Rss Bot

Stay on target with these Stormtrooper model tips With all the characters to choose from in the Star Wars saga, selecting the aim-challenged stormtroopers to render as a piece of 3D art is a left-field choice, but artist Juan Martin Garcia Forn has his reasons. "Stormtroopers are formidably introduced in A New Hope, but progressively start losing credibility as they're blasted by our heroes, and stoned by a pack of Ewoks in the last film. People nowadays make jokes about their aiming skills, so it came to mind that The Force Awakens will remind the world how fearless and precise these troopers are intended to be," Garcia Forn explains. "I tried to merge my favourite films with a sport I love: paintball – hence the action pose, running through blasters, and shooting from the sights. But really the main reason is that my lovely girlfriend gifted me an awesome thermo flask of the First Order's stormtrooper." The 10 best 3D movies of 2018 Star Wars remains an inspiration for the flask-loving artist. Garcia Forn says the film franchise is still such a big influence on art because of the people involved in making the series what it is. "People like Ralph McQuarrie, George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, and everyone else involved in the making of Star Wars have brought us a new form of culture, that will never be forgotten. I think that from design to storytelling, Star Wars is there to tell us artists that our dreams can come true, with a little imagination and a lot of hard work – to not be afraid of our ideas because our art can influence history itself." For this project, Garcia Forn reveals planning the composition ahead of beginning the modelling, and rendering proved the most challenging aspect, partly because the paintball-influenced pose restricted how he needed to work. "Since I had a very clear idea of how the final image should look, the lighting and camera angles had to be planned before the execution. Everything was then pretty easy thanks to KeyShot's very friendly interface." For once, the Empire/The First Order's biggest joke appears as the heroic fighting force that once blitzed the galaxy far, far away. Now, keep reading to gain some insights into Garcia Forn's creative process… 01. Model from reference Juan Martin Garcia Forn found the helmet the hardest part to model Finding references at the time of modelling was difficult. I had to mostly rely on photos from toys, and armour from conventions. The first part I modelled was the helmet. It was the trickiest because I wanted it to have as clean a topology as possible, hence why I used Maya. I started with the nose part as it gave me a nice spatial guide for the rest of the helmet. Inner extrusions were especially helpful to maintain proper edge flow. 02. Draw topology in ZBrush Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper? For bigger armour parts, such as the chest area, I used the topology tools within ZBrush. I picked a base mesh for guidance: Nick Zuccarello's human male from ZBrush tools. I created a ZSphere and bound the mesh to the ZSphere for rigging. The Edit Topology function was used to draw the topology over the base mesh, and once I was happy I created an adaptive skin. 03. Work on edge flow Garcia Forn only modelled one side of the stormtrooper's armour I took a lot of care on the edge flow as it was key for keeping the armour smooth and even. Also, if needed, it makes it useful for rigging and different types of animation. Only one side of the armour from the limbs was modelled; it was then mirrored to quickly get the other side, since it's symmetrical. 04. Model the gun This detailed gun was made up of dozens of different parts I chose Maya to model the rifle because it has a very specific design, and the program's orthographic views and easy polygon modelling system gave me a very satisfactory result. The final model was then imported to ZBrush so that I could add small details, such as screws with an IMM brush. It has 42 separate pieces in total. 05. Use ZBrush for detail Garcia Forn used DragRect stroke to create precise armour Alpha images were created in Photoshop to make it easier to import into ZBrush, where I could begin adding extra detail to the armour. I used the Standard brush set on negative, with DragRect stroke for more precision. 06. Pose your character The Stormtrooper model was posed without a rig The character was posed in ZBrush without the need for a rig, simply by using the Transpose Master plug-in. Using this plugin enabled me to pose all the subdivided tools in their lowest division, without losing any details in the final pose. 07. Use KeyShot for rendering Multiple render passes built a strong custom image Rendering in KeyShot is very easy and intuitive, I just had to choose the materials from the library and do a few tweaks. Render passes helped me build a stronger, more custom image. I did a raw render, an ambient occlusion pass, a rim light pass, a second rim light pass to be used as the light emitted by the blasters, and a clown pass to generate a mask in Photoshop. 08. Composite the final image The composition was the most important part of the image Compositing and final effects were done in Photoshop with matte painting and hand-painted details. The most important thing was composition; for the image to have a lot of action, I based composition upon triangles and colour gradients. This article originally appeared in 3D World, the world's leading magazine for CG artists. Subscribe here. Read more: 27 free 3D models How to illustrate a Star Wars-themed environment Stunning trailer shows what Star Wars might have been View the full article

The two vulnerabilities are critical remote code execution flaws that exist in Adobe Photoshop CC. View the full article

