<![CDATA[ Creative Bloq ]]> https://www.creativebloq.com Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:58:33 +0000 en <![CDATA[ The Paris Catacombs have a surprisingly cute logo design ]]> The Paris Catacombs are the City of Light's darkest tourist attraction: labyrinthine tunnels that house the remains of six million people, which were carted from overflowing cemeteries in the late 18th century.

With such a macabre history, you might not expect the enormous complex of ossuaries to have fun branding, but designers are still swooning over how cute the catacombs logo design is thanks to its brilliant example of negative space in design.

Paris Catacombs logo

(Image credit: Les catacombes de Paris)

As revisited over on Reddit recently, the Catacombes de Paris logo is a big letter 'C', but peer into the negative pace within and turn your head to the side, and the shape also resembles a human skull, the perfect emblem for a macabre attraction. Even more cleverly, the triangle nose positioned between the gap in the counter of the C appears to form an entrance indicator, inviting visitors to venture into the depths of the city if they dare.

The logo was designed back in 2019 by the studio Mo-To and was the first time the catacombs were given their own proper branding. Mo-To said at the time that the various categories of weights and styles found in the lettering pay homage to the ossuary. The typography also acts as an analogy for the human body, symbolising "a transition from life to death."

At the time, we wondered whether the design wasn't a little bit too playful or disrespectful even. But over five years on, we can perhaps put that down to English sensibilities regarding death. After all the catacombs are now a bit of a quirky tourist attraction, and the logo seems to capture that well.

For less ghoulish logo design inspiration, see the latest development in the Super Bowl logo conspiracy theory and Wieden+Kennedy London's many new logos.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/the-paris-catacombs-have-surprisingly-cute-logo-design CrCrHdoK5qzKtLYYQZjPNB Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Loklik iCraft review: A Cricut alternative with good reasons to explore ]]> Crafting, in its many guises, has rocketed in recent years, as more people discover a love for it, partly I imagine, thanks to the multitude of YouTube channels and social media types sharing their creations.

Most creative types will have at least a passing familiarity with the brand Cricut, who make cutting machines for all manner of materials. They aren't alone in this though and some of the alternatives are offering equally useful devices, including those from Loklik, who also make heat presses, which partner nicely with HVT cutting machines.

So, what do these things actually do? Well, they most often look not dissimilar to a desktop printer but rather than moving a print head across pape,r they move a tiny blade, or a pen, instead. A tacky cutting mat is used to hold material in place, which is fed through the machine, and then spat out once the design is complete.

At this point, weeding needs to be done, which is the process of removing unwanted material from the design. This could be the centres of letters in an HVT (heated vinyl transfer) or areas of a card design.

I've used a number of these machines, as well as heat presses (you can check my review of Loklik's own heat press, and I've spent some time with the iCraft to see how it stacks up.

What's in the box?

A loklik icraft machine on a desk

The storage cubby is useful for keeping spares and tools organised. (Image credit: Rob Redman)

The iCraft ships alongside a few necessities including the cutting mat, weeder, a tool and a pen holder, two blades and a double-ended pen, plus a power and a USB cable. There's also a neat little caddy for keeping the above organised, which clips to the left side of the machine. The iCraft is available in a few colours so check their site for the latest options.

The iCraft is about the width of a desktop printer but is much shallower at about five inches, so it will fit on many desks and is easy to store if only used occasionally. That said, you will need to leave some room behind it when cutting, as the cutting mat is fed through as it works, meaning you need around ten inches or so clearance.

Setup is a doddle and one of the easiest of any device I've used. Simply plug in the power, download and install the software, add the tool of choice and off you go. While Loklik supply a USB cable it does have Bluetooth, which is stable and connects flawlessly and makes it easy to connect to Android or iOS devices too.

Tools are easy to swap. Just open the latch on the cutting head and lift out the holder. Then you can insert a different blade, or move to the pen holder and slot a pen in.

It couldn't be much simpler.

Setup & Software

Loklik's Idea Studio software is what you'll use to lay out designs, import from elsewhere, as well as define the job settings. This software is a free download and all you need is to register. It's free, so no single purchase or subscription is needed. Once downloaded you'll gain access to a growing library of designs and assets, with a one-click 'add to canvas' button. There are of course tools for creating your own designs. The tools on offer are fairly basic but clearly labelled and easy to use. Personally, I prefer to use Illustrator for this and export .svg files, which Idea Studio imports without any issue.

As with so many creative applications these days, there is an AI option, which you can use to type a prompt, generating designs. I'm less a fan of this but some people may find it useful.

No matter how or where you create your designs, Idea Studio is where you will manage the job and this is again pretty straightforward. You define the material you are using, then tell it whether you are scoring, cutting etc. When using HVT you need to mirror your design; thankfully there's a simple one-click option for this and the app will prompt you too.

Press the button, load your material and then press play on the iCraft and watch as it starts cutting away.

A screen grab of the loklik software

The software is simple but does the job well enough (Image credit: Rob Redman)

Performance

A loklik icraft machine on a desk

Print quality from the Mars 5 Ultra is some of the best I've seen, at any price. (Image credit: Rob Redman)

The iCraft is capable of cutting quite an array of materials. The Loklik site states over 100, including card stock, vinyl and papers. I found the 180gsm card cut very well, with sharp corners, nice smooth curves and perfectly straight lines. More taxing for these machines can be HVT so I was interested to test these out.

I'm pleased to say that the results here were just as good, with lovely clean cuts that aid the weeding task.

Using the pen, which has both a soft felt tip and a harder finalise nib, worked a treat too, drawing designs far faster and more accurately than I could do by hand. I do wonder if the use case for this is that necessary though, as surely a printer would be just as good. That said, if you don't have a printer, or you want to print longer jobs then you can do that here, as the iCraft is only restricted in the width of material. You can pass through rolls of material, making it pretty easy to cut or draw designs that are long and thin. The max width is 12" but there's no quoted maximum.

The onboard controls of a loklik craft

While most of the control is done via the software, the machine has a few buttons. (Image credit: Rob Redman)

Once a job has been created in Idea Studio and sent to the iCraft, you line up the material on the cutting mat, then insert that into the guides on the device, press the feed button to finish loading, then the play button and off it goes.

I appreciate machines that do their job in relative peace. I've had lasers and 3D printers, even paper printers, that make more noise than is appropriate for a desktop machine, but the iCraft is very quiet. Loklik states 60db for it in use, which is pretty quiet and low enough to have a phone or Skype call with it running next to you.

Once the job is finished you need to weed. This means removing the job from the iCraft and then removing any waste material. If you're cutting text, for example, you will need to remove the centre of letters like 'o' or 'e'. Loklik provides a weeder for this job, which is essentially a sharp pointed piece of metal in a comfortable hand grip. This works well and I was easily able to weed the HVT sheets I used for designs intended for T-shirts. Various weeding tools are available and I would suggest trying a few, as some will work better, depending on the job and material being used.

All in all my experience with the Loklik iCraft has been fantastic and it will be a staple in my studio and will reused for creating all sorts from custom merch for my channels to gifts, labels and personalised greetings cards, plus a few art projects I'm planning.

Who is it for?

If you regularly work with vinyl designs, cut paper or card for projects, or want to explore new ways of working with materials for your hobbies, then the iCraft could be the perfect tool for the job.

Buy it if

  • You want a compact cutting machine
  • You work with a variety of materials
  • You need it situated away from your computer (Bluetooth is great)

Don't buy it if

  • 12" max cutting width is too small
]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/creative-inspiration/digital-crafting/loklik-icraft-review-a-cricut-alternative-with-good-reasons-to-explore v8ubMtehDKsCjTibyYdJDm Thu, 30 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ The futuristic Doogee S200 has one of the best phone designs I’ve ever seen ]]> I recently got my hands on the super-rugged Doogee S200 smartphone, and it has a very unique design feature with a digital AMOLED watch display on the back of the handset. This mini screen can be customised with multiple watch faces to choose from, display your notifications, and show a text signature. From a creative standpoint – it’s an absolute design delight.

Outside of the best iPhones for photography, camera phone manufacturers are seriously stepping up their game. I’ve tested several Doogee phones over the years for our sister site, Digital Camera World, and each of these budget camera phones tends to have a unique selling point for challenging environments, whether that’s an infrared heat vision camera or a digital tool kit for construction.

What I like most about Doogee phones aside from their fun design is the affordability, and the S200 model is available right now for as little as $339.99 / £259.99 over at Amazon once discount vouchers are applied. The market for budget camera phones is the best it has ever been, and even includes affordable AI phones too, expanding the choices beyond just Apple and Samsung. I’m going to run through some of the top features of the Doogee S200 smartphone, and why I think it’s one of the best for complex creatives.

The futuristic design

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Doogee S200 hands-on

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3

Doogee S200 hands-on

(Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 3

Doogee S200 hands-on

(Image credit: Future)

I know I've already talked a bit about this, but the Doogee S200 has a very mecha and futuristic design that I absolutely love. It's thinking outside of the box for sure, and the reaction I've had every time I take this phone out of my pocket has been "wow, what is that?". The chunky design packs some serious weight to it too, and looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

The best part of the design is without a doubt the rear mini display on the back of the phone, and it's hard to tell from images, but trust me it seriously impresses in person. The AMOLED display is crisp and vibrant, and offers not only a digital watch face for keeping time, but swipe across and you'll get a calendar view of the month, access to the camera app to shoot without needing to unlock the phone, simple music controls for whatever you're listening to, and if you swipe up you'll see your recent notifications. Not only is this handy and convenient, but offers quick access that typically only a smartwatch can offer.

Another fun part of the watch face display is what the interface calls a personalised signature, or in other words, your choice of text or small quote to be displayed on the back of the phone, just for fun or as a reminder.

The AI camera is awesome

Doogee S200 smartphone

(Image credit: Doogee)

As with nearly all Doogee phones, the S200 has a very cool camera. On previous models I've tested before, like the Doogee S98 Pro, features included a thermal imaging and night vision camera. And with the Doogee S96 GT model, the phone was entirely waterproof (including the camera) so you'd never have to worry about diving into a pool with your phone in your pocket, and could even use it for some oceanography.

The main camera is equipped with AI (aren't they all) and has 100MP with a morpho imaging algorithm for advanced quality. I've noticed that the shots taken with this phone tend to look a little HDR-ish but sharp nonetheless.

The Doogee S200 lacks a thermal imaging camera but does have an underwater camera, as well as night vision, and a super night mode for shooting in darker conditions. Both of these cameras work excellently and have allowed me to spot foxes and wildlife in total darkness when out on a walk with my dog.

The digital toolkit you didn’t know you needed

The Doogee S200 is designed for durability, but rugged phones like this one are also generally marketed towards those who work in the construction industry, or environmentally challenging areas, or simply enjoy activities such as watersports and hiking.

One of the coolest features that you'll rarely find on any non-Doogee device is the pre-installed digital toolkit included with the phone, with tools like a compass, sound meter, picture hanger, height measure, magnifier, protractor, plumb bob, pedometer, gradient, alarm bell, and a torch.

Doogee S200 hands-on

(Image credit: Future)

You might never need to use half of these features, but it's better to have them and not need them, right? The phone also has some handy settings such as gloves mode, for when you need to operate the touch display wearing snow gear (I actually benefitted from this on a recent trip to Slovenia), and a side key function that can be customised with a specific task when it's difficult to use your fingerprint or completely unlock the phone. Doogee really has thought of everything here.

It's a great choice for gamers

The phone sells itself in plenty of areas, but if you're a smartphone gamer then you'll really love this phone. In terms of specs, it has a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chip which is perfectly capable for running most games smoothly, as well as a generous 120Hz refresh rate, up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of expandable storage, an impressive 10100mAh battery capacity, and Android 14 OS.

Is it the best phone for gaming? Probably not. But it can certainly handle a gaming session or two with no sweat, and no overheating or busy fan sounds to distract you.

It can withstand pretty much anything

Doogee S200

(Image credit: Doogee)

This phone is ultra-rugged, meaning it would be very tough to inflict any real damage on it should you ever drop it. It has ultimate endurance to withstand temperatures from -30C to + 70C, as well as boasting an IP68 and IP69K resistance rating for water and dust, and on top of this, it has been certified to military-grade standards.

The only non-rugged phone that even comes close to this level of durability is the new Honor Magic 7 Lite, which I recently attempted (and failed) to destroy in a not-so-fragile challenge that involved a hefty drop test and a hammer.

If you're interested in owning the Doogee S200 smartphone, it's available at a discounted price right now from retailers like Amazon and Aliexpress, or you can shop directly via the DOOGEE website where it's listed for $399/£306.49 with an extra discount coupon of $50/£40 applied. We've also rounded up the best prices below using our clever deals widget. You're welcome.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/phones-tablets/the-futuristic-doogee-s200-has-one-of-the-best-phone-designs-ive-ever-seen jvekB68Dr9cT5jCfJmBwEZ Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE review: the perfect balance between power and price? ]]> You wait years for one, and then two come along at once. Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card is here, and we've taken it for a test drive, too see how it will perform for power-hungry creatives.

