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- Today
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Government regulations in the UK mean that websites and apps in the public sector must now be accessible to everyone. In the digital age, mobile apps have become a widely popular platform for businesses to connect with their customers. Whether this is via a business, educational or entertainment app, the platform allows a more convenient, on-the-go approach in comparison to the likes of a website. Check out our free accessibility tool post for some quick and easy solutions. Making your app accessible means you must consider the range of challenges a customer may face, ensuring that as many people as possible can use it. This includes those with impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive or learning difficulties, as well as deafness or impaired hearing. Designing an accessible app means much more than simply making the design clearer. You must design an app that is adaptable to those throughout the spectrum and support those who need the app’s extra, accessible functions. Here we will be discussing six factors organisations need to consider when designing an app, making sure it can be accessed by everyone. 01. Create a simple, clear layout The initial step is to ensure you have a simple layout. A cluttered design may overwhelm a user who then might give up on your app before they have even properly begun to explore it. Elements must be visible to those who may need to magnify the screen, so your design must be responsive and adapt to various screen sizes. Text and call-to-action buttons must also appear at an appropriate size, with the option to enlarge. 02. Design a consistent navigation You must design an easy-to-follow app with clear indicators. Navigation should have short task flows and be easy to find, as well as consistent throughout the different stages of using the app. Again, this is especially important with your call-to-action buttons. They must be clearly labelled, to smoothly guide users through your app’s goal conversion. Navigation pointers – for instance, menu bars and search boxes – should also be consistently positioned in a similar format throughout your app. This will enable users to quickly and easily explore your app in a logical order with no confusion. 03. Consider your text formatting Text is another element that must be carefully thought out. Dyslexia can affect a person’s accuracy of reading, so you must really think about the structure of copy used on your app. Uneven spacing, long sentences or paragraphs, italic fonts and the colour of text are just some design features you need to consider. Over-formatted text can be difficult for dyslexic users to read, as well as those with impaired vision, so make sure you keep your formatting simple and consistent throughout your design. Adding accessibility ensures that everyone can use your website or app 04. Make audio and video accessible Creating an app that is interactive as well as accessible can be seen as a challenge, though creating a tick list of things you must consider will mean you can include media communications, for instance video and audio, where appropriate. When incorporating these elements, users should be able to pause or stop, adjust volume and turn captions on and off. You may also need to consider adding audio description for users with visual impairments and subtitles and sign language for those who may be deaf. If relevant, video and audio has the ability to transform any app, though if you feel it may cause accessibility concerns or be an added but unneeded extra, be sure to explore other creative options that can also add an interactive element. 05. Give careful consideration to colour Colour palettes are a top priority when designing any app, as most businesses associate certain colours with their branding. To make your app accessible to colour-blind users, it’s important to not fall in the design trap of solely relying on colour to communicate your message. This doesn’t mean avoiding using colour at all. As already mentioned, colour can reflect a brand, so you just need to make sure that elements of your app are not purely identified based on colour. Your palette should also be carefully selected so that users can fully interpret the information displayed. 06. Don't forget to test Following accessibility guidelines is always a good starting point but treating the development as a tick box challenge will not guarantee success. There are many methods to approach the testing phase, for instance engaging with real users at random and asking them to test elements of your app or using digital tools that can offer detailed assistance on screen reading. Designing an app is a great opportunity for creative minds to develop a strong platform for any business. Making it accessible should not be a constraint; it will enable you to create a positive brand image that can associate with everyone. This article was originally published in issue 325 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 325 or subscribe to net. Join us in April 2020 with our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at Read more: 10 best design apps for Windows 20 best drawing apps for iPad How to create accessible web forms View the full article -
Anyone who is remotely interested in houses will know the value of a good floor plan. And anyone who is remotely interested in TV shows will probably enjoy the beautiful floor plans created by interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde, who illustrates the houses inhabited by characters in popular shows and films. These floor plans of abodes featured in the likes of Mad Men, The Simpsons, The Flintstones, Sex and the City, Girls and White Collar are fascinating for the shows' fans – not least because some reveal rooms you can't ever remember seeing (more on that later). They also reveal an interesting area of character design that you may not have considered. If you're creating a character, do you always think about where they might live? How will their home reflect their personality? Lizarralde's prints reveal that the shows' creators have certainly thought this through. But there are some elements that may surprise you. Below are some of our favourite floor plans from Lizarralde, who goes by the name Nikneuk on DeviantArt. Click the icon in the top right of each image to view it full-size Don Draper's apartment centres around his iconic living room Don Draper from Mad Men's apartment is actually kind of massive. There are three toilets. Naturally, in the show, we see him mostly in the bedroom, lounging in his living room, or occasionally looking pensive at his desk. Do you recognise the room on rear right-hand corner of the ground floor? The Simpsons' house is also bigger than you might think. In fact, it's so big that some people on Twitter were surprised by the inclusion of some of the downstairs rooms (on the right of the floor plan), saying that they didn't recognise them. But this being Twitter, people were quick to jump in with an explanation (see below). The Simpsons place is not quite as stylish as Draper's gaff (apart from those carrot curtains in the kitchen, which we wish we could see more of). Not surprisingly, there are quite a lot of comfy chairs. This floor plan shows the two apartments most heavily featured in Friends One of Lizarralde's Friends floor plans shows two apartments: there's Chandler and Joey's place, pictured next to Monica and Rachel's. We love how he's combined the two, seeing as they all basically live together anyway. (As a side note, we'd like to see how the apartments changed when the girls swapped with the boys.) It's also clear when you see the apartments side by side which one is bigger, plus fans of the show will delight in picking out several details, including the boys' chairs and entertainment unit, the window seat in the girls' apartment (where Rachel sits looking at the rain feeling sad about Ross), and Monica's secret closet/cupboard of shame. If you would like to see more of Lizarralde's work, or buy one of his prints for your own home, visit his Etsy shop. Read more: Hilarious parody posters reveal the truth behind Oscar-nominated movies Graphic design in film: the ultimate guide Insider advice from a master film character designer View the full article
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Do you love writing? Have you ever considered making it your career? Take on a new skill for 2020 and master digital copywriting with The Modern Digital Copywriting & Marketing Playbook Bundle. Copywriting is one of the top details many businesses overlook. It's such a vital part of a brand's message that improving your writing, even slightly, can help your products connect with an audience so much better. Whether you're looking to build a career in content marketing or simply improve the copy on your personal site, this 10-course bundle brings you everything you need to transform your love of writing into a budding career. You'll start by learning different techniques for how to make your message impactful and engaging for your particular audience. You'll also come away equipped with industry best practices to convert more leads, write for high-profile publications, and even learn how to jazz up your resume to finally land your dream job. With access to over 600 lessons, you'll become a master of generating traffic to your website and converting that traffic into sales. You'll even learn how to self publish books to Amazon and other leading book providers from the comfort of your home! If you're looking for a course that will help get your thoughts from your head onto the computer screen, this bundle has it. You'll learn the ins and outs of using the art (and science) of copywriting with topics such as understanding how to write compelling headlines and learning what makes copy impactful. Gain techniques on how to write faster and understand what type of content you ultimately want to create. Easy to follow video lectures and an included community of like-minded writers will help you connect and gain support for your work, such as providing introductions to in-network editors. With lifetime access, you'll be able to revisit each course whenever you need a spark of inspiration or additional guidance. The Modern Digital Copywriting & Marketing Playbook Bundle is usually priced at $2,000, but, for a limited time, you can start writing like a pro for only $35. Transform your writing and help launch your next money-making career today. Read more: Designers give iconic logos a radical makeover Infographic: 10 essential desk exercises for designers January sales: Cheap Adobe Creative Cloud deal is LIVE View the full article
