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Whether you’re designing a newspaper, newsletter, magazine or digital publication, the principles of good editorial design and layout are universal. But whether print design or online, each project comes with unique challenges, and it’s useful to see what how designers have met them in practice. So here we bring you six stunning examples of editorial design from leading creatives, find out how they created them, and share some lessons that can be applied to all your editorial projects, large and small. 01. Otl Aicher's Isny by dn&co Otl Aicher's Isny: a limited edition book to accompany a major exhibition Over 10 years, the iconic German designer Otl Aicher created a poster series based on the small town of Isny im Allgäu. It was groundbreaking in eschewing the typical “colourful postcard” style in favour of a stark, reductive and monochrome approach. In a limited edition book, released this September to accompany a London exhibition of the work, dn&co delves into this groundbreaking project across 116 pages. "When it came to the layout of the book, the team felt a real sense of responsibility,” says creative director Patrick Eley. “We kept asking ourselves ‘What would Otl do?’ – shorthand for how we could bring rationale and order to the project. "It was a matter of ensuring the design was consistent with Aicher’s recognisable aesthetic, without being a copycat of it.” The layout needed to be consistent with the subject’s aesthetic The dn&co team opted for Univers, a typeface that was used as part of Isny’s branding, as well as for the Munich Olympics, the project Aicher is best known for. “It’s a simple but effective structure – the editorial frames the work, which is printed on an uncoated paper to reflect the material that the Isny posters were originally printed on,” says Eley. “The surrounding narrative is reproduced on a coated stock so the photos of the town pop out.” The pictograms only exist as physical prints, not vector artwork, so they had to photograph everything in high resolution to enable us to reproduce it as accurately as possible. And that led to some interesting dilemmas. “We wanted to reflect Aicher’s strongly gridded approach to his work for Isny,” says Eley, “but the closer we worked with it, the more we noticed the inconsistencies. For example, nothing is actually square as it originally appears and that caused a few headaches with our own grid.” Aicher’s pictograms had to be digitised in high resolution Eley’s main tip for anyone embarking on a similar project? “Good filing is vital,” he says. “Knowing where everything is, who took what photo and whether you’ve got something at a high enough resolution to print it is absolutely key.” Ultimately, he adds, you have to become really familiar with the book’s content. “Get close to the narrative, and remember that design and typography is a fundamental part of delivering any story. “In this case, we were very conscious that we didn’t want to ‘out art the art’. The design of this book needed to be recessive to the content, which was the real hero. So it had to be quiet and unopinionated, while acting to frame another designer’s work and give it context. Ultimately it was a question of respect.” 02. This Is Me, Full Stop by Here Design This Is Me, Full Stop explores punctuation marks in a fun way This Is Me, Full Stop: The Art, Pleasures, and Playfulness of Punctuation is a book created by London design agency Here Design that harnesses beautiful design to explore “the secret life of punctuation marks”. It’s a fun, tongue-in-cheek way to explore a niche topic, and makes great use of simplicity and whitespace to tie everything together; a trick that might look easy but is much harder to achieve in practice. “When it came to layout,” says Here Design’s Philip Cowell, “our biggest decision was to make the text the formal consistent element throughout and allow the illustration and design to spread out and play as much as it wanted to, so that it could support and enhance the text’s meaning. It is always a joy to work with whitespace, though of course it is a challenge to have so much freedom.” Text provided consistency, allowing illustration and design free reign “The book’s text font was chosen to be reasonably friendly and approachable with the authority and strength of character to appeal to a broad audience range,” he continues. “It’s also worth noting that we created all the illustrations and designs using real-life typefaces – over 50 of them from Apple Chancery to Wedding Text; there’s a full list at the back. Championing typefaces both known and unsung was always part of the ambition.” High production values were also central. “To find the simplest way of expressing our book’s main idea, we used white foil lettering on black substrate, creating a striking contrast between matte and gloss that helps the book stand out,” he says. “For solidity, we had the book trimmed flush (we love seeing it in bookshops; it stacks up really nicely). And inside we used black end papers and chapter dividers to bring the reader back to the centrality of the cover.” All the illustrations and designs were created using real-life typefaces Cowell offers the following advice for a designer coming fresh to editorial design: “Think about the experience of the reader." He continues: “Not all consciously designed things are necessarily friendly to read. So be the designer, but also be the reader – what would you expect to see? What would surprise you in a delightful way? In other words, it’s not just how it looks, it’s how it reads. “Help the text, don’t hide it. Typography can really endorse the words you are saying. And always remember that books evolve over many pages, so they need to retain an inherent formal structure while being able to break free.” Buy This Is Me, Full Stop03. Circular 19 by Pentagram Each issue of the one-and-a-half-yearly magazine has a unique design Circular 19, the 12th edition of The Typographic Circle’s magazine, was designed by Pentagram and marks the 40th anniversary of the volunteer-run and not-for-profit organisation, which aims to bring designers with an interest in type and typography together. “Circular, which comes out every 18 months, is an unusual publication as it does not carry any advertising and therefore is far more independent and we can do as we wish,” says designer Domenic Lippa. “It’s also important it appeals to its core audience of type enthusiasts.” The design of the publication is most noticeable for its use of big type. “We use this to create impact and to challenge preconceptions around what type is used for,” says Lippa. “For us, it's as important as imagery and is not used purely for information.” Big and bold typography is used to create impact and challenge perceptions When it comes to the design in general, each issue is a standalone piece, he adds. “We often decide upon an approach before we start designing and this includes the typefaces, the general look and feel and the colour palette. The colours help create a thread for the whole magazine.” Even within each issue, they aim for variety, he adds. “We want to keep challenging ourselves and stretch ourselves and not get bored, so each spread has a sense of individuality about it – we're not design fascists!” The designers use various layout approach even within each issue “For me, relationships of scale between various pieces of text is the most important element of editorial design; you should not be afraid to use type confidently,” he says. “I do believe that as designers we need to keep questioning the status quo; why are we doing it this way? Never stop learning and never stop trying things, otherwise you just dry up as a designer and as a thinker.” 04. Charm, Belligerence & Perversity by GBH Crazy cover, crazy guys Charm, Belligerence & Perversity: The Incomplete Works of GBH is a monograph written by Jason Gregory, Mark Bonner and Peter Hale, founders of GBH London. And the first thing you notice about it is its striking cover. “We wanted to make something that supported the idea that we’d only just begun and that we weren’t finished yet,” explains Mark Bonner. “We’re fascinated by our evolution and we loved the twist on the old idea that 100 monkeys in a room, given time, could create the complete works of GBH. We only have 25 at GBH, but give us a chance.” The book aims at a wider dialogue with the design community The team wanted the book to do two things, he says. “We needed to explain what went into the design of each project, and we wanted to have a wider dialogue with our readers about the insecurities and bravery that entwine in us all while we are making them. “We felt no-one had ever spoken about these uncomfortable truths. So many books on design are self-aggrandising, but we wanted to be honest and share the fact that we go through a lot of emotions in making new things.” Immersing yourself in the text is key to good editorial design, says Bonner In any editorial design project, Bonner believes it’s important to “read the text, feel it, know it intimately before you even think about trying to lay it all out.” And with this book especially, the typography needed to be accessible, and feel easy to read, he adds. “So we worked hard to find a typographic system that allowed the 'show and tell’ of the project stories and the psuedo-sycology to co-exist.” Buy Charm, Belligerence & Perversity: The Incomplete Works of GBH05. Mr B & Friends ‘Comfriendium’ 10 Year book A statement piece that Mr B & Friends sent to its clients To celebrate 10 years of creative collaborations, Bristol design studio Mr B & Friends produced Comfriendium, a statement piece to send to their clients. It’s an impressive publication with punchy colours and a high quality finish, including a gloss black and white foiling on the cover that adds subtlety and impact. Each page aims for maximum visual impact “Editorial permeates everything we do,” says executive creative director Steve Richardson. “From digital magazines and websites to annual reports and books, the content drives the message. "Gone are the days when an idea could be rolled out to a template; now the reader can click-off, turn the page and move to the next thing, so our goal is to guide the eye with storytelling merging words, graphics and imagery.” Playful use of imagery and strong colours keep things interesting He offers the following tips for anyone working in editorial design: “Invest in the best copywriting you can afford. If the words are brilliant, the design falls out onto the printed or digital page. Work closely with the author to get into their head so you understand the nuances. “Use wit,” he adds. Be playful with your use of highlights, illustrations, icons and imagery. Choose typefaces that work well online and in print. Good pairings that give light and shade to all communications, so you can tailor the editorial message to the medium.” And final tip is to add pace. “Each page and screen view should take the eye on a journey, sometimes punchy and energised, and sometimes subtle and soothing. Choose illustration and imagery to help reflect this.” 06. Photo District News website by James Johnson The multi-device world makes editorial design on the web a challenge All the examples we’ve included so far are print products, but as Steve Richardson mentions above, editorial design is just as important online; in many ways more so. A good example of editorial design on the web is Photo District News, a photography magazine that was redesigned in 2018 under the art direction of Brooklyn-based designer James Johnson. There’s an awful lot of information to be uncovered here, but the flexible, responsive layout of the site is designed with generous use of whitespace and elegant proportions that avoid ever feeling cluttered, whichever device you use it on. “Unlike print, on the web an article is usually designed as a whole, with all of its body copy on one page, and often the designer will not have control over how it's presented,” says Johnson. “It could be a phone, it could be printed out, or something else altogether. So it's important to make the articles flexible and resilient to changing conditions. “Keep layouts simple and embrace responsive design techniques,” he continues. “Try to get the main ideas across in each format and don't sweat the small differences between them. This is in contrast to the two-page spread of the magazine, where a designer decides exactly how the content will appear and when. Generous use of whitespace and elegant proportions make the site an easy read on all devices “Aside from that, keeping a page clean, with lots of whitespace and clear, readable typography, is even more important on the web than in print. Reading is hard on a screen so it's best not to distract the readers with a cluttered page.” The biggest mistakes Johnson sees online often stem from poor typography. “Line widths that are too wide is probably the biggest issue there,” he says. “I also see a lot of sites that try to use a print typeface for body copy.” Getting it right is partly about effective collaboration, he adds. “The designer's role is to provide a tangible form for the underlying concepts provided by the editor. This can't happen without a good relationship between the designer and editor. "So I can't stress this enough; work with your editors and really get to know their content and editorial philosophy before attempting to design anything. This will go a long way in ensuring that people want to read the article.” All the articles are easy to read and navigate on a smartphone screen In terms of design, you have to catch the reader’s attention right away and get them interested in the article, he adds. “The title and deck are key to this. Readers should be able to glance at the page and instantly know what the article is about. Write a great title and design it to really stand out. Adding a great photo or illustration that works with the title, conceptually and visually, will really bring it home. “Once you have their attention, great content backed by solid design will keep it. Pick a good web typeface and set the body copy large enough to be read easily. Break the article into sections and write headlines for each and use strategically placed images, pull quotes and other design elements to encourage readers to scroll.” You might also like: How to use images more effectively in annual reports 10 skills graphic designers need to get ahead in 2018 5 photography trends influencing designers in 2018 View the full article

You're reading Postcards: The Second Sneak-Peek, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! After announcing the first Sneak-Peek of Postcards we received useful feedback and very positive reactions. Postcards is close to being released, but we want to share new images of this tool with you now. (We’re still open for feedback though!) View the full article

The best rigs are the ones that are intuitive and simple to use. When building them you must remember that it’s possible it will be used by a whole team of animators, all of which will have their preferred approach to bringing things to life. Overload a rig with too many controls and you’re not only making it more complicated to use, but you’re adding to the amount of time it takes an animator to create the simplest of sequences. How could it be fixed? One element of rigging that can help is to build in the ability to pick-walk through the hierarchy. This allows the animator to quickly navigate the rig by using the arrow keys, rather than selecting controls or digging through the Outliner. As an example, if you have the hand control selected you can quickly move up the chain to the elbow control, and then the shoulder control and so on. Whereas on a normal rig, pressing an arrow key likely selects a constraint node or some other area of the rig that shouldn’t be touched. The problem is there hasn’t been a good solution to this inside Maya, not without the help of external scripts or tools. Personally, when building rigs for clients I don’t like to add external plugins. It can cause problems down the line when a whole studio then needs to make sure they have the same plugins installed, updated and working just so they can animate. Luckily this all changed with Maya 2017 (and Maya 2018). How do we create custom rig controls in Maya? With last year’s release came new controller options giving you the ability to indicate which elements in the scene are controls. With them tagged you can then dictate the pick-walk parent or child regardless of where they lie in the hierarchy. That’s not all these controller tags do. Once specified that they are part of a rig, Maya will take advantage of any extra CPU or GPU power you have through parallel evaluation, dramatically improving the performance of the scene as it plays back or is interacted with, something you can test for yourself with the Profiler tool. What’s more, the controller tags are very simple to set up. Define your controllers To get started all you need to do is tag your icons as actual Controllers, so Maya knows what they are. To do this simply go to the Control menu under the Rigging menu set. Here you will find two options at the top, Tag As Controller and Parent Controller. Start by selecting all your controls and clicking Tag As Controller. The controller node What this will do is add a new 'tag' node to the controller. This is where all the information is stored and it offers a few extra options for you when it comes to dictating how your pick-walking works. You will also notice that there currently isn’t a parent defined for each node, so nothing will happen yet. Dictate the hierarchy With the controllers defined you can now dictate the hierarchy so Maya knows where to go when you use the arrow keys. If we use an arm as an example, first select the hand control and then the elbow and click Parent Controller. Now select the elbow control and then the shoulder and click it again. You can now use the up and down arrow keys to quickly navigate the arm controls. Automatically adjust visibility If you’re lucky enough to have Maya 2018 you will also have the ability to change a control's visibility based on the location of the mouse pointer. This can seem strange to begin with as when loaded, the character will appear to have no controls. To activate this feature simply go to the tag node and select Show On Mouse Proximity from the Visibility drop-down box. More from Ant Ward at Vertex Ant Ward will be at Vertex answering your questions, as part of our 'Ask an Artist' section. These sessions are a fantastic opportunity to get one to one with a veteran artist, who can help you overcome a roadblock in your work, or to talk through a problem area. Ant is an artist with huge experience in many areas of CG. He has been a regular on the pages of 3D World for many years and has written numerous tutorials, as well as being a part of our expert Q and A team. To book a ticket for Vertex 2018 head over to the Vertex site, where you will find information on all the day's activities, from keynote talks to the panel discussion and recruitment fair. Related articles: Scott Ross to talk at Vertex The ethics of digital humans 12 mighty Maya tutorials to try today View the full article

