1. Immediately After Sunset

This 10 second, 4k video, shows a time lapse of a pink, purple, and blue dusk sky atop a peaceful and lonely lake.

2. Full Moon

A full and radiant moon peeks and hides from behind a thin veil of clouds on a dark sky in this 10 second video.

3. Water Drop

This mesmerizing video displays the effect a single droplet has on a body of water, along with the ripples it creates.

4. 3 Pack Watch Close-Up

The gears of a ticking clock can be stunning in their own right. This stock video footage is a visual testimony to the passage of time.

5. Beer

Who knew beer could be visually awe-inspiring? This video presents a yellow whirlpool of beer in slow motion.

6. Fireworks

Nothing says “celebration” like fireworks in the night sky. Add a festive edge to your project with this exciting display.

7. Nightlife People Crowd At Concert Or Club Party

In this next video, you can make out the shapes of a happy and energetic crowd enjoying a night at a party, concert, or club.

8. Storm

Powerful, intimidating, and enticing, this cloudy sky with dramatic lightning makes for a completely electrifying video.

9. Retina Eye

In this next stock video, you’ll see an extreme close-up of a pupil in action, as it expands and contracts to let the light in.

10. Birds and Ocean

A wave splashes on rocks as the silhouette of doves spread their wings to set flight in this 11 second nature video.

11. Chocolate

Aside from stunning you, this 35 second video of dark, thick chocolate being poured will make you hungry.

12. Sunny Spring Morning in Plum Garden

Nature can create some absolutely beautiful moments, like the one captured in this stock video footage of a plum garden blooming.

13. Rapid Chemical Reaction

Chemistry can be visually majestic, too. In this video, reds, yellows, and oranges explode in a rapid chemical reaction.

14. Night Christmas Magic

There’s something magical about snow flurries that precipitate to the ground on a dark night, and this video shows it.

15. Red Lionfish, Pterois Volitans, Single Striped

The elegance of the red lionfish as it swims, and the deep blue color of the water, make this video a striking sight.

16. Night City Buildings

This stock video footage shows night life viewed through a static low angle and framed by a charmingly lit skyline.

17. Incredible and Snowy Winter Forest

This video is almost the exact opposite of the previous one: it’s an aerial shot that travels through the frosty landscape of a snowy forest.

18. Steam From a Mug With a Hot Drink

You can practically feel the warmth emanating from this next video. Not to mention, how hypnotic the dance the steam does is.

Conclusion

Whether you choose one of the examples mentioned in this list, or search through Envato Elements beautiful selection, you’re sure to acquire stock video footage that will give your audiovisual project the extra appeal it needs.

Recommended

The post 18 Stunning Examples of Stock Video Footage on Envato Elements appeared first on Envato.

Welcome to video on Envato Elements!

If you work with video, your life just got a little easier. Instead of having to create everything from scratch or chase around the web looking for stock footage, motion graphics and After Effects templates, you can now access more than 60,000+ top-quality video items, all in one place.

What’s Being Added?

From today, Envato Elements now includes a shiny new video category with thousands of brand new items—everything from titles and openings to motion graphics, product promos and more.

You’ll find After Effects templates. You’ll find Final Cut Pro project files. You’ll find so much, in fact, that instead of sitting here reading a long list, you’ll probably find it easier just to go and check it out the stock video and video templates yourself!

VideoHive is already the world’s #1 marketplace for After Effects files, and this new offering on Envato Elements takes it one step further. It’s a highly curated library of high-quality, on-trend items for video producers of all levels of experience.

Wait, What’s Envato Elements?

If you’re not familiar with Envato Elements, it’s a kind of Netflix for creatives. The aim is to give you everything you need to get creative work done quickly and professionally. So you’ll find:

• More than 500,000 stock photos
• More than 500 WordPress themes and plugins
• 22,000+ presentation and graphic templates
• 30,000+ design assets, fonts, 3D and add-ons
• More than 1,000 courses and eBooks from Tuts+
• And now 60,000+ video items too!

You can download as many of these items as you want and use them in your own projects. And you get a broad commercial license so that you can feel confident that any copyright issues are taken care of.

The price for all of this is a single low monthly fee of $29 (or 34% less if you pay yearly). If you do regular video work, design work or other creative endeavours, you’ll quickly see that this is insane value.

What Are These “Video Items” You Speak Of?

The range on offer is huge, so the best way is to poke around for yourself, but we’ve collected some of our favourite stock video templates for you to see at a quick glance.

Join Kanye!

Our authors are already well respected in the industry for their work on VideoHive, and their footage and templates have been used for everything from Kanye West music clips to TV shows like The Expanse and The Daily Show.

If you want to be able to use unlimited quantities of those high-quality video items for a single low monthly fee, sign up to Envato Elements to get started right away.

The post Envato Elements Now Offers Video! appeared first on Envato.

Welcome to the Famous 5. Our look at five big names or big  brands that have used Envato items.

DeLonghi

DeLonghi have used the appropriate titled Coffee Afternoon in a set of commercials for the Australian market. They features everyday people in different situations making coffee using a DeLonghi machine. They’re simple and they really work! In fact,  I’m ready for a cup right now.

Buy "Coffee Afternoon" by D1G1T

Opera Browser

Opera Browser have used two Envato audio tracks in videos demoing their Opera Touch browser for mobile, and Instant Search feature on desktop. The mobile demo uses Abstraction by rarebeats, which pairs beautifully with the smooth animation and modern color scheme. And the Instant Search demo for its desktop product uses Inspiring Abstract also by rarebeats.

Buy "Abstraction" by rarebeats

Buy "Inspiring Abstract" by rarebeats

L'Oréal

L’Oreal Indonesia have used Envato audio track Elevate The World by vizion-studios for an ad for its men’s product. Part of its “Break The Routine” series of videos, it shows professional men interacting with colleagues, friends and family as they go through their day at work and at home. It appears to be encouraging men to break up their routine by leaving a moment to take care of themselves. Which, of course, means using a L’Oreal cleanser.

Buy "Elevate the World" by vizion-studios

Nivea

Nivea Sweden have used an Envato audio track in this ad for its men’s body shaving balm. It’s a quick ad, and a kind of strange one. Using stop motion effects to turn the model’s body hair into an animation. At any rate it’s pretty unique. And to top it all off, it’s using Synthwave by Nicolas T.

Buy "Synthwave" by Nicolas_T

Volkswagen

And finally, to end this big brands edition, Volkswagen France are using an Envato audio track in an ad for the new Volkswagen Polo. Featuring handsome young people driving around from one exciting situation to the next, it shows off the latest update to the popular model of car. It uses FortyTwoStudio’s Modern Indie Rock, and has been viewed on YouTube alone more than 1 million times.

Buy "Modern Indie Rock" by FortyTwoStudio

And that’s this week’s big brand edition of the Famous 5. We’ll be back next time with more Envato items used in famous places. Bye bye.

Credits

Host & Editor: Dom Hennequin

Logo: designercow

Music in opening segment: “This is Summer” by penguinmusic

Recommended

The latest from the Envato Blog

18 Stunning Examples of Stock Video Footage on Envato Elements

Envato Elements Now Offers Video!

What Volkswagen, L’Oreal, and Other Big Brands Used From Envato | Famous 5 S3 E3

The post What Volkswagen, L’Oreal, and Other Big Brands Used From Envato | Famous 5 S3 E3 appeared first on Envato.

So here’s a roundup of some great courses and tutorials on graphic design, web design, coding, photography, and business. Many of these resources are free, and others are included in a subscription to Envato Elements. So there’s nothing stopping you from picking up a valuable new skill this month.

1. Create Custom Blocks in WordPress Gutenberg

If you use WordPress, you’ve probably heard all about Gutenberg, an entirely new editing experience coming to WordPress later this year. Most of the articles so far have focused on adapting to it and dealing with issues, but what I like about this tutorial is that it focuses on the opportunities Gutenberg offers. Specifically, it shows you how to create your own custom version of a block—the drag-and-drop unit that Gutenberg is built around. With custom blocks, you can offer truly unique experiences in your themes and plugins. Find out how.

2. Learn Photoshop From the Ground Up

We often focus on new technologies in these posts, but sometimes it’s good to get a refresher on something that’s been around a long time. This comprehensive three-hour video-based course treats Photoshop as if it’s a new piece of software, introducing it to you from start to finish, with no prior knowledge assumed. This is a perfect way for beginners to master Photoshop, whether you’re a designer, photographer, marketer, or hobbyist. Take the course to learn about layers, adjustments, masking, Smart Objects, and a whole lot more.

3. Code an Image Gallery Android App With Picasso

If you’re creating a mobile app, you’ll probably need to load images at some point. This tutorial teaches you how to do it quickly and easily with Picasso, a popular open-source Android library for loading both local and remote images. It gives you an introduction to what Picasso is and why you should use it, and then it takes you step by step through the process of using it to create an image gallery app. Get the full instructions and source code here.

4. Make a Website Using a Responsive WordPress Theme

If you’re a small business owner or freelancer who wants to set up a professional-looking website quickly and easily, this short course is perfect. You get to see the full process of creating a site using a premium WordPress theme. You’ll install and activate the theme, configure the options, and then create the home page, menu and hours page, contact page, and so on. Take the course to get started.

5. Think Like a Designer

When you hear the phrase “design thinking”, what comes to mind? Maybe putting good design and aesthetics at the centre of whatever you’re working on? That’s not a bad definition, but this tutorial argues for something different. Design thinking is about seeing everything from the customer’s point of view and designing everything with a view to what the customer needs and wants. Read the full tutorial to learn more about how it works and what the implications are for designers.

6. Use Regular Expressions in JavaScript

The most exciting tutorials are usually the ones where you build something. This isn’t one of those. There isn’t even a good preview image to show. It’s very much about the nuts and bolts of code, and yet those nuts and bolts are very useful indeed. With regular expressions, you can manipulate strings of data in pretty much any way you want, allowing you to find matches, replace parts of the string, and much more. Read this beginner’s guide to get an idea of what’s possible.