There are many aspects of lighting that you need to consider in order to convey form. One very useful fundamental is the terminator line. Draw a figure in under five minutes The terminator line is the transition zone between the areas of light and shadow. The darker part of the shadow will begin directly after the terminator line ends. It will appear as a dark gradating band until it meets a secondary light source. The secondary light source, in this instance, will be a bounce light. A bounce light occurs when your main (key) light hits another surface and bounces back upon the subject. If you want to learn how to draw people, this is a common lighting choice for figure drawing as it defines form clearly. If your key light is softer, the terminator line will become more gradual. Surface textures will also become more visible in this area. Textures often lose their visibility in the shadows but become more defined on well-lit surfaces. Textures at the mid-value range, such as the terminator, will often be strongest. Adding a darker band to the highlight edge separates lighting clearly and conveys a better sense of form and solidity. From a personal point of view, I also find it aesthetically pleasing! 01. Add a terminator line A terminator line appears between two meeting sources of light Commonly seen in figure drawing, the terminator is useful to build forms quickly. The terminator line is the dark band that appears between two meeting sources of light. After roughly sketching in the outline and silhouette of my figure, I add the terminator line to separate the main light source and the area of shadow. I often use this approach because it's so quick and time-efficient. 02. Add parallel lines Block in shadows and background with thick parallel hatching With the terminator in place, I can now block in the shadow area and, here, the background too, using thick parallel hatching lines. Separating the light and shadow in this simple way helps define shape and imply forms quickly. Filling in the background also gives me the opportunity to lose edges in the shadows and pull focus back into important areas. 03. Refine and add details Use cross-hatching to add texture to your character Now that the lighting has been defined on my figure, I can begin refining values and adding any smaller details. Keeping bounce light in mind, most of the shadow values don't go darker than the terminator. Using a blending stump I can easily smooth gradients and soften forms. Using cross-hatching I add texture to the character and break up any unnecessary empty spaces. This article originally appeared in Paint & Draw magazine. Related articles: How to choose the right drawing tools 10 expert tips for charcoal drawing Pencil drawing in 6 simple steps View the full article

You might get most of your work done on the desktop, but if you need to get stuff done when you're out and about then a decently-specced laptop is a must, and this XPS from Dell hits all the right notes. Not only that, during the Amazon Bank Holiday sale you can get it for just £1,049, saving you £231 on the standard price. Get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime See more Amazon Bank Holiday sale deals Dell's XPS 15 is a 15.6-inch laptop with all the power you need for most design tasks, suitable for everything from basic Photoshop work to more demanding 3D and video projects. It's powered by an Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor, backed up by 8GB RAM, and it comes with not only a 1TB hard disk, but also a 128GB SSD that means it'll start up in seconds. Its real strength, though, lies in its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, giving you all the graphics horsepower you need for more heavyweight design work on the go. And when you need to transfer your latest designs over to your main desktop machine, its Thunderbolt 3 port means you can boot your files across at up to eight times the transfer speed of USB 3.0 Perfect for work and for downtime, the XPS 15 looks the part, too. It boasts a super-thin form factor, and its virtually borderless infinity edge display means you get a lot of screen without all the bezel. And if this all sounds too good to miss, don't hang about; the discount's only available until 8.00am on 30th August. View the full article

Ray Wong started his creative career as a web developer. Self taught, for a time Wong worked at a small web design agency, where he was very much left to his own devices and unable to fully understand or explain his creative choices. In order to gain understanding and new skills, Wong enrolled at Shillington – and it was here that he fell in love with graphic design. Having graduated in December last year, graphic designer Wong now works at Oink Creative in London. Here he talks about life at Shillington and offers advice to design students hoping to get the most out of their time in the classroom. For the full interview, head over to the Shillington blog. What attracted you to Shillington? And why the jump from web to graphic design? I was lucky to pick up a few skills on my own whilst working at a small web design agency prior to Shillington. But there were no designers above me, so I had to become sufficient at creating visuals, and I wasn't confident in being able to explain design choices, let alone understand them properly. I knew I wanted to boost my skills and to expand my creative capabilities, which is when I found out about Shillington. This was a fully immersive, get-you-out-of-your-comfort-zone sort of thing. And when I finally started the course, everything was so hands-on; it was brilliant. It wasn’t until a few weeks in that I realised that how much I loved graphic design in general, and wanted to be able to do much more. I still love web design, but I’ve now also discovered a passion for print design and editorial, packaging, branding and strategy. Shillington dipped my toes into absolutely everything, and I knew I wanted a continuation of that once I’d finished the course. One of Wong's student projects at Shillington – to design a book cover for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer Do you think Shillington fully prepared you for working in a real design agency? The work that we do at Oink is incredibly varied, so no two days are exactly the same. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to work on branding pitches, as well as creating conceptual visuals for movie posters, vinyl sleeves, and a little bit of everything in between. Being able to think on my feet, adapt to every brief, and ultimately be open to learning and trying new things has been essential. What was your overall experience of Shillington? Shillington was actually quite transformative for me, which is something that I hadn’t initially expected at all. I think so many of the best experiences I had at Shillington were due to the people involved; the teachers who went above and beyond typical responsibilities, their passion and enthusiastic drive which then bled over to the students. Read Ray Wong's full interview over on the Shillington blog. View the full article

If you're on the hunt for a lightweight, powerful tablet PC, your search could be over. With its excellent battery life and superb screen, the Microsoft Surface Pro is popular with digital creatives for a reason. And at the knock-down prices it's more tempting than ever. Grab it as part of the Amazon bank holiday sale until 11:59 BST on 29 August. The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 Artists who need to work digitally on the move, with the option to switch to a conventional laptop setup, have already been heaping glowing praise on the Microsoft Surface Pro. These models boast 2.5 times more performance than the Surface Pro 3, as well as 13.5 hours of video playback. On top of this, the Surface Pro 12.3-inch has 3:2 aspect ratio, a 5.0MP front-facing camera and a TPM chip for enterprise security. With a tilt for artistic shading and increased sensitivity, digital creatives can bring their visions to life more easily than before. There's also some brilliant offers to be had on Microsoft's touchscreen Surface laptop. But be quick, these deals are on for a limited time only and we don't expect any of them to hang around for long. Get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime See more Amazon Bank Holiday sale deals The best Amazon bank holiday sale Microsoft Surface deals View the full article