Sometimes an illustration or piece of artwork just demands to be rendered and turned into 3D art, and that was the spark that ignited Media Molecule's Emilie Stabell to spend a year adding an extra dimension to a beloved 2D image. Stabell is fan of illustrator Sam Bosma, and in particular his concept Stability. "When I showed his illustration to a friend, I joked: "Imagine if I made this in 3D. It would be absolutely insane." Not long after that, I began modelling the first asset," says Stabell. "The sheer scale of the project was quite overwhelming, though, so on the first day I started by creating a cube in Maya, and that was it: a small beginning." Stabell says her 3D workflow was very simple: Maya was used for modelling, Photoshop for texturing and ZBrush was used to project from the concept. Once her 3D model was complete she rendered using Maya Hardware 2.0, and also used After Effects and Photoshop to add the finishing touches to the animated scene. 01. Start simple, using silhouettes "I make sure that my model doesn't cover up the outline on the concept," explains Stabell. "I'm going to need that little bit of extra space for when I add my own 'toon' outlines later" Stabell began by blocking out the assets in Maya, using an image plane of the concept and setting her camera to front view. Using simple primitives, she was particularly careful to make sure the silhouettes matched the illustration. "Since the geometry is flat-shaded and wouldn't be deforming, it gave me a lot of freedom in how many pieces each asset can consist of," says Stabell. "As long as I was satisfied with the look of my silhouette from all angles, I knew I was on the right track. "In a sense, this project was devoid of many of the usual technical, and tedious, aspects that go into creating successful 3D, which is most likely the reason why it kept being fun to work on the entire way through." How the lighting hit the geometry also became irrelevant. "As long as the silhouette looks good, you're on the right track," says Stabell, explaining how focusing on the front view to match her geometry with the illustration is very forgiving for objects on the Z-axis: "As long as they're overlapping in the right order… It's really a rather flexible, different and fun way to do 3D." 02. Bring parts together Stabell loved seeing all of the disparate parts come together to bring the image to life. "I have never created anything of this scale, and proving to myself that I had the persistence and motivation to do so was a wonderful experience," says Stabell. "From a technical point of view, painting the textures gave me a lot of joy. Each asset was treated as a separate miniature project, so I never really managed to get tired of a specific part of the pipeline, and painting remained fresh and fun." A selection of the main assets that Stabell created throughout her lengthy process – over 200 in total That painting process began in earnest once the silhouettes were finished, Stabell then created the UVs and exported the mesh as an .obj into ZBrush. "I projected the texture from the concept to use as a guide for the hand-painted textures I made in Photoshop. I imported the .obj file, divided the geometry a few times to get a good amount of resolution for the Polypaint and then positioned and scaled the model so it was ready for projection." 03. Project the concept onto the mesh The next step involved using Spotlight to import and project the concept onto the mesh. Stabell checked her projection worked and then exported by going to Zplugin>Multi Map Exporter, and choosing Texture From Polypaint. With her texture exported from ZBrush and opened in Photoshop, Stabell moved into Maya and took a UV snapshot of the assets' UVs to set as a layer on top of the ZBrush texture. She then created a mask for all of her UV shells and grouped them into appropriate subgroups, in this case: bird, wing, thighs and legs. "This approach allowed me to create clipping masks for each group so I needn't worry about 'colouring within the lines'," explains Stabell. "Another important thing to note is to always make sure your masks are a couple of pixels wider than the actual UV shell, otherwise you might run into issues with Maya displaying black edges around the seams." 04. Paint roughly at first The steps to add the 'toon' outline in Maya When it came to the painting, Stabell began by applying a flat base colour to everything using the Paint Bucket Tool and her own brushes: "Then I quickly painted some rough gradients and colour vibration using my Awesome Paint 1 brush. At this stage, I didn't worry about precision at all, as it was simply about applying some nice gradients and bold colours." Once she had something decent to work with, it was time to switch to the Smudge Tool using her Smudge Blender brush: "This brush is optimised for the tool, so I didn't get any of the lag you'd normally experience when using Smudge. Furthermore, it left behind a bit of texture, creating that nice, painterly effect. From here on, it was a process of going back and forth between painting and smudging until I was satisfied. Lastly, I drew the inner line art, as I planned to apply an outline as my final step." 05. Keep going This is how the scene looks through the main camera in Maya As you can see from her workflow, Stabell's task to texture and paint every asset by hand was a mammoth effort that involved creating over 200 assets. "The hardest part was keeping at it and not giving up on it halfway through," she says, adding: "When I had done roughly a third of the work, I had a short period of time where I really had to push myself to keep going. The sheer amount I knew I had left to do made it seem like I would never finish." This is when the plan to treat each asset as a separate project came into its own: "Without this type of workflow, I am almost certain that I would have canned the project long ago. Hence, I want to stress the importance of planning, folder structure and consistency. They are your best friends when doing something of a larger scale." 06. Set up the scene The view from above of the final scene in Maya But the end was in sight, the assets had been modelled, textured and positioned, and Stabell just had to build her surrounding scene as depicted in the concept. "I started by setting up a camera with a simple 180 rotation around the model and built the environment from there. This is also the point in time where I started to think about how the environment is supporting the narrative and is helping enhance the original concept," she says. As the story concerns a group of explorers hunting for pirate treasure in a vast dried-up ocean, some of the scene's elements – such as a pirate flag, a sunken ship and a chunky, rusty metal piece emerging from the sand – were designed and modelled to support the narrative. "I wanted to hint at the story. This may not be noticed by the audience, but it helps me as a creator to inject a sense of meaning and history into the scene in the hopes that it will resonate." 07. Render and apply effects The final 3D concept from different angles Rendering, says Stabell, was "a simple task" because all the information was stored in the textures. Stabell explains: "All of my materials were surface shaders and there were no lights in the scene whatsoever. I split the scene into the appropriate render layers and rendered everything using Maya Hardware 2.0. Furthermore, I had a limited amount of render layers and only a few elements to tweak in compositing, so I quickly assembled everything in After Effects." Once in After Effects, Stabell applied the scene's more subtle effects, including the flags blowing in the wind and the dust in front of the turtle. She then rendered out to Premiere and for the still images, she used Photoshop to put the finishing touches to the final images. In the end, all of Stabell's hard work meant that she had much more than a single product to showcase: "The amount of work I put into each and every one of the assets, means that I am left with a substantial library of cool 3D characters and props. Furthermore, I decided to create the back of the piece as well, which means that the whole thing can now be used both for still images, turntables, videos and even in real time." This article originally appeared in issue 215 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Subscribe to 3D World here Related articles: Mighty Maya tutorials to try today 30 free 3D models How to colour your manga art like a pro View the full article

You may have captured the most beautiful, unique or thought-provoking footage of a lifetime, but taking it home or to your studio with inadequate hardware can lead to enormous frustration. So choosing one of our picks of the best computers for video editing will ensure that you have the ideal tool to make your footage sing. Assuming you've got a permanent base for your editing, going for a desktop computer instead of one of our best laptops for video editing means that you get the benefit of better specifications for less money. And being able to work on a broader display allows you to pick out minute detail better and see what your film will look like on a bigger screen. As well as our overall top choices of the very best Windows PC and Mac hardware on the shelves, we've also got you sorted if you're on a budget. And if you aren't sure which program to use once the computer's sorted, then you can check out our favourite video editing software, too. Sometimes, if you want the best results, you just have to save up your pennies and go for the best tools. We know it's expensive (really, really expensive), but Apple's brand new iMac Pro is the new daddy of computers for designers. So what do you get for the eye-watering price tag? For a start there's the included 27-inch 5K resolution, which is 43 per cent brighter than standard Apple Retina monitors and delivers up to an astonishing one billion colours. There aren't too many screens around that will flatter your footage more. Starting with an 8-core Intel Xeon processor, the least expensive option is already immensely powerful, with an outrageous 18-core option for those who can afford it. From 1TB to 4TB of SSD internal storage means that you'll be able to store tonnes of 4K footage before you need to think about additional external drives. And it's not short on ports, either, with four Thunderbolt 3.0 ports and a 10GB ethernet port. Plus, of course you get the benefit of the platform's formidable Final Cut Pro X editing software as well. Read more about the new iMac Pro Don't let the name fool you, the HP Z2 Mini G3 may look diminutive on the outside, but this Windows PC's specifications make it an absolute behemoth on the inside. Thanks to its available Quadro GPU and Xeon CPU, the G3 can power up to four 4K monitors via its DisplayPorts. This enables you to drive 8K worth of pixels – head to our pick of the best 4K monitors to pick one/some out. And it still manages to squeeze in 1TB of onboard storage. Remarkable, considering the machine's dimensions. Because the Mini G3 is such a pint-sized PC, it will fit seemlessly into your home office or studio. Whether stood up or lying flat, it offers a compact alternative to those traditionally massive workstations. Read our sister site TechRadar's hands on HP Z2 Mini G3 review We know that this is another PC that will stretch the budget, but hear us out. This astonishing all-in-one from Dell comes with a mighty 27-inch 4K Ultra HD touchscreen display and an ear-busting set of six speakers. That makes for the ideal platform from which to view – and hear – what you've shot and get the best from it in post-production. The Dell XPS 27 performs admirably against industry-standard graphics-based benchmarks, no doubt thanks to the pacey 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-6700 processor under the casing. And this premium machine also gets premium peripheries in the form of a sleek and stylish wireless mouse and keyboard. Read TechRadar's full XPS 27 review Once you go Mac, it's hard to go back. If you're used to cutting and chopping on an Apple machine and want an all-in-one setup for your desktop then the iMac with 4K Retina display is an absolute beaut – and it's a fraction of the price of the iMac Pro. In fact, the price is pretty spectacular when you consider that a stunning 21.5-inch 4K retina screen is included. It features a wider range of colours than some competitors' monitors thanks to its DCI P3 colour space. Put simply, images can appear more life-like with accurate colours and a greater vibrancy. The kind of little touch that can really add value to your project. Read TechRadar's full Apple iMac with 4K Retina display review Complete with monitor, mouse and keyboard, it's not easy to find exceptional quality computing for under a grand. But this Lenovo PC is an adequate option if you're on a tight budget. It comes with a 23-inch Full HD monitor and packs in up to a 2TB hard drive and 7th-generation Intel processor. If you're somebody requiring a heavyweight machine for professional video editing all day everyday, this machine probably isn't going to quite cut the mustard. But for keen amateurs and dabblers, the sub £1,000/$1,000 spend on this Lenovo all-in-one should be just fine. It's worth noting that you can buy an even cheaper AMD-based version, but it will be less powerful and you get a smaller monitor. Related articles: The best 4K monitors available right now Our favourite laptops for video editing Best video editing software in 2018 View the full article

There's been a lot of talk about filter bubbles and echo chambers lately, but these don't just apply to politics and online: anybody can become stuck in an echo chamber – and that includes artists. If you were surprised by Brexit, or the US presidential elections, then you'll know first-hand the limiting effects of being surrounded by those who share the same views as you. "It's a problem that impacts artists with different severity," says concept artist and illustrator Carmen Sinek. "Some people know what they like and are happy doing just that. Others lock themselves into a certain style early, for the sake of pursuing a career with a certain company or genre." The more personalised our online experiences become, the more segregated and siloed our views It usually happens, Sinek says, when artists start focusing on the product instead of the process. "They set out with a goal in mind – working for this company, or emulating that artist – and slowly begin to build their art education around it. "If an artist wants to work for Magic: The Gathering, they might follow Magic artists online. The tutorials they see and resources they pick up, such as digital brushes, will likely be used by those who work within Magic's semi-realistic style range. They build a social media echo chamber around a very small part of the art community, and it becomes more difficult to move outside of it." The risks of living in a bubble Monarch, by Carmen Sinek. "Experiment" is her advice for steering clear of art bubbles. At an industry level, one of the most immediate consequences of this is artistic homogenisation. For a while, many big video games and films had very similar aesthetics, points out Sinek. "Year after year, waves of students came out of the top art schools with extremely similar styles and design tastes," she says. At an artist level, the consequences can be more harmful. Restricting your creative range can lead to dissatisfaction and depression – and limiting your views can be even more destructive. "I've seen too many artists clinging to harmful views on sexism and diversity," says art director Paul Canavan, "ignoring valid criticism from the affected parties and making the industry less appealing for many people. "On a strictly artistic level, there are also a number of artists, mostly students or those relatively new to the industry, who decry the use of photos, 3D or any other 'non-traditional' techniques in illustration or concept art work, and take it upon themselves to spread this weird message around social media forums. I think subscribing to that elitist mentality is pretty harmful, and it's a place that I will try to engage in discussion." Breaking the bubble Paul Canavan designed this game artwork, Moving Hazard, to encourage "mini narratives": smaller areas that work as standalone images. So why are filter bubbles so tough to pop? The reasons are three-fold: first, you might not realise you've fallen into a bubble. Second, social media is built upon the idea of 'following' people whose work or perspective you like. And third, when you're doing a lot online, algorithmic filtering serves to reinforce your preferences on the basis of past choices of online content. The more personalised our online experiences become, the more segregated and siloed our views. "The result is an automated population of news feeds, search results and so on, with content automatically selected if deemed as in keeping with those previously recorded choices," explains media and communications expert Dr Dan Mercea, who's a senior lecturer in sociology at City University London. However, as Mercea points out, it's not all bad: the more diverse those choices, the greater the variety of filtered content. "The algorithm will adjust itself as it tracks our surfing histories, so the filtering becomes more intricate as we make more information available about our preferences. So if we expose ourselves to diversity, the algorithm will reflect this choice – at least temporarily." And it's the same in real life. Beating a bubble can be as simple as watching a video or reading a blog from someone with a different opinion, says illustrator Jason Rainville. "There's a difference between living in a bubble and being confident of your point of view, though. And you don't want to be so open-minded that your brain falls out," Rainville says. Do something different This Star Trek character collage was created by Jason Rainville for Disruptor Beam's mobile game Star Trek: Timelines. Sinek agrees that doing something outside your comfort zone is a good way to pop a creative bubble. "Dig out your art history book and start going through it, or enroll in an art history class somewhere. Find a place to learn where you will be exposed to a wide variety of artistic movements and styles, not just the ones you pick to research on your own." "Be open to different opinions and encourage dialogue," adds Canavan. "There are a ton of controversial, oft-debated topics around the art community. Getting involved, sharing your opinion and trying to take something away from every encounter is super healthy." And that's the point: there's a difference between being part of a community and being stuck in a bubble. Debate, discussion and the exchange of ideas can propel your practice to new levels. "There's something to be said for surrounding yourself with like-minded people who can push the sort of content you enjoy into your eyeballs every day and a sense of community into your life," reasons Canavan. "In an industry where many of us work remotely, that can really help." This article was originally published in issue 154 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists – packed with workshops and interviews with fantasy and sci-fi artists, plus must-have kit reviews. Buy issue 154 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to encourage diversity in the design industry 20 digital artists to follow on Behance How fan art can get you paid View the full article

