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Text makes up 95 per cent of all digital communication. So no matter how carefully refined the user interface, icon design or choice of imagery within an app, your choice of font is absolutely crucial. Typography has a direct impact on an app's user experience. If content is difficult to read, menu options are unclear, or the purpose of buttons and other calls to action are undecipherable, usability suffers enormously. And all these decisions must be made with a small screen in mind. Read on for five top tips for picking the perfect font for your next app design... 01. Consider a native app font Released in 2015, Apple's San Francisco typeface was designed in-house and is now the standard across both iOS and MacOS Apple clearly saw the value in typography when it released its own sans-serif typeface, San Francisco, in 2015. Having used a mixture of Helvetica Neue, Lucida Grande, Myriad Pro and VAG Rounded for its various software, hardware and marketing needs until that point, SF ticks all the boxes for the tech giant. As the default iOS font, San Francisco can be licensed to registered third-party developers to design apps for Apple's platforms. It's designed with utility and legibility in mind, and iOS automatically switches between Text and Display variants when the size drops below 10pt or above 20pt. Three years earlier, Google had also released its own in-house designed app font for the Android platform: Roboto, which replaced previous system font Droid. Like San Francisco, it's a clean, modern sans-serif, but it has a few more personality quirks. If a 'native' look is what you're going for, San Francisco or Roboto are a good bet – and the designers at Apple and Google have done the hard work in terms of ensuring they work on mobile. 02. Choose a font to suit the content Long-form reading is much more comfortable in a serif font, and The New York Times app is designed accordingly Both San Francisco and Roboto are clean sans-serif designs, which tends to be the default choice for most app designers: sans-serifs are neutral and safe, and great for legibility on buttons, menus and headlines. If your app contains large amounts of long-form content, however, a serif may well be a better choice. Medium, iBooks, and newspaper apps such as Bloomberg or The New York Times all use serif fonts, for instance. Apps such as these must cater to a wide variety of ages and preferences within their readership. If your app features large bodies of text, it may be worth building in some level of customisation of both font and size to cater to particular user needs. 03. Use size and weight to create hierarchy Even subtle variations in size and weight can create hierarchy in complex information, as this Stash Invest app demonstrates Apple advises a minimum of 11pt text to maintain legibility on the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, although try to avoid pushing the limits. The ideal value is more like 15-19pt, so allow plenty of space and avoid over-cluttering the interface. San Francisco, Roboto and popular app design alternatives such as Open Sans, Proxima Nova and Museo Sans come in a range of useful weights, so make full use of them for emphasis and hierarchy. You don't have much space to work with, and bringing a key element up a weight or two can work wonders to draw attention. As a rule of thumb, Regular weights are best for the minimum 11-19pt range, Medium weights work well from 20-34pt, and anything above that – usually main headlines – works well in Bold. Light and Ultralight weights are best saved for very large type, as legibility will suffer otherwise. Consider line-length as well. On average, a website will have 60–75 characters per line, whereas apps are much narrower: you're looking at more like 35–50. If lines are too long, they become unwieldy and users can lose track of the information; too short, and reading becomes unnatural. In practice, if you meet the font size guidelines you should avoid these problems. 04. Add a twist of personality While clean, neutral sans serifs abound in app design, a "warm and versatile" font like Klinic Slab can add personality When it comes to very pared-back, minimalist, functional interfaces there aren't so many tools at your disposal to add character to your app design. Flat design is all about colour, simple shapes – and typography. Accordingly, if type is one of the most prominent aspects of an otherwise brutally simple user interface, a display font that has some subtle, but unique quirks is worth considering. Commonly used, neutral typefaces are effective but you could run the risk of your app losing its identity. Typefaces that have flourishes or particular design features on certain characters are worth a look. Browse Google Fonts for free options such as Raleway or Quicksand, or license a more complex and versatile typeface such as Klinic Slab. 05. Leave plenty of white space The Amazfit app interface is a masterclass in white space and visual hierarchy One of the most important rules in app design is to avoid clutter at all costs, and this inevitably has a knock-on effect on your font choices, as well as how you apply them in the design process. Mobile screens don't give you much space to work with, but you need to leave as much of it free as possible and respect the breathing space between elements. Too much text, and too many options to choose from, adds nothing but confusion and is not a satisfying user experience. Likewise, leading between lines and paragraphs needs to be sufficient. Crushing this down to fit too much content into a single screen is an all-too-common mistake that will frustrate users who are used to apps that make their lives simpler and easier. When the 'white space' rule is combined with the minimum size guidelines for text, the outcome is clear: you need to cut it back, not squeeze it in. Related articles: How to use imagery more effectively in app design Pick the right font for your social campaigns 4 design trends we're all tired of hearing about View the full article

You're reading GitLab 10.7 Released with Open Source Web IDE and Extended SAST Support, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The latest GitLab release is a real treasure. The number of features added in GitLab 10.7 will make any developer using the popular tool very excited. Thanks to GitLabs’s downtimeless upgrade feature and the few deprecations that come with the … View the full article

You're reading Building Better User Experiences with IPstack, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Knowledge is power. This is perhaps true. What about “knowledge and data are power?” That’s undeniable. Data is the most valuable asset in today’s connected world. For developers, publishers and even enthusiasts, ipstack.com, a service providing IP to geolocation data … View the full article

Researchers have found an exploit in Nvidia Tegra X1-based systems that they say cannot be patched. View the full article

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry has been hit by a ransomware attack – and for once it looks like this is the work of amateurs, not nation-state attackers bent on making a geopolitical point. However, the bad actors appear to have made use of the recently patched Drupal vulnerability, pointing out yet once again that patch […] View the full article

With a shorter learning curve than InVision App and brand new design handoff tools for enterprise teams, there’s no better time to explore how Marvel can be a swift and effortless solution for prototyping web and mobile applications in teams. Marvel helps teams take their designs (made either in Sketch or Marvel itself) from sketched idea to initial to tested concept. Its collaborative tools encourage stakeholders not only to have their say but to be a part of the design workflow. 01. Create your first Marvel project Once you’ve picked your project, click one of two buttons to start the design process Sign up at Marvel to begin, where only your name and email address are required. Choose either Design Project or Prototype Project. A Prototype Project is when you upload screens that you’ve already designed (usually in Sketch). A Design Project is when you’re starting from scratch and you’d like to use Marvel’s own design tools to create a low-fidelity mockup (this is an amazing option for rapid iteration and brainstorming). Choose Design Project, then give it a name, then choose iPhone X and click the Create Project button. From here (we’ll call this the project dashboard from here on out), click the Design button on the left-hand side, or the Start designing button in the middle of the window. 02. Design low-fidelity prototypes You can use and adapt ready-made components, like this camera screen Our core aim here is to visualise our ideas quickly without wasting too much time worrying about what the final outcome will look like. From here we’re able to create shapes, images, text, ready-made components like tab bars, and even entire full-screen components like this camera screen (which was selected from the left-hand sidebar and restyled using the right-hand sidebar). Drawing shapes, creating text layers and making simple visual changes is fairly easy even for a non-designer, although seasoned designers will love how quickly they’re able to throw an idea together and click the Add to Project button. Although you can’t expect vector drawing, masking and other complex design tools, this interface will nonetheless feel quite familiar if you’re a Sketch, Adobe XD or Figma user (in fact, we’ll discuss importing higher-fidelity designs from Sketch in a moment). What you can expect is zooming, aligning, grouping, basic visual design tools, mouse controls such as dragging, resizing and rotating and a few handy keyboard shortcuts. 03. Receive feedback However, Marvel isn’t only for designers. While it may require a designer to create the final design in an industry-standard design app, ideas should (and do) come from all kinds of stakeholders (managers, clients, developers, and so on). No matter what your primary role is in a team, it should be super-easy to say: “Hey, could this be an idea?”, and then demonstrate that visually. Marvel’s POP mobile app reduces the barrier of entry even further by bringing these simplified design tools to mobile devices because, let’s face it, ideas can come to us at the strangest of times. Ideas sketched on paper can be converted to an interactive Marvel screen using the device camera. Design needs to be a democratised, where anybody can have a say without being restricted to using complex design applications. 04. Integrate Marvel with Sketch After productively brainstorming low-fidelity ideas with your team, you’ll want to mock up the first iteration in your design app of choice. While you can totally upload exported PNG screens from any design app, Sketch is the recommended app because there’s a dedicated Sketch Plugin that automates the process (and even readies the design so that it can be inspected by developers later on). Photoshop support for design handoff will come later, however Adobe isn’t touting Photoshop for user-interface design anymore, since it created Adobe XD. From the dashboard, click Settings > Integrations > Sketch Plugin, then Download Plugin. Once you have it installed, and your design file open, hit the Sync Selected or Sync All buttons in the Marvel bar (this appears above the layer list) to begin choosing a Marvel Project to sync the screens into. 05. Prototype interactions Drag-select regions to create hotspots for linking from one screen to another But of course we can’t test prototypes if we haven’t added any interactions to them, so let’s do that now. Moving back to the Marvel dashboard, where you’ll see the screens that we synced, click View on any one of the screens to enter screen mode. From here we can still navigate through the screens using the left and right arrows on either side of the window, click Timer to have Marvel cycle through the screens after a certain number of seconds (useful for presentations!), or click No Comments to add your first comment or annotation on the screen. Probably the first thing you’ll notice is the Fixed Header and Fixed Footer buttons that appear near the top-left and bottom-left corners of the screen respectively. These buttons are draggable and they can also be moved to mark the cutoff region of a header section that is to stay fixed to the top of a scrollable viewport. You can also use the text fields in the top-right and bottom-right corner to specify this value manually. But how do we actually link one screen to another? Simple: with the mouse, drag-select a region on the screen that is to link to another screen (this is called a ‘hotspot’). Once you’ve done that, an interface will appear at the bottom of the window that enables you to customise where the user is taken to, any transition that happens during the interaction and what gesture is required to activate that interaction (tap, swipe etc). And of course, we can use these prototyping tools even on low-fidelity mockups. In fact, it’s recommended that you do, all the while using the commenting features to discuss and reiterate. 06. Handing off designs to developers Design handoff makes it easy for design and developer to work with each other When your team retains full confidence in the final design, validated using the commenting and user testing tools, it’s time to hand it over to the developers who can then inspect and code. It’s important to remember that a designer isn’t ‘done’ once the design is handed over and that designers and developers should always communicate in harmony to oversee the development until its completion. The developer may also have some questions, so those commenting features should still be very much active. Hit the Play button, then click Handoff in the bottom-left corner to open the design handoff interface. From here, developers will be able to click on the design elements and inspect the individual styles that make them what they are, using the sidebar on the right-hand side (much like the inspector interface in Sketch, Figma or Adobe XD). The only difference here is that developers are able to click on the Copy button to copy the styles as code to the clipboard. This article was originally published in issue 301 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 301 or subscribe to net. Get more insight into iterative prototyping Marisa Morby is giving her talk Discover How Iterative Prototype Testing Will Help You Create A Winning Design, Every Time at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018 When most companies need to create a new web design, the process typically starts with pitching ideas, moves to design, then development, and then goes live. But what if it doesn't work? That's a lot of time, effort, and money to spend just to find out that an idea performed poorly. Fortunately, in her talk at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018, Marisa Morby, head of research at Clearhead, will show you a better way to create and validate new designs that is faster, easier, and less expensive than the traditional design process using iterative prototyping and testing. Generate New York takes place from 25-27 April 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: 10 top prototyping tools The 18 best wireframe tools How to avoid prototyping pitfalls View the full article

