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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.

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Those looking to create realistic creature designs using a mixture of software –
ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, KeyShot and Photoshop – should look no further. I use this pipeline in my everyday work for movies, TV shows and video games – and it never disappoints. 

I start the process by sketching on paper and decide on the best design direction. Once I have a stronger idea of what to do, I jump into ZBrush to flesh out the design in 3D.

01. Create base mesh in ZBrush

Having a library of base meshes will speed up this first step

I start the model using one of the female base meshes I created a while back. This really cuts down the working time – I suggest you create your own library of base meshes that you can use on every project. For all the other elements that I need to create from scratch, I use ZSpheres. The objective at this stage is to get a strong sense of gesture in the base mesh.

02. Sculpt the face

Pushing the proportions of the human face can lead to beautiful mythical creatures

One of the main focuses early on in my sculpting is the face. I really want something that looks a bit creature-like, not wholly human, but is still beautiful. I decide that pushing the proportions and the features of a human face is the way to go: spreading the eyes out further than usual, enlarging the mouth, flattening the nose and pushing the bone structure in general. For the final image, I want strong eye contact with the viewer. To sculpt, I use just a few brushes: Clay Tubes, Clay, Dam_Standard, Move and Standard. 

03. Detail the body

Use references for anatomically correct sculpts

Now it’s time for the body, I start to sculpt in more details and to really finalise the entire design. It’s important to always model with anatomy references in front of you: that’s how you make sure everything looks realistic and anatomically correct. At this stage I use the Clay brush instead of the Clay Tubes brush to build up some of the forms, so that my strokes are more delicate and controlled.

04. Pose the model

Posing your model in an interesting way makes for a better creature

With the main sculpting done, it’s now time to pose my model. The tail is pretty much in the right pose already, since I modelled it directly with Symmetry turned off; so now I am able to focus on the upper body.  

Using the Transpose function, I can move the lowest subdivision levels around; and with minimum re-sculpting of some areas, like the neck and the shoulders, I can achieve the desired pose pretty easily this way.

05. Create seaweed hair

Use Marvelous Designer to create seaweed-like hair

Marvelous Designer is typically used for clothing, but I thought of using it in a more creative way, using its simulation power to create seaweed hair. I simply create strings of cloths, attach one end of each string to the head of my creature and create a medium-strength wind system. Once you let it simulate, the strings of cloth will interact and intersect; to get the underwater effect just quickly let go of the wind and freeze the result right away.

06. Detail the seaweed hair

Go back to ZBrush to add details to the hair

After creating different patches of simulated seaweed hair, I go back to ZBrush, where I can start the detailing process. With the Pinch brush, I make the end of each string pointy and finish the detailing with the Standard brush. With the Move brush, I make sure every patch of seaweed hair is interacting perfectly with the rest, and that each part is attached correctly to the head.

07. Polypaint the model

Aim for dark colours on the back of your model

Before rendering, I do a quick colour pass to help me out with the final compositing. I use the Standard brush set to RGB and in Color Spray mode with Alpha_08: this way I can select two colours in the palette that I want to mix with a bit of pattern, following the principle of darker colour on the back and lighter colour on the front. With the help of some custom Alphas, I detail the first colour pass.

08. Render in KeyShot

An initial render in KeyShot makes for some stunning results

With the ZBrush To KeyShot Bridge, I can transfer my model into KeyShot to render with one button. In KeyShot I create a new camera angle for my renders and, with minimum adjustments to my pose in ZBrush based on the new camera, I’m ready to go. Holding [Ctrl] on my keyboard while dragging the skin material on my model, I keep my textures from ZBrush intact. For my main lighting, I use the Factory HDRI preset in KeyShot and a simple top panel I place in ZBrush.

09. Render passes in KeyShot

Different render passes in KeyShot

My render passes consist of a Shadow Pass, Spec Pass, Beauty Pass, Rim Light Pass, SSS Pass, Texture Passes, Thin Film Pass and Alphas. The most important is the Shadow Pass, realised with a grey material on the model and a top panel with a light material in KeyShot; and the Beauty Pass, realised with a skin material, original textures from ZBrush and the Factory HDRI preset for the lighting.

10. Composite in Photoshop

Getting the right balance between passes when compositing is crucial

Using Photoshop, I can merge all my renders into one image, trying to find the right balance between the different passes. I place the Shadow Pass at the bottom then apply the other passes on top, lowering their Opacity and playing with the brightness and contrast to blend them all together. The Spec Pass should always be on top of all the other passes, applied with the Screen blend mode to just have the light areas coming through.

11. Start photo-bashing

Blending photos with 3D renders take the concept to a new level

To take the concept to the next level, I start the process of photo-bashing, which is basically the process of blending photos with my 3D renders. I use photos of people and animals to get realistic details, always making sure that the photos I use have lighting that follows what I established in 3D. The best way to blend the photos is to lower their opacity, then enhance the contrast and erase what you don’t need.

12. Detail the photo-bashing

Subtle details such as skin tone can be enhanced by photo-bashing

I continue my photo-bashing process by blending a photo of an actress over the face of my creature, using the Liquify filter (Filter>Liquify) to match the position of the photo’s eyes and mouth to the face in my ZBrush sculpt. This way I’m able to obtain some subtle details that I didn’t have before, and also to get better translucency in the skin. I also use the same photo-bashing technique for the background: I blend together some underwater photos that I then blur with a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).

13. Paint on top of photo-bashing

Painting adds the finishing touches to the photo-bashing stage

To perfectly blend the photos and my 3D work together, I start painting on top of my photo-bashing: this way I’m able to add more details and fix some elements. To blend everything even better, I can paint shadows with a dark colour and light areas with a light colour on a Soft Light layer. The last pass here is to paint in some foreground details to frame my creature, and some atmospheric effects using a large soft brush.

14. Add effects

Dust and bubbles images help the creature look less '3D'

To make the painting feel less ‘3D’, I use some dust and bubbles photos. You can easily find photos with this kind of effect online: you need them to be on a black background so that you can blend them using a Screen layer, which eliminates the background and leaves you with the details you want.

15. Finalise the image

The completed project, a creature from the deep

The image is basically complete, so I flatten down all the layers. The last steps now are to use Unsharp Mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask) to make the image sharper; before I apply a Radial Blur (Filter>Blur>Radial Blur), which I focus on the centre of the image. This helps to focus the attention of the viewer on the creature, and also to make the image more dynamic. You can also play with applying a Gradient Map to the image to lend more colour to your shadows.

This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy it here. 

Related articles:

• How to design and model a fantasy creature
• How to design better creatures
• 10 essential ZBrush shortcuts to improve your workflow

View the full article

You may have blinked and missed it, but there’s been a bit of a revolution in resolution over the last few years. Once seen as an experimental and cutting-edge technology, 4K screens are now commonplace: in TV screens, computer monitors and even smartphones.

With 4K offering four times as many pixels per inch, web designers need to make sure their websites look as good as they can on the latest screens. Of course, if you’re already following the principles of responsive web design, that will get you most of the way to ensure your website looks good wherever it’s being viewed. But beyond that, here are four areas you particularly need to pay attention to in the 4K era... 

01. Use scalable graphics

Icons, logos and other graphics should be created as scalable, not raster images

For your website to look good on 4K screens, you need to use scalable rather than raster images wherever possible. 

With raster formats (which include jpegs, GIFs and PNGs), each image contains a fixed number of pixels and so as they increase in size, they just get more pixellated and blurry. Scalable formats, known as SVG (scalable vector graphics), in contrast, are based on geometric shapes. This means that however big they get, they will remain clean and clear. 

Of course, you still need to use raster formats for photographs. Which means you need to use media queries to serve high-res versions of your photos to 4K and 5K Retina screens, and much smaller, lower-res versions to mobile devices, to avoid killing your site’s performance on 3G and 4G connections. (If you’re working with a lot of images, it’s worth noting that Photoshop CC lets you export a single image in multiple sizes simultaneously.)

Logos, drawings, user interface tools, buttons and so forth, though, should always be created as SVGs. This can be done in software such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Affinity Designer. To learn more about scalable graphics, read our 10 golden rules for responsive SVGs.

