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

Presentations are something a lot of us will have to give at some point or another. Whether you're presenting a project for school, pitching an idea to executives, or reporting on quarterly earnings, presentations are always better when they include engaging graphics and insightful images. Try out Slideshop: Lifetime Subscription to build presentations more effectively and more efficiently. Thanks to thousands of template slides, you'll easily captivate your audience with stunning infographics and modern designs. Slideshop: Lifetime Subscription is yours for only $29.99 – 98 per cent off the regular price. Related articles: How to be a better speaker: presenting and pitching tips 5 inspired self-promo ideas for design agencies 9 tips for breaking onto the speaker circuit View the full article

When embarking on a design career, you're full of ambition and expectation. But once the humdrum of daily deadlines sets in, it's easy to forget why you decided to be one in the first place, let alone appreciate all the upsides of the job. We're here to set that straight by reminding you of 10 reasons you should be happy to be a designer. It doesn't matter whether you specialise in print or web design; whether you make apps or physical products: these universal truths about the life and career of a designer will remind you of all the good things about your job. So the next time you've got an impossible deadline, or you overhear someone saying their nephew can design a website or create one of the world's best logos for a fiver, keep these in mind. Your job rocks, and you should be happy about it! 01. You get paid for being creative The most obvious reason to be happy you're a designer is that you get paid for being creative. Although sometimes design can be a procedural discipline, it does allow you to flex your creativity on an ongoing, daily basis. 02. You work in a constantly changing field One of the very best things about the design world in general is that it's constantly evolving and redefining itself. Not only does the discipline itself mature, in terms of the media you'll find yourself working with, but you'll also see shifts in aesthetic approach and fashion over time. This constant reinvention and willingness to try new ideas means designers are exciting people to be around. So lap it up! And if you're not sure exactly what's happening in the field right now, then don't miss our post on graphic design trends for 2019 or the typographic trends of 2019. 03. You influence the bottom line Dyson's designs genuinely revolutionised the vacuum cleaner As a designer you're often tasked with producing work that acts as the interface between a company and its customers. So whether you're working on a layout for a magazine, crafting a website or work in industrial design, you're the person who controls the user's experience. This can have a substantial effect on a company's performance – think in terms of Jonny Ive at Apple, or the Dyson range of vacuum cleaners. It's an important and incredibly rewarding position to be in. 04. You can pick your projects and clients (well, eventually) In the beginning, you have to accept every scrap of work that comes along. But once you have some experience under your belt, you should be able to manoeuvre yourself a position where you can start to pick and choose both your clients and projects. This is an empowering and affirming place to find yourself, so if you're not there yet, it's something to look forward to. And if you are, be happy – you've made it! If you're not quite getting the freelance clients you're after, then see our piece on 6 things to know about getting freelance clients. 05. Every day is different A lot of jobs are 'Groundhog Day' treadmills that make you feel that every day is the same. For design, not so. In the main, every day brings new challenges, problems to solve and projects to get creative with. This constant supply of fresh requirements makes for an interesting and stimulating job. And if you do feel you're stuck in a rut, then check out our tips on ways to transform your creative thinking. 06. You can make a positive difference to the world There are several organisations that champion diversity in the design industry, why not join one of them? Your role as a designer doesn't need to be a purely commercial one. Your skills can also be directed towards altruistic ends, and have a dramatic impact on the world.A great example of this is the (RED) project, which donates money raised from branded products to HIV/AIDS programmes in Africa. As a designer, you're well placed to be able to contribute meaningfully. For more on how you can make a difference, and not just through your work, see our post on 6 ways you can give back to the design community. 07. You get to see people interact with your work As a designer you get to observe people interacting with your work regularly. And whether it's seeing someone lap up a book you typeset, or enjoy a website you designed, seeing your work in action on a daily basis can be both gratifying and motivating. 08. You can work flexible hours Whether you prefer to work in the morning or the evening, you'll probably find your design career can fit around your schedule This one mainly applies to freelance designers, but if you work for yourself, or even sometimes when you work on contract, you're able to choose when and where to work. This offers an excellent opportunity to strike a work-life balance that suits your circumstances and needs. And it also means that if you're a night owl and can work more effectively at 11pm than at 11am, you can incorporate this into your working routine. 09. You can create your own specialism Regardless of the field of design you work in, there's always scope to develop and specialise within your area of expertise. Some designers focus on a particular style or technical approach to work – by using specific materials, a vernacular approach or a limited palette. Others will look at specific skills such as typographical engineering or working with paper in 3D. As a designer there's no limit to your ability to use your creativity to find your own unique style, approach and specialism. 10. You can find inspiration everywhere Is there inspiration lurking in your local supermarket or department store? Designers can find inspiration and ideas all around them. Whether it's a walk in the woods or a trip to the supermarket, you can find shapes, colours, type and imagery to inspire you everywhere you go. This ability to experience the world and draw it into your work is phenomenally rewarding, and also means you can justifiably claim that you're working while browsing Creative Bloq... Related articles: How to balance life and work How to balance money and happiness as a designer Build a better personal brand View the full article

The Fallout EK has added the latest Flash vulnerability to its bad of tricks, among other tune-ups. View the full article

A default configuration allows full admin access to unauthenticated attackers. View the full article

For version 6 of Boris FX’s planar tracker, roto-masking and visual effects tool, there’s a new naming convention (named by the year) signalling future major releases will be annual. The first thing you’ll notice about Mocha Pro 2019 is the redesigned interface and addition of four workspaces. Designed for newcomers, the default Essentials workspace presents a simplified layout that’s streamlined to focus on the bread-and-butter tasks of tracking and roto. Buy Mocha Pro 2019 from Boris FX Existing users will be at home with the Classic workspace. There’s also Roto and Big Picture workspaces, so you can pick the one that suits your 3D art workflow. Sadly there’s no option to create your own custom workspaces. The interface has been tweaked, becoming darker and a lot sharper as Mocha Pro has got better at taking advantage of high-DPI resolution screens, including Retina displays. New spline tools have been added that you’ll soon come to rely on To expedite roto work, new spline tools have been added that you’ll soon come to rely on. For quick garbage mattes, the Freehand spline tool is a useful timesaver. It lets you click-drag draw a loose shape that’s converted to an X-spline on completion. To increase or decrease the amount of tangents generated, there’s a Detail parameter. Similar to Photoshop’s Magnetic Lasso tool is the new Magnetic Spline tool. It reduces the amount of clicks needed as you simply trace an outline around the edge of the area you want to roto. Should the magnetism get confused when tackling difficult areas such as blurred edges, simply click to manually add anchor points until you get back on track or you can click-drag to temporarily switch to the freehand tool. Generally speaking the resulting X-spline tangent handles will need a fine-tune. Ellipse and Rectangle roto shapes have also been added. Mocha’s Remove Module, which is used to track and remove objects from shots, is now enabled for Open CL-based GPU acceleration to give a significant rendering speed boost compared to using only processing power. With this release, Mocha VR is no longer available as a unique product, instead the upgrade to Mocha VR is now Mocha Pro 2019 During reviewing, the speed increase is obvious and Boris FX has benchmarked rendering speeds that can be up to four to five times quicker, depending on hardware. VR artists can also take advantage of the GPU-accelerated Remove module and new roto tools as Mocha VR (Boris FX’s toolkit for spherical 360/VR video post-production) has been merged into Mocha Pro as a standard feature. The focus on faster and more efficient working – specifically with Mocha’s core tools, coupled with the addition of Mocha VR without a price increase makes this release excellent value. Buy Mocha Pro 2019 from Boris FX Get free admission to VERTEX 2019, the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists This article was originally published in 3D Artist magazine. Read more: The best new 3D tools for 2019. View the full article

If you've ever tried to explain the intricacies of a design to a colleague or client, chances are you'll have found that sometimes words can fall short of the mark when it comes to specifying what you're talking about. That's where some wonderfully bizarre terminology comes in, and the field of typography boasts plenty. The varied and obscure vocabulary surrounding typography might seem pernickety on the surface. But when you know the anatomy of your letter shapes, you'll not only have more authority when working with others, you'll also be able to diagnose problems with your type more easily. That's the thinking behind this infographic of 20 lesser-known typography anatomy terms put together by Toptal, a marketing place for visual interaction designers. Like all the best infographics, this one makes its data immediately understandable. Clear illustrations by Micah Bowers pinpoint a collection of letter parts that every designer should know, but which can often fly under the radar. How many do you know? Click the image to see the full size infographic Have you memorised them all? Why not test out your knowledge by examining the anatomy of the best free fonts online? Related articles: Typography trends in 2019 to look out for The 8 biggest typography mistakes designers make 10 typography tricks every designer should know View the full article