Perspective is everything in design. If something you’ve drawn has a perfect perspective, it will help your work look more realistic; alternately, Pablo Picasso made history by drawing with a very skewed sense of the reality around him. Isometric art is as much of a science as anything, though. It has a very strict set of rules when it comes to what goes where. That’s pretty difficult to sit down and draw yourself, but when it comes to Photoshop, you can create a guide for anything. Get Adobe Creative Cloud In this Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to set out a perfect isometric grid before we build a world on hexagonally facing lines. In this London-inspired image, we’re going to trace the Thames isometrically, and even create isometric versions of landmarks. You’ll find that anything can be created on this grid, since it simply holds cubic shapes together. Curves can simply be drawn from corner to corner. Everything in the image is going to follow this structure too. You can use images to copy, you can follow our steps religiously or you can design your own icons following isometric patterns. It’s entirely up to you – within the limits of isometry, of course. Download the tutorial files 01. Start the grid Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Begin by creating a new document of 20 x 20 pixels. Create a black strip down the right and bottom of the document with the Rectangular Marquee tool. Use the Grid if you need to, by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+’. 02. Define your pattern Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Go to Edit>Define Pattern. Name it and then click OK. Create a new 1920 x 1080 document by going to File>New, and then go to the Paint Bucket (G). Use Pattern fill and on a new layer, fill with the pattern you’ve created. 03. Transform the pattern Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Now we’re going to make the pattern isometric! Make the width and height much bigger, the angle 35 degrees and place in the centre of the document. The grid should be made of diamond shapes. 04. Choose your palette Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. We’re going to use five different colours for this, but different shades of each. The colours are Royal Blue (#021574), Muted Red (#f22f50), Spearmint (#6ec5cf), Peppermint (#6ecfb0), Tan (#ff935e) and White (#ffffff). 05. Lay out your text Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Use the Type tool and create the text that you want to use across the document; we’re going with ‘London, England’. This is important, as it will dictate the size, spacing and whole look of your isometric poster. 06. Create some letters Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Create isometric letters with the Pen tool, following the guide that you created. This is a trial-and-error part of the process, and will take the longest of everything. Experiment with shapes and Fill with #808080 for now. 07. Work on the letters Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. The isometric letters are going to have to have one side that predominantly faces forwards. Work out where the curves are on each of the letters by reducing the opacities. This might take some time to figure out, and you may need to redraw some letters. 08. Shade the letters Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Group each set of layers for each letter. Create clipping masks for each, and add either light or shade to the letters so that they appear 3D. Work out where the light is in the image and judge accordingly. 09. Colour and build bridges Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Create new Overlay layers above each of the letters and fill with one of your colours. Add Colour layers, clip, and brush in another colour to flesh it out. Next, create bridges between some of the letters. Colour this with another colour. 10. Create a speaker Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Now, we’re going to add objects to the scene. Create a box using the isometric guide, lightening and darkening either side of the box to create perspective. Create two circles, and Transform these to fit into the box along the guide; add a Stroke to the circles using Layer Styles. 11. Add a flag Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Next, we’re going to create a flag. Again, use the Pen tool to draw along the guide, and then fill with white. Clip layers to this, and touch soft black brushstrokes over one side of the flag to add shade. 12. Plant some trees Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Trees are easy to create with the Pen; create a triangle with the two bottom sides lining up along the isometric guide and then darken one side. Repeat this twice, then add a stump. Colour with an Overlay layer. 13. Escalators and map planning Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. We’ve created escalators using the same methods we used to create the other objects, using the isometric guide to draw over. After that, we’ve used a real map of London to roughly trace the Thames and draw a white outline for some water to fill. 14. Curve the edges Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Use the Pen tool to curve the edges of the white structure that you’ve just created, and fill with #808080. Use a soft, black brush to create the illusion of a curved space for the water to sit in. 15. Fill with water Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Use the Pen tool to select the grey space in each of the white structures and falling from the top structures, and fill with blue on a new layer. Set this layer to Hard Light to make it look like it’s actual liquid. Clip a white layer and delete a jagged pattern in the middle for added effect. 16. Start the chandelier Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Create a new layer and add dots in the intersections of the lines like you can see in the screenshot. Select the back rows of these dots and reduce the Lightness to -10 by using Hue/Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U). Duplicate this downwards to create more dots. 17. Finish the chandelier Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Create the same effect three times with multiple rows of dots, then resize the two latter ones. Stack these to create a chandelier effect. On new 20% layers, create white dots to suggest light emanating outwards. 18. Create Big Ben Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Use a stock photo of Big Ben to draw the clock with the Pen tool; you don’t have to be as detailed, though, of course. Draw it in shades of grey; draw the spire to one side of the building rather than straight upwards, too. 19. Place the landmark Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Colour Big Ben with some Overlay layers, duplicate the layer and then flip this new one horizontally. Resize both layers and Skew with Free Transform to fit along the guide that you have created. 20. Finishing touches Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Make any final flourishes that you’d like to add more to the image; this might include stars in the background with little dots, a whale in the Thames or altering the colour with a Curves adjustment. 21. Add noise Hit the icon to open the full-sized image. Finally, select black and white in your Swatches (D). Create a new layer, fill with black (Alt/Opt+Delete) and go to Filter>Noise. Choose 400%, check Monochromatic and click OK. Set this layer to Soft Light, 10% opaque. This article was originally published in issue 271 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 271 or subscribe to Web Designer. Related articles: Create isometric grid-based 3D lettering in Illustrator Isometric vector art made easy Create a 3D isometric effect View the full article

We've all had that moment, when the announcement comes in that your favourite movie from yesteryear is getting a remake. How can they do it? How can they mess with your favourite characters? I've been there too, but I've also been on the other end, being responsible for the designs of reimagined much-loved characters such as Shredder and Turtles from TMNT, Pinhead from Hellraiser, the BETAS from Videodrome and many more sworn to secrecy. If done right, a reboot of a character design can add to the richness of the franchise, but if done wrong, it can kill any future plans of expanding the world and evoke a mass of fan hatred. 20 top character design tips The one thing to get right, above all else, above any detailing or fundamental design elements, is the tone. If you nail the tone early on, that's half the battle, so you need to ask yourself a few questions before you start. The one thing to get right, above all else, is the tone If reimagining characters for a movie, are you creating this for a film you would go and see now, or a movie you would have seen when you were 14 or so? What are the iconic elements that made this character so appealing in the first place? Break them down to their fundamental basics. Finally, how far are you willing to push it? To put my process to the test I set out to reimagine a whole series of characters that were due a major update – characters I admired for the sheer imagination and bold design elements. To make it as challenging as possible I chose cartoon characters, specifically those from popular 1980’s cartoon series. I started with Man-At-Arms, one of the main protagonists from Masters of the Universe. The original 1980's Masters of the Universe character Man At Arms For this piece I decided the tone would need to fit the essence of the character, not the spectrum of its initial audience. So it would no longer appeal to children, but would more than likely appeal to fans of Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian (1982 version), Star Wars, Batman and so on. Yet I didn’t want a superhero look; he should retain the medieval feel of the character mixed with its own unique technological style. You are in essence world-building with an initial image. The 10 best 3D movies of 2018 The iconic elements broke down to the helmet shape and armour colour (although I muted the colours somewhat to add realism). An older face, war torn, the face of experience and knowledge. To add more to the ‘older’ feel I moved away from a superhero pose, instead adopting a poignant contemplation piece. This in itself adds to the tone and brings out his personality. Other iconic elements were the chest piece and mouth guard, both now given function as well as form. They serve as defence elements and you see how each piece of armour works in conjunction with the tech. The fur on his back is a nod to the medieval vibe the cartoon often portrayed. Man At Arms reimagined by Paul Gerrard You start with a tone piece, and from here you can go back and start to design full profile shots, costume design details and so on and so fourth. As long as your tone is right and you have a mood image like this from the get-go, it will keep you on track going forward. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 232; subscribe here. Related articles: How to draw: 95 tutorials for drawing animals, people, landscapes and more 95 top Photoshop tutorials Perfect your figures with our anatomy masterclass View the full article

