Rss Bot

Fileless threat leverages widely used Node.js framework and WinDivert packet-capture utility to turn infected machines into proxies for malicious behavior. View the full article

Whether you’ve been gifted one of the best camera phones around or make use of your own, having a mobile at work is an essential for many of us. And that goes for designers who work all hours, just as much as those who clock off when the clock strikes five. With big changes taking place in the mobile industry, you could be working more efficiently and getting back more time to spend with friends and family. Do you wish you had a better handset? Or maybe that yours could adopt the technology to control smart appliances in your home or studio? Just how tech-savvy is your workplace? Share your opinion on the future of mobile phones in the workplace in our survey, which will take no more than five minutes to complete, and as a thank you for taking part, we'll automatically enter you into a prize draw to win a £250 Amazon voucher. The the only question left for the lucky winner will be what to spend it on. Take the Creative Bloq mobile phones for work survey here Be sure to enter the survey before the deadline on 14 October 2019. T&Cs apply, over-18s, UK readers only. Find full details on the prize draw here. View the full article

A new patent filing from Apple suggests that it's working on ways to make the logo on your device change colour and even surface texture. And while there's no way this is going to take effect in time for this year's Apple Black Friday deals – or even next year or the year after that – it could eventually change the way we look at Apple devices. While Apple's never likely to mess with the iconic shape of Rob Janoff's 1977 logo design, it's made plenty of adjustments to its colour and texture over the years, from the original rainbow design, through shiny glass and metal iterations, through to the flat version used today. The 100 greatest Apple creations Apple's also happy to roll out temporary imaginative takes on its logo for its various events and conferences, as most recently seen at the iPhone launch event with its multicoloured and multi-layered translucent logo. In the future, the Apple logo could be a lot more colourful than your iPhone's case The new patent filing, however, suggests that it has even bigger plans for the logo, and that in future devices it could change its appearance in response to various events. So it might blink when you have a new message, or change to a pulsing red tone to warn you that your iPhone or MacBook needs charging, or even switch to a simple mirrored surface when nothing's going on. The application goes on to state that the logo could be adjusted for aesthetic reasons, suggesting that you could set up your device to have the logo in any colour you like, or to flash to alert you of the some hot Black Friday MacBook deals. Patent applications make for terribly dry reading as they're made for patent lawyers to understand, not mere mortals like us, but the basics of it are this: Apple's talking about adding an 'adjustable decoration' to devices, which would include adjustable opacity, tint, haze and mirror layers that could be affect by user input, sensor input (including light, temperature, sound and geographic location) or events such as incoming calls. That suggests plenty of ways to alter the appearance of the logo. We're not talking about a simple LED lighting effect here; the adjustable mirror effect alone seems worth the price of entry, and there seems to be a lot of potential for all manner of visual effects that you'd associate more with print design than visual displays. It's all done with layers, as (sort of) shown in the patent filing How Apple's going to do all this – or indeed when, or even if – is another matter. Deep in the patent application it discusses the technologies that could be used, such as nanoparticles for the tint layer and a cholesteric liquid crystal device (your guess is as good as ours) for the mirror layer, but it doesn't go into great detail. After all, it's not about to give away any technical secrets if it doesn't have to. Apple files a lot of patent applications, and this one could come to nothing, so don't get too excited about it right now. But we're keen to see if Apple can carry this one off; watch this space. Related articles: 4 things we love about the new iPhone 11 Is Apple about to bring back its rainbow logo? Apple shares how AirPod users personalise their cases – and they look amazing! View the full article

Ahead of this year's TwitchCon, video streaming platform Twitch has revealed a bold rebrand that aims to celebrate the vibrant energy of its creators and communities. As its accompanying slogan proclaims: "you're already one of us." The new look has been a year in the making, and is the first major rebrand for Twitch since it was established back in 2011. Whipped up by Collins in collaboration with Twitch's in-house design team the overhaul includes a new colour palette, a blocky letterform, a polished version of the Glitch mascot, and a Moog synthesiser-inspired typeface that's up there with the best retro fonts we've seen. If you're familiar with Twitch, you'll be relieved to see that the fundamental elements of the brand are still in place, they've just been given a bit of a polish. Take the colour scheme, which still retains Twitch's signature colour, purple. "Purple is the only colour alive enough to represent our collective creativity, mischievousness, and energy," the company revealed in press release. "Our new purple is brighter and more vibrant to match that energy." And to help users express themselves, the Creator Color tool will allow them to set a specific colour to their channel. Purple remains the foundation of the Twitch logo design Accompanying the heavy-lifting purple is a lineup of over two dozen new colours that all take their names from iconic games and pop culture characters. So expect to see hues such as Mudkip blue and Red Alert... red appear everywhere from the Twitch site, to its advertising and apps. Sitting alongside these colours is a modified version of the Roobert typeface, which ticked all of Twitch's boxes thanks to its clean, modern design that also comes with a pinch of quirkiness. "It’s also modelled off the retro Moog synthesiser logotype, which we thought added a few cool points." As for the updated wordmark, it's carried over the DNA of the old logo. The blocky letterforms are still there, but they've been straightened out and enhanced by retro arcade game aesthetics. Just look at those lurid gradients. A customised version of Roobert will appear across all touchpoints The Twitch icon, known as Glitch, has also been given a facelift. However the design team wisely decided to play it safe with this update. Twitch added: "Any brand should worry about retaining some recognisability when updating, but, like, this is Glitch. It’s tattooed on people. We couldn’t change it too much." It's not all change though, as Twitch's emotes remain the same. Given that its community gave these characters meaning, leaving them untouched is a good way to remind users that they're at the heart of the rebrand. Although Twitch says that it will be putting Emotes out into the world more often. "We’re in a unique position because we have this deep, weird lore to pull from that others simply don’t, and it seemed nuts to try to make emotes less weird. So we didn't." The rebrand includes an edge-to-edge screen Given that Twitch continues to dominate the streaming landscape, with a recent report revealing that it far outstrips the likes of YouTube and Facebook Gaming, it makes sense for the platform to up its game (no pun intended) when it comes to its branding. "We’re lucky to be able to support such a vibrant, passionate community of creators, viewers, and everyone in-between. These changes are all about putting you front and center and equipped to shine as you reinvent what entertainment is and can be. We can’t wait to see what you do with them." And with more changes on the way, including new product experiences, it looks like Twitch has more treats in store for its users. Related articles: Join the online art community with creative live streaming The best video editing software in 2019 The best monitors for video editing View the full article

