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This month's Computer Arts went to press from the middle of the bustling hub of creative energy that is D&AD New Blood – the culmination of another year’s action-packed graduate show season – and it's packed with the very best new talent the team could find. Buy Computer Arts issue 269 now! So if you’re looking for designers to inject new life into your studio, on the hunt for your next creative collaborator, or just hungry for new sources of inspiration, the expansive 28-page special report at the core of the issue is a great place to start, and includes 30 hand-picked graduates to watch. Santa Cielava from LCC opens the graphic design section CSM graduate Noah Petri is one of CA's illustrators to watch Stunning cover treatment The cover of the print edition was created by Camelia Pham, winner of CA's fourth-annual cover design contest, in partnership with D&AD New Blood and specialist print finisher Celloglas – which provided a luxurious silver Mirri finish for the cover to be printed onto. See the Top 10 shortlist of the Computer Arts cover design contest 2017 here, and find out more about the printing process in this video: Meanwhile, if you’re graduating yourself this year, CA issue 269 also includes an in-depth guide to landing your first job in design – whether that involves wowing through an internship, nailing an interview or exploring what a recruitment service can offer. Get your first job in design with Computer ArtsCA's ongoing series in partnership with D&AD New Blood also concludes this issue, with advice on future-proofing yourself as a young designer in an ever-changing industry. Top tips for future-proofing yourselfAlso in Computer Arts issue 269 How Frost*collective created a bold new environment for creative play centre Nubo Make your studio a fun place to work, with advice from Bristol-based Halo Plus: inspiring work from across the global design industryBuy Computer Arts issue 269 here. Subscribe today and get 5 issues for £5! Like what you see? Subscribe to Computer Arts before the end of August to trial five issues for just £5 in the amazing summer sale. More posts from Computer Arts: The designer’s guide to using colour in branding Why graphic designers need beautiful websites How to animate the Disney way View the full article

With fonts, as with people, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. After all, one designer's Futura could be another's Jokerman. With that in mind, we've put together 10 fonts that we're sure someone, somewhere will find beautiful. They might not all be your cup of tea, but we hope that thanks to the laws of averages at least one font on this list will make you swoon. 50 best free fonts for designers01. Bibliophile Script A perfect font for bookwormsFormat: OTF The elegant Bibliophile is a mish mash font made up of lettering from the hand of Louis Prang, a Prussian-American painter and publisher. Available in two weights, both of which contain over 900 glyphs that cover all the latin languages, Bibliophile usually retails at £78.99, but you can grab it now for just £39.50 (around $51). 02. Hello Beautiful Don't forget to dot your letters with a heartFormat: OTF, TT Looking for a bit of affection from your lettering? Well, with Hello Beautiful, you can kid yourself that the typeset is admiring your good looks every time you fire it up. Available as a trio of fonts, Hello Beautiful has a rough and casual hand-written feel that's sure to give your designs a personal touch. You can get your hands on the font family of three for just $18/£12.99. 03. OL America the Beautiful Making typography great againFormat: OTF, TT One for the patriots, this. Designed by New York City-based Dennis Ortiz-Lopez, OL America the Beautiful celebrates the designer's affection for his homeland. Thanks to its gradient shading and distinctive colours, there's no missing this font that's as loud and proud as the country that inspired it. OL America the Beautiful includes six different styles that you can download for £172.99 (around $225). 04. Kiwi This beautiful font looks good enough to eatFormat: OTF, TT Don't worry, this font isn't furry on the outside. Instead, Kiwi takes inspiration from its fruity namesake by offering "sweet and spirited forms and a variety of tasty options." As well as including playful letter shapes, Kiwi font is accompanied by the delicious Kiwi Fruits, a collection of graphic fruit illustrations by Amy Dietrich. Download the pair for £34.99 (around $45). 05. Beach Please Life's a beach with this chilled out fontFormat: OTF What's more beautiful than a beach? Thanks to their stunning waves and golden sands, beaches have inspired countless paintings, motivational posters, and now a family of seven beautiful fonts. These handwritten fonts have been designed with pointed brushes and watercolours to create a relaxing and energetic set of letters. No trip to the beach is complete without snacks, so this family also includes tropical and fruity icons. Grab them all for $38/£79. 06. Gessetto All the fun of chalk without the horrible blackboard-scraping noiseFormat: OTF Chalkboard lettering has a character and style all of its own that's hard to replicate anywhere else. However, the team behind Gessetto has pulled it off by creating an extensive chalk font family that contains script, sans, roman, figures and ornaments. This family includes nine different variations, all of which you can download for $60/£119. 07. Liesel Step back in time with this historical calligraphy fontFormat: OTF Loosely based on traditional hand-drawn lettering, Liesel claims to reflect "a warm, antique aesthetic." Made up of eight fonts that are designed to be layered and experimented with, Liesel gives typographers plenty of room for experimentation. Grab them all on sale now for £71.80 or buy only the Liesel Printed Family for $36 or the Liesel Brush Family for $36. 08. Superb This high contrast font is easy to readFormat: OTF Superb is a glamorous font family that takes is cues from stylish real brush pen script designs from the '60s and '70s. Packing various swashes with volume and curls, Superb also includes negative figures and a full alphabet set with cut out shapes. You can download Superb for just $39/£32. 09. Kayto This unique family is an exploration of pointed brush calligraphyFormat: OTF, TT Natural gestures feature in this beautiful font, which is the second collaboration between calligrapher Erwin Indrawan and typeface designer Dexsar Harry Anugrah. Made with a real brush held perpendicular to the paper to channel the movements of the hand, Kayto is a seven font family that you can download for the equally beautiful price of $25/£17.99. 10. Asterism Shine bright like a diamond with AsterismFormat: OTF A more whimsical calligraphy font rounds off our list of beautiful fonts. Meet Asterism, a single style family with "a moving baseline and lots of shining personality." Based on the hand-written look of designer Molly Jacques Erickson's signature calligraphy styles, this set can be yours to download and own for $30/£20.99. Related articles: 7 best new fonts of 2017 15 fantastic logo fonts 50 best free fonts for designers View the full article

The eyes of everyone in the CGI and digital content creation industry will be turned towards Los Angeles this summer, as SIGGRAPH 2017 takes place – the event's 44th outing. As one of the biggest shows in the industry, with representatives from Autodesk, Maxon, The Foundry, AMD, and NVIDIA among many others, SIGGRAPH is a must for CG artists. 30 inspiring examples of 3D artMarvel at new research The Technical Papers include how Clensch maps can be used for visualisation and processingSIGGRAPH's Technical Papers presentations let attendees explore the science behind the pixels. These papers have earned the event its reputation as one of the most esteemed and influential forums for research in the world. This year, from 439 submissions, 127 papers will be showcased (scroll down for an overview video). And there are plenty of new areas of research to get excited about. “In addition to the continuation of research in geometric modelling and animation, rendering and imaging, I was surprised and excited, to see the extension of cinematography techniques to VR videos," says Marie-Paule Cani, chair of the Technical Papers program. "I’m also excited about the design of novel devices that capture micro-motion or are able to capture 3D fluid flows, and a printing technique that uses embedded magnetic flakes to create printed pictures that change with the lighting.” Learn how a new multi-species model can simulate the interaction between water and sandDive into machine learning Machine learning is one of the hot topics in computer science at the moment. Cani has noticed a trend in computer imaging in particular: the use of deep learning to generate new content, be it images, videos, speech or motion. For those interested, there are several sessions dedicated to this area, including Deep image processing and Speech and facial animation. Discover how ‘dip transform’ can aid reconstruction of 3D shapesDip into another specialism The papers at SIGGRAPH offer an incredibly wide range of topics, meaning that attendees can gain some really valuable insights into areas that they may not otherwise discover. “Look for inspiration from a diverse set of presentations,” advises Cani. “Attending sessions from a different sub-domain may be a good idea, since our field is advancing thanks to cross-fertilisation – for example, editing or transfer techniques first introduced in imaging later inspiring those who developed in shape modelling." Plan your trip For those who are new to SIGGRAPH and want to see as many presentations as they can, the sheer amount of papers on offer can be overwhelming. For an overview of this year's content, take a look at the trailer below: You might also like to attend the Technical Papers Fast Forwards session on Sunday 30 July. SIGGRAPH 2017 runs from 30 July to 3 August. Visit s2017.siggraph.org for more information. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy issue 224 here or Subscribe here. Related articles: 8 best 3D tools of 2017 so far How videogame graphics and movie VFX are converging Create ornate tiles in Substance Designer View the full article

It’s Friday. Fancy a spot of trippy animation eye-candy to ease you through the day? Then please, allow us. Our favourite new animation this week by far was Adult Swim’s trailer for the new season of eccentric animation series Rick and Morty. Titled Exquisite Corpse, the insane short features sequences created by a stellar cast of top animation talent, taking you on a journey through some 22 different animation styles. Greatest animated music videosThe clip, which was directed by illustrator Matt Taylor, takes inspiration from the surrealist drawing technique of the same name – Exquisite Corpse – in which different artists draw a section of a body without seeing the others beforehand. Aided by an instrumental version of Run The Jewels’ Thursday in the Danger Room, it’s makes for the perfect Friday viewing – and a cracking way to gear up for the weekend. The all-new Rick and Morty episodes begin 30 July. Related articles: Understand the 12 principles of animation How to get started with animation A beginner's guide to designing interface animations View the full article

When web developers need to get their sites online with the assurance that all their designs will work as expected, they turn to Arch Hosting Web Hosting. You can get a lifetime subscription to this powerful service for just $29.99 (approx £23). Arch Hosting Web Hosting has everything you need to get your website up and running at full speed. This performance-oriented host understands the importance of having no downtime and quick load times, and will optimise your site with its lightning-fast network. Get 2GB of storage space and 500GB of bandwidth for your domain, which you'll get free for one year with this offer. You can get get a lifetime subscription to Arch Hosting Web Hosting for just $29.99 (approx £23). That's a saving of 91% off the retail price for a service that will get your site up and running, so grab this deal today! View the full article

Google’s stripped-back homepage is recognised the world over. The vast white space containing just a simple logo and search box has been in place since the search engine’s launch in 1996, and offers a classic example of extreme minimalism in action. But is Google about to buck one of 2017’s biggest web design trends with its proposed new design? According to the Guardian, Google is set to undergo a “radical change” with the addition of a Facebook-style personalised newsfeed in the “near future”. The new design will bring it in line with Google’s mobile apps for Android and iOS, which already feature a news and events-based feed. “You’ll see cards with things like sports highlights, top news, engaging videos, new music, stories to read and more. And now, your feed will not only be based on your interactions with Google, but also factor in what’s trending in your area and around the world,” said Shashi Thakur, vice president of engineering at Google. “As the world and your interests change, your feed will continue to grow and evolve along with you. You’ll notice that your feed will also reflect your interest level for various topics – for example, if you’re a photography enthusiast but just casually interested in fitness, your feed will show that.” Goodbye white space While there are no firm design details as yet, this news feed experience could lead to a cluttered-looking search engine – which would position Google firmly against the year’s continued web design trends of minimalist design and ample white space. As yet, however, we don’t know how complex the desktop feed will be. As our sister site TechRadar points out, you might have to log in to your Google account to use the new system – “as personalisation is the name of the game here, particularly when it comes to elements such as linking in your calendar or Gmail inbox to scrape flight booking details and so forth.” Right now, it’s all eyes on Google for the next few weeks, as we wait to see exactly how radical the new homepage design will be. The company has said the new feed additions will roll out to US users immediately and international users in the next few weeks. Related articles: Get Computer Arts' Self-Promo issue completely free! 20 amazing free Google web fonts 11 web design tools you can't live without View the full article

