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Christmas is almost upon us, which means the Boxing Day sales are imminent. Now, we don't know about you, but after a few days of indulging in rich food and lots of wine (or is that just us?) a comfy seat on the sofa and bit of retail therapy is just what we need to fend off those post-Christmas blues. The after Christmas sales offer a great opportunity to grab any creative kit you either didn't get from Santa, or have been saving for all year. Historically it's a time when retailers try to rid their shelves of 2019 stock and therefore drop prices staggeringly low. So if you've been holding out to get a new tablet, need a stylus for your new device or want some new creative software to kick the new year off, you've come to the right place. Here at Creative Bloq we're constantly scouring all the reputable retail sites for all the best offers across the Boxing Day and after Christmas sales, and curating the best savings just for you. Read on to find out how and where to get the best deals on a range of creative kit for designers of all kinds, from illustrators to graphic designers to 3D artists. Scroll down for a detailed look at how to make the biggest savings, or if you know what you want, use the quick links below to jump to all the biggest sales happening right now! We may be a week away from Christmas but it seems some retailers can't wait to get their Boxing Day sales started and are already offering some great savings – just in time for the big day. Here are where the best pre Christmas and Boxing Day sales are happening right now. Adobe Creative Cloud – Over 60% off Photoshop, Illustrator and more for students and teachers Amazon – Huge savings across the board in Amazon's last minute Christmas deals Currys – Save up to 70% on laptops, monitors and more Best Buy – Holiday deals for all, plus don't miss its 12 Days of Deals offer Walmart – Huge savings on iPads, monitors, Lego and much more John Lewis – Need some cheap Lego? This is the place to go Microsoft Store – Savings across the full Surface range Very – Unmissable deals on creative hardware AO – Huge discounts on a range of tech and electricals Argos.co.uk – top savings on monitors, electrical items and more for Christmas Simba Sleep – Huge savings on high-quality mattresses (because every creative needs a good night's sleep, right?) 01. Adobe Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Adobe has offered huge savings throughout 2019 Adobe Boxing Day sale – We're going out on a limb a little here as we don't actually know if Adobe has plans to get involved with the Boxing Day sales. However, if the past 12 months are anything to go by, there's a high chance the creative software giant will come up with some kind of offer over the holiday period. Black Friday saw Adobe reduce it's annual Creative Cloud subscription plan by a whopping 40%, so here's hoping the company follows suit to see in the new year. As always, if it does, we'll be the first to let you know. 02. Amazon Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Amazon Boxing Day sale – The Boxing Day sale fun on Amazon hasn't quite begun just yet, mainly because the company is offering some stellar discounts in its last minute Christmas deals. But Amazon is definitely a Boxing Day sale to watch out for if you're on the hunt for some new, cheap creative kit. We're expecting big savings on everything from iPads, graphics tablets, external hard drives, art supplies, Surface Pros and much, much more. 03. Apple Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Apple Boxing Day sale – We used to liken finding a discounted Apple device used to stumbling across a unicorn. Impossible, basically. But the last couple of years we've been pleasantly surprised by the, frankly, impressive savings that have come up. Black Friday 2019 saw retailers place huge reductions on a plethora of Apple products, most notably the new 2019 iPad, AirPods and 16-inch MacBook Pro. We're super hopeful similar offers will surface in the Boxing Day sales, so much so we've set up a dedicated Apple Boxing Day sale post to help you find the biggest savings on your device of choice. 04. Microsoft Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Microsoft Boxing Day sale – Microsoft released a range of new products in October, many of which we were surprised to see included in many great Black Friday offers. The Surface Pro 7 is hugely popular among creative professionals, as is Microsoft's new and improved Surface Book 2. There's also the Surface Pro X, which has, unsurprisingly, had zero discounts applied so far this year. But being that we weren't expecting the new products to see any reductions either, maybe the tech giant is waiting for the after Christmas sales to release a deal on its powerful new device (although we're not holding our breath). If the recent Black Friday offers on other Microsoft devices are anything to go by, we can expect to see some huge savings in the Boxing Day sales. 05. Walmart Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Walmart Boxing Day sale – If you're in the US, you'll want to bookmark this page. Walmart has been knocking it out of the park for the last few months when it comes to price cuts, and, from the looks of it, there's much more in store. The main after Christmas sale – or week, as Walmart is calling it – begins on the 26th, but you'll find lots of great deals now and up to the main event. Expect some very attractive deals on iPads, MacBooks, monitors, headphones and much more. 06. John Lewis Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale John Lewis Boxing Day sale – John Lewis is already gearing up for the Boxing Day sales with some great offers (you can currently save big on some of the best Lego sets for adults). When it comes to creative gear, these guys have it in abundance, selling everything from Apple and Microsoft hardware, to art supplies and office furniture (new chair, anyone?). As one of the UK's most trusted retailers, you can be safe in the knowledge that any purchase made at John Lewis comes with an excellent guarantee (on some tech it can last up to 5 years) and its 'never knowingly undersold' promise. This means if you find the same product for a lower price at a UK mainland high street competitor, you can make a price match request. Winner. 07. Best Buy Boxing Day sale and After Christmas sale Best Buy Boxing Day sale – Another one for those of you in the US, Best Buy was on fire with deals in the lead up to and all throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The most impressive discounts for creatives were undoubtedly on the Surface Pro 6 and 7, and various MacBook Pro models (including the 16-inch version). Best Buy has continued it's impressive deal momentum since then, right now offering a whole host of attractive holiday deals. And all of this bodes very well for the Boxing Day sales, which we predict will see some of Best Buy's biggest savings of the year. Can't wait until then? Check out Best Buy's 12 Deals of Christmas offers, plus save up to $500 on select Surface devices right now. The Boxing Day sales have evolved a bit in the last few years, and while the name refers to one specific day, the sales actually last much longer than just 24 hours. This year we're already seeing some retailers kick off their Boxing Day sales and we're still a week away from Christmas. The sales will almost certainly last up to the end of the year, when the New Year sales will come in to play. The short answer is that anytime between now and the beginning of January, you stand a good chance of making a great saving. However, make sure to research the items you want to buy first and check that whatever discount is being offered is actually a good deal. Boxing Day sales has never been a recognised retail event in the US. However, the 26 December usually marks the start of many US retailers 'after Christmas sales', which is basically the same thing. US-based retail giants like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy are already offering some excellent last-minute Christmas deals, and we fully expect such offers to continue throughout the holiday period. Happy shopping! View the full article

Twitter for Android users are urged to update their app to fend off a security bug that allows hackers to access private account data and control accounts to send tweets and direct messages. View the full article

Netflix is the birthplace of chaos engineering, an increasingly significant approach to how complex modern technology architectures are developed. It essentially means that as you’re binging on your favourite Netflix show, the platform is testing its software while you watch. (Take a look at alternative user testing software.) The practice of chaos engineering began when Netflix’s core business was online DVD rentals. A single database corruption meant a big systems outage, which delayed the shipping of DVDs for three days. This prompted Netflix’s engineers to migrate from a monolithic on-premises software stack to a distributed cloud-based architecture running on Amazon Web Services (AWS). While users of a distributed architecture and hundreds of micro-services benefitted from the elimination of a single point of failure, it created a much more complex system to manage and maintain. This consequently resulted in the counterintuitive realisation that in order to avoid any possibility of failure, the Netflix engineering team needed to get used to failing regularly! 10 painful UI fails (and what you can learn from them) Enter Chaos Monkey: Netflix’s unique tool that enables users to roam across its intricate architecture and cause failures in random places and at arbitrary intervals throughout the systems. Through its implementation, the team was able to quickly verify if the services were robust and resilient enough to overcome unplanned incidents. This was the beginning of chaos engineering – the practice of experimenting on a distributed system to build confidence in the system’s capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production and unexpected failures. Chaos Monkey’s open source licence permits a growing number of organisations like Amazon, Google and Nike to use chaos engineering in their architectures. But how chaotic can chaos engineering really get? Chaos Monkey is used by an increasing number of organisations Successful chaos engineering includes a series of thoughtful, planned and controlled experiments, designed to demonstrate how your systems behave in the face of failure. Ironically, this sounds like the opposite of chaos. However, practitioners must keep in mind that the goal is learning in order to prepare for the unexpected. Modern software systems are often too complex to fully interpret, so this discipline is about performing experiments to expose all elements of the unknown. A chaos engineering experiment expands our knowledge about systemic weaknesses. Before chaos engineering can be put into practice, you must first have some level of steadiness in your systems. We do not recommend inducing chaos if you are constantly fighting fires. If that’s in place, here are some key tips for conducting successful chaos engineering experiments: 01. Figure out steady systems Begin by identifying metrics that indicate your systems are healthy and functioning as they should. Netflix uses ‘streams per second’ – the rate at which customers press the play button on a video streaming device – to measure its steady state. 02. Create a hypothesis Every experiment needs a hypothesis to test. As you’re trying to disrupt the steady state your hypothesis should look something like, 'When we do X, there should be no change in the steady state of this system’. All chaos engineering activities should involve real experiments, using real unknowns. 03. Consider real world scenarios For optimal results, think: ‘What could go wrong?’ and then simulate that. Ensure you prioritise potential errors too. Chaos engineering might seem scary at first but when done in a controlled way, it can be invaluable for understanding how complex modern systems can be made more resilient and robust. Learning to embrace organised chaos will help your teams fully understand the efficiency and resiliency of your systems against hazardous conditions. This article was originally published in issue 324 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 324 or subscribe to net today. Related articles: 3 big reasons Agile projects fail (and how to avoid them) 8 steps to inclusive web design 7 fantastic design fails – and what we can learn from them View the full article

