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Beer branding is a hugely competitive sector, and achieving shelf stand-out in this area is no mean feat. The surge of small-scale craft producers shows no sign of waning, and these new breweries are keeping the big global brands on their toes. In an attempt to stay fresh and relevant, many of the biggest household names have enjoyed major rebrands in recent years, often emphasising the richness of their heritage in their respective countries to differentiate them further from these young pretenders. With this in mind, read on to discover four of the world's best logos for beer brands, which have all enjoyed recent rebrands to reawaken their heritage, plus why they're so successful... 01. Carlsberg Taxi Studio reworked all Carlsberg's key brand assets, including the logo, hop leaf, crown and signature of JC Jacobsen Launched September 2018, Taxi Studio's overhaul of Carlsberg, one of Denmark's best-loved brands, is designed with timelessness in mind – with a pared-back confidence that balances form and function in trademark Danish style. After extensive research into Carlsberg's 171-year heritage, Taxi found countless subtly different iterations of Thorvald Bindesbøll's original logo had been employed over the years. Drawing on 2.5km of archives, the agency worked closely with lettering specialist Tom Lane to craft a new logo that remains faithful to the brand's heritage, while being timeless enough to be fit-for-purpose in the long-term. While it retains the brand DNA of its predecessor, the new logo is more streamlined and elegant, and the various other brand assets – including the crown, hop leaf and signature of Carlsberg founder JC Jacobsen – were painstakingly re-crafted too. This included the shape and placement of the swoosh beneath the logo, which was reworked so that typography could be locked up beneath the logo for the first time in its history, enabling the branding system to work effectively across all of Carlsberg's many global variants. Sustainability was a key part of the brief, and in a market where rebrands often ride the waves of design trends and are obsolete within a few years, Taxi created a distinctively Danish aesthetic that's designed to last. 02. Budweiser JKR New York redrew Budweiser's original 1860 script logo, as well as hand-crafting the brand's other key assets Budweiser enjoyed a major global rebrand from JKR New York in 2016 that celebrated the quintessentially American beer's heritage, and reinforced it as a US icon. Every detail was hand-crafted: while the distinctive 'bow tie' logo was retained, JKR pared back to its purest red-and-white form, flattening it down and removing the gold detailing and 3D shadow effects. The original script logo from 1860 was carefully redrawn for timeless appeal, and is incorporated on cans and bottles (such as those above) in a simple navy blue form, accompanied by a crest and earnest written manifesto at the top of the label, an approach that evokes the spirit of the 19th century. Channelling the message that the beer is ‘brewed the hard way’, this includes the promise: "We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age, [resulting in] a taste, a smoothness and a drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price." In 2016, limited-edition bottles and posters also featured the Statue of Liberty, as well as American Olympians and Paralympians from that year's Summer Games, to emphasise the beer's American credentials – and this proud association with its country of origin remains front-and-centre in Budweiser's branding. 03. Guinness The Guinness rebrand celebrates its heritage in an authentic way Another much-discussed 2016 project, Design Bridge's Guinness rebrand centres around an intricately detailed harp, and like the previous two examples, celebrates heritage and craftsmanship in a genuinely authentic way. Over the course of the brand's 250-year history, the Guinness harp had lost its depth and character, and Design Bridge set about breathing new life into the emblem. Historical letterpress labels found in the archives, making reference to Dublin's River Liffey, provided a useful starting point, as did industrial and architectural features of the Guinness Storehouse itself. Guinness' new identity is packed with heritage details, including wavy lines evocative of the Liffey, hand-drawn type inspired by the original labels, and metal-stamped lettering from inside the brewery. Design Bridge also collaborated with letterpress specialists to create a three-dimensional relief of the harp, adding an extra layer of richness to the rebrand. 04. Miller Lite Turner Duckworth's heritage rebrand of Miller Lite included special edition cans, such as this one for SXSW 2015 Miller Lite is the USA's third-largest beer brand, and has the claim to fame of inventing 'light beer' back in 1975. Following a dramatic decline in sales in the face of increasing competition, MillerCoors brought Turner Duckworth on board to for a radical rebrand, in a bid to attract new drinkers. The existing packaging didn't live up to the original promise of 'great tasting beer with half the calories', and felt like it was following rather than leading the sector. Inspired by the history of the brand, the agency redesigned its distinctive 1970s packaging in a contemporary way. Custom typography, a new monogram logo and a range of illustrated elements added depth and versatility, ensuring the design was fit for purpose in the modern world. The rebrand was immediately successful, reversing Miller Lite's fortunes and bringing its forgotten heritage to light. Related articles: The best logos of all time 6 best airline logos of all time (and why they work) 10 most-hated logos (and what they teach us) View the full article

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A data breach targeting women's apparel giant SHEIN occurred between June and August 2018. View the full article

When you visit a website that's easy to use, the experience is more enjoyable for you as the user. That's what user interface (UI) design is all about – putting together a webpage's text, images, buttons, and tabs in such a way that it is intuitive to use and nice to look at. Want to get involved in UI design? Check out UI Design With Photoshop: From Beginner To Expert. This course teaches you all about Photoshop and the role it plays in UI. Through 17 chapters and 11.5 hours of content that you can access 24/7, you'll learn basic shortcuts, settings, and tools that are very useful in the UI designer's toolkit. You'll also master light and shadow concepts, as well as pattern and gradient techniques. Best of all, you'll be learning from an award-winning designed, Muhammad Ahsan Pervaiz. Check out UI Design With Photoshop: From Beginner To Expert for just $9.99. Related articles: Create slick UI animations The pro's guide to UI design Build a card-based UI with Foundation View the full article

Malicious apps can trivially thwart Mojave 10.14's new privacy protections. View the full article

Happy with your income? Yes? Well, jolly good, run along and check out some interesting 404 pages or something. For the rest of us, of course, the opportunity to earn a bit – or maybe a lot – more is always welcome, and if you're working on the web then there are plenty of things you can do to boost your income. Whether you want to simply make yourself a better prospect for a pay rise or promotion, or if you'd rather pull in some extra cash directly, there are loads of opportunities out there. We spoke to some experts and figured out the 10 best ways to start bringing in more money. Read on to find out how you could soon be coining it in. 01. JavaScript This might seem like a glaringly obvious place to start but we're kicking off with JavaScript for a good reason: decent JavaScript developers are in surprisingly short supply. If you can demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of vanilla JavaScript then you're immediately on a firm footing to find well-paying work. If you add some of the more popular frameworks to your armoury then you can start earning some serious money. James Huckle, head of technology at Mirum UK, suggests that you can get a long way on just React; however if React is all you know it's really going to limit your usefulness to an employer. "Someone who comes in and can only do React isn't a lot of good because if something goes wrong you've got to have someone with the skills to find out where the defect's coming in," he tells us. And that's where fully-fledged JavaScript developers can really make their mark. 12 common JavaScript questions answered If you set your mind to it, adding JavaScript to your skill set needn't take long. "One of our developers came straight off one of these 12-week boot camps and she's turned out amazing," says Jonathan Bradford from Kota. "There are great courses that you can do for next to nothing and if you get that on your CV then my eyes are going to light up because at the moment I'm dealing with people who only have limited knowledge of HTML, CSS and jQuery." 02. Project management Knowing the best project management tools can be a great help Sometimes you're going to have to step up if you want to maximise your earning potential and if you want more money and new challenges, a move into project management can give you both. Nowadays it's near-impossible to avoid project-management methodologies and it's about a lot more than simply shipping products on time and on budget – agile methodologies can shape the way a project progresses. "You definitely need a smart techie in the room able to organise the work, the crossover between the technical build team and the delivery management team," says James Huckle. "It's about understanding process, how creative crosses over into technology and experience of what those overlaps are, understanding how edge cases occur and how mistakes get made." Top tips for nailing project management "Companies know they need to shift cultures towards being lean, with small multi-disciplinary teams working at a faster rate," adds Kate Taylor client services director at Zone. "So agile project management is something where we're competing with more people and starting to see a better quality in the market than the last few years." 03. UX design "UX is definitely hardest to hire in at the moment," says Zone's Kate Taylor. "The market is so buoyant, it's really tough to get people and UX designers can command a high day rate as freelancers." Which is all well and good if you're a user experience designer, obviously, but even if you're not, the need for good design means that, whatever your job, if you can bring some design sensibilities to the table then you're increasing your value. After all, these days design is everyone's business. New skills in UX design "There are a lot of creative thinkers in all of the other disciplines who are experienced in working alongside clients and who know what good looks like," says Taylor. "The whole obsession we're seeing at the moment with just wanting a UX designer is short-sighted. The market's struggling to deliver enough people and a lot of those skills really do exist elsewhere, so you just have to be a lot more open-minded about how you approach those conversations and how you get to a solution." 04. Flexbox & CSS Grid layouts Add Flexbox or CSS Grid to your skill set to up your income The very nature of the web means that new techniques and technologies are evolving all the time. If you're down with the latest cutting-edge tools then you can be sure that your skills will be in demand – and along with that will come decent remuneration. Right now, the smart money is on flexible layouts and grid-based systems; over the past year they've been fully adopted by the major browsers and the benefits of using them are instantly obvious to anyone who appreciates great-looking responsive web design. So if you're prepared to invest time in figuring out how they work, you'll be adding a vital skill to your CV. Fashion flexible layouts with CSS Grid Should you go with Flexbox or CSS Grid Layout? Almost certainly both: Flexbox is built for layouts in a single dimension, while CSS Grid works with two-dimensional layouts and is therefore much better suited to dealing with more complex designs. With both systems under your belt you'll be able to provide clients with beautiful and sophisticated layouts, whatever their requirements may be. 05. WordPress Building WordPress sites can be a lucrative side income It's easy to overlook WordPress if you're a serious web developer but as a platform it's immensely popular, running 30 per cent of the web from the personal blogs that helped it make its mark, through to heavyweight news and corporate sites. And its benefits for agencies with an eye on the bottom line should be obvious: with an immense library of WordPress themes and plugins available, it's much easier to get a full-featured site up and running fast, as Kota's Jonathan Bradford attests. 40 brilliant WordPress tutorials "Learning WordPress doubled my salary when I was at an agency and I now own a WordPress agency," he tells us. "I used to approach small businesses and charge just under £1,000-£2,000 for a website with SEO. I could build this from a theme in a weekend." As Kota has grown, its relationship with WordPress has become more sophisticated, moving from themes to bespoke JavaScript. "The way WordPress is moving forwards now," says Bradford, "that's all going to be using headless JavaScript on the front end and really separating WordPress on the back end." 06. Testing "Developers don't really see QA as part of their job," says Mirum's James Huckle, and this can be a big problem when it comes to delivering working sites on time. "The definition of 'done' is one of the biggest challenges I have with midweight/junior developers," he continues. "Done is not when you say you've done the feature; done is when you've done it, you've tested it, someone else has tested it and the test has passed." And it's an awareness of the need for testing that makes you more valuable as an individual. "A good developer should know how to write unit tests in their code, so they can at least test their own code is working as per design," he tells us. "I'd expect developers to be able to write functional tests and I'd expect them to understand that it's their responsibility to work with QA to make sure whatever they develop gets into production in a way that is defined as done." 07. Soft skills Tech and design skills are all well and good but, like it or not, for a web business to succeed it needs people who can grease the wheels. The skills we're talking about here are generally referred to as 'soft skills' – the ability to communicate with teams, talk to clients or customers and ensure that projects get delivered on time. "I really hate the name 'soft skills' as it downplays the benefits," says Zone's Kate Taylor. However, even if the name makes it sound a bit fluffy and probably not your problem, the fact is that if you can master the soft skills, you'll become a much more attractive prospect for employers and you'll see many more opportunities to expand your career in different directions. Kate Taylor continues: "We're seeing a much greater requirement for the soft skills that you'd find in client services for candidates across the board." She points out that from a tech and project management perspective, these disciplines are becoming a lot more client-facing, particularly now that agile practices mean that client teams are being injected into projects. When you find yourself working shoulder-to-shoulder with the people paying the bills, an old-fashioned coder mindset won't get you far; agencies need people who know how to network, can build relationships, read the politics and who are strategically minded enough to spot opportunities and bring them to the agency. 08. Facebook Facebook ads can offer better money-making opportunities than Google's When you're all about the code or the design, demands such as marketing and SEO can feel like a bit of an unwelcome distraction. If you want to earn more money, though, they're a sure-fire way of boosting your income and the best place to take advantage of that right now is Facebook. For Jonathan Bradford of Kota, SEO and marketing were his route to escape from an agency job and set up his own studio. And while mastering Google's mysterious SEO algorithms is an obvious solution, Kota has found that Facebook ads represent a much better way to make money. He explains how he set up Facebook ads for Brazilian restaurant chain Presto's new outlet: "We put out an offer via Facebook ads that targeted a mile radius around Chelmsford and we got thousands and thousands of downloads from this advert." Facebook ads are easier to target than Google ads and Facebook's new commitment to transparency is making things even easier. "Soon you'll be able to see competitor ads and you'll be able to see the likes, tags and engagement," says Bradford. "For someone to add that to their skill set if they're working on the digital marketing side, once they've done a few they've got it on their portfolio and they can show you the result." 09. Side projects If you know stuff, share it in a conference talk It's all too easy to focus on the day job but if you want a competitive edge in the jobs market, then a strong portfolio of side projects can really help you stand out. "The people with more value are the people with more skills, more crossover and more collaboration," explains James Huckle. Basically, if you have a lot of skills across the board under your belt then you're a lot more useful – and you can command a bigger salary as a result. Of course, it depends on the side project. Your fledgling web comics might have some social traction but they're probably not going to give you much leverage in your pay negotiations. Rather, think about something like speaking at conferences – whether it's a big-ticket event or a local meetup. If you can do conference talks or even a bit of teaching, this demonstrates that you know your stuff and you have the confidence and communication skills to share your knowledge – a quality that's irresistible to employers. 10. Full-stack development Finally, the big one. The web industry is awash with specialists but to hold it all together there's always demand for multi-talented full-stack developers. In theory, if you're a full-stack developer you're at home at the front or back end. Realistically, though, you're more likely to be focused on one and this can make a big difference to how much you'll earn. Back-end work, with its requirements for heavyweight languages and systems that provide foundations for any site, is more valuable to employers, while the slightly less demanding front-end aspects, while still a vital link in the chain, don't attract the same high rates. Full stack isn't something you drift into; it requires a particular mindset. Kate Ganiukova at Hacker Noon describes the traits as an analytical mind, patience, love for learning, attention to detail, creative vision and discipline, and you'll need all of those to master the full set of skills – and to carry on learning fresh ones. If that's beyond you, it still pays to apply full-stack thinking in your work. As Jonathan Bradford points out: "The kind of developer we would like is someone who has a core mindset, is clever and, if they have a problem with code, by the next morning they'll have figured it out." This article was originally published in issue 309 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 309 here or subscribe here. Related articles: Let's talk about money 8 ways to make more money in 2018 4 money-making ecommerce redesigns to learn from View the full article

