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Infographics are typically bright, colourful and flat, using 2D vector drawings and concise text bubbles to explain a topic in simple terms. They're easy to read and eminently shareable. But that doesn’t mean you have to follow the crowd and do exactly the same with every infographic you create. In this post, we look at five infographics that all incorporate 3D elements, in very different ways, and learn how they were created. 01. How a car engine works Click on the image to see the full infographic This brilliant infographic explores the inner workings of a car engine in detail, making great use of 3D line drawings, colour and animation to make things clearer. It’s the work of designer Jacob O'Neal, the brains behind Animagraffs. “Animagraffs are designed to be popular content,” he explains. “When companies buy content, they have less opinion on how it's designed as long as it attracts viewers. So often, clients have a general area of interest (like cars, tech, nature, etc) and we'll propose topics we think might be popular online. Then we handle the rest, from writing to final visual design.” It’s not easy work, he stresses. “Animagraffs projects are hard work from start to finish, not only due to tech involved, but just researching things properly and getting visuals right. Every step of these projects takes intense effort.” For this infographic, O'Neal used Blender to create the models and set up the 3D scene, then exported everything using Blend4Web to allow it to be able to display within web browsers. That last stage can get pretty involved, he notes. “Browsers use WebGL to display 3D content, and it's still pretty new technology. Our projects generally work across devices and platforms, and optimising projects for various scenarios has honestly been very difficult work. "But it’s all worth it when I can pull out my phone and show people the works of art we make – rotating objects right on the phone.” 02. The flow of international trade Click on the image to see the full infographic This animated 3D infographic uses figures from the UN’s Comtrade database on the multi-trillion global market for imported goods. Its interactive moving map shows where those goods come from and where they go, with each dot representing $1 billion in value. Types of trade, such as food, minerals and plastics, are colour-coded so it’s clear what type of goods are going where. And best of all, you can spin the globe and select a country to see the flow of goods in and out of that country. It was built by Max Galka, who teaches data wrangling/data visualisation at the University of Pennsylvania, using his own dynamic maps software, Blueshift. You can watch him creating it in this video. 03. SWANH Click on the image to see the full infographic From the serious to the slightly silly... this infographic tells the entire story of the first Star Wars movie and is 123 metres (403.5ft) long. Yes, you read that right: the size of this thing is simply enormous. Once you’ve had a scroll through it, you won’t be surprised to hear that it took Swiss illustrator Martin Panchaud a year and a half to produce in Illustrator CC, using 157 images across 22 separate files. “I never thought it would take so long,” he admits now. “To be honest, I think I was only able to do this extensive work because I managed to mislead myself. Initially, I made an estimate at 8m, then at 20 and then at 60, and then I just stopped counting.” Nor was it a trouble-free process. “I quickly realised that my Illustrator files had too many elements and crashed my poor iMac. So I had to create new files in order to continue working.” Perhaps surprisingly, Panchaud didn’t create the entire infographic in the same order as the movie. “I began by taking some key scenes of the movie, and imagined what they would be like, with this graphic language,” he explains. “What interests me the most is the narration, how to illustrate actions and dialogues in infographics. “I then watched the first part of the movie and made a storyboard. Then, I dived into the mechanics of making the movie. The decor, the characters, the costumes... Luckily, this movie is very well documented and it wasn’t too difficult to find what I was looking for. My red thread was the script of 1974 (since there were several versions of the film, I preferred taking the first one).” He’s regularly asked whether he’ll do another infographic based on The Empire Strikes Back. “The idea is there,” he responds. “But for the moment, I'm working on my graphic novel with the same narrative style. It will be released at the end of 2018 and it will have about 250 pages.” In the meantime, SWANH will be exhibited in 4K at Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, Greece, as part of the Science Fiction: A Journey into the Unknown exhibition from 9 October to 14 January. 04. Brexit VR infographic Click on the image to see the full infographic Infographics are now entering the world of virtual reality, and here’s a great example. In the run up to the UK referendum on leaving the EU, Google Labs created this 360-degree data visualisation, which illustrates the top questions being asked in each country on search. Designed for use with the Google Cardboard VR viewer, it was created in collaboration with Wes Grubbs and the team at Pitch Interactive (who built the original infographic) and coder Michael Chang (who turned it into an immersive VR experience). You can learn more about how the infographic was created, and what lessons the team learned from it, in this blog post. 05. Income inequality in LA and Chicago Click on the image to see a larger version When does an infographic become a work of art? This astonishing creation by Herwig Scherabon somehow manages to tick both boxes. It’s basically a visualisation of income inequality in Los Angeles and Chicago, using the heights of buildings in different areas to represent how poor or wealthy they are. The biggest challenge was to create a two dimensional base map that would retain the quality and detail of the city’s street grid. “Most of my time went into this phase of the design,” says Scherabon, “And it took a while to learn to control the relationship between two dimensional map and three dimensional outcome.” The 2D map was colour coded and later translated into height values. Scherabon then used Cinema 4D for generating and rendering the 3D image: “It really enabled me to design the look and feel of the image exactly the way it had to be,” he says. Another big challenge was to balance the aesthetic appeal of this visualisation with the accuracy of the data. “Ultimately, what these visualisations are about is the more immersive aspect of it and experiencing them as actual large scale prints (150 x 75cm),” he explains. “Accuracy is important and a top priority for me. However, my focus was definitely on the visual and experiential aspect of the divide.” View the full article

Apple released a number of patches, including a security update for iOS 11, which is available today. View the full article

Creating and compositing 3D explosions is usually a task for two different artists or studio departments, but here we'll blur that line by using the V-Ray for Nuke plugin. Instead of working with rendered explosions from a VFX application, we’ll instead show you how to use .vbd files exported from Houdini. 30 inspiring examples of 3D artThe advantage of this workflow is it allows compositors to work with the explosion’s volumetric data with tools to change the look and orientation of the asset, without having to send back to the VFX artist or department for changes. Before you start, you'll need to download the relevant files from the 3D World Vault. Download the files you need from the 3D World Vault In the Vault, you'll find that Steven Knipping of Applied Houdini has provided 72 .vdbs. Each .vdb contains (density) containing smoke, (velocity), (heat) where the fire is, and (temperature) how hot it is. The grids are 300 voxels max in the Y direction to bring down the voxel count and file size, while still providing decent resolution. The provided .hipnc file shows a preview of the .vdb colouring in Houdini and the .mov file is a quick and dirty Quicktime movie preview of a playblast of the .hipnc. Knipping’s ‘Volume V - Combustion Simulation’ video tutorial on his website covers how to make this. Now, follow these 12 steps to create realistic explosions in V-Ray for Nuke. 01. Import the explosion Import your explosion from the Vault before you get started Add a VRayVolumeGrid Node in the Node Graph. In Properties, Input, click the folder icon next to Input Cache File and ensure Sequences is enabled to import all 72 frames. Go to the Stadium folder and select explosion.appliedhoudini.1.vdb, then click Open. With VRayVolumeGrid1 selected, press [1] to view it. Scrub through the Timeline to see the imported .vdb explosion. 02. Set up V-Ray network Once you've imported your explosion, you can set up your network in V-Ray Add a TransformGeo Node to VRayVolumeGrid1’s output. This is useful if you want to rotate or reposition the volume, set rotate y to 180. Add a VrayRenderer Node, pipe its obj/scn input to TransformGeo1. Add a VrayCamera Node, in its Properties, Axis tab, set translate z to 100 then pipe it to VrayRenderer1 cam input. Add a Constant Node and pipe it to VrayRenderer1 bg input. In Constant1’s Properties, set color to 0.5. Then select VRayRender1 and view it. 03. Set rendering properties There's no smoke without fire, so your explosion will need both With the cursor over the Viewer Pane, press [Tab] to switch from 3D view to 2D. Scrub through the Timeline to see the explosion smoke plume. In VRayVolumeGrid1’s Properties, switch to the Rendering tab. The options in this tab control how the VRayVolumeGrid effect is rendered. Set Render preset to Fire/Smoke.vdb from Houdini. This will introduce fire. In Smoke, set Simple smoke factor to 0.6 to adjust the Smoke Opacity. 04. Set up the fire You can choose how stylised you want your fire to be in the Fire tab Go to the Fire tab, which controls the emissive colour (fire) of the volumetric shader and the light emitted by VRayVolumeGrid. The Physically based parameter can produce either an artistic look (value 0) or realistic physically based intensity (value 1). A higher value means strong brightness for the hot parts of the fire. Set Physically based to 0.8. Set fire multiplier to 1. 05. Fine-tune the fire Use reference to get the hues of the fire correct Fire Color and Opacity/Intensity in the Fire tab has a gradient for controlling colour and a curve for setting intensity or opacity. Click Expand (bottom right) to get a larger window. From the left, leave slider 1 as is. Select slider 2 and put it at 10. Right-click the slider>Change Selection Color and choose an Orange shade. Put slider 3 at 15, with its Hue at 39. Put slider 4 at 25. Hit Play. 06. Render the explosion Render your explosion to see how it's looking To make the Nuke network lighter, render the explosion as a .tiff sequence. Pipe a Write Node to VRayRenderer1. In its Parameters, set channels to rgba. Click the folder next to the file and choose a folder to render to. Append the file path with Explosion.###.tiff (filename/frame padding/file format) and click Save. Set compression to none and click render. In the pop-up Render dialog, change the Frame range to 1-72, then click OK. 07. Lighten the network Clean the Nuke Node Graph by selecting File>Clear Select File>Clear to clean the Nuke Node Graph. Add a Read Node, go to the Stadium folder and select backplate Stadium.jpg, then Open. With the backplate selected, press 1 to create a Viewer and view it. Select Edit>Project Settings and change full size format to 6000 x 4000 to match the backplate resolution. Set frame range to 1 and 72. Add another Read Node and use it to bring in the rendered explosion .tiff image sequence. 08. Comp the explosion Compositing your explosion is an important step Add a Premult Node and pipe to the explosion Read Node to multiply the explosion sequence’s RGB channels by its Alpha. Then Add a Merge Node and pipe its A input to Premult1 and its B input to the backplate Read Node. Select frame 41, view Merge1 and you’ll see the explosion is composited over the backplate. Add a Transform Node and a Crop Node to the network as shown in image 08. With Crop1 selected, press 1 to view. 09. Position the explosion Decide where you want your explosion to take place in your scene In the Crop1 parameters, set r to 1920 and t to 1080, and enable reformat. Open the Transform1 Node’s Properties and either reposition the backplate manually with the Transform Handle or set translate x to -1110; translate y to -560; scale to 0.6; center x to 1500; center y to 1000. Add a Transform after Premult1 and view Merge1. Reposition manually with the Transform2 Handle or set translate x to 315; translate y to -568; center x to 1044; center y to 928. 10. Roto the roof Add a roof to your scene to give the explosion context With Transform2 selected, add a Merge Node. This will automatically pipe using the A input. Open Merge2’s parameters and set operation to out. Deselect Merge2, add a Roto Node. View Crop1 and select the Roto’s Bezier Tool. Click to place points along the ridge of the roof and at the bottom of the backplate to form the shape pictured. Pipe Roto to Merge2’s B input, View Merge1. 11. Match colour Experiment with both the multiply and gamma nodes in the Grade Node Pipe a Grade Node between the explosion Read Node and the Premult1 Node. We will use this to adjust the explosion to better integrate the blackest and whitest points with the backplate. Click the colour swatch alongside lift, hold [Ctrl] and pick the darkest pixel on the black plate. Repeat for Gain but pick the brightest pixel. Using the gamma slider in the Viewer helps identify the darkest and lightest pixels. For fine-tuning, experiment with both the multiply and gamma values in the Grade Node. 12. Output the render Your explosive scene is now ready to make a bang Usually the blackpoint and whitepoint don’t need to be adjusted. You can add a Saturation Node after Merge1 and set saturation to 0, then fine-tune these values before deleting the Saturation Node. Add a Clamp node after Merge1 to constrain RGBA between 0 and 1. Select the Crop1 and press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[X] to extract from the network and pipe it after the Clamp. Pipe a Write node to the Crop1 and refer back to Step 06 for the process of rendering out the sequence as a .tiff sequence. Your explosion should now be ready. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy it here. Related articles: V-Ray for Nuke: 12 advanced techniques How to simulate explosions in Maya Create a meteor shower in 3ds Max View the full article

