GDT: Playoff GDT Schedule 2015 - Now Hiring

[Frederick Stanley]

Blackhawks 1/21/15
Capitals 2/17/15
Stars 3/19/15
Flyers 4/1/15

Sorry, but you can't take three of the four remaining alternate jersey GDTs. You have to choose one.

 

[LaughAtMyPain]

Flyers 4/1/15

 

[flaneur]

hawks 01/21/15

never done one before. any pointers?

 

[systemsgo]

I'll take Jets v Pens @ TUE JAN 27, 2015 please

 

[Ugene Magic]

hawks 01/21/15

never done one before. any pointers?

There are a few ways to do them, but most of all supply the most recent info.

Other than that, after you decide how you want to do yours don't hesitate to ask specific questions from any of us regulars.

We are always willing to help where needed.

Most of all, have fun with it.

 

[ColePens]

Throw me down... 2/1 game. Preds... i'll do a write up on Weber.

 

[ColePens]

hawks 01/21/15

never done one before. any pointers?

You can be creative and use one big picture and hve it cut up to make it look like one GDT (cut up meaning into specific amount of mini pictures and upload it correctly.)

Or you can just make it up.. whatever format you like. Sometimes quoting older GDTs and seeing the format really helps.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

Could somebody do me a favor and take tomorrow's game against Tampa? I know it's pretty short notice, but maybe somebody has time.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I also need someone to take over for me for the Caps Dec. 27th.

Any takers?

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[iFishyHD]

I have to drop my GDT for today, sorry. I know its very short term notice, and I apologize, I will be able to do my one for tomorrow though, so sorry.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

I have to drop my GDT for today, sorry. I know its very short term notice, and I apologize, I will be able to do my one for tomorrow though, so sorry.

I'm bored, I'll do the GDT.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I was going to see if I could resist doing one this year. Screw it. Give me January 30th.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I was going to see if I could resist doing one this year. Screw it. Give me January 30th.

Nice....

Are you gonna do one of your videos?

Looking forward to it.



Edit: I'm gonna give you guys a little secret: (not that it was really a secret, I brought that up to the attention of, BigsMcLargeHuge) You don't have to break up your GDT's into many segments anymore. You can do 500/600 X 800/1000 complete segments offering up so much more potential. It would be overkill, but think about the fact you could do 24 of those?

This is from my last GDT. It's 500X699 uncut.

This one is 600 X 1000

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

I would have one or two small suggestions for future GDTs and I think this is the right place for it.
First off, I love picture-heavy GDTs and all the hard work that's being put into them, they usually look amazing (especially the one today is a work of art). One small problem with them though is that they can get quite "heavy". I just downloaded all the images from today and they take up 8,30MB, which is not exactly ideal if you're accessing it from a mobile device with a data plan. Therefore...

Suggestion: Could we maybe introduce some sort of tag that we can put into the GDT titles indicating that it's picture-heavy? That way, you could wait until there's a page 2 and start reading from there if you're on your mobile phone.

Also, something to consider for GDT makers: You can help with the "issue" by choosing the optimal file format and - if you have some extra time - even strip unnecessary data and compress it. Generally, if you need transparency in your images, PNG is usually the way to go. However, if you don't need transparency you can use the usually smaller JPEG format. Taking today's GDT (which uses PNGs but doesn't require transparency) as an example, I did some testing:
- Original images (uncompressed PNGs): 8.30 MB
- Original images with lossless compression (using optipng): 5.93 MB (28.6% less)
- Original images converted to high-quality JPEGs: 3.68MB (55.6% less)
- Original images converted to high-quality JPEGs with lossless compression (using jpegtran): 3.49MB (58% less)


P.S.: I realize that all of this could be avoided by just starting to read on page 2 by default when using a mobile phone. Still, I just wanted to put it out there.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

I might be wrong here, but doesn't PNG offer better quality? Two years ago, I saved my GDTs as .jpg and it looked just a little bit worse than as a PNG, that's when I switched to .png.

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

I might be wrong here, but doesn't PNG offer better quality? Two years ago, I saved my GDTs as .jpg and it looked just a little bit worse than as a PNG, that's when I switched to .png.

Generally yes, because PNG is lossless and JPEG is lossy. However, for the use in GDT, that difference should be negligible and only be detectable by the human eye if you put both directly next to each other and looks at them very carefully (if at all). The reason why you have seen a difference is usually because pretty much every image manipulation software offers the ability to save JPEGS with using different compression/quality (more compression = less quality) levels.
So, if you compare an image that is saved as a PNG to one that is saved as a JPEG with maximum quality, you will have a hard time spotting the differences (while still getting a smaller file size). However, most image manipulation software has something like 60% as the default quality setting for JPEGs and you would have to explicitly tell it to use 100%. And there are definitely visible differences between a PNG and a JPEG at 60%.


