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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brushes are a great way to beef up your Adobe Illustrator work. You can go a long way with Illustrator's basic tools, but with the right set of brushes – and the flexible way in which Illustrator allows them to be used on vector shapes – you can quickly and easily add texture and character to any piece of work. Managing brushes is more straightforward than ever before; with Illustrator CC, you can now save your brushes to your Creative Cloud library for easy access, no matter which machine you're using at the time. There's also the handy new Brush CC tool that allows you to define and share artwork in the form of brushes directly from your iOS device. These elements of workflow finessing means it's perhaps time to look again at brushes in Illustrator, so without further ado here are 20 of the best! 01. 8 free stipple shading Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Chris Spooner Build up tone and shade with these brilliant free Illustrator brushesDesigner Chris Spooner – aka Spoongraphics – crafted this free pack of eight stipple shading brushes to help you easily paint grungy details onto your artwork with Illustrator’s brush tool. Stippling is a traditional technique that uses lots of dots at different densities to build up tones and shade, and is particularly effective for creating a retro effect in your illustrations. 02. Free halftone vector brushes Quickly create halftones with this set of free Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Rob Brink This sample selection of free halftone Illustrator brushes are part of a larger pack of halftone vector brushes. Created by UI/UX designer Rob Brink, they’re perfect for adding old-school texture to your illustrations, without spending a penny. 03. Rodeo Old rope for no money Price: Free Artist/Designer: The Vector Lab Yee-hah! Rope can be really fiddly to draw, so if you need some in your imagery the go for this easy option instead. Rodeo is a hand-drawn rope brush for Adobe Illustrator CC. You can apply it to any path, as well as change the rope width and colour. 04. Marker pen strokes These marker pen brushes are magic Price: Free Artist/Designer: FudgeGraphics Get your sharpie on with this set of 64 free marker pen strokes and scribbles, and give your designs a more natural, hand-drawn look. They're high quality and compatible with all versions of Illustrator from CS onwards, and they're free for both personal and commercial work. 05. Smoke Light up your work with this excellent smoke Price: Free Artist/Designer: R2010 This set of smoke-like brushes is perfect for adding a bit of atmosphere to any illustration, whether it's for backgrounds or things that smoke, steam or mist. Play around with the opacity and blend modes in Illustrator to get some really nice effects. 06. Doodle lines You can use these doodle brushes commercially for a very reasonable price Price: Free (for personal use) Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes If doodling by hand is too much effort for you then achieve the same look with this set of free doodle brushes. It's a varied and versatile selection that allows you to create a hand-drawn sketched look, as well as decorative borders, curls and doodle style illustrations. They're free for personal use, while a licence for commercial use will cost you just £4. 07. Illustrator wedge brushes Create classy designs with this pack of wedge brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Free for non-commercial use, this pack of Illustrator brushes by freelance illustrator and graphic designer Mels Brushes is perfect for adding swirls, swishes and decorative curls to your designs. 08. Floral vector and brush pack A wider selection of florals than that which ships with Illustrator Price: Free for personal and commercial use Artist/Designer: Stock Graphic Designs This handy set of floral plate-inspired brushes is also available as a set of EPS assets for those times when you simply want to drop in stock art into your project. The quality of the art itself is comparable to the free florals that ship with Illustrator, but there's a wider selection available here, and the fact that they're not part of Illustrator's default arsenal means you're less likely to get instant recognition of the source. 09. Fur Illustrator brushes Sometimes you need to add hair... Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Need to add a furry effect? These eight hairy Illustrator brushes from Mels Brushes work particularly well when you build them up using different tones. They're free for personal use, and you can buy a license for commercial projects. 10. Abstract brushes These abstract brushes can be used to create crazy embellishments Price: Free Artist/Designer: alethiologie Deviantart is always a good place to find free-to-use resources and assets, as this example from alethiologie demonstrates. A handy set of brushes that you can use to create abstract shapes and patterns, including some pretty crazy-looking ornaments. 11. Lino cut brushes These free Illustrator brushes give a hand-finished look Price: Free (for personal use) Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes This is another example of digital replicating the natural imperfections of analogue artwork, but for all its irony, these free-for-personal-use brushes have a wonderful quality to them that brings out a lovely hand-finished look in your artwork. 12. Vector Brush toolbox You get 200 best-selling vector brushes, including sponge and ink splatter brushes, halftone, pencil, charcoal, watercolor and more, in this pack Price: $49 Artist/Designer: RetroSupply We mentioned there were two paid-for options in this list – and you’ll soon see why the Vector Brush Toolbox earns its place in a round-up of the best Illustrator brushes. Including six of RetroSupply’s best-selling Illustrator brush packs – that’s over 200 best-selling vector brushes – the Vector Brush Toolbox is the ultimate brush kit for illustrators, giving you every brush you’ll ever need for vector-based drawing. (Plus, you save $41 when you buy the bundle.) Next: More excellent Illustrator brushes 13. 15 paint brushes These brushes are based on real paint brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Think Design This set of 15 paintbrush-inspired brushes has been around a while, but the real-media feel they offer means they're still well worth downloading and installing. This is even more the case given they're absolutely free of charge. The brushes themselves are each based around a different style of real paint brush, offering a beautiful feeling of paint oozing out under the pressure of the brush. Great for those times when you want something a little less clean and imperfect. 