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Some people just know how to get things done. If you want to be one of those people who knows how to get the most out of others, you need to pick up the Essential Project Management Certification Training Bundle. You can get it on sale now for 96% off the retail price! Dive into the 5 in-depth courses of the Essential Project Management Certification Training Bundle and you'll quickly find everything you need to prove your skills as a project manager. This bundle will provide you with nearly 50 hours of professionally-taught information about project management. It's built to prepare you to manage your way to success regardless of your field, and will make sure you’re ready to prove your skills with industry-recognised certification exams. The Essential Project Management Certification Training Bundle is valued at $1,800 but you can save a whopping 96% off the retail price right now. That's a great deal for a bundle that will help get you into the career you want, so grab it today! Related articles: Top tips for nailing project management Best project management software The tools of the trade for project management View the full article

Poser software is greatly underrated. With version 11, its PBR Superfly engine enables it to create tremendous realism across a wide range of areas of 3D art, rendering directly in-program without the need to rely on exporting, third-party plugins, or integrating into high-end programs for materials and lighting that obey physically correct laws. As with any tool, with great power often comes a bewildering range of options, parameters and tweaks that can quickly overwhelm even experienced users. That's why we've compiled this list of 19 tips for using Poser that will help take your renders to the next level. 01. Tweak settings for better reflections This bathroom artwork, complete with reflections, is by Jura11 Noise in the light or shadows or on reflective surfaces may simply be the result of insufficiently high pixel samples in your Superfly render settings, but it may also mean that certain render settings need to be selectively increased. Sometimes tweaking these can save overall render time whilst producing the improvements you seek. In the image above, you can increase the Glossy bounces setting to account for the reflective floor and mirror without cranking up the overall pixel samples beyond 50. If you felt it necessary to add realism to the bath water, you could increment the Volume parameter, and even activate Caustics, although these three can greatly increase render times. 02. Check indirect lighting This beautifully lit scene was created by erogenesis If you are still using a version of Poser older than 11, be sure to check the Indirect illumination option for richer shadow detail when creating Firefly renders. Be aware however, that trans-mapped hair or other transparent/reflective surfaces can reduce your renders to a snail’s pace that takes many hours, even days for a single HD scene. In general, using less shadow blur works well with bright sunlight and objects close to the surface they are casting on, whereas grey days, interior lighting or objects further from the shadows they are casting all produce softer shadows. 03. Use optimal render settings Choose the Superfly rendering engine and select GPU rendering. Rendering with Branched Path Tracing turned off (for additional render stability), and a setting of just 5 Pixel Samples is enough to assess colour, lighting and general form of even 4K images in just a few minutes. Then you can ramp up the settings as needed. I find that a setting of 40 overall gives great results, and sometimes you can get away with as little as 30 or even 20. 04. Speed up transparency renders Rendering transparency can bring Poser’s Firefly or Superfly rendering engines to a grinding halt, increasing rendering times from minutes to hours. Nowhere is this more apparent than when using multi-layered transparency effects such as DAZ’s more recent hair creations (yes Genesis 3 can be converted to fit your earlier figures). For Superfly test renders, you’ll want to either hide these hair figures or set the max transparency in the render settings down to just 1 or 2. When you come to final render, you’ll want to bump the minimum up to 8 or even 16 in order to ensure that transparency looks good. 05. Increase bucket size You can significantly improve rendering speed by increasing the bucket size on the Superfly render tab if you are using your GPU to render. The bucket speed determines the number of pixels that the program will render simultaneously, and the number of cores on your graphics card will determine the bucket size your card can manage. Try 128 and increase in increments until performance starts to degrade. 06. Send to the queue In addition to its network rendering, you can instead send multiple renders to the render queue (Render>Send to). This is a great way to set up renders before you go to bed, however, it is somewhat twitchy about being paused if you require your processor for other tasks. I find that the best workflow is to only send jobs to the queue when you do not require your computer for anything else that night. Then it’s simply a matter of loading jobs to Poser, choosing camera angles, clicking the Send to Queue button, and going to bed. 07. Consider scene interaction This example of how to draw figures is by Ladonna The tiny details make all the difference. By all means start with off-the shelf poses, but then take the time to adjust them precisely to your scene. Off-the-shelf poses tend to work well when the figures are not interacting with anything other than the ground. However, you’ll want to carefully adjust the bends and angles of hands, fingers, feet, toes and any other body parts that interact with objects. Nothing spoils the illusion of reality quicker than stock hands that don’t interact properly, or feet floating off the ground. Ten minutes of extra work makes a world of difference. 08. Remove or add clutter Keeping the near distance uncluttered can focus the viewer’s attention and avoid confusing figure profiles and distracting shadows, especially when background scenery is naturally busy (flora, textured walls or complex landscape topography). When it comes to scenes without distant backgrounds, adding clutter can create intimacy, and provide subtle additional threads to the narrative of your image, encouraging the viewer to explore beyond the central tableau. Carefully arranged clutter can lead your viewer’s eye around your image, creating a living narrative that has the central figures as the focal point. 09. Focus on the eyes These stunning eyes were created by Ghostship Aim to create a connection with the character’s eyes. The focal point for eyes can tell a story in its own right. Sometimes eyes that don’t meet another person’s, or that don’t look straight at the camera, can speak volumes. At other times, a direct gaze bespeaks honesty, openness or confidence. Convert your characters to Superfly-ready materials with Snarly Gribbly’s superb EZSkin script. Once you’ve run this, you can then replace the eye material nodes with Ghostship’s eyes, which creates much better realism. You can always swap your previous irises back into the material nodes if you need specific colours. 10. Vary skin tones Create skin types for different ethnicities (or levels of tan) by altering the base colour or the subsurface colour. In an ideal world, you’d digitise real people and use those photos to create skin of the precise colour you need, but that takes a huge amount of work and time to accomplish. I created a pale skin base, and can create a range of different tones, from red-head white, rosy pink to darker skin, by changing the base colour. You’ll sometimes need to give an extra tweak to mouth, lips and nipple bases to create a consistent appearance. Next page: More tips on Poser, including how to use lighting and materials 11. Consider body weight Most off-the-shelf models come with morphs for shape and muscularity, but none have settings for interaction with other objects (the ground, couches and chairs, etc). Sinking a character’s feet slightly into the ground or their buttocks into a chair will avoid that floaty look caused by simply dropping to the ground or resting on a surface. Use the Morph tool or magnets to deform the skin or couch surface to give the illusion of weight. 12. Make use of area lights When it comes to lighting, sometimes less is more. A single overhead or frontal area light will often provide sufficient soft lighting with no other lights needed. The more lights in a scene, the more the rendering engine has to calculate and the greater the likelihood of unwanted noise artefacts. The softness of an area light’s shadows are proportional to its scale. In the past, you’d mess about with infinite lights, having to make building parts invisible to simulate internal overhead light arrays. Now you can simply insert a single area into the room at a scale of say 1,000%, and a brightness of 300% is a great size for lighting a large room or hall. 13. Check out EZDome When it comes to lighting outdoor scenes, Snarly Gribbly’s free EZDome program is a versatile replacement for the old Firefly IBL system. It uses smart image-based lighting (sIBL) images which include the sun’s location. You can convert standard HDRI images to sIBL using sIBL Edit – which is also free. EZDome will add an sIBL or HDRI to a full or half sky dome, and can then be set to automatically add a shadow-casting light that will be applied at the correct point in the scene. This is a great and easy way to add realistic 360-degree lighting to a scene. 14. Don't be constrained by realism Even though you may be using Poser’s powerful Cycles-based renderer, if your scene is better served by highlighting and accenting with lights that could not exist in the real world (such as spot whose origin is inside the visible scene yet has no visible source to the viewer), then don’t be such a slave to realism that you sacrifice the effect you are seeking. One subtle effect for creating drama is a low-level, upwards-facing spot attached to the figure’s head (think of the old campfire horror-story trick with a flashlight). Turned bright, the effect is stark, but turned very low, it’s a great way to add some subtle fill-in colour to a dark scene. 15. Utilise gobos for shadows Use gobos or billboards to cast shadows rather than depending upon expensive geometry. The old Firefly way of simply plugging an image directly into the light’s colour channel no longer works. In Superfly, the easiest way is simply to create a semi-transparent plane and attach it in front of the spot that you want to affect (much as a photographer would use a gel). However, using this slightly more sophisticated setup (thanks to piersyf for the original), you can extend the effect to create stained glass and projector effects. You can use a mix of greyscale or coloured imagery to add interest and realism. 16. Apply displacement Superfly uses a different displacement engine to Firefly (vertex displacement rather than micro polygon). With Superfly, the more polygons, the greater the displacement resolution. Before you can even apply displacement, you’ll have to open the object’s properties tab and increase subdivision to 3 or even 5. There is an option with a multipart model, such as a human figure, to subdivide only the parts that you need extra resolution on (the face for instance). This avoids creating unwieldy numbers of polygons that will needlessly degrade your system performance. Subdivision is also a great way to smooth jagged bends on older figures. 17. Set up Cycles Don’t feel the need to create Cycles node rigs just because they are part of the Superfly PBR engine. These can be complicated to set up, and there are still imperfections and unpredictabilities in Poser’s implementation of certain features, such as transparency and displacement. The Poser surface root node does an excellent job of approximating many Cycles features for a fraction of the effort, complexity and rendering time. That said, notwithstanding the occasional feature that was not ported over, you can copy Cycles materials from Blender across to Poser if you find any that you like. 18. Create hair gloss If you are repurposing hair materials intended for the default renderer for use in Superfly (almost all off-the-shelf products), you’ll usually need to reduce the glossiness, reflection or specularity. These will usually be plugged into the ALTERNATE specularity channel. Lips and fingernails will also commonly need reworking. Expand Anisotropic nodes and look for values labelled ‘Glossiness’ or ‘K’s’. These can usually be reduced to 0.1 or less. The easiest solution is simply to delete anything plugged into the alternate diffuse or specularity channels. You’ll probably want to reduce any primary specularity or reflection values too. 19. Create grass Importing polygon grass is expensive on your memory budget, and using the hair room to grow it is even more costly on your processing, especially during render. If you are using the Firefly renderer, there’s thankfully an easy technique you can use to effectively create ‘fur’ grass or carpet. Simply attach a noise node to the displacement input. If you use a Clouds node in the Diffuse input, or a carpet pattern, this is a great way to transform bland polygons. For carpet combine the noise with a greyscale bump map using the Blender node if you want to give it deep pile sculpting. This article originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 233 now or subscribe. Related articles: 12 mighty Maya tutorials to try out today Sculpt realistic anatomy in ZBrush 30 free 3D models View the full article