You're reading Free Essentials for Designers: Textures, Patterns, Shapes and Backgrounds, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! We are living in an era where everything is digital and artificial. However, there’s still room for old-time crafting tools. CSS-based illustrations, SVG icons and images, WebGL-powered pieces and dynamic effects of all types and kinds are the most popular … View the full article

Many logos cause controversy when first unleashed into the world, but that doesn't mean they won't be remembered fondly. But what is it about certain logos that mean they'll last forever? With this in mind, we asked five designers to share the logo design they most admire, and tell us what it is about that logo that inspires them. Some picked classic logos, while others went for more recent work. If this post gets you thinking, feel free to share your favourite logo with us on social media. 01. Mozilla Mozilla's rebrand was created by Johnson Banks, with the help of the internet "One recent logo design I really admire is the new Mozilla branding done by brand agency Johnson Banks," says Mimi Van Helfteren, designer at Coley Porter Bell. "Not only does it have a real smile-in-the-mind idea within the mark (the ‘ill’ of Mozilla is made out of URL characters), it was also created in a really forward-thinking way, asking the general public for input." Where to find logo design inspiration "The idea itself puts Mozilla at the heart of the internet, and is simple enough that it conveys their internet ethos of being open and free for everyone; while the typestyle is reminiscent of coding. Using the general public as a sounding board throughout the design process also ties into Mozilla’s values of transparency and participation that lets people all over the world have the creativity and freedom to publish opinions and ideas, and to collaborate without the restrictions of location. It feels well-rounded in both design and process, and true to the brand.” 02. CBBC CBBC's brand was refreshed by Red Bee agency "Like many social media users, I was initially a little skeptical when the BBC unveiled its new logo for the CBBC channel," says Matt Smith, art editor at Mac|Life magazine. "Its previous incumbent had become tired, dated and inappropriate for a modern digital age, so a refresh was definitely on the cards. However the new direction had strong overtones of corporate design and was admonished by the CBBC Controller herself for 'not screaming children's TV'. "While some of the criticisms had merit, I love the bold, colourful, playful approach, with the innovative placement of the 'B's. The abstract shapes also expanded the potential for fun idents and creative video transitions, which would appeal to a broader audience. "Do kids really care about logos? Possibly not, but I love this logo. Viewed as a whole I think the redesign was smart and classy, and will hopefully be fondly remembered. After all, time is a great healer; how many classic logos were universally loved when they were first conceived?" 03. Led Zeppelin The symbols here each represent one of Led Zeppelin's band members "The logo I admire the most is a combination of the original 1973 band logo for Led Zeppelin and the Led Zeppelin IV emblem with the four occult symbols, from the band’s nameless fourth album," says Ashley Milligan, art director of FINE. "The letterwork, wordmark and the system of four symbols are iconic: one symbol for each member of the band steeped in their own personal mythology. Both the band’s wordmark, as well as the Led Zeppelin IV logo, have a simple black and white colour scheme that has stood the test of time. Maybe the symbols you see and love in your formative years stay with you in a way no other marks do, but I scrolled and doodled this logo on countless notebooks in school, proud to wear the mark on merch while sharing the secret of the symbols with others. One instantly feels cool surrounded by these iconic marks, and no other logo does that.” For more music-related logos, see our post on beautiful band logos. 04. Empress Litho Print company Empress Litho's current identity was created by Supple Studio in early 2019 "Which logo design do I admire most? The energy of the Nike Swoosh? The iconic colouring of Coca-Cola? The simplicity of Apple? These are classics all worthy of the top spot, sure. I allow my number one, though, to be ever-changing as brands are created and identities refreshed. So what’s caught my eye lately? It’s the rebrand of Empress Litho," says Ross Middleham, content lead at the Met Office. "It does the basics right – it's legible, clear and versatile. The black and white use of negative space strikes a perfect balance between modern and traditional. The combination mark – with the two elements of graphic and type – allows for great flexibility. The crown, derived from a rotated ‘E’, gives the name importance and acts like a stamp of quality. "It looks gorgeous on vehicle wraps, stationery and clothing, but translates just as effortlessly into the digital world. The simple shapes and angles can be broken apart to create dynamic animations for social or used to reflect precision and accuracy in print. It’s a winner for me because those elements help unify its appearance across everything – from a huge banner right down to the tiniest social avatar." 05. I heart NY Milton Glaser's classic logo has a fantastic story behind it "For me it has to be the ‘I heart NY’ logo by Milton Glaser, which shows that the emoji phenomenon is not a new concept, and has a great story behind it," says Jade Trott, art director at OLIVER. "In 1976, the American graphic designer originally designed a different version of this logo. And just as the designs were being printed, he hailed a cab to go home. And then he noticed something: little graffiti love hearts everywhere. The graffiti in New York never said the actual word ‘love’. There was only ever a love heart and a couple of initials either side. And then it dawned on him: the essence of New York was shortening all words into symbols. The kids in New York didn’t have any time for words. "He drew ‘I heart NY’ on the back of an envelope, which is now on display in the MoMA, New York. And he raced back to the printers, stopped the press and changed it to the design we all know and love today. It’s timeless.” A shorter version of this article was originally published in issue 286 of Computer Arts, the world's leading graphic design magazine. Buy issue 286 or subscribe here. Read more: 6 huge logo trends for 2019 5 logo design terms you should know Discover the hidden flaws in 6 world-famous logos View the full article

