14 Video and Graphic Templates for Ramadan and Eid to Spread Well Wishes This Holy Month - envato.com coupon

The holy month of Ramadan started in May 2017 and marks the start of a month long of fasting and prayers for Muslims all around the world. It ends on 24th of 25th June 2017, depending on where in the world you are at. This marks the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which is the first day of the Islamic month of Shawwal.

This is a great time to start sending well wishes to customers/clients, business partners, friends and family. A few universal greetings to remember are:

• Ramadan/Eid Mubarak = Have a blessed Ramadan/Eid
• Ramadan/Eid Kareem = Have a generous Ramadan/Eid

There are also localized greetings in every other country. For example in Malaysia the two main greetings used during this festive season are:

• Selamat Berpuasa = Have a blessed fasting month
• Selamat Hari Raya = Have a blessed celebration

However if you are unsure, the general greeting works just fine.

The next question is, how do you want to send this greeting? Sending greeting cards the old fashion way works fine but sending an e-card just has so many upsides; much easier when sending to many people, can be personalized, cost effective and can be used as a marketing tool too by posting it on your social media accounts. The best part is you can send either a simple image e-card or a short video e-card to share your well wishes. Both options definitely stands out and gives you the ability to personalize it with your logo.

8 After Effects Video Templates for Ramadan and Eid

Here are some of the best simple and beautiful videos temples to pick from.

1. Ramadan Opener Pack

Ramadan Opener Pack is a simple and elegant after effects template where the main focus is the lantern. It is a loop background with roll caption and comes in 7 different colours theme. It can be used with After Effects CS5 or higher and is available in FullHD 1920×1080. No plugins required, and it’s very easy and fast to customize. And the best part – a tutorial is included! This is a great file if you want to include a long message in your greeting.

2. Ramadan Moon Opener

Ramadan Moon Opener doesn’t require any plugins and comes with a video tutorial. This 40 second file has a logo and text placeholder.

3. Ramadan Opener

Ramadan Opener is a professional template with pre-rendered scenes, suitable for After Effects CS5.5-CS6-CC Project and is available in 1920×1080 FULL HD & 1280×720 HD resolutions. No extra plugins required. It is a short and sweet 12 second file and works with any frame rate. Just drag and drop your intro and outro text or logo. A video tutorial is also included.

4. Ramadan Logo Reveal

Ramadan Logo Reveal is a 19 seconds after effects template for CS6 and above that comes in FullHD 1920×1080. It doesn’t require any plugins and is inclusive of a video tutorial.

5. Ramadhan&Eid

This Ramadhan&Eid is a simple logo animation after effects template that has beautiful flourishes and vines reveal the moon. Easy to edit text and colour can be changed with colour management system. Optical Flare Plugin is required.

6. Ramadan

Ramadan is a 50 seconds after effects template for CS6 and CS5.5 that comes in HD 1920x1080p. The colour is customizable and text can be edited. It is also suitable if you have a longer message to send in the greeting.

7. Ramadan Mubarak Greetings

Ramadan Mubarak Greetings is a modern animation greeting. Moon, stars and fonts in gold with a simple dark background. Drag and drop your logo and audio file. Easy to edit text with 4 place holders. No plugin required and comes in high quality HD. File comes with video tutorial and a free font download link.

8. Ramadan Opening / Lamp light / Arab Logo Reveal

Ramadan Opening/Lamp light/Arab Logo reveal is a well organised 15 seconds full HD resolution after effects file with all the key elements; the crescent moon, stars and lanterns. It is for CS5 and above and doesn’t require any plugins.

6 Graphic Templates for Ramadan and Eid

Maybe you want to keep it super simple this year, and just need a nice unique and creative image design to turn into a e-card? Here are a few options for you.

1. Ramadan Kareem Celebration

Beautiful colours on this AI 10 EPS file.

2. Ramadan Kareem Greeting Card

Ramadan Kareem Greeting Card has a colourful glowing ornate crescent with mosque and bright flare. This is a non-layered file.