Design is all about solving problems. One such problem we all face every day is how to get around without getting lost. British designers have considerable form in this area. Harry Beck's London Underground tube map is an undisputed design icon, and Margaret Calvert's much-imitated UK road signage is the envy of the world. For many of us, sat navs have replaced the humble road atlas for navigating over long distances, but when it comes to town centres, museums or famous buildings, hospitals or other potentially confusing places, wayfinding design really comes into its own. What is wayfinding? In a nutshell, wayfinding design is all about spatial problem solving. If you're in a particular area of a building or environment, a great piece of wayfinding design will tell you exactly where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there as quickly as possible. Read on to discover five particularly effective examples of wayfinding design from around the world, and what you can learn from them... 01. Falls Creek ski resort Signage in Falls Creek slots together in many different configurations Great wayfinding and signage design can be as much about innovative and creative use of materials as it is about communication design. Winner of a D&AD Wood Pencil in Environmental Graphics in 2011, Büro North's wayfinding work for the Falls Creek ski resort in Australia does exactly that. As well as signposts, the modular system also accommodates maps and information boards Like most ski resorts, Falls Creek is a complex, rambling place with extensive need for signage. Büro North's modular system enables different signpost units to be slotted together as required. The design caters to a huge variety of potential directions that a sign might need to point within the ski village, as well as providing the maximum visibility of information within an economical, versatile sign structure. 02. Google Chrome Web Lab These Google Chrome Web Lab exhibition graphics split the different exhibits into clearly marked zones Wayfinding isn't restricted to the physical world, as shown by the innovative design of Google's Chrome Web Lab exhibition at London's Science Museum. As well as being a physical installation that visitors could explore in person, the exhibition was open to the world via 24-hour web cam feeds. Designed to be equally useful for in-person and online visitors, the graphics make sense from above Technological experiments included as the 'Universal Orchestra', which encouraged users to collaborate through physical and virtual instruments, and 'Sketchbot', a camera that converted your portrait into a sand drawing. To make the exhibition equally navigable for in-person and online visitors, London-based design consultancy Bibliothèque split the exhibition into distinct architectural planes, using a graphic flowchart system on the floor that could also be read from a birds-eye-view perspective. 03. V&A Ceramics Galleries Cartlidge Levene designed these bold exhibition graphics to fit around the display cabinets Another D&AD Wood Pencil winner, Cartlidge Levene's exhibition graphics for the V&A Ceramics Galleries demonstrate how wayfinding can also help you navigate through complex layers of information in a small space. Briefed to integrate the graphics seamlessly with the architectural design of the space, Cartlidge Levene made use of the walls, ceilings and display units. The easily updated labeling system encourages interaction with the exhibits This included large-scale type in the ceiling cornicing, and dates painted directly onto wall surfaces to provide narrative and act as navigational aids. An easily updated label system integrates with the display cases, while bold enamel graphics interact with the furniture to explain the ceramic-making process. 04. University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück Büro Uebele bucked the wayfinding trend and used the ceiling instead of the walls to guide people This striking wayfinding for the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück raises the stakes on the awards front: it won Büro Uebele a D&AD Yellow Pencil. The agency's description is poetic: "A sky of black letters and numbers, interspersed with red clouds. Words like stars show the way, guiding the traveler. The ceiling is the firmament, scattered with words, the concrete walls are bare." The University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück wayfinding system won a D&AD Yellow Pencil Making use of the ceiling instead of the walls, the system guides people through the corridors, repeating key information about destinations in huge, unmissable type with clear arrows pointing the way. While the floor and walls are brutally simple and bare, the ceiling – or "starry sky", as the agency puts it – does all the work. 05. Here East campus dn&co's striking wayfinding system for Here East is inspired by an electrical diagram Occupying a 1.2 million square-foot area on the site of the former London 2012 Olympics, Here East is a vast campus for tech entrepreneurs. Working alongside Poke London and Hawkins\Brown, dn&co created bold, flexible and expressive branding for Here East, based around a disrupted 'H'. Bespoke icons add personality, while bright orange lines on the walls and floor lead you to your destination As part of the brand development, dn&co also took responsibility for the wayfinding and signage to help people navigate the enormous campus. Catering to the audience's specialist reference points, the wayfinding system and accompanying iconography is inspired by electrical diagrams. It literally leads people through the space to their destination, using bright orange lines and bold symbols on the floor and walls. Related articles: 16 examples of experimental design How to become an art director 45 awesome packaging designs View the full article

Logo design is the bread and butter of the design industry, and the best logos of all time have been hotly debated for years. But what defines a truly iconic logo, and has that changed over time? Of course, modern branding goes far beyond the design of a quality marque – and there are many different elements at play, from colour and use of typography to style of art direction and tone of voice. There are some brands so strong they don't need a logo, as their other elements are so distinctive and well-established – but of course, they do still have one. Many of the world's best logos have a particular place in our hearts, and plenty of uproar has been caused over the years about logos that should never have been changed (and in some case, are swiftly changed back again). As shown by the winners of Computer Arts' Brand Impact Awards in recent years, some market sectors are traditionally stronger, or more risk-taking, than others. It's easier to create an edgy cultural or artisan brand than to do the same in financial services or FMCG, for instance. Read on for our essential guide to the best logos of all time, according to market sector. We will keep adding to this post with up-to-date examples. 01. Best logos for iconic brands 02. Best entertainment logos 03. Best sports brand logos 04. Best design industry logos 05. Best technology brand logos View the full article

Perhaps one of the best things about being alive in the social media age is the unsightly rush to have opinions whenever a new logo design is revealed. Given any new logo, the internet – that is, Twitter – can't wait to critique its every detail and pick apart all its faults. It's the first step on the road to being hailed as a modern design classic a few years down the line. 10 of the best logos ever Even better is when a well-meaning but entirely unqualified CEO decides to take matters into her own hands and design the logo herself, as Marissa Mayer infamously did with the Yahoo! logo back in 2013. So the news this morning that the First Lady of the United States had unveiled an exciting new initiative and also designed the logo had us, quite reasonably, rubbing our hands in glee. Melania Trump's initiative, entitled Be Best, aims to encourage children to literally be best in their individual paths, while focusing on the three biggest issues facing young people today: well-being, social media use, and of course, opioid abuse. Spot the difference While it's clearly driven by the very best intentions, it's already drawn plenty of internet shade, particularly for the jarringly ungrammatical name and its pamphlet on safety online that's a mildly updated copy of another pamphlet from 2014. But what's really got us going is that logo. According to the White House, FLOTUS designed it herself, and while Melania has form for claiming other people's work as her own, in this case we can quite believe it. Apparently Melania likes clean lines and wanted something that would appeal to children, and this is the result. An unkind person might suggest that it looks like it was scrawled with a chisel tip marker in five seconds, then scanned and coloured in Photoshop. We think it looks more like it was drawn on-screen using free chisel tip Photoshop brushes. Others have been less kind. For once, we're enjoying a social media logo backlash without an ounce of the usual low level guilt that we usually feel when everyone's ripping on a perfectly acceptable design that's just a little unexpected and different. Keep it coming, Twitter. Related articles: The 20 biggest logos of 2017 QUIZ: Guess the extreme close-up logos 17 controversial moments in logo and brand design View the full article