The best iPad apps for creating digital art selected for this list prove that Apple's tablet has moved beyond just being for media consumption and is fast becoming ripe for content creation. The iPad Pro with iOS 11, teamed with an Apple Pencil, are now powerful creative tools to rival a desktop with design software. If you're an illustrator, artist or graphic designer, you can now work effectively on the move – sketching, painting, prototyping, and annotating photos. Try one of these amazing apps for creating art on the iPad... Get Adobe Creative Cloud01. Zen Brush 2 $2.99/£2.99 The sequel to the popular Zen Brush takes what its predecessor does best - emulating the feel of painting with traditional Japanese calligraphy brushes - and builds upon it, with a new drawing engine that's smoother and more fluent than before, making it even easier to lose yourself in the process of creating beautiful Zen art. As well as the new drawing engine, Zen Brush 2 has a gallery feature that enables you to save your work in progress, as well as an ink dispersion effect to give your drawings an added feeling of depth. There's support for pressure-sensitive styluses (not to mention Apple Pencil if you have an iPad Pro) and best of all you're no longer restricted to black ink – now you can use red ink too. 02. Pixelmator Pixelmator's the next best thing to a full Photoshop for iPad$4.99/£4.99 If you need a full-fat iPad alternative to Photoshop, Pixelmator is about as good as it gets. Whether you simply want to enhance or touch up some photography, or go the whole hog and paint detailed, layered images from scratch, it has you covered with a heavyweight set of tools, brushes and effects. How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorialsIt'll even open layered Photoshop images, so you can start work on your desktop and then carry on with it while you're on the move. And if you have an iPad Pro you'll find full Apple Pencil compatibility, featuring palm rejection, pressure, tilt, and acceleration sensitivity. 03. Assembly Baffled by Béziers? Assembly makes it easy to create vector artFree Assembly is a great way to create detailed vector graphics, icons, logos, scenes and characters without all that fiddly mucking about with vectors and Bézier curves. Rather than painstakingly draw everything out yourself, you can choose from an enormous selection of ready-made shapes and stick them together to create your vector masterpiece. You can layer, stack and position shapes however you want, and even create your own building blocks by cutting out, combining and intersecting existing shapes. If you need to prototype in a hurry, it's an ideal tool for getting professional results fast. 04. Photoshop Sketch Photoshop Sketch ditches the heavyweight features and just lets you, yeah, sketchFree Rather than try to recreate the full Photoshop experience on iPad, Adobe has instead focused on the platform's strengths to provide a powerful tool for sketching and painting. Photoshop Sketch features tools including a graphite pencil, ink pen and watercolour brushes, with adjustable size, colour, opacity and blending settings. You can layer and rearrange your images, use perspective and graph grids to help align your creations, and there's support for pretty much any stylus you care to think of. And you can export your work to Illustrator or Photoshop CC; naturally you'll need a Creative Cloud account, but if you're planning on using Photoshop Sketch as a stand-alone app then you'll only need the basic free version. 05. Graphic Graphic is packed with tools to take your digital art to the next level$8.99/£8.99 Promising a desktop-class standard of editing, Graphic has been touted as the iOS answer to Adobe Illustrator. As well as containing all of the drawing tools you need to create amazing art and detailed technical drawings, Graphic now comes with variable-width brush strokes and pressure-sensitive drawing support for the Apple Pencil. Developed by Indeedo, this easy to use iPad app is compatible with both the Mac and iPhone versions by using iCloud and Dropbox, letting you save your masterpieces on the go for straightforward editing across devices later down the line. 06. Forge Brainstorming app Forge comes with raw art tools$3.99/£3.99 Forge might not be the most comprehensive digital art app, but its selection of essential tools make it perfect for quickly getting your ideas down on the screen. Best suited to creating concept art, Forge lets you annotate ideas, share images and generally make the iteration process easier. Released by Co Interactive, Forge includes instinctive layering functions that allow you to add, re-order, merge and adjust the opacity with ease. Simply swipe through your layers thanks to Forge's Fluid Paper to get to your best creations. 07. Tayasui Sketches Tayasui Sketches joins the list of very capable drawing and painting iPad apps on offerFree Tayasui Sketches is one of the most delightfully simple drawing and painting iPad apps that we've found. It features eight brushes along the left-hand side, ranging from pencil and charcoal to felt pen and watercolour brush, with a further two available in the pro version. Each one exhibits its respective characteristics brilliantly, meaning it's simple to just pick a brush and start sketching. Although limited in terms of editing options, they're a delight to use, and in the pro version you're at least able to increase the size and shape as well as edit the blend mode. 08. Asketch $4.99/£4.99 Asketch is a simple black and white procedural sketching program, created by Andrew Kern. Bringing the experience of charcoal drawing to your iPad, this app is brilliant for both beginners and advanced artists. An easy-to-use tool, with ASKetch you can create everything from figure drawings and cartoons to abstract masterpieces. 09. Inspire Pro Choose from 60 high-quality brushes with Inspire Pro$7.99/£7.99 Paint, draw and sketch on your iPad with Inspire Pro. Suitable for artists of all skill levels, this app includes 60 high-quality brushes to choose from, divided into six sets: oil paint, airbrushes, basic shapes, graphite pencils, wax crayons and markers. And these can all be used as a wet or dry brush or eraser. Developed by KiwiPixel, the team says its creation delivers "an amazing painting, drawing and sketching experience to your iPad." "While the strokes of a wet oil paint brush look beautiful on their own," it says "the breathtaking blending effects of a dry brush will absolutely stun you." 10. Paper by Fiftythree Free If you're looking for something to make quick sketches with, with the minimum of fuss, then Paper by Fiftythree is well worth checking out. Its uncluttered interface - no menu bars or buttons here - strips back the sketching experience to the bare essentials and turns your iPad into a selection of virtual journals, with pages to thumb through for easy viewing. Designed exclusively for landscape mode, this iPad art app is no good for creating polished pieces, but to get down quick sketch concepts when creating art on the iPad it's definitely worth a look. 11. Penultimate Penultimate might sound like a rubbish biro superhero, but it's in fact a spiffy iPad note-taking appFree While lacking the natural media input of Paper, Penultimate is nonetheless an excellent note-taking and sketching app. The feel of the tools is surprisingly tactile, and you can add new paper types (for gaming, music notation, and so on) via IAP or install your own custom designs. 12. Art Set This cool app is like having a virtual art set inside your iPad$1.99/£1.99 This cool app is like having a virtual art set inside your iPad. Having made it to number one paid iPad app in over 30 countries since its release, Art Set has all the tools an artist could possibly want, including chalks, charcoal, oil pastels, wax crayons, graphite pencils, coloured pencils and marker pens. The multitouch pinch and zoom functionality enables you to add fine detail with ease. You can also choose from different paper colours and textures, or import your own photos. 13. Inkist This digital art app for the iPad is currently free to downloadFree Inkist benefits from a simple but stylish interface that's been designed to be highly responsive and artist-friendly. In the app, which is based on its Mac cousin, you build up layers of colour and flatten them down on the background rather than relying on multiple layers. Although it might not be to everyone's taste, for many traditional artists, this will be of real benefit. Inkist has a range of simple, customisable brushes. Support for pressure-sensitive styluses is available natively (accessible through the ever- present tool palette) so you do have some more flexibility with your strokes, although with a standard stylus we found simple, quick taps were not always tremendously effective. 14. Adobe Illustrator Draw Express yourself in vector format wherever you go with Adobe Illustrator DrawFree Adobe Illustrator Draw is a digital sketchbook that enables you to express yourself in vector format wherever you go. The app has a simple UI, designed for quickly sketching out ideas and concepts. It offers a range of features, including simple vector-based drawing tools with separate drawing and photo layers as well as being able to sync to Adobe's Creative Cloud. With this feature, you can also download Adobe Illustrator compatible files and work with them. The app enables you to draw perfectly straight lines and geometric shapes, rename layers, and use shapes from Adobe Capture CC. An enhanced perspective grid also lets you map shapes to a perspective plane. 15. SketchBook Artists of any skill level can create digital art with SketchBookFree SketchBook by Autodesk is one of the most popular iPad art apps with digital artists. As you'd expect from Autodesk, SketchBook has all the swagger of a pro-grade painting program, but with an experience designed for those looking to create art on the iPad. There's a wide range of digital pencils, pens, markers, and airbrushes to choose from, all accessed via a simple but intuitive UI that lets you pin toolbars to the screen for easy access. It's flexible and fast, too, enabling you to work with layers, transparency options, annotations and advanced blend modes. With Dropbox integration plus the ability to import and export Photoshop-friendly files, it's an ideal iPad art app for working on the move. With a good stylus, a good digital artist can create a variety of art on the iPad, from a quick sketch to a more involved and detailed digital painting. 16. Procreate $9.99/£9.99 Procreate incorporates an unobtrusive UI with easy access sliders, which enable you to quickly adjust the size of your brush/opacity as you work. It saves time and lets you concentrate on what you're painting rather than getting distracted by pop-up menus. Like many of the other iPad art apps here, there's an easy-to-use colour picker (with customisable swatches), layer options, a fast and responsive zoom, good smudging/blending options and great undo functionality. Procreate has over 120 brushes available by default, with 12 pre-set brushes featuring advanced 'paint loading' and 'wetness' settings for a more realistic look. Plus there's a built-in a brush editor for creating custom brushes, which enable you to define brush shape and grain. Procreate is a powerful app. In the right hands, it will let you create some truly stunning digital art on the iPad. See our Procreate 4 review 17. ArtRage $4.99/£4.99 Like the PC and Mac versions, the ArtRage app for iPad art is overflowing with options. There's a variety of canvas presets and paper options, plus a wide array of brushes, pencils, crayons, rollers, and pastels. In its quest for realistic art on the iPad, you can paint directly onto the screen or apply a glob of paint with one tool and smear it around with another. ArtRage also features a dedicated watercolour brush option, which can produce some striking effects. Once you've familiarised yourself with the interface, it's easy to change brush sizes, bring up the colour picker, work with layers and blend/smudge different elements together. Unfortunately, there's some noticeable lag when moving and scaling your artwork. This takes the shine off what is an incredibly flexible painting program for creating iPad art. 18. ArtStudio $4.99/£4.99 While its interface isn't as intuitive as some of the other iPad art apps here, ArtStudio for iPad rewards patient exploration of its features. And it's jam-packed with them. There are over 20 different brushes, various different canvas sizes and options that include layers, layer masks, filters and effects. ArtStudio also includes step-by-step drawing lessons/tutorials plus the handy ability to export your artwork to Photoshop for further fiddling. 19. Auryn Ink $2.99/£2.99 Auryn Ink is a dedicated iPad art app for watercolour painting, and it has a limited set of options when compared to many of the meatier apps here. That said, it has most of the basics covered for watery art on the iPad. You can pick different tip shapes for the brushes and specify different bristle effects. You can also adjust the texture of the canvas and the amount of water on your brush. The end result of using this iPad art app is a realistic watercolour, with paint that fades as you paint with it, mimicking the effect of the paper soaking up the ink. 20. Brushes Redux Free Legendary artist David Hockney has been spotted using the Brushes app when creating art on the iPad. It's an oldie, but a goodie, designed specifically for Apple's tablet and now updated with the 'Redux' suffix. Using a basic toolbar at the bottom of the screen, you can bring up a colour wheel/picker, work with layers and switch between various brushes. Best of all, perhaps, Brushes is fast and responsive to the touch so it's easy to work quickly. A useful feature of Brushes is the ability to record each brush stroke, enabling you to play back exactly how you created each piece of iPad art via the Brushes viewer. 21. Inspire Pro At first glance, it's difficult to see what Inspire Pro offers that its rivals don't. But play around with it and you'll soon discover that this is one of the more intuitive iPad art apps available. Before you know it, adjusting the paint load and customising brushes (by rotating the bristle pattern) becomes second nature. What we like most is the dynamic colour picker. Simply press and hold a colour you've already used and Inspire Pro will switch the current colour to the new selection. It's UI design elements like this that make for a fluid and fast experience. 22. Sketch Club Create cool digital art with Sketch Club's great toolset$2.99/£2.99 Sketch Club has a great set of tools for creating beautiful digital art. The app has a unique set of flexible digital brushes (44 in total, but more can be made), pens, vector tools, old school pixel art, and fun procedural tools. Sketch Club has an uncluttered user interface, with lots of settings to customise the app to your own unique preferences. A particularly great feature of this app is the integrated online community. Here you can upload your sketches to let others rate and comment on your work, as well as enter daily challenges and fun weekly competitions. Related articles: 10 sketching tips 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil View the full article