This month we’ve seen a whole host of new tools for graphic designers. Here we've rounded up our favourites – which include an innovative Illustrator plugin, a book on breaking into the creative industries, new brushes and a 4k BenQ monitor aimed at designers that won't break the bank. Read on for our selection of the best new graphic design tools this April. Pro colour-control Illustrator plugin Phantasm has received its biggest update in 12 years. If you’re not already aware of the highly acclaimed Astute Graphics Illustrator plugin, Phantasm gives you incredible Photoshop-esque functionality in Illustrator, letting you easily adjust vector artwork, text, effects and embedded images with curves, levels, hue/saturation and other essential controls. With the version four comes a new Phantasm panel for instant colour control, an improved vector halftone engine, a new vector halftone clipping option and a prepress correct effect with the ability to auto-apply to all layers. This is an invaluable plugin for anyone who works with vectors. Trial Phantasm v4 for free Buy Phantasm v4 for £69 Designer and author Craig Oldham’s new graphic design book offers a no-nonsense guide to breaking into the creative industries. Sharing experiences, ideas, advice, criticism and encouragement, Oldham creates a platform for meaningful discussion about how to get started in 'The Industry' and democratises the route to being a designer . What now? Where do you live? Can you afford to live? How can you make money doing design? How do you get a job? Who do you want to work for and are you good enough? These are the questions Oh Sh*t... What Now? aims to tackle honestly. "If nothing else it tries to make a meaningful and genuine attempt to help young creatives rather than perpetuate the same vacuous platitudes proffered by the industry," explains Oldham on Twitter. With sections spanning education, portfolios, jobs, freelancing, working process and personal development, Oh Sh*t... What Now? makes for a comprehensive, insightful rescue for any new graduate or final year student. BenQ’s huge 32-inch Ultra HD display isn’t new: the PD3200U was added to the company’s Designer Monitor range in 2016. But thanks to its impressive performance, accurate colour reproduction, professional-focused features and reasonable price, it’s one of the best monitors you can buy today if you’re a designer or creative. The IPS panel has a native contrast of 1000:1 and offers good viewing angles, with a 100% sRGB color gamut, plus Rec. 709 for video production. It also comes with a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch, which lets you plug in a second computer for graphic design and switch between the two while using a single monitor, keyboard and mouse. If you’re looking for a 4k monitor that will improve your productivity thanks to its sheer size – let alone handy pro features – the BenQ PD3200U is worth a look – just make sure you have space on your desk. Design assets company RetroSupply has bundled together four of its most recent, best-selling packs of Illustrator brushes to create the Hand Drawn Illustrator Vector Brush Bundle. In it, you get 321 high-res brushes –including vector engraving brushes, fine liner pen brushes, stippling brushes, and vector halftone brushes and swatches – and the usual example files of artwork from RetroSupply to demonstrate how the brushes might be applied. The best part? These would normally cost $116 if you bought the packs separately – but you can get the bundle for $49. That’s a 42 per cent discount. Buy the Hand Drawn Illustrator Vector Brush Bundle: $49 Create chalkboard lettering and artwork from the dust-free environment of your iPad Pro with Ian Barnard’s Chalk Dust lettering kit for Procreate. (There’s a Photoshop version of the Chalk Lettering Kit too). Created from real chalk textures, these realistic Procreate brushes include two bonus script brushes from hand letterer Stefan Kunz and six blackboards. The pack also comes with a tips and tricks guide sheet, as well, showing you how to create shadows, shading and drawing elements like banners and floral elements. Buy the Chalk Dust Lettering Kit for Procreate for $19 Read our review: Procreate 4 Last month Wacom announced an upgraded version of its entry-level Intuos pen drawing tablet. Available in small and medium sizes – and a choice of three different colours – the new Intuos models boast improved accuracy, a built-in pen tray, four express keys and, if you choose one of the Bluetooth models, a whopping 60 per cent boost in battery life. The new tablets also comes bundled with up to $160 worth of creative software for drawing, painting and image editing. This includes Corel Painter Essentials 6 for design and illustration, CELSYS CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO for comic and Magna creation, and Corel AfterShot 3 for photo editing. Ideal. You can pick up the Intuos S for $80 / £69.99, the Intuos S with Bluetooth for $100 / £89.99, and the Intuos M for $200. Related articles: 12 essential tools for graphic designers in 2018 The best laptops for graphic design 2018 The best mouse of 2018 View the full article

It's never too late to pick up the skills you always wished you had. Here’s your chance to prove it. Just grab the eduCBA Design and Multimedia Lifetime Subscription Bundle. It's packed with the courses you need to pick up new skills, and you can get a lifetime subscription on sale now for 97 per cent off. When you sign up for the eduCBA Design and Multimedia Lifetime Subscription Bundle, you’ll find hundreds of courses with actionable lessons waiting for you – plus new ones are being added all the time, so you'll never run out of opportunities to learn new things. You’ll have unlimited access to more than 200 courses that will take you through tons of media and design essentials. Learn how to work with Photoshop, InDesign, Maya, Flash and more. The eduCBA Design and Multimedia Lifetime Subscription Bundle usually retails for $797, but you’ll pay just $19 (approx. £14). That’s a saving of 97 per cent off, a great deal for a lifetime of access to skills that could change your career, so grab this deal today. Related articles: 16 top online coding courses 250 free Udemy courses The 10 best free graphic design courses online View the full article

From the founder of HypeForType, Alex Haigh, comes Typerium – an ambitious new decentralised content-creation platform promising a marketplace, social media network and new creative design software to boot. Aimed at more than two billion creative content-makers worldwide, it's the latest creative venture to capitalise on the blockchain economy in the name of tackling piracy for content creators. Recently we reported on two companies planning to shake up the stock business with a bit of blockchain magic. Which blockchain should you use? Typerium, as its name suggests, appears to be starting with type assets – that's according to the platform's white paper, which is available to read here. However the recently launched website makes no mention of type, referring instead to 'content', suggesting that this is intended as a scaleable concept. Fighting piracy At the heart of Typerium will be a decentralised marketplace that's designed to protect the intellectual property rights of content creators. It promises an 85 per cent commission on all sales, and dramatically faster payment times thanks to its blockchain economy. Like other blockchain-based services, all content within the Typerium ecosystem will be bought and sold with tokens – in this case, TYPE Tokens. These leverage blockchain and smart contract technology to keep content safe, and, say the makers, can be exchanged for flat currency at any time. The blockchain economy will also remove big-marketplace overheads from transactions. What's interesting about Typerium is that aside from its marketplace and integrated blockchain ecosystem, the platform spans two additional areas. Typerium says that it's developing its own integrated design software that “allows creators to produce high-quality visual content for any platform” and publish content with a single click. And the final part of the ecosystem, meanwhile, is a social media network – which claims it will reward users “so you don’t have to rely on just your sales”. Here’s what the explainer video says: “Typerium is designed to bring content creators and consumers together. Creators earn tokens by creating content, and when consumers license that content, everyone earns a share of the value through our unique reward system.” “We’re building a community that’s driven by user contribution, so you don’t simply have to rely in sales, you’ll also be rewarded overtime a transaction takes place.” Working alongside Haigh is celebrated type designer Rick Banks as brand design lead, and a rich team of blockchain, design and development experts. Limited token pre-sale A 30 day-countdown to a Typerium token pre-sale has started. From 21 May until 25 June 2018, 300,000,000 Ethereum-based tokens will be made available. The initial price puts 1000 TYPE at 0.0195 ETH. Another token sale between 26 June and 23 July 23 2018 will make a further 700,000,000 tokens available. For more information you can read the Whitepaper or sign up to Typerium. Related articles: What the hell is blockchain? Which blockchain should you use? Will blockchain change image libraries forever? View the full article

A botnet has exploited a highly critical Drupal CMS vulnerability, which was previously disclosed by Drupal in March. View the full article

What exactly makes something 'cool'? It's difficult to tell for sure: the science of coolness appears to be a highly sensitive balancing act. Try too hard and you look desperate or earnest; but if you're too casual and aloof you can come across as unlikeable. The 40 best free graffiti fonts For fonts, just like people, perhaps the secret to being cool is just to be yourself. That's certainly the case with these 10 cool fonts that try something new – and stand out from the crowd in doing so. 01. Oxymora Get a fresh perspective with this mind-bending font Format: OTF Price: €15 Created by Austrian illustrator and lettering artist Birgit Palma, Oxymora is a mind-bendingly cool font inspired by the impossible shapes of Escher. The font, fittingly, takes its name from the word oxymoron, a figure of speech made up of two or more words that seem to be opposite to one another. Combining two perspectives into one font that remains readable is no easy feat, but Palma pulls it off. 02. TilburgsAns This font doesn't wear its coolness on its sleeve Format: OTF Price: Free Ok, at first glance TilburgsAns might not appear cool, per se. But since when are you meant to wear your coolness on your sleeve? Designed by Sander Neijnens and Ivo van Leeuwen, this raw and idiosyncratic font is inspired by the character of the city of Tilburg. This can be seen in slightly off letter sizes that still manage to work together to form readable words and sentences. TilburgsAns also includes a unique punctuation mark that means 'yeah' but tinged with doubt. It's the perfect way to sum up the humour and irony of a city whose inhabitants describe themselves as 'the people who piss in a jar'. 03. Neon Give your work a dash of retro charm with Neon Format: PSD Price: Free Thanks to its bold colours and cool, fluid textures, Neon Font lends itself perfectly to posters, social media banners, packaging, and other occasions where you really need to grab people's attention. Designer Aga Magdziak has done a great job of balancing the different elements in this font to create a style that's both unmissable but not over the top. 04. SOFTA This pleasant pastel coloured font is easy on the eye Format: PSD Price: Free With its soft bouncy shapes, SOFTA is a playful font that's best suited to short phrases, titles, headings and numbers. Creator Justin Vin was inspired to create this marshmallow-like font after playing with Illustrator's blend tool and gradients. He even went so far as to create colourful variations that help SOFTA adapt to any palette you can throw at it. And because he seems like such a generous chap, he made it free for personal and commercial use. 05. Road Time to burn some rubber with Road Format: PSD Price: Free What could be cooler than a font inspired by the street? With this high-octane font you get to channel some burning rubber energy into your lettering. Designer Patrick Seymour specialises in delicate linework, and it's great to see him adapt his art for this tyre-screeching typeface. 06. Wesley Gothic This chunky font channels bold brush marks Format: PSD Price: Free Like a lot of the cool fonts on this list, Wesley Gothic seems to move in two directions at once. When read quickly, it looks like a normal calligraphic font. If you linger on it, however, you see that designer Kutan Ural has created a chunky and jagged font with razor-sharp letter shapes. Stylish? Yes. Edgy? Yes. Cool? Undoubtedly. 07. Smaq Cool-looking words to live by Format: PSD Price: Free Smaq is a decorative typeface that combines impactful bevels with classy line shading to create an authoritative, yet approachable font that's ideal for posters and logos. Designer Andreas Leonidou spoils us with eight different styles that enable users to customise Smaq to their heart's desire. Play around with shadows, line shading, and outlines to create the perfect cool font for your projects. 08. Fina Behold Fina, a beautiful and trim font Format: PSD Price: Free for personal use A lot of the cool fonts on this list have been quite in-your-face. Well, it's time to take things down a notch with Fina. This elegant font is all about the power of understatement. Its thin and art deco letter shapes pair nicely with extra elements, such as diamonds and arrows. Complete with two variants (one with and without the fancy embellishments) Fina is tailor-made for headlines and posters. 09. UGO Nowhere near as ugly as its name would suggest Format: TTF Price: Free With plenty of layer and colour combinations to play with, UGO is a generous font from designer Valeria Santarelli. We particularly like the 3D effect ,which gives the dotted and brush-like textures a subtle way to shine, and adds a twist to the easy-to-read rounded letters . 10. Hey Brother! Hey Brother! manages to appear sleek and sharp all at once Format: TTF Price: Free By combining smooth curves and sharp letter shapes, Hey Brother! has something of a space age feel about it. Designer Dionis Dei makes sure Hey Brother! stays grounded though thanks to the chunks that are scored out of each letter. This gives the font a uniquely distressed look that still manages to hold everything together. Related articles: 68 best free fonts for designers 16 super-cool design offices to stir the senses 4 ads that tried to be cool, but failed View the full article

