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PIXL is an infinitely expandable system of building blocks. So far, so LEGO, right? But how about this: these little blocks can connect on any edge, so you can build just about any 3D shape you want, or even stick to 2D pixel art (more on that later). There's no fiddly clicking or lining up, either – PIXL cubes connect via auto-polarising internal magnets. No wonder this Kickstarter project has already knocked its goal right out of the park. Auto-rotating magnets mean you can connect these blocks on any side PIXL has been designed by The McLachlan Brothers – the minds behind another Kickstarter success story, the Fidget Cube. And there is something about this building system that fully appeals to our creative urges. PIXL cubes connect using mysterious-sounding rare-earth magnets, which self-correct so you can connect them any way you like. Simply take one PIXL block and place another one next to it; the two will immediately click together. From there, you can choose to line up your blocks so they're perfectly flush with each other, or add some dimension to your model by rotating or shifting the blocks to create depth. They can be used to build complex (or simple) 2D pixel art Unlike with LEGO, you can also build flat with PIXL blocks, to create impressive 2D artwork. With four sizes and a whopping 52 different colours in the range, you've got have a pretty varied palette to work with. The creators have put together a companion app to provide inspiration to PIXL users. As well as sharing other designers' work, you can upload images and the app will convert them into patterns for you to follow, using the block shapes and colours in the PIXL range. So essentially you'll be able to recreate anything from your latest Instagram snap to the Mona Lisa, in tiny magnetic cubes. Cool right? Build out pretty much any shape you want "We believe in playing. And we think everyone has a creative side, whether or not they’d traditionally consider themselves a 'creative person'. What we hope to do is provide the world with a tool... that unleashes that creativity," explain the MacLachlan Brothers on their Kickstarter page. "One of our favourite things about PIXL is that there are just no rules." At time of writing, the project was 891 per cent funded, with over a month remaining on the Kickstarter. So it's safe to say these addictive little cubes will be making their way onto the market soon. Read more: Lego art: 40 designs that will blow your mind Coding for kids: 8 top toys 10 inspiring design toys for your desk View the full article

In J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Owen Grady and Claire Dearing return to Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from an erupting volcano. However, their efforts are undermined by those with more nefarious plans for the prehistoric beasts. Just under 1,200 visual effects shots were supervised by David Vickery, with help from his ILM colleagues in London and Vancouver, along with other contributors. “We did establishing shots of Isla Nublar,” states ILM visual effects supervisor Alex Wuttke. “The challenge there was to stay true to all of the various depictions of the geography of the island that we’ve seen before, and put a big volcano in the middle of it.” You could create little boundaries of CG vegetation around the flowing lava, which would catch light and be driven by the thermals being kicked out Alex Wuttke, ILM Aerial plate photography was shot of Hawaii with the wider views generated in CG. The opening sequence follows a team of mercenaries in small submersibles, on an expedition to recover the Dominus Rex bones. Powerful searchlights on the aquatic vessels assisted with the illumination of the underwater environment. “Whatever falls within the beam gets slightly less falloff than what’s outside of it. This helps with the sense of claustrophobia, because anything outside of the beams you can’t see, while things that fall within reveal themselves.” For the thinner smoke, ILM Vancouver used Plume (an in-house ILM tool for simulations) while ILM London created pyroclastic flows in Houdini. “The volcano eruption is compressed from a real-world to a cinematic timeline, so things happen quickly,” notes Wuttke. The team built a big vegetation toolkit, which could be used for scenes involving dinosaurs knocking vegetation aside, but also for capturing lava moving through the jungle. The volcanic eruption presented major VFX challenges "You could create little boundaries of CG vegetation around the flowing lava, which would catch light and be driven by the thermals being kicked out by the lava. A lot of times we were augmenting the plate with digital vegetation to give it that interaction.” The ILM animation team in London used simple geometry and deformers in Maya previs to ensure the lava worked properly. They established the amount of lava, where it would pour and how quickly, to enable the effects team to get their simulations moving in the correct direction. Practical realism A gyrosphere containing two of the characters tumbles into the ocean, leading to a long underwater shot. “Those were big and difficult effects simulations that needed to feel believable and be readable on-screen,” states animation supervisor Jance Rubinchik. “We looked at a lot of references of whales breaching and diving back down. What we found was when large objects crash into the water, you get tons of bubbles streaming off of them, which tends to obscure everything. There was a lot of back and forth trying to arrive at something that feels like you’re underwater but also isn’t hiding it too much.” Every location was based on real elements. “In a lot of occasions, we created a digital version of the environment that we shot in, to give us more flexibility with the camera placement.” You look at the anatomy of each dinosaur to figure out what real-life references you can grab to give them a unique movement Jance Rubinchik, ILM Wherever possible, the team tried to make use of animatronics – specialists built a whole kit of different dinosaur parts, as well as full creature builds. "There were instances of digital augmentation to give the animatronic an extra range of motion," says Wuttke. "When you have long shots and stampeding dinosaurs, we switched to fully digital versions.” Digital files of the creatures were created at ILM and shared with Scanlan to ensure visual consistency between the CG and animatronic versions. “You look at the anatomy of each dinosaur to figure out what real-life references you can grab to give them a unique movement,” remarks Rubinchik. “For the Stygimoloch, we looked at cassowaries and ostriches. It’s a lot of pantomime. You have to try to find what types of poses indicate what sort of emotion, and break those up to make it as clear as possible for the audience. Then you try to work in any personality stuff that you can. The Stygimolochs were always running around smashing into things, so we did a lot of little twitches, shudders and headshakes to try to make them funnier.” New and familiar characters “The Indoraptor was our new addition to the family of genetically engineered dinosaurs,” remarks Wuttke. “There’s a lot of Gothic and Dracula influence. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the show working out animation cycles, making sure that we could achieve the required range of motion with the design. Indo has these long limbs and is quite skeletal, which means he can get into various contorted poses easily.” Bayona was keen to make the genetic hybrid creature slightly psychotic, so the animation team introduced little shakes and unexpected tremors. Its black skin combined with the nighttime setting helped add to the horror and suspense. “Bayona liked the idea of not being able to see the dinosaur at times; he thinks that is scarier. It played in our favour. You get these memorable moments where you can almost see nothing and get this dark flash that reverses out of the backlight," adds Wuttke. Baby Blue needed to be playful, but still feel like a Velociraptor Making a reappearance is Blue, the female Velociraptor raised by Owen Grady. “A higher-resolution version of Blue was created with really fine detail and face shapes so we could get those extreme close-ups that Bayona was after,” remarks Rubinchik. “We wanted Blue to feel like the same character from Jurassic World, but also deepen the relationship between her and Owen." In the film, you see how Owen's character raised Blue from a baby. "It was fun getting to explore how the baby raptors would move," adds Rubinchik. "They had to feel like a raptor but also be fun and playful, almost like puppies.” Audience expectations also needed to be addressed. “We have to be careful with a character like Blue because she is iconic and recognisable,” notes Wuttke. Invisible effects Along with principal photography taking place in Hawaii, sets were built at Pinewood Studios in the UK. The diorama room in Lockwood Mansion was a large set, although the team did use a lot of CG set extensions, on the exterior of the house in particular. Rubinchik explains that putting the CGI Indoraptor into the set helped it feel more real. “When Indo is on the roof that was all a real set, but there were pieces that we had to augment and replace – for example, when Indo falls through the glass domed roof,” he adds. When Ken Wheatleyis in the cage with Indo that was all animatronics... You get a more believable performance than having them act against a green tennis ball Jance Rubinchik, ILM Animatronics were also used as much as possible to add to the realism. “When Ken Wheatley [Ted Levine] is in the cage with Indo that was all animatronics. The actor was really approaching, poking and prodding Indo. We augmented the animatronics. You get a more believable performance than having them act against a green tennis ball.” The finale is a stand-out moment. “Getting believable rain on all of the characters, who are super close to the camera, was crazy,” states Rubinchik. “We were getting so close to dinosaurs that we were seeing the inside of their mouths. It was a constant back-and-forth with the modelling team to give us more control and better deformation to the level of detail that Bayona was after in those extreme close-ups.” The fight in a child's bedroom required the creation of 130 assets One of Wuttke's favourite scenes is the fight between Blue and Indo, which takes place in a child's bedroom; an interior set at Lockwood Mansion. The room is filled with toys, and required the creation of 130 assets. "Bayona wanted to make it feel claustrophobic," remarks Wuttke. "Getting a clarity of action and blocking through that scene was one of the biggest challenges, but the results were cool.” There are also plenty of invisible effects. When dinosaurs are planting their feet and you see wet mud lifting up and cracking, leaves moving, twigs shifting and getting knocked around,” notes Rubinchik. “It’s stuff you don’t even register when watching the shot as an audience member, but it doesn’t feel real until you have that level of interaction.” This article was originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 238 or subscribe. Read more: Top blockbuster VFX you're not meant to see Big VFX on a budget 10 movies that pushed VFX to a new level View the full article