If you follow trends, it's hard to miss that VR is going through another revival. It's happened before, but this time it's slightly different because we have more access to powerful computers and graphics cards at home and in our studios. The best VR headsets for 2018 Companies like Facebook (Oculus) and HTC (Vive) have made VR hardware such as the Oculus Rift affordable – presuming you already own a high-end gaming PC. It didn't take long for creatives to start asking what's in it for them, and the call was answered with programs like Google Tilt Brush, Oculus Quill, Masterpiece VR, and the one we'll be using today: Oculus Medium. This article will show how to work up a 3D character design from an existing character sketch. You can, of course, work without the sketches and just free-form sculpt your ideas. Also see the video below to watch the process. Oculus Medium places you into an environment where you can use the touch controllers to spray clay into the air in front of you and then manipulate it into the shapes you need. There's a layering system so you can break the character down into poseable sections, and you can even take it to a painted, finished concept. The tool palette has a range of familiar tools like Move, Inflate, Smooth, Paint, Smudge, Cut and the basic Clay Adding tool. You can also make a shape, turn that into a stamp and then use that as your tool. 01. Use reference sketches Try a few different colours to see what looks best I always try to use good reference in my work. For this workshop I'm using a character sketch of a little creature I've called the Triplop. I sketch the initial design on my iPad, then produce a few different versions to see what works well as a design. I ink it, colour it and then save out a few PNG versions. 02. Bring the references into Medium Save your reference images then pull them into Medium Save the reference images to your Documents Folder (Look for the _import folder). Import the images from the Reference panel to Medium. It's the third button along when you pull down on the thumb stick on the Support Hand. Select the images you need, then in the scene click each one and move it into place. Use the Check button and attach it to your hand. 03. Work with the Mirror feature turned on Use the Mirror feature to save sculpting time To work symmetrically, go into the Control Panel (Yellow Button, Support hand) and choose Mirror. Every action you perform now will be mirrored across the work centre, including adding clay, painting, moving clay around and any deleting that needs to happen. Later on we'll turn Mirror off and place my Triplop into a range of more dynamic poses using the Move tool. 04. Begin defining the body shape Start off by sketching out the torso The character will be built on a few different layers, enabling you to pose it later. The default tool in Medium is the Clay tool and you add clay by pressing the trigger on the Tool hand (your dominant hand). Create a belly and chest area going up to the shoulders. Add in a little tail. 05. Introduce legs Add a new layer for the legs so you can adjust them separately Make a new layer that we can use for the legs. The layer system enables you to adjust parts separately, flip models, and increase and decrease the details level. Using the basic Clay tool, lay down clay for the thigh, calf and a basic foot. Hold the trigger on the support hand to access the Smooth tool and level out the surface as needed. 06. Add arms and hands Add the fingers joint by joint Add a new layer for the arms and add clay down from the shoulder to form the biceps, the elbow and hand. Then create each finger, joint by joint. Using the Smooth tool to get the volumes correct and then switch to the Move tool to tweak the form (push forward on the support hand to access the Tool palette). 07. Lay the foundation of the head component Lay out the head shape then start bringing in details Add a new layer and call it 'Head'. Use the Clay tool to lay down the ball of the head. Add volume for the cheeks, the frill at the back, the beak. Double-tap the gear icon on your Tool Hand and the clay turns red. Make two eye sockets. 08. Refine the shape of the creature's head Use the Smooth, Clay and Move tools to refine the head shape The most important part of the character is the head and facial characteristics, so I spend the most time on this section. Using the Smooth, Clay and Move tools, I make sure that the head reads from all angles and that the mouth and eyes look appealing and friendly. Don't worry about the eye shape until we add the eyes, because it's always easier once a sphere is in the socket. 09. Change the eye material Either use a different material for the eyes or adjust the material settings Create a layer for the eyes and use the gear settings icon to change the material. Try metal if that suits you, but the easiest way is to simply increase the specularity of the material to give a glossy effect. Then reduce the occlusion to reduce shadows. Turn on Mirroring and use the Clay tool to add simple spheres for eyes. 10. Give the creature bright blue eyes Paint the pupil and iris onto the eyeballs Now change to the Paint tool and paint with blue and black to create the pupil and iris. You can change your Clay settings to 'single' rather than continuous; this enables you to stamp down a single sphere rather than spraying constantly. The size of the sphere depends on the size of the brush that you start with. 11. Create teeth and horns Use a Cube tool to add teeth Add a new layer for the teeth and horns. To make the teeth, use a basic Cube tool (click the gear icon on the Tool hand). Draw it onto the character, ensuring it intersects with the upper jaw. Use the Smooth tool to improve the shape and the Move tool if necessary. The horn can be made by spraying the Sphere tool in an arc. 12. Paint the base coat Switch to the Painting tool to add the base coat To lay down the base coat, change to the Painting tool and pick a relevant colour. Apply that to all skin areas. Make the colour a little darker and then paint the recessed areas. Choose a few different colours to match your design and gradually build up the overall look that you're after. 13. Detail the surface Use a very small brush to give the skin surface a mottled effect To add smaller details make the brush very small, then hold your hand quite far back and 'pepper' the surface to generate a mottled effect. Add lighter and darker areas to give good contrast to the skin surface. Check there are no flat-looking areas; if you find some, add in some small details like wrinkles or light patches. 14. Final passes and poses Finish off by finding an engaging pose for your creature To pose the model, duplicate each layer (not the head) and delete either one side or the other. That way you'll end up with two legs, two arms and so on. Now by selecting each individual part you can move the parts around to achieve dynamic poses. If you need to go more extreme, use the Move tool set to a large brush. This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 162 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: 5 tips to improve your VR creations How to sculpt a character in VR 13 tips for making a VR gaming world View the full article

