Post pobrano z: Will winning the lottery make you happy?
Allen Laseter has set the bar quite high on what someone can produce on their own. In this Motionographer Q&A, we find out about the production of Allen’s new film for Ted-Ed as well as what the animation scene is like down in Nashville.
Post pobrano z: STZAP #4
Post pobrano z: How to Create Realistic Feet-Inspired Hiking Boots in Adobe Photoshop
Do you love hiking? Upgrade your footwear with a unique pair of foot-inspired boots! In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to manipulate a regular pair of feet to create an overall hiking scene using basic photo manipulation techniques.
Want to add that natural earthy look to all your photos? Browse the incredible selection of Natural Photoshop Actions on GraphicRiver to retouch your work. Or enlist the help of a design professional from Envato Studio for all your photo manipulation needs.
The following assets were used in the production of this tutorial:
For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ll be using the original dimensions supported by my Foot Reference to create the composition. Currently it’s 2200 x 2635 pixels, but later on we will crop it down to fit the scene.
Open your photo into Photoshop. Double-Click the background layer to change it to Layer 0. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select the white areas of the background, and hit Delete to get rid of them.
Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool (L), begin creating a selection around each foot. Control-J to Duplicate each foot onto its own new layer. When you’re through, you should have two separate layers for each foot. Save file space by Deleting the layer with the scale still on it, and feel free to organize these layers into a new Group.
Use the Move Tool (V) to position the feet lower onto the canvas.
Feel free to experiment with the position of the feet. You can move one slightly back or keep them aligned as I did. Changing the position may make the manipulation a little harder, so just keep that in mind.
The next few steps are optional. Feel free to move on without a sketch if necessary. To help me understand how to situate the boots, I’ll need to draw a quick sketch over the feet. This will help me understand the perspective, and where to place the laces, hooks, and collars correctly.
Create a New Layer underneath the feet group and Fill it with white using the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Select a basic Hard Round Brush (B) to sketch two circles located above the ankle on another New Layer.
Merge the two feet layers together. Add a Layer Mask to the merged layer and begin painting black onto the layer mask to hide the top half of the leg. Do this for each foot.
The feet are looking a little thin. Select each foot with the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and use the Free Transform Tool (Control-T) to make both wider. Adjust the Layer Mask and sketch accordingly.
On the sketch layer, draw a basic outline of the boot’s tongue. This will help give us a guideline for where to place the boot reference later.
Now that we’ve got a good guideline going, we can incorporate the actual boots. First, open your Boot Reference into a separate document and use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to Delete the white background.
Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to make a selection around the left boot’s tongue, collar, and laces. Copy and Paste it into your photo manipulation document. Lower the Opacity slightly so that you can still see the feet underneath.
Position the boot over the left foot, Resizing it and Warping it to fit the foot with the Free Transform Tool (Control-T). Toggle the Visibility of the sketch layer on and off so that it’s not distracting.
Continue manipulating the stock until you’re happy with how the boot fits the foot. Then add a Layer Mask to the boot layer and paint black onto the mask to hide any parts of the boot that you don’t want, using both Hard and Soft Round Brushes.
Let’s move on to the right foot. Just like before, make a Selection over the right boot with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). Copy and Paste the selection onto a New Layer above the right foot.
This foot is a little tricky, so I’ll slow the process down. Control-T to Free Transform the boot, scaling it down to fit along the right foot. Try your best to match the size of the left one.
While holding the Control key, grab the corners of the Free Transform box and tweak the perspective slightly.
Now Free Transform again, selecting Warp to mold the boot to the foot. Don’t worry about making it fit the leg completely, otherwise you may distort the stock too much.
Because the right leg is still showing, we’ll need to mask it out. So select the Layer Mask for the right foot and paint black to hide the rest of the leg.
Just like before, continue to mask any parts of the boot you don’t want. And feel free to clean up the edges by painting on a New Layer with the Brush Tool (B).
Now that we have the most difficult steps out the way, we can concentrate on the forest ground. Delete the white background layer. Copy and Paste the Grass Reference onto a New Layer beneath the boots. Adjust the Scale and Perspective to make it appear much larger with the Free Transform Tool (Control-T).
Create a New Adjustment Layer of Hue and Saturation, and Right-Click to set it as a Clipping Mask to the grass layer. Desaturate the grass to match the feet with the following settings:
Merge the layers for the boot and feet together. Control-J to Duplicate the layer, positioning it slightly underneath the first layer.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue and Saturation. Bring down the Lightness to 0 to turn the duplicate black.
Then Blur the shadow by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and adding a Radius of 48.4 pixels. Keep the shadow around 54% Opacity when you’re finished.
Let’s make the grass look a little more realistic. Add a Layer Mask to the boot layer. Paint black onto the Layer Mask with a Hard Round Brush to reveal the grass underneath the feet.
Now Copy and Paste the Ground Reference onto the canvas to add some shrubbery to the scene.
Control-J to Duplicate it, and Flip the copy by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Position the second stock behind the right foot.
Add a Layer Mask to each layer of shrubbery. Paint black onto the white Layer Mask with a Soft Round Brush to hide any harsh lines. Try to blend the shrubbery with the grass as much as possible.
The shrubbery is a little too bright for the scene. So set a New Adjustment Layer of Hue and Saturation as a Clipping Mask to both layers. Adjust the Lightness to -16.
