Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/12/web-design-development-advent-roundup-2018/

Web Design And Development Advent Roundup For 2018

Web Design And Development Advent Roundup For 2018

Rachel Andrew

2018-12-03T16:30:30+02:00
2018-12-04T17:38:33+00:00

In the run-up to Christmas, there is a tradition across the web design and development community to produce advent calendars, typically with a new article or resource for each day of December. In this article, I have rounded up all those that I have found to be running this year, along with RSS feeds where they can be located, and Twitter accounts to make it easier to follow along.

Q: What’s 14 years old and not at all in a last minute panic?

— 24 ways (@24ways) November 27, 2018

It is a lot of work to publish an article every day — as we well know here at Smashing — and we have a whole team here to help. However, the majority of the calendars published here are true community efforts, often with the bulk of the work falling to an individual or tiny team, with no budget to pay authors and editors. So, please join us in supporting these efforts, share the articles that you enjoyed reading, and join the discussions respectfully. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you can certainly learn a lot of new things over the next 24 days.

Perl Advent

Perl Advent has been running since 2000 and is the longest running web advent calendar that I know of. Now old enough to enjoy a festive sherry (in Europe at least), they are back for 2018 for 24 merry days of Perl.

RSS Feed
@perladvent on Twitter

24 Ways

I have to admit a little bias in this subject as 24 Ways is the calendar started by my husband, business partner and fellow Smashing Magazine editor, Drew McLellan. 24 Ways has been running since 2005, when Drew had the idea to post a new article each day of December until Christmas. I don’t think either of us expected that on the 30th November 2018, Drew would still be staying up until midnight to check that the first article went live!

RSS Feed
@24ways on Twitter

Web forms are such an important part of the web, but we design them poorly all the time. The brand new Form Design Patterns book is our new practical guide for people who design, prototype and build all sorts of forms for digital services, products and websites. The eBook is free for Smashing Members.

Check the table of contents ↬

PerfPlanet Calendar

Ever since 2009, the Performance Calendar has been helping us to speed up the web. It is up again for the 10th year in a row and is maintained by Sergey Chernyshev.

RSS Feed
@perfplanet on Twitter

24 Jours De Web

Next on my list is the French language calendar, 24 Jours De Web. Their first year of publication was 2012, and they are supporting the charity L’Auberge des Migrants, asking readers to donate to help refugees in Calais and the North of France, providing material and food aid, support and advocacy.

RSS Feed
@24joursdeweb on Twitter

Christmas XP

The Christmas XP calendar is a little different. Rather than an article each day, they bring us a WebGL experiment. They have been bringing us experiments in WebGL since 2012.

@christmasxp on Twitter
@christmasxp on Twitter

AWS Advent

If you would like to brush up on your AWS skills then the AWS Advent calendar promises “a yearly exploration of AWS in 24 parts”. You’ll find a wide range of articles on security, deployment strategy and general tips and techniques to be aware of when using Amazon Web Services.

RSS Feed
AWSAdvent on Twitter

24 Days In December

If PHP is your language of choice then you can look forward to 24 days of PHP articles over at 24 Days in December. They began publishing in 2015, when Andreas Heigl realized that he missed Web Advent who had stopped publishing in 2012.

In his wrap-up post after the initial season Andreas wrote:

“I came to realize that I missed the phpadvent/webadvent the last years. And wouldn’t it be great to have a read about something PHP-related for the first 24 Days in December? Even for those people that are not Christian, the time before Christmas has to be a special time. And if it’s only due to the commercials and ads what to present.

So I would wait and see whether someone would arrange something.

But wait! When everyone thinks someone should do something, no-one will do anything.”

I’m happy that the community effort started by Andreas, when he realized that he would need to be the person who did something, is back for another year.

RSS Feed
@24DaysInDec on Twitter

24 Pull Requests

The 24 Pull Requests calendar is a little different. It began in 2012 with the idea that contributors should, “Send 24 pull requests between December 1st and December 24th.” The idea being that this would be 24 gifts to the open-source community from every contributor. Since the project began, 19,859 have contributed (at the time of writing).

It’s a brilliant idea, and I really love their updated policy for 2018. Recognizing that making Pull Requests is only one way that people contribute to open source, the site has widened the scope of contributions. You can make a Pull Request as before if this is how you contribute. However, you can also complete a form to track your non-PR contribution. Perhaps you wrote a tutorial, ran a meetup, mentored someone — these things are all important contributions too. Read the updated contribution policy for 2018 and join in!