If you're an entrepreneur, you'll know how difficult it can be to get your website and online presence up and running. The difference between being seen and being lost in cyberspace is a thin line that can be difficult to cross. Luckily, these five SEO tools and courses are here to help launch your career and get you quality clients that will come back again and again. 01. SERPstash Premium Break down the SEO hustle into simple steps and help push your site to Google's front page with SERPstash Premium. This platform gives you access to 21 tools that help you boost your site's ranking and analyse keywords that are related to your industry. The lifetime subscription will teach you best practices to improve your site's speed and get your site's current ranking up on crucial platforms like Google and Bing. Get lifetime access to SERPstash Premium for just $24 (95% off $500). 02. RankTools Pro SEO Tool If you're looking to optimise your site's search rankings by outsmarting your competitors, this is the SEO tool for you. RankTools Pro SEO Tool keeps track of your top competitors and analyses metrics such as Alexa data, social media data, search engine index, Google page rank, IP analysis, malware check, and much more. This all-encompassing SEO suite ensures that you don't miss out on traffic when people are looking for content like yours. Get lifetime access to RankTools Pro SEO Tool for just $29.99 (97% off $1,199.4). 03. The Complete SEO & Digital Mega Marketing Bundle Build your brand's digital marketing presence with 15 comprehensive courses and 900+ lessons of digital marketing tutorials. Straight from the minds of the experts, this bundle teaches you best practices in copywriting, SEO, social media, email marketing, and much more. Easy to follow instructions allow you to build your brand's digital footprint to its full potential and reach through essential digital outlets. Get access to The Complete SEO & Digital Mega Marketing Bundle for just $49 (97% off $2,330). 04. Google Image SEO: Image Search & Higher Website Page Ranking Perfect for all levels of expertise, this 12-course bundle will guide you through the ins and outs of Google image SEO search, page rankings, and image rendering. This straightforward bundle, taught by 3-time best selling Amazon author Alex Genadinik, will show you new ways to bring quality traffic to your website. Learn how to make your site's web ranking rise quickly and effectively. Get lifetime access to Google Image SEO: Image Search & Higher Website Page Ranking for just $12.99 (93% off $200). 05. The Complete SEO & Backlink Master Course From keywords to backlinks, there's a whole range of factors that influence the ranking of your site. Improve your site's visibility with 15.5 hours of SEO courses and learn how to integrate quality links into your website. Taught by online marketing guru Zach Miller, this course will dive deep into all the elements that matter when you're trying to grow your site. Get lifetime access to The Complete SEO & Backlink Master Course for just $19.99 (79% off $97). Related articles: 5 ways to boost your website's SEO Climb the Google rankings: How to master SEO 10 must-know SEO tools for search success View the full article

Shapr3D is a great tool for kitbashing. It helps to literally bash out ideas and produce useful pieces of kit. It’s fast, clean and its interface is very intuitive; this is definitely the direction I see the 3D industry moving to – not larger, more powerful machines, but more accessible, more usable software, available in VR and AR, and on mobile and tablet devices. Kitbashing is nothing new, but making perfectly usable, pipeline-friendly kitbash pieces on an iPad is new. In this tutorial you will learn how to make three kitbash pieces in Shapr3D on the iPad Pro (see our best Black Friday iPad deals ahead of the big day). The first part will cover the creation of kitbash pieces on the iPad, and the second section will show how to use those pieces to create vast skyscrapers and cityscapes in a matter of hours. For some 3D inspiration, check out our roundup of the best 3D art out there. Download tutorial files Kitbash Piece 1: Girder Kitbash piece 2: Piston 03. Kitbash piece 3: Balljoint This article was originally published in issue 249 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 249 or subscribe to 3D World. Read more: These 3D portraits are unbelievably realistic How to create 3D grass 20 Cinema 4D tutorials to sharpen your 3D skills View the full article

