#what you did use of the white lines makes for a fantastic 3D effect on the bug against grimora's face

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

via op

Speak no ill of the dead

[leapingtitan]

The Final Season - Episode 1 Thoughts

I've watched the first episode around 3 times on my own and over a dozen times from anime-only live reactions on YouTube. Those are always something to have a field day with every season, and are part of the whole enjoyment post-watching the episode on your own.

Obviously I'm only reviewing this based on the first episode, so it's way too early to judge The Final Season as a whole. However, I will say that my strategy to keep my expectations low definitely worked. I was very hyped, don't get me wrong, but after Season 3 Part 2, I realized that production and scheduling has never been this show's strong suite and things behind the scenes were always chaotic. And it was my mistake to realize it this late and have unrealistically high expectations of the manga's adaptation.

But enough about that. I'm just gonna say it right now. I absolutely loved this episode and was completely blown away by it. It was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish and boy, the staff wasn't kidding when they said the first episode was like a movie. It definitely felt like that, and it went by in a flash. Now, on to the individual points.

Story/Adaptation

Flawless. Everything was executed perfectly and went beyond my expectations. The thing that stood out to me the most was how many things were changed from the PV in terms of scene construction, camera angles, and overall storyboards. There was only one shot that we reused from the PV, namely the one with Zeke and Reiner inside the airship where they're referred to as the spear and shield. Everything else was redone, which was a huge surprise. Wit was always very faithful to the original manga panels with how they used them as a big reference for most of their cuts, but this one changes them up a lot. Personally, I am 100% fine with it and as someone who has read these chapters in the manga dozens of times over the past few years, seeing them like this was a pleasant and very welcome surprise.

The anime-only additions here are notable and also quite welcome. Falco's line in the beginning in particular stood out the most in the long-run, but the addition of the Eldians' terror being shown as well as the scene before the ED was very welcome. I would like to assume that this was Isayama's doing as whenever the anime usually adds/changes up things, it's his request to do so. He sort of considers the anime to be the "definitive" version of the story that he, for one reason or another, couldn't do in the manga himself when that particular chapter came out. Season 3 Part 1 (The Uprising Arc) is a prime example for this. Once again, I'm very content with what was done here and I trust MAPPA will do the story justice.

A small but very neat thing is the fact that we got to keep the title cards and the info eyecatches mid-episode. Really added to the whole sense of consistency.

Animation

When the initial trailer came out, many people were concerned about Shigeki Asakawa (Director of Photography)'s odd and excessive usage of blur filters on top of the scenes and were wondering if they would remain in the final product, given her track record with other shows like The God of Highschool. Luckily, that is not the case here as the scenes look very clean and the minimal blur on top adds a bit to the muddy/gritty atmosphere of what's going on. Personally, I don't mind it at all and I barely notice it anyway. MAPPA's biggest strength to me is the usage of effects like blood and explosions. You feel the impact of everything and with such an action-packed episode, it made everything so much better.

The usage of 3D CGI for the Titan Shifters has been the biggest controversy surrounding this first episode. When I first watched it, it didn't bother me at all. Personally I care more about a model fitting in the action sequence rather than how it looks for the most part. Right now I would say I'm neutral. It's not the greatest CG ever conceived in anime but it definitely does not look out of place and is pretty decent. For the Jaw Titan, I couldn't tell what was CG and what wasn't for the most part. For the other Titans it's more obvious, but it's not too jarring. Obviously, if it was up to me and the production committee/NHK didn't push their scheduling shenanigans onto MAPPA, I would have gotten every Titan in 2D, but you can't have everything. If they choose to focus on more important scenes later on and cut corners in this first episode as a result, that's understandable. I can live with it. And again, even then, it's not that bad in my eyes.

Now, the character designs are just absolutely stellar. In multiple interviews, it’s been stated that they wanted to stay true to Kyoji Asano’s designs at Wit while also being consistent with Isayama’s style in the manga. And boy did they absolutely nail it. It’s exactly what as they said. Tomohiro Kishi could not have done a better job with the characters we’ve seen so far and I am beyond impressed with his work. I look forward to seeing the rest of the characters in this arc.

Sound

I've been following Kohta Yamamoto's works for a few years now, ever since he started working with Sawano (and being mentored by him to an extent) in early 2017. Although he's been involved with AoT before, particularly with the character songs in Season 2, whenever those two would collaborate on a project it would usually be because Sawano is too busy to compose a full soundtrack. So what usually happens is, Sawano does one track and variations of it (think ShingekiNoKyojin, ThanksAT and T-KT), and nothing else. Meanwhile, Yamamoto handles the rest of the music for the show. On top of that, Yamamoto's style as a composer is different from Sawano's as he comes from a rock/guitarist background as opposed to Sawano, who is a pianist and is classically trained. My biggest concern for The Final Season was that we would get a similar case as with the other shows where Sawano doesn't put in too much effort, while Yamamoto essentially becomes the main composer. Although it looks like this is in fact the case after this first episode, let me explain why I don't think it's a bad thing.

After the premiere of the first episode, both Sawano and Yamamoto tweeted that it was in fact Yamamoto who is handling the majority of the Marley Arc's music. And after this first episode, I have to say I'm impressed. His initial track that he made for the PV was a bit off-putting to me because it sounded like every epic blockbuster Hollywood trailer background track ever, but after the way it was used in this episode alongside a few other tracks, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. It fits what's going on, and overall delivers a fresh sound to the show that is very appropriate given the massive change in narrative. Back during S3 Part 1, Sawano stated in an interview that he was already burned out and had trouble coming up with new music for AoT given how many tracks he had already composed for it. Given how few new melodies were in S3 Part 2;s music, I think this should be clear. Especially now that we're going into yet another season. To summarize, I think Yamamoto's work here is a result of three conditions that just happened to line up perfectly. The change in narrative, which the new composer style reflects. Sawano being busy. And Sawano being burned out with AoT. Now personally I still believe we're going to get at least one new original Sawano track with variations of it for the big climax moments this arc, and he may compose more music for the 2nd half of this 16-episode season, since that's technically a new arc. But we'll see. As a whole though, I'm satisfied with what I've heard from Kohta Yamamoto in this first episode.

The last point to make in regards to the sound is Masafumi Mima who, apart from Sawano, the voice cast, and some freelancers, is the only one from the previous seasons' staff members to return here. And once again, his work here is absolutely phenomenal. The mixing and usage of sound effects in this episode was stellar and truly felt like I was watching a war movie. It enhanced the action tenfold and I could not want it any better. Music usage is something that goes through the director (Yuichiro Hayashi), but ultimately the sound director is the one who implements the track (instrument layering/stem editing) and does the mixing. The usage of Kohta Yamamoto's music here was very well done, and although the track from the PV repeated quite a bit, it didn't get repetitive at all. Also, the sound director remaining consistent here means we got to keep things like the titan transformation sound effects, which may be a small thing but was very welcome and added to the whole consistency.

Opening/Ending

I'm gonna wait until Shinsei Kamattechan releases the full version of the opening in a single or album to fully judge the song, but boy do I love this opening. Although I'm not sure if the TV-size version is my favorite AoT opening yet, I have to say that it's without a doubt the most fitting OP this show has had until this point. It perfectly showcases the themes of war that this arc focuses on and has this lowkey disturbing eerie vibe with the dissonant chords and mixing of the vocals that feels just as "mysterious" and "tense" as the show itself. I love it so much, honestly. Now, Isayama was a fan of Shinsei Kamattechan prior to them doing the S2 ED, and was the one who got them on-board to do it. Although that song isn't really my thing it's also a perfect fit, which leads me to believe that Isayama himself most likely chose the band again, namely to do this OP. And it's fantastic. I love the song. The visuals also have a very distinct style with all the colors and white backgrounds and I love how it's more metaphorical and symbolic (I guess "abstract" as well?) rather than flat-out just spoiling everything like the last arc's OP did.

The ED by Yuko Ando is fantastic. The first time I listened to the full song on its own I couldn't stop getting chills. Love the production aspects of the song and it's just really nice altogether. The visuals are quite interesting especially towards the end and I also like them a lot. Not much else to say about the ED. It's amazing. Go listen to it.

Conclusion

As a whole, I kept my expectations extremely low prior to the premiere despite my hype. As a result of that, not only were they exceeded, I was absolutely blown away by this first episode in pretty much every way. It may still be too early to judge, but from what has been shown here so far, I am absolutely looking forward to see MAPPA adapt the rest of this amazing story, or about as far as they can get with 16 episodes.

[welcometomy20s]

February 6, 2021

February 8th is the 3rd anniversary of Nijisanji, and to celebrate I want to give you a quip about every single extant member of Nijisanji... since there are over 130, that’s including ID, IN, and KR... but not VirtuaReal, because they are not on Youtube and also.... China... it’s split into three parts. Part 1 covers everything up to the merger that happened on the beginning of 2019.

First Wave

Tsukino Mito - The iinchou. One of the original seiso gone wrong. Mito is something else, a term I used for Haato, but Mito’s degeneracy feels very different. Mito is much more cynical, definitely likes gore like Korone, and definitely one who calculates things. Haato is just beginning to figure out how to play out her degeneracy, to great effect, but Mito knew the future. In that sense, she fits the Student Representative nature.

Remember that Mito is kind of like Sora in Hololive. This comes as the major source tension, for Hololive, it’s the tension of being an idol and being oneself. Here, it’s more like how to best express oneself within the limitation of the medium. It seems similar, but the feeling is quite different, and that’s what makes Nijisanji so different from Hololive.

Higuchi Kaede - I heard she plays the trumpet. Hmm, that’s all you need to know about this person. If you were in band, you know the instrument determines your personality. Trumpet people are outgoing, brash, but ultimately a nice group of people. The girls, in particular, have a cool side to them, even if they present feminine. They are going to be good friends, with no worries of love blossoming. Usually referred to as Deron, which roughly translates to a slobbering napper... and part of JK Gumi with Mito and Rin.

Shizuka Rin - The functional leader of the group. She’s the competent one, pretty good at gaming, pretty good at hosting, good at being both boke and tsukkomi, also good at drawing apparently. Also good at language as well.

Yuki Chihiro - A soft spoken loli who plays a lot of shooters, and is pretty good at them. Also quite pervy at times. So, just your typical salty gamer, who happens to be a magical girl, apparently... so in another word, a brat.

Elu - Full name, Snow White Paradise El Santo Flow Wasurena Pure Princess Livre Love Heidern Dokodoko Yattaze Valkyria Passion Alfr Noel Chakoboshi Eluaria Frosia Made-in Bloom Elu. Shares the illustrator with Hal Shibuya, Toya, Sister Claire and so on. Started out as a talk streamer, known for her wide range of voice, she shifted to playing Minecraft as you usually do. A bit lacking at top, but tries her best.

Shibuya Hajime - Not to be confused with Shibuya Hal, who was affiliated with upd8. One of the more proficient players in Nijisanji, from his start as pro Getting Over It player, to giving tech advice, and eventually establishing himself as a pro PUBG and Apex player. Apparently did some odd tweets that got him under fire, but he’s better now, apparently. Probably why he did so good at the imagination tournament.

Moira - A goddess, you know with ara ara and everything. Apparently seems to have her head above her clouds... which makes sense considering she’s a goddess.

Suzuya Aki - We have a cross-dresser, everyone. According to TVTropes, he’s affably evil, you know the type. Apparently the most normal of the first wave... and as you have might have guessed Toya really likes this kid. It figures.

Second Wave

Morinaka Kazaki - Another loli character, but has an adult form. Formed a duo with Gibara for some goddamn reason... childhood friends with Emma August, and strangely seen as mother-like, although she looks ten half the time. It’s odd.

Mononobe Alice - Not a loli, despite the appearance... and some of her acts. Has a decent grasp in English, which is really pretty cool. Not much other than that.

Suzuka Utako - The shotacon of the group, and just the most perverted person. Usually has a deep voice, but actually has a pretty wide range, and therefore a really good singer. First Nijisanji member to get banned, apparently.

Fumiko Tamaki - Very much Nijisanji’s own Okayu, including the bad live streaming environment, and having a cat of her own, who is just the most bad of kitties... but even more like a cat in how her schedule is what she feels like... apparently got 250 grand by sleeping. Well, sleeping cat is a staple. Also has a tendency to get her jaw taken out... you know those people. As you might garner, very clueless with technology.

Yuhi Riri - She’s from the future... She has a nice boyish voice, but usually is the butt of the joke due to her lore, so no one comments about it. She seems nice.

Ienaga Mugi - Shares the illustrator with Rin, a shut-in who loves video games and her onii-chan, one of the few who actually grows in age. Pretty good musician, likes to flirt with Riri... which is interesting. Had her identity revealed at school... yikes.

Ushimi Ichigo - She’s a strawberry milk sea slug, which is just the coolest thing. Has a father-daughter relationship with Belmond, and good at drawing. Got some cool advice from Matsuri... which actually, uh, isn’t really a good idea, isn’t it?

Kenmochi Toya - Speaking of not being a good idea to be next to lolis... many people point to the double standard about female vtubers being creepy as kind of a quirk, compared to men, who would go straight to jail... and I point to Kenmochi Toya.

He’s a good host, strangely like Matsuri or Marine, apparently the son of Mito, which Mito likes but Toya doesn’t... go figure. Has that v-line chin that is parodied a lot, and likes to rap... which also feels like a Marine thing. Sorry... he’s pretty good on his own.

Fushimi Gaku - Cheerful man who does a morning show and plays horror games. Kind of plays the father figure for the second wave... but also has a dark side, which makes sense considering the children above. Also fit with the horror games above.

Gilzaren III - Rarely streams, but hangs around in the chat a lot, like he’s some kind of an official lurker of Nijisanji. Also speaks with a pretty high tone, which doesn’t quite fit, although this might be a ruse... it’s unsure.

Nijisanji Gamers

Kanae - Kind of have his head in the clouds, which fits the lore of having amnesia. Kind of the leader of the Gamers, and one of the best at gaming. Does long streams and everything, likes PUBG but venturing to Apex and the likes. Good at Minecraft, too. Usually works with Kuzuha, leading to that famous clip... such a good classic.

Overall, a really solid streamer and personality in general. A real gem for the crew.

Akabane Youko - Rarely streams, but she is good at gaming. Has a wild laugh and so people still like her... huh, in some sense she’s the female Gilzaren.

Himawari Honma - Gamers 2nd Generation is an absolute goldmine. There were three, one of them retired, but you still know her (wink wink), and all three are just fantastic. Probably the best is Hima... one of those empty-head people that is really good at gaming... you know, Aqua, but somehow better, least to me.

Like Aqua, she's a pretty good singer and she likes vocaloids. But Hima-chan is like a sunflower while Aqua is an... onion. I mean onion could be sweet, but it always gives off a bad taste at the end, while a sunflower is a pure delight. Just look at her, her emptiness is a light, while Aqua’s emptiness is dark. (You can tell my bias here.)

I never like the dumb sterotypes, but Hima is so warm and comforting in her emptiness that you cannot help but smile at the airhead. She’s just such a good vtuber.

Sasaki Saku - She’s the hot-headed of the three, well two. She picks fights with everyone, including people like Belmond or Yashiro, and they fight back because she’s just an entertaining fighter. She’s entertaining, period.

Kuzuha - Probably one of more well-known male Nijisanji members. Went on the Suisei route, as in, he was independent before joining Nijisanji. Plays FPS with Kanae as mentioned before. Pretty good player, but better at banter. Kind of a mischievous person who is actually quite shy... a little of Pekora in the person, except Kuzuha is more annoying than truly like a villain that is Pekora.

One of the people who says cannot sing, but can actually sing very well. Just overall, a great talent to have and just fun to watch, especially in collabs.

Shiina Yuika - Likes Nintendo, and also does a radio show on YouTube. Actually did a radio show as well once. One of the brutally honest people, and a trouble-maker.

As you kind of expect, Sasaki Saku was the one who really got her into the groove, and during her what-turned out to be an absence, Shiina did feel a bit down. Likes to sleep, which makes sense in the context. Not the best at gaming, but still a fun player.

Aqua really likes her, which is interesting since she shares the illustrator with Okayu, and therefore the two are close friends... and they would go after the poor onion.

Makaino Ririmu - Supposedly a succubus. Definitely headstrong and kind of a loli, so there’s a pretty wide fanbase for her... but she’s honestly a good-hearted person. Just look at her collabs with Kou or Lize... she did calculus for a stream?