Mid-century modernism enjoyed its heyday between the 1940s and 1960s. However, the influential design movement never dropped out of favour, and today continues to confound critics by remaining on-trend in a big way. Interest in the aesthetic is fuelled by the success of cult dramas such as Mad Men, driving demand for mid-century modern items at vintage stores, furniture fairs and online marketplaces such as Etsy. What is mid-century modernism? Mid-century modernism is a practical, clean-lined design movement spanning architecture, interior design, furniture, product and graphic design created during the middle of the 20th century. The exact dates are open to debate: some place mid-century modernism between 1933 and 1965, while others claim the time period was smaller – from 1947 to 1957. What is the mid-century modern style? Mid-century modernism is as functional, simple and straightforward as its rather literal name. Mid century modern design is full of clean, sculptural lines, simple, organic shapes and neat proportions, as well as vibrant colour palettes – an evolution of earlier Modernist styles such as Bauhaus. Read on to discover 15 iconic examples of mid-century modernism across furniture, architecture, products and graphics... 01. Eames Lounge Chair An icon of mid-century modern design, the Eames Lounge Chair has been in constant production since 1956 Many mid-century modern designers opted for a deliberately artificial aesthetic, rather than trying to imitate wood grain or other more traditional materials. Metal, glass, vinyl and plywood were commonly used. Perhaps the most famous example of mid-century modern furniture is the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, designed for Herman Miller in 1956, which combine curved outer shells in moulded, veneered plywood with soft leather. Up until this point, Charles and Ray Eames had designed affordable products for mass-production, and this was their first attempt at high-end luxury. It has been in production continuously ever since, and is part of MoMA's permanent collection. 02. Helsinki University of Technology Alvar Aalto's mid-century modern style of architecture is beautifully realised on the campus of Helsinki University of Technology Finnish designer Alvar Aalto was hugely versatile and multi-skilled. His work encompassed architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. Aalto's so-called 'redbrick period' of architecture began with a student dormitory called Baker House at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completed in 1949. Its undulating form gave each resident the best possible view of the Charles River. On his return to Finland, Aalto applied a similar mid-century modern approach to the striking Helsinki University of Technology campus in 1950, as well as Säynätsalo Town Hall (1952) and Helsinki House of Culture (1958). 03. Linen Type postcards Chicago-based Curt Teich was a pioneer of lithographic printing, and produced many Linen Type postcards for Stanley A. Piltz In the USA, mid-century modernism was reflected in the design of Linen Type postcards, which largely comprised national view-cards of American cities, buildings and monuments. Curt Teich in Chicago was the most prolific publisher of these postcards, and pioneered lithographic printing in the process. Produced on paper with a high rag content, they had a fabric-like feel. One of Teich's clients was California-based photographer Stanley A. Piltz, whose Linen Type postcards depicted scenic views of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. 04. Coupe pottery The Coupe line of ceramic tableware by Heath Ceramics has been in constant demand since it was designed in the late 1940s American pottery designer Edith Heath founded Heath Ceramics in 1948, which went on to produce an extensive range of mid-century modern ceramic tableware, as well as architectural tiles. Like the Eames Lounge Chair, Heath Ceramics' most famous 'Coupe' line has stayed in constant demand since it was released, with only occasional changes to the texture and colour of the glazes used. 05. Farnsworth House Designed by mid-century modern architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 Another icon of mid-century modern architecture is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, completed in 1951. A one-room weekend retreat commissioned by prominent Chicago nephrologist Dr. Edith Farnsworth, the 1,500 square-foot steel and glass construction can be found 50 miles outside of Chicago, just south of Plano, Illinois. Having joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, the Farnsworth House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 and is currently operated as a historic house museum. 06. Paul Rand's logo designs With geometric sans serif type set inside a simple circle, Paul Rand's logo for ABC is a key example of mid-century modern graphic design Something of a legend in graphic design circles, Paul Rand is also a pioneer of mid-century modern graphic design, applying the principles of bold geometric shapes, clean lines and graphic symbolism to his logos for the likes of IBM, UPS and ABC. Modern-day revivals of this aesthetic include the 'flat design' movement, and minimalism in general: mid-century modern graphic design was all about distilling complex concepts into the simplest visual forms. 07. Egg chair Arne Jacobsen's highly distinctive Egg chair may be familiar to UK fans of hit reality show Big Brother Designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, the Egg chair is an iconic example of mid-century modernism. Making use of state-of-the-art materials at the time, it was thought to be inspired by Eero Saarinen's Womb chair. Jacobsen was fond of naming her creations, and her chair portfolio includes the Swan, the Ant, the Cigar, the Pot, the Drop and the Giraffe. The Egg in particular enjoyed a return to the limelight in 2000: it was used as the diary room chair in the first UK series of Big Brother. 08. Palacio da Alvorada The Palacio da Alvorada, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the mid-century modern style, has played host to Brazil's presidents since the 1950s Located in Brasília, Oscar Niemeyer's design for the Palacio da Alvorada - the official residence of the President of Brazil – is another stand-out example of mid-century modernist architecture. Completed in 1958, it has been the residence of every Brazilian president since Juscelino Kubitschek and is a National Historic Heritage Site. 09. Lucienne Day's pattern work Calyx is one of Lucienne Day's most famous textiles. Mid-century modern colour palettes are distinctive. They often include light, bright and vivid hues such as sunshine yellow, mint and fuchsia, as well as warm, rich and earthy hues such as gold, paprika red and olive green. Lucienne Day's graphic pattern work was hugely influential on the mid-century moderism aesthetic, and was applied to everything from wallpapers and carpets to ceramics and mosaics. One of Day's best-known pieces, Japanese-influenced design Sunrise uses a sophisticated palette of gold, pumpkin and petal pink. 10. PH Artichoke Pendant Poul Henningsen's striking Artichoke Pendant is so heavy, it needs to be hung from sturdy stainless steel cables Danish architect and designer Poul Henningsen is perhaps best-known for his contribution to lighting design, with one stand-out example in the mid-century modern style being the PH Artichoke Pendant. Constructed from interlocking geometric 'leaves', the distinctive fixture features a chrome inner diffuser, and is available in copper, white or brushed stainless steel. It's so heavy, it needs steel aircraft cables to support it. 11. MIT Chapel This chapel on the MIT campus was designed by leading mid-century modern architect Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen's design for the non-denominational chapel on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can be found next to the Kresge Auditorium and Kresge Oval – which Saarinen also designed. A striking windowless brick cylinder set inside a shallow concrete moat, topped by an aluminium spire, the chapel is widely celebrated as a successful example of architectural mid-century modernism. Saarinen created texture by deliberately selecting bricks that were rough and imperfect. 12. Rudolph de Harak book covers This cover for Modern Nuclear Technology by Rudolph de Harak features overlapping geometric shapes, a distinguishing mid-century modern design feature Rudolph de Harak was another leading exponent of mid-century modernism in graphic design. Like Lucienne Day, he combined distinctive colour palettes with simple geometric shapes to communicate a message in a stylised, graphic way. His book cover designs for McGraw-Hill Paperbacks are stand-out examples of this style, communicating diverse and complex topics. His illustrations for Modern Nuclear Technology, for example, and Personality and Psychotherapy, use simple, graphic, overlapping shapes – a characteristically mid-century modern technique. 13. Tulip chair Eero Saarinen's space age Tulip chair is constructed from moulded fibreglass and cast aluminium As well as architecture, Eero Saarinen was also a talented industrial designer. Designed in 1955 to completed his Tulip dining table, the classic Tulip chair has an unmistakably 'space age' vibe, and features the distinctive smooth curves and experimental materials characteristic of mid-century modern design. Although Saarinen had originally planned to produce the chair from a single piece of moulded fibreglass, the material proved unable to support the weight and so the base was constructed from cast aluminium instead, painted to match the upper shell perfectly. 14. Stahl House Built in 1959, Pierre Koenig's Stahl House was made famous around the world by numerous fashion shoots, films and ad campaigns Many mid-century modern houses were designed as private residences, and Pierre Koenig's iconic Stahl House is one such example. It was built in 1959 as part of the Case Study Houses program – and is also known as Case Study House #22. Located in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, the house was made famous by a Julius Shulman photograph showing two women sitting in one corner, with an awe-inspiring panoramic view behind them through its floor-to-ceiling glass walls. It has since been used in numerous fashion shoots, films, and advertising campaigns. It was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1999. 15. Saul Bass title sequences Saul Bass created incredible title sequences in the mid-century modern style for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Otto Preminger Like Paul Rand, Saul Bass is an undisputed icon of mid-century modernism in graphic design – and his corporate identity work for clients such as Bell System and Continental Airlines was some of the most memorable of the era. His movie title sequences and film posters were arguably even more groundbreaking, however, using simple, graphic visuals to evoke the essence of the subject. Bass worked for all the greats of the time, including Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock – his title sequences for North by Northwest and Psycho are amongst his most famous – as well as Otto Preminger, whose 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder featured a title sequence that used hand-cut type and rough, cut-out shapes to communicate the message in true mid-century modern design style. Related articles: The easy guide to design movements: Modernism 15 influential art and design movements you should know The easy guide to design movements: Bauhaus View the full article