7. Make Extra Income From Side Gigs

Are you a designer? Do you want to make some extra money? If you answered “Yes” to both those questions, then this tutorial is for you. In it, you’ll learn about ten different ways of using your talent to bring in income from side gigs. Teaching, writing, consulting, merchandising, and more—these ideas will get you thinking about new possibilities for your design career. Read about all ten side gigs here.

8. Create a Porg

We couldn’t let May the 4th go by without a Star Wars tutorial, could we? And what better choice this year than those cute, fluffy porgs? This is actually a two-part tutorial. First, you can learn how to draw a porg by slowly adding simple shapes and then shading. Then you can take that drawing and create a beautiful vector illustration in Affinity Designer.

9. Break the Grid With CSS Grid Layout

Traditional grid-based layouts have a lot of advantages, but you also end up with a lot of websites that look pretty reminiscent of other websites. If you want to make an impression, try breaking the grid. This course shows you exactly how to do it using the CSS Grid Layout model. Learn the full process with video instructions here.

10. Animate an Explosion!

Boom! The explosion effect above looks complicated to create, but it’s actually quite simple to build it using the Toon Boom software. You’ll get the step-by-step instructions in this tutorial, and you can use the skills you develop to build all kinds of different animations. Read the tutorial to get started.

Want to Learn More?

If these new courses and tutorials aren’t enough for you, check out the full Tuts+ library of more than 1,000 courses and 25,000 tutorials. There’s sure to be something there for you. Or have a look at these recommendations from previous months to get some more inspiration.

Get to Grips With WordPress Gutenberg

If you use WordPress to create or update websites, you’ve probably heard about a massive change that’s coming soon. The update, codenamed Gutenberg, will change the way you create and edit posts and pages—probably for the better, but with some major adjustment required. Take the course to see how it will work.

Also check out these helpful Gutenberg articles:

• What Is WordPress Gutenberg?
• How to Prepare Your Plugins for WordPress Gutenberg
• WordPress Gutenberg Block API: An Introduction

Draw a Puppy

Who doesn’t love puppies? Just look at how cute and chubby that little guy is. But seriously, there’s more reason to take this tutorial than just the cuteness factor. You’ll also see how to break down a fairly complex thing like a puppy into simple ovals and lines so that you can draw it easily. Read the instructions here.

Create Double Exposure Effects in Adobe Photoshop

Double exposure effects, where multiple images are blended together, can be very visually powerful. But there’s more to creating them than simply slapping one photo on top of another. This course takes you through three separate examples to give you a comprehensive understanding of the dos and don’ts of double exposures. Take the course to discover how it’s done.

Create Accessible WordPress Themes

Accessibility is crucial when designing WordPress themes in 2018. But how do you ensure your theme is fully accessible to everyone? This tutorial guides you through the essential steps, from using semantic HTML to checking for color contrast and avoiding repetitive link text and more. Read the tutorial to get up to speed.

Master the New Bootstrap 4 Grid System

Bootstrap is an incredibly popular framework for building websites, and the new version 4 comes with a lot of changes. One of the biggest is a complete revamp of the grid system. Take the course to learn all about the changes and practise using the new system.

Do Better Market Research With Focus Groups

No matter what industry you’re in, knowing what your customers want is a pretty essential part of staying in business. You’ve probably heard of focus groups and how big companies use them to decide which variant of a product will work better. But did you know that small firms can use them to? Do you know how to set one up and use it effectively? If not, read the tutorial to find out.

Get the Most Out of Medium Telephoto Photography Lenses

Sometimes, having the right piece of gear can make a real difference to the quality of the images you produce. But with such a wide array of cameras and lenses out there, it can be tough to know where to start. This video tutorial breaks it all down for you, showing you the benefits of a medium telephoto lens and how to get the most out of it. Watch the video to get clued in.

Upgrade to Java 8 for Android App Development

The technology updates seem to be coming thick and fast. Along with Gutenberg and Bootstrap 4, there’s also Java 8 to look out for. Although Java 8 has actually been around for a few years now, Android app developers couldn’t use it until recently. However, in version 3.0, Android Studio started supporting Java 8, and this short course shows you how to add Java 8 to your Android Studio projects and upgrade your code to take advantage of all its new features. Take the course to prepare for the upgrade.

Create a Cute Spring Illustration

No drawing skills required! You can construct this cute illustration using simple shapes and tools in Adobe Illustrator. Get the full step-by-step instructions to see how it’s done.

Design Better User Experiences for Global Audiences

Creating an engaging user experience (UX) is hard enough anyway, and it gets even tougher when you have to consider the different cultural contexts of people around the world. This short tutorial introduces you to some important best practices. It’s also worth reading up on what dark UI patterns are and why you should avoid them.

Create a Photorealistic Digital Painting in SketchBook Pro

Fruit? Really? Yes—there’s a good reason why painters have honed their skills for centuries on this classic still life subject. Fruit gives you a variety of colours and textures to work with, and its various surfaces reflect light in different ways. This tutorial takes you through the whole process in detail, using techniques from 3D modelling to make the end result look incredibly realistic. By the end, you’ll be ready to use the same techniques to paint any subject you want. Follow all the steps here.

Create a Small Business Branding Package the Fast Way

If you’re a small business owner or freelancer who wants to create professional branding materials quickly and efficiently, this quick ten-minute course is for you. You’ll learn how to select appropriate templates from Envato Elements and bring them together to form a cohesive brand identity that instantly builds customer trust. Take the course now.

Manage Storage on Your iOS Device

Does this sound familiar? You buy a phone or tablet, it comes with a ridiculous amount of storage that you’re sure you’ll never end up using. Then, within no time, you get messages popping up saying the device is full. This tutorial takes you through some useful steps to avoid that problem for iOS devices by freeing up space and using storage more efficiently for common problem areas like photos and music. Learn those iOS storage secrets here.

Learn PHP for WordPress

For me, the attraction of WordPress is that it lets you build sophisticated websites without having to understand PHP, the underlying programming language it’s built with. You can bolt together themes and plugins, tinker around with a few settings, and you’re good to go! But, of course, if you want to go to a deeper level of customization or become a WordPress developer, you will need to learn PHP eventually. This course is a great introduction, letting you take your first steps with PHP in the familiar environment of WordPress. No more flaking out and using the Customizer—go ahead and take the red pill to see what’s really happening under the hood.

Overcome Your Cognitive Biases and Design Better Websites

If you want to be a great web designer, you probably think you need to learn all the latest CSS and JavaScript tricks and master the latest frameworks. While all of that is useful, you’ll also need to do something more important and often more difficult: know your own cognitive biases and work to overcome them. This fascinating tutorial digs into some of the weird biases lurking in our brains and shows how they can affect your work as a web designer. Read the tutorial to learn about your biases and master them so you can design better websites.

Code a React App With GraphQL

Often, the best way to learn something is to get your hands dirty with a practical example. In this course, you’ll be building a trip-planning app for the Finnish public transport system. Along the way, you’ll learn how to seamlessly retrieve and integrate live server data into your app, while structuring your queries, accessing real-time data, and handling errors. You’ll also get to know the quickest route from Mäkkylä to Espoonlahti. Take the course to start building and learning today.

Create a Shatter Effect in Photoshop

A shatter effect is a powerful visual metaphor that you can use in a range of designs to illustrate progress, change, or breaking through boundaries. This tutorial shows you how to create the effect easily in Photoshop, starting with a stock image and creating a special “shatter brush” to let you apply the effect, before making all the necessary adjustments so that it looks realistic. Get the full instructions here.

Create a Weight Tracker App With Cloud Firestore

Cloud Firestore is an easy, secure way to store your Android app’s data in the cloud. This tutorial shows you how to use it to create a simple weight tracker app. You’ll learn how to set up user authentication and a basic user interface to make a fully functioning app in a surprisingly short amount of time. See how it’s done.

Animate a Rubber Hose Character in Cinema 4D

The simple, fluid “rubber hose” style of animation is a great way to learn the basics of animation without worrying about the detailed anatomy of your characters. And although the characters are often simple, their movements can look very realistic. This course shows you how to animate a rubber hose character in Cinema 4D, giving you a perfect introduction to 3D animation along the way. Take the course now.

Create a Truly Terrifying Photo Manipulation

Too often, things like this get published around Halloween, but I think we should be able to scare the bejesus out of each other all year round. As well as being nightmare-inducing, this photo manipulation project is a great way to learn about techniques like using colour grading to add atmosphere and mood to a scene. Read the tutorial to start assembling this scene step by step.

Build a WordPress Portfolio Site in 1 Hour

A portfolio website is a must for people in all kinds of different industries. It lets you pull together your work and show it off in a visually engaging way. This course shows you how to create a portfolio site the easy way, using WordPress and a pre-designed portfolio theme. Take the course to build a great-looking site in just an hour.

Create a Surreal Portrait in Photoshop

Some designs are so striking that you just think, “Wow, I could never create that.” Well, I do, anyway. But this tutorial breaks the whole process down into easily manageable steps. If you’ve got a copy of Photoshop and some time available, you can work your way through this and create a stunning photo manipulation with a stitching effect. Get the full set of instructions.

Build a React Component

Are you up for a challenge? This post sets you the challenge of building a React component for displaying a Twitter avatar, and then you can either work on it by yourself or watch the video to see how it’s done. Take the challenge here.

Brush Up on Your Illustrator Skills

Adobe Illustrator is one of those programs that you can use for years without discovering all its features. This course takes you through 10 essential design tips to help you get the most out of Illustrator and bring your creative ideas to life. Take the course to discover all 10 tips.

Get Up to Date on SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of those subjects that changes all the time. That’s why Envato Tuts+ publishes annual reports on The State of SEO. Check out the latest SEO report for 2018 to discover the ins and outs of AJAX crawling, artificial intelligence and more.

Create an Online Store With Shopify

If you want to set up an online store or monetise an existing site, Shopify is a popular solution. This course makes it easy for you to get up and running with your own online store. Take the course to watch 12 detailed video lessons that will take you from zero to a functioning store in no time. Bonus: the sample store you’ll be creating is a pet store, so plenty of scope for cute dog photos!

Replace a Laptop With an iPad

Haven’t we all dreamed of leaving the laptop behind and going for the simplicity and comfort of an iPad? For “power users” like professional graphic designers and coders, this may not be practical, but for many of us, an iPad can now handle most if not all of the tasks we use our computers for. So if you’re ready to slim down, read this article for details of how to make the switch successfully.