It's nearly Christmas, in case you hadn't noticed. And in the spirit of festive cheer, Supremo has updated its popular online game, Its Centered That with a seasonal new look. The game challenges users to decide whether dots are in the centre of shapes. Previously, these were the usual standard shapes, triangles and the like. But now, you get to guess whether or not the dot is in the centre of robins, reindeer and Christmas presents (really, still just a square, but there's a bow to liven things up). You even get to click on Rudolf the green-nosed reindeer to say 'yes', the dot is in the centre. Or Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer to say 'no'. The game doesn't state that his name is Rudolf, but we will assume so (see our Christmas vectors if you'd like some more seasonal shapes in your life). Supremo's quiz is harder than it sounds, but it's game over once you get one wrong. Your failure is expressed in the somewhat upsetting form of a pooh emoji over your screen, and then a sad Santa, so you may end up trying over and over again until you up your score. And even the most experienced among you with the sharpest eyes for proportions may not have finely tuned your skills when it comes to identifying the centre of a reindeer. Unless you've been really concentrating hard on making your Christmas cards, that is. Check out the Its Centered That seasonal game here and let us know how you do on Twitter or Facebook. If you're after more festive fun, then see our review of IKEA's festive advert, or our analysis of this year's John Lewis TV ad. Read more: MPC Vancouver closes doors after Sonic fiasco Controversial 'Cocaine Santa' Christmas jumper becomes this year's hottest seller Burger King trolls banana artwork with a French fry View the full article

The news isn't known for being positive and sometimes it feels like the whole world is full of doom and gloom. Well, one illustrator decided to counteract the negativity and created The Happy Broadcast, designed to be anxiety-free news. Mauro Gatti describes his project as a "counter hate and fear culture project that features weekly illustrated positive news from around the world." Bright and personality-filled, they provide an antidote to the darkness of mainstream news. (If you'd like to create some illustrations of your own, check out our pick of the best Illustrator tutorials). Gatti engages with followers on Instagram to spread positive thinking Gatti began the project in early 2018 and now has over 220,000 followers on Instagram alone. As well as posting news-based illustrations, Gatti uses Instagram Stories to spread positivity, posting questions with a mental health focus and encouraging his followers to answer by posting responses. With topics spanning from animal preservation to equality law, a positive focus on news doesn't mean fluffy news stories. "We are often bombarded with fear-mongering and shocking headlines that make us feel that the world is falling apart," Gatti says. "While it’s important to report problems and issues, I believe there is so much good in this world that just needs to be found and promoted. "The Happy Broadcast also feature a guest artist each week and so far we've been able to collaborate with amazing artists from all around the world." The Happy Broadcast is a great example of how illustration can be used in sync with real life events. With illustration set to become more prominent in 2020, we wonder how else it'll be used by designers and artists. Read more: The 6 best Illustrator alternatives How to move from animation to illustration 6 websites that use illustration brilliantly View the full article

A tablet keyboard can transform your device into a mini laptop so you can work wherever you happen to be. It's a setup that works particularly well if you're a creative who spends a lot of time travelling, and makes replying to emails, preparing invoices and carrying out everyday admin far easier than typing on a touchscreen. If you've already got one of the best tablets with a stylus and want to add one of these accessories, there are two main types of tablet keyboard to consider: Bluetooth devices, and ones that connect directly using pin connectors. Bluetooth keyboards can be used with pretty much any device, but they require batteries that have to be recharged or replaced. Keyboards that use pins are only compatible with a specific tablet model, but without batteries, they are slimmer and lighter than their Bluetooth counterparts. When you're choosing a tablet keyboard, it's worth looking out for one with a built-in trackpad, which will make navigation feel more natural. Keyboards that double as stands are also a good choice, holding your tablet at a comfortable viewing angle while you type. Here, we've rounded up the very best tablet keyboards for every tablet (whether it's running iPadOS, Windows or Android), with options for every budget. The Apple Smart Keyboard for iPad connects to your tablet using Apple's proprietary Smart Connector, so you can simply snap it into place and start typing (there's no need to spend time pairing via Bluetooth). It works with the iPad 10.2 (2019), iPad Air (2019) and iPad Pro 10.5 (2019), and although it lacks a trackpad, it provides a full-sized keyboard for comfortable typing while adding barely any bulk or weight. The Smart Keyboard doubles as a thin, light cover for your tablet, but it won't protect the back of the device, so it's worth investing in a proper case as well to avoid scuffs and scratches. A great choice for frequent travellers who want to get more done on public transport and in shared workspaces. The Apple Smart Keyboard Folio is a seriously expensive piece of kit, but if you've already invested heavily in an iPad Pro for your creative work then the extra cost could be easy to justify - particularly as it'll help you get more value from your tablet. The Smart Keyboard Folio won't spoil your iPad Pro's looks thanks to its super thin design, and connecting it is a simple matter of bringing it close to your tablet's Smart Connector and letting the magnets do the work. Unlike the standard Smart Keyboard above, this one protects both sides of your tablet so there's no need for a separate cover. It's a shame that it lacks a trackpad at this price point, but it does hold your tablet at a convenient working angle. This particular Smart Keyboard Folio is designed for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but a version for the 11-inch iPad Pro is also available. Built from premium materials, the Microsoft Surface Pro Signature Type Cover works hard to justify its price. The glass trackpad is a particularly welcome addition, and feels pleasingly smooth under your fingertips. This top-end tablet keyboard also features mechanical keys, which many designers find more pleasant to type on than spongy switches, and the whole thing is finished with either microfiber or Alcantara (a stain-resistant fabric often used in car interiors). There are Windows function buttons built in too, plus media keys. It's a shame that Microsoft Surface tablets don't come with Type Covers as standard, as they make using Windows applications feel much more natural. If you own a Surface Pro, it's a must-have. The Surface Go is essentially a miniature Surface Pro, so it comes as no surprise that the Microsoft Surface Go Signature Type Cover is a smaller version of the keyboard above. It packs all of the same features as its larger counterpart, including a smooth glass trackpad for accurate navigation, a full set of function keys, and media buttons. We also particularly like the backlighting, which makes it easier to use if you need to catch up on client emails last thing before bed. The only drawback (other than its rather steep price) is the fact that its mechanical keys can be a little on the noisy side, and might prove distracting if you're working anywhere particularly quiet. In a busy co-working space, you'll be fine. If your tablet doesn't have a proprietary keyboard cover, or your budget won't stretch to Microsoft or Apple's own peripherals, the Logitech Universal Folio could be the perfect solution. Although it's not the most stylish keyboard around, it's very versatile, working with any 9-10in tablet that supports Bluetooth 4, and holding it in place securely with adjustable corner fastenings. It's splash-proof too, in case of coffee spillages while you're preparing pitches on the train. The Logitech Universal Folio lacks a trackpad, but you do get dedicated function buttons, which help you work more effectively and avoid having to memorize awkward keyboard shortcuts. It runs on coin cell batteries, which Logitech says will last two years, but can't be recharged once they run down. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Thin Keyboard is another premium tablet keyboard that uses a simple pin connection to avoid tricky Bluetooth pairing. It comes in three colors (black, silver and red), and you can even choose to have Lenovo's signature TrackPoint nestled among the blacklit keys in addition to the large trackpad that supports multi-touch gestures. It supports three keyboard positions too, so you can choose the most comfortable option whether you're working at a cafe, on your lap, or presenting to a client. It carries a premium price tag, but if you have a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 tablet then it'll be well worth the investment, effectively putting a full ThinkPad laptop at your disposal. True to its name, the Microsoft Universal Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard can connect to virtually anything, including PCs, Macs, phones, tablets and smart TVs, making it an ideal travelling companion. Once it's set up, simply opening the keyboard will put it in pairing mode so it can connect to your tablet automatically, and closing it will shut it down again to conserve battery power (it can be recharged when flat). Any hinge is a potential weak point with regular use, but Microsoft's heritage in PC peripherals shines through and this keyboard doesn't flex in use like some of the cheaply made copies available on Amazon. If you want a folding keyboard, this is our top recommendation. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Book Cover Keyboard borrows several design cues from Microsoft's Surface Type Covers. It links to your tablet via a magnetic pin connector, so you can start typing immediately, and browsing the web with the large trackpad. It also offers a full set of function keys for quick access to common tasks, plus a holder for the Samsung Galaxy S-Pen, if you have one. Unlike some folio keyboards, this one has a magnetic closure to keep your tablet's screen protected in your bag. It's a shame that the materials aren't quite as luxurious as Microsoft's (we're talking plastic rather than Alcantara and glass), but this is nevertheless a great addition to your Tab that'll let you leave your laptop at home for light work. The Logitech K780 Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard works with PC, Mac, Chrome OS, Android and iOS, and connects via either Bluetooth or Logitech Unifying Receiver (a tiny USB device that's included with the keyboard). There's a lot to like about this versatile keyboard. It features a non-slip cradle for your tablet, hotkeys for switching between apps, and you a full number pad. It's powered by two pre-installed AAA batteries that are rated for three years, but can be easily replaced when necessary. If you're thinking of upgrading your tablet soon or want something that'll work well with your phone too, the K780 is a great choice. It's whisper quiet too, though you may prefer the more solid feeling of mechanical keys. Read more: View the full article

