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  • Pioneers of Animation: Before Mickey Mouse
    3D & Animation

    Pioneers of Animation: Before Mickey Mouse

    When you think of the first animated drawings, do you think of a steamship with a mouse at the wheel, or of seven dwarves singing as they march towards the mine? You’re not the only one who thinks this, nor are you the only one who is mistaken. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves weren’t the first animated film in history, nor was Mickey Mouse the first animated superstar. Although it may be hard to imagine the world of animation before Walt Disney and his company, this discipline actually started long before the birth of his famous mouse. In fact, long before the arrival of cinema itself. Find out more in this video:

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  • Cinema 4D Tutorial: How to Animate Letters Simply
    Teacher Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    Cinema 4D Tutorial: How to Animate Letters Simply

    Learn a technique to animate letters using a motion capture from Mixamo bookstore with Holke Animating typography is a very useful resource for your experimental animation works. The possibilities are infinite and you can create very fun, interesting results In this tutorial, motion designer Holke 79 (@holke79) teaches us a quick and simple way to animate words or phrases in Cinema 4D, using the gallery of resources found at mixamo.com. You can find it here:

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  • What Is and How to Create a Cinemagraph
    Photography

    What Is and How to Create a Cinemagraph

    Photography magic! We explain how to create movement in a static image step-by-step What is a cinemagraph? It's a fascinating combination of photos and videos. It usually consists of a small movement repeated in a loop within a picture, while the rest of the image remains entirely still. It results in a groundbreaking yet realistic effect. Nowadays, standing out in the digital world is necessary, and multimedia content is more than ever a visual experience. A fantastic moving image can help you achieve that distinguishing visual end product. Cinemagraphs, with their instantaneous visual elements, attract the viewer's attention. They are small, sophisticated works of art, subtle yet sufficiently attractive, that can capture our attention among the multitude of images we consume daily. Creating a cinemagraph is not difficult, and we’ll explain how, step by step. This is a short tutorial, and if you want to explore this technique, Mexican photographer Fernando Montiel Klint (@fernandomontielklint) teaches it in the Domestika course Creation of Cinemagraphs:

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  • This Game Will Help You to Improve Your UI Skills
    Teacher Design

    This Game Will Help You to Improve Your UI Skills

    Designing an excellent interface is an achievable goal, you just have to train your eye to observe detail Aside from their technique and expert knowledge, a great UI designer stands out for their attention to detail. A bad kerning, a misaligned object, or an inadequate icon has no chance of slipping by them. Training your eye to appreciate the details and differences between a perfect design and a flawed one takes years of experience and observation. Fortunately, there are many fun ways to improve, such as playing Can’t Unsee–a web game for improving your UI skills. A reinvented classic The user is presented with two images, seemingly identical, and has to identify the differences and select the better design based on its appearance. The game’s name, “Can’t Unsee,” couldn’t be more fitting. Once you’ve discovered the error, your eyes will be drawn to it.

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  • The Importance of Storyboarding in Animation
    3D & Animation

    The Importance of Storyboarding in Animation

    Designer Roberto Puig talks about the importance of using storyboards and animatics in animation projects Storyboarding is an integral process in the development of animation. It includes all the planned details of the piece, and it is a clear and detailed document of the ultimate result. Despite its importance, many professionals and animation studios jump this step of the process. Roberto Puig (@rpuig)—graphic designer and director of Don Porfirio studio—highlights how this step is fundamental and gives us some tips on how to execute it best. Why is storyboarding important? The main reason all animation projects must include a storyboard is to help us achieve exceptional outcomes. It also ensures that everyone involved in the production has a vision of the product from the start, including the client. It is also useful for organizing all the individuals' jobs and tasks within the animation project pipeline. These tasks can be assigned from the beginning, even before the project is in development. Furthermore, during the storyboard stage, our client can suggest any changes that can be easily applied. This would be more complex at a later stage.

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  • Basic Materials to Start in Woodworking
    Craft

    Basic Materials to Start in Woodworking

    Patricio Ortega shows us how to execute a home carpentry project using basic tools and materials Patricio Ortega is the founder of artisanal furniture workshop Maderística (@maderistica), where art and design come together to create unique pieces. He teaches the Domestika course Professional Woodworking for Beginners.

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  • Tips for Digitizing Your Sketches
    PLUS Teacher Design

    Tips for Digitizing Your Sketches

    Camipepe shares advice for digitizing your sketches in Illustrator After you’ve developed the concept for a project–whether it be graphic design, lettering, or illustration project–it’s best to get your ideas down on paper in the form of a sketch. Once you’ve done this, the next step is to convert it into a digital illustration. In this blog post, design and illustration duo Camipepe (@camipepe) shares their top tips for simplifying this process and improving your workflow in Adobe Illustrator:

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  • InDesign Tutorial: Menus and Windows for Beginners
    Teacher Design

