We are combining traditional, real-time, and cloud-based technologies to create a next generation feature animation pipeline

Spire Animation Studios

I will try to keep it brief, lest this become a book! (eh, publishers?)I hope this encourages others to share a “3-things…” post. It’s fun to introspect and accumulate learnings from your career. But first, a shiny picture of some films I’ve worked on! Why 3 things? It’s something asked us to do after each project at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Center. “List 3 things that worked, 3 things that didn’t and 3 things you’ll do differently next time”. I’m modifying Randy’s thought exercise a bit to bring you 3 things I learned per each job I’ve had in my career so far. Let’s begin. Randy Pausch Technology Electronic Arts / Maxis Software Engineer, 2005–2009 The Spore team hitting “First Internal Playable”. I am towards the top left. In 2005, I joined Maxis straight out of grad school at Carnegie Mellon to work on Will Wright’s game “Spore”. I was part of the core engine team. 1. Invest in your own tools My career has been about building tools for creative people. Tools for gamers to create their own universe (Spore), tools for professional artists to craft beautiful characters (Pixar), tools for education (Teal Labs) etc. Early on, I learned that the most important thing is to get your own tools right. Evaluate and improve your workflow constantly. Huge thanks to for being an amazing mentor who showed me this and so much more. Which brings us to… @AndrewWillmott 2. Seek a good mentor, be a good mentor People who think deeply but communicate simply tend to be good mentors. Other kinds of mentors guide you through their work, instead of their words. Regardless of their style, good mentors make all the difference. While receiving mentorship is key early on, paying it back by guiding others is equally rewarding later in your career. 3. “When it’s ready” is the best deadline I learned a lot from the production cycle of Spore because we got one half of the product right and the other half wrong. The Creature Editor in Spore is a great example of investing tremendously in a product till it’s ready. The game part of Spore, however, was presented too early (and too well). Then, the longer we took to finish it, the more deadline-oriented it got. Ultimately quality suffered. My : Deadlines should be kept simple — show something in private user tests every X weeks. Then focus on scope and quality and do a public beta leading up to product release. learning when it’s ready Pixar Animation Studios Shading Technical Director, 2009–2014 One of the many soft perks at Pixar. Oscar pictures with the directors! Mark Andrews (left) and Lee Unkrich (right) In 2009 I joined Pixar after a rather grueling interview process. I was put in charge of a 16 year old application, written in an obscure programming language. 50 artists hated it but used it as their primary tool to shade all the characters and sets on all the movies in production. No engineers wanted to work on this thing. Welcome to Pixar! 1. Document your journey Having a reasonable portfolio of work displayed on has opened doors for me time and again. My Pixar interviews went terribly. Most of the team didn’t think I had the chops for the job. But the leader of the engineering group — Bill Polson had seen my website. Apparently he was the only one who had. So he called everyone into a room, put the site up on the screen and said “This guy has done more computer graphics than a lot of you in this room combined” — he was exaggerating, but his point was well taken and I got a shot! A few months into the job, a number of folks came by and told me the story of how they had rejected me in interviews but were very glad to be wrong. Phew! my website 2. Eat your own dog food Don’t just sit in your own chair. Visit people in departments downstream or upstream from yours and try to do their job. If you become your client you will be able to deploy your vision as if it was the client’s idea all along. At Pixar, I was able to reform the entire shading pipeline across a period of 2 years while 50 artists used it daily without disruption. Like any good method actor I took it too far and eventually gave up my software engineer role to become a shading artist working on characters and sets using the tool I once maintained. 3. Do different things, don’t be afraid to start from zero I feel the most fulfilled when I’m learning tons of new stuff. Bill Polson once said to me — “If you’re going to work somewhere for 5 years, make sure it’s not the same year repeated 5 times”. I live by that. You don’t need to “be an artist” to make good art or “be a programmer” to develop great software. Put your ego away and try new things. I went from being a tools engineer to a character and sets artist at Pixar. The transitions were tough and not necessarily smart career moves but the personal growth was immense. I learned so many amazing things at Pixar that I could write a book. Luckily my hero and Pixar president Ed Catmull already did — Read . Creativity Inc Lumos Labs (Lumosity) Senior Software Engineer, 2014–2016 Lumos Labs is based in this historic San Francisco building. I took this picture on one of our daily bubble-tea breaks. In grad school, I co-founded the (EGP). We made 50 game prototypes in one semester and had the best time ever. I was always looking for a job version of the EGP. In 2014, I discovered Lumosity and immediately wanted to work there EGP-style. Experimental Gameplay Project 1. Separate makers from fakers This learning is for interviewers and managers trying to hire candidates that are a great fit. Lumos Labs sent me a design document and asked me to build a game using only HTML and JS. I had about 6–8 hours to do it. During in-person interviews I was asked to make lots of modifications to my game. They do similar tests for all the roles they hire for. Build something, then modify and defend it — so much more effective than typical interviews! 