14. Dry paint brush strokes Produce handdrawn-looking brush strokes with this free pack Price: Free Artist/Designer: Scorp1 To add a dry brush stroke effect to your designs, try this free pack from Duesseldorf-based designer Scorp1. According to Scorp1, the brushes were created using a dry brush with acrylic color, scanned, vectorised with Streamline and corrected manually where needed. 15. Mycanthus brush pack For some extra flourish, try this pack of art and scatterbrushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: r2010 Mycanthus brush pack 1 contains five ornamental art brushes and five scatter brushes. "I call this pack 'Mycanthus' – since I didn't stick with traditional acanthus leaf designs," says Deviant Art member r2010. The pack is free to use – just send r2010 a link to your work "to make it worthwhile". 16. Doodle Pattern Zentangle Borders These brushes are well-suited to borders Price: Free Artist/Designer: Mels Brushes Another from designer Mels Brushes, this pack of 28 doodled zentangle style Illustrator pattern brushes will add a handdrawn feel to your art work – and they're free for personal use. 17. Pattern brushes For stunning patterns, look no further than this set of 15 free Illustrator brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Gina Startup This set of 15 Illustrator pattern brushes is perfect for creating vector borders and frames. Designed by New York-based digital artist Gina Startup – aka StarwaltDesign – they're all free. 18. Stipple shading brushes These stipple shading and scatter brushes are a great addition Price: Free (for personal use, check with author for commercial use) Artist/Designer: Chris Spooner Chris Spooner is well known to many designers on the web for his excellent tutorials and free resources. This selection of eight stipple shading and scatter brushes will make a lovely and versatile addition to your brush collection, allowing you to create fantastic half-tone style shading on your artwork with ease. Spooner has even provided a mini-tutorial showing how to get started with the brushes for best effect. 19. 57 multi-colored Illustrator brushes These free Illustrator brushes recreate oil brushes Price: Free Artist/Designer: Grant Friedman (Colorburned) This lovely collection of 57 real-media-like brushes recreates the feeling of traditional oil brushes, alongside the vivid colour that medium provides. Created by Grant Friedman specifically as a free download, the brushes are nonetheless of a high quality and very useable in your projects. 20. Free floral brushes for Illustrator These free floral brushes are beautiful in their simplicity Price: Free Artist/Designer: Gratiela Dascalu Created by Romanian web designer, Gratiela Dascalu, this set of twelve beautifully simple floral brushes make short work of crafting flora-based embellishments. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial use, so you can get stuck straight in to using them on client projects too. 21. Grunge These mucky brushes will cost you but it's worth it Price: $2.50 per pack Artist/Designer: Seth (TheMeatGrinder) Another gem from Deviantart, these deliciously mucky brushes come at a price: $2.50 per pack, of which there are two. Despite the (very low) cost, it's difficult to begrudge paying for a bit of grunge, especially when the brushes themselves create such visually gorgeous lines! 22. 3D star scatter brushes These free brushes add a retro feel to your vector project Price: Free Artist/Designer: brushportal.com This is a pretty basic set of 24 scatter brushes for Illustrator, but the 3D effect works well for retro artwork and the colours/shading lends itself well to the same. Great if you need to add a little sparkle to some artwork in a hurry, and free! 23. Paper tooth brushes Great for adding an authentic torn-paper feel Price: Free Artist/Designer: Equal and Opposite A paper's tooth is the slight ragged edge or the nooks and crannies you'll inevitably find where the fibres of the medium have knitted together. These brushes create a look of authenticity in your artwork, accentuating and simulating the effect of a paper stock with bite! Related articles: Review: Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 21 Illustrator shortcuts to speed up your workflow 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials View the full article

Before getting to the psychological part of performance optimisation, let's answer one question: what is web performance? For the majority of frontend developers, the answer would cover things like page response time, speed of animations, load times. Guess what? The world is a cruel place and unfortunately not only web developers have access to the web. So how do regular users gauge web performance? Usually it's 'fast' or 'slow' ("The SpeedIndex of this site isn't as good as of that one. 280 millisecond slower first paint is the reason, I guess" – said no user without DevTools ever). These diverging approaches to performance come from the fact that our estimation of time can be objective (the time we can measure with a stopwatch, the way we developers approach it) or subjective (time as it's perceived by users). The reason why we should be looking at subjective, or psychological, performance is that unless users perceive the site as fast or faster, whatever we've done to our performance optimisation matters very little. Time perception in humans Mental activity makes waiting barely noticeablePerception of time by humans is a complex process. We can sense the flow of time, but the exact nature of the mechanism by which this is done remains unclear. The lack of a dedicated brain area for temporal processing makes understanding the process difficult. This does not mean we are out of control. There is enough knowledge about it for the purpose of performance optimisation. Let's start with the basic functional mechanism. Event in a nutshell Our memories about some period in time consist of events. Try to remember your last vacation. Probably, you don't recall it as a continuous process but rather as a set of events: dinner with a loved one, trip to mountains, broken leg (maybe that last one is just me, but nevertheless, you get the idea). The same happens on the web, all interactions with a web application are defined by events: loading a site, requesting a page, searching information and so on. Almost all of such events can be split further into smaller events or phases. For example, the event of loading a page usually consists of the following two phases: User is looking at the white screen User starts consuming the information on the page Here, the original event (fully loading requested page) is not necessary over and might continue in the background, considering some basic optimisations are in action. Phases during which our brain is triggered into active state and is forced to output information or process incoming one (typing, reading, etc) are called active. On the other hand phases when our brain is idling (looking at the white screen) are called passive. Multiple research suggests that people have a tendency to significantly (by about 36%) overestimate passive durations while underestimating