In the lead-up to the release of Rian Johnson’s much-anticipated The Last Jedi, the filmmakers were tight-lipped on what secrets were in store from the newest Star Wars film. But 3D World managed to get access to visual effects supervisor Ben Morris from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who shared his experience of overseeing the film’s massive VFX effort. The 10 best 3D movies of 2018 Here, Morris breaks down how ILM’s visual effects crew helped realise The Last Jedi’s beloved porgs, what went into the motion capture and CG for Andy Serkis’ evil Snoke, powering up the Millennium Falcon, generating lightsaber effects, and dealing with Luke Skywalker’s mechanical hand. The Falcon takes flight ILM’s CG Millennium Falcon takes flight. The visual effects studio drew on years of knowledge about how the ship should fly, informed by the ship’s original incarnations via miniature, motion control and optical compositing effects One of the ‘characters’ featured in The Last Jedi is of course the iconic Millennium Falcon, this time piloted by Chewbacca and Rey (sometimes with a little help, or distraction, from the adorable porgs). In the original Star Wars trilogy, the Millennium Falcon was of course a miniature ship shot via motion control on bluescreen and optically composited into star fields and space battles. Now it is a completely digital creation, although cockpit interiors did rely on a partial set filmed at Pinewood Studios near London. Because the Falcon has seen so much screen time in the Star Wars films, Morris was always able to find some kind of suitable reference when it came to depicting the flying scenes for The Last Jedi. “We would always reference what’s happened in the previous films,” he says. “Actually, per ship, when we’re doing these films we’ve got the best of every shot with an X-wing, and then Star Destroyers and the Falcon. When the artists start these sequences they actually sit and review those endlessly and talk about what’s good and bad, because you’ve just got to learn how to do it.” Director Rian Johnson with Chewbacca (a role shared by Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo) in the Millennium Falcon cockpit set ILM also had the benefit of hearing directly from those who had worked on the original trilogy, including senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren. “Periodically Dennis would sit in on reviews because he’s got an overview of the whole franchise,” says Morris. “He would tell us some old stories and give us some advice on how he shot things in certain ways.” This actually provided the team with some interesting lessons about the manoeuvrability of the Falcon, despite the then primitive controls available from the model movers and motion control cameras back in the day. “The thing that I always take away from the Falcon is that, even in space, it flies as if it has air dynamics on it,” observes Morris. “There’s banking and skidding and swerving. It’s like a huge skimming stone. As long as you play it that way with the sculpt of the ship and its trajectories, then your animation will be right.” Indeed, the Millennium Falcon shots were among the most sought-after at ILM. It was, according to Morris, “like a rugby scrum, a punch-up” in terms of artists from the visual effects studio’s various offices requesting to work on Falcon shots (the fi lm was shared amongst ILM’s facilities in London, San Francisco, Vancouver and Singapore, with contributions from other VFX studios as well). “Everybody wanted their hands on the Falcon,” says Morris. How to make a porg Chewbacca is joined by a porg in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. Neal Scanlan’s animatronic porgs were used hand-in-hand with ILM’s digital creations Months before The Last Jedi hit the screens, one kind of character was already an audience favourite: the porgs. These birds from the island of Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker has been in seclusion, captured the imagination of many. Interestingly, the birds were originally intended to be only physical puppets crafted by creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan, but ultimately were also built in CG. “We had animatronics capable of specialist actions, like flying on cables or others that were radio controlled for background scenes,” says Morris. “We went through the whole live action shoot and then when we got into the edit there were a few shots where we thought we could do some more actions.” To build a 3D version, ILM photographed and scanned Scanlan’s practical porgs, taking care to represent every single detail right down to the feathers. “There’s a very specific way around the back of their heads that the feathers look and all of that was completely copied in the CG version,” says Morris. “The things that we took beyond what the animatronic had were mouth interiors with tiny little teeth and being able to articulate the tongue. The inquisitive porgs make their lives on the island that Luke Skywalker has secluded himself on, but then find their way onto the Millennium Falcon “We also controlled the eyelids,” adds Morris. “The balls of the eyes were so huge and so cute that Neal and the guys didn’t even attempt to do an eye close. They did do a very slight eye direction movement but it was more like a bevelling of the outer rim. So in some of the shots we managed to work out how to make them blink. It was actually incredibly hard, because it’s such a huge ball that you actually have to stretch and ease the falloff of the feathers all the way down as you get a blink.” Despite the obvious flexibility that digital porgs could bring to the shots, Morris notes that the director still wanted to ensure the ‘puppet’ feel of the creatures remained. “Rian loves puppets and so although we had the opportunity to make these guys do the cancan and dance and do anything we wanted, he wanted us to stay grounded in the animation. He wanted it to look and feel and have the limitations of a practical puppet but he also wanted just that bit more movement range. Any time we went too far he’d say, ‘This isn’t a cartoon.’” Snoke re-surfaces In The Force Awakens, Supreme Leader Snoke appeared only as a projected CG hologram, 25 feet tall. But in The Last Jedi, he is a living breathing character, which required a re-working by ILM of its digital model and approach to capturing Andy Serkis, who lent his motion capture expertise and voice to Snoke. In fact, this time around Snoke would be brought to life via multiple methods. First, Scanlan’s team provided a maquette of the character to be used on set as reference. After determining that Snoke’s height would reach eight feet, stand-in actors were also relied upon during filming, one wearing a golden kimonolike costume that ILM eventually reproduced digitally. An older actor with appropriately wrinkled skin also served as lighting and skin reference. Then Serkis himself, wearing an ILM iMocap suit fitted with active LED markers and a facial capture four-camera headset, also performed the role, occasionally standing on a platform when necessary. Three RED witness cameras were also aimed at the actor for some extra additional coverage. ILM re-worked its original Snoke model for extra detail, also placing Serkis inside a Medusa Performance Capture Rig, which had been developed by Disney Research for high-res scans. As shots progressed, the VFX team ran into a unique dilemma brought on by a combination of the voice Serkis had provided and the character’s facial features, as Morris explains. A battle on the planet of Crait takes place amidst a salt flat that reveals a red crystal under the surface “Rian came to me one day, he’d been watching Andy in the editorial cutting rooms for three or four months and had grown very accustomed to Andy’s voice, which was incredibly deep and resonant and quite powerful. But we had this very wasted, slightly thin gaunt sculpt in the maquette which we had replicated in CG. And it just didn’t add up. You hear this voice and you see this face, and you even look at the voice box and the structure of the chest anatomy and it just felt like it should be a little more raspy – it was such a tiny creature and yet here was this bombastic bad guy." “So,” continues Morris, “Rian came to me and said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’ And I said, ‘Okay, we’ll have to think about how we re-design him slightly.’ And so we looked at some other actors who have got quite striking faces, people like Michael Fassbender, Terence Stamp and Ben Kingsley.“ “What we decided was that the overall structure was okay but we made Snoke’s jaw far heavier-set and broadened him out. We gave his shoulders a far broader setting with an inflated sternum in his chest. And almost immediately Rian got far more comfortable with it.” The visual effects artists also had to simulate Snoke’s clothing, made up of a long fl owing coat, and then deal with his wrinkly skin and disfigurement. “We looked at how men’s faces can change as they get older and have things like weeping eyeballs and lower lids,” describes Morris. “Then we had that dried skin and sticky lips. We even showed Rian this old show called Steptoe and Son which had this hideous old character with some spiky stubble and Rian basically said, ‘Go for it.’” A Star Wars experience A scene from one of The Last Jedi’s impressive space battles For Morris and the rest of the ILM team, The Last Jedi experience was an incredible one. The visual effects supervisor, in particular, says he owes his career to seeing the Star Wars films as a child. “If someone says to me, ‘Cite the films that have influenced you and inspired you to get into the industry,’ Star Wars is always at the top. I knew as soon as the opening scroll rolled and the Star Destroyer went over the top - I knew that that was what I wanted to do.” Morris originally got into model and puppet making with the Jim Henson Creature Shop (where he also first met Neal Scanlan), then worked for several years in digital visual effects at Framestore before moving to ILM. He told 3D World he is particularly excited that the aesthetic in these new Star Wars films, including on The Last Jedi, was to introduce a ‘retro’ feel to the spaceships, worlds and creatures, while still relying on years of advances in visual effects. Finn (John Boyega) takes on Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) in an intensive battle that was augmented with background action and reflection enhancement by the visual effects team “There’s no way on Earth anyone could have made something like Snoke or the space battles that we’re achieving now,” suggests Morris. “We would have needed five years of post-production to achieve the layers and complexity that we achieve now. But I think what it always balances down to is we’re pushing the frontiers. We’re really channelling what’s so loved about Star Wars on the visual effects side.” This article was originally published in issue 230 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 230 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: Stunning trailer shows what Star Wars might have been Star Wars artist on how to land that dream job Secrets of the VFX studio behind Star Wars View the full article

Plenty of people dream of designing their own game, but just don't have the tools or knowledge necessary to make it happen. Thanks to the Zero to Hero Game Developer Bundle, it's never been easier to get your start as a game maker. You can get it on sale now for 96 per cent off the retail price. This is the bundle you need if you want to make this the year you learn to craft your own games. With more than 83 hours of actionable content that will train you on industry standards, this collection of courses is the perfect place to get your start. You'll pick up the programming languages you need to know to code your creation and learn the tools that make it possible to design and develop your dream game. The Zero to Hero Game Developer Bundle is valued at $1,477 (around £1,055) but you can get it on sale now for 96 per cent off the retail price. That's a great deal for a bundle that could set you down the path to your dream job, so grab it today. Related articles: 5 casual games for designers How to create stylised game artwork 4 perks of working at an indie games studio View the full article

Freelancing and working from home can offer immense creative and professional satisfaction, but there are plenty of challenges too. From the stress of juggling multiple projects and knowing you're 100 per cent responsible for them, to clearing your schedule for work that never materialises, freelancing can be as distressing and infuriating as it can be brilliant. We've already bought you the ultimate 10 steps to freelance success – here are six common mistakes to avoid… 01. Small claims Are you claiming every tax-deductible expense to which you're entitled? Have you checked? You'd be surprised what's eligible, including pot plants for your home workspace and some parking fees (but not penalties). 02. Double jeopardy It's all too easy to spend your money twice. You've completed a project, invoiced the client and mentally added the fee to your earnings, so you spend that amount. Then you actually receive the fee and spend it again. There's barely a freelancer alive who's never done this. You probably shouldn't do it again, though. 03. Time out Illustration: Emmanuel Pajon Are you leaving yourself any time to stare out of windows, slump on sofas, fiddle, faff and waste time, or are you allocating every hour in your carefully timetabled working week to doing something specific? Clear some space to take time out and rest your brain. You should find it boosts your creativity in the long run. 04. Web history It looks deeply unprofessional if your website portfolio lists broken links or out-of-date contact information. It's also less than impressive if you keep linking to a blog that has no entries, or a portfolio that hasn't been updated in three years. Make sure your website is relevant, functioning and up-to-date. 05. Pay check Do you know how much you earned last week, last month or even last year? How are things going now – are they better or worse? How much more work do you need to do to break even this month? If you can't answer, it's time to stop making like an ostrich and take a look at your accounts. 06. Self-care Such trivial matters as eating, sleeping and changing clothes can fall by the wayside when you're close to a deadline, especially if you happen to work in the building where you keep your pyjamas. Take care of yourself and you'll function better in the long run. The full version of this article first appeared in issue 249 of best-selling graphic design magazine Computer Arts. Subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: 25 tips for staying sane as a freelancer 20 tools that make freelancing easy Free graphic design software available to you right now! View the full article

