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Like any adventure in life, there is no right or wrong way to embark upon setting up your own VFX studio. But to see how others have done it, we spoke to several people who have set up on their own in the world of 3D movies. Read on to discover their hints and tips and experiences, and prepare to be inspired, regardless of where you are in your career.
01. Start small and scale up
The eighth series of Doctor Who presented Milk with the opportunity to create some of its biggest VFX to date
There's no question that the majority of VFX studios are born when one or more senior artists depart an established studio in order to set out on their own. This is exactly how Milk VFX came about in June 2013. CEO Will Cohen explains: "When The Mill took the decision to close the Film & TV department, a small group of us seized the unique opportunity to set up on our own."
Milk got started in London with just 40 people and three key projects, Sherlock series three, Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode, and a TV adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. From there it has grown into a studio famed for its work across high-end film and television projects.
In 2017 Milk VFX ranked at number 73 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100
Within four years, the team had gradually grown to 150 people, and opened a second small studio in Cardiff, Wales. Today it has 250 artists onboard, and has also just announced a third studio space in Fitzrovia, London.
When asked how the studio was able to establish such a sturdy reputation in the heart of the industry, Cohen puts it all down to the team's combined experience.
"We were very fortunate with the contacts and track record we had between us. And then, the work we were able to secure helped us build our reputation for high quality. We went on to win our first BAFTA Television Craft Award for Doctor Who: Day of the Doctor – which was like a fairytale for us."
02. Save hard and spend smart
Sound investment saw Milk land work on top films such as Hercules
There's the small matter of reaching the end of your first year with money in the bank, which is a make-or-break time for any new business. "We were a self-funded enterprise, we didn’t start with millions of pounds," explains Cohen.
"Two key decisions helped us: investing money and energy in branding Milk properly when we set up and later (in 2017) taking on the investment from the BGF and deciding to grow the business with a proper strategy."
Cohen also states that ensuring the technical scalability of the business was also a crucial factor in their early success, particularly their investment in cloud technology.
Lexhag also makes equipment, 3D prints props, helps design sets, builds camera rigs and more
It was a slightly different journey for Alexis Haggar when he founded his VFX studio Lexhag in 2009. "Up until that point, I'd graduated from film school and landed in the special effects industry," he explains.
"It was around the time that CGI was becoming more mainstream, no longer a luxury but a necessity for many productions. Regularly we'd talk about how CG would take over the FX industry altogether. At school, I had created my Art A-Level final piece in 3D animation, so I was kind of already up to speed with some of the professional software."
Haggar continued to progress his career in SFX until he met Paul McGuinness, a BBC visual effects veteran known for work across practical and digital effects.
"I worked with him for a few years, gaining lots of knowledge and experience in both areas and shortly after a brilliant stint of work with him, I decided it was time to set up Lexhag," says Haggar. From there he spent the entirety of his savings on the rental of a small basement in Soho. The rest, as they say, is history.
03. Focus on your niche
A bustling studio can wait, the first steps involve starting small
Despite not having a wealth of experience in the VFX industry, Haggar maintains that his combined experience gave him a unique edge. "If anything, I had more of a round view of the industry. My journey was about knowing the filmmakers and working with them to create their visions."
"Obviously, knowing how to produce VFX shots and having a reliable core skill is also essential, and when you win your first job you'll more than likely be hiring others to work with you, and building a team."
Early on Lexhag's reputation was built on projects that combined practical and digital effects, as well as Haggar's keen interest in the horror genre. It was this that led it to work on their first television series, Charlie Brooker's Dead Set.
He continues: "It's a hugely competitive market, so anything that makes you stand out is good. Having a niche and doing something very well, that you can repeat, means you can create a more sustainable business."
From once being a luxury, CGI has now become a staple in television and films
The unfortunate side effect of having a niche is becoming pigeonholed, something Lexhag combat by consistently learning and experimenting with new techniques or technologies.
"We're a creative problem-solving company, solving story-driven challenges. Our team is multi-skilled and we love using all our skills to create; we make CGI, we shoot elements, make equipment, we prototype physical ideas, 3D print and develop props, help design sets, build characters, design camera rigs and loads more," states Haggar.
For those considering a venture similar to Haggar's, he has some sage advice: "It's hard work and you have to work smart. Be prepared to do a bit of everything, not just what you love. You'll need to be the type of person that can focus their efforts, and enjoy all aspects of running a business."
"As boring as it sounds, having a good accounts system and delivery pipeline will be paramount to the success of your studio and most important of all, looking after your people."
04. Don't be picky (to start with)
Rob Redman claims that anyone running their own VFX studio should be prepared to spend a third of their time doing admin
For owner of Pariah Studios (and the editor of 3D World) Rob Redman, it wasn't necessary to go all in with his life savings. "I was a photographer for years and I was doing a lot of image editing, which then developed into 3D," he explains.
"I started Pariah Studios as a freelance, 'on-the-side' thing. It didn’t become a limited company for years, but I started building up." Redman asserts that he enjoyed the creative freedom that this kind of organic growth allowed. "I had design and 3D and camera work all running together," he adds.
Early on in the life of any studio, the freedom to pick and choose projects is going to be an unaffordable luxury. As Redman explains: "At first you don’t have a reputation, or if you do it’s within someone else’s company."
"You won’t get much coming in to start with, so you take it all, it's only when you start getting more that you can pick and choose. Don't forget that in another couple of years, you've got to budget for newer gear and faster computers."
05. Choose a good location
This burning landscape made by Milk for Altered Carbon isn't the best location to work in
Cohen believes that experience and location are important to setting up a successful studio: "We found when we started that people really want to know who you are and what you’ve done, so that experience is crucial."
He adds: "Location is extremely important in terms of talent pools and clients. Especially with London – though things have shifted a little over the last couple of years, there is a significant pool of talent in Soho/ Fitzrovia and it is, of course, the traditional film business location for clients and is still where they like to be – enabling them to walk around to the various companies."
Despite having some clear advantages, there's always hurdles for any fledgling studio to clear. Cohen explains that convincing potential clients that they could handle large-scale jobs was one of the biggest challenges initially.
"Keeping the order book full at the same time as keeping an eye on the jobs we are doing is still a challenge today," he adds.
Working from one fixed location could become a thing of the past
For Redman and Haggar, location is less of a concern in the contemporary VFX industry. "These days, remote working is common and many people work from around the globe. If you're based in the UK, Soho still has its benefits, but for how long, I'm not sure," states Haggar.
According to Redman: "You can be in a log cabin in the woods somewhere, as long as you've got an internet connection and you stay part of the community, it doesn't matter."
The means to start your own studio are now more readily accessible than ever, but that doesn't mean it's any easier. "It's easier to set up, but harder to succeed," says Redman. "As it becomes more widespread, you'll have 300 people trying to do the same thing that only ten people were doing a decade ago."
With the insight of our experienced contributors, plus enough drive and creativity, you may have what it takes to set up your own VFX studio, so why not go and find out?
This article was originally published in issue 237 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Subscribe to 3D World here.
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Can a mobile phone really make a significant impact on your creativity? Watch any major handset launch video, and the claims made in this regard are lofty. But actually, when you take look at the world's best smartphones, they're packed with features that could genuinely make your projects easier, more sharable and even better. (Pair them with the best iPhone apps and Android apps for creatives and you're laughing.)
So what's the best smartphone in the world right now? The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 gets our vote, thanks to its magnificent screen, dedicated S Pen and all around greatness. If it's within your budget and you're not bothered about the new iPhones, we recommend you make a beeline for the Note 9.
But there's a lot of choice out there. In this guide, we'll walk through the top contenders in all shapes and sizes, from a variety of manufacturers and budgets, and including Android and iOS options, to help you decide which mobile phone to buy.
Of course, screen quality and processing power are considerations you need to make. But we'll also tell you the best camera phone to grab if fantastic photography is a greater consideration for you, or if you're buying on a shoestring. Keep reading to discover the best mobile phones right now.
