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Hosting a design sprint brings speed and efficiency to your design processLearn everything about running your own design and content sprints at Generate London on 20 September. Steve Fisher will be hosting a full-day workshop to teach you how to get the right setup for a successful sprint, how to create a testable prototype, and much more. There are only a few spaces left on the workshop, so book your ticket now! As a design and build agency, we pride ourselves on creating products that are not only beautiful, but that also provide fantastic user experiences. By taking a user-centric approach to the way we tackle our customers' business problems, we ensure appropriate focus is given to the end-user throughout. So often companies spend an incredible amount of time and money designing and developing a product that is ultimately not fit for purpose. It may fail to meet the business needs of the company or the needs of the users. A product design sprint can remove elements of risk from client projects and therefore help you avoid costly redesigns or change of directions further down the road. We offer our clients a way to validate their assumptions and test new products in a fast and cost-effective way; product design sprints. These are a highly effective way of shaping new products and identifying solutions to existing problems. They also help to reassure clients that their product is on the right path; bringing greater clarity to a project right from the outset. Book your ticket today to learn how to run your own design and content sprints What is a design sprint? Made popular by GV (the venture capital arm of Google), product design sprints are invaluable for new businesses or existing companies looking to design a website or refine a digital product. A sprint is an intensive week that aims to help the team understand of what the product is (or should be). During the sprint, the team brainstorms ideas and features, decides on which ones to explore, and then finally prototypes and tests these concepts with real users. Sprints make it possible to learn what would traditionally take months of effort in just a single week, ensuring that valuable time and money isn't wasted on something that might not work. What do you need? Before you start the sprint, you'll need to make sure that everything is prepared. You'll need a room (ideally a large boardroom with lots of whiteboards) and supplies such as Sharpies, Post-Its, paper, Blu-Tac and stickers. Next you need to make sure you have the right people in the room. From the client side you'll need a product owner and a couple of stakeholders. You don't want any more than five, but you do need to make sure that key decision-makers are included. Your internal team should probably consist of a UX expert, a tech expert and a facilitator who is able to steer the group. With everything set up, you can kick off your sprint. Make sure you have plenty of whiteboards, stickers and Post-Its handy!How do you run a design sprint? Day 1: Understand and define First you need to understand the problems you're trying to solve, and identify your goal. Discuss ideas, analyse competitors and review analytics. Define what the client and the team want to focus on, and then you can begin on the main user journey. Day 2: Diverge Break up the overall user journey and start focusing on the little issues that can make a big difference, solving the problems you identified in day one. Everyone will have different solutions, so work individually, quickly creating sketches and notes with different ideas on. Don't get hung up on one specific idea – the key here is to get as many different options on the table as possible. Day 3: Make a decision This is perhaps the most important and difficult day: It's now time to make some decisions on how the prototype will look. With lots of ideas in front of you, you need to review, critique and choose which elements to take to the next stage. Have the whole team vote for the best options by using stickers to identify the group’s favourite features and a favourite overall design. Then, construct a new storyboard with the agreed concepts and UI interfaces to act as a blueprint for the following day. Day 4: Prototype With a storyboard agreed upon, the UX designer gets to work on creating a working prototype for user testing. There are just a few hours to work with, so at this point the prototype is not meant to look pretty, be branded or function perfectly. A rough mock-up means you can maximise time and get the most important parts of the design in place for users to review, without wasting effort on something that could end up getting scrapped. Day 5: Test and review It’s crunch time – now you turn the prototype over to real users to get their feedback. We have a test rig that allows us to record the tests and share them with all the stakeholders, so they can see what real customers think of the product, and watch how they interact with it. The validation or critique these users provide is insightful and invaluable. Why is it beneficial? The whole process is fast and efficient, which means resources aren't wasted. With everyone involved in the sprint, from our own UX team to the CEO of the client's company, we know everyone is aware of what's going on and has had the chance to share their own opinions and ideas. There are no bad outcomes in a design sprintThere are no bad outcomes with a design sprint. Within just five days, we have a working prototype with real user feedback. We can get criticism and constructive feedback from the users, without having to go through a lengthy product launch. Designs sprints are now a process we use successfully with a number of our clients and we recommend you try them too. Steve Fisher, experience architect and founder of The Republic of Quality, will run a full-day workshop on design and content sprints at Generate London on 20 September, followed by a keynote talk on 22 September. Book now and save £95 on a combined workshop and conference pass! View the full article

Wouldn’t it be nicer to spend a little less time working and a little more relaxing and enjoying with yourself? Software creators are constantly striving to help you do just that, constantly coming up with new and improved tools to speed up your creative process. In this post, we bring you 20 new and newly updated creative tools for 2017, their main headline features, and where you can go to find more about them. 01. Affinity Photo for iPad The iPad version of Affinity Photo lets you use all the features of a full image editing program on the moveFirst launched in 2014, image editing software Affinity Photo has won itself a big fanbase by being both cheaper than its rival Photoshop, and in many ways more powerful (with features such as multi-million per cent zoom). This June the tool took another big step forward, launching as a full version on iPad. That’s right, this is no stripped-down version, but a full-featured photo editing tool on Apple’s tablet, and that’s something Adobe is unable to offer at the moment. 02. Google Material Design Colour Tool Google’s free tool lets you create and share colour palettes then try them out on sample UIsNew for 2017, this free tool from Google helps you to pick the right colours for your apps, in accordance with its Material Design principles. Essentially, it makes it easy to create and share colour palettes, as well as apply them to a sample user interface. Most intriguingly, it assesses how legible your text will be within your colour scheme, according to accessibility guidelines. Learn more about the tool in this blog post. 03. Calligraphr Launched this February, Calligraphr is a new tool that lets you make fonts from your own handwriting. You start by downloading a template as a PNG or PDF. Fill it with your handwriting, scan it, and the tool then translates your scrawl into usable fonts. If you’re not happy with them, you can edit them digitally. See it in action in the video above. 04. Sketch 46.2 You can now save Sketch files in a way that anyone can work on themSketch has seen many updates since its original launch in 2010. But its big new release in April was a true game-changer. That’s because there’s a new way to save files, with a ‘.sketch’ extension at the end. And that means anybody can now create and modify sketch files, whether they have Sketch or not. You can even open them in a text editor. Learn more about the new file format in this blog post. 05. CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2017 CorelDRAW’s LiveSketch tool uses AI to make your hand-drawn strokes smootherReleased this April, the latest version of CorelDRAW, the illustration and graphics tool for the Windows platform, has brought AI to vector drawing. That’s in the form of the new LiveSketch tool, which interprets your hand-drawn strokes and combines them with existing vector curves, making it easier to produce smooth lines by drawing directly on a tablet. You can read our full review of the software here. 06. Adobe Illustrator 2017.1 In the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, you can now crop an image within the softwareThe latest version of Adobe’s vector graphics software, released in April, includes the ability to crop an image directly within the software. That means you no longer need to need to switch to Photoshop to crop your images. There’s also a new Colour Themes Panel, which lets you create, save and retrieve colour themes across the different Adobe apps, and some cool new typography tools. Read our Illustrator CC review here. 07. Autodesk Graphic for iPad Pro Autodesk’s vector editor is now available for the iPad ProAutodesk is best known for its 3D tools, but its vector software, Graphic for iPad, is pretty decent too, and this year it launched a new version for the iPad Pro. Compatible with the Apple Pencil, you can use it to create vector illustrations, graphic designs, technical diagrams or digital art. Features include keyboard shortcuts, quick switch tools and vector clipping paths. 08. Tilt Brush 12 The latest version of Tilt Brush gives you greater customisation optionsGoogle's virtual reality painting app Tilt Brush, which works with the HTC Vive headset, has been around for a while now. But this April saw a significant update which includes a new web gallery for sharing your VR sketches and more powerful customisation options, such as being able to control the colour, intensity, and direction of one shadow-casting and one non shadow-casting light. You can find details of all the new features here. 09. Google Blocks Google Blocks lets you create art you can walk around in using a VR headsetA free tool for owners of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, Google Blocks lets you create low-poly art within a virtual reality environment. Designed to complement Tilt Brush (above) rather than replace it, Google Blocks lets you export your low-poly artwork to games software such as Unity as an .obj file, or download it as an animated GIF. 10. Gravity Sketch VR 3D drawing software Gravity Sketch has launched a VR appWe’re big fans of 3D drawing software Gravity Sketch, so it’s great news that’s its just launched a spin-off virtual reality tool. Now available on Steam for the Vive headset, and coming to the Oculus Rift soon, it lets you pick and choose between freehand drawing and control-point editing, and once you’re happy with your models you can transfer them to CAD software to refine them. Next page: 10 more new or updated tools for 2017 11. Project Felix 0.3 Adobe’s tool for compositing 2D and 3D has had an AI-powered boost this yearProject Felix is a tool from Adobe aimed at making it easier to composite 2D and 3D shots. Released this January, the latest update to Project Felix includes an AI-powered feature that will help you realistically recreate lighting inside a 3D drawing. Read our review of Project Felix here. 12. Adobe InDesign 2017.1 InDesign has been rejigged to make it easier to combine with other Adobe appsThe latest version of InDesign has a smart new interface, with updated icons that match those in Photoshop and Illustrator, making it much easier to work across the Creative Cloud tools seamlessly. Or, if you want to knock something up quickly with little effort, the New Documents panel has been rejigged to work more intuitively with Adobe Stock templates. Read our review of InDesign 2017 here. 13. Google Data GIF maker Google’s tool lets you make animated GIFs comparing two things over timeThe Google Data GIF maker is a free tool that does exactly what it says on the tin: let’s you make animated GIFs from raw data. Aimed at journalists rather than creative pros, it’s not especially sophisticated yet; you can essentially only use it to compare two sets of statistics over time (e.g. Mac vs Windows). But what it does, it does well; and this being Google, we’re expecting this might become a more powerful tool over time. Read more about it in this blog post. 14. Corel Painter 2018 Corel’s used AI to let you apply digital paint in a way that closely mirrors traditional methods Getting a little ahead of itself, Corel launched the 2018 version of its art software, Painter, this July. And the standout feature is a Thick Paint feature that lets you apply digital paint to your canvas in layers. This new innovation is aimed squarely at artists from a traditional painting background, who want to pull, push, scrape and build up their pixelated paint in a way that’s very close to the real thing. Learn more about the new version of Corel Painter here. 15. Guetzli Google’s tool helps you condense your web image size quickly and easilyWe’ve all tutted and drummed our fingers when a web page has taken ages to load. Often, that’s a problem primarily caused by large images, and Google has found a way to help out web designers struggling with that issue. Essentially, Guetzli makes JPGs smaller, without affecting compatibility. In fact, promises to reduce the size of JPGs by a whopping 35 per cent more than other methods. This clever little encoder is both free and open source, and you can learn more about Guetzli in this blog post. 16. CodePen Projects Coding environment CodePen now lets you build websites within itMost web designers will know CodePen as a way to test, showcase and critique each others’ code snippets. This year, though, it’s expanded its appeal by launching its own IDE (Integrated Development Environment). CodePen Projects lets you build websites within your browser and preview them while you’re building them. You can start from scratch or use templates, and there are some pretty smart debugging tools too. Read more about CodePen Projects in this blog post. 17. Adobe After Effects CC 2017 After Effects now lets teams collaborate on projects in real timeReleased in April, the latest version of Adobe’s motion graphics, animation, compositing and video editing tool brings a lot of new features to the table. These include powerful new tools allowing team members to work on projects together in real-time, the ability to create motion templates to hand over to colleagues, and the Cinema 4D Composition Renderer, which gives you more control and enhanced speed when creating 3D objects. Read our full After Effects review here. 18. Google AutoDraw Google AutoDraw is an intuitive art tool that uses machine learning and AI software to work out what it is you’re trying to draw, and then creates a more professional looking version. It works by taking your rough doodles, matching them with images in its database, then combining the two to create slick-looking graphics. It’s free to download to your phone or desktop. See it at work in the video above. 19. Style Guide Guide Style Guide Guide is a boilerplate template for building web style guidesBrad Frost is a well known voice in the web community, not least for his advocacy of what he calls Atomic Design, a methodology that involves breaking a website down into basic components that are then reused throughout the site. This May, Frost took that concept a step further by releasing The Style Guide Guide, a boilerplate template for building style guides for design systems. It imports HTML from a pattern library, and you can enter your documentation, usage guidelines, and design principles in Markdown to share among your team. Read more about the tool in this blog post. 20. Animista Speed up the creation of your CSS animation with AnimistaStarting as a side project of UX developer Ana Travas, Animista is a collection of premade CSS animations that you can customise for your own purposes. Offering a sophisticated dashboard of options, this will save you reinventing the wheel every time you need a web animation. View the full article