The Cats movie opened on 20 Dec, and to say it did not go down well would be an incredible understatement. However, within tsunami of criticism were comments on the unfinished-looking special effects – it aimed to join the ranks of the best 3D movie effects in 2019 and missed, badly. So egregious were the errors, that on the day of release, Universal notified thousands of cinemas that it would be sending out a new version of the film with updated CGI, in a move that is 'unheard of' for a film that's already been released. The news comes via a memo obtained by the The Hollywood Reporter, which detailed: "The updated movie will be available to download Sunday via a satellite server, while exhibitors who don't have access to the server will receive a hard drive by Tuesday, per Universal's note. The studio is asking that theaters replace the current print of Cats as soon as possible." Ouch. Cheap Disney Plus subscription is the best last-minute Christmas gift That hand doesn't look very cat-like, Judi Since the story broke, movie-goers have been taking to social media to share some of the VFX clunkers that made it into the original film (see our roundup of the worst CGI fails for more awkward errors). Jenelle Riley tweeted the image above with the comment: "This isn’t a joke: CATS was rushed into theaters before being finished so a new version is being sent to theaters with updated effects. How do you know if you have the old version? Look for Judi Dench’s human hand, wedding ring and all." "[It's] just not finished... I witnessed an entire man, knit cap and coat, just standing in a scene among a gathering of cats. I saw a terrifying grey statue looming over a character, only for it to blink and realise it’s a woman who is a cat, but they coloured her and then forgot to add fur," reported Gizmodo. Another Twitter user shared a screengrab – taken from the official trailer, nonetheless – that shows Rebel Wilson's Jennyanydots with a similarly un-cat-like hand-in-sleeve situation (read our take on the Cats trailers here). Another suspiciously human hand makes it on screen Cats Tom Hooper has been open about the last-minute rush to get all the effects finished in time. At the movie's premiere he announced he'd finished just hours beforehand, following a 36-hour final push. It's not the first CGI scandal of 2019, either. Earlier in the year, the huge backlash prompted by the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer prompted Paramount to go back to the drawing board and redesign the titular character in double-quick time, which may or may not have contributed to the VFX studio behind the film having to close its doors. And while it seems, from the almost unanimous critical mauling Cats is getting, that unfinished VFX isn't the sum of this movie's problems, it does seem another clear sign that if you're going to make a movie where CG plays such a pivotal role, it's vital to afford the team the time and resources to develop and complete that element properly. [Read the original Hollywood Reporter article] Read more: Lion King character redesigns highlight the problem with realistic CGI 35 greatest CGI movie moments of all time The best 3D modelling software 2020 View the full article

With just a two more days to go until Christmas, time is running out to find the perfect Xmas gift. But don't panic, we've got just the solution. A 12-month Disney Plus gift card not only allows the recipient to enjoy an endless, on-demand stream of Disney movies and shows, but digital delivery means you'll receive it before the big day. If one of your loved ones (or you, in fact) are a Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and/or National Geographic-loving fan, this really is the ultimate Christmas gift. With over 600 movies and TV shows to choose from, there's plenty here to keep you and your loved ones entertained over the holidays. With that much excellent content on offer, it's hard to believe a 12-month Disney Plus gift subscription costs just $69.99. That's less than $6 per month! Compared to paying for the service on a month-by-month basis, you'll save $14, which is hardly the biggest saving. However, the standard monthly price for Disney Plus ($6.99) offered excellent value as it is, so any kind of discount makes it an absolute steal. This offer is valid for a year and only available to new subscribers. It's also worth noting that by signing up to this deal, you won't be able to take advantage of the seven-day free Disney Plus trial period either. The gift card subscription will be sent via a digital code, meaning you can access it straight away – so plenty of time to line up your favourite Disney movie for Christmas morning. Enjoy! Read more: 10 top Netflix documentaries for graphic designers Cheap Adobe apps deal is the perfect last-minute Christmas gift Wacom Intuos Pro drops to lowest price of the year View the full article

There are plenty of different types of printing available to creators today. Printing has a long history of revolutionising how ideas are transferred and distributed, and it’s still going strong today. In this guide we take a look at some of the most frequently used printing methods favoured by artists and designers, as well as outlining what they’re suitable for. If you’re looking to print posters, fine art images, billboards or even magazines, you’ll find the relevant printing method here. Despite fears that digital publishing has once again shaken up how words and images are shared, reports of the death of print are greatly exaggerated. Printed materials are enjoying a resurgence thanks to the unique, tactile experience they offer. So if you want to get involved with print’s new-found popularity, explore these notable methods. You might also want to check out our beginner's guide to essential art supplies, or our group of tutorials about how to draw. Lino printing Watch your fingers! Used for: Fine art printmaking Pros: Cheap, easy to get started, reusable Cons: Cutting hazard, difficult to do multiple colours Lino printing is a great entry-level technique for creatives looking to make art prints. It involves scoring an image into a sheet of linoleum, covering the raised areas in ink, and pressing a substrate (the surface which the ink will stick to, often paper) on top. All the materials you need to get started are available from any good art shop at a reasonable price, and even the most basic of tools create impressive results. Different scoring knives can be added to your toolkit to make unique marks, although a narrow selection of blades should be sufficient. One thing to keep in mind when scoring a design into lino is that you're creating a mirror image of the picture, so letters will need to be carved backwards. Also keep in mind that only raised areas of linoleum will transfer ink. To learn more about lino printing, including more on the basic tools you'll need, see our introduction to lino printmaking post. Screen printing Silk screens are popular for T-shirt printing Used for: Textiles printing, posters Pros: Versatile technique, reusable, durable method, high quality of output Cons: Requires specialist equipment, limited colour options Screen printing remains a popular way to transfer designs onto fabrics, especially T-shirts. The printing process involves forcing paint through a silk screen with a squeegee, with stencil holes in the screen allowing paint to pass through in the desired place. With careful planning and clever design, multiple colours can be layered up with screen printing, allowing for the creation of stunning images. Each colour requires its own screen, however even single colour prints look striking. To cast your design, you will need to paint your screen with photo-sensitive emulsion then expose it to UV light. A local print studio should help you with these facilities. Offset printing Offset printing is perfect for long runs Used for: Newspapers, magazines, brochures, stationery, books Pros: Good for large print runs, can use special custom inks, highest quality of print Cons: Tedious setup, equipment requires extra maintenance Offset printing is one of the most common ways to print materials such as newspapers and magazines. The process sees an inked image transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then finally to the printing surface itself. These rubber blankets are wrapped around a series of cylinders, and the paper is continuously passed through them. Given that it requires access to specialist printing technology, offset printing is not as immediately accessible as some of the techniques on this list. Typically it is used for large print runs, and its setup fee is soon offset (pardon the pun) by the sheer number of pieces you are able to print. Letterpress printing Traditionally, letters are arranged in a chase Used for: Posters, business cards, greetings cards Pros: Good for short print run, unique print appearance, straightforward Cons: Slow process, limited colours, difficult to produce images Similar to lithographic printing, letterpress printing sees a raised area covered with ink and then transferred to a substrate. Historically, images and letters were arranged by a typesetter and locked into place in a chase. As a method for printing newspapers, letterpress remained popular until the mid-twentieth century when it was succeeded by offset printing. But despite being supplanted, it has found a new lease of life in the artistic community. Today, letterpress printing is a way to add quirky humour to your work as it stands in contrast to the perfection of digital and offset printing. Print studios and letterpress shops can help you with the process, and high street craft shops often sell inexpensive printing blocks if you want to experiment with the technique. Flexography Flexographic printing is fast and effective Used for: Packaging, print media, labels Pros: Quick production process, accommodates various inks, low operational cost Cons: Time-consuming set up, equipment requires regular maintenance Flexographic printing is essentially a modern version of letterpress printing. Flexible relief plates are mounted on a series of cylinders in a similar fashion to offset printing, and the substrate is passed through. Different plates are used for individual colours, which are built up to create the message or image. Flexography is also suited to medium to long print runs. The specialist equipment might put it beyond the reach of creatives looking to test the process on a short run, however if you do choose to investigate flexography rest assured that it is a cost-effective printing method that produces quick results. Digital printing Digital printing is often used for desktop publishing Used for: Desktop publishing, photos, advertising, stationery Pros: Low cost, quick turnaround, easy to create multiple colours, good for short runs Cons: limited substrate suitability, does not scale to large print runs economically Unlike traditional methods including lithography and offset, digital printing doesn’t require a printing plate. Instead, the desired image is digitised to control the deposition of ink, toner and exposure. For creatives, one of the biggest advantages of digital printing is the customisation it offers. The process can also produce a higher quality print from a lower quality image. And given that it doesn’t require the creation of plates, digital printing can be a cost-effective and accessible way for creatives to bring their ideas to life on the page. 3D printing 3D printing involves carefully layering materials Used for: Gifts, models, art, prototyping Pros: Capable of complex designs, fully customisable Cons: Expensive, limited materials, slow Suitable for sculpting and product design, 3D printing sees a material added layer by layer with the assistance of CAD to create a desired shape. Despite being a relative newcomer to the printing scene, 3D printing has come a long way in recent years and can now deliver incredible results. One of the main barriers to entry for creatives looking to explore 3D printing is the access to the printer technology itself. We’ve already looked at what you need to keep in mind when preparing your work for 3D printing, so keep these in mind if you’re printing yourself or outsourcing to a specialist. Monoprinting Monoprints are one-offs, although you can achieve similar effects to make a series Used for: Fine art prints, textile work Pros: Expressive, one of a kind Cons: Can only be used once, produces simple designs As its name suggests, monoprinting is a way of printing an image once and once only. This is in contrast to the other printing techniques on this list, which are geared towards the production of multiple prints, and while this is arguably a disadvantage it allows artists to work with a degree of spontaneity. The simplest printing method in this guide, monoprinting is primarily used to print simple pieces of art onto paper or textiles. Typically a piece of plexiglass is covered with a thin layer of ink and materials are positioned on top. These are then covered with a substrate and rolled through a press to transfer the image. Unlike a lino print where an image is carved into a sheet of lino and can be reproduced multiple times, mono prints are one-offs because the print elements have to be arranged and inked each time. This means that if you're careful you can make two prints that look similar, but they will never be identical. Despite its limitations, it’s a very accessible print method and a fun way to dip your toe into the world of printing. Prints can be produced very quickly, and thanks to its flexibility, it encourages experimentation which can be transferred to other methods like lithography. Related articles: The best print adverts ever The designer's guide to perfect prints How to prepare a file for print View the full article

