Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/tumblr-themes/
Tumblr is one of the most interesting social media platforms and home to creative individuals who like to share their thoughts and ideas with people of same interest. However, to attract more…
Visit hongkiat.com for full content.
Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/monthly-web-development-update-2-2018/
Every profession is a wide field where many people find their very own, custom niches. So are design and web development today. I started building my first website with framesets and HTML4.0, images and a super limited set of CSS, and — oh so fancy — GIFs and inline JavaScript (remember the onclick=”” attribute?) about one and a half decades ago. It took me four days to learn the initial, necessary skills for that.
Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/jKfQA1fzD1w/get-perfect-sound-with-stockunlimiteds-audio-library
The right song can set the mood for a video. Unfortunately, good music doesn't always come easy. You can make sure you always have the perfect tune ready for use for your project with the StockUnlimited Audio Library. You can get three-year access on sale for just $49.99 (approx. £36)!
Music assets aren't cheap and they often aren't easy to find, either. StockUnlimited's massive Audio Library can fix that problem for you. This massive library provides you with tons of premium audio tracks and sound effects that you can use for any project. For three years, you'll have unlimited downloads to all of the royalty-free music you could want. These tracks are perfect for setting the mood with tons of genres, instruments and sound effects to choose from.
You can get a three-year subscription to StockUnlimited Audio Library on sale for just $49.99 (approx. £36). That's a savings of 91% off the retail price for a can't-miss deal for any creator, so grab this offer today!
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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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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/Rj0ubsLnFkM/super-detailed-3d-character-design-iron-man-armor-mark-xliv
Super Detailed 3D Character Design – Iron Man Armor Mark XLIV
abduzeedo
Feb 15, 2018
It never ceases to amaze me the level of quality that 3D artworks have gotten. Dan N shared this incredible character design project that took him a few months to complete. It is titled “Hulkbuster” and it’s the Iron Man Armor: Mark XLIV. It’s hard to imagine that we all have access to tools to achieve this level of work and even more mind-blowing to think that you can simply just purchase the model to render it on your machine. If nowadays we can do this, imagine what 10 years from now will look like.
Better know as the “Hulkbuster” was a project I started a few months ago. My goals of this project was to see how far I could push shading inside of Redshift, without using any 3rd party applications such as Substance, Mari. ect. Also seeing how much detail I could include without doing any UVs and rely solely on Redshift’s Triplanar, Curvature, AO, Color Layer, Blend material, ect. to build detailed enough shaders all inside of Cinema 4D.
3D Character Design
Graph for one of the materials, includes procedural grime, dust, and dirt layered in the crevices based off curvature and AO maps.
A little breakdown of the procedural setup for the change in reflection color. Also got some requests to share the setup so I made a simplified version of it to download.
character design
3d
Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/introduction-to-framer/
The time of static user interfaces is long gone. Designing interactive prototypes is the best approach to expressing your ideas and explaining them to clients and stakeholders. Or, as Jerry Cao of UXPin puts it: “Nothing brings you closer to the functionality of the final product than prototyping. It is the prototype that brings to life the experience behind user experience.”
Prototyping is an important part of the modern UX design process.
Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/eg7TNuh4Eac/
Website Launch Day. How it Goes, Every.. Single.. Time..
Day 1. Your site is now live. It is the best thing ever. Install Google Analytics. Remember to write a privacy page and disclaimer page about Analytics and cookies. Sit glued to your Analytics account for the rest of the day tweaking every aspect in the Analytics console. Oh yeah, while we’re at it, don’t forget to add the site to Google search console too. Great. Done. Sit back and relax. Have a beer. You have done well young Padawan.
Day 2. Enthusiastically dive into your Analytics account. “Hmm, not many views today. Ok I will give it some time.”
Day 3. Open Analytics. “Oh I have a couple of clicks. No, wait – those were me. Doh.” Hound a bit on social media about how great your site is… Check back on Analytics.
Day 4. WHY YOU NO VISIT MY SITE?!?!?!?
Day 5. Distress, sadness, and an overwhelming feeling of failure. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this web design lark?”
Newsflash
You are in this for the long haul and I am afraid to say there are no easy routes to success here. I am here to tell you it’s going to be tough. Perhaps tougher than you think. Have you got what it takes to succeed? Good! I admire your determination. Now, read on and find out about tried and tested ways to get traction for your website.
I hate to say this, but without visitors your website is dead
No matter how innovative the product or service is, or how asthetically pleasing the design, if people are not visiting your website the simple fact is – it is a dead website. The thing is though, you think your site is brilliant, and do you know what? It probably is! But who cares?! Who knows about it? Why should a perfect stranger be interested in it?
You could use social media or send out press releases, but with so many brands clamouring for attention, those messages can often have little effect.
