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In 2015 the art director of UK-based Lucid Games, Chris Davie, contacted me to help them design 10 independent vehicles for a 4x4 ground-based combat game to be published on PlayStation 4. The best 3D modelling software 2018 After I made a proof of concept for them, they gave me the go-ahead on nine other cars. In this Cinema 4D tutorial, I'll show you my general approach on one of the vehicles. 01. Make a simple sketch Making a rough sketch will help you get your proportions right Before starting to work in 3D, I first make a simple sketch of my idea in Photoshop. This is a good way to begin, as it's nice to have the size and some proportions ready before we start modelling. I suggest that you try to put a good amount of time into this initial step, rather than just starting completely from scratch in 3D. 02. Set up your scene Working in real-world sizes will make the rendering stage easier Once I set up the background with my sketch I can go ahead and scale everything to the correct sizes. It's best to work with real-world sizes as this comes in handy when rendering later. An easy way to do this is to think of, as an example, how large the wheels should be in real life. Just take a circle spline object and type in the required size (that you considered before). In the viewport preferences you can manually scale up the background image to the preferred size – referring to the circle spline as a reference. 03. Block out geometry Block out your geometry using whatever method works best for you As we now have our scene set up nicely, we can go ahead and block everything out. It's basically like laying everything out for the first time in 3D. There's no need for any special techniques here; just do it the way you are most comfortable with. You even can use primitives and stack everything together as you like. 04. Activate shadows Turn on shadows in your viewport for a better idea of how your model's progressing A nice little helper when fiddling out a design is activating visible shadow in your OpenGL viewport. Just use a simple light and activate Shadows in the light source as well as in your viewport. Position it so that the light source casts a nice shadow. It's fast, effective and without rendering you can get some good results in the very first stage of modelling and design. 05. Placeholder objects Use placeholders for any elements you'd rather work on later If you are set with your blocked-out design and everything is approved by yourself or by your client you can go ahead with detailing. I leave out the wheels at this stage because I normally do them towards the end. At this stage you can use placeholder wheels from other projects if you like, or just use dummy objects or primitives for this. 06. Model the cockpit Follow these tips for building a cockpit Using the reference drawing, I start to create the cockpit. The method described below works best for me, but there may be other alternatives that may be better suited for your way of working, or that may result in cleaner meshes – but as this is just for a design I am satisfied with the result. The first step is drawing a spline with the shape of the side cockpit. Then draw in the window shapes and merge everything down to one spline object. Next, select the edge points and chamfer them on at a point. When you have done this, duplicate the spline object and put the two splines into a Loft NURBS object. Move one of the splines away from the first spline object to gain thickness. Now you can use Fillet Cap in the attributes of the Loft object. To make your model look more interesting, you can scale down the window shapes of the second spline object. Simply select the spline points (you must be in point mode) and scale them down a bit. Next put this side of the cockpit into a symmetry object and you're ready to go for the top section. Repeat these same steps with the top and position it correctly over the sides. As for the windows, just use simple planes that you place inside the windows. They don't need to be cubic objects as we don't want to make them translucent in the end. When we're done with this, group everything that belongs to the cockpit together into one Null Object and name it correctly. 07. Main body parts Make sure you keep your blockout and sketch to use as reference Now we are heading over to the main body, focusing first on the front fender objects, where the lights will be positioned too. Always keep the blockout and the sketch as a reference. Drop in a primitive object (cube) and make it relatively flat so that it corresponds with the blockout object. Use the cut tool to make cuts at the position where you want to 'bend' the cube. Select the points and 'bend' down the cubic shape following your blockout template. Make sure to angle the points at the front and where you cut it down a little bit. Use some polyextrudes to make the fender look more appealing. Bevel the corners of the cube and than afterwards bevel the surrounding edge from the top and bottom surface. 08. Detailing Use booleans to cut out the headlamp holes For the holes where the front lights will sit in, I simply used booleans. Just position the negative objects and subtract them with the object. Check 'Create single object' and 'Select intersections'. After converting the boolean with the 'c' hotkey you can double-click the new edge selection icon which appears in the object manager. You can now use this selection to bevel the edge. Again, group everything together within a null and use a symmetry. Then, simply follow the same technique as described above for the other parts. 09. Model small props Make your model more interesting by adding assorted props To make the surface a bit more striking I made a small amount of props which I placed at some significant and interesting points. These are mostly cylindrical objects, on which I used some polyextrudes and bevels. 10. Suspension system Work out a basic suspension system, then jazz it up a bit Keeping in mind that the vehicle will be fully movable, I had to figure out a basic suspension system for the wheels. Therefore, I first made some basic beams out of a cube object. To give it more visual interest I modelled in some holes, in order to make it appear more technical and also lightweight. I used Inner Extrude and the Bridge tool, which works really well in Cinema 4D. Afterwards I added some more extra details like springs and cables, which can be easily done with Sweep NURBS. 11. Wheel design attempt 1 You want your wheels to look good whether they're spinning or noit For the wheels I was aiming for a high-tech pattern. I was also keeping in mind that the wheels will spin when driving, so I had to make a pattern that looks appealing while the wheels are spinning. As I had to do one wheel design for each vehicle (ten in total) I knew this would be a bit challenging. As I had done some wheels before for other designs, there were two different approaches for modelling the wheels. The first approach is simply building up one piece of the overall pattern and cloning it with a cloner object or an array – this is a very sleek and fast method. 12. Wheel design attempt 2 Try cutting your wheels from a cylindrical object The other technique is utilising a cylindrical object and using the sections with the help of Inner Extrude and Extrude to make something like a pattern. You can split up poly selections and use them as new additional pattern objects, for example. Alternatively you can use HyperNURBS to smooth everything down. If you do so, you need to set some additional cuts with the knife (Loop Cut), otherwise it will be too rounded. 13. Add interest by filling up the body Spend extra time on building the bits players will see the most of As the viewer will see the vehicle from the rear during most of the game, I had to fill in some extra details in order to make it look interesting. As I had done some stuff before, I made use of some of the geometry and just filled in the additional elements. 14. Save time and re-use parts Always recycle useful parts if you can Be aware that, even within the existing model you are creating, you can make use of some of the parts again. For example, I used some of the front fenders as mudguards for the wheels. 15. Simple studio setup It's not hard to create a basic studio setup for shooting your model I decided to use two light setups and settings for the final look. For the studio setup I created a standard studio background. There are many ways to create this. For example, you can draw a spline and rotate it 180 degrees within a Lathe NURBS object. I placed some area lights around the object and used an HDRI to lighten everything a bit. This also gives you some extra nice reflections, instead of merely having the reflections of the area lights. 16. Outdoor scene setup An outdoor setup is another way to show off your work to best effect For the other light setup I thought of creating an outside scenery in the desert. Nothing complicated as I had to be fast in this job. I used a simple Octane Daylight object. I added a ground plane and used some real displacement shaders. This gives you really nice results that look fantastic even in close-ups. 17. Add emotional images Play with background imagery and focus to bring the shot to life To add some emotion to the scene I played a bit with the sun size and added some volume fog. In combination with long focal length (100-500mm, like a real-world tele) you can get a very pleasant effect. Be sure to play around with the f-stop as well, but don't exaggerate it. It can look like a miniature if you use the wrong f-stop values! 18. Octane Dirt node Create a weathering effect using inverse ambient occlusion Since I did not do any UV Maps, I used inverse ambient occlusion to create a weathering effect on the edges of some parts. This is fully procedural and works great in Octane with the Dirt node. You can also combine some noises or a grunge texture to break the used edge up a bit more. 19. V-ray Dirt VRayDirt is another great way to make your model look lived-in This also works the same way within V-Ray (or any other renderer), although sadly there is no node tree (yet) for setting up shaders like in Octane, but you can get almost the same results. Just use the V-Ray PowerShader and VRayDirt, be sure to check inverse ambient occlusion and you are ready to go. Like in Octane you can add shaders or textures to bring it a bit more to life. 20. Render settings Octane's default path tracing settings should do the job most of the time For rendering in Octane I used the default path tracing settings – this works for me most of the time. For post-production I made use of the Octane render layer settings. Be sure to double-check everything you would like to have for your post work, and you're ready to render. 21. Post-production decals Rather than adding decals to the actual model, fake them in Photoshop A fast way to apply decals to your render, as long as you have one perspective, is by applying them in Photoshop. It's much faster than dropping them on your model in your 3D app, as you don't have to create a material, alpha, spec map and so on. So if you have one single shot, this is a real time saver. Just find some decals you like on Google and drag them on your model. Try out some fill methods and choose the one which looks best. Use the Transform tool in Photoshop to adjust the decals to the correct perspective of the model. You can use some geometry parts as guides for the transform. Once you have placed it, you can used a grunge brush to make some imperfections. You can also use the layer transparency. 22. Post-production general Don't overdo things with your ambient occlusion map If you are set with your decals, you can do some adjustments with the help of the material id pass. Normally I just do some levels adjustments on a few parts. Sometimes an ambient occlusion map can come in handy. But don't exaggerate this either – just use a small amount of transparency on this layer and multiply it. This article was originally published in issue 230 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Buy issue 230 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: How to break into movie concept art Tips for drawing anime-style vehicles Concept design tips for artists View the full article

Awwwards is the leading conference for UX designers, and its 2018 event is bringing you more than 20 inspirational talks from design visionaries and innovative thinkers. This year, you can follow all the action as it happens on the Adobe Live stream, which will run from 8-9 February from 10am CET. Several Awwwards speakers will be joining the Adobe team discuss UX/UI industry trends and share their tips for good experience design, as well as working live in front of the camera and answering questions from the online audience. Watch Adobe Live from the AWWWARDS 2018 Those sharing their expertise include leading lights in the field of UX and virtual reality, digital visionaries and design professionals such as Tobias Ahlin (experience design director at Minecraft), Jeany Ngo (experience designer at Airbnb), designer and entrepreneur Michael Flarup, and Irina Spicaka (senior UX/UI designer at Holoplot). Plus, you’ll get a sneak peek of a brand new Adobe XD feature, plus free access to three exclusive collections of icons, designed by some of the world’s top icon designers, as a special thank you from Adobe. One talk worth setting a reminder for is Khoi Vinh’s keynote Never Not Striving: Things Designers Could Be Doing Better, which will take place at 16.10 CET on 9 February – watch it in the livestream above. Khoi is a lead contributor to Adobe XD, and has been instrumental in design's transformation into a key element of modern business over the past two decades. Follow Adobe on Twitter for live updates from the event and to ask questions during the live stream using #AdobeLive and #AwwwardsBerlin. View the full article