Last September, we experienced a design event like no other. OFFF By Night transformed a cavernous warehouse space in Antwerp, Belgium into a bustling hub of food, fun and flashing screens for a three-day creative extravaganza, where the talks finished at midnight every night. It's back for a second year from 23-25 November 2017, now called Us By Night – but still curated by Rizon Parein, the hugely passionate Belgian-born designer who first dreamed it up. Here, we caught up with Parein to find out why designers should mark it in their calendars now... Innovative design event format Last year’s event introduced a brave and innovative new format, are you continuing in the same vein for 2017? Rizon Parein: It was indeed a big wild guess, which turned out to be a huge success. Last year we had to sell a new concept, and convince people... now we know the fundamentals of our concept were bang on, this gives us the confidence and motivation to explore the whole 'nightlife experience' even more. The conference room itself with its massive screen will probably not change much, but the night market we’re gonna take to the next level, adding a lot more games and sports, an improved Q&A saloon, more massive LED screens, dirty green lasers, light installations, shops and so on... think Blade Runner. A full house for the Q&A stage at OFFF By Night 2016"A theme park for creativity" In big-picture terms, how are you making the event bigger and better for 2017? Did you get any ‘difficult second album’ type fears? RP: The lineup the first year was mindblowing – as I frequently visit design conferences myself I just put together my personal best of the best. For the sake of nostalgia alone, I would have loved to invite every single speaker again but that of course would not be a clever thing to do. I love the community aspect, the same vibe as when travelling back in the day from one graffiti jam to the other. It's one big family, sharing the same interests and up for a party. So it was quite a challenge to build this new lineup to match last year’s fireworks, but so much fun digging into artists. It kind of educates you, scouting all these talents. I’ve been suggested a bunch of names by Michael Spoljaric, senior creative director at Nike Basketball, who has worked with the cream of the crop of the design world and has a really good view of what’s happening in the scene. Also Playgrounds, the well known design festival in Amsterdam, will be curating a few names especially in the field of film and animation. For the Q&A saloon we are collaborating with lots of curators, which makes our lineup even more diverse than last year... to name a few: Alice Gallery, Vice, Kris Hoet, with more TBC. We like to see our event as a platform where creatives can plug into. It’s not an ego show, it’s a theme park for creativity. The warehouse space in Parkloods, Antwerp is transformed – but keeps its urban edgeLast year's night-time format is pretty unusual in design conference terms. What were the biggest lessons you learned from doing so? RP: Well as I said, it was a big hit. It was so, so much fun, and what we did last year we will do this year but even better. We are working on the food and beverages aspect in particular. I truly swear by local, honest products, but this comes with a pricetag so it's hard to compete with typical festival fast food. We’re now looking into a way to serve, next to our food stalls, quality food at a lower price. One idea is a huge long table that you can book for one massive dinner a night: a fun way to eat and network at the same time. As well as food stalls and LED screens, the night market includes games such as ping pongThe creative lineup Talk us through the 2017 lineup. How did it take shape, and who are you most excited about coming along? RP: Artists I'm looking forward to? All of them, otherwise I wouldn’t ask them :) What surprised me last year was how many of us were involved in graffiti, like a third of the lineup. So I’ve invited a few of my old-skool graffiti heroes, like Mode 2 – what this guy's done for the graffiti scene you can't imagine. Also, last year a few people were calling our event Nike by Night, because so many of the speakers had Nike stuff in their keynote. It's hard to avoid, since Nike works with the best and many of us see it as our dream client. To have some counterweight, we have this year ex-Wieden+Kennedy José Cabaco, who has a very important role in the future storytelling of Adidas. I'm really curious about what his talk will bring. The main stage played host to a packed-out audience in 2016Finally, what advice would you give to a fellow design event organiser who’s trying to evolve and grow their offering? RP: Bigger screen, bigger bar. No, it’s not that simple. We had some offers to start our event abroad, but what is key to our success is our venue – we could not just land with our concept anywhere else. General advice is hard, as each venue has its own story. I'd say try to make it unique, give it that extra touch, keep it human and definitely don't make it too corporate. What's your ambition for Us By Night in the next five years? RP: An open air edition, of course at night, at the Hollywood Bowl :) Us By Night will take over Parkloods in Antwerp, Belgium from 23–25 November 2017. Don't miss out: buy your tickets now! Related articles: How to network successfully: 19 pro tips Have designers become lazy? New talent 2017: Best graduates from London's top colleges View the full article

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3D software developers know that 3D artists have a creatively fulfilling but deadline-filled job with long hours, so they’re constantly striving to find new ways to make your life easier. In this post, we round up the 3D tools that have made the biggest strides forward so far in 2017. (So for instance, 3ds Max may be the industry standard, but version 2018 still didn’t make our list because the improvements weren’t exactly mindblowing.) 01. Unreal Engine 4.15 Unreal Games now supports the Nintendo SwitchFebruary saw the arrival of version 4.15 of Epic Games’ popular open source game engine, Unreal Engine. The new release sports 79 improvements submitted by UE developers on GitHub. The biggest attention grabber is support for the Nintendo Switch, albeit experimental for now. Version 4.15 also comes with the long-awaited addition of High Dynamic Range (HDR) display support, GPS Data accessibility in Android and iOS, and Playstation VR Aim Controller support. Elsewhere, compile times have been reduced by up to 50 per cent, there’s a new Blendspace editor, and animation blending is now possible in Sequencer. You can read about all the new features in Unreal Engine 4.15 on the Epic Games site. 02. Modo 11.1 Modo now plays nicely with Unreal EngineJune saw the Foundry released Modo 11.1, the second of the three updates to its 3D modelling, rendering and texturing tool. And the feature everyone’s talking about the new Unreal Bridge, which allows you to work in an uninterrupted flow between Modo and Unreal Engine. You can work between the two tools either on the same computer or remotely across two or more computers on the same network. There’s also a new Box Transform tool for moving and positioning UVs more fluidly, a UV coverage indicator for arranging UV Maps more efficiently, and support for object space normal map baking. You can discover the full range of new features and improvements in Modo 11.1 on the Foundry site. 03. Clarisse 3.5 Clarisse’s new scattering system is the headline feature of its latest versionIn May, Isotropix unveiled version 3.5 of its image-centric 2D/3D rendering and animation software for VFX artists, upgraded from version 3.0. The new release includes a new scattering system, which allows you to scatter instanced objects, such as rocks or plant-life, by directly painting particles across a surface. That’s along with collision detection to control the spacing of instances, improvements to groups and file referencing, new Standard PBR material inspired by AlSurface, and a free student edition. You can learn more about the new features in Clarisse 3.5 on the Isotropix site. 04. iClone 7 iClone 7 comes with a new facial rig and animation systemThis time last year, real-time 3D animation and renderer Character Creator for iClone 6 hit, and back then we were most impressed with it. Towards the end of June, makers Reallusion launched version 7, with a ton of new features. Standouts among them were real-time Global Illumination and PBR rendering, new facial and morph animation tools, and camera settings that replicate the movements of real-world production cameras. iClone 7 also comes with a new pack of embedded content plus two new stock 3D characters. You can discover the full list of features in iClone 7 in the video below. 05. Substance Designer 6 The new version of Substance Designer comes with 32-bit floating point compositing (Model by Christian Le Roux)Allegorithmic’s material authoring and scan processing tool reached version 6 in March, with a flurry of new features since Substance Designer 5.5. The feature that most caught our attention was the arrival of 32-bit floating point compositing. There are some cool new scan processing tools that let you create accurate, scanned materials from a set of pre-lit photos. Just take four to eight shots with a camera or even a smartphone, feed them in, and the software does the rest. Version 6 also comes with 8K bakers, a proper text node and a new Curve node, which allows you to define a curve profile to remap colour data. Read the full release notes for Substance Designer 6 on the Allegorithmic site. 06. Substance Painter 2017.1 Substance Source can now be accessed from within the Substance Painter interfaceAllegorithmic has certainly been busy bees of late. In February, its 3D painting tool Substance Painter got an update to 2.5. This added opacity control and colour management to the mix since Substance Painter 2.3 and 2.4, and incorporated support for all the new nodes and features in Substance Designer 6. Two months later came version 2.6, which saw an extension of the scripting API that allows you to update resources in an existing project via a new plugin. Then in June, it released another new version, and the start of a new naming convention. Substance Painter 2017.1 is firmly focused on bringing Substance Source and Substance Painter closer together for a smoother workflow. So the latter is now integrated into the former’s UI and 300 new customisable alphas and patterns have been added to the Shelf, from Celtic symbols to geometric shapes, along with new fonts and new filters. You’ll find full details of the new features in Substance Painter 2017.1 on the Allegorithmic site. 07. Arnold 5 Decreasing melanin content in Arnold’s new standard hair shader (Model courtesy of Zeno Pelgrims)Global illumination ray-tracer Arnold got a big new release this April, with version 5. The biggest change is actually invisible to users, though, as maker Solid Angle has transitioned the software to a brand new architecture. This, it says, will allow it to make major improvements in future. That said, there are still plenty of new features to enjoy right now in Arnold 5. Both render startup and ray trace time have been speeded up considerably, with the company promising a 10x speed boost when pre-processing textures in Arnold’s .tx format. There are also several new shaders, including Standard Volume, a new physically based volumetric shader. And perhaps the biggest news for users is that support for Arnold 5 is also one of the key features of 3ds Max 2018. You’ll find full details on the new features in Arnold 5 in the video below. 08. Project Felix 0.3 An abstract city of bottles created by Vladimir Petkovic using Project FelixWhile it’s aimed at graphic designers rather than 3D artists, Adobe’s beta application – which we reviewed in March – is still a great tool for compositing 2D and 3D shots. You can use it to place, scale and rotate 3D objects, select and customise their materials, and alter the lighting, while a realtime render preview powered by V-Ray shows how the final image will come together, and you can export the result as a layered PSD file to composite in Photoshop. First released for download in January, the most recent update to Project Felix includes the neural network-powered ability to realistically recreate lighting inside a 3D drawing. There’s also a more intuitive user interface, a bookmarking feature, and rendering has been speeded up. You can learn more about Project Felix 0.3 in these release notes. View the full article