Learn Vue.js

Vue is a progressive framework for building user interfaces using HTML and JavaScript. In this short course aimed at designers, you will learn the basics of pulling data into your web pages using Vue’s simple templating syntax. Take the course now.

Master Lightroom’s New Dehaze Tool

Take a close look at the image above. The left half is how the photo originally looked, and the right half has had the Dehaze tool applied to it in Adobe Lightroom CC. As you can see, it’s a powerful tool, and this tutorial teaches you exactly how to use it. Read the tutorial to get up to speed.

Create a Modern Restaurant Website

What I like about this tutorial is that it goes beyond the technical aspects of building a website to deal with the whole process, from defining your target audience through the design of the site and then marketing and content creation. While some of the tips are specific to restaurant websites, others could be applied to a range of other business websites. Read the article here.

Learn to Design for Colour-Blind People

If we’re putting something out into the world in the year 2018, it really should be accessible to everyone. What I like about this tutorial is that it explains in lots of scientific detail what colour blindness is and how things look to people with different kinds of colour blindness, and then it goes on to give tips on what you can do to make your designs easier for everyone to view. Read the tutorial to learn how to tell protanopia from deuteranomaly and cater for people with either of them.

Switch From Font Icons to SVG

Icon fonts are popular among web designers, and for good reason. But did you know that SVG can sometimes be a better choice for handling icons? Take the course to find out why you should consider using SVG for icons and to learn the practical steps for switching from icon fonts to SVG.

Make an Unbounce Landing Page

A well-designed landing page can make a huge difference to your website, enabling you to steer visitors clearly towards the action you want them to take, whether that’s signing up for your mailing list or buying your latest product. Luckily, Unbounce makes it easy to create the landing page you want, and this tutorial shows you exactly how to do it. Start creating your landing page now.

Create an Artistic Collage in Photoshop

Feeling creative? This next tutorial is perfect for anyone who wants to experiment with new artistic techniques while picking up some tips on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom too. Juxtapose jarring images and symbols, mix in some bright colours, and create a striking result. Get the step-by-step instructions here.

Build a CMS With Laravel

Or for a very different kind of creativity, why not learn to build your very own content management system? This is a really comprehensive course that includes 23 video lessons with a total viewing time of over four hours. It’s recently been updated with brand new lessons to take advantage of the latest features in Laravel 5, so why not take this comprehensive course and learn pretty much everything there is to know about creating a CMS with Laravel.

Colour Correct Video in Adobe Premiere

Don’t you just hate it when you shoot video that looks perfect in every way—except that the colour balance is off? Problems with tone, white balance and other colour settings are common when shooting video, and they can ruin the end result. So watch this free video to get instructions on salvaging your work by adjusting the colour in Adobe Premiere.

Create Cool Text Styles With SVG

Remember that earlier I was extolling the virtues of SVG for fonts? Well, it turns out that you can create some pretty amazing text effects with it too. Bubble bevel, anyone? Chunky metal? Or how about a neon light effect? Take the course to complete five practical projects that will teach you a whole lot about using SVG to manipulate text.

Create a “Celebration” Illustration

The holiday season may be over, but hopefully there’ll still be plenty of reasons to celebrate in the year to come. So why not celebrate with this elegant champagne illustration? What I like about it is that it’s built using just basic shapes, tools and effects in Adobe Illustrator—no drawing skills required! Find out how to do it.

Build Your Own Web App With Flask

Sometimes, the best way to learn is by getting your hands dirty and doing something. Flask is a popular microframework for creating web apps in the Python language, and this course teaches you how to use it to build your very own file-based wiki app. Watch the free preview to find out more.

Write a Great Motivational Speech

Whether you see yourself pacing around the stage at TED or simply want to deliver a compelling speech at work or school, this tutorial is packed with tips to help you put together a killer motivational speech. Read the tutorial to learn not only how to engage your audience, but how to inspire them.

Master Photo Manipulation Techniques

The great thing about photo manipulation is that if, like me, you can’t draw to save your life, you can still create some amazing scenes like the one above, just by merging photos together and applying some effects. There’s a bit more to it than that, of course, but this tutorial breaks it all down into easy steps. So why not learn photo manipulation today?

Make a Professional Resume in 10 Minutes

Along with making New Year’s resolutions, another popular activity at this time of year is making a new career move. If you need to update your resume to propel you towards that dream job in 2018, this short course is for you. Building on a professional template from Envato Elements, you’ll learn how to create a resume that is clean, targeted, and highlights your skills and abilities. Take the course to give your career a boost this month.

Learn Natural Language Processing (NLP) in iOS 11

Machine learning is a hot topic right now, and it’s only going to get more important as time goes on and the possibilities and capabilities of the technology multiply. This tutorial will help you surf the crest of the wave by introducing you to natural language processing, a key element of machine learning. Essentially, it’s the means by which computers understand human speech—not just grasping the basic meaning, but doing complex things like analysing sentiment and pulling out key information. Read the tutorial to find out more about how it works and to get some practice using it in iOS 11.

Take Better Photos by Knowing the Sun’s Position

We’ve all seen great photos ruined by the sun being in the wrong place—usually right behind our beautiful subject, making it into a silhouette shorn of all its details. Of course, the sun is never really in the “wrong place” at all. It moves predictably around the sky, and there will be a time of day—or a different season—in which you can get the shot you want. Read the tutorial to find out how you can use a simple web app to plan your photography shoots with the sun in mind.

Design a Mobile UI in Sketch

Sketch is a powerful digital design application, and it’s perfectly suited to those who design user interfaces for web or mobile apps. In this course, you’ll learn how to create a mobile UI design in Sketch, working from an initial wireframe all the way through to a completed design.

Make a Climate Change Infographic

Here’s an idea for the New Year: do something to help future generations have a habitable planet on which to make and break their own resolutions. An infographic is a great way to communicate complex information and statistics in an engaging way, and this tutorial teaches you how to create one in Adobe InDesign. Find out how it’s done.

Build a Branding Package the Easy Way

Branding is a powerful tool for building a company’s reputation—some of the major world brands are worth billions of dollars. Having a consistent and professional branding package across print and web can really help set a business apart from its competitors. This course teaches you how to create this package on a budget by using Envato Elements and Affinity Designer. You’ll produce a logo, branding colors, a customized website, a business card, a Facebook cover design, and more. Get started here.

Create an Android Music Player App With Anko

Anko is a Kotlin library that makes it easier to build Android apps. What better way to learn it than by getting your hands dirty building a music player app that can automatically pick and play random songs from the user’s device? It’s quite a complex app, but the tutorial makes it easy to understand. Get the full instructions and code.

Design for Visual Impairment

If you have a website or do any kind of design work for the web, you should be conscious of how to design sites that everyone can view easily—including the millions of people with color blindness, low vision, blindness, or other visual impairments. If you’re not, or if you need a refresher, then read this accessibility tutorial to make sure you’re not inadvertently excluding potential visitors and customers through simple but common design flaws.

Learn the Fundamentals of JavaScript

There are lots of JavaScript tutorials and courses out there on the web, but many of them deal with a particular aspect of the language and assume some pre-existing general knowledge. It’s quite rare to find a systematic guide that teaches you the language from the ground up. This JavaScript Fundamentals course does exactly that. It starts with the basic concepts and builds slowly over the course of 7 hours and 61 separate lessons to teach you more complex topics and show you how to use JavaScript in practice. If you want to code for the web, you need a solid understanding of JavaScript, and this course is perfect. Take the course to start learning today!

Create Your Own Color Font

In case you haven’t heard the news yet, color fonts are shaping up to be one of the hottest design trends of 2018. This tutorial teaches you how to create your very own color font using the latest version of Adobe Illustrator and the powerful Fontself extension. So why not learn this important new design skill?

Learn Gravit Designer

Speaking of new skills, have you tried Gravit Designer yet? It’s a completely free vector application that was launched earlier this year. It’s available in the browser as well as on Linux, Mac, ChromeOS and Windows, making it arguably the most accessible application of its type in the world. Learn how to use it in this thorough introductory course.

Build a Slack Bot With Python

If you do any kind of online collaboration, you’ve probably come across Slack. It’s used by over 50,000 companies—and yep, Envato is one of those. This tutorial shows you the code and takes you through all the steps to build your own unique integration with Slack, using Python for the logic. Learn the steps here.

Master PowerPoint Templates

We all know that a presentation looks smarter and more coherent when we use a well-designed template, don’t we? But getting the most out of a PowerPoint template is another story. This in-depth video course shows you how to create a polished presentation from start to finish, using the popular X Note template as an example. So take the course and move your presentations to the next level.

Speed Up Your Design Process With Studio

More new design software for you to learn. Studio is a free online UI design tool, ideal for web designers or anyone else designing for digital products. Watch the video to get up to speed with Studio quickly and easily.

Stabilise Your Video Footage

Have you ever taken some great video footage, only to find that it is too shaky to be usable? Unless you use a tripod or have the steady hands of a neurosurgeon, the answer is probably yes. Luckily, Apple’s Final Cut Pro X has stabilization processing built in. Find out how to stabilise your video footage in this video tutorial.

Understand Basic Typography

Any designer will tell you that typography is crucial to good design. From company brands to newspaper headlines to advertisements to websites, you can see the power of typography in action everywhere. But, like any specialised field, typography has its own vocabulary, which can be confusing for beginners. Watch this 60-second typography video to learn how to tell your counters from your spines and your stems from your shoulders.

Type International Characters More Quickly

If you often switch between different languages (or if you just enjoy using words like “smörgåsbord”), you’ve probably encountered the annoying situation of taking ages to type a letter with an accent that’s not included on your standard keyboard. On a Mac, of course, you can hold down the key and see a range of common accents, but that can still take a while. There’s a better way, involving automation apps. Learn the shortcuts here.

Design Icons With Adobe XD

In the wake of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all of the associated consumer frenzy, you may well be sick of 2 for 1 deals. But this course offers genuine value, by allowing you both to brush up your icon design skills and to learn Adobe XD at the same time. Take the course to get instructions on using Adobe XD to design a range of useful icons.

