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A modern smartphone is of course a staple of the designer – a large screen can help you improve productivity on the go, and a fantastic camera can be used to shoot textures, images for comps and pitches, and just random inspiration you see on your travels (all in high-quality). 4K video is now a standard on smartphones as well, meaning pro-quality video doesn’t need a pro-quality setup. So with these things – and more – in mind, let’s take a look at the best smartphones for designers and creative professionals on the market today. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is all about the screenSamsung has quite a lot to prove with the Galaxy S8, its new flagship smartphone. After the debacle that was the Note 7, with its tendency to explode in people’s pockets, the company needs to win back the trust of consumers everywhere. And with the brand new Galaxy S8 it could just do that. There are two models – the S8 and S8+, and it’s the latter we’re interested in here at Creative Bloq. This is a monster of a smartphone – in every sense. Both S8 and S8+ models feature an ‘infinite display’ that curves around the edge of the phone (like the S7 Edge) but the S8+ features a huge 6.2-inch screen with a resolution of 2960x1440 pixels. The camera pretty much remains the same as the excellent S7: a 12-megapixel sensor. We’re a little disappointed that there’s no dual camera or tech as found in Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium, if we’re honest. There’s no home button either. This phone is ALL screen. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ will launch with Bixby – a new virtual assistant similar to Siri (but Google Assistant is on the S8 as well). There’s also face unlock, IRIS unlock and a fingerprint sensor. But this smartphone is all about the screen. It looks incredible. In terms of aesthetics, there isn’t a more beautiful phone available. And because of the lack of bezel, you get a larger screen in a smaller form factor. The Galaxy S8 can also become a desktop PC through the DeX dock. You may not want to do this, but hey, you can! It launches on 28 April. The big draw of the Pixel XL 2 is its cameraThe Pixel 2 XL (and the smaller Pixel 2) are this year's followups to Google's own-brand smartphones – tying a native, non-skinned or tweaked version of Android O with Google hardware that should run its OS in the best possible way. And it’s a fact: the native version of Android O running on the Pixel 2 XL is fast. So fast. Everything about the Pixel 2 works in double-quick time, from the fingerprint sensor unlocking to the homescreen to the camera launching. You’re never waiting for anything, and that’s a huge plus. Oh, and you also get Google Assistant – a kind of supercharged Siri that you can ask contextual questions. The screen on the Pixel 2 XL is 6-inches (a decent amount larger than last year's model), with a resolution of 1440x2560 pixels, and it’s bright and sharp. But for a 6-inch phone it feels pretty compact thanks to its small bezel (it’s not like the S8’s edge-to-edge screen by any means, but it’s certainly more compact than the iPhone). One of the real winning features of the Pixel 2 XL is the camera. Sure, it doesn’t have a dual-camera setup like the Huawei P10 Plus, but its 12.2-megapixel offering produces shots of the highest quality; details are sharp and colours natural. And it’ll shoot video in 4K. One word on the design. On the back of the Pixel 2 XL is a glass panel (what is it with smartphone manufacturers making EVERYTHING out of glass?). You may want to pick up a case – the official Google ones are the least intrusive. But add this £30 case to the cost of the phone outright and it soon becomes very expensive (and like the Huawei P10 Plus, it’s only splash-proof). Annoyingly, Google has also followed Apple's lead by dropping the 3.5mm headphone port, so you'll need an adaptor if you want to plug in your wired headphones. If you're after something jazzier, Huawei also offers the p10 Plus in Pantone colour of the year ‘Greenery’Huawei (pronounced Hu-Wah-Wey if you’re interested) has really upped its game recently with its range of Android-powered smartphones. And the P10 Plus is its latest, combining a huge 5.5-inch QHD screen with a dual Leica camera setup. The latter is very interesting – there’s two cameras and sensors here, one for monochrome shots and one for colour. Just flick between them using the camera software. The monochrome sensor is 20-megapixels; the regular camera 12-megapixels. And the custom camera app really is excellent, giving you access to such features as a wide aperture mode. There’s enough in the camera alone to make this phone extremely appealing to creative professionals. Oh, and it’ll also shoot in 4K. One other interesting thing is that Huawei has partnered with Pantone to bring the P10 Plus in ‘Greenery’ – Pantone’s colour of the year. To be fair, you may want to stick with black (Graphite Black) or silver (what Huawei call Mystic Silver – oooh, mystical silver). And this is one of the slimmest ‘big’ smartphones out there. Software-wise, the Huawei P10 Plus runs a modified version of Android N called (rather snappily) EMUI. When you compare it to say, Google Pixel XL and the native experience on offer there, it’s nowhere near as slick. That said, it’s better than previous versions – and reinstates the app drawer so you don’t have to have all of your app icons across multiple screens. The camera may convince you to try this out – and we wouldn’t blame you. But bear in mind you don’t get the waterproofing of the iPhone 7 or Galaxy S8 (so don’t spill coffee on it or drop it in a puddle). And it costs £680, which is right up there with premium phones. Another great iPhone from AppleWhat can we say about the iPhone that you probably don't already know? Apple's smartphones have revolutionised the mobile industry, though for the past few years it feels like Apple has played it a little safe. So, iPhone 8 Plus looks like the iPhone 7 Plus, which looks like the 6S Plus, which looks like the 6 Plus. If you love the look and feel of existing iPhones, then 2017's updated model will definitely be for you. Whilst the screen remains pretty much the same as the iPhone 7 Plus (a meagre 1080p affair compared to some lesser-priced Android devices), the camera on the 8 Plus is its real selling point. It’s a dual-camera affair, but unlike Huawei and Leica’s offerings, the iPhone 8 Plus camera is about zoom – optical zoom. One lens is a wide-angle, one a telephoto. This means you can zoom anywhere from 1x to 2x using pure optical zoom, which obviously yields better results with less noise and artefacts. You can also use the digital zoom up to 10x. Optical image stabilisation is another great feature. It’s one of the best cameras out there. The iPhone 8 Plus is a little heavier than the majority of phones this size (the Pixel 2 XL feels very light in comparison) and feels bigger due to its fatter bezel – one-handed operation can be a bit of a struggle (unless you’re a goalkeeper). But build quality is better than anything out there (maybe excluding the Galaxy S8), and features such as 3D Touch and Touch ID with Apple Pay make it a real winner. And of course the depth and breadth of apps is always a swaying point. It ain’t cheap at £949 for the top model... you could almost get a MacBook for that! Sony is aiming to revolutionise camera tech with the addition of Motion EyeThe XZ Premium is Sony's latest flagship handset, and while the 4K screen seems like the headline feature, it's the camera that really impresses. Sony has a rich heritage in camera tech and it’s looking to rewrite the rulebook with the XZ Premium, in the form of Motion Eye. Yes, it’s all a bit ‘marketing hyperbole’, but Motion Eye tech looks amazing for those regularly shooting on their smartphones. For one, it features super-slow motion video – recording at 960 frames per second (yes, 960!). Sony says this is four times slower than other smartphones. Next, there’s predictive capture, which basically starts buffering your shot a second before the shutter is pressed – and then gives you four images to pick from. Its 19-megapixel sensor also has intelligent exposure controls to automatically adjust light levels (there’s also manual focus controls), and 5-axis stabilisation should make for steady 4K videos. The other big selling point – potentially – is that the XZ Premium is the first smartphone to have a 4K HDR display (before the Galaxy S8 at least, even though the Galaxy will go on sale before). It’s an all-Gorilla Glass affair so should be pretty robust, and it’s a real stunner with ergonomic rounded edges. With high-res audio built in it’ll sound as good as it looks. Add-ons can transform this into a top cameraIn terms of innovation, the Moto Z could be our favourite phone out there at the moment. Why? Because of the different modules you can buy to extend the device. It kind of takes what was so cool about the LG G5 and expands on it, making your smartphone a real jack-of-all-trades. Moto Mods, as they’re known, clip onto the back of the Moto Z using strong magnets. Our favourite has to be the Hasselblad True Zoom Mod, which essentially turns your smartphone into a high-quality camera with 10x optical zoom. Yes, it’ll cost you an extra £199, but it shoots in RAW and gives you an optical zoom level that no other smartphone has. Then there’s the Insta-Share Projector, turning your smartphone into a portable projector capable of projecting at sizes up to 70 inches, meaning you can project your ideas and even short films onto any flat surface on the fly. Again, it’s not cheap at £250, but is a real innovation. And there’s a JBL speaker and an Incipio battery pack. Whilst it isn’t by any means the most cutting-edge of smartphones on its own, by adding Moto Mods you can transform it into a top camera, mobile projector or portable speaker in an instant. And that’s what’s so impressive. Like this? Read these... The best new tech for designers to drop in 2017 Apple patent transforms iPhone into a MacBook The 30 best iPhone apps for designers View the full article