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to create a glitch text effect. Special effects and animations can help websites stand out, creating an immediate impact on the user before they've had a chance to get into reading the main content. If your homepage needs to wow visitors, you can create tons of different effects using just CSS. Our process for creating glitch text here is actually pretty similar to working with animation software. We'll place keyframes at specific points, and use these to control the action. The difference with the keyframes in CSS is that they are written as percentages for the timeline of animation in the code. This isn't anywhere near as daunting as it sounds – once you try it, it's relatively straightforward to achieve good results. There will be a small amount of JavaScript used in the tutorial – to remove the loading screen once the images load onto the page – but the main focus here is on CSS animation. We'll also use CSS Grid to position elements on the screen. Download the tutorial files from FileSilo (free, login required) 01. Get set up To get started, open the start folder from the project files inside your code editor. Open the index.html page, which contains just a barebones skeleton HTML page. In the head section, the fonts need linking up so that the design displays correctly. Add the style link for the fonts. 02. Link the CSS The basic layout in CSS has been started in the site.css file, but all of the important parts relating to the glitch effect are going to be added later. In the head section of the document link up the CSS so that the basic design of the page is in place. 03. Set up a loading screen This screen will display while the page loads Now move to the body section of the page. This contains all the visible elements of the page that show up in the browser. Here add in a div that will hold the 'preloader screen' until everything on the page has loaded. This will display a logo in the centre of the page. 04. Add a header bar The basic elements of the design, before the glitch text effect is added Along the top of the screen will be a small header containing an SVG logo for the site on the left with a text heading. Then on the right-hand side of the screen, an inline menu will be in place for easy navigation. The structure of the code here adds those elements onto the page. 05. Add images Now the section that follows contains several versions of the same image in the glitchit class. What this will do is have different parts of these images turned on and off at different times in order to give a glitch effect. Following this is the text that will sit over the top of the images. 06. Trigger the glitch text effect At the end of the body content the JavaScript tags are placed. All this does is check that the page has loaded and then removes the loading screen, which in turn triggers the glitch effect animation to start by adding a class to the body to affect the relevant glitch sections. 07. Set up CSS Variables Save the page now and move over to the site.css file in the CSS folder. There is already code here, but right above any other code add in the variables shown below. These CSS Variables will hold colours and sizes that will be used later on in the design. 08. Experiment with Variable settings As you will see, these Variables are assigned to the body tag so they can be used by any tag on the page inside the body, which is essentially all the visible page. Here the transparency and blending modes are set up for the different images. There are five images and you can experiment with these settings to get different results. 09. Fill the screen with images To keep the code neatly together, scroll down to the comment that mark steps 9 to 13 in the CSS file, adding in this code. Here the glitch code positions the div containing all images to fill the full screen and be positioned absolutely in the top left of the screen. Note it gets its width and height from the CSS Variables. 10. Adjust image positioning The glitch effect uses repositioned copies of the same image As the glitch effect is made up out of copies of the same image, this code positions each div in the page and makes it slightly larger than the screen. It positions it off the top and left to account for it being bigger, and the image is then placed in the background to fill the image. 11. Select images The code here selects every image except the first image. This is because the first image stays on the page, while the others turn on and off over the top with the keyframe animation. These top images are hidden until they are needed with the opacity set to zero. 12. Adjust images two and three The second and third image are set to animate in this code. They are given the respective blend and colour modes so that they show up differently. The biggest difference here is that they are given different keyframe animations to follow to mix. 13. Adjust images four and five This time the next two images are set up quite close to the others, but again this time there is different blending modes and animations for these images to show up. The keyframes have not yet been created for some of these animations and that will come next. 14. Add the first set of keyframes The keyframes work by grabbing different sections of the image and clipping it down so only that will be visible. The opacity is turned on and off at different times so that parts of the image are visible at different times to the other animations and thus creates the glitch effect. The image is moved slightly on the x-axis. 15. Use the clip-path The clip path is taking a rectangle so the first two numbers are top left, then top right. This is followed by bottom right and bottom left. By moving these numbers different parts of the image become visible at different points. 16. Speed up the movement By moving the clip path so quickly over a number of the keyframes, the effect builds up and different parts of the image appear to flash around in an erratic fashion. Add that more layers of images are also doing this and the effect works very well at what it does. 17. Finish up the image glitches After 22% the image is turned off until the animation plays back again. This completes the glitch-1 effect with glitch-2 and glitch-3 already being supplied in the code. The next section will glitch the text that is over the top of the image as well. 18. How to create glitch text The text is only clipped briefly, to ensure it's still readable This code works extremely similarly to the previous code except that it flips the text upside down and then clips it, to give a jumping effect that is moved dramatically. Following that the clip path is revealing only smaller sections, with the fast movement through the keyframes. 19. More clipping The effect continues in this section of code by rapidly changing the shape of the clipping path. The clip-path also comes with the -webkit- prefix but for brevity this has not been shown in any of the code here. At time of writing, Clip Path is currently not supported in IE, Edge or Opera Mini, but is in all other browsers. 20. Flip the text back In the final text glitch animation the text flips back to its original position and waits for the keyframes to come around again. As you can see all of the animation takes place in 10 per cent while it stays dormant for 90 per cent of the time, giving the text the right amount of distress and allowing it to be readable. 21. Create a quick flash The glitch effect runs every few seconds to give a distressed look The final step is that one image is given the glitch-flash animation, and this series of keyframes just place the image on the screen with a 20 per cent opacity for a short period just to give an offset of the original. Save the CSS file now and the effect should start playing once the content loads in the browser. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 281 or subscribe. Read more: Add a glitch effect to your website 10 amazing new CSS techniques Create collage effects in the browser with CSS View the full article

Copywriting is an art form. It can make or break sales when it comes to marketing a product. So why not make sure you're at the top of your game with Modern Copywriting: Writing Copy That Sells in 2019? It's on sale for 94 per cent off the $199 MSRP at just $10.99 today. From crafting the perfect headline to learning exact formulas that will help prevent writer's block, Modern Copywriting: Writing Copy That Sell in 2019 will set you up as a copywriting pro. This online course includes seven hours of training that you can access at any time. That's right, you can improve your copywriting game from the comfort of your couch whenever you feel like it. Beginners are welcome, as this course covers copywriting basics, persuasion tactics and hitting the right tones among many other essential copywriting skills. Whether you're hoping to up your copywriting game for your website, email or social media, the intricacies and differences of every type of copywriting are also covered within these 66 lectures. Get lifetime access to this vital info for just $10.99 here. Want your products featured in The Creative Bloq Shop? Learn more about how to sell your products online! Related articles: How to write the perfect brief How to write engaging case studies for your portfolio How to write a great headline View the full article

DVD may seem a bit 'old school' these days, but sometimes it can be handy to have your work or design portfolio to hand - you never know who you might bump into, right? They can also be handy for storing files if that's your preferred method. For those of you born post DVD, it's an abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc, an optical storage disc that can store huge files sizes, like that of a movie, games and software install programs. A standard storage capacity of a DVD is 4.7 GB, while a rare double-sided and double layered one boasts of 17.08 GB, so it's easy to see why they have been, and still are, a popular choice among movie and video makers and musicians. How to burn files to DVD using Wondershare Wondershare DVD creator allows you to burn videos like MP4, MOV, FLV, ASF among others to DVD. It is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems as a free version and paid version. Simple, fast and efficient, Wondershare DVD Creator also allows you to personalise DVDs before burning them. Learn how to burn your files to DVD with this simple step-by-step guide. Step 01. First, you need to visit Wondershare website and download Wondershare DVD Creator for Windows or for Mac and install it. It is a lightweight software and therefore quick to download. From there, read the terms of the software and accept them to install. Step 02. Following installation, double-click on the program to open it. You will see a home window that let us you to choose disc or burn DVD by one click. If you opt for “One-click to Burn DVD” you will burn the videos without menu settings. Therefore, go for “Create a DVD Video Disc Step 03. You will then see a new window with source menu activated. Now, click on the add button at the centre of the window. This will enable you to upload the MP4 video/s that you want to upload and burn. The upload of files to the program is instant. Step 04. Next, the uploaded MP4 videos will appear at the left side of the new window. You can then add a title of your videos. Click on the pencil like button the video to get options to crop, trim, add effects as well as add watermarks. After making the changes click on OK and move to the next step. Step 05. From there, you have to customise the menu of your DVD. You can browse the template menus on the right side and then select one that fits your preference. You can then add texts, change menu structure and edit the background music. Step 06. After all the changes and adjustments, you can now preview the MP4 videos before burning them. Step 07. On this last step, you need to set the output settings. Define the folder path, Disc label and others on the list before clicking on the “Burn” button. The program will then burn all the MP4 to DVD within a few minutes. Other useful features of Wondershare DVD Creator You have seen how useful Wondershare DVD Creator is when it comes to burning of videos. This multilingual DVD burner also features other powerful functionalities that you might find useful. 01. Burn image to DVD burner This DVD creator does not just burn videos but it can also burn images to DVD. This option is useful when you have photos of an event and you want create photo slideshows. It supports different image formats and you can upload the images as a batch for burning. 02. DVD to video creator Wondershare DVD Creator can also convert the DVD to high-quality video formats like MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, VOB, WMV and MTS among others. 03. Burns files to data disc burner In a situation that you have images, videos and audios that you want to burn them to a disc as a backup, then Wondershare DVD Creator has the data disc feature. The data disc option allows you to burn files within a simple click. 04. ISO to DVD burner With this software, you will be able to burn your ISO files to DVD easily. Wondershare DVD Creator is an all-in-one DVD burner that can burn audios, image, and audios to DVD and also convert DVD to video formats. Moreover, it also allows to customise DVD menus and edit videos before burning them. View the full article