Brand voice can be a synonym for design-speak. If you open a set of brand guidelines and find the ‘brand voice’ or 'tone of voice' section (if there is one), chances are, you’re looking at one or two pages of broad, abstract principles – things like, 'We are HUMAN, STRAIGHTFORWARD, OPTIMISTIC and AUTHORITATIVE'. Each principle probably has a brief explanation. There may be some ‘We are/We are not’ lists. Perhaps even a few short examples of ‘correct’ copy. And usually, that’s about it. (If you want to see how it's done properly, then make sure to check our favourite style guides.) Now – do you have what you need to apply that tone of voice? Is it clear what sort of ‘HUMAN’ we mean? How to capture ‘OPTIMISTIC’ in words? Probably not. Because ‘tone of voice’ or 'brand voice' is still treated in a pretty cursory way in most guidelines. Too often, ‘brand voice’ basically boils down to ‘less corporate/more friendly.’ That’s useful as far as it goes. But it’s a bit like buying a MacBook to play Solitaire. It does the job, but you’re leaving a vast well of potential untapped. Why you need a strong brand voice Happily, things are changing fast. Today, many brands are making smart use of language to create a competitive edge. (Think Monzo, Bulb, Slack, Spotify.) So how do you get your own brand voice to work harder? A good start is not calling it ‘tone of voice’. Tone – how you speak – is only half the story. What you say is just as important – if not more so. When you consider both sides together, you’re on the way to a genuinely transformative brand language. At Reed Words, we tend to use the term ‘verbal identity’. And if that verbal identity is going to work, it has to be practical. Everyone who creates or manages copy for your brand needs to understand the specific elements of language that work for your brand. Otherwise, decisions are just subjective – the route to a fragmented and confusing brand. Here's how to build your own unique and strong brand voice. Bear these five points in mind and you'll be laughing. 01. Be crystal clear on your message Every brand has a long list of things it could say. And many fall into the trap of trying to say everything, all the time. You need a crystal-clear sense of the message at the heart of your brand – your proposition – and how that gets expressed to the world. For example, a bank might be able to claim 150 years of heritage, three million customers, a 98 per cent TrustPilot rating, and carbon neutrality. But which of those should it focus on – if any? Without a messaging strategy, it can’t answer that. Decisions become short-term, subjective and swayed by trends. Our fictional bank ends up running a half-cocked campaign about ‘relationships’, because dating and Love Island are hot topics. Then it crowbars in heritage and sustainability, because it can’t bear to leave them out. We’ve all seen ads like this. If you’re clear on your message, you can stay focused. You can set about building a distinctive, persuasive idea of your brand, over the long term. (Think Nike. Think Apple.) 02. (Truly) understand your audience If brand strategy drives your messaging, your audience guides it. To connect with them, you have to understand them – and shape your language to that understanding. Often, this is where tone steps back in. Look at & Other Stories and Monki – two womenswear brands owned by H&M. Both have a young female market, but their voices are totally different. Look how each tackles the same simple message. First up, is & Other Stories: And then we have Monki: Of course, brands have multiple audiences, and many ways to reach them. That’s why a strong verbal identity often includes a ‘messaging matrix’ – a diagrammatic guide to what a brand should be saying, to whom, and how. 03. Keep an eye on the competition ‘Know your competitors’ sounds like basic advice, but how often do you see brands in the same space saying much the same things? An effective verbal identity helps lift your brand above the fray, by finding fresh ways to address the audience. Spotify, for example, takes on the mighty Apple by talking about music entirely differently. Apple sticks firmly to its positioning as the super-simple, monolithic power behind music (below). Spotify can’t compete with that – and would be mad to try. Instead, it stays true to its message of socially-driven, people-powered music. ‘We’re one of you,’ it tells music fans – throwing Apple’s cold aloofness into sharp relief. 04. Get specific about brand personality Spotify is a great example of a distinctive message, delivered in a distinctive tone. That tone is born out of the brand personality – which you’ll no doubt find on another page of those guidelines we’re pretending you’re looking at. But again, it’s not enough just to describe that personality. You need to explain what sort of language will capture it. Monzo’s guidelines do a good job of this. Monzo describe themselves as 'ambitious and positive' – and then give specifics on what that means: A useful set of verbal identity guidelines will also include plenty of examples. And not just the big sexy ones. 05. Consider all touchpoints Strong brands sound the same wherever you find them. Not just on billboards, homepages or TV, but in emails, error messages, and tweets. When you get this right, the audience has the reassuring sense that they’re hearing the same voice every time. Their sense of the brand grows a little more. Basically, every word you put out is a marketing message – and should be treated like one. Clothing brand Spoke have pretty much nailed this in their email newsletters. They even make jokes about copywriting: On the flip side, neglecting these interactions, letting them slip into blandly corporate language (or worse), just undermines all the hard work you’re doing elsewhere. Here’s a recent email from Ryanair, for instance. It conveys good news in such a confused, complicated way, you end up feeling worse about the brand, not better. So that’s the recipe for a powerful verbal identity. Clearly defined messaging and tone, along with practical specifics about language. People need big ideas – but they also need the tools to put them into action. Read more: Are trends any good for branding? 8 brands that rule at social media 8 of the most controversial magazine covers ever View the full article

After someone dropped a zero-day exploit on Securelist this week, the platform rushed out a fix -- time to apply it. View the full article

Experts from Nokia, iboss and Sectigo talk 5G mobile security for internet of things (IoT) devices in this webinar YouTube video (transcript included). View the full article

One Cisco bug impacting its 800 and 1000 series routers had a CVSS severity score of 9.9. View the full article

You're reading Get Real-Time Weather Data for Your Website with Weatherstack API, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Provide an extra element that will delight, inform, or help users with live weather information right on your website. It’s easier than you think with Weatherstack API. Use the tool to retrieve instant – and accurate – weather information for … View the full article

