Week 15 Game Pics Desktop Wallpaper

[T-ShirtDynasty]

This weeks almost didn't happen.

After three hours of work on the wallpaper last night (which I started Sunday night) all of a sudden, I crank the scroll wheel on my mouse to select a different brush, and Photoshop closes. I sat there stunned for a moment as I wondered when the last time was that I saved it. Yup... not since I opened it and started working on it after dinner, so everything was lost.

I was suprisingly mellow about losing 3 hours worth of work on it as I started Photoshop up again to find that I was back to square one. I had some legal anti-anxiety chemicals flowing through my brain, which made me just laugh at my misfortune and think to myself, "Oh well, I'll just stay up a bit later and simplify the original design a bit to get it done quicker."

So I start again. Back to cutting out the shot of Ellis the III's interception for the second time. What took me an hour before, I almost got done in 30 minutes because I was rushing it. So far so good. I go to grab a different brush to finish cutting it out, and absentmindedly cranked the scroll button on my mouse again... sure enough, Photoshop closes again just like before.

Anyway, it turned out to be a rush job (well the third version of it anyway) so apologies for some of it being sloppy and whatnot.

Links to the actual files below. Click on the appropriate size for your screen resolution. Note that ImageShack where the images are hosted can be SLOW... if the image is blurry, just wait for it to load, if you're on a slow connection you may have to wait longer, or even refresh the browser if it stalls out.


Small 800x600 or Right Click the image above IF you have 800x600 resolution, otherwise it will look cruddy.
Regular 1024x768
Widescreen 1920x1200


Note: after clicking one of the links above, you may have to click on the wallpaper again to make it full size before you right-click it and set as wallpaper or set as background. If you have a widescreen, but not quite as wide as 1920 pixels, just use the widescreen version but set it to 'center' instead of 'stretch' in your display properties and you should be fine.

 

[milwaukeebeers44]

Awww, shucks, it's fantastic as always!

 

[PatsMyBoyz!]

Awesome! If that's a so-called "rush job" I'm sorry I missed any others you did in the past! Corey really was big in that game-great job TShirt-very cool and thank you.

 

[Michigan Dave]

This weeks almost didn't happen.

After three hours of work on the wallpaper last night (which I started Sunday night) all of a sudden, I crank the scroll wheel on my mouse to select a different brush, and Photoshop closes. I sat there stunned for a moment as I wondered when the last time was that I saved it. Yup... not since I opened it and started working on it after dinner, so everything was lost.

I was suprisingly mellow about losing 3 hours worth of work on it as I started Photoshop up again to find that I was back to square one. I had some legal anti-anxiety chemicals flowing through my brain, which made me just laugh at my misfortune and think to myself, "Oh well, I'll just stay up a bit later and simplify the original design a bit to get it done quicker."

So I start again. Back to cutting out the shot of Ellis the III's interception for the second time. What took me an hour before, I almost got done in 30 minutes because I was rushing it. So far so good. I go to grab a different brush to finish cutting it out, and absentmindedly cranked the scroll button on my mouse again... sure enough, Photoshop closes again just like before.

Nice work, TSD. One thing though- you mentioned that it takes you a considerable amount of time on the cutouts. I'm figuring you are using brushes to cut out the players. You should try the lasso tool. It allows you to cut out a lot faster, and I'm able to get cutouts done in about 2 minutes, still at high quality. I'd recommend doing it at 200-300%, to ensure the best quality. It looks like you're filtering through your images as it is anyways, so there is no reason to use the brush for cutouts. If you use the lasso tool, and apply an outer glow at a low opacity, your lines look fluid, and no one can tell the difference. That's what I did to the Hobbs photo here. This entire composition (while very basic) ran me about 25 minutes.

 

[pats1]

I've had that experience too many times as well (including long posts here). Unfortunately, I'm not as mellow as you and flip out before regaining my composure and starting over.

 

[marty]

Nice job T! Especially like the Wright one as that young'un is fast becoming a favorite of mine!

 

[VJCPatriot]

Nice job t-shirt. I was wondering how you were doing the cutouts without having the player's backgrounds from the original picture interfering/showing up. I guess you manually cut those guys out as close as possible to the perimeter or is there a tool that helps you do it better?

This weeks almost didn't happen.

After three hours of work on the wallpaper last night (which I started Sunday night) all of a sudden, I crank the scroll wheel on my mouse to select a different brush, and Photoshop closes. I sat there stunned for a moment as I wondered when the last time was that I saved it. Yup... not since I opened it and started working on it after dinner, so everything was lost.