Entries are now being taken for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, an annual contest that combines humorous animal photography with a serious conservation message. Capturing animals is no easy task, so if you want to be in with a shot of winning, read on for some top tips from photography pros. This year, sponsors include Affinity Photo – the award-winning professional photo editing app for Mac, Windows an iOS (it’s even Apple’s current iPad App of the Year). A new category, the Affinity Photo People’s Choice Award, will allow users to select their favourite image. Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam are the co-founders of the awards, and users of Affinity Photo. Here, they give their top tips for taking great wildlife photography… 01. Figure out your gear first Before you get out into the wild, make sure you know how your kit works. I know it sounds obvious, but you need to understand how and why to change shutter speeds and ISOs so that you can respond to changes quickly. If the perfect photo suddenly presents itself, you need to go with the flow. A cheetah can go from lounging around under a tree to 90kmph in a jiffy, and you need to know what to do! Also, make sure you can change lenses quickly if needs be. 02. Make the most of good light Great natural light just cannot be replicated Always know what the light is doing, where it is coming from and how it’s going to affect your image. This is pretty much the same for all photography but in wildlife photography you can’t control it. If it’s sunny, make sure you are out and about before the dawn so you can find yourself something to shoot as the sun rises. If you get lucky and find some glorious animal sat there with its face bathed in that early morning glow, you can capture some fantastic shots. The eyes will light up (no big black holes), and the light will bring a wonderful warmth that you just can’t replicate any other way. Your ISO, aperture and shutter speeds can all work magnificently together to get some great images. 03. Leave space for movement You may well know about the basics of composition, including the theory of thirds (if not, look it up!) but remember when shooting wildlife you need to allow for movement. If the creature is walking, running or flying from right to left, leave more space in your composition on the left hand side so it has room to move into. 04. Put the focus on the face Another important compositional mistake we all make from time to time is to include too much foreground, if in doubt leave the empty space on the top of the picture. For wildlife portraits remember that you want to focus on the face of the creature. This means you really want to try and blow out the background with a shallow depth of field – i.e. a big, wide-open aperture. Depending on your lens, something like F4 or F5.6 should do the trick. 05. Catch some action Capture movement with a super-fast shutter speed If you want to catch wildlife in action, such as lion cubs jumping around, cheetahs charging about, or birds in flight, remember you need a super-fast shutter speed. Use your ISO to achieve that – don't be afraid to pump up the ISO to 3200 / 6400 and above depending on your camera body. You can’t make blurry, soft pictures sharp, but you can reduce noise in images. 06. Explore different compositions Explore different ways to capture your animal Always remember that there is more than one way to photograph any particular scene; so shoot it the way you feel instinctively first, and then shoot it the other way. For example, let's say you're trying to photograph a lion in a tree. Shoot a fun close up and then perhaps a wide option with the whole tree in. 07. Have fun with panning I absolutely, totally and utterly love this technique, it’s all about having fun, trying something a little different and creating a sensation of movement. The trick is to move the camera in the same direction and at the same speed as a walking or running animal, whilst taking pictures with a slow shutter speed. I tend to start at 10the of a second and work from there. That would be too slow for a running cheetah and all you’d get is a blur, but it would work for a trotting elephant for example. Try it out – it’s great fun and broadens your photographic scope. 08. Know your wildlife Being able to predict your subject’s movements is key OK, so you're out there in the wild and you have established the best light and a fantastic composition, but do you know what’s going to happen next? In order to maximise your photographic potential and opportunities, you want to understand your subjects' behaviour as much as possible. Talk as much as you can to your guide, read books, and research online so you can try and predict (ok, so let’s say ‘guess’) what’s going to happen next, where certain animals are going to be at what times of day and so on. Knowledge is power. 09. Try different points of view Remember when photographing wildlife that ideally, you want to be as low as possible to the animal. In a perfect world we would all be on our stomachs in the grass (but rather you than me if it's facing up to a grumpy buffalo!). If you are in a safari car, shoot from the roof hatch, but also the window. You could even try holding your camera out of the window, if it’s safe to do. Shooting jaguars in Brazil we were lucky enough to be in a boat, so we had a wonderful low point of view. 10. Edit your work with Affinity Photo Affinity Photo is a sponsor of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Faster, smoother and more powerful than ever, Affinity Photo continues to push the boundaries for professional photo editing software. It offers a huge toolset specifically engineered for creative and photography professionals. So whether you are editing and retouching images or creating full-blown multi-layered compositions, it has all the power and performance you will ever need. View the full article

An online portfolio is an essential self-promotion tool for any freelance designer. Often the first thing a potential client sees, it's a shop window to show off your work, as well as yourself – and you need to get it right. A professional-looking layout is a must. If front-end web design is one of your skills then you should practice what you preach here and create something bespoke. But illustrators, graphic designers and photographers have a wide array of off-the-shelf portfolio website themes to choose from, which can be customised with a little CSS tinkering. Read on for our pick of 10 of the very best portfolio website themes to choose from, representing five of the most popular portfolio website platforms... 01. Adobe Portfolio: Andreas One of a fine selection of portfolio website themes for Adobe Portfolio designed by big-name creatives, this template by Andreas Levers really lets your work shine. Its minimal layout is ideal for photography as each piece of work is shown large, and alternates between being left- and right-aligned, giving each image space to breathe. Given that Adobe Portfolio is bundled with Creative Cloud, existing subscribers may well find the option attractive. But there are many other platforms out there... 02. Squarespace: Flatiron Flatiron is a Squarespace template with a particularly eye-catching gallery display, which locks together images of different aspect ratios in a visually pleasing grid. The site navigation is simple and unobtrusive at the top left of the page, making sure your work is the star of the show. 03. Wordpress: Helium As a platform, Wordpress gives you plenty of versatility when it comes to customisation – particularly if you have some coding skills. Helium is a strong choice for a portfolio website, as it's much richer in features than many of the other examples on this list. The theme costs $48 (around £34) for a regular license, but the developers have thrown in various premium-rate plugins as part of the package. It includes a built-in blog, as well as the option to add a fully functional online store if you choose. 04. Cargo Collective: Betelgeuse A common problem when presenting images of your work in a simple grid format is how to tackle different aspect ratios, as well as how to create hierarchy. The Betelgeuse template for Cargo Collective enables you to make individual thumbnails double the size, to vary the layout and emphasise particular projects. Inside each project page, images and videos automatically scale down to fit the template, but never scale larger than their original size. 05. Wix: Urban Photography Another stylishly designed gallery-style homepage, the Urban Photography template for Wix is minimal and elegant, giving most of the screen real estate over to large imagery. While it's particularly effective for showcasing photography, this theme is versatile enough to display any kind of creative work, particularly illustration, and has built-in social sharing. 06. Adobe Portfolio: Marta Another Adobe Portfolio offering by a well-known designer, this stylish theme comes courtesy of Amsterdam-based art director Marta Veludo. Its fixed navigation can change colour when you scroll, and keeps your core details visible while visitors browse the site. Your logo is centred, with navigation options to the left-hand side – and the whole site is built on a responsive grid with fixed gutters. It's a slick, colourful and eye-catching option for any creative. 07. Squarespace: York Created specifically with designers in mind, the York template for Squarespace is refreshingly minimal compared to more thumbnail-led approaches. The main area above the fold is reserved for a large, punchy introductory statement, while large project images are either full-width or half-width. It's a simple layout that exudes confidence, and you need the work to support it. It's all about picking a handful of killer projects and letting them shine. 08. Wordpress: Throne Another ultra-versatile Wordpress template, Throne is as suitable for a freelance creative as it is for a fully fledged design studio. It's particularly well suited to those with a deep and broad portfolio across multiple disciplines, as the navigation filters your work by category. Like Helium, it'll set you back $49 (around £43) – but it comes equipped with plenty of widgets, CSS3 animations, video support and a wide range of page layout options. 09. Cargo Collective: Cassiopeia Cassiopeia is a responsive portfolio template for Cargo Collective that fills the width of your browser window with columns of thumbnails. Like its Cargo stablemate Betelgeuse, Cassiopeia automatically scales project images by width, and you can also opt to do so vertically to fit a browser window. The template supports Sets, as well. The function enables you to easily organise your projects by category, discipline or type of client, for instance. 10. Wix: Emma Brewer Many of the portfolios themes available for the Wix platform are pretty versatile in terms of end use, but there's usually a suggested discipline that each would suit best. Pitched at art directors and graphic designers, this Emma Brewer theme features large, half-page-width thumbnails on the homepage, which click through to expansive project galleries. Each has a killer screen-filling hero image at the top, a paragraph of info, and a selection of secondary images beneath – an ideal way to show branding and design projects with multiple touchpoints. Related articles: 7 innovative ways to photograph your portfolio 5 unusual uses of colour in logo design 6 ways to save money as a freelancer View the full article

You're reading What in the World Are Microinteractions?, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Microinteractions are all around us. Simply put, it’s a specific moment of interaction with a user interface. Let me give you a common example: When a user taps on a button in a mobile app, and the button pulls down … View the full article

An online portfolio is an essential self-promotion tool for any freelance designer. Often the first thing a potential client sees, it's a shop window to show off your work, as well as yourself – and you need to get it right. A professional-looking layout is a must. If front-end web design is one of your skills then you should practice what you preach here and create something bespoke. But illustrators, graphic designers and photographers have a wide array of off-the-shelf designs to choose from that can be customised with a little CSS tinkering. Read on for our pick of 10 of the very best portfolio themes to choose from, representing five of the most popular portfolio website platforms... 01. Adobe Portfolio: Andreas portfolio website theme One of a fine selection of portfolio website themes for Adobe Portfolio designed by big-name creatives, this template by Andreas Levers really lets your work shine. Its minimal layout is ideal for photography as each piece of work is shown large, and alternates between being left- and right-aligned, giving each image space to breathe. Given that Adobe Portfolio is bundled with Creative Cloud, existing subscribers may well find the option attractive. But there are many other platforms out there... 02. Squarespace: Flatiron portfolio website theme Flatiron is a Squarespace template with a particularly eye-catching gallery display, which locks together images of different aspect ratios in a visually pleasing grid. The site navigation is simple and unobtrusive at the top left of the page, making sure your work is the star of the show. 03. Wordpress: Helium portfolio website theme As a platform, Wordpress gives you plenty of versatility when it comes to customisation – particularly if you have some coding skills. Helium is a strong choice for a portfolio website, as it's much richer in features than many of the other examples on this list. The theme costs $48 (around £34) for a regular license, but the developers have thrown in various premium-rate plugins as part of the package. It includes a built-in blog, as well as the option to add a fully functional online store if you choose. 04. Cargo Collective: Betelgeuse portfolio website theme A common problem when presenting images of your work in a simple grid format is how to tackle different aspect ratios, as well as how to create hierarchy. The Betelgeuse template for Cargo Collective enables you to make individual thumbnails double the size, to vary the layout and emphasise particular projects. Inside each project page, images and videos automatically scale down to fit the template, but never scale larger than their original size. 05. Wix: Urban Photography portfolio website theme Another stylishly designed gallery-style homepage, the Urban Photography template for Wix is minimal and elegant, giving most of the screen real estate over to large imagery. While it's particularly effective for showcasing photography, this theme is versatile enough to display any kind of creative work, particularly illustration, and has built-in social sharing. 06. Adobe Portfolio: Marta portfolio website theme Another Adobe Portfolio offering by a well-known designer, this stylish theme comes courtesy of Amsterdam-based art director Marta Veludo. Its fixed navigation can change colour when you scroll, and keeps your core details visible while visitors browse the site. Your logo is centred, with navigation options to the left-hand side – and the whole site is built on a responsive grid with fixed gutters. It's a slick, colourful and eye-catching option for any creative. 07. Squarespace: York portfolio website theme Created specifically with designers in mind, the York template for Squarespace is refreshingly minimal compared to more thumbnail-led approaches. The main area above the fold is reserved for a large, punchy introductory statement, while large project images are either full-width or half-width. It's a simple layout that exudes confidence, and you need the work to support it. It's all about picking a handful of killer projects and letting them shine. 08. Wordpress: Throne portfolio website theme Another ultra-versatile Wordpress template, Throne is as suitable for a freelance creative as it is for a fully fledged design studio. It's particularly well suited to those with a deep and broad portfolio across multiple disciplines, as the navigation filters your work by category. Like Helium, it'll set you back $49 (around £43) – but it comes equipped with plenty of widgets, CSS3 animations, video support and a wide range of page layout options. 09. Cargo Collective: Cassiopeia portfolio website theme Cassiopeia is a responsive portfolio template for Cargo Collective that fills the width of your browser window with columns of thumbnails. Like its Cargo stablemate Betelgeuse, Cassiopeia automatically scales project images by width, and you can also opt to do so vertically to fit a browser window. The template supports Sets, as well. The function enables you to easily organise your projects by category, discipline or type of client, for instance. 10. Wix: Emma Brewer portfolio website theme Many of the portfolios themes available for the Wix platform are pretty versatile in terms of end use, but there's usually a suggested discipline that each would suit best. Pitched at art directors and graphic designers, this Emma Brewer theme features large, half-page-width thumbnails on the homepage, which click through to expansive project galleries. Each has a killer screen-filling hero image at the top, a paragraph of info, and a selection of secondary images beneath – an ideal way to show branding and design projects with multiple touchpoints. Related articles: 7 innovative ways to photograph your portfolio 5 unusual uses of colour in logo design 6 ways to save money as a freelancer View the full article

