It's not a new phenomenon by any means, as games like Fallout have similarly revived classics like The Ink Spots' "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire". It goes to show how the best video games have the power to influence pop culture way beyond the confines of the screen.

Released in 1976, Devil Woman is considered one of Cliff's 'edgier' tunes, which is why the sudden virality of the song amuses me. I suspect many new fans will be surprised to discover his wider discography, featuring the Eurovision hit "Congratulations" and the festive ballad "Mistletoe and Wine".

Devil Woman's sudden surge in popularity highlights the wider ways we discover new music. Whether it's a viral TikTok sound or a gaming score, these hits get new context, and suddenly a song once confined to the discomfort of an awkward family gathering becomes a mysterious (dare I say sexy?) soundtrack.

GTA VI is already permeating the cultural zeitgeist, taking over social media with viral memes – hey, we got a Cliff Richard revival before GTA VI... The excited response to its latest ad takeover in Miami proves that the game is the most hyped release we've seen in decades, and with graphics that good, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

A lot of people new to Laika have expressed surprise at how incredibly clean the animation looks for stop motion. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, I highly recommend watching the behind-the-scenes video below. It provides an insight into just how big an accomplishment it was to make the movie by hand.

If you're inspired, see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best animation software.

Wildwood is an adaptation of the 2011 children's fantasy novel written by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and illustrated by Carson Ellis. The first book in The Wildwood Chronicles trilogy follows two seventh-graders, Prue and Curtis, as they enter the magical Impassable Wilderness in Portland, Oregon, to rescue their kidnapped baby brother.

True to Laika's signature animation style, the film combines traditional stop‑motion with CGI enhancements (check out how Laika animates water). That creates a smooth, polished aesthetic while Laika's process of animating on ones creates very fluid motion.

Certain scenes have sparked debates on social media with some people believing that digital 3D models must have been used. Take the cages in the clip in the post below. The way they move while the characters also move has some people refusing to believe that they were physical models.

But here's the evidence.

3D printing is a key part of Laika's workflow, and this is what allows the studio to create such precise and detailed models. They used 142,000 3D-printed faces with voxel printing for subsurface scattering. Every distinct facial expression, emotion, and mouth shape is individually 3D-printed, and tiny magnets are rigged between the puppet's solid body and face plates that are swapped frame by frame while also manually moving elements like the eyeballs and eyelids.

The puppets have a rig called a jetpack attached to their back with knobs and turnbuckles for making minute tilt and rotation movements quickly. Some puppets have inflatables called breathers inside them, which could be adjusted with a key to make the puppets look like they're breathing.

To learn more about the making of the movie, check out the Art of Wildwood art book published by Rizzoli Universe.

The original Tomb Raider was released for the Sega Saturn in Europe and Japan on 25 October, 1996. The North American release came a month later alongside the version for the original PlayStation. To commemorate the birth of an icon, Crystal Dynamics has released a series of Tomb Raider 30 wallpapers showing the evolution of Lara Croft over the ages.

The main Tomb Raider anniversary artwork fits eight incarnations of the intrepid archaeologist Lara Croft, from her original dual-pistol-wielding low-poly appearance to the more grounded and vulnerable Lara of Survivor and the new Lara Croft from Legacy of Atlantis, which is being developed with Flying Wild Hog, and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, which is coming further ahead in 2028.

Some fans will be disappointed by the apparent snub of Underworld Lara, but the pieces artwork captures well how Lara has evolved over the years, and how she's remained unmistakably Lara despite the changes to her appearance and character as technology has permitted developers to hone their vision.

The 1996 Lara design continues to provide the basis for the character today despite the ability to make her look more realistic. PlayStation 2-era Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld introduced smoother geometry and more expressive animation, while the Survivor trilogy pushed the detail and realism, with each leap adding more polygons, texture, as well as nuance to Lara's character.

Crystal Dynamics has also released a new illustration commissioned from artist Inna Vjuzhanina as part of the Tomb Raider anniversary celebrations. Available in multiple formats. The piece brings together Toby Gard and Core Design's Lara Croft from the 1996 debut, originally made of just a few hundred polygons, alongside the character design from the upcoming games developed in Unreal Engine 5.

She's not THIS old, but there's some cool Lara Croft pixel art too..

One of the aspects of Lara's appearance that's evolved most dramatically is her hair. In the first two games, it was made from big polygons, not we have precise strands made from overlapping semi-transparent texture that mimic real clumps of hair. Her skin too. Subsurface scattering makes skin look more real, in changing light while blend shapes can form thousands of natural-looking facial expressions.

3D printing a real model of Lara's body allowed developers to get real-world clothes tailor made, which could then be scanned to bring into the games.

You can download the anniversary artwork and wallpapers from Crystal Dynamics via Flickr.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will be released on 12 February, 2027. Pre-orders are live now on the PlayStation Store and via Steam and Xbox.

Also check out the Tomb Raider gear store for anniversary merchandise, from glasses to swimwear.

Inspired? See our guide to the best laptops for game development.

George Lucas, the filmmaker behind Star Wars and the recent opener of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, offers a useful way to look at this: it’s less about chasing success than about learning to live with the possibility of getting it wrong.

“Failure is another word for experience” is how Lucas put it in a 2013 interview with the US National Endowment for the Arts. He went further, explaining that creating something new means doing things with a high potential for failure, particularly when nobody has done them before. You try something, it doesn’t work, and you use what you’ve learned to try again.

The Star Wars creator says failure can teach you important lessons

It sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget when you’re making art, designing something or trying to find your own style. We see the finished work, the polished portfolio, the film that made it to the screen, but not the weeks, months or years of experiments and failed ideas that got there. LAIKA’s Wildwood production designer, Nelson Lowry, knows that, as he explained in our piece on why making mistakes is part of the creative process.

Lucas also made an important distinction between experimenting for yourself and working for someone else. In the same interview, he talked about making small films he could afford to fail at, without worrying about the financial consequences. When others invest money in your work, he said, it becomes harder to be truly creative if you know you have to please someone.

That pressure will sound familiar to anyone making work for clients, social media or an audience with expectations. It’s tempting to stick with what you know will work, especially on a deadline or when you're trying to satisfy a brief. But if every experiment has to succeed, how do you ever find out what you’re capable of? Stage designer and artist Es Devlin has a similar approach, deliberately pushing into unfamiliar territory because, as she explains in her thoughts on making work without knowing the rules, that’s often where the interesting ideas begin.

George Lucas identifies why wrong ideas can be right

Lucas’s advice isn’t that failure feels good, or that every bad idea is secretly brilliant. It’s that getting something wrong gives you information you didn’t have before. And if you’re stuck trying to make every detail perfect, Salvador Dalí’s rather useful reminder about the impossibility of perfection makes a good companion read.

So the next time a drawing, design or creative project goes sideways, don't bin the whole thing just yet. Have a look at what went wrong. There might be something useful in there.