Graduating from design school and trying to get your first job can be one of the most frustrating times in your career. You need a design portfolio to get a job, but you haven't had a full-time design job before, so what are you going to put in it? Worry not. There are quite a few different things you can do to help bulk out your portfolio – and not all of them involve designing for free. These tips don't just apply to recent graduates, either – if ever you find that your portfolio could do with a refresh but you're not getting to right client projects to do so, come back to these ideas and give one a go. 01. Work on your own brand Your personal brand is your first chance to make an impressionIt's not just a good portfolio that will impress potential clients: how you present yourself to clients is, in itself, an opportunity to provide them with a sample of your work. Having a solid brand identity for yourself as a freelance designer will also help you seem much more professional. So, why not design yourself a logo, some business cards, and a slick website to showcase your other work. Take the advice of experienced graphic designers and spend 75 per cent of the time you work on client work again on developing your own company image. 02. Help a local business Look close to home for your first clientsWhether it's a local charity, a company belonging to a friend or family member, or just a place where you really enjoy the service – you can always make the first move and volunteer your services. If you've noticed that your favourite café's menu could be better, why not suggest that to the owners? If you've chosen not to work pro bono, then make sure you charge for your work. 03. Create your dream project Set your own brief tailored to the kind of work you want to doClients want to see how well you are able to work to a brief and design according to their specific needs. However, there's no rule to say that your portfolio has to be filled with real life projects. If you don't have any examples to show off your best skills, why not make up your own brief? The advantage of these kinds of projects is that you can imagine your perfect job and picture your ideal client. What type of design work would they need? This way, you are making your portfolio more attractive to the kinds of people that you actually want to work with, not just the kinds of people you end up working with. Just make sure you flag up that it's a personal project on your portfolio site. 04. Enter design competitions Awards give you recognised accredationThird party recommendations are always more convincing than self-promotion. By winning a competition, you'd be proving that you can out-do several other designers in front of a panel of impartial judges – possibly the best third party recommendation you could hope to receive. There are a whole host of recognised accreditations out there that would look as good on your CV as paid work, if not better. In fact, the Adobe Design Achievement Awards were created specifically to help students and recent graduates launch their careers. Whatever you do, make sure you retain copyright of anything you submit. Which leads us onto our final tip… 05. Avoid online design marketplaces Avoid spec work – it's bad for you and for the wider industryThese sites are the cause of substantial debate within the design industry. Online design marketplaces, such as 99designs and Crowdspring, enable employers to post briefs for professional designers to ‘compete' for. Yes, that means that new designers have as much chance as experienced designers of being picked for the job. But it also means you have to put in a lot of time and resource into a design, and there's no guarantee that the employer will like your concept the most. This is spec work and, while it's rife in the creative industry, can you imagine asking a plumber to work for free in the hopes of being paid? You wouldn't eat at different restaurants and only pay at the best one. In the same way, you should never work for free (unless it's pro bono work). Doing so is not only bad for you, it's harmful to the wider industry too. Read more: How to craft a standout portfolio 10 tips for a killer design portfolio 10 brilliant image-led portfolio sites for 2017 View the full article

We've looked at some useful painting techniques over the years here on Creative Bloq, but few compare to the impressive brushwork of Japanese artist Keisuke Teshima, otherwise known as onestrokedragon. You can get a taste of Teshima's work above. As you can see, he specialises in dragons that appear to writhe across the page. Every dragon he paints has a body made up of layer upon layer of scales that look like they've taken an age to paint. Not so. How to paint scalesThanks to a Japanese painting technique called Hitofude Ryuu, Teshima is able to create the intricate details of a dragon quickly and without taking his brush off the page. Hitofude Ryuu translates to 'dragon with one stroke' and you can watch the mesmerising art technique in action in the video below. Impressive, eh? The painting technique might be quick, but we can't help but imagine how long it takes artists like Teshima to master it. In the video you can see how steadily staggered brushstrokes create the impression of scales. The same technique is also used to realise the dragon's whiskers, and it's there that you get a better look at how Teshima's hands carefully pause just for a moment as he drags his brush across the page. When it comes to the body of the dragon though, Teshima's technique is so smooth that it's difficult to spot how he creates the scale effect. The paint just seems to emerge from his Sumi brush in slabs as if by magic. To give his dragons a sense of movement, Teshima delicately coils their bodies without taking his brush off the page or losing momentum. The way the colours are loaded onto the brush and the expert amount of pressure exerted on the page help to give the body a sense of shape. Rounding off the dragon is the tail, which sees the brush marks ending with a long sweep. If like us you've been mesmerised by this video and you want to have a go at Hitofude Ryuu yourself, just remember that you need a Sumi brush, a steady hand, and years of practice. Otherwise, you might create something like this Twitter user's valiant effort: [Via Business Insider UK, @Timelapsevids] Related articles: How to paint fantasy beasts 14 fantasy artists to follow on Instagram 10 sci-fi and fantasy art painting tips View the full article

Fantasy portraiture is my favourite subject. Bringing an original character to life is exciting, but can be difficult to achieve. To avoid mistakes and save time I try to follow a few rules. But they're really just guidelines, so feel free to adapt, change and test other techniques that might better suit your painting process. There's more to portraits than knowing how to draw a face. It's worth spending time and effort trying to understand how a face 'works', such as under a particular lighting setup. Such a skill won't be grasped overnight. The most important thing to bear in mind is to take your time. This is the best advice I can give, because nothing good comes from rushing a painting. Take your time – nothing good comes from rushing a painting. Melanie Delon The main challenge in a portrait painting is to make the character stand out. Usually there's no surrounding decor in the environment to help you achieve this goal, and a finished, polished portrait can often end up looking flat and boring. Thankfully, there are several simple and effective ways to achieve a striking portrait. 01. Plan with preparatory sketches Rough sketches will get your portrait headed in the right directionBefore starting an illustration, I always do some quick pencil drawings to lay down my ideas. This helps me to see more clearly what I want to do and express, and be more confident about the direction I want to take. I use these sketches to build the composition, reworking them slightly in Photoshop CC if necessary. Usually I like to keep them rough, because this gives me more freedom during the colouring process. I feel restricted by perfectly clean line-art. 02. Get the proportions right Practise getting your facial proportions rightIt's important to be aware of the proportions of a human face. Of course, they're only guides – everyone has a different face shape that doesn't necessarily meet the beauty standard – but it's essential to know these rules, if you're going to play by them and break them. I recommend practising with facial proportions until it almost becomes instinctual to apply them to a portrait piece. I always start with a basic oval and then slowly add the facial features to build up the character's face. 03. Avoid pure black and white Skin consists of a multitude of coloursUsually the biggest mistake in a portrait painting is the skin's colour: it's never either beige or black. Skin comprises a multitude of colours, from pale blue around the eye, to pink, to hints of yellow for the mouth's corners. I start painting with very few colours, and progressively add more hues. I save my colour palette in a corner of the illustration so it's always on hand. So I don't end up with a muddy look, I avoid using pure black or white. Instead, I increase the saturation to the colour I using for the shadows. 04. Develop a dynamic composition Composition and placement can make things more dynamicThe composition and placement of the character in the illustration is essential for introducing dynamism to the painting. I always try to imply a slight torso movement, which avoids a straight and boring posture. Placing the character's face in the centre is a classic approach and works well, but I also like to nudge the character towards a corner of the image to add a little originality, and free up space in the scene. I find that slightly tilting the character's head helps to add visual interest and life to an image. 05. Work the background A relatively plain background keeps the focus on the characterThe background can also help give more impact to the portrait. I don't like to overload it with details, preferring instead to leave it relatively plain to avoid any unnecessary visual distractions. I usually add subtle texture and a gradient to avoid a flat, lifeless look. An alternative is to add blurred elements, such as a forest or a building, to give the character context and hint at their story. 06. Introduce realistic details Veins and beauty spots can add realismSmall details such as veins or beauty dots won't be immediately apparent, but will give the last touches of texture and realism to portraits. These can also tell a story: for example, exposed veins can be useful for depicting a vampire or a person who's ill. I generally use the same brush to create these details: a very fine brush that allows for precise work. I slightly blur the brushstrokes' edges to unify and soften the details. 07. Emphasise key facial features Concentrate on detailing the areas you want to draw attention toIt's easy to get lost in the details, even in an intimate portrait piece. To avoid this and save time I don't detail the entire illustration, instead only working up the areas that I want to draw attention to. For a portrait the most obvious area is the eyes, but depending on the lighting and the story I want to tell I can add a second focal point, usually a key costume element. 08. Maintain eye contact Eye contact will always grab the viewer's attentionEven in the busiest of compositions, a face will always catch the viewer's attention. And to make the face even more powerful and striking, ensuring strong eye contact remains the most effective trick. The viewer is instantly connected with the character. It's an effect that I use a lot in my portraits… perhaps a little too much! But I also love to play with more subtle glances, which are less direct and help to develop a sense of mystery, raising questions in the viewer's mind. Next page: More top portrait painting tips 09. Give lips texture Dots of bright light can bring lips to lifeLips are an important facial feature. They can draw attention as much as the eyes do, and help the character to express emotion. To get them right it's just a matter of texture. Lips aren't a flat, plain element: I paint the little wrinkles with a very thin brush, which gives them texture and a lot of volume. Indeed, volume is the key to bring life to the lips, so I always add some intense dots of light to make them more realistic and attract even more attention. 10. Add new focal points to profile portraits Emphasise details in profile, to make up for the lack of eye contactDeveloping a character's profile is tricky because there's no eye contact to play with and only half of the face to show. I use light and contrast to compensate for the lack of interaction with the character, and enhance the costume design to hold the viewer's attention. Here, the figure's hair does almost everything: it defines her head shape and contrasts well with the bright, empty background. 11. Play with light and saturation in the eyes Use light and saturation to help eyes stand outThe eyes are usually the main part of a portrait, and are my favourite element. They can look sad, sparkling, mysterious or dangerous… and done well, can bring any character to life. I like to give them a lot of intensity with unusual colours such as purple or yellow. The trick to make them stand out is to play with the light and saturation. I use a precise brush to create some colours variations in the eye and finish it a bright dot of light that will give volume to the eyeball. 12. Tell a story There are plenty of ways to introduce hints of a storyA portrait leaves very little space to tell a story, so the general style of the character is important and can give a lot of indications and information about their life. I try to pay special care to their clothing, even if the viewer can only see a small part of it. I also spend time on their hair and details like a crown, to give the maximum amount of visual information. Their story can also be told by elements on the skin, like a tattoo, a scar or tribal markings. 13. Explore interesting lighting Get your lighting right and you'll add atmosphere to your workThe light is crucial in a portrait. If you get this right, it adds to the atmosphere of the piece, and brings life and volume to the face. I always start a portrait with neutral mid-tones and gradually add shadows and light. I love to accentuate the light in a chiaroscuro style; I think it brings a classic feeling to my fantasy theme. However, I keep my shadows very soft, and my gradients are usually very smoothed, because the face is made of curves and not sharp angles. 14. Add flaws to your skin Flawless skin looks fake; work in some blemishes The skin is obviously an important element in a portrait painting, and a common mistake is to make it look flawless. It's relatively simple to paint clean, soft-looking skin, but if you're not careful your character will end up looking like a plastic doll, and besides, nobody has perfect skin. To avoid this, I start with a textured base and use a soft brush with a little grain texture to recreate the skin's irregularities. I also add some dots of light to create pores, particularly on the nose and around the eyes. 15. Play with contrast Contrast helps to draw your character out from the backgroundAnother trick that works very well is to add contrast to the composition. I achieve this by adjusting the lighting, playing with complementary colours, or using warm and cold hues. The trick is to separate the character from the background. My favourite approach is to use a very dark background and an unusual light source to illuminate the character. The light captures the viewer's initial attention, who then moves on to my character portrait. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 138; buy it here! Read more: How to paint an atmospheric portrait in Photoshop 10 digital artists you need to know about How to use digital tools to create a hand-drawn look View the full article