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There are plenty of reasons you might want a Hydro Flask deal. Hydro Flask makes some of the best water bottles you can buy; they're tough enough to withstand knocks, their double-walled vacuum insulation maintains your drink's temperature, and they look great thanks to their clean lines and colourful powder-coated finish. Needless to say, having some Hydro Flasks dotted around your studio could give you some serious cool points. They're not just for water, either. Hydro Flask has a wide range of other insulated bottles and cups for everything from coffee and tea to soup and stew. All are lined with professional-grade stainless steel that doesn't hang onto tastes and odours, and many are dishwasher-safe as well. A Hydro Flask is great if you’ve been looking for a way to cut down on single-use plastics, but don’t want to spend money on something that’s poorly designed or easily broken. In the unlikely event that anything does happen to it, each Hydro Flash bottle and cup comes with a lifetime warranty, so you can simply contact the company for a replacement. With all that in mind, we've tracked down the very best prices for a range of Hydro Flasks. With so much choice, there's sure to be something that's your cup of tea. The Hydro Flask 21oz Standard Mouth Bottle is hugely popular, and for good reason – it's a handy size that'll slip easily into a bag, and it'll keep your drink cold for 24 hours, or hot for six hours. It comes in six colours, with a tough powder-coated matt finish, and its stainless steel construction means it can take its share of knocks around the studio. This bottle is supplied with Hydro Flask's Flex Cap as standard (with honeycomb-style insulation to help maintain a constant temperature), but you can choose a sports cap instead if you prefer, which may be a good choice if you're concerned about spillage on your desk. The Hydro Flask 32oz Wide Mouth Bottle is easy to fill in a hurry, and its larger neck means you can easily pop a few ice cubes inside to keep your drink extra cold for hours on end. It's also easier to clean than a narrower bottle (though you'll still want to use a bottle brush to make sure you're getting all the way inside). This larger capacity bottle won't slip into your bag as easily as the 21oz one above, but the handle makes it easy to carry, and you won't need to get up from your desk to refill it so frequently. There's no sports cap option for the Wide Mouth Bottle, but Hydro Flask produces a version with a built-in straw instead. If you're working somewhere without a water cooler or easy access to a coffee machine, the Hydro Flask Oasis could be just what you need, holding enough of your chosen beverage to keep you going all day. This huge flask holds almost four litres, and has two lids: a smaller one for pouring, and a large one that you can remove for easy refilling and cleaning. The downside is that the Oasis is rather expensive, though Hydro Flask's lifetime warranty takes some of the sting out, and you can also put it to good use for picnics, camping trips and parties when you're not at your desk. The perfect replacement for all those disposable single-use cups – just hand over the Hydro Flask Tumbler in your favourite coffee shop and enjoy your hot drink guilt-free. While the Hydro Flask Tumbler doesn't collapse flat like some reusable cups, it offers much better insulation and won't acquire the same unpleasant taste as rubber cups tend to. It also fits in most cupholders, so you can use it when travelling between meetings. Just make sure you pay close attention when you're ordering the Tumbler because not all retailers include the press-on lid, which is essential for keeping the contents hot. If you prefer to make your own hot drinks, the Hydro Flask 12oz Coffee Mug is the perfect vessel for the job. No longer will you find yourself in the frustrating situation of creating the perfect brew, then having it go stone cold while you're caught up in work and client emails. The mug's press-in lid fits securely and provides insulation to keep your drink hot for hours, and its soft-touch finish means it's comfortable to wrap your hands around in a chilly office. It's much pricier than a regular ceramic mug, but we think the benefits easily justify the cost. For enjoying a brew away from your desk, the Hydro Flask Coffee Flask 12oz is a great choice. Its wide neck means it's easy to fill from a kettle, but its relatively squat design means it fits under most coffee machines as well, so you can take your preferred Nespresso drink on the road. This 12oz version is small enough to tuck neatly in your bag and holds a standard size cup of coffee, but larger versions are available if you need more caffeine to get you going in the morning. It's also compatible with Hydro Flask's Wide Mouth Straw Lid, which makes it ideal for iced coffee too. Your studio might not have a microwave, but with the Hydro Flask Food Flask 12oz you can still enjoy a hot lunch from home. This flask has an extra wide neck to accommodate forks and spoons, and its stainless steel interior doesn't cling to food odours like plastic Tupperware. This it the smallest size, but larger Food Flasks are available if you have a larger appetite. Just make sure you don't leave your lunch too late; this Hydro Flask has a larger lid than those intended for drinks, which means it doesn't have quite the same level as insulation and will only keep food hot for around four hours. Read more: The best tablet keyboards in 2020 The best record players for creatives The best smart home devices for creative professionals View the full article
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Ever look at a famous logo and think, 'I could have done a better job'? Course you have. And some designers have put their money where their mouths are and actually given it a crack. Popular designer portfolio and networking platform Dribbble has put together a roundup of the best unofficial logo redesigns of the past year. All these designers have given world-famous logos a radical makeover, and the results are well worth checking out. Some of the designs here are arguably better than the originals; others serve as a reminder that effective logo design is a lot harder than it looks. Even the ones we think don't work raise some interesting points as to what makes a logo successful or unsuccessful – for more on that, take a look at our feature on the stories behind the world's best logos, or our roundup of logo design advice. Scroll down for a taster, and see what you think. A reminder: these are all unsolicited and unofficial. So don't worry, none of these new-look logos are going to be elbowing out the classics any time soon. Click the icon in the top right of each image to enlarge it This redesigned Twitter logo (right) opts for a more abstract silhouette Twitter's little birdy is instantly recognisable in a range of contexts. This redesigned logo opts for a much curvier, more abstract shape. The addition of a circle to represent the eye helps ensure it's still recognisably a bird. This is one of the more divisive logos on the list. One of the reasons the current Twitter logo is so effective is that it easily passes the silhouette test, but does this version have such a strong impact? The redesign is the work of logo designer and self-confessed branding geek Myles Stockdale. This redesign (right) has heritage in the Star Wars world This is one of the most radical redesigns in Dribbble's roundup. The original Star Wars font is gone completely, and instead there's an unusual font with an Art Deco vibe. We wouldn't immediately associate this aesthetic with sci-fi, but this logo actually bears some resemblance to the second Star Wars logo – especially those 'A's. It was created by Ted Kulakevich for Florida agency Unfold. This unofficial Apple redesign (right) embraces Apple's colourful side Another titan in the world of logos, Apple's apple has had broadly the same silhouette since 1977. Is it time to shake things up? Russian designer Ruslan Babkin has created a new look that makes a statement with colour and gradients. The striped, rainbow stylings hark back to Apple's 1977 logo, but this logo takes on a whole new silhouette. The much-discussed 'bite' remains (read about that here), but does it still look like an apple? See the full roundup on Dribbble here. Read more: 8 of the biggest logo redesigns of 2019 Where to find logo design inspiration Infographic: Take a tour of the top logo trends for 2020 View the full article
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The Oscars nominations have been released, and it's time for our favourite guilty pleasure: TheShiznit's annual collection of honest Oscar-nominated movie posters. This is the 10th edition of 'If Movie Posters Told the Truth', and they're as top quality as ever. Shoddy mockups these are not – creator Ali Gray has gone to the trouble to match the fonts, balance the layouts and keep the colour schemes, all whilst delivering the most cutting put-downs. Heck, we think you could swap these parody posters in for any of the official efforts at your local Odeon and it'd take a good week or two before anyone noticed. (See our roundup of Photoshop tutorials if you want to replicate Gray's efforts.) Judging from his introduction, Gray seems to be having something of a personal crisis right now – "I have forced the movies tell the truth, even though the concept of truth is now meaningless. I'm writing on the face of God. Does that make me God? Yes, yes it does" – but that hasn't impacted on the quality of this year's takedowns. And, as he says, no one ever reads introductions anyway. For more info on the Oscars themselves, check out our sister site GamesRadar's full rundown of Oscars nominations 2020 (or the biggest Oscars snubs from this year's list). Alternatively, read on for our favourites from this year's honest movie posters. Click the icon in the top right of the image to enlarge it Sam Mendez's 1917 is a powerful WWI story with a mammoth stylistic triumph up its sleeve: it was filmed as one, epically long, unbroken shot. Or it looks that way, anyway. The truthfulness of the movie's big USP comes under fire in TheShiznit's poster parody (above, left). There's also a cheeky nod to dwindling attention spans, and the challenges of such an approach for the poor, distractible audiences. Quentin Tarantino's much anticipated Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood thrilled many and bored almost as many to tears. But its makers were certainly laughing when it came to Oscar shortlist time – it's nominated in a whopping 10 categories (the same as 1917). There have been a few criticisms thrown at the movie, including that there is no storyline to speak of for at least the first two hours, but TheShiznit's poster (above, right) offers a gentle ribbing about the vast number of niche and nerdy movie references Tarantino manages to pack into his tale of Tinseltown. Click the icon in the top right of the image to enlarge it For Joker, director Todd Phillips seems to have set out to make a superhero movie that's as unenjoyable to watch as is humanely possible. That's not to say it's not a valuable and impressive bit of movie-making, as those 11 Oscar nominations will attest. TheShiznit takes issue with this comic book film's seriousness in its honest poster (above, left), and also has an important message for Arthur Fleck (that's the Joker day-to-day, if you're not up to speed) in the strapline. Finally, there's Knives Out, Rian Johnson's hugely entertaining whodunnit, which is up for Best Original Screenplay. It's all wonderfully ridiculous, but nothing more so than Daniel Craig's droning southern accent as Benoit Blanc. The private detective may have Bond's face, but that voice is pure Looney Tunes. That's just a taster, so make sure you check out the full range of posters, including a Jo-Jo Rabbit effort with some incredible cringeworthy puns. And if you haven't tired of laughing at critically acclaimed movies, you can also explore last year's honest movie poster series. Read more: Inspirational poster designs Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade? Special effects in movies: 10 stunning examples 8 appalling CGI fails in modern movies View the full article
- Yesterday
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The flaws affect a key tool for managing its network platform and switches. View the full article