The risks surrounding the latest Apache bug, called Optionsbleed, are limited given it can only be attacked under certain conditions. Apache, and many Linux distributions, have patched the flaw. View the full article

On 6 April 2017, Bohemian Coding released an update to its popular graphic design tool, Sketch. Designers around the world hailed Sketch version 43 as a game-changer for the design tool industry. But the launch passed without the massive fanfare you'd expect for something so big, leaving most designers wondering what had actually changed and why it was so significant. So let's explore the changes that were introduced to see if Sketch 43 really is the game-changer it claims to be. 01. Revised file format Sketch was built with an open-sourced API that allowed a community to build plugins and tools to make it even better (as our 23 top Sketch plugins post shows) – one of the things that set it apart from Photoshop. Now at the top of the release documentation for Sketch 43 are three words: 'Revised File Format'. But what does this mean, and why is this such an important change? This revised file format is the new way that Sketch files are saved, with a '.sketch' extension at the end of the file name. The new open format uses JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting. JSON is a commonly used format for transferring and storing data. It's easy for humans to read and write and for machines to create and use. So what? Isn't this just the way the file is saved? Yes and no. What this actually means is that anybody can create and modify Sketch files, whether they have Sketch or not. You can even open and create design work in a text editor. In fact, machines will be able to create and update files automatically. 02. Design is code and code is design So Sketch now opens and saves HTML and CSS, right? That would be cool, but unfortunately it can't. It's actually doing something much better. The file itself is like a repository of components much like the repositories used by developers. The components explain the design in code using the JSON format, creating new ways to create and edit the design. This means we will be able to share, manage and co-create design projects just like web developers do using services like GitHub. The design process will be integrated directly into the development process. This is a huge game-changer for design tools. Other tools have been focusing on owning the whole process, from early idea to prototyping, testing and managing the hand-over to developers. But Sketch is tackling this differently. By revealing the code behind Sketch, it has made it easy to integrate with other services and tools. It has opened up the relationship between designer and developer enabling them to choose the process and tools that work for them. 03. Integrated design process This is all really good news for Bohemian Coding and Sketch. But what for designers? How will this new human-readable file format change the way you design? Sketch already has a thriving community of designers and developers expanding its capability through plugins. The new file format allows more powerful integrations for these plugins. Whatever we need Sketch to do is possible thanks to this ever-growing community. Services like InVision and Zeplin that help with the hand-over from designer to developer are closely integrated with Sketch. Developers can access assets directly from within those tools. They can even make a change that updates instantly in the Sketch file. The link between code and design is closer than ever. Stepping back to today, this is already happening. The Airbnb design team has created an app for translating React (the open-source JavaScript code library) directly to a Sketch file. This enables its design team to include logic and data in its designs, bridging the gap between designer and developer and vision and reality. 04. Collaboration and version control Looking a little further to the future, designers will start to adopt design repositories. Similar to how developers use repositories like GitHub, designers will use Sketch to manage and version-control their design work. By creating branches of the master and then merging them together, many designers will be able to collaborate on the same project at the same time. If one designer updates a master style, it will be inherited into the work of all the other designers. Peer reviews will be introduced to ensure our designs hit a new higher standard. The code is always the source of truth in a product – as that's what the customer sees. When a developer makes a change they will also update the master files through the code. Our UI kits, style guides and master designs will always reflect the final code the customer sees. 05. Automation and continuous design Fast-forward even further into the future, and as the new file format can be created and updated automatically, we don't always need a developer to translate our designs into the product. Designers move closer to the customer by removing the need for the developer. Continuous Design will become the norm. Just like developers with Continuous Delivery, our designs will follow an automated process to move from idea through to the end product. When a designer updates a colour, that new colour will be seen by the customer just a few seconds later. Artificial Intelligence removes the need for a designer in some cases. A set of rules and styles are created then all the designs are automatically created and implemented into the product. This can even be created in real-time as a product is used, creating a really personal experience. 06. Sketch is just getting started It's still early days, and the new open file format needs a lot of documentation and stability to achieve all the possibilities mentioned here. It is a potential game-changer for Sketch, it just needs designers and developers to adopt it, use it and hack it to develop it further. Then, we will see a big shift in the way designers work and how they interact with developers. This could be the beginning of the Continuous Design era. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here. Read more: 23 top Sketch plugins How to get started with Sketch for app design How to add data to your Sketch designs View the full article