Thought Google Glass was enough of a fiasco that we were done with smart specs for good? Think again. Amazon has revealed that Echo Frames are heading our way. While there are some interesting points of difference that aim to make these a more practical, usable option, honestly we can't see these taking off. Amazon announced the Echo Frames would be joining its range of Amazon devices at its recent Fall 2019 Hardware event, along with its own Airbud-bothering true wireless headphones. In terms of functionality, what's on offer here is much less groundbreaking than Google or Snapchat's ill-fated smart glasses efforts. The main feature is that these specs come with Alexa built in, so wearers will never be without their audio assistant. There's no AR overlay or camera here; the focus is on audio only. Concerned about having a Amazon mic permanently strapped to your face? Well, unlike the Echo, for example, these aren't designed to be left switched on. Rather than activating Alexa using voice commands, you turn on listening via a button on the underside of the right temple. The specs look almost like regular glasses Your spoken requests are routed via an app on a linked smartphone (Alexa relies on connection to the cloud, so they won't work offline). In turn, the specs get messages to you by announcing them via four tiny speakers near your temples. While early reviews report that they're plenty easy enough to hear, that does mean everyone else can hear your notifications, too. There's a touch-sensitive area that you swipe to respond to notifications or tap to ignore. Is that enough functionality to make you want to buy a pair (and actually wear them)? We'll let you decide, but we suspect not. Looks-wise, Amazon has gone a lot less space-age than Google did. From the front, at least, these look pretty much like a regular pair of thick-frame glasses. The arms however are noticeably chunky, so people are probably still going to realise something is up. At 31g, they're not much heavier than normal glasses. The lack of screen interaction also opens up options for regular specs-wearers. Amazon also says buyers will be able to get their Echo Frames fitted with prescription lenses – normal or sunglass. However, it won’t be providing this service itself, for that you’ll need to negotiate with your local optician. The audio only focus means you could put prescription lenses in these There's also the question of battery life. Amazon claims 14 hours with intermittent use (defined as a fairly intensive-sounding 40 Alexa interactions, 45 minutes of music, some podcast and music playback, and 90 incoming notifications). With constant playback, however, that figure drops to just three hours. If you are sold on picking up a pair, you'll have to wait a little longer. The Echo Frames are part of Amazon's new 'Day 1 Editions programme', which means they're not on public release yet, and the design will be refined further before they're rolled out properly. Feedback will come from a select group of US customers that are being invited to purchase a pair for $179. Read more: New Apple iPad arrives in stores – and we can't believe how cheap it is! VW 'fixes' iconic Beatles album cover The new Royal Mail van is making us inexplicably happy View the full article

Despite CISOs' apprehension about increasing dependence on SaaS applications and the security risks the cloud represents, adoption isn’t slowing down. View the full article

If you were to think of wireless headphones, chances are you'd picture Apple AirPods. But it looks like Amazon wants to stake its claim in that market as it revealed its own make of wireless headphones, called Echo Buds, during its annual hardware event, yesterday. From Amazon's point of view, breaking into the wireless headphone market makes total sense. Apple's AirPods are so popular that in 2018 alone it sold 35 million units. You might've even purchased some for less with the help of our Apple AirPods deals page. The ultimate guide to Amazon devices And while AirPods will usually set you back $159, Amazon looks set to undercut Apple with an RRP of $129.99 for the Echo Buds. The pair are equally matched when it comes to battery life too, with both giving five hours of music playback per charge. Meanwhile the Echo Buds charging case can hold up to 20 hours of charge. Expect to see a lot of the Echo Buds in the future... Complete with Bose's Active Noise Reduction Technology and a sealed in-ear design, Echo Buds promise to deliver a crisp and immersive sound. They also provide hands-free access to Alexa, leaving users free to stream music, play Audible books and make calls more easily. And with a tap, Echo Buds can access other voice assistant such as Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. The Echo Buds will be officially released on 30 October, but you can preorder yours from Amazon now. Related articles: Apple shares how AirPod users personalise their cases – and they look amazing! The best Bluetooth speakers in 2019 The best noise-cancelling headphones in 2019 View the full article