Learn to Code Securely in Swift 4

If you want to create apps for Apple devices from watches to iPhones, Swift is the programming language to use. With version 4 only released a few months ago, now is the perfect time to get up to speed with secure coding in Swift 4. Read the in-depth tutorial to learn about concurrency, race conditions, Grand Central Dispatch, and more.

Master PHP

Take a look at your favourite website. There’s a good chance that it was built with PHP. This powerful programming language created a big proportion of the web, and it’s easy to learn and easy to use for writing web applications. In this comprehensive, seven-hour video course, you’ll learn all the fundamentals of PHP, from the basics of using variables and writing loops and functions up to coding classes for simple object-oriented programming (OOP). Along the way, you’ll learn all the most important skills for writing apps for the web. Take the course to get started building your own web applications.

Create an Inspirational Photo Grid for Instagram

You’ve probably seen them before—those grids of beautiful photos, often accompanied by an inspirational message. This tutorial shows you how to create them yourself, either in Photoshop or with a simple grid-building app. It’s quite easy, and the results can be impressive. So why not give it a try?

Draw a Mandala

This tutorial hits the trifecta—you can learn a new skill, explore your creativity, and relax at the same time! What’s not to like? Drawing a mandala can be very therapeutic, and although it looks complex, it’s actually quite simple to do. So learn all the steps and start sharpening your drawing skills while relaxing your mind.

Use Gulp to Speed Up Your Web Design Work

If you’re a web designer, you’ll want to learn about Gulp, a simple JavaScript task runner that can really speed up your work and save you a lot of time. Take this in-depth course to discover what Gulp is, how it works, and how you can set up some super-efficient workflows for handling CSS files, JavaScript files, images, and more.

Pay Tribute to a Hitchcock Classic

I love old movie posters from the 1950s and 60s. The tools available to designers back then were so much simpler, but there were no limits to their creativity, and some of the results were just fantastic. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a movie poster paying tribute to the classic Vertigo poster designed by Saul Bass. You’ll learn a lot about Adobe InDesign along the way, while also doing some Photoshop and Illustrator work. So get started on this wonderful project, and upload your own version in the comments for others to take a look at.

Confront the Command Line

If you use a Mac, you’ve probably come across the “Terminal” icon, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably ignored it. But the Terminal gives you unfettered access to the deeper reaches of your Mac via the command line (if you remember MS-DOS, think of that classic C:\> prompt and the commands you used to enter). You can do some pretty useful things that just aren’t possible with the usual graphic interface (such as “caffeinating” your Mac). So take this beginners’ tutorial to discover some nifty examples and get started using the command line.

Design a Landing Page With Adobe XD

It’s still quite early days for Adobe XD, Adobe’s user experience design software, which only came out of beta a few weeks ago. So why not be one of the early adopters? This course shows you how to use Adobe XD to wireframe and design a landing page from start to finish. Take the course and build your skills in this useful application.

Create a Spirit Day Text Effect

Envato Tuts+ ran quite a few tutorials and articles last month to mark Spirit Day. Although the day has now passed, this tutorial will still teach you some useful skills for creating text effects in Adobe Illustrator. Plus you’ll be prepared for next year’s event, which will probably come around again sooner than you expect! Find out how to create the effect.

Childproof Your iPad

Those newspaper stories about kids running up huge credit-card bills on their parents’ iPads are fun, aren’t they? But they’re probably not so much fun for the parents involved. If you have kids or know someone who has kids, there’s a high chance that your beloved iPad will fall into their hands one day. So take this tutorial and find out how to protect your iPad from damage (both internal and external), as well as protecting kids from coming across bad stuff on the internet.

Learn the Kotlin Programming Language

Kotlin is a new programming language for coding Android apps, and it’s way more concise and secure than traditional languages like Java. This course teaches you everything you need to know to get started coding in Kotlin, from the basics of getting set up and writing your first code right through to advanced features like lambdas, higher-order functions, and using Java and Kotlin together in the same app. Take the course and add a powerful new language to your toolkit.

Learn Creative Typography

Think of creative designs, and maybe you think of a creative use of images, shapes, and colour. But you can do a lot with plain old letters, and this course shows you how. You get to play with typography and develop your creativity as you create a concept-driven typographic artwork. Take the course to give your creativity a boost this month.

Turn Your Cat Into a Zombie

Yes, Halloween is coming around again, and that can mean only one thing: it’s time to turn your cat into a zombie. In fact, this tutorial shows you how to turn any portrait, whether human or animal, into a terrifying, dead-eyed, blood-spattered zombie. Even if you hate Halloween as much as I do, you’ll still pick up some useful Photoshop techniques in this one. So take the zombie-making tutorial and see how it’s done.

Beef Up Your WordPress Security

If, like me, you run a WordPress site, you probably alternate between feeling good about the number of websites that use your chosen platform (currently 28% of the web and rising) and feeling worried about the constant security threats. Take this short course to learn the key steps you should take to make your WordPress site much more secure.

Create an Android App That Recognizes Images

OK, the simple app created here doesn’t look as good as the zombie cat, does it? Fair enough. But once you’ve learned the skill of incorporating image recognition into an Android app, there are so many possibilities for more complex apps. This tutorial shows you how to use machine learning to recognize the content of images with the IBM Watson Visual Recognition service. Get the step-by-step instructions and code samples here.

Draw a Monkey

Drawing tutorials can be frustrating—they sometimes seem to be written for people who already know how to draw. But this tutorial is truly for beginners, and it breaks the whole process down into simple shapes like ovals, curves, and crosses. It’s a great way of learning to draw, and it may just help you see the structures behind objects so that you can draw things other than monkeys. Read the full instructions.

Optimize Your Website Without AMP

Google’s AMP is awesome! It’s a great way of optimizing your website with simple plug-and-play code. Why would you want to optimize a site without it? Well, actually there are several reasons, and you’ll learn more about them in this course. You’ll also learn exactly how to convert an existing AMP-based site to use non-AMP equivalents, helping you to make your site blazing fast while keeping total control. Take the course to find out more.

Make a Professional Business Card in 10 Steps

Lots of people just use generic business cards, but if you really want to make an impression, it’s much better to do it yourself. You get a chance to showcase your creativity while ensuring your business card sticks out from the crowd. It doesn’t have to be complicated either—this tutorial shows you how to create a great-looking business card from scratch in Adobe InDesign in just ten steps. Find out how.

Create a Job Board Website With WordPress

A job board is a great type of website to build for any industry or niche—it allows you to provide really useful information (everybody likes to be able to find job opportunities), and your traffic and referrals can grow fast. This tutorial shows you how to create one using a WordPress theme and some simple customisation, with no coding skills required. Start creating your job board website here.

Use Swift Design Patterns

In the world of coding, design patterns are incredibly useful ways of solving common problems that arise in development. But they can be abstract and hard to grasp for beginners, and you can end up struggling to tell your factory from your facade. This comprehensive, 24-video, 3.5-hour course will set it all straight, with detailed explanations and examples of how each pattern can be used in the Swift programming language. Take the course here.

Create a Plastic Jelly Style

Wait, doesn’t that style look a bit dated? More 2007 than 2017? Yes, well spotted! This last tutorial is a bit of a nostalgia trip. Tuts+ turned 10 years old in September, and to celebrate, we decided to recreate the very first tutorial on the site, by Envato founder Collis Ta’eed, but this time using up-to-date techniques in the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite. So step back in time with us, and start making plastic jelly like it’s 2007!

Create an Android Instant App Feature

If you’re not up to speed with Android’s new Instant Apps feature yet, this tutorial is ideal for you. Instant Apps let people load entire sections of your app on demand, just by tapping a URL and without having to download the full app. This gives you a great opportunity to get your app in front of as many new users as possible. Learn how to create an Android instant app feature here.

Create a Modern Business Card Using Adobe Photoshop

Yes, we do live in a world of social media and online connections, but a good printed business card is still as important to today’s freelancer or business owner as it was to Don Draper in Mad Men. Learn how to create your own professional business card design in this step-by-step Photoshop tutorial.

Use Linux for Web Design

If you’re a web designer, your choices are not limited to macOS or Windows. You can also work very effectively in Linux, and in fact there are some real advantages to doing so. Take the course to find out all about using Linux for web design.

Improve Your Email Open Rates

No matter what kind of work you do, I’m willing to bet that you send emails, and that you want people to open them. This tutorial shows you 10 simple steps you can take to improve your email open rates. Who knew that the way you capitalise your subject line can make more people open the email? I didn’t, but the data suggests it’s true. Read the tutorial to discover all 10 email tips.

Create an AI-Powered Chatbot

Artificial intelligence is here—and I’m not talking about those dumb social media algorithms that collect masses of data on you and yet still can’t arrange your feed in the right order. I’m talking about chatbots that can hold increasingly realistic conversations with us. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a simple conversational chatbot using the IBM Watson Conversation service. The best part, for me, is the way it serves up inspirational quotes. Get the step-by-step instructions here.

Learn About HDR Photography in 60 Seconds

Sometimes you just don’t have a lot of time to spend learning something new. But everyone can spare a minute, can’t they? That’s the idea behind the Tuts+ 60-second videos—you learn a new skill or technique in just one minute. In this one, you’ll get an introduction to HDR photography. Watch the 60-second video here.

Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation

What do you get if you take a photo of the sky, put it in Photoshop, and add photos of a cat, a wall, some trees and a bunch of fish on top? The result, for most of us, will be an amateurish mess. But with the techniques covered in this tutorial, you’ll get the bizarre, impossible and yet weirdly realistic scene shown above. Click here to learn how it’s done.

Learn React Through 5 Practical Examples

React is one of the most popular web frameworks, and if you want to learn to use it, what better way than through some practical examples? In this course, you’ll build a digital clock, an Ajax-powered navbar and more, and in the process you’ll learn all the basics of coding React components from JSX and managing state right through to higher-order components and lifecycle methods. Sign up for the course.

Understand How the WordPress Loop Works

If you’ve been working with WordPress for any length of time, you’ve probably heard about the Loop. But do you really understand what it is and how to use it? This short, ten-minute Coffee Break Course will get you fully up to speed. Start learning about the WordPress Loop.