You're reading UX at Scale 2017: Free Online Conference with 20K+ Registrants, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Scaling design is one of the biggest challenges that UX and product teams face today. That’s because design just doesn’t scale like engineering. As teams, products, and processes grow, things eventually break. Luckily, plenty of companies have developed their own best practices over the years. Now they’re gathering in one place for four days to […] View the full article

Movie posters have come a long way over the years, with classic movie poster designs providing some of the most recognisable imagery of our popular culture. Think ET against the moon, Mrs. Robinson’s leg, Audrey Hepburn’s cigarette-slim black dress, Jaws spearing up through the water, an Alien egg glowing MacGuffin green. The top 25 movie posters of all timeToday, movie poster designs are more computer-enabled. The modern movie poster’s imagery is frequently the focus rather than the text, images are photographic more often than illustrated, and digital tools mean designers’ hands are untied from the restrictions of just the drawing board. But some designers are looking back to styles popularised by classic film poster designs, and drawing from masters such as Saul Bass and Drew Struzan. Some are going even further back to the earliest movie poster looks, reinvigorating throwback styles by adding fresh elements. Here are four classic design trends we’ve noticed are making a cool comeback in big screen posters. 01. Glossy composites Drew Struzan's composite style dominated 80s movie posters Drew Struzan's glossy composite style has returned. Even if you don't recognise the name, you'll have seen his work: Struzan was a hugely popular choice for film artwork in the 1980s. He designed over 150 movie posters, including all of the films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. Struzan achieved his signature look by using a heavily gessoed illustration board, layering it over with airbrushed acrylic paint, touching up the details with coloured pencils on high- and low-lights, and then re-layering with the airbrush. (He used the gesso base layer to accommodate changes to the poster requested by the studio or client.) It's easy to see why these glossy character composites have maintained their popularity. On its surface, it's a relatively easy strategy for movie poster designs: just make sure you have direct lines emanating from a centre point, and sock in as many important characters as you can around them. Not much engagement with theme is needed when you can just print the well-known face of Harrison Ford front-and-centre. Superhero movie poster designers seem to have developed a lazy reliance on this style This might be why we’re seeing this mode used again lately, especially in star-studded movies whose main selling point is explosions plus cast list. Struzan's style seems to appear in every superhero movie, and is also still used within the Star Wars franchise. Although when done without care, the composite look can appear lazy and confusing, there are those reviving it with grace. In other star-studded films, we’re seeing the character composite come back strong. Other movie poster designers have taken a more novel spin on the style The poster for Inherent Vice mirrors the gessoed gauzy nature of Struzan
, but adds a rainbow gradient as a nod to the psychedelic world that the film's characters inhabit. Suicide Squad also features a fun spin on the genre: the poster takes the character-composite-meets-explosion theme, and camps it up (if only the movie had been as inventive). The poster for recent hit Baby Driver combines cast illustrations with a composite layout to create a fresh look. Finally, Thor: Ragnarok showed the other superheroes how posters should be done with its acid-toned, symmetrical design. 02. 80s pop neon Poppy colours and neon type were popular in the 80sThe wheel of design keeps on turning, and bringing back styles that we thought were long buried. Lately, the over-the-top colours and bright neon lights of the 80s are making a resurgence. It seem a lot of filmmakers must have been trendy preteens 30 years ago. Director Nicolas Winding Refn's movie style is distinctively 80sThe movies of writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn are at the forefront of this trend, with movie posters that whole-heartedly embrace the 80s aesthetic. His brand is insistently rooted in the style. He’s not the only one. Many recent movie poster designs have called back to the heyday of legwarmers and neon. Recent movies and shows have embraced the 80s aesthetic2016 techno-thriller Nerve was a blinding, flashing cacophony of neon, and the artwork for Stranger Things (not a movie, we know) is perhaps the ideal throwback, pitch perfect in its nostalgic tone, with just enough newness to bring the genre into the modern day. 03. Vertigo Saul Bass's iconic poster for VertigoSaul Bass is a massive name in movie graphic design. Known for his blocky colours and silhouetted figures, he was a master of communicating theme through stark imagery. One of his most iconic posters is for Hitchcock’s classic, Vertigo, wherein Jimmy Stewart begins to spin out of control, literally and figuratively. This useful visual mechanism has been reemerging in recent years to represent central figures losing themselves. The style is characterised by that central figure struggling, running or seeking, surrounded by spinning or obscuring lines and blockages. The Scorch Trials poster features a literal maze, while the poster for Allegiant is more abstractDesigners everywhere are taking Bass’s trippy motif and adapting it to fit new genres. The poster for Maze Runner sequel The Scorch Trials features a literal maze trapping the main character, while Allegiant shows off a graphic, monochrome take. The posters for Bridge of Spies and Saw VI shift the placement of the spiral, but to equally unsettling effectTom Hanks sits atop the spiral as his silhouette runs for its life
 in the poster for Bridge or Spies, and the poster for Saw VI places the film's characters around the edge of a whirlpool-like spiral. It’s a strong visual theme, and can be tweaked and adjusted to a film’s content with just a little creativity. No wonder we’re seeing designers pick the style back up and apply it with all sorts of fun twists and film-specific touches. 04. Big, blocky text Movie titles featured prominently in these classic poster designsIn classic movie posters, the name of the film typically took centre stage, often in the form of a blocky sans-serif title. But in more modern times we saw a shift in approach, where designers started putting greater focus on the imagery, playing down, obscuring or even hiding the film name altogether. In modern film posters, the focus tends to be on the imagery rather than the movie nameOne of the reasons for this might be that with the advent of digital, designers can trust that the title will probably be included as a caption or linked to on a web page. However, there's a new trend for harkening back to classic styles and putting the movie name front-and-centre again – more often than not in big, thick, sans-serif red text. Chunky red text has seen a resurgence in recent films The poster for Always Chasing love looks like it came directly form the 1940s, for example, with illustration surrounding the chunky title. Detroit freshens things up by running the blocky title vertically down the design, and the poster for 2017 comedy Wilson is wilfully retro. Coming back to big text-centric designs is interesting, since it’s more of a choice than a requirement, and designers are using these heavy, often red, slab texts very straightforwardly, as in the early movie announcement posters. Focusing on text is an easy trend to follow, and a go-to when you don’t want to give too much of the film's plot away, or engage with the theme beyond announcing its existence. Read more: Have we entered the era of bad graphic design? 7 key typographic trends in Marvel movie logos How iconic fantasy film posters were made View the full article

You're reading Design Websites with a Goal in Mind, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Designing an eye-catching website that looks good is great. However, it must do more than look good. Compare a business website to the first thirty seconds meeting someone in person. That’s when their initial impression of you is formed. Your website may get even less time unless, as an interface, it communicates function with these […] View the full article

Keeping focused on the work in front of you can be hard, especially if your mind has a tendency to start meandering off to all sorts of other thoughts. When you need to stay on task, you can trust Freeter Pro to keep you focused without stifling your creativity. Now you can get it on sale for just $9.99 (approx £7.50). Creatives – everyone from developers and coders to illustrators and graphic designers – have all sorts of incredible ideas floating around in their heads, but sometimes need help focusing on the tasks in front of them. Freeter Pro is the tool you need to keep you on task. This personal productivity app makes it easy to gather everything you need into a unified interface. Keep all those necessary files at your fingertips while also having access to all of the tools you need to get your work done. You can get Freeter Pro on sale right now for just $9.99 (approx £7.50). That's a 65% saving off the full retail price of $29 for a tool that will keep you focused when you need it most, so grab this deal today. 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. View the full article

In a parallel universe, this is how The New Yorker would have lookedRemember the 2016 presidential election? The hotly contested race to the White House between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton dominated the news last year thanks to straight talking soundbites, accusations of fake news, and a result that plenty of people are still getting used to. No matter whether or not you're happy with Donald Trump taking up office in the White House as the 45th President of the United States, chances are you've wondered what the world would look like if his Democrat opponent won instead. Thanks to this alternative cover for last November's issue of The New Yorker, you can get a glimpse into what could've been. The 20 best magazine covers of 2016Illustrated by Malika Favre, the cover, named The First, shows Clinton gazing out of the Oval Office window at a shining full moon. The reveal ties in with an interview between Hilary Clinton and The New Yorker editor David Remnick where she talks about her memoir and the stinging loss of the presidential race. Shared on The New Yorker Twitter page, the cover drew a mixed reaction from readers. Some welcomed the illustration as a fascinating insight into how the magazine would have approached Clinton's victory, while others were tired of the publication complaining about the result and asked it to move on. The Trump election victory covers that were published As it happened, Trump won the election and The New Yorker ended up putting out a powerful cover with a brick wall illustration by Bob Staake. Appropriately titled The Wall, the cover reflects how the magazine's team felt at the time. "When we first received the results of the election, we felt as though we had hit a brick wall, full force," explains The New Yorker's art editor, Françoise Mouly. The Wall is just one of many magazine covers dedicated to Trump's presidency. We've rounded up a choice selection of the best and most striking that you can browse by clicking left or right in the gallery below. Related articles: How to design the perfect book cover Wonder Woman cover drawn in one amazing take 9 scarily effective horror novel covers View the full article