2. Challenge your ethos Lumosity prides itself on the scientific research they put into their games. I can tell you it’s not a marketing gimmick, though the . At Lumos they take the science stuff so seriously that we could barely get any games approved by the Science Team. This was a problem because our customers wanted more games, different kinds of games and were using the product to have fun. Whether games make you smart or not, the truth is people practice because it good to work out your brain. And in my opinion, by not providing lots of new stuff regularly, we lost a lot of players to the competition. Sometimes we make the mistake of implicitly following what has worked before and get too close to our ethos to challenge it. FTC thought so feels 3. The whole can be greater than sum of its parts To me, Lumosity’s greatest achievement is showing that a subscription based product made entirely out of mini-games can be a huge success. When a number of small projects serve a common theme they can really turn into something very deep and meaningful even if each project itself is relatively shallow. As a fan of quick and small projects, this gives me great hope. Teal Labs Chief Technology Officer, 2016 Getting mobbed by kids! I’ve always been very interested in educational technology. So I spent 2016 working closely with a K-12 school. My team and I deployed iPads for 350 students and 5o teachers, created custom apps and came away with tons of learnings about learning itself! 1. Surround yourself with your audience At Teal Labs I insisted that our office be inside the school we were working with. So we sat in a room behind the library where we welcomed invasions by kids during recess. I also made it compulsory for my team to take classes or co-teach at least once a week. This helped us make relevant and engaging products and improve upon them in a tight feedback loop. 2. Give students tools to produce content We invest so much in giving fantastic content to students on a plate. They eat it up voraciously, but it doesn’t translate into skills and knowledge. It just turns kids into content-addicts expecting easy content all the time. On the other hand, if a child is asked to research and teach a topic or create a report on it, the retention of learning is much higher. Teaching is the best learning, as they say. My Teal Labs experience taught me that educational technology should be about engaging tools for students to create, teach, perform and present. Then, as Will Wright would say, “get out of the way and watch them go!”. “Tools to produce content” is also the answer to — What role should VR/AR have in education? 3. Education and Entertainment are the same thing The best learning experiences are so fun, that you lose track of time. The best entertainment experiences are so transformative that you end up growing and learning something about yourself. Engagement is a key ingredient to both education and entertainment. In the classroom we found that engagement comes from meaningful social interactions with other students- discussions, performances, collaboration and competition. We built an asynchronous multiplayer game for 350 students. The game was about capturing territory in a common world by doing math problems. Each student collaborated with everyone in her class but competed with students from other classes. We saw 40x more participation in math as a result! Masala Games Director, Developer, Janitor, (side project since 2012, For reals in 2017) I have no idea what I’m doing, but it’s fun After being lulled by the sweet embrace of gainful employment for 12 years, I finally made the jump into full time independent development. I am making my own games right now because it’s my favorite thing to do and I want my kids to grow up and play 10 awesome things that their papa made. 1. Business is a crazy emotional roller-coaster Being your own boss is the best! There is nothing more exhilarating than people buying and appreciating a product that is all your own. But there is nothing more depressing than not being able to reach those people. My first game has 603,143 downloads (in 5 years) and I have cheered each one of them like I cheered Toy Story 3 winning an Oscar. My recent app , on the other hand, has only been downloaded a 100 times in its first 10 days and I feel like jumping off of a bridge :P Hopefully I can learn to trust the process and be cooler about the ups and downs. Word Mess Text Mess 2. Clearly define what risk and success mean to you You can succeed without any major risks if you plan smartly, execute patiently and course correct regularly. It comes down to how you calculate risk and define success. Success for me is financial independence and 100% ownership of my work. To me, risk is when uncertainty can’t be bounded within a small ok-to-fail region of tolerance. In other words, I don’t like risk :) That’s why I’ve patiently saved and learned for 12 years before venturing out on my own. What do risk and success mean to you? 3. Find a good bouncing wall You are too close to your work. Find a good bullshit detector who will tell you like it is. Ideally, they are also part of (or understand) your target audience. In my case, my wife usually plays this role. She is brutally honest (sometimes too brutal) about the stuff I make. Build a group of early-feedback providers like it’s . Pixar’s Brain Trust Handy cheat sheet of Shalin’s learnings Invest in your own tools Seek a good mentor, be a good mentor “When it’s ready” is the best deadline Document your journey Eat your own dog food Do different things, don’t be afraid to start from zero Separate makers from fakers Challenge your ethos The whole can be greater than sum of its parts Surround yourself with your audience Give students tools to produce content Education and Entertainment are the same thing Business is a crazy emotional roller-coaster Clearly define what risk and success mean to you Find a good bouncing wall There you have it! Learnings from a colorful decade or so of career. I am incredibly thankful to my mentors, coworkers and friends for this amazing journey. I hope #4 encourages you to make your own 3-things post. If you do, send it to me- Say hi: @ShalinShodhan Random picture of my boys and I rocking mutton chops