Is it really 2018 already? It seems like only yesterday we were looking forwards to all of the opportunities and design trends that 2017 had to offer. In a year that will be remembered in terms of design for its retro fonts and advances in VR, there were also plenty of rebrands and new logos to enjoy. One person who knows all about branding is Armin Vit, the design doyen over at Brand New. Popular for his coverage of all the latest brand identity work, Vit recently compiled a retrospective of the best and worst branding efforts of 2017. We've rounded up five of the best and five of the worst entries from his review below, but for the full list be sure to head over to his site. Because we're kind folk here, we'll kick off with a look at the best pieces of branding from 2017 (if you're not as saintly, you can skip to the worst here). The best brand identities of 2017 01. SŽDC This clever rebrand ties together the company name and its service Chances are you haven't heard of the Czech administration SŽDC, and even less likely are the odds that you'll be able to pronounce its name – Správa železniční dopravní cesty – correctly. In English it translates as Railway Structure Administration, and simplifying the name and message of the organisation was the aim of this rebrand. Amazingly, this clear logo accomplishes both of these aims with ease. Designed by Prague-based studio Marvil, the orange logo plays on the similarity between the letter Ž and three parallel railway tracks linked by a railroad switch. Meanwhile, the letter Ž acts as a tidy abbreviation for Železnice, which means Railway in Czech. "Using the diacritic over the “Z” in the company’s name to create an overhead view of a railway switch is very clever. And that livery… swoon," writes Vit. The monogram is both distinctive and authoritative, plus it looks set to work across posters, uniforms, documents and online platforms with ease. What more could you want from a rebrand? 02. Misfit Misfit's new identity celebrates oddballs Did you know that over 20 billion lbs of fruits and vegetables go unharvested or unsold every year in the US? Neither did we. But one company that did is Misfit. Established in 2014, Misfit used fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste to create its range of cold-pressed juices. For its rebrand, Misfit turned to NY-based studio Gander. Whereas Misfit's old logo was a fairly straight laced affair of uninspiring, blocky typography, the new version has a goofy sense of humour without becoming overbearing, which echoes the misshapen ingredients. "Ugly never looked so good," writes Vit. "We created an identity that challenges beauty standards and glorifies the oddballs," Gander told Brand New. "Through illustration, photography and web design, we were able to tell Misfit’s story and educate consumers in a way that was fun and approachable." 03. Mozilla Mozilla shared every step of its rebrand online Global nonprofit organisation Mozilla has been dedicated to making the web better since 1998 thanks to its open source products and open standards. So when it came to a rebrand, it made sense that Mozilla would team up with the equally altruistic Johnson Banks. Not only were Mozilla and Johnson Banks a good match in terms of ethics, they're both a little madcap. To tie into Mozilla's open source services, Johnson Banks followed suit and decided to do its rebranding work in public by sharing every step of the process. It's just as well that the design was strong enough to hold up to the scrutiny. Complete with typography that nods to URL language and a diverse range of colourful alternatives to help it stand out, Mozilla's makeover has truly earned its place as one of 2017's best logos and brand identities. 04. Ugly Drinks Ugly Drinks provide a healthy alternative to sugary fizzy drinks "Healthy doesn't have to be boring," that's how independent design agency Jones Knowles Ritchie approached this rebrand for Ugly Drinks. Set up in 2016, Ugly Drinks aims to provide a healthy alternative to the familiar sugary soft drinks that currently dominate UK shops. Whereas the company's previous look focussed on the ugly angle – complete with a deliberately clunky typeface – this new design packs more of an attitude. With the letter "U" shaped like a slurping tongue, Ugly Drinks now has a stylish wordmark to help it stand out from the crowd. "The overall design of this is fantastic and, what’s better, it’s fueled by a great sense of humour," says Vit. The flexible piece of type design looks great either on its own or paired with a range of fruit icons to create cheeky characters. Ugly Drinks co-founder Hugh Thomas hopes that this identity will help define the brand and turn it into something people will be happy to be seen with. 05. Chobani Chobani's new logo evokes a luxurious taste sensation Greek yoghurt company Chobani has come a long way since it was launched in 2007. In 2012 it was the official sponsor of the US Olympic Team, and in 2017, Chobani decided a brand refresh was in order. Designed in-house and led by chief creative officer Leland Maschmeyer, the new typographic logo does a much better job than the previous design when it comes to communicating a rich, sensuous sensation, which makes the rebrand a much better fit for the product. Vit himself is a huge fan of the design. "I think it is literally and absolutely perfect not just in execution but in representing the product," he explains. "The green colour is unexpected but it looks stunning on the typography and more so in the packaging." Now that we've covered the best brands of 2017, it's time for the dishonourable mentions as we look at the worst identities the year had to offer. The worst brand identities of 2017 01. General Mills General Mills' heart logo isn't getting a lot of love This update to the branding of global food company General Mills is all about "telling the General Mills story thoughtfully, proactively and consistently," according to a blog post in the wake of its new logo launch. It went on to add: "With our newest logo, the familiar “Big G” continues to exemplify strength, longevity and trust – and now love." Pass us the sick bag... It's this schmaltzy lovey-dovey message from a corporate super-entity that left Vit cold when it came to this rebrand. And even though he admits that graphically it's not the worst design in the world, the heart just comes across as insincere and lazy. We're definitely getting shades of 'Big Brother loves you' here. Very dystopian. 02. Skype Designers got pretty hung up on Skype's new logo You know what Skype is. Established in 2003, the instant messaging app became the go-to way for millions of people to communicate online thanks to its text message and video chat services. Its new logo, though, was less well received. So where did the Skype rebrand go wrong? For starters, the previous wordmarks-in-bubbles logo at least had originality and was recognisable. This new version looks dangerously generic. Vit puts this at the feet of a merger with Microsoft that was completed in 2011. This might help the tech giant to tie in Skype's look with the rest of its software, but it's a move that does nothing to improve or build on Skype's image. As Vit writes, "it's aligned with the Microsoft brand architecture, which no logo asked for ever." 03. City of Vancouver Is there enough going on here to qualify this as a logo? This logo for the City of Vancouver Government Administration is very much a case of "you get what you pay for". The mystery firm behind this brand design was chosen for its low low prices... and it shows. When it came to judging this rebrand, Vit is at least firm but fair when he points out that this design isn't meant to be an all-singing, all-dancing piece of typography to attract tourists. This is a governmental logo. But does that mean it can get away with being this boring? Vit admits that at least the typographer seems to know what they're doing, as all the alignment sits correctly. However there's no getting away from just how inconsequential this rebrand looks, or as Vit puts it, "this is insanely bland. It makes Scranton, PA, sound exciting." Quite. 04. AXIS Dance Company Is this logo too heavy handed? We find ourselves disagreeing with Vit when it comes to this logo for integrated contemporary dance company, AXIS. Or, if not disagreeing, not finding ourselves as offended by this rebrand. Created to celebrate the company's 30-year anniversary, AXIS' colourful new wordmark is inspired by fluid dance moves. It's a sound enough concept, so where does it go wrong? "The new logo is a conceptual and formal abomination," says Vit. He goes on to lay into the wordmark's lack of motion, elegance and energy. As far as he's concerned, the gradients only serve to add insult to injury and highlight how cheap and vacuous the logo is. Ok, Vit, tell us what you really think... In his defence though, Vit only has an issue with the logo, not the company itself. "The main reason I’m coming down so hard on this is because this organisation and its dancers deserve something so much better that properly reflects what they do, the challenges they are able to overcome, and the beauty of movement they are able to create," he explains. 05. Redbox Bad kerning, distressing colours... yuck! In an age of Netflix binge watching, it's good to see Redbox is still flying the flag for good old DVD and video game rentals. What's less good to see is its new logo. On the surface you might be put off by the purple period, but look close and this logo gets even worse. First of all there are clumsy slabs, then there's the wonky 'e', and finally the kerning is so tight that the pairing of "d" and "b" look a little too phallic for their own good. As Vit says, it's "painfully amateurish and unappealing". Vit notes that many of his Twitter followers read it as 'Redbax' due to the too-tight spacing. "I saw this as a sign that they don’t treat their brand seriously enough," he says of Redbox. Topping off the rebrand is the smug tagline "so smarter". Smarter than what, exactly? Streaming films and games online? We're not convinced. Related articles: When to use humour in branding The problem with period product branding The top 10 big-brand logos View the full article

With plenty of new web design tools coming onto the market each day, it's difficult to know what's worth your time. As a result, it's tempting for studios and freelancers to just keep using the same tools and processes, rather than exploring something new. However, pick the right tool and it could totally revolutionise your workflow. In this post, seven top web professionals share the tools that changed their working lives in 2017. Why not give them a go this year? 01. React Native It's not just a web view wrapper React Native is a framework for building native apps using React. It's in active development, with Facebook pushing a new release each month. Its use of modern tooling (such as the latest version of JavaScript), as well as features such as hot reloading, made it a standout tool for Shane Osbourne, lead frontend developer at JH. "90 per cent of the code is shared across the iOS and Android platform – there are just a handful of situations in which platform-specific components are needed," he explains. "And it’s not just a web view wrapper: React Native gives higher performance and tighter integration with the host platform than other tools." 02. Toggl Time-tracking apps can have all kinds of hidden benefits While time-tracking apps, such as Toggl, are handy for monitoring time worked in order to figure out client fees, they really come into their own when you use them to monitor your own working patterns. "I’ve used time-tracking tools inconsistently in the past, [but] never as a tool to monitor my own time, which looking back now seems like a rookie mistake," explains BudAffect co-founder Jamie Murphy. "Using Toggl properly in 2017 has been by far the biggest benefit for me. Thanks to tracking everything I do, I’m much more aware of how long admin tasks such as accounts, invoices and so on take and am able to better plan around them." This approach also has the benefit of helping you see the balance of profits made versus time taken, so you can identify the most time-consuming, unprofitable forms of income, and re-evaluate their role in your business. 03. Toby Tidy browser; tidy mind Are you looking at hundreds of tiny distracting tabs at the top of your browser? Then this is a useful tool for you. "As a habitual over-user of tabs, this year I discovered the Chrome extension Toby, which is a way to create collections of links, as an alternative to individual bookmarks," says digital transformation consultant Sally Lait. "I’m not entirely cured of ‘tab-itis’, but it’s definitely helping." 04. Wacom Cintiq 22HD interactive monitor Shortcut keys on the Wacom Cintiq 22HD save a lot of time, says Flow creative director Karl Doran Let's not forget about hardware. Last year saw some great new creative gadgetry entering the market (take a look at our roundup of the top new tech for designers to see for yourself). The right kit can transform your workflow, as the Flow team found when it got its hands on the Wacom Cintiq 22HD interactive monitor. "The interactive screen allows you to draw straight onto the screen, making it feel much more intuitive than regular graphics tablets, the programmable shortcut keys are great and the zoom pad is dead easy to use," says creative director Karl Doran. The team now uses it in all of its products for tasks ranging from hand-drawn animation to rotoscoping, masking and motion tracking in After Effects, or even just creating artwork in Photoshop or Illustrator. See The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets and check out The best Wacom tablet deals to bag yourself a new Wacom tablet at the best price. 05. Tachyons Tachyons is an open source functional CSS toolkit, and it had a massive impact on the web design process at Fore Design this year. "It's built on a scale that allows us to design in the browser in a way that feels fast and fluid," says co-founder Dan Perrera. "It’s made it possible to move our process completely into code so, instead of creating comps, we’re able to spend that time refining our work. We’re able to take Tachyons from project to project and the time we’ve invested in it has really paid off." 06. Sketch There's a reason everyone's still talking about Sketch Sketch has been gradually cementing its position as a top design tool over the past few years, and is still steadily poaching seasoned Adobe users, including web designer and developer Andrew Couldwell. "I’ve used Adobe Photoshop exclusively for over 10 years – I even designed an Adobe product using Photoshop! But this past year I’ve transitioned to Sketch, and I’m amazed how transformative it has been. The power of symbols and nested symbols are a game-changer for system and product design. Read How to get started with Sketch for app design, as well as Sketch vs Photoshop: which design tool should you use? plus 10 Sketch plugins you need to know about to get even more from the tool this year. 07. Paper Sometimes the best tools are the simplest ones While there are plenty of snazzy new tools vying for our attention, there's still space for traditional methods. BuzzFeed product designer Lindsey Maratta is careful not to be seduced by every latest thing: "I try not to feel confined to digital tools for other parts of the design process." Maratta says her most successful prototype and UX spec of 2017 was made using paper and dot stickers, explained via a narrated video. "Between that and its role in several collaborative sprint-style ideation sessions we’ve held lately, good old paper remains one of the most useful tools for my team this year," she adds. "My work this year has largely been about empowering teams of designers at a large company to work consistently and efficiently, with the aid of design systems," she continues. "Sketch has been a powerful aid to this. I must admit that I do miss paint brushes and image editing in Photoshop though, for the more creative web design projects." This article appeared in issue 302 of net, the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Pick up a copy today or subscribe to net here. Read more: The 5 biggest UX design trends for 2018 How to manage CSS classes with JavaScript Should you be worried about Meltdown and Spectre? View the full article

Freelancers don't just have to be good at the services they offer, they also need to know how to market themselves. Being your own boss can be a rewarding experience, and now the Professional Freelancing Mastery Bundle can give you the tools you need to make your dream a reality. Get it on sale now for 98% off the retail price. There is a whole ecosystem of freelancers online who offer up their skills and services to those in need. Finding an audience can be tricky, as can building a reputation in an already crowded field. No matter what you're selling, the Professional Freelancing Mastery Bundle can help you find your audience. This bundle is packed with courses that will teach you how to make the most of platforms like Fiverr, UpWork, and more. Plus, it will teach you how to hone your skills to build your own website and find your dream clients. You can get the Professional Freelancing Mastery Bundle on sale now for 98% off the retail price. That's a huge saving off an essential collection of courses that can help you to go freelance and become your own boss, so grab this deal today. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: 8 ways to make more money in 2018 4 ways to cash in as a freelancer 9 things nobody tells you about going freelance View the full article

