Cut-Out Player Faces Megapack
Our Cut-Out Faces Megapack is the biggest collection of Football Manager Player Faces available. All players are available in the default cut-out style. When you download our Cut-Out Faces Megapack, you'll receive over 480,000 player faces to spice up your copy of Football Manager.
- 482,917
- 2025.01 - Released on 04 Dec 2024
mons
We recommend using Adobe Photoshop to cut images with. It is available for free as a trial copy which expires after a short while. Photopea.com offers a free web-based tool which is extremely similar to Photoshop, has practically all the functions and the same shortcuts etc.
We also strongly recommend using remove.bg to get an initial draft cut from sources. It is also free, very easy to use and there is a tutorial further below in this post.
Video tutorials on how to use remove.bg can be found here, here and here (using the free online tool photopea.com instead of Photoshop).
Guidelines for cutters
Size:
Using an AI image enlarger is to be avoided. Such tool just “guess” what certain pixels should look like when you make the image larger, and the result looks blurry/out of focus on certain details, with unrealistically smoothened skin, and unnatural looking hair/beard/eye/teeth details.
Snow:
Here's a more recent video of the process:
https://streamable.com/bq3kjs
Position of face:
Here's a video of the above processes:
https://streamable.com/k3tbjz
If the person has long hair, it might be better if the image isn't cropped at the chin but at the bottom of the hair or at shoulder-height, whichever is the higher.
If the person has big, wide hair (e.g. Valderrama), it is better if the hair is not cropped out, even if this means that the 2-3 pixels rule is not followed. In cases like this, there should be an equal amount of empty space above the hair as there is space beneath the chin, in order that the face is at the centre of the canvas and the whole hair is included in the cut.
Collar:
And here's a video of the process:
https://streamable.com/yvx80y
How best to use remove.bg
Video tutorials of the below can be found here, here and here (using the free online tool photopea.com instead of Photoshop).
a) Download the source image onto your PC. I'm using this as an example:
b) Crop it to contain the face and a little bit either side of it:
c) Put it through remove.bg - this is the result:
d) Open the ensuing cut in Photoshop
e) Change the transparency preferences from the below section (it may not be exactly the same in CS2 but it will probably be somewhere similar):
f) Change them in this manner (this will allow you to spot snow much quicker):
h) Press "Z" on your keyboard to get the zoom tool, then select fit screen to get the cut as large as possible in order to allow you to get as close to the edges as possible
g) To crop the cut, use the rectangular marquee tool by either clicking on this icon:
As you can see, I only left a very small area beneath the chin and also above the head. However, the area from the ears to the edge of the cut is not exactly the same on both sides, so I like to make sure it is roughly identical on both sides. Pressing the arrows on your keyboard at this point moves the square accordingly, so in this case I moved it to the right. You can either do it by sight or by calculating the amounts of squares on either side:
It doesn't have to be 100% exact, naturally 😉
h) At this point, you're ready to crop the cut
i) After it's cropped, go to image > image size to downsize the cut to 250x250 or 180x180
j) In this case, I've deliberately made a mistake:
k) To solve this issue, we should go to image > canvas size and change the width to be the same size as the height and for the canvas therefore to become a square:
l) Once this is done, you can go to image > image size and change the size to 250x250
m) Make sure that the scale styles and constrain proportions boxes are both ticked, as changing image width or height could mean that the image gets stretched and doesn't retain the correct proportions (as happened above).
That should be that 🙂
Other tutorial videos
How to remove excess green lighting on a face:
https://streamable.com/1usnxt
How to improve a cut if the source image is washed out:
https://streamable.com/acnxgh
How to add fake collars:
https://streamable.com/pzm4vr
Tutorials
These are videos on the most common techniques used to cut out images:
YouTube Refine Edge Video Tutorial for CS5
Posts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of a series by pacouk with easily-explained images on how you go from a source image to a cut-out using the Refine Edge technique
A 5-minute YouTube tutorial by Swedie on how to quickly and effectively cut good sources on a clear background and without too many hair details using Photoshop CC 2015.
How to get a quick cut-out of an FM image using Vertus on CS5
Not a video tutorial, but this post includes clear instructions on how to use Vertus within CS5 to cut images.
Some other tutorials on how to use Vertus and improve your techniques
A post on how to rotate images in PS CS2
Another post showing how you can fix excessive lighting on cuts by krissmed here
mons
Image Adjustments Action (for fixing colours) by mons - free
Transparency Change Action for all versions (ESSENTIAL) - free
Photopea Add-Ons
Basic actions, brightness, contrast etc.
Some other guides
Extraction Tool in CS4
Transparency Change for CS4
Burn Tool - Darken light Edges
A guide on how to extract the default FM22 SI images and how to get them in the same format as the images in the megapack
Cut-Out Software:
Adobe Photoshop CS5: PC and Mac - Free Trial Available
Adobe Photoshop Elements (PC/Mac) Free Trial Available
GIMP:
GIMP - free image editing software (PC/Mac)
Cut-Out Tutorial
Other stuff related to cutting:
Config File Software
fmXML (PC) - Config file creator
fmXML (Mac) - Config file creator
Using fmXML to create a Config file - Tutorial Video for creating a config
A website which resizes images that are too small to get decent cuts from into larger and higher-quality versions
Object Fix Zip (PC) - fix corrupted Zip/RAR files
A guide on how to extract SI's in-game images
mons
Baja
mons
Baja
mons
No need now that it's in here already
simdy7
Mullen18
tv_capper
Looking for some constructive feedback for my latest attempt please (I am using Photoshop CS5)
Cut:
(I have used an image from the missing Images thread so that if the cut is of a high enough standard the image can be used straight away)
jumberto
Also it should be cropped closer so the shoulders are not squared off and it also needs straightening (That's not to do with your cut though)
ovidiu10
bafana17
what do you guys think? need a bit of work i know...
Is Adobe a lot better than Gimp?
tuodi8shi
How can I make the edges smoother?
bakizp
TUTORIALS
Also,read THIS if you have problem when plugin can't find edges in some cases (white background and white collar,etc.)
advalencia
here's the original
and my cut-out version:
mons
It's not too bad but there's a very distinct black line on the edges and a bit of snow beyond that. As the source image is big enough, we recommend keeping the area above the top of the head and below the chin to a minimum.
advalencia
advalencia
mons
advalencia
advalencia
rtsrobintje
Try this one (yes it's old but it's a good one to practice on !)
CLick !
advalencia
Maybe I just need to improve my PS-fu before trying cutouts
rtsrobintje
This is a very good try, if you produce facepacks like this you can help cutting very soon
I'm only wondering what kind of technique you use, because it doesn't look like it has been refine edged.
advalencia
Thank you, I tried the refine edge at first but it was leaving a lot of noise, so I used the background eraser and then burnt the edges a little to remove the remaining snow, what else can I do to improve the result?
garyh
Use the burn tool sparingly mate, better to have locked the pixel's and use the clone stamp tool there's a tutorial on how to do this, Watch me
Rowan
You can then install ExtractPlus from Adobe's site.
FuriousP
I don't think it's a good start and I can't refine the edges at all, his hair annoying. But here's my first go at a cut. What do you guys think?
mons