While the flagship card, the GeForce RTX 5090 FE (FE stands for Founders Edition), naturally comes with All The Power, I was intrigued to see how close the 5080 FE could run it, to see if it would be a more affordable top choice of graphics cards for graphic artists and 3D pros. And you know what? It was a closer race than I thought.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

The card comes in fully recyclable packaging. Nice. (Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE review: Key specifications

Design and build

The first thing I noticed as I unpacked the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE from its fully recyclable packaging (which looked identical to the 5090 apart from the number at the top), was that it looks almost exactly the same as the 5090 card. The only noticeable difference is the model number etched into the topside (and that it's ever-so-slightly more prominent on the 5080, although that could just be my specific unit). A solid, weighty piece of hardware, slightly longer and narrower than the 40-series cards, it slots in very easily but leaves a little daylight in the back-panel notch on my tower. Thankfully, the only witnesses to that will be my wall and my overly curious cat.

The power socket being inserted at an angle saves space, as the cable juts out less from the side of the card than it otherwise would, but inserting and removing the cable is a little bit more finicky as a result. Hardly a deal-breaker though...

The GEFORCE RTX logo lights up too, and there's light protruding through from inside too, most prominent in the V-shaped corners near the centre as you look at it from above.

The back, just like the 5090, has four ports, three DisplayPort and one HDMI. You'll be entirely unsurprised to find the DPs support up to 4K 480Hz or 8K 165Hz with DSC each, while the HDMI supports up to 4K 480Hz or 8K 120Hz with DSC, Gaming VRR, and HDR.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Features

The NVIDIA 5080 comes with the same feature and software offering as the 5090, sporting the same Blackwell core architecture, which has stepped up both AI-enhanced output and efficiency, while providing less of an uptick in pure VRAM terms.

In fact, the 5080 comes with 16GB of the latter, the same number you'll find inside the 4080 version. So how is the new one better, I hear you howl in abject confusion at your favourite reviews editor?

Well, I went to NVIDIA's Editors Day at CES 2025, and as I learned there, the AI so many of us hate to see used to create pictures of people with varying numbers of fingers and other appendages or dodgy boomer memes on Facebook, has been employed here to provide a dramatic uptick in power efficiency.

For example, this is apparent in how it can shut down a majority of its cores more quickly during idle times during graphics rendering, which in turn means those cores are available to help with new tasks while the previous ones are still running, instead of those cores being spun up and doing nothing productive on said previous task.

This means that with those AI-enhanced features activated, we can expect to see up to 40% higher performance from the same amount of VRAM during many 3D tasks, (and like I pointed out already in the 5090 review, multi-tasking in video rendering means that time-consuming job has become a lot faster than that).

Yes, Mega Geometry, Neural rendering, DLSS 4 and a host of other tools will also be available on the new drivers for the 30- and 40-series of cards, but they don't have the added benefit of the Blackwell core architecture, if those not-so-marginal gains are important to you.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Tensors

NVIDIA's proprietary technology, CUDA cores, is central to the graphics performance of its GPUs. For many professionals in the 3D field, the number of CUDA cores on a card has been the primary factor in selecting a GPU.

Additionally, the increasingly important Tensor Cores play a crucial role. Both CUDA cores and Tensor Cores are processing units, and having more of them generally improves performance. While CUDA cores excel at general graphics and 3D rendering, they are less efficient for neural processing, AI, and deep learning tasks compared to Tensor Cores.

The GeForce 5080 Founders Edition (FE) features 1,801 Tensor Cores, which is over 30% more than the 1,321 found in the GeForce 4090. However, the 5080 FE has 10,752 CUDA cores, which is fewer than the 16,384 CUDA cores in the 4090.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Benchmark scoring

Performance

In all honesty, I expected a bigger dropoff in benchmark and real-world performance levels from the 5090 FE here. Unless you're working on the latest Pixar movie or a billion-dollar AAA game, the 5080 might just be enough for you for the next few years.

PugetBench for Creators testing gave me near-identical numbers in the Photoshop test to what the 5090 delivered. I asked NVIDIA about this and the answer was that "there appear to be some scaling issues with the pre-launch build which means the results might not be completely representative of performance difference between the cards." This might already have been sorted out by the time you receive your card.

I also used 4-2-2 camera video assets to run a concurrent render of 9 video streams, and again, the 5080 gave my 4070 Ti Super and its single render job a run for its money. I estimated about a 8.5x increase in speed here, which should vastly speed up work for many video editors.

When it comes to Procyon Flux testing, we finally see a marked difference between the models. The 5080 FE took more than twice as long to generate images using the memory-demanding FP4 test than the 5090 FE did, but it was still impressively fast in its own right.

There's also about a 15% reduction in performance from the 5090 to the 5080 in both the PugetBench DaVinci test and the Topaz Video AI upscaling test. Both figures still reside firmly in the 'staggering' category though.

Also, H.264 encoding saw no dropoff in the 5080, with the lower-spec card churning through 128.98 frames per second, all-but identical to the 5090's 129.04 frames per second.

And while the Geekbench 6 OpenCL testing numbers didn't match-up to the reality-bending figures churned out by the 5090, the 5080 FE produced a hugely respectable 272,788 points here, outscoring the 4090 in a test that's not yet been optimised for the AI-enhanced features of the Blackwell-equipped card.

3D processing is now drastically faster, thanks to innovations in the 50-series' feature offering. While software support is still being rolled out, it is clear that by the end of the year, nearly all major 3D and video software will have integrated the Blackwell suite of features. That means some of our standard benchmark tests are not fully compatible with the 50-series graphics cards. We will update this review with those tests as soon as we have the opportunity to run them.

Gaming is also truly spectacular here, especially when I can make use of features like DLSS 4. I ran Cyberpunk 2077, EA FC 24 and more games on this card, and the step up from 4070 Ti Super I had previously is not only noticeable, it's staggering. Go to one of our gaming-focused sister sites for a full breakdown of the card for gamers if you're interested to know more about that.

Also, extra point for releasing an impressively stable driver on the first go.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Who is it for?

At under a grand at launch, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE isn't exactly cheap, but while it's only half the price of the 5090 FE, it provides a heck of a lot more than half the performance.

With DLSS 4 support, neural rendering, RTX Mega Geometry and a host of other innovations on board, 3D modellers, animators and perhaps most importantly game developers will be looking for the most bang for their buck when it comes to the 50-series. And the 5080 might be that card.

Meanwhile, I'd actually recommend the 5080 over the 5090 for video editors regardless of the price benefit. Same for photo editors (although a 40-series card will remain more than enough power for most of you).

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Buy it if

  • you are a pro game dev, animator or 3D artist
  • you need near-top-level performance but your budget isn't unlimited
  • you want the best card for video editing

Don't buy it if

  • a 40 (or 30) series card will do the job
]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/graphics-cards/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5080-fe-review-the-perfect-balance-between-power-and-price HSvXHRwfMxg4tzpzj588tG Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Adobe's Project Concept could be the future of creative ideation – and the waiting list is open ]]> Adobe's Project Concept AI-powered mood-boarding and ideation app got our attention at Adobe MAX with its non-linear infinite canvas approach, and it's moving forward already. Adobe is opening access to more creatives as it moves the web app into private beta for feedback, and the waiting list is now open.

Designed as an entirely new Adobe product rather than an add-on to products it the current Adobe software list, Project Concept is aimed at what Adobe sees as a new generation of creatives who want to embrace generative AI and who find the linear workflows of legacy software restrictive.

Images can be imported or generated using AI, and edited, remixed, iterated on and organised in a flexible way, making it easier for artists to visualise and develop ideas, either on their own or in collaboration, all in one tool.

We were first introduced to Project Concept at Adobe MAX back in October. Since then, the creative tech giant has been inviting select artists to test the product, which has resulted in tweaks based on their feedback. These include the addition of shareable canvases and artboards and the ability to import, share and remix work, making it easier to collaborate.

The user interface has been simplified too, making it easier to guide generative AI by using multiple types of inputs, like text prompts, images or individual ingredients from images. And Content Credentials has been integrated to recognize the source of images, respect generative AI usage and training preferences and to promote transparency regarding how content was created.

There are also now Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express integrations to make it easier to bring assets into Project Concept from other Adobe apps. We're told more integrations will follow.

Film moodboarding in Adobe Project Concept

Left: Shona Dutta Charlton's storyboard in Concept. Right: frames from the film Harmless (Image credit: Shona Dutta Charlton)

According to Shona Dutta Charlton, who used Project Concept to develop the visual direction of a short film, "Concept...helped me rapidly visualize images for my team when we were incredibly pushed for time. We could get the set built and costs estimated with quick tweaks to the brief. In an industry where time is money and when producers have way too much on our plate, it's becoming an essential planning tool."

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Moodboarding in Adobe Project Concept

Gizem Akdağ tried out Project Concept to explore the design of a new brand (Image credit: Gizem Akdağ)
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Moodboarding in Adobe Project Concept

Vojtek Morsztyn used Project Concept to explore inspiration for furniture design (Image credit: Vojtek Morsztyn)

Project Concept isn't entirely novel. We've already seen AI-heavy infinite canvas mood-boarding tools in Recraft as well as Midjourney Patchwork and Kaiber's Superstudio. But Adobe's industry clout and integration with industry-standard tools is likely to give it the edge.

Alexandru Costin, Adobe's Vice President, Generative AI and Sensei, told us at MAX that the tool was being developed with a new generation of "Gen AI creatives" in mind and was being built from scratch to avoid being held back by legacy software or workflows. He suggested the tool could save on GPU budget and power use as well as time since users can generate AI images and projects all in one space, combining multiple tools and inputs.

You can learn more and sign up for the waiting list at Adobe.

Creative Cloud apps already feature a range of Firefly AI-powered tools, from image generation in Photoshop to Generative Extend in Premiere Pro. You can see Creative Cloud pricing below.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/ai/adobes-project-concept-could-be-the-future-of-creative-ideation-and-its-almost-here bnk8vNVkLDshAUMkA3zdke Wed, 29 Jan 2025 14:06:08 +0000 <![CDATA[ How Blender helped Gints Zilbalodis make Oscar-nominated Flow ]]> Despite its relatively small budget, Flow has been delighting audiences around the world and garnering accolades since its release in October. It's now a contender for the best animation Oscar 2025, and it's Latvia's first shot at Best International Feature.

Many are surprised to learn that the beautifully animated film, which follows the mystical journey of a dark grey cat and his companions, was made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender. But how do you make a such a powerful piece of animation in free software? The writer and director Gints Zilbalodis has shared some of his experience (also see our collection of blender tutorials).

How Gints Zilbalodis made Flow in Blender

In an interview at blender.org, the Latvian writer and director says he began working on Flow in 2019 and settled on Blender due to the real-time renderer EEVEE. He says the speed of rendering and even just the speed with which files open "saved a lot of time and frustration" on the project, while Blender's customisability also helped his process.

In 2021, Gints brought in riggers and developers to create custom scripts that streamlined the workflow. He would design an initial scene in previz and then a set-dressing team would refine it by adding more plants, props and environmental details. Concept artists sketched out buildings and figured out their construction, and other team members focused on developing tools.

Water is a huge part of the film. This was handled by Mārtiņš Upītis, who would develop a Blender add-on for water effects, and Konstantīns Višņevskis, who handled smaller simulations, such as splashes and researched techniques for stylized fur and feathers, working on shaders.

Gints cites the arrival of the Belgian and French co-producers Take Five and Sacrableu Productions in 2022 as a key moment. They developed more tools and rigs to deliver character animation. "Expanding the team with experienced character and pipeline TDs, as well as animators working in a well-structured process, was essential to handle the complexity required by the film. This was a truly international coproduction," he says.

As for learning Blender, Gints says he picked up a lot online, while Konstantīns handled writing scripts. "I can’t write scripts myself, so having someone in the studio to help was invaluable," he says. And while he says most animators made the switch to Blender within a week, "the learning never really stops".

"I still feel like there’s so much I don’t know about Blender or anything else," Gints adds. "And with these long projects, you sometimes forget things you learned five years ago."

Gints upgraded through the various Blender releases from 2.8 alpha to 3.3 in production and then 4.6 when he moved on to lighting. "Before each update, we ran a lot of tests, opening different files to check for issues," he says. "Some things did break, but overall, our workflow remained stable."

The team used several add-ons, including GeoScatter for distributing plants and other environmental elements and Animation Layers to create handheld, shaky camera movements. For fluid simulations, the team would sometimes start with large-scale waves using Cell Fluids and then add details with FLIP Fluids.