    InDesign Tutorial: Menus and Windows for Beginners

    Discover the basics tools of Adobe InDesign that will allow you to manipulate a document and change its design elements with Jamie Sanchez Hearn Adobe InDesign is a program that allows you to create efficient and versatile designs for countless visual formats, such as typography, editorial design, and branding projects across a variety of different media. Understanding your workspace and adjusting it accordingly will help you work efficiently. Graphic designer Jamie Sanchez Hearn (@jamiesanchezhearn) has worked for visual design firms such as Pentagram and Johnson Banks and teaches at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. InDesign is a staple of his day to day work as a designer. In this tutorial, he will give you a tour of a typical InDesign workspace, the functions of each section, and shows you how to adjust them to your needs and preferences so that you can begin confidently with the software. Watch the video below:

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  • This Digital Archive Is a Treasure Chest of Typography and Design
    Design

    This Digital Archive Is a Treasure Chest of Typography and Design

    The TM Research Archive compiles every issue of the magazine Typographische Monatsblätter, which played an important role in the history of typography If we look back on 20th-century graphic design history, the emergence of International Typographic Style–a movement of Russian, Dutch and German origin that developed mainly in Switzerland during the post-WW2 years–was a huge turning point. Looking to unify shape and content and drawn to simplicity and typographic design, International Typographic Style had such a huge influence on global design that its impact is still felt today.

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  • 10 Websites to Sell Your Art Online
    Illustration

    10 Websites to Sell Your Art Online

    Learn about the pros and cons of popular art selling sites for different creative disciplines If you are an arts, design, illustration or craft professional, you will surely know that it is a good idea to improve your sales method. In addition to having a sales strategy on your social networks, promoting your pieces on a specialized site could be of help to you. We compiled some popular websites that you can explore to decide if they fit your sales needs.

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  • Digital Painting Tutorial: How to Use Light In a Digital Portrait
    Teacher Illustration

    Digital Painting Tutorial: How to Use Light In a Digital Portrait

    Learn how to use light in digital portraits on Photoshop, with Samuel Smith Light is a key element to any painting and it's no different when it comes to digital portraits. Knowing how to apply and control light on Photoshop will give depth and soul to the creations of any digital painter. 3D animator Samuel Smith got his first major job as a digital painter on Klaus, a film that went on to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Here he shares some basic tips and tricks for making an impressive digital portrait on Photoshop.

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  • 5 Free Classes to Learn How to Create Color Palettes for Watercolor Painting
    Teacher Illustration

    5 Free Classes to Learn How to Create Color Palettes for Watercolor Painting

    Discover how to create color palettes that reflect your style with these 5 watercolor experts If you are thinking of getting started in watercolor painting, or if you already practice it and want to perfect your technique, these lessons will be very useful for you. Learn to choose the best colors for your illustration, to change colors, and recreate those that you observe in nature. To watch each class, just click on its red title. Enjoy!

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  • What Is a UX Writer?
    Design

    What Is a UX Writer?

    Mario Ferrer sheds some light on this role and how UX writers are key to creating an excellent interface UX Writing consists of creating, developing, and designing an interface’s content in an app using user experience design methodologies applied to words. UX designer Mario Ferrer (@marioferrer), the creator of the UX Writers España group, has worked on various mobile app games like Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Bubble Witch 3, and is part of the product team at Skyscanner. In his own words, he ‘uses words as a design tool’ to collaborate with production teams to find solutions that deliver the best possible user experience. Yes, a person who is dedicated to UX Writing also designs. Read on as Mario defines the role of a UX writer, how it differs from other roles that also use writing as one of their main tools, and how a UX writer works within a product team.

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  • Free Download: Vampire Plush Toy template
    Craft

    Free Download: Vampire Plush Toy template

    Get your materials ready and get to work on this stuffed vampire bat The Textile Toy world is an art form that Omar Gad, founder of the Piti Piti studio (@pitipiti), is an expert of. Starting with designs that he first creates on paper or the computer, he creates a whole universe of characters by giving them volume and shape and transforming them into adorable stuffed animals. He is sharing this bat pattern with huge eyes and ears, and sharp vampire teeth, with Domestika. Time to recreate one yourself.

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  • How Frankenstein’s Monster Turned Green
    Film & Video

    How Frankenstein’s Monster Turned Green

    Discover how early film shaped the look of Mary Shelley’s iconic creature Every Halloween, a familiar cast of creepy characters appears in horror movie marathons. Of these classic monsters, one is especially distinctive with his blocky head, green skin, and bolts in his neck. Even though Mary Shelley’s creation has become a pop culture icon, there are still a few basic things people get wrong about him, from mistakenly calling him the name of his creator (Frankenstein) to depicting him as green, when, in her book, Shelley describes his skin as yellow and translucent. Discover in the video below how the limitations of early film turned Frankenstein’s monster green:

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  • What Is Color Theory?
    Illustration

    What Is Color Theory?

    Learn the basic rules for creating colors so you can create color palettes more easily Color theory is a set of rules that apply to color, regardless of how color is applied. It helps us to understand how different colors are created, and how they complement one another.