Before we move on to the final details, let’s change the color of the boot collar. First, create a selection on the collar using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation to create a Layer Mask of just the collar.
Change the color from orange to purplish-blue by adjusting the Hue to -108.
Repeat the process with the left foot.
Now that we have the boot and ground floor ready, we can move on to the finishing details to really make this pop! Start by adding a New Adjustment Layer of Curves as a Clipping Mask to the boot layer. Adjust the Curves for the RGB and Blue channels slightly.
Extract one of the ladybugs from the Ladybug Reference and Paste it onto the canvas. Make it overlap one of the feet for a quirky effect.
Now we need to work on the lighting and overall color scheme. Add a New Layer set to Multiply with an Opacity of 55%. Use a dark green color to Paint shadow on the left side to knock out some of the bright greens coming through with a large Soft Round Brush.
Increase the Brush Hardness to 100%. Now paint more shadow all around the boots. Ground them to the forest floor by painting shadow underneath them, and add extra shadow to the laces and boot tongue for more dimension.
Here is a before and after animation of this process. Notice how grounded the boots look now that the shadows have been applied.
Let’s change the colors next. To create an overall tint of green, add a New Adjustment Layer of Color Lookup with the following settings:
Follow up with another New Adjustment Layer of Brightness and Contrast with the following settings:
Always try to leave highlights for towards the end, when you have a better understanding of the lighting scheme. Now add a New Layer set to Overlay. Paint white onto the right side of the scene with a large Soft Round Brush.
Continue to add more highlights to the boot and ground. Here I added them to the boot tongue and lower left region.
Boots are known for having a shiny, leathery texture. Add some sheen to the boots by painting more highlights onto the foot, toes, and boot details. Make those hooks sparkle! Take note of the subtle difference with this animation below.
Time for the last details! Boots in the forest won’t look this clean. So add dirt by creating a New Layer and using the Chalk Brush to paint dark brown dirt all over the boots.
Next, select the Crop Tool (C) to Crop the composition and make it slightly smaller. This will help draw the eye to the center while reinforcing the perspective.
For crisp, clear details, we’ll sharpen this photo manipulation with a High Pass Filter. First, select all your layers and Merge them together. Control-J to create a Duplicate of your merge.
Go to Filter > Other > High Pass, adding a Radius of 3.4 pixels. Set the Layer Blend Mode to Soft Light when you’re through.
Continue to play with Adjustment Layers to tweak the colors and lighting. To finish things up, I’ll be using this last Color Lookup Adjustment Layer with the following settings:
And that’s it! Check out the final result below!
Finding photo references that can blend easily together are a huge part of great photo manipulation. And with a little patience, basic Photoshop tools, and a creative eye, you too can manipulate stocks with finesse and ease.
Browse the amazing selection of Natural Photoshop Actions on
GraphicRiver to apply natural, forest floor colors to any photo manipulation
instantly.
I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below.
Post pobrano z: HTTP/2 – A Real-World Performance Test and Analysis
Perhaps you’ve heard of HTTP/2? It’s not just an idea, it’s a real technology and slowly but surely, hosting companies and CDN services have been releasing it to their servers. Much has been said about the benefits of using HTTP/2 instead of HTTP1.x, but the proof the the pudding is in the eating.
Today we’re going to perform a few real-world tests, perform some timings and see what results we can extract out of all this.
If you haven’t read about HTTP/2, may I suggest you have a look at a few articles. There’s the HTTP/2 faq which gives you all the nitty gritty technical details whilst I’ve also written a few articles about HTTP/2 myself where I try to tone-down the tech and focus mostly on the why and the how of HTTP/2.
In a nutshell, HTTP/2 has been released to address the inherent problems of HTTP1.x
These things are the best (if simplistic) depiction of how HTTP/2 is better than HTTP1.x. Rather than the browser having to go back to the server to fetch every single resource, it’s picking up all the resources and transferring them at once.
Theory is great, but it’s more convincing if we can see some real-data and real performance improvements of HTTP/2 over HTTP1.x We’re going to run a few tests to determine whether we see a marked improvement in performance.
Why are we calling this a semi-scientific test?
If this were a lab, or even a development environment where we wanted to demonstrate exact results, we’d be eliminating all variables and just test the performance of the same HTML content, one using HTTP1.x and one using HTTP/2.
Yet (most of us) don’t live in a development environment. Our web applications and sites operate in the real world, in environments where fluctuations occur for all sorts of valid reasons. So while lab testing is great and is definitely required, for this test we’re going out in the real-world and running some tests on a (simulated) real website and compare their performance.
We’re going to be using a default one-page Bootstrap template (Zebre) for several reasons:
We’ll be running these tests on a brand new account powered by Kinsta managed WordPress hosting who we’ve discovered lately, and whose performance we really find great. We do this because we want to avoid the stressed environments of shared hosting accounts. To reduce the external influence of other sites operating on the same account at the same time, this environment will be used solely for the purpose of this test.
We ran the tests on the lowest plan because we just need to test a single WordPress site. In reality, unlike most hosting services, there is no difference in speed/performance of the plans. The larger plans just have the capacity for more sites. We then set up one of the domains we hoard (iwantovisit.com) and installed WordPress on it.
We’ve also chosen to run these tests on WordPress.