Explore the Lucas Museum art book

It's frustrating, because although you should never pay attention to the comments on the internet (like, ever), the idea someone thinks you "cheated" is actually more upsetting than if they simply didn't like it.

The only silver lining is that at least you can reassure yourself it happens to everyone. Even, it seems, to some of the world's biggest pop stars.

Last Friday, Olivia Rodrigo released the video for her remix of ‘Expectations’ featuring Chappell Roan, in which the two singers send up retro TV game shows, with Talking Heads frontman David Byrne playing the host. Around the three-minute mark, there's a very brief animated sequence featuring cartoon versions of the two young women.

The internet got to work examining the footage, as the internet tends to do, and concluded that generative AI must have been involved. There was plenty of "evidence" in the eyes of these keyboard Miss Marples.

In the normal run of things, you'd have then expected a series of formal denials from the musicians and their representatives. All of which would have merely fuelled the rage and conspiracy theories, and the whole thing might have rumbled on for months.

Show your workings

Instead, something different happened: the work was simply shown. Rodrigo’s official fan account, LiviesHQ, shared a behind-the-scenes clip with the caption: “BTS of the hand-drawn characters, 2D & 3D animation, and analog TV screens used to create the retro graphics of the ‘Expectations’ music video.”

This is not a lengthy, step-by-step documentary, more of a quick sizzle reel. But nonetheless, you can clearly see rough character sketches, 3D animation in progress and how an analogue approach provided the lo-fi feel.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, graphic designer Jack Harrison led the analogue treatment. The art team created the animations in 2D and 3D software, loaded the files onto a Windows Vista PC (ask your dad), then filmed the screen with a high-res camera. In other words, they put a lot of work into making the sequence look clunky and old-fashioned.

This fits neatly with what Olivia told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “I would never use AI in any of my music,” she said. “Absolutely no. Hard line on that. The closest I’d ever got is that once, me and [producer] Dan [Nigro] were like, ‘God, I wonder what ideas ChatGPT would have for an Olivia Rodrigo title,’ and they’re all f**king awful.”

What the backlash to the 'Expectations' video proved, though, is that it doesn't matter how many times you deny using AI, some people won't believe you.

Keep the receipts

So here's my key takeaway. Whether you're a team working for a global superstar or a freelance designer in your bedroom, the most important thing is to record your process.

Keep all your sketches and working files for a project, even the stuff that didn't work and that you later discarded. Make screen recordings of work you do on your computer, and take photos of anything physical you make. Then if anyone kicks off online, just provide the evidence.

Olivia didn’t get drawn into a slanging match. She just shared a short clip that let the work speak for itself, and moved on. It’s a sad state of affairs when creatives have to prove they’re human. But if we have to do it, at least we can do it in style.

Ever since my son became a soccer fan and started playing video games, there’s been an annual fall ritual that he and his friends celebrate. Whenever the new “FIFA” comes out – it’s been called EA FC since 2023 – they lock themselves away for an entire weekend and game, for 48 hours nonstop.

This year, the whole thing turned into a real extravaganza – something was different, better, faster, more thrilling: it was the new EAFC27. Indeed it’s more than just a game. And it comes with a brand design that breaks boundaries. Karun Agimal — Creative Director at DixonBaxi, the agency behind the new look – puts it this way: EAFC is a brand that isn’t simply played. It’s lived.

The London- and LA-based studio DixonBaxi have become famous as the masterminds behind the brand identities of Formula 1 (F1), Roblox and, more recently, Everton FC (among other great projects). In their brand design for EAFC27, they have now combined their precise understanding of gaming and sports culture in a single project (conmpare it here to the other great rebrands of the decade so far).

But first things first

Until 2023, the world-famous soccer game with 1 billion (!) active users was still called FIFA. When EA Sports’ partnership with the FIFA organization ended after 30 years, a comprehensive rebranding and renaming to EAFC took place, supported by London‘s Uncommon Creative Studios. The triangular logo used since then is reminiscent of the floating cursor that has appeared above the controlled players in gameplay for decades.

Building on this strong branding concept, DixonBaxi has now created a holistic and customisable brand universe that leaves traditional TV sports conventions far behind – a look straight outta TikTok & Twitch. As part of the redesign, the triangle was transformed into a free-form shape capable of taking on a wide variety of context-specific visual interpretations. The new visual identity combines an iconic symbol with a graphic treatment that creates an immersive experience and becomes part of users’ cultural interpretation. And that interpretation is as diverse as the world EAFC plays in.

From campaign to culture

Agimal points out: »FC couldn’t just belong to the players already inside it. We needed an identity that reflected the different playstyles, ages and backgrounds that make up the game today. One that could lead the conversation around the most loved sport on the planet. The world’s game. We built a brand system that could move from campaign to culture. Not a fixed identity, but a system designed to move. Giving us the licence to pull harder on culture, respond to it and become part of it.

A brand people can make their own

The new EAFC identity is a prime example of how branding should be conceived and implemented in 2026 — because it answers one of the most important questions brand managers must ask themselves today: How can I enable my users to make my brand their own and view their very own personal version of my brand as part of their culture? As far as the gaming and sports communities are concerned, this has truly been achieved. My son approves.

Inspired by traditional Asian apothecaries and their tools, I wanted to create something with a striking contrast between the dark, monochromatic setting of an old, serious apothecary and the vibrant team within it.

To strengthen the storytelling, I enjoy adding comedic moments, like this nervous child being held back by the monkey during a doctor’s visit (if you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing).

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

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With dedicated Nvidia graphics cards, both of these laptops cater to creators as much as gamers. The 5a has you covered for photo editing, 2D design work and content creation, while the Legion Pro i7 has the internals for heavier video editing and 3D rendering workflows as well as AAA gaming with RTX 5080 graphics and 32GB RAM.

There are another couple of deals I'd recommend considering if you don't need quite as much power or if you're looking for a lighter device for travel. See below for the details. For more options, see our guides to the best laptops for video editing based on our own reviews. For cheaper laptops, see our guide to the best budget laptops for graphic design students.

Today's best laptop deals for creatives

It’s one half of a free update for Dispatch Deluxe Edition owners, out now on PC (Steam), PS5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S, and the other half is Commentary Mode, with more than 16 hours of cast and crew talking you through the episodes.

What’s in the Dispatch anniversary update?

The commentaries include two tracks, one for the cast and one for the crew, with different choices unlocking different commentary, and you can switch it on over the top of Storyboard Mode.

So you can sit and watch a scene in its scrappiest form while somebody who worked on it explains why it ended up looking the way it did. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, BoJack Horseman), Laura Bailey (The Last of Us Part II, Critical Role) and Erin Yvette (Hades II, The Wolf Among Us) are among the cast voices, and they’re talking about bringing the characters to life, which is a nice thing to hear while you’re looking at the version of those characters that hadn’t been animated yet.