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iClone is a powerful real-time animation tool that aims to remove the painful and repetitive aspects from the animation process, and simplify the difficult job of creating realistic digital humans. Like the game engines that gave rise to Machinima, iClone has always focused on being real-time, making it less complex than the more conventional animation tools. The recent 7.7 update saw the introduction of the Digital Human Shader, which added sub surface scattering, as well as improving the materials on offer, to give skin, teeth, eyes, and hair a much more realistic appearance. It also brought with it Headshot, an AI-based generator that enables users to create character heads from photos of real people. Download the iClone free 30-day trial With more realistic looking characters comes the need for more convincing animation. There are few things more off-putting than a 3D character model that looks realistic, only to become awkward and unnatural when it comes to open its mouth. For that reason, this article will focus on facial animation. We’ll take a look at some of the tools and techniques that you can use in iClone to help you not only get your animations looking good, but do so relatively quickly. Follow along in the video below, or read on for a written version. If you’d like to render this video in Unreal Engine make sure you check out the bonus tip at the end, which shows you how to use the Live Link plugin. 01. Touch up the lip sync This is the least sexy bit, which explains why so many people avoid it, but for now there really isn’t any way to get around it. If you don’t use motion capture, the first area of (facial) animation you should be working on is the lip sync. iClone won’t always know which phonemes are the best to apply when it does its automatic pass, which means you gotta get in there and clean some of that up manually, replacing incorrect or badly placed phonemes as you see them. One quick pass won’t fix everything, but it can dramatically improve the appearance of the lip sync. If you are using motion capture, this step is still important. Current methods of capture are great for expressions, but not as good at discerning which mouth shapes you’re going for. Mixing the captured animation with the phonemes in the viseme track can yield excellent results. 02. Clean up the (mocap) performance Many people don't realise it, but virtually all the good looking motion captured animation you see has gone through some kind of cleanup process first. This is because there’s always a certain amount of noise in the capture – the software doesn't know what’s desirable data and what isn’t; it just tries to capture all the movement it detects. This issue can often be improved by passing the data through various filters, but usually a human hand will also be needed to soften or accentuate parts. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image With facial animation captured in iClone there are sometimes gaps in the capture that cause the head or parts of the face to pop suddenly from one position to the next within a couple of frames. To fix the issue, right-click on any clip in need of some love and then click on Sample Expression Clip. This will reveal a key on every frame. Go through the clip and delete 3-6 keyframes (depending on severity of the jump) from the appropriate track, in any of the places where there’s a sudden pop. Remember to hit Flatten Expression Clip once you’re done. 03. Use Expression presets Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image If you rarely use facial mocap, iClone’s Face Key tools are the best place to start when it comes to animating the rest of the face. And even if you are using mocap, the Expression presets are a great way to accentuate any captured expressions that don't quite come out the way you'd hoped. There are seven categories, each with 12 preset facial expressions that can be dialled up or down to suit your needs. Familiarising yourself with these is a great way to get a good performance very quickly. 04. Liven up expressions with Face Puppet This technique can be especially helpful if you’re animating everything by hand. Mocap is great at capturing the small passive movements of the facial muscles, but when animating by hand it can be quite difficult to add a keyframe every time you want a tiny twitch here, or some eye noise there. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The Face Puppet tool is a simple way to add some of these difficult-to-animate movements in as much time as it takes to play the scene. There are a range of presets that govern the different parts of the face you may wish to control, or you can set them manually. Then just move your mouse around to ramp the movements up or down. It’s not always necessary, but it can make a huge difference to the end result, especially if you’re averse to doing lots of keyframe passes. 05. Focus in on eye movement and blinks This is one of the most important parts of facial animation and should never be neglected. If you absolutely can’t keyframe eyes, iClone's Look At feature will at least keep your character’s gaze focused on something specific. However, you should be aware that’s a bare-minimum effort – in reality eye movement often precedes head movement by a fraction of a second. If you want a truly realistic result, it's necessary to keyframe your eyes to turn towards where the head is moving, just before the head does. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Additionally, blinks are very important in making eye movements look realistic. Big eye movements, like those that come before a head turn, often have a blink halfway through. iClone applies automatic blinks to help make the characters feel alive but these are randomly placed. Help your performance by manually keying blinks on any large eye movements. With practice this doesn’t take very long at all. 06. Don't forget the lower eyelids Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image This is related to the previous tip, but deserves its own point. In real life eyes aren’t spheres as they're often represented in 3D models; the part that's exposed bulges outward a bit. This means that when someone looks around, their upper and lower eyelids will bulge out in response to the movement. iClone replicates this effect but for it to do so, you have to make sure that you select the lower eyelids as well as the eyeballs when animating them. 07. Do multiple passes Natural facial movement is a strange thing. Most of us understand it in an implicit way rather than a detailed, technical way. So one of the most important things you can do after working on some facial animation is to walk away, take a break and come back later. If you thought your first pass was marvellous, chances are a second look will reveal a few obvious issues that weren’t apparent the first time around. At this point, it’s usually fairly easy to go in and make small tweaks to get things looking a little more natural. It's always worth doing at least two passes. The first is where the bulk of the work gets done, with the second to address any expressions that were too big or small, blinks that happened too fast, or to add little movements to parts that were too static. Bonus tip: Try iClone Unreal Live Link – free for indie studios and creators Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image If you want to do something like this in Unreal Engine, it will be very simple with the help with Live Link plugin. Character, facial animation and lighting are all transferred over, then you can make video texture in Unreal Engine. Reallusion recently announced it was making the iClone Unreal Live Link plugin free for indie studios and creators, enabling them to enjoy this powerful connection tool without paying a penny. Making good looking animation is often not easy, but thankfully Reallusion has been working on this problem for many years. iClone’s many features make a difficult job considerably easier and sometimes fun. Download the free 30-day trial version of the software and try it for yourself. View the full article
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We'll admit it. We haven't spent the last decade of our lives dreaming about how much better our lives would be if we were able to go to a live-action Nintendo utopia theme park where giant Marios appeared from nowhere and led us down big green pipes, and we were able to collect coins with our watches. But now that Super Nintendo World is soon to be part of Universal Studios Japan, and all of the above will soon become a reality (if the promo video is to believed), frankly, we're beside ourselves. Even if we never get to go to the new theme park that's set to open just ahead of the Tokyo Olympics this summer, we still love that it will exist. What's so special about this new park? Apart from being based on one of our favourite character designs of all time, Super Mario, Super Nintendo World also represents a big shift in theme park design, and interactive experiences in general. Don't believe us? Here are three reasons we're super-excited for Super Mario's theme park, including why we love the promo we've seen so far. 01. The Power Up Bands They might look like they were made for children, but these Power Up Bands are actually a technological feat So walking around a theme park is usually pretty fun. There are rides. There might be characters. There is overpriced junk food. But Super Nintendo World takes all this a step further. Visitors will be given a Power Up Band, which tracks their experience, and allows them to interact with the park, collect gold coins and compete against each other. It's not clear what you'll actually win with said coins. Perhaps they'll give you money off the junk food? Or, more likely, reward you with a little Mario memento. We also expect that they'll get people coming back to the park more than once, in a bid to beat their friends. Good thinking, Universal. Universal says these bands will bring the world of Nintendo to life "in a whole new way", and we're inclined to agree. Instead of just observing the game, visitors will actually be part of it. This sounds super-cool, and also a great use of all sorts of tech. We only hope it works. No one wants to collect a bunch of gold coins only for their Power Up Band to lose its erm, power, and its coins. 02. The joyful promo video If Super Nintendo World is anything like the promo video (above), then we are truly in for a treat. This is the gaming utopia Mario fans have been dreaming of. It manages to look both fun and utterly ridiculous at the same time, with the music providing the perfect soundtrack for all the joyful running around. This promo video makes it look like it would be impossible to be sad while at Super Nintendo World. Feeling a bit tired? Go jump on a mushroom! Standing a queue for too long? Touch a pole and it'll make a fun noise! Not winning any gold coins? Go ride on a Mario Kart, or jump on your opponent's head! (We really don't know how this one will work). While we hope that the park will indeed feature groups of dancing people throwing Super Stars at each other, with any luck the music on this particular video won't be accompanying you around the whole place. That might get a little tiresome after a while (anyone who's been on the It's a Small World ride at Disney will understand). 03. The sparse website Is the website basic, or broken? We kind of love it either way We can't quite figure out the website for Super Nintendo World. Did its owners get so excited by all the gold coins and watches that they forgot to design it properly? Or does it deliberately look like it's been sent from the yesteryear of web design? There are some parts that plain don't work, rather than having been deliberately styled this way (try clicking through to do, well, anything). If you can't read Japanese, the dodgy translations are also particularly enjoyable: "Furthermore, "power-up band" in hand, a vast area that consists of a number of layers , and challenge to a number of challenges with adventure, the world's first activity is born!" is probably our favourite. Anyway, all of this crude design doesn't seem to bother us somehow. It just makes us feel like the real theme park is going to be extra charming, although hopefully more technically adept, and more accessible for the linguistically challenged. The website also includes the presentation video, see below. If all of this has got you desperate to visit, then you may not have to travel all the way to Japan. Future parks are also planned for the US and Singapore. And in the meantime, you could always get your hands on a retro gaming console to get your Mario fix. Read more: Retro gaming stamps are an 8-bit nostalgic hit Designer unmasks the secret of the PS5 logo Designers go wild for minimalist UNO concept View the full article