The world's best smartphones right now
Right now, we think the best smartphone overall is the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. It's just so good in so many areas – and could be a genuine game-changer for your workflow. The colours and clarity on that massive screen will make your visual projects sing, and we love the extra functionality featured with the improved S Pen stylus that comes in the box. It means you can get so much more from your Note 9, especially on the move. The battery's been cranked up to an enormous 4,000mAh – very few other smartphones come close to this. All that RAM and state-of-the-art chipset means it'll handle pretty much any task you throw at it, including the brave new world of VR.
Of course, the Note 9 isn't the cheapest option in this list of the best smartphones in the world (there are plenty of more affordable options below). And the price only escalates if you decide you want to upgrade to 1TB of onboard storage. But if you can stretch to this super-sized Samsung, you won't be disappointed.
Huawei (pronounced hu-wah-wey, if you’re interested) has dramatically upped its game recently with its range of Android-powered smartphones – the Huawei P20 Pro being the best its ever produced. Boasting a Full HD display, all-day battery life and an incredible camera set up (triple Leica with 40MP sensor), the P20 Pro is really upping the competition for Apple and Samsung. Aside from its incredible camera, the phone's broad 6.1-inch screen is a real boon for seeing finer details in your designs and illustrations, or comfortably utilising the keyboard and CMS. Try as we may, it's a real struggle to pick fault with the Huawei P20 Pro – even the price is a lot friendlier than its direct competitors.
If you saw us banging on about how good the Note 9 is, above, but balked at the cost, then the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is an easy sell. The newer iteration isn't a dramatic improvement on its 2017 predecessor – but it does make the Note 8 much more affordable. It's a big, bad brute of a phablet with fantastic cameras and the kind of processing power that wouldn't look weak in a cheap laptop. Snazzy features to help you get the most from the impressive dual lens main camera include live focus for instant bokeh, and potent optical and digital zoom. It might be superseded, but on a features-price ratio, the Note 8 remains one of the best smartphones in the world.
If you've been scrimping and saving (or have a very generous equipment budget) for the latest, greatest Apple smartphone, then you may as well just go straight ahead and buy the iPhone XS Max. This 6.5-inch, $1,000/£1,000+ monster of a mobile is packed with more than 3 million pixels: it's scarcely believable. We've never seen a screen on a smartphone like it. The scope it gives you to work creatively, accurately and professionally on the go is unsurpassed. The new Bionic A12 chip promises staggering processing power, helping you render images faster and work as though you were on a laptop. And being an Apple iPhone, it has a couple of best-in-class cameras.
There's just one thing to remember – it's pronounced "10-S Max". If you're spending this much on a phone, you'll at least want to get the name right when you're telling your friends about it.
The last of the Plus models (for now at least), the iPhone 8 Plus is the newest big-screen Apple smartphone without an X in its name. While the screen remains largely the same as the 1080p iPhone 7 Plus, the camera on the 8 Plus is its real selling point. It’s a dual-camera affair, but unlike Huawei and Leica’s offerings, the iPhone 8 Plus camera is all about that 1x to 2x optical zoom. Build quality is better than anything out there (possibly excluding Samsung's phones) and features such as 3D Touch and Touch ID with Apple Pay make it a real winner. And of course, the depth and breadth of iPhone apps for creatives is always a swaying point.
A 6.3-inch smartphone for around the £200/$200-mark should ring alarm bells – it must be terribly slow to use, have awful cameras or at least be downright ugly, right? Wrong, actually, and the Honor Play is proof. Notionally intended for gamers, that massive Full HD+ display and HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset mean that it comes close to matching some of the world's best smartphones in those areas. The 16Mp dual lens main camera is well up to the job for Instagram-friendly shots (although low light photography does start to become a struggle), while its svelte dimensions and full-metal unibody cover mean the Honor Play has the look and feel of a flagship phone, too. All this makes it easily our top recommendation if you're looking for a cheap smartphone.
If photography's your thing, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. Just a cursory read of some of the specs on board this best-in-class camera phone will give you an indication, starting with the 12MP cameras with adjustable f/1.5 aperture on the rear of the handset. Even in low light, the S9 Plus takes stunning snaps. It's equally impressive for video (we have a bit of a soft spot for the super slow mo 960fps function) and photos from the front camera are also excellent. Highly recommended.
With so many makes and models available, it can be hard to stand out from the mobile phone mob. The Google Pixel 2 XL tries, and succeeds, by concentrating on camera functionality without costing you a fortune. It's hard not to be impressed by the photos you get with the f/1.8 aperture and 12.2MP sensor on the main camera, but give the 4K video capture and HDR+ feature a go and you'll be gobsmacked by the quality. It also packs in true OIS and zero shutter lag, and of course there's an array of compatible apps in the Play Store. Bear in mind that you'll be stuck with a bulky bezel that most other phones have now eschewed. But compare the price to some other phones on this list, and you may just be tempted to pick the Pixel 2 XL.
Also read: The best laptops for video editing
Sony has a rich heritage in camera tech, and the Motion Eye technology in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a continuation of that. For one, it features super-slow motion video – recording at 960 frames per second. Yes, 960! Next, there’s predictive capture, which basically starts buffering your shot a second before the shutter is pressed – and then gives you four images to pick from. Its 19-megapixel sensor also has intelligent exposure controls to automatically adjust light levels (there’s also manual focus controls), while 5-axis stabilisation should make for steady 4K videos. The other big selling point of the 2017 XZ Premium (its elder statesmanship means it's now a lot cheaper) is that it was the first smartphone to have a 4K HDR display, which means a delightful screen on which to play back your creations.
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Design Manchester is a city-wide festival of creativity and design, and encompasses over 40 talks, debates, films, workshops, exhibitions, fairs and parties all over the city. Its sixth outing is based around the theme of disruption, and there’s an awesome lineup of speakers confirmed, including Morag Myerscough, Anthony Burrill and Kate Dawkins.
This year’s festival runs from 10-21 October, with workshops preceding the event on 6 and 7 October.
“This year the festival celebrates the noise makers, the pioneers and the inspiring creators. The unapologetically smart and funny, the humble and inspiring. The ones with the business upfront and the party at the back” say the organisers. Read on for a taste of what to expect - for the full programme and tickets for all events visit the Design Manchester website.
D(isrupt)M: Transformation by Design
Morag Myerscough is part of the awesome speaker lineup
The festival’s flagship event is the DM18 Conference, which takes place on 19 October and is hosted by Creative Review’s Patrick Burgoyne. There will be talks from artist and creator Morag Myerscough, graphic artist and print-maker Anthony Burrill, BAFTA-winning experience designer Kate Dawkins, DesignStudio co-founder Ben Wright, and Studio Dumbar creative director Liza Enebeis, Wolff Olins founder Michael Wolff, Matt Ipcar of Blue State Digital, and Kaye Dunnings, creative director of Glastonbury’s Shangri-La.
As well as this awesome programme of talks, there will be separate areas hosting workshops, seminars, interactive installations, Q and As, craft and making.
The Great Debate: Should all schools be art schools?
Experts will discuss the best way forward for design education
Taking place in the evening of 11 October, key figures from the design industry will be exploring the tricky issue of design education. They’ll be discussing how we can improve our educational policies to meet the needs of tomorrow’s economy, and the best ways to create pathways so that all young people with talent can succeed.
Talks and workshops
A huge selection of lectures, talks, workshops and tours are lined up for the festival. There’s a little something on everything, from coding (CoderDojo) to designer-making (Salford Makers party and workshops at Islington Mill) to architecture (DM18 x RIBA lecture with architect and urban designer Sir Terry Farrell), to film (a screening of Sofia Olin’s Lost in Vagueness with director intro and panel discussion), to good old design (design critic Alice Rawsthorn discussing her book Design as an Attitude).
Exhibitions
Art fans are also in for a treat. There are exhibitions and show going on all over the city. The extensive programme includes Life on the Outskirts: Helen Storey in The Vertical Gallery at Manchester School of Art, Drawing the Modern: the work of Gordon Hodkinson in the Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections Gallery and Breaking/Faking News: Patrick Thomas in the window of Fred Aldous.
