17 Cutest Kawaii Fonts That are So Adorable Zoe Santoro • May 30, 2025 In this article:See more ▼Post may contain affiliate links which give us commissions at no cost to you. Kawaii fonts are exactly what they sound like – typefaces that embody the Japanese concept of “kawaii” (meaning cute). These fonts typically feature rounded letterforms, playful details, and that unmistakable charm that makes you want to squeeze them like a plushie. Whether you’re designing anime merchandise, creating content for social media, or just want to add a dash of cuteness to your projects, kawaii fonts are your secret weapon for instant adorability. 👋 Psst... Did you know you can get unlimited downloads of 59,000+ fonts and millions of other creative assets for just $16.95/mo? Learn more »The Most Adorable Kawaii Fonts of 2025 Not all cute fonts are created equal, so I’ve curated a collection of the most genuinely kawaii typefaces that capture that authentic anime aesthetic. Here are my top picks: Bubble Bliss Bloom Bubble Bliss Bloom is a groovy font that exudes a cute and chunky aesthetic. Its playful design incorporates bubble-like elements, making it perfect for anime-inspired or youthful projects that require a fun and energetic typographic approach.Cute Lime Cute Lime is a charming bubble display font that brings a refreshing and lively feel to designs. Its rounded, inflated letterforms create a sweet and approachable look, ideal for projects targeting a younger audience or those aiming for a lighthearted vibe.Clefy Clefy is a delightful bubble font that combines cuteness with a touch of sophistication. Its inflated characters maintain a clean and legible appearance, making it versatile for both playful and moderately formal designs that require a friendly, approachable typeface.BLUM BLUM is a cute and lovely bubble font that blends script and handwritten styles with sans-serif elements. This decorative typeface is perfect for children’s products, as it captures a youthful spirit while maintaining readability and charm.Get 300+ Fonts for FREEEnter your email to download our 100% free "Font Lover's Bundle". For commercial & personal use. No royalties. No fees. No attribution. 100% free to use anywhere. Babel Gamee Babel Gamee is a playful and chunky bubble font that stands out with its bold, inflated characters. This decorative typeface is ideal for game designs, children’s products, or any project that requires a fun, chubby letterform with high visual impact.Fluffy Blitz Fluffy Blitz is a dynamic graffiti bubble font that brings street art flair to designs. With its playful and cartoon-like appearance, this font is perfect for urban-themed projects, youth-oriented designs, or any work that needs a bold, energetic typographic statement.Smothy Bubble Font Smothy Bubble Font combines retro charm with a modern bubble aesthetic. Its smooth, rounded forms create a nostalgic yet contemporary feel, making it suitable for vintage-inspired designs or projects that aim to blend old-school cool with current trends.Booba Candy Booba Candy is a bold and playful typeface that evokes the sweetness of confectionery. Its thick, rounded forms and lively character make it an excellent choice for candy packaging, children’s products, or any design that needs to convey a fun, indulgent feel.Dwangku Dwangku is a joyful display font that combines bubble-like qualities with a sans-serif structure. Its upbeat and fun design makes it perfect for headlines, logos, or any project that requires a cheerful and eye-catching typographic element.Baby Glaze Baby Glaze is a decorative font that captures the essence of cartoons and childhood. Its soft, rounded forms and playful design make it ideal for children’s books, nursery decor, or any project targeting a young audience or aiming for a whimsical touch.Wanbots Wanbots is a bubble font that combines pop culture appeal with retro aesthetics. This sans-serif typeface offers a unique blend of futuristic and vintage elements, making it suitable for tech-related designs, retro-futuristic themes, or modern projects with a nostalgic twist.Love You Love You is a funny and cute balloon font that includes both letters and symbols. This decorative sans-serif typeface is perfect for Valentine’s Day designs, love-themed projects, or any work that needs to convey affection with a lighthearted, playful approach.Daily Bubble Font Daily Bubble Font combines retro charm with modern bubble aesthetics. Its rounded, inflated characters offer a fresh take on vintage typography, making it suitable for nostalgic designs, casual branding, or projects that need a friendly, approachable typeface.Bloombang Bloombang is a bubble display font that offers a bold and eye-catching typographic solution. This decorative sans-serif typeface features inflated letterforms that create visual impact, making it ideal for headlines, logos, or any design that needs to make a strong statement.Love