In this video, Dean Samed attempts to break a very labor-intensive Photoshop World Record: the most complex image ever composited with the Pen Tool. Samed is a UK-based Digital Artist known for his work in the horror-publishing industry, and judging the task at hand here, the horror is very real indeed.
To undertake this behemoth, Samed works with a dedicated mask layer to ensure his progress is saved (software crashes can happen to anyone) and incrementally chips away with smaller paths to create a filled layer above the source image. Samed states that even though the work is repetitive and laborious, the process is actually quite relaxing and meditative and is a good opportunity to zone out.
Known for his fondness of the (often misunderstood) Pen Tool, Samed takes his passion to the next level as he composites a ridiculously complex rollercoaster image, a feat of endurance that very few would take on. Of course, there are much faster and efficient methods for cutting out an object like this, but I really don't think this is an exercise in best practices, more so an act of self-inflicted creative masochism! In the realm of Photoshop, this is definitely the kind of thing you don't see every day, that's for sure.
No
Why didn't he just use their amazing guessing tools? Because they still suck?
Because "the process is actually quite relaxing and meditative and is a good opportunity to zone out."
Sure, until the carpal kicks in.