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Two proof-of-concept exploits were publicly released for the major Microsoft crypto-spoofing vulnerability. View the full article
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When it comes to surprises, Google plays a good game. From brilliantly entertaining Google Doodles to the most genius Google Easter Eggs, the Google team clearly like to get creative and delight users with hidden gems. And this most recent offering is no exception. Google AR animals is a hidden augmented reality feature that allows users to view a 3D image of a search result. On AR-enabled devices, the tool is accessed using Google Search, with the question: How big is a wolf (for example). If the animal in question is available, Google will return the usual statistics – height, length, mass etc – above an arrow that users can click to reveal a 'meet a life-sized wolf up close' option. Press that and voila! A 3D version of the animal appears in the room. Click the arrow to reveal the 3D model The 3D models themselves are a little crude (see our free 3D models to compare with other examples) however, they provide a realistic sense of an animal's scale (seriously though, who knew a wolf was that big?) and movement. As an artist, this is a brilliant reference resource, offering insight to animal behaviour and movement (without the risk of losing any limbs, always a plus). Animals include a lion, tiger, bear, alpine goat, timberwolf, European hedgehogs, angler fish and Emperor penguin. Each carries out actions synonymous with the animal. For example, you can watch (and hear) a lion roar, wolf howl and giant panda enjoy a piece of bamboo. The feature was recently discovered by Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein, who referred to it as 'magical'. As highlighted above, not only is this tool a brilliant art resource, but a super-fun (and highly addictive) feature to be enjoyed by all the family. Read more: Illustration series depicts superheroes' bathroom habits – and it's genius Take a tour of the top logo trends for 2020 New Gucci logo is the most bizarre thing we've ever seen View the full article
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The Lion King CGI has been much talked about since the release of the film last year. The film has hit headlines for its use of animation, from criticism that the animation was too realistic to show emotion, to deepfake technology being utilised to correct CGI mistakes. But controversy aside, it remains an incredible achievement in terms of photorealistic effects. When we spoke to the Elliot Newman, VFX Supervisor on MPC's Lion King production, he was all too aware of the epic creative venture he had completed. This interview explores how the film was shot, including the approach to animal inspiration and the tools utilised during the process. (For more inspiration, explore our guide to the best 3D movies, or browse our roundup of the 3D models you can use in your projects.) With The Lion King, MPC has further refined previous approaches to character work Based at MPC in London, Newman begins our conversation by noting that it served as the centre of the company's work on the movie. Assets for the film were built at the London studio and then made available to the production base in Los Angeles, where the virtual production work of 'shooting' the movie took place (under the lead of director Jon Favreau and production visual effects supervisor Rob Legato). Animation for the movie was then undertaken by Newman's team in London with input also provided by MPC's Los Angeles and Bangalore studios. Having broadly defined the setup for the work to be done, Newman starts by addressing the fundamental challenge in the appropriately epic journey of bringing this new version of The Lion King to the screen, saying that: "It was probably just the scale of it and that it's a remake of such a classic movie. It was enormous for us, just managing the fact that we're the sole facility. The expectations were incredibly high and it doesn't get much bigger. But it was super exciting and it's a special thing to be a part of. But there's always the pressure of expectations that were so high." MPC revisited the classic designs from the 1994 The Lion King, realising them as photorealistic animated characters Of his schedule on the project, Newman recalls,"I started about two and a half years ago, in January 2017, and we did some pitch work and had conversations about the process of shooting approval. My involvement began with preparing a teaser, comprising 25 shots, for D23 [the Disney fan club convention] which took place in August 2017. That teaser was 90 seconds of the opening scene, and every shot was a different location and involved different lighting conditions and was all done on a very rapid schedule." Newman explains his day-today schedule on the production. He would typically meet with two or three production staff taking notes, one CG supervisor and perhaps a lighting lead, for a series of regular agenda-based conversations. Additionally, at the start of the studio's work on the film, Newman would talk every day to lighting leads and to Legato. "It's quite challenging to work out how to manage resources," Newman observes, breaking down the scale of MPC's work on the movie. The volume of data being organised, shared and iterated between MPC and the production base in Los Angeles was immense. This work-in-progress shot indicates blocking and layout of character animation Critically, Newman explains that no motion capture was undertaken in making the movie and that the characters are all key-frame animated. As such, the film's foundation in long-standing traditions of animation has been reset within the context of virtual production. "The camera and focus-pulling moves were recorded from the virtual camera," Newman explains. "We built the master scenes and then Jon [Favreau] would put VR goggles on and they'd then work out their shots. Pre-animation was handled in Maya and then exported into Unity and, in converting reality into a render, we were always concentrating on simulating depth of field in the composition of a shot." This final shot showcases a live-action lighting sensibility applied to an environment and characters by MPC Of the virtual production process used for the project, Newman says, "It was fun to watch the filmmakers realise this freedom, that the physical constraints are gone." That said, the production would impose certain limits on creative choices in pursuit of consistent believability. Newman explains that MPC built the assets that were then imported into the game engine, within which layout and staging were then determined. Regarding the flexibility offered by the virtual production approach, Newman notes that it allowed MPC and their team in Los Angeles to make the most minute and subtle adjustments. "If they shot something and weren't happy with part of a camera move," Newman explains, "they can now work just with layers. It's like visual dubbing. You can correct just one part of a camera move. If a move was too exaggerated you could adjust it." The movie showcases MPC’s deployment of its proprietary Furtility software When talking about MPC's toolset, Newman catalogues the studio's use of Maya (see our rundown of the best Maya tutorials), Nuke (for compositing), Katana (for lighting and lookdev), RenderMan, and also the latest iteration of their proprietary fur-simulation tool, Furtility. As with MPC's work on its previous collaboration with Favreau, The Jungle Book, Newman notes that he and his team on The Lion King "realised that we had to research the colour of hair and fur, right down to the melanin." Newman continues, "We aren't a software company, but we do build and interface around the software that we use. We've written lots of deep compositing toolsets, for example. With Maya you open it up and there, within that, will be MPC-built stuff for how to get data in and out of our pipeline." Environment shots were informed by research visits to Kenya When it comes to accessing and organising material to review, discuss and develop further, Newman explains, with a wry laugh, that "it's all about data management." When reviewing shots, "I can filter a clip by shot number or discipline or artist," he states. Discussing the film's photorealistic visual language, Newman says, "Jon Favreau's modus operandi was 'don't fall into the trap where you over-beautify everything.' Sometimes the sky is blown-out, sometimes it's overcast and so on. We didn't overwork the shots and we made sure that Jon's realism- and documentary-quest was backed up with Caleb Deschanel [director of photography] and Legato's visual sensibilities." Newman then proceeds to detail some of the nuances that MPC brought to the plates that simulated environment and natural light, indicating the kinds of detail to which they worked. "If we wanted to, we could emulate real sun falloff and exposure and we put a virtual camera on it (the sunlight) to get the right kelvins. We got quite 'techy' and when we went to Africa we worked on capturing the feeling of the landscape there, and correctly profiled and calibrated our cameras to capture the exposure values of the sun." MPC built on its work for The Jungle Book The Kenya shoot provided Newman and his team with motion reference material, still images and records of animal behaviour. Additional reference footage of animals was then captured at Disney's Animal Kingdom. "No animal was put on a scanning stage," Newman adds, explaining that, for Favreau, it was essential to not interrupt the activity of the animals as they documented them. Given that a film like The Lion King has the potential to inherit and then push the envelope of earlier films' creative and technological achievements, MPC's work on the movie marks another watershed in the long-standing relationship between animation and VFX. The movie is a step towards a kind of filmmaking that continues to dissolve the lines between pre-production, production and post-production. Click the image to find out more and sign up This article was originally published in 3D Artist. Read more: 8 appalling CGI fails in recent years Greatest CGI movie moments of all time The best 3D apps View the full article
