Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/UJeAtBYH8fM/zbrush-training-create-a-vector-displacement-mesh-brush

Don't miss Vertex 2018, our debut event for the CG community. Packed with inspiring talks from industry pros working in games, VFX and more, plus career advice, workshops, an expo and more, if you work – or play – in CG, it’s unmissable. Book your ticket now.

Vector Displacement Mesh (VDM) is a 3D sculpt, used as brush building blocks, that enables undercutting when drawing on a model’s surface. But what exactly does it mean? 

The simplest way to understand it is to start with alphas. Alpha textures are greyscale images that we often use for sculpting fine-detailed patterns like wrinkles and skin pores. Without them we would have to painstakingly draw the details on by hand, one by one. Alphas are awesome and quite efficient to use in combination with bushes, but they are basically flat images with black values, and they do not support undercuts and overhangs, which limits what can be done with them. 

However, Alpha 3D stores the information of all XYZ axes and does not have any vertical elevation restrictions. By definition, it is 3D as it uses VDM in its system. All you need to worry about is the polygon density to enable proper projection of the Vector Displacement Mesh onto your model. 

Create detailed 3D shapes with ease

Let’s look at an example of creating some highly detailed 3D art: imagine I want to model some dragon scales, but I don't want to use a 2D alpha because this way I would have to go back and sculpt them some more for extra depth. Scales do not just sit there side by side, they overhang and partially cover one another, so it takes a great deal of time making them look realistic. It is a long, tiring and very repetitive process, but there is a way to make it easier and quicker in the future. 

I can create a Vector Displacement Mesh, save it as a brush and simply draw my sculpt onto a model with a single stroke, as many times as my heart desires. Job done! I know that I still have to spend some time making those VDM brushes, of course, but once they are done, I will not have to go and create them again – they will be sitting in my brush library, waiting for the next time I need them. 

Here I will demonstrate how easy it is in these simple steps, making a swirl frosting for my 10-minute 3D cupcake.  

01. Start the swirl

With a clay brush selected, build a little hill in the middle of the canvas

To start off, we first need to get a canvas, so head to Lightbox> Project>MISC and select the Brush 3D template. With a clay brush selected, build a little hill in the middle of the canvas, more or less to the size of the swirl. Now, with the radial symmetry on and DamStandard brush selected, start sculpting the grooves and peaks of the swirl shape. 

02. Fix distorted edges

Make sure to stay away from the edges of the plane

Make sure to stay away from the edges of the plane. If you accidentally mess up the edges, you have to fix them before saving the VDM: mask the edges, invert mask, go to Tool>Deformation>Relax Plane Grid or Morph to Grid, depending on the level of damage caused to your plane. This should reshape the edges and add more geometry.

03. Save out to the VDM

To save as a VDM, select a brush that can save all the information contained in your model

To save out your sculpt as a VDM, you need to select a brush that can save all the information contained in your model. With Chisel3D selected, open the Brush palette, select Create and click on Create MultiAlpha Brush. This automatically creates a new Chisel brush out of your model. Your current Alpha texture now contains a VDM of the sculpt with a 3D mark in top-left corner. 

04. Save out the brush

Last thing to do is create an icon for your brush and save it

In order to now save out the brush and create an icon for it, open a 3D sphere and turn it into a polymesh. Divide it a few times and drag out your VDM. Position the sphere to capture the icon, go to the Brush palette, hold down the Alt key and click on SelectIcon. With the icon generated, you can finally save it out with Brush>Save As. Rename your brand-new brush and it is done! 

This article was originally published in issue 230 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 230 or subscribe to 3D World here.

Book your Vertex 2018 ticket now

On 13 March we’re launching Vertex 2018: a one-day event in London for the CG community. Featuring a jam-packed schedule of inspiring talks from the industry’s most exciting practitioners, there will also be workshops, networking opportunities, a busy expo and lots more. Get your ticket to Vertex 2018 now. 

Related articles:

Behind the scenes on The Shape of WaterModel an alien pirate creature in ZBrushHow to master creature anatomy

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/one-of-these-site-and-page-building-tools-is-meant-for-you/

This article was created in partnership with BAWMedia. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.

Searching for precisely the right website builder to suit your needs can be a daunting chore. There are good ones and not-so-good ones on the market. The problem is that there are so many good website builders. Also, more than a few of them can legitimately claim to be top-of-the-line. Therefore, it can be awfully difficult to make a choice.

Is one of your requirements that the product must be free? Then, your search should narrow considerably. However, it still won’t necessarily be easy to find what you’re looking for.