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  • Materials: Make-up For Artistic Self-portrait Photography
    Photography

    Materials: Make-up For Artistic Self-portrait Photography

    Cristina Otero talks us through her favorite products for creating experimental make-up looks Cristina Otero (@cristinaotero) is a photographer specializing in artistic self-portraits. At the age of 15, Cristina became the youngest Spanish artist to present a solo exhibition in a gallery. While her main clients tend to be art collectors, she has also worked on commercial projects for brands and organizations such as Huawei, Renfe, and Turismo Andalucía. Cristina started out drawing portraits of women, using herself as a reference. Drawn to hyperrealism, she began experimenting with photography and using herself as a model. When it comes to post-production, Cristiana insists, “I don’t edit, I paint”.

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  • 6 Filmmaking Techniques Pioneered by Alice Guy-Blaché
    Film & Video

    6 Filmmaking Techniques Pioneered by Alice Guy-Blaché

    Considered the first female filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché pioneered techniques that shaped the history of cinema Alice Guy-Blaché was born in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Mandé in 1873. More than half a century after her death, her trailblazing contribution to the history of cinema is being rediscovered, and her story shared. Until recently, Guy-Blaché’s significant role had been overlooked, erased from the history books, despite her body of work comprising over a thousand emotionally-engaging, universal, magical films that she wrote, directed, or produced. Her output during the first quarter of the twentieth century was far greater than Thomas Edison, the Lumières, and Georges Méliès. Considered the first female filmmaker, she was among the first filmmakers to use techniques such as storytelling, editing, the close-up, synchronized sound, primitive special effects, and hand-tinted color. Her work was not only groundbreaking in a technical sense, but a thematic one too.

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  • Materials: Needle Felting
    Teacher Craft

    Materials: Needle Felting

    The designer Maria Filipe Castro, as known as droolwool, shows us the extensive list of tools and objects that she uses to make dolls with felt, wool, and lots of creativity Maria Filipe Castro is a toy artist, specialised in the design and production of characters and figures made with textile materials like felt and wool. She regularly exhibits her creations and sells them on her online store. In her Domestika course, focused specifically on the manufacture of toys and animals through needle felting, this designer, as known as droolwool (@droolwool), uses different types of needles, brushes, wool, cutters, scissors, and other tools. In the video below, droolwool shows us these materials in detail:

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  • Creativity Tutorial: What a Mood Board Is and How to Create One
    Teacher Design

    Creativity Tutorial: What a Mood Board Is and How to Create One

    Learn what a mood board consists of and how to compile visual inspiration, with Linus Lohoff A mood board will provide any visual branding project with the foundational elements to become a success. In many cases, the better the mood board, the clearer the process, and the better the final result. A mood board can be comprised of anything that will inform the next steps you take in the design process: images, photos, textures, patterns, colors, text, typography, and objects. Linus Lohoff (@linus_lohoff) is an art director and photographer who has worked for creative agencies such as Saatchi&Saatchi, BOROS & Vasava Studio. In this tutorial, Linus shares his process for how to easily create a clear and effective mood board.

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  • Challenge: Illustrated Letterform
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    Challenge: Illustrated Letterform

    Illustrator and multidisciplinary designer Birgit Palma takes on the Domestika Challenge Through blending illustration with typography, illustrator and multidisciplinary designer Birgit Palma creates colorful and expressive letterforms that add another layer of meaning to the words they spell out. With clients that include Adidas, Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Adobe, she plays with shapes, colors, and volume to add imaginative, expressive twists to familiar letterforms. In this Domestika Challenge, Birgit is given a mystery box filled with random items and asked to create a letterform using three of them. Want to see how it turns out? Find out in the video below:

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  • What Is the Best Place to Sell Your Clothes Online?
    Design

    What Is the Best Place to Sell Your Clothes Online?

    What is the best platform to sell your streetwear project? Smithe presents his favorite options You’ve just created a fantastic collection of t-shirts with your designs and illustrations, and now you need your audience to see it and buy it, correct? Which online shop should you choose to advertise your products if you don’t have a way to set up your website? Smithe (@smithe)–a Mexican urban artist, illustrator, and designer–has been working on his style, perfecting his images’ narrative, and working as a creative for fashion brand, Tony Delfino. Here he shows us the difference between the two leading e-commerce platforms, Big Cartel and Shopify.

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  • 7 Beautiful Films on Great Artists
    Film & Video

    7 Beautiful Films on Great Artists

    The best films on history’s greatest artists, as chosen by illustrator Alex de Marcos García From Van Gogh to Basquiat, there are some names–and some pieces of art–that everybody recognizes. Far fewer people know about the person behind the masterpiece, however. We study their techniques and the movements they began but sometimes their personal lives can be equally insightful for those of us who want to learn from them. Illustrator Alex de Marcos García teaches the Domestika course Pictorial Portraits Using Digital Techniques and, even in his modern-day craft, encourages students to find out more about the artists they love. Alex has shared his 7 favorite artistic biopics that reveal just what a great film about a creative genius can bring to our understanding, enjoyment, and creation of their art and ours.

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