Adobe has reinforced its commitment to K-12 schools with a new Creative Cloud offer. As of May 15, 2018, the full suite of Adobe Creative Cloud apps will be available to US primary and secondary schools via its authorised Adobe reseller for $4.99 per user license, per year. The subscription gives students their very own license and sign-in, providing access both at school and home. Terms include a minimum purchase quantity of 500 licenses for a single school, or 2,500 licenses for a school district. The offer follows Adobe's announcement in January to provide access to Spark for Education, a set of storytelling apps with premium features and additional capabilities for K-12 and higher education institutions, free of charge. In this blog post, Sharif Karmally, senior product marketing manager at Creative Cloud for education comments: "We are on an exciting journey, collaborating with educators to empower the next generation to be lifelong creators. With these two new offers, Spark for Education and Creative Cloud for K-12, we’re equipping teachers with the apps, training, and support they need to make this happen. We can’t wait to see all of the amazing things students create on their journey to becoming the creative problem solvers of the future." Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud Creative Bloq readers get a special 15% discount on Creative Cloud membership The price drop for K-12 schools isn't the only Adobe deal up for grabs. We’ve teamed up with Adobe to offer Creative Bloq readers a special 15% discount on Creative Cloud membership. Instead of paying the usual US$49.94/£49.94 every month, you’ll pay just $42.46/£42.46 for the first year. The offer is valid from now until 13 May 2018, and includes Adobe’s entire suite of desktop and mobile apps for Mac and PC, from essentials such as Photoshop CC to next generation tools such as Adobe XD CC. View the full article

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Lenovo warns of a high-severity bug impacting its System x line of servers, along with a medium-severity buffer-overflow vulnerability affecting its popular ThinkPad line. View the full article

The design world is by no means child's play. Or is it? Recently, graphic designer Dave Sedgwick, owner of Manchester-based agency Studio DBD, merged the two worlds together, using his two-year-old daughter's scribbles to form the basis of a new packaging design label for Track Brewing Co. Sedgwick has been working with the Track brand since they started out back in 2015. "A small brewery in Manchester, I created the brand identity, pump clips and bottle beer labels etc and I still do all this today," he says. "We have a great working relationship and they are quite good at allowing me to have creative freedom. My two-year-old daughter Aoife is obsessed with the jobs my wife and I do, and she’s been to my studio a fair bit to see my work. I always thought it would be cool to 'collaborate’ with her on something!' 20 brilliant beer label designs And so that's exactly what Sedgwick did. "I had a lot of beer labels to design and it’s hard to be consistently creative with them," he adds. "Aoife was doing some drawings, trying to make numbers, letters, etc, and I just thought they looked so unique and interesting. So I scanned them in and started to play with the colours and voila!" When explaining the deisgn process with Track Brewing, Sedgwick was met with instant approval. "I’m not sure how many clients would allow the designer's toddler to be involved," he says. "But Track trust me and so when I sent the design and explained it all they just said ‘cool’! Since tweeting about (above) the project recently, Sedgwick has had an overwhelmingly positive response. "I can’t believe the reaction the project has got - it's gone crazy," he says. "Of course Aoife is oblivious to it all!" Oblivious she may be, but Sedgwick assures us his young design mentee will be paid for her contribution. Related articles: The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2018 The ultimate guide to design trends 12 tips to turbocharge your design career View the full article

