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Want to live stream the Super Bowl 2019 for free? Follow our easy step-by-step guide below. If you're a fan of the American football, then we hardly need tell you that the Super Bowl 2019 takes place on Sunday, 3 February at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Neither will you need reminding that Super Bowl LIII is going to be an epic battle between AFC champions, the New England Patriots, and NFC champions, The Los Angeles Rams, in their first Super Bowl appearance in 17 years. But even if you're not down with American football, from a creative perspective Super Bowl LIII is still a date to put in your diary. As one of the planet's biggest sporting events it's the perfect opportunity for top brands to roll out their most impressive adverts, while the Super Bowl halftime show – this year featuring Maroon 5 as well as Travis Scott and Big Boi from Outkast – is likely to be an impressive display of costume and set design. There are certainly creative lessons to be learned on 3 February, outside the sporting action. So how do you get to watch Super Bowl LIII, especially if you don't live in the US and can't simply tune into CBS? Read on for our tips on how to live stream the 2019 Super Bowl for free, wherever you are in the world. How to watch Super Bowl 2019 online There's an easy way to watch the Super Bowl online from absolutely anywhere in the world; just follow these steps: 01. Download and install a VPN If you can't easily watch the Super Bowl online in your country, then the best way to see it for free is with a VPN service. Our favourite VPN right now is ExpressVPN – it's compatible with practically every device you can think of, supports most streaming services and it's one of the fastest VPN services around. ExpressVPN is also running a 49% discount right now – and there's a handy no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee if you want to give it a test drive. 02. Select your VPN location Once you've set up your VPN, you'll need to connect to a server location. The UK is the best place to find Super Bowl LIII being streamed for free; whereas the US is the best place to catch the commercials. It doesn't matter which area in the country you choose. 03. Choose a stream For no ads: Set your VPN to UK, and go to TVPlayer.com, an online streaming service with hundreds of channels on offer for free, and no need to sign up. Select BBC One if you're not bothered about seeing the sporting event's unofficial competition – the commercials – play out. The channel will be showing the entire Super Bowl live and uninterrupted by ad breaks. Alternatively, if you want to record the Super Bowl to watch later, you can do that too. You'll need to sign up for a paid TVPlayer Premium account, but the site offers a free 14-day trial. For ads: Set your VPN to the US and choose a US stream. Super bowl LIII: Which countries can I watch the Super Bowl 2019 from using a VPN? With a VPN, you can watch the Super Bowl from absolutely anywhere – as long as you have an internet connection. As you'd expect, that includes: US, UK, Israel, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Denmark, India, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Belgium, Romania, Mexico, France, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland, Kenya, Hungary, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan, Egypt and a lot more. US: How to watch Super Bowl 2019 online for free For US viewers with internet access, watching Super Bowl LIII couldn't be simpler. As well as broadcasting the big game on cable, CBS will be streaming it live through its Sports website and mobile apps, and it's even letting users stream the Super Bowl without signing in. If you'd rather watch on your TV rather than your computer or phone, CBS has you covered as well. It'll be streaming Super Bowl 2019 on top platforms including Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TVs, Xbox One, Apple TV and Android TV. Verizon subscribers will also be able to stream the game on their mobile devices through carrier-independent sites such as AOI, Complex and Yahoo. Remember: if you want to watch the Super Bowl in the US without commercials, you'll need to follow the steps above. Besides CBS, there are other streaming options available in the US, such as YouTube TV, Playstation Vue and Sling TV. You can easily pick up a free trial from any of them, and as well as the Super Bowl you'll find that they all have plenty of channels and content to enjoy as a subscriber. Remember, you'll need to be in the US with an American IP address to use these services. If you're not, follow our VPN steps above, log in with a VPN and choose a US server location. UK: How to watch Super Bowl 2019 online for free In the UK, watching the 2019 Super Bowl should be a piece of cake. Providing you have a TV licence, you'll be able to see it on BBC One for free. It'll be showing from 11PM GMT – and if you'd prefer not stay up half the night it'll be repeated the next day. If you'd rather watch the American coverage, you can watch on Sky Sports, although you'll need a subscription for that. If you want to stream Super Bowl LIII for free instead, that's almost as easy. All you need is BBC iPlayer either on desktop or mobile; you'll probably have to register for free to use it, but it's a pretty painless process, and you'll be able to watch anywhere on practically every platform you can think of. Super Bowl 2019: global coverage This year's Super Bowl is available live in seven languages, and 170 countries and territories. Here are the territories and Super Bowl broadcasters you need to know: Canada (Dazn, CTV 2, TSN 1, RDS), Africa (Super Sports, Zuku), Australia (ESPN, 7 Network), France (W9, BeIN Sport), India (Sony Ten, Sony Six), China ( Fox Sports, BesTV ). You'll find a handy guide to the main broadcasters on NFL's website. Super Bowl LIII: essential information When is Super Bowl LIII? Traditionally the Super Bowl takes place on the first Sunday in February. As a result, this year's Super Bowl will happen on Sunday, 3 February. What's the Super Bowl 2019 start time? It hasn't been officially announced yet, but last year's Super Bowl kicked off at 6.30PM ET (3:30pm PT, 11:30pm GMT), and we'd expect the action to start about the same time this year. What's the halftime show going to be? It's taken a while to get sorted, but the Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl 2019 halftime show is going to be headlined by Maroon 5, with guest appearances from Travis Scott and Outkast's Big Boi as well. Where is Super Bowl LIII taking place? The 2019 Super Bowl is kicking off at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the third Super Bowl to take place in Atlanta, but the first to grace the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which opened in 2017, can hold 71,000 fans and is located right in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Super Bowl XXVIII and Super Bowl XXXIV both took place at the Georgia Dome; don't go looking for it, it been demolished. Can I still get a Super Bowl 2019 ticket? Want to attend the big game and see the ads and halftime show in person, rather than watching the Super Bowl 2019 on TV or online? You can, but you're going to need deep pockets: the very cheapest Super Bowl LIII ticket available now, right at the very back of the stadium, is going to set you back a cool $3,600. And if you'd like to be closer to the action, it's going to cost even more. Seats in the 100 level –(complete with access to the three-hour all-inclusive Premier Party, meet and greet opportunities with NFL stars and Hall of Famers, pre-game hospitality and a post-game celebration) cost $15,075 each. Read more: The best VPN service right now 7 lessons every brand can learn from the Super Bowl 9 inspiring examples of sports imagery in branding View the full article

In this article, we're going to help you pick the best mechanical pencil for you. We'll start by explaining exactly what a mechanical pencil is and what to look for when choosing one, before running through our picks for the best mechanical pencils for drawing and for writing. If you're a traditional artist or a creative who loves nothing more than to take a screen break and spend an afternoon immersed in your sketchbook, then you'll know better than anyone that finding a pencil that's comfortable to use for long periods of time is essential. Mechanical pencils have been around for years, and there are many models that cater specifically to artists and designers who will be holding them all day. For those of you not in the know, a mechanical pencil is one that you don’t have to sharpen. That's because the graphite (aka the 'lead') is not bonded to the outer casing, as in a traditional wooden pencil, but is mechanically extended as you write or draw. Benefits of mechanical pencils When the lead runs out on a mechanical pencil, you just insert a new one. This not only saves you a lot of hassle and mess, it also means mechanical pencils can provide more consistent lines, enabling you to create more precise drawings and neater handwriting. That makes them the obvious choice for technical draftsmanship, of course, but that’s not all they're good for. How to draw: the best drawing tutorials Many artists prefer using a mechanical pencil even for more expressive and imaginative work, as the finer lines produced are usually easier to erase. They may also prefer them from an ergonomic standpoint, because a mechanical pencil's size and weight remains consistent, whereas a wood pencil gets finer the more you sharpen it. Finally, whether you’re using a pencil for writing or drawing, mechanical pencils are cost-effective and convenient, because you only need to replace the lead once it has run out, not the whole pencil. But if you're really not feeling them and are more into wooden pencils, be sure to take a look at our list of the best pencils around right now. How to choose a mechanical pencil There is a wide range of mechanical pencils on the market, and so there are certain things to consider when choosing one. The first is the diameter of the lead you wish to use. If you wish to draw very fine lines, you’ll want to go for a 0.3mm lead. For writing and most drawing, you’ll probably prefer a 0.5mm lead. A thicker, 0.7mm lead, meanwhile, may be better for sketching and non-detailed drawing. Other sizes are also available for specialist uses. Another consideration is the hardness of the lead. A soft lead is darker and more prone to smudging, while a hard lead is better for leaving light, fine lines. Softness is represented by a number followed by ‘B’; the higher the number, the softer the lead. Hardness is represented by a number followed by ‘H’; the higher the number, the harder the lead. Finally, ‘F’ and ‘HB’ leads lie in the middle. Also think about the mechanism you wish to use to advance your lead. The three most common mechanisms are a push-button, which may be on the side or the top; a twist operation, which is more often seen in older models; and a 'shake' advance. Weight is also important, as is grip: some pencils have special features, such as a bumpy texture, to improve this. The best mechanical pencils for drawing Whether you use pencils for quick sketches, technical draftsmanship or completed artworks, mechanical pencils have a lot to offer. Here we present our pick of the best mechanical pencils for drawing purposes. Our pick for the best mechanical pencil for drawing overall is the Uni Kurutoga Pipe Slide, which has a big point of difference over most of its rivals. When you use a regular mechanical pencil, the lead wears down on one side, forming a slanted, wedge-shaped tip. This can potentially cause variations in line thickness as you draw. The Kura Toga avoids this through a clever lead rotation mechanism that continually rotates the pencil lead as you write. A spring-loaded clutch twists the lead a tiny degree every time you lift the pencil from the paper, and this allows for a uniform wearing of the lead, and cleaner and more consistent lines as a result. Cartoonist and designer Jason Li is among the Kurutoga's many fans. "It's been my mechanical pencil of choice for several years running, and most recently I got a Studio Ghibli skinned one," he enthuses. "I use it for drawing, sketching things out, and taking notes. I love the mechanism that sharpens the lead as it turns, the (emergency) eraser hidden under its case, and really, the fact that it's chosen to be the model for official Studio Ghibli merch is also a feature in my book!" You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good mechanical pencil. There are some excellent models out there that are surprisingly cheap, and our favourite budget-friendly model has to be the Pentel 200. "The Pentel P200 is a good, solid choice," agrees Simon Whittaker, who tends to use them for general sketching. "It's only a couple of quid, they last ages, and they're really nice to hold. They're like the Jotter of mechanical pencils; a good all-rounder. "I remember first using them when I was at school," he adds. "Later, I picked one up again as a cheap spare, and then remembered how nice they are to draw with. Plus, because they’re pretty cheap, if you were to lose one, it’s not the end of the world." Izzy Burton, art director and concept artist at animation studio Blue Zoo, is also a Pentel fan; she favours the 0.7mm version. The brand originally came to her attention, she recalls, because: "I saw a lot of artists on Instagram using Pentel for their drawings and they all recommended it in their FAQs. I use it for precise and finished work, or work that’s on a small scale." We've established that you don't need to spend a fortune to get a decent mechanical pen for drawing. But what if you want to splash out, and buy something really special? In this case, we'd highly recommend the Rotring 800. This top-of-the-range model is infused with high-quality engineering and aimed at the serious artist or draughtsman. With a good weight (almost 91g), the metal body feels solid in the hand. And the non-slip metal grip 'twist and click' retractable mechanism means it's very easy and comfortable to use, even over lengthy sessions. Its hexagonal shape also makes it less like to slide off your desk, or even a slanted surface. In short, if you're working on something special, working for long periods, looking for a gift, or just want a pencil that's super-nice to use, the Rotring 800 ticks our boxes. Featuring a 4mm fixed sleeve for template work and technical drawings, the Pentel Graphgear 500 is the perfect pencil for technical drawing. With its metallic-mesh grip and a barrel weighted at your fingertips, it's designed to help you draw precisely and with a feeling of control. It works with a variety of lead thicknesses, and there's also a built-in lead hardness indicator to help you identify your lead type quickly and easily. The weight feels good in the hand, but light enough to make it comfortable over long sessions. In short, this is the best mechanical pencil for drafting and precision work on the market today, and all at a very affordable price. The best mechanical pencils for writing If you primarily want to use your mechanical pencil for writing, then among your main considerations will be comfort; no one wants an aching hand after a long stretch of writing. But as for drawing, you'll also want your writing to look nice, and that demands a pencil that can produce clean, consistent lines. Here are our four best mechanical pencils for writing. If you want a mechanical pencil for writing, then we would recommend the LAMY 2000. Based on the well-known fountain pen of the same name, designed by Gerd A. Müller in 1996, this is nothing less than a modern classic. It's light enough to be flexible, but solid enough to feel dependable. It's comfortable to hold and use, and produces smooth, consistent handwriting. And its build quality is also noticeably impressive; this is a pen that you can expect to last for years. There's not a huge amount to say beyond that... because rather than use gimmicks, its makers instead focused on doing one thing, and doing it well. The LAMY 2000 is, in short, a delightful pen to use for writing, as well as being supremely reliable and durable. And while it might cost a bit more than rivals, it's certainly a case of getting what you pay for. The Uni Kurutoga Roulette comes in at a surprisingly low price given its high quality, making it the best value mechanical pencil we've found for writing. For one, it's comfortable to hold, with a nicely balanced weight and a knurled metal fingerplate for better grip. And for two, its clever design, matching that of the Uni Kurutoga Pipe Slide (our number one mechanical pencil for drawing, above), means that it sharpens the lead as you write. As with its sibling, that means you get a super-even stroke width that helps make your handwriting neat, polished and attractive. This model from American Classic is a little pricey. But if you want a mechanical pencil for writing you can truly rely on, this has a lot to recommend it. Popular for decades amongst the armed forces and public institutions of the US, the American has a strong reputation for its reliability, durability and clean lines. The thick 0.9mm lead is also super-tough and rarely breaks. And overall, this should last a lifetime should you take care of it, which puts the slightly high cost into perspective. Handcrafted using watchmakers' tools for precision, beauty and accuracy, this is another quite pricey, but very high-end mechanical pencil. The tip of the Pentel Sharp Kerry Mechanical Pencil 0.5mm is solid and well-made, which means that breakage of the lead is a rare occurrence. The removable cap makes it super-portable. But above all, this mechanical pencil has been in production for many years now, for one good reason: its impressive consistency and quality. And that makes it an excellent choice for anyone wishing to produce professional looking writing that's likely to be viewed by customers, colleagues or superiors. Read more: The best children's books of all time How to quickly sketch hands 10 tips for sketching moving subjects View the full article