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In this tutorial we're going to take you through the process of making your app accessible and user friendly for people around the world. Only about 20 per cent of the world speaks English, so providing other language options can improve your user experience and greatly increase your app's reach. We're going to take a look at Angular's built-in internationalisation tools and show you how to correctly use them. We've created a very simple demo app to demonstrate the process. Clone it from here and then follow the installation instructions. Start the app to familiarise yourself with it. It just displays and updates random numbers and values with different contexts, e.g. currencies, dates etc. We'll cover some of the pipes and features used during the tutorial. 17 really useful responsive design tutorials 01. Key terms for supporting languages If your site's just in English you're missing out on a big audience There are two words that are often used interchangeably when talking about translating an app – internationalisation and localisation – however, they actually mean slightly different things. Internationalisation refers to the process of preparing your app for supporting different languages. In contrast, localisation refers to the process of actually translating your app into your required languages. Essentially internationalisation is something you do once per app, and localisation happens once per locale – at least that's the plan. These terms might also be familiar in their shortened versions: i18n (where 18 is the number of letters between the first 'i' and the last 'n' of internationalisation) and l10n (where 10 is the number of letters between the 'i' and the 'n' of localisation). 02. What's localisation? There are over 6,000 languages used around the world today, most of which are only used by very small groups of people. Yet even if we only focus on the top three languages – Mandarin, Spanish and English – there will be significant differences in date formatting, grammatical structure, pluralisation and number formatting. If we include the fifth most widely used language – Arabic – we encounter another difference; Arabic is a right-to-left (RTL) script which means the UI will also have to be mirrored. So during localisation we have to consider grammar, layout and formatting differences, and of course, we also have to change the text itself. Angular can help with much of this but you'll still need to manually translate the text. 03. Locales in Angular We will need to localise for each locale we need to support. A locale refers to the general set of preferences for the considerations mentioned above that tend to be shared within a region of the world, typically a country. Each locale is represented by a Unicode locale identifier, which specifies the language code and the locale extension. Angular's default locale is 'en-US', which is the language code 'en' (English) as spoken in the region 'US' (United States of America). An app localised for 'en-US' will be subtly different from an app localised for 'en-GB' which is English as spoken in Great Britain. For example, in the US dates are (bafflingly) formatted mm/dd/yyyy, whereas here in the UK we use the more sensible dd/mm/yyyy approach. This minor difference can result in a major error in comprehension. To make things interesting let's localise our demo app for Arabic as spoken in Iraq, aka 'ar-IQ' and English as spoken in the UK, aka 'en-GB'. We'll use English as the default this time. 04. Build configuration Our demo project was created using Angular CLI, which includes some useful tooling. We're going to use the Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compiler for this project so we need to make some changes to the CLI's configuration file: 'angular.json'. If you want to use Just-in-Time (JIT) you need to configure things slightly differently. With an AOT build you get a small, faster rendering ready-to-go application which loads without the need for asynchronous requests to fetch things like templates and stylesheets. As a result you must create a build for each locale and serve the appropriate build using the URL or some kind of server-side language detection logic. The simplest approach is to create a directory for each locale, e.g. www.example.com/en-GB and www.example.com/ar-IQ. The trade off is that you can't switch language on-the-fly, but in reality that is unlikely to be something required by real users. First of all we need to add a build configuration for our Arabic locale. In the JSON file look for the 'architect.build.configurations' object. Add the following block to define a configuration for the locale: This configuration tells Angular where to output the compiled build and which translations file and format to use. It also sets the locale and tells Angular which directory the app will be deployed to. We also need to modify the default options in 'architect.build.options' to use the 'en-GB' locale. Set the following properties as shown. Note we're enabling AOT here across the board so it will be used for production and development builds: Angular supports a number of locales. Make sure you use the correct value for the 'i18nLocale' property. You can see the complete list here. Behind the scenes the above configurations simply load and read from one of these locale preference files. 05. Serve configuration In addition to configuring the build output we also need to set up the configuration for the 'ng serve' command for development. This is more straightforward as we can simply reference the build configuration we just added. In 'angular.json' add the following block to 'architect.serve.configurations': Here we are referring the build configuration options using the 'browserTarget' property, and we're also setting the 'servePath'. Before we can either serve or build the Arabic app we need to create the translations file referenced in the 'i18nFile' property above. Angular CLI includes a tool for extracting flagged text into an industry-standard translation source file. We'll cover these files in more detail later on in the tutorial but for now we just need to export the basic, empty file to allow us to compile. We'll use the 'ng xi18n' command with the following options. This is the only time we'll include the locale ID in the '--out-file' filename: This should create a file in a src/locale directory. From now on we'll always output the file named 'messages.xlf' and manually copy it over the version with the locale ID in the name. The reason for this is to prevent the extraction tool from overwriting any existing translations we've added to the file. 06. Switch configuration By switching configuration you can default to location-specific currencies At this point we can now compile the project and see what happens, but we need to tell the 'ng serve' command which configuration to use. First let's take a look at the English version. No changes here because English is the default: As you can see it looks much like the original version, which uses Angular's default locale of 'en-US'. The notable difference is the currency now specifies US$ instead of just $. Okay, now let's try the Arabic version. Stop the English version and run: As you'd expect there are more obvious differences in this version, in particular the date is now written in Arabic. Angular can do this because the names of some things, such as months and days, are from a set list and ultimately they relate to a known number. Everything else, however, is still in English. 07. Locale-aware pipes Take a closer look at the source code of 'app.component.html' and you'll see that we use a number of different pipes. The following Angular pipes are locale-aware, meaning that they adapt their output based on the current locale: 'DatePipe', 'CurrencyPipe', 'DecimalPipe' and 'PercentPipe'. If you use these pipes carefully Angular will handle a lot of the localisation legwork for you. By carefully we mean use the available predefined options wherever you can. A good example is the US vs UK date formatting we mentioned earlier. If you're in the UK and you want to display a date using the (sensible) day-month-year format, you might be frustrated to find that the predefined ''shortDate'' option renders as m/d/yy (eg. 10/9/18) and be tempted to hardcode your desired format like this: But we now know that we get the m/d/yy format because Angular uses the 'en-US' locale by default. So instead of hardcoding the format we should use the ''shortDate'' option and localise our app to use 'en-GB'. It takes a tiny bit more effort but then we can add locales to our heart's content and always have a user-friendly date format. 08. Overriding the predefined options Unfortunately it doesn't seem that there is an easy, built-in way to override a predefined format. For example you can't just decide that you'd prefer the ''shortDate'' format to be dd/mm/yyyy instead of dd/mm/y as there is no way to modify the format at runtime. Also you can't add your own predefined options. For these edge cases you could create a custom date pipe which wraps the Angular 'DatePipe' and handles any custom formats per-locale. Anything it doesn't recognise would be passed on to the built-in 'DatePipe'. 09. CurrencyPipe Off the shelf the 'CurrencyPipe' will format a number as US Dollars, trim to two decimal places and add groupings as defined in the locale's preferences. You'll notice that in both our locales the currency is always in US Dollars. It doesn't magically switch to Sterling (GBP) when you use the 'en-GB' locale. The reason for this is that £10 is not the same as $10, so you must explicitly specify the currency your number refers to. Let's update 'app.component.html' to use GBP throughout. When specifying the currency code you must use the correct value from the ISO 4217 standard (list available online). Modify the two currency pipes by adding ':'GBP'' like so: And you'll start seeing the £ symbol instead of US$. Remember, it doesn't do anything clever like automatically convert USD to the equivalent value in GBP if you change the currency – it just changes the symbol it uses. 10. Translation workflow Okay, so we've got our two locales configured and Angular is helpfully doing some of the work for us out of the box, but the text is all still in English. Angular can't translate this automatically, sadly, but it can help us with parts of the workflow. This is what has to happen: Flag static text in all components for translation Export translation file containing this static text Modify the translation file and add the relevant translations Merge translated translation file back into app Angular helps us with steps 2 and 4, but as developers we need do step 1 manually. Step 3 would typically be completed by a translation professional or agency, using special software to read and update the translation file. 11. Axis details To achieve this we have to add a special attribute to every element that contains fixed text to be translated. To be clear if the content arrives from an API then that isn't fixed text and you'd need to localise that in the API. You only need to add the attribute when the text is written directly in the HTML template in your source code. A key point here is that you should try to keep your TypeScript files locale-agnostic – in other words, avoid putting any text that needs to be translated in the component logic and keep it all in the templates. Otherwise the extraction tool won't be able to extract it. It's good practice anyway to separate your concerns – in life and in code. Let's open up 'app.component.html' and start with the 'Current value' title. Simply add the 'i18n' attribute to the element that directly contains the text. It's important to understand that this is just a 'dumb' custom attribute. It isn't an Angular directive that triggers anything at runtime, in fact ,the compiler removes it after translation. Anyway, let's see what happens when we run the extraction tool again to regenerate the translation file. Remember '--out-file' is just 'messages.xlf' now: Open up the output XLF file and you should see a new translation unit block that looks something like this with some additional context information: Great, that means the tool picked up the 'i18n' attribute. That long ID is generated by the tool and will stay the same unless the text changes. If you have multiple instances of exactly the same text they will all get the same ID. Don't edit this ID! If you prefer, you can specify a custom ID within the 'i18n' attribute. If you do this the ID will remain the same even if the text changes, so you need to be sure you don't have any ID collisions throughout your app. Use the '@@' prefix to set a custom ID. Here the ID will become 'title': 12. Add some context To ensure the translator is able to provide an accurate translation they will often need to know the context that the text is being used in. The 'i18n' attribute allows us to define a description and a meaning to help the translator. The format is as follows: Let's update our title with a meaning and description: That should give the translator enough context to provide an accurate translation. Regenerate the translation file and you should see these values have been output. It's worth noting that if you don't use a custom ID the generated ID takes the meaning and the text into account. So the same text, but with a different meaning, will get a different ID. The description, however, has no impact on the ID. 13. Text with variables Let's move on to the intro section. The first paragraph contains text and a variable which will be interpolated at runtime. How do we handle this? Well happily it is quite straightforward. Again we need to add a meaningful 'i18n' attribute to the containing element. Add it directly to the paragraph element: See how the variable interpolation has been detailed in the output. The nice thing about this is it allows the translator to modify the grammatical structure of the sentence if necessary, without breaking the binding. For example, there may be a language where the sentence would be best written: X value was yesterday's closing, ie with the variable at the start. 14. Pluralisation Moving on to the next paragraph you'll see some intimidating syntax. This is called ICU Message Format and it allows you to specify different chunks of text based on the value of a variable. You can use this to add the 's' to words in English when the value is zero or not one. For example, if 'seconds' is a variable containing the number of seconds we can use this ICU pluralisation expression: Which will output: 0 seconds 1 second 2 seconds It doesn't appear to be documented but you can also use the 'AsyncPipe' inside the pluralisation syntax to work with Observables. In that example 'one' and 'other' are pluralisation categories. There are a number of categories to choose from, but beware! Not all locales support all the categories, and Angular doesn't tell you if you try to use a category that isn't supported by the current locale. It is easy to end up thinking that you've done something wrong because the 'two' category isn't working in your 'en-GB' locale and instead you are seeing the 'other' text. Inexplicably 'en' (and many other common languages) only support 'one' and 'other', even though 'zero' and 'two' are explicit values. Check out this file to see what's actually supported. 15. The multiple radial bar charts We can work around this limitation by using numbers instead of categories. Just prefix the value with an '=': This is already set up in the demo app, we just need to add the 'i18n' attribute to the containing paragraph: Run the extraction tool again to see how this looks. You'll see that this is output slightly differently. It will create two translation units; one for the ICU expression itself and one which interpolates that expression into the original string. 16. Select expression If you want to display different text depending on the value of a variable you can use a 'select' ICU expression which is very similar to the 'plural' syntax demonstrated above. In our demo app we monitor the change applied to the value and create an Observable stream called 'trend$' which outputs 'up', 'down' or 'stable' depending on whether the change is positive, negative or zero. We then hook up our 'select' ICU expression to output a different string depending on the stream value. Here you can see the 'AsyncPipe' in use: This is a somewhat cleaner syntax than using 'ngIf' or 'ngSwitch' to manipulate the DOM, plus it also plays nicely with the extraction tool. Add the 'i18n' attribute to the containing element: Regenerate the translations file and you'll see the approach is similar to the plural output, with two translation units created. ICU expressions are pretty handy once you get used to them, plus you can nest them to create more complex outputs. 17. Add translations Once you've marked up all your text that needs translating you can generate a translation file One more 'i18n' attribute to add: Now we've marked up all the text that needs translating we can generate the translation file one last time. Once it is created rename it to 'messages.ar-IQ.xlf' and replace the previous incarnation. This is the file we'd be sending to the translation professional, but for the purposes of this tutorial, Google Translate will be standing in! Open up the XLF file and duplicate every '<source>' element, renaming it '<target>'. Unfortunately it can be quite untidy so it might help to beautify the contents. To check we've got them all, save the file and start the app with the Arabic locale: If you see any messages in the terminal like this that means you've missed one: Hopefully you won't have any errors and you'll be able to see the app in the browser. We've not added any actual Arabic yet so it won't look much different. 18. Google Translate Google Translate is an easy way to create translations for your site Let's start with something easy – the 'Current value' title. Google Translate tells me it should be (Arabic text here) so update the value in the '<target>' element: So far, so good. Now let's do one with interpolation. Here is "Yesterday's closing value was…" (hopefully!): Use a number when you translate so you can see where the interpolation should be. Notice that when you see the translated result in Google Translate it will appear reversed – ie the number at the start – but when you copy and paste it into the translation file it will return to the original order. This is happening because Arabic is an RTL language so the script is (almost) entirely mirrored. Google Translate does this by adding a 'dir="rtl"' attribute to the containing element. We'll learn how to do this in the next step. The rest of the translations are available in the demo repo, 'tutorial' branch. 19. Script direction We need to manage the script direction in our app because Angular won't do this automatically for us. There also doesn't appear to be any way to detect if the current locale is an LTR or RTL language, so we'll need to hardcode this. It'd be great if Angular offered a built-in directive for this. Open up 'app.component.ts'. Import 'Inject', 'LOCALE_ID' and 'HostBinding' from ''@angular/core''. Then set up the 'HostBinding' as follows. This will add a 'dir' attribute to the AppComponent and set the default language direction to 'ltr': Next add a constructor and inject the 'LOCALE_ID'. Remember this is set by our configuration because we're using AOT. And finally add the following snippet to the existing 'ngOnInit' method. Here we are checking if the 'LOCALE_ID', ie 'ar-IQ', starts with 'ar' and if it does change the direction to 'rtl' instead. If you plan to support more locales then you'll probably need to refactor this to make it more scalable, however, as there are only about ten RTL languages in use today this approach shouldn't be too unwieldy. Start the Arabic app and you should now see that the UI is mirrored – the £ sign should be on the right. 20. Production The final step is to generate and check our production builds. First, though, we need to make another quick modification to the 'angular.json' configuration. In 'architect.build.configurations' duplicate the existing production object and rename it '"production-ar-IQ"'. Then copy and paste the properties from the existing '"ar-IQ"' configuration into the object, so you have both the production options and the 'i18n' options. You also need to update 'architect.serve.configurations' too. This time duplicate the existing '"ar-IQ"' object and rename it '"production-ar-IQ"' and change the 'browserTarget' value to point to your new 'production-ar-IQ' configuration. Now you can build and serve your production Arabic locale with this command: Okay, we're done! We've successfully internationalised our app, and localised it for 'en-GB' and 'ar-IQ' audiences. Angular makes the process remarkably straightforward for the developer, in fact, the hardest bit is figuring out what the translations should be – apologies to any Arabic speakers if anything is wrong! This article was originally published in issue 281 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 281 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: How to build a full-page website in Angular The best laptops for programming in 2019 How to build an app View the full article

