JoeRudi26

Manny will heat up, without a doubt, he used to kill me when I played with the A's. I have no doubt your offense will get it going.

Wow, 22 combined strikeouts. Great pitching performances. I know those 1 run, 4 hit games all too well. :huh:

Everyone has their own style, that's what makes the dynasty's interesting. Even better if you can keep it going enough to watch your team evolve over the years.

Great idea, rick. Presenting 162 games can get tedious and obviously repetitious. I personally like watching the numbers develop in the most realistic setting I can have, accurate rosters and so on, and it no doubt can get boring to the observer. But in reality, dynasties are presented for entertainment, so there really are no boundaries Like I said, great idea, go for it.

Looks like those Halo's are pretty tough, rick. 11 hits (Boston) spread out over the last 3 games, I know it all too well, it can get pretty frustrating. I smell a rally coming.. :D

Wow, 14 K's rick? Sounds like the pounding I used to take off of Tim Wakefield when I played with the A's. Definitely makes for a long game. :huh:

Sounds interesting, I'll definitely stick around to see how it pans out.

Oh well, looks like you still pulled it out. You seem to be coming out on top with the one run games, so you're defense must be doing something right. :D

Glad to see this back, rick, good luck against the M's.

Looks great, Trues.

Like I said, it looks like you're experimenting and gaining some ground. As I've said MANY times, this is the key to getting better. You get out of PS what you put into it. Anyway, if you want to learn a cool technique with the Guassian Blur, I'll show you how. Nice and easy. Open your pic Duplicate your pic On the duplicated pic, set blending mode to "overlay" On the "overlay pic" layer, go to blur, Guassian Blur, and set the radius 8.0 On the overlay pic, play with the opacity slider until it looks decent. It really depends on the pic. Keep in mind, this pic is pretty dark to begin with, and the opacity (on the duplicated overlay layer) is all you need to mess with. Hope this helps. Pic straight from game: Pic with Gaussian Blur

Good job, rick. Those pics are really starting to look better. Did you catch the "tip" I gave on the Gaussian Blur filter?

Wow, nice work on those templates, rick. Much easier to read. :)

Didn't take long at all. I've been making sigs for a college basketball site that I run during last fall and through the spring, so these things come pretty quick. Anyway, I hope it's helpful.

Creating The Base Template (Board) Everything on a template are merely shapes. Simple shapes. My suggestion would be to start out with the basic board at 500x700 pixels and just consider that as your canvas. Stick with this size when creating different templates. 1. It fits good on the page 2. Knowing that size and remembering it when creating a new template will come automatic, and start saving you time. 3. You can always 're use' the template, but just add/delete different content, depending on what you want to make. Creating The Content On The Board (Inside The Canvas) 1. Figure out what kind of template you want to make. Lineups, Pics and Highlights, Promos, whatever. Get an idea in your head or sketch it out on paper. I don't usually do that, but it may work for someone else. 2. Name the template. Something as simple as "Highlight Board", or whatever you desire. This helps to separate things in your mind, and sort of guides you as how you want to approach it. You certainly wouldn't have a bunch of text, numbers, and stats on a Highlight Board, you would want to dominate with pics or visuals, maybe a small recap of text to describe the pic. 3. Get the pics you want to use in game with Fraps, and while you're grabbing the pic, think ahead how you will want this to be presented. What your recap will be, and is it really relevant to the game in the long run. Sometimes it will be, sometimes it won't, but take pics of anything significant, it may be the game changer. 4. Now you want to put the pic on your Highlight Board, you can have more than 1, make them smaller with borders, or have one big pic with lots of action, remember, there are no rules. 5. After you've decided where and what pics to use, play around with blending modes, lighting, filters, styles, blurs, anything and everything you can get your hands on, you never know what is going to look better than just the in game pic. Once you have something, more than likely you'll come back to it and continue to use it on other pics. 6. Use (make) a simple shape for the background of your recap text. Again, play around with blending, opacity, and so on, just make sure this background allows you to see the text you are going to be putting on top of it. 7. Use the text on the background you just made, try different fonts to see what looks good, but always make sure it's readable, to the point, and fits nicely on the background shape. 8. MOST IMPORTANT. No matter what you make in Photoshop, it all comes down to shapes first. After you have a solid base, then start messing with the other things. Hope this helps rick, this is really just a basic foundation to how I see it, everything else is just diving in and seeing what works and doesn't work. I promise, the more you do it, the more you will get used to the tools and how they work. A few google tutorials never hurt either.

Thank pujols. I dug the CD out from last year. Looks like I saved everything. :?

rick - Here's one I had done for last year, which had a good amount of information. Some might think it's a little confusing at first, but if you're like me, I like a lot of comprehensive detail yet present something that is easy to read. What you have on your template is really preference, and you can cut down on detail by making separate templates. For example, make one for lineup cards, one for highlight pics, and one for the post box score, highlighting the game's standout players. Like I said, it's preference mostly. I like realism, detail, and accuracy. Other's may like the more "arcade" look. Lotsa color, losta pics, and just enough numbers to make your point. It's up to you. There are no boundries when you are "creating".

I like the templates that provide a good amount of relative information. Good job, rick, looking forward to more. :)

Hitting Wakefield is like swinging at a fly in a 60 mph wind gust. At night. 8)

Uh oh, I'm pretty rusty from not playing most of the season, but either way I'll do my best. I can honestly tell you this will be the first time EVER that I have played a game as the Red Sox.

Wow, great work on the template, rick! Looking forward to your HR Derby presentation!

Ouch, tough game,rick. The dynasty looks great, BTW! Good job on keeping up with it too.

Thanks, KidC. I really don't put alot of time into them, but they're fun to mess with.

Here's one.

Still practicing, here's another.