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Cisco Systems released a patch Monday to fix a critical security vulnerability, with a CVSS rating of 10, in its Secure Sockets Layer VPN solution called Adaptive Security Appliance. View the full article

If you've heard the term API but aren't entirely sure what it refers to, you've come to the right place. Used correctly, APIs can really enhance the user experience and open up new possibilities for your site or app. In this coder's guide to APIs, we'll explain exactly what an API needs in order to be an API. We'll also take a look at the most common and popular APIs around today, those that aren't fully supported but are worth keeping an eye on, and finally the places you need to bookmark to hear the latest news. What makes something an API? When you’re writing code in any language, you’ll almost certainly be using a range of APIs without knowing. In its simplest form, an API (application programming interface) is a clearly defined specification for communication between two software components. APIs can take various forms, but will typically include some combination of functions or methods, and data structures. Essentially they provide pre-fabricated functionality that you as a programmer can utilise to build your own application. Java ships with a core set of APIs within its java.* packages, which provide the basic functionality of the language that all Java programmers are familiar with. Adopting new APIs can make your own life easier, and ensure a modern experience for your users It’s these APIs that enable us to create meaningful functionality within the software we write. Of course, software components have needed to communicate since the dawn of computing, but what leads us to describe something as an API is the concepts of standardisation, openness and re-use, where the underlying functionality is exposed along with some documentation that allows anyone to come along and use it. There’s a continuous effort by standards bodies and browser makers to introduce new APIs to the web that make building sites and apps easier, or bridge the gap between the browser and native software. Following the latest progress and adopting new APIs when well-enough supported can make your own life easier, and ensure a modern experience for your users. What is a browser API? In the context of the web, you might already have thought about APIs in the form of services made available by third parties. Google, for example, exposes a Google Maps API that you can consume as a developer to integrate Google’s mapping, street view, navigation and more into your app. This involves importing scripts hosted on Google servers, then utilising objects and functions from those scripts in line with the API documentation that they provide. APIs like this are generally what we’d refer to as server-side APIs. However, what you might never have considered is that the basic JavaScript functionality built into the browser is also composed of a set of APIs, which are constantly being updated. These client-side APIs provide many of the basic features taken for granted within JavaScript, such as manipulating the DOM, embedding graphics or sound, or interfacing with the device you’re running on. More likely than not you’ll have read documentation for many of them online when building a site or app. These APIs are typically based on a single specification that ensures that all browser makers implement the functionality consistently, thus ensuring your code works across any browser. 10 ways to avoid cross-browser compatibility issues APIs in common use today The entire JavaScript ecosystem is constructed from APIs. Here are some of the big ones you'll likely have already encountered. 01. Canvas and SVG SVG is now universally supported across all browsers Canvas and SVG are the most obvious examples of widely used browser APIs. Both canvas and SVG expose a straightforward set of entry points and JavaScript functions to fulfil their respective objectives. These days we can add the more recent WebGL to the mix for 3D graphics. Get started with HTML canvas The complete guide to SVG 20 amazing examples of WebGL in action 02. XMLHTTPRequest XMLHTTPRequest has for some time been the JavaScript API used to send asynchronous requests to a server. This can allow you to, for example, retrieve data from the server and update a page without having to reload the full page. Its name is an anachronism since it works with JSON as well as XML. It’s likely to be superseded by the more recent Fetch API over time. 03. Web sockets Web sockets enable a two-way communication session to be opened between a browser and server. This enables the server to provide updates to the user without the browser needing to poll the server at an interval. Web sockets are in use on a number of sites today; on Stack Overflow they’re used to feed live notifications of responses to questions. 04. DOM functions This may seem like a cop-out, but it’s important to think about. Even core JavaScript functions do things like manipulate the DOM. Think of the document object as an entry point. This means while they may be defined in separate specifications, there’s little fundamental difference between the new APIs we’ll look at below and core JavaScript functions that have been around for years. Popular third-party APIs These are some of the most highly used APIs out there. You’ll typically need an API key from the creator to utilise them. 01. Google Maps Google Maps offers a set of very popular APIs Google Maps offers an immensely popular set of APIs, which bring mapping capabilities, street view, navigation and more to millions of sites. Google offers a multitude of APIs by platform and function. The simplest are basic page embeds to display a map on a page, but there are also numerous JSON web services that enable you to, for example, receive a set of directions for navigation between locations. 02. Facebook Facebook offers something called the Graph API, which enables websites and apps to get data from and write data to Facebook. Working with the Graph API involves the representation of Facebook’s content as a set of nodes (and associated data fields) and edges in a graph structure. It also offers a Graph API Explorer that enables authenticated users to test out the results of various calls to the API. 03. Twitter for Websites Twitter offers several APIs for different use cases. The most straightforward is the Search Tweets API, which allows searching of the vast volume of historic tweets over a specified period of time and set of criteria. However, web developers may be most interested in Twitter for Websites, which provides a simple way to embed Twitter functionality into the frontend, such as a simple Tweet button. 04. YouTube The YouTube API requires high bandwidth The YouTube API enables you to embed YouTube functionality in your page, and like others on this list, allows you to retrieve content from and post content to the platform. Because of the high bandwidth required by its content, the YouTube API in particular is an interesting study in how developers limit the usage quota of APIs – Google uses a current of 'units' to price various operations. 05. Amazon S3 Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is part of the Amazon Web Services offering, and offers REST APIs (and client-side SDK to simplify their usage) that enable you to place, modify and delete content on the storage. Many use cases for this are on the server side, but Amazon’s tutorials cover uses like uploading photos to the cloud from the browser. Browser APIs to watch Not all of these are ready for prime-time yet, but they’re worth watching for use in the future. 01. Geolocation API You might have seen pages request permission to use your location already. The Geolocation API, accessed through the navigator.geolocation object, enables a site or app to determine the location of a user based on a combination of information such as GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile signal. It’s supported in all major browsers, although only usable with a connection over HTTPS. 02. Push API Not to be confused with mobile push notifications, the Push API enables web apps to receive messages pushed from a server, even if the application is not in focus or the application is not loaded. To do this, it depends very much on a Service Worker running in the background. There are a range of interesting applications here for providing real-time updates within web apps. 03. Notification API The Notification API enables pages to display notifications outside the context of the browser. The user will need to grant explicit permission, but once done, notifications can be generated by creating a new Notification() object. This is widely supported on desktop, though not on mobile, but particularly interesting are the possibilities that could emerge from combining this with the Push API to enable background notifications to a user. 04. WebVR API WebVR is, as you might expect, designed to add support for virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive within the browser. The WebVR API would allow web developers to directly utilise position and motion data from the device for use on a page (most likely in tandem with WebGL). This could be very exciting for future projects, but is experimental at this time, with limited support (by device) in Edge, Firefox and Chrome. 05. Vibration API We may be into slightly dubious territory now. Invoked via the navigator.vibrate() method, the Vibration API is arguably a necessity on the quest to bring web apps closer to native. However, it’s also quite obviously prone to abuse, and in its early days there were sporadic reports of ads using it without consent to attract the user’s attention. It’s currently supported in Edge and Safari, so iPhone users are out of luck. 06. Battery Status API Here’s an example of when APIs don’t make it. The Battery Status API was designed to do more or less what you might expect by its name. It introduces a navigator.getBattery() method that returns a promise with a battery object, which can then be used to listen for various events related to battery status. It’s currently supported in Chrome and Opera only, and isn’t likely to make it much further due to privacy concerns. 07. Encrypted Media Extensions If you want to see what controversy looks like in the world of web APIs, look no further than Encrypted Media Extensions. EME allows HTML5 video playback of DRM protected content. Objections have been raised to this on the basis that it introduces proprietary components into the predominantly open and free ecosystem of the web. Regardless of your perspective, the specification is here to stay. Where can I find out more? Here are some of the best places to look to keep up-to-date as new APIs emerge. 01. Mozilla Developer Network MDN provides comprehensive documentation on APIs The Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) provides one of the most comprehensive sources of reference on web technology available. In addition to documentation of all the latest APIs, it also includes tutorials and code samples illustrating their usage. This is almost always a good starting point when learning something new. 02. W3C The W3C specifications aren’t always easy going, and probably aren’t for everyday usage. However, if you’re interested in some of the detail on the specifications, want to follow what might come in future but hasn’t yet been implemented in browsers, or are just curious about how the specs come about, it can be worth browsing. 03. HTML5.org. Web Platform If you’ve ever found yourself confused by the growing list of technologies and APIs that make up the modern web, this page could be a great reference source. It lists all the components of the modern HTML, CSS and JavaScript platforms, including APIs, for your convenience. If nothing else, it’s an admirable effort to bring a sense of order to an occasionally chaotic ecosystem. 04. Can I Use Browser support is one the biggest challenges around APIs Browser support for the latest APIs can be a challenge, and it’s hard to know whether something is really ready for use. Can I Use provides an excellent source of reference on the state of browser support for APIs, as well as other web features. This article features in issue 268 of Web Designer, the creative web design magazine – offering expert tutorials, cutting-edge trends and free resources. Subscribe to Web Designer now. Read more: Power a blog using the WordPress API The ultimate guide to user experience 18 top CSS animation examples View the full article

