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Creating meaningful and beautiful CSS animations can be time-consuming and difficult, but luckily there are some great resources out there that you can use to jumpstart your creative process, and explore different areas in depth. This resource collection includes all the best CSS animation libraries. Pick one that suits your project and start straight away, or use them as a starting point to create something custom for your brand. There are also some handy crib sheets and shortcuts to supplement your learning. 01. Animate.css This library includes 76 essential CSS animations This library bring together no fewer than 76 animations, all created in CSS and ready to use. Simply reference the CSS file, and when you add classes to an element, the animation happens. This works best when adding or removing classes using JavaScript. The library is an impressively small file size when minified and gzipped, but if you don't want to load the entire thing into your site, the project is also a great source of inspiration. Compiled by Dan Eden, this library includes almost every CSS animation you could need. 02. Hover.css Hover.css focuses on button interaction animations Similar to Animate.css, Hover.css is a collection of CSS effects you can use in your projects. This library was created specifically for button interaction animations. The library can be downloaded in vanilla CSS, Sass and Less, allowing these animations to fit into any project. The library has almost every animation you might need for interaction. 03. CSShake CSShake focuses on shaking animations CSShake is a library of CSS animations dedicated to making elements shake. The library has a number of classes you can add to elements to apply one of many different shake animations. The animations use keyframes and utilise the transform property to create these un-ignorable, sometimes crazy or violent-looking animations. 04. Obnoxious.css Want to know how not to do CSS animation? Obnoxious.css was created by Tim Holman and is exactly as the name suggests. The library explores what is possible with CSS animation, but illustrates perfectly what you should not be doing with CSS animations. While presented as a product-ready animation library (and it is), it is intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Brace yourself. 05. Replainless.CSS These animations are super-fast Replainless.css in a small and lightweight CSS animation library with a focus on creating animations that do not cause a repaint from the browser (so long as they’re used correctly). By not requiring a reflow or repaint, these animations are super-fast and performant! 06. Animate Plus This animation library is great for mobile sites Stripe is well known for its beautifully animated product pages. One of the masterminds behind these, Benjamin De Cock, has created a CSS and SVG animation library that is performant and lightweight, making it particularly well suited to mobile. 07. Motion UI Powerful animators like Motion UI are useful CSS tools This Sass library from ZURB makes it easier to apply custom animations to your UI. It's a little more involved than some of the other libraries on this list, but very powerful. You can create and tweak animations to meet your needs, then invoke them using JavaScript. 08. BounceJS Use this tool to create your own library of animations This is a useful tool if you want to create your own library of animations. It has lots of fun presets and takes the heavy lifting out of writing complex animation code. It uses advanced transform operations to create the animations, which can then be added to your own animation CSS file and applied as you wish. 09. GreenSock Animation Platform Go further with GreenSock GSAP is a JavaScript animation framework. If you're creating more complex animations (such as in banner ads or hero images), GSAP offers a set of tools for handling playback, SVG tweening and more. This is great if you want to go further than what can be done in CSS animations, but does present a bit of a learning curve. To find out more, take a look at our guide to GSAP. 10. Easing functions cheatsheet Easing functions are easier with this cheatsheet Timing functions specify the rate of change over time, and this site helps you choose the right one for your animation or transition. It features a gallery with Bézier curves where you can preview them, and quickly copy the code. Read more: Understand the 12 principles of animation How to debug web animations Create and animate SVG Polygons View the full article

Great results are produced by people who know how to get things done. If you want to be the one who knows how to get the most out of others, you need to grab the Project Management Professional Certification Training Bundle. You can get it on sale now for 98% off the retail price! To prove your skills as a project manager and to make sure you’re learning all the skills you need for this career, dive in to the 10 in-depth courses of the Project Management Professional Certification Training Bundle. It will provide you with over 110 hours of knowledge about project management. This bundle is built to prepare you to manage your way to success regardless of your field, and will make sure you’re ready to prove your skills with industry-recognised certifications. The Project Management Professional Certification Training Bundle is valued at $2,990 but you can save a whopping 98% off the retail price right now. That's an incredible amount of savings for bundle that will help get you into the career you want, so grab it today! About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at:deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: Top tips for nailing project management Best project management software Manage your projects better View the full article