When working in Photoshop, simple tasks can become a hindrance to your workflow. To help out, we've got a great selection of Photoshop shortcuts right here, all guaranteed to speed up your workflow once you get the hang of them. We've also got free Photoshop actions to create stunning effects and some brilliant Photoshop tutorials to help you put them into practice. Want to change the size of your text? No problem. Deselect a layer or merge a series of layers? We've got you covered. There are also some handy hints for brushes, saving and closing, and viewing options. Whether you're using an old version of CS or the latest Creative Cloud update, these shortcuts are guaranteed to speed up your workflow. (Prefer a quick visual guide instead? Take a look at our handy Photoshop shortcuts cheat sheet.) Manipulating and arranging layers is simple with these great Photoshop shortcuts 01. Create New layer MAC: Shift+Cmd+N WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+N Get started on your latest project in next to no time with this handy shortcut that instantly whips up a new layer and dialogue box. 02. Create new layer behind selected layer MAC: Ctrl+New Layer icon WINDOWS: Cmd+New Layer Icon Mastering the new layer shortcut is a doddle, so once you're ready to drop in a layer behind it, be sure to use this shortcut. 03. Fill a layer MAC: Alt+Backspace (foreground) or Cmd+Backspace (background) WINDOWS: Alt+Delete (foreground) or Ctrl+Delete (background) This command will fill an empty later with the current foreground or background colour. 04. Flatten layers MAC: Cmd+Alt+Shift+E WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E Add a new, empty layer to the top of your stack, select it and use the above command to flatten the layers in an image to sharpen the result. This adds a flattened version of the image to the new layer but leaves the stacked layers intact too. 05. Merge visible layers MAC: Cmd+Shift+E WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+E This command enables you to merge all your existing layers to create one new layer. Beware! Once merged, they're extremely difficult to separate. 06. Stamp down selected layers MAC: Cmd+Alt+E WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+E Once you've selected your layers, use this command to merge them into just one layer. To see them merged as a new layer, simply add in the Shift modifier. This is useful if you need to make adjustments later on. 07. New layer via copy MAC: Cmd+J WINDOWS: Ctrl+J Use this command to create a new layer from an existing one. Sound complicated? Give it a go! 08. New layer via cut MAC: Cmd+Shift+J WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+J Like creating a new layer via copy, this command will create a new layer with the selected image area in it. The only difference via cut is that it will remove the selected image portion from the original image. 09. Bring layer to top of stack MAC: Cmd+Shift+] WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+] Here, you can move your preferred layer to the top of the stack of images you're working with in Photoshop. 10. Send layer to bottom of stack MAC: Cmd+Shift+[ WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+[ Yep, this is pretty self-explanatory. It does exactly the same as the command above, but in the opposite direction. 11. Bring layer forward MAC: Cmd+] WINDOWS: Ctrl+] This Photoshop shortcut enables you to bring any selected image to the front. 12. Send layer back MAC: Cmd+[ WINDOWS: Ctrl+[ If you decide to change your mind, you can always select the image and send it to the back of the pile. 13. Copy multiple layers MAC: Shift+Cmd+C WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+C Draw a selection, then use this command to take every layer into the clipboard, rather than just the current layer selection. Next page: Selections Adding, subtracting, inverting. Getting selections right has never been easier 14. Reselect MAC: Cmd+Shift+D WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+D This is a great command for when you accidentally click away from a section. Pressing these keys will have that section reselected in no time. 15. Invert selection MAC: Cmd+Shift+I WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+I Select objects around a pre-selected image. This way, you can work around your main focus without losing it. 16. Select all layers MAC: Cmd+Opt+A WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+A A perfect command for those times when you need to get everything in sync. 17. Select bottom layer MAC: Opt+, WINDOWS: Alt+, This will select the bottom layer in the Layers panel. 18. Select top layer MAC: Opt+. WINDOWS: Alt+. This will select the top layer in the Layers panel. 19. Deselect from the selection area MAC: Opt+drag WINDOWS: Alt+drag If you need to deselect a certain area sharpish, then hit these keys and drag your mouse. 20. Deselect all but the intersected area MAC: Shift+Opt+drag WINDOWS: Shift+Alt+drag If you don't want to deselect an area, you can use this shortcut to ensure you're clicking on what you want. 21. Deselect the entire image MAC: Cmd+D WINDOWS: Ctrl+D If you need to get away from the image, use this Photoshop shortcut to deselect anything that you've clicked on. 22. Find the sizing handles MAC: Cmd+T, then Cmd+0 WINDOWS: Ctrl+T, then Ctrl+0 When pasting a layer or selection into a Photoshop image and it's bigger than the current image, it can be difficult to find the sizing handles. This command selects Transform and sizes the image inside the window so you can see the sizing handles. 23. Move a selection MAC: Spacebar+Marquee tool WINDOWS: Spacebar+Marquee tool Want to move a selection easily? Simply choose the Marquee tool, and press and hold the Spacebar. Continue to do so until the selection is in the correct place. 24. Select individual channels MAC: Cmd+3 (red), 4 (green), 5 (blue) WINDOWS: Ctrl+3 (red), 4 (green), 5 (blue) Selecting with Photoshop Channels makes removing a complex object from the background much easier than using other tools. And using this Photoshop shortcut makes the process even simpler. 25. Select a colour from an image MAC: Opt+Brush tool WINDOWS: Alt+Brush tool When working with a Photoshop brush, if you want to sample a colour from an image, instead of clicking the Eyedropper tool, simply hold the Alt or Option key to switch temporarily. Then let go to return to the Brush tool. Next page: Brushes and filling Play with brush sizes and more with these great Photoshop shortcuts 26. Increase/decrease brush size MAC: ]/[ WINDOWS: ]/[ Getting your brush size just right is one of the most important aspects of Photoshop. Do it with this command. 27. Fill MAC: Shift+F5 WINDOWS: Shift+F5 Whether you want to fill the selection with the foreground colour or with a selected pattern, use this Photoshop shortcut to get the job done quickly. 28. Increase/decrease brush hardness MAC: }/{ WINDOWS: }/{ Brush hardness is just as important, so get it right with this shortcut. 29. Previous/next brush MAC: ,/. WINDOWS: ,/. Save time and distractions by using these simple commands to swiftly move through the various brushes on offer. 30. First/last brush MAC: </> WINDOWS: </> If you don't want to have go through the entire array of Brushes on offer, hit these commands to go back to the start or end. 31. Toggle airbrush option MAC: Shift+Opt+P WINDOWS: Shift+Alt+P Simulate spraying painting with Photoshop's Airbrush tool using this helpful shortcut. Next page: Saving and closing You'll save most things. So these Photoshop shortcuts should come in handy. 32. Save for web & devices MAC: Cmd+Shift+Opt+S WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S Pretty self-explanatory, but if you prefer not to drag your mouse onto a number of options, use this Photoshop shortcut on your keyboard. 33. Close and go to Bridge MAC: Cmd+Shift+W WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+W As the name implies, this will close your document and then open up Adobe Bridge, where you can select the next file you wish to work on. Next page: Working with your images We love Clipping Masks. Does that make us weird? DOES IT?! Ok. Fair enough 34. Levels MAC: Cmd+L WINDOWS: Ctrl+L When editing your images, you'll be using the Levels box regularly. Save yourself some time with this Photoshop shortcut. 35. Free Transform MAC: Cmd+T WINDOWS: Ctrl+T This command opens Photoshop's Free Transform tool for resizing, rotating, and skewing an image using a draggable outline. 36. Curves MAC: Cmd+M WINDOWS: Ctrl+M This Photoshop shortcut enables you to quickly edit the Curves on an image. 37. Colour Balance MAC: Cmd+B WINDOWS: Ctrl+B This is the perfect Photoshop shortcut to edit the Colour Balance of your images. 38. Hue/Saturation MAC: Cmd+U WINDOWS: Ctrl+U These two powerful Photoshop tools will aid you in the colour balance battle, and decrease the amount of crossover. 39. Desaturate MAC: Cmd+Shift+U WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+U Convert your colour image to grayscale values, leaving the image in the same colour mode. 40. Quick image fixes Auto Tone MAC: Shift+Cmd+L WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+L Auto Contrast MAC: Opt+Shift+Cmd+L WINDOWS: Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L Auto Color MAC: Shift+Cmd+B WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+B After a quick fix for a photo? While they're not reliable cure-alls, these tools are usually worth a go for automatically improving your images. 41. Lens correction MAC: Shift+Cmd+R WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+R The camera always lies, particularly where lens distortion is involved. Use the lens correction filter to reduce the effect of barrel distortion, pincushion distortion and vignetting. 42. Adaptive Wide Angle MAC: Opt+Shift+Cmd+A WINDOWS: Opt+Shift+Ctrl+A Wide-angle lenses can bring their own particular distortions, and Photoshop has a filter for this. The Adaptive Wide Angle filter can quickly straighten lines that appear curved in panoramas, or photos taken with fish-eye and wide-angle lenses. 43. Camera Raw Filter MAC: Shift+Cmd+A WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+A With older versions of Photoshop you have to run Adobe Camera Raw as a separate program. But in Photoshop CC it's available as a filter, enabling you to non-destructively apply sophisticated adjustments to any image type. 44. Content Aware Scale MAC: Cmd+Shift+Opt+C WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C Scale your image to your preferred state with this super-quick Photoshop shortcut. 45. Content-Aware Move MAC AND WINDOWS: Shift+J The latest content-aware tool in Photoshop CC enables you to move objects around in a photograph, and it'll intelligently fill in the gaps where they used to be. 46. Create clipping mask MAC: Cmd+Opt+G WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+G A great way to keep shadows and shading where they belong, the clipping mask tool is basic but useful. 47. Blending modes MAC: Shift++ or - WINDOWS: Shift++ or - Photoshop has a variety of blending modes to create cool effects. Use this command to cycle through each. 48. Black and white dialogue box MAC: Shift+Cmd+Opt+B WINDOWS: Shift+Ctrl+Alt+B Speed up the process of converting colour photos to black and white with this Photoshop shortcut, which opens the black and white adjustment dialogue box. 49. Change image size MAC: Cmd+Opt+i WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+i Set up your image sizes with ease with this quick and simple shortcut. Next page: 3D work Speed up your 3D work with these Photoshop shortcuts 50. Show/Hide polygons Within Selection MAC: Opt+Cmd+X WINDOWS: Alt+Ctrl+X Reveal All MAC: Opt+Shift+Cmd+X WINDOWS: Opt+Shift+Ctrl+X If you're working with 3D assets, use this option to view the polygons that make up your 3D models. 51. Render MAC: Opt+Shift+Cmd+R WINDOWS: Alt+Shift+Ctrl+R Once you're happy with your 3D model, use this Photoshop shortcut to create a final render and create the highest quality version for output to web, print, or animation. Next page: Viewing Just how sharp is that pic of a knight? Only one way to tell: CMD+OPT+0, baby! 52. View actual pixels MAC: Cmd+Opt+0 WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+0 Viewing an image in Photoshop in actual pixels gives you the chance to see each pixel individually – ensuring your work is perfect. 53. Fit on screen MAC: Cmd+0 WINDOWS: Ctrl+0 This Photoshop shortcut is a great way to view your work in all its glory on screen. 54. Zoom in MAC: Cmd++ WINDOWS: Ctrl++ If you want to get down to the nitty gritty of an image, zoom right in with this Photoshop shortcut command. 55. Zoom out MAC: Cmd+- WINDOWS: Ctrl+- Get an insight into how your work will look from afar with this zoom out command. Next page: Text in Photoshop Text options are a pain to find in Photoshop, because everyone uses these 56. Increase/decrease size of selected text by 2pts MAC: Cmd+Shift+>/< WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+>/< Experiment with text in Photoshop by using this command to change its size by 2pts. 57. Increase/decrease size of selected text by 10pts MAC: Cmd+Option+Shift->/< WINDOWS: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+>/< This Photoshop shortcut works the same as the command above, but it's by 10pts this time. 58. Increase/decrease kerning or tracking MAC: Opt+right/left arrow WINDOWS: Alt+right/left arrow Adjust the space between your text in Photoshop with this handy keyboard command. 59. Align text left/centre/right MAC: Cmd+Shift+L/C/R WINDOWS: Ctrl+Shift+L/C/R A great way to experiment with the alignment of your text, this Photoshop shortcut will enable you to do it quickly. 60. Show/Hide selection on selected type MAC: Cmd+H WINDOWS: Ctrl+H Speed up the process of selecting elements on type with this easy-to-remember shortcut. Related articles: The 40 best Photoshop plugins 12 top Photoshop resources 21 Illustrator shortcuts View the full article