3. Polygonal Lantern for Ramadan Kareem

Polygonal illustration of lantern (fanoos), comes in a AI, EPS & JPEG file. This is a non-layered file.

4. Ramadan Kareem – Postcard Template with Islamic

A modern flat vector design postcard template with icons of Islamic holiday and culture like Muslim man, woman, camel, cannon, mosque, prayer beads, lamp and drum.

5. Traditional Greeting Card with Arabic Lantern

A traditional greeting card design with arabic lantern what comes in a editable EPS and Render in JPG format.

6. Eid Mubarak Poster Flyer

A simple flyer in Photoshop format – available with an Envato Elements subscription.

Send your e-card soon

It is only the start of Ramadan and the collection on VideoHive and GraphicRiver is only going to grow. I hope these AE and graphic files that I picked out has given you a great idea of what we have available in 2017 for Ramadan. Pick your favourite and send out your well wishes to all customers/clients, business partners, friends and family this holy month.

Ramadan Kareem & Eid Mubarak!

The post 14 Video and Graphic Templates for Ramadan and Eid to Spread Well Wishes This Holy Month appeared first on Envato.

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15 Useful Things You Can Learn on Tuts+ in June 2017 - envato.com coupon

Do you want to learn a new skill?

Over at Envato Tuts+, we’ve published dozens of new tutorials and video courses this month, across a broad range of subjects: design, coding, photography, video and more. The written tutorials are free, and the courses are free with an Envato Elements subscription, so there’s nothing to stop you from picking up a new skill.

Here are 15 cool things you can learn to do right now.

1. Keep your Mac efficient and well maintained

Have you ever taken your Mac to an Apple store and seen the “genius” running a diagnostic test on your computer? This post shows you how to run that test yourself and interpret the results, as well as checking the health of your hard drive—all without the help of a lanyard-wearing hipster genius.

2. Design a vintage music festival flyer

Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is just around the corner, and festival season will soon be in full swing. I love the summer colours and the vintage VW campervan in this design—but more importantly, the tutorial teaches you some great skills in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’re shivering in the southern hemisphere right now, just think of this one as forward planning.

3. Add MailChimp signup to your WordPress site

Some Tuts+ courses are several hours long and cover lots of ground, but this one is very short (just six minutes) and very simple. It teaches you something that sounds straightforward but can cause headaches if it’s not done right—how to add a MailChimp signup form to your WordPress site. In six minutes, you can get your site fully set up to start gathering email subscribers. Not bad, huh?

4. Know when to fly your drone

I love watching aerial video footage. There’s something so calming and majestic about seeing the world from the perspective of a bird. In this video tutorial, you can learn about the best times of day to fly your drone for filming purposes (and in a companion tutorial, you can learn about the pros and cons of different weather conditions). I’m sure it’s all useful information, but I like the tutorials purely for the eye candy.

5. Make an explainer video

Have you noticed that explainer videos are everywhere? And they all have the same annoyingly cheery music? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to put together a good explainer video for your company or personal site. My one gripe is that it’s a written tutorial—being a fan of recursion, I’d have preferred an explainer video on how to make explainer videos. But it’s still a good post. Check it out.

6. Convert a photo into a charcoal drawing

Charcoal drawings look amazing, but creating them involves both getting your hands dirty and spending years on the painstaking and often frustrating process of learning to draw. This video shows you how to skip both of these steps and just create a cool charcoal drawing from any photo with a simple Photoshop action.

7. Create a split-screen slider with JavaScript

I love the split-screen effect here—as you drag your mouse across an image, a line splits the screen and it changes from colour to duotone. Try the demo at the top of the tutorial to see how it works! Then you can learn the process of creating it, with both a screencast and written instructions to make it easy to understand.

8. Design buttons, textures and icons for video games

The thing about what video-game designers call “UI assets” (and the rest of us call “buttons, icons and stuff”) is that, if they’re designed well, you probably don’t even notice them. But if they look clunky, they can ruin the gaming experience. This course teaches you how to design them well. Plus the aesthetic reminds me of playing The Secret of Monkey Island as a child. Remember Guybrush Threepwood, anyone?