Character design is a complicated subject because each job is going to have unique requirements. You could be working in different fields such as animation, video games or even advertising, while tackling a mascot, a recurrent hero or a one-off villain. Whatever the product, the project, the budget, the allotted time and the team setup, you’ll have to produce something brand new. Yet the main goal is still the same: to create a unforgettable character. People can like your design, sometimes they’ll hate it, but it has to be memorable. There’s not magic wand as such – you’ll have to develop an approach for creating a unique character and to deal with all the constraints of the production. Here’s my list of a few tricks you can use to produce winning character designs. For more inspiration and tips, check out our guide to character design. 01. Figure out the design’s purpose You'll need to adapt your ideas depending on the final product You don’t create characters in the same way as you would for illustrations, 2D or 3D animations, or video games. The constraints aren’t the same and you’ll need to adapt your ideas depending on the final product. Sometimes your client, because of their NDA, gives you the least amount of detail possible. Yet you’ll need all the art direction you can get, so if your brief is lacking, speak up. And just like a personal project, think about the goal of the design. 02. Know your client There could be resource limitations, so be sure to find out before you start This is the tricky bit. When you know your job, it’s easy to produce good character design. But bear in mind that you’re working for other people. They have their own taste and, well, sometimes this can be bad. It’s your job to guide them towards something good, or at least acceptable. If they don’t listen to you, you have to choose between money and integrity. You don’t have to feel bad about delivering awful design if your client asked for it, you’re not responsible for the incompetence of those people. Just ask to not be credited on the project... Think about the practicalities of your design. Can the studio afford to employ modellers who will turn your concept into reality? Perhaps your client doesn’t have the budget to animate an octopus with 800 tentacles? The 3D modellers will probably need billions of polygons to make these creatures, but if it’s for a mobile game then this is probably overkill. Even if your client doesn’t reveal its resource limitations, it’s important to consider this factor during your work and speak up if you don’t think something is achievable. 03. Ask for a brief Ask for art direction To produce your best results, you need to know a little bit about the project: its overall mood and atmosphere, or whether it’s for children or adults. Is it low-key or relentlessly upbeat? Colourful, or black and white? Essentially, you need some art direction. This might sound like a given, but believe me, it’s not! Most of the projects you’ll work on will be in their exploratory phase, which means your client doesn’t know what they want. If nobody can give you at least few guidelines about the project, walk away. Remember: your character has to work in someone else’s universe. 04. Push against stereotypes Play with clichés When you know a little bit more about the character, such as their personality, job and background, certain visual stereotypes might spring to mind. But sometimes it’s fun to play with a cliché and take the opposite view. It’ll depend on the story you have to tell, but most of the time it’s worth trying to find a new way to play around with the initial impression your character will make on the viewer. 05. Create a strong sillhouette Turn your character into a silhouette and check your work Think about Batman or Mickey Mouse: their silhouettes are instantly recognisable, as are those of most famous characters. It’s a difficult trick to pull off because there are already so many standout characters in popular media. Think about how you can adjust proportions, clothes, hairstyles, props and so on. When you’ve finished, turn your character into a silhouette and check your work. For some designers, this is just the first step of their creative process. 06. Inject some unique personality Most iconic designs are very simple I find it impossible to create a character without thinking about their personality – it would be like drawing a blank face. Sometimes a project won’t hire writers and nobody will give you a biography. And even if a few background details are given, they may not be enough to help you with your task. So try to fill in the blanks and imagine your character’s life, how they think and their attitude to the world. This is probably the most important concept to grasp when designing a character. For most – but not all – commissions, you’ll be asked to create a unique character. You’ll have to find a way to make your character unforgettable. It’s even more important than the quality of your design. Most iconic designs are very simple. You don’t need to put details everywhere. Instead, find a key element that will make your design stand out. An eye-patch, a crazy hair style, a flamboyant cape... whatever you want. It’s sometimes just a small detail, but it’s always something unusual. 07. Use simple shapes and poses The simple shapes from the original Optimus Prime design stick in your mind Shapes are one of the most important part of character design. Once again, keep things simple. If everything’s too noisy, it’s going to be difficult to visually read and understand. Consider characters who you actually remember. I’m sure if you think about Optimus Prime, his original design springs to mind, and not the one from the films. Why? Because the shapes are simple and you can remember them. We don’t usually employ complex poses during production design. The classic T-pose is usually enough in most cases for 2D or 3D animation, and even video games. Bear in mind that you won’t be the only person working on this character. Make everything clear for other professionals in the pipeline by including reference materials, indicators of scale... essentially, anything that 3D artists or animators will find useful. On the other hand, you sometimes have to sell your concept to people who know nothing about character design. In this case, you’ll also need to put your character in a pose that clearly shows off their personality or attitude. 08. Maintain contrast and limit your colours Your character has to be contrasted enough in every situation Characters with contrast are important, especially in video games. For readability purposes your character has to be contrasted enough in every situation. With games that utilise realistic illumination, the lighting can change significantly from one scene to the other. If the character’s design is overly dark, it becomes impossible to see them in a dimly lit room, for example. You have to think about this for video game design because it can ruin the gaming experience. The same can apply for films or animation. Try redesigning the costumes of classic Marvel or DC comic characters, who wear the same basic spandex suit with different colours. It’s a surprisingly difficult exercise, so take your time. Two or three colours might be enough. Once again, a simple approach is usually the best. 09. Move from 2D to 3D Depending on the nature of the commission, your design may not be the final version. For a 3D product, another artist will be finalising your character’s look. You need to make everything clear for them, because they’ll be spending weeks or even months working on the 3D model. As well as producing a strong 2D character with a range of supporting materials, why not learn the basics of a 3D program such as ZBrush (see our tips for mastering ZBrush). This will enable you to produce some 3D shapes that will assist the modeller. I know some talented 2D character designer are also 3D modellers. This crossover of skills is a growing industry trend. 10. Remember: it’s not an illustration It takes a mastery of the subject to achieve something great through simplicity Character design is more about visualising ideas than demonstrating your drawing or painting skills. Some of the best character designers could come off as pretty mediocre artists. But it doesn’t matter because they’re constantly creative in others ways and that’s much more important. And remember that creating cool designs while following a strict brief is harder than it looks. It’s easy to show off artistically with plenty of lines and unlimited colours. But it takes a mastery of the subject to achieve something great through simplicity. 11. Ask yourself: Do I like it? Creating cool designs while following a strict brief is harder than it looks Actually, you should ask yourself: Did I do the best I could with what I had? It’s the only question that matters in the end. Like everything else, it’s more about compromises than anything else. Considering that you had to deal with producers, art direction, deadlines, budgets and so on, did you do your best? We’re rarely totally satisfied with what we do in our career. So don’t be too hard on yourself unless it’s a personal project, when you have to be! This article was originally published in issue 177 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 177 or subscribe to ImagineFX. Read more: 9 character designers you need to know How to draw a character in pen and ink 10 ways to create better character animations View the full article