Just when you thought the internet might go a day without having a meltdown over something seemingly innocent, Slack came along and revealed its new logo. The workplace chat app unveiled its redesign yesterday as part of a general refresh, but judging by the negative reaction of social media, it looks like the multicoloured hashtag logo is going to be missed by many. Created by the app's in-house design team in partnership with Michael Bierut and the team from Pentagram, the new logo design keeps the colourful palette we've come to associate with Slack, but it's traded the hashtag motif for a design that more closely resembles a pinwheel. Logo design: everything you need to know Sold by the Slack team in a blog post as an evolution rather than an overhaul, the new logo is designed to be easier to use and more cohesive across multiple platforms. Meanwhile the previous logo, which is either a hashtag or an octothorpe depending on your vocabulary, worked okay on a screen, but struggled to perform elsewhere. "It was also extremely easy to get wrong," the Slack team explain. "It was 11 different colors – and if placed on any color other than white, or at the wrong angle (instead of the precisely prescribed 18º rotation), or with the colors tweaked wrong, it looked terrible. It pained us." This clunkiness makes sense when you consider that Slack's original logo was created before the company was even launched. How many first draft logos could you imagine working seamlessly once they've hit the big time? And as for the updated identity, Slack wants it to look new but also reassuringly familiar. "It uses a simpler color palette and, we believe, is more refined, but still contains the spirit of the original," says Slack. "It’s an evolution, and one that can scale easily, and work better, in many more places." Makes sense, right? Well, try telling that to the legions of online commentators currently tearing strips off the redesign. Search for the Slack logo on social media or give it a quick Google, and you'll see articles saying it's 'simply awful', 'really wrong', and one even comparing the new icon to penis swastikas. You might be attached to the hashtag logo, but it had a lot of flaws This sort of kick-back isn't anything new, even the best logos can be met with a frosty reception. As Slack explains though, this isn't change for the sake of change. The old design, while recognisable and distinctive, simply wasn't fit for purpose. The Slack team put it perfectly when they said that "a good reason to change a logo is that it’s not doing the job you want it to do – and because a simpler, more distinctive evolution of it could do that job better." The new logo works better off screen, plus it lends itself to some creative interpretations while remaining distinctly 'Slack' Yes, a hashtag logo for an app that's all about hashtags makes sense, but isn't the whole point of logo design to try and find an imaginative, sophisticated and succinct way to represent a brand? The hashtag worked well enough for Slack's early days, but looking back on it, the design was perhaps too straightforward and weighed down by its colour palette. The new design, on the other hand, calls to mind a flurry of speech bubbles coming together to communicate. A pretty good summary of the app if you ask us. And by working in the core colour basics and they way they're laid out in the hashtag logo, the transition from the old look to the new is made as smooth as possible. Related articles: Where to find logo design inspiration 6 huge logo trends for 2019 The secrets of good logo craft revealed View the full article