Doodling is a great, fun way of expressing yourself. But it's often underrated as an art form. Yet doodle art can help you learn how to draw and make a great addition to your design portfolio – as highlighted by these brilliant examples. Combining child-like doodles with expressive illustrations, they show how doodling can be used to create beautiful and arresting designs. Who knew there were so many doodle art styles? 01. Hattie Stewart Hattie Stewart designed this cover for Bavarian Opera magazine Max JosephBold and beautiful, this gorgeous piece is the work of illustrator Hattie Stewart (as is the opening image). Commissioned by graphic design studio Bureau Mirko Borsche, Stewart doodled this awesome cover for Bavarian Opera magazine Max Joseph. Best known for her 'doodle bombs', Stewart frequently redesigns magazine covers with her own twist. Her unique style has landed her work with many leading brands, including Adidas, Diesel, and Marc by Marc Jacobs. 02. Jon Burgerman Jon Burgerman's 'I stare out of the window' is a doodley twist on stained glassJon Burgerman is best known for his colourful, fluid and playful creations and this one is no exception. Titled 'I stare out of the window', Burgerman was commissioned to create this piece for one of the New Art Gallery Walsall's large-scale windows. The brief was to depict the trials and tribulations of being an artist, including creating a concept, playing with ideas, taking a break and checking emails. 03. Tessa Shearer Tessa Shearer sells her doodled designs through her own online storeBased in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Tessa Shearer is a designer and illustrator who specialises in the cheery and quirky. Her eye-catching doodle style is inspired by a strange mix of Japanese and vintage artwork, as well as the tastes of her three young children. If you like what you can see you can buy her range of limited edition art, jewellery and accessories at her online store, House of Wonderland. 04. Eva-Lotta Lamm Why take notes when you can take sketchnotes?User experience designer Eva-Lott Lamm does web and interface design for Google as her day job, but enjoys graphic design and illustration as well and has made a name for herself with her series of sketchnotes: doodled notes from conference talks that add a fantastic visual element to boring old note-taking. She's even collected her sketchnotes into four books as well as a series of posters; find them all here. 05. Kim Jung Gi This South Korean artist is the master of the doodle. Taking to blank walls when he's not capturing his improvised art in a sketchbook, Kim has become world famous for his on-the-spot epic doodle masterpieces. Equally happy filling sketchbook or drawing directly on a wall, Kim has only recently received global attention, though he's been drawing all his life In Kim's case, seeing is believing, and thankfully his YouTube channel is chock full of brain-tinglingly amazing pieces. The artist says: "I observe things all the time. I don’t take references while I’m drawing, but I’m always collecting visual resources." Take a dip into his sketchbook! 06. Viktor Kalvachev Flicking through Viktor's sketchbook, you're likely to find many beautiful pin-upsBorn in Bulgaria, where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts, Viktor moved to the US to work in video games, and produced the graphic novel Pherone and crime series Blue Estate, the latter of which received two Eisner nominations. He now lives in Paris where he’s opened a studio and developed a video game. 07. Mattias Adolfsson Mattias Adolfsson lets us inside the pages of his ever-impressive notebooksWorking with everything from computer games to children's books, you will be hard pressed to find a better doodler than Swedish based illustrator Mattias Adolfsson. Take a look through the pages of his sketchbooks to see what we mean. 08. Faith Georgia Just one of many beautiful doodles created by artist Faith GeorgiaThis energetic, yet calming doodle was created by artist Faith Georgia. A super-talent, Georgia has created numerous, beautiful, black and white and colour-filled doodles, all of which can be found in her awe-inspiring Flickr portfolio. 09. Matt Lyon A bundle of beautiful chaos by Matt LyonMatt Lyon is the London-based graphic artist and illustrator behind this colourful and chaotic doodle. He comments on his website: "My work stems from incessant doodling, often laced with wild colours, shapes and patterns." Indeed it does. And we love it! 10. Snippy Snippy Crab Kristine This talented artist creates beautiful artwork while procrastinatingAfter months of procrastination, the artist that goes by the name of Snippy Snippy Crab Kristine completed this completed this set of entirely random doodles. This talented artist spends much of her time creating gorgeous Manga artwork, with any spare minutes spent doodling lovely creations such as this in her skecthbook. 11. Matthieu Bessudo Bessudo's doodle art features a mind-blowing amount of detailMatthieu Bessudo, aka McBess, is a French illustrator living in London. With a passion for illustration and music, Bessudo always tries to mix the two in his work. A super-talent, his doodle art features a mind-blowing amount of detail. 12. GenerallySpeaking Artist Michelle began this piece with the large swirl in the top right of the pageHigh school student Michelle aka GenerallySpeaking is the lady behind this intricate ink doodle. Covering a book from one of her notebooks, this is doodle art at its best. Using a simple biro, Michelle began the detailed illustration in the top-right corner, allowing organic shapes to flow around it until covering the entire page. 13. Helen Kaur The vibrant colours in Helen Kaur's doodle really makes it stand outHelen Kaur is a full-time graphic designer and part-time illustrator from Singapore. As part of her development and illustrative work, Kaur creates vibrant doodles in her spare time. And while we're not taking anything away from black and white doodle art - it rocks - it's great to see such a mixture of colours amongst all the detail in this drawing. 14. Pat Perry When Pat Perry's mind wanders, magic happensPat Perry is a superbly talented artist who, as his mind wanders, inscribes in ink some truly surreal and attention grabbing imagery. A daily practice for the Michigan born artist, drawing helps Pat to work through the complexities of life and thankfully for us acts as a remedy for all we find mundane in day-to-day living. 15. Géraldine Georges Géraldine Georges' weird and wonderful doodle artGéraldine Georges worked as a graphic designer for seven years before starting to freelance as an illustrator in 2006. The Belgian artist's collages are a perfect blend of photography and illustration, beautiful and elegant images that seep emotion. Next page: more inspiring examples of doodle art 16. Fred Blunt Fred Blunt is inspired by some of your favourite childhood shows and booksInspired by The Muppets, Quentin Blake and the Flintstones, Fred Blunt has been a compulsive doodler since he was in hand-me-downs. His cute characters are an instant source of cute and child-like inspiration that'll have you harking back to your childhood. 17. Justine Ashbee Beautiful doodle art from Justine AshbeeJustine Ashbee takes a line for a walk and your eyes go along for the ride. Lines and forms evolve and grow organically in her vast amorphous drawings. Intuitively composed, the Brighton based artist's drawings start with a curve and end in a mesmerizing undulating visual experience. 18. Billie Jean Billie Jean goes all postery with this doodle artBillie Jean is not my lover. Billie (a 'he' in case you're interested) has created entanglements of ballpoint pen for many notable clients. Creative Review and Nike can be counted amongst the many who have commissioned the services of this London based, tree climbing, doodle maestro. 19. Eric Olmstead Eric Olmstead's brilliant artwork is inspired by travelIt's hard not to be a little jealous of artist Eric Olmstead. Not only is he super-talented, he's also travelled all over the world, capturing the essence of each destination through brilliant illustrations and collages. This is just one piece Olmstead created in Brazil during a six-month tour of South America. He's also spent 18 months in Japan, been to Australia, New Zealand, the US - and there's at least one sketchbook full of amazing artwork for each. 20. Lizzie Mary Cullen Lizzie Mary Cullen delves into the world of hand-drawn psychogeography in this Brick Lane illustrationLizzie Mary Cullen is a multi award-winning artist based in London. A natural talent with pen and ink, Cullen's doodle art has attracted the attention of many leading brands, including the BBC, MTV and Harvey Nichols. This intricate depiction of Brick Lane, is just one from Cullen's brilliant series titled London psychogeographies. 21. Mike Rohde Designer Mike Rhode tells the tale of his travels with hand-drawn typography and little sketchesMike Rhode is a designer who loves to read, write and draw. For the latter, he takes a Moleskin sketchbook everywhere, keeping a visual journal of his travels. We particularly like this piece taken from Rhode's Portland sketchnote travelogue, in which he records facts and thoughts with brilliant little sketches and typography. 22. Amaia Arrazola Talented illustrator and designer Amaia Arrazola loves silly drawingsWe love the playful style of Spanish illustrator and designer Amaia Arrazola. After working in an advertising agency for a couple of years, Arrazola now works as a freelance artist in Barcelona. She comments on her website, "I like silly drawings, graphic design, serigraphy and typography." 23. Richard Romare Web designer Richard Romere created this piece in roughly 10 hours over five daysRichard Romare is a web designer based in the Philippines who also works as a freelance multimedia artist. Wanting to experiment in different artistic disciplines in his spare time, Romare comments on this one-off piece, "I'm not that comfortable with doodle arts, I was just trying something different." 24. Delphine Durand Illustrator Delphine Durand drew this intricate piece on a restaurant napkinArtist Delphine Durand has a treasure trove of sketchbook work online. For the most part, she creates magical and bizarre monsters and characters, some of which have been used to illustrate Chronicle Book's Big Rabbit's Bad Mood. As well as commissioned works, Durand spends much of her spare time doodling unusual worlds and creatures, like this piece hand-drawn on a restaurant napkin. 25. Kerby Rosanes Kerby Rosanes' work features incredible attention to detailKerby Rosanes is a graphic designer and SEO specialist with a passion for art and doodling. His work, which he post regularly on his Sketchy Stories blog, exists at various scales and his striking attention to detail makes each piece unique and original. 26. Irena Zablotska Irena Zablotska's doodles evoke an original and imaginative worldIrena Zablotska is a talented illustrator who uses multiple techniques to communicate the original world she's created through illustration and doodle art. Her art has been exhibited across the world, from St Petersburg to San Jose. 27. Jabson Rodrigues Jabson Rodrigues beautiful 'Falling' illustrationIf you like this particular style of doodle art then you should definitely check out the Flickr account of Jabson Rodrigues, which is overflowing with stunning sketches like the above. Titled 'Falling', the illustration features two people intertwined by Rodrigues' gorgeous, fluid doodles next to the words 'Sky should tumble and fall'. Just beautiful. 28. Saddo Jdero Saddo Jdero creates intricate, intriguing worldsThis remarkable Romanian illustrator and artist is another example of how doodle art can be taken to a commerical, professional level. The intricate imaginary worlds he creates are both fascinating and unique. 29. Lisa Krasse Lisa Krasse's doodle art on Converse sneakersCraft, drawing, and fashion combine in one amazing project. Lisa Krasse has combined her love of doodling with a love of Converse shoes to create these amazing sneaker designs. Check out the rest on her Behance profile. 30. PodgyPanda PodgyPanda creates cute digital illustrations, apparel, design toys and of course, doodles!PodgyPanda, or Richard Kuoch as his parents like to call him, is an artist, illustrator, animator and graphic designer from Auckland, New Zealand but is now living it up in London. Creating cute digital illustrations, apparel and design toys such as Jerk Jigglypuff, PodgyPanda also doodles. A lot. Next page: more great examples of doodle art 31. Jim Bradshaw By day, Jim is an art director. By night, he is a doodle extraordinaire!New Jersey illustrator Jim Bradshaw has been doodling away since he could pick up a pencil. By day, he works as an art director but by night Jim tackles all things creative and is never far from his Moleskine. His doodles open up a weird and wacky world that often includes creatures from outer space and walking tree stumps. We love it! 32. Chris Piascik Just one of the doodles taken from Chris's book '1000 days of drawing'Describing himself as an 'illustrator, formerly known as designer', Chris Piascik fast became a well-known face in the doodle art world. Based in New England and with more than eight years of professional experience, Chris embarked upon a 'daily drawing' challenge back in 2007. Once he'd done 1000, he published them in a book entitled '1000 days of drawing'. He continues to doodle to this very day. 33. Kate Bingaman-Burt Kate documents every purchase she makes with a quick doodleBecoming obsessed with consumerism back in 2006, illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt decided to document her daily purchases with a doodle. Staying with the consumption theme, Kate draws her doodles on to receipts and credit card statements. What a creative and fun way to showcase your personality and your buying habits! 34. Lapin Lapin draws his doodles onto old accounting booksLapin is a French illustrator, living between Barcelona and Paris. He travels daily with his sketch books, documenting his day-to-day escapades. He has already filled around 150 sketchbooks for the last 10 years and particularly appreciates sketching on vintage accounting books that he finds in flea markets. He even leads doodle workshops at universities and art schools. 35. Faye Moorhouse You'll fall in love with the weird and wonderful doodles of Fay MoorhouseWinning the D&AD New Blood award back in 2011 was just the start of Faye Moorhouse's impressive illustrative career. Her portfolio is packed full of weird and wonderful creatures, characters and doodles and this one is a particular favourite. 36. Davivid Rose Davivid Rose describes himself as a poet and hallucinographic designerDavivid Rose also goes by the name of jdy333 and describes himself as a "poet and hallucinographic designer". His doodles offer a weird and wonderful insight into his creative mind, including this colourful creation which took "lots of patience and lots of coffee". 37. Sagaki Keita The doodles blend together perfectly to create the final imageJapanese artist Sagaki Keita specialises in recreating classic masterpieces by covering them in these gorgeous child-like doodles. Even though the doodles themselves are simple, once you look further away from the drawing, you realise that Sagaki has taken the time to ensure they blend together perfectly. 38. Paperchap Paperchap completes his drawings in the time it takes him to get to workWe don't know much about UK artist Paperchap but what we do know is that he is a commuting doodler. Every day, he travels between Shoreham By Sea and London Victoria, which leaves him with rather a lot of idle time - so her doodle all over the newspapers. Now, that's a creative commute. 39. Starchild Starchild creates a visual language to explain a culture which is vibrant, dark yet familiarStarchild is an artist with a mission - to create a visual language to explain a culture which is vibrant, dark yet familiar. Using mixed media he'll "cut, paste and create from the giant pile of junk that is the Universe". Each of his pieces tells a different story and could be interpreted in hundreds of ways. We love how he has encorporated mixed media into the doodle artform. 40. Ted McGrath Ted shows that the imperfections of doodle art can come together to create stunning workTed McGrath basically represents what doodle art is all about. It's about the imperfections that come together to make a stunning creation. His notepad is jam-packed full of colours and sketches that span an array of subject matter. We think this car/boat offering is definitely one of his best. 41. Lei Melendres Lei Melendres' page-filling doodle art is fun that you can stare at for ages!When artist Lei Melendres has nothing better to do, he doodles. And this is just one of many pieces he has created as a result. Fully utilising his spare time, the crazy-talented illustrator uses a black marker, neat lines and no space left un-doodled in his work. 42. Flavio Melchiorre Flavio Melchiorre created this for a Japanese fashion magazineFlavio Melchiorre, is an Italian artist, award-winning designer, illustrator, painter and founder of creative design studio IDRO51. Best known for his distinctive hypnotic style, Melchiorre created this gorgeous piece for the Japanese fashion magazine commons&sense, inspired by the Fendi autumn and winter 2012/13 collection, designed by Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi. 43. Andrea Joseph Andrea Joseph created this gorgeous illustration using only ballpoint pens and paperNow this gorgeous illustration by Andrea Joseph takes us back to the days of school exercise book scribblings and random jottings. Although ours looked nowhere near as good as this! Joseph created the brilliant design using only ballpoint pens, which features a beautifully worn pair of Converse and frighteningly realistic stationary. Absolutely stunning. 44. Johanna Basford This gorgeous wallpaper design by Johanna Bashford features on the wall of Vigo St Starbucks store in LondonThe unique doodling style from artist Johanna Basford managed to bag her this commission from international coffee company Starbucks. After persistently sending the company paper cups with her artwork on, Johanna was asked to design a wallpaper for the redesign of Starbuck's Vigo Street store in London. Hidden within the flourishes are tiny coffee cups, elusive birds, and the odd Frappuccino... 45. Eklektick Artist Kristin Krause spent a month depicting her random thoughts through sketches to make this gorgeous homemade decorWe love the fun and playful mind of US-based artist Kristin Krause aka Eklektick. Both her home and studio are full of colourful artwork such as these random doodles titled 'Thought Mess'. For one month, Krause stuck sheets of paper to her walls and then wrote and sketched her thoughts on each. A brilliant idea from a very talented artist. 46. Rowan Tedge Artist Rowan Tedge's artwork has crazy amounts of detailSuper-busy is the chosen style of talented artist Rowan Tedge, who, believe it or not, doesn't draw for a living. Many of his designs are created on his train journey to work. With limited space on public transport, Tedge works in small sections at a time adding more incredible detail each day. 47. Uberkraaft Gorgeous illustration by artist Matt Williams aka UberkraaftThis colourful, fun and playful artwork was created by freelance illustrator, artist and designer Matt Williams aka Uberkraaft for the Umbraco community. Keen to not stick to a particular style, Williams says on his website: "I'm anti-style and work across a lot of media adapting my work to fit the brief. I can practically turn my hand to any style to fit any project." 48. Tower Hamlets College Tower Hamlets College tutor Zak Peric and 11 of his commercial graphics and digital illustration students were behind this cool wall doodle. Using only back ink, the team worked on this piece of doodle art for three full days, the aim of the project being to encourage students positively by using a one liner motivational text. 49. James Jean James Jean's tri-colour doodle artJames Jean retired in 2008, leaving the illustration world behind he redefined himself as a fine artist. Whilst known for his award winning DC Comics cover illustrations, commercial work for Prada, and now critically acclaimed paintings, the Taiwanese American artist's sketches are also truly to die for. 50. Chris Glasz Chris Glasz's Inception doodle art is like a doodly infographicWe're big fans of 3D movies here at Creative Bloq, so we we're thrilled to find this series of movie doodle art by US-based artist Chris Glasz. Owner of Tumblr blog In Doodle Format, Glasz has chosen a number of popular films and illustrated them as creative doodles. Often using just a simple black Sharpie, so far, the talented artist has celebrated 11 well-loved films, including Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Inception (above). We're a little in love with these illustrations, which are far more original than most of the fan art we see. It's also hard not to be a little in awe of this guy's talent with a Sharpie. 51. Heike Weber Heike Weber's doodle art fills entire rooms!Not only is Germany-based artist Heike Weber a bit of a whizz with a permanent marker, she must also have the patience of a saint when creating these mesmerising repeat pattern installations. Weber creates her artwork by tracing thousands of lines on the walls, floor and sometimes even the ceiling of the space she's decorating. Starting by drawing the pattern on a sheet of paper, she then transfers the design onto each surface. They may look like pretty random designs but Weber very carefully selects the amount of white space between each line to give the impression of movement. We can't even begin to imagine how long these painstaking installation take to complete - we wonder if Weber felt as dizzy creating them as we do looking at them? 52. Irvin Ranada Beautiful use of contrast between space and doodle-infestationStudent Irvin Ranada currently studies Fine Art at the Far Eastern University in the Philippines. In his spare time, he's an avid doodler and has creating numerous, intricate doodle illustrations. A master of composition, Ranada's drawings are a perfect reminder of just how special doodle art can be. Related articles: 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials The 40 best Google Doodle designs How to be an award-winning illustrator View the full article