You can learn more about the animation of Flow in this video from the Blender Conference.

For more software choices, see our picks of the best animation software.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/movies-tv-shows/how-blender-helped-gints-zilbalodis-make-oscar-nominated-flow 524aor6FfxXzA6oS2ZPn7 Wed, 29 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Mazda's new logo is a masterclass in unfussy design ]]> In July last year, Mazda subtly filed a trademark for a slick new logo, breaking the mould of its dated 3D design. The contemporary revamp is yet to launch officially, but its sleek new look is a huge leap for the brand, following the decline of skeuomorphic design across many of the modern car logos on the road today.

As we saw with the new Jaguar logo recently, redesigning a car brand emblem can be controversial, yet Mazda's simple yet contemporary upgrade was well received by many. A welcome evolution that was long overdue, the new Mazda emblem proves that subtle tweaks can make an outstanding difference to a well-loved logo.

Mazda logo

(Image credit: Mazda )

When the original trademark was filed most information on the logo redesign was fairly under wraps, but multiple Japanese news outlets have since confirmed the new design is official. As of now, it's unclear whether the old logo will still be used alongside the contemporary design, but a formal announcement is expected in the coming days – potentially on the brand's 105th anniversary on 30 January.

A closer inspection of the new Mazda logo reveals why it was so well received, with a simple yet striking black outline giving it a much-needed modern upgrade. The signature 'M' shaped wings have been refined for a sharper, more graphic appeal while the surrounding circular frame has been reshaped for a rounded, harmonious appearance. According to Car Scoops, Mazda claims that the redesign was created in part, to appear more legible on smartphones and laptop screens, prioritising bold modern precision over an elaborate redesign.

Mazda logo

(Image credit: Ryno Marais via Unsplash)

Mazda's logo has remained unchanged since 1997, so a contemporary refresh was naturally on the cards to appeal to a new generation. The minimalist look may not be the most flashy revamp, but its simple unfussy design is what makes it so strong (there's always the danger of overcomplicating it and ending up amongst the ranks of the worst car logo redesigns). For more car design news take a look at how this designer 'fixed' the controversial new Jaguar logo to the delight of fans.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/mazdas-new-logo-is-a-masterclass-in-unfussy-design mHtDLJdi3ANsrwgChuySd6 Wed, 29 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ New Superman trailer fails to take off with fans ]]> A fresh trailer for the upcoming Superman film has divided fans thanks to its questionable VFX and character detail. The scene, featuring David Corenswet as Superman barrel rolling through the skies, has been under fierce scrutiny, with some accusing it of using unnecessary CG augmentation.

Other fans have critiqued the new Superman character design, with some claiming his flying pose is inaccurate and "goofy". While it's nearly impossible to please all fans, the detailed grilling the 30-second trailer has received proves that comic book fans don't play when it comes to their favourite characters.

Whether it's the bizarre positioning of his arms or his slightly uncanny deadpan face, there's something slightly off about the trailer's final scene. Superman's debut take-off is always a highlight for fans, so it's no wonder that the clip caused controversy – prompting director James Gunn to defend it.

In response to the trailer, a fan on Threads commented "Great camera angle of Superman flying!! Except there's something with his face that looks a little off. I know there's plenty of time to refine the CG." To clarify, Gunn swiftly responded "There is absolutely zero CG in his face. People’s faces can look different when you put a wide angle lens up close. The background plate in Svalbard is 100% real as is David."

Others criticised the positioning of his arms, with many fans claiming that Superman should have them outstretched in front of him, rather than tucked behind. "Superman iconically flies hands forward. Not always. But as an introduction, it’s strange to choose no hands," one fan on X claimed. "Corenswet feels like he's stationary in a wind tunnel. It's the angle," another chimed in.

For more superhero stories, take a look at the new poster for Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man. If you're after more comic book news take a look at the seriously grungy Supergirl logo that's putting a dark spin on the franchise.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/vfx/new-superman-trailer-fails-to-take-off-with-fans qAS9PXjQHArvQi4r527C84 Wed, 29 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ The best no code game engines recommended by leading indie devs ]]> No code game engines and tools are becoming increasingly popular, enabling artists and anyone with a good idea to create video games without the need for typing thousands of lines of code. Also known as visual coding or visual scripting, these tools typically involve simply dragging and dropping boxes, and recently the hugely successful Citizen Sleeper 2 was created entirely with visual scripting by solo developer Gareth Damian Martin. It’s likely that Gareth’s no-code approach will inspire other artists and creators who perhaps thought game design was beyond their reach.

But with so many no code game maker platforms and apps out there, such as BuildBox, Godot and Construct, where should you start? I asked five indie developers for their recommendations, to discover the visual scripting apps actual game makers are using.

Some of these no code game engines feature in our best game development software guide, and some are even browser-based so you needn't invest in an expensive laptop for game development (but as you skill improves, you may need one).

Claire Morwood

Asterism indie game

A self-taught game designer, programmer and artist, Claire Morwood encourages everyone to try no-code apps and start creating. (Image credit: Claire Morwood)
Claire Morwood recommends

Bitsy An excellent beginner platform

Downpour Smartphone app for making collage games

Bipsi Phone and tablet app for simple games

Solo developer Claire Morwood – who used paper-craft dioramas and claymation to create the beautiful Asterism, as well as making the critically acclaimed Before I Forget with Chella Ramanan – says that one of the best no-code game maker tools for absolute beginners is Bitsy.

“It's web-based, free, easy to use, and gives you creative constraints to work within, as well as providing you with a simple default game that you can begin editing straight away,” she says.

Claire has even written a tutorial for Bitsy, which can be used to make pixel art narrative games in a completely code-free environment, although it does have the option to add some traditional code for advanced purposes. “It's got a great community of game creators on Itch (if you search for the Bitsy tag), and from my experience it can be picked up extremely quickly and by people who have never made games before,” Claire enthuses. “There's also a Bitsy-inspired tool called Bipsi that works well on phones and tablets too.”

Another simple no-code app that Claire recommends is Downpour, which is a phone-based tool for making collage-style games. “Being able to make games on your phone and away from a traditional computer screen gives you a lot of possibilities, such as hand-drawn art and outdoor photography, that lead to a very natural and immediate way of creating,” she says.

Asterism indie dev; making a stop motion animated game

Claire Morwood's new game, Asterism, was made using a mix of traditional media and Unity tools. (Image credit: Claire Morwood)

Claire is fond of the trend for so-called ‘flatgames’: small, 2D games with very simple controls. “There's a quote from Dreamfeel, who hosted the first flatgame jam back in 2016, that: ‘Flatgames are all about presenting a game as the most raw combination of movement, art and sound’, which I think is so beautiful,” she says. You can make flatgames with tools such as Flatpack or Downpour, but Dreamfeel has also created a Unity plugin called Flatgame Maker. “If you know a small amount of coding, or are able to copy/paste some input detection and basic movement code into a game engine, you could create these in a very low-code way,” Claire says.

Finally, Claire encourages creators to search out and experiment with ‘tiny tools’ for game development wherever possible. “There are a LOT of tools out there, so I'd also like to recommend this list,” she says. “It contains more options than I know about or would be able to go into in detail!”

Timothy FitzRandolph

No-code game development software; a pixel art racing game, set in a desert

Parking Garage Rally is made by Timothy FitzRandolph, who suggests avoiding Unreal and Unity if you're completely new to game development. (Image credit: Walaber Entertainment LLC)
Timothy FitzRandolph recommends

Clickteam Fusion A dev app that runs on iOS, Android, Flash and XNA

Construct 3 A browser-based game creation app

GDevelop A popular open-source, no-code game engine

Indie game creator Timothy FitzRandolph is probably most well-known for the mega-hit mobile titles Where’s My Water? and JellyCar, and last year he launched the Sega Saturn-like Parking Garage Rally to great acclaim. He highlights three no-code tools as being particularly good: Clickteam Fusion, Construct 3 and GDevelop.

“These are all great game creation engines / software that allow making games without having to learn a coding language or text-based coding syntax,” he says. “They all make use of something I like to call ‘event sheets’, which are sort of like a spreadsheet of game rules and actions.” In terms of complexity, event sheets fall somewhere in between the simple blocks of Scratch (a kid-friendly visual programming language) and the ‘connected nodes’ of Unreal Engine’s Blueprints (which we’ll come back to later). “It's a bit more guided and structured than something like Blueprints, but also quite powerful,” Timothy says.

He adds that modern engines like Unity, Godot or Unreal are “a terrible environment for learning the basics of programming” and therefore should be avoided by absolute beginners. “Coding is actually not that difficult, and can be learned by anyone,” he says. “But trying to code within a giant framework like Unity is like learning to cook in the middle of a massive professional kitchen in a hotel or restaurant. I'd prefer to learn cooking in a simple kitchen with just a few tools to learn the basics, and eventually work my way up to the professional kitchen.”

For people looking to learn the basics of coding, he recommends starting with one of the ‘fantasy consoles’, such as the Pico-8 or TIC-80. “They are the equivalent of the tiny kitchen: not very complicated, not too many options, and the code you write is basically the entire game (there isn't some huge ‘engine’ structure surrounding your code), which makes it much easier to understand how things work.”

Dan Marshall

No-code game development software; cartoon people and a dog chat in front of a large neon sign

Dan Marshall's Lair of the Clockwork God, the indie developer recommends no-code plugins for Unity. (Image credit: Size Five Games)
Dan Marshall recommends

Adventure Creator A Unity tool that's good for point-and-click games

Unity Visual Scripting A good way to learn more complex node workflows

Dan Marshall founded Size Five Games in 2008, and the studio’s titles include the ‘totally accurate football simulator’ Behold the Kickmen and the brilliantly funny point and click adventure / indie platformer hybrid Lair of the Clockwork God.

Dan has frequently used the Unity tool Adventure Creator in the past. “It has a beautiful node-based system for stringing together events,” he says, adding that it makes the creation of point and click adventure games “infinitely quicker” and is a “joy to use”.

“The caveat being, of course, that the second you try to stray outside of what it's very specifically designed to do, you're likely to come a bit of a cropper,” he says, “and you'll have to get your hands dirty with some real code in order to circumnavigate its systems, which complicates and bloats things, and makes everything feel a bit like a big wobbly house of cards. So it's brilliant if you're limiting yourself to the one genre of game and don't fancy tinkering with the boundaries at all.”

No-code game development software; a screen from a game development app, with nodes below and game art above

Unity Visual Scripting is a good way to begin learning how game's are made, though seasoned developers can find it slower than coding. (Image credit: Unity)

In addition, Dan has dabbled with Unity Visual Scripting (formerly known as Bolt), which he says is a “pretty good-and-robust system” for replacing code. “It always feels much slower to me than just typing, though,” he adds. “It's a bit over-fiddly for my tastes.”

He credits the 1990s tools Klik 'n Play and The Games Factory with teaching him the basics of how to code when he was younger. “That's where I cut my teeth, and they were basically the forerunners in codeless coding.” But although he has benefited from various forms of visual scripting, he still swears by typed code, reasoning that although visual scripting can help to lift the burden of coding, it can also be quite limiting. “So my advice with this stuff is probably, sure, go for it, make some cool things, BUT maybe have a little dabble in coding as well once you've got the hang of it.”

Alastair Low

No-code game development software; a purple pixel art game world with cartoon flea characters

Flea! developer Alastair Low suggests Stencly amongst other no-code apps for new game developers. (Image credit: Lowtek Games)
Alastair Low recommends

Stencyl A Scratch-like app that's great for retro games

Clickteam / The Games Factory 2 A good introduction to game design

Bitsy A simple app with a good community

Construct 3 The browser-based app has excellent resources

Lowtek Games founder Alastair Low is known for the 8-bit-styled titles Flea! and Tapeworm Disco Puzzle, and recently he has developed an interactive pop-up book that works via light projection. He says he started off by making simple 2D games using The Games Factory 2, adding that the modern equivalents are Clickteam Fusion or Construct 3.

He also thinks that Bitsy and the no-code tool Pulp for the Playdate handheld could be good gateways to game development. However, he worries that they are too basic: “I fear with stuff so simplified, the next generation of game devs will get lost when the more commercial engines don't meet the innovative UI simplicity of Bitsy,” Alastair says. It was something he felt himself in the difficulty of translating his knowledge of Games Factory 2 to more advanced engines.

Like Timothy, he reckons that Unity Visual Scripting and Blueprints are a bit too tricky for people who are just starting out. “They are basically still doing all the steps you would have to in code, but visually,” he says. “It’s useful to see what inputs and outputs each function accepts, and to be able to track them through a node graph, but it can quickly become complex and overwhelming for bigger projects.”