Houdini's strong point has always been its procedural nature. With a few nodes and a small set of expressions, you can create complex and naturalistic results – models and scenes that would take forever to create in traditional ways. For a long time Houdini has been the backbone of many large-scale productions in the visual effects industry. However, because of its procedural approach, it's often claimed to be too difficult to learn. While this might have been true a few years back, things have changed. With more accessible licensing schemes and a complete revamp of Houdini's interface, it continues to open up to small studios, artists and enthusiasts. Coming from other packages, it's still is a very different way of thinking, though. 30 free 3D modelsIn this tutorial we will give an overview of the program. We will start off with basic modelling techniques for leaves and grass. We will cover sampling VDB volumes to distribute plant growth and eventually use VEX code and wrangle nodes to generate geometry on the fly. We're going to see if what everyone says about Houdini is true: once you go procedural, you will never look back! Download the files for this tutorial. 01. Get organised Make life easier for your future self by giving your shapes meaningful namesStart with a model of a ruin you want to cover in foliage. Make sure you name your shapes in a meaningful way. This allows easy grouping of the geometry for different purposes later. Split it up into walls, planks, bricks, windows and glass. Houdini alembic import will set a path attribute on import. You can then easily use a split or blast node to select the pieces you want. 02. Create the leaves Make your leaves single-sided with a low poly countWith the ruin in place, it's time to begin creating individual leaves to use later for instancing. Always work with reference images from nature if you want more realistic results. We need the leaves to be single-sided and of fairly low poly count. Start off by making a curve to resemble the outer leaf shape. Use a remesh node to add some surface tessellation. With a soft transform, slightly lift out the centre at the stem. Also add a colour attribute with different shades of green. 03. Grass strands Put as much variety into your grass strands as you canWe also need individual strands of grass to cover the floor. Again, simple one-sided polygonal strands with varying width are sufficient. Generally speaking, more variation is always better. But even with just five different shapes, you will achieve quite realistic results. As our setup is procedural, more can easily be added later. It's important to make sure all meshes are centred at the origin with the pivot at their foot. This way we can use them as instances straight away. 04. Natural distribution Find a rule that will make your grass grow in a natural-looking wayThere are many ways to decide where grass will grow. Find a rule that resembles a natural distribution. We will make grass grow everywhere on ground that is not covered by the building or rubble. Growth needs to be denser and longer along walls and rocks. Isolate the ground from our geometry and use a remesh node to gain a fairly high level of subdivisions. 05. AttributeTransfer Use white points for the walls and grey for the groundAdd a white point colour to the walls and a grey to the ground. Use AttributeTransfer to map the wall colour onto the ground. Tweak the blend radius on the node to fit around the base of the walls. Turn the walls into a VDB with VDBfromPolygons. In an AttributeWrangle, get the VDB value at each point with the volumesample function. Remove points with a negative value. 06. Prepare attributes With some random settings you'll quickly have some great-looking grassBefore using Copy Stamp, some attributes need preparation. In VEX use a random number to drive a ramp of a random number. This is a visual way to control scale distribution. In the same way, set the colour to a random green. To make the strands point in slightly different directions, change the normal by adding a random offset in X and Z direction. Voila, you grew grass! 07. Climbing plants You'll need to write a solver for climbing plantsFor the climbing plants, we need to write our own solver in VEX to mimic a growth mechanism. It might sound daunting, but we go step by step all the way. Don't forget to also use the Houdini Reference on VEX. To find the root points we go with the same mechanism we used on the grass. Start off with a few points on the ground, close to the wall. 08. Plant forces These are the three forces that govern the plants' growthWe have three forces at work. The first we'll call UP, pointing away from the ground against the gravitational pull. The second is a vector named WANDER, pointing in a random direction along the wall. The third force is called WALL, pointing towards the closest obstacle. This emulates the plant's desire to climb. We will use all three forces on each growth iteration. 09. Grow the seedling Grow the seedling in short segmentsNow comes the time for us to dive into VEX using a point wrangle. In a for loop we grow the seedling in short segments by adding to the variable pos, which has been initialised with the start position. For now, only grow along the UP vector. It's good practice to make use of the ch() and chv() functions, to expose parameters to the interface. You then can easily experiment with the result of the algorithm by interactively changing those values. 10. Natural effects The WANDER force gives your growth a more natural appearanceFor a more natural look, add the WANDER force. On each step calculate a random direction based on a noise function. This random vector adds to the direction the seed gets moved. For better balancing, also introduce two weighting factors to the interface, scaling our forces up or down. The result is vines growing with a lot more variation, but they now penetrate obstacles they meet. To avoid this, the third type of force comes in handy, the WALL direction. 11. Final force Finally, add the WALL forceAdd the last force to the VEX loop by sampling the value and gradient VDB of the ruin. This gives you the distance between point and wall as well as the wall's normal direction. Calculate a force that points towards the wall and add it to the grow direction. Sample the VDB a second time in the new position to check if the point is inside the wall. If so, just push it out along the normal. 12. Soften the change It's easy to fix things if your vines start looking unnaturalThe vines still don't look natural. This is because they can change direction rapidly on each step. Soft blend between the directions of the previous and the current step to smooth that out. You also want to stop growing if the position moves too far off the walls. See if the wall distance you get from the VDB sample exceeds a certain threshold. Just break out of the for loop if it does. 13. Branching behaviour Getting your vines to branch is fairly straightforwardAnother aspect of climbing plants we still have to add – branching. But this is very straightforward to achieve. Tag each growth step with a certain probability to be a branch point. Then run the growth algorithm again on each of those marked points, using the point itself as the root. It's a good idea to tweak the growth parameters on the second pass in order to be more wandering and less upwards, to fill up the areas along the walls. 14. Finish the branches It's time to turn your points into real-looking branchesWe now have created sequences of points resembling branch growth. Make use of the id attribute on the point and create an Add node to turn them into individual curves. A UV Texture set to Rows&Columns will provide UVs along the curve length, which you then ramp along their individual length to an attribute called pscale. A Polywire node turns curves into tubes where you use $PSCALE for thickness. Add a Mountain and a Facet after, to finalise the branches. 15. Instance the leaves For the leaves, follow a similar technique to the one you used for the grassInstancing leaves works a bit like the grass strands earlier. We define a distribution attribute along the curves coming out of the growth algorithm. This is zero at the start of each branch and then 1 at the tip. Use a scatter to place points along the curve based on that attribute. It looks better to vary the pscale. Use a copy stamp to instance the prepared leaves onto those points. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 225; buy it here! Related articles: 10 top Houdini tutorials How to get started in Houdini Make realistic plants in Cinema 4D View the full article