Without Good Content Your Website is Dead
Again, it could be visually the best thing ever, but if there is no content, nothing of real substance, it is a dead website. Content is everything. Think carefully about headlines for page articles. Keyword research will help you a little here but use it as a guide only.
If your site is not primarily a blog, think about adding a blog section. It can be tough and hard work, but a blog is very important . Write at least 1 or 2 articles about your field every week. Let the world know you are an expert in your field. If you are not an expert, give them another reason to visit. Matthew Inman gets visitors by making people laugh. It might not work for everybody, but it sure worked for him. (5 million monthly views).
Give people what they want. Make your ‘about page’ about the visitor, not about you, i.e. written with them in mind. Enlist the help of a skilled copywriter if you feel out of your comfort zone. Most web designers probably are in this regard. They can make a site work well and look nice, analysing the code in depth. As for writing about themselves and their business in a compelling and engaging way, that’s another matter entirely.
First Things to do After Your Site is Launched
Get your site indexed. Submit your url to Google. You should also consider submitting it to Bing and Yahoo as well. You don’t necessarily have to do this as the search engines will pick up your website in time. However, this step will often speed up the process. (We give Google particular attention as they are the biggest player with over 70% of the world’s market share of search.)
Submit a sitemap in the Google search console and check that there are no issues with the site and that your site has a robots.txt file.
Keep calm. Frantically changing things around too soon won’t do you any favours in the search results, especially if it is a newly registered domain. Give it some time. Keep drip feeding new, quality articles periodically over the next couple of weeks.
Pitfalls to Avoid
1) Write for your users, not for robots. It’s ok to listen to SEO advice but if you are not careful your articles will lose their appeal and become spammy and your readers will not appreciate it. This has been said before, and many so called SEO experts that have fixated on certain things are having to constantly re-evaluate their approach.
If you want your site to do well in the long term, filling your page and site with spam is not going to work. Google is constantly looking at this. Do it right and you will be rewarded. Write content for your user first, and for search engines second.
2) Avoid any tool that says it is easy, quick, or cheap. Anyone making you promises in that regard will only do you harm in the long run.
Tried and Tested Tips that Work
Here are some top tips from people at the top of their game who have either tried this or witnessed first hand what happens when people do. These are not just my words, they are things that have been proven to work.
1) Invest in a short, aesthetically pleasing video.
“If there’s one thing every startup should invest in, it should be a short, aesthetically pleasing video that explains exactly how its product works. As a journalist covering startups, I guarantee no amount of selling a concept over the phone is as effective as a well-produced video that clearly communicates the benefit of the app or software. If there’s a good video, I almost always embed it in my article. Bonus points if it’s funny.” Omar Akhtar is the senior editor for The Hub, based in San Francisco
2) Write an article for a popular online resource in a similar field. Often you will get a credit and link to your website.
3) Offer something for FREE: Like an ebook, website template or plugin (maybe you have some code for a project that never saw the light of day) and then aggressively promote it. It will definitely attract a lot of new visitors. For web designers, try to get a free theme featured on WordPress.org and make sure to link to your website, or create a free theme in a niche that people are looking for and feature it prominently directly on your site. It will help immensely.
4) Submit your page to StumbleUpon. Be prepared to expect a high bounce rate, but it can create interest (sometimes a lot of interest at once). That said, it can be very hit and miss, so there are no guarantees here. People have also reported success with their paid results, but here we are particularly looking at organic methods.
Other Tips
Performance. Look at page speed (or site speed). Yes Google has made page speed part of its search algoritm, so it’s going to affect your search engine results (to what degree I am not sure, but it’s a fact). However, more importantly, people aren’t likely to stick around or come back for more if your page takes an eternity to load. This applies even more so to mobile. Start with your theme, keep it clean and functional. Don’t do with an image that could be done with css. Optimise images (especially for small screen widths). Look carefully at your typography and ensure it reads well on all devices.
HTTPS? Regarding search engine results, the jury is still out on this one for many people. Clearly if you are selling online or passing sensitive information an SSL is a must. Since you are just starting out you won’t have the worry of losing your position in Google so it’s probably a good idea to start with HTTPS from the off rather than have to switch down the line. The web is certainly moving that way, and it will show that you value your visitors security, which is always a good thing, and can go a long way to building trust.
Link building. Just to be clear here, we are talking about building meaningful relationships with other website owners and working to build a meaningful brand online. This takes time. We are not talking about artificial manipulation of the search engines with spammy link building campaigns.
Get social. Love it or loathe it, you cannot really afford to ignore social media. Promote your website on Twitter and Facebook. Whilst you may want to utilise some automated tools for sharing your articles (time is precious after all) remember to keep the human element, engaging with your followers whenever possible.