There are thousands of typefaces out there, with more being released all the time. And with free fonts increasing in quality as well as quantity over recent years, the choice can be overwhelming for a designer. If you can afford one, bespoke branded typefaces are also becoming increasingly popular. They help give brands a unique and distinctive personality that cuts through the noise, and conveys just the right tone of voice. If not, with the right amount of research and due diligence, you'll be able to find a typeface that suits your needs. Despite the proliferation of typefaces on the market, however, a noble few have stood the test of time for decades, even centuries, to remain in-demand and relevant amid a sea of young pretenders. So read on for our guide to five classic fonts that are still not showing their age, and why they could be right for your next project... 01. Futura Designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927, Futura can be seen as the grandfather of geometric sans-serifs – a flavour that is very much of the moment, following a wave of minimalist rebrands for the likes of Google, Mastercard and Spotify over the last decade. Futura itself has been used by a dizzying array of brands, including Alfa Romeo, Cisco, Domino's Pizza, Gillette and more. Futura may have passed the grand old age of 90, but the iconic typeface's popularity has shown little sign of waning. With the spirit of the Bauhaus at heart, its design is based on simple geometric shapes – circles in particular – and exudes efficiency, purity and modernity to this day. Its strokes are smooth, even and low-contrast, and the typeface as a whole – despite being progressive at the time, flying in the face of its grotesque counterparts – is timeless enough to be as relevant and usable in 2018 as it was in 1927. 02. Caslon Caslon makes the 91-year-old Futura look like a scrappy upstart. The name references William Caslon, an engraver of 'punches' – or master templates used to create the moulds for metal type – who lived from 1692–1766. Although it comes in several different varieties and modern revivals, the typeface known as Caslon retains the organic, Old Style look and feel that he established in the 18th century. Like Futura, Caslon was ahead of its time – in London, at least – drawing on imported Dutch Baroque typefaces for inspiration. Known for timeless elegance and effortless readability across large passages of text, the Caslon typeface family briefly fell out of popularity during the early 19th century, but recovered and now lends 300 years of gravitas to books, journal articles, encyclopedias and more. 03. Garamond Another popular typeface for setting large passages of text in books, Garamond's heritage makes even the three-century-old Caslon look like a young whippersnapper. Like William Caslon, Parisian engraver Claude Garamond created punches for metal type, and first crafted the typeface that bears his name in the 16th century. Its history can be traced back even further to 1495: the design follows the Old Style serif model originally established by Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, and designed by punchcutter Francesco Griffo. Both Garamond and Caslon maintain a natural, almost handwritten look and feel, but with a strong and timeless structure. Many modern revivals of the typeface are inspired by the work of Garamond and his contemporaries in the early-modern French typography scene, such as Jean Jannon – and the family remains a viable choice for setting long-form text. 04. Clarendon Slab serifs became particularly popular in British lettering, printing and signage during the early 19th century, so Clarendon was riding the wave of this trend on its release in 1845. Its original design was engraved by punch-cutter Benjamin Fox and credited to Robert Besley, a partner in the type foundry Thorowgood and Co. Clarendon's popularity was such that its look and feel was widely imitated by other foundries – both at the time, and in the latter half of the 20th century – effectively spawning a sub-genre of type design in its own right. Although the many different varieties of Clarendon have their own idiosyncrasies, the common factors are bold, solid letterforms with a relatively uniform stroke weight and bracketed, slightly tapered slab serifs. The typeface is popular to this day for display use, particularly for letterpress and woodblock printing work. 05. Akzidenz Grotesk Love it or hate it, Helvetica has become the typeface that defined an entire generation of graphic designers that embraced mid-20th century Swiss design principles, otherwise known as the International Typographic Style. But Helvetica follows in the footsteps of Akzidenz Grotesk, the sans-serif family originally released by the Berlin-based Berthold Type Foundry. Released in 1898, almost 50 years before Helvetica, Akzidenz Grotesk was part of a wave of overtly 'commercial' typefaces, intended for use in advertising and promotional materials to communicate, persuade and ultimately sell, rather than to decorate, or make reading easier. Following the grotesque sans-serif tradition that Futura bucked against with its geometric approach, Akzidenz Grotesk became one of the leading exponents of late-19th century German typography. Simple, bold and neutral, and yet clearly distinct from its more widespread descendent Helvetica in characters such as 'Q', 'R' and 'J', it remains a classic sans-serif option 120 years on. Related articles: 5 types of font and what to use them for 5 ways to pick the perfect app font Pick the right font for your social campaigns View the full article

Missed out on a cheap laptop on Amazon Prime Day? Can't wait until Black Friday? Don't panic, because Amazon has some great deals lined up for the August Bank Holiday, and we've dug out the best laptop bargains you can get your hands on. Whether you're after something lightweight so you can do a bit of logo design on the go, or a more powerful machine suited to creating 3D art, we've found a saving for you here. So read on to find some unmissable laptop bargains! The best Amazon bank holiday sale laptop deals Get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime See more Amazon Bank Holiday sale deals View the full article

