In this roundup, I've included some of the best art supplies, from delicate watercolours to rich oil paints and detailing pens for that final flourish. If you're starting your creative kit from scratch, check out our guide to the best art supplies to discover all you'll need for the perfect creative setup.

I braced for a brick when I tried out the Omen Max 16. Laptops with an RTX 5080 and a Core Ultra 9 275HX usually arrive with the heft of a paving slab. But the Omen Max 16 is lighter than it has any right to be, a machine you'll carry to a lecture, on a train or into a client meeting without resenting it. Okay, it’s not as light as less powerful laptops, but it’s not far off my usual MacBook Pro. That matters because a laptop this powerful is only useful if it goes places.

What surprised me more is how quickly it stops feeling like two machines in one chassis. Nvidia has spent years pitching RTX at two audiences at once. Gamers get DLSS 4 and the potential of DLSS 5 – frame generation and path-traced lighting. Creators get CUDA and OptiX, with the RTX cores doing the heavy lifting in Cycles. It's a neat pitch on a slide, something I’ve tried in demos, and I didn't expect it to work as a daily routine. Swapping between the two setups – Gamer Ready and Studio drivers – takes a few clicks, so you're deciding what the GPU is for that afternoon rather than struggling with what it can be.

Two worlds, one laptop

So I spent the morning in Blender, and it whizzes. The viewport stays fluid, Cycles chews through scenes that would have me making yet another cup of coffee on lesser hardware, and with 16GB of GDDR7 on the GPU, I wasn't worrying over textures and stalls. In the evening I played Control Resonant – an early review build – fully specced, ray tracing on, framerates zippy. Same lid, same desk, same bag, and all working incredibly smoothly and hassle-free – and coming from someone with a love/hate relationship with Windows, this is good, really good, in fact.

It's that blend of high-end work and play I keep thinking about, especially as back-to-school deals are all the rage and our default is to look down at cheaper offers instead of up at laptops like the Omen Max 16. Game artists are gamers; 3D artists and animators like to game on the side, and seeing how a shipped, ray-traced game runs on serious hardware is part of the education. Having the option to do both in one laptop, albeit with some caveats – it eats battery life, and lecturers may not love the LEDs as much as you – and never have to worry about performance seems a no-brainer. So why aren’t we all doing it? Ah, yes, the price.

Now the uncomfortable bit: HP's RRP for this top-end model – GeForce RTX 5080, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD – is £2,999, and at the time of writing Very has it at £2,619, so that’s a £380 discount. That's a decent saving on a still frightening number. It's also the number that makes me hesitate, because at 18, as a student, borrowing is astonishingly easy. Loans arrive in your account, and overdrafts are offered like chocolate mints with a restaurant bill. Retailers will happily let you buy now and pay later, and the small print on that same Very page shows a representative APR of 44.9% if you miss the window, which is astonishing. The cost of this laptop feels oddly painless at exactly the moment you're least able to absorb it.

I used to make the easy argument here: a Chromebook or a MacBook Neo, which is essentially a large iPhone, won't open a Nanite-heavy Unreal Engine 5 scene without a wince. That's true, and it's also a straw man, because nobody serious is choosing between this and a Chromebook. The honest rival is the cheaper Omen. HP's OMEN 16 with an RTX 5060 is £1,299 right now, down from £1,600. It's a properly capable gaming laptop, and for plenty of first-years it would be plenty.

But look at what the extra £1,320 buys. That cheaper machine has 8GB of VRAM to the Max's 16GB, 16GB of RAM to 32GB, a 512GB drive to 1TB, and an eight-core Ryzen where this has 24 cores. You can upgrade storage and RAM later, but you can't improve VRAM. It's the ceiling on how dense a scene you can sculpt, how big a texture set you can bake and how much of a UE5 level you can light before things start to stutter, and you'll hit that ceiling in your final year, right when your showreel matters most.

Consider the lower specced Omen

So this is the real argument I think I’m coming around to: you're paying an extra £1,320 not to be stopped in your third year by the tech you avoided paying for years before. It won't make you talented, it won’t do all the hard graft for you, and it could tempt you to play another hour of Call of Duty when you really should be working on your Call of Duty killer.

But plenty of brilliant artists started on hardware that would make the 5060 look decadent, and if you're dabbling, you don't need the power of Omen Max 16 (RTX 5080), and the lower-end-spec Nvidia laptops (see below) can still handle both creative and gamer needs. Also, let's be real, if the only way to afford the premium Omen Max 16 is a 44.9% credit card, don't. Even then, the 1TB drive will fill faster than you think once UE5, a few projects and a Megascans library move in.

But if you already know the next four years are Blender, Unreal and games that make your GPU sweat and games you want to be inspired by to create your own worlds, this is the rare case where the indulgent option and the sensible one might be the same laptop. Now, I'm not entirely comfortable with how well that argument works on me, given the cost of things, and you’re taking advice from someone who spent their student loan on a Neo Geo AES, but there is a line of common sense in here – an Omen, or similar Nvidia RTX laptop (see below) will last you through your course and beyond if you’re serious about playing and making games.

In keeping with the best adverts, Converse clearly aimed for a stylised, editorial look for the new campaign. Unfortunately, the resulting design was painfully miscalculated, sparking cries for boycotts and all-out cancellation.

The advert in question stars K-Pop artist Karina holding a pair of Converse Chuck 70 X trainers. Lighting on her white skirt makes a sharp triangular shape thanks to a projection of the Chuck Taylor star logo, which critics claimed resembled hoods worn by the KKK.

To make matters worse, Karina's cut-off upper torso leaves the image slightly indistinct at a glance. The loose positioning of the shoes in her hand appeared to some like the dangling feet of a lynching victim, sparking internet-wide outrage.

"I cannot fathom why Converse would greenlight something so abhorrent. Lynchings of Black people in the US is NOT ancient history," one X user wrote. "'It’s just a shoe ad' is not a defence,' another added, while one critic wrote, "Even if the intent was unintentional, the tone deafness of the entire campaign is shocking."

Converse soon removed the ad, issuing the following statement to PEOPLE: “We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognise that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better.”

The imagery of Converse's new campaign is jarring, to say the least, and it bewilders me that this imagery wasn't spotted before the campaign launch. With controversies like Sydney Sweeney's jeans ad bringing this issue to the forefront of the advertising world, it seems brands should be hyper-vigilant to ensure campaigns avoid controversy.

With burgundy, royal blue and butter yellow leading the colour trends for the season, I went hunting for the phone cases that will showcase these sumptuous shades. I've tried several of these cases myself so can vouch for the quality. After all, the performance of a case is as important as the looks. See some gorgeous options below, which will fit any iPhone, not just the new model.

AU26 has been dominated by Autodesk's argument that AI should help artists, not replace them, with Flow Studio as the flagship and tools like MotionMaker arriving inside Maya. The table is where I started.

AI's happy accident bonus

"AI is great at serendipitous content and is terrible at directed content," Patel says. He sorts it into tasks, shots and worlds. MotionMaker is a task: a small model trained to do one thing well, now covering locomotion for humans, dogs and horses, with cats on the way. The demo film is shots, which is where generative video sits today. Worlds that persist and understand physics are "the holy grail" and still far off, and he says the idea of prompting a whole movie is a myth.

The table problem is what shots look like at scale. Run the same prompt twice and "I'm probably going to get something slightly different." Change one thing, and the model can change others you liked; Patel says the models can also get stuck, reproducing the same result no matter how you rephrase, and when that happens, the only way out is back to the beginning.

So the aim is never to go back to the beginning. Use AI to make a 2D image, use that to make a 3D scene, use that to feed a clip, and you can return to any stage. Flow Studio's 3D Editor + Canvas works on a related principle, letting you block cameras, characters and performance in 3D before the AI generates the final look.