The latest hashtag craze to sweep the internet is the 10 year challenge. If you're not familiar, allow us to enlighten you. Participants post a photo of themselves today, alongside a snap of them from a decade ago. Designer Arun Venkatesan has given the trend a twist by gathering together some of the biggest websites around and comparing them to their 2009 selves. Let us tell you, if you were shocked to see how bad your friends' eyebrows were in the noughties, it's nothing to what you're about to feel when you see these homepage screengrabs side by side. It's like we'd never even heard of content hierarchy. Or white space. Let's take a look the most impressive glow ups of our time: use the arrow icons to compare these 2019 website layouts to their 2009 equivalent. For a closer look at how interfaces are changing, read our post on the key UI trends for 2019. Take a look at the full set on Arun Venkatesan's 10 year challenge website to see how more of your favourite sites have evolved over the years. Read more: 6 trends that are changing the face of mobile UI design 20 best UI design tools 19 cool CSS animation examples to recreate View the full article

This is a hands-on review of the MSI PS63 Modern to give you the chance to see what the new notebook is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review shortly with more information and a score. The MSI PS63 Modern is the latest high-end laptop aimed at pro creatives from celebrated Taiwanese gaming company MSI. Part of the company’s Prestige series, the 15.6-inch notebook has been built with designers and content creators in mind, and promises to pack a serious performance punch. Headline features include Intel's latest Whiskey Lake processor and GTX 1050 Max-Q graphics card, 32GB RAM and dual SSDs. Meanwhile, near-perfect sRGB colour reproduction and a super-svelte 1.65kg weight place the new MSI PS63 Modern firmly in line with leading ultrabooks like the MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 15. So will the new MSI PS63 Modern be a MacBook Pro killer? We were able to have a very brief look at the MSI PS63 Modern at CES 2019: we’ll be publishing a full review of the laptop very shortly, but here are our first impressions. MSI PS63 Modern: price and availability Pricing and availability for the MSI PS63 Modern haven’t been announced yet, but the company says the laptop will ship sometime this year. MSI PS63 Modern: Design and display The PS63 Modern is an attractive laptop, with a slick carbon grey chassis and diamond-cut edges. Designed with portability in mind – it’s 16mm thick and weighs 1.6kg – we liked how lightweight the machine felt in our hands. The 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display has thin 5.6mm bezels and a drop-down hinge design for more screen real estate. MSI says that it produces near perfect sRGB colour reproduction (99.6%), which we’ll test in our full review. Certainly images appeared vibrant, vivid and sharp in the short time we had with the MSI PS63 Modern. MSI PS63 Modern: Performance It’s tough to meaningfully discuss the performance of a laptop in a hands-on review, but the hardware options certainly look promising. Boasting up to the latest eight-generation Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM and the potential for dual SSDs – plus optional discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q graphics with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM – the MSI PS63 Modern should be able to make light work of demanding video-editing and graphic design tasks. MSI's Creator Center software aims to further optimise performance by adapting to whichever program you're using. If you’re editing images in Photoshop, for instance, it’ll ramp up CPU usage; if you’re gaming it’ll increase GPU output. Another headline feature is MSI’s impressive “all-day” 16-hour battery life claim. If it’s true, this would make the PS63 Modern a tempting choice for creatives who need to work on the go. We’ll be testing how long the laptop can last with one charge in our full review. The MSI PS63 Modern has a backlit keyboard and feels snappy under your fingers There’s also a larger trackpad with integrated fingerprint reader and multi-finger gesture support, making navigation easier and reducing the need for a mouse on the go. We really liked the silky smooth glass texture, and found it to be responsive and accurate in our brief time with the MSI PS63 Modern. We also liked the backlit keyboard, which felt snappy under our fingers. As you’d expect, the MSI PS63 Modern comes with a slew of ports, including a Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, two Type-A USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI, microSD card reader and a headphone/mic combo jack. The MSI PS63 Modern laptop has a good selection of ports It comes with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology too, so you can charge your camera phone faster when you’re out and about. And the MSI PS63 Modern is Quiet Mark certified, too, so it shouldn’t distract you when you’re working. The final standout feature worth mentioning is the compact power adaptor. MSI has worked hard to significantly reduce its size. The company says its almost 40 per cent smaller than regular power bricks, making it easier to carry around the world. Early verdict Is the MSI PS63 Modern a MacBook Pro killer? We'll let you know in our full review The MSI PS63 Modern looks and feels like a premium laptop. It’s sleek, lightweight and promises to pack a real punch in the performance stakes. The 16:9 screen is also fantastic: colour and detail looked stunning in the CES 2019 showroom. We do wish it was 4K, but unless you’re a video editor or photographer who works with 4K content, 4K on a 15-inch display isn't that useful. (You can hook it up to a 4K monitor, anyway, if you need to.) For many creatives, a great 1080p laptop will more than suffice at this size – and should save you cash too. All-in-all, the MSI PS63 Modern looked impressive at CES. If you’re a designer or content-creator looking for an Apple laptop-alternative, we think it'll be a strong contender this year. A full MSI PS63 Modern review will be coming very shortly. Also read: Dell XPS 13 (2019) review View the full article

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Allegorithmic, the creator of Substance and the leader in 3D editing and authoring for gaming, entertainment and post-production, has been acquired by Adobe today. The move means that Creative Cloud will now be home to the 3D design tools that made Substance the industry standard for 3D textures and material creation. Adobe hopes that by combining Allegorithmic's tools with its own, it will empower video game creators and VFX artists working across film and television to create amazing 3D art. The decision is also a huge step for Adobe in terms of expanding the reach of Creative Cloud's 3D and immersive workflows. Get free admission to VERTEX 2019, the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists "We are seeing an increasing appetite from customers to leverage 3D technology across media, entertainment, retail and marketing to design and deliver fully immersive experiences," said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president at Creative Cloud. "Creative Cloud is the creativity platform for all and Substance products are a natural complement to existing Creative Cloud apps that are used in the creation of immersive content, including Photoshop, Dimension, After Effects and Project Aero." Users will be in good company. Allegorithmic's previous customer base includes huge brands such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, BMW and Ikea to name but a few. "Allegorithmic and Adobe share the same passion for bringing inspiring technologies to creators," says Sebastien Deguy, CEO and founder, Allegorithmic. "We are excited to join the team, bring together the strength of Allegorithmic's industry-leading tools with the Creative Cloud platform and transform the way businesses create powerful, interactive content and experiences." Get Adobe Creative Cloud now Currently Allegorithmic tools are already offered as a subscription service. In the future, Adobe is expected to expand the availability of these tools via a subscription, as well as providing new offerings that will bring it closer together with Creative Cloud. This is where the headaches could set in for 3D artists who are not fans of the subscription model. While Substance could stay as it is for the short term, it's inevitable that it is going to get more closely absorbed by Adobe, a decision that will be cause for concern for 3D artists who are already paying a fortune a month for tools such as Maya. Related articles: Kick-start your career with Adobe's Creative Residency The best 3D modelling software 2019 6 amazing free Adobe CC alternatives View the full article