active durations. Why so? Sometimes there is a big difference between time measurable with a stopwatch, and time as we perceive itAt any given moment our limited attentional resources are divided between all the concurrent tasks, including timing. As aforementioned, the brain lacks a dedicated temporal processing area, and to build our perception of time, it has to use information from different sensors. During the active phase of an event, mental activity drags attentional resources off the temporal processing, making users consider the wait as a shorter one or not noticeable at all. Passive phase is not defined only by brain idling. Typical features of it are: Waste of time: The more valuable the customers' time, the more negative their perception of those that waste it Boredom: This is the result of the idling state. Boredom arises when an individual does not get enough interesting information Lack of control: Users either have to wait for the event to be over or cancel the event (close the tab in our case). Lack of perceived control has a significant, negative impact on human physical and psychological well-being Due to these features, users' complaints about waiting, in most cases, are related exactly to the passive phase. Let's summarise: User's interaction happens discretely: loading a page, returning search results etc Events, even remaining objectively unchanged, can be split into active and passive phases Active phase is well tolerated by users, does not cause troubles and does not need to be treated anyhow. Contrary to active, passive phase is the core of the waiting problem and is the part that should be addressed Using this knowledge let's proceed to the basics of psychological performance optimisation (PPO). Reducing perceived waiting time Psychological performance optimisation does not change the duration of an event; instead it extends the active phase at the cost of the passive oneHere we should make an important note, changing the objective duration of the event is not the aim of PPO even though most of the techniques do reduce objective durations. Instead, it's all about manipulating users perception of time. So how do we make users perceive an event as a shorter one without changing its objective duration? Simply, within the time limits of an event, we should reduce the harmless passive phase by increasing the tolerable active one. We should either a) start the active phase as soon as possible or b) keep users in the active phase as long as possible. Once this becomes clear, understanding a lot of performance optimisation techniques and their purpose won't be a problem for you. At first, it might look like an unusual view at performance. But when it comes to the examples of the PPO there is nothing new I could tell. As long as you do performance optimisations, there is a high chance you're already using PPO even, possibly, without realising it. The list of relevant techniques includes but is not limited to: Critical rendering path optimisation: rendering the very first bits of information on the screen as soon as possible. If we speak events, this one is for loading a site or a new page. Optimistic UI: update interface in response to user's actions optimistically, disturbing the user only if something goes wrong. Optimistic UI is useful for any type of non-critical action. Resource hints: rather new specification of special <link> instructions to the browser that speed up communication and connection to external hosts or assets on your own site. Very broad field of application when it comes to events, from faster loading of subsequent pages on the same site to faster loading of the external pages if you need to. PRPL: pattern in general and its separate parts. Again, when it comes to events, PRPL pattern benefits loading the whole site or a newly requested page. Animations: probably the most seductive tool available to our disposal. But it comes with a warning. Animations, removing the boredom of the passive wait, indeed can significantly improve time perception of short events, related to the same page: outputting search results, putting item into cart, requesting additional information etc. It might even be used for cross-page transitions in SPAs. But, animations done badly might significantly harm not only performance, but also accessibility and overall perception of the project. When we talk about psychological time, unfortunately, there is no way we could universally measure perception. But, are there any metrics we could rely upon in order to know how good our site is perceived by users? What to measure? Conventional parameters like an onload event are not very informative for measuring perception as they do not take users into consideration. Instead, we should rely on the new generation of metrics: First Meaningful Paint: this parameter is responsible for triggering your user from passive to active in the phase of the page loading event. But rendering on its own might not be enough. The browser window might still be unresponsive to a user's interactions due to the browser's blocked main thread. Time to Interactive (TTI): this is exactly the parameter that shows when users can actually use the site instead of simply taking a look at it. Both parameters can be measured with popular monitoring tools like WebPagetest or Lighthouse. It also lands in Chrome DevTools. It goes without saying that these parameters should be as low as possible. You might also want to keep an eye on the Speed Index parameter to know how fast the visual part (not only the first paint) of your page is being output. Conclusion We've covered the basic principles of PPO. I would encourage you to keep going, read papers and any materials you can find on time perception. You will be surprised how weird and controversial our brain is. Better understanding of how humans are wired up might give you new opportunities in your work. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 293; buy it here! Related articles: 7 killer ways to influence user behaviour The role of psychology as a design tool 5 psychological tips to use on tricky clients View the full article