"We fundamentally believe that the future of AI is orchestration," Patel says. "We don't believe there's going to be one model to rule them all, even though that's what they might be trying to do", a slight dig at how some AI platforms view their place and goals. He expects real footage, CG and AI to be mixed, sometimes for efficiency alone. "Sometimes it's just quicker to shoot a fire and use that," he laughs, gesturing.

When the flaws are the point

Short clips are getting hard to tell from the real thing in AI film, showing where the tech sits right now in terms of quality and use. "We sometimes forget people used to do bad visual effects," Patel reflects, and AI tends to break down over longer stretches, suggesting that everything often starts from flawed beginnings.

But quality isn't always what an AI project is for, as in Patel's view, the Coca-Cola Christmas AI ad was "full of flaws" creatively, and its notoriety as AI helped sell it. He describes a credit card ad where the AI got the logo wrong, and the text was unreadable, something a VFX vendor would have rejected outright back in his day when he worked in visual effects. As he tells it, the fact that these ads were made with AI mattered more than the quality.

But sometimes AI in film can do things never before possible. Patel cites Dreams of Violets as a case where AI let a filmmaker tell a story he couldn't shoot, in this case in Iran, where director Ash Koosha would be arrested on arrival. He's sceptical of the roughly $2,000 price tag said to have been needed to make the film. He hasn't spoken to the director, but Koosha's an AI engineer, and Patel suspects the only way that budget works is free compute from his own company. Prompts on a feature-length project, he says, can run into the hundreds of thousands.

It's "a very real cost to this", admits Patel. If you don't care about the content, he says, you can do something quickly and cheaply and "you get AI slop, essentially."

The cost problem he cares about more is the industry's. Games that cost $15–20m to make now run to $200m, which he thinks pushes studios towards sequels and reboots – safe options that iron out any invention or gamble. He points to low-budget horror films from A24 and Blumhouse – Backrooms and Obsession – as proof audiences want something different, and hopes that lower costs mean more variety. It's close to what Diana Colella told me about AI bringing in more creators.

A million rabbits

For context, Patel's first job in the industry was training people in digital compositing using Avid, when computers were new. Roto artists and optical compositors had to learn their trade in a completely new way. Asked whether AI is replacing jobs or changing them, he doesn't pick one: "It's replacing jobs. It's changing jobs. It's allowing people to enter who would never have been able to enter before." Digital effects, he notes, turned a niche cottage industry into one employing hundreds of thousands of people.

What he says next comes from experience, not principle. "Everything I've experienced with AI, including doing the AI work for this [Robots of the Wild West]," he says, is that "you still need artists who have a vision, who drive this AI, because the AI itself is actually terrible." He means it as a description of steering a model toward something specific, not as a verdict on the technology. It's the same critique as the table in the demo film, from a man whose company makes the tools, because, as he says, we're so early in the AI journey, nothing is yet perfect.

He reflects on the animator's role specifically when it comes to AI use. "The art of an animator isn't knowing how to use animation curves," he says. "The art of an animator is understanding how to make the performance shine."

Cel tracing, curves and prompts are just ways of getting there. A model could train on a million rabbits, he says, and never produce Bugs Bunny, because nothing in the real world tells you Bugs should move like that, act like that; it's human imagination. It's "a pure artist thing," he says, reflecting that he doesn't expect this process to be autonomous anytime soon.

Is he enjoying any of it? "It's a love-hate thing," Patel admits. He was the CG expert once. Now, he says, he's "a newbie", and it's "scary, but it's also kind of fun."

I still love cartoons, although now as a fully grown man I call them "animations" or "anime" and tend towards stuff that's a little more cerebral than Wile. E. Coyote having an anvil fall on his head. But realistically, I am still a big kid at heart. And so you'd think the fact my dreams have come true – that I could theoretically now stream cartoons 24/7 – would make me very happy.

But like most things in life, the more you get of something, the more it all starts to feel the same. Even my beloved Pixar, these days, no longer excites me visually. Yes, it's all so astonishingly detailed these days, as I celebrated in my article Mind-boggling facts about the making of Toy Story 4. But it also feels like something is being lost. Everything looks slick. Everything looks incredible. And yet, increasingly, everything looks the same.

How Laika's different

Laika, the stop-motion studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings, though, is the shining exception. And its new film Wildwood, about a teenager called Prue who enters a magical, hidden forest to rescue her baby brother, is making me far more excited that anything coming out of Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks.

Based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis's 2011 novel, Wildwood has been in development for 15 years. And from a production standpoint, it's a huge step up from anything the studio has attempted before.

The movie has been crafted across 136 unique locations (more than twice Kubo's 60), with everything built as physical, tangible sets. That's more than even most live action films can boast these days, right?

And "craft" is exactly the word to use in this context. Because let's face it, stop-motion is not exactly the easiest way to make a film in 2026. Every gesture, every blink, every gust of wind through a puppet's hair has to be built and moved by hand, one frame at a time. It's slow, it's expensive, it's wildly inefficient.

Then again, what would be the exact opposite of that? AI animation, of course. Which absolutely makes me want to run into the street and shout: "Give me slower and inefficient, or give me death!"

Watch the Wildwood trailer and you can see this philosophy in action. There's a shot of Prue cycling, hair swaying in the breeze, and you can practically feel the individual strands being placed, frame by frame, by a real hand.

It's the same quality that made Coraline's Other Mother so unsettling: not the design of her buttoned eyes, but the tiny, imperfect flicker in how she moved, a flicker no algorithm would ever generate.

Why it works

Kubo's giant skeleton fight had the same effect: a colossal puppet lumbering across a beach, its joints catching the light in ways that felt weighty rather than simulated. Wildwood's crows, swarming down to snatch Prue's baby brother, evoke that same unnerving physicality. You believe they could actually grab him, because in a physical sense, something in that studio actually did.

It's not like Laika doesn't use digital technology to help make its films; it definitely does. But it's the manipulation of physical objects that lies at the heart of its process. So you're not just watching a story, you're watching thousands of individual creative decisions, made by actual people.

Screenwriter Chris Butler has said he hopes Wildwood becomes something of a rallying cry for the industry against AI. And I reckon it well might.

Because whether or not you're a creative yourself, we all have a deep-down craving for work that visibly bears the fingerprints of the people who made it. And Wildwood looks like being the perfect vehicle to remind us all of that.

Making your own? See our best laptops for animation guide.

This wasn't just as good as Adobe Illustrator, in some ways (such as their million-times zoom) it was better. And for a limited period, it was free! I wrote this news story for Creative Bloq, downloads erupted, and the rest is history.

The software went on to win awards and adherents up and down the industry. And although Serif did start charging for Affinity Designer – along with Affinity Photo and Publisher as they followed in its wake – it remained much cheaper than Adobe's ever-increasing Creative Cloud subscription.

Then in 2024, everything changed again, as Affinity was sold to Canva. And for a while, I was nervous. A social-media-friendly design app buying up a professional Adobe alternative felt like it could go horribly wrong.

But so far, things have actually gone pretty well. In October 2025, the Affinity suite became free once more. And if I had fears that these tools would be dumbed down and absorbed into Canva's main platform, the recent launch of Affinity 3.3 has put all those fears to bed.

What's new in 3.3

Version 3.3 is a huge step forward, featuring more than 60 new features spanning image editing, vector work, page layout and now scripting. And it all dovetails nicely with a newly branded Canva ProSuite, which also includes Cavalry, Leonardo.Ai and Flourish.