Calligraphy fonts are one of those typographic options that you rarely need, but when a project comes up that requires handwritten look, then it's useful to have a decent assortment of suitable fonts to hand. Unless, that is, you have the pen skills to do your own calligraphy. There's an astonishing number of calligraphy fonts out there right now, and sorting through them all to find the best ones is quite a challenge. That's why we've found a selection of our favourites for you; they're all free for personal use, and if you want to use them commercially then they can all be licensed at very reasonable prices. You can also find more free fonts here. 01. Scotland Proper old-school calligraphy For many people, Scotland will be exactly the sort of thing they'll be thinking of if you mention calligraphy fonts. Rather than being based on ornate, swirly handwriting, this one is inspired by early blackletter type; the sort you might see in medieval manuscripts, and which requires special wide-nibbed pens and lots of practice to carry off in real life. For a hugely retro look this is one to have in your library. 02. Maheisa Script We love Maheisa's swirliness If you like prefer your calligraphy fonts to be swirly and ornate, however, we have plenty of options for you here. Maheisa Script is a modern vector font by Jamalodin, designed to be used for beautiful text in greetings cards, invitations, logos and more, and comes with both upper and lowercase characters as well as symbols and a stack of accented letterforms. 03. Angelinatta Angelinatta's wonderfully bold and expressive A lively calligraphy font from Kokok Studio, Angelinatta features bold strokes and a set of wonderfully expressive uppercase and lowercase characters, plus numbers and a handful of symbols. A more advanced licensed version, featuring full punctuation, ligatures and alternates, is available now for just $8. 04. Marthin A more laid-back calligraphy font For a gentle, relaxed look, they don't come much more laid-back than Marthin. Created by Subectype Studio, it's a beautifully loose handwritten font with lazily flowing characters. The free version comes with uppercase and lowercase letters – no numbers, though – plus symbols and punctuation, as well as all the accented characters you're likely to need. 05. Glarious Glarious is ideal for hip logo projects There's plenty of energy to Glarious, an Opentype calligraphy font from Motokiwo. Featuring beautifully heavy strokes with flared touches, it's just the thing for hip logos or as a display font. For free you get upper and lowercase letters and not much more, but for $16 you'll get all the characters you need, plus alternates and swashes. 06. Beautiful Heart Beautiful Hearts is all about the smooth strokes Created by Garisman Studio, Beautiful Heart is a relaxed but elegant script font with some lovely smooth strokes and eye-catching swashes. It's a generous free offering with both upper and lower sets, numbers, punctuation, symbols and accented characters; the licensed version at $20 also gets you more swashes, ligatures, stylistic alternates and stylistic sets. 07. Soulmate An elegant font with some lovely ornate touches Another elegant calligraphy font, this time from Haksen Letters, Soulmate is packed with ornate touches that make it suitable for use with luxury products or high-class events. The free version has upper and lowercase letters, plus punctuation and some symbols; pick up a $20 licence for all the characters you're likely to need, plus alternates and ligatures. 08. Cameliya Stark Get a load of those crazy swashes There's something delightfully quirky about Cameliya Stark, a free calligraphy font from Moly Mol. What really stands out about it its use of enormous swashes on some of the lowercase letters, giving it a look of super-energetic handwriting. A commercial version, Ladies Script, is available for just $8. 09. Basya Jalai Basyar Jalai is splendidly tall and thin Described by its creator, Alif Quentin, as a light and fresh handwritten font that will inspire any design project with its incredibly romantic feel, Basyar Jalai's splendidly tall and thin with plenty of energy. Get the full licensed version, which features the full set of glyphs plus extras with all manner for flourishes, for $12. 10. The Doctor This signature font is just the right side of illegible Doctors are notorious for their terrible, almost-illegible handwriting. The Doctor, created by Putracetol Studio, isn't quite the baffling medical scrawl you might expect, but a handwritten signature font with a loose, stylish flow, and comes with uppercase, lowercase and symbols. Related articles: 13 cool fonts to give your work an edge Font types: A designer's guide 12 best free comic fonts of 2019 View the full article

Users scrambled to find a fix for the problem and eventually Google took responsibility for the issue. View the full article