If you want to create incredible 3D art, you need the right 3D modelling software. Whether you’re a designer or illustrator looking to up-skill this year, or you’re a seasoned 3D artist looking to upgrade your existing tools, there's a program out there to suit you – and you’ll find it in this list. When it comes to choosing which 3D modelling software to go with, there are some key considerations to first bear in mind. As a general rule, any kind of 3D work will require around 16GB RAM and up. Most of the 3D software applications here require roughly 5GB of disc space to install, but you need to take rendering into account too. If you're taking your digital art seriously, then investing in a graphics card with a fast processor and a lot of memory is highly recommended. This way you're much less likely to experience a lag when displaying complex 3D scenes. Read on for the best 3D modelling software packages the market has to offer... Ask any 3D artist what the best 3D modelling software is, and most will choose Autodesk Maya. Used by many leading VFX and animation studios, including Pixar, Maya's robust set of modelling tools are unrivalled. It's a seriously impressive and powerful piece of kit, which means it's also one of the most complex and hard-to-learn. And it also comes with a pretty hefty price tag. However, for those who have the time, skill and patience to master Maya, it's the best 3D modelling software around and it's worth every penny. Want to get started with Maya? Our selection of mighty Maya tutorials will help you take a step in the right direction. Subscribe to Maya Download a free trial of Maya If you're dedicated to a new career in 3D and have some money behind you, then you should consider investing in Maxon's Cinema 4D. It's a professional, complex piece of software, with which you can create some show-stopping work – and it's also the app with the smallest learning curve. Perfect for creating motion graphics, Cinema 4D boasts fantastic interaction with Adobe After Effects. And there's an absolutely huge library of how-to videos online – including our list of brilliant Cinema 4D tutorials – to help you go from newbie to pro in no time. As user-friendly programs go, you won't find a better piece of 3d modelling software for beginners. Perpetual licenses for this software don't come cheap, so make sure you take advantage of the try-before-you-buy option, which gives you 42 days to experiment for free. Maxon also offers short-term and student's licenses at a reduced cost. Buy Cinema 4D Download a free trial of Cinema 4D Cinema 4D R18 review If you're after some free 3D modelling software, you won't find better than Blender. The open-source program has been around for a long time now, and subsequently has an army of highly dedicated artists, teachers and enthusiasts behind its continued development. And boy, for an open-source project, have they created something special. Blender boasts a highly impressive 3D modelling toolset, and is considered a completely viable alternative to paid modelling programs. That said, it's a bit non-standard – so if you're thinking of upgrading to more expensive software endeavours at some point, you might face a steep learning curve. But it's a brilliant starting point for checking whether 3D floats your boat (we have a host of fantastic Blender tutorials to get started with elsewhere on the site). And it's capable of producing images and animations that are on par with just about any other 3D modelling software on the market. Download Blender 3ds Max is Autodesk's PC-only professional 3D computer graphics program. When it comes to 3D modelling, like its sister software Maya, 3ds Max also has a very robust toolset. However, if you are new to or an intermediate 3D artist, 3ds Max has a huge library of different modifiers, which can make the modelling process a little easier than Maya. However, like Maya, 3ds Max also comes at a considerable cost, but students can get the software for free and there is also a trial version available for 30 days. Subscribe to 3ds Max Download a free trial of 3ds Max As long as you can export geometry from the 3D modelling software you're using, you can also use it for 3D printing. But some programs lend themselves to it better than others. ZBrush, for example, is a popular choice among artists wanting to 3D print vinyl toys and action figures. So if you're familiar with the ZBrush toolset, we'd recommend using this 3D modelling software for 3D printing. But if not, the other softwares mentioned in this list are also highly capable of producing quality 3D prints, so stick to what you know. Buy ZBrush Download a free trial of ZBrush Related articles: How to get your first CG job How to create custom rig controls in Maya How to create a video game character in ZBrush View the full article

When you're drawing creatures, it's vital that they're believable. No matter how crazy your designs become, just remember that they must always be grounded in some way – usually through anatomy – if you want to keep your audience engaged. How to develop mythical creatures Here, I'll explain some tips I've learned about how to draw believable creatures, and how you can make sure your fantasy creatures look as real as possible. 01. Thumbnail creation Have fun with shapes when you're creating thumbnails A step that's often skipped in the design process – as well as in portfolios – is the thumbnail creation process. Chances are that you won't land on your best design right out of the gate. This is where thumbnail exploration comes into play with the addition of studying real-world reference. Don't worry about details at this stage. Instead, focus on shape language and just having fun with the shapes you're creating. By doing so, your final design will be that much more thought out and believable, and it'll have your passion for the creation process shining through. 02. Keep exploring Done loads of thumnails? Great, do some more You can never do too many thumbnail sketches. This stage is vital and ensures that you're exploring as many avenues as possible. A lot of times, we'll get a specific idea in our head and think that design is the final. Although this does happen on rare occasions, chances are you're far from landing that awesome final design. Thumbnail creation will ease the process and surprise you at the same time. That's why it's so fun! 03. Look beyond the norm for ideas A strong silhouette is a sign that a thumbnail's worth developing The first thumbnail that interests me is number 16. One of the important aspects about choosing thumbnails is finding an interesting silhouette. In this case, a multi-legged creature with a strange torso excites me and I go with it. I try to find silhouettes that don't follow standard shapes, which verge on the cliché. For instance, it's common to see creatures with hulking shoulders with small heads. There's nothing wrong with that; however, I'm aiming for a non-traditional design. 04. Outside the box A mix of uniqueness and familiarity can be a good combination Number 21 intrigues me, specifically because I never intended for my creature to look like fungus. The silhouette is working because we have a familiar shape while it still looks unexpected. Whenever I sketch creatures, I try to ensure there's a uniqueness with a touch of familiarity. But I'll go into more detail about familiarity in a later tip. With this thumbnail, I explore plant shapes and try to imagine how this creature will move and eat. Let's see what the third choice brings. 05. Real-world insects combined Other-worldly shapes can be worth exploring further, too This thumbnail intrigues me because it's a mix of insect shapes. Insects have been a major influence in my creature designs. In this particular case, I use shapes from crickets and spiders. The rear legs offer a unique shape, with them bowing outward and able to support the creature's weight as well as aiding in jumping. I'm also choosing this as the third thumbnail to develop because something about it says ‘other worldly' to me. It's a shape that's not common and should offer fun possibilities. Using unexpected shapes can turn into awesome designs down the road. 06. Head exploration Look at real-world animals if you need inspiration One of the most enjoyable stages in the creature design process is head exploration. Here, I'm exploring the first round of head designs. I know that I want something insect-like and creepy. So, I begin looking at references of Earth insects and arachnids. Whenever you're stuck and don't know where to go next in the design process, just take a good look at real-world animals. They offer all of the answers and give you clarity when coming up with new designs. 07. Maintaining the shape language Try to create a set of thumbnails that speak the same shape language It's important not to limit yourself when exploring with thumbnails. So I'm doing a second round of head studies just so I have a good number of ideas. It's easy to get carried away with random shapes and not-so-believable features. With these head studies, I make sure that all of the shapes stay within a unified shape language. For instance, number 5 looks like a combination of an earthworm's head and bark from a tree. I make sure that all of the shapes taper like a worm's head and the ends look like broken bark. 08. Head design finalisation Bring across your creature's personality as you refine the head Refining the head is so much fun. This is where you can really bring the creature's personality out. Here, you can see that I go into detail about the creature's face, functions and overall aesthetic. I go into the importance of call-outs in tip 12, but here you can see they're useful for describing a functional feature. And make sure that your creature has personality. This doesn't necessarily mean facial expressions, but the skull design, eyes, mouth, muscles and overall shape are very important. 09. Establishing anatomy Apply these three stages of anatomy design to your development process, and see how far you can push the believability of your imaginary creature… A) Muscles and tissue Sketch the creature's skeleton before adding muscles When thinking about your creature's anatomy, consider the bone structure first. This stage is often forgotten because we want to jump right into the cool skin textures and muscles. I sketch the creature's skeleton on the left followed by what the muscles will look like attached to the bones on the right. Now we have a clear indication of the muscle structure in front view. The skull should be drawn before any other bones because even the skull can show personality, which dictates the facial structure later on. B) Putting the legs on show An energetic rear view can help sell your design Next, I'm painting a rear view with lots of energy so that I can see this creature in action and what muscles are helping it push off the ground, as if it were running or attacking. Rear three-quarter views are just as important as front views in selling your design, because we're not limited to just one angle. I'm fading the arms off because they aren't the focal point here – the legs are. I want to make sure the legs get the attention they deserve. C) Combining anatomy elements Working out the tendons, ligaments and muscles will pump up your creature's believability Now, I go into detail about the tendons and muscles of the arms and then juxtapose that on to my original pencil sketch. I'm choosing the arm for the close-up because it's a complex array of tendons, ligaments and muscles. If you have a certain area of your creature that needs clarification, this becomes your chance to go into detail and ramp up the believability to your design. Because I've juxtaposed the muscle rendering on top of the pencil sketch, we can now see underlying anatomy. 10. Final design This design wins because of its unique silhouette Out of the three sketches I developed earlier, I'm choosing the third ideation because of the uniqueness of the silhouette. Proportions are key because it helps solidify a design. Its arms, legs, torso and head aren't too long or too short. The shapes are just the right size so we don't question something being out of place. This creature has unique proportions so I must make sure it remains believable using real-world reference. 11. Skin texture Your creature's skin texture can help tell its story Skin texture is extremely important because it adds realism to your creation. It also gives the viewer a close look at your creature's environment, eating habits and evolution. With skin texture, I'm figuring out what type of environment my creature lives in. And with this information, I can begin to tell its story. 12. Importance of call-outs Strong call-outs can give your creatures character and purpose Call-outs enable you to explain a certain feature about your creature. Movement, weaponry and feeding are just a small numbers of features you can have for your creature. The problem I see with a lot of creature design is too many ambiguous surfaces with no real thought behind them. Calling out certain areas and explaining what they are helps make the creature more believable. I use call-outs to give my creatures a sense of purpose. 13. Energy Try to give an impression of how your creature moves Showing energy and movement gives a real sense of how your creatures moves as if it were standing in front of you. Conveying that type of realism will be helpful when you're sending your sketches off to the art director and modelling department. They need to get a real sense of how your creation will behave as a living, breathing creation. Energy brings your design to life. 14. Bring in a degree of familiarity Even the most fantastic creatures benefit from some recognisable touches Establishing familiarity means you're bringing recognisable shapes into your creature design. Indeed, this approach should be applied throughout the design process. These fantasy insect sketches are based on mood boards that feature images of different insect species, because my creature is heavily influenced by bugs. The more I paint these fantastical extrapolations of real-world creatures, the more familiar I'll be with what actually exists on Earth. This will help me create a believable creature in the end. 15. Anatomical landmarks If your anatomical skills are strong then your designs will really benefit Throughout my years of designing creatures, one aspect that I can't stress enough is developing good anatomy to support your creature design. Without accurate and believable anatomy, you might as well stop sketching your creature until you learn to study this one crucial element. One thing I tell my students is by studying the skeletal and muscular structure of today's animals, you can bring a wonderful sense of familiarity and believability to your creations all at once. 16. Final sketch Turn all your research and explorations into a single sketch I combine all of the stages of my design process into a single sketch. A side view keeps things simple and can show enough of the creature to get a sense of its proportions, textures, and build. Don't limit yourself to just doing a side view, though. A front three-quarter view is also effective and can show anatomy as well. When making your final sketch, think about what story you want to tell the audience. Is your creature believable? If so, you've done your job as a creature concept artist. This article was originally published in issue 155 of ImagineFX . The world's best-selling magazine for digital artists is packed with workshops, interviews and must-have kit reviews. Buy issue 155 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to design and model a fantasy creature 15 tips for creating characterful creature art Sculpt a dynamic creature pose View the full article

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Globally renowned and self-taught British product designer Tom Dixon has collaborated with Swedish furniture giant Ikea to make an innovative modular furniture system that users can customise. Described as a piece of hackable furniture, Delkatig is an open-source unit that functions as a bed straight out of the box, or it can be turned into a sofa with the help of optional bolt-ons. Fittingly, the range takes its name from the Swedish word for "involvement". The core piece of Delkatig is an affordable single bed with an aluminium frame. From here different components, or "hacks" – including armrests, backrests and a table – can be added to turn it into a sofa, or a workstation with lighting, shelving and magazine racks attached. "It's a bed first but it can turn into anything," says a press release by Tom Dixon. The range is the next logical step for Ikea, a company that has made its fortune with flatpack furniture that shoppers construct themselves. By encouraging users to customise and develop their furniture depending on their needs, Delkatig helps combat the idea that Ikea is part of a throwaway society. Collaborating with Tom Dixon is also a canny move on Ikea's behalf. As a self-taught designer, he represents the 'do it yourself' attitude its furniture is famous for. Dixon is well-known as a furniture designer thanks to his legendary S Chair, but through Delkatig, now people with more modest budgets can also have the work of a seminal designer in their home. Taking the idea of involvement even further, Ikea invited 75 Masters students from around the globe to contribute to the Delkatig hacks. Some of the hacks are available from Ikea directly, while others can be purchased from Tom Dixon's website. Related articles: Ikea print ad uses pee-responsive paper Creating new and innovative products: 4 expert tips 32 graphic designers to follow on Instagram View the full article

