.

Hope that gives you someplace to start.

Thanks for your suggestions Tripp. They should prove very helpful.

I know you're working with a different program but LiveType in Final Cut Pro has a slot machine effect.

After Effects might have a slot machine effect too, but it's for text not images (but you need numbers right). Select your text and go to the bridge, where you can preview all the preset effects. I can't remember for sure, but there is a lot of stuff there.