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-blocks-windows-10-creators-update-on-some-pcs/ … View the full article

One of the most interesting web design tools to surface this month might be ARKit, an augmented reality toolkit in Apple's iOS 11 that has some exciting and powerful features for building AR into your projects. We also like the look of Paralayout, a tool designed to make UI design easier. Read on for loads more useful web designer tools released this month. Web design inspiration: 28 outstanding examples of CSS01. API Fortress Set up your testing via a dedicated interfaceAccording to this organisation, only 10 per cent of API errors are caught within the first day of launch, so longer term monitoring is needed to make sure everything is working properly. This service provides live monitoring and thorough testing of your APIs, and you can set everything up using an interface as opposed to wrangling with code. 02. Paralayout Create iOS layouts quickerThe Cash iOS team at Square found Apple’s Autolayout frustrating, so they built their own layout helper, Paralayout, and kindly open-sourced it so that the rest of us can benefit. It focuses on making your process for creating layouts fast, maintainable, readable and performant. Read more in this Medium post. 03. BetaTesters Get feedback on your beta designs quickly and easilyIt can be a struggle to get beta testers for your site or app, so this platform provides a handy way to get a bunch of people using your app and giving you helpful feedback. It’s also great because you’ll hopefully get a user base established prior to launch. 04. fractures fractures aims to make UI design simplerfractures is an atomic CSS toolkit for bootstrapping your projects. It aims to make UI design simpler by providing a set of utility classes. Plus it’s good for fast prototyping and can also be used for production. 05. SiteStacks Dig into the technical stack for any websiteThis site enables you to have a look at the tech stack for any website. If the URL is already listed (its database includes hundreds of thousands of sites) the process is instant. If not, don’t worry: submit the site you want and the creators say they’ll do a quick check straight away and a more detailed one within two weeks. 06. SQLify Convert your JSON files to SQLThis service has a simple function: it enables you to convert any JSON or CSV file to SQL – or indeed any text format. There are also other options here to convert to MySQL, SQLite and more – just check through the 'Other versions' list in the site's footer. 07. Style Guide Guide The latest from Brad FrostThe father of Atomic Design has put together a boilerplate template for building style guides for design systems. Brad Frost’s Style Guide Guide imports and displays HTML from a separate pattern library, and updates instantly. Usage guidelines are added in Markdown, making it simple for your whole team to contribute. Find out more in this Big Medium post. 08. ARKit Explore augmented reality effects on iPhone or iPadiOS 11 has a cool new tool called ARKit for creating augmented reality effects on iPad and iPhone. There are some clever features, such as the ability to detect planes and surfaces in the surrounding area, and also light levels, so the correct lighting can be applied to virtual objects. Looks pretty fun to us. Read more about iOS 11's new features in our iOS 11 preview for designers post 09. UX Flow A library of wireframes, ready for customisationUX Flow is a huge library of wireframes and flowcharts for Sketch that enables you to quickly create great-looking prototypes for web and mobile. You can style them up and customise them any way you want, making it easy to plan your projects in a smart way that’s great for presenting to clients. 10. Drag Drag is a free Chrome extension that transforms your Gmail into organised task lists. The makers liken it to Trello, for Gmail. It's perfect for users whose inboxes are filled with requests that quickly end up at the bottom of the list. 11. Remote Starter Kit Keep things running smoothly when working remotelyChances are, your dream team for a project is not comprised of people who happen to live in the same place. If you’ve put together a remote team for the first time, figuring out your processes and tools is key to getting things running smoothly, and this roundup of resources will help you get off to a cracking start. 12. Canivete A helpful collection of multipurpose JavaScript functionsThis is useful if you’re fairly new to JavaScript (and possibly even if you’ve been coding for a while): it’s a collection of generic, multipurpose JavaScript functions. The name means ‘swiss army knife’ in Brazilian Portuguese and it’s great for getting a look at efficient ways to do things. Read more: How to convince users your site is faster than it really is The best free graphic design software How to code an augmented reality marker View the full article

Apple released iOS 10.3.3 Wednesday that serves as a cumulative patch update for multiple vulnerabilities including the high-profile BroadPwn bug. View the full article

In this geisha illustration I wanted to capture a grungy, dark, urban vibe, laced with elegant traditional Japanese elements. The idea that kept coming up again and again was to make her ‘bad-ass’. That’s the core essence of Geiko – she's a geisha turned self-serving samurai, a vigilante within a dangerous cyberpunk universe. I got the idea from a competition to design a geisha or samurai character. Here, I’ll explain how I developed this Geiko illustration, and my whole thought process and approach to the design. You’ll pick up tips on how to push your ideas forward and craft the final details. I want to leave you with concepts and methods you can adapt and use in your own work. So let’s start with the most crucial bit... How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials1. Visualise the big idea Geiko is a young geisha doll, driven by anger and revenge, roaming the streets as she takes down all the bad men that hurt people like her (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)The very first step is deciding the look and feel of the character and capturing it all with a rough sketch. The most important thing is knowing exactly how you want your audience to feel about your character, because this will drive your whole thought process from start to finish. My core idea was to design Geiko so that people’s gut reaction to seeing her is: “That’s bad-ass!” 2. Generate thumbnails Develop initial rough ideas that fit in with the big idea (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)With that clear goal in mind, I jump into SketchBook Pro and use the Triangle brush to sketch my ideas out, exploring and pushing them further while staying true to the original Geiko essence. I keep it loose and gestural at this point, making notes on the ideas that I’d like to take forward. Throughout this process I keep asking myself, “Is she bad-ass enough?” 3. Finalise the idea Play with your favourite ideas to try out variations (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)This is where I take all my favourite ideas that came out of the thumbnail process and explore how they can better capture Geiko’s essence. I duplicate my favourite thumbnail several times and try out those ideas, mixing more Japanese cultural elements back in with an urban cyberpunk twist. Don’t add too many details just yet. All you want to do here is finalise your big idea. 4. Polish and craft the design Refine the final character more (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Everything from this point on is just polishing up. You’ll still be making some design choices, but the core essence shouldn’t change. I usually start with the face, because it’s the most important part of any character. If I get it right, the rest falls into place. There are no secrets here. I sketch with the Triangle brush and Eraser, pressing S to quickly flip between the two brushes. 5. Refine the clothing Use references to draw realistic clothes (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)The next major element to get right is her kimono. I start by grabbing some references. (But remember: references are just guides, so don’t feel bound by them.) Then I create a new layer and make a rough sketch, focusing on the design and flow of the wrinkles. For the final look, I use the Eraser to follow my initial line work on the black kimono and create the white-on-black effect. 6. Accessories and props You can build the character's personality through accessories (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Using references, I work on the swords on her back, making a quick sketch in red to explore the function of the strap, while also playing with the idea of adding kunai knives. I also try to add clues about her personality, like a Totoro charm at the end of one of her swords. It’s subtle, but it helps make the character seem more well-rounded. 7. Bring in detail on her boots White highlights create the impression of glossy leather-like fabric (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Next I start cleaning up Geiko’s boots. In a similar way to how I did the clothing, I use the Eraser to create the line work, which is consistent with the style of the image. Her footwear is inspired by a mixture of high-heeled boots with a sporty twist and Japanese ninja sandals. I want to create a glossy type of material for her legs, so I add white highlights to achieve that look. 8. Create the mechanical gauntlet Tweaking details like this can bring them to life (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)I want to keep the essence of my sketch, so I use the base silhouette of the gauntlet and start cleaning it up, erasing panel lines in, and drawing exposed wires to make it feel more customised instead of being built in a factory. I flick back and forth with the S key throughout, drawing lines in and erasing where necessary. I realise that the silhouetted gauntlet is blending in too much with her kimono, so I opt for a lighter version that helps to create a better read. 9. Stop… it’s paintover time! A quick paintover puts the character in context (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Now that I’m almost done with the design, I take a step back and look for any bits I can push further. A quick paintover enables me to explore how I can exaggerate Geiko’s bad-assery. I add a more well-rounded toolset of weapons including samurai gun-swords and a traditional Japanese umbrella. Then I push the storytelling with dripping blood and bullet holes, along with a smoke trail that adds movement, mystery and depth. 10. Detail Geiko’s primary weapon Build up details that add to the character's story (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)From the loose sketch done in the paintover stage, I begin to finalise the main sword design. I don’t want her weapon to be elegant or well-crafted, but to feel more imposing and threatening, so I choose to go with an exaggerated butcher’s knife. I use the Ruler and Lazy Mouse features in SketchBook Pro to create the long, sweeping arcs in the blade, ensuring the line work feels rough and grungy. 11. Add the finishing touches Even discreet Japanese writing needs to be accurate (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Before finishing up the design, I take the time to polish it up. I decide to add more details to her mask and sword, tweak the design of her cross-body strap and give her some branding and tattoos, making sure I use the correct Japanese phrases. Details like these count. I also include a shadow pass to add more depth, as well as the juxtaposition of her red demon eyes and rosy red cheeks. 12. Establish the background The story becomes more believable with a background for your character (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)With the character done, I jump into Photoshop to create the background and atmosphere to round off the piece. I imagine Geiko in a back alley, fresh from a fight. So I add a floor and wall pattern, making these more sci-fi and grungy looking to enhance the cyberpunk feel. I add a quick gradient to them, which helps pop the character from the background and add more depth to the image. 13. Build background details Custom brushes and textures push the realism (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)I now add extra details and textures to the environment. Bullet holes, dust particles and dripping blood help tell more of Geiko’s story and push the final illustration. I use masks to blend some of the line work out, and use texture on the background and character with custom brushes to help it appear less digital. 14. Bring in action cues to push the mood Use quick movements to draw puffs of smoke (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)For even more depth and mood, I add action cues like smoke at Geiko’s feet. I use the Lasso tool to create the shape of the smoke, taking into account the wind direction that may tilt it slightly. I do this quickly to capture the motion, instead of lingering on it too long and making it too refined. Once I fill in my selection, to make it appear more like smoke I reduce the Opacity and use a mask to blend out specific parts even more, letting the background elements pop through. 15. Add a brand to your work Identify your work as yours (Click the icon in the top-right of the image to enlarge the picture)Branding, like your logo or signature and website URL, helps make your illustration yours wherever it ends up. People will always know whom to credit and future clients can contact you easily. Don’t forget to give it a title, too. It’ll help finish it off and make the piece feel more considered and complete. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 149. Buy it here! Related articles: How to create a comic page How to draw manga Draw a figure in under five minutes View the full article