A high severity zero-day flaw exists in Cisco System's SIP inspection engine. View the full article

Meanwhile, Saturday now is the most “dangerous” day of the week for DDoS attacks. View the full article

If you've ever played Pokémon on the Game Boy or ventured out with the immensely popular Pokémon Go app, chances are you've imagined what the franchise's creatures would look like if they were real. Well, wonder no more, because concept artist and writer Joshua Dunlop has started bringing them to life with his amazing pieces of 3D art. Each month on his Patreon page, Dunlop will be creating a new Pokemon from the first generation as part of his Pokémon Zoology series. His long-term goal is to build a website that showcases the critters in a true-to-life way, even going so far as to imagine what their biology, diet and habitat would be like if they could be found in the real world. You'll already have seen a realistic looking Pikachu at the top of this page, complete with sparks buzzing out of its red cheeks, but there are dozens more to enjoy. We've rounded up some of our favourites in the gallery below, just click left to right with the arrow icons to check them out. If you want to see the full collection of realistic 3D Pokémon, head over to Dunlop's ArtStation page where you'll find the likes of Meowth, Butterfree and Dugtrio. And remember, if you want to help Dunlop out on his Pokemon mission, spare what you can over on his Patreon page. There are even exclusive rewards up for grabs depending on how much you donate. Gotta render 'em all! Related articles: Munch's Scream gets a Pokémon twist Turn 2D illustrations into 3D art The best 3D modelling software 2018 View the full article

Savage Interactive released Procreate Pocket at the end of 2014. The iPhone version of Procreate was well received, with users making the most of the app’s 12 default brushes to paint on the go. In the years since, artists have come to expect more from their creative apps, and so the developers have stepped up to the plate with Procreate Pocket 2 , which, with its freshly written underlying code, may as well be a brand new paint app. Clean, user-friendly interface The Modify, Layers, and Adjustments dialogs are just a quick tap and a swipe away When it’s launched, you’re presented with a screen asking if you want to select a canvas from displayed examples, use a user-created one, import an existing image, open a photo, or create a new canvas. New canvases can be created in various sizes up to a whopping 8K resolution. Procreate Pocket 2 has a clean and minimally invasive interface that makes the most of the iPhone X’s larger screen, although it works well on smaller iPhone models, too. Basic tools are located at the top of the screen including a drop-down Modify menu. Two small tabs on the left control your brush’s size and opacity level. The Modify menu items enables you to make changes to either the app or your image. The spanner icon opens the Actions menu where you alter how the app behaves, while the wand icon brings up the Adjustments menu. Here, art tweaks can be applied to layers or complete images. The 'S' icon brings up the Selection menu, and the Arrow icon accesses transforming tools. Multiple drawing and painting tools There are various brushes to choose (left), plus four different methods of selecting colours (right) To start painting, select the brush on the top menu. You’re presented with multiple drawing and painting tools that are arranged in 17 individual sets. Each set comprises multiple brushes – there are now 136 to choose from in the app – and brushes can be customised and saved. With a brush chosen, select a colour using the far right circle icon. There are four ways of choosing colours, and colour palettes can be imported, too. Click the Layers icon to see all the image’s layers. You can add or turn on and off a layer’s visibility, create new layers, group layers and change blending modes. Advanced features Incredible artwork is at your fingertips with Procreate Pocket 2 Ready to start painting? With so many options the number of choices can seem overwhelming but really, you can start by picking a brush, a colour, and then just start getting creative. The app contains many more advanced features, such as 64-bit colour, continuous auto-save, 250 undo levels, and recording your work in 30-second bursts for sharing online. Overall, a product of this maturity and quality is a rare thing. Artists who own an iPhone should make Procreate Pocket 2 their app of choice, and this app also works on iPad and iPod touch. Buy Procreate Pocket 2 for $4.99/£4.99 here Read more about the best iPhone apps for artists and designers View the full article

Most of us are inundated with too much content on a daily basis – so it really isn't surprising that animated content is such a useful tool for marketers, especially for anything in the digital sphere. This Animatron Studio Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription helps you create engaging animations and graphics, even if you don't have any design or technical know-how. The app helps you design your animations visually with a WYSIWYG editor, so you can make videos to explain your product or service, design banners and animations, make compelling presentations and more. You can even save time by choosing from thousands of free, pre-animated characters, backgrounds and props. Get a lifetime subscription to this Animatron Studio Pro Plan for $49.99 – that's 95 per cent off. Related articles: 17 top CSS animation examples The best online animation classes in 2018 Add UI animations to your site View the full article

Take your digital character design skills to the next level with the latest issue of ImagineFX, which is on sale in the UK today. Inside the pages of issue 168, pro artist Mel Milton shows you the many creative choices he has to make when he crafts a distinctive character. So if your characters are failing to stand out from the crowd, this workshop will show you how to create people that stick in your audience's memory. Buy issue 168 of ImagineFX here If you're polishing your character design skills, you'll also want to double down on your figure drawing. In part two of his in-depth workshop, the legendary Patrick J Jones is here to show you how he achieves a dynamic look with his figures. With tips on how to master contrapposto, this is a tutorial you won't want to miss. As well as these expert insights, there's also all the usual news, reviews and reader art that you've come to expect from ImagineFX – make sure you don't miss it! Never miss an issue: Subscribe to ImagineFX here Explore what's on offer by taking a peek at the lead features, below. Learn new skills in character design Tighten up your character designs with this expert workshop Don't you just love the distinctive character design on this issue's cover? We speak to artist behind this frizzy haired wonder, Mel Milton, to discover all of the micro-decisions he made to bring it to life. Create contrast with just four values Believe it or not, there are only four values in this image You don't need an extensive palette to create striking art. That's the key lesson in this workshop from Mim Yum. With the help of this Photoshop tutorial you'll see how the artist makes the most of four values to create an optical illusion that's full of depth and atmosphere. Create characterful portraits in ArtRage 5 Turn your screen into a canvas with this workshop Looking to add a sense of texture to your digital art? In this portrait workshop by Phil Galloway, you'll learn how to do exactly that in ArtRage 5. With the help of ArtRage's palette knife and custom brushes, you'll discover how to create a choppy painting while adhering to real-world painting techniques. Meet Magic: The Gathering's Svetlin Velinov Velinov has illustrated over 200 Magic cards Svetlin Velinov's illustrious career as a Magic: The Gathering artist all started with a mysterious email in 2009. Since then he's gone on to become one of the top artists for the hugely popular game. We caught up with him during a rare quiet spell to hear his story and rummage through his portfolio. Explore Vanessa Lemen's portfolio Lemen says painting is like finding a face in clouds When asked why she decided to pursue a career in painting, the incredible Vanessa Lemen revealed that it was just what she did. In our interview with her, Lemen shares her career so far, how she turns abstract marks into stunning portraits, and the importance of keeping a journal. Related articles: 5 key trends in character design How to create new character designs in Photoshop 20 top character design tips View the full article

Five of them allow remote compromise of the IoT gadgets, so attackers can intercept video feeds and more. View the full article

Poor DNS housekeeping opens the door to account takeover. View the full article

Called BleedingBit, this vulnerability impacts wireless networks used in a large percentage of enterprise companies. View the full article