Business skills don't always come naturally to creative people. But they're a necessary evil if you want to be successful and profitable. The good news is, you don't need an MBA to get this side of things nailed – there are some straightforward ways to sharpen your business acumen, whether you're a freelancer or just setting up shop as a small studio. Read on to discover 10 ways to be more business-savvy as a designer... 01. Control your cashflow Balancing the books isn't top of anyone's wish list when there's designing to be done, but it's essential to the success of your business. What comes in and goes out needs to be managed carefully. Every month, review your cashflow and forecast for both the next three months and the next six. Make a list of all the invoices that need to be sent in those two time periods, and ensure you're hitting your monthly and quarterly cashflow targets. Online accounting tools such as Xero and Less Accounting are good places to start, although it's often worth getting a 'real' accountant too. 02. Stay on top of invoicing If you're working on a fixed-cost basis, ask for a percentage upfront – ideally, invoice for half the agreed fee before you start. This may not always be possible, but it's additional security, especially on long jobs for slow-paying clients. Send your final invoice right after finishing the job. Keep in mind that a client needs time to make payment funds available – it doesn't hurt to send the invoice before payment is due. After all, the sooner it’s sent, the sooner you can chase if it's unpaid. Finance tools for freelancers, such as Solo or FreeAgent, can help you stay on top of multiple projects at once, and you can even send invoices from within the software. Remember: if you don't invoice, you don't get paid. Also read: 7 pricing models – and which you should choose 03. Know your contracts It isn't always easy to protect your rights, but a few key legal principles can help you use your work to its full potential, while avoiding exploitation. Sending out your own T&Cs ensures that the terms under which you work are in your own interests. Make sure you have a 'retention of title' clause in there – this means no rights are transferred until you've received full payment. Include a 'cancellation and rejection fee' clause, too – or check the client's policy. It's reasonable to ask for 25 per cent on signing the contract, 50 per cent at roughs with no rights transferring, and 100 per cent at final artwork. If you don't provide your own T&Cs, remember that legally you'll be deemed to have accepted whatever terms the client usually operates under. 10 contract commandments every designer should know 04. Understand copyright and IP law Copyright is the right to copy or reproduce a given work. For a work to be afforded copyright, it has to be original – but it only protects finished work, not ideas. The creator is the first owner of copyright from the moment they make their mark, until 70 years after their death. But copyright can be bought, sold and bequeathed, and is separate from the original work. You can own one without the other. Freelancers usually own the copyright in their work. If you're on the payroll or work at a client's premises, the client owns the copyright unless otherwise agreed. In the US, however, clients own the copyright of freelance commissions in any contract using the words 'work for hire'. Try to avoid such contracts if you can. Trademarks are legally registered symbols or words that distinguish your goods and services from your competitors', and prevent them using anything too similar. Generic descriptions of your business don't count – it's more about defining your brand. Patents are more concerned with ideas, or specifically how something works. They are usually applied to products or software, and grant exclusive rights to the 'invention' for a limited time, in exchange for publicly disclosing it. You must apply for a patent, and pay a fee. 05. Ensure you're insured It's often a good idea to take out insurance against things like property damage, employer's liability, public and product liability, and commercial legal protection – it's worth doing some research to see what applies to you. A 'warranties and indemnities' clause in a contract guarantees that your work is original, and all necessary permissions have been sorted. The client doesn't want to be financially liable for a copyright legal battle with a third party, after all. Check the wording of these clauses, and don't agree to indemnify against 'claims' or 'alleged breaches'. You should only indemnify against a 'breach'. A client faced with a claim may choose to settle out of court and look to you for payment, whether an infringement has occurred or not, and you won't have the chance to defend yourself. It cuts both ways: if a client provides you with visuals or reference materials to use in a project, make sure they're indemnifying you in the same way. 06. Claim your due royalties Royalties can be a great source of repeat income off the back of a project that uses your designs on sellable products – such as clothing, prints, books or music. The usual royalty fee is five to 10 per cent of the retail price. If the client is on a tight budget and unable to offer much of a royalty, request an escalator clause where the royalty increases after a certain number of units are sold. Make sure there's a reversion clause, too – this ensure the rights transfer back to you if the item goes out of print. Check you have the rights to inspect the accounts. If you think you're not being paid properly, you can instruct an accountant to investigate. This is very important for lengthy license periods as royalties can be a substantial form of income. 07. Read up on employee rights If you're recruiting staff, you need to be up-to-scratch with employment law. This is a complex area, and specific legal requirements vary depending on the country in which your studio is based, so it's a good idea to consult a lawyer or HR specialist to help in drawing up your policies. Working hours need to be reasonable (in the UK, a maximum average of 48 hours per week, although employees can opt out), and most countries require a decent holiday allowance (in the UK, a minimum of 5.6 weeks per year, including public holidays – although there is no statutory minimum in the US) and sick pay. Flexible working is increasingly popular, and employees have the right to request it. You can choose whether to accept it or not, although you have a legal duty to accept reasonable flexible working requests from certain employees, such as those with children up to 16 years old, or with particular disabilities. You also have legal obligations regarding maternity and paternity leave – in the UK, all pregnant employees are entitled to statutory or enhanced maternity pay, while in the US, at least 12 weeks of leave is mandatory. 08. Deal with employee difficulties You also need clear policies in place to deal with any grievances that may arise. Make sure staff are aware of what's required of them, and what is and isn't acceptable. Good performance management means disciplinary action should usually be avoidable. If you need to let a member of staff go, there are strict guidelines to follow. You need a legitimate reason to fire someone – 'not performing well' is not enough – and making an employee redundant has a different set of requirements. Understand the law concerning unfair or constructive dismissal, document everything, and communicate the process thoroughly to the employee concerned at all stages. Sick leave is another key thing to consider. Set out a comprehensive absence policy, make sure your team has access to it, and monitor all sick leave – not just long-term absence. Make sure you know who is absent, when and why. This will help if you need to address any frequent absentees and can also flag up problems in your business: after all, you have a duty of care to ensure workload is acceptable and the environment is healthy. 09. Get to grips with tax Nobody likes dealing with tax, but whether you're a freelancer or a small business owner, you can't (legally) avoid doing so. Depending on your profit margin, the amount you ultimately pay can be small, or very significant. Save a proportion of your profit every month (around 20-25 per cent ideally) so you can pay these bills when they come in. It may be tempting to use this money to prop up poor cashflow, which can be fine temporarily, if you replace it as soon as you can. If it becomes normal practice you could face a lot of stress when a hefty bill from the tax man arrives and you've got no money to pay it with. In many countries there are two types of tax that will affect creative businesses: income tax, and corporation tax. Sole traders and partnerships are charged income tax on their profits, after things like equipment costs, rent, phone and other office expenses have been deducted (read our tax return tips for freelancers for more about this). Know what you're entitled to claim for, and make sure you do so as it all has a direct effect on your taxable profit. An accountant can be invaluable here, and will often more than offset their own (tax deductible) fee. 10. Know when to register for VAT Limited companies are charged corporate tax on profits, and the employees of that company are then charged income tax on their income. As with sole traders and partnerships, limited companies are only taxed on their profits. In the UK, if your business turns over £85,000 or more in a financial year – regardless of profit margin – you'll also have to register for VAT. If you think you might hit that target during the year, you can voluntarily register beforehand. If you're VAT-registered, you have to charge your customers for VAT (currently 20 per cent in the UK) on top of your services. You can also claim VAT back for business-related purchases. This is all then paid on to the government every quarter. Bear in mind there's no VAT earning threshold if neither you nor your business is based in the UK, but you are supplying goods and services to the country – you must register as soon as you do so. Related links: 10 skills graphic designers need to get ahead 8 ways to make more money in 2018 10 huge graphic design trends to know for 2018 View the full article