With the right drawing techniques and tricks, even a seemingly complex subject such as a hand can be simplified. Using shapes and working with negative and positive space will create a foundation for your drawing, to help you draw better hands. The exercise outlined in the following steps is one that you can try at home, drawing from your own hand (using a mirror) or a friend's. It could just as easily be applied to a chair, a plant or anything that presents trapped shapes and negative spaces. It will help you to exercise one of the most helpful skills you can develop when making observational drawings – objectivity. Your preconceptions of what you think a hand, chair or plant look like can stop you looking clearly at the subject in front of you. By simplifying what you see into abstract shapes, you can learn to make clearer, more objective observations, resulting in better observed drawings. In this drawing I used Derwent Graphic HB pencils for the pale underdrawing, overlaid with a sharp 3B pencil. You'll also need a pencil sharpener and an eraser. 01. Sketch negative spaces When you are simplifying a three-dimensional subject into a two-dimensional drawing, you are essentially mapping its shape on the surface of the page. Sometimes you might find it helpful to stop focusing on the ‘positive’ shape of your subject and instead look at the shapes surrounding it – the negative spaces. Sometimes these shapes will have boundaries on all sides – this is what I mean by trapped shapes – and sometimes you’ll need to create boundaries for them. 02. Create an underdrawing Pose your hand, or ask your model to hold a position, and start your drawing off with a loose, light, intuitive sketch in HB pencil. Simply look and draw what you see in less than a minute, keeping your marks energetic and allowing you time to look over your subject without agonising over the specifics of proportion. 03. Set limits Using the initial sketch as a rough guide, mark out top, bottom, left and right limits to your drawing. This will ensure you don’t lose your drawing off the edge of the page and will help you to establish a sense of scale. 04. Make a box Use the limits to construct a box around your subject. Imagine your subject within a box – what dimension would that box be? Short and squat, or long and thin? Portrait or landscape format? 05. Carve big shapes Now look for the big shapes that make up your hand – keep your marks rough and angular. Work as if you were carving the hand out of wood, making straight cuts to rough out the form of your subject before carving in the detail. 06. Insert negative spaces Maintaining your simple marks, draw the triangular wedges of negative space between the fingers. Try not to draw the fingers at all – concentrate on the shapes themselves and let the rough shapes of the digits appear as you draw. 07. Erase the outline Once you have a rough, angular drawing established on the page, in HB pencil use your eraser to lightly rub out the lines of your drawing, leaving them faintly visible to guide you as you draw. 08. Redraw the hand Using the faint underdrawing as a guide, redraw the hand from observation in 3B pencil. As you draw, use the negative spaces to check the proportion of your evolving drawing – do the negative spaces in your drawing look the same shape as the spaces between the fingers of the hand you are drawing? Think of the spaces like jigsaw puzzle pieces – they should fit with the positive space to make the final, resolved image. 09. Elaborate on the lines Refine the drawing, using a lighter, playful line to delineate the shapes within the hand and reaffirming the outline of the fingers. Think about how you might capture the tension in the hand, or suggest pressure where fingertips are pressed against surfaces. Related articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials How to choose the right drawing tools Negative space: 18 brilliant examples View the full article

The ever-growing complexity of web and mobile products has overtaken our product development processes. What used to work in the early days of the web has started to produce diminishing returns, and to get a hold of the chaos of digital creation, companies have started to invest in design systems. Creating a design system or a pattern library is no easy feat. It’s a long (if not infinite) process that requires a lot of decisions. Some of these decisions are about the structure and technology. All are complex and have a huge impact on the future of design and development in our organisations. That’s why, while working on a design system, we tend to constantly check how others have solved particular problems. Diving into GitHub repositories and documentation, while extremely valuable, takes a lot of time and effort. Both could be channeled towards the actual creation of new components in the system. As a result of this, UXPin has launched Adele – an open source repository of publicly available design systems and pattern libraries, including examples from the likes of Dropbox, Mozilla Firefox, GOV.UK, Lonely Planet and Buzzfeed. It was named after XEROX PARC programmer Adele Goldberg. Compare and contrast You can get a list of systems that use a particular technology, data structure or have part of the system that you’re interested in. Whether you’re looking for React components, CSS-in-JS, accessibility guidelines or colour palettes  –  it’s all in Adele. Adele helps designers and product teams make the best decisions for their pattern libraries by enabling them to: Explore technologies used in other companies’ systems Compare data structures (naming patterns, presence of particular guidelines e.g. accessibility guidelines) Check implementation details on components and design tokens Gather material to help convince management to embrace design systems Adele started with 43 systems analysed in 30 categories. But more are on their way: Adele is an open source tool for the community of design systems builders and maintainers. Its goal is to collect information about all publicly available design systems. All the data about design systems is available as individual JSONs. Anybody can contribute by refining the data or adding new systems (check the readme in Adele’s repository for details about contribution). If you don’t see your system in Adele, you find some missing data, or you’re willing to add another category of data, get involved! Only together can we make this repository complete. Liked this? Try these... 12 huge web design trends for 2018 10 rules of great user experience Top CSS animation examples View the full article

Icons may be tiny, but they can have a big impact. A great icon can catch a person’s eye and stick with them. If you need the ideal icons for your next project or just want to give your existing projects a bit of a refresh, grab the 2018 Icon Starter Kit. It's on sale now for just $9.99 (approx. £7). The 2018 Icon Starter Kit is a great source for professionally-designed icons. You’ll find over 1,000 icons with modern themes and the flat design style that is popular with many designers. You can use these icons for any project you’re working on, with tons of styles to choose from. Grab icons with themes like Fintech, Internet of Things, cryptocurrencies, and more. These icons are great for any project and will be sure to catch the eye of your users and visitors. You can get the 2018 Icon Starter Pack on sale for just $9.99 (approx. £7). That saves you 94% off the retail price. For any designer, it’s an offer that is too good to pass up, so grab this deal today. Scroll through the gallery below to see some of the icons included in this pack. 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: 36 sets of free icons 5 killer icon design tips 31 stunning iOS app icon designs View the full article

Computer Arts, the industry-leading design magazine, is looking for a new editor to be based in its Bath, UK, office. Could it be you? For the best part of 20 years, professional designers have turned to Computer Arts for up-to-date coverage of the latest developments in the industry. Over that time the magazine has become a platform that exposes new talent, and helps working creatives tackle challenges they face every day. If you're an experienced journalist with a passion for visual communication, this editor position could be the job for you. As the editor of the magazine you'll be a key influencer of what appears in the magazine, from approving commissions and contributors to final checking pages. On top of being responsible for the quality of the content, the editor also manages the magazine's team of staff and contributors, and ensures that each issue stays within budget and is delivered on time. As the last person to sign off the magazine, the editor is expected to be aware of libel laws and content rights. To read the full job description and apply for the role, head to the Computer Arts editor advert on the Future jobs board and apply by the closing date of February 28. This is a rare opportunity to join the Computer Arts team, so make sure you don't miss out. Good luck! Related articles: 5 tips to give you the edge when job hunting 6 terrifying job interview questions tamed Make 2018 your best year ever with Computer Arts issue 275 View the full article