I was suprisingly mellow about losing 3 hours worth of work on it as I started Photoshop up again to find that I was back to square one. I had some legal anti-anxiety chemicals flowing through my brain, which made me just laugh at my misfortune and think to myself, "Oh well, I'll just stay up a bit later and simplify the original design a bit to get it done quicker."

So I start again. Back to cutting out the shot of Ellis the III's interception for the second time. What took me an hour before, I almost got done in 30 minutes because I was rushing it. So far so good. I go to grab a different brush to finish cutting it out, and absentmindedly cranked the scroll button on my mouse again... sure enough, Photoshop closes again just like before.

Anyway, it turned out to be a rush job (well the third version of it anyway) so apologies for some of it being sloppy and whatnot.

Links to the actual files below. Click on the appropriate size for your screen resolution. Note that ImageShack where the images are hosted can be SLOW... if the image is blurry, just wait for it to load, if you're on a slow connection you may have to wait longer, or even refresh the browser if it stalls out.


Small 800x600 or Right Click the image above IF you have 800x600 resolution, otherwise it will look cruddy.
Regular 1024x768
Widescreen 1920x1200


Note: after clicking one of the links above, you may have to click on the wallpaper again to make it full size before you right-click it and set as wallpaper or set as background. If you have a widescreen, but not quite as wide as 1920 pixels, just use the widescreen version but set it to 'center' instead of 'stretch' in your display properties and you should be fine.

 

[edgecy]

Ever heard of the save feature?

Good job, TSD, as always.

 

[Michael]

I've been a professional desktop publisher since 1987 and have spent 100s (maybe 1000s) of hours silo'ing scans etc. for things like those posters you see in malls. And the best way is to use the pen tools and make a path. You can then alter it, make a selection or clipping path etc. Once you get use to using the pen tools you can bang out clipping paths, even on complex items, in no time.

 

[Krugman]

Thanks for the desktops,TSD,your efforts are appreciated.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Thanks for the desktops SHIRT ... but you really should be profiting from such excellance.

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the desktops SHIRT ... but you really should be profiting from such excellance.

Yeah, I love his designs. He should make a calendar.

 

[AVrabel50Fan]

Thanks, Tshirt! Love this weeks wallpaper, great shots!! I still have my week 13 up on all my computers and will probably keep it that way now unless Vrabel has an outstanding game this week!!

Thanks!

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Thanks everybody for the nice comments. Oh and the new Multi-quote feature of the board is way cool.

Awesome! If that's a so-called "rush job" I'm sorry I missed any others you did in the past! Corey really was big in that game-great job TShirt-very cool and thank you.

Try this : http://208.109.107.176/new-england-patriots/messageboard/search.php
search for keyword : wallpaper and select 'search titles only' instead of the default 'search entire posts'.

I've had that experience too many times as well (including long posts here). Unfortunately, I'm not as mellow as you and flip out before regaining my composure and starting over.

Phenibut, Theanine, Bacopa, and GABA. Although for just being mellow, you can probably leave out the last two or three. 30 minutes after that ****tail, you're relaxed yet focused like a lazer... 2 hours later the phenibut kicks in and you're a little less focused but the roof of your house could come down around you're head and you'd hardly care. You'd notice it, but it would just be okay. (And they're all actually GOOD for your brain, two are neuroprotectives and one is a powerful antioxidant.)

Nice job t-shirt. I was wondering how you were doing the cutouts without having the player's backgrounds from the original picture interfering/showing up. I guess you manually cut those guys out as close as possible to the perimeter or is there a tool that helps you do it better?

As you can see from Dave's and Michael's posts, there are a bunch of different ways to do it in Photoshop, Gimp, PaintShop Pro, or any of the other raster-based graphics programs (by the way thanks to both you guys for your suggestions). Personally I usually use a combination of the Pen Tool with a 'quick mask' to select and remove the background I don't want, or a hard-edged brush on a quick mask to paint out the background I want hidden. In the past I've used the lasso tool like Dave suggested, but kind of forgotten about it since discovering the pen tool, vector shapes, and masking.

What I really need to do, to speed up the time I spend on these is to get off my arse and reinstall my Wacom digital tablet. Regardless of the software's tool you use, a pressure sensitive pen and tablet is 10 times quicker than a clunky mouse.