Creatives of any kind need to know how to use the apps in the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. These powerful tools are used by amateur and professional creators alike to make their work shine. You can learn your way around these awesome apps with the Adobe CC Lifetime Mastery Bundle, and you can pay what you want for it! Aspiring creators will definitely want to know learn how to use the Adobe Creative Cloud. It's the most powerful set of design tools around and the Adobe CC Lifetime Mastery Bundle will help you master these tools. You'll find more than 40 hours of actionable courses in this bundle that will make you an expert with all of Adobe's powerful artistic tools, from Photoshop and Illustrator to Dreamweaver and InDesign. Plus you'll learn how to make use of motion graphics in After Effects and more. The Adobe CC Lifetime Mastery Bundle is valued at over $384, but you can get it now for a price that you pick! Beat the average to unlock it all, get on the leaderboard, or just pay what you want. You can't go wrong, so grab this bundle today! Related articles: 5 best laptops for Photoshop The 40 best Photoshop plugins Master the Mixer brush in Photoshop View the full article

If you want to go further than just using free 3D models and learn how to sculpt realistic anatomy in ZBrush, this is the tutorial for you. As you will see, ZBrush is an amazing tool for a project like this because it provides you with the much-needed freedom required when shaping forms. Download the files you'll need for this tutorial. 01. Look for references Make sure you have enough reference material before starting If you're going for a full body anatomy study like I am, then make sure you have enough reference material for each part. You can find some 360-degree pictures of a model in various poses here. In addition, Google and Pinterest are great resources to search for images. I decided on Michael Phelps because of his well-defined muscle structure, the huge amount of reference material available and his unusual body proportions. 02. Check body proportions Use your character's head to get its proportions right Probably the most important thing in any kind of art – whether you draw, sculpt or paint – is the proportions. It doesn't matter how much attention you pay to detail, rendering and composition, it will all be meaningless work if your character doesn't look real. The easiest way to measure a character is with ‘heads'. This is why I always start by getting my base shape for the face and using the Transpose tool to measure 7.5/8 heads for my character. Of course, you need to be aware that there is always an exception. For example, with Michael Phelps, his torso is longer, he has shorter legs and his arm span is bigger than the average person. The steps below explain how to measure your character in ‘heads' using ZBrush: Once you have finished shaping your base head, turn off perspective (by pressing the P key), select the Transpose tool and draw out a line from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin holding Shift. This will ensure that it's straight. In the top menu, go to Preferences > Transpose Units, set Minor Ticks to 0 and Calibration Distance to 1. Now if you draw a line from the top to the bottom of the character, you will see that it's divided by heads. 03. Make ZBrush body base mesh Alternatively, just use ZBrush's base mesh To get an easier start, you can always use the base mesh that comes with ZBrush, if you're not feeling too confident with your knowledge of proportions. The base mesh comes with the Skull SubTool, so you can always take a look at how it's built. I don't want to spend a lot of time on proportions, so this time I will use the base mesh. To load the base mesh, do the following: Select Lightbox Click on the Tool sub palette Find and double click on Nickz_humanMale Drag it out with the left mouse button on the viewport and click Edit Object (or press T on the keyboard). 04. Make adjustments to the base mesh Use Transpose Master to adjust your character's pose I don't find the initial pose of the base mesh appealing, so I will change it using the Transpose Master plugin, and give it a more natural silhouette. Transpose Master combines the lowest resolution of all SubTools and creates a mesh that you can pose together. The pose can then be transferred back to the original SubTools. To use the Transpose Master, work through the following steps: Go to Zplugin > Transpose Master and click on TPoseMesh. Pose your model by masking out the parts that you want to move, by holding Ctrl to mask and inverting the mask by holding Ctrl+LMB on the viewport. Once you've finished with the posing, go back to Zplugin > Transpose Master and click on TPose > SubT. Your changes will now be transferred to your original model. While posing your model, you can always export your pose by selecting TPoseMesh. You can then load it manually by going to the scene with your original model and selecting TPose > SubT. 05. Paint body bone landmarks Paint skeleton landmarks to keep track of shapes and proportions Before I start the sculpting process, I do my best to paint all the skeleton landmarks that are seen on the human body. It allows me to keep a better track of the shapes and proportions. You can paint on your model in ZBrush by following these steps: Firstly, fill it with white colour by selecting white on your palette on the left, going to Colour in the top menu and selecting Fill Object. Make sure that your RGB Channel is turned on. Select your Standard brush and uncheck the ZADD above the Intensity slider, while keeping RGB turned on. This will ensure your Standard brush only paints the desired colour, without impacting on the surface of the mesh. Pick the colour that suits you and start painting your model. The main landmarks that I usually paint are the sternum, costal cartilage, iliac crest, vertebrae, anterior superior iliac spine, curve of tibia, clavicle, scapula, acromion process, zygomatic bone, mandible and the temporal line. 06. Use subdivisions The powerful part of using the base mesh is having the correct topology on your body from the very beginning. This allows you to use subdivision levels in ZBrush, which increases the polygon count of a model by replacing each polygon with multiple polygons – the higher it is the more detail you can add. In addition, you can always come back to your first subdivision level and adjust shapes, and this change will be reflected when you come back to the highest subdivision. Let's look at an example of how this works: I know that I'm going to sculpt details like veins, skin stretching and so forth on the highest subdivision, as it will give me millions of polygons to work with. In case I want to change the bulkiness of his chest, I can always go back to a lower subdivision and add some volume to it. All the detail I added on the highest subdivision won't be visible on the lower one, but it will still be there when I come back to the highest level. 07. Block out shapes Throughout my whole sculpting process, I only use a few brushes: Standard, Dam_Standard, Clay Buildup, Clay, Smooth and Move. I am not concerned about the likeness at this time; for now I want to focus on getting all the muscles blocked-in with the correct shape and placement. I use Clay Buildup and Smooth to get the shape, by adding clay and smoothing it out until I get what I want. I try to maintain as low a subdivision level as I can. I go higher once I don't have enough polygons for the shapes I want to add. 08. Add muscle volume Turn off symmetry before building up the body I give my model some more subdivisions and start adding volume by using the Clay Buildup and Clay brush on very low intensity settings, going slowly and not overdoing it. At this stage I stop using symmetry, because I want to be as close to realistic filling as I can. I have noticed that I get the best results when I turn it off early. In addition, I use Transpose Master (like in step 04) to bend the fingers. Make sure that you are not focused on one part of the body all the time – jump between them. This will make you see your sculpture as a whole. Also pay attention to your references, as they play an important role at this stage. Next page: 5 more steps for sculpting realistic anatomy in ZBrush 09. Exaggerate features Focus on your character's defining features Sculpting likeness is the hardest task to perform in ZBrush, but also the most rewarding if you manage to do it. However, you don't have to make it perfect, unless you plan to do some close-up renders. Search for the features that define the person. So for Phelps, it's the length of his face, narrow jaw, big orbicularis oris muscle and protruding ears. To help me find these, I look at the work of caricature artists, because they always exaggerate the characteristics of the face. 10. Create clothing Find plenty of references to help make realistic clothing As always, the first thing you need to sculpt believable cloth is reference. Luckily for me there is no shortage of images of Michael Phelps wearing speedos on the internet. The extraction method is a good choice for creating clothing that sticks to the body. To extract a new mesh: Hold Ctrl to paint the mask onto your model. Remember that the new mesh will extract in the same place as your mask. Once you're happy with the shape, go to SubTool > Extract and turn off Double, otherwise you will get an extraction on both sides of the mesh. Set your Thickness to 0.001 and click Extract. You should see a preview of the mesh that will be generated. Click Accept to create it and it will then appear in your SubTool list. Initially, the middle of the mesh is going to be masked. Use your Smooth brush to make the edges even. To gain better control of the mesh, I use ZRemesher to achieve proper topology by doing the following: Go to Geometry > ZRemesher. Lower the Target Polygon Count to 0.1/0.2 and click ZRemesher (make sure that your symmetry [X] is turned on for that process). Now you have a mesh that you can easily manipulate and position however you like. Once you're done moving it, you can always use ZRemesher again in order to fix the topology. The final step before sculpting is to give it some thickness: Go to Geometry > Edge Loop. Lower Loops to 1, set Bevel to 0 and experiment with thickness. It is best to roughly match the thickness of material that you're planning to sculpt. When the mesh is ready to sculpt, I use the Standard brush with Alpha 37/38/39 to get some nice results with the wrinkles. Don't subdivide your mesh too high – do it step by step. The swimming cap will be done the same way. 11. Pose your model An asymmetric pose will make your work look more interesting Your work will always look a lot more interesting when you break the symmetry even more by changing pose for the final render. I have an interesting pose in my reference folder, so I will try to get something similar – again by using Transpose Master. In this case, the rotation of the head and torso, combined with the head tilting upwards, gave an interesting result. Remember that we always have to adjust the anatomy after posing. I need to make his neck muscle more pronounced on one side. 12. Export the model Decimate your model before exporting it Before exporting models to 3D applications like Maya or 3ds Max, I need to ensure I will be able to use them. Unfortunately, when working on a mesh that has a few million polygons, this might not be possible. I will use the Decimation Master plugin to lower the polycount on the mesh and preserve all the high poly detail. To decimate your model, follow these steps: On the top menu, go to ZPlugin > Decimation Master. Click on Pre-Process All – this will recalculate all the information about all the SubTools. Once complete, select your desired percentage of decimation. For me, 20 per cent usually works perfectly. Next, click Decimate All and you will notice a huge drop in the number of polygons – but your detail shouldn't change. Select Export All SubTools. Now you can export everything as a single .obj file to use in Maya. 13. Move into V-ray The final step is to import and render your model in V-Ray. I bought premade V-Ray scenes from flippednormals.com and want to make use of them when rendering Michael Phelps. After the purchase you can download everything you need from the website, including a video tutorial on how to set everything up. The wealth of material may seem overwhelming at first, but it won't take you more than five minutes to get a great looking render. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 217; Subscribe here! Related articles: 10 ways to improve your human anatomy modelling The 10 best ZBrush plugins Model an alien pirate creature in ZBrush View the full article