Sadly, paper portfolios appear to be a bit of a rarity these days, with many design portfolios existing online-only. But, thankfully, there are many designers who still recognise the power of print. Done properly, a handheld, printed design portfolio can really make your work stand out and leave a long-lasting impression. Therefore, we scoured the web to find some brilliant examples of paper portfolios. Here are our 10 favourites... 01. Charlotte Allen Charlotte Allen wanted a package that wouldn't end up in the bin Feeling the need to stand out after finishing university, Charlotte Allen decided to reinvent the traditional resume and portfolio and instead created an informal package aimed at connecting with employers instead of the insides of a recycling bin. Her mail-out is designed to grab potential employers' attention from the start Her deluxe mailer consisted of a 12-page printed portfolio in a tabloid format, along with self-branded business cards and a traditionally formatted CV, all produced to a high quality that she felt was needed to represent herself to design agencies. The centrepiece of Charlotte's portfolio is a 12-page tabloid The business cards are 600gsm, printed on Mohawk Superfine stock for a luxury, yet tactile finish. Inside the newspaper is a folded CV, printed on 160gsm white card, while the tabloid itself is 55gsm newsprint, sized at 229 x 280mm, for a full-scale view of her selected projects. 02. Stephen Jones Stephen Jones's portfolio demonstrates his print experience With a fairly common name shared with an 80s hair rocker and a British TV host, Stephen Jones needed a portfolio that would demonstrate his skills and resonate with audiences who truly appreciate and admire something beautifully crafted. The spiral-bound book showcases his university projects Having worked in print shops ever since he was in high school, Jones was able to test his print production knowledge in creating a die cut and scored package, containing a spiral-bound book showcasing his university work. The effort paid off, getting him an intern post at Chen Design Associates in San Francisco. Attention to detail is key to this carefully crafted package 03. Dennis Fuentes Dennis Fuentes sent out his portfolios in custom fabric envelopes As well as wanting a portfolio to show off his work in a unique, Dennis Fuentes also wanted something that would display his attitude of patience, dedication and craftsmanship when tackling projects. His portfolio is split into five sections He tackled this with a handmade self-promo mailer consisting of five machine-stitched booklets covering a different category of work, as well as a printed resume, and then brought everything together in a custom fabric envelope, using iron-on transfers to personalise each one with its recipient's name. Fuentes used iron-on transfers to customise each fabric envelope 04. TeYosh Studio TeYosh's MA portfolio demonstrates the studio's two halves Sofija Stanković and Teodora Stojković make up TeYosh, an animation, concepting and art direction studio in Amsterdam. Having worked together for four years they decided to apply for an MA in design and found themselves having to make a portfolio. One part is all about brain, and the other is about heart Realising that Stanković is the brain of TeYosh, while Stojković is its heart, they came up with the idea of creating a 132-page printed portfolio, divided into quite different BRAIN and HEART sections representing each of them. And to finish the package off they added an A3 poster pointing out the third element making up TeYosh: BALLS. There's an all-important third part, too 05. Lisa Dino Lisa Dino's portfolio is a gorgeous little package On its own, Lisa Dino's printed portfolio is an impressive and attention-grabbing piece of work, split into three separate categories: illustration, design, and 3D and packaging, or as she prefers to put it, draw, design and do. Its three parts focus on her three main skills The icing on the cake, however, is the self-promo vehicle she designed to go alongside her portfolio. Made entirely out of cardboard and paper, her creative kit consists of 'The tiny book of big ideas', coloured pencils, an eraser, and a sharpener, all of them placed neatly into allocated slots in her cardboard packaging. This accompanying self-promo vehicle is a brilliant touch 06. ALU Italian graphic design studio Happycentro created this beautiful handheld portfolio for ALU Italian graphic design studio Happycentro was behind this beautiful, handcrafted portfolio for modular merchandising systems company ALU. "All their products are mainly made in basic materials like aluminum," comments the team. "We then took inspiration from the material soul of these elements to develop ALU's ID. Starting from this basis, we chose to tell the brand through a series of keywords explaining their values." Intricate paper cuttings feature on many pages in this paper portfolio for ALU The result was this gorgeous book containing illustrations and typography made with paper cuttings. Other pages feature photos, original sketches and moodboards, with a red thread connecting the identity and products through the entire project. Red thread runs throughout the portfolio, connecting the identity and products 07. Nathan Hinz Nathan Hinz's paper portfolio features window envelopes on each page US-based graphic designer Nathan Hinz developed this beautiful, handheld portfolio back in the days before everybody went online. Each page is a window envelope, which displays an image and info of a project. Hinz comments on Behance: "It allowed for a quick overview and served as a rich presentation in one book. It's completely handmade, mostly with found materials, my favorite being the spine made from orange duct tape I have never been able to re-find, sadly." Hinz created this beautiful design out of found materials The designer carefully selected his best work and crafted it into these display envelopes 08. Dyla Rosli Dyla Rosli developed this infographic paper portfolio to assist in her search for work Dyla Rosli is an intern graphic designer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In order to assist in her search for work, she developed this cool paper, infographic portfolio. Using matt laminated art paper, Rosli selected her best work and carefully placed images of each into this template, along with illustrations detailing her skills and personal information. The intern graphic designer carefully selected images of her best work to go into her paper portfolio Rosil's design folds up neatly into this small CD cover size 09. Emil Kozole Designer Emil Kozole created this clever printed portfolio to support his CD of work Working in both print and digital formats, designer Emil Kozole created this printed presentation to support the CD with his work on. Knowing that many discs are overlooked, Kozole made sure the print part of his portfolio stood out. Covering different areas of expertise, the designer divided the page into different categories and then, using transportation systems as inspiration, illustrated the cover with different coloured lines, with projects being each stop. If lines meet, it means projects fall into more than one category. On the reverse, each project has a photo and description. Transportation systems provided the inspiration for the cover of Kozole's print portfolio Emil Kozole's paper portfolio featured a transport system design on one side and project images and details on the other side 10. Another day This 227-page portfolio features a selection of work from designer Yorick de Vries over a seven-year period Another day is the graphic design studio of Yorick de Vries. Last year, de Vries created this colourful paper portfolio featuring a selection of his best projects from 2005 to 2012. Printed on three different paper stocks, the book is made up of three parts. The first features just information, the second showcases project images and the final section covering examples of the designer's custom made typefaces. More like a catalogue than a book, this gorgeous, handbound portfolio is 227 pages of full colour prints. Awesome. The book is divided into three sections; information, images and type design The last section of designer Yorick de Vries portfolio features examples of his custom made typefaces Additional words: Creative Bloq staff Related articles: 5 quick ways to improve your portfolio dramatically 30 graphic designers to follow on Behance The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios View the full article

Our debut CG event Vertex is now just six weeks away, so we thought we'd celebrate by giving you the chance to win a ticket to Vertex for you and a friend. Held at Olympia, London on Tuesday 13 March 2018, there's plenty to whet CG appetites. You can't afford to miss our burgeoning schedule of top speakers, including Chaos Group Labs director Chris Nichols, Digital Domain founder Scott Ross and Allegorithmic founder Dr Sebastien Deguy. And if that wasn't enough, how about masterclasses in game art from Creative Assembly's Danny Sweeney, digital doubles from The Mill's Adam Dewhirst and VR sculpting from Glen Southern. Find out more about the workshops in our article New year, new skills: learn new tricks at Vertex. Plus you'll be able to explore the latest tech developments in the expo hall, get inspired at our panel and join our networking drinks, and finally utilise our recruitment fair to take your career to the next level. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a ticket for you and a friend is answer a simple question on our competition page. Good luck! For more about the event, check out our article Why Vertex is a must for CG artists and browse the Vertex event website. Read more: 6 ways to speed up your modelling Upgrade your textures in Substance Designer 5 tips to kickstart your 3D career View the full article