Websites that are slow to load, hard to read and confusing to navigate aren't good for users or clients. Here are some of our top web design bugbears; feel free to join in and let us know what design quirks you find annoying. 01. Light grey text on a white background A poor contrast ratio makes your text hard to read, so why do we see it so often? A design trend that many regard as unfortunate has taken hold in recent years: the use of light grey text on a white background. Sometimes the lack of colour contrast even gets paired with a tiny typeface, making the resulting copy uncomfortable to read even for people with good eyesight, and totally inaccessible for those with any level of visual impairment, which is quite a lot of people. The thinking behind grey text rather than black is that too much colour contrast can cause eye strain. This is true, but it's important to make sure you're striking the right balance between the visual assault of black-on-white versus ghostly text that fades into the mist. The first thing to know is that the W3C Accessibility Guidelines state that you need a minimum contrast of 4.5:1 for most text, so making sure you hit that is a good starting point. Lea Verou's Contrast Ratio tool is good for getting the mathematical information about your colours, and there's also some sample text so you can see how it looks. It will accept colours in any format: words, hsla or hex values, and it tells you whether you're compliant with the accessibility guidelines. Colorable (pictured above) is a good option for judging by eye, and it has sliders so you can tweak things until it's just right. Remember that testing text colours on different devices and lighting situations is important – what's readable on your high-end screen might look very different on another device. Even if you've hit the minimum contrast ratio for accessibility, there are other factors that affect how text actually appears to the end user – so testing is the only way to make sure you've got it right. 02. Modals Modals are taking over the web – here are some things you can use instead Modals are a user experience horror that have taken over the web in recent years, adding the administrative chore of closing an intrusive pop-over to the process of visiting many websites. It's particularly bad on mobile, and can make your site extremely frustrating or totally inaccessible to those using assistive technologies. MODALZ MODALZ MODALZ by designer Adrian Egger provides advice on alternative options for those moments when the urge to use a modal strikes. "Modals are the crutch of the inarticulate designer and developer," he writes. Instead of a modal, he suggests that you could use an expanding element, a non-modal dialog, or it might be more appropriate to use a new page. If you can't resist, or someone else is insisting on modal-usage, he's got some pointers for making them as tolerable as possible, and some particular pitfalls to avoid. 03. Not optimising images The low-down on how to make sure your site's images are optimised efficiently Large images are one of the biggest sources of unnecessary page weight, and optimising them is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your site's performance. Addy Osmani's free ebook, Essential Image Optimization, is an excellent resource for learning about how to do this. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, he has a handy 'the tl;dr' at the top that points you towards resources for automated image compression, which he recommends, and other efficient tools if you're not going to automate. Responsive Issues Community Group (RICG) chair Mat Marquis' book Image Performance is also a great read on this topic, and also check out our 4 essential image optimisation tips. 04. Not prioritising performance Work out how big each page resource can be if you want the site to load at a particular speed The statistics on this vary, but the overall picture is that if your website takes more than a few seconds to load, people start leaving in droves. According to this article, most people will choose to browse fast sites that are irrelevant to what they're looking for than a slow site that contains the information they want. And of course, this intolerance for slowness has a massive impact on conversions. According to these numbers, slowing load time from 2.4 to 3.3 seconds can lose you a quarter of your conversions. With this in mind, it's clear that speed has to be a top priority if you want to create a good user experience and maximise your conversion rates. Here are some great resources to help you out: Performance Email This newsletter is great for staying up-to-date with all the most useful performance-related tools and information. Performance Budget Calculator Decide how fast you want your site to load on which kind of connection and this calculator tells you how much page weight you can spend on each resource. There are sliders so you can adjust the allocation between CSS, images, fonts and so on. Browser Calories Check out your competitors' sites with this browser extension that compiles a report on the page resources of any site you visit, comparing them to the weights of the web's top 100 sites. Smashing Magazine's Front end Performance Checklist As well as the checklist, this article is packed with a huge selection of performance resources and general guidance on getting started with optimising your site. Also read our post with four tips to improving your page's performance. 05. Using a big framework you don't need Do you really need this for a simple site? If you've put in the time to learn a big framework such as React or Angular it can be tempting to use it for all your projects, but laying down reams of boilerplate code and introducing complex technology and a bunch of dependencies for a simple site that doesn't need it usually isn't wise. Why bloat things up when a static site would be faster and leaner? Chris Coyier has written up his take on the situation here, where he discusses the good and not-so-good reasons for using a framework. Sometimes, writing things from scratch can be the right call even for more complex projects as it gives you more control and you end up with a leaner code base and fewer dependencies. This article explains why the team behind MeetSpace decided to build without a framework. 06. Small body text Consider larger body text to improve readability There are many reasons why we tend to design with text that is smaller than the ideal: pressure to fit a lot of content on the first screen of a page; a perception that larger text somehow appears less sophisticated; and the default font sizes in the big frameworks, to name just a few. In his post Your Body Text is Too Small Christian Miller explains the many benefits of using larger text – it improves readability, it works better from a distance (maybe your site is being viewed on a smart TV) and it improves visual impact and usability. Another interesting side-effect of using bigger type is that it improves copywriting because it encourages you to use fewer words. The ideal font size for your website is probably larger than you think, and Miller has some great advice on how to design with bigger text in mind. 07. Not prioritising the user User research will help you find out what people want from your site A sure-fire way to end up with a terrible website is to prioritise what a client wants to say over what a user wants to know. The entries below from The Oatmeal and xkcd may be old, but they still do a great job of articulating a phenomenon that persists to this day – a complete failure to consider why someone is visiting your website. In the Oatmeal piece, the author lists the things most people want when they go to a restaurant site, such as a menu, address with link to a Google Map, and opening hours. Then he presents a site that demonstrates what we often get: images or animations you don't care about, text about 'ambience' or the ethos or history of the place, the menu as a downloadable PDF, and pertinent information hidden away. The xkcd cartoon does the same thing for university websites: people want course lists, contact information and application forms, but they get a photo slideshow, a letter from the president and the institution's mission statement. The way to avoid this is to do user research and testing, even if it's just an informal conversation with a sample of users. Find out the main reasons someone visits your site, the main tasks they want to achieve, and prioritise those. Our tips for better user testing will get you started. Read more: Get your head around React with these five factors How to make an app 13 best pieces of user testing software View the full article

While this model has now been replaced by the Surface Book 2, there are plenty of original Surface Book bargains and Black Friday deals to be had. The fact remains that this is a formidable device if you’re in the market for a PC as an alternative to Apple’s MacBook Pro. There’s now no reason not to use a Windows machine for creative work and Microsoft’s continued preaching about Windows as an operating system for creatives goes right to the heart of Apple’s traditional stronghold. The Surface Book is, from first pickup, a device that makes an impression. The build quality and overall production is stellar. As with the newer model, there’s a flexible, accordion-like hinge that’s a masterpiece of industrial design. You get the Surface Pen with the laptop – and whilst it isn’t as ergonomic as the Apple Pencil, say, it’s pressure-sensitive and accurate. The display also features 10-point multi-touch. There’s also the Microsoft Ink workspace, which when activated enables you to quickly sketch, write notes or annotate your screen (the latter being useful for client amends and collaboration on projects). The Surface Pen - which comes with the Surface Book - is pressure-sensitive and accurate The Surface Book is a hybrid, which means you can detach the screen and use it in Windows 10 Tablet Mode. Just hit the button next to the Delete key and the screen pops off using a clever muscle wire mechanism. Apps such as Illustrator can be used in Tablet Mode as well, so the Surface Book is not only a super-powerful machine for video editing and 3D, it's also pretty much the ultimate sketchbook. Microsoft Black Friday 2018: What to expect The Surface Book has another trick up its sleeve – something that illustrators and video editors will love. Detach the screen, turn it over 180-degrees, fold the laptop down and you have a sketchpad you can use in an entirely natural way. Raise the screen up a bit and you can use it as a display for reviewing video. It’s hugely flexible. Screen specs Let’s look at the specs of Microsoft’s PixelSense screen for a moment. The term 'Retina display' is bandied around a lot due to Apple’s excellent marketing, but for its 13.5-inch size the Surface Book packs in an incredible 3,000 x 2,000 pixels at 267ppi (Apple’s MacBook Pro is 2,560 x 1,600 at 232ppi). The screen is absolutely stunning. It’s thin, bright, and hugely responsive to touch and stylus control. Putting the resolution all the way up does result in some pretty small icons, but when editing using the Surface Pen it’s simply a joy to use. The Surface Book is hugely flexible Design demands Your choice of model depends whether the Surface Book is your main machine or a creative ‘on-the-go’ device. As someone pushing say, Adobe Creative Cloud to its limits, you’ll need top specs in your laptop. We recommend the Intel Core i7 2.6GHz model with 16GB of memory and the Nvidia discrete GPU (with 2GB RAM). You’ll probably need 512GB of storage. If you just need an on-the-go device, perhaps go for the lower-end model – you still get Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. Coincidentally, the tablet part of the machine uses integrated Intel HD Graphics, which is more than enough to drive the display when detached. Coincidentally, if you go to detach the tablet when using an intensive app, the system will warn you. All this means that the Surface Book races through simple tasks in Photoshop, Affinity Designer and doesn’t struggle one bit with more complex video projects in Premiere. There are healthy number of ports on the Surface Book There are two batteries – one in the tablet and one in the main body. The tablet part only lasts around 4 hours, but with both batteries you’ll get around 10-11 hours of use. Microsoft originally quoted up to 16 hours, but we never got that much out of it, especially when watching video or using creative apps. There are healthy number of ports for expansion here with two USB 3.0, a full-size SD card reader, Mini DisplayPort and headphone jack. The original Surface Book is slightly too old to feature USB-C, although there is one on Surface Book 2. Other specs include an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. There are two cameras, front and back on the display – the rear comes in at 8-megapixel and can shoot at 1080p; the front 5-megapixel (also able to shoot 1080p video). There’s even facial recognition sign-in, which works 99.9 per cent of the time in our experience. And Dolby-enhanced speakers make the Surface Book sound as good as it looks. Moving over from Mac Of course, you may be moving over from a Mac (or at least thinking about it). The Surface Book is undeniably more powerful than the MacBook Pro 13-inch, and has a number of features – such as being able to flip it to ‘draw mode’ – that the designer or illustrator will really like. But Windows 10, although hugely refined, will feel foreign and a little unintuitive to begin with. There’s no real problem with files any more – Adobe’s cross-platform compatibility is excellent, although you may need to look at your font file types. Why you should - or shouldn't - buy the Surface Book Even though it’s been replaced by the Surface Book 2, the original model remains a formidable computer. With system requirements for software not increasing at anywhere near the rate they once did, there’s no reason why a Surface Book 1 couldn’t live with you for the next half-decade, especially if you have the discrete Nvidia graphics. The new model does offer a few advantages – the USB-C connectivity being one of them – but if you’re not too worried about that, snap one of these up before they disappear. Read more: The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: what to expect in 2018 View the full article