Fairs
Its the ideal time to pick up some contemporary art (or a print)
Finally, there's a chance to shop for handcrafted printed gifts and homewares from local independent makers. The DM18 x The Manchester Print Fair will run from 20-21 October at the Whitworth on 20-21 October, with over 50 stalls (plus workshops from G . F Smith).
There’s also the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair – an annual showcase of cutting-edge craft and design from over 150 designer-makers – and the Manchester Art Fair, where over 120 galleries and artists will be selling modern and contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography and editioned prints at a range of prices.
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You're reading How to Create a Minimalist Website Design [YouTube Tutorial], originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+!
![How to Create a Minimalist Website Design [YouTube Tutorial]](https://designhost.gr/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=https://designmodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Minimalist-Website-Design-747x420.png&key=ccaebf60babcb1aaf8205e4c8f8ee5686210e3281372cb4d274afd432f230f9b)
Today I will show you how to create a minimal style website using Slides framework. In this video tutorial, I will explain how to work with the Slides App, how to use the manual, how to use the examples and …
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While there are a number of other CSS preprocessors to choose from, Sass has long been the most popular option in the web community (don't know what we're talking about? Read What is Sass? first). It's feature-rich, stable and powerful. What's more, the massive community of users mean support and advice are top-notch. In this article, we offer 10 top tips for getting more from Sass.
01. Nesting
The ability to mirror the nested hierarchy style of HTML in CSS is arguably the biggest improvement that Sass brings as a preprocessor to plain CSS. It stops you from repeating yourself constantly, makes project maintenance easier, and is far more pleasant to read as you can see exactly what rule relates to which selector:
02. Reference symbol
When nesting, you can use the & symbol to reference the parent element. This helps in two main ways. Firstly, you can neatly nest pseudo-states or elements:
... but also to combat pesky overwrite issues:
03. Variables
All variables in Sass begin with a $ symbol followed by the name (without spaces):
Which makes handling global values such as colours, fonts and breakpoints infinitely easier.
04. Object variables
In Sass, variables can also be stored as an object for cleanliness. Here is a small object of variables for breakpoints:
In order to retrieve a variable stored in this way, you can use a built-in Sass function called map-get to return one of the variables based on a key passed in as an argument. Here we'll use it to set the max-width value of a @media query:
CSS does now have the var() function to be able to create simple variables with -- prepended, but the Sass preprocessor version is much more powerful.
05. Mixins
Mixins bring the power of reusable code to CSS. Rather than having to go throughout a stylesheet and change a property multiple times, you can just handily change it inside a mixin:
You can also set parameters for your mixins so that you can use the same styles but with slight adjustments based on your needs. You can even set default parameters for those arguments:
06. Functions
Functions and mixins can often be interchangeable and accomplish the same result, but their purposes are slightly different. As with many things in programming, the answer is use logic: mixins are used more for includes, and functions are more for returning values. For example, the breakpoint-var() function we used earlier has a return not seen in mixins.
07. @extends
This is brilliant for reducing duplication in your CSS, allowing classes to share a set of properties with one another.
You can even extend multiple selectors in the same rule using a comma-separated list:
It can also be great for simplifying the way you name classes:
The only downside to this we would raise is the drastic increase in the size of your stylesheet if you use it constantly.
08. @import
There's nothing more intimidating or headache-inducing than an overly large stylesheet, particularly if you're scouring through it for a particular part. Thankfully Sass allows you to separate your styles into multiple files, and then use @import to bring then in as and when you need them! The typical naming convention for a partial is prepending an underscore before the file name and then importing it with its name.
For example, if we wanted to import separate styles for buttons, we would name the file _buttons.scss and then add: @import buttons;. Just like @extend, you can import multiple imports using a comma-separated list:
You can import inside a selector – if it makes sense based on the contents of your partial:
And your partials don't even have to be on the same directory level:
This gives you complete freedom in architecting the layout of your styles.
09. Looping
You can loop in Sass using three main rules:
- @for – Loop for a set amount of iterations, with access to the index on each loop
- @while – Loop until the check in place is no longer true
- @each – Loop through every item in a given list
If you have experience with JavaScript (or most programming languages) you will have been exposed on some level to these principles and they can be just as powerful in your styling as they are there.
For example, Bootstrap's entire flex-based grid system is built in Sass using all of these heavily. A simpler example could be looping five times to quickly created a staggered fade-in animation for items using nth-child:
10. Interpolation
The @each loop works really well with a powerful feature called interpolation; a way of using the content of the values you're looping (syntax is #{VALUE}) in the output itself. So, if we'd like to set up our heading rules using an object variable with keys and fonts, we could do the following:
This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 276 or subscribe.
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In this article, I will offer some hints and tips on how to give bird feathers a more three-dimensional finish. For more tips, take a look at our article on how to draw animals. I'll be using the example of a drawing of an osprey – you can see the finished thing below.
Hit the icon in the top right to enlarge the image
For this artwork, I used Rembrandt soft pastels and a mixture of Derwent and Cretacolor pastel pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper, which has a fine, sandpaper-like texture. I have accumulated a wide range of pastel pencils in various shades over the years, and use Derwent for its softer texture, while Cretacolor’s pastel pencils are harder and can be sharpened to fine point for the details.
For most of my artwork, I like my paper to have a little ‘tooth’. However, if I’m creating a human portrait for instance, a more absorbent paper – such as Clairefontaine Pastelmat – is better, as it allows for blending to a smoother finish for skin.
01. Draw the outlines and add a base colour
Blend the base colour with a polystyrene tool
The first step is to draw the outline of the feathers. I work from photos to reproduce details as accurately as I can. Each feather has a base colour applied – I use the photograph to choose the range of colours I need. This base colour is then blended to create a smooth surface using a piece of polystyrene cut to a pencil shape.
02. Use three different shades
One side of the feather will be darker than the other
The second step is to chose three different shades (light, medium and dark) for the next layer. You need to study each feather to see where the light falls – one side will always be darker than the other. To give the striped effect to each feather, I stroke with the pencil from the feather edge towards the middle. Note the darkest parts are always under the feather.
03. Add highlights
Add fine details with a very sharp pastel pencil
The final step is to add highlights along the central quill using a white pastel pencil – I use Cretacolor white as it sharpens well and gives the best true white available. I then add fine details to the feather using very sharp pencils. I look at the photo again to capture the final touches and give a three-dimensional effect.
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Beer branding is a hugely competitive sector, and achieving shelf stand-out in this area is no mean feat. The surge of small-scale craft producers shows no sign of waning, and these new breweries are keeping the big global brands on their toes.
In an attempt to stay fresh and relevant, many of the biggest household names have enjoyed major rebrands in recent years, often emphasising the richness of their heritage in their respective countries to differentiate them further from these young pretenders.
With this in mind, read on to discover four of the world's best logos for beer brands, which have all enjoyed recent rebrands to reawaken their heritage, plus why they're so successful...
01. Carlsberg
Taxi Studio reworked all Carlsberg's key brand assets, including the logo, hop leaf, crown and signature of JC Jacobsen
Launched September 2018, Taxi Studio's overhaul of Carlsberg, one of Denmark's best-loved brands, is designed with timelessness in mind – with a pared-back confidence that balances form and function in trademark Danish style.
After extensive research into Carlsberg's 171-year heritage, Taxi found countless subtly different iterations of Thorvald Bindesbøll's original logo had been employed over the years. Drawing on 2.5km of archives, the agency worked closely with lettering specialist Tom Lane to craft a new logo that remains faithful to the brand's heritage, while being timeless enough to be fit-for-purpose in the long-term.
While it retains the brand DNA of its predecessor, the new logo is more streamlined and elegant, and the various other brand assets – including the crown, hop leaf and signature of Carlsberg founder JC Jacobsen – were painstakingly re-crafted too.