The reason for doing that is for a bit of convenience rather than anything else. Doing all of these tests on manual HTML would require quite a lot of time to complete. We’d rather use that time to do more extensive and constructive tests.
Using WordPress, we can enable such plugins as:
We setup the Zebre theme and installed several plugins. Once again, this makes the test very realistic. You’re hardly going to find any WordPress sites without a bunch of plugins installed. We installed the following:
We also imported the Zebre theme demo data to have a nicely populated theme with plenty of images, making this site an ideal candidate for HTTP/2 testing.
The final thing we did was to make sure there is page caching in place. We just want to make sure we were not suffering from drastic fluctuations due to page generation times. The great thing is that with Kinsta there’s no needed for any kind of caching plugin as page caching is fully built into the service at the server-level.
The final page looked a little like this:
And this is the below the fold:
We’re ready for the first tests.
Let’s start running some tests to make sure we have a good test bed and get some baseline results.
We’re running these tests with only WordPress caching – no other optimizations.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Vancouver | 3.3s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
| Pingdom tools | New York | 1.25s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
There’s clearly something fishy going on. The load times are much too different. Oh yes: Google Cloud platform, Central US servers east are located in Iowa, making the test location of Pingdom tools New York much closer than Vancouver, skewing the results in favor of New York.
You probably know that if you want to improve the performance of your site, there is one very simple solution: host your site or application as physically close as possible to the location of your visitors. That’s the same concept CDNs use to boost performance. The closer the visitors to the server location of the site, the better the loading time.
For that reason, we’re going to run two types of tests. One is going to have a very close location between the hosting service and the test location. For the other, we’re going to choose to amplify the problem of distance. We’re thus going to perform a trans-atlantic trip with our testing, from the US to Europe, and see whether the HTTP/2 optimizations results in better performance or not.
Let’s try to find a similar testing location on both test services. Dallas, Texas is a common testing ground, so we’ll use that for the physically close location. For the second location, we’re going to use London and Stockholm, since there isn’ a shared European location.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pingdom tools | Dallas | 2.15s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
That’s better. Let’s run another couple of tests.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 1.6s | 7.3Mb | 83 |
| Pingdom tools | Dallas | 1.74s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
| GTMetrix | London | 2.6s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
| Pingdom tools | Stockholm | 2.4s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
You might notice there are a few fluctuations in the requests. We believe these are coming from external scripts being called, which sometimes differ in the number of requests they generate. In fact, although the loading times seem to vary by about a second, by taking a look at the waterfall graph, we can see that the assets on the site are delivered pretty consistently. It’s the external assets (specifically: fonts) which fluctuate widely.
We can see clearly also how the distance affects the loading time significantly by about a second.
Before we continue, you’ll also notice that our speed optimization score is miserable. That’s why for our second round of tests we’re going to perform a number of speed optimizations.
Now, given that we know that HTTP1.x is very inefficient in the handling of requests, we’re going to do a round of performance optimizations.
We’re going to install HummingBird from WPMUDEV on the WordPress installation. This is a plugin which handles page load optimizations without caching. Exactly what we need.
We’ll be enabling most of the optimizations which focus on reducing requests and combining files as much as possible.
We’re not going to optimize the images because this would totally skew the results.
As you can see below, following our optimization, we have a near perfect score for everything except images. We’re going to leave the images unoptimized on purpose so that we retain their large size and have a good „load” to carry.
Let’s flush the caches and perform a second run of tests. Immediately we can see a drastic improvement.
Never mind the C on YSlow. It’s because we’re not using a CDN and some of the external resources (the fonts) cannot be browser cached.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 1.9s | 7.25Mb | 56 |
| Pingdom tools | Dallas | 1.6s | 7.2Mb | 56 |
| GTMetrix | London | 2.7s | 7.25Mb | 56 |
| Pingdom tools | Stockholm | 2.28s | 7.3Mb | 56 |
We can see quite a nice improvement on the site. Next up, we’re going to enable HTTPS on the site. This is a prerequisite for setting up HTTP/2.
We’ll be using the Let’s Encrypt functionality to create a free SSL certificate. This is built into Kinsta, which means setting up HTTPS should be pretty straightforward.
Once we’ve generated an HTTPS certificate, we’ll be using the Really Simple SSL WordPress plugin to force HTTPS across the site.
This plugin checks whether a secure certificate for the domain exists on your server, if it does, it forces HTTPS across your WordPress site. Really and truly, this plugin makes implementing HTTPS on your site a breeze. If you’re performing a migration from HTTP to HTTPS, do not forget to perform a full 301 redirection from HTTP to HTTPS, so that you don’t lose any traffic or search engine rankings whilst forcing HTTPS on your site.
Once we’ve fully enabled and tested HTTPS on our website, you might need to do a little magic to start serving resources over HTTP/2, although most servers today will switch you directly to HTTP/2 if you are running an SSL site.
Kinsta runs on Nginx, and enables HTTP/2 by default on SSL sites, so enabling SSL is enough to switch the whole site to HTTP/2.
Once we’ve performed the configuration our site should now be served on HTTP/2. To confirm that the site is running on HTTP/2, we’ve installed this nifty chrome extension which checks which protocols are supported by our site.