You're reading SaaS Interface Design: Trends, & Best Practices for Designing a SaaS UI, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Designing a SaaS product for the web is no easy task. It requires not just an idea, but a clear plan of how it’ll work and which features you’ll support. This also means a lot of UX planning from the early wireframing to detailed mockups. I’ve put together some common trends I see in SaaS websites and […] View the full article

African woman laughing, by peeterv. Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting July 17 Looking for free images to use in your designs, without having to pay a single penny in royalties? Then you might be surprised to know that there’s a perfectly legal way to get free photographs, illustrations and videos from leading stock library iStock by Getty Images. iStock by Getty Images is so proud of the high quality photography, illustrations and videos on its site that it regularly gives files away for free, with absolutely no catch. Yes, that’s free photographs, free illustrations and free videos, in high resolution, for you to use whenever you like, without paying a penny. Free photos are updated weekly, and free illustrations and free videos are updated monthly. Bubble fun on the garden by Azman. Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting September 11 All you have to do is sign up for an iStock account. But don’t worry: that’s totally free, involves no commitment, and you don’t have to give any credit card details. Here’s your step-by-step guide to getting stock files for free. 01. Sign up for a free account It’s easy and free to get an iStock accountThe first step is to sign up for a free account with iStock. Head to the homepage and click on ‘Join’ in the top-right hand corner of the page. 02. Provide an email address and password Provide an email address and choose a password: that’s all the info you need to giveYou’ll be brought to a form where you have to enter an email address and choose a password: nothing more. 03. Find your freebies The links to the free stock files are near the bottom of the homepageScroll down to the part of the homepage that’s titled ‘Join iStock for free stock files every week’. Below that you’ll see three images titled ‘Free photo’, ‘Free illustration’ and ‘Free video clip’. Click on any of these and you will be taken through to the download page. 04. Check the licence There are some special circumstances in which you might need to buy an extended licence, so do check before downloadingEach free image and video comes with a standard agreement, so make sure you read this so you know where and how you can legally use it. In some limited circumstances – if you are printing more than half a million copies of your design, for example – you will need to buy an extended licence, so do check first. 05. Choose your image size You can choose to download the image in a range of sizesNow choose the size of the image you want, depending on your needs, by ticking the appropriate box above the red ‘Free download’ button. The measurements for each option appear below as you click on each box. 06. Download your image Your free image will download directly to your Mac or PCClick on the red button titled ‘Free download’ and then a second or so later, click the green button titled ‘Confirm download’. Your image will automatically download to your Mac or PC. Then check back to the homepage a week later to see the next lot of freebies. 5 freebies you might have missed Free image files from iStock are only available for a week, so if you miss them the first time around, you lose the chance to download them for free. Which means it’s worth coming back every week to grab the latest free files. To give you an idea of what’s on offer, here are five great freebies that you may have missed in the last couple of months… 01. Young scientist Young scientist working in laboratory, by gremlin Now available for purchase, this scientist image was available for free in the week starting July 31. 02. Boy asleep with his dog Boy sleeping with dog, by gollykim Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting July 24. 03. Under peonies Under peonies, by VikaValter Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting September 4. 04. Team of surgeons Team of surgeons in operating room at a hospital, by Tempura Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting August 14. 05. Female carpenter Female Carpenter In Her Workshop, by vitranc Now available for purchase, this image was available for free in the week starting September 18. Special discount for Creative Bloq readers! Along with your weekly free files, iStock also offers you the choice of millions of high-quality images at a very low cost. And to give you an added incentive, we’ve teamed up with iStock by Getty Images to offer Creative Bloq readers 10% off all iStock credits. Just use code ZNKPC46N today at the website to take advantage of this incredible offer! View the full article

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/10/22/office-dde-attack-works-in-outlook-too-heres-what-to-do/ … View the full article

WebGL is a permanent part of internet as we know it, WebVR is settling in and WebAR is taking its first steps. Not only has the technology became more advanced, but the tools have become simpler and more accessible for developers and designers. Thinking of dipping your toe in? Here are eight amazing 3D web demos by digital artist Marpi that will inspire you to get started. 01. Mass Migrations Mass Migrations is a fully generative environmentMass Migrations on GitHub A fully generative environment, filled with heavily anime-inspired mecha-like robots/spaceships. It started as a prototype and ended up a large scale art installation, VR world and a 3D printed collection of people's creations. 02. Codeology Code from GitHub brought to lifeCodeology on GitHub Visualising any public GitHub project as a unique 3D ASCII creature, determining its combination of shapes, colours and size based on the coding languages used within. Press Alt + 1, 2, 3… for cheat codes. 03. Spider A realistic spider movement made with JavaScriptSpider on GitHub Proof of concept for making a generative spider movement that would feel real – and trigger the same feelings spiders that do. The look, bones animation and movement are generated from pure code, so you do feel afraid of JavaScript. 04. Eutow A hallucinogenic-themed artworkEutow on GitHub One sunny September day, a conversation with Indian artist Archan Nair sparked an ongoing collaboration. There's a special mix of appreciation of building 3D worlds, virtual reality and hallucinogenic-themed visual systems. 05. Black Rain Codrops' rain experiments from Lucas Bebber mixed with Archan Nair's visualsBlack Rain on GitHub A mix of melancholy and maps, refractions and reflections, a cold NY night in the rain, amazing and haunting. Mix Codrops' rain experiments from Lucas Bebber with Archan Nair's visuals, touching on Blade Runner's territory. 06. Odra An everlasting underwater music experimentOdra on GitHub What if music was generated the same way as graphics? They both have themes, systems and are built from smaller pieces that have to work together. And since it's mixed with those generative creatures, in a way, they're playing live. 07. Maratropa Twitter visualised as a universeMaratropa on GitHub Imagining the Twitter universe as a, well, universe. Each profile becomes an abstract, religious-like statue with their followers around it. You can jump between them in three dimensions, using node structure, forming sort of an artificial brain. 08. Biomes Exploring of generative landscapesBiomes on GitHub An exploration of generative landscapes, somewhere between Minecraft and Alien universes, with SSAO and Screen Space Reflections using super shiny EchartsGL engine this time. The land long before time. This article originally appeared in Web Designer issue 265. Buy it here. Related articles: 20 amazing examples of WebGL in action 9 brilliant uses of 3D in web design The VR web is here View the full article

Researchers identified a new ransomware family called Magniber that uniquely only targets users in South Korea and the Asia Pacific regions. View the full article