This included the shape and placement of the swoosh beneath the logo, which was reworked so that typography could be locked up beneath the logo for the first time in its history, enabling the branding system to work effectively across all of Carlsberg's many global variants.
Sustainability was a key part of the brief, and in a market where rebrands often ride the waves of design trends and are obsolete within a few years, Taxi created a distinctively Danish aesthetic that's designed to last.
02. Budweiser
JKR New York redrew Budweiser's original 1860 script logo, as well as hand-crafting the brand's other key assets
Budweiser enjoyed a major global rebrand from JKR New York in 2016 that celebrated the quintessentially American beer's heritage, and reinforced it as a US icon. Every detail was hand-crafted: while the distinctive 'bow tie' logo was retained, JKR pared back to its purest red-and-white form, flattening it down and removing the gold detailing and 3D shadow effects.
The original script logo from 1860 was carefully redrawn for timeless appeal, and is incorporated on cans and bottles (such as those above) in a simple navy blue form, accompanied by a crest and earnest written manifesto at the top of the label, an approach that evokes the spirit of the 19th century.
Channelling the message that the beer is ‘brewed the hard way’, this includes the promise: "We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age, [resulting in] a taste, a smoothness and a drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price."
In 2016, limited-edition bottles and posters also featured the Statue of Liberty, as well as American Olympians and Paralympians from that year's Summer Games, to emphasise the beer's American credentials – and this proud association with its country of origin remains front-and-centre in Budweiser's branding.
03. Guinness
The Guinness rebrand celebrates its heritage in an authentic way
Another much-discussed 2016 project, Design Bridge's Guinness rebrand centres around an intricately detailed harp, and like the previous two examples, celebrates heritage and craftsmanship in a genuinely authentic way.
Over the course of the brand's 250-year history, the Guinness harp had lost its depth and character, and Design Bridge set about breathing new life into the emblem. Historical letterpress labels found in the archives, making reference to Dublin's River Liffey, provided a useful starting point, as did industrial and architectural features of the Guinness Storehouse itself.
Guinness' new identity is packed with heritage details, including wavy lines evocative of the Liffey, hand-drawn type inspired by the original labels, and metal-stamped lettering from inside the brewery. Design Bridge also collaborated with letterpress specialists to create a three-dimensional relief of the harp, adding an extra layer of richness to the rebrand.
04. Miller Lite
Turner Duckworth's heritage rebrand of Miller Lite included special edition cans, such as this one for SXSW 2015
Miller Lite is the USA's third-largest beer brand, and has the claim to fame of inventing 'light beer' back in 1975. Following a dramatic decline in sales in the face of increasing competition, MillerCoors brought Turner Duckworth on board to for a radical rebrand, in a bid to attract new drinkers.
The existing packaging didn't live up to the original promise of 'great tasting beer with half the calories', and felt like it was following rather than leading the sector. Inspired by the history of the brand, the agency redesigned its distinctive 1970s packaging in a contemporary way.
Custom typography, a new monogram logo and a range of illustrated elements added depth and versatility, ensuring the design was fit for purpose in the modern world. The rebrand was immediately successful, reversing Miller Lite's fortunes and bringing its forgotten heritage to light.
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Online ad industry moves away from once prolific ads that are now deemed insecure because of DOM-based XSS vulnerabilities.
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A data breach targeting women's apparel giant SHEIN occurred between June and August 2018.
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When you visit a website that's easy to use, the experience is more enjoyable for you as the user. That's what user interface (UI) design is all about – putting together a webpage's text, images, buttons, and tabs in such a way that it is intuitive to use and nice to look at. Want to get involved in UI design? Check out UI Design With Photoshop: From Beginner To Expert.
This course teaches you all about Photoshop and the role it plays in UI. Through 17 chapters and 11.5 hours of content that you can access 24/7, you'll learn basic shortcuts, settings, and tools that are very useful in the UI designer's toolkit. You'll also master light and shadow concepts, as well as pattern and gradient techniques.
Best of all, you'll be learning from an award-winning designed, Muhammad Ahsan Pervaiz. Check out UI Design With Photoshop: From Beginner To Expert for just $9.99.
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Happy with your income? Yes? Well, jolly good, run along and check out some interesting 404 pages or something.
For the rest of us, of course, the opportunity to earn a bit – or maybe a lot – more is always welcome, and if you're working on the web then there are plenty of things you can do to boost your income. Whether you want to simply make yourself a better prospect for a pay rise or promotion, or if you'd rather pull in some extra cash directly, there are loads of opportunities out there.
We spoke to some experts and figured out the 10 best ways to start bringing in more money. Read on to find out how you could soon be coining it in.
01. JavaScript
This might seem like a glaringly obvious place to start but we're kicking off with JavaScript for a good reason: decent JavaScript developers are in surprisingly short supply. If you can demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of vanilla JavaScript then you're immediately on a firm footing to find well-paying work. If you add some of the more popular frameworks to your armoury then you can start earning some serious money.
James Huckle, head of technology at Mirum UK, suggests that you can get a long way on just React; however if React is all you know it's really going to limit your usefulness to an employer. "Someone who comes in and can only do React isn't a lot of good because if something goes wrong you've got to have someone with the skills to find out where the defect's coming in," he tells us. And that's where fully-fledged JavaScript developers can really make their mark.
If you set your mind to it, adding JavaScript to your skill set needn't take long. "One of our developers came straight off one of these 12-week boot camps and she's turned out amazing," says Jonathan Bradford from Kota. "There are great courses that you can do for next to nothing and if you get that on your CV then my eyes are going to light up because at the moment I'm dealing with people who only have limited knowledge of HTML, CSS and jQuery."
02. Project management
Knowing the best project management tools can be a great help
Sometimes you're going to have to step up if you want to maximise your earning potential and if you want more money and new challenges, a move into project management can give you both. Nowadays it's near-impossible to avoid project-management methodologies and it's about a lot more than simply shipping products on time and on budget – agile methodologies can shape the way a project progresses.
"You definitely need a smart techie in the room able to organise the work, the crossover between the technical build team and the delivery management team," says James Huckle. "It's about understanding process, how creative crosses over into technology and experience of what those overlaps are, understanding how edge cases occur and how mistakes get made."
"Companies know they need to shift cultures towards being lean, with small multi-disciplinary teams working at a faster rate," adds Kate Taylor client services director at Zone. "So agile project management is something where we're competing with more people and starting to see a better quality in the market than the last few years."
03. UX design
"UX is definitely hardest to hire in at the moment," says Zone's Kate Taylor. "The market is so buoyant, it's really tough to get people and UX designers can command a high day rate as freelancers."
Which is all well and good if you're a user experience designer, obviously, but even if you're not, the need for good design means that, whatever your job, if you can bring some design sensibilities to the table then you're increasing your value. After all, these days design is everyone's business.
"There are a lot of creative thinkers in all of the other disciplines who are experienced in working alongside clients and who know what good looks like," says Taylor. "The whole obsession we're seeing at the moment with just wanting a UX designer is short-sighted. The market's struggling to deliver enough people and a lot of those skills really do exist elsewhere, so you just have to be a lot more open-minded about how you approach those conversations and how you get to a solution."
04. Flexbox & CSS Grid layouts
Add Flexbox or CSS Grid to your skill set to up your income
The very nature of the web means that new techniques and technologies are evolving all the time. If you're down with the latest cutting-edge tools then you can be sure that your skills will be in demand – and along with that will come decent remuneration.
Right now, the smart money is on flexible layouts and grid-based systems; over the past year they've been fully adopted by the major browsers and the benefits of using them are instantly obvious to anyone who appreciates great-looking responsive web design. So if you're prepared to invest time in figuring out how they work, you'll be adding a vital skill to your CV.
Should you go with Flexbox or CSS Grid Layout? Almost certainly both: Flexbox is built for layouts in a single dimension, while CSS Grid works with two-dimensional layouts and is therefore much better suited to dealing with more complex designs. With both systems under your belt you'll be able to provide clients with beautiful and sophisticated layouts, whatever their requirements may be.