Once we’ve confirmed that HTTP/2 is up and running nicely on the site, we can run another batch of tests.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 2.7s | 7.24Mb | 82 |
| Pingdom tools* | Dallas | 2.04s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
| GTMetrix | London | 2.4s | 7.24Mb | 82 |
| Pingdom tools* | Stockholm | 2.69s | 7.3Mb | 82 |
*Unfortunately, Pingdom tools uses Chrome 39 to perform the tests. This version of Chrome does not have HTTP/2 support so we won’t be able to realistically calculate the speed improvements. We’ll run the tests regardless because we can have a benchmark to compare with.
Now that we’ve seen HTTP/2 without any performance optimizations, it’s also a good idea to actually check whether HTTP1 based performance optimizations can and will make any difference when we have HTTP/2 enabled.
There are two ways of thinking about this:
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 1.0s | 6.94Mb | 42 |
| Pingdom tools** | Dallas | 1.45s | 7.3Mb | 56 |
| GTMetrix | London | 2.5s | 7.21Mb | 56 |
| Pingdom tools** | Stockholm | 2.46s | 7.3Mb | 56 |
**HTTP/2 not supported
You’ve probably seen over and over again how one of the main ways to improve the performance of a site is to implement a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
But why should a CDN still be required if we are now using HTTP/2?
There is still going to be a need for a CDN, even with HTTP/2 in place. The reason is that besides a CDN improving performance from an infrastructure point of view (more powerful servers to handle the load of traffic), a CDN actually reduces the distance that the heaviest resources of your website need to travel.
By using a CDN, resources such as images, CSS and JS files are going to be served from a location which is (typically) physically closer to your end user that your website’s hosting server.
This has an implicit performance advantage: the less content needs to travel, the faster your website will load. This is something which we’ve already encountered in our initial tests above. Physically closer test locations perform much better in loading times.
For our tests, we’re going to run our website on an Incapsula CDN server, one of the CDN services which we’ve been using for our sites lately. Of course, any CDN will have the same or similar benefits.
There are a couple of ways that your typical CDN will work:
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 1.5s | 7.21Mb | 61 |
| Pingdom tools | Dallas | 1.65s | 7.3Mb | 61 |
| GTMetrix | London | 2.2s | 7.21Mb | 61 |
| Pingdom tools | Stockholm | 1.24s | 7.3Mb | 61 |
The final test which we’re going to perform is implementing all possible optimizations we can. That means we’re running a CDN using HTTP/2 on a site running HTTP/2, where all page-load optimizations have been performed.
| Testing Site | Location | Page Load time | Total Page Size | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTMetrix | Dallas | 0.9s | 6.91Mb | 44 |
| Pingdom tools** | Dallas | 1.6s | 7.3Mb | 61 |
| GTMetrix | London | 1.9s | 6.90Mb | 44 |
| Pingdom tools** | Stockholm | 1.41s | 7.3Mb | 61 |
**HTTP/2 not supported
Nice! We’ve got a sub-second loading time for a 7Mb sized website! That’s an impressive result if you ask me!
We can clearly see what a positive effect HTTP/2 is having on the site – when comparing the loading times, you can see that there is a 0.5 second difference on the loading times. Given that we’re operating in an environment which loads in less than 2 seconds in the worst-case scenario, a 0.5 second difference is a HUGE improvement.
This is the result which we were actually hoping for.
Yes, HTTP/2 does make a real difference.
Although we tried as much as possible to eliminate fluctuations, there are going to be quite a few inaccuracies in our setup, but there is a very clear trend. HTTP/2 is faster and is the recommended way forward. It does make up for the performance overhead which is introduced with HTTPS sites.
Our conclusions are therefore:
What do you think of our results? Have you already implemented HTTP/2? Have you seen better loading times too?
HTTP/2 – A Real-World Performance Test and Analysis is a post from CSS-Tricks
Post pobrano z: New Course: Designing Covers for Children’s Books
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Do you want to know how to create a fantastic children’s book cover?
Our new course, Designing Covers for Children’s Books, will teach you the essential skills and take you through a practical design project from start to finish.
What’s even better is that this short course consists of just seven bite-sized video lessons with a total viewing time of under an hour, so no matter how busy your life is right now, you can easily fit it in around your other commitments.
In this course, experienced designer Tyrus Goshay will be discussing the steps any artist or designer can take to create an engaging and noticeable cover for children’s books. You will learn about composition, the Golden Mean, how to create quick thumbnails, and the power of negative space vs. positive space.
You will pretend that you are designing for the client, and you will follow the steps that you would normally use when freelancing.
You can take our new course straight away with a free 10-day trial of our monthly subscription, which gives you unlimited access to our full library of hundreds of courses. If you decide to continue, it costs just $15 a month.
And if you need a head start with your designs, you can find tons of graphics for kid-friendly illustrations over on Envato Market.
Post pobrano z: 5 clever products to stay organized
Staying organized isn’t that hard if you use the right tools, in this post we see a few designs that can help you clean up your mess. 1. House necklace display A cute decoration that also carefuly displays your necklaces. 2. Miniature File Cabinet for Business Cards This tiny cabinet is just the right size to […]
Post pobrano z: How to Create a Set of Divider Elements in Adobe Illustrator
In today’s
tutorial we’re going to try something new both to me and probably some of you,
and learn how to create a set of stylized divider elements, using the Pen Tool in combination with some basic
shapes which we will adjust here and there.
So assuming you already have Illustrator running in the background,
bring it up and let’s get started!