Is your Twitter feed is filling up with unexpected web comics portraying Bowser from Nintendo's Super Mario games as a princess? Are you at a loss as to why? Let us explain. How fan art can get you paid Sometimes the internet can delight us, sometimes it can terrify us, and on occasion it can do both at the same time. This trend definitely ticks the third box. Recently, Nintendo revealed that in the upcoming version of New Super Mario Bros. U for the Nintendo Switch, Toadette would have a special super crown that would transform her into Peachette, a Princess Peach lookalike. Fair enough. But of course this is the internet, and it didn't take long for people to ask, well, would the super crown work on other characters? Like, would it work on Bowser? And so the latest runaway meme storm kicked off. Over the past few days, it seems that everyone has been imagining and drawing their own versions of Bowsette, an unexpectedly sexy princess version of Mario's chelonian arch-enemy. Some might say it's getting out of hand (you can always browse the Twitter hashtag for the full spectrum of artwork on offer). Ignoring the overly pneumatic and lewd examples, though, there's been a lot of cracking fan art on show. Mind you, it's not all over-the-top cleavage shots. Well, okay, it mostly is, but there have been some other fun takes on the concept. Of course, why should Bowsette get all the fun? It was only a matter of time until eager artists started wondering what would happen if other Nintendo characters tried on the mushroom crown. But let's not take this too far, yeah? Related articles: How to create original fan art Nintendo announces animated Mario movie What designers can learn from fan art View the full article

Yesterday the leading name in the weight loss industry, Weight Watchers, revealed a slimmed down rebrand and new logo design that sees its name change to WW. But with the new initials not standing for Weight Watchers or the rebrand's slogan 'Wellness the Works', the revamp has left members and designers confused. 11 places to find logo design inspiration The decision to trim back the identity to just WW comes as part of a shifting focus for the company. Instead of concentrating on weight, WW wants to expand its focus to include health and wellness. The company's chief executive Mindy Grossman explained that its new logo, which sees two letter 'W's stacked in a purple circle, is emblematic of this gear change. "That marque represents our heritage and history and what we are going forward." But what is that exactly? So far 2018 has been a good year for the company formerly known as Weight Watchers, with big name backers like Oprah seeing its share price surge. However the recent rebrand has left a bad taste with members and designers. Critics have also been keen to point out that the decision to drop the word 'weight' could be to do with a backlash surrounding the word that was sparked by the controversial #wakeupweightwatchers campaign that targeted teenagers. On top of this, the name WW is not only awkward to pronounce, it's also confusingly close to WWF and WWE, two companies that already had to battle it out over who could lay claim to their preferred initialism. We also found that when said out loud, WW taps into the tongue's muscle memory, resulting in the urge to add 'W dot' at the end, or maybe that's just us. Related articles: 5 rebranding hurdles designers face today 5 small-client rebrands that attracted big attention Carlsberg: probably the best rebrand in the world? View the full article

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Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios) It doesn’t matter how big your pipeline is, how small your toolkit may be, or how experienced you are: chances are that if you’re into 3D art, there’s a copy of the real-time PBR renderer Marmoset Toolbag on your system. Where Toolbag 2.0 was all about showing off the model, 3.0 lets you dive into scene workflows with much greater ease, taking you from baking to animating, with shader, fog, lighting and rendering improvements in-between. This makes it very easy to achieve anything from good-looking portfolio renders to rapid character or look development output. The standalone viewer and direct upload link to ArtStation don’t hurt, either. New baker outputs Starting with the baker, the workflow is easy: simply click the Loaf icon in the menu, set up your high and low-poly mesh, tangent space options and cage settings, then define your output. As of version 3.04, Toolbag has image quality improvements and now supports multiple texture and material groups, enabling you to bake items with different UV layouts, although it doesn’t support UDIM yet. The baker output is on par with the likes of Quixel or Substance If you’re new to Toolbag, note that the materials of an item are ‘hidden’ in the group items in the object list on the left, and they’re not always visible. Also, if there’s a shared material group across groups, you may need to duplicate them in the baker for your bake. This is fine on simple models, but can quickly turn into a drag-and-drop pain on more complex models with lots of groups and materials. One solution could have been a search and select function similar to 3ds Max or other applications, and then with the ability to drag the results to the respective bake groups. Bar this, it’s a robust addition to Toolbag and its output is fully on par with that of other applications like Quixel or Substance. Shader improvements The native baker complements the new shaders: Toolbag now supports material groups in the UI, meaning your groups and material groups don’t need to have the same name any more, something that could get annoying in 2.0. In addition, Toolbag now comes with some excellent shader improvements, like custom shaders, tiling, material animation, Substance 2018 support and the updated SSS (skin) shader. The custom shader enables users to code their own shader setups by letting them override the native Marmoset ones. Based on HLSL and GLSL you can create and load the exact shaders and inputs you need for your projects and renders. The SSS overhaul in Toolbag 3 is a huge improvement over the 2.0 Skin Shader The SSS shader is equally easy to use, just remember to set up decent lighting to show off your shader and Marmoset’s new advanced translucency options. This is where the baker came in super handy: I’d forgotten to bake a thickness map, and now I did not have to switch apps to bake one out. Together with the ability to load SBSARs from the Extra tab and the fact that you can now animate your textures, the shader overhaul also opens for one of the main features of the 3.0 release: animation. Animation toolkit Whereas Toolbag 2 only had turntable options, version 3.0 came with an animation and keyframe editor in 2016. The latest version 3.04 improved on this, and now also makes animation life easier on users by allowing animated meshes to be stored in the TBSCENE file, as well as some serious performance enhancements. Keyframes are only applied to the currently selected object While a toolkit like this won’t ever provide the entire range of animation features like Max, Maya, Houdini, iClone and the like, it will let you animate small to medium scenes, and excels at it, meaning you can do anything from dioramas, interiors, exteriors and single to multiple figure animations. It’s pretty intuitive as well – you can import your animation or set one up from scratch, and if you’ve animated in any of the mainstream animation packages, you’ll feel right at home in the editor. It also has a cool little feature that lets you hook up your turntable to the animation you’re working on, in effect allowing for multiple turntables at various speeds in your scene. Add to that the fact you can now import TBSCENE formats into Unreal, a glTF exporter, lots of lighting and shadow improvements, not to mention fog, a shadow catcher and a good, standalone 360 WebGL viewer that works with anything from WordPress to ArtStation, and you have a crazy solid PBR rendering package at a fraction of the price of KeyShot or Clarisse. Despite its limited functionality compared to other applications, it should be taken into account that whatever Toolbag does, it does it very well. With this attention to detail and user requests, Marmoset Toolbag 3 is a steal. Toolbag is a staple in my day-to-day workflow. I’d have given it a 5 rating if it weren’t for some of the clunkiness in the baker UI. But with that speed, ease and long list of features, I’d heartily recommend it to anyone in need of a speedy and intuitive PBR real-time renderer. Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios) Read more: How to create a video game character View the full article

About a month ago, we learned that plugins were in the pipeline for prototyping tool Adobe XD, and over the weekend, details of the first extensions started to emerge. One of the stand-out plugins comes courtesy of Adobe's partner of twelve years, Astute Graphics – its slick new tool promises to make the lives of anyone who works with vector art much easier. The 17 best Adobe Illustrator plugins Named Smart Point Removal, or SPR for short, this core vector technology reduces the file size of vector assets to help slash download times and increase rendering speeds. This will be music to the ears of artists and designers working to tight deadlines. At the same time, SPR converts imported artwork into assets that can be edited and manipulated more intuitively. The tool does this by stripping back the number of path nodes on vector assets so users can achieve desired results more easily than ever before. With just one tolerance slider control, dubbed 'strength', SPR is as straightforward as it gets. Having previously created vector tools for Illustrator CC, Astute Graphics was able to carry over plenty of hard-won expertise into this extension. Check out the focused vector prototype tool for Adobe XD in action via the GIF below. SPR is part of Astui, a brand new subscription service on offer from Astute Graphics. Powered by AG Tech, the Atsui service includes other vector artwork optimisation, editing and manipulation tools such as Outline Strokes, Offset Path, Vector Brushes and Boolean. Seeing as the core SPR technology is based in servers, the XD plugin will become available as soon as Adobe launches the XD plugin APIs. Other users will also be able to examine and extend the XD plugin codebase upon launch. Related articles: Adobe reveals exciting new Illustrator update Adobe XD integrates with Photoshop CC and Sketch Adobe XD CC updates make workflows seamless View the full article

There are currently no mitigations for the Firefox attack, a researcher told Threatpost. View the full article

