Rss Bot

After months of speculation and a beta version that nobody was able to actually sign up for, WhatsApp has finally rolled out its much-requested dark mode on both iPhone and Android. And guess what? Lots of people really hate it. In a blog post to mark dark mode being out of user testing and available now, WhatsApp notes that the new dark mode is designed to reduce eye strain in low light environments, and also hopes that it prevents awkward moments when you're on the phone; in fact it's even made a little video to play on that particular dark mode benefit: Dark mode finally comes to Facebook (kind of) Nice touch; not so sure about that Simon and Garfunkel cover, though. WhatsApp states that it two main priorities when designing the new dark mode: readability, which meant that it wanted to minimise eye fatigue and use colours that are close to iPhone and Android system defaults; and information hierarchy, using colour and other design elements to help important information stand out so that users can more easily focus their attention on each screen. The new dark mode is designed with readability and information hierarchy in mind We've downloaded it on iPhone (pro tip: if it doesn't appear among your updates, swipe down to refresh the page) and we like the look of it. It's not quite as grey-looking as our report on the beta version suggested, and fits well with other dark modes on iPhone. Our main note is that the dark mode accentuates the weird doodle pattern that's always been in the background of your chats; you may not have even noticed it before because it's pretty pale in the standard mode, but in dark mode it really stands out. This might explain the current social media uproar around the WhatsApp dark mode. While we're sure plenty of people are loving it, there's a lot of noise right now from people who are absolutely seething about it being ugly. Harsh, but as with so many other things in life, we're sure they'll get used to it. And if you're dying to get a bit more dark mode in your life, you should be able to download the new WhatsApp now. Android 10 and iOS 13 users can activate dark mode by enabling it in system settings, while anyone on Android 9 or below need to go into WhatsApp's settings > Chats > Theme and select 'Dark'. You can read more about WhatsApp's dark mode here. And if you want a new phone to enjoy all that darkness, then don't miss our best camera phones. Related articles: How to turn on Instagram's Dark Mode Photoshop gets dark(er) mode for 30th birthday How to implement light or dark modes in CSS View the full article