In truth, there's no one big standout feature here, but that's actually a good thing. Canva aren't just leaning on one or two headline-grabbing additions. Instead, they've gone long and deep into the unglamorous but actually-professionally-useful stuff instead.

Take the new Blend Tool, which creates live, editable transitions between vector shapes, complete with independent controls for position, rotation, shape and colour. Or the ability to visualise G2 curve energy on the Pen tool, a niche feature aimed squarely at font and logo designers who care about the precise mathematics of a curve.

Elsewhere, the RAW photography engine has been reworked, with hue-preserving curves, new saturation and hue adjustments, and global presets that finally behave the way photographers expect.

Best of all, everything remains free. No subscription, no watermark, no free vs paid for tier. Yes, you have to pay if you want Canva's AI models. But everything else – the Blend Tool, the new Astrophotography Studio, the ability to import InDesign and Publisher files directly – is available for absolutely no pennies at all.

None of this means Adobe's going anywhere. Creative Cloud still has deeper integration, a bigger plugin ecosystem and a decades-old professional reputation. To put it bluntly, if you want a job in a creative field, you need to know Adobe, and that won't change any time soon.

But increasingly, I don't think of these kinds of tools as in direct competition. For many designers, it's not a choice between them, but a choice to have both, and use each where appropriate. And if Canva can keep full-blooded Affinity free over the long time, I can't see that changing any time soon either.

This room belongs to a doctor who experiments on dreams. The goal was to create a space that felt like a blend of 18th century doctor’s infirmary, a cabinet of curiosities, and a Frankenstein-inspired laboratory. The pink dream-like palette evolved because I introduced a surreal stained glass dome above the whole room that symbolised a giant dreamcatcher.

Before an environment painting for a point-and-click game can be finalised, a significant amount of design work needs to align. The challenge is balancing the artwork with the practical needs of gameplay, ensuring everything interactive is readable and positioned to support environmental storytelling without making them too obvious. Achieving that balance requires a great deal of planning and iterating.

Pro game art tips

Detective Grimoire's latest murder mystery, The Mermaid Mask, is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and 1.

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

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It’s impressive how Silent Hill has made a comeback after years of obscurity following its long-standing dominance in the horror genre; Konami reached out to other developers for their own take. Bloober Team came back in full swing with the excellent Silent Hill 2 Remake, while Neobards took us to Japan with the fantastic Silent Hill f. Can the Scotland-bound Silent Hill: Townfall, developed by Screen Burn, continue the franchise’s annual win streak? It does, but not without some caveats.

The horror and tense atmosphere you’d expect from a Silent Hill game are here. It’s a horrifying experience trying to avoid or confront nightmarish monsters, and the puzzles can be challenging to figure out. However, annoying environmental design choices and a lack of enemy variety hamper the experience. Surprisingly, though, its combat feels the best that the series has had in recent memory.

Silent Hill's foggy mystery

Silent Hill: Townfall follows Simon Ordell, a middle-aged man who wanders around the fictional Scottish island of St. Amelia, following a woman’s voice. It’s currently unknown why he’s there, as even he doesn’t remember. As you navigate the island’s mysterious fog, you start to pick up on small hints about what happened to its inhabitants and the surrounding turmoil. The picket signs have phrases about workers' rights, and collectables about healthcare keep popping up. I found that Townfall’s story was much easier to follow than Silent Hill f’s, even if it lacks the mysticism and folklore wonder that the fantastical Japanese setting provided.

Townfall’s aesthetics are much more grounded than f’s, or at least as relatively grounded as a Silent Hill game could be. There’s no pretty boy with a fox mask or over-designed Soulslike bosses here. Just a normal dude with a beard and glasses. Made in Unreal Engine 5, there’s almost something remarkably plain about Townfall’s art direction that ironically works in its favour, giving it a sense of realism that some of the other dreamlike entries like Silent Hill f or Silent Hill: Shattered Memories didn’t.

One thing Townfall does well is mix up the different environments you’ll travel through. You won’t be walking through the outdoors of St. Amelia the entire time. Some levels have you sneak through a hospital, or even a multi-story office building. In other chapters, you’ll be transported to hellish otherworldly areas! This is the most bizarre you’ll see Townfall take its environments, and it's also where Townfall’s art direction shines the brightest. The bold use of red alarms to signal these diabolical levels really sells the sense of danger Simon is in. The rustic hues around the corners and pipes make the surroundings feel dilapidated, giving the area a more claustrophobic feeling.

Townfall's puzzling core

Townfall’s puzzles vary widely in difficulty. Most can be figured out without much trouble if you think hard enough, but some are pretty easy, and a few had me downright stumped. They often appear at the same level too. In one puzzle, I had to match different blood bags to IVs based on a patient’s injuries document. Ok, easy enough. The puzzle right after that had me figuring out blood types and initials, which took me way longer than I expected. The whiplash between the varying difficulty levels can feel odd, but they still offer plenty of satisfaction when you finally figure out the solution, no matter how long it takes.

Some visual inconsistencies in the environmental design kept me longer in certain areas than I wanted. A perfect example is that after I found a code that let me open a new room, I couldn’t figure out how to enter it. After a while, I realised that I not only had to scan the key card I found earlier, but also move my cursor to the number pad next to it and enter the door code. I was utterly confused as to why the scanner confirmed my key card but wouldn’t open the door, as every other door had before.

Turns out, this is the only instance in the game with this scanner-and-door-code combo, and the number pad looked completely different from every other one, which added to my initial confusion. Small visual discrepancies like these had me running around in circles, sometimes for up to an hour. Your mileage may vary with this kind of thing, but it’s easy to miss small details in Townfall.

A new-ish perspective

Townfall isn’t the first Silent Hill game to use a first-person perspective, as The Short Message and the cancelled P.T. (RIP) did. However, Townfall is the first big-budget experience to do so, and it works wonders. Like most other horror games, you’ll mostly want to sneak around monsters without getting caught. Townfall's biggest differentiator is Simon’s CRTV radio. Whereas other stealth and action games have a sort of “sonar” that lets players see enemy positions, you have to dial in the CRTV radio’s screen to “see” through walls. It’s a clever implementation of a common yet tired gameplay trope that gives Townfall more of a retro vibe.

After all, it takes place in 1996 on the verge of the technological explosion that was the internet. Additionally, Simon has to call a landline from a desktop phone or a phone booth to manually save progress. This aspect of Townfall’s art direction helps it stand out among other entries, especially those in similar time periods like Silent Hill 2 Remake, which is set in 1993. You don’t get a vintage feeling from Silent Hill 2 Remake, as it plays like a modern third-person shooter.

Simon starts with a wooden plank but can pick up stronger weapons along the way, including a metal pipe, pistol, shotgun, and flare gun. If you’re minimising your murder spree, there are bottles and rocks you can pick up to distract enemies while you run past them.

Townfall’s combat feels unexpectedly smooth, and the weapons have the right amount of kick and recoil. It’s leagues ahead of Silent Hill f’s combat, which was one of its worst aspects. Townfall balances survival horror and stealth horror well, so both feel like viable ways to get through the game.

That said, Townfall’s enemy variety is sorely lacking. Off the top of my head, there’s maybe like four different kinds of monsters. Seeing them over and over again gets repetitive after a while. There’s a skin monster, a skin monster with an axe head, and a bisected skin monster that rushes you really fast. Lastly, there’s also an aggravatingly designed large skin enemy with a bulbous back that appears during the hellish otherworldly levels. It can’t be killed, only distracted,, but will almost always OHKO you if it manages to catch you. I swear, this abomination knows your general vicinity no matter where you hide. It feels great to outmanoeuvre Mr X in Resident Evil 2 Remake, but this specific monstrosity in Townfall definitely feels like cheating.