When starting a fresh project, it can be easy to slip into some bad user experience habits. As applications grow, components can start swelling in size and when the time comes to reuse a section of it, it can be hard to break apart. Large components become awkward to test, difficult to extend and easy to break. The best way to avoid this problem is to split the UI into smaller, generic pieces that are easier to reuse because they get their data as props – a pattern known as presentational components. By focusing on the quality of smaller components like a button or input field, we know anything that would use those components will work as well. 30 web design tools to speed up your workflow in 2018 Storybook is an environment to help develop these reusable components. By creating them in isolation, we can be sure they have no external dependencies that we haven’t explicitly defined. The result is an interactive style guide for an application, which can be helpful not only to developers but to designers and testers also. Storybook applications can be exported separately and run independently of the main application without the need of a development environment. As the result is just HTML, CSS and JS, they can be hosted on a service like GitHub Pages and live alongside the repositories that use them. Anyone in the company can load up the site and check it out. Here's how to use Storybook in your React projects. 01. Add Storybook To get started, we first need a React project ready to go. This can be any project but we can use createreact- app to generate one in a couple of lines. Open up the command line and run the following: From there we can install the Storybook CLI. This in-depth will add the basic features of the environment to the application. By installing this globally, it can be used to add Storybook to any NPM project in the future. This command updates storybook-app and adds a couple of commands to the package.json. Run the first one, which starts a local Storybook server ready to develop. Once it’s ready, run the following and head to localhost:9009 in a browser. Storybook provides an overview and an example component when it first gets installed. These can be adapted or removed entirely. 02. Get set up in Storybook Storybook works through the concept of ‘stories’. Each component being developed will have its own set of stories that outlines a few typical use cases. The component that comes with Storybook, for example, has one story for plain text and then another for emoji. By default, these stories are saved in stories directory at the root of the project. While this technically works, it’s nonetheless best to keep all files related to a component together alongside other related files like styles and tests. We can change where Storybook finds its stories by updating config.js in the .storybook directory. Once Storybook is restarted, it will now look for any files ending in .stories.js anywhere inside a components directory. 03. Create a component in Storybook Our first component will be a button. As this will be a styled <button> element, we get a lot of its default behaviour for free. The key to a reusable UI component is that it gets all of its data from props. No application behaviour should be assumed unless explicitly defined through those props. Create a new Button directory under components and then create an index.js file that will hold the button. Create styles.css and add some styling there also, including when the type prop is set to 'primary' or 'danger'. 04. Create a story in Storybook With the component set up, we can now import it into Storybook by creating its own story. Each set of stories start by calling storiesOf, which will group all stories after it together. The first argument is the label of that grouping. Each story is created by calling the add method from there. The first argument labels the story, while the second is a component to render. While we could render <Button/> directly, it means we can’t change any of its props later on. Create a Button.stories.js and create a story to render the button. When you are creating reusable components, it works best to have styles such as fonts inherited from the parent. As these aren’t set yet, we get a fallback font. 05. Add global styling Some components may rely on inherited styles from higher up the tree. While it would be impractical to include them in every story, Storybook provides a way to inject content into the <head> of an iframe that the components are rendered in. Create a new file in the .storybook directory called preview-head.js use it to import a font and apply it to the contents of the iframe. Restart Storybook for this to take effect. 06. Control props with knobs Utilise knobs to adjust props in real time and avoid having to create stories to cover all possible prop combinations While stories themselves are great for setting up typical scenarios, often we want to see what happens with a specific combination of props. As the number of props grow, so do the different combinations possible. Instead of trying to cover each scenario with its own story, we can use on-screen controls called knobs to adjust the props in real time. Knobs are an example of an add-on – plugins available for Storybook that enhance the core experience. Each add-on is installed and imported separately. To use knobs, we first need to fetch them from NPM. Once installed, we need to let Storybook know about them by adding them to ./storybook/addons.js. To be used within a story we need to add them as a decorator. A decorator wraps the story in a special component that provides the behaviour. For knobs, all that’s needed is to import the decorator and add it just before creating a story. The knobs add-on comes with a set of common controls to alter the rendered props from the bottom of the screen. The two we want are 'text' to render a textbox for the button label and 'selectV2' to provide options for the type prop. Both take a label and default value, with 'selectV2' taking an object of options as its second argument. The components update with the content in real time. This can be useful to see exactly at what point a design starts to break. 07. Try other add-ons There are plenty of add-ons available to help out on any project. The Actions add-on provides a way to dummy out actions within a component. By passing in an action as an event prop, we could check to see our button’s onClick handler was behaving correctly. The Storyshots add-on can help create Jest snapshots from stories. When each test runs, it renders each story and compares it to the last time it ran. Any differences are flagged for investigation. The Viewports add-on provides a pre-defined list of common viewports to check how the components behave. This helps avoid having to try and resize the window without including the Storybook sidebar. Depending on the needs of the project, it is also possible to create custom add-ons for each Storybook project. These can be useful for common setup such as state management systems or localisation strings. See a full list of add-ons provided by Storybook here. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 310 or subscribe. Related articles: Add UI animations to your site Get your head around React with these 5 factors The pro's guide to UI design View the full article

When it comes down to development, it can feel overwhelming to decide what to specialise in – whether you choose front end or back end, full stack, this Core Development Bundle By Devslopes has everything you need to launch a development career. With more than 100,000 students enrolled and a project-driven curriculum, this course provides hands-on experience learning the top coding languages out there, including HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Bootstrap 4, Node and more. Plus, you'll learn to develop for iOS, Android, macOS, for game development and every other platform you'd want to learn. Get the Core Development Bundle By Devslopes for $39 – that's 97 per cent off. Related articles: How to make an app How to build an AR app How to design app icons View the full article

Affinity Designer is a suite of vector editing tools available for Mac and Windows, as well as on the iPad. It provides a great middle ground between the more basic free graphic design software and the pricey but feature-rich Creative Cloud suite, and it offers incredible quality for the cost. In this tutorial we're going to look at how to use grids in Affinity Designer for Mac. Any designer will know that a solid understanding of grid theory can take some of the guesswork out of the design process. I use grids in around 90 per cent of my work – they're handy for everything from providing construction guidelines for logos, to ensuring consistency in detail-heavy illustrations. Turning grids on and enabling the 'snap to grid' option helps you plot lines and shapes quickly and easily. Read on for a rundown of how to use grids in Affinity Designer, or watch the video above for a mini-tutorial to get you started. Click the icon in the top right of each image to enlarge it 01. Enabling the grid Enable grids using this drop-down To enable the grid, go to 'View > Grid and Axis Manager'. With the sub-menu open, you can check ‘Show grid’. You can also toggle the grid on and off by pressing cmd + '. I find being able to toggle the grid off is quite useful when illustrating, so I can get more clarity. 02. Tweaking the grid You can adjust the spacing of your guidelines To tweak your grid, uncheck the 'Auto grid' option. I usually keep my spacing at 5mm, but you should experiment with different sizes to see what suits you and your design style. Just bear in mind that the bigger the spacing, the less detail you will be able to go into if you are snapping your design to the grid. 04. Snap to grid Snapping to grid can help ensure your designs are lined up When designing I enable snapping to grid. This can be toggled on and off by clicking the drop-down menu next to the snapping item on the top bar menu. With this enabled, shapes and Pen tool nodes you plot will snap to your grid. This is a very quick way to ensure your designs are lined up as you wish, and improve accuracy in logo designs and illustrations. 03. Advanced features There's a host of more advanced features for you to explore Clicking the 'Advanced' mode option with expand the menu to show you a plethora of other options for you to tweak. I usually don’t touch any of these, but it’s good to have the capability if you need it. There are several grid types you can select from; the isometric grid is particularly useful when making 3D art or type. Read more: Affinity Designer: How to use the Export persona Affinity Designer: How to use the Pixel persona Affinity Designer: How to use the Pen tool View the full article