ATM maker NCR Corp. is warning that cyber criminals are hacking U.S. cash machines with malware that can drain machines dry of cash. View the full article

Buy After Effects CC 2018 or sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud now For motion graphics, animation and video professionals, After Effects is as important as Photoshop is to designers and photographers – if not more so. It’s an all-encompassing application with a professional toolset designed for anything from titling to character animation, compositing and more. Its timeline and node-based approach makes it very easy to quickly animate anything. And as you delve deeper into the feature set, you can soon see why animators and artists on major motion pictures like Iron Man 3 and Oblivion make it their tool of choice (you can see how it was used on these films here). The latest version, After Effects CC 2018, brings new VR and 3D options, data-driven animation and enhanced GPU settings. It also comes with a range of new features that create a more streamlined working environment and more intuitive user experience. As motion design and animation continue to creep to the forefront of ‘must have’ skills in a designer’s creative arsenal, we’re likely to see increasing efforts from Adobe to maintain this standard. Let’s take a look at what’s new. Data-driven animation tools The new data-driven animation tools let you animate charts, graphs and infographics using imported data. You can import JSON files as assets and reference their values in expressions – and the graphics update automatically when the data is edited. Although the data can drive all kinds of animations – visual effects, movie titles, weather reports and so on – the area in which we’ve found the tools most useful is infographic design and integration, which is an area most motion designers will have worked in at some point. These tools aren’t just incredibly powerful: when mastered, they should also save you an enormous amount of time. However, if you’re unfamiliar with data-led design work, or the necessary format types, I would urge you to seek out an online tutorial because it isn’t for the faint hearted. Importing the JSON data isn’t the easiest of tasks. If you have an alternate data file format, such as MySQL or Excel of CSV, you can convert it into JSON or MGJSON (motion graphics JSON) file format and import it into After Effects, ready to be used within any animation. You may need to use some data conversion software for this, which will usually give you the raw JSON data. After Effects can't import this raw data, only a .JSON file, so once you have your JSON data you'll need to input it into an application like Adobe Dreamweaver and save it out as a .JSON file, ready to be imported like any other file and experimented with. The benefit of working with individual .JSON files is that you can swap them around and the layers will automatically update. So if you assign parts of the data in your layers to different JSON files, then replace the one currently being utilised, the data (place name and data points) will automatically update, reposition and change, while keeping all the animation you had previously added. This means you no longer have to suffer hours of tedium by having to individually adjust text and object layers. Create Nulls From Paths panel Another interesting new feature to emerge in After Effects CC 2018 is the Create Nulls From Paths panel. This lets you build expression-driven animations, without the need to write said expressions yourself. The panel creates nulls from each path and shape point, giving you far more dynamic control over the way you animate. To open the panel, go to the Window drop-down menu, and select Create Nulls From Path. The Nulls From Paths panel contains a variety of options. Select the path points on your object, and click Points Follow Nulls in the panel. You can also do this with vector shapes using the same process, but selecting Create Vector Shapes first. The new Create Nulls from Paths panel gives you much more dynamic control when animating. The main benefit of this is it gives you more control over your shape and vector layers within After Effects. You’re now able to individually animate each path null that you create. You can also add expressions to each null, giving you further freedom to explore different creative pathways and animatic styles. It’s worth pointing out, too, that you can use this feature with the new data-driven settings by assigning different parts of the JSON code to different nulls. This means that if you were to make a line graph of weather statistics, you’d be able to assign the key parts of different data to different nulls, and they would automatically change position when replaced with a new JSON file. 360/VR Transitions, Effects, Titles Adobe has also made further developments to its 3D and VR working space, enabling creatives to work faster in a new, meaningful way, while adding graphics into 360-degree spaces. There’s a new integrated toolset for editing 360-degree VR footage, which includes a VR Comp Editor – which lets you undistort and edit stitched 360-degree videos – and a VR Extract Cubemap option. This converts 360 footage into a 3D cube formation to simplify motion tracking, object removal, and the addition of motion graphics, visual effects and more. Performance enhancements A small but important update sees new performance enhancements for layer transformations and motion blur. This makes After Effects much faster, without needing hardware updates. As someone who regularly becomes tired of having to wait for layer previews containing fast blur, this feels like a positive move for Adobe. It also appears to recognise the financial issues some people may face, as optimising the capabilities of the GPU means you get a faster and better experience, without having to purchase additional hardware such as more RAM or an SSD. The fact that Adobe is constantly trying to improve the performance on its software should create better customer satisfaction and further brand loyalty. Other key features Visual keyboard shortcut editor Expression access to mask and shape points Motion graphics templates improvements Team Projects 1.0 support Enhanced 3D pipeline with Cinema 4D Lite R19 Text input improvements New font menu with font previews Helpful Start screen System requirements A learning curve After Effects is a complex application. Its toolset is undoubtedly brilliant and ultra-deep, offering motion professionals the tools they need to create striking broadcast and film-ready animations and titles. While less numerous than earlier versions, the new features brought to After Effects CC 2018 are amazing. They might seem niche at first glance – and largely not created with a beginner in mind – but additions like data-driven updates will save hours of time while opening up new creative pathways. The Create Nulls from Paths feature will also dramatically streamline your workflow. Of course, there’s a huge learning curve. This is an application that requires extensive training – and the new start screen helps beginners embark on their adventure into motion design with less stress. But once you do get to grips with it, it’s blazingly fast (with the right computer and hardware configuration, like in any video work) and has an intuitive timeline from which you can control pretty much every aspect of your project. It’s capable of almost anything you can imagine. Buy After Effects CC 2018 or sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud Like this? Read these articles: 40 amazing After Effects tutorials 12 top plugins for After Effects The 25 greatest animated music videos View the full article

A new logo for the Malaysian tourism ministry has come under fire from designers online thanks to what many have cited as an amateurish look. The Visit Malaysia 2020 logo design (above) was created in-house by a member of the Malaysian tourism ministry for free. Tailored towards attracting the attention of 36 million potential tourists, the logo mixes landmarks such as the Petronas Towers with comical graphics of native wildlife wearing sunglasses. These elements are incorporated into the Visit Malaysia 2020 name, along with the campaign's slogan: "Travel. Enjoy. Respect." Following its launch at the Asean Tourism Forum 2018 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the logo has been criticised by designers on social media platforms, with many demanding that it is changed. We did not pay a single cent Nazri Aziz Common complaints have taken issue with how old the design looks, the disjointed composition, and the basic animal graphics. We are yet to see a single part of the composition that people approve of. Despite the widespread derision the logo has attracted, Malaysian Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz does not intend to replace it. "I have no intention of changing. We are not going back. It was meant for foreign tourist and not locals. When I launched it in Chiang Mai they liked and praised it," he told The Malaysian Insight. "We did not pay a single cent. The one who designed it is our own staff. I trust my staff that has more than 30 years in tourism in this matter." The designer's previous work appears to include similar elements One of the designers involved with the new logo, Rosli Hassan, has defended the branding by saying that he was just doing his job based on the idea that was agreed upon with the ministry. Hassan's previous work includes the logo for Malaysia's Tourism and Culture Ministry, which appears to use a similar palm tree graphic that has been flipped and had the colour of the trunk changed. Following the backlash, Hassan says he has considered taking out a lawsuit against those who have tarnished his reputation. Logos are a contentious topic with designers, even when a huge budget is involved. So is this design, built with zero budget, really deserving of so much hatred? Or is it just an easy target for designers who need to relax? Visit Malaysia 2020 might not be a groundbreaking design, but it's funny, it's drawn people's attention in a similar way to the recent LA designer advert, and what's wrong with a retro design – even if the '90s look was possibly not deliberate... Related articles: 5 logo design trends for 2018 10 commandments of logo design 5 fantastic design fails – and what we can learn from them View the full article