02. Consider larger displays

The New York Times website, as screengrabbed by Jon Yabkonski on a large monitor

When thinking about what your website will look like in 4K, remember that higher resolutions are making bigger and bigger screens more popular. 

So although we’ve only just got used to the idea of our sites being viewed on 1920x1080 monitors, we’re now having to think about what they’ll look like on displays on that are 2,560 pixels wide. Many websites can be difficult to read on these screens, where the text and content may look constricted and shrunk down, and an overabundance of whitespace.

This excellent article by Jon Yabkonski on CSS Tricks addresses the technical challenges these wider displays present, and suggests some solutions.

03. Use 4K video

Stock libraries like iStock by Getty Images can provide a wide range of 4K footage

Because our eyes naturally respond to movement in a way that still images can’t compete with, video is a popular tool for grabbing the attention of website visitors. But whether you’re adding a video header, video background or strategic video clips to your site, right now, you have to serve it in 4K to avoid looking clunky and old-fashioned on the latest devices. 

There are many cheap and easy ways to shoot 4K footage nowadays, with many of the latest stills cameras, POV sports cameras and smartphones offering 4K shooting capabilities. Alternatively, if you don’t have the time, or need something you couldn’t shoot yourself, such as drone footage, most stock libraries now have masses of 4K video content for you to download.

For more on using 4K video, check out What the new wave of 4K video means for designers.

04. Buy a 4K monitor

Buying a monitor like the Acer S277HK takes all of the guesswork out of ensuring your site works in 4K

At the end of the day, the best way to be sure your websites will look good on a 4K monitor is – to state the obvious – to buy a 4K monitor. The good news is that it’s possible to get on for as little as £250, although as with everything, you get what you pay for. 

You’ll find an up-to-date roundup of the latest monitors by our sister site TechRadar here, while if your work involves 3D, motion graphics and/or video editing, you may want to check out this roundup too.

Read more:

• The ultimate guide to image resolution
• The 5 best laptops for photo editing
• 5 tips for using stock imagery in your designs

View the full article

After many impassioned debates between the world-class judging panel, just over a quarter of the projects submitted to Computer Arts' Brand Impact Awards have made the shortlist. We can now reveal those 47 projects, from 32 different agencies – scroll down for the full list.

Computer Arts' Brand Impact Awards reward the very best branding from around the world. Now in its fourth year, the scheme's rich heritage of past winners represent the cream of  the global branding industry.

2017's shortlist is no different. This year, the Brand Impact Awards received a record number of entries – 187 projects, from 86 different agencies.

The winning and highly commended projects will be revealed at the fourth-annual Brand Impact Awards ceremony at the Ham Yard Hotel, London, on Wednesday 13 September.

Early bird prices are valid until 21 July, so book your tickets now to join the world's top agencies and discover 2017's big winners.

Book your Brand Impact Awards tickets

Being shortlisted for the Brand Impact Awards is an accolade in itself. Standards are unfalteringly high, and if judges felt that none of the projects submitted in a category met the criteria, that category was cut altogether. Those criteria are:

1. A strong, compelling concept that's appropriate for the client
2. Beautiful and consistent execution across two or more brand touchpoints
3. Branding that stands head and shoulders above the rest of its market sector

Also, being the only agency shortlisted in a category does not necessarily mean taking home a coveted BIA trophy on the night. So it's all to play for.

So without further ado, in alphabetical order, here are the 32 agencies that made the shortlist in the Brand Impact Awards 2017:

Alphabetical

Fashion Business School, by Alphabetical

• Category: Education
• Project: Fashion Business School

Anagrama

Winter Milk, by Anagrama

• Category: Bars & Restaurants
• Project: Winter Milk

Helvetimart, by Anagrama

• Category: Retail
• Project: Helvetimart

BrandOpus

The Badger, by BrandOpus

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: The Badger

Design Bridge

Guinness, by Design Bridge

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: Guinness

DesignStudio

Deliveroo, by DesignStudio

• Category: Retail
• Project: Deliveroo

Premier League, by DesignStudio

• Category: Sports
• Project: Premier League

DixonBaxi

Premier League broadcast graphics, by DixonBaxi

• Category: Entertainment
• Project: Premier League broadcast graphics

GBH London

AB Walker, by GBH London

• Category: Professional Services
• Project: AB Walker

PUMA: Non-Corporate Box, by GBH London

• Category: Sports
• Project: PUMA Non-Corporate Box

GW+Co

Reiss, by GW+Co

• Category: Technology & Telecoms
• Project: Reiss

Jack Renwick Studio

Carpenters Wharf, by Jack Renwick Studio

• Category: Property
• Project: Carpenters Wharf

Johnson Banks

Action For Children, by Johnson Banks

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: Action for Children

Mozilla, by Johnson Banks

• Category: Technology & Telecoms
• Project: Mozilla

Kontor Reykjavik

Alvogen, by Kontor Reykjavik (illustrations: Noma Bar)

• Category: Pharmaceuticals & Toiletries
• Project: Alvogen

MARK Studio

Manchester Literature Festival, by MARK Studio

• Category: Culture
• Project: Manchester Literature Festival 2016

Walk Through Walls, by MARK Studio

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: Walk Through Walls

Music

Powerleague, by Music

• Category: Sports
• Project: Powerleague

NB

TypoCircle, by NB (with Studio Sutherl&)

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: TypoCircle

Neon

I’m An Activist, by Neon

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: I'm an Activist for Action for Children

Acumin, by Neon

• Category: Professional Services
• Project: Acumin

Pearlfisher

Seedlip, by Pearlfisher

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: Seedlip

Peter and Paul

Noiascape, by Peter and Paul

• Category: Property
• Project: Noiascape

Sagmeister & Walsh

Pins Won't Save The World, by Sagmeister & Walsh

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: Pins Won't Save the World

Salad

Halo, by Salad

• Category: Pharmaceuticals & Toiletries
• Project: Halo

SB

Conquista, by SB

• Category: Publishing
• Project: Conquista

SODA

SODA rebrand, by SODA

• Category: Self-Branding
• Project: SODA rebrand

Spy Studio

H+J, by Spy Studio

• Category: Bars & Restaurants
• Project: H+J

Studio Dumbar

NEMO, by Studio Dumbar

• Category: Education
• Project: NEMO Science Museum

Studio Sutherl&

Somos Brasil, by Studio Sutherl&

• Category: Culture
• Project: Somos Brasil

Supple Studio

D.R.A.W., by Supple Studio

• Category: Professional Services
• Project: D.R.A.W.

Straightline, by Supple Studio

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: Straightline

Twine, by Supple Studio

• Category: Technology & Telecoms
• Project: Twine

Taxi Studio

Carlsberg Export, by Taxi Studio

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: Carlsberg Export

Kobenhavn Collection, by Taxi Studio

• Category 1: FMCG
• Category 2: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: The København Collection

Polo, by Taxi Studio

• Category: FMCG
• Project: POLO rebrand

The Allotment

Radical, by The Allotment

• Category: Automotive
• Project: Radical Sportscars

The Clearing

Wild Cards, by The Clearing

• Category: Self-Branding
• Project: Wild Cards

The Neighbourhood

Smith’s Dock, by The Neighbourhood

• Category: Property
• Project: Smith's Dock

The Partners

Arte, by The Partners and Lambie-Nairn

• Category: Entertainment
• Project: Arte

The Butcher The Baker, by The Partners

• Category: Artisan
• Project: The Butcher The Baker

Hello Universe, by The Partners

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: Hello, Universe

London Cru, by The Partners

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: London Cru winery

London Symphony Orchestra, by The Partners

• Category: Culture
• Project: London Symphony Orchestra

#RewritingTheCode, by The Partners

• Category: Not-for-profit
• Project: #RewritingTheCode

Thunderclap Creative

Pillars Brewery Russian Doll Campaign, by Thunderclap Creative

• Category: Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Project: Pillars Brewery Russian Doll campaign

True North

National Gallery of Ireland, by True North

• Category: Culture
• Project: National Gallery of Ireland

Buy your Brand Impact Awards tickets now!

The Brand Impact Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 13 September 2017 at the Ham Yard Hotel in London.