Modern browsers and design tools offer a lot in terms of creative power. Mobile devices have turned into pocket powerhouses with enough oomph to push all those Retina screen pixels without breaking a sweat. It should therefore come as no surprise that dynamic websites, which tap into all this power, are emerging on a daily basis. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a modern website that doesn’t make use of animation in some way, be it in the form of simple hover transitions or in full-blown pieces of animated pixel art. Why CSS animation? Compared to script-driven animations, CSS animations are easier to learn and can be used without having to know JavaScript. They can be made responsive as they can be modified through CSS media queries. Despite having a relatively simple syntax, we can create quite complex animations with it, especially with the help of CSS preprocessors. CSS animation consists of a style describing the animation and a @keyframes block that defines intermediate steps in an animation sequence. All aspects of the animation are controlled via a set of easily understandable properties: animation-name, animation-duration, animation-timing-function, animation-delay, animation-iteration-count, animation-direction, animation-fill-mode and animation-play-state. There is also the animation property, a shorthand syntax that combines all of the others. This is what the CSS animation code looks like in its simplest form: Using the same syntax, it is possible to animate SVG the same way as any other HTML element. We will explore various aspects of CSS animation and how we can use it to enhance the overall user experience. Animate functions Animations can be applied to perform various functions in the interface. They can successfully guide users through a certain process, improve orientation and also provide visual feedback. Such animations play an extremely important role in designing a high-quality, brand-based user experience. Let’s look at some examples of functional animation. Polish page transitions Clicking the website navigation links usually results in a sudden change in user interface. A page is requested, and when the browser receives a response from the server, a blank screen will flash briefly before the new page is shown. This interrupts the user’s workflow and can be disorienting. Page transitions help minimise the distracting effect. Instead of letting the browser handle this for us, we can intercept the request, load the new content asynchronously in the background, and then use CSS animation to create a smooth transition to another page when it is ready. This helps to promote a sense of continuity while keeping the context. Provide progress bars An important aspect of good interaction design is providing visual feedback. We should never leave users wondering what is happening or whether the result of an interaction has been successful or not. When using page transitions, for example, we should let the user know not only that the page is being loaded but also that it will be displayed shortly. One way to achieve this would be to show an animated loader indicating that the operation is underway. If it is possible to measure the duration, we could instead show a progress bar. This method provides useful information about how long it will take for the page to load completely. Show skeleton screens The alternative solution to loaders are skeleton screens, which can greatly improve perceived performance. A skeleton screen is a simplified graphic representation of the UI to be displayed while the content is loading in the background. The UI is divided into smaller blocks of skeleton images, which are then swapped with real content as soon as it is ready. We can use CSS animation to indicate that the content is loading as well as to ensure that the change appears gradually. Master micro-interactions Micro-interactions are small tasks we perform almost automatically. Liking a tweet, adding an item to the shopping cart, sharing links – these are all micro-interactions. We can use CSS animation to provide visual cues and make the result of an action easily understandable. One example is making CTAs or various UI buttons appear tangible. We can also use CSS animation to create a meaningful transition between states, for example, morphing a menu button from its original shape to an ‘X’ icon, hinting that the navigation can be closed by clicking the same button again. Such design is both pleasing as well as being informative. Animation can also be used to direct users’ attention by highlighting the changes in the UI, like adding a new item to the shopping cart. Choreograph your CSS Don’t animate too many elements all at once or you may end up with a slideshow instead of the animation. If you find yourself in a position where you need to animate lots of objects, coordinate their motion. Plan in advance what elements you will animate and how and when you will animate them. Animation delays are super-useful in that regard. Well timed, they can also be used to create a neat staggered motion effect. Offsetting animation start times decreases the strain on the browser, as animations won’t be starting at the same time. This is much easier with the help of CSS preprocessors or JavaScript, as they support loop functions. Here is how to stagger an animation-delay property in SCSS: It may take a bit of experimenting in order to fully master the choreography but the effort will be rewarded with better performance. Get animating The days of designing for static screens are long gone, as are the days when animation meant Flash banners and popups. We should welcome the interactive nature of modern web and start thinking about animation in early stages rather than as an afterthought. If you haven’t already done so, now is the perfect time to dive into the exciting world of CSS animation. With a bit of creativity, careful planning and modern tooling, there is almost nothing that can’t be achieved. This article was originally published in issue 304 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 304 or subscribe to net. Learn more about web animation Val Head is giving her talk Choose your animation adventure at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018 If you're into web animation, make sure you've picked up your ticket for Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018. Web animation expert, author and design evangelist at Adobe, Val Head, will be delivering a talk – Choose Your Animation Adventure – in which she will break down the long list of choices for making things move on screen. She'll also show you which tools are best suited for things like state transitions, showing data, animating illustrations, and making animations responsive. Generate New York takes place from 25-27 April 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: 5 steps for mastering web animation Brighten up your website with these CSS animations Should you use CSS, JS or SMIL for animations? View the full article

This image of Brunel's Great Eastern steamship from 1858 is on permanent display at a new £7 million museum in Bristol, which opened its doors in the spring of 2018. 'Being Brunel' is part of the National Brunel Institute and the SS Great Britain Trust. The model in this image has been organised into multiple layers and was built primarily using 3ds Max and V-Ray. The characters were clothed with Marvellous Designer and Phoenix FD was used to generate a realistic light emitting from the ship's furnaces. 10 top 3ds Max tutorials Coal piles are generated from a single object instanced many times with Particle Array, and Displacement modifiers have been used to create the gnarly rope textures. The model is lit by a blue-coloured GI environment, one VRaySun, five V-Ray Disc lights and 30 VRayIES accent lights. For this exercise we will concentrate on the boiler room in the scene and build up one of the boiler unit 'lids'. There is of course more than one way to approach this, and with this tutorial I have broken down the process into a number of my own preferred individual steps. Finally, I'll share how to create and easily manipulate a length of chain link into any position using a bones system. 01. Cut out a hole Use Slice modifiers and VRayClippers to cut away chunks of your model The cut-away effects in this scene were achieved by using combinations of Slice modifiers and VRayClippers. VRayClippers can cut multiple objects, in any form and all at once, by adding them to the list inside a single 'cutter'. However, these objects will remain whole in the viewport and the cut-away section will only disappear at render time. Slice is a modifier attached to individual objects but can only 'slice' in a straight line. Once applied, the sliced area will disappear from the viewport. This has the advantage of opening up the view to objects that might otherwise be hidden, making it easier to then continue modelling in that area. 02. ShapeMerge ShapeMerge makes it easy to cut irregular polygon shapes into a simple plane Cutting irregular polygon shapes into a simple plane can be quickly achieved using ShapeMerge. I like using AutoCAD to create a reference shape for a template. This can be imported and converted into a spline. However, shapes can also be drawn in 3ds Max using line tools and Edit Spline modifiers. We will only need to build one quadrant of the final 'lid' object. To start, draw a rectangle with its top-left corner positioned at the centre of the template shape and its bottom-right corner to the bottom right of the shape. Detach the spline segments from the template shape that sit directly over the new rectangle and name that as 'cutter'. Select the rectangle again and from Compound Objects select ShapeMerge. Then pick the 'cutter' as the target shape. Finally add an Edit Poly modifier to the rectangle. You have now created a flat plane object which has been divided into selectable polygon areas, the same as the template pattern. 03. Remove stranded vertices and raise rims Clean up any vertices that get stranded Stranded vertices need to be cleaned away from the long edges, otherwise when the top-left corner is lifted up those lengths would buckle around interrupting vertices. Groups of stranded vertices along a single edge can be grabbed in a selection and then Collapsed down to one. Using Target Weld that single vertex can then be welded to another vertex at the top or bottom of the length. Once tidied, we can grab all the vertices and lift them up with the move tool. With the 'polygon' selection active in PolyEdit, select the rim areas in the object and click Extrude Polygons. 04. Selection tools on the Ribbon 3ds Max has some useful tools to help you select multiple edges To chamfer off these newly raised rims we first need to select the appropriate edges. This can be a bit laborious when there are many small edges to pick one by one. Fortunately there are some very useful selection tools in the Ribbon menu to help with this. Here you will find a tab named Modify Selection. Select two edges lying opposite each other on a loop, change the Dot Gap to 0 and click on Dot Loop Cylinder and the whole loop will be selected in one go. Once selected choose Chamfer in the EditPoly modifier and choose an Amount value with a single Segment. 05. Build by copying and mirroring Use the Symmetry tool to quickly build objects At this point in the process the single Quadrant that we have been building can now be copied and mirrored over using a Symmetry tool. Expand the Symmetry tool down to find the mirror plane. This operates as a gizmo and can be moved and rotated until the object has assumed the correct position, while still using the line template from Tip 2 as your guide. A second Symmetry modifier can be applied to mirror once again to complete the whole form. 06. Add detail to a polygon object Create extra details by adding a PolyEdit modifier There is an additional lump along one end of our object that can be built by adding a new PolyEdit modifier. Expand the modifier down, choose Polygon and select the polygons that come within the area we wish to build in. Cut these down using Slice Plane, Slice, QuickSlice or Cut. Delete the polygons that sit inside the area, leaving an empty hole. With edge selection activated and Shift held, drag an edge from the hole over into a new position. This will build a new polygon. Position the free edge of this correctly with the help of Snap, and seal vertices together using Collapse and/or Target Weld. 07. Round off edges Smooth and round off your edges using TurboSmooth Use TurboSmooth to efficiently smooth and round off all the edges. To ensure the overall form is retained this must be done using Smoothing Groups. Select the Polygon option inside the EditPoly modifier and select groups of polygons that are to remain separate from each other. Each group of selected polygons is given a different number from the table of numbers under Polygon: Smoothing Groups. Add a TurboSmooth modifier to the list. The object will deform out of shape until you expand and scroll down to click on Smoothing Groups under Surface Parameters. Switching up the iterations to 2 or 3 only should be fine, but be careful not to put in a very large number, or else the computer will likely hang whilst trying to calculate. 08. Add a handmade look With VRayDisplacementMod you can give your surfaces a realistic dimpled look Add a VRayDisplacementMod modifier to the object and in the Texmap slot choose Composite from Standard Maps. Drag the Composite Map from the displacement modifier and drop it as an instanced copy over into an empty slot in the material editor. I have added two layers inside the Composite texture. The first layer contains a black and white bitmap image of speckles and the second (top) layer is a Noise Map with the blend mode set to Darken. With a small displacement Amount typed in (such as 10mm) the two textures will deform the lid with dimples and dips. 09. Use a grid helper Create a new UCS Grid helper to copy objects along angled lines To copy objects along a line angled differently to the default X,Y,Z we can create a new UCS Grid helper. From the Helpers menu select Grid and drag the square form into a viewport. Rotate and move the Grid to the angle and position in which you would like the new UCS to operate. You have to make the UCS active by right-clicking it and selecting Activate Grid. Finally, the viewport you wish to work in must also be activated. Click on the active view name at the top left of the viewport and from the dropdown go to Extended Viewports>Grid and then whichever view you require. 10. Build and position a simple chain link By starting with a simple circle you can build up a chain with relative ease First create a single link in the chain by drawing a circle. Add a EditSpline modifier, expand down and select as a spline, then drag an Outline in the viewport. Add an extrude modifier. Drag a copy of this object and rotate it along its X axis by 90 degrees. Add an EditPoly modifier and attach the two objects together. Under the Tools tab from the main top menu, open Array. Switch on preview and drag the X figure in the Move column so the links sit correctly. Adjust the Count figure as required, select Copy and then OK. Select the first link in the chain, expand down EditPoly and then, beside the Attach button, select the icon named Attach List. Select all the links in the list and Attach them. In order to manipulate and move the chain so it appears to hang, we will attach a bones system. Select the Systems button and click Bones. In the viewport click the beginning of the chain. Move along the chain, clicking at approximately every three links, then right-click to finish. You should now have a long chain of bones. Move the bone chain into position by selecting the first bone in the link, and move it around with the move and rotate tools until the whole bone system is centrally positioned over the chain. If any bones are out of place they can be individually manipulated in the same way. Add a Skin modifier to the chain object and add all of the bones into the Bones list. Now when you move or rotate the bones around their axes, the chain will follow. The shorter the bone links are, the less deformation there will be in the chain. Finally, drop a VRayEdgesTex in the Bump Map material slot and adjust the World width to half the extrusion depth given to the circle object in the beginning. This will round the sharp chain link edges when rendered. This article was originally published in issue 232 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 232 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: 10 great 3ds Max 2017 tips Sharpen your hard-surface modelling in 3ds Max 4 tips for creating depth of field in 3ds Max View the full article