When you start a career in illustration, it's important to develop a striking portfolio, but it's also equally important to shout about it. Every art director is surfing the web and social media channels now more than ever in the search for talent, and it's crucial for illustrators to be online and on their radar. In a way, social media platforms can act as your CV/resumé. The potential client can have questions such as: Where do you work? What's your process? What are you interested in? You can tailor your content to answer those questions in a strategic and engaging way that's thoughtful, dynamic, and very you. Social media can aid in work finding you rather than vice versa, and printed samples can also play a role, even in this heavily digital age. John Bond is an illustrator, designer and (sometimes) animator living and working on the south coast of the UK Having an online presence is really important in this day and age. For starters, it helps you to become more discoverable. It also allows you to link up, and communicate freely, with other people in your industry – and potential clients too. As much as I'd love to live a more 'offline' life, social media is a necessity for spreading your art, keeping in touch and discovering new opportunities. Instagram has proven to be the best platform to post my illustrations. The speed and simplicity of putting something into the public domain doesn't come much easier. It still feels like the most convenient way of viewing work and finding new artists to me. If I continue to draw the things I like and share them, it will, in turn, hopefully attract some projects and commissions that I'd really like to work on. I'm not sure I have a real strategy in place in terms of sharing my work online, but I try to post content (fairly) regularly, link images in with topical events, and make sure that I use some relevant hashtags or handles to attract attention. John's work ranges from commercials to games, websites, books, prints and exhibitions, mixing hand-drawn illustration with bold graphic design Although being online is important, it's equally important to send printed samples to potential clients every now and then. To be fair, I haven't done this in a while, but people will always enjoy receiving actual post. There's a real personal quality to it, plus clients can appreciate that the time and effort involved is greater than just pinging over an email with a link to a website. It's something tactile, something 'in your face' and something that can't just be swiped or scrolled past. Need some inspiration on how to use social media to get yourself noticed? The AOI can help; join today! This article was originally published in issue 273 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 273 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: 7 ways to craft a killer self-promo campaign Grow your design business without losing focus 7 biggest illustration trends of 2018 View the full article

During this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll be going over several key concepts that I use as an illustrator. I’ll be talking about rough concepts, clean line work, colour, light and shadow, and some of the pitfalls that people (including myself) tend to fall into while working through an illustration. I’ll be using Photoshop and talking about some of the tools that the program has and how those different features can be of help. Get Adobe Creative Cloud 01. Sketch a rough concept Early sketches help establish the tone of the composition Every good drawing begins with a solid foundation. Generating thumbnails and working through different concepts quickly helps me to clear my mind and find the best possible solution to any assignment I’m given. (Try these 20 top character design tips and How to create new character designs in Photoshop tutorial to get you started). 02. Produce a refined sketch Focus on the bigger picture before getting specific After I’ve determined which direction I want to go in, I dive into the details. I’m working on a separate layer from what I’ve done previously, and I try to work – as best I can – from large to small. Big shapes to small shapes, general ideas to details. That way I don’t find myself devoting too much time to a weak drawing. 03. Bring in clean lines Inking doesn't have to stick strictly to the guidelines Inking is a process I relish. I try my best to keep the line work feeling fresh by avoiding the trap of tracing the sketch underneath. By making a conscious effort to make it feel like I’m drawing this for the first time, I’m able to retain the life that’s inherent in the sketch. I use the sketch as a guide, but not as a crutch. 04. Lay in flat colours Flat colours are a good opportunity to make a harmonious composition On a layer beneath the clean line work, I lay down flat colours without thinking too much about the form. This comes in handy when I want to adjust the colours or values separate from each other. It’s important to me that all of the colours are harmonious with each other before light and shadow come into the equation. Although a light source can help to harmonise any combination of colours, I find that creating a harmonious colour palette to begin with makes me a better artist. 05. Duplicate and lock a layer The current colour layer is moved to the bottom At this stage, I create another layer identical to the colour layer by dragging my current colour layer down to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layer menu. This can also be done by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer. I then lock the transparency of the layer by clicking the chequerboard icon at the top of the layer menu. 06. Fill with grey A grey layer is useful for making shadows Once I have two identical colour layers, I fill the one on top with a mid-value grey. Because the transparency has been locked on the layer, the grey only fills the pixels that are opaque, giving me a grey version of what I’ve already painted. This comes in handy in the next step. 07. Create shadows across the figures The grey layer lets you focus on form I duplicate my colour layer again and fill it this time with white, then I change the layer mode to Multiply. The Multiply layer mode darkens all of the layers beneath it. White doesn’t show up on a Multiply layer, but any value darker than white does. This is how I create my shadows separate from my colours. The grey layer over the colour layer enables me to think purely about form without the distraction of the colours. 08. Create highlights with the help of Screen layers Highlights are created in a similar way to the shadows in the previous step I create highlights the same way as the shadows, but rather than use a Multiply layer, I create a duplicate layer and set it to Screen mode. The Screen mode does precisely the opposite of the Multiply layer. Anything lighter than black will lighten any values on layers that are beneath it. 09. Think about surfaces Different surfaces have unique reactions to light As I consider the highlights and shadows in this piece, I’m also thinking about the way the light reacts to the different surfaces. The silk dress has the strongest highlights and crispest shadows, whereas the fur of the panda diffuses the light so that the highlights and shadows are much softer. 10. Create patterns A traditional Chinese textile pattern helps to break up the textures At this point, the illustration is suffering from a lack of visual texture. The girl’s hair provides a little bit of a break from the solid blocks of colour, but not enough. So I design pattern to add to the girl’s clothing, based on what I’ve seen of traditional Chinese textiles. 11. Shape the pattern to the form The wrap tool comes in handy when designing costumes To me, the hardest part of designing costuming is creating patterns or graphics that need to wrap around folds and creases in fabric. Fortunately, Photoshop has the very handy Warp tool. To use the tool, I make a selection, then hit Cmd+T, then right-click and select Warp from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can go to Edit>Transform>Warp. By dragging your selection around, you can conform it to all sorts of shapes. Usually, I make selections based on where there are breaks or folds in the fabric. 12. Create a background A simple green background brings the whole composition together Environments are my least favourite thing to do. That’s mostly because I’m not as practised with them and I’m not as comfortable creating them as I am with other things. In this case, the background is blessedly simple and the green in it is easy to bring out in the characters to help harmonise the whole image. This article was originally published in issue 154 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists – packed with workshops and interviews with fantasy and sci-fi artists, plus must-have kit reviews. Buy issue 154 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: 5 ways to improve your digital art skills 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil 8 inspiring digital art portfolios and why they work View the full article

WordPress is one of the most popular tools on the web thanks to its flexibility to create everything from simple sites to some of the most elaborate. Learn the skills you need to master this popular platform with PressShack University WordPress Training. You can get lifetime access to these training tools that are on sale now for 96% off the retail price. WordPress is a great tool for any website. Whether you're trying to get your website up and running quickly or want to build something more detailed, WordPress can handle it. PressShack University Wordpress Training offers you more than 39 hours of educational courses that will arm you with expert knowledge on how to make the most of the very malleable platform. Pick up tricks of the trade, must-have information while building your design skills – and there's always new information being added all the time. You can get a lifetime of access to PressShack University WordPress Training on sale for just $39 (approx. £27). That's a saving of 96% off the retail price for this invaluable training. Don't miss out, grab it 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: Power a blog using the WordPress API 25 brilliant WordPress tutorials 32 best free WordPress themes View the full article