The year is 2019, and it's about time you knew how to build your own website. The Complete Front-End Developer Bundle gives you all the knowledge you need to begin creating web pages from scratch. This bundle has a MSRP of $1419.97, so you're going to want to nab this deal at 97 per cent off and get it for $41 today. In order to build a website, there are some basic building blocks you need to master. Don't have any prior experience? No problem! These nine courses give you over 66 hours of training in these front end fundamentals, and the breadth of information means even a beginner can get into the swing of things while taking in the classes. Let this bundle of courses introduce you to the world of website building – schooling you in JavaScript, CSS, Adobe Design Tools and more. Whether you're interested in building a website for your very own business or starting a new career and building for others, all of the knowledge in this bundle will pay for itself in no time. Get all of the knowledge included in The Complete Front-End Developer Bundle today for just $41 here. Want your products featured in The Creative Bloq Shop? Learn more about how to sell your products online! Related articles: 5 cross-browser testing tools to try today 35 brilliant 404 error pages Get to grips with the theory of UX View the full article

If you're an artist or a recent graduate looking to kickstart your career, Adobe's Creative Residency could be the opportunity you've been waiting for. The year-long programme, which gives selected artists the chance to develop their career through a personal passion project, is now open for applications for creatives from Canada, Germany, the US, UK and Japan. Offering artists the support of a full salary, health benefits, mentorship and access to its software, Adobe's Creative Residency is a fantastic chance to build your dream career around your creative vision. On top of this, the course also includes valuable speaking opportunities and project-specific support to help make your work the best it can be. Get Adobe Creative Cloud now Applications for the 2019 Adobe Creative Residency run until 7 February. The programme welcomes a variety of ideas and projects, however Adobe has specified that they are keen to work with candidates who have a strong focus on UI/UK, short-form online video, illustration (digital drawing and painting), design (digital and print) and photography. Can't see your speciality on that list? Don't worry, Adobe will still welcome your portfolio. The company wants to see work that you believe in, and that you would still pursue even if you didn't get into the programme. It's that sort of work that stands out. The 2019 Adobe Creative Residency welcomes a broad range of styles How to apply If you're interested in applying, Adobe has put together a bunch of useful resources to help you out. The Creative Residency site is packed with useful information, including an FAQ page and a whole section dedicated to how to apply. When applying, be sure to ask yourself some questions about what your project wants to achieve, and what materials or support you will need. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to applying, so feel free to let your creativity loose and play up the strengths of your style. Adobe will also consider your previous work when judging your application. This includes your flexibility to try new things, previous work experience, and drive to take on new challenges. Three past projects will be taken into account, so it's a good idea to include links to your online portfolio. If it's in need of an update, be sure to take a look at our beautiful examples of design portfolios for inspiration. To help you get started with your application, previous resident Anna Daviscourt has put together a video (above) of 5 things to keep in mind before you submit your work. Meanwhile, previous Creative Resident Isabel Lea had this to say about her experience on the programme. "I run a creative studio called ATYPICAL and with day to day client work it can be hard to focus on more experimental work. The Adobe Residency gave me a year to really push the boundaries of what’s possible with design." "This year I’ve been exploring how we make language visible through typography in a more playful and experimental way. The programme doesn’t just accelerate your creativity in your field but your career as a whole. Not only have I made typefaces, design products and installations but I’ve also been given platforms to share my journey through conferences, workshops, talks and livestreams." "All of this combined has helped me push my work forward in unexpected ways and connect with opportunities I never thought possible." Related articles: 80 best Adobe Illustrator tutorials The 18 best Adobe Illustrator plugins Crack Adobe CC with this keyboard cheat sheet View the full article

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Leaky Fortnite single sign-on mechanism could have allowed hackers to access game accounts. View the full article

Some serious users of Houdini might say that the software is more of a 3D operating system, because of its complexity and versatility. The newest release, 17 or Banshee, is the heaviest release in recent years. As usual, the dev team at SideFX have focused mostly on the effects modules, but have also touched on almost all other parts of Houdini, so just listing all of the new features and enhancements would take a while. As you may have noticed in previous releases, many new features are ‘by TDs, for TDs’ kind of tools and the low-level, hard-coded ones are throttled back. It’s the same with this version, and we’ve got quite a few new, ready-to-cook shelf tools that will help you create stunning 3D art. Get Houdini 17 Banshee from $269 per year Houdini 17: New tools This new release has a range of new tools and features added One of the best is the new Whitewater tool, which realistically simulates self collision, cohesion etc for all foam, spray and bubble effects emitted from any kind of FLIP simulations. In the previous versions it was a much simpler particle system. There was always the opportunity to enhance the simulation with custom modifications or even custom solvers, but usually the rush of a production doesn’t allow for such fidelity chasing, which ends up with 'looks good, but I feel that something is wrong' results. On top of this, clients are looking for rapid results, so features such as a one-click Perfect Storm tool can be a real advantage, at least as a high-level starting point. Houdini 17: Node-based architecture In Houdini the TD work, node network building and coding are friends, not enemies. Most of the simulation and procedural tools are put together by TDs at SideFX, with high-level node networks inside. These are based on deeper-level node networks, either with top-down operators and left-right VOPs. The coded nodes can be open source (VEX, the programming language of Houdini and OpenCL) or ‘baked’ ones. The solvers themselves work in this way, thus the nodes and tools that come with Vellum – the biggest new feature in this release – are fully transparent, like the Pyro and other solvers, and aren’t black boxes as is the case in other software. We can dive into them, even unlock and modify or rebuild these networks inside. For problem solving, the opportunity to rewire almost anything in Houdini feels for me much more natural and direct than writing code, as basically there are circuits connected to each other in the computer’s memory and processor. I think this is the most fundamental advantage of Houdini compared with many other 3D packages. The disadvantage of this node-based open architecture is that in simpler scenes it feels slower than a similar one in a hard-coded software. However, with heavy scenes the extra processing time consumed by the node-based architecture is relatively insignificant. Furthermore, the low-level VOP networks can perform as fast as a hard-coded module. Houdini 17: Vellum The fabric on this statue was added from Vellum, then rendered with Optix Vellum is a brand-new, GPU-accelerated multi-physics engine based on the new XPBD model, a particle-based dynamics system for a broad range of usage. There are Vellum shelf tools for cloth, inflated objects, hair, grains and a faster alternative for simulations where we used FEM before, like tissue and other soft bodies. Luckily, Vellum nodes are also available in the SOP context, so it’s convenient to use them for simulation-based modelling or to simplify the scene structure, without the need for a separate DOP network. Houdini 17: The downsides As a look dev/lighting artist, I have used software such as Maya, 3ds Max and Clarisse in production, but have often found myself in a situation where I felt them to be quite restrictive. However, the weakest area of Houdini is still the UI and user-software interaction in general. SideFX has enhanced them a lot during the last decade, but there are still annoying flaws with the viewports, the IPR and some other functions are quite laggy (the Esc key and Manual update are our friends), especially when comparing with Clarisse. Coming from Maya, many parts of the docs felt weak and unhelpful. It seems that VFX artists just can’t get away from software-related frustrations. That’s why I went back periodically to other software and did not transition fully to Houdini. The final decisive factor that made me put those other software aside though was stability issues. The most annoying thing is having to restart and reload the scene every few minutes. Of course Houdini isn’t bug-free – in H17 I ran into multiple crashes and broken features which work fine in H16.5 – but usually as time goes on the dev team at SideFX really consider the bug reports and release bug fixes on a daily basis, and a new production build every month. The customer support is great, and every time I received quick and helpful answers. The community and the resources on the internet are also bold and helpful – as it should be. Get Houdini 17 Banshee from $269 per year Read more: The 10 best 3D movies View the full article