You're reading Best Resources for Learning Haml from Scratch, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Basic HTML is pretty simple to learn. It’s also the cornerstone of all websites and it’s a necessity for web developers of all styles. But modern preprocessors let developers write shorthand HTML to save time. One of my favorites is the Haml language running on Ruby. It can work as a Ruby templating language and it can work […] View the full article

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After hours of looking online for some web design inspiration, you're ready to get started with a new site and now need a website builder. There are a multitude to choose from, so which is the best? Well, for a start, you'll be looking for a website builder that can create your website in the latest version of HTML, HTML5. And secondly, you'll want a tool that simplifies the process of web design and enables you to create a great site without needing a lot of programming or coding knowledge. We've scoured the web to find you the best HTML5 website builders – in no particular order – that fit these requirements and more. Let us know how you get on... 01. Duda Duda's free plan gives you pretty much all you need to get up and running online Designed with online stores, business sites, blogs and one-pagers in mind, Duda's responsive website builder has a stack of ready-made templates for you to choose from, and a drag-and-drop editor to make it easy to put your site together. It features plenty of widgets to help turn visitors into paying customers, plus integration with web-based solutions such as OpenTable, Disqus and PayPal, and even features website personalisation tools that can trigger a variety of individualised actions that'll make your customers feel extra-special. The 41 greatest free web fonts 02. Shopify An easy way to build a great-looking shop with a reliable backend If the website you need to build is an online store, Shopify is a good choice. It powers over 325,000 online shops and the pricing plans and features are flexible enough that it will work for you whether you have a tiny fledgling business or something much larger. There are loads of templates and themes so you can put your store together exactly as you want, and if you think you might need something more advanced in the future, it's easy to find an expert to help you. Prices start from $29 per month. 03. Silex Silex is free and easy to use, if you don't mind sorting your own hosting Free and open source, Silex can be used entirely within the browser and works with you, whatever your skill level. There's a friendly WYSWIG editor drang and drop interface that you can use to put everything together, with all your changes visible immediately, and if you're comfortable with CSS and JavaScript then you'll find integrated editors that enable you to get down and dirty with code in order to add styles and interactivity to your elements. There are plenty of templates - both free and paid - and widgets to choose from, plus built-in SEO. Bear in mind, though, that Silex won't host your site, however it offers advice to help you get sorted. 04. Jimdo All of Jimdo's plans offer unlimited bandwidth and plenty of design options If you want to create a site for free without getting hobbled by a lack of features, give Jimdo a try. All of its plans offer everything you need to create a professional-looking HTML5-powered website, including templates, photo galleries, Google Maps integration, plenty of storage and unlimited bandwidth, and it's easy to put everything together. Step up to one of its paid services from $5/month and you'll get your own domain, an online store, SEO, widgets and stats. 05. BigCommerce If you want to open a store, BigCommerce will scale to suit your needs Got something to sell? BigCommerce is a great way to create beautiful ecommerce websites with off-the-shelf responsive templates featuring plenty of customisation options. Its storefront editor enables you to change your site's look without coding, while you can also go completely custom using HTML, CSS and other code libraries. The basic plan will cost you $29.95/month for a full-featured online store, and if your business takes off then BigCommerce can scale to suit your needs. 06. Webflow Webflow lets you create sites across a range of devices Californian-based website building company Webflow is an astonishingly simple platform that gives everyone the power to build their perfect site across a range of devices. Suited to designers, creative professionals and entrepreneurs, Webflow is a web design tool, CMS and hosting platform all in one. Create your dream site and update it personally without having to touch a single line of backend code. 07. BuilderEngine Create large websites on the Cloud with BuilderEngine Promising to help users set-up and launch their site in seconds, BuilderEngine is an intuitive platform capable of creating any type of website. Users can get started with a free trial package, complete with template themes and hosting, then choose add-ons from their constantly updating collections of apps. Capable of creating complex sites without coding, BuilderEngine goes beyond basic text and images. If you ever get stuck you can also find one-to-one support by using their forums and Ticket Support Systems. 08. IM Creator IM Creator is free to use, and comes with some stunning templates The IM Creator was introduced in 2011 and it quickly became one of the top HTML5 website builders online. The IM Creator hosts a huge library of stunning website templates in a long list of categories ranging from sports and medicine to business and academics. You can start using the IM Creator immediately after registering for free. Start off with a blank page or choose a design of your choice from a library of hundreds of fully customizable website templates. Since the IM Creator is an HTML5 website builder, every website you create with it should work fine with all major mobile platforms. 09. SquareSpace SquareSpace offers a free trial so you can find out if it's right for you SquareSpace is a popular web-based HTML5 website builder that will help you create beautiful sites in a matter of minutes. It offers a diverse range of website designs tailored for different occasions and industries. All the templates are compatible with mobile devices as well, and contain high resolution images and graphics to add further colour to your website. SquareSpace is a paid application but you can also use its free trial with limited options. 10. PrestaShop PrestaShop is a great open-source ecommerce solution French startup PrestaShop has released version 1.6 of its eponymous open-source ecommerce website builder with a revamped frontend experience plus a backend overhaul that focuses on the business intelligence side of things. The most impressive thing about PrestaShop is its default theme, which is comfortably one of the best around – slick and easily customisable thanks to Sass Compass built-in. The back office is no less well-presented despite the huge depth of analytics that it contains, and both are fully responsive. 11. Dunked Dunk lets you make a beautifully responsive online portfolio without touching a line of code If you want to stand out, your online portfolio needs to stand out. But what happens when you don't know how to code? That's where Dunked are offering to fill the gap. Dunked provides responsive designs that are Retina-ready and allow you to create an online portfolio without any coding difficulties. You can choose from a growing collection of professionally designed templates, that are pixel-perfect, customizable and easy to use. Each template is fully responsive and will adapt itself to any mobile device - iPad, iPhone or Android. Adjust layout, colours and typography using a selection of preset options; there's also advanced CSS editing for those familiar with website markup. 12. Wix Wix has moved from Flash to become an HTML5-based website builder Originally based on Flash, Wix has now switched to HTML5. Its unique template designs stand apart, making it a great way to create eye-catching websites. Wix is primarily a paid service but does offer a limited number of features in its free version as well. 13. Mobirise Sites made with Mobirise are 100% mobile-friendly according the Google Mobile Test With a mobile-first approach and easy drag-n-drop interface, Mobirise has become one of the most popular offline website builders. Mobirise is available for Windows and Mac and comes with over 400 clever website blocks, 20,000 hi-res images, and over 6,000 icons. Mobirise Builder is free for commercial and non-profit use and has the option of publishing your website to any hosting service, local drive or free Github page. 14. Strikingly Sites built with Strikingly are visibly optimized for search engines As the name suggests, Strikingly is an HTML5 website builder you can use to create beautiful websites and designs. Its templates are not only eye-catching but are also completely responsive and compatible with major mobile platforms. They are also visibly optimized for search engines with extremely quick load times. Strikingly also offers in-depth analytics for every site you build with it. 15. Easy WebContent Easy WebContent has recently begun to embrace HTML5 Easy WebContent is another beautiful website builder that allows you to build HTML5 websites. Currently, it allows you to create websites in various forms and it recently started to embrace the HTML5 technology. You can create HTML5 websites in a matter of minutes. Begin by simply registering with the EWC Presenter for free. Once registered, you will have the option to select a theme for your website from a number of stunningly beautiful and eye-catching templates. Every template is compatible with all major mobile platforms and runs very smoothly on all browsers. You can edit every section of these templates to tailor them according to your specific needs. Along with high quality website templates, Easy WebContent helps you add more colour to your sites by giving you the option to add high resolution images, HD videos, sound clips and eye-catching graphics. 16. Weebly Use either your own domain name or a Weebly subdomain Weebly is one of the pioneers in creating HTML5 based websites and templates. It's an entirely online website builder with lots of goodies for designers. Its designs are immaculate and its features and mind blowing. Every template and website design created using Weebly is compatible with mobile devices and works smoothly on all major platforms. You can create websites with Weebly using either your own domain name or a Weebly subdomain. 17. Moonfruit Free website builder Moonfruit is a great choice for ecommerce sites Whether you want to create a personal webpage, a corporate website or an ecommerce platform to start online selling, Moonfruit will create everything for you free of cost. This online HTML5 website builder creates the highest quality of websites with minimum of effort. It also offers a detailed design editor that can be used to customize its website templates. Since all its templates are responsive in nature, you don't need to create separate websites for mobile platforms. 18. Cabanova Cabanova lets you create up to three pages for free Cabanova is another HTML5 website builder that offers a diverse set of website design templates that are compatible with mobile platforms. As a free Cabanova user, you can create websites with up to three pages and 50 MB storage. You also get to choose from over 1000 high quality website templates and designs. These limits, however, can be increased by purchasing the premium version. Related articles: 3 top tools for testing web performance Master the art of JavaScript with this development bundle Optimise your website with this powerful analytics tool View the full article