@24PullRequests on Twitter
Chat with people who are taking part this year on Gitter

UXmas

UXmas have been publishing their Advent Calendar for UX folk since 2012. I am very impressed that they already have their call for submissions for 2019 up and running. So, you can read some useful aticles this year and submit your idea for next year at the same time.

@merryuxmas on Twitter

24 Accessibility

24 Accessibility are back for a second year of accessibility posts in the run-up to Christmas. The project was started by Dennis Deacon, an Accessibility Engineer with The Paciello Group, and will be well worth following this year.

RSS Feed
@24accessibility on Twitter

Fronteers Advent Calendar

Fronteers are running 24 posts in Dutch on their blog. A lovely touch is that each writer chooses a charity, and the Fronteers organization will donate 75 euros on their behalf.

RSS Feed
@Fronteers on Twitter

Advent Of Code

If you would prefer a puzzle over an article, take a look at Advent of Code. Created by Eric Wastl, this is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like.

@ericwastl on Twitter

24 Days In Umbraco

24 Days In Umbraco is a calendar of articles relating to the Umbraco CMS. They have been publishing every December since 2012. Their About page says that the calendar started when:

“… we asked a bunch of Umbraco people if they had a favorite feature, a story or something else that they’d be willing to write a short article about. Then we’d post a new one here every day through December.”

@24daysinumbraco on Twitter

Advent Speaker Tips

New this year is a daily public speaking tip on the Notist blog.

RSS Feed
@benotist on Twitter

Data-Driven Advent Calendar

The Data-Driven Advent Calendar will contain an article about data journalism each day of Advent. The project is from Journocode who are computer scientists and journalists working in newsrooms across Germany.

@journocode on Twitter

A Computer Of One’s Own

Posting to Medium, A Computer Of One’s Own will highlight the lives of the pioneers of the computer age. The project is by Alvaro Videla, with illustrations by Sebastian Navas.

@old_sound (Alvaro Videla) on Twitter

React, JavaScript, Security And Elm Christmas

A set of calendars sponsored by Norwegian company Bekk. They are supporting React Christmas, JavaScript Christmas, Security Christmas and Elm Christmas. That’s a whole lot of articles to curate!

#devAdvent

Not a website but instead a hashtag: Sarah Drasner tweeted that she would be highlighting a person and project every day of Advent using the hastag #devAdvent. Follow along to get to know some new folks and the work they do.

@sarah_edo on Twitter
#devAdvent

Tomorrow I’m gonna start a dev advent calendar. Every day from the 1st to the 25th, I’ll highlight a new person and a project of theirs that I’m into and think people would benefit from knowing about. ❤️

— Sarah Drasner (@sarah_edo) November 30, 2018

Share The Ones I Missed!

If you know of a calendar related to web design and development that I haven’t mentioned here, post a comment. Enjoy your seasonal reading!

(il)

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/4_buAgyZv9E/review-mighty-hasselblad-x1d

In Review: The Mighty Hasselblad X1D

abduzeedo
Dec 03, 2018

Before I start anything I just want to get things straight, I am not a professional photographer, although I studied photography and have developed quite a few photographs in a darkroom. By all means, I would describe myself as an enthusiast and through that lens, I want to share my thoughts about my time with the incredible Hasselblad X1D.

The great people at Hasselblad sent us the X1D for a few weeks so we could play with this marvelous piece of equipment. Francois already wrote a very in-depth look at the camera that you should definitely check out. Now it’s my turn to share my experience with it.

To get started, let’s touch on a few of the technical aspects. The X1D is a medium format camera. For those who are not familiar with the term, it’s related to the size of the sensor as there are different sensor sizes. There are very small ones like the ones of phones, there are 1inch sensors, there is the popular micro 4/3 that was adopted by Panasonic and Olympus with super fast auto-focus cameras, then there’s the ASCP, like the Sony A6000 cameras, Full Frame which is the standard and where you can get a real translation of focus-lens with no crop. For example, a 35mm lens has no crop with a Full Frame camera. There’s a good article about this topic at DPReview they explain much better than I do.

The Hasselblad X1D has a bigger sensor than a Full Frame camera. That means, it captures a lot more light. The result is quite stupendous but it also has some downsides. The biggest one for me when using the X1D was that sometimes the camera was a bit too slow, creating some blurred images, especially if you are capturing a moving object. I was taking a bunch of photos of my son. However, the photos that were correctly taken were simply amazing.