What Storyboard Mode shows about how Dispatch was made

I’d be wary of expecting a full production breakdown, because the idea is the animatics themselves and playing them. But for anyone who draws, animates, or storyboards for a living, seeing where a gag gets its timing or a reaction shot gets an extra beat before anyone’s spent a fortune finishing it is a more dynamic way to see a game's scaffolding than doomscrolling ArtStation. We previously went behind the scenes of Dispatch, exploring how AdHoc used Unreal Engine, previsualisation and cinematic tools to bring its superhero workplace comedy to life.

Nick Herman, Co-Creative Director on Dispatch and COO of AdHoc Studio, put it this way: "Dispatch was only possible because of folks who believed in it enough to show up and do their best work. In our industry, it's often really hard to showcase those people and how the development process actually works, but fortunately our game is very weird and specific and affords us some unique opportunities."

Dispatch Deluxe Edition price and who gets the update

Standard Edition owners aren’t left out and can access these neat extras, though the Deluxe upgrade costs $10.99 and includes a digital art book and four digital comics. I think that's good value. Herman says the idea was to give people more ways into a game that’s become part of their lives, "whether that’s playing alongside the cast and crew, experiencing the entire game in its original storyboards, or hanging out together IRL at the wildest version of a Dispatch concert our finance team would sign off on".

The rest of the celebration releases are for people who’d like something to take home. Those four digital comics are now getting a physical release as a complete set, with covers that join up into one big battle scene, and the first 1,000 orders on the AdHoc store get a numbered collector’s card. T-shirts and hoodies feature artwork by art director Derek Stratton, originally made for the three-record soundtrack vinyl set exclusive to Lost In Cult, and they also include 100 signed Stratton album-art posters.

Lost In Cult is also behind Dispatch: Design Works, a hardcover making-of book and collectable box with interviews from the cast and developers, though there’s no date yet, only an alert sign-up on the Lost In Cult site. For another look at the thought that goes into building a game's visual identity, read how the team behind Dustborn created its comic-book-inspired art style, turning a deliberately stylised look into part of the storytelling.

Dispatch mobile release date and price

If you haven't played Dispatch, there’s a new phone version releasing on iOS and Android on 9 December, rebuilt for touch and vertical play, with PC support via Google Play Games. The first four episodes are free, and the full game is $19.99, with Google Play pre-registration and App Store pre-orders coming soon. If you're still looking for something new to play, our pick of the best hidden-gem indie games of 2025 also features Dispatch, alongside other games worth seeking out.

And the music is going live too: on Thursday, 3 December, AdHoc and Banter Events are putting on a one-night soundtrack show at AVALON Hollywood in Los Angeles, featuring composer Andrew Arcadi and the SDN Company Band, joined by THOT SQUAD, Bershy, Primer, Caroline Kingsbury, and Fartbarf. Tickets go to AdHoc email subscribers first, and Herman describes it as “the wildest version of a Dispatch concert our finance team would sign off on”, which tells you most of what you need to know about the tone.

Fred Again and NEST Acoustics created a short musical composition, which was played through an underwater transducer, resulting in physical vibrations and ripples. These were in turn used to animate a delightful new identity that looks like the ultimate expression of Apple's Liquid Glass aesthetic.

The months-long project involved building a custom rig and software to control the transducer which played Fred Again's mnemonic sound (which also serves as a new sonic logo for Apple Music).

Apple's video case study (above) is a treat, revealing just how hand-made the identity really was. The company set out to create "music, made visible", and the liquid-based process was clearly as mesmerising as it was intricate. The result is a visual identity that feels both playful and visceral, much like the bold new Apple Music wordmark we first encountered earlier this month.

The only question is how the overall identity will translate to the most important part of Apple Music: the app itself. Sure, the liquified animation will look fantastic in music videos and ads, and the mnemonic will sound great in the same context. But from what we've seen of the actual new Apple Music icon, very little of that creative expression has made its way to the nuts and bolts of the daily Apple Music experience.

Indeed, the new black-and-white Apple Music icon, first glimpsed in iOS 27.2, has been described as 'boring' and even 'miserable' – and now that we've seen how gorgeous Apple Music can look as a brand, users are wondering where that magic is in the app. "This is a genuinely exciting rebrand that has translated HORRIBLY to the elements most of us interact with - the Home Screen icon, the navigation bar and other in-app elements," one Redditor comments, while another adds, "So they have all these gorgeous colours for changing an Icon to black and white?"

As for the app itself, Apple seems to have simply stripped out the previous red accents, with text accents now blue, and the 'Favourite' star now yellow.

We can but hope that the dull black-and-white logo is a placeholder, and a splashier design for the app and icon are on the way. But for now, we're looking at a beautiful brand with a not-so-beautiful app.

Demonstrating that sometimes happy accidents can occur in the animation pipeline (see our guides to the best laptop for animation and the best rendering software), the gaffe provides a funny in-joke for artists that doesn't seem out of place in the movie's magical world, Hexe.

As posted on X by Disney Animation rendering engineer Yining Karl Li, Hexed includes a bugged render, where the pipeline failed to export teenage witch Billie Doe's skin, or a visibility flag was broken. Normally, such a render wouldn't be used, but with Hexed being about magic, the hero's skin disappearing doesn't seem strange.

"At every studio I've worked at, there's always a folder somewhere that everyone saves bad renders and animation/sim goofs in, and boy howdy you should see some of the stuff in there. It'll never see the light of day, but every one of those folders is a comedy goldmine," Yining adds.

Hexed was originally going to be about a boy wizard, but the main character was changed to a girl, Billie, during production. Some have suggested that was to avoid it being compared to the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series.

Also check out Asha & The Starboy, the upcoming fan-made 2D animated short that revives Disney's abandoned original concept for Wish.

Hexed will be released on 25 November. The movie's art book is coming out on 28 December.

"There's this mechanic in Bloodborne where you can knock on a door and an NPC will tell you some lore, or you can listen at a window and get a bit more of the backstory that way," writer-director Alicia Contestabile tells me. "That sparked this idea for a game that would be about eavesdropping, knocking on doors, and talking to people in this mysterious village. And I thought, why wouldn't they come outside to talk to you? Oh, you must be the monster!"

How Bloodborne inspired Hunter’s Moon

While she admits to struggling but being engrossed by FromSoftware's hardcore game, and wanted to make a "smaller tourist version" that would be accessible but still atmospheric, the core inspiration of Hunter's Moon actually came from a book by author and modern-day practising witch Pam Grossman called Waking the Witch, which delves into the history and culture of witches.

"I happened to be reading it, and I had that lightning bolt moment: 'Oh, the monster is a witch, and there's a witch hunt happening,'" she adds. This led to further research of the witch hunts that took place in the early modern period, including the East Anglian Witch Trials led by self-styled 'Witchfinder General' Matthew Hopkins, whose methods would also be used in the infamous Salem witch trials.