Autodesk’s Maya 2018 is brimming over with new tools and improved workflows designed to help 3D artists work faster – and top professionals are already using the improved software to create fantastic work. With particular strengths lying in its tools for character modelling, motion graphics and rendering, the new tools and enhancements in Maya 2018 speed up your workflow from initial modelling stages right through to animation. And with Maya now integrated with Arnold 5 and Adobe After Effects, its creative and technical capabilities have expanded even further. You can easily compare a 3D object to its 2D texture coordinates by using Maya’s new UV Editing WorkspaceAward-winning results Professional 3D artists are already wild about Maya’s capabilities, as the inspiring videos below show. Swedish studio Fido helped produce award-winning film Kung Fury thanks to its creative team and scalable Autodesk Maya subscription. The tools in Maya helped the team create phenomenal motion graphics such as a 2.5 minute-long continuous shot that involved around 100 man hours to complete. Similarly, Moonbot Studios – the team behind Oscar-winning short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore – says that Maya allows it to stay nimble and story-driven on smaller projects, while offering a scalable framework and structure for larger projects. Brennan Chapman, head of pipeline at Moonbot, says the company makes sure that “every piece of software that we use is broad and can handle almost anything that we throw at it.” Outstanding new tools and improvements The After Effects live link plugin allows you to view your 3D creations in both Maya 2018 and After Effects simultaneously. Camera and scene data is synced so that you can make changes in Maya and see the After Effects files update in real time, making your workflow easier. In another great pairing, Arnold 5 brings powerful rendering to Maya 2018. With Arnold used by big VFX and animation names to help solve complex rendering problems, you can be sure this latest version for Maya will render great images for your projects, whether you’re working on short animations, movies, games or something else. Changes made in Maya update in After Effects with the new pluginImprovements in Maya 2018’s character creation repertoire include a more artist-friendly UV Editor interface, complete with a new UV Toolkit with better tools and functionality. A new interactive grooming clump modifier enables you to create realistic hair and fur in real time. It’s easier and quicker than previous versions of XGen, and means you can see and perfect the results of your grooms without having to wait for a render. The clump modifier workflow is far less technical than previous versions of XGen, making it faster and easier to achieve realistic groomsPlus there’s a reimagined sculpting toolset that gives you the ability to sculpt directly on rigged characters, as well as enhanced symmetry modelling, polygon modelling and OpenSubdiv support. The motion graphics toolset in Maya continues to grow and mature. The MASH animation toolset has a new World node for arranging 3D objects in natural clusters, such as plants around trees, as well as a Placer node for easy set dressing. An improved vector graphics workflow means you can import or copy and paste SVG files into Maya, too. Maya 2018 improves workflows and packs in new features With new and improved dynamics and effects, you can create realistic rigid and soft-body simulations; add atmospheric effects such as smoke and mist; create realistic ocean surfaces with waves, ripples and wakes; create realistic deformable materials and more. With just a few clicks, you can create complex arrangements of animated instances that can act dynamically, collide with each other, participate in dynamic forces, and be constrained. Explore all of the new features of Maya 2018 for yourself on the Maya website. With the new tools and wealth of Maya tips and tricks making professional results even more achievable, what will you create? How to buy Maya 2018 Maya 2018 brings better lighting controls, too Existing Maya users can trade in their old version for a subscription to the new Maya 2018 version for only £3.60 a day, while new users can take out a free trial of the new software before buying or subscribing. You can also get the Work Faster with Maya guide to helpful Maya shortcuts and all sorts of support and advice on the Maya website and Maya Learning YouTube channel, so that beginners needn’t feel daunted. As well as Maya 2018, Autodesk offers sister software Maya LT as a powerful and cost-effective tool for indie game makers. View the full article

Researchers say the Neptune, or Terror exploit kit has been spreading Monero cryptocurrency miners via malvertisements. View the full article

You're reading Startup Design Framework 2, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Looking to create a beautiful, responsive website for your startup or clients? Startup Framework saves you time and energy with an effortless platform to build a fully designed website. Build your site quickly with an intuitive and easy-to-use drag and drop interface. Select from various pre-designed components for each section of your website. View the full article

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/08/21/gloomy-times-ahead-for-security-on-critical-infrastructure-warn-experts/ … View the full article

Foxit Software says it will fix two vulnerabilities in its PDF reader products that could be triggered through its JavaScript API to execute code. View the full article

Having the right video editing tools can make a world of difference. That's why we've put together our pick of the best laptops for video editing – after all, choose the wrong one and you'll waste hours in post-production wrestling with erratic touchpads, squinting at pixelated images and drumming your fingers as your work slowly exports. These five fantastic laptops will make video editing a doddle. As well as our pick of the best overall machines, we'll tell you the best video editing laptops for under £500 and £1,000. And whether you're a Mac fan or a Windows wizard, we have the laptop for you. Plus, check out our favourite video editing software for an idea of what to run on these great machines. It might not surprise you to see Apple's most powerful laptop ever at the top of our list. The eye-catching Touch Bar may have attracted all the headlines on release, but it's the remarkable power, immaculate Retina display and vast trackpad that make it the best for video editing. Mac devotees will nod sagely when we say that the software on Apple's computers is the ideal companion for post-production. And if you've never used a Mac before, now might be the time to start. Read our sister site TechRadar's review of the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar Last year's Windows 10-based Dell XPS 15 is quite exceptional and pushes the MacBook very close to the title. It's a wonderful-to-use piece of kit in every department. The beautiful combination of 4K 3840x2160 resolution InfinityEdge display (the bezel is barely there) and top-of-the-range graphics card will make your footage sing as you chop and cut. And you can pay extra to ramp up the RAM to a hefty 16GB. Rapid. Read TechRadar's full Dell XPS 15 review The Microsoft Surface Book wasn't far off toppling the XPS 15 for best Windows laptop for video editing, but it waltzes to best 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrid with ease. Give the screen a tug and it satisfyingly detaches from the keyboard, allowing you to use it as a tablet. That's handy if you have a work in progress that you want to pass around a table. But, coming with the Surface Pen stylus, it also means you can get more control using the touchscreen. And as a laptop in its own right, it's extremely powerful. Read our full Microsoft Surface Book review Despite Apple's reputation for great expense, you don't have to pay top dollar for the sleek, powerful pleasure of owning one of its machines. The super-slim MacBook Air makes for a brilliant sub-£1,000 video editing machine. The processor speed has just been upgraded to 1.8GHz and the default RAM has been boosted to 8GB instead – meaning silky smooth processing and fast exporting. Read TechRadar's full MacBook Air review It isn't easy to find a decently specced laptop, with a large screen and still get change from £500. But that trusty stalwart HP has somehow managed to produce a cheap laptop that isn't a disaster zone. This isn't one for the pros, but if you're a beginner or keen amateur learning the ropes of video editing, the Pavilion is a good choice. Even the entry-level models have loads of storage for rolls of footage, and a little extra cash can get you more Ram, a better Intel processor or a full-HD display. Read TechRadar's Pavilion 15 review Related articles: 6 great video editing apps for mobile The best laptops for graphic design View the full article