Over the last half-century, a handful of giant American brands have achieved world domination. For better or worse, the eight logos below are everywhere. So what lessons can we learn from them? Well, besides their local ubiquity – repetition breeds familiarity, after all – and the objective quality of their design, there are some common factors. Like with many of the 20 biggest logos of 2017, half of these US brand logos are primarily wordmarks with small memorable details – which range from simple graphic flourishes to unique combinations of colours – that are enough to set them apart from the competition. The other half are based on very simple symbols that have achieved standalone recognition with no company name required. They have the silhouette factor: pare them back to pure black and white, with no detail, and you can still pick them out of a lineup instantly. Read on to discover what eight of the most iconic American logos can teach us about branding... 01. Coca-Cola: Respecting brand heritage Coca-Cola has kept the same cursive logo since the 19th century Dr John S Pemberton may have perfected the Coca-Cola formula in the 1880s, but it was his book-keeper Frank M Robinson who not only chose the name, but also penned it in the distinctive cursive script that would define the brand over the next century. Robinson chose an elaborate Spencerian scrawl that was fashionable in the late 19th century. But while other brands – notably arch-rival Pepsi – later dropped their 'handwritten' wordmarks in favour of something cleaner and more modern, Coca-Cola stuck to its guns. Plenty of evolution and refinement has taken place, but the confidence to stick to that cursive script logo helped shape it into one of the world's most famous logos. What can we learn from Coca-Cola? The simple adage that if it isn;t broken, don't fix it. Can you imagine setting Coca-Cola in a neutral sans-serif font? No: the heritage and brand collateral accumulated in that script is far too important to lose. 02. McDonald’s: Having the sense to change direction McDonald's has used green colour schemes in its European branches for the last decade Who could have guessed that the company that started in 1940 as 'McDonald's Famous Barbecue' would grow into the biggest fast-food chain on the planet? The first iteration of McDonald's now-iconic 'M' logo arrived in 1961, referencing the restaurant's distinctive architecture, designed by Stanley Meston: a pair of illuminated golden arches. Like Coca-Cola, the brand has seen various incremental updates – added shadows, new slogans, and notably the confident removal of the wordmark that once cut across one of the arches, leaving the symbol to hold all the brand collateral. But perhaps the biggest thing we can learn from McDonald's is about brand repositioning. In the wake of rising childhood obesity, the US chain switched its marketing focus from Happy Meal-guzzling kids to young, more eco-conscious professionals, taking on the likes of Starbucks. The distinctive golden arches remain, but the bright primary red has been swapped for a deep, hunter green in many European restaurants. The antics of Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar are a distant memory, and the whole ethos of the logo feels different. 03. Nike: Packing a simple symbol with attitude Nike's Swoosh is simple but identifiable Another stalwart of American branding, based out of Portland, Oregon, Nike has one of the simplest symbols on this list – which is all part of its appeal. Design student Carolyn Davidson was famously paid $35 to design it in 1971, and Phil Knight's equally famous response – 'I don’t love it, but it’ll grow on me' – was ultimately proved correct. Davidson spent around 17 hours coming up with the Swoosh as a way to convey motion on a shoe in a clean, classic, simple way. She sketched ideas onto tissue paper, and placed them over a drawing of the shoe to test them. While a Futura Bold 'Nike' wordmark was part of the look up until 1995, it was subsequently dropped so that, like McDonald's, all the brand equity now sits with the Swoosh. What can we learn from the Nike logo? Simple: the huge impact you can achieve with an incredibly simple symbol, if you treat it with respect and build equity – and attitude – into it over time. A child could draw the Swoosh on a napkin, but it unmistakably belongs to Nike. 04. Apple: Building brand loyalty through innovation Apple's logo has come to embody a mark of quality for fans Since the dawn of the iPhone took Apple into the mainstream, it's hard to look anywhere without seeing that distinctive fruit with a bite out of it. Few remember the earliest version of the logo by co-founder Ronald Wayne, depicting Isaac Newton beneath his apple tree. Steve Jobs quickly brought graphic designer Rob Janoff on board to fix it, and the rest was history. Janoff introduced a rainbow palette to celebrate the Mac's groundbreaking colour screen, an emblem that lasted 20 years. Sheens, bevels and other details were added and removed since the late 1990s, but that unmistakable shape has remained a constant – and definitely passes the silhouette test. We can learn many things from this Californian tech giant's ascendance, but at the heart of it all is substance: the logo has come to represent a relentless commitment to innovation and quality that you just can't fake. The untouchable gloss it had under Jobs' rein may have faded somewhat, but without the products to back it up, it would never have earned such reverence from superfans worldwide. The best-designed logo in the world can't mask a substandard product for long. 05. Starbucks: Finding brand equity in strange places Starbucks' mermaid may not be sipping a tall americano, but she marks the brand out Having started life in 1971 as a humble Seattle coffee bean retailer, Starbucks is now selling its wares in more than 60 countries, under the banner of its unmistakable green mermaid. Since the company was named after Captain Ahab's first mate in Moby Dick, the original logo designer Terry Heckler turned to old marine books for inspiration and found a 16th-century Norse woodcut of a two-tailed mermaid. The seductive siren developed into a much-loved brand mascot, an unlikely association with coffee that gives Starbucks significant market standout. She has been significantly redrawn since Heckler's original – including a major 2011 overhaul, with Lippincott's help – but remains to this day. What can we learn from Starbucks? Quite simply, how to recognise the brand equity even in a well-established symbol that – on paper at least – has nothing to do with the product you sell. The choice to bring the mermaid front and centre – at the expense of the name Starbucks, and the word 'coffee' – was an inspired one, and cements the emblem's place in the annals of iconic American brands. 06. FedEx: Adding a subtle flourish FedEx's subtle negative space trick elevates the wordmark no end It's graced many lists of the greatest logos of all time, and topped a few of them too. And for any uninitiated readers who are yet to be introduced its famous use of negative space, that may be baffling. FedEx grew from a tiny delivery company, founded by a young entrepreneur in 1971, into a vast multinational powerhouse. Its original logo spelled out the full name, Federal Express – a savvy implied association with the US Government that significantly boosted the fledgling company's growth. Designed in 1994, its deceptively simple current wordmark cut this down to the much snappier 'FedEx', and the Futura-style type is carefully crafted so that the space between the 'E' and the 'x' makes a perfect arrow – representing speed and accuracy. FedEx's success teaches us that sometimes, a clever symbol isn't necessary to achieve global brand equity: a subtle but smart typographic flourish can speak volumes. Minimalist sans-serif wordmarks are everywhere, but that arrow has helped keep FedEx on the list of iconic US brands for 25 years. 07. Google: Having the confidence to stay simple Google has avoided getting overly 'designed' with its logo Back in the 1990s, the internet search market was hugely competitive. Getting your website listed on multiple search engines was a business in itself. Now, Google is pretty much the undisputed king of search, and plenty of other things too – and the slightest change in its algorithm sparks panicked marketing meetings about SEO worldwide. In 1998, Google founder Sergey Brin knocked up a serif wordmark using free graphics program GIMP. The now-iconic green, red, yellow and blue palette was there from the outset – but in a different order. A reworked wordmark the following year shuffled them into their now familiar order, and briefly introduced a Yahoo!-style exclamation mark. By now, Google was growing fast, and designer Ruth Kedar was brought on board to refine its logo. While she experimented with various visual quirks – from targets to magnifying glasses – the company ultimately chose to stick with clean, typographic simplicity, in keeping with Google’s user-centred, ‘form follows function’ ethos. Kedar’s wordmark did, however, sport a drop shadow, which lasted from 1999 until 2010 before later iterations became flatter and more pared-back, before finally dropping the serifs in 2015, adopting in-house-developed typeface Product Sans across the entire Alphabet product suite. There are thousands of things we can learn from Google as a business, but its biggest triumph in terms of logo design is a resistance against over-complication. Back in 1999 when it was all about search, a magnifying glass or target might have served it well for a while – but Google now is about so much more than that. The brutal simplicity of the wordmark also makes its four-colour palette even more distinctive. 08. Amazon: Using wit to add warmth to a brand Amazon's smile-like arrow adds personality to the online retailer Along with eBay, Amazon is one of the few massive success stories to survive the bursting of the dotcom bubble – and is now the world’s biggest retailer. Its earliest logo, however – in the mid-90s, when it only sold books – was a visual car crash, blending the silhouette of a capital ‘A’ with a winding river. As it diversified its offer beyond books, this was later pared back to a simple wordmark: black text on white, with a gold swoosh underneath. The tagline evolved from ‘Earth’s biggest bookstore’ to ‘Books, music and more.’ Of course, the Google example shows us that being too specific in a logo can be detrimental to a company’s later expansion. Jeff Bezos brought Turner Duckworth on board in 2000, and the resulting rebrand ditched the restrictive tagline and introduced a witty flourish: an arrow, linking the ‘a’ and ‘z’ in the name, that doubles as a smile. Even in 2000, Amazon had no idea how much it would grow to dominate the world of online retail. But that logo has endured brilliantly despite that growth. As a (mostly) online business, Amazon can’t offer the same human connection that a physical retailer, with a curated user experience, can. But the logo is all about bringing a smile to your face, as a customer – and recent campaigns have developed the arrow/smile into a standalone icon. Related articles: 15 influential art and design movements you should know 5 logo design trends for 2018 10 huge graphic design trends to know View the full article

Exclusive offer: Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud now InDesign CC 2018 was launched in October 2017 at Adobe Max, along with a raft of updated and newly launched Adobe apps. Unlike the last version of Adobe's desktop publishing software – which highlighted a new user interface, rather than new features – this latest release does introduce some new tools, some of which InDesign users have wanted for some time. These include endnotes, paragraph borders, the ability to store an object’s size and position in an object style, plus the ability to finally store shared text assets in Adobe CC Libraries. There are also helpful new ways to filter your fonts in the Font menu, and a new file format addition for users sending files between new and older versions of InDesign. So who’s InDesign CC 2018 for? In short: anyone looking to create professional-looking publications, whether print and digital. With the ability to also publish online, plus very robust PDF exporting abilities, any design studio or small business should have InDesign CC 2018 in their arsenal – especially with the additional bonus of collaboration features in the wider Creative Cloud. Here, we’ll review the most powerful new features of InDesign CC 2018. Support for endnotes in InDesign CC 2018 Us InDesign users have been able to add and manage footnotes in documents via scripts since version CS2. InDesign 1.0 was released 18 years ago – so endnotes have been a long time coming – but InDesign 2018 finally lets you add endnotes to documents, so readers can jump directly from annotations in the text to the endnote references. You can control the formatting, numbering and layout of your endnotes. You can can also import a Microsoft Word document with endnotes already included, using the Import option. All imported endnotes will be added in a new text frame. Paragraph borders The Paragraph border feature enables you to create a border around one or more paragraphs to draw attention to them. You can also now customise corner designs to highlight a paragraph with multiple effects. We already had paragraph shading in InDesign – but now we don’t need to create an additional text box. It’s a simple enough tool, but it gives you more creative options to apply to your text. Object Styles enhancements You can now set and modify an object’s size and position across multiple pages in your documents with the updated Object Styles feature. This makes it a lot easier to make global changes throughout your document. You’ll find the size and position options in the Object Style Options dialog. Height and width options control the size; while X only, Y only, or X and Y coordinates combined options adjust the position. Text management in Creative Cloud Libraries Another new addition to InDesign CC 2018 is better text management capabilities. You can now add text assets from InDesign documents to your CC Libraries and share them with others across applications – I told you these updates were worthwhile. Formatting and styles can be saved with the attributes applied to them. Then, when text is dragged and dropped into a document, it brings with it all the formatting that was applied to it originally. These text assets can be used in both InDesign and Illustrator. Font filtering How many fonts do you have in your font list? You’re either very disciplined – or like the other 99 per cent of designers, you have a lot. Searching for fonts used to be a very arduous and time-consuming process, but you can now narrow down your results by filtering your fonts by classification, such as serif, sans serif, decorative, handwritten and so on. The Font menu also allows you to search for fonts based on visual similarity. The fonts closest in visual appearance to the font you’re searching for appear at the top of the search results. InDesign CC 2018 also boasts improvements to PDF accessibility when exporting, including alt-txt for images, group level tagging, support for footnotes, anchored frames and groups tagging, master page tagging, index tagging, list tag language, list tagging and TOC. More details of these enhancements can be found over on the Adobe website. All in all, there’s a decent bunch of enhancements with the release of Indesign CC 2018. Best in class The collaborative aspects of Creative Cloud, plus the addition of InDesign's latest features and extras – including Adobe Typekit and Adobe Stock integration – make it a robust and professional tool to use. The InDesign community is strong and Adobe seem to be listening to its user base to continue to improve the functions. What does it do well? Collaborating with Photoshop and Illustrator users is a creatively satisfying process – and a huge time-saver. It would be good, though, to be able to manipulate text more than the software currently allows. Maybe a third party solution will address this, or Adobe will find a way to add this next time around. How does it compare to alternatives? Serif keeps tempting the industry with its own version of InDesign, but the product is yet to be released. The only other player in this professional space would be the evergreen QuarkXpress, which still continues to improve. Many businesses, though, have bought into the Adobe ecosystem. So should you buy InDesign CC 2018? The app on its own is only £19.97 a month (this includes VAT, 100GB of cloud storage, your own portfolio website, premium fonts, and social media tools) or part of the complete Creative Cloud. If you design and produce content in the publishing industry, then this is the only tool you should be using. Buy InDesign CC 2017 or sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud here System requirements Mac Multicore Intel processor mac OS version 10.13, 10.12, or 10.11 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) 2.5 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation 1024 x 768 display with 32-bit video card; supports Retina display PC Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) 2.6 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation To use the new InDesign Touch workspace, you must have a touchscreen-enabled tablet/monitor running Windows 8 or above (such as Microsoft Surface Pro 3) with the screen resolution set to 2160 x 1440 or more View the full article