Create Your Own Stress Cave

It’s great to learn new technologies and computer skills, but it’s no use having these skills if you’re too unproductive to use them. In a busy work day, it’s easy to get derailed by stress and its close companion, procrastination. So read this quick productivity tip to learn how to take a step back into the stress cave and take some simple steps to help you see the right way forward.

Create a Haunting Photo Manipulation

Photo manipulation is a wonderful way to create whole new worlds from your imagination, without needing to draw or paint anything yourself. In this tutorial, you learn how to take seven different photos and blend them together into one weirdly haunting scene. Get the step-by-step instructions here.

Animate Icons!

Sometimes good design is eye-catching, but other times it’s almost unnoticeable. A well-designed icon may not win any great plaudits, but it’s one of the little details that adds up to a better user experience for your website, app, game, presentation, etc. So why not take things to the next level by adding animation. Take the short video-based course for full instructions on creating icons in Adobe Illustrator and then animating them in After Effects.

Draw Hair in 4 Different Styles

Did you know that the average human head has about 100,000 individual hairs? What that means is that if you want to draw someone’s hair, you can’t draw separate lines for each strand—you need to learn some tricks to create the illusion of 100,000 hairs while using far fewer lines. Take this drawing tutorial to see how it’s done.

Get Up and Running With Sketch

Most of these design tutorials and courses use Adobe software because it’s so popular and offers so many features. But Adobe is not the only game in town. Take this comprehensive, 17-part video course to get up and running with Sketch, a powerful digital design application that’s great for icon design, web design, and more.

Learn the Quick Way to Create Professional Logos

Have you ever had one of those annoying clients who demands double the work in half the time? Of course you have. Here’s a trick for icon designers: have a few flexible logo kits ready to customise so that you can meet even the tightest deadline. Take this short course to learn how to create the three building blocks of a successful logo kit.

Paint “Love” in Sign Language

OK, I’ll be honest—I’m mostly just including this one because I love the end result. But it does also teach some really useful digital painting skills. Look at the dramatic lighting and the realistic textures of each hand; those are some techniques you could use in a wide variety of projects. See how to create this painting from scratch.

Make an Animated GIF

Whether you love them or hate them, animated GIFs are all over the web. This tutorial shows you an easy method of putting together an animated GIF in Adobe Photoshop. The example is of a wolf’s glowing eyes, but feel free to use the same techniques for laughing dogs, weird celebrity mashups, or whatever your heart desires. Start animating your GIFs here.

Go Back to the Nineties

The 1990s are popular again! Who knew? As far as I remember, the 1990s weren’t even popular in the 1990s. But if those headache-inducing colours and shouting fonts give you a flood of happy nostalgia, this is your chance to step back in time to the days of oversized cargo pants, overused fluorescent colours, and Hootie & the Blowfish. (Oh, and you can also learn some useful flyer design skills in Adobe InDesign.) Enter the time machine here.

Send a Ransom Note

Well, no—don’t actually send a ransom note, OK? That would be creepy. But this tutorial does teach some useful skills to help you manipulate fonts and work with shapes and textures in Photoshop to create a realistic text effect. Take the tutorial to learn how it works.

Create a Realistic Mockup

If you’ve ever worked in product or packaging design, you know the importance of a good mockup. Clients often struggle to see the potential of a design until you show them how it will look in the real world. This final tutorial in our list teaches you to create your own wine-bottle mockup from scratch in Photoshop. Along the way, you’ll learn how to manipulate photos, create realistic shadows and reflections, add lighting, and more. Ready to get started? Click here for the full instructions.

Publish Facebook Instant Articles

OK, it’s true that Facebook’s “Instant Articles” feature has been controversial, and you may not love the idea of having your content living on Facebook’s platform instead of your own. But the advantage is that readers get to access your articles at a lightning-fast speed, and your content fits in seamlessly with the Facebook app, making for a great user experience. And whereas at first it was only for large publishers, now it’s available for all of us. Get a step-by-step guide to publishing Instant Articles in this tutorial.

Master Affinity Designer

Just when Adobe seemed to have the vector design market locked down, along came Affinity Designer a couple of years ago, winning a whole host of new admirers among web designers and graphic designers. If you haven’t tried it yet, this course is a perfect way to find out what all the fuss is about. You’ll learn Affinity Designer from the ground up—and the course was recently updated to cover new features like artboards, constraints, symbols, and some powerful new typography tools.

Use Style Guides for Accessibility

Keeping your skills current is not just about learning new technologies. It’s also about important concepts like accessibility. Making your sites accessible to as many people as possible is not just the right thing to do; it also makes business sense. You work hard to attract visitors, so why turn some of them away because you’ve failed to make the simple changes that would allow them to view your site? I like this quick tutorial because it shows you how to create a style guide for accessibility, while also introducing you to some important accessibility concepts and techniques along the way.

Build an Onboarding Tour Using JavaScript

I don’t much like the word “onboarding”, but I do love those interactive tours that pop up when you visit a new site or app, showing you how everything works with simple boxes that you can click through (or click out of) at your own pace. This short course shows you how to build your own tour from scratch, using HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript.

Design Better Logos

Logo design is one of those things that may well be handled by a specialist graphic designer, but it’s always a useful skill for a web designer to possess. You’ll also get a useful rundown of the major tools, panels and features in Adobe Illustrator, which will be useful for other design tasks beyond logos.

Manipulate Colors in JavaScript

It’s good to learn new skills, but it’s even better to build something useful. This screencast ticks both of those boxes. Take a look at the demo—a neat little tool that lets you select a starting color and have a tasteful color scheme generated for you. You’ll learn how to create that yourself, using the Chroma.js library.

Get Hands-On Practice With the CSS Flexbox Model

Flexbox is a relatively new layout mode in CSS3, and as the name suggests, it can give you some wonderful flexibility in your page layouts. This popular course lets you get your hands dirty by tackling six projects designed to help you learn Flexbox thoroughly. And now it’s been updated with two more bonus projects on modals and sliders, so it’s an even better way of getting up to speed.

Work Better With Other People

No matter how well you know the ins and outs of CSS, the reality of working as a web designer is that you’ll have to deal with other human beings at some point, and that’s when things can get so complicated that you end up yearning for the comfort of your code editor. This tutorial looks at some useful ways to get the content of a website prioritized among multiple members of a team with the least fuss.

Build Forms With CSS Grid

Yes, I know. Forms are not the most exciting topic in the world, are they? But the attraction of this tutorial is not the forms, but the way you create them—using the CSS Grid Layout Module, another quite recent addition to the web designer’s arsenal. It shows you how to create a form the “traditional” way, using floats, and then how to achieve the same end result using CSS Grid.

Get a Refresher on the Basics

With so much new stuff to learn, sometimes it’s valuable to go back to basics and make sure you’ve still got a solid grasp of the essentials. Or maybe you’re just getting started and want to avoid some of the most common mistakes. Either way, these 10 simple design pointers from Tuts+ Web Design Editor Ian Yates will help you make sure you’re on the right track.

Keep Your Mac Efficient and Well Maintained

Have you ever taken your Mac to an Apple store and seen the “genius” running a diagnostic test on your computer? This post shows you how to run that test yourself and interpret the results, as well as checking the health of your hard drive—all without the help of a lanyard-wearing hipster genius.

Design a Vintage Music Festival Flyer

Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is just around the corner, and festival season will soon be in full swing. I love the summer colours and the vintage VW campervan in this design—but more importantly, the tutorial teaches you some great skills in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’re shivering in the southern hemisphere right now, just think of this one as forward planning.

Add MailChimp Signup to Your WordPress Site

Some Tuts+ courses are several hours long and cover lots of ground, but this one is very short (just six minutes) and very simple. It teaches you something that sounds straightforward but can cause headaches if it’s not done right—how to add a MailChimp signup form to your WordPress site. In six minutes, you can get your site fully set up to start gathering email subscribers. Not bad, huh?

Know When to Fly Your Drone

I love watching aerial video footage. There’s something so calming and majestic about seeing the world from the perspective of a bird. In this video tutorial, you can learn about the best times of day to fly your drone for filming purposes (and in a companion tutorial, you can learn about the pros and cons of different weather conditions). I’m sure it’s all useful information, but I like the tutorials purely for the eye candy.

Make an Explainer Video

Have you noticed that explainer videos are everywhere? And they all have the same annoyingly cheery music? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to put together a good explainer video for your company or personal site. My one gripe is that it’s a written tutorial—being a fan of recursion, I’d have preferred an explainer video on how to make explainer videos. But it’s still a good post. Check it out.

Convert a Photo Into a Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal drawings look amazing, but creating them involves both getting your hands dirty and spending years on the painstaking and often frustrating process of learning to draw. This video shows you how to skip both of these steps and just create a cool charcoal drawing from any photo with a simple Photoshop action.

Create a Split-Screen Slider With JavaScript

I love the split-screen effect here—as you drag your mouse across an image, a line splits the screen and it changes from colour to duotone. Try the demo at the top of the tutorial to see how it works! Then you can learn the process of creating it, with both a screencast and written instructions to make it easy to understand.

Design Buttons, Textures and Icons for Video Games

The thing about what video-game designers call “UI assets” (and the rest of us call “buttons, icons and stuff”) is that, if they’re designed well, you probably don’t even notice them. But if they look clunky, they can ruin the gaming experience. This course teaches you how to design them well. Plus the aesthetic reminds me of playing The Secret of Monkey Island as a child. Remember Guybrush Threepwood, anyone?

Record Vocals Like a Professional

Want to be the next Lana Del Rey or Justin Bieber? Or maybe you even have some more up-to-date cultural references. In any case, this tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to record professional vocals using just your computer and some simple equipment. Then you’ll be well on your way to YouTube stardom—all you need to do next is….

Make a YouTube Banner

Even with the most professionally recorded vocals, some of your potential fans may be put off if your YouTube banner looks as if it was designed by a hyperactive child with unsupervised access to Microsoft Paint. This tutorial teaches you to put together a simple banner for a YouTube channel using stock images and basic tools in Adobe Photoshop.