Designing an annual report is part of the bread-and-butter work for many designers. Some may see it as relatively dry, but – as the examples here show – annual reports can provide an opportunity to turn staple work into an imaginative, enticing and attractive design to enhance your design portfolio. Imagery is a useful tool in this endeavour. There’s no reason why an annual report has to look dry or text-heavy, and the right approach to photography, graphics and/or illustration can really help your design to sing. Here’s how to do it... 01. Choose gorgeous photography or illustration Photography can help promote a personal connection between client and audience First you need to decide whether to focus your approach on photography, illustration or vector graphics. This choice will depend largely on the brief, the intended audience and the kind of report you wish to produce. Take for example the Donor Report for the University of Cambridge, shown above and below. Designed by The District, this annual publication is sent to people who donate large amounts of money to the institution. The focus on people meant photography was the obvious choice “While many of the projects that benefit are capital projects and investments in technology, our research made it clear that ultimately donors are investing in people,” explains creative director Alun Shooter. “So we felt photographing the benefactors of the new buildings, equipment and facilities was the best way to go. Simply using typography and colour may have looked great graphically, but would have missed an opportunity and arguably felt sterile.” Of course, photography isn’t relevant to every annual report. If your report’s focus lies less in personal stories and more in statistical analysis, for example, it may be better to use graphics to bring facts and figures to life in a fun and attractive way. Alternatively, if your visual goal is to highlight more abstract concepts in the report, such as financial stability or business dynamism, illustration may be the best way forward. 02. Art direct your photography Avoiding clinical, posed shots can bring a sense of humanity to an annual report Assuming you decide to use photography, the next step is to plan the visual style you’re going for. Again, this will stem from your overriding aims and objectives. For the Donor Report, the concept of being human-centric was the prime factor in deciding how to art-direct the photography by Owen Richards, says creative director Matt Bagnall. “While these were posed portraits, there needed to be a humanity to them,” Bagnall explains. “So the subjects were, for example, shot in their offices surrounded by personal ephemera, rather than in a clinical setting.” It also tied in to how the images were reproduced in print. “We selected uncoated paper stock to give a warmth to the piece,” he explains. “This supported the people-led imagery and was deliberately less slick than if we’d used a coated paper. It made everything feel coherent and accessible rather than elitist.” 03. Select your illustration style Mr B & Friends focused on a ‘25 years young’ theme for Greenergy’s annual report If you opt to use illustration in your annual report, it’s a similar story. Only once you have clear aims and objectives can you make an informed decision about the visual style to pursue. For example, when Bristol-based creative agency Mr B & Friends designed the annual report for energy company Greenergy (above), it honed in on the fact that it was the company’s 25th anniversary year. “This was a big deal for Greenergy,” says design director Sheena Mistry. “For a modest-sized company to remain fiercely independent and achieve 25 years of success and growth is nothing to be sneezed at. "So we worked alongside Spanish artist Mauco Sosa to develop a distinct illustration style for the report, capturing all elements of the business model in an upbeat, forward-looking and interesting way.” The main illustration for the Greenway report Importantly, while the illustrations in the report are attractive in their simplicity, that doesn’t mean they’re abstract; each has a specific and significant meaning. For example, the main illustration shown above is inspired by Greenway business model, which the company describes as “efficient and streamlined with a clear point of direction”. 04. Combine photography and illustration In this annual report 'Fighting child poverty' for the Mayor's Fund for London, hand-drawn lines and doodles work with photos to create a child-like feel Photography and illustrations aren’t mutually exclusive in annual report design, of course; there’s no reason you can’t use both. Just make sure there’s a clear reason for doing so, or it may look like you’re just throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. One of the central features of the brief for this report was a 'journey map' that shows the ideal path followed by the children helped by the charity A good example can be seen in the annual report for the Mayor's Fund for London by Consider Creative. This organisation aims to give disadvantaged young Londoners the skills and opportunities they need to climb the career ladder and escape the threat of child poverty. The pencil symbolises the charity itself – it's a grass-roots tool fundamental to personal development “We were looking for a thread to take us through the successes and highlights of their year; to bring alive a report that could otherwise feel quite static,” says creative director Ian Boardman. “That thread became quite literal when we struck upon the idea of a pencil line as the continuous visual device, from start to finish. “Photography and photoshoot was led by showing who the Mayor's fund for London benefits – the disadvantaged children of London. We ended up commissioning a branded pencil that became a key reminder of the annual report and a great leave behind.” 05. Auto-generate your imagery Gyroscope is leading the way for personalised annual reports Now here’s a future trend that throws the traditional approach to choosing imagery on its head. Personalised annual reports involve the creation of a bespoke report for each customer, stakeholder or shareholder. That might sound like a mammoth task, but clever software makes it relatively easy to automate the creation of an annual report tailored to each individual’s involvement in a company – and that includes the imagery. For example, the health app Gyroscope designed and printed customised books for all of its customers. “These annual reports were all auto-generated based upon an individual's content,” explains freelance creative director Shane Mielke, who helped with the layout and design. “So any photos come from their Instagram; infographics, maps and charts were created based upon actual data the app has gathered from your day-to-day activities.” Both text and imagery in the Gyroscope reports is drawn from the user’s own digital content With digital services capturing more and more of our personal data, we’d expect this innovative way to approach annual reports to become a big trend in future. You can read a detailed explanation of how Gyroscope did it on its blog. 06. Seek out inspiration There are so many ways to approach the visual design of an annual report that it’s easy to end up feeling a little overwhelmed. A good way to get ideas flowing for your own design can be to check out how others have approached the discipline. Here are a few good places to start. The Wildlife Conservation Society is famed for its stunning photography-based reports The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has a strong reputation for beautifully designed, photo-led annual reports that are similar in style to a high-end magazine or travel brochure. You can download PDFs of the last few years’ reports from its website. The Zumtobel Group has commissioned some of the industry’s best illustrators for its annual reports The Zumtobel Group is an Austria-based lighting manufacturer that has made a name for itself within the design community for its beautifully illustrated annual reports. Each issue has been designed and implemented by internationally renowned artists and designers; you can see an overview on its website. Craig Minchington's 3D type stylings gave a unique look to Harnham's Annual Salary Guide Harnham's Annual Salary Guide for 2016 features trends in the UK for analytics and data professionals and was designed by Brand Nu using some beautiful 3D illustrations by Craig Minchington, which you can see in detail on Behance. Flow Creative designed a distinctive vector graphic style for the IPPR Flow Creative, an award-winning creative studio based in Manchester, was asked to create a report for The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)’s Northern Energy Taskforce. It developed a distinctive vector graphic style for the document based on road signage; you can see more of the designs and read about how it created them on Flow's website. For more inspiring design, see these 16 imaginative annual report designs. Liked this? Read these: 10 designers' New Year's resolutions for 2018 8 ways to make more money in 2018 5 photography trends influencing designers in 2018 View the full article

Maxon's Cinema 4D is one of the CG industry's most popular 3D modelling, animation and rendering applications. Boasting a designer-friendly interface and powerful toolset, Cinema 4D has become a favourite among digital artists wanting to create show-stopping 3D art. Want to create some 3D artwork of your own? These Cinema 4D tutorials will help you to master the basics if you're a beginner and hone your skills for the more advanced users. Let's get started... Nail the basics 01. Learning Cinema 4D R19 Explore all the tools and techniques you need to get started with the latest version of Cinema 4D If you're just starting out with Cinema 4D then you'll need to learn your way around. In this brilliant Cinema 4D tutorial, hosted on Lynda, explore the core techniques and tools you need to get started with the latest version of the software. 02. Introduction to Cinema 4D Discover the power of Cinema 4D and its tools with this brilliant tutorial from the Greyscalegorilla team If you don't have the most recent version of Cinema 4D, never fear. The brilliant team at Greyscalegorilla have created over 200 tutorials to help digital artists, including some brilliant free Cinema 4D tutorials such as this one, in which you'll learn how to build this mine cart tunnel animation. Create the scene from scratch by learning how to to light, model, animate, add dynamics and render the final sequence. 03. Introduction to modelling in Cinema 4D This Cinema 4D tutorial from Pluralsight covers the basics of modeling, looking at commonly used tools and time-saving tips and techniques In this video tutorial from Pluralsight, you will learn the tools and techniques that will allow you to begin modelling in Cinema 4D. A subscription is required to watch the full training, but register for a free demo account to access the first five Cinema 4D tutorials for free. 04. Rig a simple cartoon character Discover the world of rigging with this easy-to-follow Cinema 4D tutorial from EJ Hassenfratz. This gentle introduction explains the the two types of rigs, FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics), when to use them and how to set them up. 05. Animate a simple cartoon character Learn how to animate a simple character in this fun tutorial Following on from the above, EJ Hassenfratz has also created a brilliant two-part Cinema 4D tutorial in which you can learn how to animate a simple character and some handy tips and tricks for creating animated GIF characters. 06. Intro to Cinema 4D Lite & Cineware Another from the Greyscalegorilla team, this tutorial dives into how to use 3D animation tools in After Effects Cinema 4D Lite and Cineware. This video provides a rough idea of how Cinema 4D Lite can be added to your animation workflow. Going further 07. Character animation walk cycle In this almost hour-long beginner's tutorial from the c4dUK YouTube channel, discover a character rig and the tools that make it move, including all the controllers and buttons, sliders and movers that will help bring your character to life. 08. Create a geometric 3D Photoshop brush with Cinema 4D Create a bespoke Photoshop brush in Cinema 4D with this in-depth tutorial Discover how to create an abstract shape and use it as a Photoshop Brush in this step-by-step Cinema 4D tutorial from Dmitry Taranets. 09. Model a low poly wolf Learn how to create a low poly wolf in this two-part tutorial Follow this step-by-step Cinema 4D tutorial to create a low poly wolf model that can be used in all manner of creative projects. Here you'll learn how to create a basic 3D model, import reference images, adding lighting to the scene and basic rendering techniques. 10. Intro to the Cinema 4D Time Effector Cinema 4D's Time Effector is a powerful tool for automating animation. In this tutorial from Eyedesyn you'll learn some Time Effector basics, how to combine it with other Effectors to vary your animations, how to use the Random Effector for more interesting and organic animations, and much more besides. 11. X-Particles Tornado in Cinema 4D Use X-Particles to create a lively tornadoIn this Cinema 4D tutorial from mirrormaze you'll learn how to model, rig and animate a tornado. You'll use X-Particles with XP Trail, Follow Spline and Hair to give it life, and rig the helix spline using basic Xpresso so you have full control over the path and movement of the tornado. 12. Cinema 4D's Character Builder Rigging might strike fear into the hearts of rookie 3D artists, but get to grips with character creation in this guide to both the standard and advanced Biped setup using Cinema 4D's Character Builder. 13. How to make your 3D objects dance This Cinema 4D tutorial explains how to bring a shape (or object) to life and make it 'dance' to music. Learn how to create an animation involving complex expressions and dynamics. 14. How to give your logo work a 3D edge Bolster your Photoshop skills by bringing Cinema 4D into play 2D just doesn't cut it any more. It's time to bolster your Photoshop skills by bringing Cinema 4D into play. Nervous? Don't be. Barton Damer will show you the way in this in-depth Cinema 4D tutorial. 15. How to make an animated freezing ice effect Stay frosty with the guys at Greyscalegorilla In this tutorial, the Greyscalegorilla team show you how to make an animated frosty/frozen ice text effect in Cinema 4D using Hair, Sweep Nurbs, Motext, and Texture Kit Pro. Related articles: How to land your dream job in 3D 14 essential Cinema 4D plugins Review: Cinema 4D R18 View the full article

You're reading Understanding Learnability for Web Design: Tips and Best Practices, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Building a learnable website is much tougher than it sounds. The goal should be a clear user experience that visitors can quickly pick up and understand. Mobile app designers can solve this through onboarding which helps users learn the interface. But websites can’t always offer lengthy tutorials. Let’s take a look at learnability and see how you can apply […] View the full article

Anyone who has tried to create some kind of scroll locking, snapping or manipulating will know how tricky it can be. Until recently, JavaScript was the only option, but always seemed to produce a mixture of success and choppy or questionable performance from device to device. However, using this new property, carousels or sliders and other scroll-manipulation techniques can be easily created and controlled using CSS. When the user scrolling has stopped, the browser will automatically scroll to the nearest snap point The main scroll snap properties Due to varying implementations of the specification, multiple properties are required to experiment with this new CSS. The main new properties required to experiment with this new feature are: scroll-snap-type: mandatory; scroll-snap-destination: 100% 0%; scroll-snap-points-y: repeat(100%); The scroll-snap-type property currently accepts three values: none (the default value); mandatory, and proximity. The mandatory value will force the scroll inside the snap container to the nearest snap point, proximity will snap but in a much more relaxed manner. Both the scroll-snap-destination and scroll-snap-points-y are applying the same value: both apply the scroll snap points to 100% of the height of the elements inside the scroll snap container (defined by the scroll-snap-type) property, along the Y (vertical) axis. Combined with the ‘vh’ and ‘vw’ properties, full-screen elements can easily be created. .carousel { width: 100vw; height: 100vh; overfl ow-x: hidden; scroll-snap-type: mandatory; scroll-snap-destination: 100% 0%; scroll-snap-points-y: repeat(100%); } .carousel__item { width: 100%; height: 100% Learn more about CSS Learn how to use CSS Grids in the real world with Brenda Storer at Generate New York Brenda Stover is a Silicon Valley native who has been making websites since the early days of Geocities. She has been using CSS Grid in production for websites since its initial release to browsers in March 2017, and is a big fan. Let her tell you more about CSS Grid in her talk at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018. Brenda will show step by step how you can progressively enhance your site with CSS Grid and write a bulletproof fallback for older browsers. Want to see Brenda talk? Then get your ticket now Related articles: CSS Grid Layout secrets revealed How to create amazing effects with CSS Shapes Quiz: What CSS framework should you use? View the full article