9. Master PHP

If you want to get started as a web developer, this comprehensive course is the place to start. It takes you through the whole process of learning PHP, from setting up a development server on your computer and writing your first line of code right through to creating a working PHP application and interacting with a MySQL database.

10. Record vocals like a professional

Want to be the next Lana Del Rey or Justin Bieber? Or maybe you even have some more up-to-date cultural references. In any case, this tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to record professional vocals using just your computer and some simple equipment. Then you’ll be well on your way to YouTube stardom—all you need to do next is….

11. Make a YouTube banner

Even with the most professionally recorded vocals, some of your potential fans may be put off if your YouTube banner looks as if it was designed by a hyperactive child with unsupervised access to Microsoft Paint. This tutorial teaches you to put together a simple banner for a YouTube channel using stock images and basic tools in Adobe Photoshop.

12. Draw a skull

Macabre? Perhaps. But what I like about this tutorial is that you can produce a great end result even if you have zero drawing skill (yes, that would be me!). Monika Zagrobelna breaks the whole process down into such simple steps that you really can’t go wrong. If you can draw lines and circles and have access to a pencil, you can draw a convincing human skull.

13. Tell your “em” from your “rem”

If you’ve even dabbled in web design, you’ve probably come across the “em” and “rem” units of measurement. But what are they? What’s the difference, and when might you want to use each one? This one-hour course will get you crystal clear.

14. Solve Android’s most common error messages

Stumped by a ClassCastException? Tearing your hair out over a missing R.layout.main? Wondering who in Android-land thought that “Only the Original Thread That Created a View Hierarchy Can Touch Its Views” would be a helpful error message to give to human beings? This article demystifies 13 of the most common error messages to plague Android developers.

15. Hit Inbox Zero

I’ve saved the best for last. While we may love to be able to draw, paint, create apps or become a YouTube star, I think a lot of us would settle for an empty email inbox. This tutorial will teach you how to reach the “You have no messages” promised land. You can also grab a free eBook for more detailed email mastery tips.

There’s more…

This post has just skimmed the surface of what Tuts+ has published this month, and in the full archives going back ten years, there’s even more. So if you don’t see what you’re looking for in this post, you can search the full Tuts+ library of more than 1,000 courses and 23,000 tutorials to find exactly what you need.

The post 15 Useful Things You Can Learn on Tuts+ in June 2017 appeared first on Envato.

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How to be a presentation hero vs. a presentation zero: 10 tips for success - envato.com coupon

There are two types of people who give presentations: Presentation HEROES and presentation ZEROS.

Presentation heroes are the ones who get the applause, land the deal, get the money, and receive all the other rewards from giving an awesome presentation. Presentation zeros get exactly the opposite – crickets and people running for the nearest exit.

In today’s competitive world, to pull off a killer presentation you need to:

• Create clean and captivating slides that appeal to people’s emotions
• Use tools and shortcuts so you can spend your time on the important stuff
• Think creatively… no lazy bullet points

To get you on the right path, here’s 10 clever tips on how to be a presentation hero.

Let’s jump into it.

#1.) Presentation heroes rise to the occasion and do more than required. Presentation zeros treat their slides as an afterthought

The surest way to fail a presentation is to whip your slides together at the last-minute hoping that everything comes together.

You should be aiming to do the exact opposite.

Set aside plenty of time to work on your presentation so you can make sure that everything looks perfect. By giving yourself time you will be able to make sure the flow, the theme, and the content goes above and beyond. You should also consider creating a presentation checklist so you know you covered everything.

Make sure you also include enough time to proofread. Look at the grammar and spelling, as well as big picture stuff like making sure you’re telling a cohesive story with compelling copy.

Good presentation flow is about everything going together harmoniously.