Is Silent Hill: Townfall worth playing?

Developer Screen Burn has delivered a strong entry in the fabled horror series, with distinctive twists that set it apart. Simon’s introspective adventure stays engaging despite its more grounded backdrop. The gameplay strikes a compelling balance in both stealth and action, while its first-person perspective offers something fresh to veterans.

Although its puzzles can be maddening at times and the enemy variety could be better, Silent Hill: Townfall is tightly designed and worth at least one full playthrough. You can unlock five different endings based on your playstyle, so there’s plenty of replayability.

Even better, this offer comes on top of Joybuy's trade in scheme, which can get you a discount of up to £800 if you hand over an eligible old device. Those trading in an eligible iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max get an additional £20 voucher. Joybuy's also offering super-fast delivery of under four hours in some parts of the UK.

While some people might want to wait to check out the iPhone Duo when it launches next month, the Phone 18 Pro is the one to go for if you want the best iPhone for photography.

For readers in the US, you can save up to $885 through trade in at Apple or up to $1,200 (the entire value of the base model!) with Verizon or AT&T via Best Buy.

iPhone 18 Pro deals in the UK

• Joybuy: up to £800 off with trade in + charger for £1
• Apple: up to £855 off with trade in
• EE: up to £624 off with trade in
• Vodafone: browse plans
• Amazon: preorder from £1,199

iPhone 18 Pro deals in the US

• Best Buy: Browse iPhone 18 Pro deals
• Apple: up to $885 off with trade in, or lease from $34.99/mo
• AT&T: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• Verizon: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• T-Mobile: iPhone 18 Pro free with switch or trade in
• Xfinity Mobile: 18 Pro Max free with trade in and line

The iPhone 18 Pro introduces a big upgrade for iphone photography with Apple's first camera with a mechanical aperture. The 48MP Fusion main camera h first-of-its-kind six-blade variable aperture system with steps ranging from ƒ/1.48 to ƒ/4.0.

This means you get a control over depth of field and light more like that on a traditional camera. You can widen the aperture to ƒ/1.48 for clean low-light shots and natural-looking bokeh, or narrow it to ƒ/4.0 to ensure more depth of field for group shots or landscapes.

Built on a 2nm architecture with a relocated DRAM layout and a triple-sized vapor chamber, the new iPhone Pro and Pro Max deliver sustained peak performance and double the neural engine cores for local AI processing and faster on-device Siri. Apple's also talking up the new iPhone's gaming prowess (interestingly, there are rumours that the first Apple gaming controllers are coming soon).

The enhanced processor efficiency also delivers the longest battery life ever in an iPhone: up to 36 hours of video playback on the 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the 18 Pro Max. There's also a smaller, redesigned Dynamic Island and faster 5G capabilities via Apple's C2 modem.

Not for you? See the best current foldable phone deals and dumb phone deals.

So what happens when an IEM gives us bold and exciting and familiarly balanced? That's what Juzear and Super Review's Mark Ryan have done with the Light Shuttle, and I think all we can do is rejoice (and nit-pick).

• Buy the Juzear Little Shuttle at Amazon for $190

Let me be clear – the JM-1, New Meta, neutral with a bass boost is not my favourite tuning. I certainly prefer the aesthetics of most other Juzear IEMs over this weird organic metal and dull bling thing. But you might love it, and what's really important is how well the IEM implements the chosen sound profile. The Light Shuttle absolutely nails the JM-1-style, neutral-with-bass-boost brief, offering a balanced and exciting sound profile, that the majority of listeners should like, and all for under $200. That is really impressive, really rare, and should be celebrated.

At several times the price of the best budget IEMs out there, the Light Shuttle is also several times better, and it will definitely feature in my upcoming list of the best IEMs under $500.

Sound profile

Bass: The Light Shuttle is a bassy IEM, but it's well-controlled. It's warm with a sub-bass focus, and though I enjoy the punch that I get with it, compared to the bass profiles that I love, such as the $350 Xenns Tea Pro, it lacks a little attack and sense of grip.

There's always going to be pros and cons with the slight dip between 150-300Hz that the Light Shuttle offers. This recess creates a clean separation between bass and midrange, so the former doesn't bleed into the latter, and the mid-bass delivers more pronounced punch. But it also runs the risk of taking a touch of body out of the sound – in the worst cases, IEMs with this dip can sound lean.

However, it's done really well here, and that added sub and fuller midrange means things don't sound lean. Ultimately, for $200 I'm impressed with the level of punch and bass detail I get, though if you pay more, you will find punchier, grippier bass.

Midrange: The lower midrange is fairly dead-on neutral, offering more body to instruments than an IEM tuned to the Harman target.

The upper midrange is also fairly neutral, though it's a beat behind the JM-1 target, with that JM-1 target already being a little dipped when it comes to upper mids compared to Harman. Detractors of the JM-1 tuning might want a bit more presence or bite in vocals in the upper midrange, which would add more attack to guitars, snare drums, brass and woodwinds and of course vocals.

I think the Light Shuttle does a great balancing act here, and although it pulls things back a touch from 1-3kHz, instruments never sound lean or soulless. That's thanks to the warm upper bass, and a really well-executed treble, though this combination also means that the Light Shuttle isn't the most technical-sounding IEM on the block... but at $190, I'm really nit-picking there.

The treble of the Light Shuttle is really good. Unlike most other lower frequencies, when it comes to treble, you don't need to have too much or too little before it starts grating. Treble is often the part of the frequency response that's most divisive, and it's certainly the hardest to tune.

I think the treble of the Light Shuttle is carefully balanced and pulls off a great feat – it's crisp, clear and well extended with no dark patches, but is never overdone or sibilant. It contributes to a well-detailed, tonally correct overall sound, and I just can't imagine anyone finding any hot spots within it. Now, that's rare in some $500 IEMs, so it's super impressive in a sub-$200 set.

Price & value

The $200 price range of IEMs is super competitive, but often you'll get a set that does one or two things really well, but falls short elsewhere (usually the treble).

The one that springs to mind is the Kiwi Ears KE4. It was one of the first affordable IEMs to be tuned to the JM-1 curve, and had really impressive midrange for a set around $200. But, as I cover below in the in-depth comparison section, it just has too much bass.

Now, whether you like the JM-1 / neutral with bass-boost style of tuning – and plenty of people don't – the Light Shuttle is a very good implementation of it. And though it has a whopping big bass shelf, it's always balanced with the rest of the tuning.

An IEM this balanced – an all-rounder that's also exciting – is usually reserved for the $350-and-up sets. The Xenns Tea Pro, for example, although going for a slightly different sound profile, is equally balanced, with lower, mid and highs all working together to create something cohesive.

In short, the Juzear Light Shuttle definitely represents good value for $190. Great value, in fact.

Competition

I've chosen to compare the Juzear Light Shuttle with the Juzear Harrier ($330) and the Kiwi Ears KE4 ($199), because it's cheaper and better than the Harrier, even though they're both tuned by the same guy, and they're largely going for the same style. And because the KE4 is seen as one of the original JM-1/'New Meta'-tuned IEMs, and I want to see how the Light Shuttle compares to the OG.

Light Shuttle vs Juzear Harrier

The bass is very similar between these two, though I'd say the extra sizzle up top gives the edge to the mid-bass of the Light Shuttle – that, and the slight 250Hz mid-bass depression that separates the bass and mids better. The result is a slightly more satisfying bass to the Light Shuttle (though it's not massively different).