We post reams of articles for artists and designers every week: tutorials, advice, news, features, reviews, and loads more. To make things easier, we have a free weekly email digest curated from the best content from Creative Bloq and its associated brands Computer Arts, net, ImagineFX, Paint & Draw, Web Designer, 3D Artist and 3D World. If you're not already signed up, here's an even better reason to get involved - a completely free digital edition of Computer Arts' Self Promo issue. As sold for £6, its crammed with inspiring ideas to get you and your work in front of clients. And it's yours to keep and read on your PC, Mac or mobile. So, to get the best of Creative Bloq every week, and your free digital edition of Computer Arts issue 260, just enter your email address into the form below (we promise we won't sell it), and look out for the link in your inbox. View the full article

Lots of us use GIFs every day to communicate ideas or feelings more smoothly than words allow. A quick search through your inbox or Slack channel is sure to turf up lots of funny reaction GIFs, but they're capable of more than just oiling the wheels of office banter. For designer and remote worker Steven Fabre, GIFs are an invaluable way to show interactions in designs. The ultimate guide to GIF designWhereas videos, video calls and screen recordings are relatively time-consuming, Fabre found that GIFs were a straight to the point way of communicating with teams remotely. "The problem was, creating those GIFs was extremely time-consuming," Fabre explains. "I would design my states in Sketch and export those so I could open them in Photoshop. From there, I would overlay them on top of each other and turn visibility on and off via the timeline. And to make things worse, every time I would make a change in my design, I had to go through this whole cumbersome process all over again." To this end, Fabre created Gifmock, a simple desktop application for macOS that helps users to create high quality GIFs from their mockups. Create your perfect mockup GIF with GifmockWith the Gifmock Sketch plugin, users can design interaction states and instantly turn them into frames. Once the frames and timings are perfected, the GIFs can be easily exported to Slack or wherever your team is based. Alternatively, animations can be designed in After Effects. Just drag and drop a video to automatically turn it into a GIF without having to worry about a compromise of quality and frame rate. Once it's ready, you can publish the GIF on Dribbble. Photos and Keynotes slides can also be imported into Gifmock to create engaging GIFs that can be used on Twitter. To get the perfect look, the timing of the frames can be changed, plus you can crop them all at once with a real-time thumbnail preview. Fancy creating your own mockup GIFs? You can grab Gifmock for $14, with no rolling subscriptions to get locked into. You can even download a free 14 day trial to see if you like it before you buy it. Some designers are already using it for, er, mainly important work: Related articles: Happy 30th birthday GIF! Make an animated GIF in Photoshop The ultimate guide to GIF design View the full article

Convergence has been a key buzzword across the 3D industry over the last few years. The worlds of game graphics and movie VFX are advancing, and with this change, a natural crossover is happening. We're now seeing that the production methods used in the creation of digital art for movies and games are very similar. This has been partly triggered by the rise of new technologies such as VR, and with both areas using the same tools such as Maya and ZBrush, but it wasn't that long ago that a single plant in the film Avatar had more polygons than an entire game environment. The VFX behind 72 grisly Game of Thrones deathsMotion capture in games Motion capture is a big area where we're seeing more and more convergence. I still get excited teaching PBR texturing to my students, knowing I am using implementations of the Disney GGX shader in real-time engines. Motion capture in games has allowed a more complex world of storytelling to evolve, with technology allowing game makers to create characters who are relatable and human in their facial expressions and physical mannerisms. Just look at the work of Imaginarium on Squadron 42, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us and Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn. With the development of characters in games using motion capture, this allows the exploration of wider human themes. Real-time rendering technology Game developer DICE recreated the Star Wars universe with great effect for BattlefrontOne of the other big developments that's occurred in this space – which we've seen most recently at events such as the Games Developers Conference (GDC) – is the power of real-time rendering. Epic's Unreal Engine has really stolen a march on this, and it has recently teamed up with The Mill and Chevrolet to demonstrate the engine's potential with the short film Human Race. Merging live action storytelling with real-time visual effects, the film showcases how these technologies are pushing the limits by using real-time rendering in a game engine. The fact that a similar approach was used for some of the scenes in Star Wars: Rogue One by ILM, using a tweaked version of Unreal Engine 4, just adds to its credentials. The team used this technology to bring the droid K-2SO to life in real time. While at the moment this technique is predominately being used for hard surfaces, it's surely only a matter of time before it supports more diverse objects. We're also seeing companies such as performance capture studio Imaginarium expanding to adapt to this change, with Andy Serkis' recently unveiling Imaginati Studios, a game developing studio with a focus on real-time solutions using Unreal Engine 4. Photogrammetry in games Another area where there is a real convergence and crossover of talent is in the use of photogrammetry, which involves taking photographic data of an object from many angles and converting it into stunningly realistic fully textured digital models. Creating game assets from photographs may not be new, but the process has now reached the kind of standards we are used to seeing in film production. From the incredibly realistic recreation of the Star Wars universe by DICE in Star Wars Battlefront to Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome, the bar of video game graphics is getting higher and higher. It might be hyperbolic to suggest the visuals of Ryse are parallel to the classic film Gladiator, but it is nevertheless a stunning realisation of ancient Rome. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is another game that uses photogrammetry to great effect. Epic Games' Paragon, where photoshoots were used to capture HDR lighting on hair and skin, is another fantastic example. Some of the most compelling-looking graphics in games were created with photographic processes, and photogrammetry has played a huge part in driving games graphics forward. Photogrammetry was used heavily in horror adventure game The Vanishing of Ethan CarterEpic Games used Agisoft PhotoScan to capture its images, but there are many issues native to the photogrammetry process that need to be solved. Dealing with reflections in photos of objects and poor lighting can be a real challenge, and can reduce the realism of the final output. But this is where the marriage of technology and artistry come together. In the fantastic blog Imperfection for Perfection, technical artist Min Oh outlines Epic Games' process, detailing the use of colour checkers and capturing lighting conditions using VFX standard grey and chrome balls. Other inspiration comes from the team at DICE, who overcame lighting issues when capturing Darth Vader's helmet by removing light information from source images. Famed VFX supervisor Kim Libreri, who is now CTO at Epic Games, predicted that graphics would be indistinguishable from reality in a decade in 2012. And a few years on, it seems like we're well on our way. Simon Fenton is head of games at Escape Studios, which runs courses including game art and VFX. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 223. Buy it here! Related articles: 25 tips for Unreal Engine 4 20 best designs in videogames The 10 greatest VFX movies of all time View the full article

What did you do when you turned 30? Award-winning creative Yuko Shimizu saved up, swapped her corporate job in Japan for art school and became a globally acclaimed illustrator. It didn't happen overnight. In fact it took three years to get the cash together. But as Shimizu – who counts Microsoft, The New York Times and iconic designer Stefan Sagmeister amongst her many collaborators – points out, you're never too old to achieve your dream. "If America has a glass ceiling, Japan has a glass table," she begins, before explaining that a mentally abusive boss finally gave her the push she needed to abandon the safety of a regular pay cheque and study art for the first time, aged 34. "I was wearing jeans with 18-year-olds and faking it," she laughs. Shimizu illustrated the DVD cover and products for popular Japanese metal band Maximum the HormonePursuing a creative career was a life-changing decision, but over the last decade and more Shimizu has built an inspirational illustration portfolio. Her work lives on Gap T-shirts, Pepsi cans, Visa billboards, Penguin covers and the pages of New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Time. She's been profiled in Computer Arts magazine, published a monograph and more. What has she learned in that time? Primarily that it's never too late to do what you want to do, whether you're 19 or 90. "We never get younger than who we are today," she urges. "Start working on that dream today." Here are seven of Shimizu's best tips for making it as an illustrator... 01. Take at least one small risk every day Yuko Shimizu's portrait of The Clash for soccer magazine 8 by 8"I'm not talking about jay-walking or stopping the bus where there's no stop," laughs Shimizu. "Some people have a signature style and every job is a variation of that. But repeating the same things over and over drove me nuts – that's why I quit my corporate job." "However, clients do have a timeline. So, every time I get a new project I throw in maybe 10-25 per cent of something I haven't done before. It might be a new colour scheme, or just something I haven't drawn: something that makes me a bit nervous but really excited." "If it's 50 per cent new I'll freak out and my client won't call again. But I do lots of small jobs. If I do 10, I can grow without taking too much risk. I know I'm on the right track." 02. It's ok to turn down a job… Batman Detective Comics #52 variant cover for DC UniverseWhy? "Because there are always others who want to do it. When I turn down a job I always suggest someone else," she explains. "When I moved from Japan, there were so many people who helped me along the way. Some of my professors gave me contacts, and said mention my name and they'll call you back. I don't know the way to thank all those who helped me, so I try to help those who need it now." 03. Always draw something a photo can't do Cover image for a short science fiction story written by Charlie Jane Anders for TOR.com"Now that photography is good again, I've been finding that clients want photography," she says. "I sometimes seem to only get jobs when art directors think that photography won't work, so I always try and do something a photo can't do." 04. Avoid projects that will prevent a good night's sleep NY Times Book Review cover for the highly anticipated US release of the new book by Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of PilgrimageShimizu isn't referring to the all-nighters: "I mean things I'll be ashamed of," she clarifies. "Oil. Gambling. Everyone has something that's important to them – a job that means they won't be able to sleep at night. Don't do it." 05. A project isn't a success unless the client thinks so Illustration for The Nation's 150th anniversary issueNot all of her projects are showcased on her website. There are some projects where Shimizu feels both "proud and embarrassed" at the same time. "But the bottom line is I worked hard and the client loved it. You can't make a personal masterpiece that the client doesn't want," she reasons. 06. Never work for free: it undercuts others Illustration by Shimizu for Men’s Health Magazine "As a professional you make mistakes, and learn and get better," says Shimizu. "But there are mistakes you don't need to make because other people made them for you already. In this case, me," she added, explaining that she once gave a persistent start-up a pre-existing illustration for free. "They said I'd get exposure. Sometimes you do; sometimes you don't. This time I did – a lot. And then I forgot about it, until another illustrator contacted me saying she'd been asked to provide an image for free and asking what the deal was." Shimizu realised she'd essentially told the client it never had to pay for art. "Artists are always willing to give their art for exposure. You get tricked into doing it. You feel like you're winning but you're actually losing. That's my story of shame. Don't ever do this. Artwork is called work because it's work." 07. Some things are more rewarding than money One of two Dumbo 80-foot wide murals created with Sagmeister & Walsh"Whenever I have time I try and do charity work," says Shimizu. "It's a great feeling being an artist. If you're a professional and making a living, it's nice to take time off and do charity work. But if you're not, don't worry," she smiles. "Keep yourself on track for where you want to go and work your way there. Then you'll be able to make time for charity work." Related articles: 11 huge illustration trends for 2017 How Hey Studio seduced the likes of Apple with bold geometric shapes Download the best free fonts View the full article