The web is brimming with typography tutorials, but many are low quality and others are very out of date. So we’ve trawled the internet to uncover the diamonds in the rough, in the form of 50 top-quality typography tutorials, to bring your knowledge and skills up to speed. Get Creative CloudPerhaps you’re looking for a good introduction to the fundamentals of typography? Or perhaps you want to develop and push your type abilities further? Either way, you’re sure to find just what you’re looking for on this list, which includes typography lessons in the form of traditional text-and-image tutorials, animations and video, and even games. We’ll be adding to this list as time moves on, so make sure you bookmark this fantastic resource, and come back from time to time to see what’s new in the world of typography tutorials. We'll start by looking at tutorials to help you with mastering the fundamentals of typography – skip through to another page if you're after something more advanced. 01. Typography basics explained Not sure exactly what typography terms mean? This video gives you a short and snappy overview of the six most important terms, namely typography, body copy, display type, hierarchy, kerning and leading. Six further terms (tracking, widows and orphans, serif fonts, sans-serif fonts and script & cursive fonts) are explained in part two, which you can watch here. 02. Beginning graphic design: typography This quick cartoon video from Learn.org, complete with a jaunty elevator-music soundtrack, runs through the basics of typography including the different types of fonts and common typography terms. You’ll find the text version of tutorial on its website here. 03. Everything you need to learn typography basics This introduction to typography starts from the point of view of a marketing professional, who recognises its importance in strengthening a brand and highlighting the central message of a campaign. Author Brittany Leaning went on a typography course at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and here she explains the fundamentals of what she learned, including a detailed look at the anatomy of type. 04. Lecture 110: Introduction to typography This video provides an academically rigorous overview of typography, including both a definition of terms and a practical guide to how to place text and create character and paragraph styles within Adobe InDesign. It’s actually a straight recording of a university lecture (by Grant Adams at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California). So you’re best off skipping the first three minutes, where the remarks are purely focused on the students about to take the course. 05. A crash course in typography: The basics of type It's probably wise to get back to basics before you go running off into the typography sunset. Here, Cameron Chapman gives you the lowdown on everything from fonts to displays. 06. Paragraphs and special characters In this typography tutorial, Cameron Chapman is back to tell you that yes, designing headers and titles may be more artistic, but the set body text is just as important. Discover why with this step-by-step guide. 07. Principles for combining typefaces Combining typefaces can be dangerous business, especially if you mix two that certainly don't belong together. Avoid any upset with this typography tutorial that shows you the importance of contrast and mood. 08. Pulling it together Now you've got the basics down and you've dabbled in paragraphs and combining typefaces, take a look at how to pull it all together. In this typography tutorial, Cameron Chapman rounds it all up and shows you how to finish in style. 09. Typography terms every designer must know Our article introduces the fundamental concepts and rules of typography, followed by a detailed illustrated glossary of its main terms. Learn about choosing a font, sizing, leading, tracking and kerning, measure, hierarchy and scale, and more. 10. How to work with type in InDesign Art editor Jo Gulliver on T3 (and formerly on Computer Arts) shows you some of her most valuable typographic tools in Adobe's publishing software. Focusing mainly on the Character Formatting control panel, she explains how these options can be used on a day-to-day basis to help speed up your workflow in InDesign. Next page: more advanced typography tutorials 11. 10 rules to help you rule type This three-and-a-half minute typography tutorial video introduces 10 golden rules to help you improve your type skills and improve your graphic design layouts. Yes, the same text could have just been written as a standard tutorial, but hey, this is just a little more fun. 12. How to format text in InDesign Part one of this crash course looks at what typography is and how you can format your type using the Controls panel in InDesign. In part two, you can delve further into the world of typography with a look at four special typographic effects that can help your InDesign layouts stand out. 13. Match fonts from an image in Photoshop CC One of the standout features of Photoshop CC is that it can automatically analyse, identify and match fonts pictured within a photo. It then gives you a list of similar fonts installed on your machine, as well as others to download on Typekit. This quick video shows you how it all works. 14. Best practices of combining typefaces Combining different typefaces within your design is part art, part science. This Smashing Magazine tutorial by Douglas Bonneville explains some of the most important best practices to follow when mixing two or more fonts, as well as some common mistakes. 15. Typography manual critique One of the best ways to improve your typography is to follow an in-depth critique of what other designers have done when it comes to their use of type. This analysis of the Futur Typography Manual with Molly Drill is full of amazing insights about what to do (and not to do) when it comes to print typography. 16. How to kern type Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between letters to achieve a visually pleasing result. One of the most important typography skills you need to learn, here Meryem Meg and Brian Hoff offer some pro advice about how to get it right. 17. Typography design & art direction This video tutorial investigates a little-discussed but very important topic: how to approach art directing another designer when it comes to typography. The critique focuses around the launch of a new newspaper magazine focused on the business of design, and includes some fascinating insights into its layouts. 18. Art direction & typography part 2 The above video continues the lesson in typography and art direction begun previously, in discussion with graphic designer Minhye Cho. 19. Design a typographical poster in InDesign This tutorial from Future Publishing art editor Jo Gulliver walks you through the process of creating a typographical poster using InDesign. She demonstrates how to apply a document grid, and how to create and edit the typography within it. 20. Photoshop tutorial: Create a text portrait poster This Photoshop CC tutorial from Blue Lightning TV shows how to design and create a powerful text portrait poster. This 11-minute typography tutorial takes you through each operation simply and clearly. Next page: web typography tutorials 21. Better web typography in 13 simple steps Web typography means getting acquainted (or re-acquainted) with the rules of classic typesetting, but there’s more. With the web being a fluid and malleable medium, designers have to be able to predict the end result across different browsers and end users. This tutorial examines the basic dos and don’ts of typography, specifically applied to the web. 22. How web typography is just typography, sort of Typography is often taught as a completely separate discipline from web design, but Amy Papaelias feels that’s a mistake. In this talk, part of TypeCooper West's Letterform Lecture Series, she demystifies web typography and argues it should be seen as an integral to learning web design. 23. Improve web and mobile app typography The short video lists five essential principles to improve the typographic quality of your web and mobile app. Paulo Stanley offers this practical guide to start you on the road to creating typography for screen design.
 24. Improve web type with CSS font-size-adjust Font-size-adjust in CSS lets you specify your font size based on the height of lowercase letters, and its use can make a big different to the legibility of your web text. This tutorial explains the thinking behind this property and how to use it in your projects. 25. The rules of responsive web typography Responsive web typography is tricky, but it’s become the cornerstone of good web design, so you need to get it right. This tutorial provides the foundation from which to begin, and covers both the design principles behind responsive typography and practical solutions for it. 26. Master accessible web typography The rise of responsive web design has made accessible type selection more important than ever if your web content is to be readability by the maximum number of people. Here, Fontsmith presents the results of its work with Mencap on accessible typefaces, and the new best practices that have emerged from it. 27. Fluid responsive typography with CSS poly fluid sizing Fluid layouts are now an established part of web design practice, but fluid typography is still relatively new. This tutorial examines how to use established browser features, Sass and some simple algebra to create scalable, fluid type that works across multiple breakpoints and predefined font sizes. 28. Responsive font size and fluid typography with vh and vw units Another tutorial on how to create fluid typography, this one is almost exactly one year older than the one above, but it’s still worth a read to help you get your head around this discipline within web typography. 29. Performance and web typography One of the many things you have to consider when selecting and implementing your web fonts is the effect your choice will have on the performance of your site. This conference talk by Helen Holmes explains the best ways to can optimise your font files for the web. Next page: How to design your own font, and games to test your type knowledge 30. How to create your own font In this tutorial, Yulia Sokolova explains how she created her first font, from drawing the initial design to digitising it and then turning it into a useable font. 31. How to create your own font: 18 top tips After many years as a graphic designer and type enthusiast, Jamie Clarke decided to try his hand at designing a typeface. In our tutorial he shares some of the insights and practical methods he learned to help you to make your own font. 32. Create your own 3D typeface In another of our tutorials, Jamie Clarke talks through how he created 3D type family Rig Shaded; a layered or ‘chromatic’ typeface that allows you to choose your own style and colour combinations. He explains how he went about it, and shares a number of insights to help get you started making your own 3D type. 33. I shot the Serif Take a break with this Serif gameLearn typography through gaming! The aim of this awesome game from To The Point is to shoot only the serif fonts in the available time. Complete all the stages at 'Director Level' to beat the game. Good luck. 34. The rather difficult font game This game takes you through a series of various fonts that you have to name from a choice of four. It may sound easy but it's not. Play it on the desktop or on your iPhone. 35. Are you a font nerd? Do you know your Arial from your Helvetica? Test your type knowledge with this challenging game sponsored by MyFonts.com, which will probably show you that you don't know half as much about typography as you thought you did. Next page: Text effects 36. Create a long shadow text effect in Photoshop Photoshop CC includes the ability to add multiple instances of the same layer style to a single layer. This is especially helpful when it comes to create text effects. This tutorial shows you a quick way to add long shadows to your text while still retaining the ability to edit it quickly. 37. Create an editable retro text style in Illustrator In this tutorial, Chris Spooner shows you how to create retro typography using the fills and strokes within Illustrator’s Appearance panel. These trendy letters have a faux 3D appearance and are fully editable. 38. Create a quick duotone text effect in Photoshop This short, step-based Photoshop tutorial will teach you how to generate duotone text. Using a texture image, a gradient map, some adjustment layers and filters, you’ll learn how to create this trendy effect in five short steps. 39. Create a vintage film title text effect in Photoshop This tutorial by Chris Spooner explains how to create typography inspired by the film title styles of old black-and-white movies. Using the 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC he adds sophisticated lighting and shading to these retro letterforms. 40. Create gold 3D type in Illustrator If you want to bling up your typography, follow this Adobe Illustrator tutorial by illustrator Karol Gadzala. Step by step, she explains how to extrude type in 3D, apply metallic materials to give it a golden sheen, and add gems, sparkles and gleams. 41. Create a Chrome text effect in Illustrator Chrome text effects are the 80s and 90s style that time forgot. But these retro looks are now making a comeback. Follow this tutorial to learn how to produce a similar retro style metallic text effect in Adobe Illustrator. 42. Create custom type designs in Illustrator This Adobe Illustrator tutorial demonstrates how to create a custom typography design. It looks like it’s been lettered by hand, but it’s actually created by customising ready-made fonts with clever OpenType features. 43. Three ways to add textures to type designs Photoshop textures are a great way to mimic the aesthetics of old prints and handmade art and give your digital designs more of a tactile appearance. In this tutorial, Chris Spooner explains three ways you can distress your logos and text, each resulting in a slightly different appearance. 44. Create a blueprint text effect in Illustrator Learn how to create a blueprint text effect in Adobe Illustrator. This tutorial shows you how to combine simple strokes, basic blending mode techniques and a variety of Transform effects to create this impressive look to your lettering. 45. Create editable retro text in Illustrator Many text effect tutorials for Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop require the text to be permanently set, so if the wording needs changing, you have to be start again from scratch. In this tutorial, Chris Spooner reveals some useful tricks for creating a graphic style that works with live text. 46. Create celebration candle text in Illustrator This tutorial teaches you how to create a celebration candles text effect in Adobe Illustrator. After setting up a simple grid and creating a subtly patterned background, you will learn how to create the main text shapes using a free font and some basic blending and grouping techniques, warp effects and subtle textures and shading. 47. Create a decorative drop cap in Illustrator This tutorial walks you through the process of creating a decorative letter in Adobe Illustrator with a range of vector embellishments. The techniques you learn here can then be applied to all sorts of illustration projects in the future. 48. Create vector floral typography in Illustrator Here Yulia Sokolova explains to create a floral typography composition in Adobe Illustrator. You’ll discover how to create your own custom vectors brushes and use various drawing tools of Adobe Illustrator to create flowers, leaves, and floral elements. 49. Create a Suicide Squad-inspired 3D text effect in Photoshop This tutorial is inspired by the vibrant text effect from the trailer for the movie Suicide Squad. As you’re walked through the creation of a similar effect, you’ll discover how to design 3D typography within Photoshop, and make use various lighting effects to illuminate your design with bright colours. 50. Create a text portrait effect in Photoshop This tutorial demonstrates how to create cool portrait effect using a long passage of text that bends and deforms around the contours of the face. Known as a Calligram, this supercool effect is created using Photoshop’s Displace filter. Related articles: 7 new typography tools for 2017 25 typography freebies to make your life easier The 41 greatest free web fonts View the full article