The level of details you can capture with a camera like this is just amazing and hard to explain in words. As an owner of the Sony XR1 M2, which is a full frame with a great sensor, I never thought the results would be exponentially better, however, they were. The low light capacity of the X1D is insane. Having a tripod makes it even better.

Now let’s talk about Industrial Design, an area that I am more familiar than photography. The Hasselblad shines even more here. I was amazed by the build quality. It makes my Sony feel like a toy. The X1D has a very minimal design, with an aluminum body, a decent size touchscreen and the manual controls easily accessible. The camera has this classic look with the yellow button for the shutter that seems to be a trademark from Hasselblad. It’s also funny because for the first time I felt I had all the attention for any camera aficionado. I took the camera to a parade where I saw some people with Leica Ms, but I could see them looking at me carrying the X1D with an eye of envy. One photographer came to talk to me about it. That was the proof of how mythical this camera is.

Another great industrial design feature is the battery mechanism, very smart. There’s just a hole where the battery goes, and the battery closes it. Not lids or weird latches. Very smart. The interface design for the screen is also a testament of simplicity and modernist look. Everything is easily accessible with swipes. There aren’t thousands of commands like the Sony. Things are just super straightforward. To connect to the WiFi is simply a toggle on/off. Everything in the UI is in beautiful black and white with big fonts. In addition that the camera has a USB C port, 2 slots of batteries, HDMI port, and microphone port.

I used the camera for a couple of days, just for photography. I had just one lens with it, it was a 45mm lens and it was quite sharp. I went to a few places carrying the X1D with me. It’s not a massive camera, but it feels super solid and because of that, it is not a light camera. Depending on the lens you use it can get even heavier, but nothing that a nice camera bag can’t solve.

I won’t get into technical photography details because I am not the best at it, but I want to wrap this up by saying that if you ever have the opportunity to experience a Hasselblad X1D you should. It opens up your horizon about photography in general. It makes you appreciate the differences in sensor size, lenses, controls. It also carries this legacy that definitely catches eyeballs everywhere you go. The most important thing though is the photos produced. With a sensor of that size, it renders marvelous images. The dynamic range is quite amazing and the sharpness, in my opinion, is incredible. I wish I had more time to dive deep into different photo subjects, maybe next time. Until then I will keep the memories of the days I had the opportunity to spend with this classic camera. I’ll share my parting thought that the best camera is the one you have with you at the moment, however, if you have the X1D with you that would be better.

Thanks again to the great folks at Hasselblad for allowing us to play with the camera and if you want in-depth reviews from photographers to make sure to check out the links below.

Photos

Reviews
DPREVIEW
The Verge
PetaPixel
Stuck in Customs
Shop
Amazon

photography
review

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/C-fRhDHUCwk/pay-what-you-want-master-game-development-bundle

Gaming is a billion dollar industry and has been for years. If you are a gamer, you have probably thought of getting into game development before. As the video gaming market continues to grow, so does the demand for game developers. You need to have the broadest skill set possible to get one of those […]

The post Pay What You Want for the Master Game Development Bundle appeared first on designrfix.com.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/TRuzvAYIaj0/typographic-posters-project

We all need a bit of inspiration every now and then to motivate us to tackle a difficult task, or simply to get out of bed. Images have always had that power. As they say, one picture can say more than a thousand words ever could. In addition, the correct application of graphic images and fonts […]

The post Tips On How To Create Your Next Typographic Posters Project appeared first on designrfix.com.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/h7-qJQXMYPk/

Modern JavaScript is surprisingly powerful. Especially with support from WebGL libraries and SVG/Canvas elements.

With the right tools you can build pretty much anything for the web including browser-based games and native applications. Many of the newest groundbreaking features run on 3D, and in this post I’ve curated my list of the best 3D JS libraries currently available for web developers.

Three.js

There is no doubt that Three.js deserves to be at the top of this list. It can be somewhat complex to learn from scratch but it’s also one of the better 3D libraries out there.

It’s managed by a core group and released for free on GitHub. ThreeJS primarily works on canvas elements, SVG elements, and the WebGL library for rendering.

Learning the ropes is a challenge and will require at least mid-level JavaScript knowledge. But you can find the complete setup in the Three.js documentation.