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Coincidentally, that's about how many lines of code it takes to create that picture in a web browser. Fortunately, the browser offers several high-powered drawing APIs and surfaces. Most notable are the canvas element and scalable vector graphics (SVG). Both of these features are now available in almost all desktop and mobile browsers but the APIs required to use them are rather low level and 'low level' typically translates into a lot of tedious and redundant code just to do simple things. Since writing tedious and redundant code is not high on the list of things that developers typically enjoy doing, even with the best code editors, there are thankfully several libraries available to help you with all of your browser drawing requirements. In this article, I'll take a look at some of the options available. We'll explore the most popular JavaScript libraries and talk about what their strengths and weaknesses are. We're also going to do a little spelunking into some of the lesser known projects that fill some very interesting niche needs – the kind that you don't know you need until you need them. 13 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try 01. D3.js D3.js provides boundless possibilities, as Shirley Wu's interactive Hamilton visualisation demonstrates D3.js is the big boss of JavaScript graphics libraries. With over 875K weekly downloads on npm, it is quite possibly the most well known and widely used of all the graphics libraries. It even has its own Wikipedia page. And, let's face it, isn't that when you know you've made it to the big time? D3 enables you to build data visualisations of any kind. You only need to glance through its examples page to see the world of possibilities. Better yet, visit Shirley Wu's interactive visualisation of every line in the musical Hamilton if you really want to have your mind blown. D3 is an all-encompassing tool. It has its own DOM selection, AJAX capabilities and even a proprietary random number generator. Each component of D3 is its own Node module that must be imported. For instance, the selection module is called d3-selection. There are also modules for arrays, shapes, colours, drag-and-drop, time and much more. The power of D3 comes with the trade-off of complexity. The learning curve can be steep and the code can still feel verbose. Building something as simple as a bar chart requires you to manually assemble the axis, scales, ticks and even draw the rectangles that will represent the bars. Developers often complain about the low-level understanding required to be effective with D3. This is largely because creating complex data visualisations requires you to have a low-level understanding of the visualisation you want to create. D3 is not the best option for pre-baked charts. For that, there are several other choices that will find you in the 'pit of success' much faster. D3 is capable of rendering to canvas and SVG. However, the real magic of D3 is in its ability to 'data bind' to the graphics it generates. Think of a chart that changes as the incoming data changes. With SVG, each graphical item is an individual element that can be selected and updated. This is not possible with canvas and, since D3 is fundamentally about powering data visualisations, SVG is usually the preferred output format. 02. Chart.js Chart.js has eight prebuilt chart types, which means users can get up and running quickly Chart.js is an open-source project for building robust charts with JavaScript. The big difference between Chart.js and D3 is that while you can build just about anything with D3, Chart.js limits you to eight pre-built chart types: line, bar, pie, polar, bubble, scatter, area and mixed. While this seems limiting, it's what makes Chart.js simpler to get started with. This is especially true for those who aren't experts in data vis but know their way around a basic chart. The syntax is all built around a chart type. You initialise a new chart on an existing canvas element, set the chart type and then set the chart options. Chart.js only renders to canvas. This is not a problem since all modern browsers support the HTML canvas element but it might be a hangup for developers who have requirements for SVG support. It also means you are limited in the animations that are possible. Out of the box, Chart.js has support for all easing equations and animations are specified with one property setting. While that makes it quick and easy to get an animated chart, not having individual SVG elements prevents you from being able to do complex animations using CSS3 transitions and animations. Unlike D3, Chart.js is not modular, so it only takes one JavaScript include to get support for all functions and chart types. This makes it easier to get started but means your assets can be much larger. This is especially true if you require time axes – Chart.js then requires Moment.js, which is ~51kb minified and zipped. It's far easier to create a bar chart with Chart.js than with D3. However, there is a ceiling that comes with the simplicity. You may find you hit the limit of what it will do out of the box. Often, developers start with a solution like Chart.js and then graduate to D3. If the simplicity of Chart.js appeals to you, you might really like the next option: Chartist. 03. Chartist One big bonus of using Chartist is that it is responsive by default Chartist aims to be a simple, streamlined charting library that is small in size and easy to get started with. It is also designed to be responsive by default. This is a bigger deal than it sounds, as frameworks like D3 do not resize charts automatically but require the developer to tie into events and redraw graphics. Chartist is also tiny in comparison to Chart.js. It weighs in at a mere 10KB with zero dependencies. That might be because it only offers three chart types: line, bar and pie. There are variations within these types (ie scatter plot is a line type in Chartist) but the tiny size and ease of configuration is countered by the lack of out-of-the-box chart types. Chartist renders to SVG instead of canvas, making it much more customisable in terms of look and feel, as well as providing far more control over interactivity and animations. However, not having rendering access to a canvas means that you might have a harder time doing certain actions. For instance, there is an API for rendering a canvas to an image (toDataURI). That option does not exist for SVG, so exporting a chart as an image will prove to be much trickier. In an ideal world, you would have the option to render to both modes. Chartist charts are easier to configure than Chart.js, as there are fewer options available. While it's possible to extend these charts with quite a bit of functionality, their focus on simplicity means that they are, by definition, simple. Chartist is a great solution for those who need a basic charting solution. Charts are inherently hard to configure as they require some sort of knowledge about how to set up the data along certain axis and grouped in certain ways. Chartist makes the charting portion as simple as possible but you may find yourself in need of a more powerful solution as you become more comfortable with generating your charts. Chartist also lists open-source framework support, including React and Angular. There is no mention of a Vue package on its site. 04. Britecharts Britecharts wraps D3, so you can enjoy D3 functionality without having to learn how it works Britecharts is a charting library that wraps D3. It was made by Eventbrite, who then opensourced the project under the permissive Apache V2 license. It offers a very minimal, yet aesthetically pleasing set of charts. While it can be quite a task to create a bar chart with vanilla D3, Britecharts' wrapping makes it as simple as creating a new barChart object and then setting its width and height. Britecharts has support for all of the basic chart types: line, bar, donut, bullet, scatter plot, sparkline and step, which is more than those offered by libraries like Chartist. It also provides basic tooltip and legend functionality. The animations for the charts are built-in and Eventbrite has provided some beautiful colour schemes. Ultimately, Britecharts is a great option for basic charting functionality. The configuration objects are quite simple and you still get the power of D3 under the covers without having to know anything about D3 itself. Many developers will find this a more compelling option than simply building a complete chart from the ground up with D3. It also has a focus on the data-binding aspects of D3, making it quite good for charts that need to change as underlying data changes. While somewhat restrictive in the available types, it also has a base chart type that you can extend to create new chart types of your own. 05. Taucharts Taucharts teaches users about the fundamentals of data visualisation Taucharts is another charting solution that wraps the complexity of D3 in an easy to implement API. It is built on the concepts from The Grammar of Graphics, a book by author Leland Wilkinson. It provides understanding of when and how to use which data visualisations to display different kinds of data. Out of the box, it features line, bar, scatterplot, area and facet charts. However, it implements the concepts from The Grammar of Graphics into 'Taucharts Language', which provides a framework in which to implement your own data visualisations. Taucharts looks quite compelling and the fact that it's built on D3 makes it an attractive and powerful option. There is the feeling, though, that the developer also needs to read The Grammar of Graphics in order to fully leverage its power. So far we've covered only charting and data visualisation. This is because drawing charts is the most common use-case for a graphics library in a browser. But it is by no means the only one. Another quite common scenario for graphics is, of course, animation. 06. Two.js Twos.js comes into its own when handling 2D animation Not to be confused with D3.js, two.js is an open-source JavaScript library for two-dimensional drawing on the web. It is also able to target all three graphics options in modern browsers: SVG, Canvas and WebGL. Two.js is somewhat similar to D3 in that it is strictly focused on drawing and does not have pre-baked charts or interactive structures to choose from. This means that, just like D3, you need an underlying understanding of the type of drawing you are trying to do and how to achieve that with the constructs two.js provides. Drawing a circle is rather straightforward. Building out a detailed animation, on the other hand, is a much more complicated endeavour. Two.js only abstracts the tedium of drawing shapes, not the tedium of the overall drawing. Two.js also keeps track of all of the objects that you create, so you can reference and animate them at any time. This is particularly important if you are doing game development and you have assets that need to be tracked for things like collision detection. It has a built-in animation loop, which relieves you from having to worry about animation frames, and makes it easier to tie in an animation library such as GreenSock. While two.js is powerful, its free-form nature might leave some developers unsure of how to begin and it's more of a niche tool for 2D drawing and animation. Another excellent option is pts.js. 07. Pts.js The predetermined methodology of Pts is good for interactive visualisations, as well as animations Pts is also a two-dimensional drawing library. It is fundamentally different to two.js however, as it uses a predetermined methodology for how drawings and animations should be assembled: space, form and point. The analogy its developers use to explain this is one from the physical world. Space is paper. Form is the pencil. And point is your idea. In terms of its implementation, space is a canvas element. Once the canvas element is created, you can add players to it. These can be either functions or objects. These functions and objects must conform to the predetermined interface that a space has. Pts is built on TypeScript, so there's no need to guess at what those are as the tooling you use will likely suggest those with autocomplete. For instance, a space has a start function that you can specify. This is code that is run when the space is ready. Within these functions, the drawing to the space occurs using the form object. Form objects can draw any sort of shape and the point is where these items are located in the space. Pts seems to be primarily designed for creating interactive visualisations and animations. Its implementation is interesting, albeit quite abstract. Developers may have a hard time understanding the 'space, form, point' model that Pts requires. This is another mental hurdle that will have to be cleared in addition to that of simply drawing and animating shapes. 08. Anime.js Anime.js works on a staggered system, which helps with timing your animations Anime.js is primarily an animation library. It has a built-in stagger system to make it more simple to have complex animations that overlap or are dependent upon the occurrence of another execution. It's common for animations to be timed together or to be triggered by one another. The staggering system makes this easier to implement, as it helps relieve some of the overhead of tracking everything happening on the page and manually configuring the animation timings. Unlike the drawing libraries covered so far, anime.js doesn't have APIs for drawing shapes. Instead, it assumes your shapes already exist and that you want to animate them. This makes it great for use with libraries such as two.js. Anime.js has support for animating CSS properties, SVG, DOM and even JavaScript objects. Anime.js is a good option for animating existing drawings and will likely be combined with another library. It should be considered an alternative to something like GreenSock and not a replacement for other drawing libraries. Anime.js would likely be used for more complex animations that need to happen as part of an interactive web experience. 09. PixiJS PixiJS is a 2D drawing library with an API that was built and used on Adobe Flash, so will be familiar to some PixiJS is another 2D drawing library. Its main purpose is to make it easier to display, animate and manage 2D graphics, so you can focus on building your experience or game without worrying about keeping up with all of the shapes and images you have to draw and animate. If you're building a game, assets (or sprites) can quickly balloon to a number that's hard to manage. A compelling aspect of PixiJS is that it comes from an API that was built and used extensively in Adobe Flash. This is a huge benefit for developers coming from a Flash background, as the experience will feel familiar. It is also similar to Apple's SpriteKit. PixiJS is not a game engine, so if you're using it for games, you won't find any tools or physics to handle things like collision detection. You'll need to wrap it in an actual game engine or one you build yourself, if you're feeling intrepid. PixiJS renders to WebGL. WebGL is an engine for doing GPU-accelerated graphics in the browser. This means it is useful for animations and graphics that use a lot of system resources and would perform best when rendered by a discrete Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). It is based on OpenGL, which is the desktop equivalent for running games and 3D graphics programs. Underneath the hood, WebGL uses the HTML canvas element. Serious graphics developers will appreciate the power of WebGL. However, these experiences may be degraded on lower-powered machines. Even as I was putting this article together, many of the PixiJS demos caused a noticeable slowdown in my system, which does not have the higher-end capabilities required for complex graphics and animations. 10. Zdog Zdog offers the look of 3D using 2D drawings Most of the drawing engines that we have discussed so far are two-dimensional. This is because most of the interacts we have with our screen occur in two dimensions – along the X and Y axis. Three dimensional drawings and animations are usually much more complex. Zdog is a library for building pseudo- 3D experiences that are mostly flat in nature. It's called pseudo-3D because while it conceptualises its drawings in 3D space, it renders them as flat shapes. It uses visual tricks to make 2D objects appear 3D. The effect is really interesting. It looks completely three dimensional when the animation is viewed but when a screenshot is taken, it is clearly a flat image. Here is one example: the rotating Mario demo. Since the renderings are 2D, Zdog can render to either Canvas or SVG. Zdog is a fantastic option for 3D animations on simple objects – especially if those assets incorporate aspects of flat design. Developers who want 3D animation but don't want to get bogged down in the complex world of 3D graphics engines might find Zdog an adequate solution. Additionally, with its focus on flat images, Zdog can afford a much simpler interface and much higher performance than would be required for the 3D rendering of complex graphical images. It does not have the elements of a game engine such as asset management and collision detection, so would need to be wrapped in a game engine or those considerations taken care of manually. This means Zdog is probably best for isolated 3D animations on landing pages. 11. Snap.svg Snap.svg has an API that will select an SVG element for you to then draw elements to it Snap.svg says it makes "working with your SVG assets as easy as jQuery makes working with the DOM". You might be able to tell from the jQuery reference that Snap.svg is a bit older but its API does feel as easy as jQuery and that is quite a powerful thing. Snap.svg has a clean and simple API for selecting your main SVG element and then drawing elements to it. It is most suited to developers looking for a quick solution for animating SVGs. It is a particularly good option if your animations are simple and you don't have a lot of knowledge about animation engines. While it is somewhat dated, it certainly shouldn't be overlooked, as it could be the easiest way to work with your SVGs. Snap.svg is refreshing in its simplicity. It's scoped to the job of selecting and working with SVGs and doesn't try to be more than that. Snap could be combined with other graphics libraries here for drawing and rendering to SVGs. It is also good if you have existing SVGs and you want an easy way to work with them. This article was originally published in issue 326 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 326 or subscribe to net today. Learn how to build better JavaScript at GenerateJS Join us in April 2020 with our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at generateconf.com Related articles: 21 steps to super speedy JavaScript Animate SVG with JavaScript 25 of the best JavaScript APIs View the full article