SEED 1st Gen

Ryushen - Real name, Sengawa Midori. Singer of uncertain gender, so I’ll use ‘they’. Known to be the planner, and a good one at that. Friends with Sister Claire, and their junior, Kakeru and Hayato. Is part of the group, ‘Rain Drops’ with five other members. Originally stated to be part of VOIZ, a male pop group, but as stated... ‘they’.

As for personality, they are a cool kid, friendly with others. Not a bad person to watch.

Hanabatake Chaika - Muscular Okama Elf who wears a maid dress. Very cool personality, a rough and tumble kind of person. As with the description earlier, the concept is odd, but the person is odd in a more palatable way. Honestly, one of people I would try to seek to watch in Nijisanji. Apparently the cross-dressing thing was enforced, rather than a personal choice. Got turned into a robot once.

As for an example, his 3D debut was actually months after he has gotten them and actually used them in collabs and TV interviews, so Chaika skipped right to the shenanigans instead. Perhaps this spontaneity is what makes Nijisanji 3D better.

Yashiro Kizuku - Concept is a systems engineer, likes rhythm and retro games. Friendly with a lot of people, especially with Sasaki Saku, which they host a gaming show. It’s really fun! They are a good bickering couple. The show is kind of a good gateway for Nijisanji as a whole, I believe. Oh, right the intellectual test with Hima...

Yeah, the blandest concept, but one of the most likable members in Nijisanji.

Dola - She’s a fire dragon. Act as an elder to the SEED group, kind of an admin at the minecraft server, so she’s treated like a god here. Good singer, great dancer.

She’s in a group with Yashiro, Hima, and Kuzuha, where the concept is that they are a family, with Dola and Yashiro being parents, and Hima and Kuzuha being their children, and they are one of the best groups to come out of Nijisanji. You can’t miss them.

Sister Claire - Usually does really short talk streams, which was reformatted to a radio format. One of the last seiso people, but strangely gets along with many of the members, mostly because she wants to be funny, and honestly... succeeds for me.

Also a great singer... who would have guessed? Sometimes treated as a cult leader.

Todoroki Kyoko - A 19 year old gyaru. Self proclaimed normie, but obviously not the case anymore. Great at drawing, but only in 2D. As with gyarus, really nice!

Suzuki Masaru - A chunni cross-dresser. Wants to be cool, but obviously cute. Actually doesn’t really like cross-dressing, but it does get the views. Honestly, he looks cool.

Uzuki Kou - A rich teenage boy, well liked by other people. Great singer but doesn’t show often... he does have a rap about hot pot ingredients that is well-covered by others. Friends with Ririmu, I believe. He’s a nice person to watch.

Azuchi Momo - A 14-year old illustrator who did her own design, and one of the most dangerous members of Nijisanji. Yep, known for her curses and drinking cocktails... and yes, she’s supposed to be 14. But even she recognizes that she’s an adult woman...

SEED 2nd Gen

Takamiya Rion - A student at a magic school. Supposed to be a lass, but in reality becomes like that sketch where two beautiful women are dubbed by kids? Yeah, she becomes like that. Just the least intelligent person... good for moron-sexuals, I guess.

Apparently this is more a debuff, as she can act smart and lady-like in late night streams. She was the one who hosted the imagination event. Also really likes SAO, and therefore fell into Genshin pretty hard last year, and who can blame her?

Asuka Hina - Is sometimes called a succubus, kind of works a producer and did a special producing session as a result. Can be calm and outgoing at once.

Maimoto Keisuke - Originally a farmer, but got tired of it. Does gaming and sport commentary, usually wrestling or baseball. Became someone who always gets tortured by his female peers... strange but not a bad character. Oh, this harassment leads to a lot of anger and there’s a tradition where they burn people virtually... and he always gets lumped in as a person to be burned. Friends with Subaru and Ui, and forms the Oozora family, believes to be a middle-aged man, but others don’t treat him like that.

Amemori Sayo - Typical high school student, but we’re sure she’s a ghost. Does a lot of special effects, leading to tech problems. Kind of a quiet speaker.

Kanda Shoichi - typical college student, has a buddy relationship with Gundou Mirei. Good at gaming, singing and hosting, which means he got his due even though it was a little late. Doesn’t really like Korea, though, which is a problem.

Rindou Mikoto - An oni queen, likes girls and booze. Can hold down a liquor, and hold down a girl... a quick learner in everything, therefore excellent at everything.

I knew her as Marine’s coach at Mario Kart... and now I know the reason.

Joe Rikiichi - He’s a joker, a real comedian. Good at improv. Pretty poor. Does late-night radio with Maimoto as well. He’s always a fun person to watch.

Debidebi Debiru - Demon koala who dabble in the occult. He’s the kid in the family, with all the stubbornness and gumption included. Likes to make nicknames, good in collabs. And as with kids, ultimately a good person at heart, which is why he does collabs.

Probably one of my favorites... I’m kind of miffed his section is so short, honestly.

Sakura Ritsuki - A fairy from another world. Basically only plays minecraft as the resident builder in the area. Got a new outfit, and suddenly got a ship going on with Kuzuha, which is good for her, I guess. Yeah, she does what she does.

Machita Chima - A great singer and bit of a psychopath. Went dark to study for exams, but soon returned to herself. Kind of a younger Suisei is what I’m getting at.

Belmond Banderas - The Corpse of Nijisanji. Low voice, and very kind to everyone. But he can be funny too. If he’s drunk, he’s just your average guy who agrees on everything. Also incredibly lucky, apparently, enough to make a religion with Lize as worshipper.

Yumeoi Kakeru - Singer-songwriter who got calling as a host. Really likes Ryushen to a psychopathic degree, but they are good friends as well. Seriously, he’s one of those well-adjusted psychopaths. Apparently he was a biochemist before singing. Sara calls him papa... which, okay, I guess. Did some shady stuff like catfishing in the past...

Overall, he’s that person who came from a rough background, and that means there’s some edges and some of his strength. Definitely an important asset.

Kuroi Shiba - She’s a four year old dog, but acts like an old lady and eventually earned the suffering characteristic and works at a shady company. But what’s the most fascinating thing is her deep lore. Seriously, it might be one of the most interesting lore before Haachama/Haato became a thing.

Yaguruma Rine - A eleven-year old girl who says the first thing on her mind. Also went dark during exam season, but returned after the summer exams. Practices English a bit during her streams, so there’s that going for her. Also her phone disappeared for a bit.

Harusaki Air - Air here meaning ‘spring’ in Greek. Kind of interpreted as a cleaner version of Toya. He’s a prince, so he’s usually busy... unlike a certain princess.

Naruse Naru - Remember has a different look! Although now he can switch it back and forth... apparently it was management issues? Whatever, won the current mario kart tournament (Mikoto was second) and that’s pretty much it, honestly.

[raespark]

That Allister cosplay is outstanding!! How did you make the mask and the gym symbol+endorsements? I'm planning on doing an Allister cosplay in the future myself

Thank you so much, and happy to answer! I took lots of pictures through the process so I’ll answer this in two parts.

“How did you make the gym symbol/ endorsements?”

So the first thing I did is take a TON of screenshots I have almost 300 screenshots of reference images of allister and the gym league trainers and the pokejobs logos and so on to get good references for all the logos I needed.Once I was done taking all the screenshots I spent hours tracing them to the best of my ability to create these images: (Not all of these were the final versions which were modified right before printing, apologies)Gym Logo - QUAY/ Gym Logo

XXA - Sponsor (This is the logo for MC Insurance, Allisters Sponsor)

291 - Number

ASTSA - Name (This is the new pokemon language for Onion, Allister’s japanese name)

The square with the diamond - This I nicknamed the “NIKE” cause its the logo for the spotswear company in game

Galar league logo - Galar League logo (this is the logo thats the red and blue pokeball with white marks, and “galar league written underneath it)

And then I put together this ref sheet to make sure the logos looked good together color wise, and some of the colors were still altered later but it all looked pretty good

And then once the logos were all set, I printed them onto heat transfer vinyl and let me explain why I did that specifically. The fabric I used was polyester, which is the kind of fabric that sports jerseys are made of. I did that because the gym’s uniforms are based on soccer jersey’s so it felt fitting!IT WAS A HUGE PAIN I DONT RECOMMEND ITbut now because of the fact that it was polyester paint wouldnt’ work on that fabric because of how stretchy it is and the fact it doesn’t absorb moisture easily. So we printed it onto heat transfer vinyl with my cheap ink printer and then I ironed them onto my clothes! I made sure they were placed correctly by first taping them to my clothes and making a note of the location before ironing it, and then once I was happy with a placement I’d carefully iron it on. This vinyl seems kinda cheap and like the ink might come off with too much water so watch out if you choose to use it. There are also printable iron on paper for other types of fabric as well and are cheaper iirc!

Same goes for the dots, thos were all cut using a CNC/ off brand cricut (just a bunch of circles all at once) and I placed them by hand using painters tape and trimmed as needed to make the designs:

Hopefully that was helpful!

“How did you make the mask?”

So this ones a little more complicated to answer because its not complicated but its not something everyone can do.

So we started on this one before the game came out, and before I’d gotten to Allisters battle in the game but we had enough reference material to figure out the general look of Allister’s mask, so we made a 3D model of it that we planned to 3D print (my bf has a 3D printer and a CNC and helped me a TON for this project) and did a test print of a tiny mask to start to make sure we were happy with the 3D model (here is the tiny mask in my tiny hand, we affectionally nicknamed it “mini mask”)

Now after we had the 3D model we had another issue of how big does it need to be? I have a round head on my own so I didn’t need to modify the shape of the mask thankfully (one time my fat head came in handy!) But we needed to figure out how big to make the mask to make sure it “fit” correctly.

So we tried cutting out a circle with paper in a few sizes until we thought we found a good size for my face (which for me was a little over 7 inches)

went and bought a styrofoam dome from the craft store in that size to make an EVA foam dome and then checked if that fit my face (later this worked fantastic as a way to transport the mask as a protective shell around it) I don’t have a picture of this EVA foam dome but all it was used for was putting it on my face and making sure it went over my chin and such. Once we had that we were ready to start printing the final mask. 

Once the 3D model was scaled for the final mask, it was too big for my bf’s printer to print all in one go so we split it into 4 pieces. Each piece took about 9 hours to print, and a few of the prints failed and had to be redone, so after a few days of printing it looked something like this:

for those who don’t know much about 3D printing all those beams are the supports that lets the printer print raised surfaces like that and have to all be removed. So after about 2 hours of pulling plastic with pliers it looked more like this:

so we left small gaps in the edges of the mask so that we could put metal pins between each piece to help hold it together so we cut our metal pins and assembled the mask and it was starting to come together!

So from here we melted some plasitc onto the seams (plastic welding!) with a wood burner and - wow that looks gross

but trust me its better than gaps in the mask. so after a bit of sanding here we entered the rounds of priming it with spraypaint primer and sanding it for like an hour and doing that again, occasionally using bondo putty to try and even out those seams and those rounds tended to look like allister just murdered a village:

but you can see compared to the previous image that the mask is a lot smoother! This was the final round of sanding and you can tell that most of the layer lines from the printer have been sanded down! You can almost not see the seams anymore! (though now they’re also very red but they’re very smooth in comparison to the beginning trust me…I sat there sanding for many hours for this)

But after this all that needed to be done with a final priming in grey, and then painted it gray!

While the paint was drying, we prepared some masking in the design of allisters mask which if you don’t know what the full mask looks like I wanna reference this from the collectors guidebook (which I just now got my hands on today but saw these on twitter)

So we cut out a sticker sheet in that design and placed it down with some painters tape to keep that part of the mask gray and then it was painted white, and that was the painting done!

For the black in the eyes, I got a scrap of black fabric for cheap at joann’s that I picked up and pulled and it was a very soft polyester/spandex material that you’d use for pantyhose so i’m sure you could also cut up some of those for a similar effect. But when stretched you can see out of them. 

So we made small rings the same shape as the inside of the mask behind the eyes, glued the fabric using super glue to that ring (and the mouth as well) and viola:

and then the final step was to get that mask on my face, and basically we had some rings on the left and right sides of the inside of the mask that I attatched some elastic too, and then needed to glue a third strap over the top of my head. and sewed it all in place and put some craft foam along the forehead and chin inside the mask for some cushioning and it was done! 

I really hope that was helpful and I tried to make sure I took lots of photos along the way so I hope they were helpful. If you have other questions feel free to ask! Sorry for the novel but just wanted to be as detailed as I could be!

Thank you for your nice words and best of luck!! Allister is a detailed boy but he’s very fun!

[humanoidtyphoons]

what i love so much about the sound of magic, the webtoon, is how it plays with loneliness

it does so with colour, how yun ai sees the world in black and white, it’s very sparse with the colour for most part. her mouth is a soft pink, but that’s kind of it. and then when she sees magic, then colour is filtered through, bright and beautiful and ephemeral. but she’s consistently unhappy, being poor, struggling to get good grades and looking out for her sister, feeling isolated among her peers

and you just don’t understand for the longest time what il-deung is about. like, people call him handsome constantly, and you’re looking at the artwork thinking, what part of him is handsome??? he’s intentionally drawn to look like a pencil. at one part of the manga, ai is looking at a sausage, and it’s actually il-deung, and it’s like? did ai get so hungry she imagined her desk mate as food -- when in fact, no, he offered her a sausage, but his entire face and neck and torso are just -- long and slender and wtf. it’s not until the webtoon starts digging into his psychology, that he’s lost and aimless and doing what his parents want him to do, who are, also. drawn like pencils. that it’s like. oh. this is intentional. this is how he sees himself. what he’s become. and it’s only after he figures out about taking his life into his own hands, making his own decision instead of leaving it to his parents to decide, do you then see what he actually looks like, and yeah!!! he’s actually pretty handsome!!!!! but for the longest time, it really is witnessing characters comment on his attractiveness and thinking what on earth are you talking about? he’s extreme, he runs hot and cold, but it’s intentional.

how the webtoon plays with shapes and colours and magic with use of black and white and how characters feel and act, it does feel poignant, and lonely, and how L helps them out, while balancing on that line between incredibly creepy and fantastical, it’s just so cool, and i wonder how the kdrama version is going to pull it off, cause some of this is only possible in the webtoon version, you can’t change il-deung’s appearance like it is in the webtoon, not unless you wanted him to be cgi for like, 80% of it. L crumpling into paper and then slowly unfolding is just. can you do that live action without it feeling like bad 3d effects? idk!!

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of March 25th, 2020

Best of this Week: Black Panther #22 (Legacy #194) - Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuna, Ryan Bodenheim, Chris O’Halloran and Joe Sabino

Can T’Challa ever be redeemed?

Most people might not know, but I have something of a distaste for the King of Wakanda for various reasons over his long, illustrious, heroic career and, over time, it has all spun into a neverending flood of anti-T’Challa bias as time has gone on. From his time as part of the Illuminati to his failed relationship with Storm, I have hated this character and the fact that his misdeeds have gone mostly unpunished...until now.

The Black Panther has never been an apologetic hero and he shouldn’t have to be because he is a king and needs to be strong for his people. Though with his nation on Earth and in Outer Space under siege by the resurrected Erik Killmonger with a symbiote of the former Emperor N’Jadaka, T’Challa has trials to face before he’s able to command his people and see his defeat. His biggest question is, what is his name and will he be able to overcome his own transgressions and become the leader his people truly need?

The main theme of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther story is redemption. This issue begins with Zenzi, one of the first new villains introduced by Coates in his initial Black Panther series back in 2016, and gives us a little bit of her backstory with some history involving the original Killmonger. Through Ryan Bodenheim’s pencils, we see the simmering anger and power that she’s been capable of since her introduction and why she’s so eager to see the end of men like T’Challa who use their people and then discard them like Killmonger did for her, giving her superpowers and then trying to have her executed.

Bodenheim and Chris O’Halloran on colors gives this scene and her subsequent conversation with Bast in the body of a child a sense of weight as we now are able to understand why she’s on a mission to rid Wakanda of false rulers, Gods and Kings as Killmonger killed her entire village for his own ends and she likely feared T’Challa was doing the same to Wakanda. O’Halloran uses soft and hazy colors for the flashback, employing slight green and purple hues and switches it up to vibrant greens for Bast’s astral projection and Zenzi’s clothes as the Goddess convinces her to support Wakanda against Emperor N’Jadaka.

