iPhone SDK Tutorial: Using Particle Designer in Cocos2D

iPhone SDK Tutorial: Using Particle Designer in Cocos2D Video Clips. Duration : 9.00 Mins.

SDK Tutorials Cocos2D: bit.ly

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16 iPad Apps That No Mobile Designer Should Be Without

We live in a mobile age, my friends. An age where an office is more of a formality and a storage space than an actual necessity. An age where companies are actually closing their offices down so employees can work out of their homes, their cars, and anywhere else they happen to land. So it should come as no surprise that tools and technologies that are making it easier for those employees to get out of the office are some of the hottest on today's market.

And, Apple being Apple, I also doubt it's going to surprise you when I tell you that the iPad apps that are letting designers work from home, from their car, from their coffee shop or their favorite restaurant or pub are the hottest topics of conversation in today's designer drawing rooms.

Create An Iphone App

So, without further ado, let's share what they've shared and talk about the 16 hottest iPad apps for mobile designers today.

Adobe Ideas: Adobe Ideas acts as a mobile digital sketchbook and, with the awesomeness that Adobe design tools have long been known for, offers up to ten design layers, making it a favorite for iPad design out on the road.

iMockups: iMockups acts as a design board, allowing you to quickly design wireframes and mockups for your website or other project. Also available for iPhone.

SketchyPad: This one, I have to admit, intrigued me when I first saw it laid out. Sketchy Pad does exactly what it says it does-offers you a place to "sketch" your website or app. I'm really at a loss for how to explain it beyond that, but it's well worth checking out.

AirDisplay: As someone who regularly uses their mobile phone as a minicomputer, this thrilled me. I mean seriously thrilled me. Why? Because with AirDisplay, you can use your iPad as an additional monitor to your other mobile devices. Deceptively pointless, this provides a large scale view of something you've spent months trying to squint at. (Also makes a great tool for entertaining the kiddies when you're out on the road!)

MindNode: This mindmapping/brainstorming tool for your iPad is the perfect place to expand and connect ideas, which is great when you're having a brainstorming fit mid-marketing campaign!

FTPOnTheGo: You love FTP. I love FTP. So there's no point in pretending that something that doesn't make accessing, editing and moving FTP files out on the road without giving yourself a massive migraine isn't the coolest thing since sliced bread. Seriously.

Freeform: Freeform is a vector drawing tool for the iPad that allows you to create just about anything, then export it in an easy to use JPEG, PNG or PDF format. Nothing fancy, nothing difficult, and it's compatible for use with most other mobile programs and Applications.

iThoughtsHD: Another fun brainstorming tool that's easy to export, this is fun for designers but brutally necessary for project managers out on the road.

LiveSketch HD: You'd never be caught without a sketchpad. Now you can have the digital form. LiveSketchHD works just like a regular sketchpad, but it's embedded into your iPad for traveling convenience and protection from prying eyes, little or otherwise!

AutoDesk Sketchbook Mobile: Painting and drawing software for the artistically gifted designer. Now also available for Android, designers who have used AutoDesk (I haven't personally taken it for a test drive yet) really like its versatility and the way it doesn't pen them in to any specific type of design media. You've got your 3-D and your stick figures all in one!

TypeDrawing: Typography for photos and fun for fonts, typography takes calligraphy to a whole new level for designers. People who have used it are raving over its ease and speed, even for an iPad newbie.

Photopad by Zagg: A high-quality photoediting app for a mobile device, if there's something you want to do to your photo with a regular photoediting software you can't do here, I haven't found it yet. It doesn't, however, seem to have the capabilities of Photoshop and may prove more helpful to photographers than graphic designers.

Filterstorm: Filterstorm seems to offer more versatility in photo editing for the iPad than Photopad. This is another one I haven't had the chance to play with yet; however, their product description page claims that they're a favorite with photojournalists.

Omnigraffle: Charts. Wireframes. Diagrams. Page layouts. Omnigraffle. Check it out.

Moodboard Pro: Moodboard creates mood and inspiration boards for your family. I'm really not sure how to describe it, aside from the finished products are absolutely gorgeous and offer a definite improvement over the same same-old same-old.

Brushes App: Another app takes the artist's easel out onto the iPad. This offers realistic layering, a number of brush options, and the opportunity to digitally create works that look like they were made on the easel and brought out into the digital world...

...explaining why the iPad really is the latest and greatest for today's mobile design.

16 iPad Apps That No Mobile Designer Should Be Without

So You Want to Be a Freelance Web Designer?

When your just starting out as a web designer, there is a large learning curve. It's important to start with the basics of html unless you're building an all flash website. Even if you are building a flash site, it's a good idea to learn html. Once you have a firm foundation of html, it's also important to understand graphic design. You not only need to be able to design great graphics, but you also need to know how to save them optimized for the web. The standard resolution for an image intended for the internet is 72dpi. For print, images are usually more like 300dpi.

Another important thing to learn is FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for uploading files to the hosting account. Not only that, you must know that domain names are not the same thing as a server aka hosting account.

Iphone Application

Once you have a solid foundation of html, graphic design, and FTP, I suggest getting a foothold in CSS, Jquery, and basic PHP.

CSS (cascading style sheets)

These are what you use to handle a variety of styling situations. Usually you'll have one main style sheet that sits in the root folder of your website. This controls many aspects of the design such as font size, colors, positioning, background images, margins, padding, and much more.

Adobe Flash

Flash is a software Application which allows you to make anything from a simple slideshow to complete interactive web designs. It's incredibly diverse. You can also create complex 2d animations with just a few clicks. It's certainly got a learning curve, and I would recommend studying with several great teachers that you can interact with and ask questions.

Jquery

This is a javascript library with many plugins that is growing in popularity. It allows you to do many of the things that you can do with flash, except you're doing them with javascript. That way it often times even works on an iPhone, iPad, or other mobile device. It's also more search engine friendly than flash. You can create many effects with Jquery. Anything from animation to tabbed menus.

PHP

One of the most common uses for php is the contact form. The php code processes the form, and emails it to the recipient. There are many other uses. It's used a lot to communicate with databases to put and retrieve data.

Key Commands

When you're working with software Applications creating multimedia content, it will save you a lot of time to learn the key command short cuts. Just think about it. Instead of always using the mouse to move around, and bring windows to the front etc, you can just quickly hit 2 or 3 keys to make it happen almost instantly.

Landing New Clients

This is often the most challenging part. There are more web designers every day, and the competition can be fierce. You simple need to stick to your guns, and do what you do best. A lot of jobs will come word of mouth. start getting your name out there. Do a few free sites for promo. Whatever it takes to show that you are reliable, and can walk the talk.

I hope this information helped you understand some of the key aspects of being a web designer. Of course this is just from my experience. Everyone masters different skills.

So You Want to Be a Freelance Web Designer?