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There are a lot of Christmas adverts vying for our attention right now, but the spot that caught the nation's hearts this festive season came from Leo Burnett and Passion Animation Studios for McDonald's. Adobe invited the brilliant creative minds behind the advert to the MAX Creativity Tour, and you can catch up with their presentation in the video below. 'Archie the Reindeer' combines charming animation, slick editing and a heartwarming story – a true multidisciplinary creative masterclass. In London, Leo Burnett's Gareth Butters joined Derek Picken and Nicklass Rissler from Passion Animation Studios on stage to offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it all came together. That includes where the inspiration for the story first came from (after all, hamburgers aren't exactly the most festive of foods), how the characters developed, and the creative processes that brought everything to life. The creators behind Archie the Reindeer sharing their insights on the MAX Creativity Tour Adobe MAX is the world's biggest creativity conference, and it takes place annually in the US. It combines talks from the world's top creatives as well a highly anticipated look at the new features heading to the Creative Cloud suite of apps. Earlier in December, the MAX Creativity Tour brought a taste of the LA conference to the UK. That means that, as well as talks from top home-grown talents, like the one featured above, the audience were treated to come jaw-dropping software demos. For a closer look at the latest additions to the industry's favourite software, including experience design tool Adobe XD, new art app Adobe Fresco, and game-changing AR app Adobe Aero, check out the full Creativity Tour playlist. Want to get involved online? Get in touch with ad agency @LeoBurnettLDN or @Adobeuk on Twitter using the hashtag #MAXCreativityTour to carry on the conversation. View the full article

The tech giant is looking for full working exploits with any vulnerability submission. View the full article

A standard email template is hardly going to get anyone's pulse racing. To stand out in a heavily populated inbox, you need a well-designed template that brings with it visual appeal and uses the latest technology. You can get started with an email newsletter tool to build your email, but what about the design? Looking to 2020, what design trends will get you noticed? Marketers Uplers have put together a handy HTML infographic that will help you make your email a joy to read and look at at. So what design elements should you be including to make sure you are creating effective and engaging email designs for 2020? Accessibility is big for any type of online design, you want as many people as possible to enjoy your emails. And, having a Dark Mode mean users can switch to a colour palette that best suits the current environment. So make sure you have the right colours, fonts and typography to make it work. Marketers and the masses love a good GIF and that isn't going to change in 2020, but what is going to change is the format. High resolution APNG images are the next phase for short animated clips, due to their clarity and support from major email clients. Also on your to-do list should be making sure you adopt Google's AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) framework for better mobile experiences. You can also look at incorporating interactivity to engage readers, go a bit left-field and burst out of the standard column layout. Click on the infographic below to get a look at all the email design trends you need to be considering for 2020. And if you'd like to make your own infographic, see our infographic tools post. Click to see the full infographic [Via Uplers] Finally! You can now schedule emails in Gmail 8 free newsletter templates 20 best drawing apps for iPad View the full article

With just a few days to go until Christmas, time is running out to find the perfect Xmas gift. But don't panic, we've got just the solution. A 12-month Disney Plus gift card not only allows the recipient to enjoy an endless, on-demand stream of Disney movies and shows, but digital delivery means you'll receive it before the big day. If one of your loved ones (or you, in fact) are a Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and/or National Geographic-loving fan, this really is the ultimate Christmas gift. With over 600 movies and TV shows to choose from, there's plenty here to keep you and your loved ones entertained over the holidays. With that much excellent content on offer, it's hard to believe a 12-month Disney Plus gift subscription costs just $69.99. That's less than $6 per month! Compared to paying for the service on a month-by-month basis, you'll save $14, which is hardly the biggest saving. However, the standard monthly price for Disney Plus ($6.99) offered excellent value as it is, so any kind of discount makes it an absolute steal. This offer is valid for a year and only available to new subscribers. It's also worth noting that by signing up to this deal, you won't be able to take advantage of the seven-day free Disney Plus trial period either. The gift card subscription will be sent via a digital code, meaning you can access it straight away – so plenty of time to line up your favourite Disney movie for Christmas morning. Enjoy! Read more: 10 top Netflix documentaries for graphic designers Cheap Adobe apps deal is the perfect last-minute Christmas gift Wacom Intuos Pro drops to lowest price of the year View the full article

Lego has come under fire for a comic strip that features in its magazine, Lego Friends, which has been deemed sexist. This is one of those cases where you hope that people might be over-reacting, but then you click on the actual magazine – which is aimed at girls aged seven to 11 – and your heart sinks. The comic in question shows a group of girls who decide to sneak into a meeting. One of the characters says that they won't be able to just walk right in because: "A group of girls among researchers – we'll stick out like sore thumbs!" (The astute among you will point out that Lego figures don't normally have thumbs, but these characters do, so therefore can apparently stick out like sore ones.) The girls then decide to dress up as bakers and hand out muffins, so that "nobody will suspect a thing!" One of the girls is excited about designing uniforms, another hopes they can sing songs while they bake and another is concerned about the ingredients for the muffins. In another panel, one of the characters complains about the meeting being "A lot of scientific jargon," while another one declares it boring, and says it's time to do some baking. Click the top-right corner to enlarge the image @laurabee1980 called out the magazine on Twitter, saying it was "an embarrassment" to the brand. Plenty of people agreed with her too. While others suggested Lego might do well to hark back to its earlier messaging. Other Twitter users pointed out that perhaps the characters were saying they'd stick out like sore thumbs because they are children, and presumably these researchers are adults. But then the follow on 'let's dress up as bakers' plan doesn't seem to make much sense. Frankly, none of it seems particularly logical. In response to complaints, a spokesperson for Lego said: "With this story, we were trying to show that girls have lots of different interests and passions including science and STEM but we appreciate that some of the language we used missed the mark this time and we apologise. "We will certainly learn from this and do better in future." We'll admit it, we've never paid a lot of attention before to Lego Friends magazine, but we'll be keeping an eye out in future to see if Lego does decide to do any further "research" on the matter. In the meantime, if you're still into Lego (and we do love those bricks!), you can read more about the new Star Wars sets coming soon here. Read more: The best Lego sets for adults in 2019 Introducing Lego, as you've never seen it before These ridiculous ads show sexism is still alive and kicking View the full article

Unless you've been laying low in the Dagobah system, it can't have escaped your attention that a new Star Wars film has just been released. To help generate hype for the ninth film of the epic space saga, The Rise of Skywalker, Disney Studios has commissioned artists to create stunning posters for the movie. And whatever you think of the film, you can't help but be impressed by these incredible designs – these are not your average movie posters. In our look at the most inspirational poster designs, we've already seen how they can engage audiences. And these creations are no exception. Disney Studios worked with Poster Posse, an illustration and design agency that represents more than 40 artists, to create these unique posters with an artistic flair, all of which have been shared on official Star Wars social media accounts. According to Poster Posse VP and co-owner Rebecca Thompson, 11 artists were commissioned at the beginning of October to make the striking marketing materials inspired by the films. From epic confrontations between Rey and Kylo, to a fleet of Star Destroyers bearing down on the Rebel Alliance, these illustrators have proven that there's plenty of life in the series, even if it's coming to an end. And perhaps most importantly of all for people who are yet to see The Rise of Skywalker, they're all completely spoiler free. Check out some of the posters below, and head over to the Star Wars Instagram page to see the full set. Stay on target Does Darth Vader return? Rey versus Kylo Ren, who will win? Are you ready for the final confrontation? Reaching out to the art community to create standout promotional material has become something of trend of late, and it's easy to see why – the result is a win-win social media campaign. Creatives get to indulge in the world of Star Wars and forge a connection with the saga and its audience, and Disney gets some unique publicity which could convince people to check out the film. All in all it's been a good year for Star Wars fans. On top of The Rise of Skywalker they've also been treated to spin-off series The Mandalorian, which stars possibly the galaxy's most adorable creature, Baby Yoda. There's also special Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Lego sets, which could be the perfect way to treat yourself on Boxing Day. Related articles: 5 striking Star Wars posters Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade? New Bond 25 poster released – and we're majorly underwhelmed View the full article