The real witch hunts behind the game

In creating a first-person historical narrative game where "the horror are the people", the team consciously subverted the stereotypical representation of witches in media, where they are treated as magical figures or, in video games, as a supernatural power fantasy like Bayonetta or 1666: Amsterdam.

"I wanted to treat this history in a way that was true to what happened," Contestabile explains. "The hunters are just men. And the truth is that the people who put others on trial and sent them to their deaths were just people. They just deeply, deeply believed that witchcraft was real."

Building a 17th-century Yorkshire village

That focus on realism includes creating an authentic 17th-century Yorkshire village, with its own hamlets, surrounded by forests and moors. With 48 voice actors playing around 100 roles, it comes close to simulating the size of a small village from that time, and the team used Behaviour Designer, a Unity tool for designing sophisticated NPC AI behaviour. Yet it's also deliberately juxtaxposed by giving Hunter's Moon a stylised art direction that's part immersive theatre and part stop-motion puppet animation.

Set on the night of the Hunter's Moon, the witch hunt has a festival atmosphere, with villagers dressed like mummers and wearing masks. Given the game's first-person perspective, this art choice naturally suited the team's limitations, as the team never exceeded 10 people at any stage of production.

Why Hunter’s Moon uses stop-motion-style puppets

"I've always really been drawn towards stop-motion animation for a really long time, such as the films of Laika; they're really beautiful and go against this race to have the most realistic graphics and highest FPS," Contestabile explains. It can also be a great way to go with a more lo-fi approach, as she recalls her previous role as producer on The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, where the team used 3D figures with 2D faces.

She adds: "I thought we can do this in a way that is still evocative and still feels good to play. We don't need to complicate matters by adding facial animation if you know it's a dark night, the hunters are in shadow, the mummers have masks on, and the villagers are obscured by the windows. This allowed us to focus on a more rudimentary style of animation."

Funding new IP in a risk-averse industry

Having pitched Hunter's Moon back in 2020, at the height of COVID, she's grateful PlayStation took a chance on the project with a new studio, though she also laments the current landscape, when funding is becoming much harder to come by. "There's a real lack of risk-taking lately with the kinds of projects that are being financed," she says. "It seems that everything is based on already-existing IPs, and as a creative person, I really love to see new IPs."

With that in mind, Contestabile's long-term plan includes possibly adapting Hunter's Moon for other media, much like how PlayStation is also leveraging its back catalogue of franchises. Given her background in film, including writing the original story as a screenplay, a film or series seems like a logical next step. That said, she has more immediate plans once the game launches: "I've been saying to everyone that I'm going to lie down and take a really long nap when the game is out. I need a big holiday."

Hunter's Moon releases on PS5 at midnight UTC on 26 October.

I would often go back and forth with parts of the piece by using the exclusion layer over it. This allowed me to attempt something a little different every time. The exclusion layer is also great for atmosphere, resetting your values and unifying your colour a little bit if you feel you went too far on your contrast range too early (if you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing).

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

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Other games franchises have the most legitimate claim to being part of the moment. The new trailer for Shrek 2 Remastered shows the right way to do it with its fun parody opening. Other brands have managed to forge a visual connection with the game of the decade through subtle, knowing winks. But some attempts to ape the GTA art style feel like the kind of lazy trendjacking that's more likely to attract ridicule than admiration.

There are bound to be many more when the 17 November comes around. That makes it worth remembering that an AI-generated vaporwave graphic isn't a guaranteed ticket to brand cool.

GTA didn't invent the Art Deco-inspired neon-noir Miami Vice aesthetic, and it doesn't have a monopoly over tropical gradients. But if you show your brand or product in saturated neon pinks and oranges right now, it's clear what you want to be associated with.

Like Barbie or Squid Game, GTA 6 has become a cultural reference point far beyond its original medium. The trailers have reached audiences on a scale associated with major film, music and entertainment launches. Tapping into that could allow non-endemic brands to be part of the moment, if it feels genuine.

Rockstar has very limited real-world collaborations, including with Miami Heat for merchandise and Oakley for the GTA 6 Collector's Edition. But brands as varied as Hyundai, JBL and Axe have sought to capitalise on the hype by mimicking Grand Theft Auto VI’s art style.

"How do you do, fellow gamers?"

It's a natural fit for cars and bikes, although we have the situation where real-world vehicles now wish they were in-game vehicles. Mobile phone networks and deodorant? Erm...

A lot of 'GTA-style' branding appearing on social media drifts close to lazy imitation, like last year's AI Ghibli trend. Everyone is doing it, so we had better do it too. But if every brand posts purple-orange gradients, palm trees and GTA-style character portraits, the aesthetic becomes exhausted within weeks, and it won't win any brand equity if it doesn't feel authentic.

Audiences are good at spotting opportunism. When brands with no previous connection to gaming culture suddenly appear to be claiming to be part of the GTA VI phenomenon, people call them out. Unlike Rockstar's art, a lot the trendjacking relies heavily on AI-generated imagery, risking even stronger opprobrium.

In the posts above, someone calls Burger King a "parasite". Axe's juxtaposition of 'Vice' and 'City' is causing confusion about whether it's an official collaboration. "Who invited him?" and "Bro, you're not in GTA 6", are regular comments recurring on many of the posts.

There's also the fact that GTA is an adult-oriented game that involves violent crime. The public can generally understand that a brand inspired by Vice City colours isn't endorsing criminal behaviour, but it's not always a comfortable association.

For years, many mainstream advertisers treated games differently from film and television. A violent HBO drama could be prestige entertainment, while a mature-rated game could be considered risky.

"If this were any other game or situation, you would be 'we don’t associate our brand with violence', but because you know this is the biggest $$$$$$ maker you are buying in," someone tells Hyundai.

"Crazy how before GTA 6, car companies hated the idea of their cars being represented in a violent game. Now with how huge GTA 6 [is], car companies wish their cars were in GTA. Lets be real the only thing that changes the tone is money," someone lectures BMW.

With the journey to Leonida fast approaching, the strongest brand connections won't imitate GTA art in a flood of forgettable neon-pink posts but seek to reinterpret the underlying themes of escapism, freedom, excess and glamorous Americana. Brands should aim to say "We understand the moment" not "Look everyone, we just discovered gaming."

Season one is hosted by chef and entrepreneur José Andrés, who has a genuine passion for filmmaking and animation. He has voiced characters in Disney’s Firebuds and Netflix’s Green Eggs & Ham, and has collaborated with Marvel and DC on comics. The series goes behind the scenes with designers, makers, artists, filmmakers, and innovators to show the creativity, determination, and technology behind their work, and it presents Autodesk as a technology partner that enables it.