You have a clear idea in your head of that killer image that will complete your next design, but the client is getting impatient and you need it fast. iStock by Getty Images has millions of exclusive, royalty-free stock files – but if you don't have time to browse them at your leisure (time is money, after all), you need as many tools and techniques at your disposal as possible to narrow down your search. Here Brenda Bazylewski – senior manager, contributor engagement at iStock – shares her expert advice to help you find that one image in a million, so you can get back to the most important bit: designing. Read on to discover four great ways to find the perfect image, fast... 01. Be specific Sometimes, finding the right image is a matter of visual comparison. Say you have a moodboard of references, or previous iterations of a design that need to continue in a similar vein. If this applies to you, iStock's Search by Image tool is a great first port of call – just drop your reference image into the search tool and go from there. Typing broad terms such as 'dog' into iStock returns almost 780,000 images However, one of the most important tools at your disposal when searching for an image is your own vocabulary. We all know the saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words', but here it works in reverse: the more accurately you can describe what you want, the quicker you'll get there. "If you start too broadly, you can always refine with your keywords," explains iStock's Brenda Bazylewski. "For example, 'dog' returns almost 780,000 images, but when you add 'brown' that result drops to 155,000." Adding an extra layer of description narrows down the search results to the most relevant images Another, even more dramatic, example that Bazylewski gives is 'fitness', a hugely common search term with over 4.5 million results on iStock. "But if you're only looking for a man and a woman, you can add 'couple' or 'man' and 'woman' and bring your options to under 300,000," she adds. And while a search for 'business woman' returns over a million images, Bazylewski points out that simply adding 'portrait' to your search query brings those results down to 300,000. Of course, we're still talking about hundreds of thousands of images in the above three cases – which is where iStock's Refine panel really comes in handy. 02. Use the Refine panel Before using the Refine panel, typing 'fitness' returns 4.5 million results Once you've narrowed down the main theme as descriptively as you can, the next step is to apply a laser-focus and define the specific components of the image you want. Here's where iStock's Refine panel is an essential tool. Whether you're designing a website, a brochure or a poster, if you're at a fairly advanced stage of the design you'll likely have an area the image needs to fill – or at least a clear idea of whether it's portrait or landscape orientation that you need. Checking 'square', 'horizontal' or 'vertical' gives an immediate shortcut, or you can pick the 'panoramic' options if you have particularly tricky dimensions to work with, such as a tall, thin banner ad. Other options include determining the number of people featured, or refining by colour palette to ensure your chosen image complements the rest of your design seamlessly. Ticking a couple of options in the Refine panel narrows results down enormously "If we use the fitness example, we can reduce the number of files very quickly," explains Bazylewski. "Start by looking at our Signature collection, which is a selection of premium, handpicked files that you can only get from iStock. Selecting Signature takes you down to a million." By using the Refine panel, you can quickly and easily narrow this down further. "Only need a vertical image with two people? Select those options and you have 25,000 files to choose from. But wait, you forgot that you want outdoor fitness. You can still add 'outdoors' to your keywords and narrow things down even more. From 4.5 million to 12,000 in less than five clicks!" 03. Mix up the sort order Your initial results page may through up some great options, but they might not be particularly unique With all the search refinement tools in the world, image discovery is still to some extent organic and intuitive – you might not know exactly what you want until you see it, after all – and you can spot the perfect shot at a glance among the other results. Once you've refined your search as much as you can using the above techniques, it's surprising how effective it can be to shuffle them around. You will see different images if you switch between the three options in the Refine panel: Best Match, Newest and Most Popular. Sort the images in different ways to see different results quickly Most Popular will show you the files that have been downloaded the most, which gives you the reassurance that the images have passed through the discerning filters of fellow designers – although as a result, they are likely to be used more frequently elsewhere. If you're looking for something more unique, or you've tried a similar search before, Newest might be the best option. Best Match, as the name implies, is iStock's recommendation based on all the other factors you've defined, and if you're really short on time, could help cut to the chase. "It's a mix of images based on popularity, newness and relevance that we think will suit your needs, based on the search terms you've entered," says Bazylewski. 04. Have fun exploring Photographer Iza Habur has a colourful collection of images All of the above tips will help you find the perfect image quickly, but they also assume that you know precisely what you want before you start. This isn't always the case: you might be looking for something more abstract, or a particular mood that is hard to define in terms of subject. iStock's millions of images are available to you because of its talented network of contributors. If you're commissioning a bespoke shoot, chances are you'll pick a specific photographer because of their style or approach, and it's no different here. "Allow yourself to go down the rabbit hole," is Bazylewski's advice. "See an artist you like? Jump into their portfolio." She gives five examples of expansive photography portfolios that it's easy to get lost in, including izusek, geber86, kate_sept2004, wundervisuals and leopatrizi. Leonardo Patrizi is another iStock contributor with a great library of shots While this is a more serendipitous way of discovering a particular shot, and may not seem as clear-cut a time-saver as our other tips, this approach does help you filter by the artistic style and vision of the individual photographer – something harder to define by keywords and settings alone. "Start a Board of your favourites – you never know when they might come in handy," urges Bazylewski. "There are literally millions of great images to be found." Related articles: How to use images more effectively in web design 8 free apps for picking a colour scheme 12 essential tools for graphic designers in 2018 View the full article

You're reading Web Design Trends to Try in 2018, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Another year brings another set of design trends to the web. It seems like these trends are constantly advancing and while prior trends are still here, many new ones are ripe for the taking. For this post, I’ve organized my picks for the best trends to look out for in 2018. Some of these are just emerging […] View the full article

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) are image types that are universally supported across all desktop and mobile browsers. The benefits of using them for web and app design are huge – let us talk you through the six biggest reasons. 01. It’s resolution independent and responsive Images can be scaled the same way we scale all other elements in responsive web design. Due to the vector nature of SVG, the image is resolution independent. The image looks crisp on any display, from the beautiful ~285 ppi pixel density displays found on new smartphones, to the ~85 ppi of standard monitors. Using SVG, we can stop creating ‘@2x. png’ images (unless you need to support IE8) and create one file for all of our icons. SVG images can also be scaled the same way we scale all other elements in responsive design. Award-winning Sarah Drasner’s site makes great use of SVG 02. It’s got a navigable DOM SVG inside the browser has its own DOM. SVG is treated as a separate document by the browser and then positioned inside the normal DOM of the page. This is important for the ‘viewBox’ property, as we can draw our image on a canvas of any size, but then display it in browser at another, all without updating the properties inside the SVG. This separate, navigable DOM is also how we interact with elements inside SVG using CSS and JavaScript. 03. It’s animatable Elements inside SVG can be animated to create some truly amazing interactive experiences, or the animation can be used to add nice little touches to an interface, image or icon. Animation can be created using CSS, the Web Animations API in Javascript or using the SVG’s ‘<animate>’ tag. SVG animation is at an interesting point in development. Google deprecated SMIL – SVG’s animate tag – in Chrome 45 in favour of CSS animations and the Web Animations API, but has since suspended the deprecation. 04. It’s style-able Using class names or IDs, you can style elements inside of SVG only using slightly different properties to those we would normally use; instead of ‘color’ we use ‘fill’, and instead of border we use ‘stroke'. There are some limits to styling SVG that come from how you’re using SVG in the page. If you use an SVG as an image tag you will not be able to style the elements inside in Internet Explorer. There is, however, a polyfill – svg4everybody – which will fix this problem. 05. It’s interactive Using JavaScript, we can interact with elements inside of SVG, thanks to the navigable DOM. This allows us to create interactive elements using SVG the same way we would with HTML and CSS. We can also apply animations through JavaScript using the new Web Animations API allowing both simple and complex interactions and animations to be programmed. There’s also a number of JavaScript libraries we can use, which have been created to speed up SVG workflows. 06. Small file sizes Due to the vector nature of SVG (being an image drawn from a set of coordinates), their file sizes when optimised are small when compared to almost any other image file type. There are a number of ways to optimise SVG, from command line tools to manually removing points and groups, but SVGOMG has a GUI and plenty of options to tweak showing you visually the changes being made during optimisation. Since SVG’s can be responsive, animated and complex, there’s no reason you shouldn’t use them for big hero images or images on a blog post or other online media. Designers - stay relevant and effective It’s no longer enough to be a Photoshop master. Designers need to grow their skills in order to stay relevant and effective, but which are worth focusing on? Should designers learn to code and, if so, can limited code knowledge really make a difference working with talented engineers? How can designers fit into Agile workflows? Does project methodology even matter anyway? What role does a designer have in creating, using, and maintaining design systems? SuperFriendly Director Dan Mall will share stories and perspectives to answer these questions and more in his talk at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018. Get your ticket now Related articles: Create and animate SVG Polygons Supercharge SVG animations with GSAP How to implement SVG icons View the full article