From the proliferation of magic links to the explosion of apps leveraging machine learning and augmented reality, 2019 has seen some fantastic software grace our devices. What were the apps that truly wowed us over the last twelve months? We’ve selected seven apps that made a lasting impression on us over the past year on our phones, desktops and tablets. If an app has made our list, it’s either done something incredibly new or incredibly well. And if you're looking to upgrade your devices, then see our best camera phones roundup, the best computer for graphic design or the cheapest iPad deals available right now. 01. Spectre Camera Spectre Camera is powerful but doesn’t flood you with controls and dials Price: £2.99 Platform: iPhone All too often, you go to take a photo on your phone in a dimly lit, dusky environment, and the results are unusable. Blurry, shaky pictures are the bane of many an phone photographer, but Spectre Camera helps to make them a thing of the past, as its incredible AI smarts help you take long exposure shots without needing a tripod. That’s not all it can do. Its clever tech can erase crowds from your shots, create beautiful light trails and smooth-flowing rivers, and it even saves the whole exposure as a video, letting you re-watch the shot as it happens. It’s a great example of artificial intelligence done right, and was rightly honoured by Apple as its iPhone App of the Year. 02. Affinity Publisher Affinity Publisher gives you a powerful publishing app with no recurring fees Price: £48.99 Platform: Windows/Mac Adobe’s InDesign is the dominant app if you work in the desktop publishing world, but since the demise of QuarkXPress, there’s not really been much of an alternative – until now. Serif has already impressed with its Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer apps, and Affinity Publisher follows as another excellent entry in the series. It’s an incredibly full-featured app that can go toe-to-toe with InDesign. It has all the tools you need in a layout that’s stripped of any unnecessary distractions – and if you have Affinity Photo or Designer, you can quickly switch to them to make any necessary edits. Apple was so impressed that it awarded Affinity Publisher its Mac App of the Year award, and its one-off price is perfect if you’re sick of shelling out every month for an Adobe subscription. 03. Jumbo The premise of Jumbo is to make managing your privacy as straightforward as possible Price: Free Platform: Android/iPhone Taking back control of your privacy can sometimes feel utterly overwhelming, with your data scattered across multiple sites with myriad options. Thankfully, the developers of Jumbo saw this problem and solved it, offering a fantastically designed app that makes managing your privacy incredibly straightforward. Jumbo scans your installed apps and gives you easy-to-do tasks to get your privacy back under control. It can block ad trackers, clean up your digital footprint by deleting old tweets and Facebook posts, monitor your profiles for data breaches, and much more. Just tell it what you want it to do and it takes care of the rest. It’s an app designed to not only solve a key problem in 2019, but to do it with style. 04. Procreate 5 We love how Procreate is optimised for tablet screens without dumbing itself down Price: £9.99 Platform: iPad These days, making art on your tablet is no longer the preserve of amateurs and hobbyists. Such is the power of the latest iPad and iPad Pro models that professional artists can get their work done on the go. Procreate is a great example of what’s possible when you give creatives a well-designed app that they can use wherever they are. What we love most about the latest update to Procreate is that there’s really no compromise. Being away from your desk doesn’t mean you can’t do your work – if you have Procreate, there’s nothing holding you back. The latest update includes Photoshop brush import, and improved colour tools, and it all works seamlessly with Apple Pencil. 05. GoodTask GoodTask is a perfect example of an app that works for casual and power users alike Price: £9.99 Platform: iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch We’re all busy people, and getting on top of our upcoming tasks is vital. But all too often, the reminders apps at our disposal just aren’t enough. GoodTask, though, takes that situation and flips it on its head, offering by far the best reminders app on the market. The key to GoodTask’s success is its flexibility. If all you need is a simple app, then it does that superbly, getting out of your way with its clean interface and simple controls. But there’s huge power lurking under the hood, and almost every aspect of the app can be customised to your needs. It syncs with your calendar, works with a ton of intelligent text snippets, and lets you create smart lists and recurring tasks. If you need an app to keep you focused and on-track, this is it. 06. Forest Can’t concentrate? Forest motivates you to leave distractions behind Price: £1.99 Platform: Android/iPhone/Windows/Mac Forest is a productivity app that works on a basic premise, but it’s devilishly good at what it does. The idea is that when you launch the app and then put down your phone, a virtual tree is planted that grows and blossoms over time – but if you leave the app, the tree dies. If you stay focused, you can unlock different trees and eventually grow a forest. And you can even translate these virtual trees into real-life trees if you collect enough coins. We love how simple yet effective Forest is – no one wants to see all their hard work wither and die, after all. Just plant your tree, put down your phone and get on with your work. And if you find yourself distracted on your desktop, download the browser extension, set up your website blacklist, then get focused. 07. Vuforia Chalk Vuforia Chalk is a great idea that leverages the power of augmented reality Price: Free Platform: Android/iOS Augmented reality has always held a huge amount of promise, and Vuforia Chalk shows exactly why there’s been so much hype about it. Unlike so many other AR rivals, this app has a practical use that will be genuinely useful to a lot of people and businesses. The idea is you point the rear camera your phone or tablet at something you’re having trouble with – a faulty piece of equipment, say – and use the app to stream your footage to a partner. They can then annotate what they see and their notes appear on your screen. It’s like Microsoft’s HoloLens without the eye-watering price tag, and makes workplace collaboration as simple as can be. Read more: The best VR apps in 2019 9 design trends that defined the year of rebellion 5 big logo design trends for 2020 View the full article

Maya is one of the most comprehensively featured 3D applications available. It’s vast and capable, which means that as you learn the workflow and navigate the menu systems, certain tasks can be harder to complete. This isn’t a failing, as artists working in particular fields will build the muscle memory to do what’s needed, but for the many generalists who only rarely use certain tools, it can be frustrating. This is where the community comes into play, with either smart artists writing scripts or canny developers spotting the need to make odd jobs easier. There are many ways that Maya can help improve your workflow (check out our Maya tutorials for some ideas) but plugins are something most people are familiar with and they generally have better support than random MEL scripts. Plugins tend to be developed by companies or larger studios, with proper teams, development cycles and support available. 27 free 3D models Here we've rounded up some top plugins for Maya that can help with accomplishing specific tasks, from generating crowds through to helping you make the move from 2D to 3D. Costs for plugins can vary hugely, with some reaching prices similar to Maya itself, but many of them are free, or have at least a free trial. 01. Animbot Animbot is a great bunch of tools for speeding up your workflow Price: 30-day trial / starts at $5 a month Animbot, made by Alan Camilo, is a set of tools for Maya aimed at speeding up workflow. “It can really streamline your animation,” says Milk’s Chris Hutchison. "Say if you wanted a character to look more screen left and you've been animating him looking screen right the entire shot, all of a sudden you can just tweak one controller and it will re-adjust everything to go left instead of having to tweak each individual controller manually afterwards. There’s so many little useful tools in there." 02. Studio Library Studio Library is a free tool for managing poses and animation Price: Free A free tool for managing poses and animation in Maya, Studio Library hails from Kurt Rathjen. “It’s able to store animation,” says Milk’s James Berkley, "so if you've got poses, you can select sets and click on specific poses, and it brings it straight up. If you do all the work beforehand, if you set it up properly, then it really helps just speed up the workflow." 03. Massive for Maya Crowd generator Massive is now fully integrated into Maya Price: Free evaluation period, then $3,500; renting available for $500 per month If you are a Maya artist there may be many reasons for you to need to create crowds, small or large, for your projects – not only as a visual effects artist, but if you work in engineering viz or architecture. There are a few options out there for generating crowds but Massive for Maya is one of the best-known and it is now fully integrated into Maya. The Maya version provides you with the simplest workflow, using Maya tools, so you can navigate your scene attributes using familiar tools like the Outliner or Graph Editor. This makes for a streamlined and intuitive workflow with less of a learning curve. Stay in one application to build hordes of zombies or armies of mounted apes, or populate your streets, bridges and buildings with realistic townsfolk. 04. Krakatoa Krakatoa is capable of rendering millions of particles Price: 15-day trial/ $1,000 The high-volume particle rendering plugin Krakatoa comes with full Magma support, higher particle counts, and PRT surfacing over and above the previous verions. Creator Thinkbox Software has also fine-tuned existing features so that all platforms are now feature equivalent and more than fully capable of handling anything artists throw at them. Krakatoa can work with a single data source to then render in either voxel or point format, meaning that billions of particles have even more power and versatility than ever. 05. MGTools Save time and effort with this animation tool Price: Version 1: Free; MG Tools Pro3: from $70 Designed by an animator, for animators, Miguel Winfield’s plugin MG Tools has a number of features that aims to make the life of an animator that much easier. By downloading this plugin, you'll benefit from a floating channelBox, specialised for animation, a selection of constraint tools to speed up the process, a MG to MA converter, motion path animation calculator and much more. Dubbed the animator’s utility belt, MG Tools can seriously save time and create a more efficient workflow. Winfield generously offers the first version of this tool as a free download (compatible with Maya 7 to 2010), with the latest iteration of the software starting at $70. 06. BHGhost Price: Free Onion skinning is a technique used by animators to see multiple frames at once. By using this technique, artists can easily see how to alter or adjust an image based on the previous image in the sequence. This free script by animator and rigger Brian Horgan provides a different but helpful approach to onion skinning in 3D. Maya's in-built ghosting tool shows semi-transparent animated objects in a scene to give an overview of the animation created. But BHGhost takes it one step further, creating an onion skin that creates actual 3D outlines of your animation in the Maya viewport, making it easier to see the relation between poses and refine your animation even further. 07. Maya Bonus Tools Access a variety of Maya tools with Bonus Tools 2019 Price: Free Who better to get some free Maya tools from than the makers of the software themselves? The helpful folk at Autodesk not only provide a huge amount of supportive information on their online community site Area, they've also uploaded this brilliant free collection of useful Maya scripts and plugins. Installation creates an additional pull-down menu, which provides easy access to a variety of every day tools and utilities. And so not to confuse you, tools have been organised to mimic the layout of the standard Maya menu sets, with each sub-menu containing a number of related tools, which can be torn off and floated just like standard Maya menus. 08. Miarmy - Crowd Sim Plugin Price: Free (non-commercial licence) If you want to create your own battle or crowd scene but have no idea where to begin, crowd simulation software Miarmy may be just the solution. This complex Maya plugin offers a range of features, including the ability to enable agents to be affected by forces or Maya Fluids systems, for a believable performance. The full professional version will set you back almost back $2550. But, if you're starting small, take advantage of the non-commercial licence, which is free. You can also take advantage of completely free demo scenes, presets, samples and tutorials, to get you up and running fast. 09. TweenMachine Keyframe animation is made easy with tweenMachine Price: Free Every animator out there will know how time-consuming keyframe animation can be. Originally created by 3D character animator Justin Barrett but now in the hands of Alex Widener, the purpose of Maya plug-in TweenMachine is to greatly simplify the process of creating breakdown poses between key poses. TweenMachine significantly reduces the amount of steps it takes to create poses for your character with stepped keys. Barrett doesn’t claim TweenMachine creates perfect breakdown poses, but says it "helps you get closer to your goal a lot faster than other methods". 10. Advanced Skeleton Price: Free / Commercial license from $750 Since working on various feature animated films such as Happy Feet and The Legend of the Guardians, technical director Oyvind Nostdal developed Advanced Skeleton to make character creation a much more efficient process. A collection of Maya tools for doing character setup, this useful plugin creates a complex motion system from a simple joint chain. This is a brilliant, time-saving tool, and will have your characters up and running in no time. 11. Blue Pencil 2 Price: $65 If you're a 2D artist making the move into 3D, you should check out this sketchpad for Maya, Blue Pencil, which provides 2D drawing to Maya's 3D viewport. The useful plugin features a grease pencil tool that allows artists to plan, annotate and illustrate shots. Like most painting tools, Blue Pencil 2 benefits from drawing tools that include the pencil, brush, eraser and eye dropper. It also has built-in pressure-sensitive controls of line thickness and opacity. But don't expect the quality of other 2D imaging software such as Photoshop, Blue Pencil is simply a multi-purpose tool designed for roughing out ideas. Parts of this article were originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: The best cities for 3D artists The 10 best 3D movies of 2019 The best new 3D tools for 2019 View the full article