The lower midranges are very similar, again, with maybe a smidge more body to the Light Shuttle. It's when you get North of 1kHz that things start sounding noticeably different. The Harrier is more forward in the 1-3kHz region, giving more attention to vocals in comparison to the Light Shuttle. This is a style thing, so I don't think one is better than the other, though I will say that the extra information here on the Harrier ends up doing the heavy lifting of detail retrieval in lieu of a lacklustre treble.

When we get to the treble, the Light Shuttle steals the show. It has more attack to hi-hats, cymbals and brings a higher edge to vocals than the Harrier. But it stops short of sibilance, and just sounds more detailed, more decisive, yet – paired with that dip between 1.5-3kHz – also balanced, smooth even. The Harrier's treble in comparison sounds good... until it doesn't. Lucinda Williams' treble-feast track Sweet Old World, seems to sound both sharp and dark. It ends up sounding a little smeared in comparison to the assured Light Shuttle.

The Juzear Harrier costs $330, the Juzear Light Shuttle costs $190, but for me the Light Shuttle is twice the IEM that the Harrier is. They also share the exact same cable (which is pretty great). There's a clear winner here, and it doesn't rhyme with barrier!

Light Shuttle vs Kiwi Ears KE4

The Kiwi Ears KE4 takes a slightly warmer route to the JM-1-style tuning, but still has a whopping big bass boost, like the Light Shuttle. I found it really hard to find a clear winner out of these two, and think as good as the Light Shuttle is in 2026, the KE4 is still a strong consideration two years after its release.

Things are a little cleaner in the bass with the Light Shuttle, with the KE4 offering a bit more warmth in the mid-bass.

In the midrange, there's a smidge more incisiveness with the Light Shuttle, and the KE4 sounds a little more lush. Vocals are a foot or so closer to you with the Light Shuttle. Personally I don't find either one more appealing than the other – both approaches are enjoyable and really well executed.

If you own the Kiwi Ears KE4, I wouldn't be in a rush to buy the Light Shuttle – there's just not enough difference between them. However, if you've specifically thought your KE4 could do with a smidge less warmth, a touch more forward vocals, and a better cable with modular terminations, then sure, the Light Shuttle is for you.

The KE4 is a little smoother, the Light Shuttle a little more exciting, but they are both absolutely the best $200 IEMs I've heard to date. You can't lose with either of them.

Upgrade/downgrade?

If you've got the Juzear Defiant, getting the Light Shuttle would be an upgrade worth considering. Now, I love the Defiant for its exciting tuning and excellent value for money at $100. But the Light Shuttle's tuning is more sophisticated, while still being plenty exciting too.

The Defiant has a nice bass boost, but it's a little sloppier than the Light Shuttle, and has a touch messier transition into the mids. The Light Shuttle's mids are subtler and more impactful, whereas the Defiant's mids can come off as a little shouty in comparison. I also find the treble better done in the Light Shuttle, though we're talking slim margins.

My review of the Juzear Defiant is four and half stars out of five, while this review remains four. That's because the Defiant is just $100, and for that it represents insane value for money, as it also comes with a quality modular cable. So, I prefer the Light Shuttle's sound profile, but when you look at the bigger picture of value, build quality and comfort, the Defiant has the edge.

Should you buy it?

The Juzear Light Shuttle is a very good IEM that I strongly recommend to anyone who wants one of the better 'neutral with bass boost' tunings. The fact you get an excellent modular cable and plenty of decent ear tips as well, sweetens the deal.

The fact that the Light Shuttle sounds better than the Juzear Harrier – an IEM that costs $140 more and which goes for a very similar sound profile – while having the exact same cable, makes it a no-brainer for me.

I didn't give the Light Shuttle a four and a half stars because as fun as the bass is, it's not amongst the best I've heard (I prefer the bass of the Truthear Pure, which costs $90, for example), and I really think the weird faceplate is off-putting.

This is a really well tuned IEM, managing to be an all-rounder that doesn't bore you to death. It's balanced and exciting, and it's one of the best IEMs to be released this year so far.

Having spent more than 20 years making games with his brother Tom, from when they were still teenagers, he has made a large number of browser-based games and animations as the Super Flash Bros, before the two founded SFB Games where they have worked with major platform holders like Nintendo and Apple.

While the studio has tried its hand at different types of games, it also has its own series in Detective Grimoire, a murder-mystery adventure originally inspired by Capcom’s Ace Attorney series. With the upcoming release of The Mermaid Mask, the fourth outing for the eponymous detective, Adam shares his insight into how this series’ aesthetic has evolved over the years since its Adobe Flash debut.

If you're inspired, see our guides to the best laptops for game development and the best game engines.

Then we come together and compare them. Then we both draw again, now being influenced by each other’s thoughts, and create a sort of mix of the two. We go back and forth on that. Then the animator, Charlotte Harris, also draws the characters a lot because she has to work out how they’ll look when they move, and what they look like from the side.

We had to basically design each character with a full range of emotion. How do they look when they blink? What do their teeth look like? The kind of body language they might have is so much that goes into the process of designing the characters because you end up staring at them for most of the game, so they have to be really complete and good.

Detective Grimoire's latest murder mystery, The Mermaid Mask, is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and 1.

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

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An e-ink digital frame is more versatile since you can hang it anywhere, it looks more attractive, and there are battery-powered ones that don't leave any cables trailing. One of our favourite ranges is from Switzerland's InkPoster, whose Affresco screen starts at just $499 (for more options, see our guide to the best e-ink art frames around).

• Browse e-ink frames at Amazon

Why use an e-ink picture frame rather than a frame TV?

TVs demand attention, even if they're designed to display art when they're not in use for watching movies or series. An e-ink picture frame is more understated, more versatile in where you might place it, and it doesn't emit a glow.

We were impressed when we reviewed the 28.5-inch InkPoster Tela model. It has the heft of a real frame and flex of a real canvas rather than the rigidity of a TV display. The matte surface and e-ink make the artwork feel more like a printed canvas than a digital reproduction.

You need to plug the screen in for the first install, but then you can unplug and rely on the battery. You choose your art via an accompanying app, which lets you select from a collection of famous paintings or upload your own files, which you can crop and resize on the app before sending to the frame.

Each image loads through a slow, deliberate transition as the display’s pigment microcapsules shift into place. It's almost as if the frame were physically printing the image, which our reviewer found oddly satisfying.

InkPoster makes three sizes of frame: the 31.5-inch and 13.3-inch Affresco models and the mid-sized Tela. The latter is available in premium variations with high-end design accents like Alcantara passepartouts by Italian design house Pininfarina.

Jessica's career has led to her becoming a speaker and judge at industry events, including Spikes Asia, AdFest, APAC Effies and IPA Effectiveness. As part of our 5 questions series, I caught up with Jessica to discuss client relationships, industry survival and the importance of getting comfortable with failure.

Now one creative practice has decided to intentionally create an "AI slop monster" but for a weird reason: to remind themselves to never do it again.

Electric Dreama Studios is a small London-based outfit that specialises in VFX and digital production. Led by creative director Sam Nutt, it's preparing to present an AI-designed piece of sculpture at the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery this coming week.

It describes CH(AI)MER as a grotesque amalgamation of AI slop as body parts. It has poreless skin that looks like it's melting and uncanny dead eyes. The inspiration is obviously the classical chimera from Greek mythology. The creature symbolised chaos and destruction, which is apt given that it's how many people see AI's contribution to the world.

Electric Dreama Studios say the sculpture is a vow. It built the "ugliest version of AI slop" that it could as a reminder of what art NOT to make in the future. Everything the studio makes from now is a commitment to the opposite, it says: "AI used only as a tool in service of human ideas, and taste always shaping the creation".

"We get why most of us reject AI." Sam says. "It’s the slop and the soulless nature of most AI-generated work. The human touch and creativity feels missing. The CH(AI)MERA is a clear example of that – the monster that the world has created with the haphazard generation and use of AI.”