As a designer, your portfolio is your shop window. As well as selling your skills and your individual style – and hopefully winning you work in the process – it's also a chance to express your personality, and what you're like to work with. Getting it spot-on is no mean feat, and even the best portfolios have room for improvement. Creative Bloq teamed up with moo.com to provide some killer advice to help you craft your ideal portfolio, whatever discipline you work in. Following a global call-out for submissions, over 100 portfolios were whittled down to just five – ready to be critiqued by an expert panel from Google, Wolff Olins, MOO and BrandOpus. Those five are: Watch our panel – including moo.com's head of design Millie Scarlett Davies, Google Creative Lab ECD Steve Vranakis, Pedro Messias, multidisciplinary designer at Wolff Olins, and Meghan Hagerty, marketing director at BrandOpus – critique these five diverse portfolios in the video below... The video above is packed with insights and advice from our expert panel. Here are five key takeaways to apply to your own portfolio website today... 01. Show things in context Millie Scarlett Davies was particularly impressed with how Gabriella Barouch made the effort to show her commercial work in situ, rather than just the illustrations in isolation. "From our perspective, if we ever want to work with an illustrator, it helps to see that the work translates into the real world," she explains. 02. Design for mobile first While the panel though Bishal Limbu's site felt a little sparse on desktop, it works more effectively on mobile. "We look at these sites in the moments in between the work we have to do – when we're commuting, or have a chance to get a tablet or phone out," points out Steve Vranakis. "Designing for mobile is a must." 03. Take viewers on a journey The panel particularly liked how Jon Banuelos leads viewers through his portfolio, with twists of personality throughout. Meghan Hagerty compares his case studies to awards entries, a technique she admires: "He's got what his brief was, what exactly he did, and who he worked with," she says. "Everything is spelled out." 04. Curate an experience Although several of the panellists felt that Victor Renaux's portfolio made people work a bit too hard to see his projects, Pedro Messias praised the way he gave each project its own cover image as part of a unified theme: "There's an element of storytelling to it; he's treating each project as a different chapter," he explains. 05. Don't be afraid to experiment Less is often more when it comes to design portfolios, but Kendall Slade took the chance to show off her personality – and her coding skills – with her simple, but ever-changing layout. "It's got attitude, it's a bit punk," says Steve Vranakis. "It's like she's taken a digital crowbar and smashed up the windows of the shopfront." Once you've nailed your portfolio, you need some top-quality self-promo materials to point people towards it. Digital print and design company moo.com provides fun, affordable, easy-to-use tools for creating premium business cards, postcards, stickers and more. There's even a 100% satisfaction guarantee with the MOO Promise: if there's any kind of mistake on the design – even if it's your fault – they'll fix it for free! Related articles: 10 steps to go freelance this year Pro's guide to creating memorable business cards How to project your work onto the global stage 6 sure-fire ways to build your creative network Nail the art of networking and get more from events 4 brilliant personal logos – and why they work 3 tips for crafting stunning print promo materials Create better business cards in less than 5 minutes 5 ways to earn more as a freelancer View the full article

Whether you’re an amateur, semi pro or professional photographer, you’ll want fast and reliable storage media that doesn’t cost the earth – and that’s the direction this buying guide is looking to point you in. When you find the one that suits you, make sure to check for any Black Friday deals as there's already some great savings to be made. Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: what to expect in 2018 Which is the best SD card? Most photographers will be aware that the postage stamp sized SD (secure digital) card, also available in SDHC and SDXC iterations, is the memory card most commonly supported by today’s digital cameras. Within that context, we think that the SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-I is one of the best SD format memory cards currently available. But there’s also the fingernail-sized microSD utilised by smartphones and tablets, the older but still popular CompactFlash (‘CF’), utilised by many DSLRs, plus what has been termed CF’s successor in the newer XQD format memory card. Eyebrows were raised when the Nikon Z6 and Z7 mirror-less cameras were recently introduced with a single XQD card slot. While they may be currently less common (and pricier), the good news is that the XQD memory card has been specifically designed to keep up with the shooting speeds that these latest generation cameras offer; a blazing fast read and write time a particular advantage when capturing Raw files or 4K video. So when choosing your own best-fit memory card it’s very much a case of horses for courses. You’ll need to consider what you’ll be shooting on, how fast you’ll be shooting, whether you mostly shoot Raw or JPEG, Full HD or 4K video – as well as what your budget is – and choose a memory card with a capacity and performance to match accordingly. Power users are advised to check out the Extreme PRO SDXC card from long standing card manufacturer SanDisk. Available in capacities from 32GB up to an impressive 512GB, this option offers a speed class 3 rating. The real practical advantage here is not only write speeds up to an impressive 90MB/s – which means that it is able to deal with rapid fire sequential shooting and in both JPEG and Raw – but also a extremely fast transfer speed of up to 95MB/s, which will speed up the workflow of enthusiasts and pros. Aside from making it easier to capture a sequence of Raw photographs, the data crunching on offer here also makes it suitable for 4K video shooting. To sum up, this is one capable contender. Lexar has long been the go-to card for photography enthusiasts and professional shooters, and, despite disappearing from the market for a little, while it has bounced back with plenty of Lexar options still available. A solid choice for us is this card, which deploys UHS-II tech to enable transfer speeds up to 300 MB/s and write speeds up to 260 MB/s. This ensures that, whether we’re recording full HD, 4K video, or shooting high-resolution Raw files, this card delivers the goods, even if maximum data capacity is 128GB, rather than the maximum 512GB offered by some rivals. A close alternative in terms of specification and performance would be SanDisk’s Extreme PRO SD UHS-II (also featured here), but we feel you can't really go wrong with this one. It can be an expensive mistake to miss capturing that essential image if you’re working as a pro photographer – and especially irritating if it’s because your card can’t keep up. Therefore try and avoid the unfortunate ever happening by investing in this ultra speedy, inevitably costlier, example from industry stalwart SanDisk that, in offering read speeds of up to 300 MB/s and write speeds of an equally impressive 260 MB/s, is a class leader among memory cards. The above specification makes it a must-have option for reportage, sports and wildlife photographers, shooting bursts of rapid fire stills, or videographers wanting the clarity of 4K resolution video, with the inevitable data hungriness that comes with it. As this is an SDXC (‘Extended Capacity’) card too, storage is impressive via available card offerings from 32GB up to 128GB, but truly the accent is on speed here above and beyond anything else. If it’s Raw files you primarily need to capture, then you’ll want a card that can cope with the highest quality imagery in sequential bursts – as well as one that provides a sufficient storage capacity to avoid having to swap out the media in use at that decisive moment. While the 64GB maximum capacity (the alternative being 32GB) may initially appear a little small when compared with other options here, the performance is anything but, via commendably quick read and write times of 285 MB/s and 180 MB/s respectively. Obviously you will need UHS-II compatible DSLR or camcorder to be able to use this one – so check – but speeds of up to 3x faster than standard UHS-1 SD memory cards can be delivered. Furthermore these Transcend branded cards are shock and X-ray proof, thereby providing a degree of certainly for photo and video enthusiasts and pros. As photographers, we always think we have enough storage capacity until suddenly we don’t. Designed for use by DSLR owners, with up to 512GB of storage capacity offered, this Lexar branded contender is top of the SD card format class. The only (inevitable) downside is that the read and transfer rates are a little more modest than the lower capacity yet higher speed cards likewise pitched at professionals. This necessitates us to decide which is more important to us – having the space to store many hours of video, or having the potential to transfer it between devices even faster than we’d do normally. Ultimately the fact that there is a choice between the two makes us as consumers the victors. Stateside manufacturer SanDisk offers users the peace of mind of it being long and well established when it comes to providing removable media. Its ‘Extreme’ range of cards comes in either standard or ‘Pro’ versions, with the former starting at around £34.99 for a 16GB capacity, with the latter costing a still reasonable £60 (also available are pricier 128GB and 256GB cards). Fortunately for those on a budget, even the standard Extreme cards feature UHS speed class 3 compatibility, meaning they can cope with both Full HD and 4K recording. If buying a 16GB SanDisk Extreme card, you’ll get data read speeds up to 90MB/s, while write speeds of up to 40MB/s are also possible. While that sort of spec will satisfy most photo and video enthusiasts, they’re also water, shock, temperature and X-ray proof. To sum up, this is very sensible jack-of-all-trades option for photographers/videographers who don’t need decisively swift read/write speeds. CF cards may be older and bulkier than the newer SD format alternative, but that doesn't mean they can't still deliver sufficient capacity and speed to satisfy today’s DSLR user. A case in point is SanDisk’s CompactFlash range, which offers capacities from a useful 16GB to a power user 256GB, so we don’t have to swap out media cards in the heat of the action. Also impressive with this one is write speeds of up to 140MB/s at maximum 256GB capacity (otherwise it’s 150 MB/s for the 128GB and lower capacities), which also makes it just a suited to video use, particularly for those DSLRs also offering Full HD capture. In fact, with a minimum sustained write speed of 65MB/s, the claim by its manufacturer is that this one is class leading. While it may not be as recognisable to the casual observer as competing card brands, Transcend is one of the longer-term players in the market – and, usefully, still makes many low-capacity cards, holding obvious appeal for those on tighter budget. However, even the higher capacity offerings that may appeal to semi pro DSLR users – such as this CompactFlash 800 series – are hardly expensive for what’s on offer. Capacities run from a standard 32GB up to a slightly more impressive 256GB. Specification is also solid for what’s a budget card; here we get read speeds of up to 120 MB/s and write speeds of 60 MB/s – actual performance of course affected by camera hardware and software, as is the case with any card. However here there’s even a built-in error correcting code to detect and correct any transfer errors. Yes, if we want the best then we’ll have to envisage paying more than for bog standard microSD cards with larger SD card sized adapters; though at £30.99 for 32GB, or up to £112 for the £128GB variety – less than one pound sterling per gigabyte – this series of cards will hardly break the bank. The enticement here includes the fact that the cards are claimed to be able to withstand harsh environments, are longer lasting – hence the ‘Endurance’ name – and are particularly suited to use in action cameras. This is because they can continually record at high read/write speeds (100MB/s and 30MB/s respectively). Also promised for the highest capacity card is an industry best of 43,800 hours of continuous video recording. Peace of mind comes courtesy of warranties of between two years for the lower capacity cards, to five years for maximum capacity cards. Arriving with us in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, these Class 10 microSD cards handily come with an SD adapter that allows them to be used in cameras just as easily as a smartphone or tablet. Costing a reasonable under £20 for the lowest 32GB capacity, this seems like good value considering they manage read speeds of 100 MB/s (albeit a modest write speed of 30MB/s). A bright red design also ensures this jack of all trades option from Samsung won’t readily get lost down the back of the sofa, despite being fingernail sized. Peace of mind also comes via a 10 year limited warranty, plus the fact that the cards are claimed as waterproof, temperature proof, X-ray proof and magnetic proof. Seemingly there are very few barriers to recommendation here. Read more: The best camera for creatives in 2018 15 ways to improve your photography skills The best cameras for beginners in 2018 View the full article