One highlight from Adobe Max 2017 was the event’s Sneaks session. Here, attendees have a unique opportunity to preview radical innovations from the company’s research teams that might – or might not – make it into the products. Get Adobe Creative CloudWe already showed you Project Lincoln, a new set of data-driven drawing tools that enable designers to make stunning infographics, graphs and charts without having to resort to templates or coding. Instead of using data as the starting point for an infographic, users start with the creative design and bind the data to it. The graphics automatically adjust based on the data, shaving hours potentially days off the creative process. If you haven’t seen the video of Lincoln in action, and you make graphics like this regularly, you need to watch it now. But that wasn’t all we saw at Max Sneaks. Here are seven additional highlights from the 11 previews we saw – each showcasing an incredible snapshot of creative possibilities for the future… 01. #SceneStitch Scene Stitch takes the idea of content-aware fill to the next level. Instead of searching the image you’re working in for content to fill a gap – and risking unnatural repeated patterns it uses Adobe Sensai to look through other images (like those on Adobe Stock to find content that’s a better fit. Not only does it provide a more believable graphic solution to areas you’re looking to fill, it also enables you to remix content - by replacing the entire foreground of an image with something else, for example. Remember, this isn’t a product that’s been released (yet). But if it were to make it onto an Adobe product, we would expect to see existing or new Stock licensing options integrated into the feature. 02. #ProjectQuick3D Ever struggled with 3D? This tech makes 3D modelling as easy as drawing. It converts basic sketches into 3D models for apps like Dimension CC, by using machine learning in Adobe Sensai to search Adobe Stock. It has to be seen to be believed, so hit play on the video above. 03. #ProjectCloak Project Cloak is content aware fill for video. The tech enables you to mask unwanted items and remove them from your footage, using Adobe Sensai to intelligently (and dramatically) speed up the process. As research engineer Geoffrey Oxholm explains, Project Cloak isn’t just a quick way to remove errant security lamps from a piece of footage, it can also remove stains on a shirt, graffiti and even people from a shot. Impressive. Also read: the best laptops for video editing. 04. #PlayfulPalette Playful Palette reinvents the traditional painting experience by bringing the best aspects of physical painting (namely, the ability to mix colours on a palate) into the digital sphere – while offering the best of digital painting, too. You can step back at any time and rethink colour choices, for example. The tech lets artists and designers more easily manage their colours. And unlike physical painting, you can’t destroy the palette – the Eyedropper tool will bring back any palette you’ve created in a piece. Also read: The best graphics tablets of 2017 05. #PhysicsPak If you’ve ever spent hours moving objects around in Illustrator, endlessly changing their shape and rotating them to best fit inside an awkward space, you’ll be impressed by Physics Pak. The tech places the elements in the perfect position in minutes, moving them around the space to the find the best solution as if by magic. 06. #SonicScape Project SonicScape provides 360 sound for 360 video. A big challenge with VR is how to match the audio and video in 360 film – where viewers can look in any direction they choose – in a way that enhances the experience. SonicScape provides an innovative solution, helping encourage the audience to look in the direction the director chooses. 07. #ProjectScribler This image-based generation system colours your black-and-white drawings and photos in a single click. Powered by Adobe Sensai, the technology recognises the colours by drawing on tens of thousands of photos and making colour choices based on what its learned. Aside from showing what your great grandparents might have looked like in colour, it’s also a handy tool for iterating your ideas for clients. Related articles: Adobe XD and Adobe Dimension launched Adobe announces cloud-based photography service Lightroom CC HP previews Surface rival at Adobe Max 2017 View the full article

Cole Henley is probably best known for his Freelance Rates Calculator. You may also know him as technical director for award-winning web design agency Mud, which he co-founded with Matt Powell in 2013. Although he studied archaeology at university, he'd always been interested in the possibilities of the web. “Rather than having this linear narrative, it meant the reader could explore different kinds of stories, ” he enthuses. “This really inspired me.” So he taught himself web design and worked on a number of self-initiated projects, including a social network for archaeologists called Digs Reunited. Before he found his freelance groove, Henley was stuck coding on his own in the basementIt was a few years before he decided to switch to web design full-time, and his first role wasn't quite what he'd hoped for. "I was literally the coder in the basement, coding away with no daylight." To get a bit of human contact, he’d travel to conferences such as dConstruct in Brighton. “When I was there, I’d bump into friends from Edinburgh and have drinks. But it soon started to dawn on us that this was ridiculous: why weren’t we doing this in Edinburgh?” So they formed a small group that held meetups, and later, started to host talks. Out of the basement Through the group, Henley started making contacts, and finally made the leap into the private sector, working as a senior web designer for a web agency, Net Resources Ltd. “It was really full-on, ” he recalls. “It was my first time designing for a client and I really struggled at first. I didn’t have an artistic or design background, and I struggled with the difference between critique and criticism. I took a lot of client feedback personally.” I put the word out on Twitter, Dribbble, Instagram that I was looking for work. And because of the networks I’d built up, I had six weeks of work lined up in under an hour He soon found his stride, but then just two years later, in 2011, he arrived at work only to be told the company had gone into receivership. “And I thought: shit. I had a mortgage, two kids, and I started to panic a lot. I was desperate.” Social media proved his lifeline. “I was using Twitter a lot, ” he says. “So I did a CV, put stuff out on Twitter, Dribbble, Instagram, trying to get the word out that I was looking for work. And because of the networks I’d built up, I had six weeks of work lined up in under an hour. Having built up those networks over time really saved my bacon.” And so began Henley’s freelance career. But there was one problem: not knowing what to charge. Freelance Rates Calculator “When it came to setting my rates I had no idea what was realistic, ” he says. “And I quickly discovered it was the one thing people weren’t happy to talk about.” He approached friends directly, and found that a lot of them were willing to discuss the matter privately but not publicly. “And I thought: is there a way we can pool this resource? So I put together a Google spreadsheet and said: ‘This is entirely anonymous, fill it out, and I’ll try to do something with what comes back.’ “I asked: ‘What do you do? Where are you based? What do you charge?’ And the response was fantastic. This first year about 400 people responded. Statistically, that’s not a huge amount. But it was enough to start with.” I wanted to create a very simple tool to give people confidence in what they were charging At first, all Henley did was write a blog post summarising the data. But then later, he found himself in a hotel lobby in Belfast, recovering with friends after a heavy night out at the Build conference. “I thought: I’m going to take this opportunity. I’m going to see what I can achieve in a few hours, knock together a little PHP application, put all the data in a MySQL database and just see what happens. That was the genesis of the freelance rate calculator. To take something that was interesting but not massively useful, and create a very simple tool to give people confidence in what they were charging.” The app proved a huge hit, and generated a lot of attention for Henley. “The main benefit for me is hearing people say it’s given them confidence to up their rates, ” he explains. “A number of freelancers have told me: ‘Thank you. I was really struggling to tell my clients that I wanted up from £120 a day. But your calculator gave me the ability to ask for it’.” How to charge It has, though, also attracted some criticism for being too blunt a tool. For example, some agencies have been confronted by freelancers demanding rates based on the calculator that they simply can’t afford to pay. The issue, Henley believes, is that people have used the calculator in the wrong way. “It’s a broad tool, ” he stresses. “It’s a guidance rather than a recommendation.” The calculator is intended as a guide, rather than a recommendationThere are countless factors involved in the rate you should charge a specific company for a specific job, and the figure arrived at by the calculator should be a starting point rather than the final word. “For instance, very often if you have a good relationship with an agency, you get repeat work, ” Henley points out. “So there’s a mutual interest in lowering your rates because you’re getting a regular income.” In short, you shouldn’t use the calculator as ‘evidence’ in negotiations, as this will probably just rub your contractor up the wrong way. Instead, its aim is to give you the confidence to ask for a rate that you feel is reasonable. Mental health Henley's career rapidly took off, but while his freelance job was fulfilling, he found that career success doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with happiness. It's a subject he’s since talked about openly at events. “What I found with freelancing, in hindsight, I was starting to get in a depressive cycle , ” he explains. “I was being quite self-destructive with the workload I took on. I never had to chase work, it just seemed to come to me. But I was struggling to get things finished. With freelancing, I was starting to get in a depressive cycle. I was being self-destructive with the workload I took on “I’d get 60 per cent through a project and then get excited about something new and switch attention. To be honest, I was letting a lot of people down, and in hindsight that was due to depression.” “I don’t think this is unique to our profession , ” he notes. “But I think what you can say is we’re quite open to talking about stuff. In web design, it’s all about sharing and openness, and people helping each other out. That’s gone right through my web design career.” Our name is Mud In 2012, Henley moved to Somerset and met Matt Powell through a local Dad’s Geek Club. “We were both working with ExpressionEngine, we got on personally and had similar values, ” Henley explains. “So the idea of forming a company seemed like a no-brainer.” That company is Mud, and it’s been quite the success. Henley launched Mud in 2013 with Matt Powell (left)“Now we’re eight employees, trying to get a ninth.” Their client base is an interesting one, Henley explains. “Half of our work comes from our own clients, and for the other half, we’ve developed a strong working relationship with a number of design agencies that don’t have a technical team, ” he says. “It’s been a very happy marriage, because they really value that we understand design. The ability to articulate a visual design language and in code is something we are very good at, ” he believes. “And because we have that, clients trust us.” This article was originally published in net magazine issue 296. Subscribe now. Related articles: 4 ways to cash in as a freelancer 20 top tools for freelancers Infographic reveals the state of freelancing in 2017 View the full article