Maya is undoubtedly an industry leader in the world of 3D. It has a vast array of uses and applications, and is utilised across the creation of characters, animation, VR and environments. Such is the all-encompassing nature of the software, that getting the most out of its tools and features can be a daunting prospect for any artist. We have assembled a diverse group of artists to share their top tips for mastering Maya. These tips come from Pat Imrie, Reza Shams, Stephen Studyvin and Tsubasa Nakai. Our experts cover a range of disciplines from university lecturers, to CG supervisors and freelancers. Whether you’re looking to enhance your character building, speed up your workflow, or you’re entirely new to Maya, you are sure to find some helpful words of wisdom in this handy feature. For more advice to help improve your 3D art, take a look at our roundup of more Maya tutorials. 01. Unload plugins for faster load times Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Maya provides a vast number of features for its users, but the more are added, the longer it can take to boot, and when on a deadline every minute counts. Go to Windows > Settings & Preferences > Plug-in Manager to find a number of roll-out menus where you can Load, Unload or Auto load various plugins. Unloading anything you don’t need will speed up Maya’s boot time as it can just skip any of the heftier features. For example, I primarily work as a modeller so I’ll unload any advanced rigging options (see image) as well as FX-heavy plugins such as Bifrost. Get free admission to VERTEX 2019, the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists 02. Use Soft selection options Soft Selection is a well-known modelling feature accessed via the ‘B’ hotkey. By default it’s a great tool, but it’s worth diving into the Tool Options to gain more control. Changing the Falloff mode from Volume to Surface for instance will allow better accuracy when adjusting areas such as eyes and lips (see image). If your model is in separate parts, setting the Falloff mode to Global will expand the falloff to the whole model. You can also adjust the Radius and the Curve Falloff to fine-tune your selection, which I find invaluable when creating facial shapes. 03. Try the Relax Brush In recent versions of Maya, sculpting tools from Mudbox have been incorporated into the toolset. For me, however, they still don’t have the immediacy or performance of using them natively in Mudbox. This is where the Sculpt Geometry Tool comes in handy. Found in Surfaces > Sculpt Geometry Tool, this tool has a set of basic but practical brushes. The most useful of these is the Relax Brush, which is an excellent way to keep faces uniform while modelling, and for removing detail without losing much of the form, which is likely to happen when using the Smooth option. 04. Improve viewport speed with backface culling Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The ability to work smoothly with large data sets in Maya has improved with every new release, however, you will find that the viewport will still lag from time to time. One way around this is to enable the Backface Culling option from Shading > Backface Culling – this will stop the viewport from drawing faces that are not currently facing the scene camera. You can see how this improves viewport speed by going to Display > Heads Up Display and enabling Frame Rate, then toggle Backface Culling on and off to see how much your viewport speed improves. 05. Edit Edge Flow Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The Edit Edge Flow feature was a welcome addition to the Maya modelling toolset. Essentially it enables you to intelligently and quickly average out an inserted edge loop so that it conforms to the form of an existing model, negating the need to edit manually and allowing you to model quicker and more accurately. This is perfect for creating clean and accurate meshes, and is accessed by going to Edit Mesh > Edit Edge Flow. Or, when you have an edge loop selected, hold Shift and press the right mouse button to bring up a marking menu with the command available at the bottom of the menu. 06. Create a custom UI Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Make a custom marking menu and custom hotkeys – it’ll speed up your work and you’ll have easy access to the tools. Arrange the Maya Shelves according to your taste and add any tools you’re going to need to them. This method enables you to quickly access the commands in the menus on the shelves. You can even create new icons for tools, changing Maya to suit your taste. 07. Make use of the camera rig Use the camera rig for animation and motion in your scenes. This is the best way to control the camera in 3D scenes. You can rig any type of camera, with so many options for controlling it available. 08. Use low-poly for speedy retopology Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Try this tip for speedy Retopology. Import your high-poly model then create a low-poly primitive object that resembles the high poly. Edit and resize the low-poly object UVs to make them like the high-poly model, then delete the history and freeze transform the low-poly object. Select the high-poly then low-poly mesh and go to: Mesh > Transfer Attributes. Finally, edit Transfer Attributes as seen in the screenshot. 09. Create a low-poly tree Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Create a circle and some curves, then extrude the circle on the curves and deform it. Create a UV for the trunk. Create a low-poly plan and assign some branch texture with alphas set to transparency. Make the tree trunk live and add branches. 10. Tackle complex shapes Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Create a plan and 10 subdivisions in width and height, then select the inner edge and go to Create > Sets > Quick Select Set. Select all of the faces and go to Edit Mesh > Poke. Go to Select > Quick Select Set > Set, and delete the edges. Finally, delete the selected face. 11. Organise your files properly Maya uses a folder structure to organise project files, keeping all the files associated with the project in one directory. When opening a scene associated with a Maya project, and especially when switching between projects, set the project folder first before opening the scene file. Simplify setting projects by opening Maya first, then choose File > Open Scene. In the Open window, click Set Project to open the Set Project window. Choose the project directory, click the Set button, then open the scene file from the Open window after the Set Project window closes. 12. Set up a Maya project directory Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Maya keeps track of all files associated with a scene in a project directory. In some cases, working with a single file without a project directory will work, but any associated files with the scene should be kept in a Maya project directory. If the project directory is set, Maya will look for all scene files, Maya ASCII or Maya Binary files, in the scene's directory. Image files used as textures placed in the sourceimages folder will be automatically located when the scene file opens. Rendered images, or maps generated, will be stored and saved in the images directory. 13. Use resolution gate to compose final render Turn on the Resolution Gate to display a guide in the main viewport that represents the final rendered area. The Resolution Gate is displayed as a framed area in the main viewport which will be the same camera framing as the final rendered image. The rendering resolution height and width are displayed in the masked area above the Resolution Gate in the viewport when the resolution gate is active. The name of the camera is also displayed in the masked portion below the gate mask. The resolution settings are set in the Image Size section of the Render Settings window. 14. Use hotkeys to set Animation Keyframes You can set a keyframe on an object, camera or light by selecting it and pressing S on the keyboard. This sets a keyframe on the selection at the frame indicated on the timeline, for the attributes displayed in the Channel Box. Usually the current position, rotation, scale and visibility are available in the Channel Box. You can set keys on specific attributes by selecting the channels to key, right-clicking on any of the selected labels in the Channel Box, and then choosing Key Selected from the menu. 15. Create a shot camera for animation When Maya opens a new scene several default cameras are created. One camera is the default perspective view that is used to look around the scene, named persp. While this camera can be used for final rendering, it is not best when animating with camera movement that requires keyframes on the camera. Using keyframed cameras to look around the scene will pop back to the keyframes locations when scrubbing on the timeline. Add a new camera for rendering and keyframing by going to Create > Cameras > Camera. 16. Make ornaments with Flow Path Object Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image When making something repeatable like an ornament or stitch pattern, use Attach to Motion Path and Flow Path Object in Maya. These are very useful for scattering many detailed objects across a complex surface. 17. Create natural Hair with XGen Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image You can make beautiful hair with few guide curves if you can use XGen modifiers. Start by making hair from guide curves with XGen. Create a clumping modifier to clump a big bundle of hair, then create a second clumping modifier to clump a medium bundle of hair, followed by a third to clump a small bundle of hair. Making a cut modifier will help you achieve natural tips of hairs. Lastly, create a noise modifier to obtain a natural hair stream and frizz. 18. Use procedural nodes for face texture Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Make face textures with only procedural nodes because they're easy to make and reuse, plus gradation is beautiful. First, construct the shader tree before blending the textures with the layered texture node. You can find the best look by adjusting the Alpha amount. Connect the layered texture to SubSurface Color, and adjust the skin shader to look like the image. 19. Use guide curves for stylised hair Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image This tip is useful for creating guide curves for a stylised character’s hair. Create the base hair, but be sure to make holes on both ends to extract the curve from the mesh. Next, create some joints and use a spline IK handle to deform easily, then skin using them. Scatter hair objects on the head with a spline IK handle. Next, extract curves from the mesh. Finally, you have to arrange the directions, select the opposite direction’s curve, and select Curves > Reverse Direction. With this method, you can make guide curves as you design. 20. Try Cryptomatte for look development Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Cryptomatte is an ID matte creation tool created by Psyop, it creates ID mattes to do look development or final adjustments automatically. After installing, create the Cryptomatte AOVs in Render Settings. Select an AOV and view it in the Attribute editor. It should be visible in the Shader under Custom AOV. You can export three ID mattes to follow demand object, material, asset. You may find it useful to make big changes in Photoshop or Nuke using the ID mattes, this will help find a new look when you're stuck with an image. This tip is especially useful when you're on tight deadlines and need something new quickly. This article was originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 241 or subscribe. Read more: Learn how to model a 3D portrait in ZBrush and Maya Become a better 3D artist The best new 3D tools for 2019 View the full article