The MacBook Pro is undoubtably one of the best (and most popular) laptops for creatives, and the line-up is due a refresh this year. After the hugely welcome MacBook Pro 16-inch was released in November, it jumped straight to the top of several of our best laptop lists, including the best laptops for graphic design. The web is now awash with rumours about how the 13-inch MacBook Pro will fare in 2020, and based on brand new leaks, it looks like we could be seeing an update to that model as early as next month, possibly with a larger screen. What might it look like, how much will it cost, and will there finally be an update to the keyboard? Here's a freshly updated rundown of everything we know so far. MacBook Pro 2020: Design One design triumph with the recent 16-inch model was the reduction of the bezels around the screen, allowing for a larger display within a similar body to the previous 15-inch model. We called the new screen "gorgeous" in our MacBook Pro 16-inch review. It looks like Apple could be taking similar approach again – according to new analyst notes shared by MacRumours, we might be seeing a MacBook Pro with a 14.1 inch mini-LED display. This suggests that rather than reducing the size of the machine, Apple could once again trim the bezels, allowing for a larger display within something close to the current 13-inch body. If there's one design change we're really excited about for the MacBook Pro 2020, it's an updated keyboard. Of all the controversies Apple has faced in recent years, the butterfly keyboard saga has been the stickiest (quite literally – we've enjoyed many a trip to the Genius Bar with stuck keys). Not only has Apple issued a rare apology for the defect-prone design, but it was even targeted during a speech by director Taika Waititi at this year's Oscars. The new 16-inch MacBook has our type of keyboard Thankfully, a better typing experience seems to be on the horizon. Last year's 16-inch MacBook Pro saw a return to the traditional scissor switch mechanism beneath the keys, so we hope (and pray) that Apple will see fit to update the keyboard across its entire MacBook Pro line. MacBook Pro 2020: Tech specs Until Apple officially reveals the new MacBook Pro, we can only speculate about what it will offer internally. That said, leaked benchmarks reported by our sister site TechRadar suggest we might be getting a new model armed with a 10th-generation Ice Lake processor, one of the best-performing mobile chips around. The least we'd hope for with a refreshed MacBook Pro is a performance boost, and these leaks suggest that's exactly what we'll be getting. MacBook Pro 2020: Release date and price Right now, rumours are pointing to March 31 for the next Apple Event, which means the new MacBook Pro could make its first appearance at the end of next month, alongside reported updates to the iPad Pro and iMac Pro (which we hope resembles this amazing concept). While the release dates for new iPhones are easy to predict (they're nearly always revealed at Apple's September event), the last four years have seen MacBooks released in October, June, July, May and November. The latter was the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which didn't even get a release event. While we can't rule out Apple announcing the new model via a simple press release, we're holding out hope that we'll see it at the rumoured March event – if not before. Pricing details are similarly vague. The only thing we probably shouldn't count on is a price drop. Apple is known to keep prices the same when a product is refreshed. The current MacBook Pro 13-inch starts at $1,299/£1,299 for the 1.4GHz processor base model, and the 2.4GHz model begins at $1,799/£1,799. We're not expecting to see prices drop any lower than that, so it's definitely time to start saving. MacBook Pro 2020: What we'd like to see In terms of screen size, we'd prefer to see a 14-inch display within a similar sized machine than a reduced overall footprint. That extra inch of screen would make all the difference for creatives – and if portability is paramount, there's always the much slimmer MacBook Air. But most of all, we want to see the 16-inch model's lovely new keyboard come to the smaller MacBook Pro. And the Air. The sooner we can brush this butterfly business under the carpet and move on with our lives, the better. We'll update this post as and when more news drops on the new MacBook Pro 2020. But if you can't wait that long to get your hands on one, you can currently get some great deals on the current MacBook Pro models. Here are the best prices in your area: Related articles: New 16" MacBook Pro leaves previous model in the dust Mockup of the iMac of the future looks incredible The best cheap Apple laptop deals View the full article

We love it when designers have a bit of fun with a project while turning in a top-class job, and this new piece of identity work by North ticks all the boxes. It's for the Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill, London, which has been around since 1898, became a cinema in 1928 and eventually fell into disrepair. In recent years it's been undergoing an extensive restoration and relaunch programme after another theatre, the Print Room, acquired the building in 2014. Part of this initiative has been a new identity and logo design that returns the theatre to its original name (for the past few years it's been known as the Print Room), and North has carried it off with a design that takes a big typographic liberty – and gets away with it. 4 of this year's must-know typography trends You might not approve of this sort of thing, but we reckon the ends justify the means The new logo uses a monospace font – Maison Neue Mono by Milieu Grotesque – and through the simple (but often frowned upon) trick of extreme justification, it turns the name of the Coronet Theatre into a simple but instantly recognisable representation of an actual coronet. The effect's most noticeable on the posters for the theatre's new season launch campaign, where it's superimposed on a head and set at a jaunty angle. It works just as well, though, on other posters where it fills the top third of the layout. Its rigid grid-based structure, combined with more playful typography and striking imagery, adds up to a strong and engaging look that perfectly suits the reinvigorated theatre's new identity. North's identity system allows for beautiful and playful layouts While Maison Neue Mono is the typographic centrepiece of this new desigb, other fonts are in play across North's identity system, providing the Coronet's designers with plenty of scope moving forward. There's a great-looking serif in the form of Colophon Foundry's Fortescue, and a gorgeous script font – ITC Edwardian Script from Linotype – which you can see being used to great effect across a number of posters. One lovely final touch is the use of a number of hand-drawn coronet symbols being used as a secondary visual language across the theatre's merchandise and staff badges. These were inspired by original illustrations from the Coronet's theatre programmes and posters, found by North at the V&A museum. We love the secondary illustrations based on old designs from the theatre's history You can find out more about the Coronet Theatre – and see further great examples of its stunning rebrand – on its site. Related articles: The ultimate typography cheat sheet 50 top typography tutorials Has branding become boring? View the full article

An exploit published by a developer is easy to use and has already been used to build malicious apps that gain root access on Android devices. View the full article

Blackmagic cameras haven't always had an easy ride to market. Blackmagic Design (BMD) has had a tough time getting its cameras on sale in a timely fashion once it's announced them. Until now. The previous release, the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, took months to get into the hands of all who wanted one and, although it's a hugely popular camera, people still bemoaned the delays. This 6K model appeared out of nowhere, being announced as it was available, a move that shocked and pleased people and for good reason. An EF mount makes this model more attractive to some users who shoot on Canon DSLR systems who want to boost their movie output without investing in new glass. That alone would have made this a worthy product, but BMD hasn't stopped there. The chip in this release is bigger, at similar specs to Super 35, allowing for 6K images to be captured. But will this model become one of our best cameras? 6K might feel like an odd choice of resolution, in these days of impending 8K, but in reality it's a good figure. Cropping in to reframe for a 4K (or, shocker, HD) timeline now offers even more leeway, and many 4K Blu-ray releases are still based on a 2K or 2.7K print, so don't get too caught up in the numbers. Blackmagic 6K camera: Design and build This Blackmagic camera crams a lot into a small package, but it might not quite fit in your pocket BMD's strength in cameras has always been its colour science and pure image quality. We can spout specifications all day long, but that kind of misses the point. The Pocket Cinema Cameras have always enthused shooters and this is no different, capturing gorgeous images. Partner this with the included DaVinci Resolve and you have a full-on VFX movie studio in a box. Resolve ships with the compositor, motion graphics and VFX tool built in, so you don't even need to round-trip your shots any more. If you are considering this as a purchase to boost your abilities as a VFX indie studio, then there isn't much, if anything, that competes for this price. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K has all the connections you're likely to need The body is solidly built, with rubber bungs protecting dual card slots (SD and CF2 cards) although you'll more likely want to use SSD storage via the USB-C port, allowing you to plug the footage direct to your editing machine, a joy in its own right! Blackmagic 6K camera: Battery life Much has been said about the overall form factor of these cameras, but to criticise it for this is kind of missing the point. It's a cinema camera and that implies that it fits part of a bigger setup, of cage, power supply, focus pulling etc. The fact that it has a nice grip and commonly found internal battery slot just makes it more versatile. Yes, the battery will only last about 40 minutes and the screen doesn't articulate, however that is all just fine. BMD has a pretty handy battery pack to extend shooting life and you could always use a V-mount setup attached to your cage, as most cinema camera users expect to do. The screen doesn't move, but it's bright, sharp and touch-sensitive Blackmagic 6K camera: Screen and audio Back to the screen, then. It may not move (there is an HDMI out, for field monitors) but it is glorious to use. It's bright and clear as well as touch sensitive, for controlling BMD's famed UI, which only takes just a quick look to master. It's an intuitive setup, easily manipulated by a simple press of a finger, with each panel logically laid out for specific tasks, like audio setup and monitoring. Shortcut keys can be set how you like, from applying a LUT to viewing peaking, to accessing any number of functions. Returning briefly to audio, the BMPCC6K has built-in mics for scratch audio, a 3.5mm line in and a mini XLR, which has switchable phantom power, another nod to this camera being rigged up for full production, while retaining tools for run and gun. All in all the Pocket range from BMD are fantastic cameras. The only real choice is which flavour to get. The 4K, with its MFT lens mount and huge array of glass, or this 6K, with increased chip size and resolution and an EF mount. This article originally appeared in 3D World. Subscribe here. Read more: The best camera for beginners View the full article

Troy Hunt said the popular HIBP will continue to be run as an independent service. View the full article