Farringdon-based studio Ragged Edge prides itself on having no egos. "Our strategy was always to hire people better than us," explains co-founder Max Ottington. "That's how to get better – you have to put your ego aside if you’re bringing in all these talented people who can do things better than you can." Big branding trends to watch out for in 2018 It's a great ideal, but how does it work in the real world? In this video and written interview below, creative director Luke Woodhouse reveals how Ragged Edge's open, collaborative and ego-free creative process works in practice, and how his 'T-shaped' team of designers can rise to any challenge. 01. Get T-shaped "To get that sort of integrated approach and that seamless brand experience, we've built a real mixed team with a lot of different skills," says Woodhouse. "We love the principle of having 'T-shaped' people." Ragged Edge's rebranding of Camden Market was a real passion project for many of the creatives, and won a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Professional Awards 2017 He's referring to the idea that the vertical bar of the T represents a depth of expertise in a particular field, while the horizontal bar represents a spread of more generalist skills. "All of our branding designers have something that makes them stand out, whether it's 3D, specialism in digital design, motion typography, that sort of thing." 02. Keep learning new skills "Learning new skills just happens quite naturally over the course of a project," Woodhouse believes. "We're always looking for the best ways to do something – and there's always a better way to do anything that comes along, and I think that's something really inherent in Ragged Edge's nature. We needed to make a film, so Sam learnt how to use After Effects!" 03. Collaborate and communicate Woodhouse admits that sometimes – especially when the pressure is on – the last thing you want to do as a designer is discuss your work: "It's kind of easy to revert to getting headphones on, getting your head down and doing it on your own." Ragged Edge rebranded green energy company Simple Energy as Bulb, and developed a campaign based around the idea of Positive Energy But, he believes, that's not helpful in the long run, and the more you communicate among your team, the better the results will be. "I think we have got a really good team ethic here – a good team spirit. Everyone's really collaborative and naturally supportive. When we're reviewing work over the course of a project, everything just goes up on the wall. Everyone's invited to join in, whether it's your project or not. Good ideas can come from anywhere." 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: Build a better personal brand How design sprints can shape your brand The best laptops for graphic design View the full article

The vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 10.0, the highest possible, and now affects 15 products. View the full article

If you've already started your hunt for a new laptop then you'll have undoubtedly encountered the Dell XPS series. It frequently makes waves in 'best laptop' countdowns – including our list of best laptops for graphic design. So what's so good about them? Whether you opt for the 13-inch or 15-inch version, Dell XPS laptops have a reputation for combining powerful specifications, dazzling displays and a beautiful build. If you want a reliable option and don't want an Apple MacBook, a Dell XPS makes a more than capable Windows-based option. They're certainly not a bargain basement option, but Dell XPS deals do tend to come in cheaper than the likes of the Microsoft Surface Book. And if you use our price comparison features below, you can be sure that you're getting the best XPS prices on the market. Also read: The best 4K monitors for designers 2018 Quite simply, the Dell XPS 13 is among the world's very best laptops. It gets a massive tick in virtually every department, and the just-released 2018 version only improves the model still. In fact, the only real criticism we can come up with is the positioning of the webcam. So what's so good about the Dell XPS 13? Firstly, the almost bezel-free 'InfinityEdge' 13.3-inch display. Even if you don't pay extra for the unreal 4K Ultra HD option, the standard full HD default screen will lend your designs and drawings the clarity and colour they deserve. The 2018 version comes with Intel's brand new 8th generation CPU, code named Coffee Lake. Combine that with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive and you've got yourself a setup that's easily equipped to render images and videos with little delay. Weighing in at around 1.2kg, it's remarkably light and slim – so you'll be able to bag up for remote work, too. Read our sister site TechRadar's Dell XPS 13 review Everything that works so well in the supreme Dell XPS 13 is present here in the XPS 15 – just on a slightly larger scale. The broader InfinityEdge display is 15.6 inches of pure, unbridled Ultra HD joy. If video editing is your game then it should prove a trusted companion, with 4K 3840 x 2160 pixel precision and a touchscreen to bring cutting and editing control to your fingertips. Combine that with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 card running off 4GB of video RAM, and you have the capabilities to beat what the latest MacBook is packing. It has a seventh generation Kaby Lake processor – it's not yet been upgraded to Intel's latest chip. But it doesn't lack for processing power, with the ability to boost up to 3.8GHz. You can pay less to downgrade the screen to Full HD and opt for a lower-grade i3 processor. But if you're spending this much on your new PC, it might be worth stretching the budget to get the extra quality. Read TechRadar's full Dell XPS 15 review If you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of brawn, go for the flexible 2-in-1 alternative to the original Dell XPS 13. The name refers to the hybrid nature of the device – it's part svelte laptop, part chunky tablet. That versatility could come in handy if you often find yourself working in collaboration with others, and like to hand your work around the studio for everybody to see. Simply fold the 13.3-inch touchscreen back on itself around the 360-degree hinge, and enter Tablet mode. It also makes the device a lot easier for sketching directly on to, with Dell's Active Pen available to buy separately. Like the Dell XPS 15, the 13 2-in-1 is yet to get the Coffee Lake upgrade, and it does noticeably lack the power of its Dell contemporaries. But if you value the distinctive ergonomic functions above sheer speed, then the XPS 13 2-in-1 might be the best choice for you. Read the TechRadar Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review Related articles: The best laptops for graphic design The best free graphic design software 15 influential art and design movements you should know View the full article

Kerning has a huge impact on how your lettering is read by viewers, so it's important to get it right. Get your kerning wrong and at best you end up with a message that's difficult to read, and at worst you could create a communication that's indecipherable or possibly offensive. Perhaps the trouble with kerning is that there are different rules depending on the shape of the letters in question. Characters with curves need to be positioned together more tightly than letters with straight edges, for example. And letters with diagonal angles have rules of their own when placed beside one another. To help you brush up on kerning rules and conventions, typography and lettering instructor Nils Lindstrom offers his advice in this crash course video, called 4 Essential Tips for Kerning Type & Lettering. Published by creative pioneers The Futur, it's one of the most concise typography tutorials we've ever seen, given that it outlines the basics of kerning in less than two minutes. Watch it below. We love this video because it's an instant refresher for typography experts, but it's also a useful and unpretentious introduction for beginners. Given that typography can bring out the most pernickety parts of a designer's personality, this video will give you the knowledge you need to kick back if someone challenges your spacing. If you're unsure as to why kerning is so important, be sure to check out our look at some examples of embarrassingly bad kerning. It might be a subtle art, but kerning can make or break a piece of typography and design. Make no mistake, once people notice that you're kerning's off it doesn't matter how good the rest of the graphics are – the wonky lettering will pull focus for all the wrong reasons. Luckily, if you listen to Lindstrom's advice, kerning is an area of design that you'll have under control. Related articles: 10 typography tricks every designer should know Tote bag design error proves the power of kerning 5 typography trends for 2018 View the full article

Illustration is a hugely subjective discipline with, in theory at least, as many styles as there are practitioners. But the field can be buffeted by trends like a ship in a storm, with boundary-breaking individuals often swimming against a surge of shared influences and identikit styles that threaten to flood the market. Spread from CA issue 276's Illustrator Hotlist 2018, featuring cover star Petra Eriksson The cover story of Computer Arts issue 276 celebrates 25 of the most exciting – and original – illustrators working today. In short, these are the people you should be commissioning in 2018. Buy Computer Arts issue 276 now Some faces are newer than others, but the range of styles and approaches on show is hugely encouraging, we hope you agree. Four of our favourites grace this month’s cover, in our fourth split-run design of the past six months. CA issue 276 features a split-run of four covers, with artwork by (left to right) Tianju Duan, Andreea Dobrin Dinu, Petra Eriksson and Rosanna Tasker Elsewhere, Logo Design Love founder David Airey has distilled his 10 golden rules of logo design into an essential crib-sheet to help keep your identity design skills razor-sharp, illustrated with a selection of famous best-practice examples from many different sectors. David Airey presents his 10 golden rules of logo design in Computer Arts issue 276 Meanwhile, in a video special CA also shares advice for crafting a better online portfolio, featuring input from an senior agent and three illustrators from top London agency Handsome Frank - in association with Wix. Also in Computer Arts issue 276 CA's Showcase section features the latest design, branding, illustration and motion work from around the world Kicking off a new series focused on digital skills, CA issue 276 includes a handy guide to UX design In one of Computer Arts' regular project diaries, Carter Wong reveals the process behind its latest limited-edition notebook Subscribe to Computer Arts today Like what you see? Make sure you never miss an issue of Computer Arts again, and subscribe here today! View the full article

T-shirt design is a hugely popular outlets for creatives. Whether you're an illustrator, graphic designer or typographer, the idea of putting your designs on T-shirts can be hugely appealing (not least because you can sell your designs online). However, the process can be daunting. Here, I'll walk through my best tips for designing custom T-shirt graphics and printing your own T-shirts. (And if you need some drawing tips, head over to our How to Draw article.) 01. Take time to explore your concept Electric Zombie tee by Derek Deal has loads of colour and loads of detail Sketch your T-shirt design out, go for a walk, create a few variations, have something to eat, do a full brainstorming process. Then sleep on it. And do it all over again. If it comes to you straight away, great. But explore other creative options just in case. 02. Imagine the design on a T-shirt Having worked for both print and web over the years, I know the vast difference between design on screen and a printed piece. Don't be afraid to mock up your T-shirt design on a photo of a model. Print it out if necessary and place it on an actual tee. Make sure you see your artwork at actual size. 03. Detail is king but keep things simple These classic Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts showcase limited colour palettes and strong concepts Everyone appreciates great drawing ability and attention to detail. There's nothing better than seeing a really well executed masterpiece on a tee, which you can study for hours. But, equally, some of the most classic T-shirt designs are the simplest – and get the message across through their simplest form. Anywhere in the middle and you may struggle to deliver a successful design. 04. Consider your market T-shirt designs by artists on Society 6 This is an important one. Are you designing for male or female; young or old? At the end of the day you're designing a product that you want people to wear. Like a good brand designer would do, write down the exact person you want to attract to your T-shirt design – who they are, what they like, what other brands they like and go from there. 05. Keep your humour subtle If you're going for a humorous T-shirt design, you don't want it coming across as a cheap and low-cost joke shirt. Even the most successful loud and in-your-face designs have subtle humour. I'm not a fan of 99 per cent of humorous tees, but done correctly, humour can turn heads. I'm digging Brad McGinty's designs at the moment because he has a good balance. 06. Choose the right colours Try choosing complementary colours in your design Use the T-shirt colour effectively and try choosing complementary colours. If you're using Adobe Illustrator, turn on Global Colours. It's an absolute life saver and will save you so much time. (You can get Adobe Creative Cloud here.) You can also use Halftones to make the most of the restricted colours you're allowed to use. 07. Prepare your artwork properly Use Pantone Colours when screen printing – your printer will love you for it. They'll also love you if you outline text and expand any strokes you may have. There are plenty of good tutorials out there, depending on whether you're using Illustrator or Photoshop. 08. Source a good printer It's important to take time to learn about what type of T-shirt you want to print on So your design is finished and properly artworked, but your tee will only be as ever as good your printer. Try a reputable company like White Duck in the UK or Hey Monkey in the US. You could even give your local screenprinter a call. But it's important to take time to learn about what type of tee you want to print on. The weight, sizes, labeling options, cost and so on all affect the end product. This takes a while and will require speaking to various companies, but one thing is for certain: deal with a company that wants to treat your tee as an end retail product and will handle your work with care. Screenprinting is an art. 09. Get educated To have a good understanding of anything, you need to study it and understand its context To have a good understanding of anything, you need to study it and understand its context. Tees have come out of every subculture phenomenon that has ever existed, whether it's music, skateboarding, street art, sport or general pop culture. Find out about them and and have an appreciation for it all. One good book for reference is Vintage T-shirts by Lisa Kidner. 10. Be ahead of the game Be inspired by what the latest trends are, but don't copy them. Chances are by the time you've seen that T-shirt produced, other designers are moving onto something else behind closed doors. This article was first posted on Creative Bloq in 09/2012. Related articles: 60 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials Review: Screenprinting: The Ultimate Studio Guide 8 business tips for selling design goods View the full article