In this RenderMan for Maya tutorial, we'll cover a variety of topics starting from creating a compelling composition all the way through to shading, lighting and rendering a production-quality image. We'll use polygon modelling techniques to create the environment, taking into consideration our camera position to avoid unnecessarily over-detailing our set. After preparing our models for shading, we'll explore how to use Substance Painter to create high-quality textures, as well as techniques for shading elements without UVs using RenderMan's texture projection manifold. To add another level of detail and complexity to our scene, we'll look at a few methods of generating snow in Maya using displacement and Maya's nParticle system. Adding atmosphere is essential to any environment, and we'll look at what goes into creating environment fog using a combination of RenderMan shaders and Maya fluids. Finally, we'll light and render our scene and output different render passes for composition in Fusion. And remember, if you're feeling stuck at any point, there are plenty of Maya tutorials out there to help you out. Download the files for this tutorial. 20 tips to master Maya 01. Set your camera Find the right focus and camera angle to tell your story The origin of this piece came from Pixar's RenderMan Timeless Art Challenge, where they teamed up with Kitbash3D and SpeedTree to provide assets for participants to use to create a scene. After familiarising yourself with the provided models, decide what the focus will be and find a camera angle that helps support your narrative. Fill the frame, but try to avoid letting the main assets stray too close to the edge of the image. Keep in mind the rule of thirds, breaking down the scene in thirds both horizontally and vertically, and find an interesting silhouette. 02. Block in shapes Build your composition with initial shapes and models In this phase, you'll block out initial shapes and models to fill your composition and support your narrative. This will help you get a better feel for your final shot and where you need to spend your time adding details later. Don't worry about detailing your models at this point though, just keep it rough to iterate quickly. Using a fence to create leading lines, the viewer's eye is drawn down the pathway to the focal point. Duplicate similar geometry to efficiently fill out the scene and create an interesting environment, such as adding trees for the background. 03. Refine models Use Maya's Soft Selection and sculpting tools to add irregularities to your objects Once you're happy with your composition, you can now begin to refine the models by adding some extra variation and details. Try to spend most of your time on key objects, or ones closer to the camera. Objects in the real world seldom have perfect silhouettes and angles, and spending extra time in this phase heavily influences realism. Maya's Soft Selection and sculpting tools are great for adding irregularities to objects. It's beneficial in this phase to add a simple Dome light with an HDRI to execute test renders. You can start to see how your models interact with light, even with a basic grey material. 04. Prepare for shading You'll need clean UV layouts to generate texture maps Now that you're satisfied with your models, it's time to prepare them for shading. For generating texture maps using Substance Painter, clean UV layouts are essential. Using Maya's UV tools, work through your scene and UV unwrap the models. Ensure all seams are facing away from the camera and avoid overlapping UVs. For better organisation in Painter, assign a basic Lambert material to each texture set you'll want to be associated with your model and name it appropriately (e.g. iron, concrete). Each texture set will equate to a separate material in RenderMan. 05. Create textures using Substance Painter Use layers and masks to add details and wear to your textures Make a new PBR – Metallic Roughness project, import your FBX and bake the mesh maps to start. Starting with a smart material or a substance from Substance Source can save you time, then work procedurally and stay non-destructive by utilising layers and masks to add details and wear. Export a smart material of your procedural shader if you'll be shading other, similar objects, then add hand-painted and/or model-specific details towards the end to finalise your textures. For use with RenderMan's PxrSurface shader, export maps for Diffuse, Height, Roughness, Specular and Normal DirectX. 06. Set up RenderMan shaders Make sure you use the right colour space for each texture With RenderMan's uber shader, PxrSurface, load into Maya the Substance Painter textures and connect them to the appropriate inputs. All colour textures (diffuse, specular) should be loaded using sRGB colour space (linearised), and all data/numeric textures (height, roughness, normal) should be loaded as RAW (non-linearised). The specular model for PxrSurface should be set to GGX and the Specular Fresnel Mode set to Artistic. You can overlay the height map over the normal map using the PxrNormalMap Bump Overlay input. 07. Create ground snow using displacement Use a displacement map to create snowy terrain Using a displacement map, you can create detailed terrain with footprints and other realistic details to support your narrative. In Photoshop, start off with a 50% grey layer. As you paint, values above 50% will displace upward along the surface normal, and any values below 50% will displace downward. In Maya, load this displacement map and connect it to a PxrDispTransform node with the Remapping Mode set to Centered. Then, using a PxrDisplace node, connect the displacement map to the shading group for the ground geometry. To ensure smooth and accurate displacement, add the RenderMan Subdiv Scheme attribute to the geometry to render it as a subdivision surface. 08. Generate snow using Maya nParticles Turn nParticles into polygons to create snow-like geometry To generate snow on the surface of objects, Maya nParticles can be converted to polygons to create blobby, snow-like geometry. Duplicate the target object and delete all the faces except those facing upward. With the object selected, create a Surface type emitter and play the simulation to generate particles on the surface. Once satisfied with the particle coverage, convert the nParticle object to polygons. Dial the Output Mesh parameters on the nParticle object until you're pleased with the snow geometry. You can also manually paint particles using the nParticle Tool to get more natural particle shapes. 09. Develop a snow shader With the right shader settings you can create a convincingly snowy look Much of the look of snow comes from the specular and the subsurface properties of the material. Start with a PxrSurface with an off-white diffuse and Jensen Dipole Subsurface enabled. Using the Primary Specular lobe, establish the overall, broad specular of the surface with high roughness. Building on that, use two PxrFlakes patterns with a high and ultra-high frequency and assign them to the Rough Specular and the Clear Coat Bump Normal inputs, to produce the specular glints you often see on the surface of snow. Add a high-frequency PxrFractal to the bump input to break up the surface. 10. Let there be light You'll need a variety of lights for your scene to look realistic Add lights to the scene to bring it to life. Using a PxrDomeLight, add an HDR image that captures the general mood you're after. Using an HDRI without a strong direct light source provides more flexibility by allowing you to create a separate key light, such as a PxrDistantLight or a PxrEnvDayLight for sunlight. Add other analytic lights throughout the scene where necessary, such as inside windows or lanterns. Running an IPR while establishing your lights provides real-time feedback and allows quick iteration. 11. Use fog to establish atmosphere Add a Volume Primitive with a PxrVolume shader to make things foggy Introduce depth to your scene by adding atmospheric fog. Create a Volume Primitive and scale it to encapsulate the entire scene. Assign a PxrVolume shader to the primitive and, to get a constant fog, set the density very low (0.001). To create a density gradient, or to control the density of the volume in world-space, assign a manifold with a 'world' Coordinate System to a PxrRamp and assign that to the volume's Density Float input. Using the ramp you can increase the density closer to the ground. 12. Add billowy fog using Maya fluids Simulate ground fog with Maya fluids Use Maya fluids to simulate low-hanging fog or mist. Create a 3D fluid container and scale it to the appropriate size. Adjust the resolution of the grid to get a smoother simulation. With a constant Density Gradient, enable the Texture Opacity and use Perlin Noise as the Texture Type. Run an IPR and adjust the texture parameters until you get a desirable patchy, billowy look. Adjusting the Shading parameters such as colour, transparency and opacity can further enhance the look. 13. Create falling snow Use an nParticle volume emitter to bring in some falling snow Add some falling snow to really sell the cold, winter atmosphere of the scene. Create an nParticle volume emitter, scale it up, set the desired particle rate and add some wind to the nucleus object. Since snowflakes are generally flat, create a small, snowflake-sized plane and use it as the source for a particle instancer. Assign a double-sided snow material with a snowflake alpha cutout to the plane. Create a new Dynamic Attribute and set a random value for the creation expression. Using runtime expressions, increment the value to continue the rotation. Under the instancer, set your new attribute as the rotation source. 14. Prepare to render Don't mess your snow up with a denoiser Since the snow shader contains tiny glints of reflections, using the denoiser isn't an option since it mistakes those glints for noise. The sampling will need to be slightly higher to accommodate – somewhere around 512 max samples with a 0.005 pixel variance results in a clean render. Denoising can be enabled for the fog render passes, so you can utilise a lower sampling rate for those. Enable motion blur for the falling snow render pass, and add any AOVs you desire for the scene, including mattes for masking in post. 15. Composite in Fusion Finally, put everything together in Fusion Load your render outputs into Fusion. Start by adding a background image or matte painting for the sky and add the beauty pass over it. Next add the constant fog pass, adjusting the exposure and gamma to dial it over the beauty. Perform a similar merge for the billowy fog layer, then finally add the falling snow layer on top of everything. Perform any colour grading and add lens effects such as vignette, edge blur, chromatic aberration and film grain, if desired, to combat the 'rendered' look. This article originally appeared in issue 133 of 3D Artist. Buy issue 133 here. Related articles: The 11 best Maya plugins How to speed up retopology in Maya Pixar Animation Studios: 4 secrets to success View the full article