At the same time, T’Challa finds himself within the Djalia, the Plane of Wakandan Memory, facing off against his many ancestors to gain their help and fealty so that he may finally put this battle to rest. The main problem he faces, however, are both their numbers himself as a King. Daniel Acuna takes over the art for this portion of the issue and absolutely stuns throughout with impressively smooth linework and coloring which gives distinct borders to characters and their clothing and backgrounds while being absolutely beautiful at the same time. 

Joe Sabino’s lettering also shines here as he makes the distinction between T’Challa and the many other Black Panthers by giving him black letters and word bubbles while the rest have purple letters because of their nature as ethereal beings. Not only that, but his sound effects accentuate the panels perfectly as the “TWOK” from a headbutt is given a yellow hue while being transparent to show impact and a “THUD” from  T’Challa being swept at the feet is colored in a bright blue that accentuates the yellow background.

One of his female ancestors mocks his so-called “preparation” as he summons a white, luminescent spear to fight them all before she summons the Ebony Blade of the Black Knight (see Black Panther 22 - 23, 2005) and slashes him across the back, revealing his own recent past to him. This is meant to serve as a way to show how T’Challa is not as infallible as he makes himself out to be, considering how many times he’s been on the wrong side of history in regards to the world, his people, his lovers and his friends.

Coates has obviously done his research into Black Panther’s best and worst moments as the first flashback we get is from Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers (#21, 2013) after the Illuminati defeated the heroes of another Earth to save their own, the caveat being that they would have to destroy the other Earth. This was one of the lowest moments for the hero as he couldn’t do what needed to be done and King Namor had to, knowing that sacrifices had to be made in order to save the Earth. He shrank away from his duties of protecting the Earth - of protecting Wakanda after The Black Order had attacked it merely ten issues prior.

Daniel Acuna portrays T’Challas fear and reticence to commit such an atrocious act by having his face mostly shadowed and showing him cry as King T’Chaka lambasts him from the spirit world for his cowardice. Coates and Acuna then cut back to the hooded Panther and she asks what his ancestors should call the boy who scorned his legacy and T’Challa, still reeling from pain, says his own name before being slashed again.

Acuna begins the next flashback with a beautiful wide show of T’Challa looking upon a vibrant purple and almost 3D looking silhouette of the secret meeting location of the Illuminati before they wiped the memory of Steve Rogers. This was because they decided to destroy planets when the honorable soldier would not and T’Challa is framed in the background of these shots, just watching it happen. Coates makes it a point to stress that “No friendship [was] too precious to be spurned.” Then he is attacked by the Spirit of his grandfather, Azzuri.

Thematically, this makes sense as Azzuri and Steve Rogers first met when the Red Skull and Hydra Nazis tried to invade Wakanda for Vibranium and the two heroes had to fight them off, becoming friends and allies over the course of their battles together (see Marvel Knights’ Flag of our Fathers, 2010). Acuna gives the T’Challa/Azzuri fight a sense of speed by using a lot of blur lines as well as struggle squiggles as T’Challa is placed in a chokehold. As he breaks free, Azzuri disappears into a cloud of hazy, purple smoke.

We are then given a flashback of what I consider to be his greatest failure, his broken vow and fight against Storm during the events of Avengers vs. X-Men where he stood against Mutantkind after the first mutant child was born post Scarlet Witch’s Decimation of them. The child, Hope Summers, was prophesied to be either the savior of mutants or the destroyer of everything and Black Panther cast his marriage aside during the conflict (AvX #5, 2012), though it was continued in Coates' series years later.

Of course, while ancestors are supposed to tear you down, it was his mother that proceeded to build him back up. The final flashback given is T’Challa’s birth mother, Nyami, showing T’Challa how King T’Chaka also grieved after his wife's death, but because he was not just one man, but a nation, he had to move past it and that’s what this whole story has been about. T’Challa’s actions have all been about him and his decisions and not about Wakanda as a whole. He forgets that he is the crown and therefore the Nation itself.

Coates has become a master of longform storytelling as he’s managed to craft a saga of almost fifty issues of T’Challa taking responsibility for his crown and Coates has framed that excellently by the name he keeps giving when his ancestors ask him who he is: T’Challa. The wrong answer. Acuna show’s the various ancestors surrounding the man, waiting for him to give the correct answer as his mother encourages him and he stands for a moment before speaking. What should he be called?

King. King of Wakanda.

In that very instant, Acuna draws all of the ancestors giving King T’Challa the, now iconic, Wakanda salute as he demands their allegiance. He feels so strong, so complete as a character now that he accepts and acknowledges his many faults as part of who he is. He doesn’t need to apologize for them because they are a part of who he is as a man, but when he is a King, he must be better. He must protect his people and that is why he will be able to stop N’Jadaka in the coming battle, just like he stopped Killmonger all those years ago as well.

This issue of Black Panther was phenomenal and really shows how much Ta-Nehisi Coates has grown from his initial few books which were mostly full of world building. He’s shown that he can create an amazing and expansive story that utilizes not only T’Challa’s extensive history, but also that of the Marvel Universe at large to make this story seem grand and far reaching as something on this scale should. 

Ryan Bodenheim does have amazing skills as a penciller, but I found myself far more engaged with Daniel Acuna’s style throughout this issue as he manages to make the fight seem so ethereal while also focusing on some of my favorite moments of Marvel History - not to mention his colors are always so vibrant and loud, popping off the pages with the intensity that readers have come to expect from him.

I hope that the rest of this series continues this upward slope because this was fantastic and it gets a high recommend from me!

Also, support me on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/join/TyTalksComics

[patrickjane92us]

The Future of Ray Tracing.

About Ray Tracing

Hey folks lets talk about Graphics and the big news around Ray tracing computer graphics have come in an incredible way since the days of the first video game. Games started off as grids of white squares on a gray background and they've advanced through 2d scenes with 8 and then 16 bit color to polygons complex textures and full 3d. Today games use tools like tessellation shaders occlusion and mapping to achieve nearly photorealistic results and we may be getting closer to that holy grail of lifelike graphics Ray tracing. Let's back up a bit since those early 3d days some of the biggest improvements in graphics have had to do with the way scenes render shadows and reflections, in 2004 doom 3 introduced some of the first high-quality dynamic shadows in gaming this meant the shadows moved with the lights and the characters in the game and the results were fantastic, eerie lighting cast long shadows on catwalks and when enemies ran through hallways lit by swinging lights they cast chaotic shadows that moved with them as they ran it all worked together to thoroughly freak out gamers of the day. Those great shadow and lighting techniques have come a long way since doom 3 but they are still today fundamentally based on the same idea called rasterization. In rasterization a scene is drawn pixel by pixel with the game engine checking things like distance texture proximity light sources and occlusion whether or not anything is in the way before they pick a color for that pixel you move pixel by pixel through a scene and calculate the color for each one based off this physics and geometry of the scene around you eventually you build an image in rasterization lighting is particularly challenging. Light sources kind of project a field where things inside that field get lighter on one side the side facing the light and cast a shadow on the other side but in the real world light doesn't just move in a straight line like that it bounces and diffuses and passes through objects all depending on what they're made of and that's a lot to account for. In rasterization for each light source the computer works out if something is blocking the path of that light and if it is the computer runs through a series of calculations to work out what to do next and the simplest it'll just cast a shadow more complex processes like ambient occlusion try to adjust for the objects in the scene tweaking the lighting to account for the way objects reflect light and cast some shadows on each other but still these methods are relatively crude the simplest forms of ambient occlusion called screen space ambient occlusion or SSAO only account for the depth of an object in the scene, it essentially tries to put more shadows on objects behind other objects but it doesn't actually account for where the lights in the scene are even advanced ambient occlusion at best creates diffuse shadows that still don't actually relate to where light is coming from and all of these methods struggle with direct light harsh shadows mixed lighting basically the wave reflections shadows and highlights all work in the real world. All of this is an attempt to get to what people call global illumination which is the idea that a graphic scene could be rendered just like the real world and here's where ray tracing comes in in the real world light sources emit photons that travel in a straight line until they hit a surface and there they can either pass through the surface be reflected or absorbed these photons bounce around and eventually some of them make it into your eyes and that's how you see. Ray tracing tries to work the exact same way but backwards it draws millions of rays outwards from the camera your perspective in a video game and then it calculates how they'll bounce around the scene whenever array bounces off an object another ray called a shadow ray is drawn towards the light sources in the scene if there's a clear path that first ray makes the object it bounced off writer and if it's blocked it casts a shadow instead the big upside to ray tracing is hyper realistic reflections shadows and highlights that don't need to be pre-rendered all of this lighting detail can be generated based off the geometry in the scene and as characters and lights move around the light changes in dynamic and realistic ways. Ray tracing is particularly good at reflections and refraction things like light moving through a glass of water and color spill or the way that a brightly colored object can change the color of other objects near it. Now ray tracing is potentially actually a simpler system than layering lighting models with shadows and shaders and occlusion but calculating the paths of millions of rays can take an incredible amount of processing power to fully rate raise a standard 1920 x 1080 HD scene you need to draw a minimum of 4 million rays to start getting good results and potentially 50 million or more the backwards system of drawing the Rays out from the camera instead of out from light sources is actually a way to try to cut down on processing by only rendering the Rays that will actually be seen by the player even with this backwards ray trick processing ray-traced images has traditionally been incredibly slow and no games currently used real-time ray tracing

Ray Tracing in Movies

The technology has been entirely limited to pre-rendered video and Hollywood movies animated Studios like Pixar extensively used ray tracing in their films and part of what makes modern special-effects blend so well with real-world footage is the use of ray tracing to create accurate lighting for every part of the scene now these Studios have the luxury of using render farms with dozens of computers working together and even here each frame can take hours to draw instead of the fraction of a second we need for a playable game “a single frame can take more than 24 hours to render”.

Ray Tracing for gaming

The new technology might be changing this, Microsoft has unveiled a new set of tools in DirectX 12 which supports ray tracing. DirectX is the set of graphics tools that power most windows games at a fundamental level and their newly announced DXR API supports ray tracing in games Nvidia also announced their own set of tools called RTX that would leverage their own hardware to speed up real time ray tracing in games, DXR should work on older Nvidia cards as software but RTX actually depends on hardware acceleration that's currently only found on Nvidia's volta line of graphics cards specifically RTX is supposed to add hardware acceleration for ray tracing area shadows reflections and ambient occlusion now this should all work together to create a more lifelike scene not one to be left out AMD announced updates to their radeon ray tracing system including support for real-time ray tracing in games and promised low-level driver support for Microsoft's DXR in the near future unity the game engine of choice for many indie developers is also incorporating AMD's Ray tracing tech into their game design tools though only for what's called baked or non moving lights so are we at the verge of a ray tracing revolution well not quite yet and here's where things actually get a little fishy. NVIDIA is saying it's volta cards will support ray tracing at a hardware level the way current graphic cards have specialized circuits and hardware for shaders or decoding video however on current Volta cards it's unclear what those special Hardware features actually are now part of the problem is that there are almost no volta graphics cards out there most volta cards are actually specialized boards used for supercomputers and AI research and the only one even approaching a consumer product is the $3,000 Titan VIII the recently announced GV 100 Quadro is a professional card that built on Volta and it looks to be extraordinarily powerful but it still isn't really a gaming card, rumors have also suggested Nvidia may entirely skip consumer cards in the volta line and while NVIDIA has said future graphics cards for gamers will incorporate the same hardware acceleration for ray tracing we don't actually know what those future graphics cards will be and as amazing as these demos look there's still more reason to be skeptical Epic's ray tracing demo at GDC was running in real time but it was running on an NVIDIA GTX station a computer that starts at around $50,000 and packs a 20 core processor in with four tesla v 100 cards each of which runs around $9,000 now confusingly tesla was also in the name of a previous Nvidia architecture but the tesla v 100 actually uses a voltage chip as great as these demos look many of them still actually had to use traditional rasterization on parts of the scene to keep the frame rates up as well this also isn't the first time we've heard announcements about real time ray racing Nvidia actually announced real time ray tracing on their Kepler chips at GDC 2012 six years ago so where does all this leave us ? But ray tracing is legit tech that really could make graphics look amazing but the demos we've seen this last year aren't even entirely ray-traced and they were running on hardware that is a long ways from what the average gamer might own Plus this isn't the first time companies have claimed ray tracing was just around the corner Intel made these claims in 2010 and so did Nvidia in 2012 there's another part of this to that as a PC gamer I hate to even talk about it but it's the consoles if running these raytrace demos on a normal gaming PC seems like a fantasy you try getting them to run on a ps4 integrating ray-tracing into a game isn't like flipping a switch it'll take serious work on the part of developers to bring ray-traced graphics into a game I'm sure in the next few years some rave developer come out with an insane ray-traced project for the PC master-race but until the consoles can come close to handling this sort of graphics rendering great racing for all may still be a long ways off.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Kawaii Box July 19

Here we are guys, the Kawaii Box I’ll be reviewing tonight. I’ve had these pictures ready since Sunday but I blame my birthday and the delivery issues for the Lucky Treat as to why it took me almost a week...

Let’s hope the next one is quicker :D

Word of the month: Ryokou - Trip

“Create the best summer vacation ever with this month’s selection of kawaii goodies!“

Happy Day Pill Organizer & Kawaii Candy Wrapper Hairclips

For a summer holiday it can come in handy to have some little necessities with you, especially if they’re really cute ones. Both items are available in other designs/colors on Blippo.com.

First up is this little pill box, featuring a ball chain you can attach to a bag or purse, or even pants or belt loops for easy access to your vitamins or essential medication. I think you could even pack other tiny items, like a handy place to hold small jewelry, ear/nose plugs, contacts (maybe), little hair accessories, etc.

I’ve gotten a few other pill box containers, but they really do come in handy. Not only can I pack the above items, but I’ve also started taking vitamins these past two years, I also have an antibiotic I’m on right now, and I try to keep ibuprofen and stomach medicines on hand for me or others. Because I have a couple it also saves me room in my bed-side table.

So yeah, I’ve been making good use of them. 

-------

Hair care and accessories can also be a necessity, clips provide an easy and quick method of getting hair out of the face. They also look adorable~

These clips are made to resemble wrapped candies or sweets, with a clear resin or plastic on front decorated with various items and a painted back, along with a vibrant semi-translucent clip. The clip quality is nice with little spiked pieces to weave through the hair and securely hold it, and the charm itself isn’t loose or flimsy.

I love their original hair clips (except for those neon nightmare ribbons from a few months ago), and these are very sweet and fun. The candy theme and colorful mix of vibrant and pastels makes them perfect not only for summer, but any occasion!

Aiko Headphone Case

Next up is this adorable Aiko-chan case for... I assume earbuds? It says headphone but I don’t think they would fit in there. Anyway, it features a double-sided image and an attachable pink metal piece so that you can connect this to various items, or you could even loop something else through the strap if you wanted.

The inside is a basic black, with a half-mesh piece on one of the sides. It’s compact but you could definitely fit some decent things in here besides earbuds; like everything I listed above, a hand sanitizier, small makeup items, toothpicks or ear cleaners, mints, candy, a mini notepad or sticky note set, etc.

This is really cute, but I kinda wish the design was more... summery? Like using the one from the booklet cover, which is what they usually do.

Hello Kitty Mermaid Plushie

Now this is what I’m talking about- although... this would have been a better match for the previous months box, with the mermaid items don’t you agree?

This is from a brand or company called Nakajima, and is part of a Sanrio Characters line. It’s officially worth or costs 20 Sanrio points, and I’m pretty sure its based on the much larger Hello Kitty mermaid plushies. I’ve seen a handful of them though so this could just be another catfish in the sea ;3 She has a light pink piece of tulle on her head adorned by a glittery felt star, with the same tulle around the top of the chest, and her tail is light purple with a shimmery, glittery hot pink semi-translucent fin. By the corner of her eye are two stitched stars in matching colors.

The plush is soft in the paws, but the head is more firm, with the tail just slightly softer. She’s well made and she even has a ball chain, so I could attach her to things as well if I wanted and bring her with me~

Icy Pastel Popsicle Pen

As usual we got a fun pen, and these never fail to please when it comes to fun, cuteness, and theme matching. So this month we have a multicolored pastel popsicle-shaped piece attached to the nubbin’ of a pen lid. The pen itself is a plain, thin white tube and there is a fine tip; and as usual it’s available in a few other colors. I love popsicles too, so I made sure to add it to the other pens I enjoy using. 

