Up and Running with Affinity Designer


Book Description

Add Affinity Designer to your creative skillset while creating innovative designs and illustrations, building a solid foundation for your future Key Features Understand Affinity Designer's interface and setup, discover its capabilities, and develop an efficient workflow Harness the power of an easy and flexible vector and pixel workflow in one application Learn practical skills and gain the confidence to power your own creative projects Book DescriptionAffinity Designer is a widely adopted creative application, and in a reasonably short space of time, it has become a leading design and illustration application. Affinity Designer, along with Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher, is part of a suite of award-winning creative software applications developed by Serif Europe. Built on the latest technologies, which make it fast and smooth, Affinity Designer is quickly becoming the go-to professional creative application for vector drawing and pixel-based painting. Up and Running with Affinity Designer is a comprehensive hands-on guide to the Affinity Designer software. Whether you're new to the creative industry, a seasoned professional looking for a proven alternative, or an enthusiastic hobbyist, this book will help you get up to speed in no time. You’ll learn how to create documents and explore workflow best practices while working through practical exercises using the knowledge and skills developed in each chapter to solidify your understanding of the fundamentals. Finally, you’ll bring it all together with real-world practical applications by building a fun logo and professional illustration, forming a base for in-depth exploration in your own projects. By the end of this Affinity Designer book, you'll have gained the knowledge and confidence to use Affinity Designer as part of your creative toolset.What you will learn Explore the interface and unique UX characteristics of Affinity Designer Discover features that allow you to manipulate and transform objects Apply color, shading, and effects to create unique compositions Employ layers to organize and simplify complex projects Use grids, guides, and snapping features as design aids Adapt to Affinity Designer s custom workspaces and keyboard shortcuts Explore the workflow and design best practices for more predictable and successful outcomes Identify potential stumbling blocks in your design process and learn how to avoid them Who this book is forThis Affinity Designer book is for graphic designers, artists, illustrators, and hobbyists. Anyone curious about Affinity Designer's unique toolset and vector and pixel workflows or looking for cost-effective alternatives to the Adobe suite will find this book useful. Experience in working with other similar tools will be helpful, but not necessary.




Book Design Made Simple


Book Description

Book Design Made Simple gives DIY authors, small presses, and graphic designers--novices and experts alike--the power to design their own books. It's the first comprehensive book of its kind, explaining every step from installing Adobe(R) InDesign(R) right through to sending the files to press. For those who want to design their own books but have little idea how to proceed, Book Design Made Simple is a semester of book design instruction plus a publishing class rolled into one. Let two experts guide you through the process with easy step-by-step instructions, resulting in a professional-looking top-quality book




Crafting Interpreters


Book Description

Despite using them every day, most software engineers know little about how programming languages are designed and implemented. For many, their only experience with that corner of computer science was a terrifying "compilers" class that they suffered through in undergrad and tried to blot from their memory as soon as they had scribbled their last NFA to DFA conversion on the final exam. That fearsome reputation belies a field that is rich with useful techniques and not so difficult as some of its practitioners might have you believe. A better understanding of how programming languages are built will make you a stronger software engineer and teach you concepts and data structures you'll use the rest of your coding days. You might even have fun. This book teaches you everything you need to know to implement a full-featured, efficient scripting language. You'll learn both high-level concepts around parsing and semantics and gritty details like bytecode representation and garbage collection. Your brain will light up with new ideas, and your hands will get dirty and calloused. Starting from main(), you will build a language that features rich syntax, dynamic typing, garbage collection, lexical scope, first-class functions, closures, classes, and inheritance. All packed into a few thousand lines of clean, fast code that you thoroughly understand because you wrote each one yourself.




Illustration Workshop


Book Description

"For aspiring illustrators, students, or anyone who loves to draw, this workbook helps to build up drawing skills, confidence, and an attention-grabbing portfolio ... [Includes] 12 step-by-step assignments to illustrate commercially compelling products--like a greeting card, product packaging, a magazine editorial, and more"--Amazon.com




Affinity


Book Description

An eerily brilliant and spooky tale of spiritualism and deception 'Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep.' From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic. 'Refined, repressed and simmering... a delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism' Independent on Sunday 'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written' Val Hennessy 'Beautifully, atmospherically written, this is a tale to thrill your very soul' Metro 'Sexy, spooky, stylish... a wonderful book' Guardian




Contextual Design


Book Description

Contextual Design: Design for Life, Second Edition, describes the core techniques needed to deliberately produce a compelling user experience. Contextual design was first invented in 1988 to drive a deep understanding of the user into the design process. It has been used in a wide variety of industries and taught in universities all over the world. Until now, the basic CD approach has needed little revision, but with the wide adoption of handheld devices, especially smartphones, the way technology is integrated into people's lives has fundamentally changed. Contextual Design V2.0 introduces both the classic CD techniques and the new techniques needed to "design for life", fulfilling core human motives while supporting activities. This completely updated and revised edition is written in a clear, informal style without excessive jargon, and is the must-have book for any UX Design library. Users will find coverage of mobile devices and consumer and business products, all illustrated with new examples, case studies, and discussions on how to use CD with the agile development and other project requirements methods. - Provides tactics on how to gather detailed data on how people live, work, and use products - Helps develop a coherent picture of a whole user population - Presents tactics on how to use the seven "Cool Concepts" to support core human motives and generate new product concepts guided by user data, ideation techniques, and principles key to producing a compelling user experience - Explains how to structure the system and user interface to best support the user across place, time, and platform