Dan Povenmire and Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh are two modern-day heroes of American animation. Their talents span drawing, animating, writing and producing, and they even write their own songs. While they’ve worked on top programmes like The Simpsons on Fox and Rocko’s Modern Life at Nickelodeon, they’ve also created their very own shows for Disney. Your guide to Disney's 12 Principles of Animation We caught up with them at the launch of Milo Murphy’s Law and asked them to share their top animation tips. 01. Photograph all your doodles Characters in Milo Murphy's Law were based on old drawings"I doodle all the time, and once I got a phone with a camera on it, I think it helped me a lot, because now I take pictures of every doodle I do," says Povenmire. "I also ‘favourite’ all the ones that I like and go back to them later on. "A lot of the characters in Milo Murphy’s Law were drawings that I’d done years earlier, like the character Decker, who is played by Christian Slater in the show. When we found out that he wanted to do a voice, I went back in my phone and found the doodle, and was like: ‘This guy!’" 02. Try to make your characters think "Watch Nick Park," Marsh advises. "He has mastered the art of making the inanimate object appear to think. The moment things become real is when you can believe that these characters are thinking. It’s not how big they smile or how fluidly they move, it’s when you’ve created the illusion that the character is processing information, and that’s that magic moment. "I was watching Creature Comforts and just went, ‘Oh, my God, he’s nailed everything.’ You watch the Brazilian Puma, who’s sitting there on the log, he’s like, ‘Where I would like to live, and spend most of my time…’ He’s out there, he’s thinking, he’s imagining, he’s seeing things from the past and the future and you go: That’s alive. That hunk of clay is now totally believable because he’s imagining, he’s remembering, he’s thinking." 03. Explore different emotions in your faces Candace is happy – until you put her eyebrows in..."If you do angry eyebrows and a happy face, it looks evil," says Povenmire. "If you do angry eyebrows and a sad face, it looks angry. If you do happy eyebrows and a sad mouth, you get perplexed. If you do sad eyebrows and a happy mouth, it looks like your character is in love. "You can do all these different things, and then within that you can use the eyelids to change an expression entirely: between wide-open eyes for an evil expression, and half-open eyes for a dopey expression. "It’s like Candace, the sister in Phineas and Ferb – she’s pretty happy right up until you put the eyebrows in, and then she’s screaming at her brothers. Up until that moment it’s, ‘Aaaah!’ and right then it becomes, ‘You are so busted.’" 04. Think in three dimensions Working on The Simpsons helped Marsh understand how to make characters instantly believable"If you think of Bart Simpson, his head is a cylinder, a Coke can," Marsh says. "Draw it, and turn that character in three dimensions. If he turns his head a certain way, you get a bigger circle on the top of his head and a smaller circle where his mouth is. "If your character turns and moves in three dimensions in a way that feels solid, people believe it a lot quicker. That’s the big thing that I learned when I started working on The Simpsons – how to construct things in a three dimensional way." 05. Use simple geometry Protagonist Phineas and antagonist Doofenshmirtz share the same geometry"In Phineas and Ferb, what’s funny is that our protagonist Phineas and antagonist Doofenshmirtz are essentially the same – they’re triangles with two circles for eyes," Povenmire explains. "You can put the hair in and they’re still impossible to tell apart. "But if you add a crooked nose and a mouth, suddenly, one triangle is Doofenshmirtz, whereas with Phineas, the point of the triangle is his nose and his mouth is behind it. They’re very much the same, just as Minnie Mouse is indistinguishable from Mickey – up to the point where you add features and they diverge." 06. Don't over-exaggerate The duo have lots of experience animating for prime time shows"How you handle exaggeration is down to the specific gag, and very much down to your sensibilities." Marsh reveals. "We both have a lot of experience in prime-time animation such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, where it’s all very small reactions, not a lot of exaggeration. "We’ve also worked on big, cartoony shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and SpongeBob SquarePants. They had big, ridiculous events. We tried to meet somewhere in the middle for our shows Phineas and Ferb, and Milo Murphy’s Law. "If you’re more in the middle generally, when you do go want to go extreme, it really plays big and that’s when you get the effect you want." 07. Animate the antic Povenmire learnt a lot by animating big gestures"There’s a standard thing in animation called ‘the antic’, which is really sort of three drawings, put in the right order," Povenmire continues. "So if I draw Phineas reacting to something, he’s going to go from a normal to an alert position. "Something big happens, and he’s got to react to it big. If you just draw the normal pose and then upright pose, it will just be OK. But if you give him the opposite action, instead of his head just going up, you have it go down first and then up, it becomes a bigger reaction to something. "That was something I learned early on when I was trying to animate somebody suddenly running out of frame. It didn’t look good at all until I gave him this whole swing back first – a big, cartoony anticipation of a movement and then have him run off. "You’ve got to have your characters move in the opposite direction first to give it weight." 08. Don't try to be perfect Nick Park's Feathers McGraw shows the power of good storytelling"As much as I believe in the quality of animation, if you’re telling a good story with some strong characters, you don’t need Disney-level resources," adds Marsh. "You have to define your characters really well and know who they are and believe in them. And then, even a stick figure drawing will do. "Think of Nick Park’s The Wrong Trousers, and the character Feathers McGraw. He’s a bowling pin! He doesn’t have any expression at all. There’s no smile. He blinks – that’s literally all he can do. But you know when he’s being menacing and evil. You know when he’s discovered something. He changes the pace at which he walks, and he stops and turns." This article was originally published in Computer Arts magazine issue 266. Buy it here. Related articles: How to get started with animation Killer tips for perfect animation portfolios How to survive in an animation studio View the full article

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Whether you're looking to switch disciplines and try something new, or brush up on old skills, there's a ton of cool new art books to help you on your way. This month we've got guides on oil painting, how to draw manga and urban drawing techniques, plus a new and brilliantly named art craze: Zentangle. And not just regular Zentangle, but botanical Zentangle. We've also rounded up some the best tools to help you get started in each of these fields. We look at a book that asks questions about creativity – what a good idea looks like, where it comes from – which is perfect for anyone suffering from bout of creative block. We also check in with Somerset House and its Print Club London film poster exhibition, and we've got our eye on a new, limited edition Moleskine collaboration. 01. Five-Minute Sketching: Landscapes Get sketching on the move, even when you're short on timeThis new book by urban sketcher Virginia Hein contains over 50 exercises to help artists of any level quickly sketch landscapes. "Suitable for both new and aspiring artists," publisher Search Press says, "this easy-to-use handbook will loosen up your creativity and show you how to sketch while outdoors or on the move, even if you have only a few minutes to spare." 