There isn’t really much to say about the pen quality wise, other than the fact it needs a few minutes to dry. The pen can hold a line for a long time (as in, you don’t need to force flowage) and it can dot and write very easy and smooth.

Tiny Party Sparkly Stickers

As usual we also get adorable stickers, and this month we have a set of adorable, glittery, pastel items perfect for not only a fun party during summer or a get-together with friends, but also add a sweet touch to various items- like letters, notes, photo albums, picture frames, etc.

The stickers are “barely puffy“ to give them a 3D look, and what I think is adorable is on the upper corner, where it lists this:

Calories: ???

Enjoyment: 110%

Happiness: 100%

I really like all of the stickers but I think my most favorite are the candy containers, the unicorn cupcake or ice cream, and the jelly desserts.

Happy Nikukyu Polar Bear Gummies

We’ve gotten gummies like these before from Kawaii Box, and in a few other boxes, but usually they are cat or dog themed. To cool down from the warm summer weather, we’re invited to enjoy these chilling polar bear paw gummies, which as you can see are filled with a creamy gel. The bag is re-sealable and the entire bag is 102 calories- which I don’t really think is too bad. If you ate the whole bag it’d be a nice little snack.

I usually like these gummies, and they’ve never been filled before so this was a fun change. I also love soda flavors, and these are very yummy. The cooling effect lasts for a few minutes and is very soothing, it isn’t harsh or minty at all.

Korean DIY Kawaii Bracelet Set

Fun for a rainy day or just a bout of boredom or some time to yourself, we have this cute and colorful jewelry set. It consists of several colorful charms in various shapes and sizes, and it has a long bundled up stretchy string.

I pulled out the more “random charms“ to show you guys, and there was several that I only had one of, like that heart, the flower, the big, that big rose. I had multiple of the heels, but I thought they were so random and cute I couldn’t help but include them. I also noticed a lot of spare little bits of plastic I can’t do anything with, and there was one or two pieces with extra plastic I’ll need to remove before use.

However... I actually kind of like how they look in the little jar, I’m a bit hesitant about using them. I might just leave them as is. But I’ll probably use a couple pieces.

Korean DIY Kawaii Cupcake Set

I’ve done a couple of kits like this before, they’re a lot of fun and I love to see how different they are between each one. I do wish we could have a little more variety kit wise, but because they differ it’s not that bad. Plus there are color variations so you can have a lot of fun making these, then re-using them for re-ment or dolls, or just cutesy displays later.

So as you can see we have two frostings, along with 3 cupcake liners and 3 glasses, and four bottles of deco bits: Styrofoam balls, glittery green stars, fruits and random other canes, and various glittery bits.

Here are 3 I did, including 1 cupcake and 2 drinks. I’ve gone ahead and did another cupcake sometime after this pic, but I still have 2 pieces left over and a little bit of the “frosting“, which is a lot like glue in terms of consistency and feel. When you finish, it has a smooth and puffy texture, but it hardens over time and loses the squishiness.

I believe there would be enough to finish the last 2 pieces, but I’m unsure. The cupcake isn’t entirely frosting, I used spare bits to fill the bottom, a squirt of blue frosting, then filled it in white.

It’s very fun, but I will warn you, from the experience I’ve had with these types of things you definitely want tweezers to use. It will make the job loads easier and less-messy.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 5 out of 5: The items are well-made and really sweet, I like them all.

Theme - 2.5 out of 5: I felt like this could have been a lot better, I want to say at least half of the box was summery vacation themed

Total Rank: 8 out of 10 Cuties. I liked the items a lot, but I didn’t feel excited or super-thrilled with the box either. It was just good, not great or fantastic though, but you can’t please everyone and I still really liked it. The items are cute and colorful, and fun and practical. I can’t help but wonder what Augusts’ box will be like though, since both this one and the June one are both falling short on summer expectations. We’ll just have to wait to find out!

♥Cutie Scale ♥

1. Polar Bear Paw Gummies - These were delicious, I’d recommend them if you ever see them

2. Kawaii Hairclips - As I said above, I love the unique hair accessories we get from Blippo/Kawaii Box, I especially love these ones inspired by food items :3 I’ve worn them a couple of times and I really, really like them.

3. Popsicle Pen - It’s so cute, I just wish the pens tube wasn’t so plain. It’s a little boring, but I can understand the design choice.

4. Sparkly Stickers - I probably won’t use these because of how much I like them. Unless I just find the perfect place for them that is~

5. Pill Organizer - It’s very fun and I love the use of black as a pop of color to the soft pastels. It’s been easy to use and it came in handy freeing up space.

6. Hello Kitty Mermaid - It’s very cute and I’m obsessed with Hello Kitty, I don’t have a mermaid hello kitty, unless you count the large dress-up hello kitty doll I have, who was mermaid themed when I bought her.

7. DIY Bracelet Kit - Same as below, but I’m less-likely to actually touch it right now. I love looking at all the pieces~

8. DIY Cupcake Set - It’s very cute and fun, and relaxing too. But I’ve been there done that. 

9. Aiko Case - It’s very cute and small, I won’t be using them for earbuds or headphones but I know I can find a use for it in my bed-side table or purse. I still wish they used the design from the front though...

[scrawnydutchman]

The Point Sonic Mania Proves About Relevance

Sonic Mania, The beautifully animated, retro, nostalgic callback to the genesis days of Sonic the Hedgehog has made quite an impact in todays market in a way that the Sonic the Hedgehog brand hasn’t made in a long time. It’s the highest rated Sonic game released in years and to this day receives plentiful praise from fans and critics alike. Much to my dismay, I have yet to play the game hands on in order to completely sing it’s praises, but truthfully I’ve been having boundless fun just watching playthroughs of the game online. It helps when you have both pixel sprite and traditional animation that’s some of the best the two mediums have seen in some time respectively. The game captures the 16 bit aesthetic and feel of the genesis installments of Sonic but includes more frames making for more seamless transitions between movements. And the intro . . .OH MY GOODNESS the intro to this game. The classical animation done by Tyson Hesse and Yotta warms my heart and fills me with joy every time I watch it. It’s just fantastic. The pop in colour, the expressiveness in the characters eyes, the smears, the angles, the smoke effects. It’s simply masterful. 

Now, the visuals of this game are the real reason I’m talking about it in this blog post, because I think the very existence of Sonic Mania and it’s positive reception makes a very important point about what it really means to be relevant. Many people, including the staff behind the Sonic franchise in the past, believe that relevance means keeping up with the times. It means knowing what people are into today and capitalizing on societies current sensibilities. Marketing always tries it’s hardest to adapt as quickly and frequently as we change. But often times it misses the point about why we as an audience cling to the things we cling to in the first place. Fads may get you a quick buck in the moment, but that revenue will die quickly if what you’re selling had no identity outside of being “what the kids are into nowadays”. For a brand to be profitable in the long run and be something so lovable and influential it remains within our culture and continues to shape it, it has to have timeless qualities. More specifically, it has to have qualities nobody will find quite the same anywhere else. I can’t think of a single property more telling of this point then Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic the Hedgehog was invented by Sonic Team and Sega as a means to be as competitive a brand as possible. His sole purpose from the get go was to rival Nintendo’s Italian plumber in popularity, and thus provide the Genesis with the means to compete with the NES because being twice the bits wasn’t enough to push itself forward. When it comes to creating a compelling rival for Mario, goddamn . . .did Sega ever knock it out of the park. I’ve heard people say in the past that Sonic the Hedgehog’s design and conception is genius and I wholeheartedly agree. There should be an entire class around studying the design and conception of Sonic because he was practically destined to become a huge success. His design is the perfect combination of curves + points = cool. I’ve talked in the past about how linework can play an influential role in the impression a character design makes on an audience, and how curves are often associated with cuteness, innocence, youth and a sense of safety, whereas points are associated with danger, sinister motives and villainy. Sonic is one of those designs that emplores both; he’s got a stubby, plump little design with a large head and larger expressive eyes, but his quills give him an edge of adventure and his pointy smirk gives him a sense of mischief. Not to mention he’s a compilation of old sensibilities from retro cartoons. Large shoes, dotted eyes, white gloves, and instead of straight up eyebrows he has this one eyeball two pupil thing that had a narrow gap in the middle that almost makes him look like he’s frowning, very similar to what Felix the Cat has (sounds weird when you say it out loud, but tbf it looks much more natural on classic sonic then the more modern spin). Add these familiar sensibilities with a pop in colour and a great animal theme, plus a game mechanic not featured in any other franchise at the time, and you’ve got a franchise that will fly right off the shelves. Sega set out with a goal to make a memorable mascot and they grasped onto something truly timeless.

It’s too bad they didn’t recognize how perfect their inception was and decided then to try and fix what wasn’t broken. Enter late 90s/early 2000s. Sega is falling out of the console race in a hard time when Sony and Microsoft are beginning to enter the scene and make their stay. They’re clinging on for dear life and know they have to create something that will maintain their relevance. So they premiere with the Dreamcast, a console fondly remembered with a cult following but at it’s time was hilariously outsold by the PS2. More important then that though, they premiered Sonic Adventure . . .and with it, the new Sonic.

So remember that perfect balance of cute and dangerous classic Sonic had to capture that timeless sense of cool? Sega decided to disrupt that balance by making Sonic’s design and overall outlook shift further into the dangerous edgy aspect. He got taller, leaner, looked angrier, hands and feet larger, green in his eyes. He went from speechless to extreme 90s skater dude. And ever since this change he’s been delving further and further into gimmicks, edgy storylines and pretty much drifting as far away from that timeless charm he used to have as possible. Now I don’t mean to bash anybody who likes this version of Sonic; if you’re a fan, more power to you. But this version is more a guilty pleasure for me then anything else. I think of him less as a high quality piece of popular culture and more just a hilarious over the top dated product of his time. This Sonic is like the kid in high school who grew up as the nerd all his life and is trying desperately hard to reinvent himself and live down his past of mockery, hiding behind trends, current lingo and a pseudo personality to try and maintain some credibility. It’s more desperate then anything else. The only difference is, Sonic was never a nerd. He didn’t have anything to prove or to live down; he was ALWAYS loved because he was simple and fun and never needed to be anything beyond that. Plus it’s worth noting that down the line he got more realistic textures like shine in his shoes and eyeballs which, for a design as cartoony as this, it’s not charming; it’s just creepy. That single eyeball thing is significantly more eerie now that he’s demanding to be taken more seriously. 

The Sonic Adventure titles may not be inherently bad games and are quite impressive for their time, I understand that. But they DID introduce some newer issues that would stick to sonic for nearly 2 decades after the fact. Issues that would eventually become so problematic that Sonic would lose further and further credibility with the fanbase it established. Sonic 06, Sonic Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog, bits of Sonic Unleashed, the storybook saga, aspects of Colors, Sonic Boom, Sonic Lost World. While not all of these games are completely awful they do hinge on gimmicks and some sort of experimentation that misses the point on why Sonic was so popular to begin with and, again, it tries to fix what wasn’t broken. Some of the changes they make work, most commonly the changes made to alter the physics based gameplay to not only move faster but to have tighter controls and a greater sense of freedom. It also doesn’t help that design wise Sega would further disrupt what was once a delicate balance in Sonic’s design, making for an awkward unappealing abomination.

*shudders*. Everything I hate about the Dreamcast Sonic design is a million times worse in Sonic Boom.

But, bringing it back to Sonic Mania (like what this title suggests), it seems like Sega is starting to wake back up. Sonic Mania just seems to get everything that’s great about Sonic with nothing superfluous. Bright colours, fluid motion, tight controls, great physics based gameplay. THAT’S IT. No gimmicks. No lingo or speech that will become dated in 5 years. No stepping away from what made your brand the icon that it is today. Notice that I never said 3D was inherently a step backward like many people profess. I’m convinced you can accomplish this in 3D and to an extent Sega has. They just gotta trim the fat.

Now I can already see a few typical criticisms coming. People are going to think I’m a 30 year old Sonic fan blinded by nostalgia governing my opinion rather than an objective look on the series as a whole. They also think I hate experimentation and that I just shun the idea of anything ever changing. Here is my rebuttal.

I am not 30 years old. I am actually 21, and my first introduction to the Sonic franchise was the Dreamcast version. For a while that was my favorite version, up until my brother got me the sega genesis collection on Gamecube disc format. I didn’t understand at the time why sonic was so fat and I was confused as to why none of the games on the disc were the classic sonic adventure titles, because I was a dumb uncultured piece of shit. But I played the games anyway and came out of my shallow sensibilities. And you know what? Those titles gave me more enjoyment then the sonic adventure games ever did. I mainly credit this to just how much more immediately accessible they were. No awkward cutscenes, no loading screens, no walking around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go, no boring alternate character missions. Just press start and go. Like I said, trim the fat.

As for the idea that I hate experimentation . . . no, I don’t. If anything, the biggest reason I love classic Sonic so much is because it brought something for it’s time that was completely new and not recaptured by anything else, and seamlessly altered our sensibilities for years to come. Experimentation is great because it moves culture forward; makes us as people more adept and refined in the kind of things we enjoy and gives us a greater understanding as to why we enjoy them. Without all the experimentation we’ve been given in gaming our opinions on the medium would have never evolved to the culture it’s developed today. But experimentation has to be properly motivated. It can’t be misguided. It should only replace what was established if what was established sucked to begin with, otherwise it should be BUILDING on that foundation. I’ve gone on record in saying that modern day is far too filled with remakes and reboots of old properties and I stay true to that, but I ALSO said that if you’re going to bring back a property it should be for the sake of exploring potential not fully realized the first time around, like with the Samurai Jack series. It shouldn’t be for the sole purpose of just retracing the same steps again. Sonic Mania may be nostalgia based, but what really sells it for many people including myself is the little but NECESSARY changes it makes. The appealing animation is even smoother, the controls are tighter (from what I heard), the nostalgic stages have neat little changes and mechanics they didn’t have in years prior. Sonic Mania does what Sonic has been missing for so long. It builds on it’s great foundation rather then tries to reinvent it entirely. If we wanted a game vastly different from Sonic, WE WOULD BE PLAYING SOMETHING OTHER THEN SONIC. 

Conclusion:

Sonic Mania is a solid reminder and a great lesson on what It means to be truly relevant. It’s not about keeping tabs on current trends, it’s not about straying away from your old self as much as possible. It’s about knowing what you bring to the table regardless of what era we’re in and owning it, and if you DO make changes, make changes that further reinforce and greater purpose the thing you’ve got that people can’t get anywhere else. Sonic remains popular even to this day when it’s copycats like Bubsy have fallen hard from grace (that they may or may not have even had in the first place), and it’s because Sonic’s more then just a few one liners, fourth wall breaks and a “dude with attitude”. He’s an ideal on how games can be played, on how platformers can work and how familiar sensibilities can be made better.

[jamiekturner]

The Best Animated Movies For Adults: The ones to put on your list

Animated movies (or cartoon movies, if you prefer so) take us in a different world, and help us escape a mundane reality with highly exhilarating emotional and intellectual experiences.

The best thing about them – they’re not made only for children! Adults love watching them too, and they certainly have a few favorites among them.

Now, nobody implies that Bambi would be an adult person’s first choice, and even if it is – what the hack? If you’re a fan yourself, we have a delectable list of best animated movies for adults that may be marketed right towards you.

Here are the best animated movies for adults you shouldn’t miss:

Chico and Rita (2010)

Here’s a magnificent member of the list of best animated movies for adults –an evergreen romantic tale that will touch your heart!

Chico and Rita is a smoky love story from Cuba that feels incredibly real, despite of the fact its characters are fictional. Their messy and roiling passion that sustains their even messier and broken jazz musician lives got nominated for an Oscar, and will stay remembered for decades to come.

With so many ups and downs, this romantic and thrilling story brings us to a conclusion – There’s a bit of Chico and Rita in all of us!

‘Persepolis’ (2007)

Rather than another romance, we present you a dead-serious animation for adults that doesn’t exactly show the most pleasant story. Producers adapted Marjane Satrapi’s 2003 graphic novel that describes life in Iran before, during, and after its Islamic Revolution (1979), bringing to life a number of involving line-drawn images.

The tale was pictured with incredible clarity, and shed light of this important historical moment people in the US don’t really know much about.

The story is very well-animated, and supported by Satrapi’s bold cartoon expressionism that helps understand it.