Come to Jaime Levy's workshop at Generate London tomorrow (20 September) to find out how to master user experience strategy and identify and validate your target users through provisional personas and customer discovery techniques. Book now for a last-minute reservation! It's not easy to create an engaging and compelling online user experience, and despite what many people will tell you, the research and testing stage of UX design isn't an exact science. Some approaches work for some companies, and others will swear blind that the exact opposite approach is the only one to go for. So how should you deal with user research and testing? We asked seven web professionals how they do it; read what they have to say, see what resonates with you and give it a try. And don't let anyone tell you you're doing it wrong! 01. Start with the goals "We always start with the goals of the project and of our client's business in general," says Mule Design Studio's Erika Hall. "This allows us to identify the most relevant research questions and focus our efforts. Then we work as collaboratively as possible so everyone working on the project has a hand in generating the insights. "It's easy to focus on specific methods and tools and forget why you're doing the research in the first place. Always referring to the higher goals keeps the mind sharp, so you don't just fall into habits." 02. Tell a story Monotype's research director Emma Boulton observes that some people think of research as a scientific discipline, and see it as testing a hypothesis, uncovering the scientific truth or finding evidence. "It can be all of those things," she tells us, "but I believe research is simply about seeking information and piecing it together in a coherent narrative. It's about telling a story so that it provides insights and a clear path to take." 03. Choose the right approach "The terms 'user research' and 'user testing' are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings and objectives," notes Chui Chui Tan from cxpartners. "Both are about getting insights from people who are using, or are likely to use, a product. However, there's a slight distinction. Usability testing is about identifying issues users might experience with a product, either via the product itself or a prototype. "User research is about focusing on understanding users' behaviours, needs, expectations and pain points. You don't necessarily need material to test on. This means the approach you use and questions you ask should be different for each. Choose the right approach and questions so you can get the best from your users." Discover why user experience strategy is crucial for devising successful online products at Generate London 04. Do less more often together to do more Quietstars' co-founder Adrian Howard has his own mantra for testing: 'Do less more often together to do more'. He explains: "'Do less' because the point is not research for the sake of it, but to help us deliver the right products and services at the right time. 'More often' because ongoing research helps us discover and refine markets and customer needs. Ongoing testing helps us ensure our products meet those needs. 'Together' because the simplest way to make sure everybody understands the research is for everybody to be involved in doing the work and owning the results." 05. Just don't On the other hand, suggests UX designer Irene Pereyra from Anton & Irene, don't bother. "We never do any user research," she reveals. "Testing your own work is a bit like grading your own homework and a lot of user research is conducted like a pseudo-science. I've been in one too many subjective testing environments that would surely make real scientists scream in horror. "If our clients want user research we quote Dieter Rams, who when asked about doing consumer research during his time at Braun simply said, 'Never. We wanted to change the world.'" 06. Observe and iterate "When you research users and usage, always remember: there is more truth in data than in conversation, and more understanding yet in observation," suggests UX designer and author, Robert Hoekman Jr. "Listen to what they say, then ignore it and watch the stats to see what they do. Then ignore both and watch them in person to find the truth. When drawing up a new design, try iterative usability testing. "Leave time between sessions to revise, then show the new version to the next tester. Don't change everything. Use good judgment. Do this well and the problems you hear about in the morning will be gone by the afternoon." 07. Have a conversation According to Steve Portigal, the way to approach user research is to go to where people are doing their thing and engage them in a direct but open-ended conversation about what they're doing now and what they'd like to be doing. "Most importantly," he says, "I listen for 'why'. If you seek to understand usage without uncovering meaning, you leave so much insight on the cutting-room floor. I use insights as seeds for the extended team to gather, and think divergently and how we might respond to what we've learned. Research always feeds action." Generate London will also feature user research tips from David Aragon, product designer at Netflix, who will share how to get the most out of field research, and Ally Long, who has worked with novice tech users in resource-constrained environments, and discover how they navigate apps, comprehend interfaces, input data, and understand screen flows. It's this week - book now! 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We’ve been enjoying using Procreate since getting the first iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil back in 2015. The best art apps for painting and sketching on Apple’s powerful tablet all have their strengths and weaknesses, but Procreate is the one we often gravitate back to. 30 of the best Procreate brushesThis is because the interface feels more carefully designed and intuitive to use than rival apps, the features are extensive, the brushes are excellent and varied, and of course most crucially, the painting itself is fantastic. Other features include a Quick Menu that you can open with a tap to manipulate layers and transform the canvas – without breaking your workflow. Plus you're able to export a time-lapse video of your artwork creation from start to finish – useful for client presentations. These highlight how developer Savage is truly focused on trying to make Procreate the very best painting app for tablets. Procreate 4: drawing experience The act of painting and drawing in Procreate 4 is even more delightful than in previous versions, which is no surprise seeing as version 4 is built on Metal, making it up to four times faster. We had never found Procreate to be sluggish before, but certainly the continuous act of zooming in and out and rotating artwork feels especially immediate and precise. Procreate 4 works in harmony with the iPad Pro and Apple PencilHaving experienced the incredibly slow and unreliable touch controls on the otherwise fantastic Wacom Cintiq 24HD, for example, this is where the hardware and software trifecta of the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate really come into their own. Procreate 4: new features When you first open Procreate, you land on the gallery page, effectively a thumbnail grid of the files you’ve worked on. Previously you could only open an existing artwork or add a new one. You could import from services such as Dropbox, but it was buried within the ‘add’ menu. Importing is now available at a tap from that top screen, so combined with iOS 11’s new file structure system, you’re immediately aware that both Procreate and iOS 11 have evolved to help you be more productive. You can also now create ‘stacks’ of images on the gallery page, which is a simple but very welcome way to organise files. Evolutions to the interface are numerous, and the software has clearly been through lots of user experience testing from top to bottom. These updates tend to be quite subtle, such as better groupings of headings and contents in menus. Blend modes can be applied to individual brush strokes, not just layersTo make note of a more obvious example, previously you couldn’t see all of the brush categories at once. They were aligned horizontally and you had to swipe through them. The categories are now in a vertical list, so as well as having the breadth of brushes clear at a glance, it’s also much faster to switch between them. Procreate 4: layer masks There is one key feature that’s been missing from Procreate, and that’s layer masks. Being able to control the edges of where you want brush marks to show is such a crucial feature in desktop software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Finally seeing them in Procreate 4 is a real step forward, even if at the moment they’re very basic. For instance, you can’t create a mask from a selection and you have to paint them from scratch. You’re not able to invert a mask, either, so you certainly need to plan them carefully. Alpha Lock is easier to find in Procreate 4Procreate developer Savage has stated that this is very much Layer Masks 101, and it has much more planned in this area. An obvious next step would be to enable clipping masks, where attached layers are also confined to the base shape. Alpha Lock, which was in fact in the previous version, but fairly hidden and therefore easily missed, is now an option when you tap a layer thumbnail, and is another useful feature in this area. Procreate 4: wet brushes With masking being an exciting new addition on the practical/workflow side of things, the new wet brushes are the biggest inclusion on the creative side. Admittedly this is the kind of feature we enjoyed in Corel Painter on the desktop several years ago, and in Kyle T. Webster’s brilliant Photoshop brushes. Even so, drawing on the iPad is so comfortable and fluid, it’s fantastic to be able to work in this way on a tablet. Select Wet Mix to access the wet brushes in Procreate 4Simply tap on a brush to bring up the customisation options, switch to the ‘wet mix’ option and you’re up and running. It finally means you can work like a ‘real’ painter on a tablet, with all the other benefits that multi-touch enables. Speaking of the customisation options, as before there’s a huge amount you can do to adjust brushes beyond their default settings, and it’s absolutely worth setting some time aside to experiment with the effects you can achieve, whether you’re trying to find something dramatically different, or simply wanting to subtly tweak a brush. This includes adjusting how brushes respond to tilting the Apple Pencil. You can also create your own brushes and import those created by others. Procreate 4 and iOS 11 Procreate 4 has of course been designed with iOS 11 in mind, and with its full file system and drag and drop feature, suddenly the possibilities have really opened up in terms of workflow. If the lack of a proper file system had put you off drawing on the iPad before, this may be the feature that finally converts you. Another way in which iOS 11 can work with Procreate (and all apps for that matter) is the brand new Dock. A swipe up from the bottom brings your apps into view, so you can jump around much more easily. If you’re often working from a reference image of some kind, you can easily drag the Photos app icon out of the doc, and turn it into a Split View, or the new Slide Over. Split view is handy when working with reference materialWe thought that Slide Over would give more flexibility with reference images, but the window can’t be resized, and it can only be slid to the left or ride side. This then obfuscates the Procreate interface, so we found that Split View remains the best option. Perhaps iOS 12 will let us resize the window and float it wherever we like. So while further iterations of Procreate and iOS will no doubt further streamline workflow, there’s a lot here to appreciate, from relatively simple additions such as a customisable perspective guide to the endless possibilities of the aforementioned brush customisations and wet, truly blending paint. Is Procreate 4 worth buying? The Pro in Procreate means that this app is clearly designed with professional creatives in mind, and the Savage team is clearly focused on improving the application as much as possible. That said, priced at just £5.99 it’s not prohibitive to a student, an amateur or a hobbyist who wants to check it out and either start painting digitally, or take it further. While this tablet app has some way to go to match a desktop application such as Photoshop for features, it’s powerful, fast and intuitive and enables you to create large, complex works of art on your iPad Pro. Related articles: iOS 11 for designers: release date, news and specs Review: iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) with iOS 11 23 best iPad art apps for painting and sketching View the full article