Oh, and don’t forget you can always find more vector divider elements over on GraphicRiver.
As with any other
project, we’ll have to create a New
Document (File > New or Control-N) and tailor that according to our needs:
And from the Advanced tab:
Now, I know we’re not working on icons
today, but since we’re going to be creating the dividers using a pixel-perfect
workflow, we’ll want to set up a nice little grid so that we can have full
control over our shapes.
Go to the Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid submenu, and adjust
the following settings:
Quick
tip: you can learn more about grids by reading this
in-depth piece on how Illustrator’s Grid System works.
Once we’ve set up our custom grid, all we
need to do in order to make sure our shapes look crisp is enable the Snap to Grid option found under the View menu, which will transform into Snap to Pixel each time you enter Pixel Preview mode.
Now, if you’re new to
the whole “pixel-perfect workflow”, I strongly recommend you go through my how
to create pixel-perfect artwork tutorial, which will help you widen your
technical skills in no time.
We’re going to kick things off by creating
the middle divider, so that we can create and position the other two in
relation to it.
Using the Rectangle Tool (L), create a 16 x 16 px square, which we will color
using #4adbc8 and then center align to the Artboard
using the Align panel’s Horizontal and Vertical Align Center options.
Turn the square that
we’ve just created into a diamond, by selecting the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and using it to add a new anchor to the
center of each of its sides, removing the corner ones (highlighted with red)
using the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-).
Give the resulting shape
an outline using the Stroke method,
by creating a copy of it (Control-C > Control-F) which we will adjust by first changing its
color to #352f2f and flipping its Fill with
its Stroke (Shift-X). After that, make sure to set its Weight to 4 px and its Corner to Round Join, selecting and grouping both shapes together using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Create the outer
diamond using a 40 x 28 px rectangle
(#352f2f) which we will adjust using the same process of adding the new
anchor points to the center of its sides, and then removing its corner ones.
Turn the resulting shape into an outline by flipping its Fill with its Stroke (Shift-X), making sure to set its Weight to 4 px and its Corner to Round Join, center aligning it to the
previously grouped shapes afterwards.
Add the top circular
piece using a 6 x 12 px ellipse (#4adbc8)
with a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f), which we will group (Control-G) and
then position above the smaller diamond, center aligning the two.
Create a copy (Control-C > Control-F) of the shapes
that we’ve just grouped, and position it on the opposite side of the smaller
diamond piece, selecting and grouping all the sections that we have so far
together using the Control-G keyboard
shortcut.
Start working on the
divider’s left arm by creating the elongated diamond using a 58 x 14 px rectangle (#4adbc8), which we
will adjust by first turning on Pixel
Preview mode (Alt-Control-Y) and
then adding a set of anchor points to the center of its side sections. Add
another set to its top and bottom sides, only this time make sure to position
them at a distance of 18 px from its
left edge, removing all the corner ones once you’re done.
Give the resulting
shape a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f)
with a Round Join, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning the two
shapes on the left side of the divider’s center section, at a distance of 8 px from its smaller diamond.
Using the Pen Tool (P), connect the elongated diamond to the smaller center one by drawing
an 8 px wide 4 px thick Stroke line
(#352f2f).
Continue working on
the arm by creating a 10 x 10 px square
(#352f2f) which we will adjust by turning it into a diamond with a 4 px thick outline and a Round Join. Once you’re done, position
the resulting shape on the left side of the elongated diamond, Vertically Center Aligning the two
using the Align panel.
Add the little
circular piece using a 12 x 6 px ellipse
(#4adbc8) with a 4 px thick outline
(#352f2f), which we will group (Control-G)
and then position on the left side of the previously created shape.
Using the Pen Tool (P), draw a 64 px wide 4 px thick Stroke line
(#352f2f), which we will position on the left side of the circular piece that
we’ve just created.
Create a 12 x 8 px ellipse, which we will color
using #352f2f and then position on the left end of the stroke line, center
aligning it to the anchor itself.
Create a 12 x 12 px circle with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f) and a Round
Join, which we will position on the left side of the previously created ellipse.
Adjust the shape that
we’ve just created by pinching its left anchor point using the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), and then selecting and pushing it to the left by a
distance of 10 px using the Move Tool (right click > Transform > Move > Horizontal > -10 px).
Make a copy (Control-C > Control-F) of the arm’s
elliptical piece, and position it on the left side of the circle that we’ve
just finished adjusting.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create an 18 x 8 px shape (#4adbc8) which we will
turn into a diamond, selecting and then pushing its top and bottom anchors to
the right side by a distance of 4 px
(right click > Transform > Move
> Horizontal > 4 px). Give the resulting shape a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f) with a Round Join, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning the two shapes
on the left side of the smaller ellipse.
Finish off the left
arm by creating a 4 x 4 px circle,
which we will color using #352f2f and then position on the left side of the
pointed diamond, at a distance of 4 px.
Once you’re done, select and group all of the arm’s composing sections together
using the Control-G keyboard
shortcut.
Finish off the
current divider by creating a copy (Control-C
> Control-F) of its left arm, which we will vertically reflect (right click > Transform > Reflect
> Vertical) and then position on the opposite side of the center diamond.
Assuming you’ve managed to finish off the
middle divider, move a few pixels towards the top, and let’s start working on
the top one.