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There are symbols all around us that we take for granted. We know their meaning, use them every day and never question them. Some have fairly obvious origins, such as the use of a lightning bolt to indicate high voltage or a flame to indicate that a material is flammable. But there are others whose stories are less apparent. Why does an 'S' with a line through it represent the US dollar? And why does a circle containing a vertical line and two angled lines signify peace? Here we trace the fascinating origin stories of eight everyday icons. (To get your hands on all manner of free icons for use in your design work, see our free icon sets post.) 01. The power icon We know what it does, but why? Thanks to the globalised distribution of electronics, many symbols used in technology are recognised all over the world, the 'play' symbol being an example. But the meaning of the power icon is less obvious. As a sign of how unintuitive it is, television remote controls for a long time came with 'power' or 'standby' printed alongside the icon for clarification. The 'O' and line '|' had previously been used separately to indicate 'on' and 'off' positions on rocker switches, so when advances made it possible to replace these with press buttons, a new icon combining the two positions emerged. The symbol showing a circle intersected by a vertical line was originally intended only to show a soft-off, or standby, rather than a hard-off, but it has been so misused and misinterpreted that the International Electrotechnical Commission, which regulates such things, now advocates its use as a power icon. Despite a widely shared theory that the symbol represents a '1' and a '0' in binary notation, the IEC says they are not numbers but a vertical bar and a circle. The vertical bar represents a closed circuit through which current will pass, and so the device is on. The 'O' represents an open circuit, meaning the device is off. 02. The ampersand We can thank Roman scribes for this elegant logogram’s existence The ampersand is adored by designers and typographers all over and offers a world of creative possibilities, but just why does this elegant logogram denote the conjunction 'and'? The symbol appears to date back to the tradition for scribes writing in old Roman cursive to use a ligature combining the letters in 'et', the Latin word for 'and', in the first century AD. It had already come close to reaching its current appearance by the time the Carolingian minuscule script had become the calligraphic standard in Europe in the 9th century. The symbol was apparently so often used that it was considered a letter in the alphabet in Latin, and this tradition was carried over into English in the early 1800s, the symbol being tagged on after the letter 'Z'. Schoolchildren would be made to recite, 'X, Y, Z, and per se and,' per se meaning by itself. The slurring of this final phrase by a generation of children gave the 'and per se and' its current name in English: the ampersand. 03. The peace sign Peace out. The peace sign began as the symbol for one specific movement It’s known all over as the peace symbol, but just what does a circle containing a vertical line and two angled lines have to do with world peace? The symbol was actually designed for one specific grassroots organisation, the UK’s Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC). It was put forward by a designer called Gerald Holtom as a symbol to be used on lollipop placards on the group’s protest march from Trafalgar Square to the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston in 1958. His inspiration? He based the design on the shape of a figure using flag semaphore to communicate the letters 'N' and 'D' (for nuclear disarmament). He also considered that the two downward angled arms that form the semaphore signal for 'N' represented a gesture of human despair at nuclear arms proliferation. The symbol is striking, easy to draw and doesn’t need to be straight, which made it perfectly adaptable to pin badges, patches and bumper stickers. It was adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) but never copyrighted and was soon picked up by groups in other countries, becoming a symbol of 1960s counterculture in general. Groovy! 04. The Smiley One unofficial version of the smiley face Another symbol that became a counter cultural icon, the smiley has its own intriguing story. Believe it or not something that became an icon of the 1980s acid house scene is actually the copyrighted property of the entirely real London-based Smiley Company. The first yellow smiley seems to have been created by graphic designer Harvey Ross Ball in 1963. He was commissioned to design a graphic to boost morale at a Massachusetts insurance company and came up with a smiley face with oval eyes and a slightly off-centre smile. He never copyrighted the image and it soon started appearing on badges, stickers and greetings cards in the US, especially after it was printed on 50 million pin badged by the owners of two Hallmark shops in Philadelphia in 1971. But meanwhile in France, journalist Franklin Loufrani began using an extremely similar smiley to flag up positive news stories in the newspaper France-Soir. Loufrani, however, saw the design’s potential and registered it with the French patent office. He actively promoted its use, printing it on stickers and handing them out for free to help it catch on. In 1996, he and his son Nicolas founded the Smiley Company in London and now own the symbol in around 100 countries. It’s reported to be one of the biggest-grossing licensing companies in the world, and has mounted legal challenges against Kumon, Walmart, Joe Boxer and others who have developed their own face symbols. 05. The @ sign Some symbols get a second lease of life Nowadays it’s almost impossible to imagine electronic communication without the @ symbol. Pronounced 'at' in English, but called the 'snail' in Italy and 'monkey tail' by the Dutch, it’s a symbol we use every time we send an email, tag someone in a group message or on social media. The symbol is perhaps also an unlikely survivor because not so long ago the majority of people would not have been able to say what purpose it served. The Spanish name for the symbol comes closest to its original meaning – they call it the 'arroba' after an old standard of measurement, and it seems that in the 1500s it was being used by European merchants to denote units of wine called amphorae. Both merchants and mathematicians continued to use it to signify 'at the rate of', but for most people the symbol was obscure and close to becoming obsolete. Its resurrection came in 1971 when computer scientist Ray Tomlinson sent the world’s first email via ARPANET. Needing a way to address a message to someone working at a different computers, he simply chose the key that was used the least, and gave the humble @ a whole new life. 06. The hash The hash is #backforgood The hash is another now ubiquitous symbol that was given a new chance by the social media age. Hashtags allow us follow trending topics on Twitter, find topics of interest on Instagram, and have even come to name political and social movements. But like the @, the hash was originally used for measurements, and had long fallen out of use. Previously known as the pound symbol, it derived as a simplified version of the ligature ℔ which was used as an abbreviation for 'libra pondo', or pound weight, in the 1800s. In Britain it became known as the 'number sign' to differentiate it from the pound sterling and because it would sometimes be used to mean number when added before rather than after a number. They symbol was added to telephone keypads by Bell Telephones in the 1960s but rarely used until voicemail services developed in the 1980s. More uses would be found for it later in computing. It was used to label groups and topics in internet relay chat in the 1980s, and this inspired Twitter’s adoption of it to allow users to tag topics of interest. 07. The heart The heart continues to receive love With Valentine’s Day approaching, we’ll soon be seeing a lot of this symbol. The heart is one of the most widely used symbols in graphic design. But with its two rounded lobes and pointed base, why does it look so unlike a human heart? There are many theories behind its origin, including those that say it was not intended to look like a heart at all, but the intertwined necks of two swans. Other theories say it represents other parts of the human body, the shape of ivy leaves – which were associated with fidelity – or silphium, a North African plant with heart-shaped seed pods. As for its ubiquity in graphic design today, part of that comes down its use by designer Milton Glaser as a logogram in his I Heart NY brand in the 1970s (listed as one of our best logos in the world). The incredible thing about the heart symbol is that despite being so used it never seems to become cliché. 08. The dollar sign A bag of dollars, or pesos? For greetings card companies and flower sellers, Valentine’s Day means $$$. But then this is another symbol with a mysterious origin. In English speaking countries, this glyph is most commonly referred to as the 'dollar sign', usually in reference to the US dollar although it’s also used for other dollar currencies. But the symbol is also used throughout much of Latin America to denote everything from the Argentinian peso to the Nicaraguan córdoba. There are various theories as to its origin. One is that it comes from an abbreviation of 'peso' as ps, which occurred in the 1770s when English-Americans had trading relations with the Spaniards. Read more: 7 famous logos that pass the silhouette test 6 of the most iconic drinks logos The ultimate typography cheat sheet View the full article
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Finding the best code editor for your workflow can have a huge impact on your productivity. There's no shortage of code editors on the market and selecting the one that is right for your developer needs can transform your workflow. Typically, developers do not fit into a single type, and the same goes for code editors. While one editor might work for one developer it might not suit another. So it is critical you take some time to figure out which is the best code editor for you. A best-fit code editor will make any developer more efficient at writing code. It will be a personal assistant helping examine code for less mistakes and show where edits need to be made. And, just as importantly, it will need to be customisable, allowing for the creation of a custom UI and an intuitive user experience. This is critical as you will most likely be looking at your code editor screen for hours on end. The best laptop for programming With a host of text editors, code editors and IDEs out there, how do you decide which one is for you? Whether you are looking to try out your first editor, or are looking to switch to a new editor that has some hot new features you want. Then this guide is here to help. On this page, we'll take an in-depth look at what we think are the five best code editors for developers and designers. Page 2 offers some more options to try out if you don't get on with the tools on this page, then on page 3 you'll also find information on what is a code editor, and how to pick the right code editor. While you're considering your toolkit, check out our roundup of the best web design tools, and our guide to the best antivirus software to keep your precious programming safe. 5 best code editors for developers and designers Sublime Text is the editor that really changed the way code editors worked. It is lightweight, open and ready to edit your file almost as soon as you have managed to click the button. This responsiveness is one of the things that makes Sublime Text the best code editor in its class. If you want to open a file and make a quick edit, waiting for a few seconds for loading may not sound like much, but the delay can grow tedious. Another big benefit of Sublime Text is that it is crazily extensible, with a huge and ever-growing list of plugins available to install via the package manager. Options include themes with which to customise the editor’s appearance, code linters (which can assist with more quickly locating any errors in your code), Git plugins, colour pickers, and more. Sublime Text is free to download and start using, but for extended use you'll need to shell out $80 for a licence – and the programme will remind you fairly regularly about payment until you cough up. If you decide to pay, the same licence key can be used by you for any computer that you use, so you can enter the same code on all your machines to make the payment reminder popup go away. The paid licence, however, is perhaps Sublime Text’s biggest downside – there are a number of competitive products available to developers for no cost. Visual Studio Code is a code editor developed by Microsoft, and surprisingly, is open-source software. VS Code is perhaps the closest code editor in this list to being an IDE. It is very robust, and is also one of the slower programs