It’s safe to say the simple days of web design are long gone. Designing for the internet used to be text and image working together to connect with the user. But with the growth of mobile and social media, as well as a younger generation of consumers, sites now have to suit new behaviours and expectations. The biggest drivers of this shift have undoubtedly been Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as over the last decade they’ve essentially changed how web traffic is funnelled, building entirely new user journeys. That’s ultimately a path we’re still on – as it continues to evolve around us now – but there are already some clear lessons that we, as web designers, can learn and factor into builds. 29 web design tools to speed up your workflow 01. Tailor your content to fit your audience If you look at Instagram, the platform has typically attracted a younger audience, but today there’s an older demographic that’s getting involved. That has in turn had an impact on how we use it, as often now the image to copy ratio per post is tailored to each specific audience – younger versus older audiences. For example, Gatwick Airport’s Humans of Gatwick series on Instagram has a very long caption aimed at a more mature audience who will read all of it, whereas Adidas focused more on the visual and less on the copy when releasing the new Solar Boost range, aimed at younger consumers. The lesson here for web design is to tailor the image to text ratio of your design to each specific audience. Adapting and introducing this level of audience understanding helps smoothly transition a user from social media to when they arrive on the website, thus helping to set the site’s content hierarchy as a whole. 02. Keep your website's brand and social consistent On Twitter, my design team often use a large font in images, so users don’t need to click to expand to be able to consume the message. This font is something that, when designing for web, we will connect to the first line of the website, so a user can in turn connect the two and not get lost from the initial interaction from social. Continuity is key, so we would either follow on from or directly replicate it using the font and message so it has brand consistency across all channels, be it social or website. Font consistency builds brand awareness and helps to become an icon for the client or company. For a list of the best fonts to use online, see our post on web fonts. 03. Establish your online presence with a colour scheme There is a single flat colour trend on social media at the moment that sees influencers and celebrities build and stick to a specific colour scheme for their profiles or a specific colour grading for their YouTube or Instagram Stories footage. These seemingly subtle colour choices can connect with the target audience, and in turn make the overall theme synonymous with that content creator. It’s a brand guideline but not as we typically know it and there are lessons for web designers. Taking this trend of subtle colour changes or consistent background colour to the front end of a website helps connect to the specific audience that is coming from social media. This system is perfect for a campaign, for example, as the colour theme enables a campaign to stand out on its own while still not straying too far from the core branding. 04. Use patterns to get recognised Burberry recently had a huge brand design overhaul and used the same monogram pattern across all of its social media channels and on its website. As designers, it’s common to hide such patterns in the background and lower the opacity so that they’re nearly non-existent but Burberry did the complete opposite of this, featuring the patterns in its imagery and thus drawing the user’s attention to it. It’s a fashion-focused way of using patterns on clothing and accessories, but this tactic instantly changed the way people recognised the pattern and proved that less isn’t always more. It’s an easy way to build brand recognition across social media, online and in physical spaces, which is something I’d expect to see more of moving forward. 05. Create social-specific landing pages Most social media platforms have a mobile-first way of thinking, which means we design with mobile at the heart of a website. But it’s not always the case. Some clients have multiple campaigns across three different social channels, which means something that was once a one-size-fits-all website turns into three sizes then back into one. In these cases, web designers should look at designing different landing pages or sub-pages that connect better with the audience or content from each social channel a user is being directed from. This responsiveness, alongside repetition and consistency, are key design lessons from social media. However, if you wander too far from the tree, you risk losing the fresh pickings, so my advice would be to not get too hooked up on social media. Use the lessons here but don’t let them define your design. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 313 or subscribe. Related articles: Social media for artists: A lifeline or a curse? 10 social media tricks you didn't know about How to master colour theory View the full article