Art has been a huge gift for me and I’m grateful to my past self for taking the chance to pursue it. I didn’t try to make a career in art until I turned 30, and I didn’t get my foot in the door until I was 33. Because of what I considered were my limitations, I didn’t take this opportunity for granted. I was pretty fearless early on because I felt as though I had nothing to lose. It was a tough road filled with self-doubt. I believe that a majority of my growth as an artist came to me not just by practising and learning art techniques, but through analysing my mindset during that process: looking at why being an artist was so appealing; where my motivation and drive were coming from; and how that motivation and drive continues to evolve. How to draw: the best drawing tutorials While some of these tips may seem basic, I still revisit them to understand why they work so well for me when I’m stuck creatively. These tips are the foundation for getting clear about how to motivate yourself to create for longer periods and be excited to do so. I hope they’re helpful to you as much as they were for me. 01. Set goals and challenges Mel Milton set himself a challenge to draw different takes on Wonder Woman for a month You need two things to get where you want to go: a starting point and a destination. Leave out either one and you’ll end up feeling frustrated and believing that your efforts are pointless. Goals are the best way to start setting a destination for improvement. For many years I just wanted to get better. The problem was that I didn’t take the time to define what it really meant to 'get better' – it’s such a vague concept. Having small-, medium- and long-term art goals helps solidify a sense of purpose to your work. One approach that helped me was to limit most goals to about 30 days each. Thirty days of doing a task usually makes it easier to turn it into a habit that stays with you while you tackle other subjects. Make your first few challenges more about having fun. Connect them to something you geek over (I spent a month drawing different takes on Wonder Woman). Eventually, the 30-day habit will feel natural. You can then move on to challenges that are geared towards areas of weakness. For me, that’s handling colours. Carry out small studies and learn one new facet of that subject each day. After 30 days you’ll have a strong understanding in that area. 02. Give yourself a 'why' When I was younger, I liked being told I was good at art because I was a failure in pretty much every other aspect of my life. My 'why' I drew was easy to see and the results were enough to make me happy with where I was with my art. When I met my wife, my 'why' changed to 'I want to take care of my wife and family'. Up until this point I had never tried to become a pro artist. This new 'why' took over and I set off to do something I didn’t think I could do but now, in my mind, I actually had to. It helped me identify previously unseen opportunities. It also made me focus less on the obstacles and more on the solutions. The easiest thing to say is, 'I want to be a good artist'. However, having a meaningful reason for why you want to be a good artist helps you reach that goal much more easily. 03. Set aside time for doodling Doodling without any constraints or pressures can help your artwork Practising specific subjects or techniques can be draining after a while. So when I’m stuck and not motivated, I’ll spend 15 minutes just doodling. This is a chance to experiment with shapes, sizes, colours and so on that I don’t normally tackle. There’s no pressure to learn anything from them and I usually go over the results on a day that I’m in the mood to draw, to see if I can take something from them. I doodle both traditionally and digitally. Some days I challenge myself to make mistakes on purpose, do as many things that I think don’t have appeal, and then laugh about them. Those kind of days give me the ability to not take things so seriously. They’re reminders that it’s okay to be messy, make mistakes and go a little out there just for kicks and grins. You never know what you’re gonna bring back. 04. Have a day of brainstorming Come up with a list of things that pique your interest. This can be everything from films, video games, books, animals and foods to favourite holiday locations, sports, and inspiring people and places. With films, books and video games alone, there’s a plethora of genres and characters to pull from. I usually do this at the beginning of the week to be consistent throughout that week. Making brainstorming a long- term habit will get your mind looking into areas that you wouldn’t have normally thought of, as well as give you a library of topics to work from when you’re lacking motivation. 05. Explore a topic that excites you Milton focuses on getting the anatomy of the female form correct I usually paint female portraits (see tip #6), and have been working on just that subject for about 18 years now. It had nothing to do with work or making money. It became more of a long-term challenge. I always felt I wasn’t clever enough to understand anatomy. So I hid that weakness by drawing monsters, where I could make up my own anatomy. I then settled on portraits because I thought if I could capture the subtleties of the female face and form, I would have more control over lines and shapes. All my art heroes could draw women well and make them strong in nature, yet retain the feminine appeal. What I learned (and still learn) from just the one subject is that I may have a better understanding after all this time, but I know I’ll never learn everything on that subject. It’s helped me to see things I wouldn’t have to known to look for when I first started. I now take those observation skills into other areas of study, which has helped me to be excited to learn things I normally wouldn’t have attempted to tackle. 06. Work from big to small Milton refines his image over three stages When I’m motivated, it’s hard not to just jump right into the polishing stage. Yet by holding off as long as I can, I’ll get more done in less time. Observe the three pictures above. As in the first image, going large with strokes I usually grab my local colours and apply generous-sized strokes that indicate where the main features are, such as the direction of the lighting, large shadow shapes and warm/cool areas. It was tricky for me to work this way early on because I had a hard time looking past all the ugliness. In image two, I start to refine facial features. I begin blending colours by softening edges. I also add some slightly smaller shapes and refine others to further refine features like the eyes and nose. This is the stage where you can get caught up in doing the details, but I find it easier to make major changes if necessary during this stage. Lastly, I dive into the details. Everything I add now is to encourage the viewer’s eye to travel around the image. I don’t go too crazy and make sure everything supports those elements that are important to the picture. If you have a solid image going into this stage, the details become the icing on the cake. 07. Deconstruct paintings and reference Looking at reference work isn't 'cheating'. Eventually you'll learn to put your own spin on reference images Copying other people’s work or references was taboo early on in my journey to become an artist, so I tried to steer clear of it. But when I started my first studio job, I noticed that there was a lot of reference usage. My co-workers would gather inspiration pieces, deconstruct them and then come up with something new. I felt betrayed because I thought everything was done without reference! Being able to access so many great artists these days can be overwhelming and make you feel as though you’ll never make your mark on the art world. Yet if done properly, using reference and emulating your favourite artist can give you some great insight into the creative process. Especially when you set aside the original artwork and apply the techniques you’ve learned in your own way. You’ll achieve the right results with the knowledge that it’s all your own work. 08. Meet with like-minded artists Meeting with fellow artists can be a great source of inspiration There were days when I wondered if anyone went through the struggles I experienced. It was tough because I didn’t have a lot of peers who were into art. I always felt that it had to be easier for others. Once I decided to become an artist, I reached out to as many creatives as I could, meeting them for lunch to pick their brains. I wasn’t after technique advice – instead, I wanted to know how they handled mental challenges and to see what they were like as people, rather than artists. I’m lucky to have such a huge pool of creatives in my life. I usually do a weekly draw lunch at the local mall’s food court. It’s nice to be able to see a variety of challenges that life can throw at an artist in varying fields and at different stages of careers. It’s a great way to be educated, connect, to nurture and be nurtured. 09. Remember to dream big Don't stop dreaming I’ve been a dreamer my whole life. I believe it’s the reason why I’ve stuck with art for as long as I have. I would imagine all kinds of grand experiences that being an artist would enable me to have. Yet once I made art my career, I noticed that I didn’t dream as I once did. I lost some of the sparkle that I had as a beginner artist. It became harder to bring the dreamer out. I didn’t want him to get hurt. It’s sometimes easier to just go through the motions and play it safe. When my daughter was born it challenged this approach to life. I realised that it’s the dreamer who keeps me at it – even when I don’t like what I’m producing. It’s the dreamer who gives me the ability to move forward with my art in a positive way. It’s the dreamer’s imagination that makes it possible to glimpse at the artist you want to become and feel the joy of it now. Take a chance on nurturing that dreamer. 10. Keep a journal A journal is a great way to see what’s on your mind before you draw. For example: 'I didn’t sleep well last night and had a lot of things that I needed to get done. Man, I’m irritated today!' I noticed I would take these types of aggressive moods into my drawing time unintentionally. By writing them down before I drew, I learned not be as harsh a critic after I had finished a drawing. It was understandable that when I was irritated, I didn’t produce the same quality compared to when I was in a good mood. I could show myself some compassion, much like I would with a friend going through a tough time. After a while I learned to look for things that could improve my odds of having a better learning experience – to get into the zone. Another benefit comes if you keep a journal for a long time. You’re able to go back and see how different your thought process was and find out what was successful and what negative patterns were showing up that you hadn’t noticed before. Writing down my thoughts before drawing warmed up my hand. But it also helped me make more mindful decisions and gave me a boost in my self-confidence. 11. Set a time limit Sometimes when you have less time, you can create more, or create better When I chose to stay at home and raise my daughter, I limited my art time so I could focus on being a dad. I always felt guilty when I did some art. Quick bursts while she was eating breakfast or napping became the norm. A benefit from doing this was my inner critic went from saying, 'Your art will never be good enough' to 'Come on! Fifteen minutes? You can do more than that! I’ve got exciting ideas you can try if you go just a little longer!' My keenness to fit in my limited drawing time kept growing and became quite cherished. Stopping short also helped me to carry that excitement into subsequent sessions. I noticed that I didn’t suffer art burnout as often and that my mind worked on what I could do the next day more easily. Nowadays, I have a bit more time to dedicate to my art, but most of the time I limit it to short sessions and find myself more inclined to be excited every time I pick up my pencil. 12. Get to know your feelings Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours and composition can help you produce and consume art Most of my tips revolve around the mental process. Emotions dictate how we make decisions. Not only as artists, but as human beings. Look at how many artist are insecure with their art! I know I’m one of them. I thought it would go away once I turned professional… nope! Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours, composition and so on has helped me see both sides: producing as well as consuming art. When you’re working on the basics, take some time to understand why you feel a certain way. When you’re working for someone, they’re the ones who dictate what they want the end product to represent. It can be overwhelming to create this way because we can’t really feel what the other person is thinking, and we tend to make assumptions based on what they say. So when we build a large library of techniques for expressing ourselves in our minds, we have a better chance at hitting the target for someone else’s vision. 13. Don't be afraid to tackle the basics (again) Don't think you're too advanced for the basics. You're not In my rush to become better at art, I skipped the basics. My mind would say, 'Yeah yeah, I know that.' Well, I learned that you don’t really know something until you can apply it properly – and more than once. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know anything. This is a great mindset to have as a creative. Early on, everyone wants to be the master of their craft. It’s mainly where my drive was coming from. The focus becomes this destination we want to arrive at as an artist. I’ve come to realise the magic doesn’t come from the achievement, but from all the things it took to get to that place. When you retain the student mindset and stay eager to learn, you can revisit the basics with a degree of excitement. From there, you can flourish in so many different ways and gain the confidence to bend the basics to your will. 14. Be okay with failing Bad drawing days are actually good... honest Bad drawing days are bound to happen. As long as I’ve been at it, I’ve learned that my biggest growth came from those bad days, especially when I looked at them properly. Being an artist, you can be your worst critic, but that’s not really the case. We just make it sound that way. When we have those bad days, we tell ourselves how terrible things are, and that we’ll never amount to anything. What’s really being said is that you’re not where you want to be. That voice wants you to become the artist you want to be. If your goal is to become better at what you do, then dissatisfaction is a ruler on which to measure your progress. Take time to look over how the journey is going for you at that moment of frustration. I think all my work isn’t where it could be – more so than when I first set out to be an artist. I’m grateful for this feeling. I get excited through my failures because I know each one is a lesson that’s needed for me to grow and improve. 15. Have a hobbyist mindset Thinking of your art as a hobby can help you view your work differently I know when I decided to make art my profession, I got serious about it… a little too serious, to tell you the truth. I loved toys, Saturday morning cartoons, video games and comics as a kid. When I wasn’t enjoying those things, I drew. By starting late with my career, I spent the early years excited to have finally arrived. Soon, however, I started seeing it as just a job. I never imagined I’d think of it that way. Especially because I’d never thought I’d get the opportunity. I was doing enough to get my work done, but was missing the love that pushed me to improve. Adopting a hobbyist mindset helped me cherish the time I get to 'art it up'. Even when I actually take on clients, I try to come from this place. I’ve conditioned myself to get excited at the thought of art. This has made me more productive and excited to learn new things, which could be beneficial to my creative workflow. It’s the foundation of why I 'keep on keepin’ on!' This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's leading digital art magazine. Buy issue 162 or subscribe here. Related articles: How to draw a dragon: 16 pro tips Why 2D artists need to learn 3D How to make social media work for you View the full article