Belladonna of Sadness (1973)

Jules Michelet’s book La Sorciere inspired many great cinematic pieces, including top quality adult animation movies. The topic is, as you recall, Middle Age witchcraft, and this movie helps us experience this period rather than simply analyzing it.

When you read the book, you get sad and involved into the tragic destiny of new wed Jeanne, and who was raped violently (yet lawfully in this period) by the feudal lord and his minions. The tormenting experience inspired her to make a pact with the devil, and to try hurting those that hurt her.

While it is difficult to depict her hatred and revenge with words, this hallucinatory and occult masterpiece does that just fine – at times, it is so explicit and severe that people misunderstand it.

Following its first release in 193, Belladonna of Sadness was restored in 4K, and promoted again. We’d say – it finally got the acknowledgement it deserves!

Fantastic Planet (1973)

Fantastic Planet is another great animated movie for adults that appeared on 1973. We get a unique opportunity to find out how it would be when humans would live on a giant plant, and be considered as animals.

Our opinion is that this is one of the best Sci-Fi movies made so far, with a recognizable visual style and stop-motion animation. Deep under the imaginative and superficial story of people being sub-leveled, this movie tackles important social questions such as racism and genocide.

Renaissance (2006)

Renaissance’s story takes place in Paris, several years from now. A brave cop is looking for the kidnapped scientist who holds the secret for an eternal life.

The use of specific techniques such as motion capture animation is what makes this animated adult movie a visual delight – it mixes up genres in a crafty way, and depicts our dystopian future in black and white. You wouldn’t believe how well that worked out!

‘My Neighbor Totoro’ (1988)

Hayao Miyazaki can safely be put on top of any animation creators’ list, and this is his masterpiece. My Neighbor Totoro is a nostalgically innocent story of a unique friendship between a kid and a giant, and the side effect is invoking pleasant memories of our childhood. At the same time, it is an adult cartoon movie that the entire family can watch.

FRITZ THE CAT (1972)

Here’s the debut and subversively successful animation of Ralph Bakshi, the man we today call the Father of modern American animation for adults. The movie is a total opposite to common, Disney-imposed views on animation – its visuals and its story aim to overcome political incorrectness, rather than simply providing an hour of entertainment.

Unlike most 70’s animated movies, this piece is slightly offensive and crudely satirical, which made it a common object of controversy.

One couldn’t expect less from a movie tacking the unused potential of letting anthropomorphic cats explore drugs, radical politics, and love. And yet, of course, it is not about cats, but about people. No wonder this movie has such historical significance!

Sita Sings the Blues

There are many reasons for Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues to be considered and unique. To start with, the animation was distributed for free due to disputable music rights. Secondly, Paley used Flash to create almost all animations herself.

Last but not least, there’s the distinctive style – Paley combines scenes from her own life with renowned Ramayana tales, and delivers them with beautiful Indian shadow puppetry visuals. Now imagine that paired with some Annette Hanshaw’s 1930s jazz!

Beowulf (2007)

Beowulf is among the oldest and most legendary English epic manuscripts, which means that not every movie can bear its weighty legacy. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman made the brave attempt to imaginatively adapt it, and created a fantastic adventure for adult viewers.

The cast was all-star (Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright, Angelina Jolie, and Ray Winston), which means we get to enjoy both amazing visuals and starring performances. The piece is vastly entertaining and exhilarating, especially when you watch it in 3D cinemas.

Watership Down (1978)

Watership Down is one of the dark cartoon movies you don’t want your children to see, as it could create a very traumatic experience. At first sight, the animation looks like a family saga full of animals and adventure, but nothing in there is family-friendly. The highly-nuanced piece features devastating war scenes and societal conflict, and it is emotional enough to make everyone cry.

Paprika (2006)

Paprika is a fantastic Sci-Fi movie by Satoshi Kon with the most incredible story – the world where scientists don’t only analyze patients’ dreams, but also navigate through them. You’ll see lots of menacing dolls, marching appliances, collapsing cities, and disturbing sex scenes; and you’ll have to figure out the logic of such dreams yourself!

Heavy Metal (1981)

The animation flick shows us how a glowing green orb threatens a young girl with horrible, yet sensual fantasy stories. It follows the original concept adopted by Heavy Metal magazine – there are several stories instead of one, and each brings us a different entertaining affair. Beware – Movies like Heavy Metal are pretty explicit in how they depict violence and sex.

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)

We’d call this animation the best Christmas film ever, and we’d recommend you to watch it even before the season’s on. Filmmaker Tim Burton blended in a unique way the charm of Halloween and Christmas, and introduced us to the pumpkin king who discovers the fun of celebrating Santa’s big day. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Although kids play the main roles in Grave of the Fireflies, this movie goes nowhere close to a kids’ animation. Isao Takahata wants to share the shocking experiences of a brother and a sister who try to survive the WWII bombing in their hometown in Japan.

To soften the scary moments in the movie, Studio Ghibli’s experts employed some seriously accumulated artistry. Rather than fancy, this piece is low-key and non-sensational, and it is exactly the scenes of deceptive reality that make it that devastating.

American Pop (1981)

American Pop chronicles how a Russian-Jewish musician’s family lived throughout four generations. Their stories are being brought to us with subtle narratives, only to provide the most profound experience possible.

The reviews and ratings for this movie are mixed, but we believe there is nothing that can hamper the beauty of such a fine musical drama. In fact, American Pop has become more and more popular over the years, only to become Bakshi’s most praised animation work ever.

‘Fantasia’ (1940)

We all watched Fantasia as children, but how much of it did we really understood? The experience of watching it as an adult is something else, so give it a try!

Tower (2016)

Animated sequences are used in innumerous documentaries, but Keith Maitland developed a fresh approach to them. His relatively new piece Tower aired at SXSW in 2016, praised for its unique structure and meaningful message to our society.

Maitland worked with original materials; rot scoped reenactments, and animated interviews – a brave, but totally effective step in the animation world. This organizational structure was the best deal he had for drawing attention towards mass shootings in the States.

Heavy Traffic (1973)

In Heavy Traffic, we meet a young and eccentric cartoonist with bizarre fantasies… and a whole army of his imaginary and weird characters that inspire his art. The piece is once again signed by incredible and wildly original Ralph Bashi, whose authoritative control can be observed in every single scene.

The movie doesn’t go as far as becoming uncomfortable or self-indulgent, but still features incredibly personal and intimate sequences. MPAA rated it with an X because of its explicit nature, but critics called it ‘the best work Ralph Bakshi ever did’.

‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (2009)

There’s a bit of an inner hipster in all of us. If you don’t believe it, check whether you will like Fantastic Mr. Fox. We bet you will!

The animation debut of Wes Anderson goes around an idiosyncratic fox and its adventures. The well-dress and socially acquainted protagonist leads a pleasing life, but can’t resist the urge to go back to wildness and cause a retaliation against all animals. We’ll see it rescue its community, and help it come to peace with the idea of not being immortal.

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Richard Linklater chose the works of Philip K. Dick to create this amazingly inventive movie show. He confirmed in such way that this author did not only predict technological development, but also criticized American mores.

Sad and funny at the same time, this story used Sci-Fi elements to recreate the 1977 War on Drugs, and featured a number of iconic counterculture protagonists with all their good and bad sides.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007)

This movie offers an unexpected mix of surrealism and humor, and belongs to the very few Adult Swim series that actually got a movie. Many critics, however, disapproved of the movie’s silly storyline and shallow approach.

Note that the movie also has an R rating for violent images, strong language, and adult humor.

‘The Triplets of Belleville’ (2003)

If a tour de France accompanied by typical French ladies and their cute dogs qualifies as a movie you’d watch, go for this one. The picture is pleasure-stuffed and yet dialogue-free, an excellent attempt of Sylvain Chomet to embrace the technique of silent storytelling.

The adventure of these adorable ladies features multiple references to modern pop culture, as presented by novice cartoonist Max Fleischer. You will find it easily understandable, relaxing, and truly charming.

Akira (1988)

Some viewers claim that Akira is monotonous to that end of becoming interminable, but that doesn’t decrease Katsuhiro Otomo’s great contribution to the anime world.

His cyberpunk zeitgeist and violent dystopian saga set the standards for many movies to come, even if the piece has little in common with classics such as Blade Runner.

Waking Life (2001)

Once again, it is astonishing how Richard Linklater looks at life, consciousness, unconsciousness, and the mere purpose of our existence. This time, he introduces us to a man who dreams constantly, and who’s struggling to find genuine answers about life.

The atmosphere in the movie is almost surreal – it pulls us right next to the dreamer, and it hypnotizes us with astonishing images we will remember for a long time to come.

There is nothing comparable to Waking Life – the piece never got an Oscar nomination, and we believe that’s where Academy members made a serious mistake. Yet, we should be aware that the movie contains some harsh language, and was therefore rated R.

‘Wallace &Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ (2005)

There is no Wallace & Gromit movie that you shouldn’t watch, but the Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the one you mustn’t miss! A feature-length and brilliant piece of visual delight, in particular for British movie fans ready to pack for an adventure. It is one of the very few movies on this list we recommend both for adults and for children.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

Do you remember the iconic sitcom ‘South Park’? Here’s a great movie based on it, and a story nothing less hilarious than you’d expect. Four underage boys got caught watching an R movie which happened to be Canadian. As a result, their mothers decided to initiate a war against Canada for trying to corrupt their kids.

As you can guess, the movie boosts with improper language and explicit scenes, and it therefore got an R rating shortly before it was released. Despite of the censorship issues, it has an incredible artistic value, and it is the only South park movie created so far.

‘The Lego Batman Movie’ (2017)

The Lego Batman Movie is way more about humor than it is about action and superheroes. We’ve got comedy legend Will Arnett playing the very self-involved and ultra-ego Batman – a combination that will make us laugh for hours.

Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982)

If you’re a fan of rock music, put this movie on your list right now! The cult classic focuses on a young and lost rocker, the world he’s created for himself, and the emotional dangers he’s afraid of. Here, we can see paranoia and self-destruction at their best animated versions, but as disturbing as this protagonist’s character is, we still find him fascinating and unforgettable.

This is another movie whose raw and intense depiction of violence and sexuality led to an R rating – yet, it is qualified as one of the best adult animations ever.

‘A Scanner Darkly’ (2006)

The original, life-like animation of Scanner Darkly was a staggering success, in part because of the excellent acting crew behind it. What is really specific is it being shot with actual live action footages that took a year to animate. In 2018, the movie may seem a bit outdated, but it still deserves a look.

Waltz With Bashir (2008)

Member of the specific genre of animated documentaries, Waltz with Bashir brought memories of Lebanon’s 1982 war, and did so better than many live scene movies. It is a masterpiece of director Ari Folman, the guy who used his own memories to portrait the deadly conflict, and to remind us of the cruel reality of war. This movie is not only psychologically effective, but even damaging – the viewing experience is so dark and provocative, and explores such devastating themes that you will never be able to forget it.

At the same time, its disturbingly violent and sexual content, and the number of disturbing graphic images brought it an R rating. Well, we all expected that.

Fire and Ice (1983)

There are two distinctive paths in Ralph Bakshi’s career: his pioneer animations from the 70s that were edgy and explicit; and the early 80s when he created epic and influential, but generally underappreciated fantasies. Among those was also Sorcery cult Fire and Ice, following the intriguing adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

Bakshi had one of the best fantasy painters Frank Frazetta working on the case. He made the heroic and archetypical tale even more attractive, and took us on a joyful ride to the medieval age of good kings, dark lords, and brave warriors. We’d put this animation work right next to Conan the Barbarian, and name it one of the best animations the world has ever seen.

Team America: World Police (2004)

The classic mixes up politics with pop culture – the protagonists are a commando unit whose headquarters are secret and hidden. They look as glorified versions of Barbie and Ken dolls, as they have loping bodies and fragile marble eyes. You wouldn’t really picture them using a ‘xenophobic bluster’ in their administration, but well…they do!

The movie revives the stoicism of 60s Thunderbirds, which makes it even more intricate and explicit. For instance, there are enough montage puppet sex scenes to consider them as the focal point of the movie; as well as excellent showbiz satire brough to us by Janeane Garofalo and Sean Penn.

‘Yellow Submarine’ (1968)

A play of postmodern puns and surrealist conceits – that’s the best description of this brilliant Beatles movie. Get yourself a bottle of wine, and devote an evening to this pop art splendor and miracle of animation.

Anomalisa (2015)

What if you were a bored customer service agent whose life never seems to become more interesting? That’s the very story of Anomalisa, where the protagonist falls in love with a beautiful woman, and changes his life completely. The piece is touching and romantic and it inspires all of us to look for our soul mates. Just like other Charlie Kaufman movies, it stays under the skin and makes us want to watch it over and over again.

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

This movie was completely hand-made by Don Hertzfeldt’s, and it may not be the most visually exciting anime on this list. Yet, the piece is intellectually and emotionally involving, as it questions the meaning of life as observed by disordered protagonist Bill. The fun and the thrill are way bigger than the synopsis would indicate, so give this masterpiece a try!

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Ghost in the Shell is another awesome attempt to use alternative anime for political goals. It focuses on conspiracy and sexual exploration paired with awesome Sci-Fi actions, a one-of-a-kind mash up with great influence on modern Sci-Fi.

Perfect Blue (1997)

The list of best adult animated movies wouldn’t be complete without this masterpiece of Japanese Animation. Perfect Blue follows the path of a singer who wants to become an artist, but descends instead in the dark and compromised world of her own expectations and ambitions. Practically, Darren Aronofsky recreated the timeless Black Swan piece, but with even more psychodrama and trilling experiences.

Ending thoughts on the best animated movies for adults

Now that we presented the best animation movies for adults, go ahead and have some fun! Both adult cartoon movies and dark animated movies guarantee some serious fun, and they’re all that good that you’ll find it hard to pick a favorite!

If you enjoyed reading this article about the best animated movies for adults, you should read these as well:

The most popular DC animated movies to watch in a lifetime

48 Of The Best Short Animated Films (Oscar winners included)

34 Of The Best Motion Graphics Studios And Their Work

Amazing Adobe After Effects Tutorials You Need To Watch

The post The Best Animated Movies For Adults: The ones to put on your list appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing https://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/motion-graphics/best-animated-movies-adults/

[dylan38sanders]

21 Creative Ideas for Corporate Stage Design

Do you need some fresh inspiration for corporate stage design? Is it time you discovered a new approach for that annual conference or general session? Yes? Then you’re in luck! We’ve searched around the globe to put together a list of creative corporate stage design ideas worth a look! Simply scroll through for images and tips to get the inspiration flowing for your next corporate event.

IBM Impact Conference

Source: Encore Event Technologies

With some 18,000 people attending the IBM Impact Conference, every aspect of the event must engage huge amounts of people. That’s why event organizers chose to create a multi-dimensional set with a series of screens layered across the stage. Organizers assigned each conference topic a color. So, with this creative corporate stage design, it was possible to transform the set with lighting and on-screen imagery in the designated color for each topic. This is high-energy multimedia at its best!

2. AT&T Developer Summit

Source: Freeman

What happens when a big name needs to reinforce their industry stature? They turn to eventprofs to overhaul their summit with more uniformed branding and an emphasis on innovation. That’s what Freeman did for the AT&T Developer Summit. And the result? A huge impact.

Consistency was the priority here, as you can see from their impressive corporate stage design. Everything from the curved stage to the circular mats, backdrop and ceiling fixtures ties to the AT&T Developer Summit logo featured on the screen. The right balance of bold color energizes, without over-stimulating the senses.

3. Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network Annual Conference

For a corporate stage design reflective of conference themes, look no further than the Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network Annual Conference. Aspects of the Arizona landscape and LTEN’s technology theme were the inspiration for this beautiful stage set, because of the event’s location.

Layered backdrop elements like waved panels combined to create a representation of the Grand Canyon. The set also played with different textures and patterns via circuitry panels and used a triple-wide screen for presentations because Arizona is a hub for growing tech. Color washes lit the stage and intense color saturation emphasized the many textures. Blues, pinks and yellows created a sunset desert palette that was nothing less than stunning.

4. Forbes Women’s Summit

Source: Forbes

At the Forbes Women’s Summit, four C-suite leaders took part in a panel titled “The Builders: Shaping the Future of Work Now.” Intentional or not, the backdrop of timber paneling was entirely fitting for the name of this panel. The rustic backdrop combined with contemporary furniture created a clean but comfortable presence, while the timber paneling and greenery have an eco-friendly feel.