EDIT: If you scroll down here, you can see how JPEG quality in its different levels compares to PNGs.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

Alright, I'll keep it in mind.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I would have one or two small suggestions for future GDTs and I think this is the right place for it.
First off, I love picture-heavy GDTs and all the hard work that's being put into them, they usually look amazing (especially the one today is a work of art). One small problem with them though is that they can get quite "heavy". I just downloaded all the images from today and they take up 8,30MB, which is not exactly ideal if you're accessing it from a mobile device with a data plan. Therefore...

Suggestion: Could we maybe introduce some sort of tag that we can put into the GDT titles indicating that it's picture-heavy? That way, you could wait until there's a page 2 and start reading from there if you're on your mobile phone.

Also, something to consider for GDT makers: You can help with the "issue" by choosing the optimal file format and - if you have some extra time - even strip unnecessary data and compress it. Generally, if you need transparency in your images, PNG is usually the way to go. However, if you don't need transparency you can use the usually smaller JPEG format. Taking today's GDT (which uses PNGs but doesn't require transparency) as an example, I did some testing:
- Original images (uncompressed PNGs): 8.30 MB
- Original images with lossless compression (using optipng): 5.93 MB (28.6% less)
- Original images converted to high-quality JPEGs: 3.68MB (55.6% less)
- Original images converted to high-quality JPEGs with lossless compression (using jpegtran): 3.49MB (58% less)


P.S.: I realize that all of this could be avoided by just starting to read on page 2 by default when using a mobile phone. Still, I just wanted to put it out there.

1st. Thanks for all your time and suggestions.

2nd. To your point about picture heavy GDT's, pretty much unless someone is very busy or sick, there are not many GDT guys who don't do picture heavy GDT's, and given the those guys/gals who do them normally you should know by just the name of the OP.

I'd just treat them all the same if I was you and learn who does and doesn't do them like that. GDT makers number in the tens. If you're around enough you should pick up on it quickly.

I do wish some of the older crew would do some again. I see Cole grabbed one. Scuds/Kinguin, where are you?

There are just so many with 82 games. Plenty for the taking.

Enough of that.

I don't know if I pay that much attention to JPG/PNG. I can always use tips. I'm just not that technical about that stuff. I try to keep my graphics to 500/600 on width.


But you can make up for it on the length of your graphic page.

Maximum is:

<---800--->
^

2
4
0
0
0

v

That's a long OP.

Or just a little over double of Fredericks GDT was at 9600 but he had 200 extra width.

(Systemgo, probably wouldn't have to use two posts to do her GDT's)

Overall, there doesn't need to be that large of a graphic, and Fredericks was a pretty nice size to use, but I just got sick of having to cut mine up. You don't have to if you use single 800x1000 pics and just keep stacking them. You would never need to use more than 4/5 of those of the 24 you could do.

The biggest tip I could give is not loading up the OP with a lot of YT's/Big animated GIF's. That's why I use the graphics to tie them into them. It' won't drag down the bandwidth of the page/site. The same will happen with a large width Graphic over 800 and really does a number on laptops and smaller screen pad/phones. Plus there's only one thing you can take from a OP from page to page, and that's music linked straight to YT. You could literally link a full album and you have listening material for an hour or better if you like the artist.

To link photos into the YT: Click share in video and copy and paste the blue part into the link icon (blue globe) and you'll end up with this--->[noparse][/noparse]http://youtu.be/NBTTipJX-h4[noparse][/noparse] <---Then copy and paste a picture in IMG tags in the blue area, or high light blue part of link and click on the IMG icon (yellow picture) and put the picture url into there, and you click ok, you're done. My pic I'll use will be the Griswold's.


That YT above with a pic is this-->Click on the picture.
BOOM!

 

[iFishyHD]

Really sorry for missing tonights game, wasn't aware at all until Stad tweeted at me , been really busy with school and what not and I am going to have to drop Sundays GDT to, sorry for short notice.

 

[Shrimper]

If anyone can't do one in the coming weeks just let me know and I can fill in.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

If anyone can't do one in the coming weeks just let me know and I can fill in.

If you want the Caps game on the 28th I'd hand that off to you. I can do it, but I'm tight on time this month.

 

[Shrimper]

If you want the Caps game on the 28th I'd hand that off to you. I can do it, but I'm tight on time this month.

Sure thing. If you can't do it then just let me know. I'll stay on Standby.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Sure thing. If you can't do it then just let me know. I'll stay on Standby.

It's yours.

 

[systemsgo]

I'd like the Caps v Pens came on WED FEB 25, 2015 please!

 

[flaneur]

march 6, pens v ducks