Illustrations can make or break a design brief, as these stand out examples of illustrated ad campaigns demonstrate. Beyond their striking visual appeal, there are plenty of reasons for using illustrations over photography. But picking the right style for your brand, campaign, or marketing materials can be challenging. Should it be trendy, timeless, or something completely original and unique? It all depends on your needs. Another consideration is whether you can create your illustration in-house or if you need it commissioned. Whatever you decide, it will cost you either a lot of time or a lot money. The best solution is selecting a budget-friendly, time-saving alternative through platforms like iStock by Getty Images. While it's possible to create striking brand imagery using stock photography, iStock is also full of ready-to-use, easily editable stock illustrations. And, it’s never been easier to find and integrate illustrations into your work, thanks to thousands of readily available stock illustrations, featuring categories ranging from business to backgrounds, and everything in between. Read on to see five examples of versatile, high-quality stock illustrations that look premium – without the steep price tag... 01. Geometric vector patterns Bold, vibrant geometric patterns, such as the one above, can bring a design to life by making it pop in ways that grab your customers’ attention, and keep them engaged with your brand. When searching for patterns, try to find ones available in varied selection packs. They provide the opportunity to try out different options quickly and easily – without wasting time and money. Once you've chosen the right pattern, you can ensure it feels unique and fresh by editing the scale, trying different colourways, or manipulating the design. 02. Useful graphic icons Smart and stylish icons do double-duty on apps and websites. They bring in much-needed character and ease of usability, which creates an inviting and uncomplicated digital environment for your audience. Many are simple, neutral vector line drawings, often in themed packs catered to your needs. Others have more depth and personality, like the example above. Remember, you can always explore different colourways to match the scheme of your project once they’ve been chosen. Developing a whole suite of illustrations in the same style can be hugely time-consuming and expensive if you approach it from scratch. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of premium-quality icons to be found on stock libraries such as iStock by Getty Images. 03. Hand-drawn textures and backgrounds Don’t worry if clean graphic shapes don't suit the style of your project. There are also an increasing number of high-quality, hand-drawn stock illustrations available. But for relatively generic backgrounds, textures, and patterns that still feel customised, stock illustrations will do the trick. The exotic example above is just one of a series of different colour combinations in the same style and tiles. Together they seamlessly make a distinctive background pattern. Despite having a hand-drawn look and feel, it comes in vector format for infinite scalability and repurposing in a variety of different projects and sizes. 04. Matching sets of playful characters Character design is a niche, personality-driven art form that stock illustrations often struggle to replicate. This is particularly challenging if you're looking to depict something specific in terms of style, tone, or content or if unique characters take centre stage. Fortunately, iStock by Getty Images has thousands of exclusive stock character illustrations that are ready to be featured in your campaign. Playful stock character illustrations can prove invaluable when integrated as part of a bigger scheme or playing a secondary role as in the example above. They add much-needed charm and personality to your marketing materials, whether interacting with other elements in an app or introducing a section on a website. 05. Stylised design elements Premium stock illustrations can also be used for highly stylised and thematic applications, like an '80s themed flyer – for which the example above would be ideal. With such high-quality stock, the creative possibilities are endless. Just because you don’t have the budget or resources to create your own illustrations, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of this unique, eye-catching visual medium. With high-quality stock, you’ll still achieve that premium look and feel with relatively minimal effort and expense. What’s not to like about that? On the hunt for top-quality illustrations for your next design project? iStock by Getty Images is the perfect solution. The original resource for premium, royalty-free stock imagery, iStock offers million of assets including its own exclusive imagery. iStock is currently offering new customers 12% off everything: use code 12CBLOQNEW at checkout. Related articles: 4 stock images that would cost a fortune to shoot yourself 5 ways to create stunning brand imagery using stock 10 killer examples of illustrated ad campaigns View the full article

Want access to more than 80,000 stock images? That's exactly what you'll get with The Stock Photo Mega Bundle. For only $29.99, you can use any of these photos, completely royalty free. The photos cover a wide range of themes, from travel to even drone footage, and they come in both JPEG and PNG format to give you flexibility. Feel free to use them in almost any medium you wish, and bring your webpages, newsletters, and advertisements to life. Best of all, you'll get all these photos for the low price of only $29.99. That's 94 per cent off the regular price! Related articles: 18 top stock photo libraries The 13 best photography websites Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos View the full article

In the ever-growing and competitive creative industry, being a digital artist isn’t easy - or cheap. But whether you’re a professional or new to the world of digital art, there’s certain tools every artist should have in their toolkit. And it may surprise you to know they’re not as pricey - or certainly don’t have to be - as you might think. The key is working out where best to spend your hard earned cash and where you can afford to hold back a little. Here, we’ve listed four essential tools for digital artists, the majority of which won’t leave a gaping hole in your wallet. Pencil and paper Never underestimate the power of these traditional tools The cheapest toolset imaginable is a pencil and paper. Yes, even if you’re working as a digital artist, a good supply of pens and paper is invaluable. Building up a solid art foundation is key to creating original digital artwork as it means not simply relying on the capabilities of the software alone. By using these traditional but timeless tools, you can not only hone your artistic skills, you can also ensure all your creative ideas are captured with a quick sketch without the worry of technical limitations. Not only is a pen and paper much more reliable than a digital device, it’s often easier - not to mention safer - to carry around. A good artist, whatever the chosen medium, should always carry a pen and some paper. Quality monitor BenQ’s PD monitor range allows artists and designers to fulfill their full potential Working as a digital artist, the one thing you can’t scrimp on is a decent monitor. After all, how else are you going to really see how great your artwork is? Designed for designers, BenQ has a seriously impressive line-up of monitors in its PD range, all of which deliver absolute colour precision and ultra-high resolution to help designers fulfil their creative potential. Empowered by BenQ’s exclusive AQCOLOUR technology and 4K UHD resolution, each monitor in the PD range equips designers with extraordinary clarity of fine details and depth of subtle textures optimised for visually intensive work in animation, visual effects, graphic and photography. It’s hard to believe the BenQ PD range starts at just £255. Incredible quality without the hefty price tag - what more could you possibly want? Software Affinity Designer is one of the best digital art apps around This may seem like a no-brainer, but with so much creative software available, how do you choose which is right for you? First thing to do is work out your budget and intended use. If you’re new to digital art or a hobbyist, using free digital art software like Krita or Gimp might be the best option. However if you’re a pro or aspiring to be, a more powerful, comprehensive application like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Designer might suit you better, with both of these professional creative apps offering all the power and tools you could ever possibly need. Drawing tablet Hook your tablet up to one of BenQ’s amazing PD monitors for extraordinary clarity Drawing tablets have come a long way since the only option in town being a Wacom Intuos. Today there are options to suit all budgets – from powerful, feature-packed pen displays with high-resolution touchscreens, to mid-range and cheap drawing tablets that balance price with power. There are also three different options to suit workflow choice: Graphics tablet, which you draw directly onto with a stylus Pressure-sensitive pen displays, which are hooked up to a monitor Tablet computers, which can be adapted for drawing with an app Make sure to check our best drawing tablet buying guide to help decide which product is best suited to your needs and bank balance. Lead image courtesy of BenQ View the full article

Cisco has patched vulnerability in its video surveillance manager software that could give an unauthenticated, remote attacker the ability to execute arbitrary commands on targeted systems. View the full article

Microsoft said that it's working on a fix for a zero-day flaw in its JET Database Engine. View the full article