If you want to improve your drawing, then you need to spend some time practising. But it needn't all be serious, hard work. Every now and then, it's good to kick back and do something fun and relaxing. And these excellent drawing games are a great way to do just that. Along the way, some will help improve your ability to draw straight lines, curves or circles, and if you need some more help, be sure to check out our more in-depth how to draw tutorials. Other apps will help boost your imagination. And some are just plain fun, and a way to de-stress after a hard day's creative work. Read on as we reveal our favourite drawing games on the market for iOS and Android users right now. Drawing games that build your technical skills Do you want to work on your basic motor skills but in a fun way? Learn the principles of symmetry, how to draw complex symbols at speed, and the all-important skill of drawing a perfect circle with these great digital drawing games, all free to download. 01. Circle Draw Draw a circle and your efforts will be rated by a cute cat! Download for iOS Requirements: iOS 8.0+ Size: 8.9MB Price: Free Learning to draw a perfect circle freehand is one of the most useful skills an artist can develop, and this game trains you to do just that. Not only do you get a score each time you draw a circle, you get a cute cat to comment on it too. It’s a simple idea, but this iOS drawing game by Thomas Denney executes it perfectly. And while it might not sound that exciting, it’s actually extremely addictive! 02. Draw Tile Complete the design based on the principles of symmetry Download for Android Requirements: Android 4.1+ Size: 32MB Price: Free (IAPs) Draw Tile is another game that helps you develop your motor skills in drawing simple shapes. Each picture is divided into four squares, or tiles, and the first one is already filled in. You simply have to follow the guidelines in the other four squares to complete the picture, based on the principles of symmetry (vertical axis, horizontal axis, dual axial and radial). The best tablets with a stylus for drawing and note-taking in 2019 It sounds simple, but depending on the steadiness of your hand and your manual dexterity, it can be quite tricky, and the app will only let you proceed to the next picture once you’ve done a good enough job. There are 490 levels, and the images get more and more complex as you progress. Again, it’s a surprisingly addictive challenge. 03. Impossible Draw Complex symbols appear as you zoom through 3D environments, and you need to replicate them quickly Download for Android Download for iOS Requirements: iOS 6.0+ or Android 3.0+ Size: 62.6MB (iOS), 37MB (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) Want a drawing game that’s a bit more challenging? Impossible Draw asks you to copy a series of symbols as you zoom through a 3D sci-fi style environment. It’s a great way to practise drawing a series of unique and unusual shapes accurately and quickly (you only have seconds to spare). Because you barely have time to think, it’s a great way to internalise your drawing lines and shapes precisely skills. The app is free to download, and although you can pay for extra graphics, music and effects, you don’t really need them. Drawing games: 'Draw and guess' We’ve all enjoyed a classic game of Pictionary in our time: drawing something against the clock and challenging others to guess it. Well, these apps all offer the same experience but in a digital environment, without any need to clear up a tree’s worth of paper from the floor afterwards. 04. Draw and Guess Draw and Guess lets you play a Pictionary-style game with players around the world Download for iOS or Android Requirements: iOS 6.0+ or Android 3.0+ Size: 12.1MB (iOS), 37MB (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) Draw and Guess is a fun drawing game created by Danijel Lombarovic and inspired by Pictionary. You’re offered three words to choose from, and your task is to draw one of them, while the other players guess what it is. There are multiple game modes, so you have the option of playing with friends, playing with other players from around the world, drawing words for practice, or just guessing what others’ drawings are. Also note that you can play in either English or German. 05. Draw Something Classic Draw Something Classic is played by millions around the world Download for iOS or Android Requirements: iOS 8.2+ or Android 4.4+ Size: 109.1MB (iOS), 44MB (Android) Price: Free IAPs) Probably the world’s best-known social drawing game, this classic app has been responsible for more than seven billion drawings since it was first released in 2012. You can play with friends and family or people around the globe, and it’s all very colourful and a lot of fun. However, do be warned that there are lots of ads and solicitations, which can be distracting. 06. Pictionary The original Pictionary has a digital version too Download for iOS Download for Android Requirements: iOS 9+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 272.9MB (iOS), 92MB (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) We’re not sure what took they so long, but a good five years after 'Draw Something' (above) had dominated the drawing game space, Pictionary themselves finally released a digital version of their iconic game. While it’s similar to other copycat games, the unique thing about Pictionary, as in the physical version, is the challenge of drawing esoteric words and phrases like ‘cool as a cucumber’ or ‘dignity’. Note, though, that there’s no multiplayer mode and, as with Draw Something, there are an awful lot of irritating ads. 07. SketchParty TV SketchParty TV is a Pictionary-style game for Apple TV users Download for iOS Requirements: iOS 9.2+ Size: 74.7MB Price: £4.99 SketchParty TV is a Pictionary-like drawing game for the Apple TV. Typically, each player gets five words to draw in two minutes, while others guess. You draw on your iPhone or iPad, and the results appear up on your smart television. Up to eight players can join a team, and by gathering everyone around the TV in this way, this is a great game for getting the whole family involved. Also, if you get bored of the word lists, you can pay extra to create your own. Drawing games: Construction Drawing against the clock can be fun, but sometimes you'd rather spend a bit more time crafting something more complex. These drawing games based around construction give you a great sandbox to unleash your imagination and create something truly unique and personal to you. 08. Draw Your Game 2 Draw an environment on paper, photograph it, and then play a game based on the world you've created Download for iOS Download for Android Requirements: iOS 7+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 105.9MB (iOS), 58MB (Android) Price: Free with in-app purchases Want to draw your own video game? Draw Your Game 2 by Kacem Bekri lets you do just that. You draw the game environment not on a screen but using physical pens, pencils and paper. You then use the app to take a picture of your drawing, and in a few seconds your game will be playable. You can also create on the go, by drawing inside the game, and you can share your designs with players around the world. All in all, it's a great way to stimulate artistic creativity for both children and adults. 09. Mini Metro Design your own public transit system with this fun game Download for iOS Requirements: iOS 8+ Size: 132.9MB Price: $3.99 Frustrated by your commute? This quirky iOS drawing game gives you the chance to put the world to rights by penciling your own metropolitan transit system. You have plenty of options: build your home town's network in meticulous detail, make a massive city with a large fleet of trains, or construct geometric patterns and record looping gifs. It’s all very slick, and gives you a fascinating insight into the challenges of planning public transport, as well as being terrific fun. 10. Draw Bricks Design scenes using Lego-style virtual blocks Download on Android Requirements: Android 4+ Size: 7.8MB Price: Free (IAPs) Draw Bricks takes place in a 3D space that lets you free your imagination and create whatever you want. There are more than 200 objects that you can customise, or you can build things using LEGO-style blocks that have different textures, such as grass, wood and stone. With the freedom to rotate the camera and art tools such as Pencil, Eraser, Paint Bucket, Move, Rotate and Character Control, this is a fun way to construct your own 3D worlds, for both kids and adults missing their childhood Lego sets. Drawing games: Puzzles and physics These games all involve drawing, but not pictures. Instead, you draw simple lines, curves or shapes in order to solve a puzzle or send a moving object in a particular direction. In short, they are little to do with artistic talent and will teach you little about how to draw. But they are fun, require not much brainpower and can be a marvellous way to relax! 11. One Touch Drawing This brain training game gets you to draw lines in increasingly challenging ways Download on iOS Download on Android Requirements: iOS 7+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 109MB (iOS), 31MB (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) One Touch Drawing is a brain training game to help improve your concentration. The aim is to draw a set of provided figures, using only one stroke each time. The typical challenge is that you cannot draw the same line twice. As you progress through the hundreds of levels (all free), you’re faced with extra challenges, such as a line that must be passed twice, or a one-directional line. Simple to pick up and play, this game is a great way to unwind and take your mind off things at the end of a busy day. 12. Draw Line: Classic Match dots on a grid in this drawing puzzle Download on iOS Download on Android Requirements: iOS 7+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 105.3MB (iOS), varies with device (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) Draw Line: Classic is a logic puzzle drawing game where you have to pair up all the matching dots on the grid with single continuous lines. Dots have to fall at the end of each line, and lines can't branch off or cross over each other. There are more than 1,000 free levels, and you get five free hints during your first game. Early levels are quite straightforward, but the game becomes increasingly challenging as you progress. 13. Physics Drop Get the ball into the 'U' by drawing lines Download on iOS Download on Android Requirements: iOS 8.1+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 147.8MB (iOS), varies with device (Android) Price: Free (IAPs) Physics Drop is an animated puzzle in which you have to push a ball and then draw lines and/or polygons for it to travel along. The ball, lines and shapes react to the law of gravity, and it all feels quite natural, despite being a little surreal. Essentially an educational game, it features more than 100 physics problems that help you practise your problem solving skills, creative thinking and reflexes. 14. Stickman Racer Road Draw Guide Stickman to safety by drawing lines and shapes Download on iOS Download on Android Requirements: iOS 8+ or Android 4.1+ Size: 95.7MB (iOS), 30MB (Android) Price: Free with in-app purchases Stickman Racer Road Draw is a physics-based racing game by Sergey Mezhakov, in which your job is to draw the roads and keep your car safe through a series of obstacles. If you want a fun, fast-moving game that’s a bit more adrenaline-packed than the more cerebral puzzlers mentioned previously this section, this is worth a try. 15. Draw your car Draw your car, then draw the roads it travels on Download on Android Requirements: Android 4.1+ Size: 147.8MB Price: Free (IAPs) Draw Your Car by Alex Naronov is similar to Stickman Racer Road Draw (above) in that you draw the lines your car drives along. As the title suggests, the twist is that you also get to draw the car you play with. You’re sent on missions, where you collect coins, and you can save and share your car drawings. Overall, while there’s nothing hugely original in this game, it's very playable, colourful, and fun for kids and grown-ups alike. Read more: 17 iPad Pro apps that come alive with Apple Pencil Create a fast and anatomically correct sketch The best drawing tablet right now View the full article

Need to make a website, but lack any web page building knowledge? No problem! Page Builder Pro will help you create a professional, mobile and SEO-friendly website with absolutely no prior programming knowledge. And it's currently on sale for 94 per cent off the $745 MSRP for just $39. Want to start a site for your business? Dreaming of becoming a blogger? No matter the reason, Page Builder will help you attain your website building dreams. It comes complete with tons of themes to make sure your site is customised to your liking, and you can pick from hundreds of their pre-designed elements to make your site interactive and engaging – including features for selling products. And all of the themes are both friendly for mobile surfing and SEO purposes. Already have some HTML skills? Don't worry, Page Builder also lets you create things from scratch if you're in more of a DIY mood. Get this lifetime subscription to Page Builder Pro today for just $39. Want your products featured in The Creative Bloq Shop? Learn more about how to sell your products online! Related articles: 5 ways to boost your website's SEO Climb the Google rankings: How to master SEO 10 must-know SEO tools for search success View the full article

Behance has long been known as a go-to place to find the best creative work from around the world. Since its inception, the online portfolio platform become a inspirational resource for everyone in the creative community, whether that be as an artist wanting to get their work out to the masses or an employer searching for new talent. However, with the arrival of multiple no-coding, easy-to-use website builders in recent years, its fair to say Behance started to lose a bit of its lustre. But that all looks set to change, with the company yesterday revealing brand new Behance profile (see above) and project pages to better showcase creatives work. And we think they've certainly fulfilled that brief, especially when you compare the new profile page (above) to the previous version (see below). The previous Behance profile page has undergone a serious makeover Bigger and better The all-new Behance profile page has been updated to feature larger, single cover images to really let the work do all the talking. And the text that was once immediately visible below the images - name of the project, likes and views - can now be seen by simply hovering over each project. There's also now the option for creatives to upload a custom banner image to their Behance profile. A subtle but hugely beneficial feature to add personality and keep a profile on brand. And it's ridiculously easy to set up, using a simple drag and drop/reposition system with a image of your choice. More information on adding Behance profile banners can be found here. Add a touch of personality and stay on brand with a new Behance profile banner The best presentation And the updates don't stop there. The Behance team has also updated the layout of individual project pages to help creatives present their work in the best possible way, and at the same time making it easier for viewers to appreciate it. Full project images fill the screen, with project and creator information at both the top and bottom and actions including share, save, follow and appreciate present the entire time. It's clear Behance and Adobe has pulled out all the stops for this update, bringing the online platform up-to-date and inline with other highly visual platforms like Pinterest. Question is, will this be enough to fully put Behance back on the map? Watch this space. View the full article

Multiple hardcoded passwords allow attackers to create badges to gain building entry, access video surveillance feeds, manipulate databases and more. View the full article