Create the flower’s
center element using a 6 x 6 px circle,
which we will color using #352f2f and then center align to the Artboard, positioning it at a distance
of 44 px from the middle divider.
Start working on the
flower’s petals by creating
a 12 x 12 px circle, which we will
color using #4adbc8 and then position on top of the previously created shape,
at a distance of 2 px from it.
Adjust the shape that
we’ve just created, by pinching its top anchor point using the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), and then selecting and pushing it to the top by a
distance of 2 px using the Move Tool (right click > Transform > Move > Vertical > -2 px).
Finish off the petal
by giving the shape a 4 px thick
outline (#352f2f) with a Round Join
followed by a 6 x 6 px circle (#352f2f)
which we will center align to its bottom edge, positioning it at a distance of
just 1 px. Once you’re done, select
and group all three shapes together using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Create the bottom
petal using a copy (Control-C >
Control-F) of the one that we’ve just finished working on, which we will
horizontally reflect (right click >
Transform > Reflect > Horizontal) and then position on the opposite
side of the smaller circle.
Add the remaining petals
using a copy (Control-C > Control-F) of the two that we
already have, which we will then rotate at a 90º angle using the Rotate
tool (right click > Transform >
Rotate > 90).
Finish off the divider’s
center section by creating four 10 x 10
px circles with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f), which we will use to
form a square by positioning them at a distance of 8 px from one another, both horizontally and vertically. Once
you’re done, send all four shapes to the back of the flower (right click > Arrange > Send to Back),
grouping them and the remaining shapes together using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Start working on the
divider’s left arm by creating two 6 x 6
px circles (#352f2f) which we will vertically stack 12 px from one another, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning them at a distance of 2 px from the flower’s decorative
circles.
Continue working on the
arm by creating a 12 x 6 px ellipse
(#4adbc8) with a 4 px thick outline
(#352f2f), which we will group (Control-G)
and then center align to the larger flower, positioning them at a distance of 6 px from it.
Create another 6 x 6 px circle (#352f2f) and position
it on the left side of the decorative ellipse, at a distance of just 4 px.
Using the Pen Tool (P), draw a 116 px wide 4 px thick Stroke line
(#352f2f) with a Round Cap, and then
center align it to the decorative circle that we’ve just created, positioning
it at a distance of 4 px from it.
Add the little right-facing arrows by drawing them using a 4
px thick Stroke (#352f2f) with a
Round Cap. Once you’re done, select
and group (Control-G) all three
shapes together, aligning them to the right side of the horizontal divider line
afterwards.
Create a fourth 6 x 6 px decorative circle (#352f2f)
and position it on the left side of the horizontal stroke line, at a distance
of just 4 px.
Move a few pixels
towards the left and create a 12 x 8 px ellipse
(#4adbc8) with a 4 px thick outline
(#352f2f) which we will group (Control-G),
and then position on the left side of the previously created circle, at a
distance of 4 px.
Next, create two 6 x 6 px circles with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f) which we will vertically stack, group (Control-G) and then position on the
left side of the decorative ellipse.
Create another set of
10 x 10 px circles with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f) and a 2 x 2
px circle (#352f2f) in the center of each one, which we will group (Control-G) and then center align to the
previous set.
Start working on the
left-facing petal by creating its main body using a 14 x 14 px circle (#4adbc8) (1) which we will adjust by pinching
its left anchor point using the Anchor
Point Tool (Shift-C) and then
pushing it to the left by a distance of 2
px (right click > Transform >
Move > Horizontal > -2 px) (2).
Give the resulting shape a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f) with a Round Join followed by a 6 x 6 px circle with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f) (3), grouping (Control-G) and positioning all three shapes on the left side of
the previously created shapes (4). Once you’re done, select all of the left
arm’s composing sections and group (Control-G)
those together as well.
Finish off the divider by creating its
right arm using a copy (Control-C >
Control-F) of the one that we’ve just finished working on, which we will
vertically reflect (right click >
Transform > Reflect > Vertical) and then position on the opposite
side of the center flower.
Once you’re done,
don’t forget to select and group all of the divider’s composing sections using
the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
We are now down to our third and last
divider, so without wasting any more time, let’s wrap things up!
Start working on the
center section by creating a 14 x 32 px rectangle,
which we will color using #4adbc8 and then center align to the middle divider,
positioning it at a distance of 28 px from
it.
Turn the rectangle
into a diamond by adding a new anchor point to the center of each of its edges
with the help of the Add Anchor Point
Tool (+), removing the corner ones afterwards using the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-). Give the
resulting shape a 4 px thick outline
(#352f2f) with a Round Join, and
then group the two together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut.
Create a 36 x 24 px ellipse with a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f) and a Round Join, which we will adjust by
pinching its side anchor points using the Anchor
Point Tool (Shift-C), center
aligning the resulting shape to the previously created diamond, making sure to
position it underneath it (right click
> Arrange > Send to Back). Once you’re done, select and group both it
and the diamond together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut.
Start working on the
divider’s left arm by creating a 10 x
10 px ellipse (#4adbc8) which we will adjust by pinching its side anchors
using the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Give the resulting shape a 4 px outline (#352f2f) with a Round Join, followed by an 8 x 8 px circle with a 4 px thick Stroke (#352f2f) towards its right side, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning all
three shapes on the left side of the center section.