The KLF – also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The JAMs, The Timelords, The K Foundation, 2K and K2 Plant Hire Ltd – were, for a brief period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a notorious and mysterious force in pop music. Variously described as art terrorists, situationist pranksters, geniuses, anarchists and scam artists, The KLF hold a unique place in modern popular culture. Who else would burn a million quid, and then sign a 23-year moratorium on talking about why? This self-imposed ban comes to an end tomorrow (23 August 2017). To mark it, The KLF's Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty are releasing a book, 2023: A Trilogy – and hosting a suitably bizarre three-day event in Liverpool, UK, called Welcome to the Dark Ages. Only 400 tickets went on sale. At £100 (around US$130) a shot, they were snapped up in minutes. If the KLF know one thing, it's how to build a brand. On the eve of the event, we take a look back at The KLF’s most notorious moments, before distilling 10 pro tips for building a design business like The KLF on page 2. (Skip straight to the tips here) An auspicious start Starting out in 1987, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty immediately grabbed the attention of the music press with their debut album, 1987 What the Fuck Is Going On? – a messy mix of hip hop beats, Glaswegian rap and uncleared samples. Soon after, they grabbed the attention of ABBA, who sued them for sampling virtually all of their song Dancing Queen on the track The Queen and I, resulting in the album being withdrawn. A year later they had a number one single as The Timelords with Doctor in the Tardis, a heady blend of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part Two. They then wrote about it in their book, The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, an only partly tongue-in-cheek breakdown guide to making a hit record and getting it to the top of the charts, with a money-back guarantee. The pair went on to release a series of 12-inch trance singles, tried to make a road movie, recorded a classic ambient album – 1990's Chill Out – then finally hit the big time later that year with What Time is Love?, a driving dance number reworked from one of the earlier trance tracks, and the first part in their Stadium House trilogy. Five more hit singles and an album, The White Room, followed over the next 18 months, until in early 1992 they dramatically left the music industry after performing a death metal version of 3AM Eternal at the Brit Awards with Extreme Noise Terror, the performance culminating in Bill Drummond firing a machine gun loaded with blanks into the audience. Art terrorists With their entire back catalogue deleted, they turned their attention on the art world, becoming The K Foundation and sponsoring a £40,000 prize for the worst artists of the year, announcing the winner, Rachel Whiteread, on the same day that she won the 1993 Turner prize. They also attempted to build their own body of artwork entitled Money: A Major Body of Cash, based around large amounts of money. The first piece, Nailed to a Wall, consisted of £1 million in £50 notes, nailed to a framed board. Unable to find galleries willing to host an exhibition, in 1994 they found another use for this million pounds. The KLF took it to the Scottish Isle of Jura and burned it in an abandoned boathouse while their collaborator, Gimpo, filmed them. Since the dissolution of The K Foundation, both Drummond and Cauty have worked as artists. Jimmy Cauty most recently came to prominence with his dystopian diorama, The Aftermath Dislocation Principle, a giant post-apocalyptic model village that was a major attraction at Banksy's Dismaland exhibition. Drummond's own, singular artistic career has at times consisted of building beds and dry stone walls, distributing flowers and making soup. In 2014, he started his own world tour in Birmingham, in which he was scheduled to visit 12 cities in 12 different countries, producing 25 paintings and working on other art projects before returning to Birmingham on 28 April 2025. Welcome to the Dark Ages 2017 - what the heck is going on?So as we said, on 23 August 2017, Drummond and Cauty's self-imposed moratorium on talking about why they burned a million quid comes to an end. Details of their Liverpool event, Welcome to the Dark Ages, are deliberately vague. However, all ticket holders are expected to be volunteers for whatever The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) have planned over the course of the three-day event. Whatever transpires, it promises to be a unique happening. Next page: 10 tips from The KLF for building a design business For anyone working in the creative industry, there's a lot you can learn from the KLF. Want to make waves? Here are our tips for building a design business like The KLF... 01. Start today Tired of sitting at a desk making money for someone else? Want to break out on your own? Bill Drummond imparts some sterling advice in the introduction to The Manual. "If you want to do something – REALLY want to do something – don't wait to be asked. Don't seek permission. Don't put off until you have passed the right exams or saved up enough money. But be prepared to risk complete failure. "Don't give a shit about whatever your mates or your girlfriend or boyfriend think. Whatever it is – start now, today. Tomorrow is always too late." 02. Get a business partner Key to The KLF's success was the mix of Bill Drummond, a former music industry executive and band manager, and Jimmy Cauty, a musician and artist whose Lord of the Rings poster for Athena hung on many a student's bedroom wall in the 1970s. Their skillsets complemented each other perfectly. However good you are, a like-minded collaborator will fill in the gaps and raise your game, and keep you going when things seem bleak. 03. Make it heroic Like other great men, such as Jesus and Harrison Ford, Bill Drummond started out as a humble carpenter, building stage sets at Liverpool's Everyman theatre. Theatre legend Ken Campbell – who in 1997 would direct Bill and Jimmy's one-off 'Fuck the Millennium' performance at London's Barbican – rejected Drummond's original set designs for the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool's nine-hour performance of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. But Campbell gave Drummond the following advice: "Bill, don't bother doing anything unless it is heroic." These sage words doubtless inspired The KLF's epic videos and Top of the Pops appearances. If you want to make a name for yourself, apply these words to your design work. 04. Create your own look One area in which The KLF excelled was in defining its own distinctive style. It used one typeface across nearly all of its work – Compacta Bold – coupled with a handful of instantly recognisable logos designed by Jimmy Cauty, and even invented its own musical genre for its biggest hit singles: Stadium House. Take a similar approach: come up with your own selection of visual cues, a preferred typeface, a stand-out colour palette, and use them on your portfolio site, your press releases, in your self-initiated work – anywhere you might be noticed. You could even go one step further and invent a name for your particular look. Make sure people hear about it. 05. Recycle and remix You know what it's like when you do a piece of work that you really love but it doesn't get the attention you think it deserves, right? Follow The KLF's example: hold on to it and come back to it later. It had an insatiable appetite for sampling not only others, but itself, and for reworking its old tunes. What Time is Love?, the band's signature track, went through four quite different releases – the original Pure Trance mix; the Stadium House version called America: What Time is Love? with loud guitars and rock vocalist Glenn Hughes thrown in; and 1997's Fuck the Millennium, with added brass band and swearing. If something didn't quite work before – or it did, but you think it could work better – revisit it, remodel it, bring it bang up-to-date and try again. 06. Share your wisdom Get a load of that Compacta BoldAfter getting their first number one record as The Timelords, Drummond and Cauty wrote a book explaining how anyone could do it, with an irresistible guarantee. "We guarantee that we will refund the complete price of this manual if you are unable to achieve a number one single in the official (Gallup) UK charts within three months of the purchase of this manual and on condition that you have fulfilled our instructions to the letter." The genius of this guarantee, of course, was that if you really did follow their instructions and fail, you'd be in thousands of pounds of debt to studios, manufacturers, distributors and others. Regardless, people love to learn how things are done. If you've created an important piece of work, write up a case study and publish it on your website or send it to the design press. 07. Grab all the publicity you can The JAMs turned the ill-fated trip to Sweden to try to meet ABBA into an album coverThe Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) – named, of course, after an organisation in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy – mastered self-promotion, seizing all manner of opportunities for a bit of publicity, from graffiti campaigns through to commissioning a crop circle in the shape of its pyramid blaster logo. Sometimes – though not very often – the group even gave interviews. The problem today, of course, is that everyone's wiser to the tricks that used to work for The JAMs. If you want publicity, you'll need a clever and engaging angle, and you'll have to work for it. Look at everything you do and everything that happens to you – even setbacks, such as being sued by ABBA – and ask yourself if there's a way you can turn it into worthwhile publicity. Nobody said it was going to be easy. 08. Collaborate with the best The KLF had all manner of unwitting collaborators in the early days – it just sampled the likes of Whitney Houston, Petula Clark and, yes, ABBA and mostly got away with it. Later, when The KLF became a big-name act, it managed to convince the queen of country music, Tammy Wynette, to sing about driving around in an ice cream van on hit single Justified and Ancient. "While Jimmy got on with the track, I went into the office and picked up the phone," Drummond wrote in The Guardian. "10 minutes later, after three or four calls, I am actually talking to Tammy Wynette, just before she goes on stage in Chicago. We play her the track down the phone and she agrees there and then to record the vocals with us." Want to work with one of your design heroes? Ask them. Tell them what you're about and why you'd make amazing stuff together. The worst that can happen is they'll say no. 09. Know when to call it a day Eventually, pop stardom took its toll on The KLF. Drummond's machine gun antics at The Brits in 1992 were a lot tamer than his original plan, which was to chop his hand off on stage and lob it into the audience. If it all gets too much for you – if you're facing a constant stack of deadlines, not getting a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labour and just not feeling the passion that drove you to start all this in the first place – it's alright to quit to do something else. Travel the world, learn a new skill or just have a change of scenery. Better that than become an embittered old hand, sniping from the sidelines. 10. Don't burn a million quid Not even if you've got a million quid spare and it seems like a good idea at the timeJust don't, right? It's already been done. Over and outRelated articles: If celebrities were Pantone colours Top designers reveal their first paid commissions How to craft a brand voice View the full article