If you're a busy freelancer working from home and your office space is in need of a bit of tender loving care, style expert and author Abigail Ahern has lots of of advice to help transform your home office. Here are five of Ahern's top tips for creating a productive workspace... 10 things nobody tells you about going freelance 01. Get a curved screen Curved screens are not only aesthetically more appealing, they also wrap you up in the world you are working in, making your studio or home office feel totally immersive. "For me, my day job is obviously incredibly visual so I like a big screen for designing products, creating moodboards and going through my latest imagery," says Ahern. Also read: The best 4K monitors for designers 2018 02. Create 'zones' "Comfortable seating and having different zones are super important for home offices. No one likes to be sat at the desk all day, so have a separate nook where you can take calls, read through something, or just take five minutes." 03. Decorate the walls "Pop up some motivational artwork on your walls. Being self-employed or working from home it can sometimes be hard to keep on track. I've got Superman facing me from my desk, so whenever the going gets tough I can feel inspired to get back to it!" 04. De-clutter your space "Keep your office space tidy: shut away clutter, and try to keep cables and wires to a minimum. In my studio, I added custom built-in cupboards to hide away the printer, scanner and files." 05. Choose a fragrance It might not be top of your list, but Ahern appeals to her sense of smell for added motivation. "Every room needs a scent to complete it. I burn a combination of essential oils in my studio." "Fragrances can really influence our mood, so I opt for something invigorating in my work space, for example rosemary is credited with improving memory and promoting clear thinking or peppermint is like a double shot of espresso – enlivening and motivating." Related articles: 85% of freelance graphic designers were asked to work for free last year 6 must-have skills for young web developers 10 beautiful paper portfolios to inspire you View the full article