#2.) Presentation heroes save time with keyboard shortcuts. Presentation zeros waste time going the long way

PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts can save you valuable time so you have time to focus on the important stuff.

For example, if you need to select all the objects on the slide, don’t select all your images one-by-one with you mouse. Instead, press Ctrl+A!

Here’s one more:

If you’ve made a mistake, instead of moving your mouse to hit the undo button simply press Ctrl+Z.

There are many keyboard shortcuts to memorize. Start with the common ones and add new ones over time.

Beyond saving you time these keyboard shortcuts will keep you in the “PowerPoint zone” by not interrupting your flow.

#3.) Presentation heroes keep their slides clean. Presentation zeros don’t care if it’s messy

Messy slides are distracting.

When your audience gets distracted by awkward text, unaligned images, and unbalanced clutter they won’t be paying attention to you, which the last thing you want!

Presentation heroes care about all that stuff and more. They don’t make embarrassing design mistakes like inconsistent formatting, heavy and uneven text, or mismatched color schemes. They pay attention to detail and make sure that everything looks perfect.

One of the great things about purchasing professional templates on GraphicRiver is that they are created by awesome designers that understand the importance of slide cleanliness. In other words, you can rest assured that your slides will already look fresh and clean. All you have to do is make sure you keep them that way when you edit/customize them.

#4.) Presentation heroes present info with creative layouts and visuals. Presentation zeros use lengthy bullet points

Every hero knows that bullet points are the easiest way to put people to sleep.

Sadly, many people think using bullet points is the only way to present their information.

So, what do heroes do in instead of using bullets?

Heroes get creative with their layouts and think outside of the box. And if they ever get stuck for layout ideas they look for inspiration online. More on that in a bit.

There are so alternative ways to present bullets! As long as you’re still getting your message across, it’s better than using bullet points. If you have to use them, look for ways to dress your bullet points up.

#5.) Presentation heroes use relevant and beautiful images. Presentation zeros use inconsistent cheesy ones

It’s so tempting go into Google and grab a bunch of random (and often cliché/cheesy) images that pop up in the search results. Sadly, those easy and tempting moves are right out of the presentation zero playbook!

But what should you, as a hero, do instead?

First off, you need to develop a theme that you stick with throughout your entire slide deck. You’ll need a color palette, a set of decent fonts, and consistent images.

If you don’t develop a clear vision from the beginning, it’s going to look like you had several people work on your presentation who didn’t talk to one another. The color, font, images, and layout all need to complement each other. If you come across something that doesn’t fit your theme, don’t use it! Stick with your theme no matter what. Consistency is everything!

#6.) Presentation heroes customize PowerPoint to make it work for them. Presentation zeros work for PowerPoint.

Customizing your PowerPoint setup with your most frequently used tools will save you tons of time. Why search for the same tool over and over within the menus of PowerPoint when you can put it in an easily accessible place, like your Quick Access toolbar, where you can easily grab it?

If you don’t know how to customize your PowerPoint, you may want to consider taking a course. The benefit of learning from the experts is not only will you learn how to set up PowerPoint like a pro, you will learn tons of other invaluable skills that will make you look great and save you time.

#7.) Presentation heroes brainstorm first. Presentation zeros stare at a blank Powerpoint canvas hoping ideas will come to mind

Starting with a blank PowerPoint slide can often be overwhelming and intimidating. Don’t make the mistake of starring at your blank slide hoping ideas will magically come to mind. Be a hero and get the ball rolling by searching for inspiration first:

Ideas flow when inspiration is all around you! “Motion creates emotion” is one of our favorite sayings, and popular amongst the heroes too. Finding PowerPoint inspiration will get the ball rolling and the creativity flowing.

And of course, we won’t leave you high and dry without some sources of inspiration. Here are some of best places to get inspired for creating PowerPoint slides. The internet is a vast place – find a place that inspires you!

#8.) Presentation heroes use many tools to get the job done. Presentation zeros only use the basics

Presentation professionals know that many tools are needed for the job.