Whether you're just learning how to draw and paint or you're a pro composing a new piece, there are some basic drawing and painting techniques and guidelines, like the Golden Ratio, which, if you stick to, will help you to improve your art and design. The rule of thirds – used frequently by photographers – states that if you divide any composition into thirds, vertically and horizontally, then place the key elements of your image either along these lines or at the junctions of them, you’ll achieve a more pleasing arrangement and more interesting and dynamic compositions. Painters and artists use the rule of thirds mostly for landscapes, but it also works for any subject matter, including still lifes, figures and even portraits. The rule of thirds works for many art genres – we show you how to use it on the next pageThe rule of thirds gives you a guide for placing focal points. If you design your focal points according to the intersections of any of the nine rectangles, your picture will have the counterbalance needed to make the composition more interesting and more compelling. You can also design other elements in the picture to lead the eye from one of the focal points to the other, and use the corners to bring the viewer into the picture or keep the eyes moving back into picture again. This kind of eyeflow adds movement and life to any composition. On this page, we'll look at how artists have used the rule of thirds to create dynamic compositions. 01. Origins of the rule of thirds The rule of thirds is a compositional guideline. Its origins go back to classical and Renaissance paintings, but it is mostly known as a compositional tool used by photographers. This painting by Valentin de Boulogne shows how the main characters are all placed on the upper dividing line, creating a dynamic arrangement of figures. 02. The rule of thirds in landscapes The rule of thirds is mostly known as a tool for composing landscapes. In this painting by Pierre Henri de Valenciennes, the horizon is placed in the lower thirds, and the large mass of mountains and scenery is placed in the left section, to create a more dynamic scene. 03. The rule of thirds for asymmetric compositions Use the rule of thirds to create asymmetry without chaosThe main function of the rule of thirds is to help create asymmetric compositions. If the elements in a picture are centred and too balanced, it becomes boring. If the images are offset using the rule of thirds, the asymmetry and counterbalance of elements creates a much more dynamic picture. 04. Place focal points with the rule of thirds Place focal points and other points of interest at intersectionsAnother great way to use rule of thirds is to help place focal points. In this portrait painting, the eyes fall on the upper horizontal line and leads to the second focal point in the ear. Other points of interest such as the warm triangle of light also fall on an intersection of guidelines. 05. Guide eyeflow with the rule of thirds Eyeflow is another great use of the rule of thirds. In this painting by Rubens, the main focal point of the boar is placed at an intersection. Secondary points of interest fall on intersections as well and the action of the poses lead the eye from one focal point or intersection to another. Next page: How to use the rule of thirds in your artworks (in three quick demonstrations) By following the guidelines and intersections created by the rule of thirds, you can more easily create compositions that are asymmetric and much more dynamic. Now we've seen the rule of thirds in action in other artists' paintings, it's time to show you how you can use the rule of thirds to create your own artworks. These three quick tutorials show you how the rule can be applied to a still life painting, an architectural drawing and a figure painting. Still life Our first demonstration uses the rule of thirds to compose a still life painting. 01. Set the scene using the rule of thirds Use the rule of thirds to guide your still life compositionBegin by arranging your objects so that the composition lines up with the guidelines and intersections created by the rule of thirds. The banana and shadow here follow the bottom guideline while the highlight on the mango falls on the upper-right intersection, creating a dynamic focal point. 02. Use intersecting guides Use intersections as drawing guides and also to inform your lightingThe next step is to create the drawing using the intersections as guides. Creating a value thumbnail now also means you can plan your dark value composition. Here, the lower and left thirds are dominated by darks while the bright highlight in the upper section creates a dynamic focal point. 03. Block in Block in dark shadows, adjusting to follow the guidelinesBegin the painting by blocking in the dark shadows and adding more saturated colours into the shadows and transition tones. To make the composition more dynamic and asymmetric, straighten the drawing of the banana’s shadow. This gives it a stronger horizontal alignment with the bottom guideline. 04. Add colour Add colour, again following the layout of the gridNext, add the half-tone shapes and more colour. Here the upper third is entirely a dark mid-tone that will help to frame the highlight focal point. Straighten the curve of the table surface so that it lines up with the upper guideline and creates a more asymmetric value composition. 05. Make final touches Use thicker and brighter paint at the highlight pointTo complete the painting, add light tones, highlights and finishing touches. The light on the table surface fills out the lower 2/3rds of the composition. Thicker and brighter paint and technique variation are added at the highlight, which really draws the eye to the main focal point. Urban landscape The next demonstration is an urban landscape painting that uses the rule of thirds to play with height in the architecture. 01. Align the reference image with the grid You can use the rule of thirds in portrait orientationHere we slightly 'break' the rule of thirds by using it in a vertical or portrait orientation. The reference photo here shows that we will have to align the central structure with the right vertical guideline to give more asymmetry and counterbalance in this composition. 02. Draw and design Sketch out the painting, moving things around to fit to guidelinesBegin the painting with the drawing and design. In the drawing, move the centre object to the right so that it lines up with the right vertical guideline. Similarly, design the other elements in the bottom of the composition to line up with the lower guideline. 03. Lock in major elements Block in the major elements of the compositionNext, block in the darks and add colour in the shadows. This step helps you to lock in the major elements of the composition such as the central focal point and the dark lower thirds section. This creates an interesting tension with the upper two-thirds of light. 04. Build in half-tones and lights Add half-tones and lights to contrast with the darksNext, add half-tones and lights. This locks in the major elements of the design and composition. The tower focal point lines up nicely with the right guideline and the darks with the lower guideline. The colours in the sky also add colour and value contrast with the darks in the lower third of the picture. 05. Add final details Adding final details creates more depth and movementTo complete the painting, add details in the dark foreground along with more colour and technique variation. This also creates more depth and movement. Clean up the shapes in the central tower structure and use the upper guideline to help you place the small details and horizontal beam shapes. 06. Use sub-divisions Using sub-divisions enables you to intelligently place smaller detailsThis image shows how the rule of thirds is sub-divided in this painting. The top of the tower lines up with a guideline. The central elements line up nicely with a guideline. And many of the lower details, colours and small strokes line up with guidelines in the lower section. Figure painting This last example is an action-packed figure painting in watercolour, which uses an asymmetric composition based on the rule of thirds to emphasise the thrust of the image. 01. Line up the main action Here the rule of thirds helps create a dynamic figure paintingBegin the drawing and shadow block-in by using the upper guideline to line up the main action of the pose. This sets up a dynamic, asymmetric composition. Line up the face with the right-vertical guideline to create a secondary focal point. 02. Create an asymmetric counterbalance Use light and dark tones to create asymmetric counterbalanceNext, block in the dark and light half-tones, add as much colour as possible and begin to soften the core shadow edges. Having the dark shadows and half-tones dominate the right thirds of the composition creates an asymmetric arrangement of value. This helps to counterbalance the main focal point. 03. Add highlights Counterbalance the highlights wth vivid red along the right-verticalNext, add the highlights. Since the highlights fall on the upper guideline, it helps reinforce the composition. Add highlights on the main focal point, too. To counterbalance the image, add intense red colour along the right-vertical guideline. Now you have a simple and dynamic arrangement of values and colour. 04. Make the final touches Additional colour provides a secondary focal point and dynamic eye-flowTo complete the painting, add more colour to the focal point hand, along with variation in technique to really draw the eye to the punching hand. For counterbalance, add saturated reds to the eyes in shadow. This gives the image a secondary focal point and a dynamic eye-flow to the composition. Digital images courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. This article originally appeared in the How to Paint and Draw bookazine from ImagineFX. Liked this? 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Looking to support a creative technology with a difference? Now's your chance, because creative robotics pioneer Joto has just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube. It's looking to raise £250,000, with 12 per cent equity on offer. Joto is building technology that "offers a new intersection between the worlds of design and technology." Or, to put it simply, it has created the awesome next stage of etch-a-sketch evolution. Thanks to a clever combination of robotics and artificial intelligence with pen and ink, Joto has developed a connected whiteboard that draws live on request. Capable of sketching everything from works of art to messages at the press of a button, Joto can turn pixels on a screen into pen and ink drawings. Watch it in action in the video below. Keen-eyed Kickstarter campaign followers might recognise Joto from a fundraiser on that site earlier in the year. Back then it sold over 1,800 units in just four weeks and raised an impressive £362,307. On top of this, Joto was named the public's favourite design at 2017's Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition at London's Design Museum, and will be made available to shoppers via an exclusive partnership with Selfridges later in 2017. With Joto, you can send designs from your phone to a friend's wall (providing the friend also has Joto)“Most of the content we love is stuck on our screens, and as a result so are we," says Jim Rhodes, founder of Joto. "We are reimagining a world where people can feel connected beyond the screen. This is an exciting first step in the exploration of creative robotics for the home. Not the type to be scared of, but the sort you’d love to put on your wall.” By supporting Joto on Crowdcube, you'll be helping it to launch its hardware across even more channels and regions, as well as accelerating the development of the software platform where users will be able to view and exchange content with peers and other content providers. If you want to support Joto and help it to reach its goal of £250,000, you've got until 30 September to send some money its way. Related articles: 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so far New free Google tool does the drawing for you 10 tools to unlock creativity View the full article