“We created this piece to hold ourselves accountable. To remind our studio and our clients that we’ll never make this kind of slop ever. Everything after this is a promise: only human-first work, where the technology serves the craft, instead of replacing it."

You can see another creation of Electric Dreama below.

CH(AI)MERA will be on public display at the British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, from 24 to 27 September.

While it's hard to pick a favourite, the new Clayface poster might be the most impressive yet thanks to its handcrafted design. A strangely beautiful, intricate artwork with a viscerally disturbing underbelly, the stunning illustration proves that poster design doesn't have to be constrained to minimalism or floating heads.

Created by Orlando Arocena, the artist clarifies that the poster was made entirely using "Adobe Illustrator, NOT AI." The design features a looming silhouette of Clayface in various states of warped, melting horror. Drips of his face rain down on a city scene, while sharp shards of red and yellow light create an eerily threatening backdrop.

Skull motifs bring an added dark tone to the design, merging and dissolving into the edges of the design in an almost organic fashion. Bone and flesh become indistinguishable, and the visceral horror of the image comes to life. "This is so haunting…absolutely incredible!!," one Instagram commenter wrote. "Woahhhhhh! Best posters I have seen in a longggg time," another added.

For more poster design inspiration, check out the stunning Digger poster that strikes graphic design gold or check out the new design for Laika's Wildwood, which focuses on the hands behind the craft.

In an era in which many brands seem to refresh their identities every couple of years, the Super Mario logo has been remarkably enduring. The last tweak to the familiar multicolour wordmark was made 15 years ago, way back in 2011. So why's Nintendo giving it a glow up now?

And a glow up it is – or a power up maybe. The iconic colours and letterforms remain immediately recognisable, but the presentation has been upgraded to 3D. The flat black outline has been replaced with a grey bevel that feels almost metallic, and the letters now carry a glossy, toy‑like finish, adding depth and volume to the design without losing its familiar charm.

The Super Mario logo has long been central to the identity of Nintendo's most famous video game franchise, instantly identifiable even to those who’ve never picked up a controller. A change could signal something big for the series – the last refresh coincided with the release of Mario 3DS, AKA Super Mario 3D Land, in 2011.

That refresh adjusted colours, making the 'S' blue and the 'U' yellow. It also introduced plumper, tighter letterforms with a stronger inner shadow. The new design keeps those elements but gives the design a 3D polish (for the moment, Nintendo's using the new logo horizontally only. We've yet to see whether it will also use the new design in a traditional stacked version.

The decision to bring a 3D look to the standard Mario logo is making many fans recall the individual game logo designs for Mario 64 and the 2013 Nintendo Wii U title Super Mario 3D World. As a result, many are interpreting the update as a sign that a new 3D Mario game is coming in 2027 or 2028.

"Mario 64 remake next year," one person predicts on X. Others are pointing out that the video game podcaster and leaker Nate Drake and the anonymous Malo leak both claimed there would be a 3D Mario game next year, and they have already been proven right about the new Star Fox and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake being on the roadmap.

That said, I have to accept that there's also a chance that the logo redesign doesn't mean anything at all. There has been a bit of a trend lately of brands turning back against 2D flat design and returning to a more 3D look. Google and Microsoft have reintroduced gradients for more textured detail.

If there's any brand that deserves something more than modern minimalism, surely it's Mario. The 3D logo design should also look good on physical game releases, which is an area where Nintendo's trying to differentiate itself from the other big console makers.

While we wait with bated breath for the next Nintendo Direct, check out current deals below.

Brilliantly, the term "AI slop" managed to sum up that whole cultural moment in two concise syllables. No wonder that in 2025 it was named word of the year by both Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society.

Plus it didn't just describe a problem, it helped people organise against it, giving the public a shared shorthand for their disgust. Coca-Cola got a hiding for its use of AI in Christmas ads. McDonald's Netherlands pulled a commercial after its brazen use of AI was called out. Activision, too, faced backlash for using AI in promos for its mobile games.

It's been a heady ride. Yet we're only a couple of years in, and I fear the term "AI slop" is already outliving its usefulness.

Why? Because "slop" describes a specific kind of failure: something rushed, cheap and visibly terrible looking. And that kind of AI content may soon be a thing of the past, as more natural-looking content takes over.

Not slop, still problematic

Here's a good example. A few weeks ago I was ironing with YouTube on my TV on in the background. I was only half paying attention, when the video I was watching finished, and the algorithm spooled on to something else.

It seemed to be a scrappy but earnest Doctor Who fan film: a story about a secret military base on the Scottish coast. I was about to turn it off, but then I got caught up in how good it looked.

This clearly wasn't made by three teens and an iPhone. This had high production values. In fact, looked like it had been made by people with serious industry experience and a decent budget for stock video. Intrigued, I kept watching (well, half-watching: I still had ironing to do) for the full, 55 minute episode.

There was the occasional odd moment: a strange pause here, an edit that didn't quite land. But I put this down to passionate fans doing their best, without a BBC budget behind them. It was only afterwards, scrolling through the comments, that I discovered to my shock the whole thing had been generated with AI.

Not touched up with AI. Built entirely from it, right down to the "actor" playing the Doctor. I'd honestly assumed he, and everyone else, was a real actor. Yes, an amateur and occasionally stilted actor, but a human nonetheless. I was utterly wrong. And turns out from the comments, I was not alone.

Whatever you want to call this content, "slop" it wasn't. The movements and gestures of the characters all seemed natural. The dialogue was convincing. No one had too many fingers. And perhaps most importantly, the human-written story and dialogue were actually really good. Which is doubtless the reason it had been shared by so many people and popped up in my algorithm. Basically, if anyone's looking for a decent writer, I'd make a beeline to the creator's door.

In other words this content, which has since been removed from YouTube and put on his own website, was by no means bad. In fact, it was good enough to fool me that I was watching real actors... and that's precisely the problem. When I saw the Black Mirror episode Joan Is Awful in 2023, I thought it was describing what would be technically possible a decade off. Just three years later, and we seem to be here already.

If AI made videos aren't obviously AI, that's so much more dangerous than Al slop, which makes it obvious by, well, being crap. So we're going to need a word for AI content that's competent – impressive even – but raises all the same questions about consent, labour, authenticity, cost, environmental impact and misinformation. And I think we're going to need it sooner rather than later.

The next Blender update will let users import 3D Gaussian Splats from PLY and SPZ files. Though there's no export yet, users can render splats using Blender's engines (if you need a system that keep up, see our guide to the best laptops for 3D modelling).

Gaussian splatting is a relatively recent approach to 3D that allows artists and designers to recreate real-world objects and environments as photorealistic, interactive 3D scenes from a collection of ordinary photos or videos. Unlike traditional 3D models made of rigid geometric triangles and polygons, a splat is made of millions of tiny, overlapping 3D coloured blobs that store information about its position, size, shape, color, and transparency.

Until now, the only way to work with Gaussian splats in Blender has been via external tools like Brush or COLMAP and importing the resulting .ply files using specialised add-ons. Blender 5.3 adds native import and allows rendering via Workbench, EEVEE, and Cycles.

Check out the examples from CGMatter on YouTube above, and from VFX artist Jason Key on X below.

The release notes mention four limitations for now. Performance is not ideal, the pipeline assumes sRGB color space, and areas of low opacity/high radiance can render incorrectly as Cycles and EEVEE operate in linear space. Also, Apply Transform on a Gaussian splat does not work correctly as it does not yet handle the new scale, rotation and spherical harmonics attributes.

Also see how Chaos has solved the problem of relighting Gaussian Splats.