Security updates across all Apple platforms released alongside its new products. View the full article

The CG Awards are back, and we’ll be celebrating the world's best computer graphics from the last 18 months live at Vertex, on 8 March 2019. You can still vote for your favourite game, favourite film VFX sequence, favourite short form, favourite community artist and more, but be quick! Voting closes 15 November 2018, after which we'll have two nominees per category to give to our judging panel. Find out more about some of our expert judges for CG Awards 2019 below. Gleb Alexandrov Gleb Alexandrov is an artist, blogger and tutorial maker at Creative Shrimp, the website with tips and tricks for those who want to get better at computer graphics. Gleb has become one of the biggest and well known 3D artists in the open source computer graphics community. Jodie Azhar Jodie Azhar is an award-winning game developer and BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. Her career in the games industry has covered a decade – including working at Kuju, Rebellion and Creative Assembly – and she rose to the position of technical art director before starting her own game development studio earlier this year. Izzy Burton Izzy Burton is an artist and director currently working at Blue Zoo Animation. She directed the award-winning short film Via and was named one of Animation Magazine’s Rising Stars of Animation 2018. She graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in Animation in 2015. Adam Dewhirst Adam Dewhirst is the modelling and texture supervisor for The Mill NY; he has 14 years experience in film, commercials and TV. He was the lead modeller on Guardians of the Galaxy at Framestore. Notable film work includes The Dark Knight, WWZ, The Golden Compass as well as commercial spots for Cartier, Audi, Lexus and Legoland. Justin Holt Justin Holt is texture department supervisor at Atomic Fiction in Montreal QC. Currently he is supervising work on The OA, Rim of the World, Top Gun 2, Stranger Things season 3, Bloodshot and Wonder Woman 2. Carrie Mok Carrie Mok is editor of 3D Artist magazine, one of the top publications in the world for CG tutorials, behind-the-scenes access on the tools and technology behind the biggest movies and games, and industry insight. She has been working on the magazine since 2015, interviewing key industry figures in VFX, animation and games from ILM, MPC, Double Negative, Epic Games and more, and bringing the spotlight to the inspiring art and techniques of professional artists. Rob Redman Rob Redman, editor at 3D World magazine, is a 3D artist and creative director, working across film and TV. When not in the studio he is often found presenting at various industry events, or building guitars. Glen Southern Glen Southern runs a studio, producing content for TV film and more, plus training for CG artists. Maarten Verhoeven Maarten Verhoeven is a freelance digital sculptor, concept and VFX artist specialising in work for film, commercials, prototypes and toys. Having a background in art, he handles different aspects of production, from concept to sculpting, compositing and colour grading. Today he’s working as a freelance ZBrush artist, contributing his talents worldwide to various companies, publications and projects. Read more: CG Awards 2019: cast your vote now The best ZBrush tutorials 17 Cinema 4D tutorials to up your 3D skills View the full article