Researchers at IOActive are sounding an early alarm on the security of industrial collaboration robots, or cobots. These machines work side-by-side with people and contain vulnerabilities that could put physical safety at risk. View the full article

There are plenty of word processors out there that you can use, but they all come with their own baggage. Nisus Writer Pro is a lightweight and powerful tool for writers that provides a perfect workspace for any project. Get it on sale today for 50% off the retail price! Nisus Writer Pro is an absolutely essential tool for anyone writing on a Mac. This word processor provides everything you need to write the way you want to. It automatically saves your work, makes it available through iCloud, and maintains document versions so you can see your revisions. With RTF support, it can produce documents that can be opened on just about any machine and in any program. You can get Nisus Writer Pro on sale now for just $39 (approx £30). That's a saving of 50% off the retail price for a handy app that makes writing a breeze. Grab this deal today! View the full article

You can have the best pencils in the world, but unless you know how to draw with them, they're pretty useless. You're fairly sure you know how to hold a pencil, right? Well of course you do... but are you holding it correctly to draw? The grip we use for day-to-day writing is very inefficient and will limit you in many drawing scenarios. Quite simply, drawing from the fingers and wrist alone (which is the narrow range promoted by the standard hand writing grip) doesn't release the full potential of movement that drawing from the entire arm and shoulder affords us. 26 phenomenally realistic pencil drawingsWhen it comes to drawing, you need to retrain years of accumulated muscle memory that is dictating the way you make marks. Once you weed out these bad habits, your visual vocabulary will broaden with each drawing session. A better grasp of your pencil will literally lead to a better grasp of drawing, because once you gain greater certainty and control over any given drawing medium, the confidence to explore what can be done with it becomes more accessible. Learn to wield your drawing tool like a pro with these steps to pencil precision... 01. Learn the two basic types of grip There are two basic types of grip: Tripod and OverhandThere are several ways to hold a pencil. Most are variants of two main grip types; Tripod and Overhand. Both can be used when holding different kinds of drawing media, but you may notice a tendency to grip tubular media (pencils and ink pens) with the Tripod grip and bulkier media with the Overhand. Both have their place, but the Overhand method is generally considered a more adept approach. Before we explain why, let's looks at the Tripod grip. 02. Learn the Tripod grip The Tripod grip uses the thumb, index and middle fingerThe Tripod grip is the grip we use when writing with a pen, so it's also known as the Writing method. You grip the pencil using the thumb, index and middle finger. The barrel of the pencil should rest naturally in your hand's web space. Avoid closing the web space, as this forces the barrel to rest on the knuckle of the index finger and promotes strokes using finger gestures only. Avoid grasping at the tip of the pencil, too, as this can limit line length(s) and lead to hairy, less fluid continuous lines. When to use the Tripod grip The range of movement of the Tripod grip is limited, but it can be useful for detailing small sectionsAlthough the range of movement of the Tripod grip is limited, it can be useful for detailing small sections of a big drawing. Try to move your grip as far up the barrel as you can to encourage articulation of the elbow and drawing from the shoulder. The Tripod grip is more appropriately used when working in a small sketchbook – A4 or smaller. Try not to rest your hand on the paper, as this can hinder wrist articulation. 03. Master the Overhand grip Using the Overhand grip can feel alien at firstIf you've never used the Overhand grip, it feels alien at first, but the benefits are worth the retraining. Place your pencil down on a flat surface. Now with the thumb and all four fingers, pick up the pencil. All fingers should grip the outer side of the barrel while the thumb grips the opposing side, retaining a light grip at all times. When to use the Overhand grip The Overhand grip will increase the versatility and range of marks you can makeOverhand grip combined with a correctly sharpened pencil will increase the versatility and range of marks you can make by introducing the edge of the pencil. For example, when drawing on a vertical surface (easel) holding the pencil vertically (and with the full edge touching the paper), pulling downwards creates a single line, but moving the edge horizontally left/right will lay down a thicker line of tone. 04. Get more from the Overhand grip Move your index finger away from the outer edge of the pencil to the top of the barrelMove your index finger away from the outer edge of the pencil to the top of the barrel. This enhances your control of the pencil by acting as your pivot and pressure control. Rolling the wrist forwards means less edge is in contact with the surface, leading to a thinner, sharper line weight. Roll back the wrist and you apply more edge to the surface, broadening and also softening the line quality. 05. Try these Overhand grip exercises One way to shift line weight is to introduce minor shifts in wrist angleAnother way to shift line weight is to introduce minor shifts in wrist angle, as you draw a continuous line start to twist the wrist to increase/decrease the amount of edge contact with the surface. To build muscle memory try this exercise: Plot several Xs randomly over a surface; now begin linking these Xs with lines, some short, others continuous, fluctuating line weights as you go. Use four Xs close together (north, east, south and west) to practice drawing ellipses. 06. Make some marks Gain confidence by exploring the types of mark you can make with your chosen gripGain confidence by exploring the type of marks you can make using this grip. The foundation of every drawing can be broken down into three basic components; line, shade and texture. The more ways you have of creating these, the more varied your drawing vocabulary will become. Marks can be generated by the following factors; direction, angle, speed and pressure. Try filling a sheet of paper with experimental marks that capture these qualities. This article originally appeared in the ImagineFX bookazine How to Paint & Draw. Related articles: 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials How to improve your character drawing View the full article