02. Posh pencils These charming pencils each feature an original designLondon-based stationery designer Katie Leamon has created a new range of luxury pencils that are perfect for any budding urban sketcher. Traditionally made and inspired by nursery rhymes, fables and fairytales, the pack contains six mixed-grade pencils, each decorated with an original design. They cover everything you need for detail, textures, and tone. 03. Rolling Stones Moleskine Choose from silk, denim, velvet or PU leatherThis new, limited edition Moleskine collaboration sees the much-loved notebook brand join forces with one of the greatest bands of all time. The hook-up offers a series of covers made from rock'n'roll materials – silk, denim, velvet and PU leather – all of which include the Rolling Stones logo, the iconic tongue-and-lip design, created by English art designer John Pasche. 04. Zentangle This new drawing craze is supposed to relax youThe Zentangle method is the process of drawing structured, repetitive patterns. Supporters say it increases focus, wellbeing and creativity. "With a focus on simple mark-making as well as drawing with the intention to relax and be creative," Quarto, the publisher of this new book, says, "tangle drawing is a powerful tool for people looking to tap into their inner artist." The book contains more than 200 tangle-inspired botanical illustrations, with written instruction on how to draw them. 05. Summer Screen film prints Posters on sale include Blow-Up by Lucille ClercPrint Club London and Somerset House are collaborating on their fifth annual film poster exhibition celebrating the Film4 Summer Screen. The Dalston-based studio is inviting artists and illustrators to create screen-printed posters for the new and classic films shown at the outdoor events taking place in London this summer. The adjoining exhibition runs from 3-23 August. If you can't make it, posters are on sale here. 06. Manga for beginners Learn how to turn basic shapes into expressive charactersIn her new book, Edinburgh-based manga artist Yishan Li shows you how to draw manga-style characters and creatures. You'll start with basic shapes, and learn how to turn circles, squares, and rectangles into witches, wizards, and monsters. This guide contains over 130 step-by-step drawings and more than 1,000 individual illustrations. 07. Manga art set These pens are smooth and smudge-resistantFaber-Castell offers one of the best manga starter sets around. Its pens use water-based ink that's acid-free, waterproof and fade-resistant. The pens glide smoothly and are smudge-resistant, with the largest pen offering a brush-like line. They are professional-level pens at an entry level price. 08. What's in an idea? This book might prompt more questions than it answersIf you're suffering from creative block, perhaps you need to go back to basics: What does an idea look like and where does it come from? "Grant Snider’s illustrations will motivate you to explore these questions, inspire you to come up with your own answers and, like all Gordian knots, prompt even more questions,” promises publisher Abrams. 09. The Encyclopaedia of Oil Techniques A comprehensive A-Z reference to oilsSearch Press is publishing a new, up-to-date edition of Jeremy Galton's popular encyclopaedia of oil painting. This A-Z reference book is split into two sections: the first offers step-by-step demonstrations that guide artists through a variety of techniques, and the second focuses on themes and common subjects, including landscapes, buildings, portraits, still life, skies and water. 10. Oil painting box set This set is one of the best rated aroundRoyal & Langnickel's oil painting set for beginners is one of the best-rated around. The UK brand offers everything you need to get started, including brushes, a selection of colours, a beginner's guide to oils, and canvas boards, all housed in a compact, portable and well-made wooden box. Related articles: How to blend coloured pencils Get started with ink drawing How to draw a landscape with pastels View the full article

There's minimalist design, and then there's the new range of products from the appropriately named company, Brandless. Based in San Francisco and Minneapolis, the company claims to be a group of thinkers with big dreams about changing the world. To turn its ideas into reality, Brandless has launched a range of extremely minimalist products. Negative space: 30 brilliant examplesWe say 'extremely minimalist' because Brandless has taken the drastic step of trademarking a white box design for its food and home items. Co-designed with the help of Brooklyn agency Red Antler, each product is made up of a single colour with the white box design dropped on top. The text in the boxes is effectively negative space, and is readable thanks to the colour underneath shining through. "With Brandless, we wanted to invent something completely fresh and new," say the pair behind the design, Tina Sharkey and Ido Leffler. "Something that puts purpose into every product and message shared, and models a new kind of relationship between people and the companies built to serve them – directly, with integrity, transparency, authenticity, and democratised access." So far, so Silicon Valley. But the lack of identity means that the products are dodging a fee known as BrandTax, which in turn has let Brandless set a standardised price across all its items. Explore the range of products by clicking left or right in the gallery below, and if you live in the US and like what you see, you can order the Brandless goodies online. Related articles: 40 awesome packaging designs Online Micro Machines museum is a retro treat 14 great places to sell your design work online View the full article

Fans of the epic fantasy drama Game of Thrones have a lot to be happy about recently. Not only has the show returned to our screens for a seventh series, but there's also the promise of a spin off to look forward to. As if that wasn't enough, game artist and illustrator Catherine Unger has created a series of busts based on the main cast. Unger, who currently works as the lead artist on Nintendo Snipperclips, drew the Game of Thrones busts last year, but recently unearthed them on her Twitter page to celebrate the launch of the new series. These illustrations stand out from the crowd thanks to Unger's chunky drawing techniques. We particularly like how the blocky forms look like they've been chiselled into life. Explore all of Unger's Game of Thrones busts by clicking left or right in the gallery below, and if you like what you see, you'll be glad to head that she's open for commissions. Maybe the makers of the show should get in touch to request some official work... Related articles: The VFX behind 72 grisly Game of Thrones deaths Meet the artist who designed the Iron Throne How VFX wizards brought the Game of Thrones dragons to life View the full article