05. WordPress
Building WordPress sites can be a lucrative side income
It's easy to overlook WordPress if you're a serious web developer but as a platform it's immensely popular, running 30 per cent of the web from the personal blogs that helped it make its mark, through to heavyweight news and corporate sites. And its benefits for agencies with an eye on the bottom line should be obvious: with an immense library of WordPress themes and plugins available, it's much easier to get a full-featured site up and running fast, as Kota's Jonathan Bradford attests.
"Learning WordPress doubled my salary when I was at an agency and I now own a WordPress agency," he tells us. "I used to approach small businesses and charge just under £1,000-£2,000 for a website with SEO. I could build this from a theme in a weekend."
As Kota has grown, its relationship with WordPress has become more sophisticated, moving from themes to bespoke JavaScript. "The way WordPress is moving forwards now," says Bradford, "that's all going to be using headless JavaScript on the front end and really separating WordPress on the back end."
06. Testing
"Developers don't really see QA as part of their job," says Mirum's James Huckle, and this can be a big problem when it comes to delivering working sites on time. "The definition of 'done' is one of the biggest challenges I have with midweight/junior developers," he continues. "Done is not when you say you've done the feature; done is when you've done it, you've tested it, someone else has tested it and the test has passed."
And it's an awareness of the need for testing that makes you more valuable as an individual. "A good developer should know how to write unit tests in their code, so they can at least test their own code is working as per design," he tells us. "I'd expect developers to be able to write functional tests and I'd expect them to understand that it's their responsibility to work with QA to make sure whatever they develop gets into production in a way that is defined as done."
07. Soft skills
Tech and design skills are all well and good but, like it or not, for a web business to succeed it needs people who can grease the wheels. The skills we're talking about here are generally referred to as 'soft skills' – the ability to communicate with teams, talk to clients or customers and ensure that projects get delivered on time.
"I really hate the name 'soft skills' as it downplays the benefits," says Zone's Kate Taylor. However, even if the name makes it sound a bit fluffy and probably not your problem, the fact is that if you can master the soft skills, you'll become a much more attractive prospect for employers and you'll see many more opportunities to expand your career in different directions.
Kate Taylor continues: "We're seeing a much greater requirement for the soft skills that you'd find in client services for candidates across the board." She points out that from a tech and project management perspective, these disciplines are becoming a lot more client-facing, particularly now that agile practices mean that client teams are being injected into projects. When you find yourself working shoulder-to-shoulder with the people paying the bills, an old-fashioned coder mindset won't get you far; agencies need people who know how to network, can build relationships, read the politics and who are strategically minded enough to spot opportunities and bring them to the agency.
08. Facebook
Facebook ads can offer better money-making opportunities than Google's
When you're all about the code or the design, demands such as marketing and SEO can feel like a bit of an unwelcome distraction. If you want to earn more money, though, they're a sure-fire way of boosting your income and the best place to take advantage of that right now is Facebook.
For Jonathan Bradford of Kota, SEO and marketing were his route to escape from an agency job and set up his own studio. And while mastering Google's mysterious SEO algorithms is an obvious solution, Kota has found that Facebook ads represent a much better way to make money. He explains how he set up Facebook ads for Brazilian restaurant chain Presto's new outlet: "We put out an offer via Facebook ads that targeted a mile radius around Chelmsford and we got thousands and thousands of downloads from this advert."
Facebook ads are easier to target than Google ads and Facebook's new commitment to transparency is making things even easier. "Soon you'll be able to see competitor ads and you'll be able to see the likes, tags and engagement," says Bradford. "For someone to add that to their skill set if they're working on the digital marketing side, once they've done a few they've got it on their portfolio and they can show you the result."
09. Side projects
If you know stuff, share it in a conference talk
It's all too easy to focus on the day job but if you want a competitive edge in the jobs market, then a strong portfolio of side projects can really help you stand out. "The people with more value are the people with more skills, more crossover and more collaboration," explains James Huckle. Basically, if you have a lot of skills across the board under your belt then you're a lot more useful – and you can command a bigger salary as a result.
Of course, it depends on the side project. Your fledgling web comics might have some social traction but they're probably not going to give you much leverage in your pay negotiations. Rather, think about something like speaking at conferences – whether it's a big-ticket event or a local meetup. If you can do conference talks or even a bit of teaching, this demonstrates that you know your stuff and you have the confidence and communication skills to share your knowledge – a quality that's irresistible to employers.
10. Full-stack development
Finally, the big one. The web industry is awash with specialists but to hold it all together there's always demand for multi-talented full-stack developers.
In theory, if you're a full-stack developer you're at home at the front or back end. Realistically, though, you're more likely to be focused on one and this can make a big difference to how much you'll earn. Back-end work, with its requirements for heavyweight languages and systems that provide foundations for any site, is more valuable to employers, while the slightly less demanding front-end aspects, while still a vital link in the chain, don't attract the same high rates.
Full stack isn't something you drift into; it requires a particular mindset. Kate Ganiukova at Hacker Noon describes the traits as an analytical mind, patience, love for learning, attention to detail, creative vision and discipline, and you'll need all of those to master the full set of skills – and to carry on learning fresh ones.
If that's beyond you, it still pays to apply full-stack thinking in your work. As Jonathan Bradford points out: "The kind of developer we would like is someone who has a core mindset, is clever and, if they have a problem with code, by the next morning they'll have figured it out."
This article was originally published in issue 309 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 309 here or subscribe here.
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If you follow trends, it's hard to miss that VR is going through another revival. It's happened before, but this time it's slightly different because we have more access to powerful computers and graphics cards at home and in our studios.
Companies like Facebook (Oculus) and HTC (Vive) have made VR hardware such as the Oculus Rift affordable – presuming you already own a high-end gaming PC. It didn't take long for creatives to start asking what's in it for them, and the call was answered with programs like Google Tilt Brush, Oculus Quill, Masterpiece VR, and the one we'll be using today: Oculus Medium.
This article will show how to work up a 3D character design from an existing character sketch. You can, of course, work without the sketches and just free-form sculpt your ideas. Also see the video below to watch the process.
Oculus Medium places you into an environment where you can use the touch controllers to spray clay into the air in front of you and then manipulate it into the shapes you need. There's a layering system so you can break the character down into poseable sections, and you can even take it to a painted, finished concept.
The tool palette has a range of familiar tools like Move, Inflate, Smooth, Paint, Smudge, Cut and the basic Clay Adding tool. You can also make a shape, turn that into a stamp and then use that as your tool.
01. Use reference sketches
Try a few different colours to see what looks best
I always try to use good reference in my work. For this workshop I'm using a character sketch of a little creature I've called the Triplop. I sketch the initial design on my iPad, then produce a few different versions to see what works well as a design. I ink it, colour it and then save out a few PNG versions.
02. Bring the references into Medium
Save your reference images then pull them into Medium
Save the reference images to your Documents Folder (Look for the _import folder). Import the images from the Reference panel to Medium. It's the third button along when you pull down on the thumb stick on the Support Hand. Select the images you need, then in the scene click each one and move it into place. Use the Check button and attach it to your hand.
03. Work with the Mirror feature turned on
Use the Mirror feature to save sculpting time
To work symmetrically, go into the Control Panel (Yellow Button, Support hand) and choose Mirror. Every action you perform now will be mirrored across the work centre, including adding clay, painting, moving clay around and any deleting that needs to happen. Later on we'll turn Mirror off and place my Triplop into a range of more dynamic poses using the Move tool.
04. Begin defining the body shape
Start off by sketching out the torso
The character will be built on a few different layers, enabling you to pose it later. The default tool in Medium is the Clay tool and you add clay by pressing the trigger on the Tool hand (your dominant hand). Create a belly and chest area going up to the shoulders. Add in a little tail.
05. Introduce legs
Add a new layer for the legs so you can adjust them separately
Make a new layer that we can use for the legs. The layer system enables you to adjust parts separately, flip models, and increase and decrease the details level. Using the basic Clay tool, lay down clay for the thigh, calf and a basic foot. Hold the trigger on the support hand to access the Smooth tool and level out the surface as needed.