You're reading New Web Developer’s tool for hassle-free coding – Wix Code, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Do you love the design and convenience of a website builder, but sometimes feel the lack of control? Web developers, Wix Code is for you. The new tool combines the design of a website builder and quick start-up time with all the customizations and scripting that you want to add on your own. It’s a […] View the full article

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

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

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

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

Icons may be tiny, but they can have a big impact. A great icon can catch a person’s eye and stick with them. If you need the ideal icons for your next project or just want to give your existing projects a bit of a refresh, grab the 2018 Icon Starter Kit. It's on sale now for just $9.99 (approx. £7). The 2018 Icon Starter Kit is a great source for professionally-designed icons. You’ll find over 1,000 icons with modern themes and the flat design style that is popular with many designers. You can use these icons for any project you’re working on, with tons of styles to choose from. Grab icons with themes like Fintech, Internet of Things, cryptocurrencies, and more. These icons are great for any project and will be sure to catch the eye of your users and visitors. You can get the 2018 Icon Starter Pack on sale for just $9.99 (approx. £7). That saves you 94% off the retail price. For any designer, it’s an offer that is too good to pass up, so grab this deal today. Scroll through the gallery below to see some of the icons included in this pack. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at:deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: 36 sets of free icons 5 killer icon design tips 31 stunning iOS app icon designs View the full article

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WordPress is one of the most popular tools on the web thanks to its flexibility to create everything from simple sites to some of the most elaborate. Learn the skills you need to master this popular platform with PressShack University WordPress Training. You can get lifetime access to these training tools that are on sale now for 96% off the retail price. WordPress is a great tool for any website. Whether you're trying to get your website up and running quickly or want to build something more detailed, WordPress can handle it. PressShack University Wordpress Training offers you more than 39 hours of educational courses that will arm you with expert knowledge on how to make the most of the very malleable platform. Pick up tricks of the trade, must-have information while building your design skills – and there's always new information being added all the time. You can get a lifetime of access to PressShack University WordPress Training on sale for just $39 (approx. £27). That's a saving of 96% off the retail price for this invaluable training. Don't miss out, grab it today. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at:deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: Power a blog using the WordPress API 25 brilliant WordPress tutorials 32 best free WordPress themes View the full article

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

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

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

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

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Over 2,000 WordPress sites are infected as part of a keylogger campaign that leverages an old malicious script. View the full article