January can be a tough time; all that festive partying, darkened afternoons and chilly weather means that inspiration and motivation can often be more difficult to keep hold of than usual. This tends to lead to stress – and a lot of it – which, in turn, renders you unable to focus. The best new tech for designers in 2018But fear not creative folk – here we’ve pulled together some of the finest gadgets that aim to help you get back to your best self. From nature-inspired structures to electronic wizardry, explore the technology that could bring the calm back into your creative process. 01. Fidget Cube Playing around with puzzles can often lead to a more efficient work ethic$9.99/£7.61 from antsy labs Funded through Kickstarter in 2016, this clever desk toy from designers Matthew and Mark McLachlan will remind you that playing around with puzzles can often lead to a more efficient work ethic. Featuring six sides, each features something to fidget with, whether you like to click, flip, glide or roll. There’s even a side inspired by those age-old worry stones that aim to get you breathing and reduce anxiety. 02. BiOrbAIR terrarium A little greenery can go a long way in establishing a calm and relaxing work environmentWe all know that a little greenery can go a long way in establishing a calm and relaxing work environment. If you’re unable to stroll around the park on your lunch break or escape to the countryside at the weekend, a terrarium is pretty much the next best thing. This one from biOrb is tech-heavy (and has a fairly hefty price tag) but that means it can take care of your plants so you don’t have to. Creating the perfect micro-climate for growing tropical plants, you can sit back and enjoy your personal slice of paradise. 03. Sona Sona keeps tabs on your heart rate and physical activity to measure your overall stress levels Wearable technology offers new possibilities when it comes to wellbeing, both mental and physical. The Sona bracelet wants to “train your resilience to stress” and comes with five Resonance breathing meditation sessions for focus and calm. It's perfect if you need a quick fix during small, intense bouts of stress-related anxiety. It also keeps tabs on your heart rate and physical activity to measure your overall stress levels. 04. The Pip Who knew that your fingertips could lead to a happier and healthier mind?Who knew that a stress-free life was at your fingertips? It turns out that the pores on your fingertips are extremely sensitive to stress. The Pip is an innovative gadget that reads these signals and turns them into a visualisation that enables you to keep track of your stress levels. With a scientific board at the heart of the design, The Pip allows you to be self-aware and, in turn, establish some self-care. 05. Thync Thync uses electronic pulses to stimulate the brainClaiming to be the first wearable technology that “actively elevates your mood and lowers stress,” Thync uses electronic pulses to stimulate the brain. If that sounds worrying, it does come with some solid credentials: this stress relief gadget was developed by a team of neuroscientists from MIT, Harvard and Stanford and has been clinically tested over 5000 times. Plus, with such a sleek design, you’ll be combating stress in serious style. 06. Wellbe Discover exactly what triggers your stress with WellbeInitially funded through IndieGoGo, the WellBe wearable provides insights into what exactly triggers your stress levels to rise. The bracelet monitors your heart rate and uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine your stress and calmness levels based on time, location and people you meet throughout your day. Cut back on the negativity in your life. 07. Face Of The Moon stress ball The ‘Faces of the Moon’ stress ball expressions change as you squeezeStress balls are a go-to toy for desk spaces, and while most of them do the job, this stress relief product from The Museum of Modern Art is truly one-of-a-kind. Created by Japanese designer Makiko Yoshida, the ‘Faces of the Moon’ expressions change as you squeeze. Produced using a unique texture, its addictive tendencies will help relieve your anxiety. Who couldn’t love a face like that? 08. Spire Spire measures your breathing, notifying you when your it reflects tensionWhen it comes to managing your stress levels, focusing on your breath is one of the most important exercises around. Spire helps to manage this by measuring your breathing, notifying you when it reflects your tension. Through its use, you can discover what makes you calm and focused or stressed and agitated, allowing you to be more productive than ever. Designed to clip onto your belt, you can also program your Spire to let you know when you’ve been inactive and it’s time to get walking. 09. Prana Prana tells you when you need to improve your postureBad posture is one of the most common problems for creatives who work at a desk. Thankfully, the team at Prana has created a stress relief wearable that not only tracks your breath but also tells you when you need to improve your posture. Designed to rapidly activate your body’s relaxation response through proper diaphragmatic breathing and good posture, Prana could enable you to have a calm working day in no time. 10. Muse Designed like a headband, Muse uses brain-sensing technology to measure whether your mind is calm or active You may already be well on your way to stress management through meditation and while this is proven to keep your mind healthy, you may have trouble sticking to a meditative routine or find yourself distracted during the process. Designed like a headband, Muse uses brain-sensing technology to measure whether your mind is calm or active, and translates those signals into guiding sounds, so you can stay focused. Related articles: How to avoid creative burnout 10 designers' New Year resolutions for 2018 21 ways to unlock your creative genius View the full article

Whether your interest is professional or you simply like taking pictures for fun, solid photography skills can be extremely useful for designers and illustrators (as is a decent camera and knowledge of the latest photography trends.) At the very least, you'll be able to take better portfolio pictures of your work – and you might well find your client work being enhanced, too. Edit your photographs with Adobe Creative CloudBut where do you start? What are the basics? This essential photography crash course will give you everything you need to take your photography skills to the next level. From focusing and composition to white balance and lighting, this guide will cement your basic photography skills, rid you of bad habits and leave you to concentrate on getting better images. We'll walk you through how to make the most of the controls on your DSLR to take better pictures (note that we'll explain procedures for Canon and Nikon cameras, but these techniques will work on cameras made by other manufacturers, too). (You'll also find plenty of tips on these photography websites, and for DSLR photography beginners – or those who just need a reminder – this DSLR cheatsheet is a handy resource, too.) Read on for our essential crash course in photography... 01. Take control of focus Use individual AF points to focus on off-centre subjectsLeave your camera to its own devices and it will focus using the central focus point. While this will produce sharp images in many situations, for more creative photography it's better to take some control over the focus point. Your chosen subject won't always be in the centre of the frame, after all. So the first skill you need to master is how to get your camera to focus on exactly the point you want to be sharp. Your camera has a number of focus points spread across the frame – you can see them through the viewfinder – and these offer an excellent solution for focusing on off-centre subjects. You'll need to set your camera to its single-point autofocus mode, rather than the multiple or automatic selection. The exact procedure for selecting individual focus points (and the number available) varies according to your camera, but generally on Canon models you have to press the AF point selection button, then rotate the input dial or use the selector on the rear of the camera. Look through the viewfinder as you do so, and you'll see the active AF point (in red) move around the frame. Here we selected the focus point on the lower left to focus on the most dominant leafOn most Nikon DSLRs, once you've selected single-point autofocus you simply use the four-way controller on the back of the camera to highlight a different AF point. The main downside to using the outer focus points on many cameras is that they aren't as sensitive as those in the centre of the frame. This means that they can struggle to focus in low light, if the subject is low contrast or you are using a lens with a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or narrower. You may also find that there isn't a focus point exactly where you want the camera to focus. In both cases you can manually focus the lens, or use a technique known as focus lock, where you highlight the subject with the active AF point and then half-press the shutter release to lock the focus distance before reframing the shot. 02. Focus on moving subjects Learn which focus mode you need to use – continuous autofocus is good for tracking moving subjectsFocusing on a static subject is all well and good, but not everything will wait patiently for you while you compose and capture your shot. For this reason, you need to master the art of focusing on moving subjects. To do this, change the autofocus mode from Single Shot (Nikon) or One Shot (Canon), to Continuous or AI Servo mode. Now, once you've locked focus on your subject by half-pressing the shutter-release button, the camera will continue to refocus as the subject moves, until Below Use Continuous autofocus to track moving subjects you fully press the button to capture your shot. You can choose from all of the focus points for off-centre subjects, but when shooting in low light, shooting low-contrast subjects or if using lenses with a maximum aperture narrower than f/5.6, you will find these outer points will struggle to focus. 03. Understand what makes a shot blurry When it comes to mastering focus, you also need to know why your shots aren't sharp. This can be down to focusing, but it may also be due to camera shake or the subject moving. You'll need to spot the cause, fix the problem, then try again. Incorrect focusing: If the softness is due to incorrect focusing, you may find that areas in front or behind the subject are sharp. if you can't see any sharp areas, incorrect focusing will give a uniform blur all around each area of the image. Movement: You can easily spot blur caused by camera shake by the characteristic 'streaking' of highlight areas. These indicate that the camera (or possibly the subject) has moved at some point during the exposure. 04. Get white balance right Selecting the daylight white balance preset gives a good balance of warm foliage and cool blue skies here You might forget all about setting the right white balance – especially if you shoot in raw, as then you can change it when you process your images later. However, you'll need to get the right white balance in-camera to be able to assess the exposure and colours of your shots and achieve the best results. Your camera's Automatic White Balance setting generally does a pretty good job of capturing colours correctly in most lighting conditions, but it's not infallible. The main situation in which you'll get better results by using one of the manual preset values is when your subject is dominated by a single colour or tone, such as a blue sky, orange sunset or even a large expanse of green grass. The Automatic setting removes some of the warmth, while the Cloudy preset emphasises itIn these situations Automatic White Balance can set a value to counteract this strong colour, so you will get better results by selecting a white balance setting that suits the lighting conditions, such as Sunlight or Shade. The actual white balance of the light at sunrise or sunset is close to the Tungsten or Artificial Light setting (3,200K). But if you set this preset you will lose much of the warmth that you want to capture in your shot. Instead, try setting the white balance to Daylight, or even Cloudy, to capture the orange glow in all its beauty. Check out our sister site Digital Camera World's Cheat sheet to White balance presets and article on How to creatively tone your images with white balance settings. 05. Set a custom white balance Take a shot of a white or grey subject that fills the entire frame (a piece of card is ideal) and is in the same position as the subject you want to shoot. Now select your camera’s Custom or Preset Manual white balance setting. Next page: Exposure compensation and high-contrast lighting tips 06. Master exposure compensation The dark background has caused the camera to over-expose the shotDeciding whether to increase or decrease the exposure of your shot can be puzzling, as the adjustment you need to make is often the opposite of what you might at first expect. Here's how to use your camera's Exposure Compensation function to lighten or darken your image. If the subject contains mostly light tones you may find that your camera will under-expose your image. In this situation, you need to press and hold the Exposure Compensation button, increase the exposure by turning the dial right to enter a value of +1, then take the shot again. If shooting a mainly dark subject, your camera is likely to over-expose the scene, so you may need to reduce the exposure. Press and hold the Exposure Compensation button as before, but this time turn the dial left to enter a value of -1. Read Digital Camera World's articles How to always get exposure right – exposure settings explained and What are the differences between the PASM exposure modes on your camera? for more tips. 07. Decipher the Histogram The over-exposed image is on the left, while the image on the right is under-exposedThe easiest way to check the exposure of your shots is to use the Histogram display on your camera's rear screen when reviewing your images. This shows the distribution of exposure as you shoot. To get the most from this handy tool you need to recognise the characteristics of under- and over-exposed shots. If there’s a gap to the left of the Histogram, and the graph goes off the right-hand side, the image is over-exposed. The opposite will be true for under-exposed images – there will be a gap to the right of the Histogram. 08. Deal with high-contrast lighting Learn to deal with high-contrast lighting and capture the maximum range of tonesUsing your DSLR's Exposure Compensation to adjust the overall exposure is fine for many subjects, but there are also times when the brightness range of the subject is too large for your camera to capture detail in both the shadows and highlights. This range is known as the camera's dynamic range, and while it does vary between different models, it's pretty common to find scenes where the contrast is greater than even the best cameras can cope with. With practice, you'll often be able to recognise these conditions before you start shooting, but the easiest way to spot the situation is by reviewing your shot and checking the histogram and highlight warnings. We shot one image at -1 exposure compensation, and another at +1. Combining the under- and over-exposed shots gives an image with detail in both highlights and shadowsStart by taking a shot and checking that the shadows reach the left of the graph. You can now activate the highlight warning display. If the display blinks to indicate that there are highlights without any detail, then your camera can't record the whole brightness range. When you are faced with this situation, there are a number of ways to deal with the problem. If you are shooting in JPEG mode, many cameras offer built-in systems to capture more highlight and/or shadow detail than normal images. The Nikon system is called Active D-lighting, while the Canon version is Auto Lighting Optimiser. 09. Try an ND grad lens filter ND grads help tame bright skies The traditional solution for dealing with high-contrast lighting is to use an ND grad lens filter. These filters are half dark and half clear, so you position the dark area of the filter to reduce the brightness of the lightest area of the scene. This is fine where a large area of the scene is brighter than the rest, such as the sky in an open landscape. However they are less useful for subjects containing smaller bright areas, such as windows or sunlight through trees, because the filter will darken the areas around these highlights too. 10. Create HDR images High Dynamic Range (HDR) has become a popular technique for capturing images that would otherwise have burnt-out highlights, no shadow detail, or both. To achieve true HDR images you need to take at least three shots, one under-exposed, one correctly exposed and one over-exposed. Then combine these images using either the Merge to HDR tool in Photoshop, Lightroom's HDR Merge tool or software such as HDR Efex Pro 2 or Photomatix. 11. Recover detail Set the exposure so you capture as much highlight detail as possibleShooting in raw will allow you to capture more highlight and shadow detail than in JPEG mode. But even in raw it’s easier to recover more detail from the shadows than the highlights. For this reason, when shooting high-contrast subjects set the exposure so that you capture as much highlight detail as possible. Next page: Pro composition, sharpening and saturation advice 12. Position your subject Positioning the main subject centrally in your shots can give a very static and boring compositionBesides choosing what to shoot and the best settings to use, learning the basics of composition is one of the fundamental ways to improve your photography skills. There are plenty of rules and theories about what makes the perfect composition, but the key thing that you should think about when taking your shots is where to position the main subject in your image. Moving your main subject to one side creates a far more balanced imageIt's tempting to put the subject in the centre of the frame, but this can produce static-looking compositions. It's often much better to put the subject just off centre. The classic approach is to use the rule of thirds, which is defined by imaginary 'lines' that divide each side of the image into three equal-sized areas. You then position the main subject on one of these lines, or where they intersect. 13. Make good use of space Giving the subject room to move into in the frame is good when shooting movement, animals or portraitsThe space around your subject is nearly as important to the success of your composition as the subject itself. First of all, you need to think about how much of the subject's surroundings you want to include in your shot. This isn't an exact science, but as a general rule you should include the surroundings if they add to the photo, such as showing the environment around the subject in a portrait or wildlife image. Alternatively, a tighter composition that excludes the surroundings can help to make the main subject dominate the image. A picture can appear cramped if there’s little space for the subject to ‘look’ or move intoOne key aspect of using space in your shots is particularly applicable to action shots and portraits. When looking at images of moving subjects, you naturally look ahead into the area that it's travelling towards. For this reason, it's a good idea to leave more space ahead of the subject for it to move into than there is behind it, otherwise your shot can end up looking rather unbalanced. Portraits can also benefit from a similar composition technique. Leaving some space on the side that your subject is looking into instantly creates a considerably more balanced composition. 14. Sharpen your shots When sharpening a shot, always use the smallest amount that just makes the detail in your shot crisp and sharpGetting the most from your imaging software is a skill that takes time to master. It's tempting to think that the more sharpening you apply to your images, the sharper they'll appear. But you need to exercise some restraint; otherwise you'll end-up with increased noise and ugly 'haloes'. One of the most common causes of over-sharpening is applying it at the wrong stage in your processing, or even applying it to images that have already been sharpened. If you shoot JPEG images, these may have been sharpened already in-camera, so you need to take great care when applying extra sharpening. Raw files won't have had any sharpening applied in-camera, but it can be applied when processing your images. You just need to decide whether it's best to apply it to your raw conversions, or later on. Zoom in to 100% to spot any over sharpeningThe best way to avoid over-sharpening is to make it one of the last adjustments that you make to your pictures, so if you are going to be editing your shots in Photoshop Elements or CS, then it's best to turn off any in-camera or raw conversion sharpening. The most obvious side-effect of applying too much sharpening is a halo around details in your shots, the result of using a high Radius setting. To spot this, zoom in to 100% on an area of the image containing dark lines or fine details against a lighter background. Here's a super tip: if applying sharpening to your images using photoshop's unsharp Mask filter, the key is to be subtle. As a starting point, try to use an amount of between 50 and 80%, a Radius of 1 and a Threshold of between 2 and 5. 15. Use saturation Using the drop-down menu in the Hue/Saturation window allows you to decrease the saturation of individual colours, without losing detailSimilar to sharpening, saturation needs to be used with care if you want to avoid your images looking garish and over-cooked. In many scenes you'll find that some colours are much more saturated than others, especially reds and greens, so rather than simply adjusting the saturation of the whole image, you can also target individual colours using the Hue/Saturation control. Related articles: The 33 best photo apps How to enhance photography on your website 15 essential photo editor apps View the full article