For a great all-round camera, the Canon EOS M3 compact is a fantastic option. And at the moment it's more appealing than ever, at just £349, down 23% from the usual price of £453.74. This Amazon Bank Holiday sale offer is available until 11.59pm on 4 September, so move quickly to make the most of it! If you'd like to take your photography skills a step further than fiddling around with camera phone filters, but don't want to lug around a heavy camera or spend a lot on a DSLR, then the Canon EOS M3 should be right up your street. As a Compact System Camera, it's somewhere between a compact camera and a DSLR – it small and easy to transport, takes incredible photos, and you can buy over 70 extra lenses for it, just like you would with a full DSLR. However, there's no need to worry about lenses straight away, as this camera comes with 18-55m f/3.5-5.6 lens. The Canon EOS M3's 24.2MP DSLR-type sensor means you can quickly take professional-looking photos, as well as shoot HD video, and its Creative Assist mode, which gives you touch-screen control over camera settings, helps you get the best shot everytime. It also tells you how to implement your favourite settings using traditional manual settings, if you'd like to experiment further. Like all Amazon Bank Holiday Sale deals, this is a limited offer so grab it while you can, we don't expect these cheap cameras to be around for long. View the full article

Today marks the start of Amazon's biggest ever August bank holiday sale event; eight days of great savings on everything designers and artists might need. The event will run all the way until 23:59 BST on Wednesday 29 August, although some lightning deals will expire before then. There are some really great deals to be had, but they're sure to sell out super-quick, so grab them while you can. We'll bring you all the best Amazon bank holiday sale deals for designers, artists and creatives right here on this page. And we'll be adding more deals as they come in over the next week so make sure to check back for the latest savings. You can also use the jump links on the right to bag yourself a bargain. Are you an Amazon Prime member? If not, make sure to sign up to a free Amazon Prime 30-day trial and get an exclusive 30-minute early access period to all the best deals. The best laptop and tablet deals The best Amazon bank holiday sale camera deals The best Amazon bank holiday sale Wacom deals The best Amazon bank holiday sale headphone deals The best Amazon bank holiday sale monitor deals View the full article

Attackers can abuse URL requests processed by an email program for Mac to steal files from the victim -- sometimes without user interaction. View the full article

An unpatched buffer overflow flaw allows remote attackers to completely take over the device and enter the home network. View the full article

You're reading 10 Distinctive Features of Japanese-Style Web Design, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Many of Japan’s distinctive features can also be found in websites from that country, including unique vision, a high-tech vibe and a fondness for nature. These details are the root of the philosophy of Japanese website design. We’ve collected 10 … View the full article

Although there are plenty of pre-made free textures around, if you want a specific material to use in your 3D art, it isn't that difficult to make your own. In this article, I'll show you how to create a simple leather material (shown above) using Substance Designer. You can watch a time-lapse of my process below, or read on for a step-by-step guide. When you have to create materials using nodes, like you can do in Substance Designer, Blender and other software, my pro tip is to keep a clean work environment in order to have control over all the elements of the material. So try to avoid overlapping elements and so on. 01. Add nodes For this type of material, select the Physically Based (Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and delete the Metallic output, since it isn’t necessary here. Now add these nodes from the Substance Designer library: the Cells 3 and BnW Spots 1 noises (these two are the main elements of the material), the Height to Normal World Units filter, four Levels filters, a Blend filter and, last but not least, the Gradient Map filter. 02. Link the elements Now we can start to link these elements. Start by placing the Cells 3 at the beginning of the graph with the BnW Spots 1. These two generators will be linked to the first two Levels filters, and linked together with the Blend filter. Link the Levels filter of the Cells 3 generator to the Height to Normal World Units filter, the third Levels filter and the fourth Levels filter. The Height to Normal World Units filter will be linked to the Normal output, the third Levels to the Roughness output and the fourth to the Height output. Finally, connect the Blend filter with the Gradient Map, and this one directly to the Base Color output. 03. Adjust parameters Once you've finished linking every element of the scene, it's time to fix some of the parameters. In particular we need to fix the first two Levels filters of the substance: the first is linked to the Cells 3 generator and must be adjusted in order to increase the brightness of the texture, and the second generator (linked to the BnW Spots 1 noises) must be adjusted in order to decrease the contrast of the texture. For the other parameters of the Levels filters choose arbitrarily – but as always I suggest you don’t exaggerate. The latest element to fix is the Gradient Map. This filter is probably one of the most important; in fact it can help to give colour to the material. For this project I created a shade of red, but this element, like the others, can be changed as you prefer. This article was originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 236 or subscribe. Read more: Create a tiles material in Substance Designer Substance Designer 5.5 review Creating convincing 3D materials View the full article