06. Add arms and hands
Add the fingers joint by joint
Add a new layer for the arms and add clay down from the shoulder to form the biceps, the elbow and hand. Then create each finger, joint by joint. Using the Smooth tool to get the volumes correct and then switch to the Move tool to tweak the form (push forward on the support hand to access the Tool palette).
07. Lay the foundation of the head component
Lay out the head shape then start bringing in details
Add a new layer and call it 'Head'. Use the Clay tool to lay down the ball of the head. Add volume for the cheeks, the frill at the back, the beak. Double-tap the gear icon on your Tool Hand and the clay turns red. Make two eye sockets.
08. Refine the shape of the creature's head
Use the Smooth, Clay and Move tools to refine the head shape
The most important part of the character is the head and facial characteristics, so I spend the most time on this section. Using the Smooth, Clay and Move tools, I make sure that the head reads from all angles and that the mouth and eyes look appealing and friendly. Don't worry about the eye shape until we add the eyes, because it's always easier once a sphere is in the socket.
09. Change the eye material
Either use a different material for the eyes or adjust the material settings
Create a layer for the eyes and use the gear settings icon to change the material. Try metal if that suits you, but the easiest way is to simply increase the specularity of the material to give a glossy effect. Then reduce the occlusion to reduce shadows. Turn on Mirroring and use the Clay tool to add simple spheres for eyes.
10. Give the creature bright blue eyes
Paint the pupil and iris onto the eyeballs
Now change to the Paint tool and paint with blue and black to create the pupil and iris. You can change your Clay settings to 'single' rather than continuous; this enables you to stamp down a single sphere rather than spraying constantly. The size of the sphere depends on the size of the brush that you start with.
11. Create teeth and horns
Use a Cube tool to add teeth
Add a new layer for the teeth and horns. To make the teeth, use a basic Cube tool (click the gear icon on the Tool hand). Draw it onto the character, ensuring it intersects with the upper jaw. Use the Smooth tool to improve the shape and the Move tool if necessary. The horn can be made by spraying the Sphere tool in an arc.
12. Paint the base coat
Switch to the Painting tool to add the base coat
To lay down the base coat, change to the Painting tool and pick a relevant colour. Apply that to all skin areas. Make the colour a little darker and then paint the recessed areas. Choose a few different colours to match your design and gradually build up the overall look that you're after.
13. Detail the surface
Use a very small brush to give the skin surface a mottled effect
To add smaller details make the brush very small, then hold your hand quite far back and 'pepper' the surface to generate a mottled effect. Add lighter and darker areas to give good contrast to the skin surface. Check there are no flat-looking areas; if you find some, add in some small details like wrinkles or light patches.
14. Final passes and poses
Finish off by finding an engaging pose for your creature
To pose the model, duplicate each layer (not the head) and delete either one side or the other. That way you'll end up with two legs, two arms and so on. Now by selecting each individual part you can move the parts around to achieve dynamic poses. If you need to go more extreme, use the Move tool set to a large brush.
This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 162 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here.
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Is your Twitter feed is filling up with unexpected web comics portraying Bowser from Nintendo's Super Mario games as a princess? Are you at a loss as to why? Let us explain.
Sometimes the internet can delight us, sometimes it can terrify us, and on occasion it can do both at the same time. This trend definitely ticks the third box. Recently, Nintendo revealed that in the upcoming version of New Super Mario Bros. U for the Nintendo Switch, Toadette would have a special super crown that would transform her into Peachette, a Princess Peach lookalike.
Fair enough. But of course this is the internet, and it didn't take long for people to ask, well, would the super crown work on other characters?
Like, would it work on Bowser?
And so the latest runaway meme storm kicked off. Over the past few days, it seems that everyone has been imagining and drawing their own versions of Bowsette, an unexpectedly sexy princess version of Mario's chelonian arch-enemy. Some might say it's getting out of hand (you can always browse the Twitter hashtag for the full spectrum of artwork on offer).
Ignoring the overly pneumatic and lewd examples, though, there's been a lot of cracking fan art on show.
Mind you, it's not all over-the-top cleavage shots. Well, okay, it mostly is, but there have been some other fun takes on the concept.
Of course, why should Bowsette get all the fun? It was only a matter of time until eager artists started wondering what would happen if other Nintendo characters tried on the mushroom crown.
But let's not take this too far, yeah?
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Yesterday the leading name in the weight loss industry, Weight Watchers, revealed a slimmed down rebrand and new logo design that sees its name change to WW. But with the new initials not standing for Weight Watchers or the rebrand's slogan 'Wellness the Works', the revamp has left members and designers confused.
The decision to trim back the identity to just WW comes as part of a shifting focus for the company. Instead of concentrating on weight, WW wants to expand its focus to include health and wellness.
The company's chief executive Mindy Grossman explained that its new logo, which sees two letter 'W's stacked in a purple circle, is emblematic of this gear change. "That marque represents our heritage and history and what we are going forward."
But what is that exactly?
So far 2018 has been a good year for the company formerly known as Weight Watchers, with big name backers like Oprah seeing its share price surge. However the recent rebrand has left a bad taste with members and designers.
Critics have also been keen to point out that the decision to drop the word 'weight' could be to do with a backlash surrounding the word that was sparked by the controversial #wakeupweightwatchers campaign that targeted teenagers.
On top of this, the name WW is not only awkward to pronounce, it's also confusingly close to WWF and WWE, two companies that already had to battle it out over who could lay claim to their preferred initialism. We also found that when said out loud, WW taps into the tongue's muscle memory, resulting in the urge to add 'W dot' at the end, or maybe that's just us.
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The human factor doesn't have to be an intangible when assessing cyber risks within a company.
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- Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios)
It doesn’t matter how big your pipeline is, how small your toolkit may be, or how experienced you are: chances are that if you’re into 3D art, there’s a copy of the real-time PBR renderer Marmoset Toolbag on your system. Where Toolbag 2.0 was all about showing off the model, 3.0 lets you dive into scene workflows with much greater ease, taking you from baking to animating, with shader, fog, lighting and rendering improvements in-between.
This makes it very easy to achieve anything from good-looking portfolio renders to rapid character or look development output. The standalone viewer and direct upload link to ArtStation don’t hurt, either.
New baker outputs
Starting with the baker, the workflow is easy: simply click the Loaf icon in the menu, set up your high and low-poly mesh, tangent space options and cage settings, then define your output. As of version 3.04, Toolbag has image quality improvements and now supports multiple texture and material groups, enabling you to bake items with different UV layouts, although it doesn’t support UDIM yet.
The baker output is on par with the likes of Quixel or Substance
If you’re new to Toolbag, note that the materials of an item are ‘hidden’ in the group items in the object list on the left, and they’re not always visible. Also, if there’s a shared material group across groups, you may need to duplicate them in the baker for your bake. This is fine on simple models, but can quickly turn into a drag-and-drop pain on more complex models with lots of groups and materials.
One solution could have been a search and select function similar to 3ds Max or other applications, and then with the ability to drag the results to the respective bake groups. Bar this, it’s a robust addition to Toolbag and its output is fully on par with that of other applications like Quixel or Substance.
Shader improvements
The native baker complements the new shaders: Toolbag now supports material groups in the UI, meaning your groups and material groups don’t need to have the same name any more, something that could get annoying in 2.0. In addition, Toolbag now comes with some excellent shader improvements, like custom shaders, tiling, material animation, Substance 2018 support and the updated SSS (skin) shader.
The custom shader enables users to code their own shader setups by letting them override the native Marmoset ones. Based on HLSL and GLSL you can create and load the exact shaders and inputs you need for your projects and renders.
The SSS overhaul in Toolbag 3 is a huge improvement over the 2.0 Skin Shader
The SSS shader is equally easy to use, just remember to set up decent lighting to show off your shader and Marmoset’s new advanced translucency options. This is where the baker came in super handy: I’d forgotten to bake a thickness map, and now I did not have to switch apps to bake one out. Together with the ability to load SBSARs from the Extra tab and the fact that you can now animate your textures, the shader overhaul also opens for one of the main features of the 3.0 release: animation.