I look at many creative resumes and portfolios every day in my job at Fantasy, spanning a wide range of disciplines and talents. Because there's so many, I've had to develop a strategy to enable me to quickly tell whether a designer has both the visual talent and user experience thinking to thrive with us. In short, a way of separating good work from work that simply looks good. There are plenty of great platforms and tools out there to help designers display their work beautifully. Check out our post on wordpress portfolio themes for a round up. The problem is that these platforms look so great out of the box that they can easily mask the true talent level of the designers using them. Grabbing a nice photograph of a car might make for an arresting project marquee, but if the work that follows isn't as interesting, it'll be clear to me that the designer has put more effort into making a portfolio than they put into the work featured in that portfolio. What follows is a how-to version of the mental checklist of elements I look for in a great portfolio. Not every single one of these is required, but the best portfolios I see include the majority of the these ingredients. 01. Select your projects Pick your best work The first step is to select projects that you think are the best indication of your talent. A well-curated body of work is the first indicator that an individual can decipher good from bad. We have all taken on projects that didn't have a favourable outcome, but guess what? You don't have to advertise them! A single piece of bad work can undermine an entire portfolio. It demonstrates a lack of taste for only the best quality. 02. Look to the future Promote pieces that indicate the kind of work you'd like to do Choose pieces that hint at work you'd like to do in the future. Many designers believe their portfolio is an archive of the work they have completed in the past. While this is true, it should also be a springboard from which to win future opportunities. I often hear from potential clients who like pieces in my portfolio and want to talk about related projects, proving that it's advantageous to show the kind of work you'd be happy to do more of moving forward. 03. Showcase personal projects Show off the range of your abilities with personal projects A great way to show your abilities is to develop a personal project showcasing how you might approach design for an existing product or brand. I love looking at personal projects because they demonstrate a designer's talent when they're free from the constraints of demanding clients and business needs. However, because this work is created in a bubble, it should be clear to your audience that it is not client-driven, and is not an indication of your ability to solve problems stemming from client feedback. 04. Choose wisely Don't try to redesign the Apple watch If you include personal projects, avoid redesigns for brands with a strong design presence. Nike, Apple, Burton: these are all brands with a strong heritage and even stronger design language. They have already set the tone and style for any work created for them, and anything unsolicited would blend in with their current work regardless of how innovative it may seem. Instead, either focus on solving a usability problem with an existing product, or select a brand that is not as ubiquitous. 05. Demonstrate critical thinking Make sure you get your backstory right Before even approaching the computer, determine how you are going to talk about each piece of work. Where did this piece start? How did you embark on the process? Where did you look for inspiration? How did the design take shape? Were there any hurdles along the way? What were the results? These are all questions that should be answered in order to demonstrate critical thinking in your creative process. 06. Structure matters Structure your project description properly Each piece within your portfolio is a story and should be laid out in a proper arc. Where did the project begin? How did you respond to the task? What was the solution? How and where was your solution carried out? All of these questions need to be answered in the proper order for easy consumption, so your viewer can get a sense of the wider scope of your involvement and expertise. 07. Show your workings Some clients will be designers, and they will enjoy seeing your sketches Gather artefacts from your process. I love seeing and hearing about the creative process of other designers and geeking out over sketches. In addition to collecting pixel-perfect final artwork, consider including any work you did along the way. Any colour explorations, photographs and so on, tell me that you look for inspiration outside of Photoshop and work through various problems or roadblocks to get to a final solution. 08. Explain your decisions Justify your choices Think of your audience as a client in a design presentation. How did you get to typographic decisions or colour choices? Did you thoughtfully approach the use of a grid? How does your framework scale to multiple devices or increased amounts of content? Including these steps helps justify your final design choices and gives depth to the work overall. 09. Describe any interactions Explain how the interface works If your portfolio contains interactive work, show your thinking behind how elements on screen behave when the user is present. This will transform your design from simply a nice layout to an immersive experience. Think too about how your interactions are unique to each project, and go above and beyond the work others have seen before. This will help your audience see how the piece functions overall, even without having to experience a live demonstration. 10. Use thoughtful animations Animations are a great way to explain the functions of interface elements Simple prototype animations or animated demo videos add a tremendous amount of value to your projects. These should not take the place of a well thought-out story told through design, but they go a long way in conveying the interactions, interesting movement, and spacial relationships that flat comps just can't. These should be used sparingly and placed thoughtfully so as not to interfere with the project story's flow. 11. Explain your process Clients will want to know how you work through problems Interactive projects are often in-depth explorations of complicated processes and interactions. When selecting which elements of your projects to focus on, be sure to show any processes, even if they aren't the flashiest elements. They will help your audience see how you think through complex design and interaction problems while still working to maintain a quality product. 12. Keep it tight Don't include this kind of unnecessary image While I've discussed including a number of visuals for process and function, it is important to consider the presence of each visual you select. A tight portfolio has very little fluff and doesn't try to distract the viewer. A good example is the ubiquitous 'grid of devices'. Sometimes it may be relevant to demonstrate that a product works on multiple platforms or screen sizes, but more often than not this is unnecessary visual candy. I suggest avoiding it unless you have a strong argument to the contrary. 13. Visual tricks date quickly Fancy effects serve no purpose Do the work justice, don't hide it behind flashy imagery. Just as images of designers holding posters were popular years ago, now it has become popular to show design work angled in three dimensions. This serves no purpose other than to distract your viewer from how good the work really is. Reserve angles to show frameworks and how elements sit in relation to each other within the context of the overall design. 14. Use context Show your design as it would be used Give context to each piece. This is a tricky one, and should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Interactive design always exists within the context of a browser, television, or mobile device. Consider showing at least one design within the context of the key device it would live in to give an indication of the scale of the elements and their relationship with the edge of the screen. 15. Perfect your portfolio's design Sell your work with a stylish portfolio design Labour over the creation of each asset in the same way you laboured over the work to begin with. This is the most tedious part of creating any portfolio, but by far the most important! As much as a portfolio shouldn't get in the way of the designs within, any design elements applied to the portfolio itself should be considered with the same attention to detail that you give all of your projects. That goes for typography, imagery, colour choices and so on. 16. Choose the right platform Squarespace, Semplice and Readymag are all strong choices Consider the platform where you will showcase your work. Will it properly convey each piece's story? Will it easily scale with additional projects? There are several to choose from these days – Squarespace, Semplice and Readymag to name a few – and each have their pros and cons. Before committing to a platform be sure to test each option and look at examples to ensure you are moving forward with the best solution for you and your work. 17. Expand your horizons If you have an interesting process, share it on Medium Look for additional outlets to show off your projects and point of view. If you've created work that has an interesting story behind it, consider writing a Medium article about your process and approach. There you can give an account of your work in greater detail, and increase your presence to a broader audience. You never know, this might create leads you hadn't been exposed to previously. 18. Get feedback Ask friends what they think Solicit friends and colleagues for feedback. As many of us consider our work extremely personal, this step is frequently overlooked. However, asking an objective outsider to cast an eye over your portfolio can be incredibly useful. Just like with professional career criticism, it can help you push your work to the next level. It will also help you gauge if your project stories are understandable and clear to outsiders, which is key if you want others to reach out to you once it has launched. 19. Include a bio Tell people who you are Don't forget to tell your own story as a designer! This is a hotly contested aspect of every portfolio: just how much personality should you show? I lean towards liking less 'quirkiness' or forced creativity, and instead look for a quick summary of the creative's professional background. This element is often an afterthought; just a paragraph of text or a link to LinkedIn. You might try putting together a simple case study about you, highlighting work experience and clients, presented in an easily digestible, strongly typographic way. 20. Get it out there Social media is your friend Share it everywhere! After all that hard work you deserve to be a little obnoxious. There are all the usual outlets for creatives, but design is inherently about solving problems for businesses outside the design community. Find people and places to share your work with who don't work in your industry. Do they understand your approach? Are they interested in your work? It just might lead to another great project and ultimately an addition to your portfolio. Related articles: The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios 32 brilliant design portfolios How to start a blog View the full article