3 things I learned from 5 jobs in 12 years

I’ve been all over the map as a professional artist and creative: Walt Disney Feature Animation Background Painter. Illustrator. Fine art painter. Graphic Designer. Instructor. Filmmaker. Writer. This used to be of some concern because of the old saying: I’ve heard other unpleasant connotations as well; “Jack of all trades, master of none.” “He seems…unfocused.” “You should get a real job.” “Hello, McFly?” I’ve since let this stigma go. Maybe you need to let go too? Let me tell you why. I’m fortunate to have many world class professional friends & family (artists, authors, entertainers, filmmakers, speakers, musicians, educators, business men & women) who generally focus on one thing (and they do it well). I used to envy them because oftentimes I felt scattered, ill-defined and out-of-place, like the drunk uncle you see at family gatherings, “Hey c’mere, I have an idea.” The fact is, I like things. I can’t change that. My personality dictates doing & learning a variety of things. I feel like Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, many Enterprise_. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and..._so on. (To be read in the voice of William Shatner). “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship… By the way, I realize how nerdy this is. And an overstatement. But honestly, this is what life is about for me; to seek out a variety of ways to express my art & creativity — and to share it with others. I acknowledge the “renaissance man” whispers in my head, but this doesn’t seem practical in today’s world. To put it more succinctly, I can’t do the same thing, 24–7. I will go crazy. I’ve accepted that this is who I am, and meant to be. I feel more satisfaction being versatile. And I know I’m not alone. -Fransesco Petrarch “Sameness is the Mother of disgust, variety the cure.” -Coco Chanel “There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.” -Rebecca McKinsey “I’d rather be a little weird than all boring.” As a professional artist, the spice of my variety began at Walt Disney Feature Animation at the age of 24… Disney Background Artist Six months into my studio tenure, I became a Background Artist. IMDB As stated in the wonderful book “The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation” by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston, “He (the BG painter) must stage the character and support the action. That comes before anything else. His work may be dramatic, startling, powerful, or thrilling, but it still must be only a background for the action.” A background is comparable to a theater stage for the actors, complete with visual queues to set the location and mood with the story. Along with some wonderful and very talented people, I had the privilege of working on several traditionally animated films (The Lion King-1994, Pocahontas-1995, Mulan-1998, Lilo & Stitch-2002, Brother Bear-2003 & The Princess and the Frog-2009). Film Works Above from top: Lilo & Stitch background — watercolor. Middle: Princess & the Frog background — digital. Bottom: Mulan sequence 1.0 thumbnail board — acrylic. Above: Lilo & Stitch thumbnail board — Acrylic. Thumbnails and color keys are small painting studies (postage stamp size to 3x5 in.) produced quickly to set the mood, style and tone for the story. These help the Art Director and Directors see the environmental design and color of a given sequence or scene before committing to the final “on screen” background. It also sets the location and time of day. A good example of this was utilizing the spectacular geography of the Yukon and Alaska. Below is a color key. From this artwork comes a larger painted background, animated characters, voice-over, music, effects etc. Brother Bear, Color Key Thumbnail for “Brother Bear” Acrylic 1.5x3.5 in Final film version of this scene — Finland The beauty of Disney, from the very beginning with , is that every film was different stylistically. This really pushes the artists into uncharted territories and expands the toolbox. No easy task. Experiment-fail-learn-and repeat, until progress is made. Great life lesson. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Background styles: backgrounds were referred to as cartoon realism. The Lion King was very graphic & clean. Pocahontas was a “Pinocchio” style throwback using watercolor. Lilo & Stitch And emulated impressionism with the buttery flow of acrylic paint and loose brushwork. Brother Bear As I’ve become older and more introspective, I’ve inquired as to the deeper meaning: Why do I have such a strong yearning for variety? It donned on me one day when I was shopping for cake decorating tools…you know, to paint with. (More on this in another story). I said to myself, “yearning for variety is the acceptance of challenge.” So when I say I like variety as a creative, what I’m really saying is, “I like the challenge.” Something new to learn, change, different, unfamiliar, original, maybe even uncomfortable. I want to test myself. And if I can’t do it, I’ve learned that it doesn’t work — which is valuable too because I will no longer spend time and energy pursuing it, I may simply need to adjust my approach. I want to see if I can do it! this way Working in an animation studio like Disney forces you to embrace the challenge. The talent level is so high and the expectations are through the roof, on every film, that you have no choice but to the challenge. And I loved it. However, it was time to move on to another chapter in the story (next blog post — stay tuned). accept variety Captain’s Log: Star-date 12/26/18. Learning to accept variety and life’s many challenges has lifted the proverbial monkey off my back. I no longer judge myself by saying, “I shouldn’t do it this way.” I now go with the creative flow, for growth, knowledge and for the sheer spice of it. How about you? See you next blog. Kooser Studios

The Spice of My Variety (part 1)