Tickets include drinks reception, canapés and bowl food, and of course a chance to toast your success or drown your sorrows at the BIA after party.

Earlybird prices (until Friday 21 July):

• 1 seat: £99 + VAT
• 5+ seats: 10% discount
• Buy tickets now!

Standard prices:

• 1 seat: £110 + VAT
• 5+ seats: 10% discount

Good luck to all shortlisted agencies!

View the full article

For more on how teams can collaborate better, don't miss Alison Coward, founder of  Bracket and author of  A Pocket Guide to Effective Workshops, at Generate London next week (20-22 Sept). There are still some tickets available. 

You probably harbour some resentment towards meetings. Perhaps you've got a plan for getting out of them permanently. Maybe while at university, you built the next killer iApplication and it will reap such monumental rewards you'll never have to sit in a conference room in your entire professional life. Or perhaps after slaving away on award-winning client sites since before you could game Altavista with the phrase "Britney Spears", you're confident that soon royalty checks and speaking gigs should keep you from having to sit in a boring meeting ever again.

If you lean towards the latter of these personas, you may resent meetings from extensive experience, watching them destroy productivity. Meetings can be time consuming, costly, and are frequently called for the wrong reasons. Gathering in groups is a deeply rooted part of our psyche that is partly based on fear, going way back to when we proto-humans realised we might fare better against assorted proto-human-eating animals if we worked as a group. Many of the meetings we call today are of this ilk, and therefore can come across feeling more like group therapy than productive discussion.

It logically follows that we should eliminate unproductive meetings from our time spent building things. But one cost of doing this is that we lose our collective awareness and agreement on what we are building, and why. Although some refer to this as an illusion of agreement, we have to start with some kind of agreement, and meetings afford us a unique opportunity to drive that illusion closer to a reality. 

They are the only place we can apply the full range of human communication styles: verbal (spoken word), visual (written words and image), and physical (body language) to a problem as a group. If we don't iterate that shared understanding, flawed though it may be, we guarantee misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and feelings of isolation.

At Generate London, Alison Coward will explain how to create good team habits that stick

The three flavours of meetings

Meetings fall into one of three categories, loosely based on duration:

• Quick meetings address a simple challenge or level-set group understanding. They can be from five to 20 minutes or so, and require a decision before ending.
• Business meetings explore a finite problem, and can last one or two hours. They can result in either a decision or further clarification of the problem.
• Longer, working sessions address complex problems and unknowns in an open collaborative manner. These last from two hours to several days, and are also referred to as workshops. Outcomes include decisions, prototypes, strategic directions, plans, and more.

By remembering some basic principles for each meeting type, you can make them more effective and engaging, and even eliminate a few meetings in the process.

Quick meetings (30 minutes or less)

If you need to make a group decision, there are tools out there to measure consensus on a simple concept without calling a meeting. So before scheduling one, ask yourself if an email thread or using an online survey would be sufficient. If you'd like to allow the team to express their perspectives in person, however, a short meeting with some clear constraints is your best choice.

Sticky note activities like the KJ technique help groups establish priorities without devolving into arguments. Have people write their ideas based on a focusing question, rather than speak them aloud, then post them in a shared viewing space. This way, each participant will have a chance to review the group's full range of thought rather than reacting to the last thing that was said. It also levels the playing field between extroverts and introverts.

A workshop employing the KJ method

Business meetings (1 to 2 hours)

At this length meetings are their most problematic. An hour can wreak havoc on a workday, destroying concentration and dividing up productive time periods. When scheduling meetings of this length, consider isolating them to certain parts of the day to minimise damage. Experiment with "no meeting zones:" chunks of time where you eliminate business meetings entirely.

When having a meeting like this, for five or more people there should be a designated facilitator. A facilitator leads participants through a meeting process. A good facilitator collaborates with leadership to create the best agenda for the intended results. Facilitators are meeting process ninjas: they make sure everyone has an equal chance to contribute, except themselves.

Facilitators shouldn't contribute original ideas to a discussion. If they do, participants that feel their views differ from the facilitator's can accuse the facilitator of engineering the process. For this reason, it's good to select unbiased facilitators. When that isn't possible, the person running that discussion should focus on making sure everyone is heard, and not on their own analysis of the problem.

It's also a good idea to have a sense of the business culture of the attendees. Is it a group of doodlers? Let them doodle ideas. Accountants? Focus on the numbers. Align meeting content and activities with the work values at hand. If you can translate the problem into their native language, you'll increase engagement.

The workshop

Workshops are complex beasts that require a lot of advance planning, a great playbook of activities to draw from, and the alignment of stars and planets to make sure everyone is available. Whether you are building a project plan, a prototype, or even a new company, I suggest keeping the following one thing in mind.

When characters on the television show Lost started traveling through time, they introduced the concept of "the constant." "The constant" was something that a character would try to remember, usually the name of a person, to help keep you oriented in time and space.

Using "the constant" in a long workshop is a powerful tool. As you move thought the day, it could be something as simple as a single question on the wall, written in large text, where everyone can see it:

How will what you are doing right now create the change that we seek?

Or it could be an activity: something that all attendees can do cumulatively over the day, any time they have a break:

Write down an interface design or usability improvement goal for the next six months on a sticky note every time you hear one you like, and put it on the wall.

Having a good constant, whether it's a theme or an activity, helps tie the component parts of a workshop together, giving it a nice arc.

Go forth and meet well

The next time you are putting together a meeting, try to align the goals of the meeting with one of the three types of meetings described above. Can you come up with a way to make the decision you need to make in 15 minutes, or is an hour discussion a better fit for the problem?

Perhaps you should make that kickoff meeting a workshop instead of just spending an hour describing the project to everyone, to increase engagement. Design your meetings well, and they'll be far effective and keeping you out of (unnecessary) ones.

At Generate London next week Alison Coward will explore how to run great workshops that improve team culture. The conference will also cover prototyping, user research, UX strategy, performance, web animations, adaptive interfaces, conversational design, and loads more. Reserve your spot today!

Related articles:

• Interview with Alison Coward: How to design teamwork
• 5 tips for managing your team's time
• 20 tools to make your team more productive
• 7 ways to improve teamwork with design

View the full article

You're reading Speed Up Your Development With Themify Ultra Theme, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+!

Never before could one decide that they desired a website, then create one with all the bells and whistles in the same afternoon. Well, the Ultra Theme by Themify is here to change all of that. In a matter of minutes, you can setup a fully loaded website, tailor made for your specific needs. Whether you’re creating an online […]

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It’s that time of year again where Tim Cook et al take to the stage in California (this time in the new Steve Jobs Theatre at the Apple Campus 2) to tell us about the new iPhone. We’ve seen two new iPhones announced in recent times, but this year we’ve been treated to three – the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and, most interestingly, the iPhone X (or ‘ten’).

Availability and pricing

We'll cut to the chase. The iPhone X is available for pre-order from 27th October, with the 64GB version costing a jaw-dropping £999. The 256GB version costs £1,149.

The iPhone 8 is available for pre-order on 15th September and costs £699 for the 64GB version. The 8 Plus is available the same date and will set you back a pound less than £800. 

iPhone X: new design and tech

Hit the image to read our sister site TechRadar's hands-on review of the iPhone X

So let’s start with the iPhone X, then. Coming 10 years after the original iPhone, the iPhone X is the most radically different iPhone – in terms of design – ever. Gone is the Home button. There’s a very minimal bezel. And there’s a new edge-to-edge 5.8-inch ‘Super Retina Display’. 

The front and back of the iPhone X are glass – the most durable glass ever, according to Apple – joined together by stainless steel. Spec-wise, the OLED screen looks pretty impressive, with 2,436 x 1,125 dpi resolution at 448 ppi. It’s HDR, and features Apple’s True Tone technology to adapt the screen to your surroundings for viewing comfort.

Screen aside, possibly the most interesting thing about the iPhone X is Face ID. The long and short of it is you can now unlock your iPhone with your face. It’s apparently pretty accurate, too – and the company has gone to great lengths to make sure it can’t be fooled by a photo of your good self. Oh, and you can also use it to create talking 3D animal emoji. If you like.