Design budgets are under pressure. The economic outlook seems unclear. So it pays to be prudent with your pennies... right? Well, yes, to a degree. But when it comes to kitting out your workspace, going for cheap and cruddy options are a false economy if they only make you miserable and unproductive. A happy designer is a more creative and successful designer, so as long as you don’t literally bankrupt yourself, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to the finer things in life. 15 essential tools for graphic designers in 2019 In this post, we’ve picked out some alluring items to take your workspace to the next level. You might not be able to afford all of them, right now at least, but hey, it’s great to have something to aim for... 01. iMac Pro The iMac Pro is the ultimate upgrade for your work computer Still spending half of your day swearing at your ageing Mac, as it struggles along, crashing and freezing whenever you’re in the midst of your creative flow? Then maybe it’s time to upgrade to the newest and greatest iMac, the aptly-named Pro. Apple’s most powerful machine to date, and specifically designed for creative professionals, the iMac Pro comes with a beautiful 5K display and works at ridiculously fast speeds. It is, in short, the best desktop computer a designer could wish for. Okay, we’ll admit it: as we note in our iMac Pro review, it’s not exactly cheap and most designers don’t actually need all that power. But hey, just because you can’t legally drive a Ferrari at its top speed of 217mph, doesn’t mean you don’t want one, right? 02. Apple Magic Mouse 2 The Magic Mouse 2 is ultra-lightweight and super-ergonomic Most designers dream of upgrading their Mac, but what about your mouse? Apple’s been so slow to improve on its classic mouse design, you might not even have heard of the Magic Mouse 2, especially as it was initially only available with the purchase of a Mac Pro. But now it’s on sale separately, and it’s well worth checking out. Beautifully designed in silver finish or space grey, it has no batteries or moving parts, so it’s super-lightweight at just 0.099 kg. In use, it’s incredibly sensitive and can take a bit of getting used to, but it’s specifically designed to minimise the amount of arch in your wrist while your working. And when you consider how many hours a day you spend using a mouse, and how many years you’re likely to work as a designer, we reckon anything that can reduce the wear and tear on your body is worth investing in. 03. Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless Speaker These speakers provide a true audiophile music experience for your studio Every now and again, you need to get that blood pumping and those creative juices flowing with some banging music. But you don’t want those sweet sounds to be mangled by a tinny speaker. So investing in some decent sound reproduction for your studio or home office can be a wise investment. And in our roundup of best wireless speakers for 2018, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin came out the clear winner. With an eye-catching retro design (in walnut or soft grey) that’s perfect for a design studio, these little beauties offer the closest thing to a true audiophile experience in a set of Bluetooth speakers. They also come with a wide range of inputs and a portable power supply that makes them fully wireless, which means you can move them around your studio at will. So why not treat yourself? Your ears will thank you. 04. Sage by Heston Blumenthal Smart Kettle Heston Blumenthal's kettle really is a big improvement on the standard model Few designers can function without their morning tea or coffee, so every studio needs a kettle. But why put up with a boring, standard model when there are so many more creative design solutions on the market right now? When it comes to creativity in the kitchen, innovative celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is a name that always comes to mind. And so it’s not surprising that his smart kettle truly pushes the envelope. Not only is its sleek, steel look aesthetically delightful, it also offers some genuinely useful features. These include five different temperature settings (for green, white, oolong and black tea, as well as coffee), a rapid boil setting, a soft opening lid to prevent hot water splatter, and a keep warm function. Apart from anything, it’s a great talking point for those awkward ‘meet at the kettle’ moments with colleagues you don’t really know that well. 05. Wilfa Precision coffee maker This Norwegian gadget helps you make coffee precisely, for the perfect caffeine hit Instant coffee just not cutting it? Then you need a decent coffee machine. And if you’re serious about the quality of your brew, we’d highly recommend the Wilfa Precision from Norwegian barista Tim Wendelboe. With a sleek minimalist design, this machine is dedicated to providing you with the perfect coffee by ensuring the precise ratio between coffee and water. That means, admittedly that it’s a little effort to use. But that effort will certainly pay off in terms of the quality of your caffeine hit, helping you get fired up for that morning meeting or late-afternoon deadline. (If, however, you’re looking for a coffee maker that's super-quick and easy to use, we’d recommend the Delonghi Distinta ICMI 211). 06. Humanscale Diffrient Smart office chair Be kind to your back and joints with this smart-looking, ergonomic chair Most designers spend a great deal of their lives sitting. And doing so in a cheap and uncomfortable chair that’s bad for your back is the very definition of a false economy. So why not invest in something ergonomic that’s going to be good for your body over the long term (and looks pretty darned great too)? Included in our roundup of the best office chairs for home working, the Humanscale Diffrient Smart office chair (yes, that is how they spell it) impressed us by the way it adjusts automatically to your size, shape and movements, providing great lumbar support. This wonderfully minimal mesh chair is available in a variety of styles and fabrics. Plus it comes with a 15-year guarantee, which helps put the fairly substantial price into perspective. 07. Opendesk Studio Desk This standing studio desk is compact, keeps your cables tidy, and will make you fitter and more productive When it comes to suffering the kind of back pain that typically plagues designers, the first thought is to update your chair. But over time, the kind of desk you use can also have a big impact on the effect design work has on you. A standing desk is better for your body, plus it can make you more productive and creative too. In our round-up of desks, our top pick was the Opendesk Studio Desk, not least because it’s been created ‘by designers, for designers’. With its minimal design and discreet cable management, it’s made from sustainably grown FSC-certified baltic plywood and is a great compact desk for either home working or a design studio. What’s more the design is ‘open’, in the sense that you can either get a quote from a local maker, who will put it together and deliver it to you, or download the design and make it yourself. 08. HTC Vive Pro The HTC Vive Pro is the best VR headset on the market, bar none Maybe your studio is working on VR projects. Maybe you want to pitch VR projects to visiting clients and stakeholders. Or maybe you just want to play VR games in the office because it’s, you know, cool and fun? Either way, when it comes to having a fulfilling experience in virtual reality, you really do get what you pay for. And the HTC Hive Pro is hands-down the best on the market. With intuitive controls, a wide area of movement and a smooth, immersive and high-resolution experience when connected to a a powerful desktop computer, you simply can’t get better than this right now, whether you want to use VR drawing software like Tilt Brush , start exploring the VR web or learn how to create VR games. No, it’s not cheap. But if you’re doing any work in VR as a studio, it’s the kind of business expense you’ll probably find surprisingly easy to justify to your boss. As long as they can have a go too, of course... 09. ‘Work hard and be nice to people’ print These wise words will inspire you every time you glance at them We all need a jolt of inspiration every now and again, but most inspirational posters are more likely to anger than inspire, based as they are on bland and empty messaging. This gorgeous letterpress print by designer Anthony Burrill avoids that trap, using wise words he overheard spoken by an elderly woman, who was sharing the secret of a happy life in a checkout queue. Sized at 51 x 76 cm (20 x 30 inches), and with each print signed by the author, this would be a great addition to any design office or home studio. To see more prints to decorate your studio, check out our roundup of inspirational quotes to make you more productive. 10. Design magazine subscription If you're a professional, you should be reading your profession's house magazine When clients and stakeholders come to visit, there’s nothing that says ‘professional environment’ more than a few copies of your profession’s leading magazine liberally spread about the place. For graphics designers, that of course means our sister title Computer Arts, while web designers will want net or Web Designer; 3D artists and animators will opt for 3D World or 3D Artist; and for digital artists, the obvious choice will be ImagineFX. Of course, these magazines are not just for show. Well-written and beautifully designed, they all offer a great way to keep up with the latest developments and personalities in your profession too. Taking out a subscription means you’ll never miss an issue, and also save a ton on the cover price. So if you don’t have one, make sure you do something about it. Read more: The best new tech products for designers right now The best iPad accessories Boutique hotels: 10 of the world’s best design hotels View the full article

In this tutorial, I'll be guiding you through my process for creating a captivating fantasy portrait of an elven maiden. Her story is that she's a woman of wealth and sophistication who, by some happenstance, is travelling the mountainside. I created her for the cover of ImagineFX magazine. In this Photoshop tutorial, starting with my initial sketch, I’ll show you a variety of techniques that you can use in your own art process – from concise line work through to adding depth and colour to create a compelling fantasy portrait. You can watch this video to see my exact process, as well as following the steps below. For more art tips and tutorials, see our post on art techniques. 01. Collate ideas and sketch Create a rough sketch once you've got your main idea, and don't worry about the details at this point My first step is to brainstorm some ideas. Most of the time this involves me taking photographs or looking through atmospheric images online. Once I’ve formulated more of a narrative in my head, it’s time to start sketching! I open my canvas and draw up a striking lady, clad in fur. 02. Plan and work on lines Careful planning at this stage can save you time later on After receiving some feedback from the mag team and making a few adjustments to my sketch, I draw up my lines. I plan these out as thoroughly as I can so I don’t have to make up too many details when rendering later on. Planning these structural components save me time in the long run. 03. Establish layer masks Blocking in areas enables you to work in sections Here’s where I prepare my painting for the rendering ahead. I reduce the opacity of my lines at the top of my canvas. Underneath, I block in different areas of the artwork with a Hard brush so I can tackle it in pieces. I organise each of these blocked areas into separate layers, so I can click and select an area when I need to. 04. Work on values Before you add colour, think about the light and shadows you want to achieve I always begin rendering with a Soft brush. I won’t be adding colour just yet, because this stage is primarily about lighting and shadows. I start by working over large areas to establish my basic lighting, and as my values build up, I converge over smaller areas with a finer brush. 05. Add fur to the cloak Keep in mind the direction of the fur as you draw This is where my handy custom fur brush comes in and saves me extra time. I paint in segments of fur while keeping in mind the direction (or nap) of the hair. This will serve as a base texture for when I render and define the fur during the colouring stage. 06. Organise layers Organisation of layers is key when working in Photoshop Now that I’ve laid down my basic values for the piece, I’m almost ready to start adding colour. Before I do that, I get those layers in order by merging them down. I organise all of my block selections in a folder at the top of the Layers panel. 07. Add colour Airbrush your elven maiden in sections I begin by creating a new layer and setting it to Color mode in the Layers panel. I lightly airbrush over my character, working over one segment at a time. Once this is done, I bump up the contrast and intensity of my colours by painting on a new layer that’s set to Overlay. 08. Reshape facial features The next step is to make the character more 'elven' I want to enhance her elven attributes so I merge all of my character's layers together and open up the Liquify tool (in the Filter menu). Here I begin reshaping and emphasising parts of my character’s distinctive features. I lift her brows and cheekbones, and increase the size of her eyes for that classic delicate elven appearance. 09. Define and blend The best way to finish the hair is to use a streaky brush I keep working over her face until I’m happy with her features, and then move on to the hair (this part is best achieved with a streaky brush). I lightly paint following the direction of each segment of hair, keeping in mind the point where the light reflects. I also use a Soft brush to mask out the harsh edges of my character against the background. 10. Add texture Use your lines layer as a guide when building up texture From this point, I work with normal layers to gradually build up colour, occasionally turning my lines layer on as a guide. I use an assortment of textured brushes to add dimension to my work. Some of my favourites are from Kyle T Webster’s Megapack (these come free with Photoshop CC). I slowly work over my painting and sculpt various features as I go. 11. Define the background Keep your brushstrokes loose if you don't want your background to be in focus I’m envisioning vibrant hills, distant mountains and a late afternoon sun in this outdoor scene. I roughly paint ridges into the landscape, introducing softly lit hills and clusters of distant trees. I keep my brushstrokes loose during this stage because I don’t intend for my background to be in focus. 12. Work on details Features such as freckles can add an extra dimension to your work I want my character to stand out a bit more, so I decide to change her hair colour. Using the selective Color Adjustment layer, I settle on a nice auburn colour. To complement her new vibrant hair, I’ve decided freckles would be a perfect addition. These add a lovely texture and dimension to her skin. 13. Introduce extra embellishments The addition of jewellery tells us more about the character I want to enhance my character’s appearance with some more jewellery, so I paint a diadem to match her assorted trinkets. Because the sun is sitting behind my subject, I introduce some rim light to the edges of the fur around her. This also works to lift her from the background. 14. Apply final touches Boosting the colours and blurring the background helps to bring the picture together I copy and paste my own grain texture over the artwork and set this to Overlay at seven per cent. Now I’m ready for my final colour adjustments. I boost the reds and yellows in the artwork using the selective Color Adjustment layer. I also use a photo filter to warm the artwork a touch. Finally, I blur my background (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) for an out-of-focus look. And I’m finished – I hope you enjoyed the journey! This article was originally published in issue 166 of ImagineFX, the world's leading digital art magazine. Buy issue 166 or Subscribe here. Read more: How to design believable fantasy beasts 10 sci-fi and fantasy art painting tips How to create a fantasy costume design View the full article

0patch released the fix for the remote code execution vulnerability in Windows, which has a CVSS score of 7.8. View the full article