Over the past two years, there has been an explosion in interest surrounding VR and AR technologies. The latest big thing in experimental design, AR has also arrived on the web, but with this new technology comes new skills, and right now it feels like the Wild West with no major standards to follow. The ability to display 3D on the web is nothing new, but if you’ve been avoiding it, then you need to jump into technologies like three.js or A-Frame (take a look at our roundup of AR tools to try for a full list). Whatever skill level you are at, it won’t make much difference if you don’t have some decent content. Think about appropriate use cases for AR before jumping in. In this article, we’ll show you how to create a multi-marker AR experience. By using multiple markers, it’s possible to show different stages of a process or any unique content based on that marker. In this example, our app will explore the water cycle. Jump to page 3 to learn how to create a custom AR marker. 01. Get started Open the start folder in your IDE and inside the index.html page find the script tags. All the code in the tutorial will go inside these. To test the app you will need to have a server and if you want to test on a phone you will need to host the files on a HTTPS server. Add the initial variables in the script tags: 02. Load the model Use the icon in the top right to enlarge the image To make the AR scene work, a model will be loaded. You will see that once loaded it is stored in the variable model1. This is then scaled and cloned twice for the three steps. Rather than load three different models, all the adjustments to one model will be done in code to make it load quickly on mobile. 03. Set up the tweening On the first model, the cloud is going to be found in the scene and this will be tweened to a new position so that the cloud rises out of the sea. This is set to repeat forever and it will take eight seconds for the tween to animate up and show a cloud forming. 04. Scale it up The cloud is scaled down to be almost invisible. Another tween is added to the cloud and this scales the cloud up to its normal size. With the movement and the scaling, it will give the illusion that the cloud is rising and forming out of the sea as the first step in the process of the water cycle. 05. Set up the second cloud A second cloud will sit above the mountain The next cloud from the second model needs to be positioned where the first cloud finished its animation as a formed cloud in the sky. This is given a tweened movement to position itself over the land, rising slightly above the mountain. This will take 12 seconds to animate as it’s a bigger move. 06. Make it rain The key to making this illusion work is allowing the cloud to rain. The water cycle has the cloud rain as it moves higher over land. To get the effect, a particle system will be used. Here the amount of particles and the particle material is created, using a rain drop image. 07. Create raindrops Using a for loop, 1500 raindrops can be created with a random x, y, z position that will be between the cloud and the ground. Each raindrop is given its own random velocity to make the rain look more natural. The particle is pushed into the correct vertex of the geometry. 08. Work on the particle system Now the particle system is created out of the geometry and the material. The particles are set to be sorted so that the z-order is correct and then the rain particles are made a child of the second cloud. Anywhere the cloud is tweened, the rain also follows, so no need to animate the rain following the cloud! 09. Set the final model positions In the final model, the cloud is repositioned to the ending spot of the second cloud animation cycle. This new cloud is just going to sit in the sky and not animate. Instead the river is going to animate, so the river model is stored in a variable, ready to add the tween to it. 10. Fill up the river Water levels in the river need to rise In the third step of the water cycle the water runs off the hills, filling rivers and lakes as it returns to the sea. This is the most subtle movement as it will just entail moving the height of the river so that it appears to fill up. Everything is preloaded now, so the init function is called. Next page: Add AR functionality and markers 11. Initialise the AR scene The init function is mainly about setting up the Three.JS scene and then making that scene respond to the position of the marker detected in AR. In this case the renderer is set up and the various attributes set. It’s positioned in the top left of the browser screen. 12. Add the camera The renderer is appended into the HTML document and then a new array is created that will contain all the elements that need to be updated in the scene for animation – more on this later. A 3D scene is created and a camera added to the scene which will be from the position of the user’s camera. 13. Add AR functionality The source to track for AR markers is set up now and you can see in this code that it is set to track the webcam. This will be a phone or tablet’s camera if on those devices. If for any reason the window resizes, the onResize function is called and this is also called at the start. 14. Resize the screen Now the code creates the onResize function that is called from the previous step. This ensures the webcam image is set to be resized to fit inside the renderer. If you inspect your page, the renderer is actually a HTML5 Canvas element. 15. Add the first marker The next few steps all take a similar approach. A new variable is created and this becomes a group. Inside this group the marker is told to respond to a ‘pattern’ marker and the type of pattern is defined in an external file. For more information on how this was created see the separate tutorial. 16. Add the second marker Now the second marker is created with a different variable name. This references a different pattern so it will respond to a different marker held in front of the camera. This way holding up different markers will trigger different responses. 17. Add the final marker and models Each variable needs the correct marker added to it Once more, another variable is declared for the last marker and it references another pattern file. After this you will see that each marker variable group gets the correct model added to it that we set up in the first 10 steps. These will display when the marker is placed in front of the camera. 18. Update the particles The rain particles need to change every frame You may have forgotten about the rain particles created earlier, but they need updating every frame. So here a for loop moves through each particle in the array and updates its position, resetting it if it moves below the ground. This totally makes the rain effect work. 19. Remove the preloader This needs to disappear when the scene is ready While all of this set up has been going on, there has been a message over the screen that is asking the user to wait patiently for the content to load. Here that content is removed and the scene is rendered through the camera. 20. Continuously update The requestAnimationFrame is the browser’s built-in loop that tries to run as close to 60 frames per second that it can. Here the frame rate is worked out so that the animation is divided by 60 frames per second to work out the interval, to create a delta of time that has passed. Mobile CPUs will run at a different speed so frame rate will not be an accurate time counter. 21. Finish up Now the tween engine is updated and every element added to the onRenderFct array that will be updated at the correct speed. Save the file and make sure you look at this on a server, it must be HTTPS if you want to serve to mobile devices. Place the markers supplied in the project files folder in front of the camera to see the different stages. Next page: How to create a custom marker When creating your own AR experience, you will probably want the marker that you are using to either be branded to a client logo or customised in some way to reflect the nature of what your user is doing with the AR application. This is very easy to do. The main part to make this work is downloading the pattern file, placing this within your project folder structure and referencing this in your JavaScript code. Here's a quick step-by-step guide. 01. Make the pattern First create your marker's design In your image editing application make a square image and ensure the background is set to white. Now create a custom shape on the screen. Make sure this is black as this is the easiest to be read. Save the file as a PNG as this will be uploaded to a website to convert into the pattern code. 02. Upload and download Upload the design into AR.js Go to the pattern marker training page and click the upload button. Your marker will appear on the screen. Click the download marker button to get the marker file for your code. Click the appropriate download PDF button to get a printable marker. 03. Place it in the code Add the file to the data folder Place the downloaded pattern-marker.patt in the data folder. You can name it anything you like. Look in your code and change the line shown below to be the name of the pattern that you have downloaded. Now hold the PDF up to the camera to trigger the AR content to appear. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 274 or subscribe. Read more: 5 future web design job titles The future of design: AR will be bigger than the internet AR.js is bringing augmented reality to the web View the full article

It’s not just beginners who need to take web design courses; in this profession, you’re always learning. Firstly, new techniques and technologies are emerging constantly, and so it’s important to keep up. And secondly, the more general your skillbase becomes, the more in demand you’ll be. So even if you’re a JavaScript wonderkid, adding another string to your bow, such as user experience or web VR, will really help you get that dream job or freelance client. Overall, in our view, the best provider of web design courses is Treehouse. That's because they offer high-quality video training, as well as clever touches to keep you motivated and actually finish your course. And, perhaps most importantly, in a rapidly changing environment, their classes are always kept super up-to-date with the latest techniques and technologies. 7 things they don’t tell you about the web industry But there may be other course providers who may suit your specific needs better, whether that's in terms of your budget, preferred teaching methods or subject areas. So in this post, we’ve brought together the best of the best. (Note that we're focusing here on services that provide a wide range of web design training; if, however, you just want to learn a specific language, you may prefer our list of online coding courses. ) 01. Treehouse Best all-rounder: Treehouse is known for constantly updating its video-based lessons, so you're never left behind PROS: Up-to-the-minute training. Sole focus on web design and development. CONS: Subscription may not suit. Videos only downloadable on pricier plans. Founded in 2011 by well-known web designer Ryan Carson, Treehouse offers more than 300 video-based training courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development, from beginner to advanced levels. These are professionally shot, the quality of instruction is first-class, and everything is constantly updated to take newly emerging technologies into account (new content is released weekly). While online training lets you learn at your own pace, that often makes it difficult to motivate yourself to finish the course. Treehouse, however, has found a clever way to square this particular circle. That’s because after watching its videos, you then take interactive quizzes and challenges to test that you’ve understood it correctly. Once you complete these, you’re awarded badges, which get displayed on your profile. These ‘rewards’ might sound a little cheesy, but they really do help spur you on to keep going (anyone who’s ever sat up all night playing a game trying to get to the next level, or binge-watching a Netflix show to reach the end of a season, will understand this instinctively). Also note that many companies now actively recruit new employees via Treehouse based on the number of badges they have. You won't need any special hardware or operating system (other than a Mac if you’re learning iOS), and you can even write code inside the Treehouse App using a feature called Workspaces. Subscriptions, which offer you access to all the training courses on the site, start at £20/month, and there’s a seven-day free trial if you want to check out the training first. Also note that there are special organisation rates for companies, non-profits, schools, organisations and businesses. 02. LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda.com) LinkedIn Learning offers high quality video training within a career networking environment PROS: High quality training. Videos are downloadable. CONS: Categorisation could be better. Not much here for advanced levels. Lynda.com could be described as the godfather (or perhaps godmother?) of training on the web. Founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman, it’s been running high quality courses in software, creative, and business skills for decades. And if anything its purchase by, and integration into, LinkedIn in 2015 has made it even more focused on helping you improve your career prospects. For example, when you're logged into LinkedIn, you’ll find training content that’s relevant to your needs will automatically surface. Plus when you learn new skills, the system makes it super-easy to highlight these on your LinkedIn profile. There are currently more than 500 courses in web design and web development to choose from, largely focused on beginner to intermediate levels, and taking in everything from PHP and React to more nuanced topics like ‘Moodboards for web designers’. So unless you’re looking for something very niche or advanced, you’re likely to find the exact training you’re looking for. However, you’ll have to do a bit of searching, as the courses are not particularly well categorised on the website. And there doesn’t seem to be the same concerted effort made by Treehouse to ensure students progress from course to course to slowly but surely build their skills; there’s more of a ‘pick and mix’ feel to this learning environment. All the courses are available on a subscription, which costs £19.99 per month on an annual plan or £24.98 on a monthly basis. A month-long free trial is also available. 03. Udemy Udemy offers a wide range of courses, although quality may vary PROS: Subscription-free. Lots for beginners. CONS: Variable quality. Can be costly if you take lots of courses. If you’re not keen on taking out a subscription, then Udemy might be a better bet for your online web design training, as you only pay per course. Note, though, that while Treehouse and LinkedIn Learning carefully curate their courses, Udemy is basically a marketplace where anyone can post a course and try their luck at turning a profit. That means that unlike the latter, employers are unlikely to see you completing a course on Udemy as a ‘proper’ qualification. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some excellent courses on this site. While Udemy courses are less likely to be as professionally shot as those on Treehouse or Lynda, that can make them more authentic and relatable. The website handily includes customer reviews so you can see which ones are hitting the right notes with students. And with courses starting at £11.99, you could save a fair amount of money as a result. You can download Udemy's videos for offline viewing via the mobile app, and there are a large range of web design topics covered, with a particularly strong emphasis on WordPress, HTML, CSS and Photoshop. Note, though, that most of these courses are beginner level. 04. Bloc Bloc promises to take you from a beginner to job-ready web developer. PROS: Career-focused. Help from mentors. CONS: Expensive. Serious time commitment. Launched in 2012, Bloc describes itself as an “online coding bootcamp” that aims to take you from being a beginner to job-ready web developer. Learning materials are a combination of written and video lessons, but Bloc’s special sauce is an apprenticeship model that pairs you with an experienced mentor, who provides support and guidance throughout the course via 14 hours of live Q&A per day. There are also weekly group discussions and daily group critiques. They don’t sugar-coat it: in their view “learning to code requires a lot of hard work. You can’t learn by osmosis, you have to build. You have to bang your head against problems and work your way out.” In other words, these structured learning programs are not for the faint-hearted, but aimed squarely at highly-motivated students who are determined to carve out a career in web design and development. Courses are full time and start at $7,500 for eight months’ instruction. You’ll need a webcam because with each module you’ll face an assessment by a person who’s not your mentor; this will be similar to a real-world technical interview. You’ll find a great personal account by Kasey Markham of his experiences taking a Bloc course here. 05. Udacity Learn high-end skills through Udacity's vocational courses for professionals PROS: Cutting-edge training. Tech industry involvement. CONS: Expensive. No use for beginners. Founded in 2011, Udacity was originally focused on offering university style courses, but now focuses more on vocational courses for professionals, which it calls 'Nano Degrees'. These courses typically walk you through building a project, and then you apply what you’ve learned to a project of your own. These are long-term courses and there are set times for lessons. To give you a flavour of how that works in practice, Bilal Tahir has written an excellent account of the React Nano Degree he took here. Aimed at “lifelong learners” rather than beginners, Udacity is firmly focused on teaching specialised skills to help people in the tech industry get to the next level of their career. Courses are focused on high-end topics such as autonomous systems, AI, machine learning and full-stack web development, and are built in partnership with Google, AT&T, and Facebook. You pay per course and as you might expect, it’s not cheap; this September’s Blockchain Fundamentals course, for example, costs £799. 06. Launch School Launch School offers a way of learning web design based on first principles PROS: Based on fundamentals, not software. Follow at your own pace. CONS: Expensive. Huge time commitment. If the full-on, intensive pace of a bootcamp scares the pants of you, then Launch School offers the very opposite: in its words, “The Slow Path for Studious Beginners to a Career in Software Development”. There are two main courses: Core Curriculum and Capstone. The first teaches you the fundamentals of software development; so it’s not about learning how to use a specific language, such as React or Rails, but about slowly building up your understanding of basic principles, so you get how higher level abstractions work from the bottom up. It takes approximately 1,200-1,800 hours (8-16+ months) to complete and costs $199 a month. After that, there’s an admissions-based course focused on helping students acquire career-launching opportunities. This involves a three months’ full-time study and, intriguingly, an Income Sharing Agreement where you only pay after you get a job offer. 07. Pluralsight Pluralsight sets you a special test to help you choose the right web design course for you PROS: Huge number of courses. IQ test helps you choose the right one. CONS: Subscription model may not suit. Not specifically focused on web design and development. Founded in 2004, Pluralsight offers a variety of quality video training courses by IT specialists. Web development is well covered here, with courses in CSS, JavaScript, Angular, React and HTML5 and more, ranging from beginner to advanced levels. Most notably, Pluralsight has an innovative way to check that the course is right for you: the ‘Pluralsight IQ’ test, which promises to test your skill level in just five minutes. The service also offers 24/7 support, you can download courses for offline viewing, and subscriptions start at $35 per month or $229 per year. 08. Skillshare Skillshare has lots of decent web design courses at low cost PROS: Cheap. Wide range of topics. CONS: Quality of training varies. Videos can be quite short. Like Udemy, Skillshare is an online marketplace for video-based courses of all kinds, including web design courses, mainly for beginner and intermediate levels. While the quality may vary, it’s all cheap and cheerful, although it may be stretching things a little to call them ‘courses’ when some videos are less than an hour long. Still, there’s a wide range of topics on offer, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UX/UI design, responsive web design, web development and WordPress. And so if you need to plug a specific knowledge gap, this might be a good place to come. You can unlock unlimited access to thousands of classes from just £7 per month for an annual subscription. Read more: 12 inspiring ecommerce website designs The 29 best iPhone apps for designers Which is the best CSS preprocessor? View the full article