The web is an endless sea of possibilities. You can choose your own adventure, working at a design agency or as in-house designer. You can start your own blog or learn the art of 3D using online Blender tutorials. Or you can do something more daring – break out on your own. But being an independent designer means that you also have to be a business person. You can't tune out the nitty gritty of contracts and ledgers. If you do, your business won't take off. It's a necessary evil. In this post, we'll go through what you need to know about the business of design so that you can thrive as a self-employed designer. 01. Love your clients Whether you're a self-employed designer or a business owner, you're either going to be passionate about your product or service, or you're going to be passionate about the people you serve. I believe it's even more important for self-employed designers to love their clients more than their tools, than it is for many other types of business owner. The reason is this: the design world moves so fast, and design trends change so quickly, that it takes passion to keep up. That environment breeds passion for your craft – and rightly so! Remember to channel all that passion and energy back at your clients. Make clients feel confident in your abilities by showing them enthusiasm When business is positioned like that, it's far more palatable for the self-employed designer. How can you help more people? How can you leverage your design skills to make more of an impact for your clients? How can you reach more people to make an impact for? 02. Be clear about your services The first step in getting someone's business is to be clear on what you offer. There's no room for vagueness and uncertainty. One way to ensure you're communicating what you offer is to know what you're best at and what value you bring to the table. As described in the free Field Guide to Freelance Web Design that I helped write for UXPin, there are a few ways to figure out how to define yourself and your business. First of all, you need to study your market. Learn about who's playing in your space, and who's satisfying their clients. What sells well? What niches of the market aren't being served as passionately or completely as others? Next up, try to think like your prospective clients.The more time you spend researching from the eyes of a prospect, the more you'll spot where those prospects could be served better. You should also look for opportunities in the market. Perhaps there's a certain niche that gets less service because it isn't ‘hip'. Or maybe your competition isn't communicating in a way that your market understands. Maybe you're better at educating prospects. Or maybe you provide significantly more value than they do. "We offer quality web design services" - Everyone But defining yourself isn't enough. You have to know the difference between what you do, and what the client gets. For example, 'we do persona development' means nothing to most clients, where 'increasing conversion rates by targeting demographics separately' usually makes more sense to them. Home Depot sells customers 'drills'. The customers want 'a hole in their wall'. Same thing, different terminology. Some clients will be interested to know what kind of drill you'll be using, and why you think it's the best drill for the job. All clients will be interested to know if you're going to give them the exact hole they want. 03. Make sure you stand out Everyone that's fighting for a piece of the client pie says they're good. And you're going to have to cut through that noise and stand out. To make yourself unique, you need to consider: what makes you special, how you pitch that to prospectives, how you sell that, and how you position yourself as an expert. And when everyone is saying the same thing, it gets trickier. Back before responsive web design was a thing, I remember selling responsive web design to prospects. It was like magic, and when coupled with the rest of our offer it was the icing on the cake. Now, responsive design isn't a nicety, but a necessity. The work may still be valuable, but if everyone else is also doing it, the magic is lost. You can get around this by doing the following: Use testimonials from your clients to add believability to your website Add case studies to your site, highlighting how you solved a particular problem. Use testimonials from past clients on your site. Keep your skills fresh – stay on top of the latest trends and techniques. Play to your strengths: think about what you can offer that others don't. 04. Have an onboarding process Once you attract a prospective client, you need to have a clear onboarding process. Prospects become clients when they're confident in you, your ability to deliver results and your value proposition. A solid process will really help you instil that confidence. An onboarding process can help put new clients at ease Similarly, declining clients that you don't believe will allow you to deliver results or your value proposition to is equally important. Perhaps they want something you have no idea how to do (and it's sufficiently out of your wheelhouse for you to learn in a timely manner). Or perhaps their budget is too small. Maybe the product they're selling doesn't align with you ethically. In any of these cases, it's your role to shut the deal down, rather than compromising your integrity or ethics by delivering bad work or building bad products. While we're talking about shutting the deal down, there are a few things to look out for. Make sure... They have the funds to commit to working with you, or at least enough to get started. They're ready ready to start work on the project soon. Your personalities can work well together. They respect you, your work, and your rate. They have passion for their own project. While it may be tempting to take any work that comes your way, you don't want to put yourself in a miserable situation. You'll want to make sure that you want to work with someone as much as they want to work with you. 05. Create a good contract You probably know you'll want good contracts in place before you do business with other companies. For more on creating decent contracts, check out our article on the 10 contract commandments you should know about. A good contract will protect you against clients who don't want to pay But the best contract in the world may not help you if someone on the other side of the world decides to disappear without paying you. Have good contracts, have clear payment guidelines, and be wise about who you do business with. For example, Fairhead Creative uses simple but comprehensive contract documents that outline when we expect each partial payment, ahead of each piece of work starting, so that we can be paid incrementally as work is completed. Whatever payment details work best for your market, get it in writing, just in case. As depressing as it may sound, I'd recommend brushing up on what the procedures are in your country and state for things like small claims courts and collection agencies. Hopefully you'll never need either, but knowing how to set the process in motion if someone breaks the rules will give you the confidence to tackle problems appropriately, rather than shying away. 06. Keep track of your hours Do you know how long your previous projects took you? How long did you spend on each part of the process? If you were to take away a specific section of the design work, how would that affect the price? Without this data, you're screwing yourself and your wallet. The better you track your time, the more accurate your estimates become. Become a master time-tracker. There's lots of great project management tools available, but they'll only be as effective as the person using them: choose a tool and master it. Related articles: 6 ways to save money as a freelancer 6 freelance mistakes you might be making 10 tips for the work-at-home ninja View the full article

Intel may be facing as many as eight new Spectre-level vulnerabilities in its chips, a German magazine alleges. View the full article

A backdoor could be exploited to allow an attacker to manipulate the implants and cause heart problems and even death, View the full article

One of the main functions of a good logo design is to make your brand recognisable and get it seen. With these criteria in mind, Adidas can pat itself on the back as its distinctive three stripe icon has been recognised as the most shared brand logo across social media platforms. The search for the most-shared logo was conducted by analytics company Brandwatch, which lived up to its name as it used image recognition software to scour various platforms. Adidas breezed into first place, with its logo appearing in 154 unique images every minute. How's that for brand visibility? Trailing behind the clothing brand were the likes of Google, Coca-Cola and Starbucks, while key rival Nike were pipped to the post in second place. The full list of 100 ranked brands also includes Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, none of which could break into the top 10. Adidas comfortably outstrips the competition "Brands spend millions plastering their logos across billboards, t-shirts, screens and pretty much any non-listed building," product marketing manager and author of the report, Phill Agnew, told The Drum. "However most businesses have no way to quickly quantify the effectiveness of this expense, or gauge how they're performing against their competitors in real time. Until now." So what's the secret to Adidas' success? Well, thanks to its football involvement, the logo appeared on the kits of sports stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Alexis Sánchez. As this overlaps with FIFA video games, the Adidas logo managed to break out of its usual domains in a way that is unreachable for brands like Apple and Disney. So if you want to get your logo in front of more people, perhaps a sporting endorsement is the way to go. Related articles: How to create a killer social media campaign Malaysian tourism logo sparks social media furore 10 social media tricks you didn't know about View the full article