Episode one, The Making of The Cat in the Hat, features Carloni and fellow writer-director Erica Rivinoja, animator Marek Kochout, central supervisor Jessica Killiam, VFX supervisor Matt Waters and production designer Aidan Sugano.

How was The Cat in the Hat made in just two years?

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation completed its first full-length feature in two years, an accelerated timeline for an animated production of this scale. Teams worked across Los Angeles, multiple cities in India, Montreal and London.

The filmmakers developed stylistically distinct environments: the real world, the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss and three further worlds tied to the film’s characters. The story also expands on the book, exploring what happens after it ends and where the Cat goes after leaving the house.

Rivinoja says: “The exciting thing about animation is that it can do so much more than other types of filmmaking.”

Autodesk Maya, long an industry-standard tool for 3D animation, served as the film's creative hub, used for everything from modelling environments to animating expressive character performances. Autodesk says its flexibility gave artists room to explore different visual styles and push creative boundaries.

For Kochout, Maya is the way into the characters. “It’s essential,” he says. “I have no other way of touching these characters other than through Maya. It’s my porthole into the marionette. This is my tool.”

How Flow Production Tracking kept teams on track

Autodesk Flow Production Tracking managed the entire production. “We use Flow Production Tracking to track the entire movie, so you can find a variety of different things in here,” says Killiam. “We have our assets, all of the characters, the environments, the props.”

RV in Flow Production Tracking let teams review assets across cities and iterate on multiple versions. PIX, now part of Autodesk Flow Capture, helped teams share clips across departments and with external reviewers, supporting collaboration throughout production.

The Cat in the Hat cast, plot and release date

Bill Hader stars as the Cat, alongside Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Xochitl Gomez, Giancarlo Esposito, and America Ferrera. Directed by Rivinoja and Carloni, it follows the Cat on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I. (Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC): cheering up siblings Gabby and Sebastian, who are struggling after a move to a new town. Creative Bloq has previously looked at the vibrant animation style in the film’s trailer.

The film arrives in cinemas and IMAX across North America on 6 November 2026, and internationally from 4 November. Episode one of Made to Make is now available on YouTube with more behind the scenes documentaries planned in the series.

But by putting one of my favourite retro games, Pac-Man, on one of its autonomous snow-clearing machines, Yarbo has made me want one. I can't really explain why, other than that watching a giant yellow arcade character trundle around the driveway eating snow is more appealing than watching a normal snow blower do its thing, or plodding around myself with a shovel.

What is the Yarbo x Pac-Man snow blower?

The Yarbo x Pac-Man machine is a limited-edition version of the company's Y40 Core and Snow Blower Gen 2, bringing the familiar arcade look to a machine that can navigate a designated area and clear snow without you having to stand outside in the cold. It uses tracked movement, RTK-GPS positioning, and intelligent path planning, plus a two-stage snow-throwing system designed to tackle everything from light cover to deep, wet snow. It can also recharge and pick up where it left off, something I can't say for myself after five minutes with a shovel.

Serious machinery sits beneath the nostalgia, but the Pac-Man bit makes me stop and look. Yarbo could have sold this as another expensive bit of outdoor tech, with all the usual talk of automation and saving time, but instead it's given the thing a character most of us recognise from an arcade cabinet, an old console or that period when games were something you played in the pub while waiting for your food. It's the sort of instantly recognisable design that makes Pac-Man one of gaming's most memorable logos.

Yarbo x Pac-Man price and availability

The full system costs $6,399 and is available through Yarbo's website and Amazon. It's not coming to the UK, at least for now. Buy an eligible system between 22 October and 2 November, and you'll also get a plough blade thrown in, a rather practical extra for a machine dressed up as a video game character.

Pac-Man celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, and here in the UK we could run around a real maze in a very British bit of in-real-life lunacy. The character has spent decades escaping the maze and has turned up in just about everything, from unexpected design Easter eggs to the odd Pac-Man Google Doodle that can swallow an entire morning. A robotic snow blower is still a fairly unexpected destination, though, and I'm curious how many people will look at this and start imagining one in their own garden.

Why Pac-Man branding works

That's the funny thing about nostalgia branding. Brands are increasingly using nostalgia to hook us, and I can see why it works here. I don't need this machine, I don't have the weather for it, and I can't imagine ever making a sensible argument for spending that much money on one.

But make it look like Pac-Man, and suddenly I'm picturing it scooting around the driveway, chomping through snow while I watch from the warmth indoors. Now give me a Kirby robot that hoovers up cut grass, and let's really see where this tech game's branding can go.

Take a look at limited edition Yarbo x Pac-Man.

If you're new to 3D printing, Creality's compact Sparkx i7 Color Combo reduced by 13% to $349 is a great place to start thanks to its easy setup and affordable price. For pros looking to step up to larger print sizes or batch production, the K2 Plus Combo, which we rate as the best large-format machine in our guide to the best 3D printers, is reduced by $300 from $1,099 to $799.

There's also up to 25% off filament when you buy in bulk. There's still time to make the most of the deal until the end of the month, but hurry if you want to print your own Halloween decorations.

• Browse the Creality Halloween Sale

Creality Halloween Sale top picks

US Deals

From chocolate and sweet treats to cosy blankets and fuzzy socks, there's no right way to curate your own spooky surprise box. But just in case you're looking for inspiration, I've pulled together some of the best Halloween goodies to make your DIY boo basket extra special.

It’s weird to watch, no question. And I had to ask the team’s more in-the-know Gen Z members if it’s ‘okay’ and not some weird, lewd corner of the internet I’d rather not give oxygen to (I’m uncomfortable with the more common ‘Milfoid’ term surrounding some of this; it feels a bit Incel-y). I was told, 'All of the internet is weird, so here we are. But there are some interesting design insights and AI uses here, not least how Foyege’s shorts, in particular, get Hogwarts right; the character design is instantly familiar, but there’s also that slightly uncanny thing about seeing a generated face move and talk.

What is the 'Malfoid' AI trend?

People are watching, and many have become actively engaged and want to know what happens next. Fans have spent years drawing, writing about, and arguing over Draco. He’s arrogant, privileged and spiteful, then gradually turns out to be far more complicated than the school bully we first meet. By flipping his gender and changing his relationship with Harry, the character gets a whole new playground to work in (and yes, I'm sure there are parts of this fan fiction I'd rather not find), and fans are already on X debating why it does and doesn't work.

But ultimately, videos like those by Foyege represent a new, professionalised aspect of fan fiction. This works because nobody needs the backstory explained. Blond hair, green and silver, a face that’s permanently unimpressed: job done. With fan fiction, the creator can skip the introductions, go straight to the interesting stuff, and pull familiar ideas in new directions. And the enemies-to-lovers trope? It works because familiar insults become flirting, hostility hides affection, and two people who’d rather 'Depulso' each other than share a room end up at the centre of a love story.