Whether you're a freelance designer or a fully-fledged creative studio, you wouldn't have a business without your clients. Sometimes there can be hurdles to overcome, however, in order to maintain a smooth, mutually beneficial relationship. Managing difficult situations with clients can be one of the most challenging parts of life as a designer. Whether it’s chasing up overdue invoices, dealing with lots of amends or just good old-fashioned creative differences, it can get frustrating at times – but fear not, there are ways to smooth over even the rockiest terrain and keep everyone happy. So read on for five common hurdles that you may face when dealing with clients as a designer, and how to overcome them... 01. You need to chase late invoices Hopefully your client’s Accounts department isn't like this This happens more than you'd expect, and everyone’s heard the horror stories of chasing invoices months or even years after their due date. But putting the right framework in place from the outset can work wonders. For a start, you're within your rights to ask for a deposit upfront – ideally 50 per cent. For big, long-term projects, get a schedule in place for staged payments, so everyone knows what’s expected when. People are busy, and sometimes things fall through the cracks. Rather than panicking and chasing on (or after) the due date, drop a friendly reminder a week or so beforehand to make sure things are on track. Over time it becomes easier to spot the early warning signs from late-paying clients, such as requests for additional time, elaborate excuses, and promises of the money coming 'soon'. But remember, not all unpaid fees are the work of invoice-dodgers. You might have a great relationship with a client who always pays on time, but if they run into financial difficulties, you may feel the knock-on impact. If a client can't pay you, arrange a meeting to try and resolve things before doing any more work. 02. Your job falls through last-minute Before you shoot ahead, check the foundations are firm Winning a big new project is exciting, but don’t abandon other prospects until things are set in stone. If you clear your schedule to make way for work that hasn't been confirmed with a written contract, you could end up out of pocket if it falls through. Things can change at a moment's notice in this business, and it’s not always the client’s fault – they’re probably just as frustrated as you are, if not more so. Face-to-face meetings are a great way to build stronger relationships and are much more personal than an email or phone call. If a prospective client is reluctant to let you visit them in person, or confirm anything in writing, that could be a warning sign. Likewise, if there's a high turnover of people and your point of contact keeps changing, that’s an alarm bell too. Trust your intuition: if something doesn't add up, don't be afraid to ask questions. Stay in constant communication with your potential client, and make it clear that while you’ve pencilled the time in for them, you’ll have to keep your options open until the work is officially booked in. They should understand, and may also respect you more for it. 03. You have too many amends to deal with Sometimes a list of client amends can feel overwhelming No two clients are the same. Some are very hands-on and want to be involved at all stages of a project; others prefer to give you a brief and let you get on with it. It's important to get a sense, early on in a job, which kind of relationship is going to work best. Hands-on clients can be great if it's a healthy, two-way collaboration – but if they struggle to communicate what they want, it can be counterproductive. You may have encountered clients who keep contradicting themselves with their tweaks and amends, or even change the brief entirely. That can delay the project, which affects both of you, and may have a knock-on effect on your other clients too. But before you get angry, remember they may be out of their comfort zone. You can help manage this process from the outset before it gets out of hand. Take the time to explain the creative process to the client – don’t just assume they know what the different stages are. The more transparent and understanding you can be, the better, as it’s put your client at ease and make them feel more involved. Decent T&Cs can help manage the time you spend on amends, as well as your client’s expectations from the outset. These could include, for example, restricting how many rounds of amends you include before charging extra. If a last-minute amend comes through too late, however, it pays to be using digital print and design company moo.com for your print work. According to the MOO Promise, if there's any kind of mistake – even if it's your fault – they'll fix it for free. 04. You struggle to maintain boundaries If you’re taking client calls in bed, something has to give To a reasonable degree, it's important that you're available when your clients need you. You should respond to queries promptly, and make time for meetings and conference calls. By involving your clients at all stages of the project, and talking them through your workflow, you'll strengthen any studio-client relationship and avoid any nasty surprises. But there's a fine line between being flexible and sacrificing your personal life. It’s not a healthy client relationship if they call you at every hour of the day, and you drop whatever you're doing to cater to their needs immediately. Don't be afraid to calmly explain your normal working hours if you feel your work ethic is giving your client unreasonable expectations. Keep it friendly, rather than confrontational. Even if it's a mutually beneficial relationship and you love working on the project, if one client accounts for a high percentage of your business or time, you're on shaky ground if that falls through. Generating new business should be an ongoing process, regardless of how well things are going – never let the demands of one client stop you seeking new ones. 05. You start to get complacent Don’t just put your feet up and expect the work to come to you If you can prove yourself indispensable, and become an integral part of your client's business model, you should be rewarded with a constant stream of business. Investing in a strong client relationship means long-term security, right? Well, possibly. But don’t get complacent and just assume repeat business. Even if a project has gone brilliantly, both you and the client are happy and it was completed on time and under budget, more work is never an absolute certainty. Make it clear how you can continue to help their business moving forward, and look to establish yourself as the first port of call for design projects big or small. There isn't a studio in the world that hasn't lost a client along the way. Your contact might leave, a rival studio may undercut you, or your differences may prove unresolvable despite your efforts. Don't be disheartened. Take what you can from the project and move on. But if you take the above advice on board and invest time and energy in fostering a strong, healthy client relationship, it should pay off. Even the strongest client relationships have to start somewhere – so get your business cards out and spread the word. Digital print and design company moo.com can help you make a great first impression, and they've even provided some advice to improve your client relationships on their blog – so pop over and take a look. Related articles: 10 steps to go freelance this year Pro's guide to creating memorable business cards How to project your work onto the global stage 6 sure-fire ways to build your creative network Nail the art of networking and get more from events 4 brilliant personal logos – and why they work 3 tips for crafting stunning print promo materials Create better business cards in less than 5 minutes 5 ways to earn more as a freelancer View the full article