Draw a Skull

Macabre? Perhaps. But what I like about this tutorial is that you can produce a great end result even if you have zero drawing skill (yes, that would be me!). Monika Zagrobelna breaks the whole process down into such simple steps that you really can’t go wrong. If you can draw lines and circles and have access to a pencil, you can draw a convincing human skull.

Tell Your “em” From Your “rem”

If you’ve even dabbled in web design, you’ve probably come across the “em” and “rem” units of measurement. But what are they? What’s the difference, and when might you want to use each one? This one-hour course will get you crystal clear.

Solve Android’s Most Common Error Messages

Stumped by a ClassCastException? Tearing your hair out over a missing R.layout.main? Wondering who in Android-land thought that “Only the Original Thread That Created a View Hierarchy Can Touch Its Views” would be a helpful error message to give to human beings? This article demystifies 13 of the most common error messages to plague Android developers.

Hit Inbox Zero

I’ve saved the best for last. While we may love to be able to draw, paint, create apps or become a YouTube star, I think a lot of us would settle for an empty email inbox. This tutorial will teach you how to reach the “You have no messages” promised land. You can also grab a free eBook for more detailed email mastery tips.

There’s More…

This post has just skimmed the surface of what Tuts+ has published recently, and in the full archives going back ten years, there’s even more. So if you don’t see what you’re looking for in this post, you can search the full Tuts+ library of more than 1,000 courses and 25,000 tutorials to find exactly what you need.

The post Master These Awesome New Skills in June 2018 appeared first on Envato.

WordPress is about to change in a really big way.

After many months of development and testing, the platform is making one of the most drastic shifts in its history. A shift that may frustrate many, but could make building a website a whole lot easier for a whole lot of people.

It’s called Gutenberg.

Classic WordPress

Originally, to create a WordPress website, and turn it into something that fit a brand, required a developer and designer, or for you to have some knowledge of code.

They’d need to create a theme, or buy one from a site like Envato and customize it.

And, in most cases, to customize it further, you’d need their help too.

Page Builders

This convoluted process opened the door to page builders, a category of plugin that makes editing WordPress websites, using a compatible theme, more visual.

Products like Visual Composer, and Elementor have made entire businesses off of making WordPress sites more easily customizable. They make composing a web page more visually interactive, and allow you to create entire sites, in some cases, with drag and drop functionality.

Page Builders provide you with what are called “blocks” in the side menu.

Each block represents an area of content, be it text, photos, video etc. You drag the chosen block into the main canvas, and from there you can customize its look, and functionality.

You can combine blocks, and even save them as templates that fit your customizations and ensure continuity. Or, if you prefer, you can style each individual block completely differently. Page Builders make this entirely possible, and super easy.

To achieve the same thing using the classic WordPress editor would require some development knowledge of complex shortcode. And even then, it can involve a lot of trial and error to ensure it appears on the final page the way you imagined.

Page Builders like Visual Composer and Elementor, allow you to see the results of your changes live as you’re making them.

As a result, these plugins have become, for millions of WordPress sites, a must have.

Which brings us to Gutenberg.

What is Gutenberg?

The next major update to WordPress will see the introduction of the Gutenberg editor.

It will see the usually stark backend with limited functionality, transformed into something resembling the page builders we’ve just talked about.

Pages will be broken up into content blocks that you can drag and drop into the canvas, edit their style and functionality, and watch your web page forming live before your eyes, with little to no coding required.

Want to change the font? You can do that and see the result straight away.

Want to change the an image, you can do that and see how it sits on your site instantaneously.

Inserting a video player, image gallery, buttons, or changing the color scheme will all be able to be done much easier; a positive change for the less technically savvy.

However, not everyone will be happy.

Some developers, and devotees to the classic WordPress editor, have already expressed their disinterest in what they see as a slightly dumbed down UI.

While extending the editor in WordPress’ previous standardized interface was complicated, the ability to easily extend the classic editor gave those users full control over their sites.

On top of that, there’s the fact that a lot of themes will not be compatible with Gutenberg when WordPress finally rolls out the new editor.

While this can be adjusted by theme creators, there’s a risk some less savvy customers may try to update to the Gutenberg edition of WordPress and mess up their site.

Plus, what does this mean for the business models of WordPress developers. If it’s easier for mere mortals to create and edit websites, will there be less of a dependency on them?

They’re all valid concerns.

Gutenberg is the biggest change to WordPress in over a decade. You’re never going to make a sweeping change like this and please everyone.

Plus, there are sure to be growing pains. The chances of the new editor working flawlessly from day one are virtually nil. Like any update like this, it will be a work in progress for much time to come, even after its release.

In preparation for the inevitable mix of confusion and outrage they’re expecting from some in the WordPress community, the core team have a plugin that replaces the Gutenberg editor with the classic one. And perhaps that’s something to consider doing until they’ve worked out the kinks.

But if WordPress are putting it all on the line to rollout an interface change as significant as this, you have to assume there’s a reason for it.

Offering a more visually interactive way to build websites, that brings WordPress’s functionality in line with other website builders like Squarespace and Wix, brings their offering up to date. And, hopefully, sets them up for a future where people might not even be building sites on computers anymore.

So, buckle up. Because change is coming.

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As you may be aware, music genres have a very defined style and feel. In this post, you’ll find music video fonts from Envato Elements for five of the most popular music genres (EDM, country, hip hop, pop, and rock). This can guide any aspiring artists out there who are just starting out their musical project and are looking for a style that conveys their message accurately.

EDM

Do you envision your music being played at a rave, festival, or club, while you’re surrounded by gigantic screens, pyrotechnics, and lasers? Then you’re probably dabbling in the realm of Electronic Dance Music (EDM, for short). This genre is mostly associated with bright colors, fun, and, of course, a highly integrated technological aspect. For those EDM-inclined musicians out there, here are a few music video fonts to use for your project:

Dreamscape

This font looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. It’s futuristic, elongated, and can work great with any modern EDM project that you may have going on.

Top Light Brush

With this next font, you can really get a sense of the fun aspect that EDM has. It’s even reminiscent of Martin Garrix-type music, with some graffiti inspiration and a ton of energy.

Aoki

OK, this font may seem a bit suspicious. After all, Steve Aoki is probably one of the biggest proponents of EDM. Still, when you take a look at this font’s clean lines and rounded aesthetic, you’ll get a sense of why it was chosen.

Karma

Remember those sunshades that were really popular a couple of years ago (especially within the EDM community)? This geometric, futuristic font evokes them, in keeping with the style that you’d expect from an EDM project.

Country

Does your music talk about very personal affairs that revolve around love, hate, tradition, life, death, bars, fights, horses, and one too many pick-up trucks? Are these lyrics accompanied by twangy vocals, a banjo, and a harmonica? While these descriptions can be a bit too stereotypical, country music regularly has one or more of these elements. If you identify with them, then country music is your thing, and have we got the fonts for you!

Bakersville

First stop: Bakersville. This hand-drawn typeface takes the viewer back to the Wild West, which makes it the perfect font for your musical project’s logo, designs, music videos, CD art, and more.

Premier Sans

Premier Sans can be used for a more indie-country musical project, as it has a fun twist on the typefaces used in ice cream parlors and old-time-y bars.

Lawless

Outlaws are common characters in country music, which is why ‘Lawless’ will go perfectly with your project.  Plus, its hand-drawn, 1800s Wild West look doesn’t hurt, either.

Gilly

And if what you want is a touch of the American Western, without it being too ‘in your face,’ and in a more flowy and refined look, then Gilly is the one for you.

Hip Hop

‘I said hip hop, the hippy, the hippy, to the hip, hip hop and you don’t stop.’ If you recognize these lyrics from The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’, then you know that hip hop is more than just a music genre; it is a complete subculture. As a result, it has one of the more defined styles out there, with graffiti (one of its basic elements) having a huge influence in its aesthetic and style. To prove it, here are some fonts for your hip hop music group:

Rander

And since graffiti has such a strong influence, we’re starting this list with ‘Radical,’ a freehand rough brush font with classic hip hop elements.

Haarlem Deco

The Bronx is hip hop’s birthplace, so it only makes sense to include Haarlem Deco in this list, since Harlem is a neighborhood south of the Bronx. Plus, this Art Deco typeface gives off a vintage vibe, ideal for the classy rappers out there.

Velociraptype

If what you want to convey is that you’re from the streets, Velociraptype may do the trick, as it has a cool and futuristic vibe that’s also reminiscent of graffiti tags.

Winsor

Winsor, on the other hand, is a Blackletter font that has strong lines and a more Gothic feel, which can still work with hip hop’s style.

Pop

Pop music is harder to define, as it’s eclectic and borrows from every other music genre out there. Still, you can say its main purpose is to appeal to the masses with a very specific and consistent musical formula. This extends to its aesthetic as well. It’s all about following trends, more than suggesting or challenging them. To keep this idea consistent with your music video fonts, or the typeface you use for any aspect of your pop music project, look through the following options:

Porta

If your pop music project has a creative and fun twist to it, Porta is the typeface to represent that, since it has a geometric, futuristic, balanced, and minimalist aesthetic.

Venge

If you’re into fashion and your music shows that, Venge will give you the thin, fashionable, pop-y style you want. All so you can be the most stylish pop star of the bunch!

Be Grateful

Pop music can also be elegant, classy, and almost ethereal. If yours is, a way to let people know that is through the ‘Be Grateful’ font, which you can use for your merchandise, logo, and more.

SF Kingston

This Serif Didone typeface flows with circular and triangular components that emphasize a modern yet vintage look and feel, which can go great with a similar pop music project.

Rock

Now, this entry may be a little bit controversial. There are myriad subgenres that fall under the ‘rock’ umbrella. Anything from black death metal to punk and shoegaze may be considered ‘rock’ to untrained ears. What makes this even more complicated is that each of these subgenres has a vastly different aesthetic and style. Still, let’s give it a shot, shall we? The following are a few examples of music video fonts for your rock band:

The Crow

Simply the name ‘The Crow’ can give you a pretty good idea of what this font is about: it’s grungy, dark, somehow dangerous and intense, but very intriguing.