2017 was a big year for the tech industry, with voice-first gadgets and virtual reality (VR) among some of the major highlights. This year will be all about usability: taking these technologies and making them accessible and enjoyable for the everyday user. This puts great responsibility in the hands of UX designers, and agility and collaboration will be more important than ever. What does 2018 hold for UX, and what does this mean for designers? Here are our top five UX trends to look out for this year. 01. The rise of voice-first In 2018 we need to up our game when it comes to voice UX Voice well and truly made its mark in 2017, with an estimated 30 million households now owning a voice-first device. Alas, many of these gadgets remain underutilised. The technology is there and we’re willing to buy it, but it doesn’t yet blend into daily life as easily as it should. In 2018, understanding and designing for voice will be absolutely crucial. By 2022, 55 per cent of all US households will own voice-enabled speakers, so making these as user-friendly as possible will be a priority. The rise of voice also signals a shift towards 'screenless' design; essentially reducing the number of physical touchpoints between the user and their device. This will give UX designers plenty of room to innovate and experiment, but it’s not without its challenges. The big question in 2018 will be how to make voice-first and screenless design as comfortable for the mainstream as possible. Read our 8 tips for designing voice interfaces article for help. 02. Virtual reality for the masses VR will creep more and more into our everyday lives Another phenomenon on the cusp of mass adoption is virtual reality. The VR web cogs have long been turning, but VR is still more of a novelty than the norm. However, this could all be about to change. The global virtual reality market is expected to be worth 26.89 billion USD by 2022, compared to 2.02 billion in 2016. More and more, VR will slip into our everyday lives. From entertainment to retail to the medical sector, immersive technology will transform the user experience in a big way. VR will no longer be a futuristic wonder; rather, the user will come to expect it. But there’s a catch. Virtual reality can only work its way into the mainstream with the help of great UX. This places huge responsibility in the hands of UX designers – not to mention a steep learning curve. In 2018, designers will need to master the art of creating more convincing user experiences than ever before. From building realistic VR environments to making user-friendly headsets, VR will transform almost every part of the design process. This year, UXers must prepare to develop innovative approaches, learn new patterns, frameworks and techniques and, above all, to adapt quickly. Read our guide to the VR web to start you off, plus check out the best VR podcasts and 5 ways to create more immersive VR experiences for more inspiration. 03. Collaboration is king New focuses mean working with other specialists is essential For many design teams, voice-first and VR is uncharted territory. Not only do UX designers need to adopt new approaches; they also need to effectively communicate these to developers. When it comes to navigating this fast-evolving landscape, teamwork is more important than ever. In particular, designers and developers will need to pull together to make sure this new wave of technologies is ready for mass adoption. For UXers, this means making sure your skill set is up to the challenge. Communication and agility will be absolutely key... but this has long been true of UX. 2018 will bring with it a greater need to understand the developer’s work. Designers who are comfortable with code will be the driving force behind innovations in UX, and learning frontend development skills may be the key to smoother collaboration. Read How to ensure a successful collaboration and How to bridge the gap between design and development for useful tips. 04. UX reaches the boardroom UX is finally getting proper recognition The good news for UX designers is that user experience is finally getting the recognition it deserves. An all-too-common UX problem is a lack of internal understanding. Designers want to create the best possible user experience, but aren’t always able to convince management teams of how important this is. In reality, of course, UX is pivotal: over the last 10 years alone, design-driven businesses have outperformed the stock market by 228 per cent. At last, more and more brands are catching on. Here at CareerFoundry, we have been approached by several CEOs of multinational brands to train their entire management team on UX. This demonstrates a notable shift in attitude that will only continue throughout 2018. UX will no longer be a topic reserved for web designers; it will be acknowledged as one of the most crucial branding elements, and thus made a priority for the business as a whole. 05. Tools for all Tools to help improve workflow will be game-changers in 2018 As UX increasingly becomes a team effort, one of the biggest challenges for businesses in 2018 will be maintaining efficient workflows. Project management tools and internal communication platforms will play an even bigger role this year. Likewise, we can expect to see much more focus on collaborative, cloud-based tools. Closer collaboration between designers and developers may also give rise to a new generation of tools. We will start to see more and more programs that are not solely for designers or developers, but rather have been created to help the two converge. Read more: 30 web design tools to speed up your workflow in 2018 The theory of UX 7 UX tools to try this year View the full article

Web developers have a very important job. They keep the gears turning behind the scenes on all of your favourite applications and sites. It's a career that rewards structure as much as it does creativity, and you can join their ranks by working your way through the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle. It's on sale now for just $39 (approx. £29). The Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle is the perfect place for any aspiring developer to get their start. This collection of eight professionally-taught courses can help anyone – even a total amateur – learn how to code using the most important languages in web development, from JavaScript to HTML5 and CSS3. As you work your way through this bundle of courses, you'll start to bring your dream designs to life and just may launch a new career. You can get the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle on sale for just $39 (approx. £29), which is 96% off the full retail price. That’s a massive saving on a bundle that could help you get a start in a growing industry, so grab this deal today. The eight courses in this bundle are: Complete Guide to Front-End Web Development & Design Learn to Code JavaScript For Web Designers & Developers The Complete HTML & CSS Course: From Novice To Professional The Complete jQuery Course: From Beginner To Advanced JavaScript & jQuery Basics for Beginners Advanced JavaScript JavaScript: Gentle Introduction for Beginners Website Wireframing with HTML5 & CSS3 About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at:deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: 20 useful tools for web developers Best web designs of 2017 revealed 12 huge web design trends for 2018 View the full article

Here I'll be talking about the process of creating ReY, a character that I made for the Beyond Human challenge (real-time) on ArtStation. I decided to develop my own character design, and here I will take us from concept art to final render. Eventually I even did a few animations for ReY; she's a character for a game, after all, so she has to be 'alive'. I really like characters designed by Anna Cattish and Jamie Hewlett, so I took these as a kind of base for my own design. I was also focused on the Overwatch style in my workflow, and I strongly recommend you guys take a look at it. I used mostly ZBrush, aside from some hard-surface parts. Here I switched to 3ds Max instead, because it's more comfortable for me. I also did retopology and the character's pose sketch in 3ds Max, and GoZ was a great help here. Download the files for this tutorial. 30 inspiring examples of 3D art01. Block in proportions Start with spheres and cylinders then build from there Usually, in the very beginning, I use spheres and cylinders. Then with the Transpose tool and Move brush I build primary masses and proportions of the character. It's beneficial here to think about famous Disney movies, and you can also find tons of references on the ArtStation website. 02. Sculpt the head and body Anatomy matters, even when you're making a stylised character You should always remember anatomy. Keep in mind where bones and muscles should be, and how it all works. This is important even when you are creating a cartoonish stylised character. All main shapes and proportions are based on real anatomy, and when you do it right, you can then move on and play with proportions. For example, you can increase the character's head and eye size, or make their legs longer. 03. Add uncomplicated clothes Don't waste time labouring over more detail than you need Here I keep using primitives to create stuff like clothes, accessories, hair and so on. At this point, it would be a good idea to decide how many details you'd like to use in your design – as a stylised character it doesn't have to be 'noisy' or too complex. 04. Use polygroups and DynaMesh Polygroups will make your life a lot easier You can create a hand as a single object and add fingers to it using CurveTube or cylinders. Then you can use DynaMesh to combine all of that with Polygroups (just activate Groups in the DynaMesh settings). Different Polygroups will be helpful later on when creating a pose for your character. 05. Call on useful brushes A good collection of standard brushes is essential for pain-free modelling I often use standard brushes like ClayBuildup, Move, Dam_Standard and hPolish. Very rarely I use Standard, Clay, TrimDynamic, Inflate, Move Topological, Pinch, Layer or CurveTube. Also, I would recommend you to download Orb brushes. For polypaint I use Pen A or create my own brushes – it depends on the purpose. 06. Create the hair Make some hair using whatever package works best for you There are several methods when it comes to making the hair. You can create hair using generators in Maya and 3ds Max or use FiberMesh in ZBrush. Also, you can bake or just draw hair on a plain surface with an alpha channel. Personally, I prefer to create hair using CurveTube, and when the first shape is finished, I use hPolish to give it some smoothness and to adjust the shape. How to perfect hair in your 3D portraits07. Adjust clothes Make edges lie correctly on the form with ZRemesher Here I use Mask Lasso and Extract. You can adjust shapes using the Move brush. At this point, I use ZRemesher to make edges lie correctly on the form. Sometimes I begin with creating some folds or use guides to make a mesh. 08. Create folds Some folds in clothing look good, but you won't need too many You can use Marvelous Designer as a starting point, but I prefer to use Orb_Cracks, to make the folds exactly how I want them. Remember, our character is stylised, so don't make it too realistic by adding too many folds. 09. Make hard surfaces Similarly, don't go too mad with flaws in your hard surfaces I did base meshes in 3ds Max and finalised them in ZBrush. Bumps, cracks, scratches – but you have to know when to stop. I also used ZModeler to crease edges. 10. Add textures Substance Painter's a straightforward way to start adding textures When retopology and UVs are done, we can finally take care of textures. I love Substance Painter for its simplicity and massive number of instruments. I prefer a Spec/Gloss workflow because it gives more options for working with materials. Where to find free textures for 3D projects 13 best SketchUp textures 11. Time to bake Use these settings to ensure a great bake For baking, I usually use the following settings. Antialiasing 8x8 only for Normal, W_normal, Curvature and Position maps. Antialiasing for AO and Thickness – none, because calculating will take too much time. For the AO settings, I increase the number of Rays to 256. I prefer Uniform Distribution with a Max Occluded Distance value from 0.5 to 0.8. Firstly I bake each piece of geometry separately and then bake them all together to create an additional AO map. As a result of this, I have local AO and global AO so that I can combine them in Photoshop. 12. Design colour schemes A strong palette will make all the difference to your character At the very beginning I just fill everything with a flat colour, and then I try to find more interesting colours for my character. There is tons of information about palettes and colour theory on the internet. You can find a picture that looks good and simply pick some colours directly from it. Keep in mind that Substance Painter works in sRGB colour space, and that the colour you have chosen may be not as bright. After that I adjust Specular and Glossiness for each piece. I try to keep my materials list organised and straightforward. 13. Throw in a little noise The barest layer of noise will break up your colours nicely You can add a little noise to solid colours by using Procedural maps. Set the Overlay or Multiply blending mode with 3-10% opacity. It will give a nice effect of non-uniform colour. You can also use this method for Glossiness. 14. Use a Gradient Mask for secondary colours Use gradients to easily bring in some secondary colours Gradients help with adding some secondary colours to your main ones. Create a solid layer with a secondary colour through a gradient mask which you can draw by hand or use projection. 15. Include scratches, edges and dirt Substance Designer's mask generators are ideal for giving clothes a worn look Here I add a worn effect to the clothes. By using the Curvature map, I create shabby borders and add some dirt to the seams. There are a lot of cool Mask Generators in Substance Painter. For example, you can add some warp distortion to make the seams look more exciting and then drop a Grunge mask with multiple on top of it. 16. Paint the skin There are more colours to human skin than you think; use them! There are tons of colours on the human body and skin. Orange tan, pink hands, darker elbows, yellowish bones that you can sometimes see through the skin, bluish areas under the eyes, rosy cheeks, and red lips and nose. So, you have to keep all that in mind. Tip: I use a red Emissive map with a very low opacity to fake some kind of SSS effect. 17. Bake some lighting Bake some lighting into your model I like the Baked Lighting filter. By using it, you can adjust basic lights and shadows just like in hand-painted textures! You can play with the filter settings, such as the colours of the light sources and blend mode variations. 18. Add final details Finish things off with a few ropey tats To finalise my character, I added some tattoos on her skin. It's a mixture of sci-fi and stick n' poke. At some point, I was going to add more dirt, so I even created a custom brush alpha. But in the end, it all turned out too noisy, and I used it only with a low opacity level. 19. Give them cool hair Give the hair a good glossy Overwatch look I like how hair looks in Overwatch, so I tried to create something similar. Anisotropy works well for the highlights on hair. To use it you need to create a Position map, and also a good Glossiness map to make highlights less solid. 20. Perfect the metal Use Anisotropy on your metal and fiddle with the settings until it looks good For metallic parts I also use Anisotropy. But here it's much easier: just activate Anisotropy in material in Marmoset Toolbag and play with the settings. 21. Rig and skin Use a Biped rig in 3ds Max (unless you're using Maya) I rigged in 3ds Max using Biped and I created some additional bones for the hair and clothes. The weapons also had their own bones. I don't want to offend anyone who uses 3ds Max, but this was my last rig and last animation made in this program. I have now switched over to Maya. 22. Animate your character Once your model's rigged you can have fun animating it Usually I will fix the final character's pose in ZBrush, but this wasn't the case with ReY because I was planning to create a few short animations in order to make my character more alive. I eventually created a set of standard animations such as Idle, Attack and Run. 23. Adjust materials in Marmoset Toolbag When you're done, adjust the materials and light in Marmoset Toolbag Well, we're almost at the end! Now you can open your model in Marmoset Toolbag and adjust materials and light. There's nothing tricky, but you have to remember that Marmoset Viewer does have some limitations. This article was originally published in issue 229 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Buy issue 229 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: 10 best video game character designs How to improve your character art 4 free games engines to download today View the full article