By using a node-based, procedural approach, 3D software Houdini from SideFX provides digital artists with a remarkable level of power, flexibility and control. It’s a complex piece of kit – so much so that you would be hard pushed to find someone who knows everything about it, or who really understands the software and its many features inside out. The majority of Houdini users utilise the software to carry out very specific tasks, with few taking full advantage of its highly extensive toolset and capabilities. That said, in recent times the software has become more artist friendly, so now’s the time to jump right in. So whether you’re completely new to Houdini or just want to hone up on its many features, going back to the basics is often a great way to speed up your workflow or learn about tools that you may not already be hugely familiar with. With that in mind read on to discover our top expert tips for creating stunning, detailed and realistic terrains. 01. Work with the erosion node When working with the erosion node, I always start with a low terrain resolution for the first erosion step. I do this to get strong, succinct details. Then I increase the terrain erosion, mixing in other details, and do another erosion. This way you can get some exponent strong flow/erosion details for basic shaping of your terrain, and then you can add the smaller details on top. This workflow applies not only to the erosion node, but is also valid for the whole terrain generation process. Start low res for the bigger, dominant details and gradually increase the resolution while adding smaller details on top. 02. Use terraces Since the erosion washes details away, it's always good to add some terraces before the erosion process, even if you’re aiming for a terrain without a terracing effect. If you use it right you won't see the terracing anymore after the erosion. Instead, your terrain profits from a bit more variety in details, since the terraces slow down the erosion process and give more space for sediments to settle down. 03. Mix terrain fractals To get a more interesting-looking terrain, you should try and mix different HeightField Noise functions. Simply using only a HeightField node and then carrying out an erosion on top looks boring and uninteresting most of the time. 04. Make use of masks Masks are your friend when working with height field terrains. You have several functions to choose from, such as mask to slope or mask to height. Use them to combine multiple height fields to get interesting-looking terrains. Some nodes also output masks, like the flow mask you get from the erosion node. Use them to texture your terrain. Why 3D artists should attend Vertex Vertex is the event connecting all areas of the UK visual effects community, for a day of presentations, workshops, recruitment and discussion. Come and watch talks by some of the world's biggest names in VFX, including Scott Ross, Chris Nichols, Sébastien Deguy and more. Book tickets for workshops run by some top artists, from Glen Southern to Mike Griggs among others. If you want to get your hands on the very latest tech, then the expo access tickets are for you; they are even free, but you do need to register to get the tickets, so book now over at the Vertex site. Related articles: The ethics of digital humans 12 mighty Maya tutorials Scott Ross to talk at Vertex View the full article

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Hats off to Adobe, they really do seem to listen to user feedback. Just take a look at the latest batch of updates to Adobe XD CC which are available today. These features, which have been requested for a while, aim to make workflows smoother by integrating popular UX tools. Adobe hopes that this will make designer and developer handoff easier. One of the biggest draws for designers is that Dropbox now supports native XD file previews on mobile, web and desktop. What's more, when users view an XD file saved to Dropbox, a preview of the file automatically displays. This means that designers and stakeholders can sort through their assets via Dropbox more quickly than before. “Our goal is to unleash creative energy through an expanding partner ecosystem, and connect design tools like Adobe XD with core Dropbox mobile, web and desktop products," said Daniel Wagner, Engineering Lead, Dropbox Previews. As well as incorporating Dropbox, creatives can now quickly export their designs from Adobe XD into third party tools like Zeplin, Avocode and Sympli. These highly requested workstreams are already part of designers’ existing processes, but with direct integration with XD they can now handoff the developers without disruption. The latest update also sees XD integrate with ProtoPie and Kite Compositor, letting designers add advanced animation to their XD prototypes. Another significant enhancement to emerge from the latest XD update is that designers now have the ability to zoom in and out of a canvas with thousands of artboards without compromising performance. On top of this, Adobe XD has released five free UI kits in partnership with leading UI/UX designers around the globe. These make it easier than ever to get started with designing apps for different problems. "Adobe XD's human-first design approach and integration with other Creative Cloud tools has made it incredibly easy and seamless to create scalable and cross-platform design systems,” said Michael Wong, designer and founder of Mizko Media & the Designership, who created a gaming console UI kit for Adobe XD. Related articles: How to prototype a mobile app with Adobe XD Adobe XD and Adobe Dimension launched at Adobe Max Adobe’s new Photoshop CC tool detects objects in a click View the full article

Preparing assets for digital use is a core task for junior designers today – and distinct from preparing files for print. You may get asked to create or adapt images for websites, social media campaigns, display ads, email newsletters, video animations, infographics and app designs, to name but a few. At Conran Design Group, for example, a typical task might be to produce imagery for use in a responsive website, explains senior designer Ollie Rone-Clarke. “Once the design has been signed off, we’ll create a core master file of each asset size and these will then be saved for the web, using the right file format to make the files as small as possible, while still retaining key detail – so that these assets are fast to download, for example, on mobile.” So how you go about creating and adapting assets for digital use? There are four broad things you need to consider. 01. Master the fundamentals Conran Design Group collaborated with food redistribution charity FareShare to produce its 2016 annual report and social media assets Firstly, you’ll need to understand the fundamentals, which hopefully you’ll have covered on your design course. “From a functional perspective, typically you should ensure you’re using the correct colour settings in Photoshop: RGB rather than CMYK,” explains Osman Gani, global digital advertising director at Hogarth Worldwide. “You’ll need to be working in the correct digital pixels per inch, giving Photoshop layers the correct names, and positioning layers from bottom to top. “You’ll need to export the correct digital formats as stipulated in the brief, and ensure text boxes and images have been ‘snapped’ correctly. And you’ll need to adhere to best practices such as naming conventions, clear folder structures on the server, and using version-control files.” 02. Follow brand guidelines Conran Design Group helped the Keep Britain Tidy campaign by giving the brand's original Tidyman logo a modern twist Secondly, each project will come with digital guidelines that are specific to the brand, says Andrea Esteban, digital designer for Battenhall. Much of the time this will be relatively routine. “Most of our projects come from existing clients whose guidelines we’re already familiar with,” she explains. “But for new clients, we have to ask them, fully analyse their requirements, and think about all the limitations they may present, in terms of file size and colours, for example.” 03. Test your designs across different platforms Rather than creating print and digital assets separately for FareShare, Conran Design Group created a strong unifying theme within the report that it could use across other platforms Thirdly, in an ever-changing digital environment, you need to keep up-to-date with the platforms you’re designing for. “So for example,” says Esteban, “I have private social media accounts to test – and then delete – posts, to see how they look across all devices. We often design quite innovative posts, like ‘click to reveal’ on Twitter or ‘filter to reveal’ on Instagram, so testing how everything looks in-stream rather than guessing is better. After all this, it should be easy to change each artboard to all the different sizes you need: adjelly.com has all the different up-to-date sizes, but Googling each platform also works.” 04. Know your organisation Keep Britain Tidy needed a unified identity that better communicated the core brand Finally, you’ll also need to understand the systems and processes of the organisation you’ve come to work for. “Junior designers come in with the basics of design and asset management preparation, but they won’t be ready for the studio filing system,” says Rone-Clarke. “This is where we spend a lot of time with them, showing them how we file and set up stages for each design job.” Understand the deliverables How much your design course will prepare you for all of this will vary. Chloe Holden, a junior designer at Conran Design Group, says hers was a little patchy. “While I’d learned that RGB was for digital and CMYK was for print, what I didn’t realise until I was an intern is the importance of double-checking file settings when going between digital and print files,” she recalls. “Nor did I learn the hows and whys. It isn’t until you are working in a studio that you learn how to take a brief and understand the deliverables clearly.” Elena Morán, a UX/UI designer at atom42, also points to the importance of the brief in preparing digital assets. “Be sure you receive a good one – and don’t be ashamed to push back if it doesn’t contain the information you need,” she stresses. “A baker can’t work without flour, and you can’t make the assets without the correct specifications.” Ask questions The visual theme for FareShare closely linked print and digital Most importantly, keep asking questions, she adds. “For example, if someone asks you to create a display ad, important points to double-check include the size of the creative, dimensions needed and minimum and maximum weight allowed. Is it animated or static; do they want a still image or do they want dynamic elements? If it’s animated, do they want an interactive ad? What type of file: JPG, PNG, MP4, HTML5? And where is it going to be displayed? Every platform has its own unique rules.” This can all be slightly overwhelming at first. “As a junior you will get a lot of work to do, so time is key. Tracking your hours carefully makes it easier to prevent issues and correctly organise your projects. "And if you feel overwhelmed, tell your line manager so they can organise, push back and share, if possible, with the rest of the team. Sharing is caring, so don’t just say yes all the time or you’ll end up producing less high-quality assets as a result.” Tips for creating digital assets The logo typeface was given a ‘stamped’ effect to add interest and texture, as well as being optimised for digital applications 01. Work efficiently “Always ask what digital output the assets are needed for, how many versions you will need and across how many breakpoints,” says Rone-Clarke. “Set up a process that anyone else on the design team can pick up. Make sure you have a definitive list of assets that need to be created.” 02. Understand goals “Be clear about what you’re designing for and where the asset will end up,” says Holden. “Then you’ll know how to create the optimum design to suit each digital application. For example, an asset for Instagram will look very different to one for a web page.” 03. Adjust screen brightness “When altering colours for digital, make sure your screen brightness is up,” adds Holden. “It’s a simple thing but very easy to forget. Always test it and get a second opinion from a senior designer.” 04. Save assets correctly “Saving seems the easiest step, but if you’re not sure about formats, it might be the most difficult one at the beginning,” says Esteban. “Save, Save for Web, Export: they all have different settings that will make your life easier – or more difficult – so check which one is the best option to optimise your exports.” 05. Get GIFs right “There’s a big trend right now for GIFs over videos, but remember they’re super-compressed, which means potentially lower quality content,” adds Esteban. “Also, if exporting from Photoshop, remember it only allows 500 total frames – which sounds like loads, but it’s not!” Related articles: 6 ways to get out of your creative rut How to futureproof yourself as a designer The best free fonts for designers View the full article