However, he would recommend Stencyl – “a fun 2D engine that I’ve heard described as Scratch on steroids” – as well as the no-code solutions offered by the retro game creation tools NESmaker and GB Studio. “These are good if you want to create a generic genre game,” he says, “but if you want to add a spin on the mechanics, you often need to dive into the code a little to get the results you want. I think the key to a good workflow on this is to allow for both code and visual stuff.”

Alex Goodwin

No-code game development software; a whale in a field, comforted by a man and a child

Alex Goodwin suggests learning how Unreal Engine works, using Blueprints, as it will stand you in good stead for future projects. (Image credit: Alex Goodwin Games)
Alex Goodwin recommends

Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints) Complex and powerful and not for everyone

Alex Goodwin is behind the recently released Selfloss, a game set in a world of Slavic and Icelandic folklore. Alex uses Unreal Engine, which has built-in visual scripting tool called Blueprints, but he warns that it might be off-putting for anyone who doesn’t have prior experience of programming.

“You have to understand that visual programming in a sense is not really that much easier than just programming with typing,” he warns. “All existing visual no-code tools still require very important things to know - core general concepts of programming.” He’s referring to basic principles such as variables and cycles. “You can’t just skip understanding of those and start to program with Blueprints.” Indeed, even though he had years of prior experience with programming languages, Alex says he still found his first few months with Unreal and Blueprints “kinda harsh” and “not as easy to pick up as I believed”.

No-code game development software; a whale flies above a person in a rowboat

Alex's game Selfloss is made in Unreal Engine 4, and while its a steep learning curve he says it pays off to learn this platform. (Image credit: Alex Goodwin Games)

That said, the core of Blueprints and similar visual scripting tools is fairly simple. “In its essence, 99% of the task you are doing when programming and designing is creating a flowchart of commands that go one by one, a single step at a time.” Visual scripting simply allows you to actually see the flow charts that are buried within the semi-colons and brackets of the code.

“In a way, learning Blueprints or any visual coding actually brings you so, so close to the start of learning some ‘real’ programming languages, like C#, Java, C++, you name it,” Alex concludes. “Based on my teaching experience, I should say that most developers actually struggle more to go from those languages to visual coding than vice versa.”

“Unreal is the most popular engine today, so finding learning resources for newcomers is not a problem, it’s all out there, free and easy to pick up. Just learn the basic ideas behind programming and you are good to go.”

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/leading-indie-devs-recommend-their-favourite-no-code-game-engines EP2isFhwsA2kWya7VVCgPD Wed, 29 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ The Met's new game shows the art world still loves NFTs ]]> Remember NFTs? Much of the world seems to have forgotten them after the boom back in 2021. But the art world still sees the potential of blockchain-backed assets. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has launched a short-session game called Art Links that awards players with NFT badges if they can identify connections between works of art from The Met collection.

The Met NFT art game

The Met's game awards NFT badges (Image credit: The Met)

The Met's first Web3-based experience is a serialised game with new challenges released every Thursday for 12 weeks. Players identify connections, or 'chains', between works of at to win in-game NFT badges as well as in-person and digital rewards like exhibition catalogues, discounts at The Met Store and private, curator-led tours.

The game was designed with the art and tech platform TRLab to provide an interactive way to engage with the museum's collection. The Met's CEO Max Hollein says it's a first for any museum and that it aims to broaden engagement and understanding of culture and creativity. "Art Links exemplifies how The Met continues to connect audiences to ideas and to one another while exploring emerging technology," he says.

In each game, players create a chain that consists of seven artworks and six connections, which can be words, emojis, or artworks. The chain is completed in three rounds, with each round becoming more difficult.

Each chain includes at least one work from The Met’s collection of 20th- and 21st-century art, placing these in a broader creative context. There are four types of connections: Highlights, showcasing key works, artists or movements; Material, focusing on how works are made; Emojis, highlighting signs, symbols, and visual culture; and Web3, showing how artists across time have engaged with core concepts underpinning the blockchain, such as randomization, security, and ledgers.

Players can collect 12 badges, one for each weekly chain, with opportunities to earn seven achievements linked to in-game challenges. Five of the achievement tokens are free, while two have to be purchased. Themes that players will discover during the 12 weeks include: 'Objects in Disguise,' artworks made from surprising and sometimes deliberately deceptive materials and 'Harlem as Muse,”' featuring artists who looked to Harlem as a subject and source of inspiration.

Visit artlinks.metmuseum.org to play. For more on NFTs, see our piece on how to make and sell an NFT. 

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/the-mets-new-game-shows-the-art-world-still-loves-nfts eSysAneJBHtqYozJHHhPRd Wed, 29 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Why Krita is the new Photoshop ]]> This past year I’ve been learning a lot of new (to me) open source programs. Sure, I had been playing with most of them, on and off, for longer than that. But last Spring when my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription came to an end, I did not renew it. This meant that when projects needed to be worked on, I had to use something else. Something non-Adobe (many of which can be found on the list of the best photo editing software or digital art software).

My choices on Linux for image creation and editing were limited to mostly GIMP (see my GIMP 3.0 review here) and Krita. With a bit of Photopea thrown in now and again. And over the last few months I have been sharing what I’ve found in a series of articles. Looking back I’ve since learned that I’ve made some mistakes, and in that short time I’ve also seen various developers fix some issues. And break some others.

And along the way, I’ve also come to realise that I’ve started to forget some of the minutia of Photoshop details that I have known for decades. Plus, today’s PS is evolving and not quite the same as it was just a year ago.

Individuals and even entire teams are moving away from subscriptions.

It’s been a very active and competitive market. With all players, PS, Krita and GIMP releasing upgrades in the last half year. The irony is that while PS and GIMP have released major new versions, it is Krita who only released a minor upgrade that is getting most of my attention (see why in my Photoshop vs Krita piece).

Like many, despite Krita having been around for a long time, I wasn’t aware of it until the last few years. But I am now. And I’m seriously impressed. I’ve even started to dive into the Krita forums and community. A community that is very active, and also has active developer involvement. Which is not only great, but has always been a marker of a well run project.

And what I see from these Krita developers is always a “Can Do” attitude. And a “Yes, we need to fix that, and we will” type of response.

The more I learn, the more I love

Clearly, Krita’s decision to make their interface and keyboard shortcuts mostly reflect the way we Photoshop expats work was the right decision (see the best Photoshop shortcuts here). There are 37 million Creative Cloud subscribers, which means there are 37 million PS users. Why not make a transition from PS to Krita easy, right? And they have, right out of the box.

krita prefs

Krita's keyboard shortcut preferences allow an even further increase in PS compatibility. (Image credit: Krita)

Dive into the preferences of the latest version, 5.2.6, and we can take that even further with the menu SETTINGS > Configure Krita… select Keyboard Shortcuts. At the bottom of this dialog is “Shortcut Schemes” where we can select which application we want Krita to adopt the keyboard shortcuts from. Photoshop being one. But to be candid, even Krita’s default KB commands are fairly PS like.

I’ve also learned that somewhere along the line Krita did add GPU acceleration, which can be found under SETTINGS > Display > Canvas Acceleration. Clearly it needs more work, but finding it there give me great hope.

more prefs

Open GL acceleration that I didn't know it had! (Image credit: Krita)

I also found a way, maybe not the best but it’s working, to correct the tiny icons on my 4k screen. Again, SETTINGS > General > Window… And then toggle the “Enable HiDPI Support”. Doing this made things too large, but that was mostly easy to fix with local adjustments.

HiDef

On a high-def screen? Click this button and some, if not all problems get resolved. (Image credit: Krita)

I’m still finding my way around the LAYERS panel. In Krita we have to choose a layer type more than we do in PS, whose layers are more chameleon-like. But Krita’s way leads to more control. For example Krita’s version of Smart Objects is created by right-clicking on any image layer and select CONVERT > to File Layer… This will bring up a dialog where you choose a path to save the layer art as a file. PS does the same thing, but it does it automatically and saves that layer in an invisible temp folder.

A short list of problems

When talking about an application of this size, it's rather surprising that there are actually just a small handful of issues I’ve found. While not comprehensive, the list includes:

  • HSV/HSL needs to be able to choose to work on primary colors. This would also require adding a chroma selection slider.
  • The Levels interface doesn’t update the preview properly when you are adjusting individual channels. I have to hop back and forth between single and multi-channel mode in that dialog.
  • Krita’s version of the Healing Tool is called the “Smart Patch Tool”. It is useless on smaller sections, providing nothing more than a blur.
  • This leads us to AI, but we will discuss that further down.
  • I’m not sure why Blur, Sharpen, Clone and other tools need to be in the brushes section. Forcing that I do a search/filter of the brushes each time I need to use one of them. But, this is mostly minor.
  • Text handling has much room for improvement, and the devs know this.
  • PSD compatibility. With it, we can start doing commercial work with Krita, and freely work in advertising and publishing circles. Without, we face significant additional hurdles.
  • A new selection tool is most needed. PS’s Auto select is ideal. But something like GIMP’s Foreground selection would be fine. (See G’MIC below.)

Again, this is a very short list. A list so short that it is a true compliment to what the Krita devs have achieved already!

Let me add a correction from a previous article. Yes, GIMP has a better selection of filters, this is true. But I was wrong when I said that the additional suite of filters, almost 600 filters in all, called G’MIC, was only for use in GIMP. It was available for Krita, and as of the latest upgrade Krita 5.2.6 includes that collection in its default installation.

G’MIC also happens to include a filter called “Extract Foreground” (found under G’MIC’s “Contours” tab), which is essentially the same system that GIMP calls its Foreground Selection tool. So while not native, we could remove that list item from the above list.

Where Krita devs really messed up (tongue-in-cheek)

There is a cultural moray within the Krita community that GIMP should be for “image manipulation” (which is a term I find hysterically abstract and almost meaningless), and that Krita should just be for art creation and painting. Well, when I’m doing “image manipulation”, most of my time is spent using...drum roll please: Brushes! When I do retouching I am often...Painting!

The elitist desire to somehow separate themselves, as ARTISTES, from the lowly image manipulators is quite funny. But the Krita devs sort of went along with this in their decision, some years back, to focus development on artist tools rather than production tools.

And here is where the devs just TOTALLY MESSED UP: Krita already has almost all of the image manipulation tools it could need. In fact, I can argue that it even has more than GIMP, and gives PS a run for its money. Yes, the dev’s messed up in that they are over-achievers. And they went beyond their own mandate of “only tools for artists”. A mandate that I don’t understand, as I think tools for all 2D creatives should instead be the goal.

So when it comes to image manipulation tools, let’s run down the most obvious and see how Krita actually scores, using a wholly arbitrary 1-10 scale:

Again, these are arbitrary numbers, but based on my experience. Add an extra 14 points to GIMP if/when Resynthesizer becomes 3.0 compatible. Clearly these are not the only tools needed for image manipulation work, but it’s a good overview of some important ones.

It is no surprise that Adobe’s Photoshop comes in first. But what should surprise all of us, myself included, was the realization that Krita is miles ahead of GIMP in all but a couple of categories (see this GIMP vs Krita comparison). This belies some of my own comments in previous articles where I said you need both GIMP and Krita to compete with PS. Upon re-evaluation that seems not to be true. It seems Krita does indeed do a very good job of holding its own.

The question of AI

As a true production tool, there is no way to compete with PS without AI tools. But many of the Krita community do not want AI in Krita. It’s understandable, as AI is “stealing” artists jobs. But it is taking illustrative jobs from me as well, just as stock photography and Photoshop did before. That’s progress, and keeping it out of Krita won’t stop it.

But I get that users don’t want precious dev time spent on it. Fair enough. There are third-party AI tools for Krita that we have looked at briefly and will take a deeper dive with very soon. For its part, the ones available for GIMP are still much further from general adoption.

Stealing the crown

I think it’s high-time that the Krita leads fess up and admit that they have created a very powerful creative tool that can easily become the mainstay for a very wide range of creatives. Not just painters.

As both individuals and even entire teams move away from subscription products and look for something else, I humbly suggest that Krita may be what they are looking for. And I can imagine a day not too long from now that both schools and shops start moving over. And why not, it works.

See our list of best graphic design software here.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/digital-art/why-krita-is-the-new-photoshop BgxDjE3kkP4nnqvDGCEyVS Wed, 29 Jan 2025 07:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Unity-powered Mindshow puts animation directors on virtual sets ]]> Animation often requires a huge investment in time and money due to linear production constraints. Each step requires specialised animation software, from assets to previsualization to rendering, which can create bottlenecks. The production company Mindshow thinks it has a solution. It's launching its own Unity-powered enterprise-scale software.