There are three ways to design a great-looking chart. One: draw it from scratch using a program like Illustrator. Two: use a template tool. Three: learn how to code. A new data visualisation tool code-named Lincoln is set to change all that – if it gains approval. Previewed at Adobe Max 2017, the tool flips the typical creative process for designing a chart or infographic on its head. Rather than using data as the starting point to dictate the design, Lincoln puts the creative stage first, letting users craft their graphics and then bind the data to them. As the data populates the chart, the graphics automatically adjust to the information presented. What does that mean? Well, by automating the design and production of infographics, Lincoln lets users focus on the creative side of the process and ensure the data is visualised in the most engaging way. Get Adobe Creative Cloud“Lincoln is new set of data-driven drawing tools that sit on top of your normal drawing tools,” explained Bernard Kerr, a senior experience designer at Adobe. Kerr walked through the tool during this year’s highly anticipated ’sneaks’ session – in which new innovations are showcased – using Lincoln to quickly bring to life data from open-water swimming marathon challenge Ocean’s Seven. Watch the video below – and prepare to be amazed. (And if you like it, let Adobe know using the hashtag #ProjectLincoln. If it receives enough support, it has more chance of being incorporated into an Adobe app.) #ProjectLincoln As you can see in the video, Kerr drew a custom bar shape to represent swim time, binding it to the relevant data in a spreadsheet in one click, and using Repeat Grid – borrowed from Adobe XD – to instantly create a series of bars that represented the time of each swimmer. Kerr added text using the Text tool, binding the text box to the data column containing the swimmers’ names. He also added an icon of a swimmer from the Library Symbols panel, using “sticky anchor points” to anchor one foot to a specific location at the end of the bar – and this rule was instantly repeated throughout chart. Once he was happy with the data bindings, Kerr then showed how Lincoln can instantly apply the same rules across different data sets – in this case visualising the data for each of the seven races in the marathon – and how functionality like a radial pattern tool can visualise complex sets of data, like weather patterns over a one-year period, in seconds. Create a radial chart in one click with Project LincolnSo how much time could Lincoln save you? Kerr created 14 data visualisations in four minutes. It's impressive stuff and could revolutionise infographics – certainly it gets our vote. Taking away the drudgery Lincoln is just one of 15 ‘sneaks’ showcased this year at Adobe Max. Some will become official features built into selected software; others won’t make it past the presentation we saw today. It’s all part of Adobe’s aim to “take away the drudgery” of routine tasks, as vice president and general manager of Creative Cloud Mala Sharma explained during an earlier press briefing. The aim is to help designers work faster, freeing up more time to focus on the bigger picture of being creative. Why? Because no one wants to spend three hours doing something you can do in three minutes. This was a recurring theme at Adobe Max 2017 – the sentiment underpins all the latest announcements at this year’s conference, and we're likely to see it brought to life in increasingly impressive ways as Sensai continues to evolve Adobe's creative products. Related articles: Adobe launches new cloud-based photography service Lightroom CC HP previews Surface rival at Adobe Max 2017 8 free tools for creating infographics View the full article

Malware dubbed IOTroop that researchers say is "worse than Mirai" has already infected one million businesses worldwide. View the full article

https://www.droneaddicts.net/true-can-walk-dog-drone/ … View the full article

Researchers have spotted Locky ransomware infections emanating from the Necurs botnet via Word attachments using a DDE technique that Microsoft says is an Office feature and does not merit a security patch. View the full article

You've been working for weeks or months on a winning piece of graphic design – a great poster, logo or album cover, perhaps. You've thought it over carefully, deploying every skill you learnt while studying and working as a designer. After long consideration, the project's done and you submit it to the client. You look forward to their reaction, but then you hear the message that every professional designer dreads: "I've got a few suggestions to make..." The phrase 'design by committee', where lots of people chip in on an idea (often without any reason or authority), is a situation that no creative wants to find themselves in. It results in an original, eye-catching design losing its impact, becoming generic, and costing everyone a lot of time. Sometimes the best thing to do in situations like this is laugh, so that's exactly what the team at Graphéine did. Running with an idea originally posted on Twitter by @MarieJulien, this series of images imagines how nightmare clients could ruin iconic and effective pieces of design. Click to see how designers could ruin the student-favourite poster, Chat Noir The team looks at Tournée du Chat noir (Black Cat on tour), 1896 by Swiss painter Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen; legendary designer Saul Bass' Anatomy of a Murderer movie poster; Milton Glaser's Dylan poster; and Grapus Atelier's Louvre logo. With comments like "The font is too old-fashioned," "Add partners' logos" and "Too much white space," the scariest part is how easy it is to imagine this happening in real life. We don't want this classic film to go the way of modern movie posters Click on the images to enlarge them, making the hilarious comments such as "For your info, 'murder' is usually gore. Please add blood splatters," more readable. Nothing screams 'art' like a classy picture frame Graphéine definitely had fun with these: "This font is too square. Try something curvy like Comic Sans." Apparently Bob Dylan wasn't black. Who knew? Read more about these on the Graphéine blog Related articles: 5 logos by famous designers and why they work 4 classic movie poster designs making a comeback Have we entered the era of bad graphic design? View the full article

This month, we're taking a look at custom brushes for illustrators. We'll start with some brushes for Photoshop. These aren't all exactly new, but with so many options out there, it can be hard to know which ones to use. Beyond these top five, if you're looking for a more extensive collection, take a look at our roundup of The 60 best free Photoshop brushes. Then we'll move on to top Clip Studio Paint (aka Manga Studio) brushes. Like Photoshop, you can also add custom brushes, as our guide to creating custom brushes in Clip Studio Paint shows. There's bound to be something here for you, so let's get started. Custom brushes for Photoshop 01. 12 Free Halftone Texture Brushes Halftone brushes are great for a retro comic book lookFree If you're looking to add different tones to your illustrations, check out these free brushes by Spoon Graphics. With this set of 12 distressed halftone effects, you'll be able to add retro shading and halftone textures with ease. The pack includes a range of dot patterns including Fine, Light, Heavy and Dark, each with three size options. The brushes are also sensitive to pen pressure, so graphics tablet users can easily adjust the size of brush this way. 02. 10 Free Subtle Grunge Texture Brushes Great brushes for creating well-worn looksFree Here's another set of free Photoshop brushes from Spoon Graphics, which includes 10 presets at 2000 x 2000 resolution. The subtle textures here are versatile, and ideal for creating all kinds of distressed or worn looks. They're easy to resize and edit to suit your needs. If you're looking to add a little grunge to your illustrations, this is an awesome pack to have loaded. 03. Strokes and Splatters Create strokes and splatters easilyFree This splatter pack was created by Brusheezy user Benjamin McFetridge, who's rather new to the game – this is his second ever brush set, which he created after his first one proved so popular. It will have you tossing digital paint all over the place in no time. This set includes 25 hi-res custom brushes for Photoshop. 04. 20 Painter PS Brushes Add a painterly look to your digital artFree Liza Giannouri, another Brusheezy user, has a set of 20 painterly brushes ready for you to try. This isn't her first set. In fact, Giannouri has over 1063 uploads. This particular set includes a number of brushes designed to mimic traditional paintbrushes, and is ideal for adding a painterly look to your digital artwork. 05. Kyle T. Webster's Brushes Webster's brushes are now all included in Creative CloudFree Quite possibly my favourite brush packs come from Kyle T. Webster – although you won't be able to get them from his site anymore. That's because Adobe has partnered with Webster and now all of his brushes are included in the Creative Cloud library. How do access them? Launch Photoshop (if you don't have it already, get Creative Cloud here). Create a new document. Switch to the Libraries panel, and select the 'Kyle Brushes' library. Bonus: Make your own custom Photoshop brushes Are you interested in learning how to make your own custom brushes? If so, check out this video tutorial on how to make your own custom brushes in Photoshop. Clip Studio Paint custom brushes 06. Assorted Inks and Pencils by lapinbeau These brushes mimic different pencils and pensFree This set of Clip Studio Paint brushes by DeviantArt user lapinbeau comes with 14 different pencil and ink-style brushes, some of which were modelled after well-known artists. Styles include oil pencil, crow quill, soft pen and calligraphy. 07. Blue and Red Pencil Brushes by SerketXXI A simple but handy pack of red and blue pencil brushesFree SerketXXI, another DeviantArt user, created this set of blues and reds for those of us who remember 'the good old days' of pencils, paper and copying machines. This pack includes four brushes: light and heavy versions of red and blue pencils, for use in Clip Studio Paint. Simple but handy. 08. Daub Brush Collection DAUB offers an impressive range of brushes€2.99 - €9.99 DAUB creates custom brushes for Clip Studio Paint, Affinity, Procreate and Photoshop. Its brushes are crafted using natural media and parametric generation, making them as realistic as possible. There are a number of different packs from which to choose, or you can grab yourself the Super Bundle for €9.99 (around $11.80/£8.90 at today's exchange rates) and call it day. 09. Yeti Rough Inker & Yeti-Go-To-Inker Zombie Yeti's brushes are versatile and freeFree The Yeti was one of the first brushes I added to my installation of Clip Studio. I use it with almost every illustration I create. These brushes are the work of the "damn nice, self-aware, humble, tall and hairy" Zombie Yeti. The brushes create a lovely ink pen effect, and the best part is: they're free. 10. Mega Pack from Flyland Designs These are essentials in my Clip Studio 'U-toolity' belt$6.99 Once again saving the best for last, Brian Allen at Flyland Designs has created what I like to call my Clip Studio 'U-toolity' belt. His mega-packs have everything you need to create the perfect illustration. For just $6.99 USD you can get Volume 1 and Volume 2, which combined has more than 220 brushes. These include crosshatch brushes, copic marker brushes, fur and hair brushes, inking brushes, pencil brushes, special pattern brushes, splatter brushes, stippling brushes and more. So what are you waiting for? Go grab those brushes! Bonus: Make your own Clip Studio Paint brushes Interested in making your own custom brushes? Try one of these helpful tutorials: Create custom brushes in Clip Studio Paint or Using custom brushes in Clip Studio Paint. You might also like our tutorial on how to create a custom sticker brush in Artrage. Read more: 30 of the best Procreate brushes The 23 best Illustrator brushes The best drawing tablets in 2017 View the full article