The iPhone X is powered by Apple’s A11 Bionic chip – which no doubt enables you to perform super-human feats with your smartphone. It’s splash, water and dust resistant and, even though it’s got a whopping 5.8-inch screen, comes in at a very svelte 5.65 inches (h) x 2.79 (w) x 0.3 (d) and weighs just 174g. Oh, and there’s also wireless charging, thanks to the iPhone adopting the Qi standard.

The iPhone X comes in space grey and silver in 64GB and 256GB configurations.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus

TechRadar are at the Apple Event

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are much more familiar – with a similar form factor to their predecessors. The difference is there’s a new glass front and back design, with an ‘aerospace grade’ (who cares?) aluminium band. Like with the X, we recommend getting a case. 

The last glass-backed iPhone was the iPhone 4 – and this writer managed to drop and shatter his on day one. DAY ONE! Of course, glass tech has moved on since then – and like the iPhone X, Apple says the iPhone 8 features the most durable glass ever on a smartphone. The iPhone 8 comes in silver, space gray and gold, and like the iPhone X, in 64GB and 256GB models.

Like the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are powerful smartphones, with 4.7- (1334 x 750 pixel at 326dpi) and 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixel at 401ppi) screens respectively. The iPhone 8(s) also feature the same A11 Bionic chip, wireless charging and water resistance as the X.

The cameras

OK, let’s talk about the stuff you’re really interested in: how can the new iPhones up your Instagram game? Both the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X feature significantly upgraded cameras. And both feature some neat new portrait tools to make your shots better quality than ever.

iPhone X camera

Let’s talk about the iPhone X’s front camera first. This is the camera with facial recognition – and Apple is calling it, in true hyberbolic fashion, the TrueDepth Camera. This is the camera that scans your noggin to log you in. It’s also a 7MP snapper with a new Portrait Lighting feature (also found in the rear camera) enabling you to dynamically alter the lighting of your subject’s face as you shoot. 

So whereas Portrait Mode creates a depth map and separates your subject from the background, Portrait Lighting analyses the lighting on your subject’s face and enables you to flick between presets – not filters – as you shoot. 

These include Natural Light, which puts your subject’s face in sharp focus against a blurred background; Studio Light, which gives you a clean look with your subject’s face brightly lit; Contour Light – giving you dramatic highlights and lowlights; Stage Light – your subject’s face spotlit against a black background; and Stage Light Mono – like stage but in black-and-white.

Turn the smartphone over and you’ll see a vertical 12MP dual-camera setup – like the iPhone 7 and 8 there’s a Wide-angle and Telephoto lens for optical zoom within the Camera app. There’s dual optical image stabilisation here, as well. In terms of video, you can record 4K at 24, 30 or 60fps and 1080p footage at 30 or 60fps. And of course it supports the new Portrait features.

There’s also a new Slow Sync flash for better uniformity in low-light, more filters and Apple’s new image signal processor, which detects elements in a scene, such as people, motion and lighting, and promises to optimise your photos according to the subject matter.

iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus camera

Image courtesy of TechRadar

The iPhone 8 doesn’t feature the new Portrait Lighting option – as it doesn’t have a dual camera setup. The 8 Plus does, on the rear camera only. Aside from this, camera specs in the 8 and 8 Plus are pretty much the same as the X as far as we can tell.

ARkit: what you need to know

During the unveiling of the iPhone 8/Plus and X we saw a demo of some pretty cool AR games. Developers will be able to take advantage of the faster A11 Bionic chip, the three-core GPU and enhanced camera to create some amazing augmented reality experiences.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what games devs do with the new power of the iPhone 8 and X – so watch this space.

Related articles:

• The 30 best iPhone apps for designers
• 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil
• iOS 11 preview for designers: release date, news and specs

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Microsoft fixes 25 critical vulnerabilities including one zero day under attack and one tied to the high-profile BlueBorne attack vector.

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Adobe fixed eight vulnerabilities across three products, Flash Player, RoboHelp for Windows, and ColdFusion, as part of its September Patch Tuesday updates.

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https://blog.cpanel.com/keep-email-abuse-off-your-machines/ …

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http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/blueborne-bluetooth-hacking.html …

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Researchers warned Monday of two remote code execution vulnerabilities in FreeXL that could let an attacker execute code with local user privileges.

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https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/09/12/why-are-redditors-ripping-images-from-instagram-because-they-can/ …

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Internet sensation and IFX favourite Lois van Baarle, aka Loish, has launched a brand new Kickstarter project. Her new fan-funded book, The Sketchbook of Loish, allows you to delve into her personal sketchbook and see first-hand how she brings her iconic works to life.

• Check out Loish's new Kickstarter page

Loish has worked as a concept artist and illustrator for the likes of Lego and Coca Cola and her unique designs and self-styled career pathway has proven a major influence on the digital artist community.

Loish has worked as a concept artist for global giant, Coca Cola

Last time the visual virtuoso launched a book on Kickstarter, she surpassed her target by hundreds of thousands of pounds and has since become one of the most followed artists on social media.

Loish revealed via her official Facebook page: “There will be a limited number of signed copies and prints, as well as special prizes and stretch goals. These ran out very fast during my previous campaign!”

The campaign goes live today, so if you want to be in for a chance to win any of her exclusives, head over to Kickstarter and get backing her without a moments notice!

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• Adobe launches revealing video series by artists
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Mobile painting app Procreate is quickly becoming the go-to digital sketchpad for both professional and hobbyist designers and artists. That's why we've curated this selection of the best free Procreate brushes – as well as the best premium options – for you to bookmark.

• Review: Procreate 3.2

Winner of the 2013 Apple design award and ImagineFX Editors Choice, Procreate is more than just a quick drawing tool. The iPad app transforms your iPad into a drawing tablet capable of the level of artwork previously only possible on a desktop or expensive graphics tablet dedicated to digital design. 

There's an unlimited library of brushes available, meaning you can have every style and stoke available at your fingertips. So which ones do you want? Read on for our pick of the best downloadable Procreate brushes to add to your collection…

01. Petra's Procreate Brush Box Vol. 1: Handlettering

Price: Free

Petra (StudioBurg)’s collection is an essential package, offering a selection of brushes that should suit most basic illustration and graphic design needs. She covers various pen and pencil styles as well as paint brushes, making it easy to pick your desired signature. 

O2. Ian Bernard's Flat Brushes

Price: $5

We all have that favourite brush used time and time again for lettering, and this particular collection is directly inspired by artist Ian Bernard’s old faithful. The brushes are varied from solid to textured to give you plenty of variation for your own work.

03. The Will (Elder) Comic Ink Brush Set

Price: Free

Perfect for those budding comic illustrators out there. Georg’s tribute to American comic book illustrator Will Elder, who helped launch MAD comics back in the 50’s includes both inking brushes and SFX additions. The perfect addition to any illustrators Procreate repertoire.

04. Pencil and Charcoal Procreate Brushes

Price: $6.46

Swiss designer Kim (aka MiksKS) has a whole host of brilliant brushes to offer. Her pencil and charcoal collection make it easy to sketch on the go, with clients or just capture a moment in a coffee shop without wasting paper.

05. Dearest Dotty

Price: Free

Designer, Missy Meyer has a plethora of free Procreate brushes available on her website that are all brilliant for creating graphic script. The great thing about Dearest Dotty is it’s versatility and the unique retro vibe it helps give off when used for hand lettering.

06. Flora: Vegetation brushes

Price: Free

Matthew Baldwin’s vegetation brush set makes light work for concept artists. Set the scene instantly and master that painterly effect digitally. Baldwin has captured every style of stroke seen by the concept masters.

07. Lisa Bardot’s Gouache brushes

Price: $14.40

Bardot has a few brush packs available on her site but her gouache one is particularly unique. Emulate the classic Disney illustrative magic of Mary Blair digitally, and add depth and personality to your graphic design caricatures. 

08. Summit Avenue’s Shimmer and Confetti

Price: $16.80

Designing event flyers? Wedding invites? Summit Avenue have got you covered with a set of 12 confetti brushes and 24 foil and glitter textures to add a touch of sparkle to your designs.