Tens of millions of products ranging from airport surveillance cameras, sensors, networking equipment and IoT devices are vulnerable to a flaw that allows attacks to remotely gain control over devices or crash them. View the full article

Freelance designer and frontend developer Ally Long has a particular interest in designing for novice tech users and people in emerging economies. At Generate London on 21 September, she will give a presentation entitled 'Field-tested interfaces for the next billion'. We caught up with her to find out what it's all about. Who are ‘the next billion’ and what kind of devices do they use to access the web? AL: 'The next billion' refers to the next big wave of people coming online in emerging economies. Most of us here in Europe, and in other developed economies throughout the world, are already online in some form or another. In the UK, for example, over 90 per cent of the population is connected. The deed is done; we’re on the grid. But that’s not the case in many other parts of the world. You have far fewer people walking around with their heads in their phones in Lagos than you do in London. Same goes for São Paulo, New Delhi, Kinshasa – hugely populous areas with whole hosts of people who’ve never had access to the internet. This is changing constantly, though, and rapidly. The cost of mobile data decreases, and the availability of cheap handsets (think second-hand Blackberry knock-offs) increases. Connected smartphones are bringing computing to many people for the first time, and changing the landscape of the internet in the process. Lagos is becoming quite a tech hub in West Africa – and it’s entirely possible that it could outpace London as a global technology centre in the not-too-distant future. Ally Long's talk at Generate London will explore how to include millions of new users in your product thinking How do you design interfaces for people that are learning to use smartphones for the first time? AL: You need to start with some good research – this is not an area where you can rely on gut feelings, or most of the body of literature around what constitutes good design and UX. You can’t even rely on empathy, because it’s hard to even know where to start empathising with people who have such a different experience of technology and their environment than you do. You’ll also really need to check your ego at the door, because the interfaces that tend to work best for these markets might not be what you think is nice design – we’re talking big font sizes and icons, high contrast, and clicky-looking buttons. You need to always approach this work as a series of problems that need to be solved with good design thinking, and don’t conflate a beautiful-looking interface with something that provides value to people. And how do you improve the user experience for them? AL: By making the app or site as lightweight as possible – both in terms of data usage and battery suckage. If someone has to pay a not-insignificant portion of their income to buy data, and perhaps also shell out cash to a charging station to power their device if they don’t have working electricity at home, then you need to treat that constraint with the highest degree of respect. You should also regard being offline as the default status, and not an error. Allow users to do as much as possible without a connection, save things locally, and update or sync when the device is online. What kind of UX and UI patterns and conventions that we may take for granted do not work for this new audience? AL: A lot of navigation conventions don’t make much sense if you haven’t been exposed to the evolution of these conventions over time. Hierarchies or tree structures don’t seem to be very intuitive – in terms of navigation it’s better to stick to a linear pattern: forwards and backwards. Gesture-based navigation and UIs are hard. People do learn them after some time, but it’s a steep learning curve. The idea of pressing buttons is more instantly understood. What kind of user research and testing do you do? AL: The key to good user research is to understand the context and the constraints. So for the public health projects I’ve worked on, I’ve shadowed health or logistics workers as they go about their tasks so we can figure out what will work best in helping them digitise their processes. It’s important to get some background information too – I usually also ask them to show me their phones, find out what their favourite apps are, see how they use them, get a sense of their comfort level. Testing is a bit of a different beast – it’s where you really get into the nitty-gritty of which UI elements present the least amount of cognitive strain. How fast can people get shit done, basically. I’m working on a project with Field in Nigeria at the moment, and we have a great group of people we can test with. At the end of every two-week sprint, we release a new beta version of the app and ask our testers to try to complete specific tasks, observe the results, and document it in detail. Visiting a health facility in northern NigeriaWhat are some of the main challenges you’ve witnessed on your field trips? AL: Just getting from A to B can really test your patience. Whether it’s roads that become lakes in rainy season, an overloaded truck that’s overturned and blocked a main road for a whole day, potholes that’ll swallow a car, fuel shortages, bandits on the highways or other security concerns – it always takes a lot longer than I expect to get anywhere, and the same goes for everyone. You’re often either waiting for someone to show up, or they’re waiting for you to show up. These infrastructural problems affect almost everything else too – poor internet connectivity, and lack of reliable electricity to charge devices makes technology slower for everyone. Sometimes you need to join a motorcycle gang just to get aroundWhat can people expect to take away from your talk at Generate London? AL: Mainly some very practical tips on how to cater for the next billion users in your designs and processes – how to account for the constrained resources, varying literacy levels, intermittent connectivity. But I also hope to convey a sense of excitement, and engender some curiosity about this work – I don’t want people to think it’s all constraints and no fun. It’s fascinating, worthwhile, and rewarding. Generate London, on 21 and 22 September, will feature 16 great presentations for web and UX designers and is preceded by a full day of workshops on 20 September. Don't miss the opportunity to learn from the likes of Steve Fisher, Leonie Watson, Anton & Irene, Zell Liew, Aaron Gustafson and many more. Reserve your spot today! View the full article