BMW has revealed a brand new logo to coincide with the release of its i4 concept car and yes, it's another addition to the flat design movement. Gone is the classic black outer ring (now completely transparent), and the 3D and lighting effects have been removed to create a minimal new look. The circle design remains, as do the white and blue colours of the company's home state of Bavaria. We're fans of the newly clear design. Its simplicity suggests it has been refreshed with digital in mind, but it also acknowledges the logo's 103-year heritage – a solid example of both classic and modern logo design. Jens Thiemer, senior vice president customer and brand, says "BMW is becoming a relationship brand," (the new Tinder?) and the transparent logo was designed to "radiate more openness and clarity". The new logo on the BMW i4 concept BMW has added the 2020 design to its article on the history of the logo. Seen in context (below), the boldness of this redesign is more obvious – the removal of the black ring appears to be the biggest change to the logo since its introduction in 1917. BMW through the ages When BMW first published the article last summer, we were particularly interested in its debunking of the common misconception that the logo itself represents a propeller. This stemmed from a 1929 ad (below) showing the logo in a rotating aircraft propeller to promote a new aircraft engine BMW was building. The ad that propelled the myth “For a long time, BMW made little effort to correct the myth that the BMW badge is a propeller,” the article states, "so sticking to the story that the BMW is a propeller would not be entirely wrong". In a world of red tape and impossibly strict guidelines, it's nice to hear a brand suggest that its logo can be whatever you want it to be. Related articles: BMW takes the world's blackest paint out for a spin The 10 best logos of all time Designers give iconic logos a radical makeover View the full article

An Australian TV panel show has been forced to scrap its brand new logo after inadvertently (we assume) breaching international humanitarian law protecting the Red Cross emblem. ABC's Q&A with Hamish Macdonald was recently rebranded as 'Q+A', with the ampersand replaced by a plus symbol. In the new logo, a red '+' was placed on top of the white letters, creating the effect of a red cross on a white background. This emblem means 'don't shoot' in times of war, and is protected to avoid diminishing its power and meaning. It's an extremely simple mark that conveys its message immediately, and even made to our list of the best logos of all time. The red cross emblem, 1864 Red Cross Australia told The Guardian, “One of our team did get in touch with Q+A when their use of the emblem was brought to our attention. One of Red Cross’ roles is educating and informing the broader community about the protective significance of the emblem." ABC swiftly changed the new logo on TV and social media to one that features a grey '+' on a red background (below). It wouldn't have been able to simply invert the colours of its red/white logo, as a white cross on a red background is also protected. The new, new logo We've seen plenty of plenty of logo design crimes in our time, but few that have actually breached international law. Still, it only took a touch of colour tweaking for ABC to fix its mistake. At least it wasn't forced to scrap the rebrand entirely, as was the case with a few of our most hated redesigns of all time. Related articles: 6 logos that shouldn't work but do Where to find logo design inspiration Do people still dislike last year’s most hated rebrands? View the full article

It's many artists' dream to work on a movie like Star Wars. But not everybody realises that it's actually a real possibility. Industrial Light and Magic, the visual effects company founded in May 1975 by George Lucas, has led the look and feel of series since its very beginning, and its London art department is always looking out for new talent. Of course, ILM is not just about making Star Wars. It's also played a key role in the look and feel of countless other blockbusters, most recently including Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Terminator: Dark Fate, The Irishman and many more. So how can you get to work at ILM as an artist? Last Friday at Vertex, the sell-out event for 2D and 3D artists brought to you by our sister titles ImagineFX and 3D World, ILM London's Jason Horley, Pablo Dominguez Aguilar and Bimpe Alliu gave a talk on that very topic. Here, we bring you the highlights, and reveal how to create a well-rounded and varied portfolio that's specifically geared towards the requirements of ILM. (If you're looking for a new job, you can also check out our design jobs board, as well as our top Maya tutorials.) 01. Learn 3D You can learn 3D using free versions of software such as Maya It's been a source of debate among concept artists for some time: do you need 3D skills, or can you get by on 2D talent alone? Well, Horley was emphatic that at ILM London at least, that debate is over. "Every artist in our dept has to have the ability to work in both 2D and 3D," he stated. "In our work, speed is a really key factor, so you need to be versatile, and adapt to whatever the brief is. I've been to universities and met people studying concept art and I’m surprised that some of them still aren’t using 3D yet. It can be a bit daunting, but it's definitely an essential tool." That said, you don't have to invest in expensive software. "There are some free packages out there," pointed out Alliu. "For example, Maya has a free student version, and Blender’s totally free, even though it's an industry worthy tool." (See our list of the best free 3D modelling software.) 02. Simplify your art During their talk, Horley, Dominguez Aguilar and Alliu showed the audience a number of paintings that had been submitted as part of artist portfolios, but didn't quite cut the mustard. And one of the major themes that emerged was the need to simplify your concept art. When you're creating an illustration, you can put in as much detail as you like, noted Horley. But concept art serves a different purpose, and so needs to be crafted in a different way. "Directors look at these images so quickly, they have to be very clear; a quick read. Too much detail means you don’t know where to look. What you're trying to convey is atmosphere, lighting, and mood. If the colour, light and values are good, you can jettison all that extra detail." How do you know if you've got it right? "From far away, it needs to be something clean and clear, not noisy," said Alliu. "You want to be able to squint and recognise what those shapes are; get an immediate mood and sense of a story." If your art is not doing exactly that, you need to keep working on it. Of course, simplification alone only gets you so far. During the talk, the team showed the audience several pieces that may have struck the right level of simplicity, but looked unbalanced and lacked a strong focus. "So it's not only about reducing detail, but thinking about strong composition," noted Horely. 03. Learn about colour and light Personal art by Pablo Dominguez, a concept artist at ILM London Film-making is famously known as "painting with light", and capturing light successfully in your work is a good way to get the attention of ILM's art department. "When we see portfolios, colour theory is something we often find missing," says Horley. "For instance a lot of people, when they go to shadow areas of their painting, often just go to black." You might think you've learned all the theory you need to know at art school, he added, but that may not be the case. "Colour theory wasn't taught to me by my tutors," he recalled. "When I worked at Disney, which was 2D and traditional, they taught me about staging, about colour, about bounce light, about sky reflections; about all these things that I never learned when I was at college." For self-study, Horley recommends two reference books: Color and Light: a Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney and Color and Composition for Film by Hans P Bacher. And of course, you need to practice constantly to translate this theory into action. "Any personal work you do should be a learning process," he noted. Also read: The best art books 04. Learn about camera lenses Here's something you might not have thought: to become a successful concept artist, you need to understand something about film-making technologies. That's because although you're not making the film yourself, the person who is will talk in those terms, and you need your concept art to match their requests. "For instance, often a director will talk about rendering a scene with a particular camera lens, such as a long lens," says Horley. "So you need to know what that means in order to translate their vision into your concept art." Also read: The best camera for creatives 05. Start at the bottom Attending events like Vertex can help you make the contacts you need to work at a studio like ILM You don't have to be an experienced concept artist to apply to work at ILM London. "There are other routes in," explains Alliu. "There's nothing wrong with working as a runner and working your way up that way. And we employ art assistants too." Indeed, one of ILM London's current art assistants actually got the job through approaching them last year at Vertex, says Horley. "She was the very last person who came up to chat with us, and she showed us her sketches," he recalled. “We said to her: 'Go away and learn 3D'. And a couple of months later, she sent me all this stuff that showed she'd done exactly that. We were really impressed, and hired her as an assistant. So you don’t have to be a fully fledged concept artist already, there are other ways in." 06. Don't submit fan art You might think: 'ILM makes Star Wars, I love making Star Wars fan art, so I should include that in my portfolio.' But you'd be making a big mistake. If you think about it, the job of a concept artist is primarily to come up with new concepts. So fan art is an emphatic no-no. "We often see people have Baby Yodas or Jokers in their portfolio, but what's the point?" says Horley. "If you want to show a cool painting of a superhero character, create something new." That said, ILM's art department don't have any problem with fan art in general. "It's fine for you or your Instagram, and it's great for getting 'Likes', but just don't include your portfolio," says Aguilar. "Also, if you have a personal taste, such as manga, don’t let it influence your portfolio too much. We want artists who are versatile, so keep it as varied as possible." Keep your eyes peeled for more reports from Vertex 2020 on Creative Bloq in the coming days. Read more: The 10 best 3D movies of 2020 13 amazing After Effects plugins How to make an animated video View the full article