If you're keen to add another skill to your design portfolio, editorial design could be a great place to start. Editorial design can be a daunting task for someone who isn’t used to formatting large amounts of text. The skills you'll need are different to those of other types of graphic design – organisation and planning are key. Get Adobe Creative Cloud In this article, I'll share some tips to make sure your life doesn’t suck while designing editorial layouts in InDesign CC. If you want to take things further, check out our guide to brochure design and our article on how to design a book cover. 01. Get organised first InDesign is set up specifically for editorial design First things first: you need to have all the content organised and finalised before starting to work on the design of your book. Working with content that is still developing will only lead to an inconsistent product and plenty of headaches along the way. Keep chapters separate and use InDesign’s book feature to link them all together. Never, ever, try to work with one long InDesign document for multiple chapters in a book. It will make your life a living hell. 02. Set up master pages Set up your Master pages before doing anything else. Your Master pages will include any design elements that will carry through the whole layout, such as folios and automatic page numbering. Use separate Master pages for different editorial layouts within your document. For example, if you have a sidebar column, set up a master for that type of layout. If you have a layout for the beginning of a chapter, set up a master for that. If you have an Appendix with no formatting, set up a blank master for that... you can see what I’m getting at. You can use as many Master layouts as you need. This will be a huge time saver in the end. 03. Establish a visual hierarchy Make sure you establish a visual hierarchy, and stick with it. No matter the editorial content, a hierarchy is key. As well as being more aesthetically pleasing, a hierarchy will enable readers to skim the page and find the content they’re looking for. A basic outline for text hierarchy might look something like this: Main headline, subhead 1, subhead 2, pull quotes; body content, captions, folios. It is very important to make sure the design of each level of the hierarchy is consistent throughout the document, which is where Styles come in. Styles are your best friend; use as many Paragraph and Character Styles as you can. The more efficient you are with these, the easier it is to make sure everything is consistent. 04. Create a balanced layout Use images to offset text so headlines don't line up Think about the balance of imagery and text in your layout. It can be a good idea to use images to break bigger chunks of text into digestible blocks to make them easier to read and absorb. Visuals will also make the page more interesting to look at. Ideally, you want to make sure headlines don’t crash into each other. For example, in a 2-column layout, you would not want to have both columns starting on the same line (above left). Add images to offset the columns (above right), or use the Span Columns function to create a headline that runs across both columns of text. 05. Don't forget about screens It's not unusual for print articles to be made available to view as PDFs online, so you may need to consider this in your design too. If designing an editorial piece for print, make sure it will be readable when viewed on a screen. PDFs will often have live hyperlinks, so check these all work. Also consider using links within your table of contents, so readers can quickly jump to the chapter or section they want. 06. Choose fonts carefully This infographic compares serif and sans-serif fonts (click to see the full image) Your decision on which typefaces to use should be based on where most readers will be viewing the editorial. Many people argue that serif fonts are best for large blocks of text in print, while sans-serif fonts work better for large blocks of text on screen. So if it's going to be viewed by most people as a PDF on a screen, you might want to opt for a sans-serif. If you want to learn more about the reasoning behind this theory, there are great articles here and here. To find a great font from either category, check out our best free fonts for designers post. Read more: Create special print finishes in InDesign How to prepare a file for print How to colour-match your print projects View the full article

Last year, Adobe launched Creative Coffee Breaks – a series of mini-tutorials each teaching you a new skill or technique in the time it takes to boil a kettle. This year, this popular series will help you make the most of Adobe Stock – a library of millions of top-quality resources, which Creative Cloud members can access directly from inside their favourite apps. Download a free Adobe Creative Cloud trial January is the ideal time to refocus, learn something new and add some skills to your creative toolbox, and Adobe has released four video tutorials to help you do just that. This series covers all of the flagship Creative Cloud programmes, with a special focus on how they work seamlessly with Adobe Stock. Adobe Stock provides Creative Cloud members with access to over 90 million high-quality images, graphics, videos, templates, and 3D assets, and is built right into your favourite Adobe apps. The latest Creative Coffee Breaks series aims to show you exactly what the fuss is about, and what sets Adobe Stock apart from other image libraries. Adobe has asked some of the coolest UK designers and photographers around to show you how they use Stock in their workflows. You'll learn how to apply lettering to a stock template in Photoshop CC with hand-lettering artist Ian Barnard, and how to source and licence a Light Leak directly in Adobe Stock through Premiere Pro CC with photographer Dave East. And that's just the first two videos – check out the playlist for the full set. Each tutorial lasts under two minutes, which means you can easily grab a cup of coffee, take a mini break from work, and learn a new trick. If you're not yet a Creative Cloud member, but you fancy having a go at some of the tutorials, you can download a free trial of any of the apps in the suite – and with the 30-day Adobe Stock trial, you'll get 10 free images. What are you waiting for? View the full article

Adobe has set the bar high for photo editing and so much more with Photoshop. You can take your work to the next level by learning to use this incredible tool through the expert-led training of the Complete Photoshop Mastery Bundle. You can get this collection of courses on sale now for a special price of just $19 (approx. £14). Photoshop is a powerful program, but its features can appear overwhelming when you're first learning it. This bundle will take away your concerns by teaching you the ins and outs of the app so that you can master every aspect of it. You'll get access to eight courses packed with 214 lessons, each with actionable information that will teach you how to master lighting effects, create cinematic gradients, colour black and white photos and much more. The courses in the Adobe Photoshop and Editing Mastery Bundle are valued at $1,210 altogether. You can get the bundle on sale right now for just $19 (approx. £14). That's an amazing amount of savings on a course that every photographer will love, so grab this deal while you can. 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 5 best laptops for photo editing 5 free tools for editing photos online The 33 best photo apps View the full article