Archive for month: March, 2023

Original Source: https://abduzeedo.com/3d-art-trends-techniques-journey

3D Art Trends & Techniques: A Journey

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Javier Pardina, a skilled 3D artist, has created a breathtakingly beautiful visual spectacle using Maxon Cinema 4D and Redshift Render. The work, titled “Particle Cobwebs,” features a delicate and intricate network of sparkling particles that seem to float in mid-air, forming a gossamer web that is both ethereal and mesmerizing.

The level of detail in the cobweb network is remarkable, with each individual strand and particle being precisely placed to create a cohesive and realistic effect. The use of light and shadow further enhances the 3D work, adding depth and dimensionality to the cobwebs.

One of the most impressive aspects of “Particle Cobwebs” is how the sparkling particles are animated to create a sense of movement and fluidity. The particles seem to dance and shimmer in the light, adding to the overall ethereal quality of the work.

The color palette chosen by Pardina is also noteworthy, with a combination of cool blues and warm golds creating a sense of contrast and balance. The overall effect is both calming and energizing, making it a perfect piece for a variety of settings.

The use of Maxon Cinema 4D and Redshift Render is particularly impressive in this 3D work, allowing for a level of detail and realism that would be difficult to achieve with other software. The attention to detail in the cobweb network and the use of lighting and animation truly showcase the power of these 3D tools.

Overall, “Particle Cobwebs” is a stunning example of the beauty and versatility of 3D art. Javier Pardina’s skillful use of Maxon Cinema 4D and Redshift Render has resulted in a visual masterpiece that captures the imagination and inspires wonder. This 3D work is sure to leave a lasting impression on anyone who views it.

3D stills

For more information make sure to check out Javier Pardina’s Website or follow him on Behance and  Instagram

Original Source: https://abduzeedo.com/branding-and-visual-identity-augmented-reality-developer

Branding and visual identity for augmented reality developer

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Estúdio Capim created the branding and visual identity for Jeph, the leading augmented reality (AR) developer in Brazil and a renowned figure in the world of AR. Jeph has been helping some of the world’s most innovative brands to connect with their audience through immersive AR experiences. To establish Jeph as an appealing partner for brands with a futuristic outlook, a strong and authentic identity was created.

The concept was to showcase Jeph’s artistry and present him as an innovative and attractive partner for brands that prioritize cutting-edge technology. To achieve this, an unconventional approach was taken. The project was centered on rejecting conventional design rules and experimenting with maximalism and anti-design trends.

Despite the intentionally loud and messy appearance, anti-design requires a high level of care and precision. The project was meticulously executed, with a combination of different typographies, overlapped images, and crowded spaces that defy traditional design standards.

The identity also features internet-inspired elements and a versatile sticker family that can be used in various layout compositions, making it fun and modern. The result is a highly unique and bold identity that stands out from the crowd.

By positioning Jeph as a pioneer in AR development, the identity appeals to forward-thinking brands that seek to engage with their audiences in new and exciting ways. With his bold and highly distinctive identity, Jeph is set to become a go-to partner for brands that want to push the boundaries of technology and design.

Branding artifacts

Credits

Branding & art direction: Capim
Copywriter: Marcelly Guerrero
Motion design: Ted Oliver
3D artist & Animator: Marcelo Junior

For more information make sure to check out Estúdio Capim’s website.

Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2023/03/overcoming-challenges-content-creation-informational-websites/

Web apps and e-commerce sites may get all the love these days, but the majority of the web is still informational, and most websites are still content-led. Whether it’s a marketing website trying to convince you to buy a product or an informational site seeking to educate and answer your questions, the web is still dominated by words. But unfortunately, these sites face two substantial challenges:

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, users only read 20 to 28% of a webpage.
Most people who write content for the web lack the necessary skills, which leads to poor-quality content.

In an ideal world, professionals would write our website copy, but that rarely happens, especially in larger organizations. Instead, we have an eclectic mix of people from all parts of the organization posting content online, which is why content quality is often poor.

Of course, complaining about this fact fixes nothing. So, what can we do to improve the copy on our websites when we potentially have dozens of inexperienced people posting the copy online?

Unsurprisingly, there’s no single magic answer that will fix the quality of our site content. However, there are four techniques we can use that together can get us where we want to be. When implemented correctly, these techniques can have a transformational impact.

Technique #1: Provide Content Creators Training

In my experience, most of the training that content creators receive focuses on how to use the content management system, not how to write good web copy. Even when they do receive training on how to write online, this is often in the form of live training.

Live training has its place, but it comes with its drawbacks. It is hard to arrange and needs to be repeated every time there is a new member of staff. However, the biggest problem with live training is that unless the person goes out of that training session and starts using what they learned immediately and on an ongoing basis, they quickly forget what they have learned and fall back into old patterns of writing.