Whether you're designing website or apps, prototyping is a vital part of the design phase that enables you and your clients to get an idea of what you're building and how it feels to use. A good prototype can save you countless hours of explaining features and gathering feedback, and with the right tools you can quickly iterate and fix any potential problems before moving to production and user testing. Established studios will already be set up with one or more of the top prototyping tools, but if you're just getting started and cash flow is a problem, you might be reluctant to spend money that could be used elsewhere in your business. Thankfully there are some great free options out there, from free versions of paid services through to completely free prototyping tools that do much of what premium services offer. Here are six of the best to try out. 8 essential tools for UI prototyping 01. Origami Studio Origami's a Mac-only tool developed at Facebook Developed at Facebook as a tool for building and designing products, Origami is available free for Mac users. You need to be a registered Apple developer to get started, with Xcode and Quartz Composer installed, but once you've jumped through the necessary hoops you'll find that it's easy to start creating with Origami, thanks to a wealth of online documentation, tutorials and ready made prototypes. You can import designs from Sketch and Photoshop with project layers preserved, and create concepts with simulated scrolling, taps, swipes and page links. As well as mobile apps you can also use Origami to create responsive websites with features such as text input and drag and drop, and once you're finished it's easy to export prototypes to be added to projects. 02. Webflow Webflow gives you two free projects to get a taste for its abilities Webflow has plenty of paid plans on offer for all team sizes, but if you're looking for a taster then there's a free option that will do a great job of getting you started, allowing you two projects, client billing and free staging, but no code export or project transfer option. With a visual CMS you can create dynamic, responsive prototypes without having to write any code, and it comes with a library of templates and components to make it even easier to build your projects. Prototypes can be connected to over 400 services including Slack, Google Drive and MailChimp, and if you get stuck there's a wealth of online documentation to help you out. 03. Vectr Here's a vector design tool that's great for prototyping and gathering feedback Built as a free cross-platform vector design app, Vectr also works very well as a free prototyping tool. While it's maybe a little slim on features compared with other vector apps, it's designed to be easy to pick up and play with, and after following a few tutorials (there are plenty to get stuck into on the Vectr site) you'll be ready to start designing. One really useful collaboration function is its link sharing option; with that you can send a link to others and they'll be able to watch you edit in real-time and provide quick feedback. And once you're done, your finished design can be exported as a JPG, PNG or SVG. 04. Justinmind Justinmind's free wireframing tool gives you plenty of options to play with Justinmind's powerful prototyping tool is available to download for free, but to get the full set of features you'll need to sign up for a paid subscription. However, for more basic projects Justinmind also provides a wireframing tool that's free forever and allows you to create unlimited prototypes, pages and users for both web and mobile apps. During your 15-day trial period you'll get access to more advanced functionality, such as advanced web interactions and mobile gestures, plus effects, transitions and animations, so you might feel inclined to pay up for the full feature set once the trial period runs out. By then, though, you'll have got an idea of whether Justinmind will pay for itself as a prototyping tool. 05. Figma The free option from Figma is brilliant for collaborative creation For anyone wanting to work collaboratively on their prototypes, Figma is a brilliant solution. It enables designers to work together in real-time and also makes it easy to share works-in-progress with clients and stakeholders, and crucially it enables you to build prototypes that feel like the real deal, complete with interactions, animations and dynamic content overlays. While the professional versions of Figma are paid-only, there's a free starter version that's ideal for getting up to speed with its tools. It allows for up to two editors and three projects, with unlimited cloud storage and a 30-day version history, making it perfect for getting up and running. If you're a student, though, it's worth knowing that you should qualify for free access to Figma's professional plan, giving you unlimited project and much more. 06. InVision InVision makes it simple to turn flat designs into clickable prototypes InVision offers a variety of tools for creating engaging interactive prototypes, and like many of the platforms covered here it operates on a paid basis but with a free version. In this case, the free version of InVision restricts you to just one prototype, but as is the case with Figma, there are free upgrades available for students. Turning static designs into clickable prototypes is nicely straightforward with InVision; you can click and drag hotspots onto your creations to simulate click or hover actions, add links to other screens in your prototype, and simulate real-life interactivity by using gestures for transitions. And it's similarly easy to share your work; prototypes can be opened in the browser or on mobile, and InVision's LiveShare feature means that you can also present prototypes in real-time. Related articles: 8 essential prototyping and build tools How to avoid prototyping pitfalls The 20 best wireframe tools View the full article

Every year, digital design becomes more ingrained in our daily lives. Smartphones and devices filled with apps for everything from fitness and food, to travel and timetable – there’s really never been a better time to be a digital designer. Shillington’s graphic design course delves into the digital side of design, using industry standard software to teach UX and UI design to students wanting to lead the way in this rapidly growing area. Shillington’s innovative approach to teaching means graduates can have an incredible portfolio under their belt and are industry-ready in as little as three months (or nine months if you prefer part-time study). And there’s also the opportunity to study abroad, with six Shillington campuses across the UK, US and Australia (Bondi, anyone?). Sound too good to be true? Hear from the students themselves in these open and honest Shillington testimonials, and see for yourself in this inspirational student showcase. But before all that, here’s a round up of some amazing digital designs, all created by former Shillington students, to inspire you. 01. Friendly Faces font app Former Shillington Melbourne student James Freebairn is the designer behind Friendly Faces font app, which helps identify unknown typefaces when you’re out and about. Not only a super-helpful tool for any designers on the go, but it looks the part too. 02. Das Food food delivery app Shillington graduate Petra Venturini created this beautifully simplistic concept food ordering app for German restaurant Das Food. The cute, simple icons work perfectly with the limited colour palette, leaving users in no doubt of how to order their favourite dish. 03. Figured Cloud accounting app Accounting is not the easiest of subjects to come at from a creative angle, but former Melbourne Shillington student Benjamin Ngooi has managed it beautifully with his finance app, Figured. The clean, minimal design makes the subject both accessible and engaging. 04. Bean mental health app Previous Shillington student Meg Lawrence created this concept design app to tackle mental health. Centred around mindfulness, personal growth and self-care, the hand-drawn icons and earthy green colour give it an overriding sense of nature and an altogether friendly, approachable feel – perfect for the subject matter. 05. Wobbly Wonderful recipe app Apps need to stand out these days, and this concept design from Shillington graduate Vanessa Low certainly does that. Using vibrant graphics, the images immediately catch your eye – an ingenious way to emphasise the versatility of jelly. 06. Verst money management app It can be hard to be inspired by money, especially if you don’t have much. But this gorgeous money management concept app, Verst, designed by Shillington graduate Lucia Gajdošovà, is definitely something to get excited about. Sleek, clean and easy to read, Verst would no doubt keep even the biggest spendthrifts on top of their finance goals. 07. Buddy mobile network app “We’re all tired of boring, basic, banal data providers, this is why Buddy was created,” says designer and former Shillington graduate Stefania Luvarà. She’s got a point, right? Buddy is a world away from the design of your average data provider apps, which is nothing but a good thing. 08. Daily Green climate change website Shillington graduate Jessica Ibbett put together this striking website design for action on climate change. The attention-grabbing design references old-school notes, schedules and to-do lists to help spread the message of planning for the future. You can’t miss it, and that’s kind of the point. 09. Submerge wild swimming app Jay Van Duerse is a former Shillington student. He’s also a big fan of wild swimming, hence his Submerge app. A clean, beautiful and minimal design, Submerge shares details of the nearest ‘swimming paradise’. And it does so in such an effective, inviting way, it’ll make you want to reach for your swimmers even on the coldest of days. 10. Reefresh reef clean up app Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock recently, you’ll know the Great Barrier Reef is under serious threat from coral bleaching. To highlight the issue, former Shillington student Isabella Coman created this clean up app concept, which not only aims to do good, but looks really lovely too. Want to create amazing digital designs like these? Read more about studying at Shillington and learning to become a graphic designer in three months full-time or nine months part-time in London, Manchester, New York, Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. View the full article

Several flaws found in Nvidia's graphics drivers could enable denial of service, remote code execution and other malicious attacks. View the full article

Learning how to code may not be as daunting or complicated as you might think. Start making your career goals a reality and master the ins and outs of coding with The 2020 Learn to Code Full Stack Developer Certification Bundle, now only $38.99. With nine courses and over 450 lessons, this master bundle will teach you everything you need to take your web developer skills to new heights. Taught by top-tier industry instructors, the guided lectures will lead you through everything from fundamental concepts to complex HTML programming. Lifetime access to all the courses allows you to come back and visit each idea whenever you need extra help. Whatever your level of expertise, you're bound to learn new tips and tricks that make a successful web developer and build on your skills to start making the big bucks. And once you've got the knowledge, you can start to utilise our pick of the best web design tools. Receive over 50 hours of instruction Lessons in Python, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PHP, C#, and more will teach you the differences in each program and how to conquer each one in the most comprehensive manner. You'll capture how to know the difference between query languages and databases, create advanced database tables, write clean code that will make your work more readable, learn to debug any code to find and fix bugs, and so much more. With 50+ hours of instruction, you'll soon be on your way to earning your certification upon completion, a valuable asset to add to your portfolio that will give you an edge over the competition. Access to The 2020 Learn to Code Full Stack Developer Certification Bundle is valued at almost $2,000. For a limited time, this bundle is price-slashed to only $38.99, a saving of 97%. With all the content available 24/7, you'll be able to effortlessly finesse your coding skills and start up a prosperous career in web development. Read more: 6 huge web design trends for 2020 Master minimalism in web design Who are the unsung heroes of web design? View the full article