The classic LAMY Safari has been admired for decades for its good looks – and for its fantastic price. And right now, it's now even more attractive, reduced by almost $10 to just $27 at Amazon for a limited time.

LAMY produces high-quality, German-engineered pens known for their minimalist Bauhaus-inspired design, ergonomic grips, and reliable performance. The Safari is one of its most famous designs.

UPDATE: The biggest deal is now only left on the pen in red version, but there's still 18% off the same pen in black, now $30.

If you're looking for a pen for drawing rather than writing, also see our reviews of the best pens for artists.

A beautiful pen at a beautiful price

If our coverage of beautiful pens has proven anything over the years, it's that pen prices can vary wildly. But you don't have to pay hundreds or even thousands for a Montblanc or Tibaldi to get an iconic fountain pen that adds a touch of class and mindful tactility to everday writing.

The Lamy Safari is popular because it combines rugged durability, an ergonomic design, and reliable writing performance at an affordable entry-level price Made from tough ABS, the same material used in Lego bricks, the body is lightweight and impact-resistant, designed to survive daily abuse in a backpack or pencil case.

The molded triangular grip encourages a proper tripod finger position, making it comfortable for long writing sessions. The stainless-steel nibs can be swapped out in seconds, accommodating different line widths or left-handed writers, and the pen writes smoothly right out of the box with a consistent ink flow. It's clear to me why it's been the benchmark for starter fountain pens since it made its debut at the Frankfurt Fair in 1980.

In Us, in case you didn't know, is a co-op horror game from Engawa Games, an independent Japanese game development studio previously known for its chaotic co-op game Parking Together!.

The multiplayer survival horror title follows a team of exorcists around a village corrupted by demons. Players work together to spot which villagers are secretly monsters in disguise, then exorcise them before things turn nasty.

It all sounds like the sort of game I'd love: part social deduction, part tense atmospheric horror, built for playing with friends.

Better still, it dropped with some deliciously eerie, atmospheric key art. A stained-glass window, candlelight, a robed figure, a gun-toting exorcist crow in a fedora. There's a lot of skill and imagination on show here, and Engawa Games certainly deserved for their new release to go viral. But unfortunately, it did so for all the wrong reasons.

In case the image at the top of this page hasn't loaded, the problem is with the stylised lettering of the title: "In us" looks far more like "Anus". As DualShockers spotted, the effect is unmistakable once you see it, and impossible to unsee afterwards.

Why did it happen?

This isn't the first typographic fail we've seen, and why, you might wonder, does it happen? My guess is that, most of the time, it's a symptom of designers spending hours staring at a logo up close, at high resolution, usually on a big screen. After a while, you stop seeing the letters as letters and start seeing them as shapes to be balanced.

Basically, once you really start digging into the details, your brain stops seeing the big picture. Which – unlikely as it seems – means it's easy to miss what a word looks like to someone glancing at it cold; at thumbnail size, on a phone, for half a second. Stylised display type only makes it worse.

It's all reminiscent of the "Invisible Gorilla" experiment created by researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons to show that people who are focused on one thing can easily overlook something else. To demonstrate this effect, they created a video of students passing a basketball among each other.

Viewers of the video were asked to count the number of times the players with the white shirts passed the ball. As result, many of them failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit appearing in the centre of the image. And I'll admit it, when I saw the video for the first time, I made that exact mistake myself. (Something my wife, who doesn't miss a trick, will never let me live down.)

I wasn't too surprised, because I'd already spent over 20 years working in print magazines. During which time, I would sometimes fail to spot a massive typo on the cover design we were working on until I'd seen it at least 30 times, because I'd be so obsessed with getting other aspects of the design nailed.

Sometimes (whisper it) these covers actually got printed with a typo - despite having been approved by a dozen other people up the publishing chain. Thankfully none of those errors related to embarrassing body parts. But as the saying goes: there by the grace of God go I.

In other words, enjoying mocking Engawa Games for their typography fail today. But prepare for tomorrow, because it could be your turn next. And watch out for that gorilla!

For accomplished character designer Hugo Richard, one such moment occurred when he finally hit upon a process for creating images that resonated with him, after years of searching.

“One day I noticed an artist making a super rendered piece starting from incredibly detailed line work and flat colours,” he says. The technique suited Hugo immediately. “With flat colours, I learned how to control mood through saturation and temperature,” he tells us.

When a friend noticed how important line work was to Hugo, he suggested he give it greater emphasis in his work. To develop this ability he turned to the work of Charles Bargue. “I was truly impressed by how he was able to distribute weight just with simple lines, and to control the thickness of the line to show volume without any shading,” he says.

Another step forward took place when he discovered a classic art book published in the 1950s, Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis. “At the time I had a basic understanding of building structure, but I didn’t realise I could build a face in geometric forms,” Hugo remembers. The book taught him fundamental art techniques related to volume. “It was my first confidence boost in trying to approach light and shadow from a geometrical perspective.”

Adding to the mix

Illustrator Serena Malyon found that mixed media was key to her evolution as an artist. “When I realised that I didn’t have to be a watercolour purist, and that I could combine different mediums to create the look I wanted, I started making some really weird and unique artwork,” she says.

“I handle colour most easily in watercolour, so I do a base painting in that medium. Then I go over it with either traditional acryla gouache, or digital paint to refine it and fix mistakes. Allowing myself not to be a watercolour/media purist has given me permission to have a lot of fun and experiment in my work. I’ve found a way of working that feels the most authentic to me.”

Art director and visual development artist Caroline Vos discovered a whole new way of working when creative director Bobby Chiu told her that he uses his Navigator tool in Photoshop as a thumbnail for his art, to see if it’s working at a smaller scale. “I built on the idea and started creating many small thumbnails on a single canvas,” she reveals.

“It was a massive game-changer for working fast; not allowing myself to get bogged down in details, fleshing out compositions that worked; finding the big shapes and giving myself multiple options to choose from; as well as bagging some nice compositions for future ideas. The beauty of it is that you can resolve big issues fast and then increase the selected thumbnail to canvas size, knowing that the bones of the artwork are in place and working.”

A simple tool that made a big difference to Caroline is a physical artists’ colour wheel. “It’s a little cardboard wheel with values and complementary schemes set up as sliding layers,” she says. “I always use the wheel to establish the basis of my colour scheme and try not to deviate from it, rather than winging it and wondering what feels off.”

Gokcen Yuksek, who paints in oils and works as a digital sculptor, tells us that her work took a step forward when she realised during a life drawing class that she didn’t have to force herself to use a style that she struggled with; it was okay to use a style that came more naturally to her.

“It made me understand the difference between challenging myself to improve and forcing myself into a style that wasn’t really mine,” she says. “Once I started drawing and painting in a way that felt authentic, improving became much easier.”

She tells us that her workflow has completely changed over the years. “I used to paint directly onto the canvas in fine detail from the start. Now I build paintings gradually through layers and underpainting. I think the difference was that I started to be more patient, stopped worrying about the speed and the final result and started playing around with transparency, effects and process basically having more fun with it.”

After noticing several periods of stagnation when his art stayed the same for a long time, concept artist and illustrator Hardy Fowler realised that “if your art isn’t changing, it isn’t growing”.

He explains: “When something starts to feel like it’s working, there is a tendency to take our foot off of the gas – to slow down and even stop growing. I have learned to fight that instinct. Even when things are feeling good, I try to be in a constant state of change. “I try to add a new technique, workflow, brush or colour palette to my work at least once a year. It’s uncomfortable and difficult, but I always end up learning something new and my work is forever sorted into before and after that new spin occurred.”