What does a movie lover and gamer have in common? They always look for inspiration, they believe in a world beyond our reality, and obviously, they are super lazy; #LOL, just kidding. So we made a list of movies and games. The list includes the best movies in terms of their respective areas of filmmaking. These areas of expertise include storytelling, experience for the audience, the technology creators used, its ability to reach out to a massive community, and a surprising industry trend at the end. So, Press any button to Begin, and Let’s Play! The Lord of Rings: The Return of Epic Story Telling A good story can captivate your audience, but a great story makes them share it with their friends. A Cinematic experience will fall flat if there is no juice in the stories and script of a movie. Similarly, having a compelling story to tell in a game is a must. Write, draft, storyboard, just write your ideas, and You Shall Pass! 1. In-Depth Characters Often, you want to focus on characters that resonate with the audience's emotions just like a hobbit setting sail to stop a war between good and evil. The user needs to feel connected with your character, maybe a backstory, or an ultimate goal, but it needs to allow players to relate at a personal level. 2. The Leveling Arc Another aspect of stories that has a significant impact is the story arc. With every level of difficulty, your users need a ray of hope to keep going. Balance the difficulty and achievement really well to keep players coming back for more. 3. Wish I Could Stay in This World Last but not least, drafting an environment your users will explore. Whether it's the time, sky, grass, houses, or even a small house fly floating around in the game or movie, everything needs to be perfect and life-like. The audience should believe that they discovered a whole new world and never want to go back. Like in the movie, the fictional world of middle earth: the Shire, the lake town, ‘Rivendell’, misty mountains, and ‘Mordor.’ Render-Man: Across the UX-Verse , which is the motto of every game designer. The focus here is on design, interactivity, and small mechanics. Game developers and designers always try to understand the expectations of users to eventually exceed it. With top-notch creativity comes amazing user experience Ideation and Design A movie often uses dark gradients to achieve a tense tone, same goes for games and vibrant colors to captivate players. Both should have design elements and concepts that resonate with the message a creator wants to convey. For example, in Spider-Man, the color gradient of a movie slowly shifts to a darker tone. The colorless one of Gwen's background, the lightning colors of Miles' background, and lastly, the dark damping color to explain the bitter ending. Similarly in games too, designers often use various color scales to show the progression of the game. It may lead to better endings, a clear blue sky, and a flowerful field for joy, or it may have a grayish-blacking tone for boss fights in the rain. : Here is a list of colors paired with emotions for you Excitement, Passion, Energy, Danger Red - Calm, Trust, Serenity, Sadness Blue - Nature, Growth, Harmony, Renewal Green - Earthiness, Stability, Warmth, Reliability Brown - Modernity, Elegance, Futurism, Innovation Silver - Happiness, Optimism, Warmth, Attention Yellow - Royalty, Luxury, Creativity, Mystery Purple - Enthusiasm, Vitality, Playfulness, Energy Orange - Romance, Sweetness, Tenderness, Playfulness Pink - Mystery, Elegance, Power, Darkness Black - Purity, Simplicity, Cleanliness, Innocence White - Neutrality, Balance, Practicality, Boredom Gray - Wealth, Prosperity, Luxury, Achievement Gold - Interactivity Nowadays, movies are focusing on the audience more than ever before; this is due to the competition and the sudden rise of movie enthusiasts. We are seeing films that break the fourth wall or introduce crossovers to satisfy viewers' needs. Some movie makers tease clues to an open ending, like or narrate relatable content directly to the audience like Doing so increases the interactivity and establishes a communication channel between the audience and the content. In games, these tactics naturally preexist, and interactivity is at the highest level. So they play with micro-interactivity! Nolan, ‘FightClub.’ Micro-interactivity and animation are something that fascinates every gamer. Completing a puzzle to open the door or that story-based ‘Spacebar’ tap to defeat a big monster. Here is the list of the most trending micro-interactive features that game creators love to add. AI-generated NPCs with whom users interact, and on the basis of their choices, the next plot arc is fabricated. Audio-based content; footsteps in the dark and opera music chase in desserts. To elevate the cinematic experience for users, game creators are focusing on onboard video game composers. These small attention to details eventually increases the user experience for gamers, and the same goes for movie enthusiasts. Mechanics The elements used by movie makers to keep users hooked and entertained are all part of movie mechanics. It could be a small special effect, the way the script is written, or a particular animation style like in . Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse When it comes to game development, developers add unique mechanics. It leads to a memorable gaming experience for the gamers, and hence, a sudden rise in popularity. The three most trending gameplay mechanics are: Just like time flows differently in Nolan's movies, games allow users to manipulate time, unlocking a smart objective-taking mechanic. Game Play Innovation: If you watch each character provides you with a different perspective, giving the power of choice in the viewers’ hands. Gamer developers design their games in a similar fashion, but they dig a little deeper. A nonlinear, open-world, creator-mode gameplay allows the player to shape the world as per their choices. Player Agency: Rashomon, Providing multiple endings to play for will allow players to come back for more and enjoy the game to the fullest again. Replayability: It's a simple mechanic, but many game developers utilize this to explore their ideas which could elevate the game’s story but is not concerned with the main plot. Avatar: The Way of Modern Game Development Technology has helped games to achieve numerous milestones. It made the gaming industry a successful business investment for many enthusiasts around the world. With the help of modern game development technologies and tools, we are looking at a scaling revolution for the entertainment industry. Here are some overlooked benefits modern technologies offer when it comes to providing game development: There are plenty of ways to monetize a game nowadays. Cloud gaming, online multiplayer, and cross-platform gaming allow games to reach a wider audience. Dynamic Audie engine and Ray tracing for real immersion qualities in games. Streamlining development with the help of innovative tech. Removing toxicity and making a better gaming experience for future generations. The most widely utilized technologies are: : Used for Intelligence, Decision-Making, Streamlining development process, and Security in the gaming industry. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning For Security, Asset Ownership, Tradability, Transparency. Blockchain: It is widely used for Immersion, Augmented experience, its features, and massive multiplayer. Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality: , metaverse gaming Interaction and Data collection. Internet of Things: Marvel’s Avengers: The Community War Criticism, appreciation, support, and backlashes, if you are making a movie or a game, you should prepare yourself for every possible and unexpected outcome as a creator. The reason is both industries have the highest face value, and their demand increases with their massive community. In today’s world, they both are truly driven by their community. At some point, the influence of this massive community can even affect the final result. Also Read: All Marvel Movies Coming Out in 2023 Take the Marvel movie, Avengers: Endgame, for example. played by ., died in Endgam,e marking the end of the actor's contribution to the franchise. Ironman, Robert Dawney Jr But soon, the whole community went into an uproar, hence, decided to bring Robert back as a cameo in the new Spiderman movies. Marvel Studios In the gaming industry, similar cases were observed where the community did not agree with the end product, and gaming studios had to rework it. One classic example of this is Dota reworking overpowered heroes with every patch to balance the game. So, how do we prevent these community backlashes? Well, there is a way: Just like movie makers release teasers & trailers, game creators can leverage beta testing to perfect their game quality. Using data analytic tools to adapt the community choices, patterns, and behaviors. Be precocious of market requirements, and don’t let the toxic on you. Avengers assemble Consult an expert who is good with researching and innovating according to the demands of users and viewers. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Retro & Classics Some of us never let go of the past; it always stays with us. There is something special about those times in our hearts. Whether it's watching Christmas movies during the holidays or playing games during rainy afternoons. The coziness, the thrill, and the food hit differently when you can enjoy your favorite retro & classics your way. This feeling of nostalgia has a separate fanbase, therefore, a new trend in game genre has emerged just like in movies: “Reviewing the Retros.” Final Thoughts! Game development and movie making are both two ripe apples fallen from the same tree of creativity and entertainment. There are experts who can blend them both for spectacular results. So, if you are looking to make your unique game idea a trending reality, consult with a reliable game development studio for the optimum result. We saw how they both share so much in common, from community and character to technology and love for oldies. But the gaming industry takes the last stretch by the average engagement duration, huge cultural impact, better monetization model, and consistent scaling. So choose wisely, and thank you for reading! “I’ll be BACK!’