when starting up. However, while using it, VS Code is quick and able to handle quite a few interesting tasks, such as quick Git commits or opening and sorting through multiple folders’ worth of content. VS Code has seen a meteoric rise in popularity – it is continually growing its user base and attracting developers away from other editors. VS Code has a built-in terminal, as well as built-in Git support, both of which are big winners for fans of this program. Its ‘IntelliSense’ feature offers autocompletion of code as well as information on the parameters of functions and known variable names. Atom is open source and developed by GitHub. In its initial development, it was heavily influenced by the new style of editor made popular by Sublime Text. However, there are key differences: Atom is free and open source, and offers easy out-of-box integration with Git and GitHub. Atom has historically had performance and stability problems, but those have diminished significantly as it has matured. It’s true that it still launches slower than some editors, but it’s just as reliable and quick to use as any of the rest after that. Further reading: Get more from Atom text editor Brackets is Adobe’s open-source editor, and seems to be a very well rounded software. It doesn’t natively support as many languages for syntax highlighting as some of the others (but it still has quite a few). Because of its focus on front end technologies, it also supports CSS preprocessors like Less and Sass. Brackets doesn’t come out on top on many of the usual speed and reliability metrics, but it does have several unique features worth investigating. It is mostly configurable via its menus, whereas most of the other editors in this list require you to edit configuration files (you can also edit the configuration file in Brackets if you prefer). There's also an interesting feature for quick CSS editing. You can use a hotkey to pop out a small section on an HTML page, then edit any CSS rules that are currently affecting the element that you have selected. This means you can quickly locate a styling problem and fix it without having to waste time searching around. An interesting design decision is that Brackets doesn’t use tabs at all for showing open files. Rather, there is an open files menu in the top left, above the file tree. If you’re using the split-window view, this open tabs list also splits ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ for easier location of the file you’re looking for. VS Code uses a similar open files menu, for example, but also uses tabs. In Brackets, this enables maximum screen real estate, but could be a jarring experience if you’re used to tab navigation. Vim is perhaps the most contentious code editor in this list. Vim is a command line software, included natively with Linux operating systems and macOS, and available for download for Windows. Vim is a favourite for many old-school programmers, and keyboard enthusiasts. The program is navigated entirely via the keyboard, making it much faster and more efficient – but only if you make the effort to learn how to operate it. It is also extremely customisable (to the extent that a command line program can be customised). You can use a number of keyboard shortcuts to speed up the code editing process, and even better, create customised commands to fit your own workflow. Vim earns the award for the steepest learning curve and perhaps one of the worst user experiences overall, due to its complete lack of UI. Learning how to navigate Vim isn’t all that challenging, but building the muscle memory of shortcuts and figuring out how best to customise the editor (which you needs to do to get the best from this programme) takes a lot longer. Vim is incredibly stable, fast, and a real joy to use for veteran command line aficionados and new, interested users alike. If you have the time to learn it, Vim can really increase your coding productivity, and it’s a nearly seamless cross-platform experience, with so little UI to consider. Next page: More great code editors 06. Notepad++ Price: Free Platform: Windows It's been around for a long time now, but Notepad++ deserves a place on this list, because it can still compete with the best text editors around. This option is for Windows users only, and is still being actively updated. For no money whatsoever, you get a capable (if sometimes workmanlike) editor with plenty of features, and you can also mess about with the interface to suit your preferences. It's the work of Paris-based software engineer Don Ho. 07. GNU Emacs Price: Free Platform: Windows, OS X, Linux There are various incarnations of Emacs but one of the most often-used is GNU Emacs; a free, extensible and customisable text editor. It's one of the most powerful editors out there and as such takes a while to learn your way around. Features include content-aware editing modes and full Unicode support for nearly all script types. 08. Komodo Edit Price: Free Platform: Windows, OS X, Linux Komodo Edit is a powerful but basic code editor. It offers multi-language support, multiple selections and autocomplete, plus the ability to track changes or view a Markdown version. There's also a more fully featured IDE, which you'll need to pay for. 09. Buffer Editor Price: $17.99 Platform: iOS If coding on the go is your thing (and you're an Apple fan), Buffer Editor could be a great option for you. This iOS app is designed to make it easy to make quick changes to your website via your iPhone or iPad. It offers split view or fullscreen modes, and you can quickly switch between tabs. It also connects with BitBucket, GitHub, GitLab, Dropbox, iCloud ,Google Drive, SFTP, SSH and FTP servers. 10. CoffeeCup HTML Editor Price: Free version, or $29 (free trial available) Platform: Windows CoffeeCup HTML Editor offers two different code editor options. There's a free version, which is great for beginners looking for a simple text editor. With it, you can create new HTML and CSS files from scratch or edit existing site files. Alternatively, there are a bunch of customisable responsive themes you can use to kick-start a new project. There's also a paid version, which includes a more features, such as HTML and CSS validation tools and a table designer. 11. Coda Platform: OS X Price: $99 Text editor Coda (now on version 2) is a OS X app that offers plenty of handy features. Alongside the usual code editor options, there are some interesting features – for example, Find and Replace includes a 'Wildcard' token that makes RegEx one-button simple, and Coda Pops enable you quickly create colours or gradients, using easy controls, as you type. 12. DroidEdit Pro Platform: Android Price: $2.49/£1.99 DroidEdit Pro is a slick code editor for Android tablets and phones. For the low price tag you get an app that looks great and works nicely for coding on the move. The simple interface gets out of the way, and the app supports syntax highlighting, bracket matching, Dropbox, and SFTP/FTP. There are also configurable shortcuts, to cut down on hunting and pecking on smaller Android device keyboards. 13. Textastic Platform: iOS Price: $9.99 Textastic is a code editor aimed specifically at coding on the iPad (although there are iPhone and Mac versions). Along with all the usual bits and bobs you'd expect (FTP/SFTP support, local and remote preview, syntax highlighting), you get a handy additional row of keys on the virtual keyboard that provides fast access to regularly used characters. There's also TextExpander support for working with and expanding snippets. Next page: How to choose the right code editor What is a code editor? Code editors are the bread and butter software of many developers, designers, and even writers. Complex integrated development environments (IDEs) are often too bloated and heavy for smaller tasks, such as working on a single project or file. On the other hand, basic text editors such as Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on macOS are underpowered for the tasks of editing code – too many necessary features are missing, making code editing cumbersome. The interim type of software is the code editor. They shine at just this task, editing single files or single projects, managing a folder’s worth of content. Crucially, even the slowest of main code editors in the out list are still much faster and more responsive than dealing with a fully-fledged IDE. Code editors sit between IDEs and text editors in terms of capabilities Code editors often used to be very different on each operating system, but many of the editors in this list are cross-platform and work to ensure that the experience on different operating systems is very similar. This enables programmers to shift between work and personal computers, or even shared devices, and still get things done without having to adjust to a different environment. In addition, many of the code editors here can have their behaviour modified via configuration option files (things like setting tab lengths, line lengths and wrapping, autocompletion, syntax highlighting, and more). This ability to dictate the program’s appearance and behaviour lets the programmer maximise the usefulness of the software, while the defaults enable a casual user to have a pleasant and useful ‘out of box’ experience. How do you pick a code editor? Picking a code editor can be a challenging task. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you know what you need. What features are most important to you? Keyboard shortcuts? Appearance? Speed? Stability? Cross-platform experience? Open source? Syntax highlighting options? Consider what you would like your editor to do for you. Do you enjoy autocompletion of function names, or automatic closing brackets or tags? Or do you find those things frustrating? Do you put a lot of stock in the ability to change the colour scheme of your UI often and easily, or are you a big fan of a simple light or dark mode? Do you wish to perform Git operations directly from your editor? The list of potential features is endless, so figure out which are most important to you The list of potential features is absolutely endless, and only you can say which are the ones that are the most important to you. Which make you more comfortable, efficient, and productive? Decide on your priorities, and then take a look around and find the editor software that ticks off all the boxes. Another important note about choosing a code editor is to allow time to invest yourself in the software. Take a moment to look through the available settings, plugins, or other extensions. Find out which things you can change or set up to ensure that the experience is the best that it can possibly be for you. Getting your editor customised to your needs and spending some time with it will give you a real taste for whether it is to your liking or not. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Subscribe now. Read more: The best monospace fonts for coding Coding for kids: 7 top toys How to code smart text effects with CSS View the full article