Creating a great reading experience online isn't just down to finding the right web font (although, of course, that is important). There are plenty of other factors to consider, from how the text displays on different devices to where it sits on the page. Follow this step by step guide to make sure you get it right. If you're after something more in-depth, take a look at our guide to the rules of responsive web typography. 01. Read the content Meaningful typography starts with one thing: the content. True typographers know this; they’ll always read the book before they start typesetting for it. Unfortunately, it seems that many web designers underestimate the importance of content in a web design process. They will often find excuses in the fact that the website doesn’t exist yet, so there’s no content to work with. When that’s the case, use content that is similar. If you’re designing a website about finance and economics, for example, find an article about that and read it. 02. Choose a typeface based on content Now you have read the content, you’re ready to choose your main typeface. If a website is about technology, but is expected to have medium to long articles, use a typeface that looks a bit modern but is easy to read. If it’s an art gallery portfolio, you can get away with something edgy. Don’t use Lorem Ipsum as placeholder text – it’s a strange form of the Latin language that has nothing to do with your website. Use the content from Step 01, in the language that will be used, and then design around that. 03. Start mobile-first An important step is to design the best reading experience for the screen that’s hardest to design for: mobile. Mobile-first is a fundamentally different approach to web design, in which progressive enhancement is favourable to graceful degradation. Don’t design the best reading experience for desktop screens and then adapt for mobile – or, worse, forget about mobile altogether. Choose a combination of font size and line height that works best on smaller screens. Your starting point should be the agreed-on browser default of 16 pixels. 04. Adapt for large screens Don’t let mobile-first turn into mobile-only. The tools for shaping the best reading experiences for different screens are in place and they should be used. Larger screens are usually further away from readers' eyes so the base font size needs to be larger. 18 pixels is widely considered a good starting point. Don’t forget to limit the width of paragraphs – 60 characters per line is recommended for the best reading experience. The line height needs to be looked at again – 1.4 or 1.5 times the font size is usually best. 05. Use a scale It’s now time to define a range of reusable font sizes based on a scale. The most common way to do that is to use a modular scale. Go to Modular Scale, enter your base font size and choose a scale. It will give you a range of font sizes to choose from. Defining a scale and trying to stick to it adds meaning to font size choices and prevents the chaos that often arises from randomly assigning them instead. 06. Set a baseline grid The next step is to start thinking about other text elements around the body text you should have designed by now (titles, lists, captions, side comments, and so on). To add meaning behind placing these elements on your website, it’s best to use a baseline grid (if don't understand grid theory, now's the time to swot up on that, too). This grid originates from your body text line height. If your line height is 22 pixels, you need a vertical grid based on that. When that is in place, you’re ready to set the sizes and margins of other text elements so they’ll fit inside this grid. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 271 or subscribe. Read more: How to make text render perfectly Typography quiz reveals gaps in letter knowledge 3D fonts: 9 top type tips View the full article

If you're tired of waiting around for hours for renders of your 3D art, you should check out ZBrushCore and its rendering process, Best Preview Render, or BPR. Using it is as simple as pressing the BPR button at the top right of the interface. This produces a high-quality image you can then export. ZBrushCore tends to simplify all of its processes, which is why there aren’t many settings you can tweak in the Render palette. However, since the rendering stage is all about producing a good-looking image of your model with decent image resolution, we need to consider other aspects that affect the render such as the Material type, lighting and shadows. There are two types of materials in ZBrushCore: MatCaps and Standard Materials. The main difference is that the Standard Materials react to the position of the light source, whereas the MatCaps (Material Capture) have the lighting and colour information already baked in. The process of adding or positioning a light is very simple and there’s even a dedicated palette for it. If you choose to use a MatCap, then the effect of the light won’t be visible until you create the render. 01. Camera setup Higher values will produce an exaggerated perspective in the image Before you hit that Render button, you need to choose a camera angle that works for your model. The size of the canvas is the size for the render. With that in mind, go ahead and rotate the model to find a view that you like. Open the Draw palette and use the Angle of View. This is essentially like tweaking a camera lens to change the perspective and how much of the ‘scene’ is captured by the lens. 02. Lighting options The Intensity slider (circled left) makes it possible to alter the strength of each light. You can reduce the Ambient light slider (circled right) to zero, to make the light and shadow effect stronger To start tweaking the light sources, dock the Light palette to the right tray and click the BPR button for a quick render test. Each switch with a lightbulb represents a light, and by default there’s only one enabled. Click the thumbnail with the sphere to move the yellow dot around: this represents the position of the light. Do another quick BPR test so you can see the difference. 03. Shadow properties If the shadow on the floor looks cut off, try increasing the size of the floor grid from the Draw palette The PBR Shadows slider will determine how sharp or soft the cast shadows will be. A higher value will create smoother shadows, but you might need to increase the number of Rays to avoid artefact. You will only see the effect of changing the Shadows slider after running a quick BPR test. Turning the Floor off before rendering enables you to render without casting shadows on to the floor. 04. Material options To remove an assigned material, assign the Flat Color material first. You can also click the Brush icon from the Subtool list to turn the assigned polypaint and material on or off To select a different material, choose it from the Material palette or the Material thumbnail at the left of the UI. If you have multiple subtools and you want different materials between subtools, you need to assign the materials. Turn on the M switch at the top of the interface and make sure the RGB one is off. Then go to the Color Palette, and click the FillObject button. Now if you select a different material, you’ll see that the object you just ‘filled’ stays with the previous material. 05. Render and export You can change the background colour before rendering from the ‘back’ swatch in the Document palette. Increasing the value of the SPix slider in the render Palette will create smoother edges Finally, once you’ve chosen your camera angle, tested your light position, tweaked shadow properties and assigned your materials, it’s time to render your image. Fortunately, we’ve done all the heavy lifting and the rendering process just involves pressing the BPR button and waiting while ZBrushCore does its thing. If you’re happy with the result, go to the Document palette, click the Export button and save your render as a PSD file. This article was originally published in issue 158 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: Model an alien pirate creature in ZBrush How to digitally sculpt in ZBrushCore How to sculpt convincing eyes in ZBrush View the full article

Adobe has set the standard for photo editing and so much more with Photoshop. You can take your work to the next level by learning to use this powerful tool from Adobe by learning from professionals with the Complete Photoshop Mastery Bundle. You can get this collection of expert-taught lessons on sale now for $29 (approx. £21)! Photoshop is a powerful app that can be overwhelming when you're first learning it. This bundle will take away your fears by teaching you every detail of the app that you need to know so that you can master every aspect of it. You'll get access to 8 courses packed with 214 lessons, each offering you actionable information that will teach you how to master lighting effects, create cinematic gradients, colour black and white photos and much, much more. The Adobe Photoshop and Editing Mastery Bundle is valued at $1,210. You can get it on sale right now for 97% off the retail price. That means you pay just $29 (approx. £21) an amazing amount of saving on a course every photographer will love, so grab it today! Related articles: The 40 best Photoshop plugins 5 best laptops for Photoshop The 10 commandments of Photoshop etiquette View the full article

You're reading Website Design Examples for ICO Campaigns, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Cryptocurrency, blockchain, ICO. Do these words sound familiar to you? If so, then you probably have some crypto cash in a digital wallet. It is safe to say that despite all the recent falls and bans, cryptocurrency is still popular. … View the full article

3D programs can help when you need to add structures to an existing image or painting When working out how to draw a new piece, preparation is key. An important thing I always consider when starting a new illustration is the overall composition. It helps to make up your mind about where the big shapes in your image will go. Adding building structures and an Imperial shuttle to a mountain ridge can significantly change your composition, so be aware of the traps you can get caught in, and keep a close eye on how the image changes when you start introducing new shapes to your artwork. 31 brilliant Blender tutorials It can save you time if you work with a 3D program such as Blender or Modo, in which you can create a backdrop of your mountain ridge and then quickly block out the big shapes of your structures in front of it. That way you can create 3D art with maximum control over the scale and placement of each individual part. Furthermore, it becomes quick and easy to duplicate and move parts around to build up your image. I see it like a big puzzle, and when everything falls into place I sort of feel it 'click'. Afterwards, I drag my renders into Photoshop, ready for painting. If you've set up your camera in your 3D software correctly, then the structures should fit into your mountain ridge perfectly. 01. Map it out When starting a new painting, make an effort to focus on the big shapes and how they relate to each other. When shapes recede into the distance they become lighter, so try to place layers of shapes on top of each other to give your scene a sense of distance. 02. Block out in 3D Once I'm satisfied with the composition I start blocking out the structures in 3D. After that I drag and drop them into Photoshop, and try to separate the buildings according to the layer of rock they're place upon. This makes it easier to add details to them later on. 03. Focus on light and colour Finally, I focus on the lighting and colour scheme, and start to detail everything. By using a large Soft brush on an Overlay layer you can quickly bathe an image in light and make a certain area feel especially warm or cold. All that's left now is to add little lights and we're done! This article originally appeared in ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe here. Like this? Read these... 60 amazing Illustrator tutorials Stunning trailer shows what Star Wars might have been 120 Photoshop tips, tricks and fixes View the full article

A glitch caused Twitter passwords to be stored in plain text on an internal log. View the full article

The malware targets Windows servers with a cornucopia of well-known exploits, all within a single executable -- including the EternalBlue NSA hacking tool. View the full article

Florida-based phone maker BLU is facing an FTC complaint over allegations it shared detailed personal user data with a third-party firm that included full text messages, call logs and contact lists. View the full article