Skies are one of the most beautiful things you can witness in nature, and are often a great source of inspiration for artists – but how do you paint them with oils? A common mistake when painting landscapes and cityscapes is to treat the sky as the last step of the painting, as an afterthought, which makes it look like it doesn't belong with the rest of the scene. It should be painted in connection with the rest of the painting in order to achieve a convincing and homogeneous result in terms of colours, brushwork, tones and composition. So think at the beginning about how you want to depict the sky, how much importance and space you want to give it, and the mood that you are aiming to convey with it. Another tendency artists have with skies is to over-blend. It is tempting to keep pushing the paint around, but then all the colours end up in a big grey puddle. Instead, try having distinct areas and visible brushstrokes with a combination of soft edges and hard edges to keep things interesting. Keeping this in mind, here are five simple tips for painting skies that I've learned over the years, that will hopefully help you achieve beautiful convincing skies with oil paints. But remember, the main tip should always be to have fun! 01. Study the colours Ignore your brain and look for what colours are really in the sky It is easy to get caught out painting a sky with your brain instead of your eyes. The brain tells you the sky is blue. The eyes, if you make them work hard, will see hues of blue, yellow, pink and green. Really look for the colours and enjoy expressing them freely. You might want to avoid using pure colours, though, as the sky is rarely pure blue and the clouds are rarely pure white. Instead, use various mixes that contain pigments present in the rest of the painting. This will harmonise the whole scene. Embrace the dull grey areas in the sky as they enhance the bright highlights. Indeed, your most vibrant light will often look the most intense next to a grey cloud. 02. Be bold with brushes Skies present you with a great opportunity to have fun with brushes Skies are often the most abstract part of a landscape, so you can really have fun conveying energy and drama with big brushstrokes applied with freedom. This is the part of the painting where you can truly showcase your brushwork and your personality as a painter. Reconnect with the two-year-old child inside of you who used to have fun with brushes! Use your largest brushes and be as loose as you can, but try to make every brushstroke count. You don't need to show things exactly as they are, you can adjust elements to improve the composition and create more or less drama. What matters is that you convey the right mood in a convincing way. 03. Use a ground colour A bright ground colour can give you some vibrant sunsets I usually build up a painting with layers from dark to light, ending up with the thickest application of paint for the highlights. However, sometimes I decide to use the ground colour of the background for some of the highlights, as in this painting's detail. This is a technique I often use to achieve vibrant sunsets. To do this, prime your canvas with a bright orange or yellow and then add the clouds, greys and blues in the skies, making sure you let some of the ground colour show through, especially in the most vibrant parts of the sunset. Finish with some touches of bright yellow mixed with white to really enhance the focal points. 04. Paint in clouds Treat clouds as three-dimensional objects and light them accordingly Having clouds that look like sheep or candy floss is a fear that most painters share. Clouds make lovely shapes in the sky, but when reproduced on canvas, they often look out of place. My advice is to view them as solid objects with three dimensions, which are affected by the sun. The sides of the clouds the furthest away from the sun should be the darkest, and the ones the closest should be the lightest. But remember to vary the application of soft edges and hard edges. Thicker or whiter clouds can benefit from strong brushstrokes with hard edges, while thinner or paler ones could be suggested with more subtle marks. 05. Paint trees and skies Bear in mind that bits of sky seen between branches should be darker than the actual sky One of the reasons I love painting trees so much is the way the foliage and the sky overlap and mix in a beautiful way. The area where these two meet can be tricky to paint, however, as there is a risk of smudging the various colours together. To avoid this, I recommend working with layers. I usually paint the dark mass of the tree in a thin layer that dries quickly, before applying the colour of the sky around it and filtering through the leaves. Here's a little tip: the colour of the sky through the branches is a little darker than the actual sky. When the sky is fairly dry, I apply some small patches of leaves that detach from the tree to depict the loose branches. This article was originally published in issue 13 of Paint & Draw, the magazine offering tips and inspiration for artists everywhere. Buy issue 13 here. Related articles: Paint an energetic seascape in oils Create sensational sunsets in Photoshop How to create a beautiful watercolour landscape painting View the full article

With a huge variety of fearsome creatures and characters to create, working with Games Workshop to translate Warhammer miniatures into Total War video game characters has been one of the most satisfying professional experiences for the team at Creative Assembly. In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll reveal the process we went through, including the tricks we used to speed up the creation of the large and complex Treeman character here. We’ll mention the methods we chose to employ in ZBrush and 3ds Max, as well as a suite of other programs. By the end of this tutorial you’ll have gained some useful insights into the character art creation process. Creative Assembly’s Danny Sweeney will be presenting a workshop at our debut 3D event, Vertex. Make sure you get tickets now and don’t miss out! 01. Examine miniatures, concepts and lore One of the most enjoyable steps involves getting into the mindset of the character. This includes reading the lore books and looking at the miniature/concepts to identify the key design elements and personality traits that Games Workshop has established. In the lore, the Treemen have a strong affinity for the lesser creatures of the forest – if required, they’ll strike ferociously to protect them from outsiders. It’s that balance of fury and benevolence that we wanted to incorporate into the Total War version. We ensure this by closely collaborating with the concept and animation teams from the very outset. 02. Amass references As well as doing the obligatory collection of material and anatomy references, there are vast amounts of illustrations both from Warhammer and mythology to draw from. We always begin by identifying and respecting the key design elements established by Games Workshop; however, it’s also a fun process to find places where we can add extra details for our own unique take on the character. Usually we try to find interesting movie or pop culture characters that have similar personalities and draw details from them. These details and ideas can be used to help convey the intended personality of the creature. 03. Blockout Usually we’ll have a proxy model already made for the animators, which is also a good base model with most parts already blocked out. It then becomes a job of defining the silhouette and primary shapes. This phase will also involve drawing in as many reusable pieces from other characters in the faction, such as the specific leaves and skulls. Reusing assets provides a huge time-saving benefit, as reused high-poly elements will already be low-poly modelled and UV unwrapped. 04. Make the face This is where the viewer’s eyes go first, so that makes it a great place to convey the protective fury of the Treemen. There’s a lot of aggression you can add to a character simply by mimicking the structure of the skull. Playing up the cheekbones and giving the eyes a sunken depth all helps to achieve this idea. Usually we will sculpt the face to almost surface-detail level before moving on to the rest of the body. The curves and shapes that you establish in the face are what you are going to propagate to the rest of the character. 05. Create branches The Treeman is comprised of a huge amount of branches to create and detail. A good system for tackling this is using ZSpheres for primary shapes and then using the Surface Noise feature (Tool>Geometry) to apply a bark alpha for the secondary/tertiary forms. You can easily hide the repetitiveness of the tiled texture by adding twists in the ZSpheres using the Max Twist slider. In ZBrush there’s an amazing plugin called UV Master, which enables you to unwrap assets with one click. This is handy in aligning the UVs to the same direction as the alpha you’re using. 06. Create the vine anatomy To create the vines that contour an underlying form, it’s a simple method of masking and extracting the pieces (Tool>Subtool>Extract). Having separate bits of geometry, as opposed to sculpting it directly onto a base mesh, means you have freedom to move vines around to better flow with shapes throughout the model. Once you have the general forms you like, you can ZRemesh the subtool (Tool>Geometry>ZRemesher) and use the Surface Noise technique again. 07. Add details In-game the leaves are transparent cards, so it’s a matter of blocking out a small group of branches with leaves. Make sure you find the right balance between getting good coverage without recognisable repetition (A). Detailing the trunk armour was as simple as finding a few choice alphas and sculpting over the top of them (B). However, we also used IMM brushes of wood chunks to create that splintered wood effect on some edges (C). To create moss, we used NanoMesh on a duplicate of the trunk geometry (D). Even though ultimately we’d use hair cards, you still want to blend that into the body better with some baked-in detail. 08. Make the weave pattern Masking a plane in Wrap Mode (Brushes>Curve>WrapMode) enables you to sketch out vine shapes in a repeatable pattern and then extract. This is done so you can then create layers of these vines, in order to effectively sell the sense of dense growth on the creature. It then becomes a matter of simply modelling any repeating pieces that simulate the larger clumps of weave. Unwrap and align vertically again to enable you to use the repeating patterns in surface noise. To avoid it all looking very synthetic, apply the surface noise to the geometry, sculpt and move the larger shapes afterwards. 09. Decimation This is an important step in making retopology manageable. Decimation enables you to import the high-poly models in 3ds Max while keeping it responsive; moreover, it speeds up the baking process as there are fewer vertexes to read. Before you begin the decimating process, make sure that you save out a duplicate ZTool – you will still need the undecimated tool for Polypainting later. And before you begin exporting OBJs to 3ds Max, paint basic colours for selection/material ID. 10. Low-poly modelling We made extensive use of the Wrapit plugin for 3ds Max, which augments the graphite tools beautifully. Sketching branches of polygons while conforming to the high poly lets you block out the major shapes pretty fast. The auto snap feature lets you use all of your regular modelling tools, which is also a godsend. All of these features help create a first pass quickly, without you needing to worry about polycount. It’s much easier to reduce polygons than it is to add more later on. 11. Fast UV base As you finish up your low-poly model, it’s a good idea to think about how to split your UVs. Create a multi-sub material – a feature unique to 3ds Max that enables you to group unique materials, and apply them to a mesh dependant on material IDs – to help visualise the UV islands. Then ZBrush interprets material IDs as different polygroups, which you can then tell UV Master to preserve as UV islands. UV Master will kick out a pretty nice base, which you can further refine in 3ds Max. If you use GoZ to bring the model back to Max, you’ll still have the material IDs to use as selection groups in the UV Editor. 12. Mega texture sheets Texture sheets for our characters are usually split between head, body, legs and accessories. For the convenience of authoring under one texture, we stitch together those separate pieces using an instanced UV Xform on top of the regular UV Unwrap modifier. The modifier enables you to squeeze and offset the UVs of the different pieces, and when the time comes to split the UVs again, it’s just a matter of deleting that modifier. 13. Polypaint This method gives such immediate and satisfying feedback. It can be quite easy to get carried away, but the aim of Polypainting is to establish the general regions of colour. Fine details such as the cavity and edges can be made using DDO. The Polypaint modes enable you to paint with blend modes similar to Photoshop, mixed with auto masking/masking to help establish gradients. Some parts here were reused from other Treeman variants, but thanks to the selection sets you made earlier, colourising to match is easy in Photoshop. 14. Time to bake In xNormal you can offset the high-poly models before you bake. Provided you’re using 3ds Max’s default measurement units, spacing the low-poly models by multiples of 100 in Max will line up with the high poly in xNormal. This will enable you to avoid using cages and simply set the ray casting distance to something larger, like one to two units. We’ll render the usual Normal, Bent Normal, Vertex Color and Ambient Occlusion. To keep your computer usable while baking, set the priority of xNormal to Below Normal in Windows Task Manager. 15. Refine textures We have plugged the Normal map into DDO to create very highly detailed cavity and edge maps. Afterwards, move all the other maps into Photoshop and set up a quick Marmoset scene to preview the textures. Add levels on parts of the model to provide more contrast in the Polypaint textures. We decided that the vine anatomy needed more definition between the individual vines, so we went back into ZBrush and created Polypaint from polygroups. We then brought that baked map back into Photoshop, blending it on top of the original Polypaint layer with a Soft Light blend mode. 16. Get it in the game Preparing the character for game-ready status requires a bit more housekeeping: cutting the textures up into the separate components; creating LoDs (Level of Detail) using Simplygon; hooking up all the textures into the proprietary materials in 3ds Max as well as making sure that all the models and textures follow specific naming conventions. From the character artist point of view, it’s now ready to be handed to others in the pipeline so that the Treeman can tear up the battlefield in Total War. Don’t miss out, book your ticket now at vertexconf.com. There are still some amazing workshops we’ve yet to announce so keep an eye on our website, where you can also find out more about the other amazing speakers, workshops, recruitment fair, networking event, expo and more. This tutorial originally appeared in issue 109 of 3D Artist, the magazine offering practical inspiration for 3D enthusiasts and professionals. Subscribe to 3D Artist here. Read more: New year, new skills: learn new tricks at Vertex 7 essential tools for game design and development How to press start on your game art career View the full article

You're reading Bright Colors Make an Elegant Return to Web Design, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Color is a traditional design tool. Can you imagine a website without color? Despite its significance and importance in an era of animation, WebGL experiments and VR, it obediently stays in the shadow most of the time. Pantone picks a color of the year and it is often a popular design choice. Undoubtedly, it is […] View the full article

It's been an eventful year for Coca-Cola. Only a few days ago it celebrated its heritage with a bespoke typeface. Now its team of designers are already at it again with this new packaging design and rebrand for Diet Coke. In fact, this is the biggest product and design overhaul undertaken by Diet Coke in 36 years. As well as a redesigned logo, which tweaks some of the famous cursive font elements the brand is known for, Diet Coke has also launched four new flavours. These include: twisted mango, feisty cherry, zesty blood orange and ginger lime. The new flavours will be packaged in regular 12-ounce cans, as well as what Diet Coke refers to as "new sleek cans". On the shelf, these new cans will appear as tall and thin variants. Leading the rebrand is the ad campaign slogan "Because I can". It's an assertive, bold claim that reflects a confident approach for Diet Coke; and one that flies in the face of recent falling sales. The new branding as it appears on old 12-ounce cans “This visual evolution elevates the brand to a more contemporary space, while still using at its foundation the recognizable core brand visual assets,” says James Sommerville, vice president, Coca-Cola global design. Over on Twitter, senior principal at the food industry consultancy Technomic, David Henkes, noted some of the challenges that have been facing Diet Coke over recent years. It's a shrewd observation. With its slimmed down cans and clever, colourful banners that make 12-ounce cans appear thinner than they actually are, there are hopes that the packaging will be Insta-ready. North America's group director for Diet Coke, Rafael Accedo, adds that the new look will be "more authentic" and "more gender neutral and diverse". On top of this, the new flavours are geared towards younger consumers, who are apparently craving alternatives to the classic Diet Coke taste. Don't worry though if you prefer the original Diet Coke taste: it's remaining unchanged. Expect to see the launch of the new Diet Coke brand rolling out towards the end of January 2018. Related articles: Adobe and Coca-Cola launch design collaboration New Coca-Cola packaging celebrates the Lunar New Year Coca-Cola brings branding to the blind View the full article

We've seen some weird and wonderful print ads on Creative Bloq over the years, but none of them are quite like this latest offering from Ikea. In an innovative move, the retailer has published a print advert for a crib that doubles up as a pregnancy test thanks to its pee-responsive paper. Seriously. Mum's-to-be are rewarded for their troubles with a half-price saving on the crib. Appearing in Swedish women's magazine Amelia, the print ad is the creation of agency Åkestam Holst in partnership with material technology company Mercene Labs. On the surface it looks like any ordinary ad. There's an image of the crib in question front and centre, with the price listed alongside. It's the tagline that draws you in though, which reads: "Peeing on this ad may change your life." That's because when the pregnancy test strip at the bottom of the page is splashed with... you know what... containing the pregnancy hormone hCG, the paper changes colour to reveal a reduced price. Watch the add in action below (don't worry, the pee is applied with a pipette). A few things struck us while watching this advert. First of all, kudos to the filmmakers for using a pee-coloured fluid instead of the usual cobalt blue liquid that's at the heart of the problem with period product branding and other sanitary ads. Secondly, they should really tell you to remove the ad from the magazine before trying it out. Also, we pity the poor store clerk who has to redeem these vouchers. Their till's going to stink by the end of their shift. Joking aside, it's a really neat ad. And what makes it even better is that the technical advancements made by Åkestam Holst and Mercene Labs during this campaign have the potential to improve medical diagnostics. Related articles: 10 beautiful examples of illustration in print ads The best boozy Christmas ad campaigns Print ads play with the food chain View the full article