This week's Threatpost News Wrap Podcast recaps the ROCA, KRACK and Boundhook attacks, as well as the release of Google Advanced Protection for Gmail. View the full article

Choosing the best monitor for graphic design, 3D art, digital art, photo editing and more can be a bit of a minefield. To make the most of your great graphic design laptop, you need to ensure your monitor packs colour accuracy, make sure you've got the right number of inputs, choose the right size and much more. Just as well then that we are here with some terrific options when you're choosing the best monitor for you. And, as you'd expect, all of these monitors are 4K or above, making them. The best and most accurate picture quality carries a high price tag. Eizo displays are a familiar sight in professional photography and video production studios. The 31-inch ColorEdge CG318-4K continues this tradition, with not just full sRGB coverage, but 99% of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 98% DCI-P3. It fully supports 10-bit colour, taken from a 16-bit look-up table. Unlike other 4K displays, the CG318-4K has a 4096 x 2160 resolution. This reflects the different, slightly taller 4K standard used in digital video production, compared with the 3840 x 2160 resolution used in most computer displays. All of these features come together to produce a jaw-dropping image, making your creative work shine. Oh, and there's a built-in calibration tool to constantly keep the colours as accurate as possible, which pops across the screen every time it's powered on, along with a bundled monitor hood. Dell's top-end 31.5-inch 4K display packs in a lot of professional-grade features for superb colour accuracy. But while it costs a lot less than Eizo's offering, it's still a pricey prospect, as expected of a large high-end 4K display. Dell's top-end 4K display now covers the DCI-P3 colour spectrum. It has a specification that almost rivals Eizo's monster CG318-4K, as it hits 99% Adobe RGB coverage and 87% DCI-P3, delivering great picture quality. This is an incredible display – but do you really want a 40-inch panel? Based on VA-IPS panel technology, it offers extremely good contrast, with 300 cd/m2 brightness. Its menu is controlled with a small joystick at the back and it also offers a four-way picture-in-picture (PIP) mode, allowing you to allocate a quarter of the screen to each video input. On such a large 4K screen, that means that each connected device will have its own 1920 x 1080 screen area – perfect for seeing your designs in Illustrator or working on your 3D art on one machine while looking up reference images on another device on the same screen, for example. This 32-inch monitor has an IPS panel with 350 cd/m2 brightness, 60Hz 4K support over DisplayPort 1.2 and a range of other inputs. Not bad for its price point. Furthermore, it has a flexible stand with pivot, tilt and swivel, and height adjustment, so you won't get neck ache while working into the night on a tight deadline. Colour accuracy is good since it's a 10-bit panel as well – ideal for print projects that demand colour accuracy. Get super colour accuracy and image quality for any design work with the Samsung UD970, thanks to this 4K monitor being calibrated for both. Elsewhere, there are features such as Picture By Picture (PBP) and Dual Colour Mode (DCM) - the latter enabling you to use two of the eight different preset colour modes simultaneously on the same screen. Obviously, if you don't require insane levels of colour accuracy then this is probably overkill for your needs – but as a designer working with a lot of imagery, this will appeal. The fact that the UD970 comes with a smudge and glare-reducing matte finish only adds to this super bundle, delivering excellent image reproduction in almost any lighting conditions. Asus' Pro Art line competes with professional colour-accurate screens. It's got loads of inputs, with three HDMI ports – including one HDMI 2.0 port capable of the full 60Hz needed for smooth 4K – and two DisplayPort inputs. The Asus PA329Q is the upgraded version of of the company's flagship 4K professional display, with a 10-bit IPS panel that now supports a 16-bit colour look-up table and quoted 100% Adobe RGB coverage, with support for the DCI-P3 colour spectrum as well. Iiyama's 28-inch B2888UHSU is a lot more reasonably priced than many of the options we've presented in this buying guide. It uses a TN panel with a 1ms response time, and although the viewing angles aren't quite as wide as you'll find with an IPS display, there are plenty of small extras that make the B2888UHSU a really good buy. It has plenty of inputs, too, plus a fully adjustable stand, and a picture-in-picture mode, so you can use two devices simultaneously with this monitor. The U28E590D is a slick 28-inch 4K monitor with a beautiful design and a whopping 8.3 billion pixels. DisplayPort 1.2 gives you fluid 60Hz 4K, while everything is detailed and clear thanks to a brightness of 370cd/m. Picture settings can be tweaked using the on-screen menu, or you can sit back and enable its Dynamic Contrast mode to do the heavy lifting. There's also very smart port placement, so you won't have to bend around the back to connect any cables or peripherals. Related articles: The best laptops for graphic design 2017 Typography 55 best free fonts for designers The best cheap laptop deals for creatives View the full article

So you’re at design school with your essential kit. And you’re doing pretty well. So well, in fact, it might be going to your head. If you don’t want your design career to be dead in the water before you even graduate, take heed of the failings of those who have gone before you. While there are plenty of proactive positive actions you can take to set yourself on the path to success, there are also some pitfalls to avoid. Here are five archetypal design student attitudes that are sure to make you crash and burn, and give your fledgling career the rainbow doughnut of death… 01. The rip-off merchant Gosh, that design sure looks familiar [Photo by Himesh Kumar Behera on Unsplash] They say there’s a fine line between inspiration and imitation. Don’t cross it. As a student, you’re a crisp, blank sheet of paper, ready to be doodled with fresh ideas. But if you rip off someone else’s style, you might as well be a battered old photocopier. News can travel quickly if you plagiarise, too, and if the creative in question calls you out and burns you publicly on social media, it’s a long way back if you want to be taken seriously again. The industry is smaller than you think. 02. The walking cliché Heavy-framed glasses aren't for everyone [Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash] We all know the well-worn stereotype for how a creative should look and dress. But skinny jeans, a checked shirt, beard and glasses do not a designer make. Don’t spend your student loan on dressing the part and expect success to fall into your lap because you can blend in: it’s about standing out, after all. Any design studio worth its salt will value your portfolio, your attitude, and your ideas above your appearance. If that’s your style anyway, knock yourself out – but if not, be yourself and you just might blaze a trail of your own. 03. The arrogant one Get your ego in check – you still have plenty to learn [Photo by Melanie Hughes on Unsplash] Nobody likes an over-inflated ego – particularly from a student. And yet, it’s an all-too-common sight. Sure, you’ve landed your dream placement and are on track for a first-class degree: great, good for you. Don’t start strutting the halls and crowing your accomplishments from the rooftops. And don’t ever think you’re above the tasks you’re given. Your potential studio mates will soon go cold if you think you’re God’s gift. You don’t have to be a brown-noser during placements or your first real design job. But – as our article on How to transform a design internship into a job says – it does pay to be humble, to soak up the experience around you, and to go above and beyond whatever is asked of you. 04. The hasty bridge-burner There goes another client relationship [Photo by Dawn Armfield on Unsplash] It’s all about who you know, and when you’re first starting out building up a contacts book, every one of them is gold dust. You never know who they could introduce you to, or where the rabbit hole could lead. Treasure those relationships. Nurture them. It can take time – and remember, they’re not just boxes to be ticked or rungs of a ladder to climb. They’re people. If you get a knock-back from your first attempt at getting a foot in the door, be gracious and try again later. Don’t lose your cool and douse that already rickety bridge in petrol. 05. The turd-polisher Sparkers won't help if your pie doesn't taste good [Photo by Lucy Heath on Unsplash] If you’ve overcome the previous four hurdles, you should be a humble, honest, level-headed creative with an individual spirit and a passion for learning. In short, you’ll be mega employable. The final step is to value substance as well as style. It’s all very well having the skills to make something pop in Photoshop, but that’s not what great design is. Get into the habit of paring your ideas back to the absolute basics before you develop them. If they work as a thumbnail sketch or a one-line pitch, you’re well on your way. In short, if a great idea isn’t there at the core of a project, don’t just roll that turd in glitter and stick a sparkler in it. You’ll thank us later. Read more: The student guide to working at a top agency 7 organisations design students need to know 5 must-read books for design students View the full article