Add two 8 x 8 px circles with a 4 px thick Stroke (352f2f) which we will vertically stack at a distance of 6 px from one another, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning them between the center section and the petal that we’ve just created.
Create a 6 x 6 px circle, which we will color
using #352f2f and then position on the left side of the divider’s petal, at a
distance of 5 px.
Add the decorative bean
by creating a 12 x 8 px ellipse (#4adbc8)
with a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f),
which we will group (Control-G) and
then position on the left side of the previously created shape, at a distance
of just 4 px.
Add the second
decorative circle using a 6 x 6 px shape
(#352f2f), which we will position on the left side of the bean, at a distance
of 4 px.
Using the Pen Tool (P), draw a 102 px wide 4 px thick Stroke line
(#352f2f) with a Round Cap, and then
center align it to the decorative circle that we’ve just created, positioning
it at a distance of 4 px from it.
Add the little right-facing arrows by drawing them using a 4
px thick Stroke (#352f2f) with a
Round Cap. Once you’re done, select
and group (Control-G) all three
shapes together, positioning them on the left side of the horizontal divider
line.
Create a 16 x 10 px rectangle (#4adbc8), which we
will turn into an elongated diamond by adding a set of new anchor points to
its sides, removing all the corner ones.
Then, adjust the new shape by
selecting its top and bottom anchors and pushing them to the right by a
distance of 2 px (right click > Transform > Move >
Horizontal > 2 px). Give the resulting shape a 4 px thick outline (#352f2f) with a Round Join, grouping (Control-G)
and then positioning the two shapes on the left side of the arrows, at a
distance of 5 px.
Finish off the divider by selecting and
grouping (Control-G) all of its left
arm’s composing sections together, and then creating a copy of them which we
will vertically reflect (right click
Transform > Reflect > Vertical) and then position on the opposite
side of its center section.
Once you’re done,
don’t forget to group (Control-G)
all of the divider’s composing sections as well, so that they won’t get
separated if you move them.
There you have it: a sweet-looking divider set created using some basic shapes and tools. I
hope that you’ve managed to keep up with each and every step, and learned
something new and helpful along the way.
Post pobrano z: Grammys It Was You Taylor Swift
The Recording Academy is promoting the Grammy Awards with “It was You”, a 60 second commercial featuring the words of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for the 58th Album of the Year award in 2016. Girls from a range of walks of life are shown reciting Taylor’s words as they work hard at achieving their dreams in theatre, music, sport and dance. Finally we cut through to Taylor herself delivering her last line, “And that will be the greatest feeling in the world”. The speech’s beginning reference to people who undercut success or take credit for accomplishments or fame is taken by fans and detractors to be a reference to Taylor’s ongoing rift with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. However the Grammys It Was You commercial celebrates the positive power of music, and its ability to give us strength. We connect with certain artists, and their music speaks to our hearts. Their words can inspire, shift opinions, promote change and drive culture. The Recording Academy believes that Taylor’s passionate message of empowerment has inspired young women to reach for their dreams, and to not let anyone, or anything, get in their way. It gave young women everywhere something to believe in, and reminded us that music is sometimes bigger than just music.
“Music both reflects and advances culture, so we try to do the same with our annual GRAMMY Award brand campaigns. I think our campaigns tap into the dominant theme of what’s happening in society, and this year, The Recording Academy felt it right to highlight music’s uplifting aspects,” said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer of the Recording Academy. “Although most of the spots carry the message with humor, as a father of two young girls, it was important to me to also create something that would speak specifically to them—and all women—using music’s inspirational language to help them feel empowered.”
“And as the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
The “Grammys It Was You” film was developed at TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles by creative chairman Stephen Butler, executive creative director Linda Knight, creative director Jason Karley, art director Stephanie Johnson, copywriter Paula Henzel, director of production Brian O’Rourke, executive producer Anh-Thu Le, senior producer Kaitlin Moore, chief strategic officer Neil Barrie, director of digital strategy Rohit Thawani, social strategist Renee Vafa, and data strategist Justin Karch.
Filming was shot by director Rachel McDonald via Tool of North America, director of photography Tucker Korte, managing partner Oliver Fuselier, executive producer Nancy Hacohen.
Editor was Lauren Brown at NO6 with assistant editor Josh Hayes, executive producer Carr Schilling, producer Michelle Dorsch. Visual effects were produced at NO7 by lead Flame artist Verdi Sevenhuysen.
Color was produced at Framestore by colourist Beau Leon, senior producer Andrew McLintock.
Sound and music were produced at Barking Owl by creative director Kelly Bayett, composer Houston Fry, sound designer and mixer Patrick Navarre, and producer KC Dossett.
Post pobrano z: Febreze Bathroom Break with Odor Odes
Febreze, Procter & Gamble’s odor elimination brand, was promoted in “America’s Halftime Bathroom Break”, featured towards the end of the second quarter of the 2017 Super Bowl game. Kathryn Hahn (Parks and Recreation, Happyish, Transparent) provides a voiceover to a humorous look at the always-anticipated Halftime bathroom break, in which football and ad-loving fans rush to the bathroom during the ten minutes between halftime whistle and the halftime show. An extended version of the Febreze Bathroom Break commercial unpacks the factors associated with high frequency usage of the toilet. Research in the United States reveals that more toilets are flushed between the second and third quarter of the Super Bowl than at any other time during the year. The Febreze Bathroom Break commercial is an extension of Febreze’s “Odor Odes” marketing campaign, also voiced-over by Kathryn Hahn, which is centered on how the things we love the most, can also stink.