Cinematic Playground: Exploring the Fusion of Movies and Games

Build a Game Engine from Scratch in C++

Cree un motor de juego desde cero en C++

In today’s digital world, businesses have built a dependency on websites and applications. Be it a retail site for buying clothes, food ordering or almost anything you imagine, there’s a website or app for everything! Statista reports that the global reached almost 4.54 billion. Countries like China, India and the United States are the top countries in terms of . digital population as of 2020 internet users So, it’s clear that the potential to earn remarkable business revenue through the web is huge. Despite the growing number of website users, we can expect to see the rise of emerging technologies for web development such as AR continue to attract users. Do You Have A Unique Web Design Idea? So yes, as you have a unique website design idea to work on, there’s a high probability that you can gain sustainable business revenues through a website despite the heavy competition. This post is written precisely to help you with just that. If you’re a newbie and thinking of creating a website for your business, it can be a big challenge with so many different approaches to design a website. It’s really hard to say what will stand out in front of your target audience. Here are some website design ideas to start with and you’ll find the missing link to great website design. A web development company can help you design your first e-commerce website in the same way as stated here in the example. For all your web design and development queries, contact team to make your website unique, responsive, and user-friendly. Syncrasy Tech - PIM solution provider Clean & Modern Look Image Source: Mockplus.com This is one of the most common approaches for website design. This style of website, you can add minimalist layouts, intuitive navigation, clear fonts, and a flat aesthetic. This often feels like a more business design of a website, so if you’re doing business in the fields such as technology, e-commerce, education, or consulting, consider this approach. E-commerce Website Design Examples of 2020 Sierra Designs Sierra Designs website is a great example of a clean and modern look to take inspiration from. Their website has eye-catching details of professional photography with a clean aesthetic and responsive design. Molly Jogger Molly Jogger’s website is simple and unique. But it has a great website design that makes this website easy to browse and easy to navigate through, Helbak Helbak website design is a perfect fit for a small business with a simple and intuitive design. The products on their website are presented in a beautiful and clean manner. The website design makes use of the white space in the background and uses the color of the products to make them look like artistic products. Fun and Friendly Website Design Image Source: Blissworld.com Go with this design if you’re in the field of restaurants, food ordering, food products, travel vacations, or entertainment. You can add bright color palettes, playful illustrations, exciting fonts, and detailed infographics to your website to make it look more friendly to users. Businesses like to use this web design for a more immersive online experience. This web design also works for businesses in any industry that want to make their website look more approachable. Fun & Friendly Web Design Examples Poketo Poketo have added vibrant colors throughout their product options. You need to simply scroll down to see their box style patterns of product presentation. Grovemade Grovemade web design included lifestyle shots of their products. They look so beautiful for their wooden accessories. The composition of the photos looks great and adds fun & friendly feel too. Bliss Bliss web design idea is based on fun elements, as it’s an ecommerce store selling in-spa products. They have used bright colors, fun graphics and gifs to make their website look more friendly to users and let them explore, engage and buy. Vintage/Retro Style Website Design Image Source: SmashingHub.com Vintage style website design brings familiarity with your users. On this kind of website the user often feels so familiar and digital. You can use faded textures to your web design with old vintage style fonts, and skeuomorphs to evoke familiarity emotions. For reliability in your business, you can use vintage style design if you are a baker, photographer, or apparel brand that sells classic vintage style clothing, then this web design is a perfect fit for you that can give your customers a sense of reliability. Best Retro Websites Design Examples Tennessee vacation Tennessee Vacation web design was created for all lovers of the Tennessee state and nearby areas. The site design implementation in retro style is a great thing. New York Moon New York Moon website is full of retro design, illustrations in pastel tones. The vintage-style design of the website creates a sense of a past when people were reading the news. Magneti Marelli This website is telling the story of Magneti Marelli in twelve chapters in vintage style design. The website is created using retro graphics, animation, and vocal narration. Add Animation to Your Website Design Image Source: Mockplus.com Adding animation to website design can be a bit more costly to achieve. But adding animation can be a great way to create a memorable website experience. Adding some AR/VR technology movement to the image can also help draw people’s attention and make them more interested in your website. For example, a Spanish clothing retailer, they have used a mix of animation and AR/VR effects to display its clothing range on the web page that’s triggered by scrolling. Zara It adds something visually appealing to the user experience of the web page that will help draw the attention of users on brand products. But you have to be careful when choosing to use animation on your website as it supports the larger part of your branding message that you’re trying to communicate to visitors. Few Examples Teatr Lalka The web design can be a great inspiration for startups looking to add animation to their website. Moving your mouse triggers the puppets to swing on the web page. Pelizzari Studio A simple, responsive, and elegant web design that you’ll definitely love. On every click of the mouse, the page pops with its use of animation. The website design is simply fun to navigate. Spire This website has all sorts of animations and interactive 3D elements. The sliding text offers a more natural look to the web pages here. A Web Design that Works If you’re working on a new business website, we hope this guide can be useful for you as your starting point. According to your business category, get some new website design ideas from the corresponding points. By doing so, you’ll be making better connections with clients and customers from all across the internet. What’s the Right Design for Your Website? Providing a unique user experience is nice, but it should never be at the expense of your site creativity and web design. You can use to make sure you always make it clear what your business needs and what your visitors want from your brand and products. website builder tools ( : We at , a global IT solutions company and PIM solution provider have worked with various clients on various website design ideas for e-commerce businesses. Our 5 years of expertise in this domain has helped us gain deep insights into everything that works in the web development space. Get in touch with us for more information on website design ideas.) Disclaimer Syncrasy here