Take any creative field and you'll find well-known influencers who are responsible for leading the way, either with new interpretations, technical approaches or ideas. This is true whether you're looking at David Bailey in the photography world, or Tracey Emin in fine art. It comes about because some practitioners define a movement or technique, either inventing it, championing it, or otherwise leading a charge towards it. 10 steps to an engaging user experience Of course, the world of web design is no different. We've got our own champions and leaders, some of which are responsible for creating new web design tools, although it's surprisingly difficult to pick just a few names every web designer should know. Luckily, we live in an age of democratised sharing, with the likes of Facebook and Twitter making it easy to keep up to date with both current and future movers and shakers, so watch these fourteen and see who they recommend! A quick note of caution before we upset anyone, these names aren't ranked or in any specific order. If we've missed someone you think should be in our list, let us know. 01. Sara Soueidan Twitter: @SaraSoueidan A Lebanon-based frontend UI developer and author, Sara has worked with clients across the globe including Netflix, The Royal Schiphol Group, Smashing Magazine and more. She runs workshops and helps companies and agencies build clean frontend foundations for websites and applications, with a strong focus on progressive enhancement, performance and accessibility. 02. Abby Covert Twitter: @Abby_the_IA Abby Covert is a senior staff information architect at Etsy and specialises in delivering collaborative information architecture processes, as well as teaching those that she works with along the way. Speaking and writing under the pseudonym Abby the IA, she focuses on sharing information architecture content with those working within the design and technology communities, and is co-founder of World IA Day. She's also the author of How to Make Sense of Any Mess, a book about information architecture for everybody. 03. Ethan Marcotte Twitter: @beep If there's one man in the web industry who probably doesn't need an introduction, it's Ethan Marcotte. One of the web's best-known designers, Marcotte is a regular and popular speaker on the conference circuit and, in his own words, the one who "started that whole 'responsive web design' thing". 04. Chris Coyier Twitter: @chriscoyier A world-known CSS expert and HTML guru, Chris Coyier writes one of the most popular CSS blogs on the web, CSS-Tricks. Throughout his career, Chris has published many tutorials, websites, and scripts to help designers improve their skills. A co-founder of CodePen, Chris can also be found at web design and development podcast ShopTalk. 05. Karen McGrane Twitter: @karenmcgrane UX expert Karen McGrane motto is simple - 'On a good day, I make the web more awesome. On a bad day, I make it suck less'. A content strategist and user experience designer, McGrane has over 15 years experience of making big, complicated websites. Currently managing partner of Bond Art + Science, she is also the author of Content Strategy for Mobile. 06. Dan Cederholm Twitter: @simplebits Dan Cederholm is the author of five web design books covering everything from standards-based code approaches to Sass. As well as writing, Cederholm is a practising web designer, and a popular speaker. Alongside Rich Thornett, Cederholm is a co-founder of the popular dribbble.com show-and-tell website that allows designers to upload micro-shots of their work in progress. 07. Sarah Parmenter Twitter: @sazzy User interface designer Sarah Parmenter specialises in design for the web, iPhone and iPad. Owner of design studio You Know Who and co-host of the Happy Monday podcast, Parmenter can often be found travelling the world to speak at the world's leading web design conferences. Her client list includes Blackberry, News International, STV and The National Breast Cancer Foundation of America. 08. Dave Shea Twitter: @mezzoblue Dave Shea is most famous for his CSS Zen Garden project, which helped spearhead the move from table-based web design layout to CSS-based layouts. The website became very popular, both helping to push the boundaries of what designs could be achieved with CSS alone, and also encouraging web designers the world over to adopt the approach. 09. Jeffrey Zeldman Twitter: @zeldman Jeffrey Zeldman is perhaps the best known of all the people featured in our list. He's the author of a must-have book, Designing with Web Standards, publisher of books via A Book Apart, and is the driving force behind the immensely popular industry leading online journal, A List Apart. Zeldman is also the founder of Happy Cog studios, a US-based consultancy with clients including MTV, Ben & Jerry's and Stanford University. 10. Rachel Andrew Twitter: @rachelandrew Rachel is a web developer, speaker and prolific writer. Her books include titles for SitePoint, Apress and Five Simple Steps, covering the likes of PHP web development, CSS3 Layout Modules and Adobe's Dreamweaver web design tool. Aside from her speaking and writing, Rachel is the Managing Director of edgeofmyseat.com, a web development consultancy known for its Perch CMS app. 11. Simon Collison Twitter: @colly Simon Collison is a designer, speaker and author. Having worked in a variety of situations throughout his career, Collison shares his knowledge on web design via books and conferences. He's also a proud partner with Fictive Kin, and organises the annual New Adventures in Web Design event in his hometown of Nottingham. 12. Veerle Pieters Twitter: @vpieters Veerle Pieters is a hugely talented graphic designer from Belgium, best known for both her work through Duoh!, the agency she co-founded with Geert Leyseele, and her blog at veerle.duoh.com where she shares insights and tutorials. She's also an author and speaker, and has worked on some high profile projects including the GUI for ExpressionEngine. 13. Cameron Moll Twitter: @cameronmoll Cameron Moll is a well-known designer who speaks regularly at web design conferences across the world. As well as the Authentic Jobs website, which Moll is responsible for, he's collaborated on books with the likes of Andy Budd and Simon Collison. As well as his speaking and books, Moll is well known for a series of typographical posters rendered with letterpress, which are well worth a look! Related articles: 29 Chrome extensions for web designers 35 brilliantly designed 404 error pages What is Sass? View the full article