Even the best writers make mistakes. That's why they have editors. While your work and everyday texts don't have a second set of eyes to look them over, you can still improve your writing with the help of WhiteSmoke. This app will catch all the errors that sneak past you. Grab a premium lifetime subscription on sale for 82% off. WhiteSmoke is an essential tool no matter your writing level. The powerful app uses advanced technology to proofread your work and identify grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style errors as you go. This versatile and easy to use app works on mobile and desktop, so no matter where you're writing, it can keep you from making common mistakes. Never send an email with a misspelled word again with WhiteSmoke. A premium lifetime subscription to WhiteSmoke usually retails for $399.95, but you can save 82% off that price right now. Grab this must-have writing app on sale for just $69.99 (approx. £50) and watch your writing improve in no time. If you'd like to give the app a try, you could opt for the one-year premium licence for $19.99, reduced from $119.95. 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: 10 apps for endless design inspiration Branding pros share how they nail brand voice How to write a great headline How to write the perfect design dissertation View the full article

The age of the web may have connected continents and allowed the world to function around the clock, but we still haven't quite mastered how to send large files by email. But there's no need to spend vast amounts of money on a solution. These free tools will help you send large files to design clients without the hassle of bounced emails and hours of frustration with FTP connections. And some even have iPhone apps and Android apps to make your life even easier. Have a look at these best free tools for sending large files, then perhaps also check out these other essential tools for managing a freelance design business. 01. Google Drive 15GB of free and versatile online storage isn't to be sniffed at Google's so ubiquitous these days that it's easy to overlook it, so we'll remind you: Google Drive gives you 15GB of free online storage, and it's easy to share absolutely anything you like, be it individual files or entire folders. You can set your own sharing options too, for anything from a download link that anyone can use, up to sharing with specific people and giving them editing rights. And with the app installed on your desktop and your devices, it's splendidly simple to move the files you need to wherever you need them. 02. Hightail Previously known as YouSendIt, Hightail rebranded and relaunched in 2013 as a platform for sharing and collaboration. Its free Lite plan lets you share files up to 250MB, with instant visual previews and the ability to add comments to any file. With the Pro version from $8.25 per month you can share files up to 25GB, and you get extra collaboration features such as email notifications, content permissions and approval tracking. And if that's not enough then there's also a Business plan, which offers custom packages to suit your company's needs. 03. Terashare Share files of any size with BitTorrent technology Terashare is different to most file-sharing services in that it uses BitTorrent technology to transfer the file directly from your computer to the receiver's. There's no filesize limit, although files larger than 10GB cannot be downloaded when you turn your computer off as this is the only place the file is stored. Files smaller than 10GB are also uploaded to the Terashare servers so that they can be accessed at all times. If you need to share a file with a lot of people then Terashare is a good option, as BitTorrent makes it possible for everyone downloading the file to download parts from each other as well as from the server. You need to install a small client to make it work, and files are shared via a unique URL. Terashare is completely free. 04. WeTransfer WeTransfer makes it easy to send large files WeTransfer is a lovely looking site that allows you to send large files – up to 2GB per transfer – as often as you like! That way, there won't be any of those last minute email woes when you run out of free transfers. You can send large files by email or grab a download link from the site; easy peasy. For more hardcore users, there's WeTransfer Plus. For $12/€12 per month you can up your file size limit to 20GB a time, and store up to 100GB. 05. SendSpace With the SendSpace app, you can send large files on the move Since it launched back in 2005, SendSpace has been delivering files millions of times a week. Each file is tracked so if it's lost into the abyss of the internet, SendSpace will do its best to find it for you. There's also a useful drag-and-drop feature, as well as a SendSpace app – meaning you can send large files on the move. 06. DropSend DropSend lets you send large files for free With DropSend you can send large files of up to 4GB for free, and up to 8GB if you pay $5 per month. Fast, simple and secure to use, you'll be sending those all-important large files in no time. There's no software to install and it's available with 256bit AES Security. You get five sends per month for free; the $5 payment plan gives you 15 sends per month. Check out the pricing to see other interesting options, including capacious online storage. 07. Wikisend You don't need an account to send large files with Wikisend Wikisend is a free file-sharing service that doesn’t require you to create an account to use; you simply upload your file and are given a unique URL to access your file. Files are then accessible for seven days for your client to download as many times as they need, and you can share files up to 100MB in size. Wikisend also provides password-protected file sharing if you register for an account. 08. Dropbox Dropbox is the best-known way to send large files Dropbox is the most well-known file-sharing tool. You'll almost certainly find that your client already has it installed and is familiar with using it – always a bonus. You need to register an account to use Dropbox, though it’s free to do so. As well as a web-based application, there’s a desktop application you can install that enables you to sync and access your files from within a normal folder. Dropbox also benefits from having no expiration dates on upload files: you can store files as long as you need to. Plus there's an uncapped maximum file size, so you can send the largest cat video mashups to your clients without worrying about capacity. 09. MediaFire Share and play media files in your browser with MediaFire MediaFire is designed to make your media files available to you from anywhere. Not only does it store them, but it also includes a player so that you can view over 200 different file formats in your browser – convenient for quickly showing things to clients. You get 10GB of storage for free with ad-supported downloads, or you can pay $3.75 per month for ad-free sharing, 1TB of space and a better user experience. 10. Box Send large files to your clients securely with Box Most of the services here claim to keep your data secure, but that guarantee might not be good enough if you're working with sensitive data. Box is different to the rest in this regard; security is its niche. Box gives you full control over the encryption keys that are used to secure your data, so no one else (even people at Box) can get access to them. There's also an unchangeable log of key usage so you always know who has looked at your data, as well as various other top-notch security features. You can get a free personal account with a file size limit of 250MB, and business accounts start from $5/£3.50 per month per person. 11. Senduit Senduit allows you to set an expiry time Senduit is intensely simple to use: simply upload your file through the website and you’re provided with a private URL to share your file. The service has a limit of 100MB for files being shared, and allows you to set an expiry time for the files, for durations from 30 minutes up to seven days. Related articles: The 28 best typography apps 20 tools to make your team more productive 5 top tips for creating a productive workspace View the full article

In September 2002, Joss Whedon's sci-fi TV show Firefly premiered on Fox. Set 500 years in the future after a civil war, the show followed the adventures of Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his ragtag crew as they strived to make a living – legally or otherwise. After airing 11 of its 14 produced episodes the show was cancelled, but despite its short life, Firefly went on to gain cult status. The show's post-cancellation success has allowed Whedon's tale to continue to live on through comics, board games and regular 'Browncoat' fan meet-ups. Zoic Studios, which worked on the show's visual effects, also happens to turn 15 this year. Bagging a Creative Arts Emmy Award for its outstanding visual effects on Firefly, the show was paramount in solidifying Zoic Studios as one of the most forward-thinking creative studios of its time. Set in an all-encompassing, otherworldly universe, the team were tasked with creating not only the iconic Serenity ship but the living, breathing world that Malcolm Reynolds and his crew reside in. Creating the 'Verse Serenity visits Niska's Skyplex ahead of the train job Loni Peristere, who worked as the visual effects supervisor during his time on Firefly, explains how coming together with the then digital effects supervisor Emile Smith allowed the team to create this universe from the ground up. "We were interested in changing computer-generated imagery and throwing out the concepts and notions of how to film in digital space and we really kind of leaned into that," he explains. "Joss wanted the audience to participate with the Firefly family in a voyeuristic way. He wanted us to be in the kitchen, on the bridge. He wanted us to follow Malcolm Reynolds down the hall and into his room; he really wanted the intimacy and this voyeuristic sense of presence and that was achieved in a number of different ways. Digital artist Lee Stringer sits in Wash's chair on Serenity's bridge "In order for something to feel authentic in the universe of Firefly, there had to be a camera operator. So no matter where we were – in space, on the planets, in the ship – there was a person and an artist on the machine who was a camera operator, watching the scene. "And what that meant was – and this was what was amazing about Emile's pre-visualisation – that operator didn't know the outcome of the movement they were about to watch, so they had to anticipate that movement. That became rule number one – there's an operator who not only doesn't know the outcome of the shoot, he has to look for it." The world of Firefly is messy, but that's what sets it apart from most sci-fi shows; while sleek, clean design is a trademark of Zoic Studios' success, it was also able to make way for a much more human touch, crafting a universe that felt real while still transporting the audience to another dimension. "We wanted dents and dings and scratches. We wanted dust on everything, so we actually had dust mattes that we would apply when the ship was on a planet as opposed to having it always pristine clean. The world of Firefly would always get dirty," Peristere says. Designing the Serenity space ship Early sketches of Serenity show the initial concept for the iconic ship As with any sci-fi show, a fundamental aspect of its success lies with the design of its ship. Serenity would not only be the home of Malcolm Reynolds and his crew but also the audience, allowing us to witness these characters at their most vulnerable while also offering up some of the most exciting visual sequences in the series. "I think this is one of those things on all sci-fi shows that everyone wants to be a part of, certainly when you're creating something that's going to be iconic," Peristere explains. "We wanted to make it legitimate – how does it travel in space versus how does it travel on the ground. So what Carey [Meyer – production designer] did is he worked with Joss purely from a design aesthetic – we wanted it to be part Millennium Falcon, part Big Bird – a long neck was really important to Joss. He really wanted this idea that Malcolm could sit up on the bridge and look out over the world that they were moving in between. "Over a weekend, Carey basically made a paper model sculpture and we were able to take it over from there. So when you see the paper model, you'll see where we really started to revert because what we wanted to do was to make something that was entirely pragmatic and functional. We can go on about it but even all the way through Serenity, we were tinkering with the ship, all the way to the end." A detailed miniature is built before flying into action for the movie Serenity Smith points out the evolution of the ship from the pilot episode to the 2005 spin-off movie Serenity, claiming that the detail was "three times better." "We would hand paint the grease around the bolts because we wanted it to be right, but we didn't have time to do that initially, so we kept going back and doing more and more and more," Peristere continues. "The ship for us, we really wanted it to feel lived in, so we thought about that in terms of the paint job. We also wanted it to feel old so you'll find that there's metal on the ship from, what we considered, errors of (damage over) the ship's life span, so it's been fixed over and over again over time." Creating the Reavers' ship Serenity's distinct look juxtaposed the garish design of the Reavers' ship This same approach was used for the Reavers' ship but with even more of a 'mash-up' design. "We came across that as a bunch of different ships bolted together. We kept talking about Tankers and the evolution of the Reavers' design. We took that and mashed it up with Mad Max and we imagined – which eventually you see in Serenity the movie – this wasteland where the Reavers hang out, that's just where they build their mean machines," Peristere says. "The first Reavers ship that you see in the pilot – the front end of that ship, it's almost like a luxury cruise liner and they just chopped it in half and then modded it up from there and made it disgusting." One of the show's most iconic sequences is the train job, which sees Serenity hover alongside and over a moving train in order to allow Malcolm and his crew to rob it. Smith remembers that he and Peristere took a trip to Arizona in order to gain inspiration for the desert world they would be creating. "It was so hot there – we couldn't park our car at the side of the road because we were frightened it would catch on fire. And our shoes pretty much melted," he says. "Looking at it now, it looks dated but at the time, it was probably one of the better-looking CG environments." The VFX of the unique worlds The Serenity crew salvaged this ambulance ship from a junkyard The team were given roughly five to six weeks to work on each episode and as Kristen Branan – who was working as the visual effects producer on the show – explains, the world of Firefly was only able to be created through mutual understanding between the visual effects team and the production team. "They understood that we were making a unique world for every single episode," she says. "We absolutely used every minute of that time because we had to wrap our head around the description in the script. We had to come up with concepts, we had to be on set to see how they were filming and then re-tailor our ideas to how they filmed it. "So much of the work that we produced was 100 per cent CGI, and that's super difficult to do when the descriptions were as unique as they were on that TV show." The team was small and with limited resources. "At the beginning of the series, we were still a start-up VFX house. So in those beginning months, we did not yet have a central production database, so everything that we talked about and organised was on these giant white boards. I was plugging my computer into our fax machine to send stuff over to Fox because we didn't have internet on our computers, nor did we have email at the beginning of the show. So I'm getting phone calls from production and I'm writing up notes and I'm running around with pieces of paper to put it in people's notebooks," Branan says, laughing. "All the money that we were using went right back onto the screen. We couldn't even see how to play back our shots. We got a little monitor and deck and we put it on what was basically a library push-cart and we were going [from] desk to desk so the guys could watch their shots in context of the scene." Serenity is chased by an Alliance Short Range Enforcement Vessel Looking back on Zoic Studios' last 15 years, it has worked on 4,800 different TV shows, 1,000 feature films, commercial and design projects, and delivered 340,000 final shots. Firefly may be but a twinkle in the mass of Zoic Studios' creations, but it remains one of its proudest moments. "I think for everyone in visual effects, you look back at those one or two projects that stand out in your career, and I think for many of us, Firefly was one of those stand-out shows," Branan says. "It was just really ahead of the time and some of the work that came out of it is amazing even to this day. I would love to see that show made again. There's just so much potential for new looks and more storylines." This article was originally published in issue 229 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Buy issue 229 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: Build a complex 3D sci-fi scene How to design a spaceship Behind the scenes on Transformers VFX View the full article