09. Procreate Paint Box

Price: $14.40

Ben Lew’s paint box has a brilliant selection of brushes, from wet pencil to bristly and his go-to watercolour brush, “gwosh”. Lew has now updated the set with his 4 pastel brushes from his “Pastellesque” set.

10. Nitty Gritty

Price: $3.60

Jamie Bartlett’s Nitty Gritty texture brushes are brilliant for adding fine grit texture and an instant ageing effect to your designs.

11. Bistro Marker

Price: Free

As you can see from her Instagram, Leftyscript’s brushes can create some truly beautiful hand lettering designs that speak for themselves – no further illustration needed! Her bistro marker is a brilliant freebie pen that allows you to capture a hand-written signage type-face perfectly.

12. Vintage Engraving

Price: $7.20

Another MilksKS brush set, this one allows you to capture the look of a black and white engraving, adding that extra special touch to your illustrations or design project. Combine a few for a classic crosshatching effect, and pick from a worn-out or clean cut style.

13. Hand Drawn Ornaments

Price: $19

Calligraphy artist, Nicole Mauloni’s Hand Drawn Ornaments Procreate Brush Kit includes over 100 brushes to adorn digital calligraphy. Perfect for creating a design stamp with flourishes, shapes and motifs.

14. iPad Lettering Set

Price: Free

Get back to basics with this freebie set of three essential brushes: original calligraphy, rough edge calligraphy and round edge calligraphy. Sometimes simplicity is beautiful.

15. Rad & Happy

Price: Free

Rad & Happy founder, Tara, often gets asked what brushes she uses for her designs, the answer? These. And she’s made them downloadable, completely free of charge!

Next page: 15 more awesome brushes and brush packs to download to your Procreate app

16. Studio FabianFischer’s Brush 1

Price: $1.19

Fischer created this brush out of a LYRA tip and has edited it into a fully functional, pressure sensitive Procreate brush. Create realistic hand drawn lettering with ease!

17. Thin Ink

Price: $3 (AUS)

Sasha Hickson, aka Peachface’s ‘Thin Ink’, is a popular brush for making quirky and modern designs. Easily replicate delicate thick and thin strokes and quickly add those feminine flourishes to your designs.

18. Monoline

Price: $3

Designer at Hewitt Avenue, Sarah, makes all the brushes she uses for her own designs available to download. Her Monoline brush is a versatile addition to your brush collection and perfect for the newbie letterer.

19. Chalk Letterer Box

Price: $12

Forget the dusty hands, Guerilla Craft’s brush set lets you create your chalked masterpieces on the comfort of your own clean, digital iPad. With a selection of wet chalk, smudge chalk, round chalk, flat chalk, gritty chalk and more, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better selection.

20. Dry Marker

Price: $15

Everyone loves the effortless scribe of a dry marker and Bec Ralec’s (aka Pixelcolours) collection of add on brushes gives you 15 different marker pens to choose from. Ralec has also kindly included an original calligraphy brush for all your graphic needs!

21. Fat Ink

Price: $3.60

Thin ink is great and all, but what about when you need that fat, bold brush to really make your lettering stand out? Sarahtypes has you covered with her super smooth brush, giving you an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes.

22. Midcentury Illustrators Kit

Price: $14.40

Go full-on retro with Lisa Bardot’s latest premium brush kit, designed to help you master that quirky 60s graphic, texture rich commercial design style with ease. 

23. Matty B’s Hatch Effects

Price: Free

Another fantastic free brush pack from MattyB, perfect for the budding or professional illustrator. Lines, dots, scribbles, marks, you name it – it’s in the pack!

24. Lettering Brush Pack

Price: $18

Ryan Hamrick’s selection of 14 custom Procreate lettering brushes allows you to produce high-end, professional lettering work on your iPad. A Beautiful selection of his own favourite brushes, there’s little you can’t do with this pack.

25. Nikko’s Brushes

Price: Free

Well respected Procreate digital artist, Nikolai Lockertsen, has made his own five favourite custom brushes available to download. Just check out his site to see what he had achieved with this small set of tools, it’s nothing short of phenomenal.

26. Blackletter

Price: $8

Created by Boston-based calligraphy artist, Jake Rainis; the artist says he’s downloaded almost every set on the market to see what works and what doesn’t in order to produce this, his own extensive brush set.

27. The Parchment Pen

Price: $3

This pressure sensitive brush mimics the look of an Eighteenth Century quill, making it perfect for calligraphy but also great for black and grey line drawings.

28. Whiskers

Price: Free

The Inky Hand’s Whiskers brush is a fantastic little brush, perfect for creating a unique hand-drawn, scratchy effect. Great for rough sketches and adding a touch of originality to your images.

29. Dizzy Tara’s Sketch and Ink

Price: $2

A fantastic little package of inky brushes to use while sketching. DizzyTara’s 9 brushes include a variety of shaped ink pens and a board marking brush.

30. Watercolor Brushes

Price: $21.60

A very comprehensive set from graphic designer, PicByKate, allowing you to master the watercolour effect in digital format. Unfortunately this collection only works in Procreate 3 and earlier, but the artist is updating it for Procreate 4 soon.

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• 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil
• 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so far

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You're reading Adobe’s Photoshop Has New Tool for Drawing Curves, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+!

Photoshop is probably the most popular tool when it comes to retouching images or photographs. It’s also a good package for a lot of other tasks. Drawing curves, however, is not a strong point. If you have an Adobe subscription, the latest Photoshop update has a few goodies in the pipeline, including the “curvature pen” […]

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Icons are a critical element of UI design and as important a part of your web project as web fonts, but creating custom icons for each project is rarely practical as it's so time-consuming. On the other hand, finding those hidden treasures in a pool of tens of thousands of free icons also takes time.

That's why we've stepped in to help out – we've picked out a great selection of free icons, and hopefully you'll find at least a few sets that you can put to good use in your own projects, whether personal or commercial.

• 85 brilliant Photoshop tutorials

01. 30 isometric icons

These isometric beauties aren't just for accountants

This set of 30 isometric icons has been created with the accounting industry in mind, but there are some fab pieces in there that could easily be turned towards more general use if you're so inclined.

02. iconmonstr

You can easily download free icons at iconmonstr

The iconmonstr website is a great place to find black and white vector icons. They’re available in various sizes, and you can download them either in .PNG or .SVG format.

03. Find Icons

Find icons at Find Icons - it doesn't get simpler than that

Find Icons helps you track down everything from flat black and white icons to colourful 3D icons. Uncover what you're looking for by searching by colour, background colour and even style.

04. Icon Archive

Icon Archive's rating system will help you decide which free icons to download

At Icon Archive you'll have to sort the wheat from the chaff to a certain extent, but you are able to sort icons by colour, background colour, size, style and category, and download PNGs in four different sizes.

05. Icon Gallery

Icon Gallery is literally a gallery of great free icons. Hence the name

Icon Gallery offers you with a simpler filter option to help you find the icons you're looking for. Icons are available in several sizes to download in .PNG or .ICO.

06. The Noun Project

The Noun Project offer free icons devoted to a similar aesthetic

Gaining more and more traction and use, the aim of The Noun Project is to provide free icons that all have a similar and consistent aesthetic. It’s like a 'free icon set' that's been juiced up with a search area, a beautiful UI, and some fantastic icon designs.

• 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials

07. IconToucan

IconToucan enables you to drag, drop, and download whatever free icons you like

The primary benefit of IconToucan is convenience. The site enables you to quickly view the transparent, PNG icons and then drag and drop them into a drawer on the right side of the page. Appearing underneath is a list of those icons you’ve chosen and with a single click you can download all the free icons you've selected at once in a ZIP archive file.

08. Minicons

Minicons provides 210 free icons for web design and wireframes to choose from

Minicons offers a clean set of 210, vector-based free icons with a few hidden gems. You can download all of them in a single click, and they're are free for both personal and commercial use. If you’re feeling frisky, you can open the wallet and pay $59 for the complete package of 1,500 vector icons.

09. Fontello

Create your own webfonts of icons with this easy composer

This site lets you create your own free webfonts of icons. You basically select the 'glyphs' of icons you want in your font from a few different (really nice) collections. You can change the pixel sizes, customise the file names, and download your webfont bundle. Everything is generated on through the site and ready for publishing on yours.