Our top picks for web designers this month are books: one by Laura Kalbag on the fundamentals of accessibility, and another by Rachel Nabors on using animation to improve UX. They’re great reads and both are concise books so they’re not hard to squeeze in. A few great tools came out this month, too, including XRespond, which displays your design as it will appear on multiple screen sizes side-by-side, and GitHub Notifier, a Chrome extension for getting GitHub push notifications in your browser. 01. Accessibility for Everyone Laura Kalbag wrote a bookAccessibility isn’t the easiest topic to get your head around, so it’s great news that Laura Kalbag has written this approachable book that explains the foundations in a way that’s easy to understand. She also points you in the direction of the best experts and resources that will help you to grow your knowledge and keep up to date. (You might have heard of this one: it was the subject of an awkward Twitter spat involving Kalbag, Erik Spiekermann and JK Rowling). 02. Pixelmator Pro This new Mac tool reimagines the image editing workflowThis image editor for Mac has reimagined the editing workflow. It sports an intuitive interface and intelligent features that make life a bit easier. In particular, there’s an interesting approach to layout that should make it easier to put everything exactly where you want it. 03. Lozad.js This lazy loader is pure JavaScriptLozad.js makes use of the recently introduced Intersection Observer API to lazy load elements in an extremely performant way. It’s pure JavaScript, very lightweight, has no dependencies and also works with dynamically added elements. 04. Dead Domains This site collects unused domain namesDid you buy the domain name for that super-cool project you’re definitely going to get around to building one day, only to have it sitting there doing nothing but eating up your money every month? So did a lot of people. Submit your unused domains to this site to give them a new lease of life. It's also a great space to browse for something you can use: graveparty.com, moonwok.com and nerdempire.com are all up for grabs, for example. 05. Animation at Work Rachel Nabors imparts her animation wisdom in this book“This book is everything I wish I’d known when I started working with web animation five years ago,” says Rachel Nabors, the cartoonist turned web pro who wrote Animation at Work. This concise ebook explains how you can use animation to “lighten the cognitive load”, making your sites easier and more enjoyable to use. You can get a taste of Nabors' expertise in her tutorial on how to Create storyboards for web animations. 06. Alembic This plugin creates a colour palette based on the dominant shades in your imagesThis Sketch plugin extracts a whole colour palette from any layer that contains bitmap data (so that's patterned layers as well as solid filled images). Like all great modern inventions, the idea was prompted by a Tweet, and then brought to life by digital design and development agency Awkward. It's also an open source project, so you can see it on GitHub, too. 07. Font Review Journal This site promises to demystify typographyType lover Bethany Heck posts weekly font reviews on this site in a bid to “celebrate, analyse, demystify” typography. She explains that designing a typeface is a huge amount of work that’s often refined over a period of years, so each one has a detailed backstory and historical context that isn’t understood by the vast majority of people who use it. Heck wants to make this knowledge more accessible to users, and hopes that this site will serve as a bridge between the people who make typefaces and the people who use them. 08. XRespond Preview how your design will look on different devicesXRespond is a tool to help you build responsive websites. Enter any URL and it displays that site as it will appear on a range of devices side-by-side, so you can work on each component at multiple screen sizes simultaneously. 09. GitHub Chrome Notifier Instead of getting notifications in your inbox, this Chrome extension displays them in your browser. You can get real-time push notifications when someone creates an issue or comments on an issue, pushes code, creates a pull request, or forks or stars your repository. Read more about how and why software developer Stacy Goh made this here. 10. White Hat UX This book focuses on ethical and effective UX designMany websites use dark patterns – design features that work to deceive users into doing things that they didn’t necessarily intend to do. Some of these patterns have become conventions, but this kind of design is ethically questionable and may well erode trust in your brand. This book by Trine Falbe, Kim Andersen and Martin Michael Frederiksen focuses on creating great experiences that treat your users with the respect they deserve. Read more: The 30 best iPhone apps for designers Back to school: essential design kit for the new term 10 really useful responsive web design tutorials View the full article

Incognito graffiti artist Banksy is up to his old tricks again. This time the street artist behind 2015's Dismaland exhibition has decorated a space near The Barbican in central London to mark the opening of an exhibition of work by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The two new artworks have been confirmed as genuine Banksy originals after appearing on his Instagram page (the place where all the edgy artists hang out). They reference the work of the late New York City graffiti artist Basquiat. Street art: 45 incredible examplesOne of the murals depicts a Ferris wheel like the nearby London Eye whose cars have been replaced with crowns. This is a nod to the regal headwear that frequently appeared in Basquiat's work. On Instagram, Banksy accompanied this image with the caption: "Major new Basquiat show opens at the Barbican – a place that is normally very keen to clean any graffiti from its walls." Crowns like these in Banksy's new mural feature in many of Basquiat's workThe other mural uses Basquiat's 1982 work Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump as a starting point. Banksy builds on the image by adding police officers who frisk the boy in what appears to be a statement about how black and ethnic minority groups are treated by authorities. This image was captioned: "Portrait of Basquiat being welcomed by the Metropolitan Police – an (unofficial) collaboration with the new Basquiat show." The murals have been confirmed as genuine Banksy pieces after appearing on his Instagram pageThe exhibition, Basquiat: Boom for Real, opens at the Barbican Centre on 21 September and runs until 28 January 2018. The Barbican describes the show as the "first large-scale exhibition in the UK of the work of... the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene." Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, features in one of the two new Banksy murals For fans of the prodigious graffiti artist turned painter, who died aged just 27 in 1988, this unprecedented exhibition offers a new way to engage with Basquiat's work. As well as bringing together over 100 works from international museums and private collections, the exhibition will also feature film, photography and archive material. Related articles: Banksy opens Walled-Off Hotel in Bethlehem 6 ways street art is influencing design 10 iconic examples of brutalist architecture View the full article