What AI adds is performance, and that’s both an odd thing to write and a very 2026 reality. A writer can describe a moment and an artist can draw it, but a voiced, animated scene brings timing and expression. Even a short clip can feel like a scene from a parallel-universe film, and Foyege’s movies drew me in with clever edits, camera movement, subtle details, and even a K-Pop-like power ballad to tie it all together, hitting every emotional hook and hanging dramatic ending Netflix has spent a decade mastering.

AI fan fiction, copyright and training data

I’m not about to declare that the future of cinema has arrived with AI because a slick shot tells us nothing about whether the story works, how much human direction went into it, or how many hours were spent fixing glitches by hammering prompts into a keyboard. Hitting ‘generate’ doesn’t make you a filmmaker, and even those behind the emerging tech, like Autodesk's VP of M&E Strategy, Maurice Patel, have told me "it's terrible at directed content". Quality animation remains the preserve of studios like Laika, which excel at real human-made art, and Wildwood shows that in every frame.

But writing it all off because AI was involved feels lazy, too. Someone still has to decide what the story is, which moments earn screen time and how the characters should act. Someone has to work out what makes this Draco still Draco, what’s changed, and why anyone would come back for episode two. That’s where the creativity lives.

And yes, the thorny questions remain: copyright, training data, and using characters from a world other people built. Loving Harry Potter doesn’t make every use of it ethically straightforward, and one popular fan video doesn’t mean everyone has made peace with AI-generated work.

What AI adds to fan fiction

Even so, some audiences clearly will engage with AI-assisted storytelling if it gives them something they actually want to watch. What I like most is that there isn’t one definitive 'Miss Malfoy'. The 'Malfoid' thing is a shared idea, and every artist and creator puts their own spin on it. People draw their own Draconia, write their own stories, or try their hand at animation, and one fan’s version becomes the jumping-off point for the next.

That’s closer to a participatory fandom than a standard film release, and AI speeds some of that up by opening production to more people; while the reality is that one in a hundred ideas are good, there’s something engaging about watching all the failures until one video or idea lands. But someone with an idea can now take it further than they could before. Generative AI brings its own questions and trade-offs, and its origins in scraping artists' work casts a dark cloud it will never escape, but it also offers a new way to experiment.

This weird fan-fiction 'Miss Malfoy' trend doesn’t mean AI has cracked creativity, and it’s certainly no argument for replacing the artists who built the worlds we love, as a human wrote Harry Potter, and more humans developed it into films and games. It shows that people bring their own ideas and attachments to whatever tools they pick up. AI can make a character who looks the part, but can it make us care what happens to her? That’s still up to a human.

Watch the Foyege In Another Universe videos for yourself on the creator's website.

In these instances you'll need one of the best 3D scanners. We've reviewed many 3D scanners from a variety of different brands, including Revopoint, 3DMakerPro, and more recently, Creality. In fact, I recently tested the Creality Sermoon P1 but was put off by the price.

I was therefore eager to get my hands on the slightly more basic Sermoon P1S, which retails for less than half the price and yet has a very similar set of features and specs. I wanted to see if it was sufficiently up to the task for creative professionals and serious hobbyists so no-one is paying more than they have to for the scanner they need.

Performance

One of the best things about the Sermoon P1S is that it is 100% untethered. That means you can complete the full scanning workflow without needing a PC. I found this ideal at times when I didn't have access to a laptop or if I just wanted a light and portable setup. It's very similar, in this regard, to the Revopoint Miraco Plus, although Revopoint's offering has an adjustable display that can be flipped 180 degrees. This offers a more versatile untethered experience.

One of my biggest concerns with portable scanners is their onboard battery performance. There's no use owning this type of scanner if it runs out of battery when you're halfway through a scan. The P1S takes a single 33500mAh battery, which provides several hours of continuous use. The scanner ships with two of these batteries for a useful hot-swappable experience.

Despite all the required hardware being on-device, the Sermoon P1S is surprisingly nippy, from navigating around the interface to carrying out scans. Onboard you'll find a Qualcomm 8-core 3.36GHz CPU, an Adreno 740 GPU, and a generous 16GB RAM. All of this, in my experience, delivered a smooth, reliable workflow.

In terms of scanning, the P1S predictably delivered similar results to the P1. In both blue laser and NIR modes the scanner was able to recognise the shiny gourd object I was attempting to scan although at times it became confused and began creating duplicated meshes. This is an issue I experienced with the P1, although a little trial and error should always be expected in scanning workflows. Better results can be achieved if you hardwire the scanner to a PC because then you'll achieve more frames per second.

The P1S provides 256 GB of storage, which proved more than sufficient to carry out a number of scans before having to transfer data onto a PC. When you need to perform a data transfer, you can utilise either Wi-Fi 7 or the included USB-C cable.

Fusion and meshing can also be carried out on the device, and I was able to do this relatively quickly and easily. It is worth keeping in mind, though, that it's only a 6-inch display, so some of the features can be a little fiddly at times. This was particularly noticeable when attempting to repair small issues with the generated mesh. The bottom line is that I was able to capture and create a DCC-ready mesh onboard the scanner.

Price & competition

Released on 22nd September 2026, the Creality Sermoon P1S costs £2,199 / $2,229, although at the time of writing, the scanner was discounted down to £1,999 / $2,099. It's far from cheap, although when compared to the Creality Sermoon P1 at £3,099 / $3,299, it could be considered a steal. The spec differences are also negligible and insignificant for most users, so the P1S is best for most people wanting a Creality 3D scanner.

Looking at alternative brands, one of the best 3D scanners with comparable specs is the Revopoint Miraco Plus, which costs just £1,726 / $1,979. Or if you need something much smaller, simpler, and cheaper, then the 4.5 star Revopoint Inspire 3D Scanner is well worth a look.

Key specs

Design

The design of the Sermoon P1S is identical to the Creality Sermoon P1, and so the very positive experience I had with the P1 is translated across to the P1S. This begins with the 6-inch high-definition display that is big enough to clearly see scanning progress, bright enough to be used outdoors, and responsive enough to be used with ease.

To the left and right-hand sides you'll find solid rubber grips that make it easy to move effortlessly around objects. It's a tad heavier than I would like, but given the scanning, display, and battery technology packed in, Creality has done a remarkable job.

As was the case with the P1, one of the best features of the P1S is the two hot-swappable 3300 mAh batteries. Being able to charge one while you use the other ensures uninterrupted scanning, which is essential on long jobs.

At the bottom of the unit is a 1/4-inch mount for tripod scanning workflows, although there's not even a basic tabletop tripod included in the pack. For the price, I would have expected to receive a few additional accessories like this.

Who's it for?

The Sermoon P1S is for 3D scanning professionals who need the highest level of versatility to facilitate their varied scanning habits. With the P1S, users can take advantage of laser technology for capturing complex parts while also utilising the benefits of infrared technology to accurately scan objects in bright lighting conditions. Covering both of these workflows would have traditionally required two separate types of scanners, so bringing them into one device saves users time and money.