You don’t notice the curtains behind the timber at first, but the purple lighting adds a touch of color and a warm glow to the staging, without overshadowing the panel of speakers. This isn’t a highly-technical corporate stage design, but it’s nonetheless very effective. The perfect inspiration if you’re looking for cost-effective staging for your next corporate event.

5. Sony E3 2012 Press Conference

Now, we move to a huge-scale production with the Sony E3 2012 Press Conference. By using a variety of traditional 16:9 screens and square-shaped screens, with some set forward, while others receded, this created a fantastic sense of dimensionality. Rather than one wide stage raised at a single level, there is a central raised section that makes the speaker seem like he is among the audience which can help with attendee engagement.

Press play to see an impressive display of projection mapping interspersed with video. While you may not be working with a budget that allows you to create something that’s so high-impact, you can take inspiration to incorporate these elements on a smaller scale.

6. RECon Asia Pacific Conference 2017

Source: K&A International Co., Ltd.

RECon is the world’s largest global gathering of retail real estate professionals. You can see their staging was quite conventional; a large backdrop with the conference logo in plain sight, supported by a screen on either side to display content.

But, what stands out is their use of lighting to convey changing moods. Using different colors and even changes of direction for the beams of lighting helped create a variety of dramatic effects. To enhance further, they also used color washes across the staging and walls. Notice that more dramatic lighting was used for the guests’ arrival and while having dinner, with ambient blue washes used during conference sessions.

7. ICA (International Cotton Association) Trade Event 2016

Source: Adlib

The ICA Trade Event in 2016 was a celebration of the ICA’s 175th birthday. So fittingly, a custom built 40x7m stage set provided a backdrop for stunning projection mapping. This displayed a story of the past 185 years in the cotton industry. Look at the dramatic shift from the black and white projections to the bright colors of the poppy field which makes you feel like you’re really among them.

Lighting washes in blues and violets across the beautiful architecture add a sense of drama while highlighting the best features of the venue – the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool.

8. MariaDB 17 Tech Conference

Source: Visual Journal courtesy of Moniker

Consistent branding and clean lines were vital to an elevated conference experience at MDB 17 in New York. Layering bold colors and patterns created an aesthetically-pleasing corporate design that also had a sense of depth. A transparent speaker podium with a branded banner was the ideal choice to not detract from the bold backdrop.

A screen positioned to the side of the stage displayed content while allowing the speakers to be front and center. Consistency certainly doesn’t mean dull here. What stands out overall is a bright and uplifting vibe to energize attendees.

9. Pivot Summit

Source: Microhire

The Pivot Summit is a tech-centric business event in Geelong, Australia. So, the decorative staged features used here are a good choice. They resemble building blocks that bring to mind Tetris or molecules. Aside from unique shapes, a bold 3D logo and a color wash do wonders to bring this staging to life. These are a great foundation to use whenever you’re planning a corporate event.

Keeping the decorative features white makes sense for creating a contrast between them and the colored lighting. Positioning the widescreen above the stage, rather than to the side helps to continue drawing the eye of the audience to the front and center (whether they are sitting close by or towards the back.)

10. TTI Success Insights Conference

The TTI Success Insights Conference needed to change-up how their event presented, but it meant getting creative. It was essential to be able to easily reconfigure the one space to hold both general and breakout sessions. We also replicated the appearance of the main session staging for the breakout sessions. Attendees appreciated the consistency of quality as they moved between sessions and it helped to keep their energy up.

Panels of scenic fabrication placed at intervals between projection screens helped maintain that consistency, with easy mobility for the room changes. A blue light wash over the backdrop created a great work environment for attendees. The feel was classy but also uplifted.

11. In Good Company Conference

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Today’s the DAY. Meeting up and fueling up with coffee by @ladyfalconcoffeeclub, breakfast with @navitasorganics and more. #ingoodcompany2018

Special thanks to everyone who helped to make this happen, including @beautycounter @interiordefine @floyddetroit @oldnavy @dysonhair @potterybarnkids @moxxlyinc @thirdlove @framedandmatted @uppababy @alaskaair @sajewellness @methodhome @sweetgreen @ingridandisabel @onceuponafarm @littlefund @skyyvodka @biritesf @winc @native_cos @neveandhawk @oldnavy and so many others.

A post shared by @ beingoodcompany on Sep 28, 2018 at 10:31am PDT

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Now we turn to a smaller, but no less beautiful corporate stage design, for the In Good Company Conference. The overall design combines living room-like comfort with elements of nature – a breath of fresh air. The simple backdrop in all-white highlights the conference without any distraction.

Beautiful greenery disguises the front and sides of the black stage and helps to create a sense of happiness and balance. The furniture invokes a sense of intimacy, which is a perfect tie into both the conference name and purpose – for creative entrepreneurs who are women and mothers to connect with each other.

12. Forca Dimec 2018

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#EverBlock adds an impressive and creative presence to any event, and can be built and designed to any scale! . . . #staging #temporarystage #colorful #eventplatform #eventstaging #podium #specialevent #bigblocks #stagepresence #event #eventdecor #conference #entrepreneur #eventspace #specialevent #companyevent #companytraining #employeetraining #corporateevent #backdrop #backwall #featurewall #design #eventdesign #tedtalk #stagedecor #marketing

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You’re only limited by your imagination when it comes to creative temporary staging. A perfect example is this corporate event in Brazil. Two purpose-built brick walls from EverBlock flanked a curved widescreen for video projection mapping. Because the blocks can be taken apart and rebuilt for the next event or even to create something entirely new, they’re essentially a green building element. They’re also a great option for adding a sense of playfulness to a corporate event which might otherwise run the risk of appearing too serious.

We love that the blocks add color, texture and interest. But it’s also about the contrast created between technology and physical, tangible objects.

13. VOICE Summit 2018

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Day 2 of the VOICE Summit at NJIT and I still can't get over this gorgeous stage (or the presenters that have spoken on it)

#eventplanning

A post shared by Beth Lawrence (@_beth_lawrence_) on Jul 25, 2018 at 11:51am PDT

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At this tech event, 3D decorative panels with a resemblance to computer motherboards were used. To highlight the creative corporate stage design further, the fabric backdrop, stage and even the attendee furniture are all in black.

3D lettering is always a favorite because of its tangible nature. Also, because it was white, it could be projected onto for color changes throughout the event. Large screens were set to the side of each stage for optimum viewing, without detracting from the stage design.

14. Ministry of Education Event – Republic of Maldives

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Gov’t. announces fulfilment of free preschool education pledge An event of Ministry of Education – Republic of Maldives Event Managed by Iskandhar School #StagecoremvEvents #EventRigging #EventLighting #EventVideo #EventStaging #EventAutomation #EventSet and . #EventRental Photography: @framed.mv

A post shared by Stage Core Pvt. Ltd (@stagecore) on Nov 2, 2016 at 12:52pm PDT

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As this event was for the announcement of a pledge fulfillment for a free preschool initiative, the child-like feel to the staging was the perfect choice.

One of the most creative features at this event were the playful lighting projections onto the paneled ceiling. These projections were in the same colors as the bold stage backdrop panels. Because of the positioning of the panels, along with bold imagery and a small amount of text, it made them appear like pages in a children’s book.

15. Dubai Islamic Bank Gala Dinner

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Protec partnered @alsayeghmedia with #EventLighting #EventVideo #EventAudio #EventStaging & #EventRigging for the Dubai Islamic Bank gala dinner. #EventRental #EventProfs #GalaDinner #ProtecEvents

A post shared by PROTEC (@protec_events) on Jun 9, 2016 at 5:14am PDT

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This event makes our list because it’s the perfect example of creating a theme with corporate stage design. Of course, magnificence and opulence are just right for a bank’s gala dinner! Lighting, screens and 3D objects were all used as features that, when combined, resembled a galaxy with a night sky and a central planet with rings.

The brilliant lighting across each step reflects that of the rings, while also directing attention to the stage. We’re in awe of those lighting beams projecting outward from the stage. They create a feeling of inclusivity – that attendees are really part of what is happening on stage.

16. Microsoft EDU Keynote

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That time @heyheysu live illustrated our #MicrosoftEDU keynote

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ … #Repost @Microsoft⠀⠀ #hyesulee #handdraw #illustration #surface #surfacestudio #livedrawing #keynote #scenicdesign #design #designagency #production #creative #liveproduction #liveevents #experiential #eventdesign #experientialmarketing #eventproduction #creativeagency

A post shared by ZED INK (@zed_ink) on Sep 18, 2018 at 8:00pm PDT

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If you’re looking for something completely different, with a live, off-the-cuff feel, then this is the one for you! After all, who says you must do what everyone else is doing?

During a Microsoft EDU keynote, illustrator Hyesu Lee created an illustration using the Microsoft Surface Pro. It was shown live on a screen which became the backdrop for the session. Because of this colorful and attention-grabbing backdrop, it was essential that the rest of the corporate stage design didn’t compete for the audience’s attention.

17. YAHOO! Partner Day at Levi’s Stadium

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What a great team! #Repost @roarevents ・・・ And we are live! Final look at the stage! The transformation of the United Club is pretty spectacular! Thanks team @nicolesunday @blueprintstudiosevents @_designinmind @huckleberrykaren it looks FAB! #eventdesign #eventplanning #eventbranding #eventstaging #branding #design #creativepartners #workwiththebest #eventprofs

A post shared by Blueprint Studios (@blueprintstudiosevents) on Oct 28, 2015 at 10:24am PDT

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The goal for this corporate stage design was to wow the startup’s super-users, who were known for their appreciation of good design. In other words, the set needed to be Insta-worthy! Here, we see that sleek and stylish, rather than showy was more appropriate for the audience. And a sense of symmetry was essential too.

Staggered panels added depth, while still maintaining clean lines. The panels were also subtly shaded in different colors. A light stage is a nice change up from the many black and dark grey rental decks we see.

18. UP Global

Source: designworklife courtesy of Moniker

Don’t make the mistake of thinking “corporate” must be “impersonal”. UP Global showed an essential human element at their corporate event by using people’s images as part of their stage backdrop. After all, this is in line with UP Global’s desire to support entrepreneurial communities. We think obvious references like these can be more effective than the obscure. When you plan your next corporate event, think about the best way you can form a connection with attendees – not just wow them.

19. Turner Internal Meeting

Source: ATOMIC

The Turner Internal Meeting showcased completely different corporate stage design elements than our other list entries. A stand-out feature was their custom-built wood hero wall. Comb SuperWall was then positioned between the hero wall and the projection screens which were used to display both imagery and content. Notably, sections of Comb SuperWall were used around the rest of the venue too, to imitate columns for example.

With eye-catching features like these, it’s essential to then create some balance. And so, a clear podium and grey stage let the backdrop take the focus.

20. PARP at CeBIT ICT fair in Hannover

Source: Poland at CeBIT

For the largest ICT fair in the world, the high-tech and sleek staging we saw at Hannover was the perfect fit. The screens on stage function both as practical items for displaying content and decorative elements, thanks to unique shapes and their overlapping layout. Color also plays an important role. The red and orange hues are on-brand, while blues create some relief. A variety of lighting helps to create a dramatic multi-dimensional feel to the staging.

21. TOBY Awards 2009 for BOMA

Source: Smart Meetings, courtesy of Bravo Productions

What do you do when you need to create a beautiful awards dinner on a budget? You create an eco-friendly and reusable corporate stage design! For the client, Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), event sponsors created a city skyline out of timber to build into a set. They added to the effect by renting trees indigenous to Southern California and using a gobo crafted into a representation of skyscraper windows to project light onto the set.

LED lighting was chosen for its energy efficiency, to continue the theme of eco-friendly design. But, it also allowed for more color changes throughout the event and therefore, a more dynamic corporate stage design.

  As you can see, there are so many options now for creative corporate stage design. Look to elements of dimensionality, texture, color or lighting. But ultimately, you should choose what will best represent the event theme and the client’s brand, while keeping the energy of attendees up.

Did you find any corporate stage design inspiration here? What are you thinking about trying for your next corporate event?

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/21-creative-ideas-for-corporate-stage-design/

[digitalmark18-blog]

The 5 Most Common Mistakes SMBs Make When Designing Their New Website

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/the-5-most-common-mistakes-smbs-make-when-designing-their-new-website/

The 5 Most Common Mistakes SMBs Make When Designing Their New Website

Image credit: ronstik/Shutterstock

Websites are never finished or done and dusted. Here are some of the most common mistakes small businesses make with their website.

Did you know the first website was made was in 1991 and is still online?

I got involved in making websites in 1996. As a fledgling designer, I was annoyed by all of the bad websites out there. This feeling, sadly, hasn’t faded. Some call it “design disease,” but I wouldn’t trade it in.

The biggest issue with a newly revamped website is that people don’t pay close enough attention to the end result that goes live for all the world to see. So the result sometimes is a site representing a business with glitches and mistakes.

While it’s hard to summarize the many mistakes people make when making websites, I have divided them into five main categories.  

1. Outsourced supplier mismanagement

Outsourcing is a good idea. Those who recognize they’re not good at everything are the ones who go further in business. However, delegation and abdication are two very different things. As the business owner in charge of the website project, you do have to sign things off, and it’s up to you to check things over properly.

Sometimes it’s not completely the fault of the supplier. Sure, it may be a case of “buy cheap, pay twice,” but if you have decided on a supplier, then give them clear and timely feedback, and show gratitude for their work – they will do a better job for you.

2. “I just want something simple up there quickly.”

People either go the DIY route or ask someone else to help them. In either case, mistakes are made. In both cases, a common issue is that people underestimate the thought, planning, time, talent, care and attention a good website requires. It’s seldom that someone with this intention gets what they desire without some consequences.

They either realize it’s taking more time and skill than they expected, or they don’t realize what is needed. And the result of that is usually not good.  

If you decide that you need a new website, plot some time a few months in advance to properly consider who it’s for, what result you want out of it, what you want it to say and roughly how you want the information to be divided up. Then plan time and resources for the steps needed – wireframing, design, coding, content, refinements, testing and launch. Rushing things creates problems.

3. Design glitches galore

It’s hard for a nondesigner to spot what is “good” design” and what constitutes “bad” design. There are many ways in which a design can be bad. However, a few common issues that appear consistently include:

Massive gaps. Many don’t notice when double paragraph spaces happen between paragraphs in website pages. Check the text and correct these extra spaces.

Cheesy images. There are a number of images that people spot and immediately label as “cheesy.” These are the obvious stock photos of people shaking hands, shiny buildings and strange, little 3D people doing different activities.

Full-text justification. While people may think this is a good idea, satisfying our natural desire for symmetry, in narrow columns of text, justified text leaves large gaps between words, making everything look messy.

Poor legibility. This occurs when people use colors that lack sufficient contract between the text and the background.

That picture of you. People put a picture of themselves or their team in About or Meet the Team sections of a website – wonderful! But they use images that are taken on their iPhone, which have poor lighting, are badly cropped, blurry/pixelated, or generally unflattering. There is a better way – use a professional photographer.

4. UX issues: The user journey and user experience

There is a lot of confusion regarding the difference between UX or UI and design. However, some hard and fast rules do apply when it comes to websites. Not everyone follows them, and as a result, some problematic issues come up:

Poor theme selection. If you’re choosing a theme without proper consideration of how your images and content will fit, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. It’s something you need to consider before buying your new template.

Not making the links into links. Many companies will mention their email addresses in the text of a page and then forget to make it a hyperlink.

Using every item from the template. Themes often come with lots of “bells and whistles,” which you may feel compelled to fill in. Just because it’s part of the theme, though, doesn’t mean you have to use it. Sometimes, it’s best to strip things back and avoid adding things to your site for the sake of it. Most people I know prefer simpler sites.

Not checking the site on mobile devices. More than 50 percent of users are looking at websites on their phones rather than their PC. Test your site on your phone – navigate through each page, test links, study each page. This will help you identify things that aren’t lining up or showing up properly. 

Links to social media pages that don’t exist. It’s often an afterthought to add social media links, and if they are no longer active, then it’s best to remove it. 

5. Poor optimization (SEO and speed)

Traffic is annoying when you’re stuck in it, but when it comes to websites, it’s actually something you really want. Even if you have a fantastic website － clear, easy to navigate and visually appealing － under the hood could be some missed details that will affect the likelihood of your site being found (meaning very little traffic) or your site not loading fast enough (meaning people get impatient and “bounce”).