Animation toolkit
Whereas Toolbag 2 only had turntable options, version 3.0 came with an animation and keyframe editor in 2016. The latest version 3.04 improved on this, and now also makes animation life easier on users by allowing animated meshes to be stored in the TBSCENE file, as well as some serious performance enhancements.
Keyframes are only applied to the currently selected object
While a toolkit like this won’t ever provide the entire range of animation features like Max, Maya, Houdini, iClone and the like, it will let you animate small to medium scenes, and excels at it, meaning you can do anything from dioramas, interiors, exteriors and single to multiple figure animations.
It’s pretty intuitive as well – you can import your animation or set one up from scratch, and if you’ve animated in any of the mainstream animation packages, you’ll feel right at home in the editor. It also has a cool little feature that lets you hook up your turntable to the animation you’re working on, in effect allowing for multiple turntables at various speeds in your scene.
Add to that the fact you can now import TBSCENE formats into Unreal, a glTF exporter, lots of lighting and shadow improvements, not to mention fog, a shadow catcher and a good, standalone 360 WebGL viewer that works with anything from WordPress to ArtStation, and you have a crazy solid PBR rendering package at a fraction of the price of KeyShot or Clarisse.
Despite its limited functionality compared to other applications, it should be taken into account that whatever Toolbag does, it does it very well. With this attention to detail and user requests, Marmoset Toolbag 3 is a steal.
Toolbag is a staple in my day-to-day workflow. I’d have given it a 5 rating if it weren’t for some of the clunkiness in the baker UI. But with that speed, ease and long list of features, I’d heartily recommend it to anyone in need of a speedy and intuitive PBR real-time renderer.
- Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios)
- Read more: How to create a video game character
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About a month ago, we learned that plugins were in the pipeline for prototyping tool Adobe XD, and over the weekend, details of the first extensions started to emerge. One of the stand-out plugins comes courtesy of Adobe's partner of twelve years, Astute Graphics – its slick new tool promises to make the lives of anyone who works with vector art much easier.
Named Smart Point Removal, or SPR for short, this core vector technology reduces the file size of vector assets to help slash download times and increase rendering speeds. This will be music to the ears of artists and designers working to tight deadlines.
At the same time, SPR converts imported artwork into assets that can be edited and manipulated more intuitively. The tool does this by stripping back the number of path nodes on vector assets so users can achieve desired results more easily than ever before.
With just one tolerance slider control, dubbed 'strength', SPR is as straightforward as it gets. Having previously created vector tools for Illustrator CC, Astute Graphics was able to carry over plenty of hard-won expertise into this extension. Check out the focused vector prototype tool for Adobe XD in action via the GIF below.
SPR is part of Astui, a brand new subscription service on offer from Astute Graphics. Powered by AG Tech, the Atsui service includes other vector artwork optimisation, editing and manipulation tools such as Outline Strokes, Offset Path, Vector Brushes and Boolean.
Seeing as the core SPR technology is based in servers, the XD plugin will become available as soon as Adobe launches the XD plugin APIs. Other users will also be able to examine and extend the XD plugin codebase upon launch.
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There are currently no mitigations for the Firefox attack, a researcher told Threatpost.
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Art has been a huge gift for me and I’m grateful to my past self for taking the chance to pursue it. I didn’t try to make a career in art until I turned 30, and I didn’t get my foot in the door until I was 33. Because of what I considered were my limitations, I didn’t take this opportunity for granted. I was pretty fearless early on because I felt as though I had nothing to lose. It was a tough road filled with self-doubt.
I believe that a majority of my growth as an artist came to me not just by practising and learning art techniques, but through analysing my mindset during that process: looking at why being an artist was so appealing; where my motivation and drive were coming from; and how that motivation and drive continues to evolve.
While some of these tips may seem basic, I still revisit them to understand why they work so well for me when I’m stuck creatively. These tips are the foundation for getting clear about how to motivate yourself to create for longer periods and be excited to do so. I hope they’re helpful to you as much as they were for me.
01. Set goals and challenges
Mel Milton set himself a challenge to draw different takes on Wonder Woman for a month
You need two things to get where you want to go: a starting point and a destination. Leave out either one and you’ll end up feeling frustrated and believing that your efforts are pointless. Goals are the best way to start setting a destination for improvement.
For many years I just wanted to get better. The problem was that I didn’t take the time to define what it really meant to 'get better' – it’s such a vague concept. Having small-, medium- and long-term art goals helps solidify a sense of purpose to your work.
One approach that helped me was to limit most goals to about 30 days each. Thirty days of doing a task usually makes it easier to turn it into a habit that stays with you while you tackle other subjects. Make your first few challenges more about having fun. Connect them to something you geek over (I spent a month drawing different takes on Wonder Woman). Eventually, the 30-day habit will feel natural. You can then move on to challenges that are geared towards areas of weakness. For me, that’s handling colours. Carry out small studies and learn one new facet of that subject each day. After 30 days you’ll have a strong understanding in that area.
02. Give yourself a 'why'
When I was younger, I liked being told I was good at art because I was a failure in pretty much every other aspect of my life. My 'why' I drew was easy to see and the results were enough to make me happy with where I was with my art.
When I met my wife, my 'why' changed to 'I want to take care of my wife and family'. Up until this point I had never tried to become a pro artist. This new 'why' took over and I set off to do something I didn’t think I could do but now, in my mind, I actually had to. It helped me identify previously unseen opportunities. It also made me focus less on the obstacles and more on the solutions. The easiest thing to say is, 'I want to be a good artist'. However, having a meaningful reason for why you want to be a good artist helps you reach that goal much more easily.
03. Set aside time for doodling
Doodling without any constraints or pressures can help your artwork
Practising specific subjects or techniques can be draining after a while. So when I’m stuck and not motivated, I’ll spend 15 minutes just doodling. This is a chance to experiment with shapes, sizes, colours and so on that I don’t normally tackle. There’s no pressure to learn anything from them and I usually go over the results on a day that I’m in the mood to draw, to see if I can take something from them.
I doodle both traditionally and digitally. Some days I challenge myself to make mistakes on purpose, do as many things that I think don’t have appeal, and then laugh about them. Those kind of days give me the ability to not take things so seriously. They’re reminders that it’s okay to be messy, make mistakes and go a little out there just for kicks and grins. You never know what you’re gonna bring back.
04. Have a day of brainstorming
Come up with a list of things that pique your interest. This can be everything from films, video games, books, animals and foods to favourite holiday locations, sports, and inspiring people and places. With films, books and video games alone, there’s a plethora of genres and characters to pull from.
I usually do this at the beginning of the week to be consistent throughout that week. Making brainstorming a long- term habit will get your mind looking into areas that you wouldn’t have normally thought of, as well as give you a library of topics to work from when you’re lacking motivation.
05. Explore a topic that excites you
Milton focuses on getting the anatomy of the female form correct
I usually paint female portraits (see tip #6), and have been working on just that subject for about 18 years now. It had nothing to do with work or making money. It became more of a long-term challenge. I always felt I wasn’t clever enough to understand anatomy. So I hid that weakness by drawing monsters, where I could make up my own anatomy.
I then settled on portraits because I thought if I could capture the subtleties of the female face and form, I would have more control over lines and shapes. All my art heroes could draw women well and make them strong in nature, yet retain the feminine appeal. What I learned (and still learn) from just the one subject is that I may have a better understanding after all this time, but I know I’ll never learn everything on that subject.
It’s helped me to see things I wouldn’t have to known to look for when I first started. I now take those observation skills into other areas of study, which has helped me to be excited to learn things I normally wouldn’t have attempted to tackle.
06. Work from big to small
Milton refines his image over three stages
When I’m motivated, it’s hard not to just jump right into the polishing stage. Yet by holding off as long as I can, I’ll get more done in less time. Observe the three pictures above.