Buy it if...

• You need a versatile scanner that's capable of delivering both hybrid blue laser and NIR workflows
• You find yourself regularly scanning objects where tethering to a computer is difficult
• You're comfortable compromising on the onboard memory and infrared camera system

Don't buy it if...

• You need a basic entry-level scanner for home use
• You are happy tethering to a computer for visual progress output
• You only occasionally dabble in 3D scanning

Set in the fictional metropolis of Vice City, inspired by the neon-bathed streets of Miami, the clever campaign expertly blends the worlds of reality and fiction. Demonstrating how something as simple as a billboard ad can be a tool for major marketing immersion, the campaign is a masterclass in OOH advertising.

Heavily documented by content creator Joel Franco, the Miami GTA campaign featured a major takeover of the city, beginning on the sands of Miami Beach. Branded 'VI' umbrellas were spotted along the shoreline before a GTA-bannered plane and a branded blimp (yes, those still exist) took to the skies for a grand promotion.

Later, the neighbourhood of Wynwood was taken over by GTA ads – but not as you'd expect. Digital billboards for Weazel News, The Vault nightclub and fictional car brand Pfister appeared, bringing the in-game world into reality as an immersive treat for fans. Just authentic enough to appear real at a glance, these cheeky ads are a perfect parody that captures GTA's signature tongue-in-cheek attitude, with suggestive copy like "always come early" and "suddenly you're big enough".

For more gaming news, check out why GTA's graphics might be too good or take a look at GTA 6's giant Paris advert that caused a stir.

Some argue that minimalist redesigns can strip a logo of its character, and we've seen the complaint everywhere from the great Cracker Barrel outrage to the new Harry Potter logos.

The new Sunlife logo is unlikely to end the debate. It might be one of the most dramatically simplified logo redesigns yet. The Canadian financial services company has eliminated the space from its name and all detail from its mark.

Sunlife, now one word, says its new logo is intended to bring its identity in line with the evolution of its business. While the design had barely changed in 25 years, the company has expanded from life insurance into services in health, asset management and other types of insurance.

There's also a new tagline, 'Making life brighter'. This is intended to connect to Sunlife's purpose of "helping clients build lifetime financial security and lead healthier lives".

"Together, the changes create a more modern, distinctive and consistent expression of Sunlife around the world," the company says.

"A great brand isn't defined by a logo. It's defined by the experiences it creates," said Linda Dougherty, Executive Vice-President, Chief Client and Strategy Officer, Sunlife. "Making life brighter captures what we want every Sunlife experience to deliver for Clients: greater clarity, confidence and connection. Our new identity gives us a powerful, consistent way to bring that commitment to life around the world."

The modernised, simplified logo, was "optimised for a digital world", the company says.

The old design was very much giving the corporate vibe of an insurance company from 25 years ago. The new symbol keeps the sun, or a weather forecast-like ultra simplification of it, and keeps the colour, while stripping out the fat. The wordmark, meanwhile, continues to use a serif font, but it feels slimmer, lighter and more contemporary.

The simplicity of the mark has sparked some bemused responses on social media, from people who think it's taken minimalism too far. "Is this satire," one person asks on X.

We have seen comparable designs to the yellow disc coming in other colours. Sunlife's compatriots the Green Party of Canada rebranded last year as the green dot emoji with the logic that it would help to have an easily shareable logo for social campaigns. There's also USA Today with its blue disc logo.

I think that with the serif wordmark, the overall design looks distinctive and a lot less dated. The combination of Sunlife into one word reads much better, and makes more sense now the company's no longer primarily a life insurance provider – the 'life' no longer makes you immediately think of death, which is probably a good thing for most brands.

Lego designer Björn Ramant's massive model of the movie's feline spirit-animal courier is on display at Lego World 2026 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and it's making quite an impression. If you can't get there, at least take a moment to appreciate the captivating timelapse video showing the making of the sculpture, in which Björn resembles a human 3D printer.

If you want a much smaller model of your own, Amazon has the Lego Derpy and Sussie reduced by 20% from $69.99 to $56 right now.

Björn is a self-employed Lego designer based in Belgium. Previously a software architect, he competed in the Lego Masters building competition in 2020 and then started a business designing Lego figures under the name The Pieces Fit.

He says the massive Lego Derpy Tiger took around 2.5 months to create. That includes the time spent sketching the design and selecting and assembling the pieces. The sculpture's almost half his own height, and it's so heavy that the designer used four metal poles as scaffolds to support it.

Now he'll have to add Sussie.

For more KPop Demon Hunters magic, check out the KPop Demon Hunters comic.

Although DaVinci doesn't have the recurring subscription cost that comes with most software these days, you still get industry leading updates every year, including the recent addition of powerful AI tools. Meanwhile, raw image editing makes DaVinci Resolve Studio also now an alternative to Lightroom for photographers.

For context, the last time there was a DaVinci Resolve discount was during Black Friday 2024, nearly two years ago.

For other options, see our guide to the best video editing software. We also have a guide to the best laptops for video editing and the best monitors for video editing.

Powerful pro video editing software at a great price

I've been using DaVinci Resolve Studio for around three years, and I'm very happy with the investment. It's one of the most complete video-editing apps around, gets regular updates with new features, and it has no recurring cost.

The software is made by the Australian company Blackmagic Design, which whose main line of business is making high-end cinema cameras for the film industry. The software in its current form has been around for over 15 years. We last wrote a full DaVinci Resolve review in 2025 and gave it five stars out of five.

It's now moved on to its 21st annual release. Additions include the Photo Page, bringing node-based colour grading tools to still photography workflows.

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 also adds IntelliSearch, which finds visual content using content analysis, transcripts, and metadata, and AI-driven tools like Speech Generator, CineFocus, which creates synthetic depth for defocus, bokeh, and focal point adjustments, Face Age Transformer, Face Reshaper, which adjusts facial proportions after detection and tracking, Blemish Removal and Motion DeBlur, which renders media to reduce motion-blur softness without altering the source.

On the Fusion Page, there are around 70 new motion graphic effects and tools via the Krokodove integration. DaVinci Resolve 21.1 added an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI assistant integration.

The software's node-based colour grading and effects workflows present a bit of a learning curve compared to more basic video editing apps, but the beauty of DaVinci is that you can go as deep as you want. You'l never learn everything that the app can do, but you can be certain that if there's any effect that you want to create, you'll be able to do it, and you'll be able to find a tutorial online showing you how.

Just note that colour grading and effects work in DaVinci Resolve can be demanding in terms of computing power. Blackmagic cites 16GB RAM and 4GB of VRAM as minimum requirements, but you might want significantly more than that if you're editing long videos or using advanced tools.