There's no platform better to launch your website with than WordPress. All you need is a professionally designed theme from Visualmodo to give your site style and function right off the bat. Get lifetime access to these themes right now for just $39 (approx. £30)! Visualmodo's WordPress themes make it easy to streamline any web project. Its library of professionally designed themes are easy to plug in and immediately offer you a wide variety of features. These customisable and flexible themes fit just about any project, but if you're having trouble making yours work for you, the award-winning customer service from Visualmodo can help you get your site up and running. You can get a lifetime of access to WordPress themes from Visualmodo on sale for 84 per cent off the retail price. That makes your total just $39 (approx. £30). It's a great offer for themes that will make your site even better, so grab this deal today! View the full article

You're reading Blogs vs. Online Magazines: Differences in Design and User Experience, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The design world is abuzz with the rise of online magazines. But the vast majority of these sites run on blogging platforms like WordPress, and they operate almost exactly like traditional weblogs. So where does someone draw the line between a traditional blog and an online magazine? And if you’re thinking of launching a new blog/magazine […] View the full article

Typography is one of the most important skills you can develop as a designer. And however long your career lasts, you never really stop learning. The good news is that there’s a lot of free help and resources out there. So in this post, we gather together the best typography-related ebooks, tools, cheatsheets and games to aid you in your continuing typographical journey. We've separated each category into its own page to help you navigate your way through this whopping roundup. First up on this page: ebooks. There’s nothing like a good book to really get you diving deep into a subject. And with so many free ebooks around, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to improve your knowledge and skillset. Here are five of our favourites. 01. Type Classification ebook Learn all about the main type classificationsIf you want to learn the fundamentals of typographical classifications, then this 27-page ebook is a good start. Created by Just Creative – the design studio and graphic design blog of Jacob Cass – it’s a reference guide to 10 broad classifications, namely Humanist, Garalde, Didone, Transitional, Lineal, Mechanistic, Blackletter, Decorative, Script and Manual. 02. The Vignelli Canon The Vignelli Canon sets out Massimo Vignelli’s guidelines for using typographyMassimo Vignelli (1931-2014) was one of the 20th century’s most famous graphic designers. In this classic book, which Vignelli made available in free PDF form in 2009, he sets out his guidelines for using typography in graphic design. 03. Professional Web Typography Truong's ebook is all about online typographyAnyone who needs to get their head around using typography on the web should make a beeline for this 2016 book by professional web designer Donny Truong, director of design and web services at Antonin Scalia Law School. It sets out an overview of how type works online, and outlines the author’s process for selecting fonts and typesetting on the web. 04. Practical Responsive Typography Darlo Calonaci's book offers fundamentals and examples of responsive type Written by Darlo Calonaci and published by Packt, Practical Responsive Typography outlines the fundamentals of web typography and explains how to make it work with responsive web design. Including code examples so you can put what you learn into practice, this is a must-read for web designers. Earlier this year, Packt teamed up with us to offer the ebook version to Creative Bloq readers as a free download: you’ll find full details here. 05. Fontology Fonts.com is behind this comprehensive workbook of fontsMany font foundries and font retailers have written their own ebooks to help users get to grips with typography. And one of our favourites is Fontology, from Fonts.com. Structured as a workbook, it covers topics including type history, type families, type anatomy, text typography, web typography, display typography, type choices, numbers, signs and symbols. It's a great self-learning tool for beginners and a handy reference and refresher for professionals. Next page: Free typography tools One thing the global design community is pretty good at is giving back to others. So there are a ton of tools and apps out there on the web, free for you to use to boost your typography prowess. Here are five we heartily recommend. 06. Type Zebra Type Zebra lets you to test out different fonts by typing on screenMade by Chilean agency UX Ready, Type Zebra is a browser-based app that allows you to test out different fonts simply by typing on screen. Use the top nav to choose between local fonts, Google fonts and Edge fonts, write your text below (or just use the supplied dummy text) and then choose your font from the left-hand nav. 07. Font Pair Pair Google fonts easilyThe brainchild of Hayden Mills, a design student at Indiana University, Font Pair aims to help designers pair Google Fonts together quickly and effectively. It basically aggregates a list of the most popular font pairs together in one place, and lets you try them out via editable dummy text. The top menu handily groups all the pairs together in six combinations, such as Sans-Serif/Serif, Cursive/Serif, Serif/Serif, and so on. All in all, it’s a lot simpler and quicker than spending hours searching through Google Fonts manually. 08. Try.typography.com Have fun playing with variations within each typefaceAnother font tester, this browser-based app comes from renowned type foundry Hoefler & Co. It basically lets you choose from H&C’s catalogue and see what each font looks like at different sizes, with different line spacing, using a handy set of sliders. You can also really start to drill down by turning on and off specific details such as ‘short-tailed Q’ and ‘unjoined % sign’. 