In other words, they keep an extensive set of tools with them when creating slides. They know what tools to use, at the right time, to make their presentation stand out.

For example, have you heard of the Eyedropper Fill tool? In PowerPoint, you can match the colors of your shapes (or other things) to the colors of an image you inserted.

Presentation heroes use tools like this for all their diverse needs. There are different tools for editing objects and visuals, copying formatting, aligning objects, cropping images, and much more! Tools do not just have to be what’s available in PowerPoint. There are many online tools and add-ins available also.

#9.) Presentation heroes practice, practice, practice. Presentation zeros procrastinate, delay, and wing it

Practice makes perfect, and no practice makes an awkward, rambling, and incoherent presentation. No secret as to which one the hero is!

There are so many mistakes that get made when you don’t spend enough time practicing your presentation. You can lose your train of thought, accidentally say things in the wrong place, and generally coming off like you didn’t care enough to adequately prepare. That’s probably not the impression you want to make.

Heroes practice over and over until they are fully comfortable. Practicing helps you sound more natural, remember your points so you don’t have to look at your slides or your flashcards as much, iron out the awkward parts, and just give you a better overall understanding of the flow.

Heroes don’t just practice in front of a mirror, either – they practice in front of other people! Fresh eyes and ears can be just what you need to pick out mistakes you’ve missed and give you invaluable feedback.

#10.) Presentation heroes learn how to design like a pro. Presentation zeros don’t put the time into learning design

Chances are you were not born a presentation hero.

If you want to create great looking PowerPoint slides you’ve got to put in some work – and that mostly means learning from the right resources and putting what you learned into action.

We recommend checking out all sorts of resources. We love presentation creation books like Slides Made Simple, Talk Like Ted, and Slideology. Learning from others is the fastest way to becoming a pro yourself!

The point is that there is a presentation community that loves beautiful slides and amazing presentations just as much as we do, and we’re glad to be in their company. Put all that collective knowledge to work!

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READ NEXT: 

• Smash your next presentation with these 25 creative, modern PowerPoint templates
• Worst ways to use PowerPoint
• 50 Best PowerPoint templates of 2017

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6 ways web developers are using Envato Elements - envato.com coupon

As a freelancer or a web developer working at a small studio, you need to be able to cover a lot of aspects of creating a website.

Since time is precious, that time is usually put into coding which means that sometimes the design falls short. So how do you get good design without being a good designer?

Here’s where Envato Elements comes in handy. Elements is an online library that gives you instant access to templates and assets for scene generators, icons, logos, mockups, backgrounds, fonts and more. All the items have been developed by Envatos community of independent designers which help several creatives pursue their dream career (not to mention making it easier for developers who have no design skills).

We’ve put together a list of the best resources for web developers so that you never have to spend time on searching for something that works for your projects again.

1. Scene generators for landing pages & header images

Scene Generators are one of the most popular tools on Elements for web developers. They offer a great way of creating unique header or landing page images by allowing objects (i.e products) to be placed in an already designed scene. The carefully crafted surrounding makes the scene significantly different than an ordinary product mockup. Use the scene generator to add life to a plain page or to sell a website concept.

Try: Kitchen Ready Mockup Vol. 6

The latest version of the Kitchen Ready Mockups can be used for restaurants, cafés, food stores or for anyone who want to make their website visitors hungry. It can easily be personalised by selecting colours and individual background images. However, it’s a PSD template so if you aren’t familiar with Photoshop, maybe it’s time to learn.

Check out: Hero Image Scene Creator

If the website you’re building is for creatives or traders, this scene generator has everything you need for their hero or header images. It comes with five attractive scenes, high quality images and all the objects displayed in the image above. Some templates are in a PSD format but it does contain JPEGs and PDFs as well. The designer has been kind enough to include help files and instructions to make it easier for non-designers to use.