Aaron Gustafson, web standards and accessibility advocate and author of Adaptive Web Design, will present a keynote at Generate London on 22 September about adaptive interfaces. This will include an introduction to a battle-tested tool for planning, discussing, building and testing adaptive interfaces. "Hiya," a voice says as Skype begins to wake and warm up. The image clears to reveal Aaron Gustafson – bearded, smiling and reclining in his chair. He starts telling his story by explaining his here and now. "I'm probably best known for being a big advocate of progressive enhancement," he says. "I've been singing its praises since 2004 and that work has become much more relevant in the world of mobile and responsive web design... with all these devices with different configurations, capabilities and – in some cases – liabilities. Beyond that, I'm pretty involved with the Open Device Lab." Rather modestly, Gustafson glosses over his achievements. He's a regular speaker on the web circuit, web standards and accessibility advocate at Microsoft, runs web development consultancy Easy Designs, spearheaded Web Standards Sherpa and has written a book entitled Adaptive Web Design. At Generate London, Aaron Gustafson will demonstrate how adaptive interfaces smartly morph to meet their users’ needs Late web design starter Casting his mind back however, Gustafson admits his love affair with computers was a slow-burner. "I wasn't a prodigy in high school. I had friends who had email accounts but that always seemed too geeky for me. I didn't take any computer science classes," he recalls. "I first went on the web in 1995. I was an avid music fan and the first site I went to was Sony.com. All I saw was this black screen with white words that said 'Image' with square brackets in various positions. I thought: this web thing is bullshit!" Thankfully, a Jurassic-era Mosaic browser rode to the rescue and Gustafson finally 'saw the web'. "There were lots of table layouts, marble backgrounds with gold lettering and giant Times New Roman text," he laughs. Learning to code with book and floppy disks Gustafson remembers the early days of web design"I started out doing web stuff in 1996. I was an aspiring journalist and magazine publisher back in college, and I was running a music and entertainment magazine and learned from a friend how to make a web page. I wanted to learn more, so taught myself using a book called Creating and Enhancing Netscape Web Pages by Andrew Shafran. "It's funny to think back now... It was all hand-coding. I also had a copy of Photoshop 3 on 3.5-inch floppy disks. That's how I got into web design." In 1999, Gustafson landed his first paying web job – working for the Bradenton Herald newspaper. "Back then," he laughs, "I was the content management system. This was way back before we had CMSes and XML was 'the future'. "I went into the Herald at 11 o'clock at night and worked until seven in the morning, and I picked which stories went out on the site. I'd pull the stories out of Quark, drop them into Dreamweaver and use Fetch to get them out on our server." "Work hard, stay humble" is the designer's mantraAfter a few years freelancing and a few full-time jobs, Gustafson ended up working for an advertising company called Cronin & Co. "I came on as their lead web guy – I was the middleman between the design team and the web folks. "I had taught myself PHP and MySQL and knew quite a bit about frontend development... HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Coming from a print background, I was able to bridge the gap and make sure the designers weren't designing anything the developers couldn't make and vice versa." Working on the Web Standards Project Beyond progressive enhancement – a sphere which we can safely say he has made his own – Gustafson is also a prominent member of the web community. He was one of the managers of the Web Standards Project (WaSP), a grassroots group founded in 1988. At that time, Netscape and Microsoft split the browser market between themselves and produced platforms that weren't compatible. With designers and developers fighting on two fronts, the web had become fragmented and WaSP – a pack of volunteers and visionaries from around the world – set out to heal it. They advocated open source, consistency, accessibility and portability. We've got a lot to thank them for. A screen print of Erin Crocombe's design for Gustafson's Adaptive Web Design poster contestSo, what attracted Gustafson to the church of web standards? Back in the early 2000s, Gustafson read an article entitled 'CSS Design: Going to Print' by Eric Meyer on A List Apart. Meyer detailed how to create and design print style sheets that would format web content for off-screen reading and printing. "Back then, I'd become quite the master of table layouts. That was the way we built things, but it always felt weird. So I read Eric's article and thought: there's a lot more to this CSS stuff. I started to read everything I could, and I immediately understood that web standards was a way forward. "I saw how fragile the web we were building was... If you had an error in your code and something went wrong, the entire thing could fall apart. He recalls his time freelancing at Gartner, where there were separate style sheets for each browser, and the team used JavaScript to decide which sheet to serve. "I remember all of the heinous JavaScript we were writing and editing. It was so painful. Then, a lightbulb went on in my head – I thought, 'This web standards thing makes a lot of sense!' If we're able to establish standards, it creates a solid foundation upon which we can build better experiences." From there, by his own admission, Gustafson was like a sponge, absorbing anything and everything he could find about web standards. Writing about the topic was followed by speaking about it, and in 2006 Gustafson joined WaSP himself. He spent his early days working on "some pretty cool stuff" , including collaborating with the team at Internet Explorer to improve the JavaScript interpreter and to adopt the W3C's Event Model. Another winner from the poster contest, by Guus van Zeeland. "The lines are proposed fold marks to 'adapt' the poster," Gustafson explainsQuite soon Gustafson was invited to become a manager at WaSP. "After Glenda Sims, Derek Featherstone and I took over, we worked with Microsoft a bit more to improve Internet Explorer, launched Web Standards Sherpa and began our small business outreach campaign... but eventually we decided it was time to shut down WaSP." The mission, he says, to a degree, was over too. "The web standards war – trying to get interoperable standards across browsers – was won at that point. There's still work to be done, but we're in a much better place than we were 10 or 15 years ago." The standards war might be won but Gustafson doesn't seem like a man ready to turn off his Mac and go fishing. Rather, he explains, there are still many risks to the web's apparent wellbeing. "The app mentality is a threat. This idea of creating walled gardens which are 'of the web', but not the web itself. They use web technologies and rely on the fundamentals of HTTP, but the resources they provide access to aren't addressable from the web. That scares me. Having indicators about where you can find content is a huge part of the web's power." Inside the bubble The second edition of Gustafson's book Adaptive Web Design Another big fear for Gustafson is to do with equal access. "Those of us building websites are technically savvy and tend to have more income to spend, so we have more expensive devices like iPhones and high-end Androids. That leads us to have a very myopic view of what the 'mobile web' is, and what web access on a mobile device needs to be." To underline his point, he explains he's consulting with a store that's begun selling cheap tablets. "I asked the web team if they're testing on the devices they sell. There was stunned silence on the phone. We're surrounded by high-end devices and get into the mindset that this is the mobile web. We miss the low-end devices with Android, a bad processor and a crappy screen." This brings us to Gustafson's primary hunting ground: adaptive design. "Progressive enhancement underpins everything I do," Gustafson says. "The entire idea is that you're creating sites, content, web pages, whatever it is, without placing any technological restrictions on the users. "With progressive enhancement, you focus on the content and the key tasks of the page, and build up the experience from there, layering on different technologies. The experience is more of a continuum from a basic one that might just be text with links, right up to a fully interactive one." Gustafson has written and contributed to a number of web design booksGustafson's philosophy centres around giving different people – or more correctly, different devices – different experiences. "It's all about recognising that it's okay for people to have different experiences of an interface as long as those experiences are positive and as long as they can accomplish the tasks they set out to," he says. "The name of my book, Adaptive Web Design, came about because 'Progressive Enhancement' has a very sterile sound to it. We liked the idea of a web experience that could adapt to the user." Little did Gustafson know, the book version of Ethan Marcotte's 'Responsive Web Design' article would be launching at around the same time, prompting a flurry of 'adaptive versus responsive' discussions. "Ultimately the two approaches are very much aligned," says Gustafson. "According to Ethan, responsive design is three things: media queries, fluid grids and flexible images. Those three things absolutely should be part of a page's progressive enhancement. "That said, you can build a desktop-first responsive site and work from the largest size down to the smallest. The lowest common denominator devices don't have media query support... So, if you were to flip it the other way and practice responsive web design from a mobile-first perspective, that aligns perfectly with progressive enhancement. For me, responsive is a technique that comes under the umbrella of progressive enhancement." Gustafson is at pains to point out that building with progressive enhancement doesn't necessarily mean sites cost more to make. "When you get into this mindset of progressive enhancement, it adds very little. You start to realise how browsers work. An underlying feature in HTML and CSS is fault tolerance... The system can cope with problems without throwing errors to the user." In HTML and CSS, he points out, browsers ignore what they don't understand. Recognising this is key to writing HTML5 such that browsers that don't even understand HTML4 will still render the content. "The browser will expose any text inside the element, it'll just ignore the element," he explains. "So, you have the brilliant system of fallbacks within HTML and within CSS that empower you to drive a baseline of support for older devices whilst, at the same time, being able to reach for the stars." Photography: Chloe Wright This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 256 (August 2014). Aaron Gustafson will appear at Generate London in September, alongside 16 other great speakers, including Anton & Irene, Steve Fisher, Seb Lee-Delisle, Léonie Watson, Zell Liew and more. They'll cover a whole range of topics from prototyping at Netflix via UX strategy to web performance. Also, make sure to check out the workshops. If you opt for a combined workshop and conference pass, you can save £95! You might also enjoy these interviews: PixelPyros creator Seb Lee-Delisle shares why he loves open source Léonie Watson on why accessibility must be an integral part of the web design processes Giles Colborne on how chatbots are learning View the full article

