Wordpress - Install Custom Featured Posts Slider

I am currently running a popular news website using a customized version of the theme wp-newspaper. I would like to install a very smooth, very professional custom featured posts slider based on a selected category tag. I have tried many sliders "out of the box" such as jquery and SliderVilla, and they have never worked out very well. It is essential that the users are able to select a featured image of any size and have it rendered correctly without being stretched or distorted (the most common problem with the pre-fab sliders). Lastly, I would really like to have this project done within the next 24 hours.