If you’re serious about doing 3D on the web, this library is for you. It’s not the only choice, but it’s probably the most popular choice for a beginner to start building stuff fast.

Babylon.js

Another powerful library I like is Babylon.js. This one again relies on WebGL and runs solely in JavaScript.

It’s a bit more popular than other libraries but doesn’t have the same reach as Three.js.

Still it’s widely regarded as a powerful choice for web developers who want to create browser-based web games. On the homepage you can find a ton of demo previews and tips on how to get started with 3D game design.

There’s also a bunch of important links to resources like the GitHub repo and the Babylon JS tutorials.

All of those tutorials were designed by the Babylon team, so they’re an excellent place to start learning this library.

Cannon.js

For something a little off the beaten path check out Cannon.js. This doesn’t push the usual 3D concepts but instead works as a JavaScript-based physics engine for gaming.

Canon is meant to load fast so you can render elements quickly on the page. It supports most modern browsers and comes with a powerful API for building your own physics ideas off of this.

It works great with Canvas elements and with WebGL apps. The only tricky part is studying the library and getting over the initial learning curve.

Take a peek at the GitHub demos page to see how Cannon.js looks in the browser and why it’s so great.

CopperLicht

With a name like CopperLicht you might not know what to expect. But this is a powerful 3D JavaScript rendering engine built solely for web-based JS games.

Again it’s 100% open source and free to use for any project. The company that built CopperLicht does have some premium software & tools but these are not necessary for learning the CopperLicht library.

In fact, learning all the features will be tough since it supports an array of 3D functions like shadows/lighting, special effects, and 3D page element interactions.

The tutorials page is the best place to start and if you take this route be willing to take it slowly. There is a steep learning curve to get CopperLicht under your belt, although the payoff is well worth it.

Phoria.js

For web-based motion and 3D effects on the screen you might try Phoria.js. It’s really more of a graphics library but Phoria is rooted in 3D rendering inside HTML5 canvas elements.

The main site runs a bunch of demos and it’s a pretty reasonable library for creating 3D graphics. The learning curve isn’t too tough, and you’ll find a bunch of code snippets on the site that you can copy/paste.

Plus it doesn’t even use WebGL, so you don’t need to worry about that library. Although you will need to be comfortable working on the canvas element, but that just comes with practice.

Scene.js

For something that does run on WebGL check out Scene.js. Currently in version 4.2 this massive open source library lets you render elements in 3D for any modern browser.

It’s supported by a large team of developers and has years of major updates making it one of the best 3D rendering scripts you can use. However, this calls itself more of a visualization library, so it’s not just for rendering basic graphics.

Instead this could be used for much more complex tasks like designing multiple views of objects from different angles, or even creating basic 3D game graphics.

The homepage has a bunch of links to great examples if you’re curious to see how this works.

D3.js

While surfing the web you’ll often find charts and graphs that rely on 3D effects. Many of these run on D3.js which is a powerful JavaScript library for rendering data in 3D.

It’s also a totally free open source project with a very helpful GitHub page. The goal is to use SVG & canvas elements inside HTML to create dynamic data that can animate, rotate, and ultimately display information visually.

Take a look at the wiki entry on the GitHub page for more info. This includes some basic setup details along with documentation for anyone willing to dive into the D3 library.

LightGL.js

I don’t see much mention of LightGL.js around the web but it’s an excellent choice for 3D rendering in the browser.

This free open source library runs on the WebGL framework, and it’s meant to be the fastest, lightest library you can use. This works at a lower level than most abstraction libraries so it does require a stronger understanding of JavaScript.

Most developers just want simplicity so that could be why fewer people are sharing it around the water cooler.

But if you’re comfortable working in JavaScript then LightGL will give you a lot more control over your codebase.

Seen.js

For its complete lack of dependencies I had to include Seen.js in this list. Again this runs on the HTML5 canvas element but it works in vanilla JavaScript without any other required libraries.

It’s totally free for all developers and free to customize under the Apache 2.0 license. Some of the demos are pretty crazy considering they’re built solely in JavaScript.

Anyone who’s willing to push the boundaries of basic 3D visualization might take a look at Seen. It may not have a large following like Three.js but it’s a great canvas/SVG alternative that doesn’t rely heavily on WebGL.

If you are curious to start with WebGL then take a peek at our example gallery of 30 awesome WebGL experiments.