If you're struggling to think of great Christmas gift ideas, you're in luck. Apple's iPad and iPad Pro are on the wish list of many an artist and designer, and you can make their Xmas dreams come true with some incredible deals from Best Buy. Right now, the brand new, 10.2-inch 2019 iPad has been reduced to just $249.99, and the 11-inch iPad Pro to less than $650! That's a huge saving of $80 and $150 respectively. As of this moment, you won't find these items cheaper anywhere in the world. Apple's iPad and iPad Pro have become popular tools among creative professionals in recent years. The Pro in particular, boasting power similar to that of a laptop, a design that easily slots, almost barely noticeable, into most bags and support for both generations of Apple Pencil. The new iPad, recently earlier this year, has also become a highly sought-after product. The price tag before this discount was a huge selling point, so shave another $80 off and this quality device is currently a total bargain. Impressive discounts like this on Apple products don't come along often, so if you're interested, you'll need to be quick. Oh, and don't forget to get an Apple Pencil to go with your shiny new device too! There's also some great deals running in the UK, albeit not quite as impressive as the US, but still a decent savings on all-new iPad. Not in the UK or US? Here are the best same spec iPad Pro prices in your area: View the full article

The best art books continue to be an important part of an artist’s toolkit, along with the pencils, paints and brushes that help them to bring their work to life. Art books can inspire and educate in equal measure. With the help of an art book, whether it covers classical works, drawing tips or the behind-the-scenes craft of an animated blockbuster, creators can get a greater understanding of their profession. And even though digital platforms continue to influence the art world and how creators gain information, books still have a unique and valuable place. They have the room to explore a topic in greater detail, and crucially, they are tactile and visually appealing. It’s a benefit that isn’t just limited to artists. Designers can develop their understanding with graphic design books, and we’ve already seen how fine artists can refine their skills with the best figure drawing books. In this guide we’ve cast the net wide to bring you some of the standout art books of 2019. Covering a Japanese master, parallel universes and lessons on perspective, we’ve made sure there’s something for everyone. If you're after more art supplies, see our list of the best pencils and the essential art supplies for painting. Even if you only have a casual appreciation for Hokusai, you’ll know that he was the print maker behind one of Japan’s most famous pieces of art: The Great Wave. If you’ve wanted to learn more about the works of the seminal printmaker, or perhaps you’re already familiar with him and you want to experience his work in amazing quality, then this book should sate your curiosity. Presented with luxurious silken binding with an additional explanatory booklet, Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji takes a detailed look at the artist’s series of prints based around the natural landmark. As its title suggests, this book has a narrow scope that focuses on a fraction of Hokusai’s career, but it makes up for this by presenting them beautifully. You don’t have to be a Hokusai expert to appreciate this hardback, in fact it’s one of the most stylish ways to dip your toe into his work. To coincide with the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, Taschen has celebrated the polymath’s life work with this comprehensive survey of his output. Accompanying the fifteen paintings that are often attributed to the Renaissance man himself, this book also packs in nearly 700 of his drawings. With a subject as well-trodden as da Vinci, it can be difficult to find a new angle. However this large hardback presents da Vinci’s work in a historic and contemporary context that will surprise even his most scholarly of devotees. It’s a deep-dive into the world of the famous artist, and some passages may be too dense for newcomers or more casual readers. This is offset by the imagery though, which shows off the artist's work with the help of detailed close-ups. As the Financial Times says: "there’s no legal way of approaching Leonardo’s work more closely." You don’t have to look back as far as Leonardo da Vinci to find great artists. The annual Spectrum collections prove that there’s plenty of contemporary art to appreciate, and 2019 appears to be no exception. As its name suggests, this book is the twenty sixth in the best-selling series. In its pages you’ll find exceptional works from extraordinary creators spanning a wide variety of mediums including illustration, sculpture, fine art, video games and more. If you’re an artist working today, Spectrum 26 gives you an idea of the standard you need to live up to. Don’t let it make you jealous though. As the publishers themselves say, Spectrum is meant to be a celebration of very special artists that helps them to find a wider audience. So if you find an intimidatingly-good new artist inside, don’t feel defeated, instead use them as inspiration for your next project. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse stepped up our expectations of what a superhero film could achieve. And not just in terms of the incredible storytelling. A pivotal part of its success was its stunning animation and art design, and this book reveals some of the work that went into it. If you’re a Spider-Man fan, or even just into the MCU, this book is well worth checking out. Not only does it explore the artistic decisions behind some of the stranger characters and settings, it also teases who might return in a sequel. And that’s what sets this art book apart from similar releases. You can tell all of the artists involved were giving it their all as this film allowed them to show off their ideas to the max, rather than playing second fiddle to live-action elements. Regardless of whether you usually pick up art books, this one will give you a greater appreciation of the story as well as giving you the chance to savour some of the film’s incredible visuals on the printed page. We’re bending the rules a little bit here with an art book that won’t be on the shelves until January 2020. In our defence though, you can pre-order it right now, and it’s not often that we see figure drawing books aimed at the nine to twelve-year-old age bracket. Promising to be a fun way to approach figure drawing, this guide makes the subject accessible to young readers by using examples of familiar people, namely pop culture icons and superheroes. It also promotes different body types, which itself can be lacking in figure drawing books pitched at adults. If you know a young artist who could do with some figure drawing guidance, it looks like you could do worse than this book. And it sure beats those poor quality art sets that often find their way into the stockings of creative children on Christmas morning. Do you have trouble making your horizons taper off into a vanishing point? Fear not, graphic novelist Dan Cooney is here to walk you through the basics of perspective in an engaging, easy-to-understand way. Tips on perspective drawing can sometimes be sidelined in other how to draw books, so it’s good to see the technique getting the attention it deserves here. Especially seeing as it’s a fundamental drawing principle. Dan Cooney’s accessible writing style comes from a place of being equally frustrated and troubled by perspective, so he’s perfectly positioned to explain how it works. With chapters dedicated to each of the three perspective points, he guides you through it so effortlessly that by the time you finish you’ll wonder how you ever drew without this advice. It’s not just kids who have been treated to some figure drawing books this year. For adult artists, Michel Lauricella has put together this brief breakdown of how you can draw the human body with the help of just a few simple shapes. If you’re familiar with figure drawing, you’ll already know that thinking in terms of geometric shapes can help make sense of the model. However, this guide deviates from the traditional approach to figure drawing by showing you how you can draw everything from heads, torsos and limbs with just a small collection of forms that can be combined and shaped into more complex structures. Given that figure drawing and human anatomy can be intimidating for newcomers, Lauricella does a good job of grounding it and going back to basics. So if you’ve ever thought about trying to draw figures, or maybe you’re returning to it after some initial struggles, this is an accessible way to do so. Related articles: The best picture books The books every graphic designer should read Discover this year's hottest design books View the full article