There are many ways to improve the speed of your site and your chances of getting more search engine traffic. Here are some “under-the-hood” things to check on your site:

Did you get lazy with image names? Rather than leaving images with their default file name, name them with phrases relating to the image, using keywords you’d love people to type in to get your image as a result. For example, “fluffy-white-dog-poodle.jpg” instead of “dog3944394.jpg.”

Mahoosive images? Images need to be optimized to load quickly. Many people disregard this and add images in whatever size they were originally, which is usually too big. This makes the site and images slow to load.

Missing keywords To encourage search engine traffic, there are several places in the code of your site where you can add relevant keywords and phrases, including the Title tag for each page, and ALT tags for each image. Make sure you put these in, as these are basic SEO practices that you need to do as a bare minimum.

What, no Google My Business? This item doesn’t have anything to do with your website but with your Google results – a major source of important traffic to your site. When you search for certain companies, their Google My Business profile will show up on the right side of the screen, and it takes up a good chunk of the results page. This info. needs to be updated with the right pictures, correct address and text relating to your business.

All the WordPress plug-ins in one site! Another common mistake people make that really slows pages down is adding too many plug-ins. Not all the plug-ins are needed; limit yourself to no more than seven or eight. 

There is always room to improve. Just like how people never stop learning, websites are never finished. However, if you follow the tips above as your handy life-saving checklist of website love, you’ll have one of the best sites out there.

Keren Lerner

Keren Lerner is the CEO and founder of Top Left Design, a London based design and marketing agency. Founded in 2002, Top Left Design specialises in bespoke designed websites, brands, and marketing material with integrated marketing advice. Keren regularly speaks about design and digital marketing at seminars and workshops for industry organisations across different industries (property, HR, interior design, travel, food, film, finance, and law). She advises on social strategy and communication and trains businesses and teams on how to effectively market themselves online.

Source: https://www.business.com/articles/smb-new-website-mistakes/

[iyarpage]

20 Best New Portfolios, July 2018

Hello again, Readers. It’s time to stop playing those games you got on the Steam Summer Sale for a minute, ‘cause it’s July now—I know, it caught me off guard, too.

This month, I say “minimalist” at least as much as I did last month, because the trend of near-monochromatic, dead-simple, kind of post-modern sites shows no signs of slowing. I’m okay with this, but if you’re going to be redesigning your portfolio this month, maybe throw a bit more color at it. Please? For me?

Enjoy.

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Zsolt Kaszanyicki

This particular portfolio reminds me of old “futuristic graphics” in the best possible way. You’ve got the old thick sci-fi type combined with a ‘90s-era flicker effect on a dark color scheme. Combine that with the more subtle animated touches, and you have a fantastic presentation-style site.

Platform: Static Site

Paula Sansano

Paula Sansano’s portfolio is visually minimalist, and very pastel. I also actually quite like the way JavaScript is used to transition from one page layout to another smoothly and nearly seamlessly. What I like even more is that this does not tie the site’s basic functionality to JS. The site works just fine without it.

See? This is how it’s done.

Platform: WordPress

Firma

Firma’s agency site is another one bringing us back to that retro-futuristic aesthetic. This time, it’s accomplished through animated clipart. I’m not even kidding. Don’t you remember when those basic 3D geometric shapes were the height of clipart fashion?

And throughout the rest of the site, little touches of clipart-style illustration abound. It’s an aesthetic approach that maybe shouldn’t work, but it does.

Platform: WordPress

Loworks

Well, they say the Japanese are efficient. If Loworks is anything to go by, they‘re not wrong. You seem this site actually pulls double duty by being two sites in one (sort of): a portfolio, and a store/gallery. The home page is actually kind of two home pages that share the screen.

The consistent aesthetics keep things manageable, though. And browsing into one “side” of the site or another will show you separate navigation, so it’s not all that confusing. It’s an interesting approach.

Platform: Static Site

Template Studio

Template Studio is perhaps an odd name for an agency that does some pretty original work, but that’s irony for you. The site has a some pretty decent typography combined with a simple layout, and some fantastically executed diagonal lines. Sorry, I’m a sucker for those.

Platform: Vue.js

Tom Parkes

Tom Parke’s portfolio goes for some of that full mid-‘00s minimalism, and it looks fantastic. It’s just got that good old clean feeling we all used to try and steal from Apple, but with a penchant for text that makes you crane your neck to read it.

Platform: Static Site

Naho Kubota

Naho Kubota’s portfolio is that kind of artsy minimalism that got real popular recently. It is also basically a kind of vertical slideshow, but not in the way we’ve come to expect, what with all of the full-screen content sections we’ve become so familiar with. It’s somehow even more minimalist than that, but it also somehow has more text-based information than you’d expect. It’s a fusion of ideas, and it works.

Platform: Static Site (probably)

Saul Studio

Saul Studio’s site is simple, clean, and professional. It’s not going to win awards for mind-blowing visuals or originality, but as always, I like to celebrate the sites that are just plain good. In many situations, reliable design beats innovative design, and it’s good to remember that.

Platform: WordPress

Jean Böhm

Jean Böhm’s portfolio is almost aesthetically brutalist, and focused on functionality. It’s all about focusing your attention directly on the work, to the point that you can collapse the sidebar navigation to see the images in as much detail as possible. This is function (almost) over form at its finest.

Platform: Static Site

Emil Johannes Boye

Emil Johannes Boye is an excellent example of the way that typography can make that little extra difference between a good-looking design and a great-looking design. And this one looks great. Also, this is why good font rendering is so important.

Platform: WordPress

Cine365films

Cine365films is another one of those sites where the grid isn’t just a layout tool, it’s a defining part of the aesthetic. I happen to like that approach, but Cine365films has also added in some interesting bits, like their animated gradients.

Another thing to note is the implementation of their video players. Instead of giving them a full screen or a modal window, off the bat, they’re very specifically confined to the grid. Even going full screen, the grid and some of the text are still visible, which while odd, is clearly a choice they made to keep certain bits of information front and center.

Platform: WordPress

Jerome Harris

Jerome Harris is a teaching fellow in an art college, so his portfolio is particularly artsy, as you might expect. For all of that, it looks great, and I’m partial to the scrolling portfolio on the right. It’s just enough to give you a taste, while the links on the bottom left can give you more detail.

Platform: Static Site

Simon Goetz

Simon Goetz has even more minimalism for us, and this time, it’s that super slick, kinda corporate simplicity that I like almost despite myself. Plus, I can never be mad at a designer who makes a horizontal layout work as well as Simon does.

Platform: Static Site

Omse

Omse is by far one of the most colorful sites on this month’s list, and it shows that the almost post-modernish style people seem to really like now need not be monochromatic. With a healthy dose of animation, the presentation-style site is fused with more staid design elements to create something that feels fresh.

Platform: WordPress

Tom Bird

Tom Bird’s photography portfolio is… well it’s a little predictable. The “post-modern photography collage” is strong with this one, and it’s a style that’s become increasingly popular with photography sites.

For all of that, it’s a good-looking site that showcases its work effectively. As I’ve said before, that alone is worth a look.

Platform: Static Site

Stephen Wells

When you‘re looking at portraits, it’s all about the details, so it’s a darned good thing that Stephen Wells’ portfolio is designed with that in mind. Where many portfolios will show you a lot of smaller photos to save bandwidth, and give you an idea of a photographers overall style at a glance, this one shows off big ol’ photos so you can see those details in all of their pixelly glory. It’s a simple approach, but it’s perfectly suited to the work being shown.

Platform: Static Site

Beaubourg

Beaubourg is a dead-simple site with magazine-pretty type. The layout is also heavily magazine-inspired, making use of vertical space within elements differently than you might expect from a regular site. It’s touches like that which keep me excited to see the possibilities of Flexbox and CSS Grid.

Platform: Static Site (Probably)

Jonny Belton

Jonny Belton’s portfolio is more of that Apple-inspired minimalism,complete with thin sans-serif type, and slight contrast issues. Well he works for Invision, so that’s about right, isn’t it? Well, contrast issues aside, the site is pretty.

Platform: Webflow

Tiago Carneiro

Tiago Carneiro’s portfolio has that touch of almost post-modern minimalism combined with an honest-to-god fade-into the background white gradient. Just look at the home page and scroll down to see what I mean. Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages. Why did we ever stop doing those?

Platform: WordPress

Hoad & More

Hoad & More is a lighting installation company that specializes in installing light, well… artistically. As such, their website focuses largely on showcasing photos of their work simply, and with as few words as possible. They’re lighting installations, you don’t want words.

I do like the half-and-half layout they use for the photos on the desktop version of the site. It allows you to look at one (vertical) photo at a time easily, without too much scrolling, and without shrinking the photos so much that you miss all of the detail.

Platform: WordPress

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;} 20 Best New Portfolios, July 2018 published first on https://medium.com/@koresol

[unixcommerce]

20 Best New Portfolios, July 2018

Hello again, Readers. It’s time to stop playing those games you got on the Steam Summer Sale for a minute, ‘cause it’s July now—I know, it caught me off guard, too.

This month, I say “minimalist” at least as much as I did last month, because the trend of near-monochromatic, dead-simple, kind of post-modern sites shows no signs of slowing. I’m okay with this, but if you’re going to be redesigning your portfolio this month, maybe throw a bit more color at it. Please? For me?

Enjoy.

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Zsolt Kaszanyicki

This particular portfolio reminds me of old “futuristic graphics” in the best possible way. You’ve got the old thick sci-fi type combined with a ‘90s-era flicker effect on a dark color scheme. Combine that with the more subtle animated touches, and you have a fantastic presentation-style site.

Platform: Static Site

Paula Sansano

Paula Sansano’s portfolio is visually minimalist, and very pastel. I also actually quite like the way JavaScript is used to transition from one page layout to another smoothly and nearly seamlessly. What I like even more is that this does not tie the site’s basic functionality to JS. The site works just fine without it.

See? This is how it’s done.

Platform: WordPress

Firma

Firma’s agency site is another one bringing us back to that retro-futuristic aesthetic. This time, it’s accomplished through animated clipart. I’m not even kidding. Don’t you remember when those basic 3D geometric shapes were the height of clipart fashion?

And throughout the rest of the site, little touches of clipart-style illustration abound. It’s an aesthetic approach that maybe shouldn’t work, but it does.

Platform: WordPress

Loworks

Well, they say the Japanese are efficient. If Loworks is anything to go by, they‘re not wrong. You seem this site actually pulls double duty by being two sites in one (sort of): a portfolio, and a store/gallery. The home page is actually kind of two home pages that share the screen.

The consistent aesthetics keep things manageable, though. And browsing into one “side” of the site or another will show you separate navigation, so it’s not all that confusing. It’s an interesting approach.

Platform: Static Site

Template Studio

Template Studio is perhaps an odd name for an agency that does some pretty original work, but that’s irony for you. The site has a some pretty decent typography combined with a simple layout, and some fantastically executed diagonal lines. Sorry, I’m a sucker for those.

Platform: Vue.js

Tom Parkes

Tom Parke’s portfolio goes for some of that full mid-‘00s minimalism, and it looks fantastic. It’s just got that good old clean feeling we all used to try and steal from Apple, but with a penchant for text that makes you crane your neck to read it.

Platform: Static Site

Naho Kubota

Naho Kubota’s portfolio is that kind of artsy minimalism that got real popular recently. It is also basically a kind of vertical slideshow, but not in the way we’ve come to expect, what with all of the full-screen content sections we’ve become so familiar with. It’s somehow even more minimalist than that, but it also somehow has more text-based information than you’d expect. It’s a fusion of ideas, and it works.

Platform: Static Site (probably)

Saul Studio

Saul Studio’s site is simple, clean, and professional. It’s not going to win awards for mind-blowing visuals or originality, but as always, I like to celebrate the sites that are just plain good. In many situations, reliable design beats innovative design, and it’s good to remember that.

Platform: WordPress

Jean Böhm

Jean Böhm’s portfolio is almost aesthetically brutalist, and focused on functionality. It’s all about focusing your attention directly on the work, to the point that you can collapse the sidebar navigation to see the images in as much detail as possible. This is function (almost) over form at its finest.

Platform: Static Site

Emil Johannes Boye

Emil Johannes Boye is an excellent example of the way that typography can make that little extra difference between a good-looking design and a great-looking design. And this one looks great. Also, this is why good font rendering is so important.

Platform: WordPress

Cine365films

Cine365films is another one of those sites where the grid isn’t just a layout tool, it’s a defining part of the aesthetic. I happen to like that approach, but Cine365films has also added in some interesting bits, like their animated gradients.

Another thing to note is the implementation of their video players. Instead of giving them a full screen or a modal window, off the bat, they’re very specifically confined to the grid. Even going full screen, the grid and some of the text are still visible, which while odd, is clearly a choice they made to keep certain bits of information front and center.

Platform: WordPress

Jerome Harris

Jerome Harris is a teaching fellow in an art college, so his portfolio is particularly artsy, as you might expect. For all of that, it looks great, and I’m partial to the scrolling portfolio on the right. It’s just enough to give you a taste, while the links on the bottom left can give you more detail.

Platform: Static Site

Simon Goetz

Simon Goetz has even more minimalism for us, and this time, it’s that super slick, kinda corporate simplicity that I like almost despite myself. Plus, I can never be mad at a designer who makes a horizontal layout work as well as Simon does.

Platform: Static Site

Omse

Omse is by far one of the most colorful sites on this month’s list, and it shows that the almost post-modernish style people seem to really like now need not be monochromatic. With a healthy dose of animation, the presentation-style site is fused with more staid design elements to create something that feels fresh.

Platform: WordPress

Tom Bird

Tom Bird’s photography portfolio is… well it’s a little predictable. The “post-modern photography collage” is strong with this one, and it’s a style that’s become increasingly popular with photography sites.

For all of that, it’s a good-looking site that showcases its work effectively. As I’ve said before, that alone is worth a look.

Platform: Static Site

Stephen Wells

When you‘re looking at portraits, it’s all about the details, so it’s a darned good thing that Stephen Wells’ portfolio is designed with that in mind. Where many portfolios will show you a lot of smaller photos to save bandwidth, and give you an idea of a photographers overall style at a glance, this one shows off big ol’ photos so you can see those details in all of their pixelly glory. It’s a simple approach, but it’s perfectly suited to the work being shown.

Platform: Static Site

Beaubourg

Beaubourg is a dead-simple site with magazine-pretty type. The layout is also heavily magazine-inspired, making use of vertical space within elements differently than you might expect from a regular site. It’s touches like that which keep me excited to see the possibilities of Flexbox and CSS Grid.

Platform: Static Site (Probably)

Jonny Belton

Jonny Belton’s portfolio is more of that Apple-inspired minimalism,complete with thin sans-serif type, and slight contrast issues. Well he works for Invision, so that’s about right, isn’t it? Well, contrast issues aside, the site is pretty.

Platform: Webflow

Tiago Carneiro

Tiago Carneiro’s portfolio has that touch of almost post-modern minimalism combined with an honest-to-god fade-into the background white gradient. Just look at the home page and scroll down to see what I mean. Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages. Why did we ever stop doing those?

Platform: WordPress

Hoad & More

Hoad & More is a lighting installation company that specializes in installing light, well… artistically. As such, their website focuses largely on showcasing photos of their work simply, and with as few words as possible. They’re lighting installations, you don’t want words.

I do like the half-and-half layout they use for the photos on the desktop version of the site. It allows you to look at one (vertical) photo at a time easily, without too much scrolling, and without shrinking the photos so much that you miss all of the detail.

Platform: WordPress

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20 Best New Portfolios, July 2018

Hello again, Readers. It’s time to stop playing those games you got on the Steam Summer Sale for a minute, ‘cause it’s July now—I know, it caught me off guard, too.

This month, I say “minimalist” at least as much as I did last month, because the trend of near-monochromatic, dead-simple, kind of post-modern sites shows no signs of slowing. I’m okay with this, but if you’re going to be redesigning your portfolio this month, maybe throw a bit more color at it. Please? For me?

Enjoy.

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Zsolt Kaszanyicki

This particular portfolio reminds me of old “futuristic graphics” in the best possible way. You’ve got the old thick sci-fi type combined with a ‘90s-era flicker effect on a dark color scheme. Combine that with the more subtle animated touches, and you have a fantastic presentation-style site.