Mindshow merges real-time rendering with asset ingest and character animation tools to cover the entire production pipeline, from storyboarding to final pass, in a single platform. It allows directors to step into virtual sets using VR and mixed reality headsets like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest, and it's designed to be able to integrate new virtual production capabilities rapidly as more cutting-edge tools reach market.

Mindshow says its platform makes production more efficient, immediate and intuitive by enabling real-time animation that maximises the value of existing brand IP.

Features include:

Advanced Voice Integration: proprietary lip-sync technology converts pre-recorded audio into stylized animated facial performances and character movements.

Virtual Studio Cameras: directors can capture unlimited angles with multiple cameras using industry-standard lens settings, enabling iterations for instant control and review.

Motion Capture (mocap): generates real-time character expression leveraging industry-standard mocap suits to rapidly evolving camera tracking solutions like Meta Quest.

Asset Integration Pipeline: existing character libraries are easily converted into 3D models that are rigged for performance, maximizing the value of brand assets.

Powered by Unity's real-time engine, it puts enterprise-scale virtual production tools within reach of Unity's global developer community.

"Unity’s real-time 3D platform is designed to be scalable and flexible, giving creators the tools to push boundaries and explore new possibilities. Whether it’s integrating advanced tech or adapting to new workflows, our platform helps developers create captivating and innovative experiences," says Steve Collins, Unity's CTO. "When partners like Mindshow deliver accessible virtual production tools through an intuitive interface, it demonstrates Unity’s versatility in changing the game for animation, making studio-quality content easier to achieve."

Meanwhile, streaming veteran David Baron has joined Mindshow as COO. A founding executive at Hulu, Baron also held leadership roles at Fox Digital Media, Paramount, and Microsoft.

"Content distribution hit a historic inflection point when streaming put libraries of content at viewers' fingertips. Mindshow brings that same accessibility to creation,” he says. "Brands can now move from concept to delivery in one production cycle, turning characters into multi-platform properties across social, streaming, previsualization, and beyond. For the business of animation, this changes everything."

Mindshow is already available for licensing to select entertainment companies, sports organizations and consumer brands while continuing to offer its full-service production suite through its Los Angeles-based studio. For others, there's a waiting list.

To learn more, visit www.mindshow.com. For inspiration, see our roundup of the best animation styles.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/vfx/unity-powered-mindshow-allows-animation-directors-to-enter-virtual-sets-with-vr bkMLEreuGEszcQhimeneQX Tue, 28 Jan 2025 20:00:10 +0000 <![CDATA[ Nintendo has quietly launched a huge sale with up to 70% off ]]> Nintendo has a tendency to announce things in stealth mode lately, and that includes a lack of any real promotion for its Supercharge eShop sale, which is live right now and offering up to 70% off popular Nintendo Switch games. If you prefer owning the physical copy of a game (me too) then don't worry, as most of these online discounts apply to both the digital and physical versions of the game.

With all the buzz around the latest Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, gamers are no doubt excited and eager to get their hands on the new console. Unfortunately, we still have a little while to wait yet until official preorders for the Nintendo Switch 2 go live (expected in April), though you can register your interest in the console early to beat the digital queues when the time comes.

On the bright side, we know that the Nintendo Switch 2 console will be backwards compatible with both digital games and physical cartridges, which is a huge relief for Nintendo fans who already have a proud collection of the best Nintendo Switch games. With that said, this sale seems like the perfect opportunity to stock up your game library ahead of the Switch 2 launch, and I've rounded up my pick of the games worth grabbing below.

SAVE $60: Let's kick things off with this amazing bundle bargain which nostalgic fans of Crash Bandicoot will absolutely love. I'm a long-time Crash fan, and I've played all of these games individually (spoiler - they're awesome).

I think this bundle offers everything from arcade-style nostalgia to solo adventure fun, and multiplayer car racing co-op for family game night.

This is a digital-only deal. View Deal

SAVE $20: This is a great discount on a top Mario title. I own this game and it's a great choice for playing co-op, featuring all of your fave Super Mario characters in arcade side-scrolling fun.

Deal applies to physical and digital formats.View Deal

SAVE 70%: This is a pretty generous deal from Nintendo, but there's a catch to be aware of. This game is technically an expansion pack with DLC, and not a standalone game. So for it to work on your Nintendo Switch console, you'll need to already own the game Monster Hunter Rise first.

This is a digital-only deal. View Deal

SAVE 60%: I've never really been into FIFA (or FC as it's now known), but my fiance lives and breathes it. From Pro clubs to squad-building challenges, plus digital packs to open, this is a must-have game for football fans. Be warned, I'm told it's "not just a game" and gets very competitive. View Deal

SAVE $15: The original Red Dead Redemption is one of the most popular games ever – and it's rumoured that its successor, RDR II will be one of the first games to arrive on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console. So if you're hoping to get familiar with the series before launch, then this is the perfect deal.

Note: This game is strictly 18+

Deal applies to physical and digital formats.View Deal

SAVE $20: If you like multiplayer Mario titles then I've got another winner for you. This golf game with a twist lets you play with up to 3 other people online, or couch co-op, in a race to get your ball in the goal before anyone else. This game is pretty fun with motion controls too.

Deal applies to physical and digital formats.View Deal

SAVE $15: This game has been on my to-play list for 2 years now, and I think this price cut has convinced me to finally give it a try. From what I've heard, it's a game where you play as a possessed lamb saved from annihilation, and must then build a loyal cult following of woodland worshippers. Sign me up!

Digital-only deal View Deal

SAVE $20: Ever played tennis on the original Nintendo Wii console? (I know, I'm old). If you're familiar with Wii Sports, or even the updated Switch Sports, then you'll get the gist of this game. Play tennis using motion controls, as fan-favourite characters from the Super Mario series.

This is a digital-only deal. View Deal

SAVE 50%: This is possibly my favourite multiplayer game ever to play with my Fiance. We love this game for its art style alone, but also the storyline, which involves a couple on the brink of divorce getting transformed into dolls, and tasked with navigating a miniature world to get back home.

Digital-only deal (but includes free friend's pass).View Deal

SAVE 20%: This game is pretty new, launched only in December for the Switch console, so it's surprising to see a discount so early. Based on the popular Funko Pop collectable figures, this game lets you play as your fave characters from across franchises in iconic worlds. View Deal

TO ADD:

Borderlands Collection - https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/borderlands-collection-pandoras-box-switch/View Deal

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/nintendo-has-quietly-launched-a-huge-sale-with-up-to-70-percent-off SvE2qPNRREtS8MZjVrLyXP Tue, 28 Jan 2025 19:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ OK, there are no Lego deals for International Lego Day, but I've found some savings on awesome Lego alternatives ]]> Today officially marks International Lego Day, celebrating the almost 70-year anniversary of when Lego first patented its LEGO bricks design in 1958. Lego has since become a global phenomenon, and some of the best Lego sets for adults tie in with popular culture trends, and have evolved far beyond the category of toys, now acting as profound works of art and even home decor.

We're big fans of Lego at Creative Bloq, although I am surprised that there's not more hype around International Lego Day, and from an e-commerce perspective, I haven't been able to find so much as a single promotional offer or sale to celebrate the occasion. What's up with that?

All is not lost, however, as Mattel's own Lego alternative brand, Mega Bloks, has some generous discounts over at Amazon right now, and I've rounded up some of the best sets for you below, including several that I own like the Pokémon Snorlax set. For some more Lego inspiration take a look at these 40 impressive Lego Art designs celebrating the Lego legacy ( or should we say Lego-cy).

SAVE $62: The mighty Gyarados is one of the most popular first-gen water Pokémon, and this 2,186-piece set is fully mechanized to allow for swimming along the waves with its tail flapping, and mouth opening wide. View Deal

SAVE 71% This buildable King Kong action figure is 8 inches (20cm) tall and includes a scaled waterfall side build which is perfect for display. In total, this set has 541 bricks. View Deal

SAVE $25: This MEGA Bloks Stadium set is probably the best value for money in terms of what you get. It includes everything you need to build the training stadium, plus 5 Pokémon: Pikachu, Machop, Eevee, Fuecoco, and Hawlucha. It also has launchers for battling Pokémon.

UK Deal – £89.99 £57.80 at AmazonView Deal

SAVE $25: Are you a fan of The Beatles? This Mega set includes LED lights to illuminate the Ed Sullivan Stage, plus 4 poseable action figures for a rewarding building experience. This set comprises 681 bricks and pieces. View Deal

SAVE $45: Another mechanical Pokémon build comes in the form of arguably one of the coolest Pokémon out there. Charizard is a fan-favourite and this 1,664-piece collector set is a statement piece that lets you move the wings, legs, arms, tail, and head however you please.

UK Deal – £63.48 £57.48 at Amazon

Price Check: $67.99 at Target clearanceView Deal

SAVE $11.20: This 130-piece Pokémon set is a lot simpler for kids, and you get four buildable gen-1 Pokémon out of it too. Each figure is poseable and comes with its own environment stand.

Price Check: $10.79 at Target | $11.04 at Walmart

UK price – £27.07 £22.80 at AmazonView Deal

SAVE $46.59: This 2,041-piece Halo Infinite tank set is a great choice for those seeking a fun and rewarding build. You get 5 poseable and super detailed action figures included, plus a swivel crane. View Deal

This adorable Pokémon Countryside Windmill set (240 pieces) offers a windmill and picturesque grassy environment, and comes included with Pikachu, Pidgey, and Wooloo figures. It has motion to control the windmill, and it can connect seamlessly to other Pokémon MEGA sets for a larger landscape.

UK Deal - £31.99 £23.43 at AmazonView Deal

SAVE $40: Last but not least, we have this Snorlax Mega building set which is 246 pieces altogether and stands over 4 inches tall! You can pose it in several different ways, and it looks epic on my gaming shelf.

UK price – £28.99 £19.39 at AmazonView Deal

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/ok-there-are-no-lego-deals-for-international-lego-day-but-ive-found-some-savings-on-awesome-lego-alternatives zYUd3r6cjx5dpUGA67u33C Tue, 28 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ How Eternal Strands' complex chaos was made possible ]]>
Eternal Strands details

Making Eternal Strands; a person in armour stands in front of crystal mountains

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

Publisher Yellow Brick Games

Developer Yellow Brick Games

Format Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), PS4, PS5

Platform Unreal Engine 5

Release date 28 January 2025

For developers in the triple-A space, chasing high-fidelity photorealism is often the norm as a way to immerse players into believable worlds. The most impressive aspects of Unreal Engine 5 has also been how it's able to push photorealism to new heights that's also made more accessible with MetaHumans or its huge Quixel library of 3D-scanned environments. Yet while Yellow Brick Games is founded by Ubisoft veterans, including game director Frederic St. Laurent and CTO Louis Tremblay, for new action RPG Eternal Strands, the decision was made early on to pursue a more stylised aesthetic that also serves the gameplay.

As a fantasy game where you play as Brynn, a weaver who is able to use magic, these aren't just spells that involve shooting elemental projectiles. Instead, the laws of thermodynamics are applied, so fire burns and spreads while even forming ice around a dragon's foot can stop it from flying.

"Because we knew from the first week that we wanted something akin to the thermodynamic system that we have, this requires dramatic change visually to be understandable by the player," Tremblay explains. "So having something that is more stylised lets us say that a hot rock is red, or something that is really cold is blue, which, in reality, makes no sense."

The fantasy setting was similarly suitable based on the kind of materials players would be interacting with. "It's easy for the player to understand the physical properties of rock and wood," Tremblay continues. "You can make rock brittle because it's seen so many times in movies, as opposed to different alloys, which makes no real sense, and you need to look at the stats to understand."

Making Eternal Strands; a person pulls at magical strands from a tunnel

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

Going hand in hand with that was also a desire to make environments destructible, which might cast back to PS2-era games like Red Faction. That such an immediate example is also a game from over two decades ago also speaks to how rare or difficult such a gameplay feature is when considering the many worlds you traverse in modern games often amount to super detailed set dressing.

"We wanted to destroy trees and walls, but if you go realistic, a tree has a lot of splinters when it starts to break, and it's harder to do," St. Laurent says. "We manage to have a full wooden house that is destroyed by a dragon walking into it, which just explodes into planks, and the style kind of allows it. When I worked at a triple-A studio, the house would not be breakable because making it interactable like a game should be is too costly."

Trembaly adds, "We had the philosophy of never saying no because we cannot provide a realisation of something. It's always gameplay first."

Using Unreal Engine 5 for Eternal Strands

Making Eternal Strands; a broken stone bridge, in the background is a colourful fantasy castle

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

While coming from Ubisoft's proprietary tech meant Unreal Engine has been new for St. Laurent and Tremblay, who also began development of Eternal Strands in Unreal Engine 4 before making the upgrade to Epic's latest engine, it has nonetheless granted many benefits, not least the time and cost required to build your own engine.