2. Icons to break up heavy text

Icons save space by visualising the message.As a developer, it’s often hard to transform the text content supplied by the client into something beautiful (what’s beauty anyway?). If the text is really heavy, introducing icons would break it up and solve the problem. A descriptive symbol can highlight an essential part of the website and help the user understand the information better. If the icons describe the content well, it may not even be necessary to have additional text included.

Icon set: Magicons

The Magicons is described as ‘a must have icon set for every designer and developer’, which speaks for itself, really. The icon pack includes 160 icons for web and mobile in 12 different formats (the SVG files even come with optimised code). Arrows, like icons, hamburger menu icons, player controls or share icons – this pack has got it all.

Business Icons

At some stage in your developer career, you will build a website for a firm, company or organisation of some kind. The Business icon set will then come in handy. Although the template only contains 16 items, it’s more than enough to communicate the client’s message.

3. Logos for non-designers

Let’s face it, sometimes our clients commission us for a website with the expectation of a fully designed brand identity. Even though hiring a designer to take care of that part would solve the problem, it isn’t very cost effective (especially if you’re a freelancer). Luckily, there are many high quality, customisable options available on Envato Elements.

Logo pack: The Extensive Logo Creator

With thousands of assets, items, fonts and logos in PSD, AI and EPS formats included, the Extensive Logo Creator has all you need to customise a logo for your client. Since the package comes with help files, it’s impossible to mess up the design. It’s practically bullet-proof!

4. Professional mockups to sell your ideas

Presenting the website design in a mocked up scene helps your clients understand how the site will work responsively but also how it will work in context to the relevant usage. For example, if your client wants an online shop built with the customer target group being home buyers that care about design, the mockup would show the website design displayed in an iPad format with a mocked-up, thoughtfully designed apartment in the background. This also shows that you’ve put in extra effort to include their values and interests.

Check out: Responsive Design Mock-Ups

The Responsive Design Mock-ups package has thought about every single device scenario possible. If you’re after an iPhone, Macbook Pro or iPad mockup, you’ll get it here. With real high resolution photography and everyday elements included, it’ll give your website presentation that real-life feeling that you’re after.

App Presentation Templates

This package lets you customise an app presentation in Photoshop for both portrait and landscape mode. It includes 24 mobile, tablet, desktop and even Apple Watch designs.

5. Grab on-trend background patterns for pages

Sometimes a full-scale background image will break the rest of the website design by making it look too busy or by not being adaptable for different devices. Using a subtle background pattern will always work on all screens and won’t interfere with the use of images for other purposes (i.e showcasing products or posts). Also, they can be used on all pages without taking up too much space (like a background image or a header image would do).

For those of you who think that using a background pattern would be too boring, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. If you’re the kind of developer that wants to experiment with templates even though you don’t have much design experience, there are a few options available for patterns as well. If the website that you’re building has a lot of different components or colours, it could be a good idea to use a background pattern that only consists of linework to create a good balance. But if the website is low in content, playing with the transparency and symmetrical aspects of a pattern would be a good way of integrating it into the rest of the layout.

Patterns: Geometric Seamless Patterns Bundle

Since the world of patterns is huge, we’ll let you choose one that fits the style of the specific website that you’re building. However, we do have one recommendation that would work for both experimental and safe use. The Geometric Seamless Patterns Bundle offers patterns with a minimal design in chevron, dots, triangles and hexagons shapes to suit most website layouts. If you want to zing it up a bit, you can edit the vector patterns colours, transparency, position and customise them for your own use. Although we recommend keeping the background pattern as simple as possible since it’s there to complete the rest of the website design, not to overtake it. It’s a background, after all.

6. Find a unique custom font

We all know that a custom font will make a website look unique and in most cases your clients will have a say in the font chosen for the website. So to make it simple for you, send them a few font options and let them know if a serif, sans-serif, decorative, script or handwritten font works best for what they are wanting to achieve. If you’re not sure, read this blog post on the top trends in typography in 2017. After they’ve chosen a few, test them out on the website and show them the one that works best with your newly added logo, background pattern, icons and header image.

Read next: The art of the pitch: how to showcase your work as a designer

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