Platform: Static Site

Paula Sansano

Paula Sansano’s portfolio is visually minimalist, and very pastel. I also actually quite like the way JavaScript is used to transition from one page layout to another smoothly and nearly seamlessly. What I like even more is that this does not tie the site’s basic functionality to JS. The site works just fine without it.

See? This is how it’s done.

Platform: WordPress

Firma

Firma’s agency site is another one bringing us back to that retro-futuristic aesthetic. This time, it’s accomplished through animated clipart. I’m not even kidding. Don’t you remember when those basic 3D geometric shapes were the height of clipart fashion?

And throughout the rest of the site, little touches of clipart-style illustration abound. It’s an aesthetic approach that maybe shouldn’t work, but it does.

Platform: WordPress

Loworks

Well, they say the Japanese are efficient. If Loworks is anything to go by, they‘re not wrong. You seem this site actually pulls double duty by being two sites in one (sort of): a portfolio, and a store/gallery. The home page is actually kind of two home pages that share the screen.

The consistent aesthetics keep things manageable, though. And browsing into one “side” of the site or another will show you separate navigation, so it’s not all that confusing. It’s an interesting approach.

Platform: Static Site

Template Studio

Template Studio is perhaps an odd name for an agency that does some pretty original work, but that’s irony for you. The site has a some pretty decent typography combined with a simple layout, and some fantastically executed diagonal lines. Sorry, I’m a sucker for those.

Platform: Vue.js

Tom Parkes

Tom Parke’s portfolio goes for some of that full mid-‘00s minimalism, and it looks fantastic. It’s just got that good old clean feeling we all used to try and steal from Apple, but with a penchant for text that makes you crane your neck to read it.

Platform: Static Site

Naho Kubota

Naho Kubota’s portfolio is that kind of artsy minimalism that got real popular recently. It is also basically a kind of vertical slideshow, but not in the way we’ve come to expect, what with all of the full-screen content sections we’ve become so familiar with. It’s somehow even more minimalist than that, but it also somehow has more text-based information than you’d expect. It’s a fusion of ideas, and it works.

Platform: Static Site (probably)

Saul Studio

Saul Studio’s site is simple, clean, and professional. It’s not going to win awards for mind-blowing visuals or originality, but as always, I like to celebrate the sites that are just plain good. In many situations, reliable design beats innovative design, and it’s good to remember that.

Platform: WordPress

Jean Böhm

Jean Böhm’s portfolio is almost aesthetically brutalist, and focused on functionality. It’s all about focusing your attention directly on the work, to the point that you can collapse the sidebar navigation to see the images in as much detail as possible. This is function (almost) over form at its finest.

Platform: Static Site

Emil Johannes Boye

Emil Johannes Boye is an excellent example of the way that typography can make that little extra difference between a good-looking design and a great-looking design. And this one looks great. Also, this is why good font rendering is so important.

Platform: WordPress

Cine365films

Cine365films is another one of those sites where the grid isn’t just a layout tool, it’s a defining part of the aesthetic. I happen to like that approach, but Cine365films has also added in some interesting bits, like their animated gradients.

Another thing to note is the implementation of their video players. Instead of giving them a full screen or a modal window, off the bat, they’re very specifically confined to the grid. Even going full screen, the grid and some of the text are still visible, which while odd, is clearly a choice they made to keep certain bits of information front and center.

Platform: WordPress

Jerome Harris

Jerome Harris is a teaching fellow in an art college, so his portfolio is particularly artsy, as you might expect. For all of that, it looks great, and I’m partial to the scrolling portfolio on the right. It’s just enough to give you a taste, while the links on the bottom left can give you more detail.

Platform: Static Site

Simon Goetz

Simon Goetz has even more minimalism for us, and this time, it’s that super slick, kinda corporate simplicity that I like almost despite myself. Plus, I can never be mad at a designer who makes a horizontal layout work as well as Simon does.

Platform: Static Site

Omse

Omse is by far one of the most colorful sites on this month’s list, and it shows that the almost post-modernish style people seem to really like now need not be monochromatic. With a healthy dose of animation, the presentation-style site is fused with more staid design elements to create something that feels fresh.

Platform: WordPress

Tom Bird

Tom Bird’s photography portfolio is… well it’s a little predictable. The “post-modern photography collage” is strong with this one, and it’s a style that’s become increasingly popular with photography sites.

For all of that, it’s a good-looking site that showcases its work effectively. As I’ve said before, that alone is worth a look.

Platform: Static Site

Stephen Wells

When you‘re looking at portraits, it’s all about the details, so it’s a darned good thing that Stephen Wells’ portfolio is designed with that in mind. Where many portfolios will show you a lot of smaller photos to save bandwidth, and give you an idea of a photographers overall style at a glance, this one shows off big ol’ photos so you can see those details in all of their pixelly glory. It’s a simple approach, but it’s perfectly suited to the work being shown.

Platform: Static Site

Beaubourg

Beaubourg is a dead-simple site with magazine-pretty type. The layout is also heavily magazine-inspired, making use of vertical space within elements differently than you might expect from a regular site. It’s touches like that which keep me excited to see the possibilities of Flexbox and CSS Grid.

Platform: Static Site (Probably)

Jonny Belton

Jonny Belton’s portfolio is more of that Apple-inspired minimalism,complete with thin sans-serif type, and slight contrast issues. Well he works for Invision, so that’s about right, isn’t it? Well, contrast issues aside, the site is pretty.

Platform: Webflow

Tiago Carneiro

Tiago Carneiro’s portfolio has that touch of almost post-modern minimalism combined with an honest-to-god fade-into the background white gradient. Just look at the home page and scroll down to see what I mean. Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages. Why did we ever stop doing those?

Platform: WordPress

Hoad & More

Hoad & More is a lighting installation company that specializes in installing light, well… artistically. As such, their website focuses largely on showcasing photos of their work simply, and with as few words as possible. They’re lighting installations, you don’t want words.

I do like the half-and-half layout they use for the photos on the desktop version of the site. It allows you to look at one (vertical) photo at a time easily, without too much scrolling, and without shrinking the photos so much that you miss all of the detail.

Platform: WordPress

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How To Go About Memory Upgradation

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Figure 11. An instance of the manufacturer’s web page exactly where the right supported video card can be selected. CAD computer software is just a portion of what the processor is dealing with at any given time. Our variety of pc office desks will function great as they are really compact and are specific to offer you with exactly what you require. Flicker rate tests show that alpha brain waves are altered, generating a sort of hypnosis – which doesn’t portend properly for the most current revelation that lights can transmit coded Web information by “flickering more rapidly than the eye can see.” The computer’s flicker rate is significantly less, but by means of video games, social networks, and a simple structure which overloads the brain with information, the speedy pace of contemporary communication induces an ADHD state.

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Developed to banish all computer-connected pains, the Surf Chair Workstation is an ingenious mixture of suggestions. Macs established an early lead in the pixel-processing field and are adored by “creatives” – but contemporary PCs with the latest Windows software are more than a match for Apple’s items. They are especially best for house offices since small further space is needed for the personal computer workstation. HP Unified Networking Master and Specialist Partners are focused on a consultative enterprise model (Solutions Sales and Implementation) and constantly come with their personal rich service offering. SOLIDWORKS do their personal graphics card testing, not using a certified driver has been identified to lead to graphical glitches within the application.

HP client analysis revealed that when it came to hardware, engineers and designers often lack performance, flexibility, and inspiration. Desks with built-in hutches make it practical for workers to access frequently employed documents or instruction guides, and they also provide a sturdy space to show certificates, trophies or other function-connected qualifications and awards. A huge number of the businesses that make personalcomputers, circuits, software, 3D graphics and that pioneered Internetsearch engine technology can be located in Silicon Valley. Students should schedule a meeting with the pc aided drafting plan advisor prior to enrolling in classes. – A PAW should be utilized for administrators that update, patch, and troubleshoot enterprise servers and apps operating Windows server, Linux, and other operating systems.

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With the new Intel Xeon processor W family members, customers from CAD to simulation will see application overall performance scaling. Animation for films and video games is the crucial target market for HP’s Z-series workstations. Steer clear of utilizing excessively wide palm help, or palm help that are higher than the space bar of your keyboard. With so much of the laptop just becoming decided by what processor you are running and what graphics card(s) you have, firms like HP, Dell, and Lenovo are consistently searching for approaches to compete. Ergonomic workplace chairs made with good quality style in thoughts have been confirmed to increase productivity by at least 8% all through the function day. Adding an optical drive, FlexibleLOM connector for 1 Gigabit or 10 Gigabit networking, additional PCIe slot riser, and redundant power supplies are upgradeable alternatives, but the added slot riser will be essential if the workstation is employed at its highest capacity with far more than one GPU added.

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– Upon arrival of the group check guest folios for the quantity of allowance authorized by management. Ergonomically designed operate spaces are designed for the comfort and appropriate use of the physique during a variety of tasks. ISVs test pc hardware to make certain software and hardware compatibility, steady and trustworthy operation, highest level of help that can be offered, and optimal method performance for a high quality user expertise. Obtaining said that, HP seems to choose the term mobile workstation” for its most recent release, the third generation of the ZBook series. The ultimate mixture of power and overall performance, APEXX four 7404, featuring an overclocked, liquid-cooled, ten-core Intel® Core i7, is excellent for each single-threaded and multi-threaded applications.

These powerhouses can take benefit of high-powered processors such as the Intel Xeon or AMD Operton-processors you won’t discover in your everyday Computer. These high-end processors will surely help boost your productivity and enhance your multitasking skills. Would you thoughts briefly explaining why (for both the graphics card and windows 7). HP Z desktop workstations allow you to effortlessly scale to accommodate your demands. AMD FirePro graphics cards have the ideal assistance from Autodesk, 2GB onboard memory would be a excellent start off. However, I am not as well convinced about laptops regarding worth, or ‘power’, for money we got a Sony Vaio with 64-bit OS and 6GB RAM and up-to-date CPU last year, and it was hardly quicker in benchmarking than my five-year old Dell Dimension E520 with 32-bit OS and ‘full’ RAM (6GB installed, but of course the 32-bit Windows OS only makes use of approx.

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Our test Z1’s Intel Xeon E3-1280 is a single-chip-only answer that – despite the name sounding like the entry-level Core i3 – is about as effective as the i7 chips provided on the iMac. The dual Xeon Evolve NLE 4K Plus delivers even more functionality as it has two CPUs, a pair of ten-core Intel Xeon E5 2640 v4 CPUs with Hyper-Threading running at two.4GHz. Carrel Study Desks and Laptop Privacy desks Are Utilised For Use In Public Places Such As Libraries, Schools, World wide web Cafes, Test Sites, Listening and Studying Centers And Far more. When trains get to Aquia Landing, they will spot the cars according the “When Empty return to” directions on the bill. The newest addition to the Windows ten family members will arrive as part of the upcoming Fall Creators Update and will come with “exclusive assistance” for enterprise-grade Pc hardware, Microsoft says.

With your vision, combined with our knowledge sophisticated computer software techniques, we can help you style and implement a far more productive operate environment that you might have never ever thought possible. Many new characteristics provide to lessen data bottlenecks and speed up the overall performance of modern difficult drives. The Architecture and Interior Design and style Plan CAD courses are quickly-paced and complex absence from any meeting is discouraged. Several Arc+ID students use AutoCAD, for construction documents (i.e. floor plans, elevations, sections, particulars) and SketchUp for rapid techniques of presenting design and style models and perspectives. A lot of entry-level, pre-constructed workstations, for example, come with integrated graphics processing, rather than a dedicated graphics card.

Now let us come to certain characteristics that you need to preserve in thoughts even though buying workplace desks and personal computer workstations on the internet. Most enterprise PCs cost as low as $500 and go as high as $1,000, whereas a workstation can start off at $1,500 and go as high as $3,000 for a higher-finish machine. Some African socialization retentions have been modified, and can be recognized only by properly-ready observers. Is only a shade slower than the Intel Xeon E3-1270 v6 (three.8GHz up to 4.2GHz), the fastest model offered in the HP Z240 SFF. Create huge VMs with up to 16 vCPUs, 8 TB virtual disks, and 64 GB of memory to run the most demanding desktop and server applications in a virtualized atmosphere. Demonstrate proficient drafting and personal computer expertise in employing several current industrial normal CAD softwares to produce mechanical styles for product components, assemblies and program configurations, apply proper drafting standards, dimensioning and tolerancing for same.

The overview unit was equipped with dual eight-core 2.2GHz processors (Xeon E5-2660), 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics card. If you are experiencing discomfort in your upper limbs (hand, wrist, neck, back or shoulder) take a appear at your laptop workstation design and style. Up to four NVIDIA® Quadro® video cards can be mixed with the most current NVIDIA Tesla® P100 PCIe and P100 SXM2 GPUs or Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors to provide distinct levels of true time graphics, rendering and simulation overall performance, satisfying a wonderful assortment of computational specifications and applications. Mobile workstations have changed the way we perform on-the-go. An HP solid-state PCIe hard drive improves disk read-and-write speed, removing another potential bottleneck.

It is uncommon for a piece of software to strictly demand a graphics card any longer for most kinds of 3D software. It speeds up Set up Capture since it means that you do not need to have to log on manually each and every time the virtual machine begins up. MAN in a position to assistance information and voice, can even be connected with the television network cable. Scan 3XS Pro Graphics workstations are developed to provide the ultimate in functionality, responsiveness and reliability. Operating all through the UK, our specialist team of joiners produce educational and office atmosphere furnishings that is exceptional in each and every way from our exclusive fold-away Compu-Desks to bespoke designed and crafted bookshelves that can turn any wasted space into an appealing a single. The Application Licensing Service determined that the input data sort does not match the data variety in the license.

The benefits of a Strong State Challenging Drive are more rapidly Windows start off up time, more rapidly system start off up occasions, no noise, energy savings and much less heat. We realized that we necessary to reinvent what it meant to be a workstation,” stated Josh Peterson, director, worldwide item management, HP Z Workstations. It provides double the VRAM and 150% more CUDA processing cores than the K2200, both of which outcome in greater CAD overall performance. Come check out us in individual and view the range of office workstations in our Sydney showroom your self. A month or so ago I reached out to a handful of smaller sized custom CAD computer makers with a proposal that we work collectively in specing and building the greatest all around CAD Computer for 2017, the needs had been quite straight forward.

After you have begun a session at a workstation, a background window and a timer at the bottom of the screen indicate how much far more time you have left. Equator may immediately terminate your Account, or suspend your access to your Account, with or with out notice, for conduct that Equator believes is: (i) illegal, fraudulent, harassing or abusive (ii) a violation of these Terms of Use or any other policies or suggestions posted by Equator or (iii) damaging to other users, third parties, or the company interests of Equator. HP’s reinvention of detachable PCs started earlier this year with the introduction of the HP Spectre x2 and the HP Elite x2 Today’s introduction of the HP ZBook x2 completes HP’s trifecta with its most potent detachable answer targeted for the inventive neighborhood.

To attain the very best utilization of the space the office furnishing businesses are typically set modular furniture and other furnishing material e.g. workstation, wall divider and so forth., which are the most recent trend in the furnishing industry. The Software program Licensing Service reported that the licenses contain duplicated properties. GPU – Graphics cards are not just for gaming. Concentrates on benchmarks of CPU functionality, but Tom’s Hardware, Anandtech, and so on also post in-depth reviews of hardware, also. Windows RT came with Workplace 2013 RT out of the box, which gave RT customers access to the full suite of Workplace apps, such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Outlook for free. This build will have the highest efficiency for producing, modifying, and animating 3D models.

Their collection of personal computer workstations consists of Miami glass corner workstation, Antique replica clerical computer desk, Calgary walnut workstation, Toronto beech workstation, Chicago beech workstation, Western height adjustable workstation and so on. Produce styles and draw in 2D and 3D on the program’s grid. five. Skipper account- guests who left the hotel without settling their account. Our highly-threaded 3ds Max rendering test also showed off the advantages of this dual processor workstation. Usually, workstations are produced from veneer, MDF, plywood, hardwood, and a PVC finishing. The connection amongst AutoCAD and PDFs has been improved by which includes the documents’ hyperlinks to the program. Right after attempting to use it numerous instances and receiving a complete run around from client service (“service” – HA!!) I lastly told her that I was never ever in a position to use it. She replaced it with a Borders card and contacted her credit card business.

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