"Having access to the source code of Unreal has been a boon for us, because it lets us modify the engine, which is something that is more complex to do with Unity, because you have to pay for it," Tremblay explains. "The biggest benefit is that we can hire people that understand [Unreal] simply because it's public. So the pool of people available is a lot higher. It's a lot easier to step up, as opposed to a proprietary engine that nobody on the team knows and that you don't have access to a lot of documentation online, or none at all."

Making Eternal Strands; a person leaps at a giant wearing armour

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

Although some of the most impressive demonstrations of Unreal Engine 5's tech has been with the most high-fidelity and realistic visuals, its unique tools have still proven very efficient, such as Nanite's virtualised geometry system. "Nanite is a cheap way of generating geometry that does not have a higher or lower resolution mode based on distance, which also removes the pop-in you see in games when you change resolution," Tremblay continues. "Even if our models are not hyper-detailed, it still lets us keep very consistent and reduces the manpower needed to optimise the game."

Lumen's dynamic global illumination system has also been used very effectively while reducing the manpower of traditional lighting methods. While both come at higher GPU cost, the trade-off has not had the same issue with other recent Unreal 5 releases that have suffered performance-wise on console. "We are not hyper realistic, so we can control that GPU cost."

Given the heavily physics-based gameplay in Eternal Strands, notably the ability to use telekinetic powers like grabbing and hurling large objects or enemies in the air, Unreal 5's Chaos physics and destruction system has also been vital. This nonetheless required transitioning from PhysX used in Unreal Engine 4, which Tremblay says hasn't been without issues due to Chaos being a newer system. "PhysX was a very mature project, while Epic is still heavily optimising Chaos. But because we have access to the source code, it lets us dig deeper to understand problems than we could have with PhysX."

Designing Eternal Strands like an accordion

Making Eternal Strands; a knight jumps from a platform towards a giant swinging a tentacle arm

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

But while Unreal Engine 5 does allow for smaller teams to realise ambitious projects, being able to do that in a timely and cost-efficient manner is ultimately down to how that vision is realised, which comes from being able to make smart game design decisions early on.

"One thing I made sure of early on with several people on the team was trying to make a design that is like an accordion," says St. Laurent. "That is like a module, so you can plug in and play or not have something without everything crumbling. It's not like if you remove one giant boss you just come into an empty arena."

He also talks about how he worked with creative director Mike Laidlaw in creating the world logic and lore. Because while Eternal Strands is set in quite a specific area called the Enclave that's cut off from the rest of the world, it was still important to imagine everything else around it. "We started drawing maps, thinking, how many factions or nations do we need to make a world, because even though you don't go to those locales, a world needs to exist if we wanted the Enclave to be credible If you engage in the codexes scattered in the environment, you will probably learn a little bit more of that."

Making Eternal Strands; a colourful green-grass cliff, in the background is a large giant wearing armour and carrying a spear

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

The Enclave nonetheless has an impressive sense of scale, from tall buildings you can climb (not to mention the 25-metre giant enemies you can also climb up to fight) to secret cavernous laboratories deep underground. Crucially however, the team avoided making it an open world to reduce extra work, and instead created loomgates, an in-game travel system to reach different parts of the Enclave, but which also made it easier to make each map distinct with its own biome or features.

"We wanted an Enclave that has a lot of variety of biomes, because we want to see different things on the grounds for us," St. Laurent explains. "The notion about technological marvels was that while there's a fantasy feel, the more you dig into the Enclave, the more you would discover locales that's a bit more sci-fi. We also didn't want you spending 30 hours in a forest."

Making Eternal Strands; a woman in armour, styled like anime

(Image credit: Yellow Brick Games)

The artists and level designers' hard work in building the different parts of the Enclave aren't discarded one-offs either as the loop requires you to revisit areas. But as part of that modulated accordion design, other elements such as a weather system, day and night states, and rotating enemy placements also means the same map can be experienced differently multiple times, not just visually but also in gameplay.

Its stylised aesthetic has also given Yellow Brick the flexibility to employ different art styles too. So while there are occasional in-engine cutscenes, more complex story sequences feature anime-style cutscenes, which were made by fellow Canadian animation studio Du Coup, while dialogue with companions use hand-drawn portrait art.

"It was very pleasing to allow ourselves to explore different art styles within the same art direction," says St. Laurent. "Each of these mediums brings their own thing. For example, if you're trying to get the full fidelity of conveying emotion in dialogue, if you're off, you can get into the uncanny valley. With portraits, you let the player imagine the real emotion behind it."

In other words, Eternal Strands makes shrewd use of Unreal Engine 5 by, not pushing for photorealistic perfection in favour of stylisation that complements its ambitious gameplay ideas, while smart design decisions allows that vision to be stretched in imaginative ways manageable for the studio's mid-size team of around 60 people. Yellow Brick Games may not have the big budgets of triple-A but it can still make magic happen.

Eternal Strands is on sale now for PS5, Xbox Series X and Steam, visit the Yellow Brick Games website for more information. Inspired? Then read our guide to the best game development software and start creating.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/how-eternal-strands-complex-chaos-was-made-possible moPtfiSQqNpeMB6CSGXKPR Tue, 28 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ DeepSeek's sudden explosion just changed the AI game ]]> For the last few years, a few names have dominated the AI space. Big guns like OpenAI, Google and Adobe have owned the conversation since 2023, so it's no surprise that the industry is a little, well, surprised, to see a new contender turning heads. Seemingly out of nowhere, DeepSeek is apparently causing consternation for everyone from OpenAI to NVIDIA.

DeepSeek has been quietly impressing the AI community for a couple of years, but it's suddenly exploded into the mainstream with the release of its R1 model (not to be confused with the Rabbit R1), which it claims to have a performance on a par with OpenAI’s o1 model. Not only is DeepSeek suddenly top of global app store charts, but it's also caused US tech firms' stock to crash, and OpenAI to promise 'better models' in response.

DeepSeek

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Based in Hangzhou, China, DeepSeek appears to be challenging the received wisdom that AI requires billions of dollars of computing infrastructure. According to the Guardian, NVIDIA lost $600bn in market valuation on Monday. "Nvidia is one of the companies that has gained most from the AI boom. It went from being a maker of graphics cards for video games to being the dominant maker of chips to the voraciously hungry AI industry... tech companies looking sideways at DeepSeek are likely wondering whether they now need to buy as many of Nvidia’s tools."

What's more, a clearly spooked OpenAI has also pledged to create "better model" in response to what it calls "invigorating" competition from DeepSeek.

Nvidia logo

NVIDIA has suffered a huge stock crash (Image credit: SOPA Images via Getty)

As for DeepSeek R1, the model itself has users impressed. "from my experience, DeepSeek R1 is about the same or better (in some contexts) than OpenAI's o1," one Redditor comments, while another adds, "As a chatgpt plus subscriber I have recently exclusively been using R1. I tried using both and until chat gets an update R1 is my go to for literally everything." And then there's the cost. At 1/50th of the cost of OpenAI's O1, R1 currently feels like a steal.

This certainly feels like a disruptive moment in the AI race. Even Donald Trump has called the advent of R1 a "wake-up call", and Nvidia's stock market fall is the biggest in US history. For users, access to a cheaper and more efficient AI model could mean more choice, taking the power away from the AI giants and opening the door for smaller players. But aside from the threat to the US industry, it's not all good news. DeepSeek has already proven itself unwilling to engage with controversial moments from Chinese history. It seems that even if the industry is given a shake-up, the question of AI bias is far from over.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/digital-art/deepseeks-sudden-explosion-just-changed-the-ai-game YBQGu9xRFDQcQoCYdKVze6 Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:50:07 +0000 <![CDATA[ The Last Half of Darkness remake looks even scarier than the original ]]> Back in 1989, the Last Half of Darkness was the scariest thing ever seen on a computer. SoftLab's DOS point-and-click horror video game boasted spine-chilling suspense and fiendish puzzles despite the limitations of 16-color VGA graphics and a soundtrack consisting of loud beeps.

The original shareware game went on to spawn a successful franchise. Now it's back to haunt us all over again in a 35th anniversary remake with modern graphics and sound. And if it was scary in just 16 colours, it shouldn't be a surprise that the new homage looks totally terrifying (see our roundup of the best retro game consoles if you prefer the older look).

The Last Half of Darkness remake sticks to the premise of the original game: the protagonist has inherited a haunted house from a mysterious witch aunt and must collect ingredients to complete the unfinished potion she was working on before she was killed.

Released by WRFStudios, the remake is the work of the game's original creator, Bill Fisher. And despite the improved graphics and haunting soundtrack, the eerie atmosphere appears to be be very loyal to the original game, complete with the many puzzles to solve. It looks set to be a nostalgic blast from the past, and one that might keep us up at night if the twin girls make an appearance.

The Last Half of Darkness 35th Anniversary Edition has a planned release date of 7 February 2025. You can wishlist the game on Steam.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/the-last-half-of-darkness-remake-looks-even-scarier-than-the-original uXdURDbk3XXGzeaE5fu7tb Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ 'The posters are weird': Inside the unapologetically bold art of Soho Rep theatre ]]> Theatre company Soho Rep has curated a stunning collection of posters across the decade, combining diverse illustrative artistry with the immersive world of stage performance. Blending the collaborative efforts of illustrators, playwrights, and directors, each unique piece is built upon the expertise of multiple disciplines resulting in a delightfully eclectic collection of bold designs.

There are no strict rules when it comes to creating engaging poster designs, yet Soho Rep's diverse creations carry a distinct sense of personality and flair making them unmistakably eye-catching. From intricate illustrations to minimalist graphics, Soho Rep's posters are a standout selection of art and theatre at its finest.

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

Led by branding agency Studio Usher, each design is shaped by a collaborative journey while allowing artists the freedom to experiment. Naomi Usher, founder and chief creative officer at Studio Usher tells Creative Bloq. "As a Creative Director, I believe in providing a detailed brief, including a sketched concept and inspirational imagery. But I always want to leave room for the illustrator’s interpretation so they can offer up something extraordinary."

"As an example, Luci Gutiérrez has a deep interest in language (Spanish is her first language and she wrote and illustrated a delightful book called English is not Easy). She takes a deep dive into the playtexts—exploring the nuances of the language which allows her to deliver ideas that surpass the parameters of our brief," she adds.

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

After designing posters for Revolt She Said, Revolt Again (2016) and While You Were Partying (2021), Luci Gutiérrez reflected "The posters for Soho Rep are weird. Naomi Usher is a weird designer too. For an illustrator, it’s rare to find a space of freedom and play – without restrictions or the need to create pleasing images. The only requirement for the posters is to reflect the spirit of the play. And that’s not a strange condition, but a reasonable one."

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

For Naomi, the project isn't one without some complications, as she claims that "coordinating to get everyone in the same room for the first brainstorming session" can be a difficult task. "There’s something irreplaceable about being in person for that initial exchange of ideas—it sets the tone for the entire creative process," she says.

For Shayok Misha Chowdhury, writer of Public Obscenities, taking part in the project was "a genuinely fun and surprising process." On working with Naomi Shayok says "She approached the challenge of working with Bengali script – a language she'd never worked in before – not as a burden or obstacle but rather as an opportunity for aesthetic experimentation. The final poster was something I never could have dreamed up, and a piece of real art, not just a marketing object. So many of Naomi's posters for Soho Rep feel that way."

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

In working with Soho Rep, Naomi claims they have been one of her "most inspiring clients," broadening the creative boundaries of her wider work "Our process takes me deep into the creative minds of other artists, expanding my perspective and challenging my approach."

"That influence extends over into my corporate design projects, pushing me to think differently and approach design with a fresh lens. It’s a partnership I value immensely. Shows at Soho Rep are often still being rewritten and workshopped and I like to think that sometimes our process helps to partly solidify a director and playwright’s vision for the work on stage," Naomi adds.

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

When asked whether the project is set to expand, Naomi says she sees an opportunity for creative growth on the horizon "Starting with their next production, The Great Privation, Soho Rep is moving to a new location which offers the addition of in-house screens and exciting possibilities. I foresee animation becoming a part of our visual storytelling in the future, which feels like a natural evolution of the work."

Soho Rep theatre posters

(Image credit: Soho Rep/Studio Usher)

If you're looking for more theatre poster designs, check out this ingenious Macbeth poster that makes clever use of negative space. For more design inspiration take a look at Pentagram’s latest visual identity that uses a stunning natural photography technique.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/poster-design/the-posters-are-weird-inside-the-unapologetically-bold-art-of-soho-rep-theatre 4musryD6Abyib9YmGqpB9M Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ I love the ingenious design of the new Alien: Earth poster ]]> A new poster has dropped for the highly anticipated series Alien: Earth and fans are delighted by the slick dual design. As we saw with the recent Alien: Romulus film poster, if you stick a Xenomorph on the design it'll likely excite fans, yet the new series poster is a perfect blend is much more than fan service, blending fierce imagery with subtle, sleek design.