What content creators really need is training material they can easily reference when they sit down to create content for the website. The material should be broken down into modules that are directly related to things they might want to do, like the following:

How to optimize a page for search engines.
How to ensure your page is accessible.
How to structure your content.
How to write clear and engaging titles.
How to make content more engaging.

And so on.

Each module should be small, self-contained, and take only a few minutes to digest. Ideally, it should also be supported by video walkthroughs and include specific actions people can take.

There should also be checklists that ensure they have thought of all the things that need doing when writing, all as quickly accessible as possible.

Technique #2: Make Content Creators Accountable

If content creators are not made accountable for the content they create, they will not put the effort in to ensure its quality.

To address this issue, we can assign every page on a website to a specific individual and potentially even add their contact details to the page in case users have questions. Doing this motivates content creators to ensure the page answers as many user questions as possible and is up-to-date.

You may meet resistance to this idea because people change roles, and so responsibilities change. However, that is why pages should have a specific owner. Too often, pages do not get handed over when people move on, and these orphan pages are abandoned, leading to content ROT (redundant, out of date or trivial content).

Ensuring content remains relevant and up-to-date is essential, which leads me to my third technique.

Technique #3: Establish Governance Around Website Content

The only way content will remain up-to-date is if it is reviewed regularly. And to achieve that, we need some governance that motivates content creators to do exactly that with the pages for which they are responsible.

You can create this motivation by establishing a policy stating that if certain conditions are not met, the content will be archived.

What these conditions are is entirely up to you. You could require a page to meet a certain threshold of page views or engagement (encouraging content creators to ensure page titles are relevant and clear.) You could even flag pages that perform poorly in search engine rankings.

However, as an absolute minimum, you should require pages to be reviewed regularly — how regularly will depend on your content and situation.

For instance, I work on many public sector and higher education websites where change is slow. In such cases, an annual review of pages is usually sufficient, except for certain time-sensitive pages.

If the condition is not met (such as the page not being reviewed by a required date), the page could be removed from navigation and search, effectively orphaning it. Whatever you decide, it should also have a banner added to the page saying that the content may not be up-to-date and to contact the page owner for the latest information. This will motivate the content creator to update the page to avoid a lot of emails!

Another condition I often use is poor user feedback on a page, which brings me to my final technique for ensuring quality content.

Technique #4: Provide Content Creators with Good Feedback

One way to gather user feedback for content creators is through surveys. Surveys can be added to the bottom of a page or integrated into the site experience, asking users how they found the content and if there is anything missing that they would like to see.

Another way to gather feedback is through social media listening. Monitoring social media channels can help you understand how users are engaging with your content and what they are saying about it. This can be valuable in identifying areas of your site that may need improvement or in identifying content that resonates with your audience.

In addition, it’s important to regularly review your site’s analytics to see which pages are performing well and which are not. Special attention should be given to dwell time, traffic levels, and search engine rankings.

By analyzing this data, you can better understand which pages may need improvement or which topics are of most interest to your audience.

Whatever the case, all of this feedback needs to be made available to content creators because if the page rates poorly, it will encourage content creators to act.

You can also take this technique even further by celebrating the most successful content creators or the most improved pages by giving out awards and prizes (much like employee of the month).

Bringing It All Together

To bring these techniques together, we can create a content creator’s dashboard that shows each content creator all the pages they are responsible for. This dashboard will display how well pages are performing and highlight pages that are doing well or poorly.

At the top of the dashboard, we can flag pages that need the content creator’s particular attention — pages that are in danger of being archived because they need reviewing or have been rated poorly.

Finally, we can integrate training directly into the dashboard in the form of quick tips (like the Hemingway App example) and more detailed advice on how to address questions content creators may have at that point.

Of course, the approach I have laid out in this post is not a comprehensive solution to poor quality, but it does at least put in place a framework for improvement. One that works well for large sites that have a significant number of content creators who are not web copy specialists.

By using these four techniques together, we can ensure that the copy on our websites is of high quality and that our users find the content they are looking for.

Further Reading on SmashingMag

“Why Content Is Such A Fundamental Part Of The Web Design Process”, Matt Saunders
“How To Deal With Redundant, Out-Of-Date And Trivial Content ROT”, Paul Boag
“50 Resources And Tools To Turbocharge Your Copywriting Skills”, Freya Giles
“Information And Information Architecture: The BIG Picture”, Carrie Webster

Original Source: https://tympanus.net/codrops/2023/03/22/cyberpunk-inspired-three-js-scene-with-javascript-and-blender/

Learn how to code a vibrant Cyberpunk scene using Three.js, complete with post-processing and dynamic lighting, no shader expertise needed!