Want to become a graphic designer, content creator, or marketing expert? With Graphic Design Certification School, you'll learn three essential software skills that anyone in a creative field should have under their belt. This bundle teaches you how to use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop allows you to edit images so they look professional, polished, and engaging. InDesign allows you to design magazines, newsletters, brochures, and a whole lot more. Illustrator is a must-have tool for anyone who creates art on the computer with the help of some special effects and electronic magic. (Get access to all this software in Adobe Creative Cloud if you don't already have it.) Check out Graphic Design Certification School for only $39. Related articles: The best free graphic design software The best computer for graphic design in 2019 The best laptops for graphic design in 2019 View the full article

Researchers show how rogue web applications can be used to attack vulnerable browser extensions in a hack that gives adversaries access to private user data. View the full article

Want to access hundreds of thousands of vector designs for one low price? Check out StockUnlimited Vector Plan: Lifetime Subscription. This all-vector graphics content store gives you access to high-quality vectors and clipart, and you don't have to worry about hidden fees, red tape or licences. The content is all royalty free, so you can rest assured that the content can be used legally for both commercial and personal purposes. Whether you're a business owner, graphic designer, or advertising expert, you'll get new designs every month – which means you'll never run out of options! Get StockUnlimited Vector Plan: Lifetime Subscription today for just $34.99. Related articles: 30 top vector art tutorials 24 eye-catching flyer designs The 23 best places to find free vector art online View the full article

If you like to block out the world around you and really listen to your music and nothing else, the Bose QuietComfort 20 headphones could be just what you're looking for. Ideal if you need to keep noisy distractions at bay and really tune into your songs or podcasts, these incredible earbuds are now on offer with a massive £120 slashed off their RRP. Thanks for their design and special noise cancelling technology, these in-ear headphones are great at blocking out sounds around you, they're also a dream to wear compared to obtrusive, over-ear alternatives. And when you don't want to block out everything, it's also easy to switch to Aware mode. One important thing to note though: this deal is on the iOS-compatible Bose QuietComfort 20 headphones only. The audio works okay when used with an Android device, however the buttons do not – something to keep in mind if you don't like to dig out your device every time a track ends. Not quite what you're looking for? Take a look at our buying guides for the best noise-cancelling headphones and the best wireless headphones for more great deals – including offers our readers outside of the UK can take advantage of. Related articles: The best Bluetooth speaker right now The ultimate guide to all Amazon devices The five best desks for your home office or studio View the full article

The patches are part of Adobe's second unscheduled update this month. View the full article

Big G, aka Google, provides developers a plethora of tools intended to make web design easy. In this article, we go through some of the best Google tools out there, and show you how to use them in your web design and development workflow. We're covering a range of different web design tools here, so we've split the content into pages to make it easier to navigate. Use the dropdown menu above to jump to the section you're interested in. As long as websites are unminified, their content can be viewed by anyone. Chrome’s DevTools make this simple – on this page, we show you how to view and change HTML, CSS and JavaScript. On page 2, we take a closer look at how to use Google's debugger to fix coding errors quickly and easily. Page 3 puts the spotlight on Google's Device Mode, which you can use to test the mobile versions of your pages via your desktop machine. On page 4 we introduce the basics you need to be aware to start implementing Material Design principles in your designs. Finally, page 5 looks at Progressive Web Apps, the latest big thing in the web design industry. View and change HTML, CSS & JS As long as a website's code hasn't been minified, it can be viewed by anyone using Chrome’s developer tools. First of all, check the version of Chrome – the following steps work on version 70.0.3538.67 running on a 64-bit Ubuntu workstation. Next, open the hamburger menu and click More Tools > Developer Tools. Launch the Developer Tools and you should see a screen similar to this [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] The browser responds by opening a pane on the left-hand side of your screen. It should be resized in the first step – by default, the browser doesn’t assign enough screen real estate. When done, the screen looks similar to the one shown in the image above. By default, Developer Tools starts up with the Console tab loaded. It contains the output emitted by invocations of the console-logging function. Rendering errors also show up there – if you find red lines, something is amiss in the markup or the code of your page. A click on the little ‘URL’ on the right-hand side brings you to the line, which caused the message to show up. Inspect the markup If your interest focuses on markup, use the Elements tab shown in the figure. It shows the markup the browser currently renders. You can expand and compact it in a fashion similar to a tree view – hide unneeded elements to prevent sensory overload. The raison d’etre of the tab is the display of the CSS structure. Widgets ‘collect’ CSS from various sources, which are displayed neatly and next to one another. In the case of the example shown in the figure, we see that styles were provided from both the ‘div’ tag and the ‘main’ markup of the page. Chrome lets you edit most attributes on the fly. Double-click any of the black texts to transform the label into an editor, then enter the newly desired value and press the Return key. The renderer picks up these changes and applies them to the DOM on the fly. This is especially useful when trying to optimise colours or placement issues; having to reload a page to preview changes becomes tiresome. A yellow background indicates the window's contents is subject to filtering [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] Finally, take a look at the text box on top of the pane. It enables you to filter the markup items shown: for example, enter ‘mdc’ to limit the view to all styles inherited from the Material Design library used later in this article. When a filter is active, a yellow background shows up in a fashion similar to the one shown above. Perform a detailed analysis In modern web browsers, the DOM is not limited to ‘statical’ presentation issues. It also governs event flow and placement. Switch to the Computed tab to reveal a list of ‘dimensional’ properties. This is incredibly useful when arranging widgets on the screen in an exact fashion. Moving to the Event Listeners tab provides an overview of event flows. Use this feature to quickly weed out problems related to user interaction: if an event does not trigger, start out by checking the event handler connections. Finally, the Properties window lets you take a look at the attributes stored inside the individual DOM nodes. If you’ve ever spent a lot of time hunting down DOM-manipulating code, the value is clear. Next page: How to use Google's Debugger In the good old days, developers debugged by emitting messages to the command line. The introduction of dedicated debuggers accelerated the error-finding process. Debugger work centres around breakpoints. They act as an entry point into the debugging session – if code hits them, its execution pauses. The easiest way to add a breakpoint involves the Sources tab, where you click the margin to add a blue rhomboid. This breakpoint takes a conditional string – Chrome will evaluate it before deciding whether to pause program execution [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] When the relevant line is hit, a yellow insert pops up over the rendered view. Furthermore, the debugger window populates with various bits of information about the current ‘context’. Moving your mouse over any variable opens a pop-up window similar to the one shown in the figure. If the element in question is an object, a tree view will appear instead. It enables you to drill down into the individual variables. Global variables show up in the Scope node. Click it and be prepared to wait for a second or two. Its population cannot be accomplished instantaneously due to the number of elements, using the Filter textbox at the top of the screen is highly recommended for usability. As populating the entire state tree is slow, some fields get shown as (…) instead. Double-click any one of these attributes to load its value on the fly. Finally, use the call tree to find out where you are. It lists the methods called to arrive at the execution position. Advanced execution Placing breakpoints all over the place is inefficient. Analyse the flow of a variable by clicking the three step-over buttons next to the blue Play button. They enable you to run a single line or return from a function while keeping the debugger active during the process. This is helpful when hunting down value changes as an algorithm does its work. Another neat trick involves the use of conditional breakpoints. Chrome supports half a dozen of them, the table below describes them. Chrome’s debugger provides ‘thinking’ breakpoints [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] Setting these is done outside of the debugger. In the case of the DOM tree, for example, a node must be selected in the Element view. You can then specify that a debugging session must launch whenever the content of this node changes. Letting your mouse pointer rest over a variable reveals its contents in a small pop-up window [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] Just like with modern oscilloscopes, providing an overview of all trigger modes would require a book of its own. Let us, thus, end this little trip with a reference to developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/javascript/breakpoints – it provides an excellent overview of the possibilities. Resources 14 JavaScript debugging tips you probably didn't know Finding errors in code is both an art and a science. The folks at RayGun have compiled a set of methods, tools and approaches intended to help you find hard-to-track issues in JavaScript applications. Create scrollable elements which have defined regions that should snap into view. Those larger than the viewport are handled automatically. Debugging javascript cheat card Like most other scientific endeavours, a few ‘best practices’ have arisen over time. The reference card from dzone.com might have an extremely annoying layout, but it does provide an overview of interesting aspects. Chrome DevTools reference Chrome’s debugger contains dozens of additional features that we don’t have room to cover in this tutorial. Seasoned web developers are advised to take a look at Google’s official documentation – some of the functionality tends to be a real timesaver. WebStorm Sometimes, Chrome’s developer tools simply don’t offer what you might be looking for. If that is the case, you can give a dedicated product like WebStorm a chance. Its debuggers tend to analyse the entire project structure, leading to even more advanced analytical capabilities. Next page: Working with Device Mode While complete emulation of mobile devices on Chrome is impossible, Device Mode does make your life easier. First of all, click the little smartphone pictogram shown in the top-left corner of the Developer Tools screen. Chrome will