Whether you’re looking for your first camera bag or it’s time for an upgrade because your kit has grown and your needs have changed, we’ve put together a curated list of recommendations to help you find the right carrying companion. And you're timing couldn't be better, with Black Friday just around the corner, there's every chance you can soon grab a great bargain. The best camera for creatives in 2018 Right now, we think the Tenba Axis tactical backpack is one of the best camera bags out there. It gives you a decent build quality and plenty of room to expand for a reasonable asking price. But the right camera bag for you naturally depends on your personal requirements. While most find space to stash a tablet or laptop alongside photographic equipment, some are better for compact system cameras than bulkier DSLRs while others offer space for a camera drone too. So study the following list closely in order to find your own best fit. How to choose the best camera bag and case for you Of course, it’s not just the gear you’re going to be putting in the bag you need to think about. Also consider what you typically photograph – and what environments that places you in. For example, a street photographer might be better suited to an equally unobtrusive shoulder-worn messenger type bag that doesn’t obviously scream ‘photographer’. Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: what to expect in 2018 Landscape and wildlife photographers, used to covering a fair bit of terrain and being out in all elements, may be better suited to a waterproof backpack; something that has room for a water bottle and provisions as well as that camera and tripod, while being padded and featuring breathable fabrics for extra comfort. Those who regularly hop on and off aircraft meanwhile may favour a rolling trolley-style set up – while being mindful of whether it will match current carry-on luggage rules and regulations, naturally. The more you think about it, the more choices there are to make. So, to help, let’s look at what we consider some of the best camera bags and cases right now (and why)… Aimed at pro photographers and videographers with a couple of camera bodies and long lenses, who need to keep said gear protected from the elements, are these military inspired ‘expedition’ packs featuring a water repellent exterior plus YKK zippers and reinforced stitching. There are three capacity options, all with space for a laptop plus two camera bodies and lenses. Three access points at the top, back and sides usefully enable cameras to be retrieved while the packs are being worn. An ‘airflow’ harness is height adjustable for comfort, while webbing on the exterior allows for battery pouches and memory card wallets to be added. A rain cover and space for a tripod ensures these options tick most photographers’ boxes. Those photographers who want an unobtrusive camera bag to stash their compact system camera or consumer level DSLR could check out this Manfrotto option which, with prices staring at just under £20, won’t break the bank. While obviously not designed for a pro DSLR with a 400mm lens attached, Manfrotto’s nimble Street Pouch/Holster option can still host a CSC with lens attached along with two additional lenses. Alternatively, you can pack a DSLR with a standard zoom attached. Or there’s the Sling/Waist pack option that houses a premium CSC, entry level DSLR or even DJI Mavic Pro. Either way you have transport for your system that doesn’t obviously scream camera bag while being very reasonably priced with it. Neat. If you’ve spent around £1,000 – possibly more – on a premium compact camera or CSC, you might want something equally classic and swish to transport it in at an a lot more affordable £100. Enter Billingham’s unobtrusive yet stylish vertical option in, the British made, pouch-like ‘72’, which comes complete with handy shoulder strap and brass and leather fixtures. With construction that includes hardwearing materials that manage to be both moisture and heat resistant, this option also comes in a choice of five different colour combinations. There’s a useful front pocket for your camera batteries and cards, a padded interior divider, plus the peace of mind of a five-year manufacturer’s guarantee. Most cameras these days mix the classic with the contemporary, so why shouldn’t the bag you choose to carry it in function the same? This is a modern take on the shoulder bag that still features a tactile wool-feel fabric and hand-sewn construction, yet the weather protection and durability with it that today’s photographer would demand. There a couple of options available in the ‘10’ or ‘13’ bags – the numbers referring to the size of tablet or laptop in inches that can also be housed alongside a DSLR sized camera and lenses. We also get a dedicated mobile phone pocket, while the dividers and foam in the base can be removed to create a completely collapsible bag for convenient storage when not in use. Again there are several size options available in this series of backpacks for the hearty outdoor snapper with an array of gear. A case in point; these packs can transport a DSLR or mirror-less camera with three to four lenses, or a DJI Mavic type drone, while also finding room for an iPad Mini type tablet. Depending on your requirements, choose from the 12L, 20L or 24L models, which increase in size and capacity in line with their product numbers. Boasting both practicality and durability, naturally the interior is fully adjustable, with even the smallest pack being able to accommodate an equipment set up such as that detailed above, while the largest option can fit one or two DSLRs and a whopping five to seven lenses. With padded, adjustable dividers, this is a pack not just for the solstice then, but moreover a bag for all seasons. For those looking for a compact camera bag for an equally small spend, Hama’s Zambia range is worth seeking out. It's capable of transporting everything from a premium compact camera, through a bridge camera, to a DSLR plus lens. Size wise we’re looking at everything from a snug bag with dimensions of 7x6.5x13cm weighing just 150g – making it suitable for the most compact of system cameras – to an option that can transport a DSLR, while being a still very trim 16x9x14cm in size and weighing a manageable 220g. With prices ranging from a suggested £21.99 to £34.99 these polyester construction bags are inexpensive options with it. Every photographer – especially the pro – wants level horizons for their landscape shots and that means packing a tripod. Manfrotto manufactures both tripods and bags, so naturally they’re designed to work in unison – its compact yet expandable Advanced Befree backpack aimed at travel and landscape photographers being a case in point. Cabin size friendly, it can comfortably stash its travel-sized tripods (Befree Advanced and Befree GT series models) alongside your camera gear via a specially provided expandable padded side pocket. Naturally it also finds space for your camera gear and personal belongings besides and comes with a protective rain cover. The dedicated camera compartment is padded and is located close to your body when the pack is worn for added security. Water resistance is provided via a rain cover. Featuring an armoured exterior with padded top and side handles, plus an interior described as flexible, this streamlined and lightweight ‘spinner’ bag on wheels has a depth of 8.8-inches, ensuring it can be taken on board flights as hand luggage. It also provides a panel via which to access a laptop without opening the entire bag, while the four wheel design provides a wide degree of movement, enabling photographers to manoeuvre around obstacles - other bags and people – when travelling. Capacity is such that it can stash up to eight lenses and speedlites alongside one or two pro DSLRs – one with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens attached. There are also customisable dividers and zippered mesh pockets inside for transporting a wide range of accessories. A larger, versatile option for when you need it. A smart yet unobtrusive looking backpack from Lowepro for just over £100 features convenient side body access and a robust fabric construction in a choice of either grey ‘Canvex’ or black ‘Cordura’ with, typically for a bag of this type, a fully customisable interior with flexible dividers. This enables a mirror-less camera, DJI Osmo or Mavic type drone to be stashed. An all-weather cover is also provided for those photographers who enjoy hiking in the great outdoors, while there’s a dedicated sleeve for a 13-inch laptop alongside that inevitable Thermos. A back panel provides a cushion and a low profile design for added comfort too. If you’re looking for pro grade robustness when it comes to keeping your kit safe then the Peli brand comes highly rated. Not only is it claimed to be crushproof, waterproof and dustproof thanks to a rubber O-ring seal (meaning that your precious kit will be better protected than via most options on the market), this trunk-like hard case features the added benefit of a retractable handle and wheels, with foam padding for the interior. It can accommodate one or two pro grade DSLRs and up to eight lenses while also featuring the swish addition of a pressure equalising valve, plus a degree of buoyancy. As well as the standard black, it also comes in a range of bright colours and can manage all of the above while remaining a size that means it can be taken aboard a plane as carry-on luggage. Read more: GoPro on Black Friday and Cyber Monday: The deals we're expecting to see The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras in 2018 The Northern Lights: Top photography tips View the full article

Halloween decorations can often get a little messy. If you're not up to furnishing your office with cobwebs from a spray can, why not jazz up your desktop with these creepy Halloween wallpapers? Just like our movie wallpapers, we've separated the wheat from the chaff to bring you 10 of the best free Halloween wallpapers that are sure to delight and unnerve. With familiar icons and scenes from scary movies, these wallpapers are the perfect way to celebrate the spookiest time of the year. Read on, if you dare... 01. Jack Skellington What's this? What's this? It's a Jack Skellington wallpaper, that's what Jack Skellington, the beloved pumpkin king from Tim Burton's 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, has won over a legion of fans thanks to his creepy yet cute charm. Over the years he's become a mascot for Halloween in the real world, so who better to adorn your desktop than the man, or skeleton, himself? 02. Pumpkin You can't beat a carved pumpkin on Halloween Well, Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without a carved pumpkin, would it? There are millions Jack-o'-Lantern wallpapers to choose from, unsurprisingly, but we decided to settle on this one because it makes great use of lighting to create a dramatic effect that won't get in the way of your icons. 03. Happy Halloween Are you out trick or treating this Halloween? Halloween isn't all about getting scared out of your skin. For lots of people, especially kids, the sweet treats are the most exciting part. In this illustrated Halloween wallpaper we see a street of trick or treaters going about their business in the midst of ghosts, bats, and the undead. But where do the costumes end and the creatures begin? 04. Witch We love how this wallpaper finds a new look for a classic witch What do you think of when you think of a witch? Green skin? Warty nose? Pointy hat? Witches are are so well-known that it's hard to think of a new approach to them, but that's exactly what this wallpaper has done with its geometric shapes and bold colours. We're glad to see she's still zipping around on a broomstick though. 05. Vintage pumpkin Keep your Halloween classy with this vintage pumpkin wallpaper Are you one of those people that complains about how commercial and tacky Halloween has become? If so, this is the wallpaper for you. Instead of ghosts and ghouls, this tasteful design uses an olden times pumpkin sign, complete with some amazing typography. But with it's dark colour scheme, you know this wallpaper is down for some Halloween hijinks. 06. The Babadook Will you let the Babadook into your desktop? Fans of the 2014 supernatural horror film The Babadook will be downloading this wallpaper quicker than we can say 'Let me in!' Making use of the pop-up book seen in the film, this wallpaper is sure to make you jump when you shut down your windows at the end of the day. 07. Blair Witch Project "In spite of what Mike says... this wallpaper is my fault" Found footage masterpiece The Blair Witch Project terrified audiences upon its release in 1999. This wallpaper remembers a chilling scene from near the end of the movie where Heather breaks down and apologises down the lens to her fellow filmmakers. Did you hear those children laughing? 08. Halloween nighttime This is the greatest hits of Halloween imagery Looking for a more traditional Halloween wallpaper? You can't go wrong with this one, which brings together some of the most recognisable motifs of the big day. Black cat? Check. Creepy mansion probably filled with ghosts? Check. Cobweb - because nothing is more scary than a spider? Check. And look how big that creepy crawly is compared to the moon. Terrifying. 09. Halloween icons These spoopy wallpaper icons will make your Halloween extra cute If you're not down with your internet lingo, you might not have come across the phrase 'spoopy'. For some people, it means a decoration or aesthetic that is as cute and funny as it is scary. We'd definitely say these icons of bones, coffins and cats are more spoopy than spooky, so be sure to give this wallpaper a whirl if you like your Halloween to be fun instead of frightening. 10. Happy Halloween They did the monster mash... Frankenstein's monster, the creature from the black lagoon and Nosferatu are all here to wish you a Happy Halloween in this mash up of monsters from iconic scary films. See, they're not all bad. Related articles: Create creepy Halloween carvings with these pumpkin stencils Create a low poly wallpaper in C4D 18 artists changing the face of horror View the full article