iOS 11 has now been released in beta for iPads, iPad Pros and iPhones, so what key features does Apple's new mobile OS bring for creative professionals? This roundup aims to bring you the latest news, rumours, full release dates and specs of iOS 11 for designers, to help you know what to expect. Apple's iPad Pro has brought designers, artists and motion pros a brilliant mix of power and portability, with the excellent Apple Pencil also offering a way to sketch out ideas with a huge amount of precision. But its original iOS still felt like an operating system for phones and tablets – not for serious professional work. Does Apple's new iOS overcome these workflow hurdles? What can we expect from iOS 11, and how and when can we get it? Best iPhone apps for designersWhen is iOS 11 released? iOS 11 is now available as a public beta – so you can download it right now to your iPad or iPhone. To do this, you’ll need to sign up to the (free) Apple Beta Software Program. Once you’ve done this, you install a profile to your device and download the beta. You should back up your device first using iCloud or iTunes – but don’t worry, you can go back to iOS 10 at any point if you need to (although you will need to reset your device first). If you’re not into early adoption, Apple says iOS 11's final release date will be some time this autumn (rumoured to be in September, along with the anticipated iPhone 8) and will presumably be pushed out as an update in the usual way. What’s great about iOS 11 for designers? Work across several devices with ease in iOS 11iOS 11 transforms the iPad into a serious productivity tool for creative professionals through a number of very cool features. Files app for working across devices and apps Possibly the most interesting of these is the new Files app. Yep, it sounds a tad dull, but it means you now can easily save, browse and manage all of your files on your iPad – plus those in apps, on your other iOS devices, on iCloud Drive and cloud services such as Dropbox and, most excellently, Adobe Creative Cloud. The latter means you have access to your work, wherever you are, without even having to launch Adobe’s mobile apps. You can tag your files and folders as well – just like on macOS. Better multitasking The next great thing is multitasking. Yes, there has been multitasking functionality in previous versions of iOS, but iOS 11 takes it up to, er, 11! You can still run a couple of apps at once using the Split View (two apps running side-by-side) and Slide Over (two apps running with one in a floating window), as introduced in iOS 9. There are slightly different ways of launching these, and you can now add a third app on an iPad Pro. Drag and drop images into emails for easy sharing with colleagues and clientDrag and drop But the introduction of drag and drop is a real game-changer for creatives. We know, it sounds so simple, but drag and drop is what the iPad has been missing for so long. So now when you have two apps open you can drag say, an image from one of your creative apps to your email easily. This used to be a matter of sharing from your creative app. It’s much easier now – and the new Dock, now available from any screen – echoes that in macOS. Many apps will be updated to support iOS 11's drag and drop functionality, including Adobe’s mobile apps, the ace Procreate and Morpholio Trace. Essentially, with this release, iOS is closer to macOS than ever before. And that’s obviously a great thing (maybe we’re one step closer to a Surface Book-like Apple laptop – we can dream, can’t we?). What’s new with Apple Pencil? iOS 11 gives Apple Pencil greater functionalityIf you’ve got an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil (after all, the Apple Pencil won’t work with other iPad models), iOS 11 brings some interesting new updates to the sublime stylus's abilities. For example, Instant Notes gives you the ability to simply start drawing on your lock screen, with the sketch or note automatically then appearing in the Notes app – great if you need to quickly capture an idea. And marking up PDF files is just as easy – you don’t need to select any kind of tools, just start drawing. The same goes for sketching within emails. The Apple Pencil hardware remains the same, but the way iOS 11 works with it has been greatly improved. What else is new in iOS 11? There’s a few other things that designers may use – including the built-in document scanner (good for contracts) and a better keyboard. But the most exciting other introduction is ARKit. What is ARKit? ARKit is Apple's new platform for developers to help them bring high-quality augmented reality (AR) experiences to iPhone and iPad using the built-in camera, processors, and motion sensors in iOS devices. According to Apple, ARKit enables developers to tap into the latest computer vision technologies to build detailed and compelling virtual content on top of real-world scenes for interactive gaming, immersive shopping experiences, industrial design and more. We’re yet to see what it can do properly, but it’s a hugely exciting development that could open up a new world – literally – for apps and how they interact with the world around us. Top tips for scaling up AR apps in 2017What about for my iPhone? The new loops tool is a fun addition to the Camera app in iOS 11Aside from the Apple Pencil functionality, pretty much everything else is the same on iPhone as it is on iPad. But you obviously use your devices in different ways. For photography nuts, the new pro filters in the Camera app will more than suffice, and Live Photos get a bit of a revamp as well. As well as being able to create a short motion clip with Live Photos, you can now create a loop effect, a bounce effect – making your photos rock back-and-forth – and a Long Exposure. The latter will be brilliant for capturing night time inspiration, we reckon. What do I need to run iOS 11? You’ll need a relatively new iPad or iPhone to get the most out of iOS 11. Apple says you’ll need at least an iPad Mini 2 or iPhone 5s. Of course, anything newer than this will make the OS run a lot smoother. And to use Apple Pencil you’ll need an iPad Pro 9.7-, 10.5- or 12.9-inch. If the rumours are true then the iPhone 8 and iPad Pro 2 could be announced before the official release date of iOS 11. Related articles: Best iPhone apps for designers 8 iPad apps that make the most of Apple Pencil Apple brings the iPad Pro closer to the MacBook replacement you need View the full article

Every web developer gets their start somewhere. If you haven't found yours yet, then why not try the Beginner Web Development Bundle? It has everything you need to start learning to build your own websites, and you can get it now for 96% off the retail price! For an aspiring web developer, the Beginner Web Development Bundle is the perfect starting place. This collection of professionally taught courses will lay the foundations of how to work with the most important languages in web development – from PHP and JavaScript to HTML5 and CSS3 – to bring your dream sites to life. There are four courses with tons of actionable lessons that will get you up to speed fast. You can get the Beginner Web Development Bundle on sale for 96% off the retail price, at just $29 (approx £22)! That’s a massive saving on a course that could launch your next career, so grab this deal today! View the full article