The good news is — we’ve just made it an easy task. We’re delighted to be able to present the best of the best free website builders heading into 2018. You’ll find builders for creatives, for small businesses, and for personal use. All these builders will enable you to create awesome portfolios and galleries.

Take a break, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy!

1. Mobirise Website Builder

     Since the Mobirise Website Builder is free for both commercial and personal use, it would only make sense to download it to check it out. Mobirise isn’t just another copycat builder either. It takes somewhat of a different approach to creating a website (one that you’ll like) and you’re free to use any host you choose once your site is ready to launch.

Mobirise’s cool combination of a drag and drop builder and its cool selection of trendy pre-made building blocks really speeds up the building process and your workflow as well. A comprehensive set of design elements, together with Mobirise’s Bootstrap 4 templates also come with the package. The net result is your ability to easily add functionality to your sites that might otherwise require lots of time, effort, and coding. Coding is not necessary with the Mobirise Builder. It’s simply a matter of dropping blocks onto a page and adding, rearranging, and editing content as necessary. Once done, you’re ready to publish.

Download the Mobirise Website Builder for Mac OS or Windows and check it out!

2. Visual Composer Website Builder

     The Visual Composer Builder is the creation of WPBakery’s VC team. 5+ years of design and development experience have gone into this completely new type of WordPress builder. It is not to be confused with the WPBakery Builder.

The two builders are independent and completely different from one another, and we believe this would be a good time to give the Visual Composer Builder a try. Both free and Premium versions are available.

This website builder features a live drag and drop frontend editor, a backend editor, a host of advanced design options, WordPress shortcodes and widgets support, and much more. VC-created sites will be responsive, they can be tied into Social Media, and you can accomplish all of this without any need to write code.

We suggest checking out the free version and putting it through its paces and looking into the Premium version’s features later.

3. Portfoliobox

     Because it makes it so easy to build websites and professional-looking galleries and portfolios that are unique in all respects, Portfoliobox is an excellent choice for creatives, be they photographers, artists or designers of all types.

Portfoliobox is not theme-based, so you’re not constrained to using a standard theme. You can use any style you want for any page and do it from the comfort of your web browser. Web hosting comes with the package, and there’s never a need for coding.

Since this web building tool is responsive you can control the look of your website pages, portfolios, and galleries on mobile devices.

Hosting is included when you sign up for a free account. Portfoliobox’s Pro plan offers extended hosting capabilities and a free personalized domain. Another cool option to check – a student account offer from Portfoliobox. If your school supports this opportunity, do not miss it!

Continue reading %One of These Site and Page Building Tools is Meant for You%

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/03/comprehensive-website-planning-guide-part3/

In Part 2, I covered the details of evaluating a plan, choosing web professionals, and determining your website structure. The question of why planning for the web is just as important as planning for anything else associated with your business was covered in Part 1, so head on back to read that part first in case you missed it. In today’s final part of this guide, I’ll start with a few of the most common approaches in any initial design.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/sPFf5Y94rpE/generate-traffic-website-attractive-graphics-design

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. When given 15 minutes to spend on a web page, users will prefer to read something with beautiful design elements, rather than look at long chunks of text. If you run a business website, it must be your goal to attract more traffic to your website. Do […]

The post How to Generate Traffic to Your Website by Using Attractive Graphics Design appeared first on designrfix.com.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/03/how-to-design-winning-email-newsletters/

Email remains a resilient form of communication for marketers, despite the myriad of other communication platforms available today. Most people check their emails at least once a day, and spam now has a hard time slipping through the net. What’s more, email newsletters from businesses are a part of everyday life and if someone has subscribed to your list, the chances are they’ll have at least some interest in what you have to say.

Having said that, the reality is that not everyone opens them, even if they have a genuine interest in your products and services. It’s a busy world in the midst of a digital age, so readers’ attention spans are stretched to the maximum; days pass quickly and time is precious. Those who don’t want a chaotic inbox may delete your email instantly…unless you can grab their attention fast.

You have to stand out from the crowd.

If you want your communications to be noticed, you need to come up with content that is concise, intriguing, and visually compelling. An eye-catching design is more important than ever, and if your email doesn’t look professional, your business won’t either. Here are some basic rules for creating winning email newsletters:

1. Choose an Appealing Color Scheme

The aim here isn’t to dazzle with a prism of color, but to establish brand recognition at the same time as presenting aesthetically pleasing content. The best way to do this is by matching your color scheme to your company logo. The logo will be one of the first things people see, as it’s going to be part of your header.