adapt the view in a fashion similar to the one shown in the figure. The combo boxes at the top of the screen enable you to pick various commonly used devices ranging from the old Samsung Galaxy S5 to more recent products such as the iPhone X. Bear in mind that this feature does not switch the actual rendering engine. The browser does its magic purely by adjusting viewport co-ordinates. This limitation also applies to screen rotation, which you enable via the Rotate pictogram in the toolbar. Mobile apps usually use sensor data. Chrome can emulate these – open the Developer Tools hamburger menu. Next, select More Tools > Sensors. The Console window takes up an additional pane with sensor settings. They provide access to geolocation, accelerometer and advanced touch input. For completeness sake, let us reiterate that desktop tests can’t replace ‘acceptance runs’ on a handset. Mobile applications live and die by their haptics, which are completely different from those found on a PC. As of this writing, Google has not ‘unified’ the various aspects of device mode. The various functions (described in detail here) might get a new user interface in the future – stay tuned for small changes in this regard. What is console? Simply sending out logging information via console.log reeks of the 1990s. Why not use some advanced features instead? One of the defining features of Android is LogCat – developers can emit logging messages with various levels of severity. Chrome also supports this feature. Simply use one of the following methods: Chrome’s console is not limited to displaying information. You can also interact with the content of your website in a fashion not dissimilar to PowerShell or BASH. When working on code, be careful to look at the combo box at the top of the screen. It let’s you select where JavaScript will run – many types of content live in their own iframe. They cannot be reached by code entered into the top execution context. Once the right execution area is selected, changing the content of elements is as easy as entering a single command: Chrome’s console tends to flood once projects get complex. This is addressed by collating similar messages. Click a button five times, and emit the same message each time – it will show up once. Disable this by opening Settings > General. Then, check the Show Timestamps option. Alternatively, introduce tags and use the Filter feature. Advanced analysis Finding coding errors is but part of the game. As applications become more complex, memory, performance and network consumption problems arise. Chrome assists you in addressing these problems, thanks to a complete set of advanced analysis features for tracking down performance problems. The browser provides analysers not dissimilar to profilers found in embedded operating systems. For example, the memory analyser provides an overview of which part of your code allocates memory. This information enables targeted optimisations; ‘hacking away’ at code tends to be unproductive. Opening the Performance tab lets you slow down both Network and CPU – this way, your workstation simulates slower computers. Combine this with the time-consumption analysis shown in the figure accompanying this step to get a 360-degree view of application performance. There's plenty more to learn about this subject, and this overview provides an excellent introduction to advanced debugging functionalities. Next page: Get started with Material Design Google’s Material Design was initially seen as another tiresome redesign of the GUI stack. But, as time went by, users started to embrace the typography-centric design approach. Technologies like Progressive Web Apps required the presence of a JavaScript version. Given that JavaScript GUI stacks are pretty common, Google did not face a difficult task. The favourite way to include Material Design components involves npm. It’s not easy, though, which is why we’re starting out with a simple example. 01. Get started Test framework functionality by adding a button to the body of the page: Material Design components behave like most other JavaScript GUI stacks. Developers add widgets to the page, CSS classes ensure the decoration gets deployed. Finally, a JavaScript invocation enforces the attachment of event handlers. 02. Go full frame Experienced developers only need one look at mdc.ripple.MDCRipple to see the source of the problem. The JavaScript and CSS files we included come out of a complex project. The sanest way involves loading the entire framework to your machine. First of all, obtain the toolchain and deploy it into a Node project: The actual deployment of our modules takes place via WebPack. Open Package.json and add the following markup to set up the workflow: WebPack controls itself via a file called webpack.config.js. Create it in the folder containing package.json – a full installation managing all features looks like this: WebPack compile processes fail if missing input resources are detected [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] WebPack transforms code by chasing it through a sequence of processors, each of which can take one or more parameters. In our case, both CSS and JavaScript items are to be processed. In theory, the WebPack stack is ready to run at this point – sadly, the compile process will fail due to missing input resources, as shown in the image above. 03. Add components Now the main workflow is set up, we can add the individual components needed to create our app. We want to build a small resistor calculator, which requires the loading of a group of widgets: Google ‘beautifies’ the situation by breaking the framework into hundreds of packages. In the case of our text box, for example, multiple sub-elements need to be present. Sadly, the documentation does not tell you about this (see image below). Click the icon in the top right to enlarge In the next step, create the two ‘containers’, which act as inputs to the WebPack stack outlined above: Finally, a dry run can take place. WebPack should now report that the compile process worked out: 04. Add widgets WebPack eliminates ‘unneeded’ parts from the compiled output. Adding widgets starts out in app.scss, which must now look like this: In principle, we need one include for each component our program plans to load. As both textbox and button come with a few colleagues, we need a total of four lines worth of includes. The ripple effect used before is even more complex – we will omit it for now. Next, touch a file named index.html. It acts as the main entry point and must load the various script files emitted by the WebPack process: Finally, create a file called app.js. At this point, re-enter npm run to verify that the configuration still works. WebPack emits an URL similar to http://localhost:8080. The packaged results can be downloaded via a server living in npm. Don’t forget, though, to restart the server after changing files, since WebPack does not pick up changes. 05. Create widgets Now the server is running, return to index.html and replace the Hello World message with a bit of markup: Just like in the case of our button, a text box also consists of a group of attributes. One of them displays a hint with information about what to enter, while the other one supports animation. However, getting animations to work requires a change in app.js: This snippet of code is interesting since it targets all three text boxes in one swipe – Google designed the API to sweep over entire CSS selectors in one go. At this point, our program is ready to run – it will present itself like the figure. Finalising our little resistor calculator requires you to add JavaScript event listeners. After all, MDC components are but fancy HTML5 ones… Our widgets are ready to receive input [click the icon in the top right to enlarge] Integrating Material Design widgets into your application definitely takes a bit of work. But, the rewards are substantial and definitely worth the time. This is only the beginning. Be sure to check out the Material Design site for more tutorials, repos and information on what is available, as well as what can be done. Material Design tools and resources Material Theme Editor Should you find yourself working on a Mac, take Theme Editor for a spin. This small but nifty program creates customised colour palettes, which you can use to change the look and feel of various Material Design-based systems. Icons Material Design differs from Metro in that it also allows for the use of small symbols. Google provides developers with ample choice – simply visit the URL to pick icons until your heart’s content. Color Tool This tool allows users to create, share, and apply colour palettes to a UI. Plus, it measures the accessibility level of any colour combination that you decide to put together. Next page: Get to grips with Progressive Web Apps The web design industry moves in cycles. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are big news. Here are a few resources to guide you through them. The PWA checklist Load ‘smoothly’ Native apps were lauded for their swift and nimble response to user input. Use single-page applications and status bars to replicate this experience on your PWA. Provide metadata Users can (and should) add PWAs to their devices’ start screens. This requires the presence of a metadata file, whose contents regulate the presentation of content. Allow deep links PWAs differ from native apps due to their more expanded ‘social’ features. One neat aspect involves ‘deep links’, which enable users to share parts of the application with friends and colleagues. Analyse with LightHouse Space constraints prevent us from providing a complete list of all PWA to-do items. LightHouse automates the checklists for you. It happily runs from the shell, from Node.js or from the Chrome Developer Tools. Use HTTPs Ideally pwas must be served over HTTPS. This prevents annoying man-in-the- middle attacks, which happen frequently on public Wi-Fi networks. What about AMP? AMPs – short for Accelerated Mobile Pages – is a completely different technology with a similar set of goals. While PWAs create rich user experiences, an AMP is a snippet of JavaScript-based content intended to show up in search results. In principle, AMPs live off a subset of HTML, which contains expansions intended to accelerate rendering. For example, an AMP image contains additional properties. They let the rendering process complete before the actual image file is available. JavaScript is run by a dedicated library enforcing multithreading in a fashion not dissimilar to the one seen on the Metro platform. Finally, an optional CDN caching system by Google ensures that content gets delivered with minimal delay. Implementing AMPs does bring benefits in mobile search rankings – if your site is SEO-dependant, investing some effort might pay off. What is Firebase? While providing storage, initially, is not a problem, fast website growth usually leads to scaling problems. Fortunately, deploying Google’s Firebase storage service is a quick way to work around the problem. In addition, Google also provides market-leading authentication, cloud messaging and real-time data management solutions. Deploying Google’s authentication service is beneficial in that it unburdens end users: instead of having to remember multiple user accounts for each site, a Google or Facebook account can be used in a cross-service fashion. Google can also take care of phone number verification and similar problems for a modest fee. The well-known cloud messaging feature should not be new to Android-experienced developers: the API can also be accessed from the web, thereby providing a degree of feature parity to PWAs. Getting started with Firebase in JavaScript is not difficult – this article shows you how to add Firebase to your JS project. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 281 or subscribe. Read more: Google launches free drawing app 17 top tools in Google Analytics Build cross-platform mobile apps with Google's Flutter View the full article