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/free-mac-video-converters/

Want to do some simple video conversion on your Mac but not ready to get a paid tool just yet? Well, the good thing is that there are some free video converter apps for Macs out there.

We have researched, tested, and experimented with many of the free video-converting apps out there, and in the following list, you will find some of the best ones that we found together with their respective pros and cons and what each one is best for.

1. The Video Converter

 Best for:  Easy, quick and straightforward video converting.

Developed by Float Tech, LLC, The Video Converter’s best feature is its lightweight (3.4MB in size) and super easy to use through a straightforward interface. Plus, there are no annoying pop-up ads.

You simply drag and drop or upload the video to convert and get results instantly. The converted video will be saved into the Download folder. It also supports bulk video conversion and various formats in the free version.

Input: MP4, MOV, MP3
Output: MP4. MP4. WEBM, GIF, MOV, WMV, 3GX, AAC, AVI, FLAC, FLV, M4A, MKV, OGG, WAV, MPG

Note: Conversion to some formats (MP4, MP3, GIF, WMV, MKA, MKV, WAV, MPG) requires a premium pass. A premium pass costs $2.48/month or a Lifetime Pass for $12.98

What we like:

It is free, with a simple interface, and no ads.

What we don’t like:

It only convert video, nothing more nothing less; converting to some formats requires a premium pass.

Download The Video Converter for Mac

2. Handbrake

 Best for:  Many options to customize the converted video.

Also listed as one of the apps in our 100 Useful Free Mac apps, Handbrake is an open-source video transcoder that provides much information about your input video, including its current tracks, filters, and dimensions, all of which you can change for your output video. You can also see the progress of your current frame in real-time.

Apart from Mac, the app is available for Windows and Linux as well. Plus, it offers tons of output presets, so just provide where you want to use the video (e.g., Gmail 720p30 or Android 1080p30), and it will convert accordingly.

You can also change the video encoder (AV1, H.265, and H.264, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8, and VP9), video quality, framerate, and much more for the output video. It also supports batch and bulk converting.

Input: MP4, MKV, WEBM
Output: MP4, MKV, WEBM

What we like:

Open source and free, versatile.

What we don’t like:

Limited to only three input and output video formats.

Download Handbrake for Mac

3. Smart Converter

 Best for:  Convert (from and to) videos compatible with other Apple devices.

Smart Converter app is simple to use through a powerful yet intuitive interface. Just drag and drop the video, choose an output format (like Apple TV, QuickTime, iPad, or Music, etc.), and then click to convert.

So basically, the app does not allow you to choose the output format. Instead, it converts your video to a format that can be played on a specified device.

Input: MOV, MKV, AVI
Output: Apple and Android device

What we like:

Ad-free, easy to convert.

What we don’t like:

Unable to choose the output file format.

Download Smart Converter for Mac

4. VLC

 Best for:  A 2-in-1 app for playing and converting videos.

VLC is more commonly known as a media player, but the app can also convert your videos into the required format. You can also alter the video and audio codec for the output video. The app is available for Windows and Linux as well.

The conversion process is fairly simple, just hit Command + Shift + S, or go to File > Convert & Stream, drag-drop your video, choose a profile (or click Customize to choose other file formats), select a destination for output, and then click Save.

Related: 20 Tips For VLC Player Users

Input: MOV, MKV, AVI, MP4
Output: MPEG, WEBM, OGG, MP4, MOV, FLV, RAW, WMV

What we like:

Output quality is good.

What we don’t like:

Cannot do bulk convert.

Download VLC for Mac

5. Prism

 Best for:  Ripping videos from disc.

If you want a free video-converting app that does more than just convert video, then Prism by NCH Software is the one to go with. Aside from converting video, you can add video effects, trim and split your video, and convert video directly from your DVD or Blu-ray disc.

Through a simple interface, you just drop or upload your videos, select your output format, and click the convert button. The app supports bulk video conversion and also allows you to customize the encoding settings and video output options.

Prism also had a paid version with advanced features, but the free version is good enough if you are converting videos for non-commercial usage.

Input: 3GP, AMV, ASF, AVI, DIVX, DV, FLV, ISO, M4V, MKV, MOD, MOV, MP4, MPE, MPEG, MPG, MSNWCTCP, MVE, NUT, OGV, SWF, TOD, VC1, VIV, VOB, WEBM, WEBP, WMV, XVID
Output: 3GP, AMV, ASF, AVI, DIVX, DV, FLV, GIF, JPG sequence, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPG, OGV, PNG sequence, RM, SWF, VOB, WAV, WEBM, WMV, SWF, XVID

What we like:

Converts videos really fast.

What we don’t like:

The app’s interface seems a little dated.

Download Prism for Mac

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