Web Design Ideas For Startups in 2020

Like a tsunami silently gathering far out at sea, a revolution is coming to the movie business. It will make the disruptions that rocked the book and music industries in recent years look tiny by comparison. In the book world, . In music land, but that’s all over. These days Big Music just waits for someone to explode on the internet before signing them to multi-million dollar contracts. self-publishing is eating the universe A&R guys once discovered the next big thing by stalking venues night after night Now two technologies are poised to upend the business of the silver screen in the same way but they’re ones you might not expect: Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and 3D game engines. Now hold on a second you’re thinking, GPUs already drive the movie industry. Big studios like . You’re right but I want you to cast your mind forward just a little further because someday soon those same effects won’t take months to render, they’ll take weeks. A few years later they’ll take days. And soon after that? They’ll do that same rendering in real-time. Pixar, Dreamworks and LucasFilms use massive banks of GPUs to create complex special effects and animation And that’s where the magic happens. To see why you have to take a little journey into the future with me. As a I spend a lot of time (navel) gazing into the mists of time, trying to figure out where all this is going. I don’t always get it right but I’ve maintained a that I’ve only had to update three times in the last twenty years for obvious misses. My short story “ ” saw the increasing anxiety over the rise of robots, automation and immigration back in 1998 before most folks were thinking about it. I love to look at technology and imagine what will happen if it keeps developing on a long enough timeline. sci-fi author thousand year timeline of future cultural, political and technological events In the Cracks of the Machine When it comes to GPUs I see them reaching the capability to render purely photo realistic graphics in real-time in the next decade, maybe even faster. When they do, it’ll unleash a flood of personal and indie films unlike everything we’ve ever seen. And it will be absolutely amazing. To know why, you just have to look at the costs of movie production. While P2P threatens the studios’ distribution hegemony, still remains a prohibitively expensive and involved process. It’s what Warren Buffet likes to call , something so costly that other companies can’t get into the game without insane levels of investment. PCs made it easy for any would be recording star to upload his music to SoundCloud and the Kindle made it simple for aspiring scribes to bypass the publishing industry choke point, but the movie industry remains largely immune to technological democratization. When it comes to building special effects laden summer blockbusters like The Avengers and Avatar . Even animated films like can cost a whopping $260 million dollars without a single set, costume or location scout. In the near term, those costs are only rising, making even one film a massive financial risk that can instantly kill a studio if it bombs with audiences. anyone? Can you really blame the industry suits for having little to no imagination or appetite for risk? making movies a moat the minimum barrier to entry is at least $200 million dollars Tangled John Carter But in the next decade, prices to make movies will plunge. The reason is because of the end of a long standing trend in gaming. If you’ve been gaming since the early 1990’s, than you’ve seen new leaps in visual fidelity every five years. Programmers like changed the way we played with every generation, adding new tricks and . I still remember early games like the first keeping me glued to my computer monitor in my dorm and now the game looks positively horrible by comparison to the that blur the boundaries between reality and fantasy. John Carmack better and better graphics Doom modern games But that leap in visual fidelity is coming to an end. . Instead of dozens of new engines crafted in-house by advanced programming teams to power the latest video games, only a few engines will remain. Once hardware and software reaches the point where it can render photo realistic images in real-time, everything changes. Now programming teams will license or use open source versions of those engines and craft visual programming tools on top of them. This will allow creative artists to utilize those tools to design any type of special effect rapidly and easily. Small clusters of computers will replace massive farms of exotically cooled machines. Advances in AI will allow animators to set actors in motion without ever having to waste time with actual people or people in funny looking suits. Not long after that the technology will advance to the point where artists will only need a few local computers or a little time on the cloud to bring their movies into reality. The cycle of new consoles launched every five years is already over motion capture Prices to make movies will drop drastically, breaking open the floodgates of creativity and allowing smaller teams to make movies on an epic scale. A film like Avatar will go from costing $237 million to $30 or $40 million if a studio uses big name actors. If they use unknown actors the price will drop to $10 to $20. Ten or twenty years later, with AI assistance, you might find a single artist creating a mind blowing movie in his garage without any actors or sets. This parallels what we’ve seen with self-driving cars recently. This year we saw a single kid develop a only a decade after it took for the DARPA Grand Challenge. When tech gets good enough it democratizes the creative process. self-driving car in his literal garage an entire team of researchers to make a car go seven miles in the open desert Not long ago, movie special effects artists struggled to create images that could fool people into thinking they were real. Movies like 2001’s while representing a huge leap forward, still fell headlong into the , causing revulsion in audiences. In other words, it came close enough to seem almost real, but not close enough to make people suspend disbelief and trust their eyes. In particular, rendering people realistically was nearly impossible. Hair, eyes and skin all looked terrible. In particular, the eyes, the windows to the soul, failed to convince people that what they were seeing was real. Eyes looked like dead fish on ice. But only eight years later, in 2009, Terminator Salvation turned back time and brought us . Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, uncanny valley a fully rendered young Arnold Schwarzenegger With the release of Star Wars: Rogue One comes the resurrection of Peter Cushing an actor who’s been dead for twenty years, the results so lifelike that it brought his former agent to tears . Reading about Cushing’s revival reminded me of the cyberpunk classic “ , where a young actress tries to make it in a Hollywood that doesn’t use real actors anymore. Instead they just license the rights to classic celebrities like Bogart and Bacall and make new movies entirely digitally. When I read it in the 90s it seemed very far away but today the algorithms to breath life into a digital human are already here. Now we just need the hardware to catch up with them because they’re computationally expensive. Remake” by Connie Willis All these developments will enable new kinds of films to come to market. It will create a flood of garbage, but it will also bring us brand new masterworks from unexpected places. Just as the changes in the book market have allowed for fiction that breaks out of strictly straitjacketed genre structures and arbitrarily imposed book lengths, movies will break out in similar ways. We’ll see small serialized films only a half hour long and epic four or five hour masterworks that need to be taken in shorter sessions on people’s home media walls. Novels that were too expensive to adapt to films will finally come to the silver screen. Smaller books that would never see the light of day will find a home with dedicated micro studios of people working in their spare time out of their houses. Open source visual artifacts will allow people to drag and drop whole scenes without ever understanding all the creative wizardry behind the scenes. Dropping people into exotic locals will no longer require actually traveling to those places. George R.R. Martin, author of the Game of Thrones, once talked about why he wrote the series on such an incredibly epic scale. He said that when he worked for the film industry budget always came into play. He would write a massive battle sequence only to have creative execs ask him if he could scale down the finale fight to a tiny scene between the hero and the villain. Oh and can you make it a knife fight instead of a giant tank battle? Because he was a professional he would do it, but it left him wanting just as it left many audiences wanting. When he set out to write Game of Thrones he was determined to make it “unfilmable” by throwing in everything he ever wanted to see, from sweeping battles to multiple points of view. Eventually the technology caught up with his vision. In the near future nothing will be unfilmable. I write my science fiction with all this in mind. My current series, , sees China explode in a Jasmine Revolution, hurling off the chains of communism to become the world’s first AI driven direct democracy. I weave in everything from epic mech battles to tiny nanotech wars with insectian micro-machines battling it out in people’s bloodstream. Today it’s unfilmable without a $200 or $300 million dollar price tag. Tomorrow? I’ll be connecting with visual artists to contract my indie epic the way I connect with audio recording artists on today for audio books. The Jasmine Wars Saga ACX When we can render the world in real-time then the only limitations on our creativity will be what we imagine. I can’t wait. A bit about me: I’m an author, engineer and serial entrepreneur. During the last two decades, I’ve covered a broad range of tech from Linux to virtualization and containers. You can check out my latest novel, an epic Chinese sci-fi civil war saga where China throws off the chains of communism and becomes the world’s first direct democracy, running a highly advanced, artificially intelligent decentralized app platform with no leaders. You can also check out the Cicada open source project based on ideas from the book that outlines how to make that tech a reality right now and you can get in on the beta.