Brushes are a great way to beef up your Adobe Illustrator work. You can go a long way with Illustrator's basic tools, but with the right set of brushes – and the flexible way in which Illustrator allows them to be used on vector shapes – you can quickly and easily add texture and character to any piece of work. Managing brushes is more straightforward than ever before; with Illustrator CC, you can now save your brushes to your Creative Cloud library for easy access, no matter which machine you're using at the time. There's also the handy new Brush CC tool that allows you to define and share artwork in the form of brushes directly from your iOS device. These elements of workflow finessing means it's perhaps time to look again at brushes in Illustrator, so without further ado here are 20 of the best! 01. 8 free stipple shading Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Chris Spooner Build up tone and shade with these brilliant free Illustrator brushesDesigner Chris Spooner – aka Spoongraphics – crafted this free pack of eight stipple shading brushes to help you easily paint grungy details onto your artwork with Illustrator’s brush tool. Stippling is a traditional technique that uses lots of dots at different densities to build up tones and shade, and is particularly effective for creating a retro effect in your illustrations. 02. Free halftone vector brushes Quickly create halftones with this set of free Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Rob Brink This sample selection of free halftone Illustrator brushes are part of a larger pack of halftone vector brushes. Created by UI/UX designer Rob Brink, they’re perfect for adding old-school texture to your illustrations, without spending a penny. 03. Rodeo Old rope for no money Price: Free Artist/Designer: The Vector Lab Yee-hah! Rope can be really fiddly to draw, so if you need some in your imagery the go for this easy option instead. Rodeo is a hand-drawn rope brush for Adobe Illustrator CC. You can apply it to any path, as well as change the rope width and colour. 04. Marker pen strokes These marker pen brushes are magic Price: Free Artist/Designer: FudgeGraphics Get your sharpie on with this set of 64 free marker pen strokes and scribbles, and give your designs a more natural, hand-drawn look. They're high quality and compatible with all versions of Illustrator from CS onwards, and they're free for both personal and commercial work. 05. Smoke Light up your work with this excellent smoke Price: Free Artist/Designer: R2010 This set of smoke-like brushes is perfect for adding a bit of atmosphere to any illustration, whether it's for backgrounds or things that smoke, steam or mist. Play around with the opacity and blend modes in Illustrator to get some really nice effects. 06. Doodle lines You can use these doodle brushes commercially for a very reasonable price Price: Free (for personal use) Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes If doodling by hand is too much effort for you then achieve the same look with this set of free doodle brushes. It's a varied and versatile selection that allows you to create a hand-drawn sketched look, as well as decorative borders, curls and doodle style illustrations. They're free for personal use, while a licence for commercial use will cost you just £4. 07. Illustrator wedge brushes Create classy designs with this pack of wedge brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Free for non-commercial use, this pack of Illustrator brushes by freelance illustrator and graphic designer Mels Brushes is perfect for adding swirls, swishes and decorative curls to your designs. 08. Floral vector and brush pack A wider selection of florals than that which ships with Illustrator Price: Free for personal and commercial use Artist/Designer: Stock Graphic Designs This handy set of floral plate-inspired brushes is also available as a set of EPS assets for those times when you simply want to drop in stock art into your project. The quality of the art itself is comparable to the free florals that ship with Illustrator, but there's a wider selection available here, and the fact that they're not part of Illustrator's default arsenal means you're less likely to get instant recognition of the source. 09. Fur Illustrator brushes Sometimes you need to add hair... Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Need to add a furry effect? These eight hairy Illustrator brushes from Mels Brushes work particularly well when you build them up using different tones. They're free for personal use, and you can buy a license for commercial projects. 10. Abstract brushes These abstract brushes can be used to create crazy embellishments Price: Free Artist/Designer: alethiologie Deviantart is always a good place to find free-to-use resources and assets, as this example from alethiologie demonstrates. A handy set of brushes that you can use to create abstract shapes and patterns, including some pretty crazy-looking ornaments. 11. Lino cut brushes These free Illustrator brushes give a hand-finished look Price: Free (for personal use) Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes This is another example of digital replicating the natural imperfections of analogue artwork, but for all its irony, these free-for-personal-use brushes have a wonderful quality to them that brings out a lovely hand-finished look in your artwork. 12. Vector Brush toolbox You get 200 best-selling vector brushes, including sponge and ink splatter brushes, halftone, pencil, charcoal, watercolor and more, in this pack Price: $49 Artist/Designer: RetroSupply We mentioned there were two paid-for options in this list – and you’ll soon see why the Vector Brush Toolbox earns its place in a round-up of the best Illustrator brushes. Including six of RetroSupply’s best-selling Illustrator brush packs – that’s over 200 best-selling vector brushes – the Vector Brush Toolbox is the ultimate brush kit for illustrators, giving you every brush you’ll ever need for vector-based drawing. (Plus, you save $41 when you buy the bundle.) Next: More excellent Illustrator brushes 13. 15 paint brushes These brushes are based on real paint brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Think Design This set of 15 paintbrush-inspired brushes has been around a while, but the real-media feel they offer means they're still well worth downloading and installing. This is even more the case given they're absolutely free of charge. The brushes themselves are each based around a different style of real paint brush, offering a beautiful feeling of paint oozing out under the pressure of the brush. Great for those times when you want something a little less clean and imperfect. 14. Dry paint brush strokes Produce handdrawn-looking brush strokes with this free pack Price: Free Artist/Designer: Scorp1 To add a dry brush stroke effect to your designs, try this free pack from Duesseldorf-based designer Scorp1. According to Scorp1, the brushes were created using a dry brush with acrylic color, scanned, vectorised with Streamline and corrected manually where needed. 15. Mycanthus brush pack For some extra flourish, try this pack of art and scatterbrushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: r2010 Mycanthus brush pack 1 contains five ornamental art brushes and five scatter brushes. "I call this pack 'Mycanthus' – since I didn't stick with traditional acanthus leaf designs," says Deviant Art member r2010. The pack is free to use – just send r2010 a link to your work "to make it worthwhile". 16. Doodle Pattern Zentangle Borders These brushes are well-suited to borders Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Another from designer Mels Brushes, this pack of 28 doodled zentangle style Illustrator pattern brushes will add a handdrawn feel to your art work – and they're free for personal use. 17. Pattern brushes For stunning patterns, look no further than this set of 15 free Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Gina Startup This set of 15 Illustrator pattern brushes is perfect for creating vector borders and frames. Designed by New York-based digital artist Gina Startup – aka StarwaltDesign – they're all free. 18. Stipple shading brushes These stipple shading and scatter brushes are a great addition Price: Free (for personal use, check with author for commercial use) Artist/Designer: Chris Spooner Chris Spooner is well known to many designers on the web for his excellent tutorials and free resources. This selection of eight stipple shading and scatter brushes will make a lovely and versatile addition to your brush collection, allowing you to create fantastic half-tone style shading on your artwork with ease. Spooner has even provided a mini-tutorial showing how to get started with the brushes for best effect. 19. 57 multi-colored Illustrator brushes These free Illustrator brushes recreate oil brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Grant Friedman (Colorburned) This lovely collection of 57 real-media-like brushes recreates the feeling of traditional oil brushes, alongside the vivid colour that medium provides. Created by Grant Friedman specifically as a free download, the brushes are nonetheless of a high quality and very useable in your projects. 20. Free floral brushes for Illustrator These free floral brushes are beautiful in their simplicity Price: Free Artist/Designer: Gratiela Dascalu Created by Romanian web designer, Gratiela Dascalu, this set of twelve beautifully simple floral brushes make short work of crafting flora-based embellishments. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial use, so you can get stuck straight in to using them on client projects too. 21. Grunge These mucky brushes will cost you but it's worth it Price: $2.50 per pack Artist/Designer: Seth (TheMeatGrinder) Another gem from Deviantart, these deliciously mucky brushes come at a price: $2.50 per pack, of which there are two. Despite the (very low) cost, it's difficult to begrudge paying for a bit of grunge, especially when the brushes themselves create such visually gorgeous lines! 22. 3D star scatter brushes These free brushes add a retro feel to your vector project Price: Free Artist/Designer: brushportal.com This is a pretty basic set of 24 scatter brushes for Illustrator, but the 3D effect works well for retro artwork and the colours/shading lends itself well to the same. Great if you need to add a little sparkle to some artwork in a hurry, and free! 23. Paper tooth brushes Great for adding an authentic torn-paper feel Price: Free Artist/Designer: Equal and Opposite A paper's tooth is the slight ragged edge or the nooks and crannies you'll inevitably find where the fibres of the medium have knitted together. These brushes create a look of authenticity in your artwork, accentuating and simulating the effect of a paper stock with bite! 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Before getting to the psychological part of performance optimisation, let's answer one question: what is web performance? For the majority of frontend developers, the answer would cover things like page response time, speed of animations, load times. Guess what? The world is a cruel place and unfortunately not only web developers have access to the web. So how do regular users gauge web performance? Usually it's 'fast' or 'slow' ("The SpeedIndex of this site isn't as good as of that one. 280 millisecond slower first paint is the reason, I guess" – said no user without DevTools ever). These diverging approaches to performance come from the fact that our estimation of time can be objective (the time we can measure with a stopwatch, the way we developers approach it) or subjective (time as it's perceived by users). The reason why we should be looking at subjective, or psychological, performance is that unless users perceive the site as fast or faster, whatever we've done to our performance optimisation matters very little. Time perception in humans Mental activity makes waiting barely noticeablePerception of time by humans is a complex process. We can sense the flow of time, but the exact nature of the mechanism by which this is done remains unclear. The lack of a dedicated brain area for temporal processing makes understanding the process difficult. This does not mean we are out of control. There is enough knowledge about it for the purpose of performance optimisation. Let's start with the basic functional mechanism. Event in a nutshell Our memories about some period in time consist of events. Try to remember your last vacation. Probably, you don't recall it as a continuous process but rather as a set of events: dinner with a loved one, trip to mountains, broken leg (maybe that last one is just me, but nevertheless, you get the idea). The same happens on the web, all interactions with a web application are defined by events: loading a site, requesting a page, searching information and so on. Almost all of such events can be split further into smaller events or phases. For example, the event of loading a page usually consists of the following two phases: User is looking at the white screen User starts consuming the information on the page Here, the original event (fully loading requested page) is not necessary over and might continue in the background, considering some basic optimisations are in action. Phases during which our brain is triggered into active state and is forced to output information or process incoming one (typing, reading, etc) are called active. On the other hand phases when our brain is idling (looking at the white screen) are called passive. Multiple research suggests that people have a tendency to significantly (by about 36%) overestimate passive durations while underestimating active durations. Why so? Sometimes there is a big difference between time measurable with a stopwatch, and time as we perceive itAt any given moment our limited attentional resources are divided between all the concurrent tasks, including timing. As aforementioned, the brain lacks a dedicated temporal processing area, and to build our perception of time, it has to use information from different sensors. During the active phase of an event, mental activity drags attentional resources off the temporal processing, making users consider the wait as a shorter one or not noticeable at all. Passive phase is not defined only by brain idling. Typical features of it are: Waste of time: The more valuable the customers' time, the more negative their perception of those that waste it Boredom: This is the result of the idling state. Boredom arises when an individual does not get enough interesting information Lack of control: Users either have to wait for the event to be over or cancel the event (close the tab in our case). Lack of perceived control has a significant, negative impact on human physical and psychological well-being Due to these features, users' complaints about waiting, in most cases, are related exactly to the passive phase. Let's summarise: User's interaction happens discretely: loading a page, returning search results etc Events, even remaining objectively unchanged, can be split into active and passive phases Active phase is well tolerated by users, does not cause troubles and does not need to be treated anyhow. Contrary to active, passive phase is the core of the waiting problem and is the part that should be addressed Using this knowledge let's proceed to the basics of psychological performance optimisation (PPO). Reducing perceived waiting time Psychological performance optimisation does not change the duration of an event; instead it extends the active phase at the cost of the passive oneHere we should make an important note, changing the objective duration of the event is not the aim of PPO even though most of the techniques do reduce objective durations. Instead, it's all about manipulating users perception of time. So how do we make users perceive an event as a shorter one without changing its objective duration? Simply, within the time limits of an event, we should reduce the harmless passive phase by increasing the tolerable active one. We should either a) start the active phase as soon as possible or b) keep users in the active phase as long as possible. Once this becomes clear, understanding a lot of performance optimisation techniques and their purpose won't be a problem for you. At first, it might look like an unusual view at performance. But when it comes to the examples of the PPO there is nothing new I could tell. As long as you do performance optimisations, there is a high chance you're already using PPO even, possibly, without realising it. The list of relevant techniques includes but is not limited to: Critical rendering path optimisation: rendering the very first bits of information on the screen as soon as possible. If we speak events, this one is for loading a site or a new page. Optimistic UI: update interface in response to user's actions optimistically, disturbing the user only if something goes wrong. Optimistic UI is useful for any type of non-critical action. Resource hints: rather new specification of special <link> instructions to the browser that speed up communication and connection to external hosts or assets on your own site. Very broad field of application when it comes to events, from faster loading of subsequent pages on the same site to faster loading of the external pages if you need to. PRPL: pattern in general and its separate parts. Again, when it comes to events, PRPL pattern benefits loading the whole site or a newly requested page. Animations: probably the most seductive tool available to our disposal. But it comes with a warning. Animations, removing the boredom of the passive wait, indeed can significantly improve time perception of short events, related to the same page: outputting search results, putting item into cart, requesting additional information etc. It might even be used for cross-page transitions in SPAs. But, animations done badly might significantly harm not only performance, but also accessibility and overall perception of the project. When we talk about psychological time, unfortunately, there is no way we could universally measure perception. But, are there any metrics we could rely upon in order to know how good our site is perceived by users? What to measure? Conventional parameters like an onload event are not very informative for measuring perception as they do not take users into consideration. Instead, we should rely on the new generation of metrics: First Meaningful Paint: this parameter is responsible for triggering your user from passive to active in the phase of the page loading event. But rendering on its own might not be enough. The browser window might still be unresponsive to a user's interactions due to the browser's blocked main thread. Time to Interactive (TTI): this is exactly the parameter that shows when users can actually use the site instead of simply taking a look at it. Both parameters can be measured with popular monitoring tools like WebPagetest or Lighthouse. It also lands in Chrome DevTools. It goes without saying that these parameters should be as low as possible. You might also want to keep an eye on the Speed Index parameter to know how fast the visual part (not only the first paint) of your page is being output. Conclusion We've covered the basic principles of PPO. I would encourage you to keep going, read papers and any materials you can find on time perception. You will be surprised how weird and controversial our brain is. Better understanding of how humans are wired up might give you new opportunities in your work. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 293; buy it here! 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Dan Povenmire and Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh are two modern-day heroes of American animation. Their talents span drawing, animating, writing and producing, and they even write their own songs. While they’ve worked on top programmes like The Simpsons on Fox and Rocko’s Modern Life at Nickelodeon, they’ve also created their very own shows for Disney. Your guide to Disney's 12 Principles of Animation We caught up with them at the launch of Milo Murphy’s Law and asked them to share their top animation tips. 01. Photograph all your doodles Characters in Milo Murphy's Law were based on old drawings"I doodle all the time, and once I got a phone with a camera on it, I think it helped me a lot, because now I take pictures of every doodle I do," says Povenmire. "I also ‘favourite’ all the ones that I like and go back to them later on. "A lot of the characters in Milo Murphy’s Law were drawings that I’d done years earlier, like the character Decker, who is played by Christian Slater in the show. When we found out that he wanted to do a voice, I went back in my phone and found the doodle, and was like: ‘This guy!’" 02. Try to make your characters think "Watch Nick Park," Marsh advises. "He has mastered the art of making the inanimate object appear to think. The moment things become real is when you can believe that these characters are thinking. It’s not how big they smile or how fluidly they move, it’s when you’ve created the illusion that the character is processing information, and that’s that magic moment. "I was watching Creature Comforts and just went, ‘Oh, my God, he’s nailed everything.’ You watch the Brazilian Puma, who’s sitting there on the log, he’s like, ‘Where I would like to live, and spend most of my time…’ He’s out there, he’s thinking, he’s imagining, he’s seeing things from the past and the future and you go: That’s alive. That hunk of clay is now totally believable because he’s imagining, he’s remembering, he’s thinking." 03. Explore different emotions in your faces Candace is happy – until you put her eyebrows in..."If you do angry eyebrows and a happy face, it looks evil," says Povenmire. "If you do angry eyebrows and a sad face, it looks angry. If you do happy eyebrows and a sad mouth, you get perplexed. If you do sad eyebrows and a happy mouth, it looks like your character is in love. "You can do all these different things, and then within that you can use the eyelids to change an expression entirely: between wide-open eyes for an evil expression, and half-open eyes for a dopey expression. "It’s like Candace, the sister in Phineas and Ferb – she’s pretty happy right up until you put the eyebrows in, and then she’s screaming at her brothers. Up until that moment it’s, ‘Aaaah!’ and right then it becomes, ‘You are so busted.’" 04. Think in three dimensions Working on The Simpsons helped Marsh understand how to make characters instantly believable"If you think of Bart Simpson, his head is a cylinder, a Coke can," Marsh says. "Draw it, and turn that character in three dimensions. If he turns his head a certain way, you get a bigger circle on the top of his head and a smaller circle where his mouth is. "If your character turns and moves in three dimensions in a way that feels solid, people believe it a lot quicker. That’s the big thing that I learned when I started working on The Simpsons – how to construct things in a three dimensional way." 05. Use simple geometry Protagonist Phineas and antagonist Doofenshmirtz share the same geometry"In Phineas and Ferb, what’s funny is that our protagonist Phineas and antagonist Doofenshmirtz are essentially the same – they’re triangles with two circles for eyes," Povenmire explains. "You can put the hair in and they’re still impossible to tell apart. "But if you add a crooked nose and a mouth, suddenly, one triangle is Doofenshmirtz, whereas with Phineas, the point of the triangle is his nose and his mouth is behind it. They’re very much the same, just as Minnie Mouse is indistinguishable from Mickey – up to the point where you add features and they diverge." 06. Don't over-exaggerate The duo have lots of experience animating for prime time shows"How you handle exaggeration is down to the specific gag, and very much down to your sensibilities." Marsh reveals. "We both have a lot of experience in prime-time animation such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, where it’s all very small reactions, not a lot of exaggeration. "We’ve also worked on big, cartoony shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and SpongeBob SquarePants. They had big, ridiculous events. We tried to meet somewhere in the middle for our shows Phineas and Ferb, and Milo Murphy’s Law. "If you’re more in the middle generally, when you do go want to go extreme, it really plays big and that’s when you get the effect you want." 07. Animate the antic Povenmire learnt a lot by animating big gestures"There’s a standard thing in animation called ‘the antic’, which is really sort of three drawings, put in the right order," Povenmire continues. "So if I draw Phineas reacting to something, he’s going to go from a normal to an alert position. "Something big happens, and he’s got to react to it big. If you just draw the normal pose and then upright pose, it will just be OK. But if you give him the opposite action, instead of his head just going up, you have it go down first and then up, it becomes a bigger reaction to something. "That was something I learned early on when I was trying to animate somebody suddenly running out of frame. It didn’t look good at all until I gave him this whole swing back first – a big, cartoony anticipation of a movement and then have him run off. "You’ve got to have your characters move in the opposite direction first to give it weight." 08. Don't try to be perfect Nick Park's Feathers McGraw shows the power of good storytelling"As much as I believe in the quality of animation, if you’re telling a good story with some strong characters, you don’t need Disney-level resources," adds Marsh. "You have to define your characters really well and know who they are and believe in them. And then, even a stick figure drawing will do. "Think of Nick Park’s The Wrong Trousers, and the character Feathers McGraw. He’s a bowling pin! He doesn’t have any expression at all. There’s no smile. He blinks – that’s literally all he can do. But you know when he’s being menacing and evil. You know when he’s discovered something. He changes the pace at which he walks, and he stops and turns." This article was originally published in Computer Arts magazine issue 266. Buy it here. 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