Funkrocker

Even though this font’s name is ‘Funkrocker,’ it delivers some real punk vibes. It’s kind of messy, rough around the edges, urban, and very energetic; all things punk music should definitely be.

Dead Marine

Even though everybody can don tattoos, rock music has a special bond with them. ‘Dead Marine’ draws inspiration from vintage tattoos, which can go perfectly with your music project’s visual design.

Moody Blue

Last but not least, ‘Moody Blue’ is an edgy, mysterious, elegant, and fun font. Not only that, but depending on how you use it, it can have a dark or light feel to it.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve found this selection of music video fonts useful. There are plenty more options out there, so feel free to browse the full selection of thousands of premium fonts on Envato Elements.

The post The Top 20 Music Video Fonts for Your Music Project appeared first on Envato.

Welcome to the Envato Famous 5. Our look at 5 famous people or brands that have used Envato items. Today we show you items used by Conan O’Brien, Russell Brand, and more.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand is using Themefusion’s Avada, one of the most popular WordPress themes in the world, which we sell here on ThemeForest. He’s also using The Grid plugin from CodeCanyon for his layout. And, Custom Post Types and Taxonomies for Fusion Builder from CodeCanyon for the events portion of the site. It all adds up to this sleek, functional home for his events, podcasts, and bio.

We Are Still Here (Trailer)

We Are Still Here is a horror film that came out in 2015. And, in its trailer – which has been viewed over 2 million times – it’s using AudioJungle track, Dark Horror Trailer. It’s a pretty typical horror film set up: A house has spirits from 120 years ago reemerge. And they, well, you know, start killing people. It didn’t receive a huge release, but it does has a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so, it can’t be that bad.

Skyline Drive Caroline

YouTube channel LJWF. has used an AudioJungle track in this video following Skyline driver Caroline. As she races through the streets, and fills up her tank, Synthwave 80s by Nicolas_T plays. It’s a handsome match.

AMD

Processor company AMD have used an Envato track in this video discussing their work on the Ghost in the Shell video game based on the manga, and 2017 film starring Scarlett Johansson. It talks about converting some of the scenes from the film into a VR experience for the Oculus Rift. And, it uses Inspirational Dubstep by NIDRED in the background.

Conan O’Brien

And finally, Conan O’Brien has used an Envato item in one of his latest skits. While trying to play an audience participation game on his late night talk show, Conan, asking for facts about participants, notices a trend – they all seem to be part of the same sex cult. Realizing there’s no way any audience member that volunteers isn’t going to be part of this sex cult, Conan decides he’s going to join it. At which point a breaking news alert is shown on screen, using motion graphics from Envato. Breaking News Pack by 4xcrew pops up on screen, as it jumps into the news of Conan joining a sex cult, and members of the cult announcing they’re leaving it in disgust. It’s simple, it’s funny, and it’s using Envato.

And that’s the Famous 5 for this week.

All the items that popped up in today’s episode are linked in the video description.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and share this video.

And, we’ll see you next time on the Famous 5.

Video Credits

Host & Editor: Dom Hennequin

Logo: designercow

Music used:

Abstract Emotion by Fugu_Vibes

Perky Fun Retro 60s TV Theme by Starry_Music

Show Opener 7 by musicalsolutions

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Electro

Music can be the difference between an amazing video, and an average one. So, picking the right music is very important. In this series we’re calling, Now Playing, we’ll be taking a look at the best, and freshest tracks across a number of genres that are the best options to pair with your next video.

This week we’re taking you through stand out tracks in the Electro genre.

Rave Generation by LoopsLab

Looking to start a party with your video? Rave Generation has the pace, and excitement to get your audience on their feet. LoopsLab succeeds at perfecting the electro vibe often heard in clubs. This is great music for a Roman Atwood style vlog.

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Extreme by IMGsound

If your video is a fast moving, intense experience, extreme will be what you’re looking for. Its aggressive drumbeat drives the energy of the arrangement. And, the electronic lines that play on top take you on a real journey, coming in and out at different levels of intensity. It also offers you a few different cuts of the track to make looping easier, and suit various lengths of video.

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Summer Party by IntelligentMusic

Summer Party is an easy to listen to electro track. It’s bright, but never loud, and altogether a smooth sounding composition. The synth waves that flow through it resemble the sound of actual waves, creating that summery feel. And, the lead synth part is fun, and playful.

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Uplifting Tropical House by ParallelSounds

This smooth sounding track will conjure images of waves rolling onto the sand. Picture orange and pink skies as the sun sets, and cocktails being consumed by a crowd of people. It’s a great choice for a channel focused at young people.

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Energy Dubstep by AudioRocket

An exciting track, Energy Dubstep is an exercise in pacing, and layering. It begins in a muted fashion, raising the tension, as you feel it holding back, knowing it’s about to let loose. Then as the other synth layers, and samples come in, it hits a satisfying peak, before a well crafted ending. It’s crisp, and fun.

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Future Bass by Pavetraxx

This smooth, bouncy track will suit a variety of videos. Its chord progression is unique, helping it stand out from the pack. The little clicks, and sounds that are layered into it make it feel fresh. As do the powerful synth chords that drive it. The drums are crisp, and the lead synth has a sound that’s gooey and inviting.

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Electro by Audio_Wave

A smooth, low profile track that still has some drive, Electro by Audio_Wave has elements reminiscent of video games. It would be well suited to tech, gaming, or even sports videos. While it’s pretty pushy, it’s not agressive.

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That Future Bass by OddVision

OddVision have a reputation for producing some of the best Future Bass tracks around, and in this one they deliver. That Future Bass is a solid entrant to the popular genre, producing those desired builds, then drops that make this trendy sound so enticing. Excite your audience with an engaging track like this.

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Future Ambient by deepersound

Deepersound is another noted creator, in the area of cinematic electronic music. This one has moments that feel epic, and married with visuals like sweeping shots of a stunning location, would produce a breathtaking result. But, it’s also a great track if you’re trying to enhance a viewer’s focus on what the narration. It wouldn’t be out of place on a Deep Focus playlist you’d find on Spotify.

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Sport Trailer by LuLu_Production

With a great driving sound, this track by LuLu_Production offers something that will add intensity to your next video. As the title suggests, if your video centers around sport, fitness, or action, this will be a great track for you to check out.

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That Future Bass by Prigida

This track by Prigida is an exercise in restraint, and release. The experience is like that of a slingshot, pulling back to build anticipation, and then releasing that built up tension like an elastic. It’s fantastic for a fun video.

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Sport Summer Fashion Pop Dubstep by Infraction

You can imagine this track being used for everything from sports to fashion videos. But its warm chords, and interesting, if at times broody chord progression make it unique. The synth voice they’ve used for the main body chords is a little bit retro. And, it’s got many elements of a normal summer electro track, used in a slightly more complicated way. It stands out.

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Epic Sport & Aggressive Electro by BrainMire

Definitely suited to action oriented videos, this track by BrainMire is intense. If you’re producing something with the mood of Fast and the Furious, bingo, you’ve found the one.

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The Future Bass by AQUALIQUID

Another future bass track, this one by AQUALIQUID is very warm, and a delight to listen to. It’s a unique track that won’t stand out too much in a video, making it perfect for underscoring. And, it ticks all the boxes of a good future bass track: fresh, crispy, and smooth. Sounds like I’m describing an M&M or something, right?

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Across The Universe by Antracto

And, finally, this track by Antracto is a happy, epic one to finish on. With its fresh electro instrumentation, oozy layers of synth, and a drum track that sounds more acoustic than electronic, it finds a balance between being futuristic, and accessible. Its chosen chords are warm, and mostly bright. And, the subtle layers, like the claps on the snare beat, all add up to something fresh.

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Thanks for watching the first episode of Now Playing. We’ll be back next time with a look at the best Hip Hop stock music tracks to pair with your next video.

Video Credits

Host & Editor: Dom Hennequin

Video Backgrounds:

Retrowave Landscape River VJ Loop

Glowing Kaleida Loop Background

Psychedelic Striped Party Planet

Fluid Firework – VJ Loop Pack (3in1)

Liquid Metal 4K 01

4K Fly into Planetary Nebula

Space Planet

Cinematic Background Pack

Summer Palms Loop Background

Summer Love

Girona Old Town Drone Footage

Aerial Drone Footage of Ocean Waves on Sunset

Aerial View on Frozen Lake at Winter Forest Drone Footage

Drone Flight Chasing Cars In The City

Coach Training Girl in Boxing

Professional Boxing

Abstract

80s Retro Space Saturn V2

Hip Hop

Happy Jazzy Hip Hop by CoffeeMusic

Happy Jazzy Hip Hop by CoffeeMusic is a lot of fun. The track’s irreverent style will surely suit a whole slew of YouTube videos, ranging from vlogs to ads for trendy brands. I’d love to see this track paired with a montage of someone skating through New York as the sun sets. It’s very that.

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The Coffee Shop by COSMONKEY

This track is great background music. Good for silent montages, or underscoring for a lifestyle video. It’s very chilled out, and won’t draw much attention. Great for supporting the main content.

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Upbeat Hip-Hop by Watermello

Upbeat Hip-Hop by Watermello, on the other hand, makes quite an impression from the very beginning. It’s bright, carries a big energy, and quintessentially YouTubey. It fits very neatly into the style of music vloggers like Casey Neistat use.

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Hip-Hop Chill by BlockBeatz

Hip-Hop Chill is a little more sparse. There’s less going on in this track. And whatever movements, and developments take place, they’re very spaced out. It’s slower, more chilled out, and a better pairing with narration.

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Turn It Up by Trendsound

This track by Trendsound is cool with a capital ‘K’. Ok, I know that was very uncool. It’s a more aggressive style of hip hop that will certainly be awesome to some, and seem a bit intimidating to others, which is actually good for some brands. You might pair this with a montage of streetwear from a brand like Supreme, or maybe even for a scene in a TV show like Atlanta.

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The Trap by ArtIss

The Trap by Artlss falls into a similar category – it’s not going to be for everybody. But it nails the style it’s going for, and would definitely suit a video that has a lot of action in it. Everything from actual cinema, to ads for a gym would find use for this track.