The Coming Revolution in Film: Future Tech Series — Number One

Google Cardboard is a revolution in the VR industry. It’s an unbelievably simple technology: a pair of lenses, a magnet, and a cardboard box. Despite its primitive design, Google Cardboard creates quite deep virtual reality experiences. Let’s discover the best Google Cardboard apps the VR market has to offer. The majority of them are freemium apps, with optional in-app purchases or ads to help the publisher with monetization. Google Cardboard App Don’t know where to start? Try the for Cardboard. official free-of-charge Google Application Basically, it’s a VR interface for your smartphone. This app is perfect for configuring and launching your favorite experiences. You can use it to search for new apps for Google Cardboard. Moreover, the GCA has several demos. They include but are not limited to: — the app creates an enormous screen for you to enjoy your videos. My videos developers integrated the Google Earth functionality in GCA; you can fly around the globe and explore our planet from above. Earth — the app displays cultural artifacts for you to examine. Exhibit — — it’s an arctic experience; northern sightseeing with GCA is breathtaking. Arctic Journey YouTube App The majority of mobile users already have the on their devices. If you do not, well, it’s about time you installed it! YouTube software YouTube has a whole VR universe. You will be surprised at how much 360-degree video content you can find in this free app. From artist studio broadcasts to 360-degree mountain expeditions — we are sure you will find something to your liking. Whether you are a user of iPhone or an Android-powered device, it is definitely worth a shot. Lanterns If you are looking for the best Android VR apps with truly calming immersive experiences, have a look at . Lanterns This application conveys the peaceful ambiance of the Lantern Festival celebration. It’s a traditional festival in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and some other East Asian countries. The free Lanterns App creates a truly fascinating scene with a customizable amount of lanterns and a full day-night cycle. Give it a try and enjoy the harmonious dance of little twinkles on water and in the air. Final Kick VR Mobile virtual reality technologies are continually improving. Nowadays, apps allow you not only to be a virtual world observer but a first-person game player. is an exciting soccer game available for free on Android and IOS. Final Kick VR You compete with the best soccer teams in this game. Your objective is to score goals and “save” your goalposts from penalties. These are the reasons why we consider Final Kick to be one of the best Google Cardboard games: some devices won’t connect to Bluetooth pads; since this game is easy to play with solely with a headset, it has an indisputable advantage over the others. Intuitive controls — realistic physics along with amazing graphical effects are super entertaining. Decent Graphics — — Final Kick VR offers 20 tournaments with 100 soccer teams without an Internet connection. Diverse gameplay, even offline while some games force you to make in-app purchases, Final Kick’s paid functions are 100% optional. Free of charge — If you are a soccer fan and seek an immersive virtual reality experience, download Final Kick VR and try it out. Titans of Space Are you a space-curious person? Do you want to explore the wonders of our universe? Consider adding to the collection of Cardboard apps on your phone. this astonishing application Free to install and use, this app will become your guided tour to our solar system and several other stars. Titans of Space shrinks the space objects to 1 millionth of their size, so it’s easy to compare them. Titans of Space delivers visual and aural satisfaction at the same time. A dynamic soundtrack follows your tour and helps to immerse you more deeply into infinite outer space. In-app purchases unlock the 50-minute voiceover. Stay informed by the guide during the whole tour. This optional feature makes the space-traveling both entertaining and educational. Bear in mind that this application consumes a significant amount of device power. Make sure to shut down as many unnecessary background tasks as possible. The software provider covers the main Q&A points on the . Don’t forget to go through them. app page in Google Play Expeditions is one of the top Google Cardboard apps in the educational section of Google Play. But don’t be quick to dismiss informative content. We are dead sure Expeditions will prove to you that education can be fun and exciting. Expeditions What is so special about this free app? First of all, Expeditions supports group tours, meaning you can actually use it with your friends to virtually travel together. Just connect your devices over the Wi-Fi network, and you are good to go! A growing list of over 200 preset expeditions, immersive VR experience, and some features for creating educational classroom experiences allow you to use Expeditions as a teacher! Spend time with your family or friends discovering historical and just marvelous places all over the world. New York Times VR is an app full of award-winning VR films and immersive video experiences. Watching the news has never been this entertaining! NYT VR The New York Times app tells you about everything in the world in an exciting way using VR. Dive into realistic 360-degree videos of military conflict in Western Asia, see the incredible footage of Jimmy Chin climbing the spire of the World Trade Center, or anything else that is on the regular news! You can stream videos or download them if you have a low-end Internet connection, so there are no comfort limitations on your VR experience whatsoever. If you are fond of news or just looking for a fresh VR, New York Times application will be among your best apps for Cardboard. Star Wars Considering how popular the Star Wars franchise is, we put on the best Cardboard apps list. Tons of positive feedback, diverse and engaging gameplay, free-of-charge content — all these points are signs of a good app. Let’s find out more about this connector to a galaxy far, far away. this masterpiece The Star Wars app provides you with interactive quests, breaking news, rich media and social updates — all about our favorite galaxy. Here are the most astonishing features worth mentioning: — whether you choose the Light Side, Dark Side or even go for Droid design, Star Wars VR delights you with the thematic visual and sound design; you just have to see this outstanding animation effects. Side-themed interface the app allows centralized subscription to official social channels and creator blogs. Aggregated feeds — this awesome serialized feature delivers a great immersion into Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Become Jakku Spy — read the official news, watch creator interviews and Star Wars-themed videos, behind the scenes footage, etc. Explore the galaxy content — The Star Wars app is undoubtedly a mother load for fans of the franchise. Check it out, and may the force be with you! The Bottom Line Google Cardboard technologies are developing faster and faster. VR apps now have entertaining and educational qualities at the same time. Keep in mind that a deep immersive virtual reality experience requires headphones. Take your time, pick one of the listed applications and start your marvelous VR journey. It’s a perfect opportunity to have a nice time and broaden your horizons. Personally we love VR apps, trying them out as well as creating new apps for our clients! We recommend anyone immerse in this wonderful technology. Originally published at applikeysolutions.com .

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