Finding the right font pairing is an artform – in this article, we offer some tips and tricks for getting it right. Let's say you've hunted through all the great paid and free fonts you can find, and picked the perfect typeface to suit your project. Great fonts don't live in isolation – you need something to go with it that will complement it and help it shine. Then you need to figure out how to use your choices effectively within your design. Here are the golden rules of matching fonts to help get you started. 01. Don't use too many fonts Wired comes with a typeface designed for web usage: Exchange Web First things first: don’t go mad with fonts. You want to pick a couple that work together and set the tone and mood you want to portray. Too many fonts will create a jarring experience. 02. Consider context The Independent's bespoke typeface, Indy Serif, is well suited to delivering news content Where is your typography being displayed and who is going to read it? Consider this when deciding which font is right for your project. Striking the right visual direction and tone is important when it comes to making sure your messages are relatable. 03. Don’t be afraid of space Clarity and breathing space is important when making a message noticeable. Ensure your textual elements aren't fighting for prominence within a tight space – in this situation nobody wins. Space helps keep focus. 04. Introduce hierarchy Sizing is a great way to introduce hierarchy within a design and help guide the user through the content. However, for this to be effective it’s important there’s not a huge variety of text sizes on a page. Consistency, hierarchy and readability are key. 05. Keep styles consistent The Great Discontent uses Leitura News for its body text, in a large ba Consistency is key to ensure a good UX. Are you using uppercase or letter spacing for your headlines? Pick an approach and don’t deviate. Similarly, ensure your fonts follow set size rules and don’t vary from them. Stick to a pattern. 06. Apply colour with accessibility in mind Legibility is essential when choosing a colour for the type elements on your site, so be mindful of accessibility. Make sure contrast between text and background is high enough to remain clear to users with visual impairments. A great tool to check this is WebAIM's Color Contrast Checker. 07. Mix your styles The Economist offers generously sized body text, topped with a crisp, slightly lighter typeface – Milo Serif Pro There needs to be enough contrast between your choices to create variety within your design – but go for the wrong combination and you'll have a clash on your hands. Use contrasting styles like sans-serif and serif to achieve more varied looks. 08. Watch your weight Most fonts come in variety of options and weights. When pairing with other fonts, you can use variations from families but be mindful not to overdo it – mixing and matching too many of these can be just as jarring as using too many fonts. Use one or two weights to add variety and hierarchy. As a rule of thumb, don’t deviate from 'normal' on body text, to ensure you keep text readable. 09. Try something new Everyone has tried-and-tested font pairings they know work well together, and it's tempting to return to them again and again. While it's good to have some go-to fonts, be wary of getting stuck in a rut. There are so many different fonts out there to experiment with, so if you can find the time it's always worth having a play with new and interesting offerings. Web design event Generate New York returns on 25-27 April 2018, offering a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. This article was published in issue 271 of Web Designer magazine. Subscribe here. Read more: 23 free font resources Pick the right font for your social campaigns A designer's guide to typography and fonts View the full article

The familiar little flicks that help lettering flow together as you read have been falling out of favour over recent years, as brands have been trying harder and harder to make a bold impact with their logo designs. In fact last year we noticed that big brands were going one step further and resorting to an all-caps approach to their typography. But are serifs really on the way out? Earlier this year we predicted the opposite, as our typography trends for 2018 forecast that serifs would be an important tool that brands would use to establish a sense of personality and uncorporateness (take that, The Man, we're making up words now). Despite all of this, big brands seem to be pruning the serifs from their beloved logos and letters. Does this rob them of a personality, or does it reinforce an aspect of their identity? Let's take a look at five big brands who have ditched serifs to find out. 01. HSBC In a rebrand that could be dismissed as 'same same but different', HSBC has snuck out a sans-serif logo. It's a rebrand that's largely flown under the radar, possibly because it's so inoffensive. As well as straightening out the lettering, HSBC has also swapped around the logo and the brand name, and deepened the colour of its hexagonal logo. So why did this rebrand pique our interest? Well, it's mainly because HSBC was one of the last banking bastions of serif lettering. With a serifed font, HSBC set itself apart from the pack as a traditional, established brand, which is especially reassuring when you're handling people's cash in a choppy economic climate. The new lettering is perfectly acceptable, if a little uninspiring. To get an idea of how a bank can drop the serifs and still retain a personality, check out the Natwest rebrand, which packs in colour and heritage. 02. Santander Hang on a minute, haven't we just seen a banking group drop the serifs and adopt a darker shade? Isn't that always the way though, you wait forever for a subtle bank rebrand and then two come along at once... Jokes aside, the new Santander identity was built to be more legible on digital devices. The evolution of the logo sees embellishments clipped from both the lettering and the flame icon, resulting in a straightened out and balanced design. Much like the HSBC rebrand, the new Santander graphics have been met with a 'great, I guess...' reaction. While the new lettering matches the weight of the flame (ticking off the more legible and simpler mission statement in the process), the icon consequently loses its 'S' shape, which was a pleasant and playful nod to the bank's name. 03. Google You know serifs are in trouble when a company as big as Google is sending them packing. Launched back back in 2015, the new sans-serif logo coincided with the reveal of Google's new parent company, Alphabet. This new logo retained the colour elements from the previous, instantly recognisable design, however the letter shapes got a complete overhaul. Gone were the slender, almost calligraphic letters. In their place are the solid weight, sans-serif forms that are better suited to a change in internet browsing habits as people interact with Google on a variety of devices. At the time of the announcement, Google said on a blog post that it wanted to create "a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens." Given that serifs have a history of being difficult to read on small digital displays, this was a canny move on Google's part. 04. Yahoo! Before Google came along and blew everyone away with its sans-serif logo, Yahoo had already been there and done that way back in 2013. Yahoo might not have the same clout as Google any more, but that doesn't mean that its redesign failed to cause shockwaves in the design community. Created in-house by Yahoo's design team headed up by then-CEO and president Marissa Mayer, the new logo hoped to exhume the company's popularity. It certainly garnered attention as Yahoo took a 29-day run-up the the launch with an event called 30 days of change, which saw the tech behemoth reveal a different logo every day before the official one was unveiled. While it ramped up the anticipation, 30 days of change also exhausted and annoyed viewers. So was the new logo worth the wait? Well, it certainly dragged Yahoo away from the goofy serif logo that summed up some of the naivety of the early internet, but ultimately the design caused disappointment thanks to its lack of imagination. 05. Diet Coke Coca-Cola has been shaking things up this year in terms of design. As well as launching a heritage bespoke typeface, it also rebranded Diet Coke along with redesigned packaging. The reason? Millennials. Or, to be more specific, how market researchers imagine Millennials. "Millennials are now thirstier than ever for adventures and new experiences, and we want to be right by their side," said Rafael Acevedo, Coca-Cola North America’s group director for Diet Coke. "We’re contemporising the Diet Coke brand and portfolio with sleek packaging and new flavours that are appealing to new audiences." So are Millennials responsible for killing serifs along with everything else? Not really. If anything, it's the slimline cans that have forced the logo into a cramped space and squeezed out the serifs. Related articles: Serif vs sans serif in logo design 5 ways to use shape psychology in logo design 4 ways to master colour in logo design View the full article