Explosions are a huge part of our entertainment, from video games to action films. However, most of the explosions you see on screens aren’t real. There are a lot of things that go into simulating an explosion. You have to think about the units you’ll be using, and consider the fuel that’s supposedly igniting it. You also have to think about how high the impact will go, the colours that’ll show up and the directions it’ll travel in. All these things and many more combine to give you the perfect explosion that looks stunning on the screen. Mighty Maya tutorials to try todayIn this tutorial, I'll show you how to craft a realistic explosion using Maya’s nParticles and FumeFX. 01. Fire up FumeFX Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageFumeFX is easy to use with solid built-in tools. It has great interaction with V-Ray and other renderers, making it the go-to option for the industry in both production and video game design. The latest version claims that it works up to twice as fast as version 3.0, so it’s also a great solution for optimising your workflow. 02. Optimise the scene Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageBy having a car going towards the origin point to capture velocity, it can interact with particles at a high speed to make an explosion look realistic. If you want to do something similar, you should optimise your geometry. Make a low-res version of your geometry to use in the simulations, then later it can be replaced with a high-poly version when it comes to rendering. 03. Decide your scales Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageBefore you get to any of the simulations, you must have a working set-up. You should decide on the unit you’ll be using. Centimetres are good but metres are even better for real-world scale. Use a scale reference, such as a human being, to make sure all of your simulations and objects are proportional. If the scale is off then it won’t look realistic. 04. Generate Particles Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageFumeFX needs something to burn – some sort of initial geometry that the fire of the explosion will come from. So, generate nParticles by changing Maya’s interface to the FX module, going to the nParticles menu and selecting Create Emitter. This gives you an Omni emitter to generate a point or sphere, depending on the version of Maya. These particles will be ignited later on. 05. Ground Plane and Self Collision Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageNow you need to create an explosion from the particles. The first thing is to add a ground plane. Go to the Nucleus node and then Ground Plane. There, check the Use Plane option and it’ll add an infinite plane for the particles to interact with. Go to the nParticleShape node and under Collisions, make sure Self Collide is checked. You should have a stream of particles on the ground. 06. Change to Volume Emitter Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageGo to the Emitter node and under Basic Emitter Attributes, change the Emitter Type to Volume. Afterwards, under Volume Emitter Attributes, change the Volume Shape to Sphere from Cube. Under the same tab, set the Volume Sweep to 180. You should have a hemisphere that’s emitting particles at 180 degrees. Take the Emitter and rotate it to make sure that the flat side of it is parallel to the ground, where you can then place it. This will give you the basic ‘shape’ of the explosion as it interacts with the scene. 07. Set the Particle Rate Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageYou should have a puddle of particles on the ground, being generated from the Volume Emitter. Let’s make some changes to the particles. Go to the Emitter and change the Rate to something high, like 6k to 10k. Don’t worry about the resource usage on your computer, you’ll only be emitting the particles for a frame or two. Go to the nParticleShape. Set the Particle Size to something comfortable that you can view easily. This will help you to gauge how your explosion is behaving within the scene. 08. Particle production Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageIn the Emitter node, key in the Rate. Before the frame you want the explosion to happen, set the Rate to 0 to ensure that no particles are born before that frame. In the frame of the explosion, set to your desired Rate, for example, 6,000. Then set the following one or two frames to that same high rate. 09. Ending particle production Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageAfter you’ve started the explosion, you should have three keys. In the frame you want the explosion to end, set another key for 6,000 and set it to 0 in the next frame to make sure the particle production stops abruptly. You can also make the Emitter smaller or bigger to control the size of the explosion. This won’t affect the velocity of the particles, just the timeframe in which they begin, continue exploding, and abruptly stop. 10. Adjust the particles’ lifespan Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageGo to the nParticleShape and under Lifespan, change the Lifespan mode to Random range. Set the Lifespan value to something like 0.2 or 0.3 and the Lifespan Random to a similar value. You can use your own values according to your settings – you want the particles to be generated, then stop, and start dying, but feel free to to tweak the timing. 11. Tweak particle velocity Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageYou can’t make the particles slow down (move outwards slower) under the Basic Emitter Speed Attributes since the Speed attribute is greyed out, thanks to the Emitter type being set to Volume. So, to change the velocity, go to the Volume Speed Attributes tab and change Away from Center as required. Some particles should move at different speeds for added realism. 12. Create the FumeFX node Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageYou should have a dome of particles being generated, spreading out and dying, some moving at different rates to others. Next, you can start simulation in FumeFX. Simply go to the FumeFX shelf and click the icon on the far left that’s called Create FumeFX node. A cube should appear in the scene. This is the working area of the simulation – the area where the simulations will be calculated. 13. Optimise the FumeFX node Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageClick the newly formed cube. You should be in the fumeFXShape node. First, set the Width, Length and Height to fix the explosion area better. Then you can focus on the Spacing. The lower the spacing, the better and more resource-heavy the simulation will be. 14. Further optimisation Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageThe Boundless setting has an X, Y and Z setting. Change it to +Y to make sure the simulation goes as high as possible. In the same area, you’ll find the path where the simulation data will be saved, often in gigabytes. In the Viewport tab, you can also set whether or not to see the simulation in the viewport. 15. Particle source in FumeFX Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageNow you can generate the first simulation. Make sure you have the FumeFX shelf selected and then, from the Outliner, select the nParticles object. With that selected, click up in the shelf to the fourth button from the left. You will have a new object in the Outliner that ends with ‘_source’. FumeFX now knows that these particles are to be ignited during the simulation. Next page: Add turbulence and sparks, and finish up your explosion 16. Caching the particles Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageSelect the nParticles Object from the Outliner and go up to the nCache bar. Select Create New Cache>nObject. This will re-simulate the particles you created and store them in the computer to make them easier to use again and make sure nothing changes in the simulation over time. If you want to delete a previous Cache, you can do so via nCache>Delete Cache. 17. The first bang Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageSelect the fumeFXShape node again. You should see some icons: a picture frame and a play button. Click the picture frame to open the simulation display, then click the play icon to start the simulation. If your explosion looks more like burning debris than an explosion, you need to go to the particle_source object and change the Radius to give it a bit more oomph. Experiment until it looks right. 18. Create sparks Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageTo create sparks flying off the explosion, create another Emitter. You’ll need to go through all the steps again but this time, generate fewer particles, speed them up, and make them live longer. Create a second particle_source and connect it to the main FumeFX node by going to the relationship editor in the node and selecting the second particle_source as well. This is optional, though. 19. Burn rate Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageIf the explosion seems to end too quickly, go into Simulations>Fuel>Burn Rate and edit that. If you’re playing with settings, run a simulation after every single tweak. 20. Adjust Turbulence Noise Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageIf your explosion looks too small you can use two settings: Vorticity and Turbulence. In the FumeFX node, under Simulation>Turbulence Noise, make the Scale smaller and play with the Detail slider. This brings more detail into the explosion, making it appear bigger. You may find that you need a larger or smaller number for your scene. 21. Adjust vorticity Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageIn FumeFX node under Simulation>System, you’ll find the settings for Vorticity. This means the small orbiting bubbles that form due to the rising hot air. Change the Vorticity type to Vorticity II and play with the Vortices Scale to find a good look for the explosion. 22. Tweak smoke Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageMosts explosions won’t look right without the smoke. To tweak this, go to Simulation>Fuel and turn on Fire Creates Smoke. You’ll also find Smoke Density under that, plus a tab dedicated to Smoke. The settings in there are fairly straightforward. Smoke Buoyancy, for instance, makes the smoke rise up. while Dissipation Strength controls how quickly the smoke disappears. 23. Prepare for Render Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageAt this point, you probably have a nice explosion that runs perfectly but doesn’t look all that good. Some settings still need editing before rendering. In the FumeFX node, you’ll find a tab called Rendering Settings, which contains sub-tabs for Fuel, Smoke and Fire. Explore these settings to learn more. 24. Experiment with fire Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageThe colours of the fire generated from the explosion are driven by a gradient by default. You’ll find it in FumeFX>Rendering Settings>Fire>Fire Color Tab. From left to right, the colours show how the fumes will progress. The ideal look is hotter at the centre. Experiment to see what looks best. Also, the Intensity setting in Fire affects the alpha channel. 25. Edit smoke Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageMaking changes to the Rendering Settings doesn’t mean redoing the entire simulation. You’ll even see the impact of your changes in real-time in the FumeFX Preview window. To edit the gradient of the smoke, go to FumeFX>Rendering Settings>Smoke>Smoke Color Tab. Try darker colours – from 20 to 40 – as explosions usually have dark smoke. 26. Remember to simulate Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageRendering the explosion is fairly simple. You can use lights from your rendering engine of choice to make the explosion more realistic. If the explosion doesn’t cast shadows by default, you can find these settings in the Rendering Settings tab as well. You can create a number of amazing things using these techniques, just remember to simulate after every single tweak. Continue tweaking until you’re happy with the outcome. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 223. Buy it here. Related articles: Build a custom Maya interface Create a meteor shower in 3ds Max 30 inspiring examples of 3D art View the full article

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You've just taken a new brief from a new client and now you're sitting at your desk waiting for inspiration to strike. Do you really expect the perfect logo design to pop up, fully formed, in your mind? If you do, you could be in for a long wait. Instead, it's up to you to seek out logo design inspiration. If you let a wide variety of ideas collide inside your brain, gradually they should coalesce into the logo you're looking for. The trick is knowing where to look for inspiration in the first place. Below are some suggestions of places you could start – but remember this can never be an exhaustive list because inspiration can come from anything, anywhere... 01. Look beyond the obvious Classic logos are a good place to start... but make sure you don't stop thereCast your net far and wide. Don't just look at the top 10 best logos ever (although that's not a bad place to start). You need to also look beyond that, at design in general and at the wider world. Whenever you see something that stands out or appeals to you, for whatever reason, file that thought. Let it inform your design process and contribute as your new logo starts to evolve. 02. Just doodle Don't overthink things – start with some free doodles (photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash)Sometimes you can overthink these things and end up getting nowhere, so why not cut your conscious mind out of the loop and instead let the creativity flow, unguided, with a bit of random doodling? You may well end up with a page of pointless scribbles, but somewhere in the disjointed mess of lines you might spot something that fires up that essential spark of inspiration. 03. Explore design websites On sites like Behance you can filter search results to logo designs There are a number of dedicated logo design sites, including Logo Gala and Logo Moose, as well as Creative Bloq's dedicated logo news channel. But you should also widen your research to include other graphic design sites, and art and design sites in general, like Dribbble, Behance or DeviantArt. Explore further down the results pages to visit sites you haven't seen before and also narrow your search to put the spotlight on logos in the same industry or belonging to companies of similar size, aspirations and values. 04. Plunder your client's history Take a dive back into your client's logo design historyCheck out all the various logos your client has employed since the company was founded. This can be particularly interesting if they go back for many decades. You may be able to hark back to the past, if the client would like to position itself as a heritage brand, or you might be able to radically overhaul tits original logo into something fresh and modern. This has the advantage of built-in continuity even as you present a new image. 05. Explore your client's future Discuss with your client its plans for the future – what does it envisage for the next 12 months or the next five years? Are there changes of direction imminent or new products coming on stream that could have some bearing on the logo you design? You need to future-proof the logo because businesses do change over time. Take, for example, Carphone Warehouse: no-one buys carphones any more – so should it lose a highly successful brand that has taken years to build by changing its name to something more appropriate? 06. Phone a friend A fresh eye can provide you with valuable insights (photo by William Iven on Unsplash)While it makes perfect sense to get as much information as you can from the client, sometimes there's nothing quite so helpful as a fresh pair of eyes. If you have some ideas worked up, take them to a friend who has absolutely no connection to the project, and see what they think. Often someone's untainted opinion can be just what you need to fire the imagination. 07. Build some mood boards The Matboard is a great mood board tool Mood boards and brainstorms can help you to straighten out your thoughts and mix up different images and ideas of all shapes, sizes and themes. Play with keywords and synonyms and gather a multitude of inspirations from different sources onto a single mood board to see how they combine. 08. Trawl through your own design archives It's probably a fair guess that for every logo you design you probably come up with a couple of dozen sketches before you decide which one to develop further. Never throw away these early ideas, as they form a valuable resource. Just because one of your early sketches didn't work for a previous client, it doesn't mean it won't work at all. Go back through previous work that you've done but not used and you may find the seed that, with a bit of nurturing, could grow to become the logo you're looking for. 09. Blast your brain with random images Check out the Creative Bloq Pinterest boards for a blast of inspiration Scroll through Google Images and Pinterest on both related and unrelated subjects to your client's logo needs. Then add the results to your mood board. Pick a colour here, a shape there, a word, a typeface... then see how these different ideas could work together. 10. Stay receptive At the end of the day, inspiration can strike anywhere, at any time. Be receptive to the ideas that flow through your mind. Sketch something as it comes to you and then revisit it later to see how it might work within the parameters of your brief. At these early stages of the design process you need to allow your creativity full rein. Give yourself plenty of ideas to work with and then take the best elements from each and discard the rest. 11. Do something else Give your mind a break from the task at hand (photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash)If you've tried everything and nothing's coming up, don't try to force it. Take a break and let your brain get on with other things. Go to see a film, play some video games, cook a nice meal or just have a lovely nap. It's amazing how just getting away from the problem at hand and thinking about something else can result in a sudden flash of exactly the right kind of inspiration. There's no point just waiting for inspiration to hit. The more you search it out, the easier you'll find it. You'll develop an eye for what works and what doesn't, and how you can apply this to your own nascent designs. Read more: 10 commandments of logo design 15 fantastic logo fonts 5 things to research before designing a logo View the full article