Mattel, the manufacturer behind Barbie, has released a new range of gender neutral dolls that are designed to help children express themselves while they play. Released earlier this week, the Creatable World range sees binary identifiers ditched in favour of dolls that are more open to interpretation. Considering that Barbie herself has become a target of ridicule due to her unrealistic proportions (you certainly wouldn't want to use her as an artist's model for realistic figure drawing), this is a progressive step forwards for Mattel. To help break down barriers, the Creatable World toys come with stylishly vague bodies and faces. They also come supplied with diverse clothing, hairstyle and accessory options, allowing kids to deck out their dolls with either dresses, skirts, trousers, or a combination of the lot. Mattel is the latest in a line of brands tapping into progressive social issues. And while we've looked at 3 times big brands that tried to be woke and failed miserably, the Creatable World toys appear to have been handled carefully. According to The Independent, Mattel has worked with a "dedicated team of experts, parents, physicians and most importantly, kids" to perfect the look of the dolls, which come in a variety of skin tones. "Through research, we heard that kids don't want their toys dictated by gender norms," added Kim Culmone, senior vice president of Mattel's doll design. The product launch includes a video that promotes the doll's personalisation potential, rather than being heavy-handed with an inclusivity agenda. Complete with the hashtag #AllWelcome, the Creatable World dolls look like they're ready to take on a modern market. Creatable World dolls are available now for an RRP of £34.99. Related articles: 8 of the best design ideas in the world (and 3 of the worst) The best drawing tablet for kids in 2019 The best cameras for kids in 2019 View the full article

You're reading Subject Line Ideas for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Emails, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! The busiest season for emails is looming. The weekend after Thanksgiving promises to be special. Whether you are a buyer or a seller, Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a period of great deals for sellers and shoppers. While customers … View the full article

When it comes to tablets, Apple arguably dominates the market. And the company looks set to maintain that position with the arrival of its 10.2-inch iPad. The new version of the company's most popular model, which is half an inch taller and boasts a new Smart Connector (for compatibility with the Smart Keyboard), is now available online and in selected stores. When it comes to product updates, this all looks fairly standard for Apple, until you get to the price, that is. It's rare to see Apple products at a cost one might refer to as affordable (which is why we're already keeping an eye out for the best Black Friday iPad deals). But despite the newly updated, significantly bigger device, Apple has maintained the model's entry-level pricing. The new 10.2-inch iPad, which features Apple Pencil support and is powered by Apple's powerful A10 Fusion chip, starts at $329 for Wi-Fi models or $499 for those including cellular data. Those in education wanting to get their hands on the device can do so for as little as $299! These are the kind of prices we'd typically only see as part of the best Apple Black Friday deals, so to have them set at retail is a great result for consumers, and creatives in particular. Not only is the extra screen space is a big draw, literally, for artists and designers, it's more portable than ever, weighing just one pound, according to the Apple newsroom. Add all of this up and it's hard to see how anyone can compete with this entry-level device, in terms of both power, functionality and now cost. We'll have a full review on the new iPad coming soon, so stay tuned. You can order the 10.2-inch iPad via the Apple online store now, and it will appear on shelves in selected Apple stores by the end of this week (varies by country and region). After a different iPad model? Here are the best iPad deals in your area: View the full article

Magecart Group 5 has been spotted testing and preparing code to be injected onto commercial routers - potentially opening up guests connecting to Wi-Fi networks to payment data theft. View the full article

The issue in the Rich Reviews plugin is being actively exploited. View the full article

A known threat actor, Tortoiseshell, is targeting U.S. military veterans with a fake veteran hiring website that hosts malware. View the full article

To celebrate Abbey Road's 50th anniversary, a clever redesign of the iconic Beatles album cover has fixed a dodgy piece of parking that's been invading the pavement for half a century. And while it's a neat redux, it's also subtle but worthy print ad for Volkswagen. If you're not familiar with the album cover, it sees the Fab Four walking on a pedestrian crossing near Abbey Road Studios. But if you look in the background, you'll spot a hastily parked white VW Beetle obstructing the pavement. Created in partnership between VW and Nord DDB Sweden, the new Reparked Edition sees the car finally shift a few feet to the right and park correctly. And it's not just because VW wanted to swerve into the cultural conversation surrounding the anniversary. The automaker also wanted to promote its Park Assist technology, which makes it easier to parallel park. What's more, this ad wasn't just dashed off in a couple of minutes in Photoshop. It's a slick recreation that's even being sold as a print, with the profits being donated to Swedish children's rights nonprofit, Bris. See how it compares to the original Abbey Road cover, below. Beatles not included "Volkswagen continuously innovates to make the driving experience better and safer for drivers and pedestrians," said Jeanette Asteborg, marketing director at Volkswagen Sweden. "We want to show how far our technology has come since that little parking mishap, so that no one else has to live with a constant reminder of their parking fail." So if you've ever worried that you take too long to park, console yourself with the fact that at least it didn't take you five decades. Related articles: 5 ads so entertaining the message got lost New Volkswagen logo breaks its own rules 5 ad campaigns that changed the world View the full article