10. Socialico

Socialico offers a package of 74 free icons for social media use

Social media is everywhere these days, and the number and variety of social-based sites is increasing all the time. Every website designer seems to have the need for some good social media icons, and this collection provides some of the more common ones (Facebook and Twitter) to more niche ones (Dribbble and deviantART). The free icons come as a font, with the icons both in a circle holding shape and without a circle.

Next: 10 more free icon sets

11. Modern Pictograms

Modern Pictograms comes with a selection of free icons

An OpenType font for download, this free offering provides an attractive selection of free icons. The designs were created with simplicity and competence from the folks at The Design Office and is available on the popular free fontssite, Font Squirrel. (The icons apparently look good intermingled with Helvetica.)

12. FlatIcon

FlatIcon has over 184,000 icons on offer

If you need lots and lots of flat icons, then this project by FreePik will sort you right out, featuring 2,979 icon packs for free, adding up to over 184,000 free icons for both personal and commercial use.

13. Free vector icons: Retro Volume 1

Get retro with this icon set, and don't forget to grab Volume 2

This set of 120 vector icons by Vietnamese designer Min Tran presses all the right retro buttons. If you want more you can find Volume 2 right here, and there are plenty more icons to be found on his Dribbble page. 

14. Free UXPin icon set

UXPin's free icon set is ideal for building UI prototypes

UXPin's a collaborative wireframing app that's perfect for building prototypes quickly and easily, and to help out with the process the UXPin team has made this beautiful and diverse suite of over 80 icons, designed for web and mobile UI design, available to use for free.

15. Icons8

Icons8 is a comprehensive collection of 19,700 free flat icons

Promising any icon in any format, size and colour in 20 seconds, Icons8 is a comprehensive collection of 19,700 free flat icons. With categories business, clothing, food and more, Icons8 lets users download icons as both a Mac App or ZIP file.

16. Freepik

Freepik's shaded vector icons are perfect for businesses and independent projects

This vibrant collection of shaded vector icons from graphic resource Freepik is just one of the many sets they've curated. Perfect for businesses and independent projects, these icons are free for both personal and commercial use. Each set can be downloaded in an .AI, .EPS and .SVG format.

17. Iconfinder

These black and white icons mix functionality with emotive ideas.

Rendered in simple black and white, this set of crisp vector icons mix functionality with emotive ideas. Besides standard icons for security and messaging, such as padlocks and envelopes, this collection from Iconfinder also features hearts and eyes to give your designs that personal touch.

18. Modern UI Icons

Over 1000 handcrafted flat icons for Windows, Android or iOS

Here's another fantastic free resource if you're looking for modern UI style icons for your Windows, Android or iOS app. Download the pack and you'll get over 1000 handcrafted flat icons including app bar icons for Windows phone.

19. 350 pixel perfect icons

These pixel perfect icons are perfect for apps and websites

An awesome set of 350 pixel perfect icons that are perfect for apps and websites. You can use then for both personal and commercial use and scale them to any size you need.

20. 80 mini icons

Need something tiny? These mini icons are small but perfectly formed

Featuring 80 pixel perfect mini icons available in both PSD and Icon Font format. These clean and elegant icons are perfect for any project.

Next: another 10 free icon sets

21. Simple and practical web icon vector graphic

This is a great mix of eye-catching and useful icons

A variety of extremely useful icons that can be used for both personal and commercial projects.

22. Free flat icons

How much more flat could these be? None. None more flat.

Fantastic set of flat designed icons that feature icons for calendars, emails, clocks, maps and more.

23. Mono icons

This minimal set features 108 unique icon designs

A beautiful, minimal set which includes 108 unique icon designs that are available as a PNG at 32x32px that you can customise as you see fit.

24. Metrize icons

Here's a free collection of 300 metro-style icons for apps or web projects

Here's fantastic resource for designers and developers - a free collection of 300 metro-style icons that you could use for your apps or web projects. They're all free to use in both personal and commercial projects and the download includes not only the PSD, SVG, ESP and AI but also the web font.

25. Chunky Pika Icon Set

Go Dutch with these chunky icons

Check out this Pika-style vector icons released by the Dutch designers at Dutch Icon. The set includes 42 chunky pixel-perfect icons that you can use for your next personal or client project.

26. 44 Shades of Free Icons

44 minimal icons, no messing

Need some simple icons for your next client project? Here's a set of 44 icons you can use. They're in a PSD format, enabling you to easily edit and adapt them.

27. Token icon set

These icons come in all the sizes and in light and dark variants

Token includes 128 unique icon designs, available as an ICO bundling of 16x16px, 32x32px and 256x256px icons, or as a PNG at 128x128px. Each icon has both dark and light variants, and comes along with a PSD which includes the layer styles for each resolution.

28. Flat icons (PSD)

Last lot of flat icons not flat enough for you? Try these instead.

Colourful flat icon set that you can download in a PSD format, allowing you to change colours and adapt each icon so it integrates perfectly into your new project. Check them out.

29. Free 32px icons set

This set includes just about every icon you require on your new site

Here's a complete icon set that includes just about every icon you require on your new site. Starting from Skype, Facebook and Twitter icons to RSS, coffee, like/unlike and many more.

30. 48 flat designer icons

Icons don't get any flatter than this

If you're a fan of minimalism then this icon set might be perfect for you. It consists of 48 free icons for office, social and travel, all supplied in AI and PNG formats, fully scalable and in full colour and monochrome coral.

Next: our final six free icon sets

31. Plex icons set

Over 100 icons, covering pretty much all your needs

This set includes over 100 icons for calendars, antivirus, clocks, email, Microsoft Office applications, social media networks and more. Check it out!

32. Vectory mini free

This set of over 1000 icons is great for when you're designing a new site

Vectory is a huge collection of more than 1000 icons created by Icojam, all in PNG format. Great for when you're designing a new site as you can use them freely for both personal and commercial projects.

33. Eldorado mini free

So is this little lot

Yet another large collection of mini icons from Icojam with over 1200 40×40 pixel icons that you can use on your site or on client sites. Free to use for both personal and commercial projects.

34. 2600 Flag Icon Set

Never find yourself stuck for the right flag icon ever again

This epic set contains 2,600 flags in several sizes along with 2 variants – flat and glossy.

35. Social icons

These monochrome social icons are designed with simplicity in mind

Featuring 150 monochrome social icons designed with simplicity in mind, this set consists of a variety of fully scalable icons provided in AI, EPS, PNG and SVG formats. They are completely free to use in both personal and commercial projects.

36. Free Furry Cushions Social Icons Set

Pimp your furry site with these fluffy delights

Got a furry site? Then these furry social media icons will be perfect for your site. Download the six icons for free and use them in your projects without any restrictions.

Related articles:

• 33 stunning iOS app icon designs
• Create product icons in Illustrator
• How to create an app icon in Illustrator

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Bluetooth attack vector, dubbed ‘BlueBorne’, leaves billions of smart Bluetooth devices open to attack including Android and Apple phones and millions more Linux-based smart devices.

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Owners of Apple devices rush to update their iPhones and iPads as soon as a new version of iOS is available. You can be ready to launch your apps alongside the update by learning how to develop for Apple's mobile platform with the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course. Grab it now and start building your developer career – plus save an additional 11% when you use the coupon code IOS11 at checkout!

Every version of iOS brings new and game-changing features that developers love to put to use. iOS 11 will be no different, and you can ready yourself to make the most of the update by grabbing the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course. In addition to preparing you for the latest version of iOS, you can also brush up the fundamentals of the operating system with the iOS Mastery Bundle, a collection of courses that will lay the foundation for building on Apple's platforms.

You can get the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course and iOS Mastery Bundle on sale now for 97% off the retail price. This pre-sale will give you access to the iOS 11 course as soon as it's available, and immediate access to the iOS Mastery Bundle. Plus, you can take another 11% off when you use the coupon code IOS11 at checkout!

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Animation on the web is here to stay. From the subtle movements that help bring our UI design to life, to fully animated Canvas experiences and WebGL experiments that are challenging what we once thought was possible in the browser. 