It needs little introduction, but Affinity Designer is a suite of vector art editing tools available for mac/windows and now also on the iPad. This graphic design tool is a great middle ground between the more basic free graphic design software and the pricey but feature-rich Creative Cloud suite, and it offers incredible quality for the cost. Here is a quick overview of how Affinity Designer's Pen tool works. Watch the video below or scroll down for a short explanation of each of the features to explore. 01. Launch the Pen tool Bring up the Pen tool using the icon on the left-hand toolbar, or use the shortcut P. The Pen tool on Affinity Designer is incredibly similar to other Pen tools you may have used elsewhere. You should be able to start using it fairly easily – although there are some added features that set it apart. 02. Pen tool modes There are four modes: Pen mode, Smart mode, Polygon mode and Line mode Affinity’s Pen tool has four different modes. First, there's the basic Pen mode. Smart mode will assist you in creating flowing curves that naturally arc. Polygon mode can be used to draw straight, connecting lines. Finally, Line mode is used to create lines that do not connect. All have their own benefits and uses, and you can select the one you want using the icons shown in the image above. 03. Converting your path Adjust your line using the conversion options You've created a path using your Pen tool, you can adjust it using the conversion tools shown in the image above. These will enable you to do things like smooth a zig zag or make it jagged again. 04. Line actions There are also a number of actions to choose from. With your path or node selected, you can select from the following: Break Curve (opens the path at the selected node), Close Curve (closes the path at the selected node), Smooth Curve (adjusts the path and smooths or simplifies it), Reverse Curve (toggle to draw from the opposite end of the path). 05. Snapping Play about with different snapping settings to find which one suits you Snapping is used in a variety of ways in Affinity Designer. For the Pen tool I recommend you play about with the different settings to figure out your preference. Your options are as follows: Align to node of selected curves; snap to geometry of selected curves; snap all selected nodes when dragging; snap off curve handles. 06. Use Fill Toggle fill on and off The last feature to be aware of is the Fill feature. When checked, this will fill the inside of your path with your chosen colour as you draw. Read more: Affinity Designer: How to use the Export persona Affinity Designer: How to use the Pixel persona View the full article

When it comes down to building a great app, you need to consider both function and design. The Complete UI/UX Fundamentals Bundle shows you how to create apps that everyone will love to use – and that look as good as they work. This bundle includes eight courses that covers the concepts behind building apps that are usable, accessible and enjoyable to use. You'll also learn to conduct the discovery it takes to define your user audience and solve their potential problems by understanding their point of view. Snag the Complete UI/UX Fundamentals Bundle for $29, 97 per cent off the usual price. Related articles: Add UI animations to your site Create slick UI animations The pro's guide to UI design View the full article

Taking digital designs into the real world can be fraught with gotchas and gremlins. We’re so used to the world being digital that some of us have forgotten how to prep our work for print. This poster printing guide is here to help. If you’re thinking of doing a run of poster designs for a campaign, party or gig (or simply to adorn your own walls with) here’s a guide to how to print your work. Follow our tips and you'll soon be poster printing with confidence – and you'll no longer have to worry about that guy in the printing shop laughing at you... If you don't want to go to a professional, or if you want to try and few practice runs with your design, you'll need the right printer. Take a look at our roundup of the best home printers for some guidance. 01. Design in CMYK Work in CMYK rather than RGB If you're producing your own designs with the intention of taking these to a poster printing shop, then make sure you're working in the CMYK colour space rather than RGB. In Photoshop you can easily switch to this mode via 'Image > Mode > CMYK color'. This colour mode will give you a more accurate representation of how your colours will print. Subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud 02. ... or convert to CMYK If you’ve been working in RGB and have converted your work to CMYK, just before you send the file for printing you may notice the greens and blues in your image have become lifeless and dull. You can use Photoshop’s Gamut warning tool ('File > View > Gamut warning') to highlight the colours that will have trouble converting from RGB to CMYK. How to master colour theory The RGB colour space has a greater array of colours than CMYK. Remember: all the computer-specific colours you pick in Photoshop for your poster then have to be printed with a selection of real-world inks. Those that can't be replicated will become 'out of gamut', and be printed with what is possible with the available inks. 03. Use vectors if possible Designer Franz Jeitz advises: "When it comes to printing, especially large-format printing, vectors are your friend. Try to design as much as possible in a vector-based program such as Adobe Illustrator. Not only will it reduce your file size, but it will ensure that you get the crispest print result." 04. Work at 300DPI Skinn's super-sized posters for a Belgian arts centre Print files are BIG. One of the most common delays in poster printing jobs is work being sent back by the printer because the resolution is too low. Files destined for print should be set to 300 DPI (dots per inch). Simply put, the more dots that make up the image, the higher the resolution. More printed dots in an inch means a higher-quality reproduction. If your resolution is too low, you're going to end up with a blurred and pixelated poster. In Photoshop you set the dots per inch when you create a new document ('File > New'). 300DPI is the standard resolution you want for a good quality print document. 05. Select your paper Popular poster printing sizes are A2 (594mm x 420mm), A3 (420mm x 297mm) and A4 (297mm x 210mm). Paper choice and weight can be discussed with your printer, but 170gsm Silk or Gloss Art FSC or 150gsm are good choices. GSM stands for grams per square meter and determines how heavy the paper stock is. 06. Supply files as PDF Supply your print files in the PDF format (print resolution at 300 DPI) or tiffs with no compression at the same DPI. It is possible to send JPGs if they’re high-res enough. So if you just want to print a poster of your pet pooch from a photo on your smartphone you can do this by sending a JPG, but be warned: the edges of the photo will be cut off and the colour will shift. 07. Consider litho printing You'll need to decide between digital and litho printing You have two choices for poster printing: digital or litho. (Well, okay you have three: you can always print at home. But chances are you don’t have a printer big enough.) A wide variety of mass-produced print items (books, posters, newspapers and so on) are produced using litho printing. Put simply, a litho print involves the printer making a set of 'plates' that are used to press the image to the paper. Creating these plates comes at a cost and doesn’t offer the immediacy of digital poster printing. The initial outlay can be expensive, but if you’re doing a large print run and want to output up to A1, it’s the process that offers a higher quality print and finish than digital printing. The choice between digital and litho printing will mostly be dependent on the money you have for the print job and how soon you need it doing. Digital printing with inkjet or laser printers is the cheaper and quicker of the two and good for smaller print runs. If budget is an issue and you’re not being too exacting over the quality, go with digital printing. This is also fine if you're not going above A3. 08. Choose the right poster printing shop Different printers have different levels of expertise, so it's worth doing your homework and getting personal recommendations. Also make sure you tailor the printer to the job at hand. In the UK, for example, Metroprint is well known for high quality and specialist work as well as being one of the few places around to use laser light source printers and genuine black and white photographic prints. For high quality, crystal clear prints on heavy stock, quality Kodak paper these are the people to visit. However, you might just want to print lots of stuff digitally without a special finish or on the highest grade paper. So don't write off high street poster printing at places such as Prontaprint and Snappy Snaps. There's a reason they're everywhere: they offer a decent, affordable service and will print your photo posters direct from a memory stick, mobile phone, Instagram or Facebook. They can also help you enhance your work with a range of photo art effects. Next page: bleed rules, vectors, and the final checks you should be making... 09. Check your spelling! Even if there are only a few words – as on this poster series by Fatih Hardal – double and triple check them Luke Woodhouse advises that you to "spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck. Then get your mum to spellcheck it and anyone else who will read it for you. There's nothing more soul-destroying than a typo, and they're easy to miss if you're too close to your masterpiece." And that goes for the big words as well as the small ones – its not uncommon to caught up in checking the small print, only to miss a glaring error in the headline. 10. Set the correct bleed What is bleed? It's simply a little margin (usually 3 or 5mm) around the edge of your poster design that, depending on how the printer cuts the paper down, may or may not be shown in the finished result. It's essentially your room for error and ensures there isn't a random white line on the edges of your printed poster. Programs such as InDesign and QuarkXPress make it easy by showing you guides, so you can see where the bleed starts and finishes. Always ask the printer you're using (or check your own printer settings) to determine how much bleed is required for your poster printing. 11. Consider the trim The trim is the edge of the final printed output. To prevent text or logos being chopped off the final output, they should be placed with some breathing space around them. Design elements should be no closer to the trim edge than 3-5mm, depending on the size of the poster. 12. Run a pre-print check Always run a pre-print check. This will bring up any issues, such as RGB files being used or fonts used that aren’t embedded. In InDesign this is known as a 'pre-flight'. The programme can package up all your print files and links ('File > Package') into one folder, which will spare you any missing font nightmares. 13. Get your blacks right Ben Powell advises you avoid RGB black as it will look grey in print Ben Powell suggests: "When printing posters using black, there are so many different types of black you can use (RGB, Photoshop, neutral rich, registration, flat, designer, and so on). "My tip would be to avoid RGB black as this is primarily used for the web/digital and will look washed-out and grey in print. Which black you should use will depend entirely on your printing process and what paper stock you're using, especially if you're printing solid blacks. "When I designed a recent infographic piece, I spent days printing various different blacks on different stocks of paper to get the most accurate black whilst making sure the colours didn't bleed into each other; a really lengthy but worthwhile process. Always leave plenty of time to test your blacks – it can completely ruin a fantastic poster design if you don't." Related articles: How to get more from your print projects: 5 top tips Create special print finishes in InDesign How to prepare a file for print View the full article