A security error in the Walgreens mobile app may have leaked customers' full names, prescriptions and shipping addresses. View the full article

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has revealed over 70 new pictograms depicting every sport in Tokyo 2020 – and for the first time in the history of the event, the images are animated. The beautiful designs, covering 33 Olympic sports and 22 Paralympic sports, were animated by Japanese motion designer Kota Iguchi. They each appear as blue fragments on a white background before showing a short sequence of the sport in motion, freezing for a moment, then disappearing. "It took more than a year to create them," says Iguchi. "I hope that they will brighten up each of the events." We've no doubt that they will – we're suckers for a cool piece of animation (check out our favourite css animation examples). We've been staring at the archery design for hours: It's fitting to see the world's first kinetic pictograms introduced by Tokyo 2020, since it was Tokyo 1964 that brought us the first static pictograms. According to the Tokyo Organising Committee, the original pictograms "arose from a need to communicate visually with an increasingly international group of athletes and spectators". The Olympics are a haven for graphic design fans, and Tokyo 2020 has led to some truly stunning commissions. We particularly loved these minimal Team GB designs revealed by Tom Pigeon last month. Tokyo 2020's kinetic pictograms will appear at competition venues, as well as across the games' official website and social media. Find out more about the kinetic pictograms on the official Tokyo 2020 website, or see more of them in action in the video below. Related articles: Tokyo 2020 Olympic posters are a delightfully eclectic mix Design sheet for the iconic 1964 Olympic logo unearthed Tokyo 2020 strikes gold with its recycled Olympic medals View the full article

When Karla Ortiz gives advice on how to become a successful artist, it's advice you want to pay attention to. The award-winning Puerto Rican creative has already ticked most of the boxes on any aspiring artists' dream-list. In her 10 years as a concept artist, she's contributed to several big-budget films, including Jurassic World, World of Warcraft, Rogue One, Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, Infinity Wars, and Doctor Strange. As an illustrator, she's perhaps best known for her work on Magic: The Gathering; while as a fine artist her work has been exhibited in major galleries worldwide. So when Ortiz spoke last Friday at Vertex, the sell-out event for 2D and 3D artists, we were eager to hear what she had to say. And she didn't disappoint: in a talk full of passion, Ortiz shared a torrent of wisdom gleaned from a career full of ups and downs. Read on, as we share some of her best tips. Also read: Art techniques: top techniques for painting and drawing 01. We all have bad days Karla Ortiz designed Doctor Strange for the Marvel Movie... but says she's as human and falliable as any other artist If you’re doubting your ability to succeed as an artist, then don’t worry, says Ortiz: you’re not alone. "We all have that shared emotional up and down: ‘I can't paint this right, so I suck.’ You don't believe you are as good as you are, because you don't see it. But that's okay, it's a very normal thing for an artist. You're not an artist unless you want to quit at least once." The most common trait of artists, she notes, is to constantly compare yourself to the most successful artists. It’s an example of survivorship bias: "the tendency to focus so much on other people’s success, it renders the failures it took to get to that success invisible". In other words, when you see a famous piece of art, you don’t see the countless terrible paintings that artist made which went straight in the trash. "When you see this incredible painter or this incredible VFX artist, you only see the end result, the shiny career," she says. "You don’t see the trials and tribulations it took to get that far. So always, always, keep your survivorship bias in check." To illustrate an example from her own career, she refers to her time at ILM. "I had a really horrible first day, in fact I had a really horrible first two months," she reveals. “I didn’t have any friends. I thought I was going to get fired. And then to make matters worse, I had this one really horrible day when nothing I did worked out. So feeling defeated, I went home." Stepping into the elevator, she was joined by the iconic Star Wars artist Ian McCaig, who walked in and emitted a heavy sigh. “Ian is a consistent source of positive energy, so to hear him sigh is something of concern," Ortiz recalls. "So I asked what was wrong, and he was like: 'I had a rough day at work, I couldn’t quite paint what I wanted.' "He said something so normal, but my mind exploded," continues Ortiz. “Here is one of Hollywood’s best legendary artists and he had a rough day. So I’m allowed to have one too. But my attachment to whether what I did was good or not was so strong, it invaded my ability to perform. That’s something you should really not allow yourself to do. Because we all have bad days. You’re not alone in having a bad day." 02. Age doesn’t matter You don't have to be a certain age to succeed as an artist; it's all about the art you produce Ortiz speaks at conferences all over the world, and meets artists from many different backgrounds. “But they all have the same fears” she says. “For instance, this adorable lady came to me and said, ‘I’m close to being 50: I’m so scared that I don’t think I can do this.’ But that’s so wrong. We have this ridiculous focus on age, it’s complete crap. It doesn’t matter, because it’s not a race. The whole idea is get knowledge and to get there eventually." Many people think you have to be young to succeed in the art world, but there are countless examples of artists who blossom later in life, and that’s to the benefit of everyone, believes Ortiz. “The best thing about art is that it reflects the point of view of a particular person in time, and that is an amazing thing,” she reasons. “So whatever age you are, don’t feel that pressure, that ‘I want to achieve this by the time I’m such-and-such an age’. I was once one of those people, and it was useless, it was a waste of my time. Your time is served much better if you focus on knowledge and practice.” 03. Develop a support network Reach out to others, as a support network can be invaluable “This man came up to me and said: ‘My family doesn’t like what I do: they don’t know what being an artist is about, they don’t believe in it, they don’t care about it,” remembers Ortiz. And this made her realise the importance of having a support mechanism. “Of having people around you who say: ‘You know what? This might be hard, but you can do it.' To have that person in your life can really change everything for you.” Of course, some people are luckier than others; Ortiz herself came from a family of artists. “So what if you can’t find support networks?” she asks. “You need to reach out to others. Surround yourself with people who will believe in you, no matter what. That sometimes comes in the form of friends, it sometimes comes in the form of online communities." Once you start interacting with other artists online, you’ll soon discover it's a profession that’s particularly friendly and supportive. In Ortiz’s words: “Twitter is a pretty scary place, but our Twitter? Our Twitter’s cool.” 04. Be resilient You have to be strong and resilient, and play the long game However, while a support network can help you, you can’t rely on it, adds Ortiz. “To be a successful artist, there’s also an element of needing to build yourself up, of becoming resilient and strong.” All artists get knockbacks and rejections, but you have to keep powering on and pursuing your vision. How do you do that in practice? “Detach yourself from the idea that your value as a human being and how good your art is depends on how successful you are," says Ortiz. "You’ve got to really disassociate yourself from that, because that will make you feel very very alone." 05. Art is a puzzle Before you can start to improve your art, Ortiz says, you need to understand what art actually is. In her words: “Art is a puzzle and the only way to solve it through practice.” But ‘practice’ doesn’t mean just blindly doing the same thing again and again. “For instance, if you were doing a jigsaw and there was a piece that wasn’t quite fitting, you wouldn’t keep trying to jam it in the same place,” she reasons. “That would be crazy. But we do that to our own artwork.” Often you need to take a step back, she says. “So don’t validate yourself on whether you can paint something or not,” she recommends. “Instead, ask yourself: do you know what are you painting about? If the answer is no, find out. Why does light bounce the way that it does? Why does everything look flat on an overcast day? Why does hair shine like a ribbon? Ask questions like this.” The best way to gain this knowledge is to pursue it systemically, she says. “So I’d urge you every day to do a least 15 minutes of art theory studies. You’ll start to really get things like colour harmony, like composition, shape, value. Do this consistently, and you’re going to learn a ton.” Check out our pieces on colour theory and the best art books to get a handle on art theory. 06. Learn from the masters Copying the masters can help you to create learn to great art like this Of course, studying art theory is only one half of the equation; it’s also vital to practice consistently. “A lot of art is just hours and hours of practice doing the things that matter, and at one point, things just start to click,” says Ortiz. But what should you practice? She recommends the master study: “You choose a dead artist you love, and copy one of their paintings directly. This should takes as long as it takes. If it takes you a week, two weeks, a month, that’s how long it should take you.” And it’s not just something you do at the start of your career, but throughout it. “I do constant studies whenever I can,” points out Ortiz. “I want to learn. I want to be curious. I want to figure out why things work the way they work. You can teach people technique, but you can’t teach people curiosity. Because to remain curious is to keep asking questions. Why does this work? Let me find out and make an actual copy of this, and learn and learn. Like, why do waves flow the way they do? Be curious, learn as much as you can.” Even when you’ve established yourself as a professional artist, it’s vital to continue learning and creating personal projects outside of your day job, she adds. “If you’re always in the service of others you’re going to burn out very, very quickly. Only doing the work that clients ask you to create is not going to feed you as an artist. It’s the things you do outside of that which will benefit your work more than anything.” Keep your eyes peeled for more reports from Vertex 2020 on Creative Bloq in the coming days. Read more: New Tokyo 2020 prints are a minimal design dream How to draw a rose: Beginner and advanced tips Art terms: The ultimate artist's glossary View the full article