Try matching your borders, fonts, headers and subheaders to the colors in your company logo. If your logo isn’t particularly colorful, choose something compatible and use it consistently. People will associate these colors with your brand and come to recognise your emails before they even open them.

2. Give it a Compelling Header

This is your hook, so you need to get it right. People want to know who is talking to them and what it is they’re expected to read. You wouldn’t read a magazine that didn’t have a name, or an article that didn’t have a title, would you? A newsletter is no different.

Your header should consist of your company logo and name, and the newsletter title. The title should be clear and simple, preferably with an element of intrigue. It should focus on your industry rather than your business name, which nobody really cares about. For example, there is a distinct difference between “Wealthy Entrepreneur Today” and “Triple Your Profits Report”. Don’t actually call it a newsletter—it sounds a little dull… consider words like ‘news’, ‘guide’, ‘review’, or ‘insider’ instead.

To create decent headers, you can use online DIY tools like Stencil or Pixlr, which are easy enough for anyone to use. Once you have your header, you can keep on using it – just make sure you change your newsletter titles each time.

3. Go For Crisp, Clean Typeface(s) and a Simple Layout

As holding a person’s attention is largely about ease, it’s important not to challenge their eyes with overly fancy typefaces, or even multiple typefaces. Basic faces such as Times New Roman, Calibri or Helvetica are clean and familiar–you can’t go wrong with those. One simple typeface throughout gives a neat look that won’t take the attention away from your content.

Secondly, your newsletter must be legible. Nobody wants to see reams of text unfolding on their screen; that’s a sure fire way to get deleted rapidly. Likewise, to avoid skim reading, you’ll need to use punchy subheadings that tell the reader what the next section is about. You’ll want to break the text up into several blocks, each with its own subheading. Make sure the subheadings are smaller than the main heading, and bigger than the article text.

Lastly, stack your content so that each piece of information appears in an organized fashion, ideally inside its own block or with divider lines. Side by side is also fine (dependent on the volume of text) but most newsletters are stacked block on top of block.

4. Use Plenty of Attractive Images

You need to strike a balance between chunks of text and relevant images. The images need to convey the point of the text somehow, so be careful not to share incongruent images just because they look good. The visual element of any communication is always the most powerful aspect. It keeps the overall look interesting, and creates space between the blocks of text. For example, placing one image on the right side of the text in one block and on the left side in the next can look good.

Taking your own photos is a good idea, provided you have a worthy camera and some editing ability. If not, opt for quality stock photos; you can get these from free sites if you don’t want to fork out.

5. Make Sure Your Content is Relevant and Interesting

You should spend time analysing your database. Creating segments and email lists based on specific interests is a great idea; your click-through rate will be a lot higher this way. There are online platforms available that allow you to do all of this, and some give you statistics so you can see who is opening what, when, and how often (there’s more on this below). This way, you can target your audiences more effectively over the long term.

Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Most of us want to be entertained in some way, and we want to read about things aligned with our interests. It’s helpful to send out content that contains clear benefits, such as free information (think ebooks and articles), info-bites, events, industry news and offers. Be sure to encourage feedback with one-click surveys, and incentivize with prizes and discounts. Oh, and don’t forget to include an unsubscribe option; you can’t please everyone, however hard you try.

6. Use an Email Marketing Platform

If you want to take the hard work out of it, there are various platforms that help you to create engaging, visually attractive newsletters. Mailchimp is a particularly good one, but you have many to choose from. Some people prefer to use Photoshop and hand code, but this requires a little more knowledge.

Platforms like Mailchimp will cover all of the above design aspects for you. They will help you to create campaigns in a strategic manner, step by step. You’ll be able to choose from various templates that help you lay things out in an appropriate style; you’ll have drag and drop options to place your dividers, content blocks and images, and you can even add buttons that encourage people to click through to web pages.

You’ll also have reasonable scope for reformatting, you can keep all your email lists in one place, and you can duplicate campaigns and change the details each time for swift send outs in a consistent format. Lastly, you can add a footer and put your social media links in the form of icons, making it easy for people to follow you with a couple of clicks.

You’re almost ready to go…

Finally, don’t forget to test your mails via your own email address before you send them out. Be consistent with your frequency; daily mails could be annoying, but once per week should be fine, depending on what you’re sending. Follow these simple guidelines and it won’t be long before you’ve created top quality communications that are bound to raise your profile and boost your brand awareness. Good luck!

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source

p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;}
.alignleft {float:left;}
p.showcase {clear:both;}
body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;}