Learn from your mistakes. Of course, success comes from doing things “right”, but when you are just starting out you will likely make many mistakes. Don’t let fear of failure stop you. Successful people have often made a lot of mistakes, but the key thing is that they don’t quit. They keep moving until they arrive at their goal.
Above all else – Be patient, be persistent and keep positive.
Let’s face it, there are not many overnight sensations when it comes to a website. There may be the odd exception of course, but if you are like the vast majority of us, it is going to take time. Try to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts – to the dark side you will stray!
Ok, there is nothing new here. It has all been said before many times, but it is worth repeating. Be determined, and your hard work will pay off. 3-6 months of following the above advice and your site is bound to be getting relevant traffic and traction.
Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/CW8V7BsE4cQ/
Cheapass Parallax
Dave Rupert pulls off a nice parallax effect in only six lines of code.
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An incredible CSS only shooter game made by Michael Bromley.
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Free Font: Fifita Ligatures Regular
A unique ligature font designed by Kolcsar Zsolt.
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Web Performance Optimization with webpack
A comprehensive guide to webpack for effectively optimizing site resources. By Addy Osmani.
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Psychedelic waves
Karim Maaloul’s fantastic waves demo.
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DIY RSS Feed Reader
TJ Fogarty shares how he built his own RSS feed reader.
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Private Variables in JavaScript
Marcus Noble looks at the various ways in which private properties can be implemented in JavaScript.
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Fonts.lol
The first type foundry dedicated to creating high-quality Opentype-SVG color fonts.
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Bont Co Tutorials
Adrián Somoza teaches UI design in his weekly tutorials.
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8bits isopleths
A fantastic 8-bit “pixel art” demo by Louis Hoebregts.
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Space Icons
A set of fantastic hand-drawn space icons in different styles.
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Pretty Awesome Lists crawls all the “Awesome” lists, collects interesting information about each link and takes a screenshot so that you can easily explore them.
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Create dashboards using only YAML/JSON files.
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An Overview of JavaScript Testing in 2018
A guide by Vitali Zaidman that summarizes the most important reasoning, terms, tools, and approaches to JavaScript testing in 2018.
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Blocky Digital Clock
A digital clock in the style of the large blocky typography in the GameCube BIOS. Made by Jon Kantner.
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Rekit
A toolkit for building scalable web applications with React, Redux and React-router.
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Streamlines
A library that builds streamlines for arbitrary vector fields.
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Free Font: Peich Linocut
Robert Young created this great typeface in honor of Paul Peter Peich.
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The “Goo Filter” illustrated
A great demo by Chris Gannon where he illustrates how the “Goo” filter works.
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From Our Blog
Slice Revealer
A reveal effect where animated slices cover and uncover an image. Inspired by Zhenya Rynzhuk’s transitions experiments.
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Collective #390 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.
Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/7Bdd7A4EkXs/5-benefits-animating-website
The rise of the online video opened the doors to endless possibilities for non-static graphics in website design. One trend that has taken web design by storm is website animation. Animating certain elements of a website has the potential to grab user attention, increase engagement, seal more conversions, and increase sales. Explore all the exciting […]
The post 5 Benefits of Animating Your Website appeared first on designrfix.com.
Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/zK3B99lm0vE/
Recently we’ve stumbled upon a really nice effect on Akademi’s website: the main title of the page moves along as one scrolls down and changes depending on the section that is currently in the viewport. We thought this would be an awesome effect to recreate and play with different animations for the text as it changes. For detecting when a certain section is entered, we use the Intersection Observer API. Note that the API is currently not supported in Safari.
The animations are powered by anime anime.js. We also use imagesLoaded for preloading the images and Charming.js for the handling the letter structure of the titles.
The demo is kindly sponsored by monday.com: The visual project management tool built for designers.
If you would like to sponsor one of our demos, find out more here.
Attention: Highly experimental demo with modern CSS properties in use. The Intersection Observer API is currently not supported in Safari.
For the demos, we’ve created a layout that starts with some intro text and another text element that will scroll along. Once that element reaches the next section, it will switch to a new title.
In the first demo shuffles the letters in a sequencial way and the second one shows some random characters.
We hope you enjoy the demos and find them inspirational.
References and Credits
Hand-drawn skull set by Freepik
Images made from the “Flight” Collection copyright by RuleByArt
Images by Unsplash.com
anime.js by Julian Garnier
imagesLoaded by Dave DeSandro
Charming.js by Yuan Qing
Scrolling Letters Animation was written by Mary Lou and published on Codrops.
Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/native-and-pwa-choices-not-challengers/
It’s hard to tell exactly where the rift between “native” and “web” really started. I feel like it’s one of those things that had been churning just below the surface since the early days of Flash, only to erupt more recently with the rise of mobile platforms. Regardless, developers have squared off across this “great chasm,” lobbing insults at one another in an attempt to bolster their own side.