Searching for the best graphics card? We can help. Whether you prefer the grunt power of Nvidia or the driver stability of AMD, in this list we’ve selected the very best graphics cards right now – for all budgets. Right now, we think the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is the best graphics card you can get, offering the best balance of power, cost and support for a wide variety of tasks. At a touch over £400, it still offers great all-round performance, and with 8GB ram, 2432 cores and running at 1607ghz, it's powerful enough for intensive tasks, including VR. But it's worth pointing out that the RTX 2080 is on the way. And don't forget that the right graphics card for you depends on what you want to use it for. Jump straight to: How to choose the best graphics card In recent years, the search for increased computer power has moved away from the central processing unit (CPU) and towards the graphics processing unit (GPU), located on plug-in graphics cards. Graphics cards were traditionally used for powering your display. And while that's still the case, now – even with multiple 4K monitors – GPUs can also be used to render realtime raytracing, run physics simulations, work with huge files in Photoshop CC or After Effects CC, and more. Capable of doing all the heavy lifting in record speed, a GPU is a vital asset to artists and designers. Here are the 10 best graphics cards around right now... The 1070 ti is not the newest card on this list but it still packs a punch, with 2432 cuda cores, 8GB on board ram and a base clock speed of 1607Mhz (some versions can be overclocked to 1683Mhz with additional cooling). This card is a favourite among digital artists who like to stack them for economical extra power, which works well for rendering super-fast with software like Octane. The 1070 ti is also a solid GPU for those users looking to get started with VR as it will work well with both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. This card is the best all-rounder, balancing cost with power and functionality, and is perfect for creatives using heavy duty software. Although mostly aimed at gamers, this card also has a large following among 3D designers and video enthusiasts. If your budget is limited, the best bet for you to get the most bang for your buck is the 1050 ti. The little sibling to our best overall still has a to to offer and will happily play full HD games with it’s 3GB ram, 768 cores and clock speed of 1392Mhz. You won’t be able to run a VR rig with this card, but you should get frame rates around 50-60fps, rivalling that found in the latest consoles. This card is best for budget conscious artists and gamers who can sacrifice total power to make a saving. You may need to pull back on the highest games settings and real-time shaders in 3D work to get the best frame rates in software like Battlefront or Maya. If money is no object and you want the best that’s on offer, then look to AMD and its best performing GPU ever. The Vega 64 is a hugely capable GPU, with 8GB ram, 4096 cores and a speed of 1546. On paper this is pretty close to NVIDIA’s 1080 Ti, but the AMD pips it to the post with excellent 4K gaming support, offering close to 60fps. It also has plenty of power for running multiple displays, even if they are ultra wide 21:9 monitors, with HDMI and three display ports. While the 1080 might just edge past in some areas, or for some games, the Vega 64 offers superb results. The impending arrival of Nvidia’s RTX 2080 might shake things up again but we can revisit this list when they are available. Whether you are playing the latest triple A-game, or crunching billions of polygons in Clarisse, you will find this card caters to all your creative needs. The Quadro line has long been at the top of the pile for high-end workstations and the P6000 is the best of the bunch (at least until the RTX version comes out in late 2018). With a huge 24GB of super-fast RAM on board and a total of 3840 cores, this 384-bit GPU is fit to take on any digital content creation task you might throw at it, from photorealistic retraced rendering to 4k video editing. There's also a DVI and four display ports, so you can power multiple 4k monitors and your VR rig all at once. You will need to spend a small fortune to get hold of this graphics card, but considering the power on offer and the market it’s aimed at the price seems justified. This card offers blisteringly fast performance for creative content creators. If you are looking for a graphics card specifically for gaming, then a good bet comes in the form of the 8GB AMD RX580. At just under £300, this graphics card offers better than average performance, courtesy of the 2304 cores and clock speed of 1257. You will also get frame rates of 50+ even in 1440p mode. The DVI, HDMI and driven by 6.2 TFLOPS of power make for a versatile card that could suit many gaming rigs. How to choose the best graphics card When hunting for your next graphics card, start by thinking about its purpose. For example, if you're a graphic designer wanting to boost the performance of Photoshop, you're going to have very different GPU requirements to a hardcore gamer wanting to work with extremely high-resolution or multiple displays. Key things to consider when you're choosing a graphics cards include: - Cores: the higher the number of cores, typically the faster performance overall. For intensive graphics tasks, 1500 cores and above will stand you in good stead. - Monitor and motherboard compatibility: Since graphics cards attach directly to a monitor, it's important to know that not all monitors and video cards have matching ports. You also need to check that the motherboard in your PC supports the graphics card you've chosen before parting with your hard-earned cash. - Power supply: make sure that your power supply has the correct wattage to support your chosen graphics card. - RAM: While more RAM is better, don't necessarily let this affect your decision on graphic card choice as having more RAM than the software can use does not yield much (if any) performance advantages. - Clock (or memory) speed: The speed of the graphics card's RAM is typically reported in MHz, the number indicating how fast the card can access the data that is stored on the RAM. So the quicker the data can be accessed, the less time you have to wait. In short, the faster the clock (or memory) speed the better. One thing to note is that you’ll often see two speeds quoted, so check to see if your choice can be boosted or over clocked, which can give you a little extra performance. View the full article

Knowing how to build an app is only half the battle in app design. If your creation doesn't stand out in the app store, it doesn't matter how good it is; no one's going to buy it. A beautiful, identifiable and memorable app icon can have a huge impact on the popularity and success of an app. But creating that one, singular piece of design that users will interact with first each time they see your product can be an intimidating task. So how exactly does one make a 'good' app icon? What does that even mean? Fear not, I've put together some tips and advice to help answer these questions, and guide you on your way to great app icon design. There's also a video to accompany this tutorial, which you'll find below too. What is an app icon? The first things you need to understand when setting out to create your icon is what exactly an app icon is and what job it has to perform. An app icon is a visual anchor for your product. You can think of it as a tiny piece of branding that not only needs to look attractive and stand out, but ideally also communicate the core essence of your application. The word 'logo' is thrown around carelessly these days. Icon design and logo design are not the same thing. While they certainly share branding-like qualities, app icons are under a lot of different restrictions. While they certainly share branding-like qualities, app icons are not the same as logos It's an important distinction for the designer to make: logos are scalable vector pieces of branding designed for letterheads and billboards. Icons are most often raster-based outputs customised to look good within a square canvas, at specific sizes and in specific contexts. The approach, the tools, the job and therefore the criteria for success are different. From a practical standpoint, what you are creating when you're making an app icon is a set of PNG files in multiple sizes – ranging from 29 x 29px all the way through to 1024 x 1024px – that needs to be bundled with your app. This set of carefully crafted designs will be used in the many contexts of the OS where users encounter your application – including the App Store or Google Play, Settings panel, search results and your home screen. App icons can essentially be made in any application capable of producing raster files, but common choices are Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch. Free tools like appicontemplate.com offer clever PSD templates that can help you get off the ground quickly. Now let's take a look at some of the best practices of app icon design. 01. Make it scalable An app icon needs to retain the legibility across a range of sizes One of the most important aspects of an icon is scalability. Because the icon is going to be shown in several places throughout the platform, and at several sizes, it's important your creation maintains its legibility and uniqueness. It needs to look good on the App Store, on Retina devices and even in the Settings panel. Overly complicated icons that try to cram too much onto the canvas often fall victim to bad scalability. A very big part of the conceptual stages of app icon design should be dedicated to thinking about if any given design scales gracefully. Working on a 1024 x 1024px canvas can be deceptive – make sure you try out your design on the device and in multiple contexts and sizes Embrace simplicity and focus on a single object, preferably a unique shape or element that retains its contours and qualities when scaled Make sure the app icon looks good against a variety of backgrounds 02. Make it recognisable An app icon is like a little song, and being able to identify it easily in amongst all the noise of the store or your homescreen is a key component in great icon design. Like the verse of a song needs to resonate with the listener, so do the shapes, colours and ideas of an app icon. The design needs to craft a sense of memory and connection on both a functional and an emotional level. Your icon will be vying for attention amongst thousands of other icons, all of which have the same 1024px canvas to make their impact and secure their connection with the viewer. While scalability is a huge part of recognisability, so is novelty. The search for a balance between these qualities is the very crux of the discipline. Bland, overly complicated icons are the enemy of recognisability. Try removing details from your icon until the concept starts to deteriorate. Does this improve recognisability? Try out several variations on your design. Line them up in a grid and try to glance over them, seeing what aspects of the designs catch your eye Try to deconstruct your favourite app icons and figure out why you like them and what methods they use to stand out 03. Keep it consistent There's something to be said for creating consistency between the experience of interacting with your app icon and interacting with the app it represents. I feel like good icon design is an extension of what the app is all about. Making sure the two support each other will create a more memorable encounter. Shaping a sleek, unified image of your app in your users' minds increases product satisfaction, retention and virality. In short: making sure your icon works harmoniously with the essence, functionality and design of your application is a big win. One way to ensure consistency between app and icon is to keep the colour palette of your interface and icon in line, and use a similar and consistent design language – a green interface reinforced by a green app icon, for example Although it's not always possible, one way to tighten the connection between your app and your icon is for the symbolism of the icon to directly relate to the functionality of the app 04. Aim for uniqueness Icons can be detailed or simplistic, just make sure that they’re creative, interesting and accurately convey your intentions This almost goes without saying, but try to make something unique. Mimicking a style or a trend is perfectly fine, but make it your own. Your app icon is constantly competing with other icons for the users' attention, and standing out can be a perfectly valid argument for a design. Uniqueness is a tricky part of design, because it not only relies on your skills but also on the choices of others who are trying to tackle a similar task. Consider what everyone else is doing in your space, then try a different direction. Always do your research – the world doesn't need another checkmark icon A singular glyph on a one-colour background can be a tricky route to go down if you want to stay unique. Play around with different colours and compositions, and challenge yourself to find new and clever metaphors Colour is a great and often overlooked way of repositioning a concept 05. Don't use words This is one of my all-time top pet peeves. Only in the rarest of occasions is it OK to use words in app icons. If you have to retreat to another tool of abstraction – the written word – I'd say that you're not using the full force of your pictorial arsenal. Words and pictures are separate representational tools, and mixing them in what is supposed to be a graphical representation often leads to a cluttered and unfocused experience, which is harder to decode. Is there really no better way to visualise the application than with dry words? Whenever I see words in app icons, I feel like the designer missed an opportunity to more clearly convey their intentions. There's no need to include the app name in the icon – it will most often be accompanying the icon in the interface. Instead, spend your time coming up with a cool pictorial concept "But Facebook has the 'f' in its app icon", I hear you say. If you're using a singular letter and you feel like it's a good (and unique) fit, then the letter loses its 'wordy' qualities and becomes iconic by itself. However, this is more often the exception than the rule Your company logo and name in a square is never a good solution. Do you have a mark or a glyph that works well within the constraints? If not, you're probably best off coming up with something new. Remember, icons and logos are not the same, and shouldn't be forced into the same context 06. Make it stand out On the App Store and on Google Play, there are many examples of bland and unopinionated icon designs. Your icon is the strongest connection you'll have with your user. It is what they'll see first when they meet you in the App Store. It's what they'll interact with every single time they use your app. It is what they'll think of when they think of your app. Anything short of a well thought-out, fitting and attractive solution is a failure to utilise your greatest visual asset. Your app icon should not be an afterthought, it should be a working part of the process. App icons are tiny little pieces of concentrated design, and there's something really appealing about that process of creating one. Whether they're detailed or simplistic, conventional or creative, these icons have one unifying property: they all grasp for people's attention within the same limited amount of space, on a completely level playing field. It's a specific challenge, and the answer is always within those same pixels. There's no doubt it can be intimidating to crown your application with a singular piece of graphic design, but I hope the tips I've outlined here will make you more confident in taking on the challenge. Now go forth and make a fantastic app icon! This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Subscribe here. Read more: How to name your app Create sets of product icons in Illustrator 33 stunning iOS app icon designs View the full article

With a smartphone in your pocket, you have a great camera with you at all times (and there are some really great camera phones for creatives on the market). Smartphone photography is becoming more and more impressive – and is sometimes indistinguishable from photography taken on professional-grade DSLRs. However, if you want to move beyond selfies and random snaps, you'll need a bit of training. With The Quick Guide To Smartphone Photography & Video, you'll learn how to take better pictures – everything from sprawling landscapes to meaningful portraits. Plus, you'll learn everything straight from the horse's mouth; Chase Jarvis is a successful, award-winning photographer who will teach you everything from posing to lighting techniques. Check out The Quick Guide To Smartphone Photography & Video for only $9. Read more: Is iPhone XS the best camera phone for designers? Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos 45 best photo apps and photo editing software View the full article