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Upbeat Hip-Hop by TwoMountains

Upbeat Hip-Hop is uplifting. Its chords are bright, and its beat is exciting. The whole thing would pair well with a video on tech, fashion, lifestyle, travel, or something in that vein. Hearing this music with some fast, beautiful graphics, or vibrant shots of the city and its people would fully realize the vibe this track is establishing.

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Happy Jazzy Hip Hop by MusicByDuane

This track by MusicByDuana switches up the typical hip hop stock track by using a different instrument as the lead. While the beat is very much of the hip hop variety, the xylophone sounding lead part is unusual, and delightful. It makes the track a little more low profile than if the composer had used a more dominant instrument, making it perfect for a video.

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Aggressive Sport Hip-Hop by Radio_Brothers

Aggressive Sport Hip-Hop is incredibly commanding. Great for sports, and action videos, this one requires a certain level of intensity in the visuals to really work. It nails the bold cinematic style it’s going for.

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Technology Modern Uplifting and Orchestral Hip-Hop by StereoAnimals

With a hip hop beat, strings, and a popcorn sounding synth pattern, this track breaks a lot of conventions. Even the chord progression doesn’t quite go where you think it will. The result is surprisingly uplifting. It’s a fantastic track to pair with material that’s informative, and enlightening.

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Cinematic Abstract by KonstantinMart

This track feels epic, and combined with material that’s cinematic, it will produce quite an astounding result. The music feels almost emotional in its mood. It’s dramatic but uplifting.

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That Hip-Hop by 99Instrumentals

A real carefree track, That Hip-Hop by 99Instrumentals has a playful vibe that’ll make anyone smile. Put this together with some fun content, and you’ll turn whatever material you’re showing into something that feels engaging, and fresh.

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In Hip-Hop by Eleone

A low profile track, Hip-Hop by Eleone is the perfect underscore for someone wanting their video to feel fresh, while still having the music ultimately blend into the background.

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LA funk by cragkeys

LA funk sounds a little Jamaroque inspired. It’s funky, and really easy to listen to. It’s also simply orchestrated, and will work well under narration.

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Inspired Trip Hop by AlexandrFokshtein

And, finally, the trip hop genre has proven very successful on YouTube, and this one will be well suited to something cinematic. Travel vlogs, montages, things that are visually spectacular will pair well with this track by AlexandrFokshtein. And, if done right, it will lift your visuals into something special. That’s the potential of this track.

Get it now

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In May this year Envato passed another unique and significant milestone: 10 million registered users!

From authors earning a living doing what they love, to customers finding items that help them finish their creative projects faster, Envato’s community is full of people doing wonderful things each and every day around the world; from the Russian audio producer whose song was used by Volkswagen to the Canadian videographer featured in a Kanye West music video, there are people in more than 200 countries around the world doing creative things each and every day.

To mark the occasion, we spoke with Envato co-founder and CEO Collis Ta’eed to get his list of ten fun facts you may not know about the company.

 

1. Envato has an item downloaded or sold about every four seconds
   That adds up to more than 40 million sales from six million unique customers since the company was first founded in 2006.

    

2. Tuts+ has tutorials translated into more than 50 languages
   Fancy teaching yourself how to use a Photoshop plugin in Mandarin? Do you read German and want to level up some web design skills? You can do all that on Tuts+ and more, with more than 20,000 tutorials and courses now translated on site.

    

3. We have a women’s developer apprentice program
   The company has always been proud of its emphasis on diversity and inclusion, especially when it comes to hiring practices, and the new program is just another way Envato can support the local tech sector in this way.

    

4. There’s a jigsaw puzzle club in the Melbourne HQ
   At lunchtimes in the kitchen you’ll very often find a handful of people staring intently at hundreds of tiny coloured bits of cardboard.

    

5. The company has moved moved office six times in 12 years…
   …but we’ve made our home in the Melbourne CBD for the last four-and-a-half years, most recently in a former school which, before that, was a wine cellar!

    

6. Spanish is the second-most widely spoken language in our team
   More than 100 staff can speak Spanish fluently. We also have folks who are fluent in French, Danish, Hebrew, German, Russian and more!

    

7. One of our co-founders has now started a chocolate company
   Packets of Hey Tiger chocolate are now strewn all over Envato’s HQ and the place is buzzing (though that might be the sugar talking!)

    

8. Envato and Zomato are brand/domain names from the same place
   A moment of inspiration on Brand Bucket has become legendary around the office, but now we couldn’t imagine life under any other name.

    

9. Envato doesn’t mean anything but awesome in our eyes, however ‘vato’ means ‘dude’
   A discovery courtesy of our Spanish-speaking staff! A second fun fact: we have more people querying how to say “Tuts” than they do Envato. For the record, we think it sounds more like “TUHts” than “TEWts”!

    

10. Our company profits are shared annually with staff and charity
    While we’re excited to be in a position to say thank you to all of our staff who work hard to make our global creative community such a success, we’re also able to give back to causes that mean a lot to the people in our organisation. In 2018, this means that in addition to staff profit share, a further 1% of all profits will be dedicated to charity, and in previous years we’ve had the opportunity to support causes across themes as diverse as mental health, environmental protection, education, literacy and family violence.

 

 

The post Ten Things You Might Not Know About Envato appeared first on Envato.

Alt Title: How to Make Responsive Design Work for Your Business

Responsive design is a website design template that helps a site translate well on multiple platforms and display types. Many people check websites more frequently on their mobile devices than on their computers. Having a website that does not function well on multiple platforms can do significant damage to your business.

What Is Responsive Web Design?

The idea for responsive web design is that users should be able to effectively utilize a website from any platform. The design is created so that the website will respond and adapt to screen size, platform, and orientation. The process is made up of flexible grids and layouts, images, and expert use of CSS media queries.

The concept of responsive web design stems from the architectural idea of a room that can automatically expand or shrink using robotics and special materials, depending on how many people are in it. Responsive web design is supposed to be an online version of a self-adjusting room. It is revolutionizing web design with a whole new way of looking at online content.

Adjusting Screen Resolution

Many device settings allow you to automatically change the screen from horizontal to vertical. Ideally, the website will seamlessly adjust to the change in format. Additionally, many mobile device users do not maximize their browsers. This means that there are exponentially more screen sizes and resolutions that the website should be able to adjust to.

Part of the solution to screen resolution difficulties is flexibility. Flexible layouts are becoming more common. Currently, flexible layout allows images to adjust automatically with the platform and offers settings to prevent the layout of the website from breaking.

Fluid and elastic images and text have a massive impact on websites. Users can easily adjust the site to their liking and it will remain easy to read and use. If the image and logo of a site are resized incorrectly, the quality of the image may suffer and part of it could be cut off. The strategy is to divide the image in two and have one as the illustration in the background and one as the logo, resized proportionally.

Flexible Images

As mentioned above, flexible images are vital to web design. One of the biggest problems with current responsive web design is working with the images. There are multiple ways to attempt to work around images resizing incorrectly. One of them is the max-width rule. The maximum width of the image is set to 100% of the screen or browser’s size, connecting them in such a way that if the screen or browser changes size, the image will adjust and reduce accordingly.

Responsive Images

The responsive images technique focuses on resizing images to the size of the screen, so that they maintain high resolution and do not take up too much space on smaller devices and browsers. When the page loads, the large or small images are loaded as necessary to expedite load time.

iPhone Image Resizing

One of the great attributes of iPhones, iPads, and similar devices is that web designs have learned to shift seamlessly. Often, websites do not need to change to the mobile version to work on these devices, making them more user-friendly.

In some situations, the images still change sizes and reduce proportionally even though they were designed for the tiny screen. These adjustments often make text unreadable, even if the design was altered to cater to the smaller screen. This can be overridden with a meta tag so that images that fit the screen initially maintain their size and do not shrink.  

Custom Layout Structure

A custom layout structure is used when there is an extreme size change. There is one main style sheet that outlines the foundational qualities of the website. If the main sheet results in deformed text or images it can be detected, and a switch made to a child style sheet that copies everything from the default sheet and redefines the layout.

Media Queries

To apply specific styles to sheets, people apply media queries. The new CSS3 has introduced many new features for use in website design and in media queries. Multiple media queries can also be used on a single sheet to create a variety of adjustments.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a great option for devices that do not support all of the new CSS3 media query options. However, JavaScript also recently created a library that makes older browsers capable of supporting CSS3 media queries.

Showing or Hiding Content

Though it has become possible to shrink information and images to fit on smaller screens, sometimes it only serves to complicate the website and make it look messy. A better solution is often to pick and choose what content should be shown and what should be hidden. CSS has given designers the ability to show and hide content. It is even possible to replace pieces of content with navigation to the missing content, so that it can still be accessed. By providing navigation to the information that had to be hidden, the viewer can still access everything without being confronted by a disorganized and confusing screen in front of them.

Touchscreens and Cursors

With touchscreens rapidly taking over the screens on all but the largest devices, cursors may become a thing of the past. Many people assume that it is better to apply touchscreens to smaller devices, because a smaller screen does not warrant a cursor. However, touchscreens are now being installed on larger devices like laptops and desktops. They each come with different design guidelines and requirements, but neither is exceedingly difficult to create. Touchscreens do remove some of the functionality that comes with a cursor like the ability to hover, so the design process has to take that into account.

Qualities of Particularly Effective Responsive Web Designs

One of the greatest benefits of responsive web design is the ability of the screen layout to adjust to accommodate browser width. Instead of the components shrinking, they change position on the screen so that it remains readable.

Another effective quality of responsive web design is prioritizing information. Some websites, when resized, use the aforementioned strategy of cutting out non-essential information to their message.

Other websites organize their page into columns on regular computer screens. When opened on a smaller screen or resized, they reorganize the columns so that they can all fit on the page. However, at a certain page size, the website is designed to cut out information that is less important.

Responsive Web Design as a First Step

Responsive web design is a major improvement for the web design community. It has been beneficial to users and designers. However, it has not completely resolved issues that users have with visiting websites on various devices, or trying to view them the way they prefer. It has been developed to improve the experience. Perfecting the design remains an elusive goal. Responsive web design has opened the door to a more customized online environment, and each new customization is making websites easier to use and more pleasant to visit.

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