“I had so much fun working with Febreze in making this spot, which really is a humorous take on that squirm-in-your-seat moment we can ALL relate to,” said Hahn. “Whether we are tuning into the Super Bowl for the ads, the halftime show or even the game, let’s face it, any working mom can you tell you the real MVP is your bathroom!”
“Last week we launched our toughest Febreze formula to date and an all new brand marketing campaign. With over 100 million fans expected to watch the Super Bowl this year — and the anticipated spikes in halftime bathroom usage — we felt it was the perfect time and place to unveil our first-ever Super Bowl ad,” said Martin Hettich, Vice President of P&G Home Care North America and Brand Franchise Leader for Global Air Care. “We’re capturing the experience of millions of game watchers as they sit cross legged, squirming and holding it until halftime. It’s a witty and relatable moment that Febreze is uniquely poised to own on game day.”
The Febreze Bathroom Break campaign was developed at Grey New York by chief creative officer Andreas Dahlqvist, executive creative directors Jeff Stamp and Leo Savage, creative directors Lance Parrish and Stephen Nathans, associate creative directors Patrick Conlon and Will Gardner, copywriters David Mattera, Cuanan Cronwright, Leo Barbosa, project director Hank Romero, strategy director Justine Feron, strategist Toni Dawkins, global account directors Rick Reilly and Mercedes Campos, account director Kelly Norris, account supervisor Tim Carpenter, account executive Stephen Koepp, assistant account executive Hannah Byrne.
Filming was shot by director Rob Leggatt via Knucklehead with executive producer Cathleen Kisichs, director of photography Ben Davis, and Grey Group’s Townhouse by president Bennett McCarroll, head of integrated production James McPherson, executive integrated producer James McPherson, executive integrated producer Tania Salter, integrated producer Emily Darby, music producers Zach Pollakoff and David Lapinsky.
Editor was Joe Guest at Final Cut with executive producer Sarah Roebuck, head of production Jen Sienkwicz, producers Brad Wood (UK) and Frankie Elster (NY), assistant editors Dan Berk (NY) and Kit Wells (UK).
Postproduction was done at Significant Others by creative director Dirk Greene, lead VFX artist Dirk Green, VFX artists Betty Cameron and Eric Gelgand, GFX artists Phillip Brooks and Will Kim, VFX producer Alex Rosa.
Colorist was Alex Bickel at Color Collective with executive producer Claudia Guevara.
Content curation and clearances were provided by Catch&Release.
Post pobrano z: Honda Yearbooks celebrate 20 Years of Dreams
Honda’s 2017 Super Bowl commercial, “Yearbooks”, features cameo appearances by the younger versions of Tina Fey, Amy Adams, Jimmy Kimmel, Steve Carell, Viola Davis, Missy Elliott, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Stan Lee and Robert Redford. Real-life year book photos of the stars are brought to life with their own voiceovers. The Honda Yearbooks commercial was designed to promote the 2017 Honda CR-V and the 20th anniversary of the SUV brand. The release of the Honda Yearbooks ad online coincided with “Throwback Thursday,” the weekly social-media phenomenon that celebrates all things retro.The ad was supported online by homepage takeovers on ESPN, Amazon and Yahoo. The campaign will continue on TV and in out-of-home, radio, print and social media. Honda has arranged for some of the ad’s stars to interact with fans on social media.
Honda considered a variety of ad concepts but landed on the yearbook idea because it hit on the theme of “always chase your dream and never give up,” Ms. Rossick said. The first-generation CRV appeared on the Super Bowl in 1997. The 2017 edition is “a culmination of our engineers and our designers dreams,” she added. “It all just fell into place.”
Some dreams are bigger than others, of course. There are dreams of success — and there are dreams of best-in-the-world, top-of-the-game success. For Honda’s engineers, their dream for the completely redesigned CR-V was the latter. The CR-V was already Honda’s best-selling vehicle, but they wanted to make it even better. To stand out in the big game, we wanted to connect with that passion for chasing dreams. It’s easy to forget that with every incredible success story, at one point they were just another person with a dream. What if we could capture the spirit that drove and inspired them back before they were successful? That was the creative spark that led to “Yearbooks.” School yearbooks capture that moment in time when our whole lives are ahead of us. So we recruited an A-list collection of celebrities and imagined their school yearbook-selves offering advice to the audience.
Photographs of the stars were inserted into shots of real yearbooks, collected from various staffers at RPA, Elastic and A52 and Honda. The students’ names were changed to follow alphabetization in the lineups. The final result is a composite of each celebrity’s original school photo, a 3-D scan of the celebrity today, motion capture as they performed their lines, and a stand-in performer re-creating the original photo.
The Honda Yearbooks campaign was developed at RPA, Los Angeles, by executive creative director Jason Sperling.
Filming was shot by director Angus Wall via Elastic with executive producer Jason Sterman, designer Leanne Dare.
Visual effects were produced at A52 by VFX supervisor Urs Furror, CG supervisor Adam Newman, rigging lead Adam Carter, on set supervisor Andrew Wilkoff, colourist Paul Yacono. Editor was Zoe Mougin at Rock Paper Scissors.
3D head scans were produced at SCANable.
Music was by Jeremy Turner.