09. Font Flame Which font pairing will make you swipe right?It’s easy to spend your whole career relying on the same, safe font pairings. But Font Flame tries to prompt you to expand your horizons and experiment with new and different combinations. Dubbing itself ‘Tinder for font pairing’, it serves you up a continuous stream of font pairings you may not have considered, and asks you to ‘Love’ or ‘Hate’ them. All fonts come from Google Fonts, and you can review your favourites when you’re done. 10. Fontjoy Fontjoy is an intelligent free service for font pairingFontjoy steps things up a notch, by using deep machine learning to make things more methodical than Font Flame's random pairings. It’s still very easy to use, though. Just use the slider to determine what level of contrast you want between the fonts, and click on the Generate button to create a new font pairing. You can also click the ‘lock’ icon to lock fonts you like, edit the text, and choose a font manually. Next page: Free font identification services One of the most common questions you see posted on design forums is “Can anyone identify this font?” But before bothering a human, we’d urge you to first try one of these automated font identification services. They’re by no means infallible, but they should at least provide you with some handy hints to get you further on your way. 11. WhatTheFont WhatTheFont is a phone app and desktop siteFirst launched by MyFonts in 2011, WhatTheFont is a free iPhone app for identifying the fonts in a photo, print ad, poster or web graphic. Take a picture with your phone and the app will tell you what font or fonts are being used in it. There’s also a browser version of the app. 12. Matcherator Drag and drop, upload or paste an image URL to scan its fontsFont Squirrel offers a free font identification service called Matcherator. Just drag an image onto the box (or add the image URL) and it will ask you to crop in on the area containing the text. Once you’ve done that, Matcherator will identify fonts that match your image, and where you can get them from. 13. Identifont Identifont has a huge, free to use, library of fontsSince its launch in 2000, browser tool Identifont has been allowing you to identify fonts in a huge variety of ways. The world’s largest independent library of digital fonts and font families on the web, it allows you to identify fonts by appearance; to find fonts by name; to discover picture or symbol fonts; and to search for fonts by designer or publisher. 14. WhatFont tool Just hover and click on web page text to see the font usedNot to be confused with WhatTheFont (number 11 in this list), the WhatFont tool is the creation of Chengyin Liu, an engineer at Airbnb. It’s a quick and easy way to find what fonts are used on a web page without all that tedious mucking about in Firebug or Webkit Inspector. Just install the Chrome or Safari extension and then click the WhatFont button on any web page to find the information you require. 15. Type Sample Type Sample is a free extension or bookmarkletType Sample is a tool for identifying and sampling web fonts that’s currently being built by Justin Van Slembrouck and Paul Barnes-Hoggett. Anyone can use the bookmarklet and save three samples for free, but to save an unlimited number, it's $5 a year. Either drag the bookmarklet up to your bookmarks bar, or install the Chrome extension to get started. Next page: Free typography cheatsheets The older we get, the more we learn. But just to keep us on our toes, nature also teases us by making it more difficult to retrieve information from our ageing memories, especially if we're tired. So it can be very handy to have a well-ordered cheatsheet to hand. Here are five great examples. 16. Typewolf typography cheatsheet The correct use of double and single apostrophes is explained, along with much moreLaunched by Colorado designer Jeremiah Shoaf in 2013, Typewolf has grown into a fantastically useful collection of font-related resources for designers. And one of the highlights of the site is this brilliant cheatsheet, which sets out a lot of great info on the proper use of typographic characters. Even seasoned designers will find this a useful reference to keep bookmarked. 17. The State of Web Type Keep up with which typographic features currently are and aren't supported onlineBrowser implementation of typographic features is constantly and quickly evolving. So it’s great to be able to keep tabs on the state of play via one central resource. Designed by Jake Giltsoff and maintained by Bram Stein, The State of Web Type offers a comprehensive guide to what’s supported where, from alternative fractions to terminal forms. 18. Type Terms The Type Terms cheatsheet by Supremo explains the fundamentals of typographical terminology beautifullyLooking for an animated cheatsheet? Us neither. But this creation by Dan Heywood, a designer at Manchester web agency Supremo, is still pretty awesome. Aimed at both typography beginners and more experienced designers looking for a refresher, Type Terms is a brilliantly interactive run-through of the fundamentals of type terminology. 19. The Art of Mixing Typefaces: Google Fonts Edition The infographic specialises in Google FontsAs a print company specialising in leaflets and flyers, FastPrint knows a thing about fonts. And so it has produced this great cheat sheet to how well 20 popular Google Fonts work together. It’s based on inspiration from a handout that was created by the International Journal of Typography in 1992. 20. The A-Z of Typographic Terms This online guide is a great typography jargon busterFounded in 1997, Fontsmith is a boutique font foundry based in London. And it has created this rather wonderful cheatsheet setting out an A-Z of typography terms. This guide sets out everything you need to know about font-related jargon, from anti-aliasing to x-height. Next page: Free typography games Practice makes perfect, and it’s only by constantly pushing our typographic skills forward that we improve them. But if your day job isn’t providing that practice, then why not try one of these fun games; all enjoyable, some even addictive? 21. Kern Type How did this farcical attempt score 8 marks?Kerning – the art of adjusting the space between letters – is a skill every designer must master. So why not practise using this fun game made by interaction designer Mark MacKay for his peer-to-peer educational website, Method of Action? You can use the mouse on your computer or your fingers on an iPad to tweak the letters, and the results are compared to those of a skilled typographer and scored accordingly. 22. Type Connection Never has type pairing been so attractiveType Connection is billed as a ‘typographic dating game’. In other words, it’s a fun way to learn how to pair typefaces. Created by Aura Seltzer, a senior product designer for the New York Times, it presents you with a series of familiar workhorse typefaces and asks you determine which work best with which. 23. Shape Type We did it wrong on purpose, obviouslyShape Type is a game of letter shaping also created by MacKay, the developer behind Kern Type. You’re presented with 10 letterforms, each from well-known typefaces, and your challenge is to reshape them into the correct shape, using either your mouse or finger. 24. Rag Time Cheers! We like the heady rewards for each effortRagged text is an often neglected aspect of good typography, so this game from Boston agency Fathom Information Design attempts to right the balance. You’re challenged you to fix a bad example of ragged text against the clock and, as the title suggests, there’s some glorious ragtime music to chivvy you along. 25. The Rather Difficult Font Game A truly tricky type quiz!One for true type nerds, this fiendishly difficult quiz from the I Love Typography blog will challenge your font-related smarts like nothing else. Created by Finnish designer Kari Pätilä, this is free to play on the web, although the iOS app costs £1.99. View the full article