Apple has been touting the iPad as a laptop replacement for a while now, perhaps most infamously through its 2018 ads in which a young tablet user asks, "What's a computer?" The ads were widely mocked at the time, but the last two years have seen the iPad come on leaps and bounds in terms of productivity thanks to a new OS and the sheer amount of incredible iPad Pro apps. And now, rumour has it that the rumoured iPad Pro 2020 might be getting the one feature that could turn it into a bonafide laptop-killer: a keyboard with a proper touchpad. The information comes (appropriately) from The Information, which credits the scoop to "a person familiar with the matter". It doesn't say who (we presume it isn't Tim Cook), but the mystery source claims that Apple is already preparing mass production of the keyboard accessory with longtime contractor Foxconn Technology, and "will likely release the accessory alongside the next version of the iPad Pro expected later this year". (See our roundup for all we know so far about the iPad Pro 2020.) Could it look a little like the Microsoft Surface Pro Signature Type Cover? So, this will most likely be an update to the current Smart Keyboard Folio, currently one of our best tablet keyboards and sold separately to the iPad. While we don't know which iPad models it will work with, knowing Apple, we can see it being restricted to the newest iPad Pro. The more basic models already use a separate accessory (the older but still great Smart Keyboard), and Apple will probably want to keep the Pro, well, pro. As regular iPad users, we're game for anything that might further increase its functionality. We're already big fans of the top-end tablet (check out our iPad Pro 11-inch review) which is edging closer to replacing the MacBook for several tasks – especially since the release of its own iPadOS. But we can't help but wonder – do we actually want it to replace the laptop completely? The iPad was originally conceived as a much more casual device than the MacBook, and the blurring boundaries are making things a little confusing. Soon we might end up with a device with an attached keyboard and trackpad, which opens and closes in a clamshell-type design. Oh, wait. Related articles: iPad Pro vs MacBook Air: which should you buy? The best iPad accessories Smart keyboards for iPad: The top deals right now View the full article

We love deciphering the evolution of a logo, and we love a good quiz. Put the two together and it's design geek party-time. This particular quiz is a jaunt through car logos of the past, and a fun exercise in matching past logos to a well-known brand. It contains lots of big hitters in the car industry, who all have iconic logos that wouldn't be out of place in our best logos roundup, so it's easy to assume you'll smash this quiz. But if previous logo memory challenges have taught us anything, it's that it isn't always easy to recall the specific components of a brand's logo – even when you've seen it hundreds of times before. Plus, who's to say the current logo looks anything like the original? Call on all the clues available to work out the brand Car specialist Dave Spence created the quiz, which is made up of images of original logo designs with the wordmarks blanked out. So, working out the answer based on shape, typography, style and colour should be easy, right? In some cases that's a breeze, but other logos are so transformed that it's not as simple as you'd think. In fact, there's one in particular that may as well have contained the wordmark, as even that bears no resemblance to the current brand name. Does this logo look anything like the current version? Volkswagen has one of the most well-documented logos in the design industry, with its previous incarnation being subject to stringent trademark rules that were disregarded for the digital era in its newest update. So that one isn't so tricky. But though other car brands feature on our pick of the 7 best car logos, you may not be so familiar with their history, which makes for a more testing, well... test. Head over to DriveTribe to take the quiz. How did you do? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook. Read more: Quiz: Spot the errors in these famous logos 8 of the best animated logos Where to find logo inspiration View the full article

The first full adventure for Woody, Buzz and the gang since 2010, Toy Story 4 didn't just introduce new characters like Duke Caboom (above), Gabby Gabby and Forky. When it came to the level of visual detail and complexity, it brought things to a whole new level. Last night at Vertex, the sell-out event for 2D and 3D artists brought to you by our sister magazines ImagineFX and 3D World, Pixar’s Dylan Sisson spilled some of the secrets of how the Oscar-winning animation was made. If the nitty gritty 3D tech details are what you're after, you'll find many of these points covered in our article behind the scenes of Toy Story 4 (and you may also want to check out our top free textures). For the rest of us meanwhile, read on, as we share some of jaw-dropping facts from Sisson's talk. 01. The level of detail was just incredible Pixar created six billion leaves for Toy Story 4 A few numbers will illustrate how far Pixar has travelled recently in terms of the level of detail in its scenes. Sully from Monsters, Inc. in 2001 was famously covered in over one million hairs, which was impressive at the time. But fast-forward to 2019's Toy Story 4 and even that number starts to look tiny. "For instance, if you count all the leaves on the trees in this movie, you’d have about six billion," Sisson noted. "That’s quite a bit, right? Unless you start counting the needles on the pine trees. We had over a trillion pine needles in the carnival scenes. This is the size and complexity that we’re dealing with now." Shortly after, Sisson made mention of 50,000,000 individual dust fibres too, but we were starting to pass out from the shock, and it all became a bit of a blur. 02. It all took an astronomical amount of computing power Characters like Forky might look simple, but a terrific level of complexity underlies scenes like this One of the most costly and time-consuming parts of the animation process is rendering, which basically involves high-powered computers pulling together the various elements of a CG scene, including all the geometry, lighting and motion effects, into the perfect final image. At Vertex, Sisson stunned the audience of 2D and 3D artists by showing them a single frame from Toy Story 4, and revealing how long it took to render. "This is the most expensive frame in Toy Story 4, and it took about 325 hours to render on four cores," he revealed, to audible gasps. "So that's over 1,200 hours per frame." Why so long? "We had a chandelier taking up half the shot," he explained. "And in order to get the transparency, those rays [of light] had to bounce around this giant warehouse. So that took so much time to render - and that’s including running a de-noise pass on it." When Sisson was asked in a later panel whether a chandelier was really necessary for the scene, he jokingly shrugged and remarked ruefully: "We could have had a pinata instead; that would have saved us a lot of trouble." 03. Pixar broke some of its own lights... on purpose There were over 17,000 lights in the carnival scene - but not all of them worked When you're making a 3D animation, one of the most challenging things is to create lighting and shadows that look natural, and the more elements there are to light, the trickier that becomes. So Toy Story 4's carnival scene was no picnic for the artists at Pixar. "There were over 17,000 lights in the carnival scene," Sisson explained in his talk. "We had the Ferris wheel, we had all these different rides, and they were all creating illumination. So we didn’t really have a direct light source in the night time scenes, we just had this pool of light from all these individual lights." And here's our favourite fun fact: Pixar ensured a super-high level of realism by making sure not all the lights were actually working! "In fact, three per cent of these lights are burnt out," Sisson revealed. This is not something most viewers are going to notice consciously, but on a subconscious level, it really helps you believe in the world. And it's this kind of clever thinking that really marks Pixar out from the pack. This was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to lighting cleverness, though. Globally Calibrated Exposure allowed lighting to be both more efficient and more realistic More importantly Pixar used a technique called "Globally Calibrated Exposure", which means all the lights in the movie were calibrated, allowing the lighting team to have exposure control baked into their setups. “If you’ve ever used a DSLR and changed your aperture, we basically created the same kind of setup for Toy Story 4," explained Sisson. "This is a practice that’s common in visual effects for movies, but this was the first Pixar film we rolled this out on, and it really gave a physically based realism to the lights. It was also very efficient because we could accurately change the exposure for different shots, from night to day." 04. Gabby Gabby was originally blonde Gabby Gabby's change of hair colour really helped the technical team out One of the new characters in Toy Story 4 is Gabby Gabby, a vintage doll created in the 1950s who's voiced by Christina Hendricks. She's a redhead in the movie, but originally she was meant to be blonde. Why the change? Because, would you believe it, it made her cheaper to animate. As Sisson recalled, "The character design department pitched over the original design, and the technical team was like, “Does she have to have blonde hair? That takes like five times the amount to render as she would if she had red hair. And she’s in a lot of different scenes.” The character department agreed to the change, and the technical department breathed a sign of relief. Because as Sisson explained, blonde hair is more challenging due to the way it interacts with light. "In order to render blonde hair, we’re not just rendering the yellow colour; we’re sending a ray in and it’s bouncing around maybe 80 times within the hair," he said. "Blonde hair is really transparent hair, so if we make it less transparent and more opaque then maybe we send the ray in and it bounces around about eight times. That reduces the rays we're sending in the scene, and reduces our workload considerably. We get a good result either way, but it’s a cheaper one with red hair." 05. Duck and Bunny were super-expensive to make Ducky and Bunny's colour design was non-negotiable As the example of Gabby Gabby shows, Pixar is always looking for new and inventive ways to save money. But Sisson stressed that this should never be at the expense of the story's needs, and offered an example of when the character designers pushed back on a technical request. It involved another couple of new characters in Toy Story 4, Ducky and Bunny: two carnival toys who have longed for a kid to call their owner. "They're these incredible twins with neon yellow hair and neon blue hair," he explained. "Well, neon yellow hair is the most expensive hair you can render. And if you have neon blue hair, that’s super-expensive to render as well." So, as before, the technical team went back to the designers. "And they were like: 'Can’t they just like be brown and black?' But the response was, 'No, they have to be these colours!' So the technical team took the hit for all the shots they were in, because it was important to the narrative.” 07. The cobwebs were woven by AI spiders Pixar programmed AI spiders to weave cobwebs throughout the environments The story of the cobwebs was one of the most surprising parts of Sisson's talk. "We had some software bugs in Toy Story 4 which actually helped us," he revealed. "We created these AI spiders in Houdini, and they would go into these nooks and crannies and start weaving webs. We’d render these webs out and that was pretty helpful." Just let that sink in for a moment. The cobwebs you saw in the film were not crafted by human artists, or pulled in from a reference library, but generated by digital spiders that don't actually exist. We are so living in the future right now. 08. There are endless Easter Eggs to discover The antiques store is packed with Easter Eggs from earlier Pixar movies If you have young kids, a time will probably soon approach when they just want to watch Toy Story 4 on repeat, all day long. But don't worry: even if you eventually tire of the plot, you can always amuse yourself by looking out for Easter Eggs. And according to Sisson, there's a LOT to look out for. "Check out the props in the antique warehouse," he noted, "because we have over 2,000 props from previous Pixar films." Pointing at the screen, he noted: "Here's some carnival stuff from Coco that we just dragged in, here's a snow globe from Knick Knack [a Pixar short from 1989], here's Arlo the Good Dinosaur, here's a Pixar image computer... so there's a bunch of stuff in there to look for." Yes, you read that right: over two thousand. Have fun trying to find them all! If you're on the hunt for more Easter Eggs, why not check out our pieces on Google Easter Eggs, or logos with hidden Easter Eggs? Keep your eyes peeled for more reports from Vertex 2020 on Creative Bloq in the coming days, and follow us on Twitter for all the latest live from the event #vertexconf Read more: How to make an animated video: Expert advice Toy Story 3 IRL remake is ridiculously impressive Disney characters' homes as Tiny Houses will leave you wanting more View the full article