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New year, new goals! Start the year off right by learning new tools to make you stand out in 2020. With The 2020 Full Stack Digital Marketing Certification Bundle, you'll find new, improved techniques in digital marketing to make this your best year yet. If you're aiming to grow your business this year, you'll want to make sure your business cards stand out – here's our roundup of the best business card templates around. And read on to learn more about some of the helpful courses included in the bundle, that is currently priced at only $39, a whopping 98 per cent discount. Learn top search tools It's no secret that the job market can be extremely competitive (if you're looking for a new one, check out our design jobs board for new career opportunities around the globe). With these 12 comprehensive courses, you'll be equipped with everything you need to learn new skills and market yourself and your brand, no matter your goals for 2020. You'll have lifetime access to tutorials on Google Analytics, the most widely used tool to grow a business, and gain a full understanding of the platform to analyze real-time audience and behavior reports. Learn the ins and out of Amazon SEO and advertising, create an online advertising campaign with Google PPC Ads, choose the right keywords that rank the highest and bring traffic to your site, and so much more. This course will teach you how to get any business to be seen online and flourish to its full potential in no time. Explore the power of social media The complete courses on Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn allow you to use the power of social platforms to convert awareness, engagement, and sales. A 72-lecture course will teach you the proper way to use your personal Facebook profile, business pages, and Facebook's paid marketing to promote your business in the most efficient way possible. You'll soon learn how to generate valuable leads with a few clicks, produce profitable videos that sell, learn how to grow your subscribers on YouTube quickly, and so much more, making your resume thrive with useful skills for your next endeavour. Learn best practice With hundreds of lectures and lessons on digital marketing tools such as Mailchimp, one of the leading email marketing platforms, you'll be able to design and plan creative content in the best way to bring the most buzz. You'll learn the principles and strategies that work for email marketing, push notifications, digital advertising, and more, plus have access to examples and exercises that implement them with real-world scenarios. The bundle will equip you with industry best practices to convert more leads, and you'll even earn a certification of completion after you finish each course. Access to The 2020 Full Stack Digital Marketing Certification Bundle is valued at over $2,000. For a limited time, this bundle is price-dropped to only $39, a saving of 98 per cent. With all the content available 24/7, you'll be able to effortlessly finesse your digital marketing skills and bring valuable growth to every project in 2020. Read more: How to grow your design business The best business card designs The biggest portfolio trends for 2020 View the full article
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The Asus ProArt PA90 mini workstation is part of a recent trend towards custom-designed, compact PCs that are properly equipped with the right hardware to tackle the most heavy duty software tasks. Inside its cylindrical chassis is a workstation that would deliver impressive 3D performance even in a traditional PC case, only here it’s been precisely designed to squeeze a powerful PC specification into a case that measures 176 x 176 x 365mm. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s current ‘trash can’ Mac Pro, the ageing black cylinder version, and it fills the same niche. It’s perfect if you want to be able to get on with proper 3D design (why not check our Blender tutorials for advice in this area) but don’t have a lot of space, or are simply fed up with big black PC boxes. It can be placed under, on, or next to a desk without getting in the way, hidden in a corner, or in any unobtrusive place you can think of. Asus ProArt PA90: Hardware specs The PA90 comes equipped with a six or eight-core 9th-generation Intel processor, up to a Core i9-9900K running at 3.6 GHz (4.7 GHz max), up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, an Nvidia Quadro P2000 or P4000, space for both an M.2 SSD and a SATA SSD up to 512GB each, and a 2.5-inch hard disk up to 1TB. The components are liquid cooled with air expelled through a removable grille at the top that’s illuminated with blue LEDs when the PA90 is turned on, as well as via a grille at the back. The case feels chunky, weighing a solid 5.8kg. There are plenty of ports, although fewer than on a typical desktop motherboard: two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, four DisplayPort outputs and Ethernet at the back, with two USB-A ports adorn the front below the power switch. There are also connectors for a bundled Wi-Fi antenna. And there’s a major design bummer. It needs two external power supply bricks, one of which uses a standard IEC (kettle) power lead and the other a three-prong lead. And, all of this is yours for just £3090. Asus ProArt PA90: Graphics Although it’s called a Mini PC, it’s only the desktop footprint that’s small. The 36.5cm height is necessary for the hardware and cooling, and it means the PA90 stands taller than most mini PC cases. An issue with the idea of custom-designed workstations like the PA90 is that not all components can be upgraded. You can upgrade the memory and storage, but graphics card and processor upgrades are pretty much impossible. That’s understandable, but it detracts from the overall value, especially when you’re spending over £3,000 on a workstation. A related question is whether Asus will continue releasing future versions as new generations of graphics and processor hardware become available. The P4000 has recently been superseded by Nvidia’s Quadro RTX 4000 for example, and the 10/14nm 10th-generation Intel processors are on the way. If not, the specification will age badly, making the PA90 a relatively worse-value purchase as the hardware ages. The PA90 is a great specification for 3D, CAD, audio and video editing. The Core i9-9900K is a brilliant CPU, with its 4.7 GHz clock frequency and eight CPU cores making short work of single or multi-threaded tasks. Although the graphics performance falls about 25% short of the Quadro RTX 4000 we’ve recently tested in a full-sized desktop PC, it still put in a really fantastic showing in SPECviewperf 13, with results that beat other desktop towers equipped with the same GPU. The gap widens in the OpenCL LuxMark and CUDA ArionBench tests, where P4000 performance in the Asus ProArt PA90 is approximately 50% under the RTX 4000, which is to be expected. Asus ProArt PA90: Should you buy it? Noise was only noticeable when the graphics card whirred up quickly at the start of an intensive 3D test, but went back to near-silent again afterwards. This could be a killer feature – the PA90 is very quiet, which is valuable for environments that are sensitive to noise. But despite the stellar performance, this all comes at a very high price. Proprietary board designs with a custom case and cooling elevates the cost of the PA90 beyond that of a standard desktop PC with the same components. Therefore, it’s filling a relatively small niche – those who are willing to dig deep into their wallet for a capable 3D system that won’t take up too much space. Trouble is, the PA90 faces tough competition. Asus’ rival Corsair has announced a similar system, the Corsair One Pro i180, but the real challenge is from Mini-ITX systems that are sold by pretty much all independent vendors. These can be configured with similar hardware, including water cooling, processors with eight (or more) cores and even more high-end Quadro graphics cards, including the RTX series. Like the PA90, these systems are squeezed into astonishingly tiny cases, but unlike the PA90, are built from off-the-shelf components, meaning a cheaper overall cost and better upgradability. Given £3,000 to spend on a computer with diminutive dimensions, we’d prefer that route over the PA90. This article originally appeared in 3D World. Subscribe here. View the full article
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Commuters in London today may have noticed a major tube station looking a little different – Piccadilly station has been transformed into a Star Trek haven, complete with pun-tastic new name that we fully approve of. The enterprising new look is dedicated to Starfleet icon and franchise mainstay captain Jean-Luc Picard. The whole station has been given a makeover, from the Piccadilly roundels that have been replaced by Startfleet emblems, to the signage, which now reads 'Picardilly Station'. (For more ways to make a splash on a large scale, see our roundup of the best billboard advertising campaigns.) Get 39% off Adobe Creative Cloud (EMEA) The station takeover has been masterminded by Amazon Prime, in collaboration with Transport for London and Links Signs. It's all in order to create a buzz around the upcoming series Star Trek: Picard, which will be available on the popular streaming platform from 23 January. As you'd expect, it's only temporary – Trekkies who want to check out the intergalactic makeover will need to get there today or tomorrow (15 and 16 January). "The promotional overhaul allows Amazon to reach audiences to inform them about the release date in a creative way, celebrating a fictional character whose legacy will go down in history," says Paul Cox of Links Signs. "In the words of Captain Picard, we think it's really set to ‘engage’ the public!" The new series was unveiled at the recent New York Comic Con. It will focus on Captain Picard's later years, and see Sir Patrick Stewart returning to the iconic role. Check out the trailer above for a taste of what to expect. Read more: New Gucci logo is the most bizarre thing we've ever seen 27 top character design tips The best print adverts ever View the full article
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Tweak your portfolio for 2020
Rss Bot posted a topic in Ειδήσεις από τον χώρο του Design και Hosting
A new year means if not out with the old, then at least in with the new. And that means it's the perfect opportunity to refresh your portfolio. To take a moment to check the fundamentals are in order, ensure it's up-to-date and includes only your best work, and there are no lurking errors that need to be fixed. Once all that's done, it's time to think about new tweaks and changes you can make to keep things looking fresh as we enter a new decade. In this article, we look at some of the latest trends in portfolio design that you can use to get your own portfolio looking razor-sharp in 2020. For some best-in-class inspiration, check out some of our favourite portfolio examples. 01. Break the grid Kwok Yin Mak’s asymmetrical portfolio surprises the viewer Offering a fresh and unexpected layout will grab a visitor's attention from the outset and shows your creativity. One great way to do that is to break free from conventional layouts with more open composition, asymmetrical grids or unusual text orientations that surprise the viewer. The horizontal, asymmetrical design of New York-based designer Kwok Yin Mak's portfolio includes menus in unusual places, moving elements, cursor effects and information spread all over the site. It leaves visitors surprised and even slightly disorientated at first, but in a very pleasing way that encourages you to explore more. Looped horizontal scrolling allows you to take in the whole site easily, white space keeps it clean, and clicks take you zipping across the page. The effect is all the more arresting for the beautiful blend of English and Chinese text in different orientations, showing how a bilingual site can work. Home Societe keeps things classy within its asymmetrical layout If you like this style, the business site Home Societe provides another inspiring example of how a horizontal, asymmetrical layout can make a big impact. For a more conventional approach but with elements of asymmetry, agency site Wokine uses a split screen to generate interest. 