As in the first image, going large with strokes I usually grab my local colours and apply generous-sized strokes that indicate where the main features are, such as the direction of the lighting, large shadow shapes and warm/cool areas. It was tricky for me to work this way early on because I had a hard time looking past all the ugliness.
In image two, I start to refine facial features. I begin blending colours by softening edges. I also add some slightly smaller shapes and refine others to further refine features like the eyes and nose. This is the stage where you can get caught up in doing the details, but I find it easier to make major changes if necessary during this stage.
Lastly, I dive into the details. Everything I add now is to encourage the viewer’s eye to travel around the image. I don’t go too crazy and make sure everything supports those elements that are important to the picture. If you have a solid image going into this stage, the details become the icing on the cake.
07. Deconstruct paintings and reference
Looking at reference work isn't 'cheating'. Eventually you'll learn to put your own spin on reference images
Copying other people’s work or references was taboo early on in my journey to become an artist, so I tried to steer clear of it. But when I started my first studio job, I noticed that there was a lot of reference usage. My co-workers would gather inspiration pieces, deconstruct them and then come up with something new. I felt betrayed because I thought everything was done without reference!
Being able to access so many great artists these days can be overwhelming and make you feel as though you’ll never make your mark on the art world. Yet if done properly, using reference and emulating your favourite artist can give you some great insight into the creative process. Especially when you set aside the original artwork and apply the techniques you’ve learned in your own way. You’ll achieve the right results with the knowledge that it’s all your own work.
08. Meet with like-minded artists
Meeting with fellow artists can be a great source of inspiration
There were days when I wondered if anyone went through the struggles I experienced. It was tough because I didn’t have a lot of peers who were into art. I always felt that it had to be easier for others. Once I decided to become an artist, I reached out to as many creatives as I could, meeting them for lunch to pick their brains.
I wasn’t after technique advice – instead, I wanted to know how they handled mental challenges and to see what they were like as people, rather than artists. I’m lucky to have such a huge pool of creatives in my life. I usually do a weekly draw lunch at the local mall’s food court. It’s nice to be able to see a variety of challenges that life can throw at an artist in varying fields and at different stages of careers. It’s a great way to be educated, connect, to nurture and be nurtured.
09. Remember to dream big
Don't stop dreaming
I’ve been a dreamer my whole life. I believe it’s the reason why I’ve stuck with art for as long as I have. I would imagine all kinds of grand experiences that being an artist would enable me to have. Yet once I made art my career, I noticed that I didn’t dream as I once did. I lost some of the sparkle that I had as a beginner artist. It became harder to bring the dreamer out. I didn’t want him to get hurt. It’s sometimes easier to just go through the motions and play it safe.
When my daughter was born it challenged this approach to life. I realised that it’s the dreamer who keeps me at it – even when I don’t like what I’m producing. It’s the dreamer who gives me the ability to move forward with my art in a positive way. It’s the dreamer’s imagination that makes it possible to glimpse at the artist you want to become and feel the joy of it now. Take a chance on nurturing that dreamer.
10. Keep a journal
A journal is a great way to see what’s on your mind before you draw. For example: 'I didn’t sleep well last night and had a lot of things that I needed to get done. Man, I’m irritated today!' I noticed I would take these types of aggressive moods into my drawing time unintentionally.
By writing them down before I drew, I learned not be as harsh a critic after I had finished a drawing. It was understandable that when I was irritated, I didn’t produce the same quality compared to when I was in a good mood. I could show myself some compassion, much like I would with a friend going through a tough time.
After a while I learned to look for things that could improve my odds of having a better learning experience – to get into the zone. Another benefit comes if you keep a journal for a long time. You’re able to go back and see how different your thought process was and find out what was successful and what negative patterns were showing up that you hadn’t noticed before. Writing down my thoughts before drawing warmed up my hand. But it also helped me make more mindful decisions and gave me a boost in my self-confidence.
11. Set a time limit
Sometimes when you have less time, you can create more, or create better
When I chose to stay at home and raise my daughter, I limited my art time so I could focus on being a dad. I always felt guilty when I did some art. Quick bursts while she was eating breakfast or napping became the norm. A benefit from doing this was my inner critic went from saying, 'Your art will never be good enough' to 'Come on! Fifteen minutes? You can do more than that! I’ve got exciting ideas you can try if you go just a little longer!'
My keenness to fit in my limited drawing time kept growing and became quite cherished. Stopping short also helped me to carry that excitement into subsequent sessions. I noticed that I didn’t suffer art burnout as often and that my mind worked on what I could do the next day more easily. Nowadays, I have a bit more time to dedicate to my art, but most of the time I limit it to short sessions and find myself more inclined to be excited every time I pick up my pencil.
12. Get to know your feelings
Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours and composition can help you produce and consume art
Most of my tips revolve around the mental process. Emotions dictate how we make decisions. Not only as artists, but as human beings. Look at how many artist are insecure with their art! I know I’m one of them.
I thought it would go away once I turned professional… nope! Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours, composition and so on has helped me see both sides: producing as well as consuming art. When you’re working on the basics, take some time to understand why you feel a certain way. When you’re working for someone, they’re the ones who dictate what they want the end product to represent. It can be overwhelming to create this way because we can’t really feel what the other person is thinking, and we tend to make assumptions based on what they say. So when we build a large library of techniques for expressing ourselves in our minds, we have a better chance at hitting the target for someone else’s vision.
13. Don't be afraid to tackle the basics (again)
Don't think you're too advanced for the basics. You're not
In my rush to become better at art, I skipped the basics. My mind would say, 'Yeah yeah, I know that.' Well, I learned that you don’t really know something until you can apply it properly – and more than once. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know anything. This is a great mindset to have as a creative. Early on, everyone wants to be the master of their craft. It’s mainly where my drive was coming from. The focus becomes this destination we want to arrive at as an artist.
I’ve come to realise the magic doesn’t come from the achievement, but from all the things it took to get to that place. When you retain the student mindset and stay eager to learn, you can revisit the basics with a degree of excitement. From there, you can flourish in so many different ways and gain the confidence to bend the basics to your will.
14. Be okay with failing
Bad drawing days are actually good... honest
Bad drawing days are bound to happen. As long as I’ve been at it, I’ve learned that my biggest growth came from those bad days, especially when I looked at them properly. Being an artist, you can be your worst critic, but that’s not really the case. We just make it sound that way.
When we have those bad days, we tell ourselves how terrible things are, and that we’ll never amount to anything. What’s really being said is that you’re not where you want to be. That voice wants you to become the artist you want to be. If your goal is to become better at what you do, then dissatisfaction is a ruler on which to measure your progress. Take time to look over how the journey is going for you at that moment of frustration.
I think all my work isn’t where it could be – more so than when I first set out to be an artist. I’m grateful for this feeling. I get excited through my failures because I know each one is a lesson that’s needed for me to grow and improve.
15. Have a hobbyist mindset
Thinking of your art as a hobby can help you view your work differently
I know when I decided to make art my profession, I got serious about it… a little too serious, to tell you the truth. I loved toys, Saturday morning cartoons, video games and comics as a kid. When I wasn’t enjoying those things, I drew.
By starting late with my career, I spent the early years excited to have finally arrived. Soon, however, I started seeing it as just a job. I never imagined I’d think of it that way. Especially because I’d never thought I’d get the opportunity. I was doing enough to get my work done, but was missing the love that pushed me to improve.
Adopting a hobbyist mindset helped me cherish the time I get to 'art it up'. Even when I actually take on clients, I try to come from this place. I’ve conditioned myself to get excited at the thought of art. This has made me more productive and excited to learn new things, which could be beneficial to my creative workflow. It’s the foundation of why I 'keep on keepin’ on!'
This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's leading digital art magazine. Buy issue 162 or subscribe here.
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Illustrations can make or break a design brief, as these stand out examples of illustrated ad campaigns demonstrate. Beyond their striking visual appeal, there are plenty of reasons for using illustrations over photography. But picking the right style for your brand, campaign, or marketing materials can be challenging.
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