If you scrolled through Twitter at the weekend, you might have stumbled across the quickly escalating Twitter storm centred around a poorly worded tweet from typography legend Erik Spiekermann. The situation erupted after new author on the block Laura Kalbag proudly announced that after three years of hard work she'd written a book called Accessibility for Everyone. Spiekermann took issue with the wording of the message: You could argue that Spiekermann didn't send this Tweet, he just typed the textA bitter argument ensued, playing out in the beats we've come to expect from heated Twitter exchanges: Spiekermann explained the intentional irony behind his Tweet; Kalbag accepted his apology; strangers accused the typographer of being a misogynist; and the hate levels rose. JK Rowling even weighed in to give the story the status it needed to be catapulted to mainstream attention. As is the case with these sorts of altercations, picking apart who said what, when, can be an exhausting affair. And while Spiekermann's original message is unnecessarily pedantic in its aim to highlight the valuable input of literal bookmakers, he was quick to apologise to Kalbag and to recognise the hard work of writers. Is Twitter still worth it? This isn't the first time an argument like this has boiled over on Twitter. Getting a nuanced or humorous point across can be difficult given the site's 140 character limitation: misunderstandings occur often and jokes frequently fail to stick the landing. Throw in an increasing backlash to new logo and branding projects, and the question arises: is it time for designers to leave Twitter? Is it still home to the conversations, communities and opportunities that creatives can be part of to stay connected and informed? One reason why Twitter might have become an angry echo chamber for some is because its position in the digital landscape has changed over the years. "Twitter used to be a gimmick, but it’s now become part of everyone’s life," says type and logo designer Rob Clarke. "I initially used it as a place to get in touch with other like-minded designers around the world." "It worked for me – I even eventually met up with people after only speaking to them online. It still is a great way to network and promote recently launched projects. I’m not sure it makes us better designers but it certainly keeps me up-to-date with the industry." The increasing amount of hate on Twitter is worrying for Clarke, though, who has seen the aggressive behaviour which used to be limited to blogs spill over to reach a wider audience. "I see it as similar to road rage," he explains. "Anonymous people behind their keyboards shaking their fists. Just seeing web links and animated cat GIFs is boring but I’m not sure Twitter, with it’s limited amount of characters, is the best platform for debate and discussion." "It seems we are now living in a much more turbulent world of social networking so I think those with a large following and big reputation need to think/re-read before they press send." Think before you Tweet So is Twitter still a useful way to keep up with industry news, promote work and discuss industry issues with fellow creatives? Or are pedantic rows like this all that's left ? We, er, asked Twitter – and here's what was said: Meanwhile, some people still hold on to Victorian values when it comes to designers. An overwhelming majority of people who responded to the Tweet agreed that there's still a lot of fun to be had with Twitter, as long as you keep a cool head and don't post statuses in a hurry. However, the whole situation might make Spiekermann revaluate one of the gems of wisdom from his recent Creative Bath talk, namely that designers shouldn't make excuses. "We are judged by our work, not our words," he states. Maybe in the future he'll add a caveat about Tweets. Related articles: Meet the Twitter designer who shuns all social media 25 names every graphic designer should know Why it's time for designers to stand up as creative activists View the full article

It may be the end of the summer, but there are plenty of hot new web design tools to get stuck into. One of the standout tools this month has to be Video Indexer from Microsoft, which can do some very clever things with video. There is also a handy static website builder, and a tool that will help you out when working with SVGs generated in Illustrator. Beyond that there’s the usual roundup of new resources that make our lives that bit easier. Ready? Here we go! 01. Microsoft Video Indexer Extract insights from inside your videosMicrosoft's Video Indexer uses artificial intelligence to search for spoken words, faces and other characteristics within videos. It can detect when a scene changes and when text appears in a video, and can produce an audio transcript. Somehow, it can even look for particular emotions. You can use it to extract useful metadata that makes it easier for people to find your videos. 02. Supernova Supernova converts mobile designs into fully-fledged native appsSupernova turns Sketch designs into working native iOS and Android apps in a few minutes, enabling designers to create functioning apps without any coding. It converts design layers into native components and deals with responsive layouts for you. It’s currently still in beta, and free to try. 03. Parallax SVG Animation Tools A great way to work with SVGs in IllustratorHand-editing SVG code can be a pain, so someone built this post-processor for SVGs produced by Illustrator. It uses layer names to create attributes, classes and IDs so they're much easier to select in JavaScript or CSS. 04. Fontface Ninja This free browser extension lets you dig into different sites' font infoFontface Ninja is a browser extension that lets you play around with and buy fonts on any website. Hover on a font on any site to see its name, line height, size and other specifications – you can even try it out by typing in an overlaid box to see how it will look for the text you have in mind. If you like it, the download or purchase link is provided so you can click straight through. 05. Publii Sites created with Publii are based on static HTML files, making them very safeThis is interesting: Publii is a desktop app that makes it easy to build stylish static websites. It’s geared up for building blogs in particular, and uses Google AMP technology for speed, and also handles layout on different devices for you. Running a static site is a great choice if you’re worried about security, as it makes your website much less vulnerable to intrusion. 06. JPNG.svg Keep your images light with this helpful toolCombining the transparency of a PNG with the compression of a JPG, this tool uses SVG to make PNG files smaller. Plus, it works in all modern browsers. 07. Uploadcare 3.0 Uploadcare works on any device and supports files up to 5TB in sizeUploadcare is a fast file uploader that deals with storage, processing and delivery. It will optimise your files and deliver them via its super-fast CDN. Version 3.0 offers some major improvements, including face recognition, colour extraction and image enhancement features. 08. Stockio These stock assets are free to useStockio is a great stock resource that offers thousands of photos, videos, vectors, icons and fonts that are free for personal and commercial use. 09. Vecteezy Editor Customise Vecteezy content directly in your browserVecteezy offers free and premium vector art and now it has an editor that can be used to make changes to Vecteezy artwork or to create your own vectors from scratch. It’s quite a handy way to edit vectors in the browser, and it works in Chrome, Chromium and Opera. 10. Sketch for Designers Supercharge your Sketch designsBilling itself as 'A growing collection of the best Sketch resources', this site curates some of the most useful plugins and apps for Sketch so you can get the best out of the software. Read more: UXPin releases free Material Design UI library 8 great business cards for UX designers Free Flash alternative is here View the full article