You're reading How to Import HTML Email Template from Postcards to Convertkit (YouTube Tutorial), originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Welcome to a new video tutorial where we’ll learn about how to upload a customized email newsletter to Convertkit. In this tutorial, we’ll use Postcards to build a customized email template and Convertkit to send an email to subscribers. View the full article

If you're an artist or illustrator knee-deep in client work, it's common to dream of that magical day when you'll have the time and energy to just draw for fun again. But funnily enough, when that day swings around, it's equally common to be faced with a blank sheet of paper and no clue what to actually draw. To help you out with some drawing ideas, we spoke to a professional artists and illustrators, and asked them what they draw to relax, to practise and to stretch their creative muscles. We hope their suggestions will inspire you to forge your own drawing rituals, and reboot your creative mojo. But if none of the suggestions here spark your creativity, be sure to check out our inspirational list of how to draw tutorials. Right, sketchbooks at the ready! 01. Eyes Chris McFall likes to draw eyes as a way of warming up When artist and animator Chris McFall wants to get his creative juices flowing, he has a go-to drawing idea: eyes. Lots of eyes. "Then swirly bits. Then more eyes," he explains. "Essentially I’m just warming up, and getting used to the pen and paper’s absorbency, or the computer brush’s qualities. It’s a mark-making exercise, like a singer doing scales." But why eyes specifically? "They’re just very expressive, and can be drawn in many styles, so you can employ lots of techniques," he reasons. "Also, they sit well at the centre of a mass of swirls cross hatches and scribbles." It’s a ritual he’s employed successfully throughout his creative career. “I used to draw on the back of till receipts when I worked in Tesco,” he recalls, “so maybe it’s a habit from then.” Want to follow McFall's lead? Take a look at this expert video tutorial on how to draw eyes. 02. Geometric blocks Drawing geometric blocks is like "yoga for the mind", says James OConnell “I love drawing geometric blocks, stacked in numerous ways and perspectives,” says creative director James Oconnell. “It might sound strange, but it tends to stop me thinking about everything I've seen over the past few hours and allows me to think fresh thoughts when approaching new briefs.” The idea came to him a year ago, he says. “I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed with workload and needed something to drive my attention elsewhere. I sat at an empty pad and started drawing shape after shape, ultimately ending with cubes. 20 sketching tips to help you make your first marks “The process managed to eradicate the busy feeling and make me think more clearly,” he continues. “And the best part is, I can decide how much time I want to give it. It's like yoga for the mind. “I always have a pen and pad at hand so can draw anywhere; both analogue and on the iPad. I always stumble across previous scribbles in my pad and they're a nice reminder to take personal time every now and again.” 03. Faces Olly Lawson likes to challenge himself by drawing a range of faces Concept artist and illustrator Olly Lawson shares the same drawing idea as many other artists, which is sketching faces. “It's usually heads of different physiognomies,” says Lawson, who typically works on his iPad using Procreate. “I try to think of interesting variations, rather than drawing the same faces too often. This feels like a practice that has endless possibilities and fascination for me, especially when drawing faces from characters in a story I'm reading.” He usually draws from reference. “So it's a case of finding or shooting references that look interesting and different to the generic head I might otherwise draw,” he explains. “Saying that, I do try to use the reference only vaguely; taking a chin from here, a nose from there. The fun for me is always in the challenge, so I never like to draw things I'm too comfortable with already.” The key to drawing faces, he believes lies in “understanding the underlying skeleton and how it can vary, and knowing how the muscles build upon that. Without that solid foundation underneath, your faces or figures can quickly become ‘uncanny’. You can learn this through good figure drawing textbooks like Drawing Heads and Hands by Andrew Loomis, or the Anatomy4Sculptors books.” 04. Diner still-life James Gurney takes advantage of the time he spends waiting for his food "When you're eating out, the time you spend waiting for your food is a great opportunity to get creative," says artist and best-selling author James Gurney. “Diner still life is my favourite thing to draw to get my mojo on,” he says. “With the variety of surfaces, such as chrome, glass and paper, it has all sorts of reflective and refractive qualities, which transfer to my imaginative work. Plus I'm working with a time limit, as it only takes them 15 minutes to bring the scrambled eggs.” This involves a combination of drawing and painting in a Pentalic watercolour sketchbook. “I start with water-soluble coloured pencils, and add washes of watercolour and gouache, often with a limited palette. I generally add final accents and written notes with a fountain pen filled with brown ink, and sometimes I come back into it with the coloured pencils, or even chalk. “With the matte surface of gouache, you can draw over it and get the best of all worlds,” he continues. “This combination of tools allows the linear marks that the pencils can provide, as well as the accurate values and light effects that you can get with paint. Also, unlike oils, this technique is unobtrusive, has no odour, is small enough to fit on a diner table, and is fast.” 05. Flowers and grass Nature lover Kate Farley finds fun in sketching flowers and grass Printmaker and pattern designer Kate Farley likes to unwind by drawing flowers and grass. “It keeps the hand and eyes ticking over, with no pressure to use the drawings commercially if I don't want to,” she explains. “Plus it’s an excuse to buy myself flowers! “I think of myself as a nature-lover and gardener so it’s a subject I relate to,” she continues. “I’ll use a variety of pencils, in terms of both hardness and size.” And her advice for anyone with the same drawing ideas as her is as follows. “Think of drawing as getting to know someone," she recommends. "Ask polite, broad questions first to get to know them; quick sketches. Over time you get more involved and know it more so you can get more detail: longer complex studies.” 06. Passers-by Each time you walk down the street, you’re presented with dozens of potential drawing ideas. So why not take advantage? That’s just what art director and illustrator Mademoiselle Camille does. “Sometimes I see people whose face or clothing style I’d like to remember, so I draw them,” she explains. “I have a real fascination for portraits and smiling people, which is visible in my work. And so sketching them is a way for me both to practise my art skills, and to draw on the people as an inspiration for later. “I have a good memory, so it’s pretty easy,” continues Camille, who sketches with pencils, colour pencils, and sometimes a ballpoint pen and coloured paper. “I pay a lot of attention to detail, although sometimes in a drawing you don’t need everything to be precisely detailed: just an accessory or object can be enough.” 07. Life models Judith Mayer loves the challenge of life drawing Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned professional, nothing beats a good session of life drawing to reinvigorate your understanding of the fundamentals and reboot your love of art. “When I have time, there are several drop-in figure drawing sessions here in Chicago,” says lettering artist and illustrator Judith Mayer. “Grotesque Burlesque is a good one I have attended. For $15-20, you get several hours with a live model in timed poses, from two minutes to 45 minutes. It takes me right back to figure drawing classes in college. “I love drawing likenesses and figures for the challenge of it,” she explains. “You know right away if a person isn't recognisable or the proportion is off, and then you have to figure out how to make it right. And drawing in a group, either in a room or online, changes the solitary experience of being an artist into a more social one.” 08. Red carpet looks Niki Groom's sketch of Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh wearing Versace and Ralph & Rosso at the Golden Globes When fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle illustrator Niki Groom (aka Miss Magpie) wants to draw for fun, she has a very specific go-to drawing idea. “I LOVE to do quick response fashion illustrations of red carpet looks,” she enthuses. “I rarely get commissioned for this type of work but I enjoy it, and it’s a great warm-up. I see them on Instagram and then illustrate them, either immediately or within a couple of days.” The media she uses will depend mostly on what client work she’s currently immersed in. “If I’ve done loads of detailed pen work, as I have done recently, then I’ll use a paintbrush and ink. If I’ve been doing lots of painting then I’ll use marker pens.” She’ll usually spend anything from 10 minutes to 45 minutes on these sketches. “I just do it because I almost need to get it out of my system,” she stresses. “There’s no strategy behind it, it’s just a love of clothing and fashion. It’s a scratch I have to itch, and a good way of having a rest from what’s been my day-to-day. I’d recommend to others to do work that they are passionate about, rather than doing something for a social media high.” 09. Fan art Zelda fan art by Genzoman Gonzalo Ordoñez (aka Genzoman) is an artist working for the games industry on big-name titles. But a constant diet of corporate work isn’t ideal, so he likes to break things up with fan art. “Between projects, I usually take a break to draw my own things,” he explains. “One of my favourite subjects is a character from a movie, video game or comic, or whatever has captured my attention; either by design (because I like the universe) or simply because I like the character. “Many people see fan art as a waste of time,” he says. “But it helps me to practise my style, helping me to understand how to adapt it to other IPs, or to find an unusual twist on it, such as if a character is technological, retro-steampunk, or so on.” 10. Community suggestions A sampling of the faces Judith Mayer drew for a 30-day challenge set by Sktchy Still stuck for drawing ideas? Why not exploit the collective imagination of the numerous creative groups across the web? “If I can't think of what to draw. I'll head to a prompt list online,” says Judith Mayer. “There's the popular #inktober list every October, for example. “#Folktaleweek is another online challenge. Plus this year the illustration collective I'm in, @CrushIllustration, decided we wanted to create our own October prompt list, and shared it on Instagram as #crushtober. Having everyone draw along with you is fun and motivational. “Because I like to draw likenesses," she adds, "I've also used the free app Sktchy on my iPhone, where people upload photos of themselves hoping an artist will draw them. It’s great for practising portrait drawing. They offer inexpensive classes for daily drawing too.” Concept artist Jourdan Tuffan takes a similar approach in leaning on the web to provide inspiration. "If I'm at a loss of what to draw, I usually resort to browsing Pinterest," he says. "The assortment of different subject matters and cool ideas usually give me enough fuel to spark an idea in my brain." Given the nature of his work, architecture is the subject matter he usually defaults to. "But I have been doing quite a lot of face studies in a bid to improve on my anatomy skills," he adds. "It's good to keep a 'To Draw' and a 'To Learn' list handy as well, to serve as a helpful reminder of what to do next, and spend less time thinking, and more time drawing." Read more: Drawing games: 15 apps to help spark your creativity The best pencils for colouring, drawing and sketching Pencil drawing techniques: 7 tips to improve your skills View the full article

Adobe Illustrator has had a good run of basically owning the vector market, but increasingly it's having to fight its corner against newcomers that offer equally strong tools at more attractive prices. Affinity Designer delivered that vital first shot across Illustrator's bows, and now there's a new contender that could become the go-to choice for anyone wanting to create impressive vector art – at least, as long as they have a Mac. Amadine is the latest vector app to have a pop at Illustrator Amadine is a new graphic design tool from Ukraine-based developer BeLight Software. The app is aimed both at design professionals and creative amateurs, and features a set of vector drawing tools put together with user-friendliness and quality results in mind. Affinity Designer for iPad review If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the volume of tools on offer in other vector apps, Amadine is likely to be a welcome alternative; BeLight has created its tool set to give you essential functionality without anything superfluous getting in the way. It features a high-end Pen tool for creating smooth, precise curves, with multiple stroke effects and plenty of modifiers to help you get each line looking exactly the way you want it, as well as a Draw tool that combines the best of a brush and freehand pencil tool. BeLight has designed Amadine to provide plenty of functionality without a steep learning curve Amadine's Width tool enables you to draw with an intuitive variable stroke without the need to define its width manually, and when it comes to colouring your work it has fills and overlapping gradients with loads of hue options. It also has a set of text tools for that all-important lettering and typography, and for those final touches there are plenty of effects for stylising your work, so you can bring everything to life with inner and outer glows, shadows and blurs. The beta version of Amadine is available to download now If we've piqued your interest, the good news is that you can give Amadine a test drive right now for free. The beta version was released for Mac last week; BeLight says that it's also working on an iOS version, so keep an eye out for that. Related articles: 5 huge illustration trends for 2019 30 top vector art tutorials The 23 best places to find free vector art online View the full article

OFFF Barcelona is back. The 19th edition of OFFF Barcelona will kick off on Thursday 25 April and finish on Saturday 27 April. It's being hosted at the Museu del Disseny (The Design Museum of Barcelona) on Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes. Early bird tickets are all sold out, but the regular passes are very reasonable: a three-day ticket will set you back just under €200 (buy OFFF Barcelona 2019 tickets here). Organisers are still releasing details, but what we have confirmed so far sounds exactly as excellent as we'd expect from the long-running design festival. Bienal is the studio behind OFFF Barcelona's visual campaign Mexican branding and communications studio Bienal has been charged with creating OFFF Barcelona 2019's visual campaign. This year, the theme is 'the OFFFTERLIFE' – because, after OFFF, nothing is the same. The campaign will explore the battle between technology and human connection. Read on for four exciting things that await you in the OFFFTERLIFE... 01. Awesome speakers Learn how Conrad Roset and Nomada Studio created the most beautiful video game ever There are still plenty of surprises to follow, but there are some speaker details we're very excited about (full details here). Conrad Roset and Nomada Studio will be talking about how they created the beautiful, record-breaking video game GRIS; James Victore will return to OFFF to share insights from his new book Feck Perfuction; and Google's top senior product designer and UX engineers will be lifting the lid on the search giant's design secrets. There will also be a brand new documentary on legendary designer Dieter Rams premiering at the event, which asks why, at 86 years old, does he now regret being a designer? 02. The very best opening titles OFFF is known for putting a lot of effort to create jaw-droppingly good opening and closing titles – if you're after proof, check out Future Deluxe's OFFF London 2017 titles above. At OFFF Barcelona 2019, award-winning visual effects and content creation studio The Mill’s creative offering Mill+ is in the driving seat, putting together the official film with director Ilya Abulkhanov. We can't wait to see what they come up with. 03. Workshops to boost your skills To really make the most of the OFFF experience, it's worth taking a look at the workshops that will be running alongside the main talks. The year there are three on offer: a curated networking event aimed at 'drinkers with a drawing problem'; an in-depth look at how to create an original audio project; and techniques for creating a papercraft masterpiece. These workshops cost extra, but they offer a great chance to network and pick up new skills at the same time. 04. A closer look at OFFF's new-look branding This festival will be the first to use OFFF's new-look branding, created by CROWD studio and released after the 2018 event. The designers behind the scheme will be sharing insights into the project in Barcelona, but in the meantime you can get a taster by watching the video above or checking out the Behance case study. Read more: 76 best free fonts for designers What does OFFF really mean? 15 essential tools for graphic designers in 2019 View the full article

To celebrate the debut of Conan O'Brien's new 30-minute late-night show on TBS, the Pantone Color Institute has worked with Team Coco (a brand name owned by Conan O'Brien's production company) to create a unique colour that defines the legendary comedian, writer and television host. But how do you capture the essence of one of America's longest-working late-night talk show hosts – the comedic genius who has worked on Saturday Night Live, and wrote the monorail song in The Simpsons? Naturally, there's only one colour that could sum him up. Team Coco Orange is described as an "affable, warm-hearted orange tone", one that "encourages conviviality and social interaction". As you may have also noticed, it's a pretty close colour match to the comedian's famous hair as well. How to master colour theory Check out how Team Coco worked with Pantone Color Institute in the video below, where Conan O'Brien explains with his typical deadpan wit the secret ingredients that went into making the distinctive orange colour (spoiler: it involves banana peel). Team Coco Orange is set to appear in artistic displays in New York up until 22 January. These displays include street art installations, buses decked out in the unmissable colour, and illuminated billboard advertisements for the new series. It will also be the foundation colour for Team Coco's branding going forward. Related articles: If celebrities were Pantone colours Discover your 2019 Pantone with this quiz Pantone announces its Color of the Year 2019 View the full article