Blackmagic is also running discounts on hardware, including editing panels.

It’s a brand-new kind of machine for Cricut, better known for its cutters, like the Maker 5 (for more, read our best Cricut machines guide). Until now, making stickers meant pairing a Cricut cutting machine with a separate inkjet printer, then burnishing laminate sheets by hand. The StickerPix rolls printing, laminating and precision cutting into one compact box, and that’s its biggest selling point.

There are two models, and it’s worth knowing the difference before you spend any money. The StickerPix Print ($169.99 / £159.99 with its Essential Bundle) prints and laminates onto 4 x 6 in pre-cut sticker sheets. This beginner model uses only pre-made templates, so you're limited to what Cricut offers. The Print + Cut ($299.99 / £249.99 with its Essential Bundle) takes 4 x 7 in (about 10 x 18cm) sheets and cuts around your own designs, so you can use any shape you like and create your own stickers and designs.

Bundles also vary, so it's worth shopping around, but as a rule, Cricut's official StickerPix Print + Cut bundles are a good choice, as they include Cut Ink Cartridges, Sticker Sheets, and Photo Paper. The Print cartridge is rated for 54 prints, and the Print + Cut for 36. Both also handle 4 x 6 in photo paper, so you can switch between photos and stickers on the same machine. If circles and squares will do, the Print option saves you £90. If you want custom shapes and to create more personal stickers and photo prints, go with Print + Cut, which I tested.

StickerPix + Cut is super easy to use

Unboxing and setup are painless. Inside you’ll find the machine, two plug adaptors, an ink cartridge, 18 sheets of photo paper and 18 sheets of sticker paper, all neatly packed. The StickerPix + Cut measures 8 x 11.3 x 4.1 inches, and the loading tray is roughly the same size (see my photos for a laptop-sized comparison). It’s light, and the tray slots into the top when you’re done, so it tucks away easily on a shelf. The StickerPix + Cut comes in a swish dark blueish grey (the StickerPix machine is a softer two-tone shade of blue and light blue, almost the reverse of the Joy 2).

The instruction manual is genuinely helpful, with a clear diagram of the components and simple steps for fitting the cartridge and tray. Software setup is just as easy: head to Cricut for instructions, choose your machine and follow the prompts. The first time you pick stickers or photos, a short tutorial shows you how to remove the tray and load the paper. When you connect for the first time, the firmware updates automatically, and once it says registration is complete, you’re ready to go.

Everything runs through Cricut’s Design Space software, which connects to the machine over Bluetooth. It’s easy to find your way around, and the home screen gives you three ways in: start a new project, pick a category (stickers, labels, photo prints, or cards and invitations), or begin from a template. That last option is a highlight: thousands of pre-designed templates are available, and you can upload your own images and text or start from a blank canvas.

The AI tools are the fun part, particularly if, like me, you're not an artist (I'm a sewer and quilter) but want to create fun family gifts. Cricut says Design Space has a library of more than 1.8 million sticker images, and the stylised options are cute. You can choose a look, such as spray paint, oil painting, comic book, or crayon drawing, upload a photo, and tell the AI what to add. I uploaded my niece's photo, asked it to create her as a witch for Halloween, and it did. I asked for an additional cat, and it added the animal and produced a selection of sticker-ready images to choose from. Keep in mind that the full library and Cricut AI require a paid Cricut Access subscription, though the bundle includes a trial voucher.

A professional all-in-one printer

The StickerPix + Cut uses dye-sublimation, laying down each colour in turn and applying a protective laminate in the same pass. Cricut quotes 300dpi, and the finished prints resist water, scratches and fading. My stickers came out bright and crisp, on paper with a pleasant weight.

Photo prints are the real surprise for me. I printed off some photos from my phone and was surprised how accurate the colours are, how sharp the detail is, and how they look like they came from a proper photo lab. A print takes just one to two minutes, with no fiddling or adjustments; just load the paper shiny side up, click the tray into place, press connect and go.

The same ease carries over to the machine’s other jobs, and I had great fun creating things in an afternoon. Labels print on sticker paper, and plenty of ready-made designs make personalising your Christmas gifts a breeze; for example, I made a set of present tags to stick on the family gifts. Cards and invitations are just as quick and handy if you run a small business and want branded thank-you cards. I now have a nice insert to package with every quilt I make for customers on Cotswolds Creations, with a photo of their quilt and a bespoke message from me

The cutter really shines on stickers. It kiss-cuts custom shapes around your design and leaves the backing intact, so you simply peel each sticker off the sheet. That also means it can’t cut through the backing, and there’s no white ink either, as the printing is dye-sub with a clear protective layer.

If you already own a Cricut, you might wonder whether you need this. The StickerPix + Cut does in one go what normally takes a cutter, an inkjet printer and hand-applied laminate, and it takes up far less desk space. But it isn’t a replacement for a cutting machine. It only cuts its own sticker sheets, so if you want to work with vinyl, cardstock or fabric, you’ll still need a Maker or an Explore. It's worth noting the cost, as StickerPix + Cut is $100 / £100 more than the latest Explore 5, and the Maker 5 is only $50 / £50 more, and both do more.

The difference? The StickerPix + Cut creates professional photo prints and stickers without needing anything extra (so technically you'd need to add the cost of a good inkjet printer to your Maker 5 setup). It's also faster, easier, and less hassle, with results that are as good as, if not better than, the others.

Likewise, if you just want quick prints of your phone photos, a simple dedicated photo printer will do. The StickerPix + Cut earns its price if you also want laminated stickers, labels, and cards, plus Design Space’s templates and editing tools to make them. It suits crafters, journalers, parents, and anyone selling at markets who wants quality, professional, branded labels and cards without a bulk order or going through the hassle of finding and ordering supplies.

So what's the catch?

The main catch is that the StickerPix + Cut is fussy about what you feed it. It only works with Cricut’s own paper, and the cartridge and sheets are model-specific, so you can’t mix and match between the Print and the Print + Cut, which, in its own quirk, makes the more expensive model a better option, as it'll cost less in the long run if you want to upgrade.

I’d love to see Cricut add foil or metallic sheets, which would give crafters a lot more to play with, and although the stickers are water-resistant, they aren’t dishwasher-safe, so don’t push your luck with your favourite mug.

The locked-in materials are the real catch. The starter bundle gives you only 18 sheets each of sticker and photo paper, which won’t last long. Refill cartridges then cost between £24.99 and £47.99, and how many stickers you get from one depends on how well you pack each sheet. Work out your cost per print before you commit.

But with all that said, it's a common setup for modern printers. Ultimately, I didn't really know what to expect from StickerPix + Cut as it's a little outside my sewing and quilting workflow, but after spending time with it, I've already found uses for its cards and sticker designs to accompany my finished products and help market my brand. I've also made far too many fun stickers for my nieces and had a great time creating, and that's really all you need to know.