02. Go bold Olivier Guilleux presents bold colours and type, and even an image of himself No designer could have failed to note the popularity of big and bold colours and type in 2019. It’s a trend set to continue in the new year and with many prospects looking to emulate the style, it makes sense to show you speak the language. Beefed up type and saturated colours helps shout your portfolio claims loud and proud. Graphic designer Danilo De Marco makes maximum impact with large Neue Haas Unica type, which switches from black to electric green when the cursor moves over it. Tobias Ahlin uses big one-word headlines to clearly demarcate different the sections of his portfolio, and digital designer Thibaud Allie uses hugely oversized type that's impossible to ignore. You can't miss Danilo De Marco's outsize lettering and fluoro colour palette Olivier Guilleux puts the focus on his name with big type and a colour gradient, but also a bold image of his own face – we love the animated quiff that blows in the wind. Elsewhere, web designers like interactive developer Vincent Saisset are giving bold display text even more character with 3D, animated or manipulated fonts that make the letters seem alive. 03. Cut straight to the goods Peter Komierowski sets straight about showing his work The online world is a crowded space. We can sometimes feel we're in a virtual arms race of clever text and cursor effects. So sometimes a simple and straight-to-the-point approach can make viewers sit up and take notice. For a portfolio, that means showing the best examples of your work upfront. While flashy effects can make an impact, sometimes getting straight to the goods can be a relief for a prospective client. Illustrator and visual designer Peter Komierowski‘s portfolio takes us straight to a simple single-page collection of the logos he’s designed. It might feel like a cold introduction, but there's a link to the About section, where we find a natural-looking photograph and a down-to-earth personal description. The portfolio works well because it shows us what Peter does first, and if we like what we see and want to know more, it's backed up with a presentation that makes him seem like a guy we'd like to work with. 04. Create a video Dan Paris’ video showreel makes for an effective portfolio background In 2020, audiences want information more quickly than ever, which means video content is fast becoming a must for communication in any field. Creating a showreel is an obvious choice for animators and motion designers, even if it’s simply an embedded video like this showreel by Derek Panke. But designers of all kinds can take advantage of the power of video. It can make an impact on a portfolio as a background behind text as shown by Dan Paris, while agency showreels are becoming increasingly cinematic. French agency Septime Creation's showreel runs through UI designs for everything from video games to finance, accompanied by a bombastic film trailer soundtrack. For UI designers, video can show the experience of their work in a way that screenshots can’t capture. But still graphics can also be effectively presented in a showreel, like in this annual recap by 3rd floor shown above. Video is also a way to tell your story, where you’ve been and how you’ve evolved, or how you work in an engaging way, like in this example from Beauvoir. 05. Combine elements in collages Brand Affair stands out afar with 3D images on a flat background Flat design has been huge in recent years, and the trend now is to combine it with more realistic 3D imagery. Including this combination of elements in your portfolio is a great way to refresh things and show you're on trend for 2020. Russian agency Brand Affair uses the combination to stand out from the other animals out there, with 3D images of a flamingo, a giraffe and a chameleon floating on a flat background. Web design duo Dose Media offer more subtle edits on the image of themselves on their portfolio site. 06. Add a strong personal message Gloria Lo makes a personal statement that links to different sections of her portfolio Competition for the best design roles is so intense now that in 2020 you need to stand out not only in visual presentation but also in personality. More designers are opting for more personal pitches that sell their character, interests and story as well as their creative talents. If you can, say something about your ethos, attitude or overall world vision, to get hired for how you create as well as what you create. UI designer Vera Chen‘s profile uses a small text intervention to make a clear statement about how she sees her work: "I create better experience for users people". With her portfolio's simple colour palette and ample white space, the statement stands out. Frontend developer Iuri de Paula talks us through his CV step by step, and Gloria Lo makes an interactive statement by turning the four key verbs that describe what she does into links to different sections of her portfolio. Done with humour or simplicity, a meaningful personal introduction can make a memorable impact. 07. Go progressive Build in Amsterdam uses a PWA to offer the sleek UX of a native app It takes more work than building a standard responsive website, but for web designers in particular, 2020 may be the moment to consider making your profile a progressive web application. Touted by many as the future of the internet, progressive web apps (PWAs) are lightning fast and beautifully engaging. PWAs run on web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) like regular web apps but use JavaScript Service workers to provide the high performance and rich experience of native mobile apps, including almost instant feature likes push notifications and other extras that deliver great UX. Sticky headers and floating menus and navigation buttons can make your site more engaging as well as easy to use. The other advantage is that with more prospective clients opting for DIY drag and drop site builders, offering PWAs is a way to stay ahead. And there’s no better way to show a client why they should consider a PWA for their own website than being able to say "my website is a PWA", and providing it as an example of what can be done. Digital agency Build in Amsterdam’s PWA portfolio site offers the sleek user experience of a native app in which the case study feels like you're entering a new portal. Web designer Daniel Spatzek's portfolio site incorporates many of the elements mentioned above, including big type, a strong personal message and a surprising layout. The fact the site is a super smooth PWA makes the experience all the more impressive for visiting prospective clients. Read more: 7 colour trends to watch in 2020 The top design trends for 2020 The biggest portfolio trends in 2020 View the full article -
If you missed all the January sales, never fear. Today Adobe has launched an amazing deal, shaving a huge 39% off an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The price reduction applies to the complete Adobe Creative Cloud suite, which encompasses over 20 different apps. That includes all the big players – photo editing favourite Photoshop, digital artists' go-to Illustrator, video editing software Premiere Pro, web prototyping tool Adobe XD and motion effects creator After Effects. You'll also be able to explore the new additions to the Adobe family, tablet-based art app Adobe Fresco, and Photoshop on iPad. If you need any extra encouragement, remember that when you buy Adobe's full All Apps package you're also getting 100GB of cloud storage (with the option to upgrade to 10TB) and premium features like Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. Created on Illustrator by Karan Singh The programmes are fully integrated, so you can switch between them (and jump from one device to another) seamlessly – whether you’re out and about or in the studio. Built-in templates help you jump-start your designs, while step-by-step tutorials will help you sharpen your skills and get up to speed quickly. Not in EMEA regions? Be sure to check out our dedicated Adobe Creative Cloud discount page for all the best offers in your area. Related articles: Top-class Photoshop tutorials to hone your skills The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop The best web hosting services for designers View the full article
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Superhero fan art is no new thing. From Spiderman and Wolverine to the Hulk and DeadPool, these popular characters have been reimagined by artists in all manner of ways over the years. But just when we think we've seen it all, a project like Bathroom Heroes comes along. The brainchild of artist JP "Pat" Huddleston, this series of illustrations depicts how superheroes might look while using the bathroom; and, more importantly, how they might manage their superpowers. This is the first 'superheroes in the bathroom' series we've seen, and while we don't really want to imagine anyone on the loo, we can't help but love the original take on such beloved characters. (Don't miss our character design tips article if you're in need of a little help with your own designs). Click the image to enlarge There's no denying the illustrative skill here from Huddleston, but what makes the series stand out is the level of attention to detail and humour weaved in.Each character’s personality traits have been explored just the right amount (these images are safe for work, thankfully), and put to good use. Just a glimpse of Wolverine's claws while he's sitting on the toilet was enough to make us shudder (imagine those slipping out at the wrong moment, yeesh), but that reaction quickly turned to laughter when we noticed the Deadpool-themed pants. Genius. Speaking of Deadpool, we weren't surprised to see the anti-hero engrossed in Playboy while doing his business, and the unicorn plushie has made us love him all the more. Batman, it seems, prefers to spend this private time flicking through an issue of Wonder Woman. Never going to happen, Caped Crusader. This whole series has hit on a winning recipe by combining a bucketload of talent and fun. You can see the full series of cheeky prints, which are also available to purchase, over on the Huddlestaff store. The question is, which character will soon be gracing your bathroom wall? For more superhero fan art, you can also check out our recent post on your favourite superheroes reimagined by 3D artists. Read more: An artist's guide to using reference images: 13 essential tips The best art easels in 2020 6 quick tips to improve your brush pen drawing View the full article
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A new infographic runs down the biggest logo design trends from 2019 moving into 2020, complete with best-in-class examples to explore. This infographic is the final design in a three-part series on logo trends, and it goes beyond the basics to home in on more advanced techniques and experimental designs we're starting to see more and more of. For more inspiring data visualisation, check out our roundup of the best infographics – or if you feel inspired to create your own, explore our pick of the best infographic tools. Trends featured range from the experimental (glitched, generative and sliced-up logos) to the playful (animal-themed and pattern-based logos) to fresh versions of classic concepts (vintage and layered logo designs) and everything in-between. These logo design trends are the kind you'll have noticed coming from experimental design studios, but are likely to hit the mainstream this year. For a more in-depth look at what's going on in the world of branding, see our article on six huge logo trends 2019. Alternatively, check out the infographic below. Click anywhere on the image to see the full-sized version. [Infographic via LogoDesignGuru.com] Read more: 9 productivity mistakes you're making in the first 10 mins of your day Interactive Witcher map is truly a thing of beauty New Gucci logo is the most bizarre thing we've ever seen View the full article
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The software giant patched 300+ bugs in its quarterly update. View the full article
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The flaw, in Intel VTune Profiler, could enable privilege escalation. View the full article