The difference between being seen and being lost in cyberspace is a thin line that can be difficult navigate. If you're looking to help your business thrive, you'll want to be found easily online, especially on Google. Push your site to the top with The Pro Google SEO & SERP Certification Bundle and learn everything you need to master Google SEO, SERP, backlinks, Amazon SEO, and so much more. Industry research shows that quality links are still one of the top-ranking factors when it comes to getting your website seen on online searches (you can make sure your site is looking its best with our pick of the top web design tools). This 10-course bundle brings you everything you need to master the most important factor in your website's success. Conquer link building, target different searches, improve clickthrough rates to your site on search result pages, and more. With over 400 lessons, the step-by-step content will guide you through each platform and show you pro tips for making your website successful. You'll soon have a head start on your competitors with keyword targeting tactics for better traffic and top-notch ranking strategies on Google SEO, YouTube, Amazon, and others. Discover tactics to grow your business Not only will you gain insights into the best tools for SEO and SERP success, but you'll also learn the most effective marketing strategies for furthering your growth potential. Learn top social media tactics to launch your business, discover how to create successful Amazon ads and prosper at your Amazon product niche. You'll also be taught how to brand yourself and your business as an authority online, seamlessly. This jam-packed bundle comes complete with a certification of completion, making it a powerful addition to your résumé and professional milestones. Access to The Pro Google SEO & SERP Certification Bundle will typically cost you $2,000. For a limited time, you'll be able to bring your site to the top for only $29 (that's 98% off). With all the content available 24/7, you'll be able to effortlessly climb the search ladder and bring valuable professional and financial growth into 2020. Read more: SEO tricks: 16 ways to outrank your competitors Google's hidden AR tool will blow your mind 7 ways to boost Instagram engagement View the full article

CEO Mary T. Barra addressed the high stakes in rolling out self-driving cars and biometric-enhanced vehicles, where one cyber-event could derail plans for emerging automotive technologies. View the full article

When Apple revealed the new Mac Pro in November, it also announced that a set of optional wheels would be available for the heavyweight machine. It wasn't until a month later that the price of said wheels was revealed: $100. Per wheel. That adds an eye-watering $400 to an already eye-watering $5,999 for the Mac Pro (and that's only the basic model), with the option of adding a maxing out the specs for a grand total of over $53,000. We'll give you a moment to dry your eyes. So problem number one is the cost. And now, YouTuber Marques Brownlee has discovered another pretty major flaw with those wheels: they don't have brakes. So, if you're planning to use them, you might want to take a spirit level to your desk or floor first. If it isn't perfectly straight, your $53k Mac Pro might just roll off into the sunset (and it won't be rolling into our best computers for graphic designers list at that rate). After watching Brownlee's video, the omission of some sort of wheel lock seems pretty glaring. And when it comes to suggestions for how Apple might fix the problem, Twitter users are on a roll (ahem). We're particularly fond of this Wedge Pro concept (and its genius tagline) by the ever-reliable @JonyIveParody: While we did gawp at the price of the Mac Pro and its many upgrade options ($999 for a display stand?), we did concede that it isn't aimed at most creatives – you're more likely to find it rolling around the offices or production suites of companies with lots of cash to burn. If you're looking for something more affordable (and less likely to run away), see today's best deals below. Related articles: Mac Pro 2019: release date, price, specs and latest news Apple’s latest Mac Pro is easy to fix (just expensive to buy) MacBook Pro 2020: Everything we know so far View the full article

Ask anybody to name an Adobe product and we bet they'll say Photoshop. Ask for more and you might hear Illustrator, InDesign or After Effects. But do you think you could name 50? Us neither – until now. When YouTuber Humtog couldn't find an official introduction to Adobe's entire Creative Suite and beyond, he decided to make his own – and the result is 10 minutes of essential viewing for any kind of digital creative. While there are tons of detailed Photoshop tutorials and Illustrator tutorials around, this is the first time we've seen every single app explained in one place: Get Adobe Creative Cloud All those icons look like some kind of creative periodic table – which is appropriate seeing as there's an Adobe app for pretty much every element of digital creativity these days. It's surprising that there isn't an official whistle-stop tour of Adobe's entire offering available, but we can't imagine it being much clearer than this. As well as introducing each app and what it's generally used for, Humtog points out differences between similar-seeming apps such as Photoshop vs Lightroom. A particularly nice touch is the animated character who occasionally pops up with the sort of questions we're usually too embarrassed to ask ("but isn't Flash, like, dead?"). As well as being useful and informative, the video is a fascinating window into the huge world of creativity offered by Adobe. You could be a seasoned pro at one of these tools and never have heard of another. As one Reddit user writes, "This is a better explanation than I've ever heard and I've used many of these tools in some professional capacity for almost 20 years. Phenomenal video!" Humtog says the video took over a year to make, and he "stopped making it mid-way due to how time-consuming it got". Thankfully, his hard work seems to be paying off. At the end of the video he jokes that he'd like to improve his current subscriber count of two – and right now he's on 3.33k. On the strength of this video alone, we'd say he's definitely worth a subscribe. Related articles: Take your Adobe CC skills to the next level Photoshop 2020 review The 6 best laptops for Photoshop in 2020 View the full article

Calling all photographers! Get ready to move quickly because there's an incredible deal running on Adobe's Photography Plan, but you need to be super-quick as it ends today. Yes, today! If you're in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, you can take advantage of this awesome deal that takes a sweet 16% off super-popular apps like Photoshop for iPad and desktop, and Lightroom. If you're speedy enough, you could have all the editing apps you'll ever need to up your photography game. Not sure whether this plan is for you? Take a look at exactly what Adobe's Photography Plan offers: Lightroom CC for desktop and mobile photo editing Lightroom Classic CC for desktop-focused photo editing Photoshop CC on both desktop and iPad to transform your photos Spark Premium to create graphics, web pages and videos Adobe Portfolio to build showcase websites easily Adobe Fonts for all your font needs 20 GB of cloud storage to get you started These Adobe apps mean there need be no end to your creativity. Your projects will reflect the limitless possibilities that the precision editing and compositing tools deliver. These tools enable you to create stunning, multilayered artwork by combining images, play with colour and effects to elevate your images, move or remove objects within your images, and even turn photos into paintings or 3D objects. You don't want to miss this offer, but you need to put your skates on as this is your last chance. We repeat: the offer ends TODAY! Not in EMEA regions? Check out our other Adobe Creative Cloud discount post, which we update regularly with all the top offers. Read more: How to make a photo collage in Photoshop Photoshop 2020 review The best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article