Adobe Animate 2022 for Creative Professionals


Book Description

Step into the world of animation and go beyond the fundamentals of Adobe Animate to bring experiences to life with the help of expert-led content in this illustrated guide Key Features Produce rich motion graphics and interactive animations for multiple platforms Explore the key features and enhancements in the latest Adobe Animate release Take your Adobe Animate projects to the next level with creative workflows Book DescriptionAdobe Animate is platform-agnostic asset creation, motion design, animation, and interactivity software. Complete with explanations of essential concepts and step-by-step walkthroughs of practical examples, this book will guide you in using Adobe Animate to create immersive experiences by breaking through creative limitations across every medium. We begin by getting up to speed with all that you need to know about Adobe Animate. You'll learn how to get started with Animate as a creative platform and explore the features introduced in its most recent versions. The book will show you how to consume and produce media assets for multiple platforms through both the publish and export workflows. Following this, you’ll explore advanced rigging techniques and discover how to create more dynamic animation with advanced depth and movement techniques. You’ll also find out how to build projects such as games, virtual reality experiences, and apps for various platforms as the book demonstrates different ways to use Animate. Finally, it covers the different methods used to extend the software for various needs. By the end of this Adobe Animate book, you'll be able to produce a variety of media assets, motion graphic design materials, animated artifacts, and interactive content pieces for platforms such as HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, and mobile devices.What you will learn Gain a solid understanding of Adobe Animate foundations and new features Understand the nuances associated with publishing and exporting rich media content to various platforms Make use of advanced layering and rigging techniques to create engaging motion content Create dynamic motion using the camera and variable layer depth techniques Develop web-based games, virtual reality experiences, and multiplatform mobile applications Extend Animate with extensions, application-level scripting, and the creation of custom integrated tutorials Who this book is for This book is for web, graphic, and motion design professionals with basic experience in animation who want to take their existing skills to the next level. A clear understanding of fundamental animation concepts will help you to get the most out of this book and produce impressive results.




PC Mag


Book Description

PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.




The Art of Theatrical Design


Book Description

The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice, Second Edition, contains an in-depth discussion of design elements and principles for costume, set, lighting, sound, projection, properties, and makeup designs. This textbook details the skills necessary to create effective, evocative, and engaging theatrical designs that support a play contextually, thematically, and visually. It covers key concepts such as content, context, genre, style, play structure, and format and the demands and limitations of various theatrical spaces. The book also discusses essential principles, including collaboration, inspiration, conceptualization, script analysis, conducting effective research, building a visual library, developing an individual design process, and the role of the critique in collaboration. This second edition includes A new chapter on properties management and design. A new chapter on makeup design. A new chapter on digital rendering, with evaluations of multiple programs, overviews of file types and uses, and basic tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop® and Procreate. An expanded and revised chapter on traditional rendering, with the inclusion of new media, including watercolor, gouache, and mixed media, and updated exercises and tutorials. Revised and expanded chapters on individual design areas, including additional practices for conceptualization and collaboration, with new exercises for skill development. Additional exercises in all elements and principles of design chapters for investigation of each design principle and skill development. Revised and updated content throughout the text, reflecting current pedagogy and practices. This book gives students in theatrical design, introduction to design, and stagecraft courses the grounding in core design principles they need to approach design challenges and make design decisions in both assigned class projects and realized productions. The Art of Theatrical Design provides access to additional online resources, including step-by-step video tutorials of the exercises featured in the book.




Adobe Illustrator for Creative Professionals


Book Description

Build your own designs using vector shapes and apply design principles when creating projects in Adobe Illustrator with the help of this full-color guide Key Features • Apply industry trends and methods and move from concept to completion of designs • Manipulate tools within the software to make your creative process smoother • Master the technique of using tools such as the Shaper Tool, Shape Builder Tool, and the Live Paint Bucket Book Description Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based art tool for visual creatives. It is an industry-standard tool that helps you take a design from concept to completion, including the process of peer collaboration and client feedback. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts and practical examples, you'll begin to build confidence as you master the methods of successful illustrators in the industry by exploring crucial tools and techniques of Adobe Illustrator. You'll learn how to create objects using different tools and methods while assigning varied attributes and appearances. Throughout the book, you'll strengthen your skills in developing structures for maintaining organization as your illustration grows. By the end of this Adobe Illustrator book, you'll have gained the confidence you need to not only create content in the desired format and for the right audience but also build eye-catching vector art based on solid design principles. What you will learn • Master a wide variety of methods for developing objects • Control files using layers and groups • Enhance content using data-supported infographics • Use multiple artboards for better efficiency and asset management • Understand the use of layers and objects in Illustrator • Build professional systems for final presentation to clients Who this book is for This book is for creative illustrators with basic to intermediate-level experience with vector-based software who want to take their existing skills to the next level. Prior knowledge of vector-based illustration concepts will help you get the most out of this Adobe Illustrator software book and produce impressive results.