A great online portfolio is crucial for creatives of all skill levels. If you’re just starting out in the industry or a student, you can’t afford to put your portfolio off; you need to be ready to leverage crucial opportunities. And if you’re already an established designer, it’s just as important to maintain a fresh online presence. Trouble is, setting up and maintaining an online portfolio can be a daunting and time-consuming task. But it doesn’t have to be, and you don’t need to be a coding expert either. Format is a portfolio platform designed specifically to help creatives set up a professional online presence in minutes. An easy-to-use website builder, Format will make setting your portfolio up a cinch, showcasing your work in all its glory with one of its beautiful themes. And if that wasn’t enough, Format is also armed with integrated business features, including commerce, client proofing, marketing, and blogging tools, to help support you at every stage of your creative career. Read on for how to create a professional, easy-to-navigate online portfolio in five simple steps. Step 01. Choose a theme The first thing you need to decide when creating your online portfolio is how you want it to look. Format has a variety of carefully-crafted themes to cater to your specific needs and design discipline. Layouts include: Horizontal scrolling Fullscreen slideshow Thumbnails Vertical scrolling Slideshow And remember, nothing is forever. If you decide at a later date that you don’t like the theme you’ve picked, you can easily choose another. Simply select your theme of choice, go to the dashboard and here’s where the fun starts: customising your portfolio. Step 02. Pick a colour, any colour And a font too while you’re there. Now you’ve decided on a theme, it’s time to get creative with your design elements. Use the ‘Design’ tab to experiment with the look of your site, tweaking the overall theme, for example. The ‘General’ tab is where you can really inject some personality into your portfolio design. Fonts, colours, images, logos, you can customise them all, making for a truly personalised portfolio. Step 03. Add a gallery The purpose of a portfolio is to showcase your best work, and what better way to greet people than with a gallery that has it all. Think of it as a showreel for visitors to your site, a way to grab their attention and immediately give them the right impression about who you are as an individual and an artist. The hardest part of this step is choosing what work to include. Setting it up with Format is the easy bit; simply choose ‘Gallery’ from the ‘Create New’ tab, upload your images and add captions (if you choose) and voila! Step 04. Create an 'About' page Aside from showcasing your work, the ‘About’ section is the second most important page in your portfolio. Once you’ve impressed with your creative talents, the next thing visitors will want to know is who you are and how to get hold of you. You’d be surprised by how many opportunities are lost due to portfolios missing vital information. Don’t be the one who loses out – under ‘Create New, select ‘Custom Pages’ and pick/customise one of the About page templates at your disposal. Here you can take some time to add some information about who you are, what you do and the best way for people to get in touch with you. Add your favourite mugshot too, it can go a long way to making things more personal. You could even be brave and lead with a super-sized eye-catching image to introduce yourself, as demonstrated by Anton and Irene above. Step 05. Sync with social media Love it or hate it, social media provides a number of handy platforms to help get your work seen and build an online following. With Format, you can add up to five icons linking visitors to your social media accounts. Located under the ‘Social’ tab, simply select the platforms you wish to use, be that a Facebook page, Instagram account or Twitter feed so visitors to your site can access them quickly and easily. And that’s it, one professional portfolio set up and ready to go! Want to get started on your own portfolio? Sign up to Format here for a 14-day, no obligation free trial. View the full article

We now design in a world with an abundance of tools that can fit almost every design process and meet your creative requirements. There truly is a solution out there for everyone and the possibilities are incredible. It's such a great time to explore new tools and see what's available to design and showcase your projects. The big challenge is which ones should you use? Over the last few years, the combination of Sketch and InVision has been a popular choice for many designers, but other tools have offered competitive features and options. There has never been a better selection of prototyping and wireframe tools out there, so we thought it was a good time to have a closer look at some of the best. Top UI trends for 2019 Wireframing 01. MockFlow MockFlow enables you to build basic layouts quickly MockFlow is a suite of applications that are very helpful for a number of tasks in the typical project process. Primarily, the WireframePro app is a good alternative prototyping tool for you to use, especially if you're testing out some new ideas. If you just need to create wireframes, then take a look at MockFlow. It's great for working on initial ideas and enables you to build basic layouts quickly, which is sometimes all you need to get thoughts into a presentable form. 02. Balsamiq Balsamiq's drag-and-drop elements make life easier If rapid wireframing is what you're looking for, then Balsamiq is a strong suggestion. You can quickly develop structure and layouts for your projects with ease. The drag-and-drop elements make life easier and you can link buttons to other pages. This means you can quickly start to plan your interfaces and then share them with your team or clients. 03. Axure Axure's a great tool got more complex projects Axure has always been one of the best wireframing tools on the market and is great for more complex projects that require dynamic data. With Axure, you can really focus on mocking up projects that are more technical and require extra attention when it comes to structure and data. 04. Adobe Comp If you want to wireframe on the go then Comp is a must Adobe Comp is a nice addition for those that find themselves creating and conceptualising on the go. Got a tablet with a smart pencil? This will be worth the download just in case inspiration strikes for developing a new concept for a layout when you are away from your main workspace. Get Adobe Creative Cloud UI design and prototyping 05. Sketch Sketch is the go-to choice for loads of designers Sketch is a very popular tool within the design community that enables you to create hi-fi interfaces and prototypes. One of the great features is Symbols, where you can design UI assets and elements for reuse. This helps create design systems and keep your interfaces consistent. From there, you can easily export your design into a clickable prototype. If you are an InVision user, make sure you check out the Craft plugin. 06. InVision Studio With InVision Studio you can create a responsive design on a single artboard Many UI designers' dreams are about to come true with InVision Studio. Still in its early release, this tool will help you create beautiful interactive interfaces with a bucket load of features. You can create custom animations and transitions from a number of gestures and interactions. To top that, you can stop thinking about creating numerous artboards for multiple devices because responsive design can be achieved within a single artboard. This saves loads of time, so you can think of more ideas. 07. Proto.io Proto.io can take you from rough sketch to lifelike prototype Proto.io is an incredible contender for creating lifelike prototypes from rough ideas right through to fully fledged designs. The tool also provides a lot of possibilities for your projects, including detailed animations and custom vector animations too. You can start by developing initial ideas with a hand-drawn style, then work them into wireframes and finish off with a high-fidelity prototype. The Sketch and Photoshop plugins really help if you want to design using other tools but Proto.io does handle the end-to-end design process well. Other features like user testing will also help validate your designs. This is an all-in-one place solution with a great number of trusted brands already using it. 08. Adobe XD XD's a good option if you're locked into an Adobe workflow Adobe XD offers the best environment for digital projects under the Adobe Creative Cloud collection of design tools. If you're a keen Adobe user and new to XD, you may not find the interface very Adobe-like to begin with – it is a jump if you've been designing in Photoshop for a while. But it does stack up to the other leading tools out there, and is worth it if you are a big Adobe fan. 09. Marvel Building pages with Marvel is sublimely straightforward Marvel is another prototyping tool that's a great choice when it comes to producing quick ideas and refining an interface. As with many of the other applications of this type, Marvel offers a really neat way of building pages and enables you to simulate your design through a prototype. There are some wonderful integrations with Marvel, which means you can insert your designs into your project workflow. 10. Figma Figma enables you to quickly compose and design interfaces. The Figma platform prides itself on being a collaborative design tool whereby multiple users can work simultaneously on a project – this is very effective when you have multiple stakeholders in a project that are involved in shaping the outcome. This is the kind of tool that would be ideal if you have a live project where a developer, copywriter and designer, for example, need to work on something at the same time. 11. Framer X If you're using React, then Framer X works brilliantly alongside it Framer X is a really exciting new design tool that is certainly worth a look for experienced UI designers who want more from their tools. Prototyping and creating interactions is really easy. If you're a big React fan, then look no further as you can design and code in sync. Besides being a great tool, there's a strong community of designers behind Framer X offering UI assets and kits. 12. Flinto Flinto is a nice and simple design tool that enables you to create unique interactions within your designs. You can utilise a number of gestures and create easy transitions by designing the before and after states. Flinto simply works out the differences and then animates for you. 13. Principle Principle is perfect for building great-looking animated interactions Interaction design is what Principle excels at, especially when it comes to mobile applications. Tweaking and getting animated interactions just right is a breeze with Principle. You can look at individual assets and how they independently animate, right down to timings and easing. 14. Atomic Atomic is another interactive design tool but what sets it apart is the ability to create form elements that you can actually type into. There is also a useful feature that enables you to import data and populate your designs. This really saves some time! 15. UXPin For larger projects and design systems, UXPin's a top solution Described as the 'end-to-end' UX platform, UXPin is essentially another design tool but with a powerful ability to create design systems. UXPin serves larger design teams that need to work off the same styles and guides, saving time with product development when collaboration plays a large part. 16. ProtoPie This tool enables you to create quite complex interactions and get pretty close to how you would want your design to work. Perhaps the most standout feature is the ability to control the sensors of smart devices in your prototype, such as tilt, sound, compass and 3D Touch sensors. Depending on your project, this is a great tool for encompassing native app features. It's easy as pie with no code required. 17. Justinmind Justinmind integrates nicely with Photoshop and Sketch This tool helps with prototyping and integrating with other tools like Sketch and Photoshop. You can choose your interactions and gestures to help put your prototype together. It also contains UI kits, enabling you to put together screens quickly. 18. Origami Studio Origami's packed with useful features such as custom rules and logic for interactions Given Origami Studio is built and used by designers at Facebook, you might assume this must be a great tool. And you'd be right. There's a wonderful amount of features with Origami, including adding rules and logic to your interactions. How many times have you wanted a button to display or behave differently because of something else? There's an opportunity to create a true-to-form prototype with Origami, but it is very technical and requires some learning. This tool is perfect for developers and designers working together. 19. Fluid Fluid's good and intuitive, and comes with some excellent UI assets Fluid is an intuitive tool to build rapid prototypes and work up designs. It packs some nice assets out of the box to get you going with rapid prototypes and, once you've upgraded, it's easy to assemble your own symbols with your preferred UI assets. Hand-offs 20. Zeplin Zeplin is not necessarily a prototyping tool, but it very much fits in that post-design and pre-development stage alongside prototyping. It enables you to take your design and prototypes, hand them over to developers and make sure that your ideas are executed well. You can upload your Sketch, Photoshop, XD and Figma files to Zeplin and it will create an environment for developers and designers to hand over the project, without the tedious task of creating guidelines. However, it's worth making sure that you need it first. This article was originally published in issue 313 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 313 here or subscribe here. Related articles: 6 trends that are changing the face of mobile UI design The pro's guide to UI design Create slick UI animations View the full article

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