We’ve curated a cracking collection of fantastic new graphic design tools this month, all of which are guaranteed to speed up your workflow and help get those creative juices flowing. From a slick new keyboard that claims it’s the product “Apple should be making – but better” to a beautiful new book packed with tips and tricks for making it as a designer, and more, we’ve got all the best new tools for graphic designers right here. If you’re one of the thousands of creatives around the world crying out for a mechanical keyboard to use with your Apple device of choice, the new Kono Hexgears X-1 keyboard will be of interest. Launched as a Kickstarter campaign, the X-1 is an ultra-thin, high performance, multi-device Bluetooth mechanical keyboard that claims to be better than Apple’s Magic keyboard. Kaihua ’Choc’ switches promise 70 million presses (which is much longer than industry standard Cherry MX switches, say the team), while discrete wired (USB-C) and wireless (Bluetooth) modes give you ultimate portability. The Kickstarter, which will run until 23 August, 3:59 PM BST, has easily beat its funding goals. If you want to support the project, you’ll need to pledge $99 or more before Thursday to secure your own X-1. Designer Radim Malinic is gearing up to release the second volume of his best-selling journal, Book of Ideas 2. In the follow-up, he shares more learnings and musings on how to succeed in the fast-paced creative industries. Chapters cover everything from using humour and how to entertain the “right wrongs” to creativity for good, embracing limitations and more. Malinic's new graphic design book is due for release on 7 September, but you can preorder now for £16.99. The ultra-portable Surface Go is a 10-inch Windows tablet that aims to be a smaller and more affordable Surface Pro. A follow-up to 2015’s Surface 3, the tiny tablet runs a full version of Windows 10 (in S mode) on an Intel Pentium chip, and starts at $400 with 64GB of flash storage and 4GB memory – that’s double Apple’s latest iPad. Like the rest of the Surface family, the Go features Microsoft’s excellent hinge, which bends nearly 180 degrees, turning the machine into a digital canvas for drawing and note-taking. And if you invest in a new Surface Go Type Cover keyboard you’ll find typing more comfortable than other 10-inch devices, with full-sized keys (positioned in a smaller space) and a glass trackpad. The responsive display is gorgeous. It isn’t the sharpest at 1,800 x 1,200 pixels, but colour accuracy is excellent. However, the new iPad is technically more powerful – if you’re looking for a device for high-res image editing or video editing, the Go isn’t for you (although our friends at TechRadar report surprisingly powerful 3D rendering from the Go, thanks to Intel’s HD Graphics 615 card). Unlike the latest iPad, though, the Surface Go boasts a USB-C port and microSD card reader. This means that the tablet’s storage can be increased, and the Go has two ways to hard-wire a dock and expand displays. If you’re after a highly portable, full-blown 10-inch computer as a secondary device, the Surface Go makes for a lean, mean travel companion, and is worth a look. The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 The best computer for graphic design in 2018 Procreate 4.1 has landed, bringing more top tools to Savage Interactive’s excellent sketching, painting and illustration iPad app. Among the new features are an incredibly fast Liquify filter that lets you push, pull, pinch and twirl your artwork at 120fps – you can also scale the pressure, and use the live Reconstruct feature to tweak your changes to perfection. Warm Transform, meanwhile, enables you to wrap, fold and curve layers into position, while the new Symmetry Drawing Guide creates mirror strokes while you draw, speeding up your workflow. The app’s new Perspective tools have also been expanded to include 2D and Isometric Guides, and additional gesture control improvements also aid workflow. The update is free for existing users, and £9.99/US$9.99 for new customers. Also read: 30 of the best Procreate brushes Add rich gouache effects to your designs with this pack of 50 gouache brushes for Affinity Designer (you can also get them for Illustrator and Procreate). For $17, you get: 10 gouache liner brushes for giving the edges of objects a textured feel; 20 great 360-degree gouache shader brushes for adding depth to your work; and 20 gouache edge shader brushes for applying gouache textures to edges without the need for a mask – saving you time and CPU. Hand lettering artists Ian Barnard and Stefan Kunz have teamed up to create Grid Builder, a set of 35 individual grid shapes you can use as guides to ensure great composition within your lettering work – “so it doesn't look like letters just thrown onto a page”. The grids can be resized, stretched and re-coloured​ so that every layout you compose looks completely different from the next. And they work in most main lettering programs too, from Illustrator and Photoshop to Procreate; on desktop and mobile. The set costs $19. There are 107 texture brushes for Photoshop in this $11 mega bundle from illustrator and designer Jasmine Lové. They react to pen-pressure, pen-tilt, rotation and directional functions, and you can build many of them from light to dark for fantastic shading effects on 3D objects in your paintings. Related articles: The best 4K monitors for designers 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC The 40 best Photoshop plugins View the full article

It's that time of the month again – the latest issue of Computer Arts magazine is on sale now. In the pages of issue 283, we explore the future of experimental typography and look at how it will make you a better designer. From shaking up a classic font like Helvetica to exploring the connection between type and technology, there's plenty to mull over. Buy Computer Arts issue 283 now Eagle-eyed readers and subscribers will notice that we're shaking up the format of the magazine this issue, too. For our cover, we've called upon the design skills of SPIN, who have created an amazing range of experimental designs that have taken the standard treatment in strange and exciting directions. This issue's experimental covers courtesy of SPIN Save up to 60% on a Computer Arts subscription Elsewhere in issue 283, we hear from freelance designers on how they cope when everything goes wrong. We also catch up with Jon Key to hear how the prolific artist chooses work and balances all of his incredible projects, including zines and activism oriented typography. Meanwhile, the tiny team at Studio Sutherl& reveal how they strip back an idea to produce simple but brilliant results. You won't want to miss it! Take a look at what's inside Computer Arts issue 283 by scrolling left to right through the gallery below with the arrow icons. Computer Arts is the world's best-selling design magazine, bursting at the seams with insight, inspiration, interviews and all the best new design projects. For all this delivered direct to your door each month, subscribe to Computer Arts. Right now you can save up to 60%, and receive a free Computer Arts tote bag when you subscribe. Related articles: The 10 commandments of typography The rules of responsive web typography How to improve your digital typography View the full article

Falling into a painted hole is the sort of surreal misadventure you'd expect to catch out Wile E. Coyote, but that's just what happened at an installation of Anish Kapoor's experimental design work at the Fundação de Serralves, the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto, Portugal. The artwork in question is Kapoor's 1992 piece Descent into Limbo. This installation features a cube-shaped building containing a 2.5 metre hole set into the floor. Ever the fan of optical illusions, Turner Prize-winning Kapoor painted the hole black to make it look like a 2D circle. Despite the museum following all security measures, displaying warning signs and positioning a member of gallery staff inside the installation building itself, an Italian man in his 60s fell into Descent into Limbo. 30 mind-bending trompe l'oeil illusions Following the accident, which took place on 13 August, the museum closed the installation to assess the situation and ensure it doesn't happen again. Fortunately, the hospitalised museum-goer is said to be in good condition and will return home shortly. This isn't the only time the artist has experimented with the colour black. Back in 2016, Kapoor acquired the exclusive rights to a pigment so black that it absorbs 99.96 per cent of light. Descent into Limbo is one of the 56 pieces of the artist's work on display as part of Anish Kapoor: Works, Thoughts, Experiments. The exhibition is the first major show of Kapoor's work in Portugal, with Descent into Limbo due to reopen soon. [lead image screenshot taken from Serraives Museum via YouTube] Related articles: 5 tips for understanding colour theory 3 huge colour trends for 2018 12 colours and the emotions they evoke View the full article