The creature design of the iconic Xenomorph naturally makes for a terrifying image, and the poster's minimalist design only intensifies its threatening presence. With the eerie series poster receiving an outpouring of praise from fans, let's hope the series lives up to the hype.

“We were safer in space.” New Alien: Earth promo poster from r/LV426

The simple poster features a close-up of a drooling Xenomorph against a black background, drool dripping from its mouth as it bares its threatening teeth. Playing on the series' theme, the skull of the creature is mixed with a dark image of Earth and a menacing tagline reads "We were safer in space", adding an extra layer of fear and anticipation for patient fans.

"Blending the Xenomorph’s carapace with the planet makes for a pretty cool visual," says one user on the r/LV426 subreddit. "This poster looks reminiscent of the early xenomorph games of the mid-90s. Very pastel and translucent," another added. "10/10 design" one fan said, while others shared in the high praise, calling it "fire", "awesome" and "stunning".

Alien: Earth poster

(Image credit: FX)

For more Alien news check out the terrifying Alien: Romulus campaign that took over the streets of LA. If you're after more stunning design take a look at the best film posters of all time.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/poster-design/i-love-the-slick-dual-design-of-the-new-alien-earth-poster M2TRZnh8sLRAVE5e4RQJPD Tue, 28 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Fanta's just unveiled the most garish Xbox branding collab yet ]]> We've seen some garish Xbox collaborations in the past, from nail polish with OPI to the Gucci Xbox Series X. But Coca-Cola's vibrantly coloured drinks brand Fanta has just revealed what could be the loudest video game console design we've seen to date.

Fanta is giving away lurid console bundles and wireless controllers "representing the most popular flavours in the brand's portfolio", such as orange, lemon and grape. The result makes even the flashier Switch colour ways look drab.

Image 1 of 3

Bright Fanta Xbox designs and controllers

(Image credit: Coca-Cola / Microsoft)
Image 2 of 3

A bright orange Fanta-branded Xbox

(Image credit: Coca-Cola / Microsoft)
Image 3 of 3

An orange Fanta-branded Xbox controller

(Image credit: Coca-Cola / Microsoft)

I'm wondering if I would be able to concentrate on a game with a controller that looks like it's been painted with food colourings as bright as a high vis jackets. And while we rate the Xbox as the best games console for value in our buying guide, the gaudy colours make it look like a cheap toy. I guess at least the design looks less generic than the drab Balenciaga game console.

Fanta will be picking winners each week for 15 Xbox wireless controllers and two Xbox Series X console bundles. Alongside the limited-edition promotional hardware, the competition also offers chances to win Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions (only redeemable by new members).

Players need to be 18 or over and must scan a QR code and download the Coke App to see if they're a winner. If you don't get lucky, see prices of the standard coloured Xbox and other consoles below.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/fantas-just-unveiled-the-most-garish-xbox-branding-collab-yet pj7CaRTxDfKX5q4XcL6A9K Tue, 28 Jan 2025 08:00:10 +0000 <![CDATA[ One.com 2025 review: the back-to-basics website builder ]]> One.com is one of the most popular website builders today, and even though it may not be as detailed in its features offering as some other favourites for photographers or artists, it has made a name for itself as a platform that's easy to use and get to grips with. We have reviewed the latest, newly AI-integrated (of course) version of it to see if it matches up with the best in the business yet...

Generative AI features

Although you can start off with a template, the primary approach is to generate a website with AI. This is quite a pleasant experience as One.com will ask you some very direct questions, as opposed to approaching you with the typical “Tell us about your website” prompt that can be difficult to answer. Within the first few seconds you’ll choose which of the suggested functionalities you want, for example eat-in, delivery, and/or takeaway if you choose “Coffee shop” as your website category. Some of the questions are very attentive — for example in one of the websites that I set up, I was asked if I wanted to present myself as an “I” or a “we.” You’ll wrap up by previewing color themes on your rather impressive AI-generated website.

One.com 2025 website builder in use

(Image credit: Daniel Schwarz)

Once you’ve got a template sorted you can also use AI to generate text content, but there aren’t any AI features beyond that. In particular, an AI logo generator is sorely missed.

Templates

The templates range from bad to great, so there’s definitely some variety there, but many of them are too simple to be classified as either, which is good if you really want to dig your heels into the design tools and craft something bespoke.

Design tools

Adding elements to the page and aligning them is easy enough. There are grid lines to snap to (although not many) and maintaining consistent spacing is easy too, thanks to said snapping. However, besides the sections themselves, there isn’t any fluidity — elements have fixed dimensions, and while there is a separate mobile version for you to work with, your desktop version will overflow the viewport at some point, which is disappointing.

You can add text and text-based components, images, galleries, image sliders, videos, buttons, a wide variety of pre-made sections and containers, contact information, social links and social embeds, third-party widgets, product grids and product features, your logo, navigations, tables, documents, and custom code (before the or only).

One.com 2025 website builder in use

(Image credit: Daniel Schwarz)

One.com provides thousands of images that you can use for free. You can also insert Shutterstock images, although these will need to be purchased.

Containers are just boxes in a range of styles (e.g., rounded corners) — they’re not revolutionary but it’s a nice quality-of-life feature to have.

Most website builders enable you to maintain visual consistency using colour themes, text styles, and sometimes button styles, but One.com goes way beyond this with link, menu, and table styles too. There’s a hub for managing these (as you’d expect), but it’s so refreshing to have access to them in-context as well.

One.com 2025 website builder in use

(Image credit: Daniel Schwarz)

Finally, editing the design is quite fun once you’ve become proficient with the interface, which is fast, responsive, and makes perfect sense.

One.com 2025 website builder in use

(Image credit: Daniel Schwarz)

There isn’t much to say about special effects. You can implement scroll effects (fixed and parallax), but that’s about it. That being said, perhaps you’ll appreciate One.com’s simplicity.

Other features

There are some other features. For example, retail businesses will be able to set opening hours.

Other features include:

  • eCommerce
  • SEO customization
  • Social sharing images
  • Google Analytics integration
  • Facebook Pixel integration
  • Marketing consent collection (despite no email marketing features, which is very odd)
  • Custom code (again, before the or only)

There aren’t any features for accepting bookings (only a standard contact form), which seems like a huge oversight. To do this, you’ll need to plug third-party code into the custom code box.

One.com 2025 website builder in use

(Image credit: Daniel Schwarz)

Pricing

Who is it for?

One.com is for creatives with simple requirements, although if you happen to not need any of the missing features, you’ll certainly have fun building your website with their fast, responsive, and easy-to-master interface. Besides, you are allowed to plug in third-party tools using custom code, so it’s definitely worth giving it a try either way (no card details needed). That aside, the GenAI features are pretty decent, as is One.com’s approach to helping you maintain visual consistency/keep your design organized.

Buy it if...

  • You want to get up and running quickly
  • You want the process/your design to feel organised

Don't buy it if...

  • Good customer support is a must-have
  • Your website needs to be fluid/fully responsive
  • You need to accept bookings or engage in email marketing
]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/web-design-development-software/one-com-2025-review-the-back-to-basics-website-builder Jvhv8M6KHLfT9FSedEmgsP Tue, 28 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE review: the new king of graphics cards for creatives ]]> It's finally here. After much anticipation, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE, the first NVIDIA GeForce card of the full-on AI era, is here. Promising a paradigm shift in graphics processing, the 5090 FE (the FE stands for Founders Edition) is the flagship of an upcoming line of 50-series graphics cards from NVIDIA, with more power, more efficiency and more AI-ready features to take creative pros' work further than ever - at least that's the pitch.

But will it vault right to the top of the list of best graphics cards on the market, or have we been waiting in vain? I have had one for a couple of weeks to find out.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

The card comes in fully recyclable packaging. Nice. (Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE review: Key specifications

Design and build

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE is a graphics card. That means it's essentially a big blocky block of Tech Stuff. It's incredibly solid and feels dense and sturdy, as it should. But there are notable differences to the previous generation of cards. Slightly longer than the 4070 Ti Super that previously occupied its new slot in my tower PC, it's also slightly thinner, including the port panel, meaning there's a small gap in the back of the tower where there used to be none. I will be able to cover that by reattaching one of the back panel bars again, though, I think.

The power socket is very cleverly inserted at an angle to minimise the protrusion of the power cable for users with more compact towers than my admittedly generous-sized one.

Switch it on, and the GEFORCE RTX logo on the side lights up, which is of course a vital detail for the aesthetically minded among us. I really like it, as it's a touch of flash without being too garish.

The back of this sleek Founder's Edition has four ports, three DisplayPort and one HDMI. You'll be entirely unsurprised to find the DPs support up to 4K 480Hz or 8K 165Hz with DSC each, while the HDMI supports up to 4K 480Hz or 8K 120Hz with DSC, Gaming VRR, and HDR.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Features

The big new feature in the 50-series cards is the all-new Blackwell architecture, which succeeds the Ada Lovelace of the 40-series, and comes with more AI features than before.

Pure core counts are up dramatically across the board as you see in the specs sheet above, but the GB number increase may be less than anticipated, as this flagship card comes with 32 of the latter. Why not more? As we found out during NVIDIA's Editors Day at CES 2025, it may be because instead of just going for more power at any cost, the increased AI-fication has led to vastly increased efficiency in how the card distributes and uses its power. So with a card that draws a maximum wattage of about 25% more than the previous flagship, NVIDIA claims up to 70% higher performance for creatives (and in one specific case of 4-2-2 camera video rendering, a staggering 11 times more efficient processing). All this for the same price as the 4090 set you back last year. We're getting closer to the Performance bit...

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Tensors

NVIDIA's proprietary tech, CUDA cores, are central to the card's graphics prowess. In fact, for many in the 3D arena, the number of CUDA core processors on a card was the primary criterion for choosing a GPU.

In addition to that, we have the ever-increasingly important Tensor Cores. Both are processing units, and the more you have, the better something will run. Where CUDAs run general graphics and 3D rendering well, they are not nearly as efficient at running the Neural processing, AI and “Deep” processing tasks as Tensor cores,

The 5090 FE boasts 3352 of the latter, more than double that of the 4090 (1321), while you'll find 30% more CUDA cores here (21,760) than in the 4090 (16,384). And it's those Tensor cores that are at the heart of the big innovations here, including DLSS 4, Neural rendering, Neural shaders, and much more.

The back of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

There is a bit of daylight in the back, as it replaces the chunkier 4070 Ti Super in my setup... (Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Benchmark scoring

Performance

If you're buying the 5090 FE card, you expect absolute top-level performance across the board, and I'm happy to report that it duly delivers exactly that. Name the GPU-intensive task, and this thing is producing numbers I've literally never seen before.

The biggest gains are found in applications such as DaVinci Resolve and the Flux image generator. The DaVinci Resolve overall score is at least 30% above anything I've seen in any 40-series card, with it setting a new, well, benchmarking benchmark across the board.

I also used 4-2-2 camera video assets to run a concurrent render of 9 video streams, which it did faster in real-time than my 4070 Ti Super did with a single render. I estimated about a 9.8x increase in speed, thanks to the new Blackwell architecture, which can clearly run render tasks like this much faster than the Ada Lovelace-equipped 40-series. Video editors, the world lies at your feet now.

The overall Photoshop score is perhaps a little less dramatically higher than previous gens, but it's in Flux where we see staggering differences. A much more memory-intensive software than Stable Diffusion, which we usually use for our AI image-gen benchmarks, the 5090 rattled through the test by generating images faster in Flux than I've seen anything do in the Stable Diffusion 1.5 test (a much lighter one).

Finally, traditional Geekbench 6 OpenCL testing gave me a mind-melting 376,919 points, 70% more than my 4070 Ti Super, 40% faster than most 4090 tests, and indeed higher than pretty much anything run through Geekbench ever. And this card is apparently not even optimised for that software yet.

3D processing is also much, much faster than before, thanks to the cohort of innovations on board here. Software support is obviously still being rolled out, but by the end of the year, almost every notable piece of 3D or video software should have full support for the Blackwell suite of features. As such, some of our usual benchmark tests aren't yet compatible with the 50-series cards, but we will add them to this review as and when we can run them.

And although we're not a gaming site, I am a gamer (and so will many of you be), and using this card in a game like Cyberpunk 2077, with the graphics turned up to ultra in 4K resolution and DLSS 4 switched on, I consistently averaged over 200 frames per second without the card seemingly breaking a sweat. What a time to be alive.

Also, extra kudos to NVIDIA for releasing it with a remarkably stable and bug-free driver on the first go. Other companies, take note.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Who is it for?