While the creativity of devs and the capabilities of browsers are increasing, animation on the web has long been a poor relation to video – something that the motion graphics community has approached with caution for years.

Developers have relied on libraries such as GreenSock and Snap.svg to do the heavy lifting in reproducing animation through JavaScript. While these tools have given a lot of flexibility, they can't compare to the precision and subtlety of animation that can be achieved using After Effects' own timeline and easing graphs. From a web perspective, After Effects is very well suited to tweaking and trying out motion before committing it to code. 

Bodymovin: the magical 'render for web' feature Adobe forgot

Enter Bodymovin, a groundbreaking extension for Adobe After Effects that exports animation directly from After Effects to JavaScript to be shown and manipulated in the browser. Created by Hernan Torrisi, Bodymovin removes many of the barriers between animator and developer. At its base level, the plugin acts as the magical 'render for web' feature Adobe forgot. At its most advanced it opens up new possibilities for interactive animation. 

Bodymovin is a link in the chain of new tools, plugins and systems rising to meet some of these new possibilities. Airbnb's Lottie and Facebook's Keyframes both build on these foundations – and they are finally bringing the most powerful animation tool to the web.

Why use Bodymovin? 

SVG has taken over the internet and brought with it the expectation that everything should be high quality, light and scalable. Bodymovin renders everything in your composition to beautifully crisp SVG that keeps its vector quality at any size. No more compromising to lighten up that GIF or forcing your users to load bloated video files. 

As well as simplifying the process of exporting your animations, Bodymovin opens up way more potential for developers to get creative with new interactive experiences. Check out CodePen for some of the fantastic ways the extension has been used – from interactive IK rigs to animate-as-you-type interactive text. 

Everything is rendered to a web-friendly SVG that's both crisp and light

Exported animation can be manipulated in the browser like any other element, enabling us to think of animation as an interactive and experimental tool within web design. And now because of Bodymovin, bringing your animations to the web has never been easier. In this tutorial you'll learn how to export an animation from After Effects and create a simple looping animation that responds to the user's click.

How to prepare your After Effects files 

Support for After Effects features has improved greatly over the last year and you can expect to get pretty good results straight out of the box. That being said, your fancy flying 3D layers won't play nice so be aware of the limits before you get started. Before you begin a project – always download the latest version of Bodymovin and check the GitHub page to see which features are currently supported. 

Don't be too hasty to move onto the fun part… tidy files make a tidy mind. In this case they'll also help take some of the extra work away from the browser and give you silky smooth playback. Firstly, you'll want to make sure that your content is in After Effects shape layers for full vector power. To convert any Illustrator file to shape layers you can simply right-click and choose Create Shapes from Vector Layer. Any layers that aren't shapes at this stage will then be converted into images and they won't be rendered as vectors.

Next, have a check through your layers and sublayers; there's a good chance you can simplify the contents of the shape without sacrificing anything. Try to cut down the number of groups, paths and fills to just the bare essentials.  

Take care with masks

Masks are an easy way to slip up at this stage. Be aware that alpha masks will work with the SVG renderer but won't show up should you choose to switch to Canvas. Masks can be expensive in performance so use them efficiently.

Rendering

Bodymovin works in two parts – an After Effects extension that converts animation data to a JSON file and a Bodymovin.js player to include in your webpage that can interpret this file and render it in the browser. 

Think your files are good to go? Open up the Bodymovin extension through Window > Extensions and then Bodymovin. 

Once you hit refresh, you'll see a list of all the compositions in this After Effects project. Select your chosen comp and then pick a destination folder inside of your web project. When you're happy just click render and watch the magic happen. When it's done you'll get a 'finished' message. Congratulations! You've just exported a JSON file with all the information that the player needs to re-create the animation. 

Check your layers – it could be an unsupported feature or an expression used in After Effects

To test your newly exported animation, click on Preview > Current Renders and remember to scrub through the timeline as you might spot something that looks a little different to what you'd expect. If you do spot any problems jump back and check your layers – it could be an unsupported feature or an expression used in After Effects.

Some After Effects plugins such as Rubberhose now support Bodymovin. Rubberhose makes use of guide layers and hidden layers. To activate these, just click on the settings cog next to your chosen composition and tick the features you need. 

If everything looks good, there's just one more thing you need to do before you leave After Effects behind. At this stage you should have a fresh data.json file describing your animation, but no Bodymovin player to interpret it. In the extension, click the 'Get the player' button in the top right and save it with your JSON file. 

Load the animation

Now you have everything you need, let's jump straight into the code and lay down the basics to get your animation showing on the page. 

First make a new container #anim_container to hold your animation. You also need to include the bodymovin.js file before the closing body tag. Next tell Bodymovin everything about your animation and load it into the new container. 

Let's walk through the setup step by step:

You need to define all of the parameters for the animation. Tell Bodymovin the container you want the animation to load into and then tell it to render the animation as SVG elements. Next, tell the animation to play as soon as it's loaded and that you want it to loop back to the start when it's finished. 

The path property tells the Bodymovin player where to find the JSON data file for the animation. Due to the cross-origin resource sharing policy (CORS), the technique you'll be using for accessing the JSON file will only work if you are on a server or local server. To work locally, you can make that data.json into a JavaScript file that assigns the object to a variable. In that case your setup might look like this:

Refresh the page and your animation should be playing inside the container! Select with your dev tools and you'll see that each element in the animation is now contained in <g> tags, and is being transformed in real-time. 

Looks amazing right? You should now have a beautiful, crisp animation showing in the browser (without a wretched  video tag in sight…). The animation will always scale to fit its container, so go ahead and blow it up!

Bodymovin has a range of powerful methods for controlling the animation after it has loaded. Calling a method like anim.pause() or anim.setDirection() will enable you to manipulate playback in different ways. Let's look at some examples:

• anim.setDirection(-1) will play the animation in reverse
• anim.pause() and anim.play() will start and stop the animation 
• anim.setSpeed(0.5) will play the animation at half speed 

Add interaction

In this next step you'll explore a few of the different ways to add interaction to your animations through JavaScript. In this example we export an After Effects animation with two sections: section A and section B. Section A uses frames from one to 20 (triangle is holding its pogo stick) section B uses frames from 20 to 40 (triangle is jumping up and down on a pogo stick).

Now, you want to play section a on a loop then (only after the user clicks) play and loop section B. You can make use of the playSegments property to split animations up in this way. This method will take two arguments – an array with start and end values and a second Boolean – isFrame. Setting this to true will tell the animation to read the start and end values as frames, whereas false will tell it to read these values as time.

Adding this tells Bodymovin to pause at the first frame and play just the animation from 0 to 20 frames. As you set up your animation with a loop: true property this will continue to play Section A again and again. 

Let's set up the whole example. You'll be using two segments of an animation for this example, so you'll create two functions:

Way to go! Now your animation will keep looping until the user clicks on it, then it will start the second loop. The only problem now is that a jump like this is very abrupt and it can ruin the smoothness of the animation. 

An ideal situation is to include a third section to the animation, one that transitions from holding the pogo stick to jumping on it. Now your structure will look something like this:

• firstLoop – frame 0 to 20
• transition – frame 20 to 30
• secondLoop – frame 30 to 50

We want your animation to stay in the first loop until it's clicked. At that point you will want to wait for the end of the loop you are currently in and move onto the transition. After the transition is done move to your second loop. This sounds complicated but stay with me! Here's your code in full:

On click, you're using a loopComplete listener to wait until you reach the last frame of the loop, then run your transition() function. Here you remove the last listener, play the next set of frames and then do the same again. After the transition is finished it will call secondLoop(). 

That's it!

You've worked with a few of the features of Bodymovin today, but if you're interested in learning more about the plugin, you can find a load of information on the Bodymovin GitHub page. For more examples, check out the ever-impressive Bodymovin CodePen collection.  

Hopefully this tutorial will have given you an idea of the different kinds of ways that you can combine the use of After Effects and Bodymovin to produce some supercool animation for the web! 