UX is a profession that never stands still, but the latest theories, practices and sub-disciplines can take quite a bit of explaining, and can't just be summed up in a quick tweet or Facebook post. To keep your UX skills up to date, then, new and up-to-date books can be invaluable. And this year there have been a lot of excellent and important releases. Here, we’ve selected seven books on user experience, all written by experts in the field and published in 2019, which have been making waves. Whether you’re a UX designer, a manager or just someone who needs to stay informed, they’re all well worth checking out. Also see our favourite graphic design books, or if you're after a different type of UX tool, check our best web design tools roundup. 01. Loops If you're building a new digital product, this is the book for you Buy it from Amazon In 2019, launching a new digital product is a careful balancing act between speed and quality. When budgets are limited and time is tight, how do you ensure you create a product that gets to market quickly but is also fit for purpose? The founder and president of Nine Labs, J Cornelius has been building digital products since 1996 and shares the benefit of his experience in this superb new publication. A practical guide focused on getting products out of your mind’s eye and into the real world, it covers the processes, exercises, and methodologies used by some of the world’s fastest moving and most successful startups and corporate product teams, in a way you can apply to your own products. 02. Strategic Writing for UX Writing is as important as visual design in UX, and this book explains how to do it right Buy it on Amazon When it comes to UX, visual design is usually the area that gets discussed the most, but getting the words right is just as important for the success of a website or app. And yet it’s a subject that’s often overlooked. This book sets out to fill that gap. Author Torrey Podmajersky has written UX content for Google, OfferUp, Xbox and Microsoft, and teaches at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts (SVC), so she has some great advice to offer in this area. In Strategic Writing for UX, she explains how UX text patterns work with different voices, and how to produce text that’s purposeful, concise, conversational, and clear. Other topics addressed include how UX content works with the software development life cycle, how to use a framework to align the UX content with product principles, and how to explore content-first design to root UX text in conversation. 03. Building Design Systems Everyone's talking about design systems right now, so make sure you know what you're talking about too Buy it on Amazon Design systems have been probably the most discussed topic among UX professionals in 2019. Essentially, they allow a design team build a framework that meets their needs by bringing together all of the critical design components, including style guides, pattern and UI libraries, CSS frameworks and other resources, in one place. Written by two leaders in the field, Sarrah Vesselov and Taurie Davis, this book guides you through the process of defining a design language that can be understood across teams, and explains how to sell it to key stakeholders and other contributors. You'll learn how to use an interface inventory to surface inconsistencies and inefficient solutions; establish a component library by documenting existing patterns and creating new ones; and create self-documenting styles and components to streamline your UX process. 04. Design for How People Think Getting under the hood of the human brain can dramatically boost your UX design skills Buy it on Amazon UX design is ultimately about user behaviour, but how much do we really know about how people really think and act? This book aims to delve deeper into brain psychology to provide some practical answers. John Whalen has a background as a psychology professor and now works as strategic product/service researcher and designer, so he's the perfect person to write it. In the book, he shows you how anyone on your team, without any specialised training in psychology, can conduct what he calls "contextual interviews" to unlock insights into customer behaviour. You’ll then learn how to apply that knowledge to design brilliant experiences for your customers. The book also explores practical examples of how Fortune 100 companies have used this system to build successful and profitable experiences. 05. Ruined by Design Half rant, half call to arms, this book by Mike Monteiro explains how you can help fix the world by taking the right attitude to design Buy it on Amazon Most books about UX are relentlessly positive and upbeat, and that can sometimes get a bit wearing. So here’s the perfect antidote, in the form of ever-controversial web designer Mike Monteiro. As a starting point, he points out sardonically that “The world is working exactly as we designed it”. For example, “Facebook’s privacy settings, which have outed gay teens to their conservative parents, are working exactly as designed. Their ‘real names’ initiative, which makes it easier for stalkers to re-find their victims, is working exactly as designed. Twitter’s toxicity and lack of civil discourse is working exactly as it’s designed to work.” But this isn’t just one long rant: it’s also a call to action to make better decisions as designers, and change the world as a result. And it also provides you with the tools to do so, explaining how to evaluate the potential benefits and harm of what you’re working on, and how to present your concerns, using data and good storytelling to decision-makers, in a way that will actually make them listen 06. Emotionally Intelligent Design New technologies and techniques can help you engage emotionally with audiences, as this book explains Buy it on Amazon Another publication probing the moral and ethical issues of UX design, this book explores new research about emotion and examines how design can help promote emotional well-being. To help you do so, author Pamela Pavliscak, a design researcher and advisor to Fortune 500, examines new technology that engages emotion, and new emotional design practices. In the process, she draws on both her own research and the latest thinking in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. Along the way, you’ll learn, among other things, different methods for blending well-being interventions with design patterns, new principles for merging emotional intelligence and design thinking; and how to use a relationship model for framing product interactions and personality. 07. Think Like a UX Researcher User research is the foundation of UX; learn about the latest techniques in this book Buy it on Amazon People are unpredictable, and so second-guessing how users are likely to behave in using your website or app is the road to failure. Instead, research is vital, but what’s the best way to go about it? This book takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of UX research, and offers practical advice on how to plan and conduct it, analyse data, and persuade people to take action based on the results. Written by researchers David Travis and Philip Hodgson, who have 55 years experience between them, as well as each holding a PhD in Experimental Psychology, this book would be useful to UX researchers, designers, project managers, scrum masters, business analysts and marketing managers. It includes workshop ideas to build your UX maturity, and stories from seasoned researchers, outlining how their research methods can be tailored to your own projects. Read more: The best new typography books of 2019 The ultimate guide to user experience 7 golden rules of UX View the full article