At almost $2,000, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE is as far removed from a casual card as you can get. This is a card for Serious Users with Serious Requirements for their Serious Work (and play), and the price reflects that.

With DLSS 4 support, neural rendering, RTX Mega Geometry and a host of other innovations on board, this is the new top choice for 3D modellers, game developers and graphic designers, and the vastly increased video-editing and rendering efficiency (especially if you're using the content-creator-friendly 4-2-2 cameras that are getting more popular every week) will make this the go-to card for video editors too.

Photo editors will also see a big uptick, but they might want to stick around for the incoming 5080 or 5070 cards, as they probably won't need the absolute top-level card in this lineup.

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card

(Image credit: Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Buy it if

  • you are a professional game developer or 3D modeller
  • you need the absolute best in AI-accelerated graphics performance
  • you want cinema-level graphics in your gaming sessions too

Don't buy it if

  • your needs don't justify forking out $2k for a graphics card
]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/graphics-cards/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090-fe-review-the-new-king-of-graphics-cards-for-creatives 6awaL5Di58DdqSqJnVdTxG Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Dropbox's new brand identity website puts boring style guides to shame ]]> It's no secret that style guides can be a little dry sometimes, but file hosting service Dropbox has bucked the trend, unveiling a new brand guideline microsite with a slick interactive twist. With its dynamic UI design and immersive storytelling, the site expertly showcases the creative prowess of Dropbox's identity, putting a much-needed creative spin on the corporate brand rulebook.

To create a style guide that informs and engages is no mean feat, yet Dropbox's microsite is a shining example of the future of design, creating a fluid and captivating experience that uplifts its content. From iconography to motion, each curated detail demonstrates Dropbox's design evolution, ushering in a new era of innovation.

Dropbox brand guidelines design

(Image credit: Dropbox )

Dropbox's brand guideline site is a treasure trove of interactive experiences, acting as a functional info source enriched with a playful taste of the brand's creative craft. Created in collaboration with Daybreak Studio – utilising technology from Webflow and Rive – Dropbox's visual playground explores branding features such as voice and tone, logo, imagery, motion and more.

The site's highlights include the Variable Type Explorer tool, which allows users to explore the flexibility of Dropbox’s custom typeface by adjusting its variations at the click of a button. An interactive Icon Slot Machine brings an element of play to the guide, showcasing the diverse range of iconography and how they combine to form a harmonious design aesthetic.

Dropbox brand guideline website

(Image credit: Dropbox)

Dropbox's ambitious new brand guideline site demonstrates that there are creative opportunities to be found in even the most traditionally dry places when it comes to business branding. A shining example of how branding style guides should reflect the essence of a brand's creativity, Dropbox's site has set a high standard that hopefully marks the end of plain, static style guides.

For more design inspiration take a look at these amazing examples of motion in logo design. If you're after more branding news take a look at Wieden+Kennedy's wild logo designs that celebrate London's eclectic creative talent.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/dropboxs-new-brand-identity-website-puts-boring-style-guides-to-shame gBkqnuh74mabQYydKZRmZf Mon, 27 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ The Super Bowl logo conspiracy theory just got even more ridiculous ]]> The Super Bowl logo conspiracy strikes yet again. After last year's NFL finale deviated from the pattern, the Super Bowl 2025 fixture has resurrected the most outlandish theory in sports logo design.

After the Eagles defeated the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship and the Chiefs scraped past the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship, this year's event will be a rematch of Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs from two years ago. And that means the logo theory is intact... kind of.

What is the Super Bowl logo conspiracy theory?

The Super Bowl logo conspiracy theory has it that the colours of each year's logo predict which teams will make it to the final. This worked out two years in a row with LA Rams vs Bengals in Super Bowl LVI (orange and yellow) and Eagles vs Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII (green and red).

The theory was momentarily pronounced dead after the Chiefs beat the purple-hued Baltimore Ravens to a clash against the San Francisco 49ers (red) in the 2024 Super Bowl. But it wasn't going to disappear so fast. With some impressive lateral thinking, someone noticed that the Chiefs could also be considered to have purple as a colour because – er – Travis Kelce dates Taylor Swift, and the singer once wore purple.

That was a bit of a stretch, but the Super Bowl logo conspiracy is now back with a vengeance. The Super Bowl LIX logo is red and green, and, lo and behold, destiny has set up a rematch of Chiefs vs Eagles (what do you mean the Eagle's green is a totally different shade? Lime green is green; that's all that matters here).

The designs that started the Super Bowl Logo conspiracy

(Image credit: NFL)

Some take the design conspiracy even further. It's been suggested that the Super Bowl logo also reveals which team will win by placing their colour at the bottom of the logo. That worked out in 2022 and 2023 (and in 2024 if you accept Taylor Swift's Speak Now cover as a representation of the Chiefs).

That delightfully fanciful idea would suggest that we could see the Eagles emerge victorious in New Orleans on Sunday 9 February since the green(ish) parts of the 2025 logo are near(ish) the bottom of the design. If that happens, the world's first allegation of graphic design-based match-fixing will persist for at least another year.

What is the Super Bowl LIX logo?

The 2025 Super Bowl logo maintains the general shape of the standardised designs from the last few years but uses the structure as a canvas to showcase a local artistic tradition. It was co-created by Tahj Williams, queen of the Black Masking Indian tribe in New Orleans, the host city for the event.

Her tribe has a a beading tradition that's passed down through the generations, and Tahj used this art form to painstakingly create the Super Bowl LIX Logo bead by bead before the design was digitalised.

Also see our roundup of Super Bowl design controversies.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/the-super-bowl-logo-conspiracy-just-got-even-more-ridiculous P3WtLnpmoVgVkeMTAsTNU7 Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:30:00 +0000 <![CDATA[ Sniper Elite: Resistance review - unexpectedly compelling and moreish ]]>
Sniper Elite: Resistance details

Publisher Rebellion

Developer Rebellion

Format Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One

Platform Asura

Release date 28 January 2025

As befits a game which is all about hiding in long grass and taking out enemies from unfeasible distances, Rebellion’s Sniper Elite franchise has remained firmly below the radar, even while quietly amassing a large and enthusiastic following.

With its overarching WWII comic-book vibe, underpinned by impressively rigorous, finely fettled third-person shooting and enemy AI, it has always offered super-seductive gameplay without exactly challenging one’s intellectual boundaries which, I’d contend, places it in guilty pleasure territory.

It's less than two years since the last major iteration, Sniper Elite 5, released, so I guess you could describe Sniper Elite: Resistance as Sniper Elite 5.5. Resistance, as you might imagine, cleaves very closely to the well-established franchise blueprint – once again, you’re essentially a one-man army, in the form of an SOE operative, cutting a swathe through masses of Nazis behind enemy lines in World War II, employing stealth via brutal takedowns and ninja sniping skills, backed up by a lurid but immensely satisfying x-ray killcam that shows your bullets penetrating enemies’ specific internal organs.

A new protagonist

Sniper Elite Resistance review; a man hides behind sand bags as a tank goes past

(Image credit: Rebellion)

But Sniper Elite: Resistance does offer some differentiation from its predecessors. For a start, it puts you in control of a different character, giving series protagonist Karl Fairburne a rest. This time around, the fate of the war rests on the broad shoulders of Harry Hawker, like Fairburne an SOE agent. To be frank, I found playing Hawker almost indistinguishable from playing Fairburne – they both have the same moves and skills. Hawker is a tad grittier and more working-class, however, with a trace of Cockney in his accent.

Story-wise, Sniper Elite: Resistance is set in a very specific time-frame and location: specifically France, in the lead-up to D-Day. The SOE has got wind of something which could put a serious spanner in D-Day’s works: a super-weapon being developed by Nazi boffins designed to wipe out any Allied invasion force, wherever it may land, elaborate misdirection notwithstanding.

Long, involving missions

Sniper Elite Resistance review; a man aims a sniper rifle

(Image credit: Rebellion)

That story plays out over seven, satisfyingly large and detailed, missions, along with a prologue and an epilogue. All of which are set in France, but across a variety of settings that take in rural idylls such as a vineyard and a picturesque dam, along with several meticulously recreated urban environments. Sniper Elite: Resistance uses Rebellion’s long-established in-house Asura engine which, as can be expected, impresses even more than it did in Sniper Elite 5. (Read our guide to the best game development software for comparisons to Asura.)

Asura has always been particularly good at generating impressive-looking environments, and sure enough, the ones I found in Sniper Elite: Resistance were uniformly stunning, with notably fine texture work, convincing water and so on. Lighting also seemed to be a notch improved compared to Sniper Elite 5, especially indoors – at one point, I found an operational film projector and felt compelled to walk in front of it for a bit of shadowplay.

I played Resistance on Xbox Series X, on which it looked extremely crisp and convincing, although the cut-scenes (admittedly pretty few and far between), which took a more comic book-influenced visual approach, felt a tiny bit incongruous compared to the bucolic 1940s scenery on display elsewhere. But even that visual discontinuity merely served to emphasise Sniper elite’s curious mix of comic-book sensibilities and period rigour.

Sniper Elite Resistance review; two people look at a large French castle

(Image credit: Rebellion)

Gameplay-wise, Sniper Elite: Resistance will offer few surprises to anyone who has played any of the previous games. It’s hard, and you have to make maximum use of Harry Hawker’s myriad skills, along with his ever-growing arsenal. Hawker has three guns – a pistol, a submachine-gun and his trusty sniper rifle – backed up with things like mines, grenades, decoys and bottles for misdirecting enemies and a whistle for attracting them closer for takedowns.

As I progressed through the missions, I acquired more exotic forms of ammo, such as explosive rounds and subsonic bullets which complemented silenced weaponry. Workbenches let me upgrade all my weapons, and being able to equip a silenced submachine-gun as well as the standard silenced pistol proved particularly handy.

Comforting gameplay

Sniper Elite Resistance review; a woman shoots at people and a man uses binoculars

(Image credit: Rebellion)

Playing Sniper Elite: Resistance was something like pulling on a comfy sweater: I found the act of plotting my way through serried ranks of Nazis infinitely comforting. As in Sniper Elite 5, all of Resistance’s missions are long and involving, with multiple main objectives along with plenty of hidden ones: extensive exploration was the order of the day, and after completing the campaign, I returned to many missions in search of maxing out the rating given at the end of each one.

That offered plenty of replay value, but there’s a lot more of that offered by different elements of the game. Some of which are familiar: Invasion mode, in which you invade other players’ campaigns as an Axis sniper and they invade yours, is back – you can switch it off or make it invite-only. And you can play the campaign co-operatively with someone else.

Propaganda mode

Sniper Elite Resistance review; a man sneaks up on a German soldier

(Image credit: Rebellion)

But Sniper Elite: Resistance has a new mode which I greatly enjoyed. Entitled Propaganda, and unlocked by finding French Resistance propaganda posters in the missions, it offers short but intense blasts of action focusing on one particular form of gameplay. There are three types: sniping, stealth and frontline combat. Each session is time-limited, but you can earn extra time by, for example, pulling off headshots when sniping or explosive-kills in combat.

The one problem with Propaganda mode was that it could be tricky to find the unlocking posters (providing another reason to revisit the campaign missions), but it provided a great change of pace, distilling the gameplay from the long missions down to short high-octane bursts that also enabled me to hone specific skills.

Sniper Elite Resistance review; a man targets a German soldier in a video game

(Image credit: Rebellion)

In common with previous Sniper Elite instalments, it’s a game that you will find unexpectedly compelling and moreish

Factor in all those elements and Sniper Elite: Resistance amounts to a pretty meaty package which lacks very little in comparison with a full franchise-iteration release. As with its predecessors, it’s a joy to play – the realistic AI that powers its Nazi enemies means that you really have to employ both skill and strategy to prosper. Plus it looks great – noticeably better than the already impressive Sniper Elite 5 – and its storyline, while fictional, still comes across as convincing, and adds plenty of jeopardy that plays into the gameplay.

It is, of course, by no means the sort of must-buy blockbuster that gamers will have been talking about for months. But in common with previous Sniper Elite instalments, it’s a game that you will find unexpectedly compelling and moreish should you take the plunge and play it.

Sniper Elite: Resistance will delight the existing Sniper Elite fanbase, and should, in truth, impress any discerning aficionados of third-person shooters in general. If, given recent events, you’re growing tired of griping about wannabe Nazis, why not work off your frustrations by killing a load of digitally recreated ones?

Sniper Elite: Resistance - verdict

A visual upgrade on Sniper Elite 5, a new game mode that offers immediate fun and an engaging new campaign, Sniper Elite: Resistance is always fun but rarely reinvents the gameplay set by the series.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/sniper-elite-resistance-review-unexpectedly-compelling-and-moreish NNKyWzf8xFJcYdPD4Rd6Ba Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:00:10 +0000