Want to start a podcast and reach lots of followers? Check out How To Start A Podcast Bundle Feat. John Lee Dumas. Stories are something we all love, and this bundle teaches you storytelling essentials that will push your podcast to the top of the iTunes Store. You'll find how to use dramatic tension, complex characters, and effective writing to produce a story that is gripping and compelling for your audience. You'll also discover how to build and shape your brand through actionable steps – finding the right gear, using effective marketing techniques, and more. Become the next big thing in podcasting with How To Start A Podcast Bundle Feat. John Lee Dumas. It's yours for only $39. Related articles: 10 amazing podcasts for digital artists 18 great web design podcasts The 10 best graphic design podcasts View the full article

An attacker could escalate privileges on the server, further penetrating the network, harvesting customer information or mounting credible social-engineering campaigns. View the full article

Researchers launched a Proof-of-Concept attack on two Android mobile phones and an embedded system board. View the full article

The recently-patched flaw could corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. View the full article

Good etiquette might not be your number one priority at work. It won't necessarily help you with master responsive web design or nail the perfect user experience. However, in the close-knit web design community, you'll find that being a thoughtful and considerate designer can get you a long way. And so we asked seven top web pros: if you were writing a book on web designer etiquette, what dos and don'ts would you include? Here are their suggestions. 01. Don't be a shit "Stop being shitty to women," says Mule Design co-founder, Mike Monteiro. "Stop being shitty to minorities. We keep talking about 'building things for us' and 'building the tools you need' as if they're some brilliant idea, instead of the selfish mantras of entitled baby men that they are. I look around at our industry and I see an ocean of white men 'building things for us' and it's led to a toxic web. It's time to grow up." 02. Do share Communication is key for web standards advocate Bruce Lawson. "If you ask a question on a forum, and find out the answer elsewhere, post it so the next person with that question can find it," he suggests. "If you have an idea for a new web feature or API, tell the Web Platform Incubator Community Group – but share the problem you want to solve (not your preferred syntax or names). If you read a great blog post, or hear a great conference talk, take a moment to tell the author. It'll make their day." 03. Don't forget business goals If your project involves selling a product, don't forget to focusing on business goals alongside UX goals – making your client's business more profitable is your real aim here. "Make sure you immerse yourself in and understand the brand, the product and its users thoroughly before any 'design' begins," says Elena McGarry from Fingo. "Build trust with users by adding value to the site by showing clear product placement with visible, legible calls to action. Don't underestimate requirements for accessibility, compatibility and responsiveness. Exercise simplicity and brevity in content but take care not to be too simplistic. Users need smooth, uncomplicated experiences, not dumbed-down boring interfaces. Striking the balance while keeping the user engaged is crucial." 04. Don't make a mess Creative director Shane Mielke has no time for messy or disorganised source files. "Always organise your assets and descriptively name folders and layers," he insists. "It doesn't matter if you're on a huge team or the only person on a project. The more organised your files are, the easier it is for you or others to work with if you have to revisit projects months later. It's a matter of respect and personal pride, and it takes seconds. Imagine if a developer had a function called 'Copy of Layer 368' in their code. Would you employ a housekeeper that cleaned by hiding trash in drawers?" 05. Do be consistent "Make your own set of rules and stick with them," says digital designer Adelle Charles. "Set clear goals for what you want to accomplish. Follow a healthy process. For example, define, explore, refine, build and learn. Most importantly, communicate. Share and share often. It sounds simple, but communication with teammates while designing and iterating on work is most often overlooked. Don't gloss over the details. Grammar and content hierarchy are very important. Focus on users' interactions within the experience you're designing, and ensure you are telling the right story." 06. Don't be condescending Web designer Inayaili de Léon hates it when people lazily assume, and say, that someone else's work is easy. "One personal rule I try to stick to is to never tell someone that 'this will only take you five minutes' – and this applies not only to other web designers but to anyone. Hands up, I am guilty of sometimes forgetting my own rule, but it is something to keep in mind whenever you find yourself talking to someone about their work – and particularly if you want them to do something for you." 07. Do accept criticism gracefully UI designer and researcher Luke Jones notes that one of the most difficult elements of being a designer is gathering critique, because it can be tricky to remain composed when you're receiving negative feedback. "It is important for a designer to remove their ego from the situation, to remain respectful, understanding and accepting of the feedback, and to try to figure out a way to interpret it in order to create a successful design for the project. After all, this project is not ultimately about you – it's about your users and client." Illustration: Ben Mounsey This article was originally published in net magazine in 2016. Subscribe here. Related articles: 7 times you should turn a design job down Agile development: why and how to use it in your web and app workflow How to build on old IT systems View the full article