Setting the scene

Fine artist Hope Doe tells us that she learned how values work from a theatre production when she was at college. “I didn’t know just how important it was to organise values to make a detailed mess readable. But something clicked while watching a play.”

Hope noticed that the stage used foreground cutouts and a background painting to set the scene, with actors and props in the middle. “The movement and action were lit up the most, while the background was secondary and the foreground often appeared darker,” she says. In this moment, she understood clearly how lighting can be used to guide the viewer’s eye, and began to apply the technique in her paintings.

Mumbai-based watercolour artist Sucharita Suri creates whimsical art inspired by nature, folklore and myth. A big realisation was how much her assumptions about her own abilities constrained her art practice. When she challenged those assumptions and pushed herself to explore elements that she had dismissed, everything changed.

“Don’t mistake a current limitation for a permanent one,” she advises. “The moment I stopped defining myself by what I couldn’t do and started focusing on what I was willing to learn, my creative world expanded dramatically.”

Sucharita also stresses the importance of understanding the power of mindset for creative growth.

"Today, I am best known for my whimsical animals, but there was a time when animals were largely absent from my work. Despite decades of working as a creative professional, I carried an unexamined belief that painting animals was not one of my strengths. An early unsuccessful attempt had silently become a limitation I accepted as fact.

The breakthrough came when she recognised that experience does not automatically free us from creative assumptions.

“Once I stopped treating that belief as truth and approached the subject with curiosity rather than judgement, an entirely new body of work began to emerge. The animals I had avoided became the very subjects through which I found my most distinctive visual voice. ”

A similar shift happened with watercolour, which Sucharita had previously dismissed after a few disappointing experiences. Returning to it later, I realised the issue had never been the medium itself.

“I had mistaken unfamiliarity for inability. Approaching watercolour with patience and openness revealed possibilities I had overlooked, and it has since become central to my artistic practice. That shift taught me a lesson that continues to shape my practice: creative growth often happens on the other side of discomfort. Many of the limitations we face as artists are not technical limitations but self-imposed ones”.

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

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The best logos often tell a story with design alone, and Gerwig's Narnia logo is no different. Bright, whimsical, and bursting with character, the design proves that reinventing a classic can work best when you bravely stray from tradition.

The new Narnia: The Magician's Nephew logo features a contemporary take on the classic serif font of the books and 2005 film series. With swooping letterforms and rounded edges, it has a distinctly childlike wonder that creates a warmth compared to the previous archaic serif design.

A burst of light emerges from the centre of the design, pooling out into purple, orange and blue hues that radiate a magical energy, while the simplicity of the black background allows each beam of light to shine.

Despite the refreshed look, the logo proved divisive for some. " It’s more Tron than Narnia," one X user wrote, while another chimed in, "Even the title looks woke...we just can't have nice things." It wasn't all doom and gloom, as others seemed intrigued by the director's take, with one fan writing, "Greta Gerwig’s vision is already looking magical!" while another added, "There’s something about seeing Narnia through Gerwig’s style that just feels exciting."

For more film news, check out Laika's stunning Wildwood trailer or take a look at how the new Digger poster strikes graphic design gold.

Some people writing on X have even called the movie a "satanic inversion" of Disney's classic because it presents the traditionally evil stepsisters as misunderstood. But are creative reimaginings what fairy tale tradition is all about?

Soundtracked by Charli XCX’s Mean Girls, the Steps teaser above provides our first taste of what to expect from the movie. Billed as loose satirical, musical comedy take on Cinderella, it's being produced by Netflix Animation Studios with Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions.

It's directed by Student Academy Awards gold medal winner Alyce Tzue (Student Academy Awards and John Ripa, co-director of Raya and the Last Dragon. Stars include Ali Wong, Amanda Seyfried, Stephanie Hsu, Daniel Radcliffe and Bette Midler,

Critics argue that the comedic approach risks trivialises a classic fairy tale by turning it into a parody. Many are particularly upset about the characterisation of Cinderella’s “evil” stepsisters, now named Lilith and Margot, as kind-hearted but misunderstood,

"You guys are destroying childhood memories with this one," one person writes on X. "Coming soon, a Netflix series about how Buffalo Bill was just misunderstood.?" someone else predicts.

"Peak wokeness. Invert reality. Good is evil and evil is good," another person writes.

Of course, even the smallest tweaks to a much-loved story can cause controversy. Just look at the reaction to the new Harry Potter logos.

But let's remember that the "reality" of Disney's 1950 Cinderella involved talking animals, a fairy godmother and a pumpkin that turns into a carriage, And that fairy tales have naturally always been subject to flux due to their inheritance from oral tradition. There is no definitive version.

The original Cinderella story is far older than Disney with roots in ancient Greece, Egypt, and China. Disney largely followed Charles Perrault’s 1697 French version, Cendrillon, but it softened some of the darker elements and it changed how the story ends for the step sisters leaving things hanging whereas Perrault had Cinderella forgive them and marries them off. Disney did actually make two direct-to-video Cinderella sequels that give one sister, Anastasia, a redemption arc.

Other versions of Cinderella were much darker. In an earlier Italian version, Giambattista Basile's La Gatta Cenerentola, the heroine kills her first stepmother. In the Brothers Grimm's version, Aschenputtel dated to 1812, the stepsisters slice off their own toes to try to fit the slipper and end up having their eyes pecked out by birds.

In short, Cinderella has been retold countless times. By flipping the perspective, Netflix can differentiate Steps from previous adaptations and possibly find something new to say with it.

Modern audiences have actually responded well to narratives that humanise “villains.” Just looked at Wicked and Maleficent. There's an appetite for stories that question moral binaries.

By recasting the sisters as complex characters, Netflix challenges outdated tropes and opens space for more nuanced storytelling. Whether it takes full advantage of that space remains to be seen.

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Yesterday, the football club Oxford United launched a range of sportswear that it called the Campus Collection. It pulled the drop within just a few hours after people on social media immediately noticed an unintended link to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. The club has apologised, but some of its supporters don't see the issue.

The Oxford United clothing designs featured text that read 'United 93' presented in the style of player numbers on football shirts. 'United' is part of the club's name, and the number was a reference to 1893, the year the club was founded.

The problem is that United 93 was one of four flights hijacked by al-Qaida on 11 September 2001. The plane crashed after passengers challenged the terrorists,

An English League one football club might not be expected to consider all potential connotations of that combination of name and number, but United 93 became particularly well known after being brought to the screen in a movie of the same name.

The debacle was made worse by the US-inspired style of the clothing designs, which seems kind of strange for an English football club. Oxford United had described the collection as “inspired by the style and culture of American sports."

What's more incredible is that it seems they were so close to realising that there could be a controversy. The club reportedly planned to launch the collection a week earlier on 11 September but delayed it due to concerns over the sensitivity of the date. If they had waited longer, there's a chance the designs wouldn't have drawn so much attention, but still nobody realised the potential misinterpretation of the slogan.

“The range was released without understanding of the historical context and associations”, the club said in an apology posted on social media “It should not have reached the point of sale and we take full responsibility for not undertaking proper due diligence.

“We have removed the collection with immediate effect and are reviewing our approval processes to ensure nothing like this happens again. Once again, we would like to put on record our sincere apologies for this error and any offence caused.”

Some Oxford United fans see the design blunder was unforgivable. One person wrote on the club's forum that it was a “monumental cock-up that I would expect to be sacked for if I’d signed off on it”.

However, others are defending the club. "Not everything revolves around America," one person writes on X.

"Class jersey, class idea. Literally zero to apologise for. Next Porsche will apologise for their 911," someone else wrote, referring to the German carmaker's iconic sports car.

What do you think? Was it necessary for a small English football club to consider the global connotations of its merchandise design?