The latest Apple Mac Pro may look like a cheese grater, but it is one hell of a machine. Buying one also has a hefty price tag. The Mac Pro will cost you at least $6,000, and you could spend over $52,000 on the highest spec version. With such a big outlay, you'd want it to be reliable. No one wants to splash out a such a wad of cash to only have to pay again to get to it fixed. But according to iFixit – a site that that teaches people how to fix almost anything – the latest Mac Pro is "Fixmas miracle,". It's "a masterclass in repairability”. Though iFixit sadly didn't test out how to fix those $400 Mac Pro wheels you can buy as an extra. Looks easy to fix. Doesn't it? So what makes it easy to repair? Well you can fix it using "only standard tools" and more interestingly, with "no tools at all", meaning that some parts are repairable with just your fingers. Another plus point is the adoption of "industry-standard sockets and interfaces" for its major components. This means that they're easy to get hold of (see Apple’s list of approved repairs) and replace. But, be warned, there are a few drawbacks as noted by iFixit. The SSDs (Solid State Hard Drives) used by Apple are custom-made, and replacing these does require an Apple technician. We love that the Mac Pro is offering peace of mind (well sort of) and making its desktops easier to fix. But, when you are paying a premium for a top of the range model, you really shouldn't be worrying about having to fix it. You should simply be enjoying what it brings to your everyday existence. And if you'd spent $6,000 or more on a machine, would you be brave enough to fix it yourself? Read iFixit's full breakdown here. IKEA takes a bite out of Apple in hilarious new ad Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch review $999 Mac Pro stand: Has Apple lost the plot? View the full article

Looking for a smart keyboard for your iPad Pro, iPad or iPad Air? We've got everything you need to know right here, including all the best prices right now. If you know what you want, scroll straight down to our price widgets to see the best price in your area. If you're still a bit confused about Apple's Smart Keyboard for iPad options, read on as we tackle all the big questions... While you're here, you might also want to explore our guide to the best iPad accessories, or if you don't have an iPad yet, cast your eye over the best iPad deals. What is a Smart Keyboard and how does it work? Apple's Smart Keyboards are keypads that attach to the iPad and enable users to type as they would on a regular keyboard instead of using the on-screen version included in the tablet software. There are three different Smart Keyboards for iPad: the Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro (12.9-inch and 11-inch versions), the Smart Keyboard for iPad and iPad Air. The latter can also be used with certain iPad Pros. Smart Keyboards attach to your iPad magnetically, and feature clever tech that means there's no need to faff around with switches, wires or pairing to make it work. There's a Smart Connector on the back that transfers both power and data between the iPad and Keyboard. That means you can just snap on the keyboard and start typing. When you remove it, the on-screen keypad will automatically appear again. Similarly, there's no need to actively charge it. Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro Compatible with: 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd Generation) or 11-inch iPad Pro The Smart Keyboard Folio is a keyboard and a case all in one. It attaches magnetically to the back of your iPad Pro, and provides protection for the back and front of the tablet when you're not using it. When you want to do some typing you can simply unfold the case to use the keyboard. The clever design can be folded to prop the iPad Pro up while you're writing – and you can choose from two different angles. It's all nice and slim and streamlined when closed, and the iPad will automatically wake up when you open the Folio. Handy. Check out the best price for a Smart Keyboard Folio for the iPad Pro 11-inch and 12.9-inch below. Smart Keyboard for iPad and iPad Air Compatible with: iPad (7th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Pro 10.5-inch The Smart Keyboard for iPad and iPad Air is similar to the Folio version for iPad Pro. It connects to your iPad magnetically and charges automatically via the Smart Connector. Your iPad senses it connected so there's no need for any further pairing, and when not in use it can be folded over the screen to act as a protective, lightweight cover. Simply choose the one to match the model of iPad you have. Take a look at the best prices in the widgets below. Read more: Photoshop for iPad review iPad mini review The best drawing apps for iPad View the full article

If you want to know how to Photoshop with iPhone, you've come to the right place. Although Adobe has recently released Photoshop for the iPad, a fully-fledged version of the original desktop software, this has yet to port across to smartphone users. For now, iPhone (and Android) owners with even the best smart phones available are left without Photoshop on the iPhone, but there are not just one, but three separate Photoshop apps that each have their own specialism – Photoshop Express, Photoshop Mix and Photoshop Fix. Use the links on the right to click straight through to a mini review and tutorial on each app. Photoshop Express can be seen as 'Photoshop lite' for the iPhone and does a good job at providing plenty of editing tools combined with selective adjustments to cover just about every editing requirement you’d need while mobile. Photoshop Mix picks up the ability of layering images into composites and gives users the opportunity to cut out sections of shots and overlay textures to make more creative artwork. Finally, Photoshop Fix focuses on the retouching side of things by including a well-thought-out approach to healing tools, selective adjustments and includes good brush properties for minute retouch work. It’s good for any kind of photographic genre, but works especially well on portraits due to the automatic face and skin detection algorithms. Get Adobe Creative Cloud So let’s take a look at what each app does and see which one’s right for your workflow. The added benefit of using one (or all) of these Adobe apps is that they’re free. Although Photoshop Express, Photoshop Mix and Photoshop Fix do offer in-app purchases, this doesn’t limit the tools available on start-up. As well as explaining each Photoshop on the iPhone app, we'll also show you how to perform a simple action within each app. For more on using Photoshop, see our Photoshop tutorials. And you might also want to check out our Photoshop for iPad review. Photoshop Express is a good all-round image editing app for a mid-level edit of photos. It contains many of the standard tools Photoshop users will recognise, but unlike the main version, Express’ layout is strange and unformulaic. However, the gesture visuals upon first use on iOS and general layout make it a much more approachable app than its Android counterpart. Large thumbnails act in real-time to show users how the tools will affect the image before its even used. Selective editing is also possible and touches on the same functions that Photoshop Fix and Photoshop Mix both have but combines them in one space. Photoshop Express is the closest Adobe app to the desktop/iPad Photoshop on smartphone. How to add overlays and selective adjustments in Photoshop Express 01. Add Light Leaks Myriad overlays easily blend in with photos on Express, each tidied into a theme in the menu In the Blending panel we’ve added some gentle bokeh (B14) to act like twinkling light over this gorgeous staircase. It also embellishes the warmer magenta tones of the shot. The slider was increased to around 60% of full effect. 02. Selectively adjust brightness Express automatically splits the image into separate light and dark areas which makes altering brightness much easier In the Adjustments panel we’ve targeted the brighter sections of the shot to increase dynamic range by boosting highlights and darkened shadows. To do this we’ve selected the appropriate parts in the automatic masking on the right-hand side of the photo. Photoshop Mix is aimed exclusively towards users who want to combine imagery and make composite artwork through the use of cutting and blending layers and adding looks. It comes with a small layout of basic controls to refine selections, alter brightness, change colour and crop your images accordingly. Photoshop Mix is great for quick, on-the-go layer processing, but for more detailed work users will want to send their piece straight to Photoshop through the app, where more complex masks can be made with accurate tools such as the Pen tool. The text tool comes with a good spread of fonts and the ability to change several parameters such as colour, size, style, fill and alignment. How to cut selections and content-aware fill in Photoshop Mix 01. Cut it out Quick selections are easily created through the Smart brush tool In the Cut Out panel quick selections of complex scenes can be swiftly chopped with the Smart tool brush where contrasted edges are sought by the app to make selections. Then edges can be enhanced using the Refine panel. For more accurate selections pinch or double-tap to zoom on the image first. 02. Fill blank areas Content-Aware Fill works excellently like its matching counterpart in Photoshop to fill areas of the scene Use the Content-Aware Fill tool to improve blank patches in your scene. With the Basic brush selected paint over a gap in a blue sky and have the app automatically fill the selection with another part of the image, here the app has added a pink cloud to the top-right. Here the skin has been made smoother, structure added to the face and eyes made larger with the use of Liquify Photoshop Fix is predominantly a retouching app that allows users to Heal unwanted blemishes from any image, though it is most adept at portrait retouching because of its face recognition algorithms. It has a good layout of image adjustment tools including Exposure, Contrast, Clarity and Saturation but its focus is on selective adjustments using brushes. Brush properties can be changed with intuitive gestures, from brush size, hardness and opacity and a coloured overlay is even available to toggle on/off during editing. As with Mix, it’s hard to get surgical precision with the finger but zooming in on the subject helps a lot. Automatic skin and face detection help alleviate laborious masking, speeding up workflow. How to retouch a face in Photoshop Fix 01. Use Liquify to adjust features Automatic face nodes aid Liquify controls in portraits In the Liquify panel Fix automatically detects faces and lays face nodes over the most important features such as forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth and chin. From here click on a control point and adjust using either Warp, Swell, or Twirl to make adjustments. Hit Restore to undo changes in longer chains of editing. 02. Smooth the skin With the overlay button selected you can easily trace the selection if any parts have been missed Press and slide on the Size button to adjust brush size and make a simple selection of the skin you want to smooth. Pinch to zoom in on the eyes, lips and hair and use the Restore button to remove unwanted effects from these areas. You can also use the Sharpen tool to focus on features such as the eyes or hair for a crisp-looking finish. Read more: The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to Photoshop someone into a picture How to flip a layer in Photoshop View the full article