A separate section for each part of the animation

You can now set up animation to be exported for the web, bring your exported files into the browser and make your animation responsive to click. Think beyond the MP4 files that you were previously utilising and look to Bodymovin for creating much richer web experiences in the future.

Being able to involve animators closely in the development process is becoming more and more important, and the field of web animation is moving incredibly fast. With an ever-growing collection of new extensions, plugins and frameworks, animators and developers can expect this process to get easier and better over time. I for one can't wait to see what the future holds. 

This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here.

Read more:

• 5 steps for mastering web animation
• A beginner's guide to designing interface animations
• Create storyboards for web animations

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“It’s great to create,” said doodleman Jon Burgerman at a recent talk at thread, a series of creative talks in Bristol run by the folk at Fiasco Design. If that’s not enough to convince you, he gave five reasons why creating is so good:

1. It’s fun 
2. It opens up new ideas
3. It exercises our brains
4. It makes us happy
5. Sharing is caring

But how should you go about the creative process? Where do you start? For Burgerman, creativity isn’t about making elaborate plans or thinking ideas through before putting pen to paper. "If you don't have a plan, then you can't go wrong,” he said. “Throw away your map, and then you'll just be there."

Start experimenting

To create his bright and fun characters, Burgerman just starts, and finds out what he’s going to draw as he goes about drawing it. “Doodling is thinking and making at the same time,” he said.

He also doesn’t believe that you need a lot of tools for creativity, and states that once you strip back all the things you think you need to create, all you’re really left with is the need for restrictions and time. “That’s why so many rich people make bad stuff, because they’ve got no restrictions,” he laughed. 

Imagination is also important. "Allow your imagination to be your raw material,” he advised. “It's not about what tech you have."

Don’t be too precious 

Talking the audience through his range of quirky jokes, experiments with Photoshop and Instagram stories, Burgerman reminded attendees that once you put something out there, you don’t know how it’ll be received or what you’ll end up doing with it. “What starts as a gag becomes a little collection,” he said, talking about a series where he put his image next to those of celebrities, lined up as if he was part of the photo. 

“I put them online and didn’t think much of it and then it started to get picked up a lot. Once you start making something, it can take on a life of its own.”

#jonsfamousfriends took off on Instagram

And of course, what’s popular in one place may not be popular elsewhere, as he found when he drew doodles over images of people on the subway in South Korea. He received a lot of comments saying that taking pictures of the public was illegal, which only served to impose another restriction on him and make him come up with new ways to do his project. “You make one thing in one place and then you take it to a different place and it can be reinterpreted,” he said.

In recent years, Burgerman has been experimenting more with animation

Burgerman uses Instagram a lot. “It’s like a digital sketchbook that anyone can look at it.” He finds that Instagram Stories are particularly good, “because they’re just you experimenting, and a day later they’re gone. They teach you not to be too precious,” he said.

And Burgerman is proof that seemingly small experiments can lead to big achievements. His “stupid pointless stories” have even made it to the Tate Modern. 

Keep adapting your work

Burgerman has been a freelancer for 16 years now, and describes every day that he’s not doing “a proper job,” as a good day. But he also knows that developing and changing your ideas is key to survival in an ever-changing world. “To be freelance, you’ve got to grow and develop,” he said. “Move with the times: some things are popular for a while, and then they’re not.”

New opportunities are constantly arising for Burgerman, who has recently been asked to ‘Instagram Story’ an event. “If you keep changing what you’re doing, you can invent new ways to make a living,” he said. So keep on experimenting, and putting your work out there, and perhaps one day you’ll be paid to doodle over people’s heads.

thread is a series of creative events. The thread team are also organising new festival Something Good, which takes place on 6-7 October in Bristol. Tickets are available now from www.somethinggoodbristol.com.

Read more:

• 20 top character design tips
• 5 key trends in character design
• 18 illustrators to follow on Instagram

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Getting web performance right isn't easy; typically designers will want the best-looking site packing all the latest tricks, while developers are focused on ensuring that everything performs well, and it's hard to find an effective compromise.

You can learn some great ways of balancing looks and performance at Generate London next week, on 21 September, where Patrick Hamann will share how to create a faster, more resilient experience for our users. If web performance matters to you, book your ticket now.

And to further boost your knowledge, we asked Patrick and six other experts how they approach web performance. Read on and learn.

01. Create a culture of performance

"I help people and organisations understand that performance isn't just a technical best practice, but rather an essential design principle," says Brad Frost. "Everyone needs to prioritise performance in their workflow, from business owners to managers, designers and developers. While establishing a culture of performance is much harder than applying clever developer techniques, it's a much more worthwhile endeavour that pays dividends in the long run."

02. Set a performance baseline

You can't optimise what you can't measure, notes Guy Podjarny. "Start by running a WebPagetest test against your key pages," he suggests, "and record your favourite speed and weight numbers as a baseline. Then repeat these tests in your build system, and break the build if you've deviated from your baseline too much. With this line in the sand, you can gradually take on optimisation initiatives to raise the bar."

03. Establish a performance budget

For Katie Kovalcin from Vox Product, web performance is something that should be approached by all team members from the very initial client conversations. "As a designer, I like to start by working with the developer to establish a performance budget before I begin designing, so I'm aware of the constraints I have to work within," she tells us. 

"We'll set a number, then have frequent internal check-ins as I design to make sure the choices I make are aligning with the project's holistic goals. If a certain pattern is compromising those goals, we'll discuss it and come up with other design solutions that will be faster but still display the aesthetic I want to achieve."

04. Inline critical CSS

"We set ourselves budgets for our core performance metrics such as Start Render and Speed Index at the beginning of the project," says Fastly's web performance engineer Patrick Hamann, "and use a combination of tools such as speedcurve.com, WebPagetest and our own RUM monitoring to ensure we never break them each time we deploy. Our biggest improvement to these metrics was to inline our critical CSS into the <head> of our pages, which decreased start render times by over two seconds."

At Generate London, Patrick Hamann will discuss best practices for loading assets in the browser

05. Balance aesthetics and speed

The team at Etsy approach web performance by understanding that it's a major part of the overall user experience. "We find it's important to balance aesthetics and speed, and to work toward understanding the business impact of both as much as possible," explains senior engineering manager Lara Hogan. "We run A/B tests that measure design changes as well as performance changes to ensure we're building the best user experience possible for our members. We work on keeping performance top-of-mind throughout the product design process by making it easier to test and measure."

06. Lock down your frame rate

"Most people just prioritise loading performance," notes Chrome developer relations advocate, Paul Lewis, but he notes that while it's important, you also really need to measure how quickly your site responds to user inputs, and whether or not it hits a solid 60fps for scrolling and other animations.

 "Knowing your frames per second, and how much time you're spending in JavaScript, styles, layout, paint and composite is crucial, because users really notice when frame rates dip, or things lock up. Become BFFs with your developer tools and regularly profile your projects during development. If you've never profiled before, check out this guide to optimising your sites and apps."

07. Get everyone involved

"I approach web performance as a holistic, team-wide task," says frontend developer Harry Roberts. "Performance is everyone's problem, and should not be treated as one team or sprint's responsibility. I get involved with key product and design decisions as early as possible to ensure that everything is done in the best interests of the performance of the project; design treatments, feature requests and the code itself all contribute to the performance of the product. It is a fundamental, not a feature."

Apart from web performance Generate London on 21/22 September will also cover animations, UX strategy, prototyping, user research, product design, adaptive as well as conversational interfaces, and loads more. There are also some tickets left for the workshops on Wednesday, 20 September. Reserve your spot today!

This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 268. 

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The Vice President of the Apache Struts PMC says the attackers likely used an unknown Struts zero day or an earlier announced vulnerability.

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D-Link router model 850L has 10 vulnerabilities that could allow a hacker to gain remote access and control of device, according to researcher.

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There's no reason for you not to have a web presence. It's absolutely essential, whether you're just looking to attract an audience or trying to build a business. Even if you don't know how to code, it's easy to get your site online with Blocs 2 for Mac. You can get this app on sale for just $39.99 (approx. £31).

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You can get started setting up your own space on the web with Blocs 2 for Mac for just $39.99 (approx. £31). That's a saving of 50% off the retail price for an essential app, so grab it while you can!

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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.

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