You don't have to wait for Black Friday 2017 to score a bargain. For today's daily deal, we've got you a great discount on a top marketing course bundle that will teach you all sorts of new skills and help you sell your work. You believe in your product or service, but getting people to even give you a look can be a real challenge. You need to know how to cut through the crowded market to sell your products, and you can learn that art with the Digital Marketing 22-Course Masterclass. It's on sale now for 92% off the retail price. Finding success and sales isn’t just a matter of luck – it requires knowing how to find an audience and get them interested in what you're offering. You can learn how to do just that with the Digital Marketing 22-Course Masterclass. This huge collection of courses is packed with more than 28.5 hours of actionable information on how to show off your product on platforms like Google, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Periscope. You'll have people flocking to you in no time. You can get the Digital Marketing 22-Course Masterclass on sale now for just $15 (approx £11). That's 92% off the usual retail price of $200 for a can't-miss collection of courses that will pay for itself in no time, so grab this deal today. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The best Black Friday deals 2017 20 tools to make your team more productive 55 best free fonts for designers View the full article

Cisco patched a critical bug in its Cloud Services Platform 2100 hardware and at the same time told customers 96 of its products are vulnerable to KRACK vulnerabilities. View the full article

Photos look set to get a whole lot more expressive thanks to a new piece of software developed in partnership with members of Facebook's computational photography team. The software, led by researchers in Israel, can take a portrait with a neutral expression and animate the facial features into different expressions. As well as photographs, the software is also capable of adjusting paintings. To see what the tool is capable of, just take a look at the Mona Lisa, above, which now sports a smirk instead of a coy smile. A video on the BBC news website shows off the full capabilities of the software. By using a filmed subject to map the facial features, the target image can have its expression adjusted in a variety of ways. A subject is used to model the expressionsWhat sets the software apart from some of the Adobe Sensei-powered image adjusting tools unveiled this week is that the portraits react in real time to the expressions pulled by the filmed subject. "We're transferring the fine scale details to the target face," Tel Aviv University's Hadar Averbruch-Elor tells the BBC. "We're hallucinating missing regions, most notably the mouth interior, which we don't have from the single image. "And also we're copying creases and wrinkles that are commonly associated with the expressions." The software isn't just limited to modern photos. It can also work on classical paintings and even emojis. Researchers involved with the project think that the tool could find a further use in VR to animate expressions. Thanks to being developed in partnership with two members of Facebook's computational photography team, it wouldn't be too surprising if the software ended up appearing on the social media platform before too long. With the BBC video showing how Facebook feelings such as 'like', 'love', and 'angry' could animate a photograph, the software could provide a new way for the social media site to grab a user's attention and get them interacting. [Still images taken from the BBC video] Related articles: VR: is it the future of design? The 14 best photography websites How to enhance photography on your website View the full article

There’s something quite magical about branding. When done right, it can transform something that’s on the face of it quite generic, like a fizzy drink or a shampoo, into a ‘lifestyle choice’ that makes the buyer feel good about their purchase beyond its basic functionality. In short, branding is all about making an emotional connection that transcends the mere physical nature of the product or service. And there’s nothing better for forming that instant, subconscious connection than a powerful image. Because while text takes a few seconds to process, images instantly impact the subconscious, which is much more influential on our choices than we often realise. So whether you’re designing a website, a poster, a print ad or a social media campaign, choosing the right imagery is key. Here are five ways to make sure you choose well. 01. The direct gaze This 2016 print ad for Mon Paris by Yves Saint Laurent uses a direct gazeFlick through the pages of a magazine like Vogue and you’ll soon notice that most of the adverts from clothes, fragrances and accessories feature models looking right at the camera. And that’s no coincidence. The fashion and beauty industry knows that its buyers make choices for deeply personal reasons, and that in the real world, eye contact is an important element of making people trust and like you. (For example, research by the University of Aberdeen shows that you are more likely to think other people in a photo are attractive if they are looking straight at you and smiling.) So although a still image may seem like a poor substitute for real-life human interaction, the use of face-on images can be a powerful way to get attention and build a feeling of rapport between your brand and its audience. 02. Colour Coca-Cola applies its familiar colour palette to all its branding imageryMuch of the work of branding is centred around drawing up personas (the nominal audience for your brand) and creating imagery that will stimulate, excite and engage them. But that only gets you so far. Consider Coca-Cola. Its advertising campaigns have long been associated with fun, youth, health, beauty and sexiness. But so are those of its competitors. So how do you differentiate yourself, without going too niche and alienating part of your target audience? Although regional markets require different approaches, the red and white colour scheme achieves a sense of consistencyOne way is to use visual cues that are distinct to your own images, and that people will subconsciously or consciously come to associate with your brand. The most obvious way to do this is using colour. So while Coke’s imagery varies hugely around the world, it will always be consistently centred around a red and white palette. Coke has succeeded in ‘owning’ the red and white combination through rigorous applicationTo see how other brands have used colour combinations to define themselves visually, check out our article 21 outstanding uses of colour in branding. 03. Simplicity The iPod silhouette campaign used super-simple imageryThe simplest designs are often the most effective, and that applies just as much to branding imagery as to anything else. The simpler your imagery, the more it has the potential to become iconic, to work on a global scale, and to be flexible enough to scale well across different media, including print ads, television commercials, billboards, posters, wrap advertising and social media. A great example is the iPod silhouette campaign of the early 2000s, the brainchild of then TBWA\Chiat\Day art director Susan Alinsangan. This centred around silhouetted characters against brightly coloured backgrounds who were listening to music on their iPods. Steve Jobs initially didn’t like the idea, as it didn’t show the iPod in detail or explain what it did. However, as his ad team explained, the campaign didn’t necessarily need to do all that: it was about connecting on a deeper level, and conveying the idea of the iPod as the choice of a new generation. The energetic silhouettes and day-glo colours of the imagery met those needs beautifully, and once Jobs had relented, it became a hugely successful campaign for Apple. 04. Association Red Bull’s branding imagery is aspirational, rather than reflecting the typical Red Bull drinkerThe imagery you choose for your campaign needs to be something that appeals to your target audience. But importantly, it doesn’t necessarily need to represent them or their use of the product accurately. It’s sometimes better to focus on choosing imagery that promotes associations with other things. Red Bull offers a great example. If ever a product needed strong branding, it’s Red Bull. None of its ingredients are patented or secret, and the drink itself is easy to copy. Yet Red Bull has between a 70 to 90 percent market share in over 100 countries worldwide… and that’s almost completely due to its superlative branding. A major theme of its brand imagery is an association with the adrenaline-packed extreme sports and stunts that it often sponsors and features in campaigns. In truth, few Red Bull drinkers are ever going to go snowboarding, sand surfing or the like. But making an association in people’s minds between the product and its brand values (positivity, determination and living life to the full) has worked brilliantly for Red Bull. Even though most people are in reality more likely to drink it in the pub or on the sofa. 05. Testing You can set up A/B testing for your website for free within Google Analytics ExperimentsYou’ll have a good idea what kind of images are going to work with your target audience, but you can never be entirely sure. So the practical way to see if your instincts are broadly correct is to harness the ‘wisdom of crowds’ and run some A/B testing (aka split testing). This basically involves serving up two different versions of a design to your audience - whether that’s on your brand’s website, newsletter or social media channels - and using analytics tools to check which performs best in terms of your client’s goals (eg clicks, likes or conversions). The results can often be quite surprising, and can shake your cosy assumptions about what images will resonate with customers. This Pixel Pixel blog post explains how to set up an A/B test on your website in a few minutes using Google Analytics Experiments. Related articles: Where to find unusual images for your design projects 5 tips for using stock imagery in your designs 10 great uses of imagery on agency websites View the full article