If you’re new to the world of 3D art and CGI in particular, you may feel that there are far too many tools to choose from. In my articles I aim to break everything down to the very basics, so that every artist can be armed with the knowledge of which tool is best. With that in mind, let’s explore materials and shaders by looking at Normal maps. 27 free 3D models One of the hardest things to do when starting to learn 3D is to model lots of details. There are many reasons for this. First of all, creating the detail is time-consuming, as is adding detail while making sure the polygon integrity of the model is maintained. And importantly, lots of detail can slow down application viewports or may not be eligible for game engines, and the workarounds, of course, consume more time. Thankfully though, these processes can all be sped up. There is a type of specialised image map called a Normal map, which can be used to add detail to a model without adding any extra geometry. A Normal map does this by taking three RGB colours which a 3D application then converts into height data. Normal maps are easier to export across 3D applications, rather than assets that depend on native modelling tools Mike Griggs This is incredibly powerful and has been used for years by game manufacturers as a way of adding extra detail into game assets. Of course this does not mean that Normal maps are exclusive to game developers – they can be a useful tool for all 3D artists. Complex sculpted geometry such as skin pore detail can be added by Normal maps to an animated model, without disrupting the polygon flow of the model, which has been optimised for animation. Normal maps can also be used in hard-surface modelling for adding items such as screws and rivets to models, to give the appearance of highly complex surface details without adding geometry that will slow down an artist’s viewport speed. Normal maps can be projected from a high-polygon mesh to an optimised mesh by most 3D software, to create highly optimised surface detail which looks identical at render time. As Normal maps are image-based, assets that have been optimised with Normal maps are easier to export across 3D applications, rather than assets that depend on native modelling tools. 01. What is a normal map? Colours in a normal map represent height A Normal map is nothing more than an image map that contains the relief data for a material. While there are other types of image maps that can aid in adding details to models such as Bump maps, Height maps and Displacement maps, Normal maps are easily distinguished by their usually pink/purple hue. This is because the colours of a Normal map represent a Height, Width and Depth value, which a 3D application can use to apply relief detail to a mesh where there is none. 02. Bake meshes Normal maps can be 'baked' onto low resolution models One of the main uses for Normal maps is to replicate high-resolution detail from a sculpted or scanned asset and ‘bake’ that onto a lower-resolution model. This model can then be used more readily as an asset in a scene as it has less overhead, or it can be more easily animated. Many applications allow baking of high-resolution meshes, so check to see if your chosen software can do this. If not, there are applications available such as the free xNormal that can. 03. Add details Details can be quickly added thanks to pre-made objects There are a range of methods for adding details to Normal maps, from screw heads to skin pore details. There are also 3D painting applications that come with normal objects already available as assets, or alternatively existing details in a Normal map can be simply copied and pasted in a 2D editing application. This can be a much quicker way to add surface geometry than by modelling, as well as adding less overhead to the geometry of the model. 04. Normal maps from photos Textures can be roughly generated from a smartphone photo There are a range of applications out there, from free tools such as xNormal to products within the Allegorithmic texturing suite, that can create Normal maps from photographs. While this method is potentially not as accurate as an actual 3D scan, these tools can create realistic relief details very quickly and easily and can serve to add an extra layer of reality to any texture set. Suddenly your smartphone can become a 3D texture creator. This article originally appeared in issue 236 of 3D World, the world's leading magazine for 3D artists. Buy issue 236 or subscribe here. Related articles: 30 greatest CGI movie moments of all time Push start on your 3D video game career Build a complex 3D sci-fi scene in Blender View the full article

When used well, CSS animation can add interest and personality to your site. In this article, we'll walk through how to create an animated effect that will make your typography appear gradually, as if it were being typed on a typewriter. You can see an example of the animation in action on the site for Crypton, a cryptocurrency trading bot. The effect is impressive and it's easy to implement, too. Read on to find out how to achieve this animation on your own site. Explore the new frontier of CSS animation 01. Document initiation The first step is to initiate the structure of the webpage. This consists of the HTML container responsible for storing the head and body sections. While the head section's main responsibility is to load the external CSS, the body section will store the HTML content created in step 2. 02. HTML content The HTML content consists of a container that uses the 'typing' class. This will be used by the CSS to apply the typing effect to any child elements. The child content element is made from a h1 tag, but you could use another element such as 'p' to create the element as a paragraph. 03. CSS initiation Create a file called 'styles.css'. The first step of the CSS defines the document and body containers to cover the full browser window without any visible border spacing. The default colours for the black page background and white text colours are also set in this step. Content elements within the page will inherit the colour set in this step as their default colour. 04. Typing children All children within the typing container are set to display over one line without the use of text wrapping. Most importantly, these child elements have the 'typing' animation applied to them. This animation is set to play over five seconds with 50 frame snapshots – allowing for the staggered typing effect. 05. Face eyes The effect is also accompanied by an animated face that appears to narrate the typed text. This step creates the eyes of this face as a CSS 'virtual' element using the after selector. The eyes are placed relative to the parent text, with its content set as two dot text characters. 06. Face mouth Like with the eyes, the face's mouth is made from a CSS virtual element – this time using the before selector. The mouth is positioned in relation to the parent text element, as well as having a border radius to appear with a rounded shape. The typingSpeak animation is applied; it will last for 0.5 seconds using two frames of animation. With the animation being repeated five times, the total animation time will be 2.5 seconds. 07. Animation definitions This step defines the animations referenced by elements created in previous steps. The typingAnim animation that has been used for the typing effect changes its element from no width to full width. The typingSpeak animation used for the face's mouth changes its element from appearing flat to more open. This article was originally published in issue 275 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 275 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: Create slick UI animations Understanding the CSS display property Create an animated steam text effect View the full article