Chaos Group Labs director Chris Nichols will be doing a keynote talk at Vertex, our event for the CG community. Get tickets now! With the Adaptive Dome Lighting feature now available in V-Ray, you can render smarter than ever before. A dome light is a type of spherical or hemispherical area light that shines inward and is often combined with panoramic HDR for image-based lighting. However the sampling of dome lights can be inefficient due to other light entering interior spaces, eg from a window in the scene, meaning that only a small amount of the dome light will contribute to the image. Adaptive Dome Lights calculate which parts of the dome light are likely to affect the scene using Light Cache data, and here Chris gives us four steps to improving your lighting. 01. Light an interior with IBL Currently, when you’re lighting an interior scene using image-based lighting, you might add Skylight Portals near openings like doors, windows or skylights to help direct more light samples. Unfortunately, this is a manual process that takes time, but worse, it’s also not that accurate. 02. Build a smarter dome light Click the arrows icon to enlarge this screenshot To avoid this problem, we built a smarter dome light based on a similar concept to our Adaptive Lights algorithm. Using the Light Cache calculation phase to learn which parts of the dome will most likely affect the scene, the new Adaptive Dome Light can better predict its sampling. 03. No more skylight portals With the Adaptive Dome Light, Skylight Portals are no longer needed for the lighting process. It automatically figures out which portions of the environment to sample and which ones to ignore, making it so much easier to set up and much more efficient and accurate to render. 04. Seven times faster IBL Many factors can affect the overall speed gains that this feature can give you. Our early tests have shown speed increases from 10% up to 700%, depending on the scene. V-Ray 3.x for 3ds Max customers can register for the V-Ray Next Beta and try out the Adaptive Dome Light right now. Don’t miss out on Chris Nichols' keynote speech at Vertex! Book your ticket now at vertexconf.com. There are still some amazing workshops we’ve yet to announce so keep an eye on our website, where you can also find out more about the other amazing speakers, workshops, recruitment fair, networking event, expo and more. This tutorial originally appeared in issue 116 of 3D Artist, the magazine offering practical inspiration for 3D enthusiasts and professionals. Subscribe to 3D Artist here. Read more: How to make massive explosions with V-Ray New year, new skills: learn new tricks at Vertex China: the new Hollywood? View the full article

There's not long to wait now until cinema goers get to return to a galaxy far, far away with Solo: A Star Wars Story. A recently launched trailer (below) follows hot on the heels of a teaser trailer that premiered during the Super Bowl, along with four new poster designs. Whereas the last Star Wars spin-off movie, Rogue One, went for a more serious and gritty tone, judging by the looks of the promotional material released so far, Solo looks like it will be more of a lighthearted and humorous romp. Accompanying these trailers are the vibrant teaser posters, which put bold typography at the centre of their design. Masking the visuals of the characters inside the lettering makes use of a trend we've seen before with typography in motion graphics, and its inclusion here sets an extravagant tone for the film. We're also really enjoying the blend of old and new design elements. A flaking paper background is a striking contrast to the painted images in the sci-fi fonts. Scroll through the set of four Solo teaser posters by clicking left to right in the gallery below. It's important to remember that these aren't the theatrical posters for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Instead, they're a nice bit of extra promotional material that also contain a tidbit of exclusive information by revealing the name of Emilia Clarke's character. The saturated colours also call to mind the poster of another recent fantasy cinematic epic, Thor: Ragnarok. We're pleased that the posters for Solo take a strong yet simple approach in terms of composition, though, instead of the cluttered photo montages that left us asking if we were in the middle of a movie poster design crisis. As for the official theatrical poster, we probably won't have to wait long to see that either given that Solo: A Star Wars story is scheduled for release on Memorial Day (28 May 2018). Related articles: 4 classic movie poster designs making a comeback 10 best movie posters from the 1990s Are these vintage concept movie posters better than the originals? View the full article

At Adobe Max 2017, back in October, Adobe and Coca-Cola announced a design collaboration called Cola x Adobe x You. As a partner to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Coca-Cola gave away all its brand assets to creatives around the world, asking them to participate in a design challenge using Adobe Creative Cloud software. Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud now Working with Adobe, Coca-Cola invited 15 creatives to contribute to the launch of the challenge at Adobe Max 2017. Using Coca-Cola Red Disc, Spencerian Script Coca-Cola Logo, Contour Bottle icon and Dynamic Ribbon – plus their own imaginations – each was asked to create imagery. We have a look behind the scenes at how the project launch took shape. "When I attended the Adobe Max event in San Diego in 2016, I admired the scale and presence the company has with the global creative community," explains James Sommerville, the vice president of Global Design at the Coca-Cola Company. "We discussed ideas around how we could collaborate, and connect with the design community using Coca-Cola’s cherished assets, and that led us to formulate this challenge. "Coke x Adobe x You is a pre-campaign exploratory design challenge. It’s an opportunity for Coke, as a global brand, to take the pulse of the design community and see what creatives can do with our brand assets. The challenge looks towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, but at this stage we have not formulated our global campaign for Tokyo 2020. "At Adobe Max 2017 in Las Vegas, we invited the design community at large to visit the site www.cokexadobexyou.com to find out more about the challenge. The brief is simple, but the possibilities really are endless. We have restricted the elements to the Coca-Cola brand colour palette, the Coca-Cola assets, and what the designer thinks of when they think of Coca-Cola, Japan and the Olympics." Artists chosen to inspire and lead A work in progress sketch by Karen Cantuq as she plans out her entry "Initially, we invited 15 creative influencers to participate, so that we would have their images at launch to inspire others," says Somerville. "It was important to us to work with people using all the design disciplines, including 2D, 3D, motion, illustration, photography and typography, in order to show the extent of this brief in terms of application. "Kouhei Nakama uses motion graphics, Vasjen Katro creates fabric graphics, Birgit Palma [who designed the Tokyo-inspired geometric design in the main image] is a type designer, and Guy Aroch is a photographer, for example. "Each of the 15 creatives has worked with the same brief and assets, and it was important that they all worked with the same elements. The Olympics brings the world together through sport, and we felt the design challenge would do the same thing through creativity. "Over the decades, many artists ranging from Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Mr Brainwash have embraced the Coca-Cola identity, and provided their unique perspective on our brand. Today the tools may be different, but the passion remains, and all of our creative influencers have been excited to participate. This work will become a moment in time, and they will be part of that, and the work may one day live in our archives. "Aside from the constraints of the simple brief, it was open for our 15 designers to take any approach. We wanted to explore what individuals can create with no firm direction from me or the Coca-Cola Design team. This is a design challenge, not a commercial campaign." The Israeli-American fashion photographer Guy Aroch created a set of provocative and colourful photos for the challenge "The assets provided include the Coca-Cola Red Disc, Spencerian Script Coca- Cola Logo, Contour Bottle icon and Dynamic Ribbon. The only colours to be used in the challenge are the Coca-Cola red, black and white. "Red is our precious colour and few brands come as quickly to mind as Coca-Cola when you think of red. While we hope to have many diverse styles across different mediums, it is important to have a thread, and our Coca-Cola red is that thread." The 15 creatives involved in the campaign launch were Asjen Katro, Birgit Palma, Kouhei Nakama, Sha’an d’Anthes, Ion Lucin, Frankie Cihi, Guy Aroch, Max Muench, Jati Pratama, Olivia Odiwe, Kei Meguro, Mike Winkelmann, David Tshabalala, Karen Cantuq and Filip Hodas. Let's see how three of the creatives made their designs for the launch of the campaign. 01. Gif design Vasjen Katro's design Vasjen Katro’s creation riffs on circles and repeated forms. "After I discovered that the Olympics are held over 16 days, I decided to create a different piece of artwork for each day of the event," he explains. "Every day is different and has its own unique qualities but also has similarities, so my approach was to translate all that into a series of different images. When you watch the final video you get an overall feeling of these differences, but you also see one element that doesn’t change, which is the circle and the Coca-Cola identity. "I began the artwork in Photoshop before moving to Illustrator to create the illustrations and elements. Each piece was compiled and merged in Photoshop. For the video, I worked in After Effects and exported the file using Media Encoder." 02. Video Motion graphics artist Kouhei Nakama explains how he created two stunning videos to inspire others: "At first glance, using red, white and a circle as required in the brief seemed quite simple, but there was a risk that my final artwork would end up looking quite similar to that of the other creatives doing the challenge. I focused on creating something simple that was also original. "In my first video, the camera zooms in to Japan’s flag. I wanted to create something that got people excited about the Tokyo Olympic games. By describing the athlete’s dynamic performances in the flag, I’m hoping viewers will get that feeling of excitement. "For the video where athletes are painted with the Coke logo, I wanted to use 3D. You can’t see the whole logo in one frame, but it fills in across the sequence. The logo is invisible in the still, but it is visible in the movie and this serves to enhance the logo. "First, I created 2D materials and textures in Photoshop and Illustrator. I then imported them into my 3D software, modified them and sorted the layout. After compositing the rendered footage in After Effects, I edited it. Then I compressed the files with media encoder and posted them. Kouhei Nakama creating the videos "The most difficult part of the challenge for me was generating the idea. I needed to come up with something original and sophisticated, something that people would instantly recognise. I spent a lot of time thinking about how the videos would work before I started producing the design. Once I had finalised my idea, the production process went pretty smoothly." 03. Geometric art Birgit Palma’s finished work looks at the Tokyo setting for the games in a different way, through the lens of Coca-Cola’s geometric forms Illustrator Birgit Palma says of her geometric Olympic artwork at the top of this article: "I was inspired by the shapes of the elements we were given, and decided to take the most important ones – the circle, the bottle of Coca-Cola and the Asakusa Kannon – as symbols to communicate the characteristics of Tokyo. In her sketches, Palma explores occlusion and the use of positive and negative space, as well as experimenting with various additions. "Those shapes were fascinating and I decided to use their symmetry as the basis of my artwork. I scribbled down some ideas, and when I had chosen one I started to compose the different elements and to sketch it out geometrically in Illustrator. "To give it more depth, I switched to Photoshop and coloured in the composition, concentrating on the colour balance of the artwork and on the details at the intersections and triangular parts." This article was originally published in issue 274 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 274 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: Coca-Cola celebrates heritage with bespoke typeface 10 huge graphic design trends to know for 2018 60 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials View the full article