The year 2017 is my 10th as an illustrator, so here I've compiled 50 pearls of wisdom to help fellow illustrators. For a while I've been thinking about what I've learned on that journey, and how I can communicate it. I'm not a writer, so like with many other things I needed to find a way of working first. How to be an award-winning illustratorFor more than half a year I jotted down my thoughts as one-liners while working on illustration jobs. I collected a list, covering a range of facts, simple observations, bold statements and hyperbole. In the following 50 tips, I offer seven steps of in-depth advice first, followed by 43 quickfire thoughts, tips and tricks on the next page. As with all in life, take these – my subjective views on life as an illustrator – with a grain of salt. May they be of help on your own journey. 01. Forget style Avoid being compartmentalised by staying fluidIn the illustration world, especially among young illustrators, people seem obsessed with talking about style – how to find a style, whether they should have more than one style, and so on. It has been said countless times, but I'll say it again: Just work and your 'style' will emerge (see how I can't help but use the word with inverted commas). Steadily working and observing your own drawings will help you to discover things in them that could be the seed for a whole body of work. If you are obsessed by somebody else's work, try copying it as an exercise (do not present it as your own, though). In that process, you will notice what suits you and what does not. I found doing such an exercise so tedious that it sent me running back to my own stuff very quickly. When working on an actual job, style is rarely a topic of conversation. I very seldom receive older images of mine as a reference for what is expected of me. My 'style' (I cringed a bit when writing that) has broadened nicely over recent years. Clients often even give me complete trust and thus freedom to choose what I think will work best. 02. Use paper Paper can be essential in the early stages of a projectDigital methods of creation have undoubtedly become indispensable for communication and allow us to be immensely effective when finalising our work. But let's be honest: we cannot think on the screen yet. I've noticed that with a piece of paper in front of me, my sense of composition comes more naturally than it does on a screen. My hands and eyes are interacting with the area of the paper and measuring distances constantly. When sketching on the computer, I find that placing everything correctly requires a lot more tweaking. It is harder to keep a sense of the bigger picture when working digitally. Similarly, I also tried writing with a fountain pen and noticed how words and sentences started to flow out, like ink, naturally onto the paper. Thoughts formed easier than when I was typing on a keyboard. Paper is one of the oldest technologies we have. Cultural creation has been based on it for millennia. Let's not abandon it just yet, especially in the early stages of a project. 03. Remember that digital tools aren't magical Ask yourself if you need that new kit or just want itNew software versions, texture packs, Photoshop brushes, Wacom tablets, iPads and Apple pencils are the tools of our trade. Even when working in analogue, it is almost impossible to steer clear of digital tools entirely. And while a tool can be motivating for a while, it is too easy to get obsessed by a constant need for the new. I think the problem is the way that we approach these tools as if they have magical properties. We imagine ourselves working with the tool in scenarios that are not realistic, and often do not reflect our actual way of working. For example, take the idea that if I only had that new iPad Pro, I would go out and make on-location drawings. But if I have never done an on-location drawing before in my life, the iPad will probably not get me to do it. Apply some sobriety to your kit wishlist – are the items on it actual needs or just wants? Ask yourself which of the tools that you already own have really had an impact on your work, to help you decide. Digital tools usually develop incrementally. So it's not often that a revolutionary product or software feature comes along that improves our way of working dramatically. Therefore, don't expect wonders from a new digital tool any more than you would expect any huge transformations from a new pencil. 04. Be realistic about time Pulling all-nighters really isn't very productiveIt is easy to make unreasonable assumptions about what you can achieve in one day. For example, having the idea that: "If only I hunker down properly today, I could finish the whole project." The end of the day will inevitably roll around and crush your plans. Nobody can really work for a full eight hours every day intellectually. It is impossible to stay focused and to concentrate on pushing a project forward in a meaningful way for such a long time. Many novelists do not write for more than four hours a day. A recent move to a six-hour working day in some Swedish companies even showed an increase in productivity. The way you think you are working is probably not congruent with the way you are actually working (see tip 22). We are constantly frustrated by our progress, while at the same time, we are – with a little discipline – remarkably consistent in our output. Why not accept reality and use it to our advantage? Plan more realistically to be less frustrated. Time can also be on your side. Looking at your work again tomorrow, instead of rushing it out today, will give you a more objective look and maybe even provide the chance to make the final tweak to push a drawing from good to great. 05. Don't steal other people's ideas You might copy an idea by accident, but don't do it on purposeI don't think copying ideas has a place in illustration. I pride myself on coming up with the right image, and thus the right idea for a given text. If nothing else, that is what separates me from stock art. And in times of a large, aware online public, it also seems foolish to steal ideas and not expect to be found out. That being said, I'm convinced that you can copy an idea entirely by accident or subconsciously. For each final illustration I make, I provide two or three (hopefully) original ideas. That amounts to me generating several hundred ideas per year. The numbers are high. As illustrators, our personal and professional backgrounds are often similar, so the symbols and references we have in our minds may also be similar. I think that having the same ideas is inevitable at times, however unlikely a mere coincidence seems at first glance. So please reflect on your outrage the next time it happens. 06. Know that big clients come with big hierarchies The bigger the client, the more pressure you'll have to faceWhen graphic designer Kurt Weidemann redesigned the logo of German railway Deutsche Bahn in the early '90s, there was uproar in the press because he received a record fee of 200,000DM (about £152,000 in today's money) for his design services. For this fee, however, Weidemann had spent endless hours explaining his work to mid-level executives, and sat in many mind-numbing corporate meetings. He also got a lot of flak from the media when the design was finally revealed. On the surface, making an editorial drawing and one to be used in an advertising campaign is not that different. The higher fee for ad jobs is justified by the client buying a more comprehensive license. Where is the problem? Here it is: When working on ad jobs, you are usually working opposite a team of people in various positions, who are in turn responsible to a team representing the client. The result is that you are facing a hierarchy – or even two hierarchies – who all have a say on the outcome of what you are drawing. The result is a strictly controlled environment, and that means many revisions before everybody is happy. Like Weidemann, you are faced with a corporate machine. Unlike Weidemann, you might not have enough standing (or stamina) to protect the integrity of your work until the finish line. That is what you are compensated for. 07. Know thyself If you want to succeed, learn to recognise your strengths and weaknessesWhile you're studying illustration – either formally, or by yourself – you are exposed to great work by others. You feel jealous of your peers and in awe of the masters. You're inspired, you're confused, you try to create, and then you're frustrated by what you produce and how badly it compares. And in spite of it all, you're still driven to make something, so you try again. Although you are dealing a lot with your emotions in that whole turbulent process, you might not have learned to observe yourself and what you are doing yet. To be successful, you need to find out a lot of things about yourself first: What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? This is easier said than done, but start with simple things first. For example, what are your most productive working hours? Whether you work best at 6am or midnight, don't miss out on these hours, and try to plan the rest of your day around them. Once your needs are taken care of, you will become less anxious. You are the person you have to work with for the rest of your life, so get to know yourself. Be disciplined, of course, but also be accepting and tolerant. Next page: Quickfire tips and tricks for illustrators You can see more of Stolle's work on his website, danielstolle.com As I've been working over the last few months I've jotted down the following one-liners. They're things I've noticed about the craft of illustration as well as the business side of working in illustration, advice I've given to new illustrators and tips for staying productive. 08. Drawing is thinking. 09. Thinking hurts – do it anyway. 10. Hands can be as expressive as a face. 11. Craft has not gone. Being taught the craft is just harder. 12. Deadlines are sacred, but pay dates are not. 13. Don't show your bad ideas to the client – they might choose them. 14. The headline might change at any moment – do not base your idea on it. 15. Try to find inspiration and aspiration from outside the field of illustration. 16. There are sadly no shortcuts to a good drawing. Making one usually involves work. 17. In print, everything looks a bit darker than on screen. 18. Learn to be okay with being with yourself. 19. Being organised can get in the way of being efficient. Sketch as big as possible20. Read the email again. Carefully. 21. Sketch as big as possible, especially when doing portraits. Small sketches amplify mistakes. 22. To achieve minimalism, it is sometimes easiest to strip things away from something that isn't minimalist at first. 23. The client publishes first. 24. A picture without a human element is hard to relate to. 25. For likeness, head shape is just as important as actual facial features. 26. If an image looks off, flipping it may reveal any flaws. 27. Don't always draw everything in the centre of the image. 28. Time is often lost while transitioning between tasks. Make a conscious effort to switch faster, or better: avoid too many switches. 29. Imagine every drawing is going to be printed big. Good drawing is not lost when scaled down. Creators are greater than critics30. If you have to explain the idea, it's not a good idea (unless you are working with a stupid person). 31. No one is easier to draw than a bearded man. 32. Sometimes pieces that would look good in a design portfolio will not look good on a magazine page, and vice versa. 33. Tracing is like a crutch. Sometimes you need a crutch, but who wants to walk with one all the time? 34. 2B or not to be. 35. Every line you draw in a person's face makes them older. 36. Be prepared for a format change. 37. Your feeling about what constitutes a good idea will differ from your client's. 38. Focus and concentration can be trained. 39. Creator > critic. You're first idea might be the best40. The first idea might be the best, but don't rely on it. 41. Progress > perfection. 42. Don't let your inbox make any *bleeping* sounds. 43. Colour Practice > Colour Theory. 44. The older you get, the better you understand time. 45. On some days, it just doesn't work. 46. The wrists and back are easy to wreck. 47. On some people, the upper part of the legs is longer. On others, the lower part is longer. 48. All sketches look better after scanning. 49. You can learn something from anyone's drawing. 50. Being able to edit yourself is as elusive as it is valuable. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 267. Buy it here! Related articles: Why illustrators should care about copyright Pro tips for illustrators How to break into children's illustration View the full article

WordPress powers tons of the web, from simple sites to some of the most elaborate. If you’re looking to become a web designer, mastering this popular platform is a must. Learn the skills you need with PressShack University WordPress Training. You can get lifetime access to these training tools on sale now for 96% off the full retail price! WordPress is a great tool for getting a website up and running quickly, but it can do so much more than it appears at first glance. PressShack University Wordpress Training walks you through 39 hours of educational courses that will arm you with expert knowledge on how to make the most of the very malleable platform. Pick up tricks of the trade and must-have information while building your design skills – and there's always new information being added. You can get lifetime access to PressShack University WordPress Training on sale for just $39 (approx £30). That's a huge saving of 96% off the retail price for this invaluable training. Don't miss out, grab it today! View the full article

To paint a figure that looks believably wet requires you to take a number of factors into account – a key one being the type of fabric they are wearing. Start with an unclothed figure to drape the wet clothes upon. Follow these tips to find out how to draw a character who's just been caught in a downpour. How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials01. Start with an unclothed figure Sketch the figure first (Click the arrows icon in the top right to enlarge the image)Start out with an unclothed figure – this makes it easier to work out how the material will cling to the form. For this example, we're using a female figure with longish hair and flowing skirt. It’s important to understand the character's figure, because wet clothing will cling to it more closely than dry. I sketch out a pose of what will be a young woman holding up her skirts slightly. This is done with Pencil and Paintbrush tools in SketchBook Pro. 02. Consider wet clothing Drape the wet clothing on, thinking about how the fabric would behave (Click the arrows icon in the top right to enlarge the image)Sketch out clothes on a new layer. Remember that the extra weight of the water will cause the fabric to hang straighter than if it was dry – wet hair will behave in much the same way. It's important to consider what fabrics the figure is wearing – think how wet leather looks and behaves differently to wet silk or cotton. While treated leather can have a degree of stiffness and water resistance, silk quickly becomes waterlogged and clings to the forms beneath it. 03. Explore colour Rain affects the colours of clothes, too (Click the arrows icon in the top right to enlarge the image)On another separate layer, block in solid colours – here we picked a green for the skirt and white for the blouse. Shading helps with the volumes. Paint with browns and purples on several layers set to Multiply. Being wet will affect the colour of clothes and hair, so limit the spread of the highlights, where you want areas to look wettest. The figure's white blouse appears semi-transparent where it sticks to her skin. 04. Pay attention to details Add details for realism (Click the arrows icon in the top right to enlarge the image)You can emphasise the impression of being drenched by remembering that body posture plays a part. Wet clothes are less comfortable and heavier, so consider how this will influence the character's pose. It will also affect how they move, and even how they behave – a wet person might choose a different route through a house to avoid spoiling an expensive rug, for example. Your figure work is likely to have more character if you give them a back story. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 146. Buy it here. Read more: Improve your character drawing How to draw a ghost Get better at figure drawing View the full article

You're reading Crazy Sliders – 10 Ways of Taking Sliders to the Next Level, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Every other website seems to include a full-screen slider. It is a tested way to quickly and unobtrusively interest users with important stuff such as featured products or portfolio pieces. Its realization is pretty banal. In a nutshell, it is just a container with two controls where the content is circling in the loop. Nothing […] View the full article