This is Part 2 of 2 of our “Using Blender to Rig and Animate 2D Sprites” tutorial. See part one to get up to speed with what we are creating. In this part, we’re going to be loading our sprite into ThreeJS. Continue reading →
Produce Awesome Content Without Blowing the Budget
The best game engine, code library, or CMS is meaningless without the stuff that goes into it. The stuff that hits you right in the heart. The most important part of any project. The content.
Content is the fun part. It’s where you get to connect with human beings. Content is the limelight. It’s king.
So how do you make content without blowing the budget?
RegExr v3: Online Regular Expression Tester
I’m very excited to announce that nearly 10 years after it first launched, RegExr has been updated to version 3. RegExr is an online tool to learn, build, and test Regular Expressions.
RegExr has a few key focuses, and we’ve worked to improve each of them with this version:
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Cultivating Candid Feedback in Creative Culture
I’ve been exposed to a variety of corporate cultures. Some fill me with inspiration, fellowship, and support, where my co-workers are my best friends and I trust them to give honest feedback — knowing they want to solve problems, and help me produce my best work. Others, leave me exhausted: struggling with job satisfaction and feeling alone. At the root of this, is a feeling that surfacing issues or concerns to managers will fall on deaf ears. When managers listen and do not take action or follow up with action, I’m left feeling powerless to affect change.
If this sounds familiar — have hope. With a few insights about shaping feedback and some tips to cultivate an open, supportive, and candid culture, you’ll be on your way to creating an environment where you can thrive together. It all starts with good feedback.
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Great Pumpkin Showdown 2017
Hallowe’en at gskinner means two traditions:
The first tradition is our annual pumpkin carving afternoon. Earlier in the week, we announced some teams, and on Friday we brought in food, drinks, snacks, and some classic Tim Burton Hallowe’en movies. The day was punctuated with visits from Dodo, our office dog for the day, on loan from Chris K.
The second tradition is the design and development of our Pumpkin Voting App. This privilege falls on our newest team member(s). They manage all the project stages, from initial sketches and ideation, right through deployment! It’s a great opportunity to provide some training and practice with real deadlines before they join active accounts. These internal test runs properly prepare them for the technical demands of our external clients. Recent trainees have quickly transitioned from the voting app to building regional telecom storefronts and scaling the backend for an online casino in India. Continue reading →
JAMJAM2017: A music visualization and creative coding seminar
JAMJAM2017 was a team-building exercise we held here at the gskinner office. It was a time to learn about music visualization, have some fun, and build some demos!
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gskinner goes to CAMP
In September, we sent our design team and a developer (to keep the designers in check) to Calgary, Alberta for CAMP Festival. CAMP runs for two days, with 20 speakers sharing presentations on creativity and technology.
Things I Didn’t Learn In Design School
The best decision I’ve ever made was going to design school. Surrounded by talent, designer friends, and inspiring instructors, I was able to improve more than I could have ever imagined. After four years of amazing time in school, I received several job offers after our graduate portfolio show, and ended up working at a digital experience agency: gskinner.
Until the moment I started work, I thought I knew pretty much everything to succeed professionally, and there was no doubt in my naïve mind I would soon become “the SUPERSTAR” designer of the company. But I found the reality to be quite different from what I imagined. Transitioning from school to a professional work environment, I felt ill-equipped as there were many things I hadn’t been exposed to at school. It was like being thrown in the middle of the ocean and having to learn how to swim all over again.