There comes a point in everyone's life when it's time to take more control of your destiny. If you've built your own site using free WordPress themes or Drupal themes, you might be craving more control. It's time to take an online coding course, learn to code yourself and build your site, your way. Many accessible educational tools have popped up that make learning new skills more straightforward. The daunting task is finding one that's right for you and your learning style. We've tested and reviewed some of the most popular schools being talked about on the web today, to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of each. Here's our list of the web's best online coding courses. 01. Code School $29/mo 15 free courses available Code School offers some free courses Of all the tools we dug into, Code School – owned by Pluralsight – was one of the best. Not only does the site look great, but it offers quality content and a great student experience. You can follow a 'path', which will guide you through a succession of different courses, or you can opt for a single course on its own. The videos are quirky and fun in an after-school special kind of way, which is a refreshing break from typically dry video tutorials. It's like watching Bill Nye explain it, which is to say, comforting. After viewing a video, you work on your own tasks – relating back to the video if required. If you get really stuck you can 'buy' answers with points you've earned from other classes. Code School offers 15 introductory courses for free, so you can try it out for size, or you can buy a monthly subscription for $29/month. If you're looking to splash a few bucks on a learning tool, we would recommend spending your money here. 02. Skillcrush $499 per 'blueprint' Free 10-day coding bootcamp Skillcrush closely resembles learning in the classroom Skillcrush is a unique online coding course, and the option here that most closely resembles an actual curriculum in a classroom setting. Users enrol in their chosen three-month 'blueprint' – a bundle of three courses that build on each other. There are four to choose from: frontend developer, visual designer, freelance WordPress developer or freelance business builder. Alternatively, you can embark on a nine-month bumper programme dedicated to helping you break into tech. Once enrolled, students have access to not only a classroom setting chat forum with their fellow students, but also to office hours and one-on-one time with their instructor. Skillcrush is currently also offering a free 10-day coding bootcamp. 03. Udacity Large selection of free courses Nanodegrees from around €200 (approx $250) Udacity covers a huge array of technical subjects Udacity offers robust guides to many different topics, with seriously advanced courses on everything from robotics to design theories in everyday life. There's a big selection of free courses on offer here – and not just basic ones, either, but across all skill levels. Alternatively, Udacity has a range of 'nanodegrees', which cover in-demand skills. Current courses on offer include Design Sprint Foundations and VR Developer. Prices and lengths of course vary dramatically, but the cheapest courses start at around €200. All courses are summarised before you even begin, outlining the difficulty level, why the course is important, any prerequisites for taking it, and the project you will complete at the end. This means you can easily scan through and choose what suits you best. 04. Code Avengers From $150 (6-month plan) Free 7-day trial Code Avengers takes a simple step-by-step approach This online code school offers courses teaching you how to code or build websites, games and apps. There are lessons for total beginners, or if you have a little prior knowledge, you can start at a higher level. Code Avengers walks you through each process with very simple, step-by-step instructions, starting with minor tasks, while you watch what happens in a mini phone simulator next to your editor. The team has managed a good balance of difficulty: not so tricky you have to cheat, but not so simple you're just copy-pasting. One interesting thing about this online code school is the Code Avengers Junior section. This teaches children basic programming and computer literacy skills, via gamified courses. 05. Khan Academy Free Khan Academy is very straightforward and offers quizzes Khan Academy is a free online school that's not just focused on coding – there are a wide range of courses on offer, from economics to arts and humanities. Under the Computing section, you'll find courses on computer programming, computer science, coding and animation, all of which are broken up into specific sub-sections. What's interesting with Khan Academy is that you hear someone talking while they write the code, which feels natural, like you're sitting down with someone. The courses were straightforward, easy to follow and you can then transfer the concepts to the simple exercises. Sometimes, there are mini-quizzes following a demo, which help you think about things conceptually and understand what the code is doing a little better. 06. Hack Design Free This is a great source of aggregated content The 'courses' here are just collections of aggregated content, whether that's blogs, books, games, tutorials or videos, from around the web. There isn't anything to ‘complete' by way of tasks, but if you're after some resource recommendations to help you learn more about a specific part of design, this is a good place to turn. There are also tool lists with recommendations from people who use them. This is an excellent catalogue of design resources for all levels. It offers great introductory content for beginners and more advanced techniques for those who do this full-time. 07. Udemy Courses from free Udemy has a hude catalogue of courses and topics Udemy is an expansive catalogue, filled with thousands of other topics besides web and technology, with prices ranging from free to hundreds of dollars. We would venture to say you could find just about anything you wanted to learn about on here. The vast number of courses available (around 65,000 at time of writing) does make it tricky to dig out the good stuff. 08. Envato Tuts+ $29/mo If you want to keep growing your skills, Tuts+ is a great choice With online code school Envato Tuts+, you can learn about a number of aspects of design, from coding and web design to 3D and illustration. Users can select from courses (video-based lesson), tutorials (write-ups about different topics) or ebooks (including the popular A Book Apart series), depending on their particular learning style. Envato Tuts+'s content is access via a monthly subscription that also gives you access to design resource library Envato Elements. Next page: eight more top online coding courses 09. Treehouse $25/mo Free 7-day trial Treehouse is, hands down, one of the best learning tools around Treehouse has one of the most comprehensive libraries of educational materials on this list, while also being one of the most relevant. Not only does it offer a large variety of coding courses, but it also includes 'workspaces' you can use to try out new projects in your own time, as well as a library with videos of talks from industry professionals. It offers an iPad app to continue your learning, too. The structure is simple: learn from the video courses (which are regularly refreshed to reflect industry changes), practice your new skills though quizzes and challenges, and earn badges to reflect the skills you've already mastered. You can try a free seven-day trial on Treehouse, from then on it's $25 (£20) per month for access to all of the site's content. 10. Codeacademy Free Codeacademy is easy to use and it's free Codecademy is free and easy to set up. Straight away you can create 'goals' for yourself and find the skills you want to learn. These could range from applicable things like creating a portfolio site to silly, fun things like animating your name or building a CSS galaxy. 11. Lynda.com From $19.99/mo Free 30-day trial Lynda offers solutions for businesses, higher education and government Lynda.com is one of the more popular video tutorial sites. It offers an abundance of content that's constantly added to with new and up-to-date technologies and software. Lynda.com is a trusted resource that many turn to when they're after a tutorial to pick up a new skill. 12. Skillshare Plenty of free classes Premium access from $15/mo Skillshare offers over 18,000 classes Skillshare is a subscription-based service that offers thousands of classes taught by industry professionals. Courses come complete with material that's been created by the instructors, and there are projects for you to apply your skills. There's also an iOS or Android app that enables you to steam courses on the go, for more flexible learning. 13. Mijingo Free Mijingo is aimed at web professionals Mijingo is an online learning resource that features step-by-step video tutorials for both web design and development. These online coding courses aren't for beginners: they're aimed at helping web professionals get up to date with the latest developments. Current courses focus on things like ExpressionEngine and Twig. Alternatively you can pick a 'lesson' – these cover small, specific elements of broader topics. Stream the videos or download them to any device to watch at your leisure. The courses are cohesive and thorough, and some offer transcripts, starter files and additional resources. 14. Pluralsight From $29/mo Free 10-day trial Pluralsight offers a 10-day free trial No discussion of online training would be complete without a mention of Pluralsight. Following an acquisition spree, it now offers the world's biggest online training library. The company owns Code School, Smarterer and Digital-Tutors. Such is the size of the Pluralsight stable, if it doesn't offer a certain course then it's unlikely anybody does. A nice feature is Pluralsight's 'IQ tests', which help you determine which course is the right level for you. 15. Sitepoint $99/year Sitepoint offers a range of 'paths' to teach you particular coding skills. These lay out a clear journey through a specific subject, such as HTML and CSS, Angular 2, or full-stack JavaScript. You follow them at your own pace to complete your goals. It also offers a range of books, courses and screencasts to supplement your learning. 16. StackSkills Courses from free StackCommerce was founded in 2011 StackSkills is an online learning centre built to serve the StackCommerce community. It offers courses in a huge variety of subjects, including advanced JavaScript, Python, digital marketing and web development, all with the aim of developing a publisher's ecommerce potential. Courses range from free to $300, so no matter what your experience level or budget, it's certainly worth having a look. Related articles: 15 Twitter accounts every web designer should follow 5 top tips for speedy learning 9 of the best resources for learning HTML and CSS View the full article

If you're thinking of buying a nifty new Wacom graphics tablet, you've come to the right place. We'll update this post with all the best Wacom tablet deals, discounts and offers to help you get a great price. If you’re not sure it is a Wacom you want, take a look at our selection of the best drawing tablets of 2018. It’s packed with all the info you need to make the right purchase decision for your needs. But for cheap Wacom tablets, look no further. We’ve scooped up the best deals on Wacom's drawing tablets and accessories on this page, and our clever price finding tool will update you with the latest deals and discounts as they drop. As well as the Wacom website, the best places to bag a bargain are leading retailers like Amazon, John Lewis and Currys. If you don't mind a second-hand product, you can also pick up some bargains on refurbished Wacom devices, or take a look at Wacom's bundle offers. Read on for the cheapest Wacom deals we can find on the firm's leading tablets. Wacom Cintiq 13HD deals Wacom's ever-popular Creative Pen Cintiq tablet offers a high precision solution for all your graphics projects, whether in the office or at home. Weighing in at just 1.2kg, it's a highly portable device, meaning you can easily jot down sketches on the go, and with a 13.3-inch display, there's plenty of room to really express your creativity. It also comes complete with Wacom's powerful Pro Pen, featuring 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt recognition. Wacom Cintiq 27QHD Creative Pen and Touch Display deals Offering unparalled clarity and colour sensitivity, the Cintiq 27QHD provides true-to-life colour on a high-resolution, 27-inch display. The widescreen 16:9 display has four times the pixel density of standard HDTV, providing artists with the resolution (2560 x 1440) to handle the finest detail. Designed for drawing and painting, image editing and 3D animation, the 27QHD includes a Pro Pen, complete with a range of nibs, including felt for a smooth flow across the tablet surface. Wacom Cintiq Pro deals If you're after that natural pen-on-paper feel from your tablet, look no further than the Wacom Cintiq Pro. Designed for professional artists and designers who demand an intuitive, pen-on-screen connection to their work, the Wacom Cintiq Pro offers a resolution of up to 4K and a wide-gamut display, so you’ll be able to see your work in life-like detail. Wacom MobileStudio Pro deals Wacom MobileStudio Pro provides an entire studio full of powerful creative tools right at your fingertips. Featuring the new sensitive, more accurate and responsive Wacom Pro Pen 2, this MobileStudio provides everything you need to create at your best, from your studio desk to on the go. Available in two sizes, 13- and 16-inches, the MobileStudio Pro has been designed specifically to meet the demands of creative professionals who want the freedom to create anywhere. Backed up by powerful Intel chips, these machines have all the muscle you need to run professional creative applications. Plus, the Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 model come with NVIDIA Quadro graphics and on-board memory to make even the heaviest files fly around your screen. Wacom Intuos Pro deals If you're after a quality drawing tablet but are on a bit of a budget, then the Wacom Intuos Pro might be just the solution. Simply connect this nifty but affordable device to your Mac or Windows PC with USB or built-in Bluetooth, install drivers, and you’re ready to start work directly in the software of your choice. The ultra-responsive Wacom Pro Pen 2 connects you to your creative work like never before, providing the perfect drawing space. Wacom Bamboo Slate deals Wacom Bamboo Duo stylus deals Wacom Bamboo Fineline stylus deals Wacom Bamboo Sketch stylus deals Related articles: The best deals on Adobe Creative Cloud The best cheap laptop deals for creatives How to create new character designs in Photoshop View the full article