Studying for a degree in art and design can provide all sorts of opportunities if you make the most of the experience. Connecting with likeminded creatives, in a space awash with design expertise and quality resources, is not to be sniffed at. It seems shocking, then, that negative patterns are emerging at UK universities. But you can avoid them, to make your design education count. My big break as a student came on a dark Thursday evening, when my course leader came by. Three of us were still working away and I was wound up tight, struggling not to feel the pressure of looming graduation. Get Adobe Creative CloudHe picked up a copy of The Guardian Weekend, at the time publishing a large quantity of illustration every Saturday. Grinning, he held open a double page feature artwork and handed it to me without saying a word. Ben Tallon is an illustrator, hand painted lettering specialist and lecturerIn the pub, my tutor was always full of stories about eccentric illustrators and designers he’d met, and we’d developed a good rapport. But I didn’t want to be spoon-fed. It felt important to earn my tutors' respect with hard work and initiative and they always responded to that, and met me half way. The times in between our meetings became my opportunities to create new work, so that when we next met, they could give me crucial feedback. I made the most of my design education, and reaped the rewards. Now it seems that creative education is in a state of flux, with empty seats, social media abuse, dangerous customer to business dynamics and difficulties convincing parents about a creative degree among the negative patterns emerging. But you can still get ahead. Read on for my four tips for overcoming these. 01. Embrace the intangibles Ben Tallon is the author of creative industry title, Champagne and Wax Crayons It’s hard for parents to release their beloved into the wild. Trying to convince them that a creative degree is the right choice has always been difficult, thanks to its amorphous nature. But conveying the benefits of independently led learning and experimentation costing so much is even harder. This can filter down to students, adding destructive pressure. What must first be understood is that creative education is vastly different from more defined, academic degrees. Creativity is about ideas, individuality and personal exploration. To have constant tutor support would bring no benefits to you because once you graduate, you’re on your own, and that is a crash landing for even the best prepared. There will never be a module on how to sell a crystal skull for £1m, but by embracing these intangibles, your own unlikely epiphany becomes possible. 02. Use the studio space and visiting lecturers The three years you have in a studio space with full-time hours is absolutely invaluable. Many of us in industry express a desire to have the time again, so use it wisely and own it. Similarly, when I go to talk at universities to share my own stories from the industry, each eager student is often mirrored by an empty seat. Angry lecturers lament the lack of opportunism. No matter how bad the hangover, there are drops of wisdom to be wrung from the people practising what you aspire to do. So turn up. 03. Don’t rely on your tutors Tune into Tallon's podcast Arrest all Mimics for more creative industry tips Ready access to lecturers is crucial. Ask them questions, seek criticism and suggestions, but never rely upon them. Their experience can elevate you beyond your years, but all they have to work with is you. Your character, passions, view on the world and ideas have to be showcased in order for them to do their job and to help you grow. Sitting at a desk farting about on a phone and sulking won't cut it. Furthermore, some lecturers find they have been subject of a social media thread – groups of students publicly complaining about their teaching methods or attitude, despite never having had an adult discussion about the concern. Do that in industry and it’ll only serve to hurt you. There are good cop and bad cop tutors at art school, just like there will be lovely or difficult creative directors, editors and bosses in any workplace. Now is your chance to learn to get along with all of them. 04. Build relationships Sadly, a customer to business dynamic rode into town with the lofty tuition fees. Several UK FE institutions, such as Norwich and Falmouth, have closed foundation courses. If this is indicative of a bigger picture then the chasm between the subservient nature of high school education and the prized independence of art college is a void to be bridged. Here, you're expected to manage your own timetable and create project ideas. But you can manage this new-found independence by developing supportive, adult relationships with your lecturers. Yes, you’re paying £9k per year, but the people who can help shape your future had no say in that decision, so develop a relationship with them. They don't see you as customers, but as people with creative potential who they would love to one day call peers. Creative education is in flux, but the core is the same as it ever was and it is exactly what you make of it. Some of the greatest designers in our industry had only crumbs of what modern universities and art colleges provide, but they were determined to evolve as human beings and creative professionals. There will never be – nor should there be – a blueprint for accessing this crazy industry. But higher education is one of the closest things you’ll have. Only you can make it count. Related articles: Back to school: essential design kit for the new term The best laptops for graphic design The state of design education View the full article

Having a website or app that simply looks good isn't going to cut it. Your users want to use apps and services that are intuitive and easy to use when they interact with them. Learn the key to creating engaging designs with the UI and UX Design Bootcamp. You can get it on sale for just $39 (approx £29). The UI and UX Design Bootcamp is a set of six courses packed with more than 39 hours of amazing design training taught by experts who know the topic best. For anyone interested in web and app design work, this bundle is a can't-miss resource that will teach you the principles of creating engaging and interactive design. It doesn't matter what you’re creating or what platform and tools you're working with – you'll pick up important concepts to help improve the functionality of your designs and keep your visitors coming back. You can get the UI and UX Design Bootcamp on sale right now for just $39 (approx £29). That's a 96% saving off the full retail price of $995 for a bundle that will improve your design projects, so grab this deal today. The six courses included in this great bundle are: Become a Senior UX Design Strategist Rapid Prototyping with Ionic: Build a Data-Driven Mobile App Android Design: Learn UX, UI & Android Marshmallow How to Build Habit-Forming Products Mobile User Experience: The Complete Guide to Mobile Mobile UI and UX Design 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. View the full article

Plein air painting – or painting outdoors – is a method that has been used by the masters for centuries. That alone can make it seem intimidating. We're here to help you demystify the outdoor painting process and the gear. We'll also show you how painting en plein air will help you improve all aspects of your artistic work, including your ability to paint colour and light. Plein air painting isn't just for serious artists – it's for anyone who wants to get out in nature and have some fun. How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorialsIn this workshop we'll cover the gear that will make plein air painting comfortable and portable. We'll take a look at the keys to composition and how to hone your observational skills, then we will walk through a step-by-step painting out in the real world. Let's get started. 01. Get the right gear Don't go out until you've gathered all your gearThe equipment you use can determine whether or not you enjoy your plein air experience. You want everything to be as portable as possible. This Kelty Redwing backpack designed for trail hiking is great because it has room for everything and is comfortable. You will need a lightweight tripod as well as a pochade box to mount to it – a pochade box is a small box that unfolds and holds paintings and supplies. You may also want an umbrella to block out direct sunlight. 02. Choose your tools Use whatever paint you want, but gouache will make your life easiestPlein air painting is suitable for any medium. Gouache paint is water soluble, dries quickly and is easy to transport, so is a good one to try. Holbein gouache or Winsor & Newton gouache and only two or three brushes, are all the paint kit you need in the field. Work small, usually around 5 x 7in, and always start with the biggest brush, such as a 1-inch flat. Work down to small brushes as you get into details. A hot press illustration board is ideal for gouache. 03. Pick a location Find somewhere remote to avoid awkward conversationsBoth urban and natural settings offer a wealth of great subjects to paint, and you will be able to practise and learn the same amount from either. Do you like privacy when you're out creating your art? If you aren't comfortable with strangers commenting on your work then you probably want to head deep into nature and avoid busy streets. A good tip is to wear headphones if you want to avoid chatting with passers-by. On the other end of the scale, you could carry business cards in case people are interested in purchasing your paintings. 04. What should I paint? Look for good lighting and a subject that you can paint in the time you haveOnce you've picked a location, scout the area for a subject. Look for great lighting, but keep in mind that it may change quickly. Also consider how much time you have – don't pick something complicated if you only have 30 minutes to paint. Don't be afraid to focus on small subjects like a flower. It's a good idea to snap a photo of your subject when you first start to paint, in case you want to finish at home. 05. Set up for success Set your gear up so that everything you need is immediately to handA great plein air set-up will put all of your supplies at your fingertips. Your pochade box should be able to hold your paper or canvas, as well as a palette, towel, water, brushes, and at least a few tubes of paint. You don't want to interrupt your flow every few minutes to dig up a brush or colour. Pour out plenty of paint and mix any major colours you need before you get started. 06. Find an interesting composition Never forget the rule of thirdsYour composition is perhaps the biggest factor in whether or not you create a successful painting. Use your fingers to form a viewfinder to frame your subject, then transfer the framing to your canvas as quickly as possible in a simple pencil sketch. Using the rule of thirds and avoiding tangents will go a long way to getting a decent composition. 07. Work big to small Paint rough shapes with your biggest brush, then work in increasingly fine detailsTry painting with the largest brush possible, for as long as you can. This will help you to see shapes instead of details, and will make you focus on the overall colour and value relationships of the image. We demonstrated this technique in depth in our Capture natural light in your paintings post. When you feel like you simply can't get the detail you need with the large brush, jump down to a slightly smaller one, but avoid hairline brushes for as long as you can. 08. Observe colour Don't be afraid to exaggerate coloursOne of the most common problems for beginners is properly identifying colours. It's a lot harder than it sounds! We all know red from blue, but when you begin to get into the muddy world of browns, greys, and purples, things get a lot more complicated. Shadows can be warm, light can be cool... there are no hard and fast rules, just try to observe and exaggerate colour when necessary. 09. Just try things out Sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone and experimentNot every painting you do will be a masterpiece, but that's how you know you are pushing yourself. It's important to leave your ego at home and take some days to mess around. Try a new brush or a different type of paint. Set up a page of tiny thumbnails to study colour relationships. Try working big. Try mixing media. Find out what works best for you. 10. Pace yourself Be aware of how long you have, and pace your process to matchIt would be wonderful if we could spend all day painting outdoors, but chances are you will have a limited window of time. A couple of hours is enough to create a painting that captures all the major elements of most scenes. If you know you only have 30 minutes, you can approach things differently and might even be pleasantly surprised at how much looser and more alive your work feels with limited time. This article originally appeared in Paint & Draw issue 9. Buy it here. Related articles: Capture natural light in your paintings 10 tips for painting vibrant water Paint wet-on-wet in oils View the full article

'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!' were the immortal words from Charlie Crocker (aka Michael Caine) in The Italian Job. They also form the title of web accessibility engineer Léonie Watson's upcoming talk at Generate London. But what do they have to do with JavaScript? More than you might think... 20 JavaScript tools to blow your mindIt is often said that JavaScript makes things inaccessible with a screen reader. This is not true, though. It is possible to do good and bad things with JavaScript (as with any other language – and, indeed, as with dynamite). But it helps if you understand accessibility mechanics in the browser if you want to avoid unexpected consequences (like rendering creations inaccessible – or blowing the whole vehicle up). If you have ever used JavaScript to provide keyboard shortcuts, or used the ARIA application role to enable accessible software UI interactions on the web, there is a good chance it had unintended consequences for screen reader users. When Watson, accessibility engineer at The Paciello Group, speaks at Generate London next week, she will be using code examples and screen reader demos. She will take a look at accessibility mechanics in the browser, the new Accessibility Object Model (AOM) JavaScript API, and how to use JavaScript so that you only blow the doors off. Make sure you grab your Generate ticket now before they sell out! 21 top examples of JavaScript 10 reasons to attend Generate London 2017 Léonie Watson on making accessibility integral to web design process View the full article

You're reading From Prototyping to Design Systems: Exploring an All-In-One UX Tool, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Look around the design space today and you’ll find dozens of prototyping, wireframing, and UX tools. In fact, it seems like a new tool pops up every couple weeks. What if there was the “one tool to rule them all”? That’s exactly what UXPin aims for when it comes to simplifying the UX workflow. UXPin started […] View the full article

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-security-avast/hackers-compromised-ccleaner-free-software-avasts-piriform-says-idUSKCN1BT0R9 … View the full article