Browsing the portfolio websites of design studios and freelance creatives, you can easily have a successful game of bingo. 'About' pages brim with words like 'meaningful', 'impact', 'stories' and 'difference', and you'll be striking white-walled offices, brainstorm scribbles, bikes and plants from your scorecard like nobody's business. It shows that even creatives who craft the most thought-provoking, disruptive and provocative work for their clients can be a bit – we hate to say it – unadventurous when it comes to presenting themselves to the world. When to use humour in brandingBut whether you've just started out or currently run a decades-old studio with a zillion employees, it's never too late for a bit of self-love. Not only will it make sure your work is getting the presentation – and explanation – it needs, but rethinking your own brand can be a trajectory-changing experience that helps you recalibrate and prepare for the future. 01. Define your vision Double Standards' website features pictures of its Berlin studio and adjacent art space Whether you're creating a new company or having a spring clean, the temptation might be to go straight to the visuals – images are what designers do best, after all. But Ansel Neckles, co-founder of platform Let's Be Brief who works with brands and creative entrepreneurs to refine their positioning, suggests taking several large steps back. "Try to establish what you're trying to achieve in a broader holistic sense – a vision for your work," says Neckles. "From working out what you want to achieve you'll find a natural alignment with the folks that are working in those spaces and the clients that fit with that vision." This sense of vision, says Chris Rehberger, founder of Berlin studio Double Standards – whose bold typographic-led rebrands have been sought by everyone from orchestras to Lacoste – should hinge on your motivations for getting up and going to work. "Dig down deep, ask yourself why you're doing it," says Rehberger, "If you want to do it for stardom that's OK, but communicate that." If that feels too complex, reframe the question to ask where you'd like to be in five years. "It's combining these two poles, where you're coming from and where you want to go," Rehberger adds, "Somewhere in between you find yourself." 5 golden rules of self-promotion02. Align with your clients As well as working out what you want to do and why you do it, working out who you want to do it for may also help bring focus to your brand. "Knowing you want to work for Nike is good, but everyone will say that," says Neckles, using an example that often comes up when he's coaching. "Knowing why you want to work for Nike is better." The strength of Nike's brand, Neckles explains, is in inspiring motivation in their customer base. "If I'm working as an art director at an agency – which I did for many years – I want to find someone's work that supplements the concepts I've developed," says Neckles. "If you're not about betterment through activity and proactivity, or people don't take that feeling away from your work, there's no way Nike will want to align with you." Unpicking what potential clients are like, to see whether they match your own approach, is key to pitching for work. "You can then talk about the alignment of your brands rather than 'I make nice posters or I'm really good at typography', which may also be true," adds Neckles. 03. Promote your personality Hattie Stewart's site features a sliding puzzle for visitors Whether you're developing identity systems for FTSE giants or you specialise in the most niche comic styles, reflecting your work in your personal brand – and its most obvious representation, your website – is essential. For example, illustrator Hattie Stewart, who specialises in cheeky flower-filled defacements of celebrities, allows her website visitors to remix her illustrations as a digital sliding puzzle in a similar style to her own re-workings. Manchester-based designer Craig Oldham's site features a playful soundboard – reflective of Oldham's humour, but also of his status as a disruptor who is willing to do things differently. 04. Consider your logo When US design studio Dark Igloo first started working on its own logo, it decided on a mash-up of the state flags of its two founders Dave Franzese and Mark Richard Miller (whose first names combined also produced the 'Dark'). Although the state insignia says little about Dark Igloo's current work – which includes motion-heavy branding for Giphy and Miami-inspired art direction for Converse – its treatment of this logo and mascot does. A grizzly bear with 10 stars circling its head, the logo soon morphed into a cartoon character which the studio uses on its site, its lighters-cum-business cards and as its social media avatars. "It has a dazed personality, joyous and following the bliss," says Miller. Whether he's scrolling through an iPad on Dark Igloo's blog page or laden with swag in the shop, the bear is an anchor across the hectic site. It's fun, nostalgic and showcases the animation skills that Dark Igloo has in buckets. Coupled with a surreal landing page and a contacts section that you can play as a racer game, self-initiated projects such as Dark Igloo's ad for an '80s megamix board game that never existed (complete with wizard and dry ice) show prospective clients exactly the feel and ambitious scope of the work Dark Igloo could do for them. 05. Extend your personality through social media For New York designer Wade Jeffree, the idea of performance is a key facet of his personal visual identity, often appearing in his own work as a way of playing out design ideas or aesthetics. "It's a combination of time, discipline and being critical that has led me to where I am now," says Jeffree of his distinctively surreal and funny vision. Just as with Dark Igloo, it's clear from the consistency of his social feeds that Jeffree lives and breathes his personal brand, expressing himself through colour, awkward angles and weird props – something essential for its longevity. "You also need to be honest with yourself about what you enjoy making – so those things can get better." Whether you're part of a studio or a solo practitioner, collaborating with a copywriter, fellow designer or developer is a sure-fire way to get some much needed perspective on your personal brand. When Gabriella Marcella redeveloped the website for her print studio Risotto earlier this year, the advice and skills of developer and motion graphics expert Brendan Bennett was invaluable. "It's simultaneously easy and hard being your own client," admits Marcella. "Working with Brendan has been essential to ensuring decisions are challenged and thought-through. It was one big puzzle that was exciting to solve." 06. Nail the text Dark Igloo's bear mascot is a mash-up of the state flags of its two founders Although visual branding comes easily to most designers, expressing personality verbally might not be so straightforward. When working with designers and other businesses to help them talk about what they do, copywriter Roshni Goyate starts with a spot of homework: asking participants to bring in an example of brand language from outside their industry that's stood out to them. "We go through what is happening in those pieces, what kind of language is being used, and analyse what the brand could have said and why they said what they did," says Goyate. Untangling other brands' verbal communications allows you to see some of the choices at work, and make your own. The next step is a series of writing exercises that ask designers to describe what they do in their job to their grandma or to an eight-year-old child. "It's about getting them to step away from using jargon and established ways of communicating what they do, and show their personality instead," she adds. 07. Find the hook The first impression, Goyate says, counts as much as the 'About' page. "Imagine that the person reading your site has no time at all – which is all of us – but you want them to understand what you do from the first line that they read. With design studios, it's about being provocative or being brave and finding that hook that sets you apart from others." Goyate also recommends weaving information around a website through interesting labelling, so readers aren't overwhelmed with lots of information all at once. The most important thing is consistency – on your site, in publications and especially on social media. "It's just as important as your visual language," says Goyate. "You wouldn't use different logos on different pieces of collateral or different colours. In the same way, your brand language should be one watertight personality that you're communicating." Whereas Double Standard's brand language is clipped and conceptually driven, Dark Igloo's is equally as playful as its visual identity. "I think we want there to be a level of entertainment in it, even in the writing." For example, instead of telling readers to click the link to see more about Giphy, they opt for "Ditch water polo practice and fill a powerade bottle with vodka with Giphy to see the rest." The pair also devised the tagline 'Dark Igloo is a company that specialises'. "We never say what we specialise in," explains Franzese. "We could be puppeteers one month, animators the next, and branding experts the month after that. Come to us with the brains and we'll figure out the execution with you." The first impression, Goyate says, counts as much as the 'About' page. "Imagine that the person reading your site has no time at all – which is all of us – but you want them to understand what you do from the first line that they read. With design studios, it's about being provocative or being brave and finding that hook that sets you apart from others." Goyate also recommends weaving information around a website through interesting labelling, so readers aren't overwhelmed with lots of information all at once. The most important thing is consistency – on your site, in publications and especially on social media. "It's just as important as your visual language," says Goyate. "You wouldn't use different logos on different pieces of collateral or different colours. In the same way, your brand language should be one watertight personality that you're communicating." Whereas Double Standard's brand language is clipped and conceptually driven, Dark Igloo's is equally as playful as its visual identity. "I think we want there to be a level of entertainment in it, even in the writing." For example, instead of telling readers to click the link to see more about Giphy, they opt for "Ditch water polo practice and fill a powerade bottle with vodka with Giphy to see the rest." The pair also devised the tagline 'Dark Igloo is a company that specialises'. "We never say what we specialise in," explains Franzese. "We could be puppeteers one month, animators the next, and branding experts the month after that. Come to us with the brains and we'll figure out the execution with you." Next page: Present your work through the right lens 08. Present your work through the right lens Studio Output reshaped its strategy into one of solving problems for its clients, such as Union Hand-Roasted Coffee A year ago, its 15th anniversary in sight, London-based design practice Studio Output worked with a consultant (and former client) to identify how it could reshape its internal positioning. The result was a dramatic new strategy that recalibrated all its projects through the lens of problem-solving. Its new identity for Union Hand-Roasted Coffee is headlined as 'Supporting scale-up of a fast-growing business' for example, and its branding of Viber 'Driving user acquisition and retention in a congested market'. "The biggest issue for clients is they're going to have a big problem you need them to solve," says Studio Output's client services director Gemma Ballinger. "If you can show that quite succinctly through other work, then it's going to resonate with them." The repositioning also involved updating the questions that the Studio Output team ask clients in order to ensure the team has solid KPIs to work towards, and by which they can assess their effectiveness at the end of a project. This set of questions was distilled to a skeleton version, which was then used as a script for their website landing page's showreel. Many studios – from ustwo to Made Thought to ILoveDust – greet visitors to their sites with a film featuring their best projects. Whereas ILoveDust's is moody and atmospheric, ustwo prioritises its R&D model. "If clients are really short on time, it might be all they need to see," adds Ballinger. Whether to show sketches, research or opinion pieces is another key factor when defining your brand. Dark Igloo is keen to show the development of its projects, an approach shared by motion specialists ManvsMachine and Universal Everything. "Usually the bottom half of the project on our site is behind-the-scenes imagery," says Miller. "That's not just to show you that this can be done on a small scale, but it also represents that we pride ourselves on having fun sets and making things that don't feel like work." But don't panic if presenting work is not an option. Dark Igloo didn't show any projects for its first three years and freelance designer Craig Jackson, whose clients include Google, BBC, Apple and HSBC, still doesn't. "It was getting really hard to actually show the work due to NDAs so I thought it was time to take things offline for a bit to see what happens," says Jackson. Luckily it was a risk worth taking, with the added bonus that it allows Jackson to handpick work for every project. "The general mystique of it all also seems to go down really well." 09. Consider 'brand in the hand' Knowing their lighters were always being pinched, the Dark Igloo team turned them into business cards Just as Dark Igloo's '80s TV-inspired landing page presents the studio as inventive and fun-loving, its brand is similarly thoughtful when entering the physical realm. Instead of business cards, the duo make lighters to give to potential clients and collaborators. "People would always take ours," shrugs Miller. "When we added the characters people started going crazy. You would bump into someone that you hadn't seen in 10 months, and maybe they didn't remember you exactly, but they definitely still had that lighter. It was an incredible touch-point." When it first started out, Dark Igloo gave any client taking on a major project with them badges based on a patch that the crew of the Nostromo wore in the film Alien. "It was to show we were going on a journey together," says Franzese. Similarly the studio wooed potential clients by sending them lighters inside boxes that were inspired by old Sega packaging and featuring its Contacts page game. "Put ultimate care and craft into something you'd want yourself and share it with someone as a gift," Franzese adds. The same is certainly true of Double Standards' foray into branded products. Its calendar – which is sold through its online shop, as well as distributed to collaborators – began as something sleek and functional for the studio, and was soon requested by a visiting client. Now, making them is an annual tradition. "Every November I get the first email asking when the new calendar is out," laughs Double Standards' Chris Rehberger. Similarly, the necessity to create other functional products for projects, and the subsequent interest on Facebook, inspired the studio to design a lamp and table, both now stocked in one of Berlin's coolest concept stores, Andreas Murkudis. Double Standards even opened a physical shop in October. Even though it operates in a very different landscape, Studio Output also suggests creating something useful when sending mailers. To celebrate its 15th anniversary, the studio gave prospective clients a brainstorming pack complete with branded notebooks, Sharpies, Post-it Notes and a set of thought-starter postcards. These featured Studio Output projects on one side and related advice on how to do things such as write briefs on the other. "We do find that things we send physically – because people don't get them much any more – do have a good impact," says Ballinger. "You've just got to make sure you follow it up properly." This article was originally published in issue 273 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 273 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: Promote your brand with content marketing What are the next big branding trends? How to challenge brand stereotypes View the full article

Quit your job. It’s a pretty empowering statement: if you’re not creatively rewarded, feel like you can’t reach your full potential, or are generally under-appreciated, don’t just sit there and take it: make 2018 the year to make your dreams a reality. Buy Computer Arts issue 275 now! Issue 275 of Computer Arts magazine explores the topic in detail, as part of an issue dedicated to making those new year’s resolutions count for something. Everything you need to take 2018 your best year ever... Collectable die-cut cover CA issue 275 is all about making a promise to yourself: a pledge to make 2018 your best year ever. The specifics, of course, are up to you – the magazine provides some suggestions, and some advice to get you started – but only you know what your list of goals looks like. [ ADD VIDEO LINK ] The rather special collectable cover has several special finishes, including foil, emboss and die-cut, provided by CA's print finishing partner Celloglas: watch a video of it being produced below... Get inspired to make things happen Sometimes there’s no substitute for unswerving passion and hard graft: the co-founders of Bristol-based studio Fiasco threw themselves into business seven years ago with no prior experience whatsoever, and ended up with a BAFTA and a D&AD Pencil within their first few years of business. Find out how they did so in the video profile in CA issue 275. Bristol-based Fiasco is the subject of CA issue 275's video profile It may not work out all the time, but you can learn from that too. In a one-off special feature, CA's regular behind-the-scenes project diaries at the back of the mag have been replaced with private diaries instead. These include creative concepts by world-class designers Marian Bantjes and Michael Johnson that never made it off the drawing board, but are still inspiring pieces of work in their own right. Also in Computer Arts issue 275 Why you should quit your job in 2018 In conversation with satirical sculptor Wilfrid Wood The latest design work from around the world, including Halo's rebrand of Fierce & Noble View the full article