Bold Love Bold is a display font that combines cuteness with a strong visual presence. Its bold character and child-like charm make it perfect for children’s products, love-themed designs, or any project that needs to convey affection with a touch of playfulness and strength.Gumiec Urban Gumiec Urban is a graffiti bubble font that brings street art style to typography. Its punk and groovy aesthetic makes it perfect for urban-themed designs, music-related projects, or any work that needs to convey a rebellious, energetic vibe with a touch of street credibility.Bubblegum Bubblegum is a lively bubble font that captures the essence of its namesake. Its rounded, inflated characters suggest movement and fluidity, making it ideal for designs related to confectionery, children’s products, or any project that needs to convey a fun, bouncy aesthetic.What Makes Kawaii Fonts So Irresistibly Cute? The magic of kawaii fonts lies in several key design characteristics that trigger our natural “aww” response: Rounded, Soft Letterforms Just like how baby animals have rounded features that make us want to protect them, kawaii fonts feature soft, curved letterforms instead of sharp edges. These gentle curves create an immediate sense of friendliness and approachability. The rounded shapes mimic the aesthetic of anime character designs, where even tough characters often have softer, more appealing features than their realistic counterparts. Playful Character Details True kawaii fonts often incorporate delightful little details that give each letter personality. You might find hearts dotting the i’s, stars incorporated into letterforms, or tiny faces peeking out from within characters. These whimsical touches transform ordinary text into something that feels alive and full of character – just like the expressive details that make anime characters so memorable. Bouncy, Uneven Baselines Many kawaii fonts feature letters that don’t sit perfectly on the baseline. Instead, they bounce up and down slightly, creating a sense of movement and energy that feels spontaneous and joyful. This imperfection paradoxically makes the fonts more perfect for their intended purpose – conveying that carefree, happy energy that’s central to kawaii culture. Pastel-Friendly Proportions Kawaii fonts are designed to work beautifully with the soft, pastel color palettes that dominate anime and Japanese cute culture. Their proportions and spacing are optimized to look stunning in pinks, lavenders, mint greens, and other dreamy hues. Where Can You Use Kawaii Fonts? The adorable nature of kawaii fonts makes them perfect for specific design contexts where cuteness is not just welcome – it’s essential: Anime and Manga Projects Obviously, kawaii fonts are a natural fit for anything anime-related. Whether you’re designing covers for manga, creating promotional materials for anime conventions, or developing an anime-inspired app, these fonts help establish that authentic Japanese cute aesthetic. Gaming and Streaming Graphics The gaming community, especially fans of Japanese games and kawaii aesthetics, absolutely loves these fonts. They’re perfect for Twitch overlays, YouTube thumbnails, gaming logos, and streaming graphics where you want to convey a fun, approachable vibe. Social Media Content Instagram posts, TikTok graphics, and Pinterest pins often benefit from kawaii fonts, especially when targeting younger audiences or communities interested in anime, K-pop, or Japanese culture. These fonts help content stand out in crowded social feeds. Children’s Products and Brands The inherently friendly and non-threatening nature of kawaii fonts makes them excellent choices for children’s books, toy packaging, educational materials, and youth-oriented brands that want to feel welcoming and fun. Fashion and Lifestyle Brands Brands targeting the “kawaii fashion” market – think Harajuku street style, pastel goth, or fairy kei aesthetics – can use these fonts to immediately signal their alignment with cute culture and Japanese-inspired fashion trends. Pro Tip: When using kawaii fonts for branding, pair them with clean, simple layouts to let the font’s personality shine without overwhelming the design. Where to Avoid Kawaii Fonts While kawaii fonts are undeniably adorable, there are certain contexts where their cuteness works against your design goals: Professional Business Communications Unless you’re specifically in the kawaii/anime industry, using these fonts for business cards, corporate presentations, or formal communications can undermine your professional credibility. Save them for creative projects instead. Serious or Somber Content The cheerful nature of kawaii fonts makes them inappropriate for serious topics, news content, academic papers, or any context where gravity and respect are paramount. High-Information Density Designs While kawaii fonts excel at grabbing attention, they can become difficult to read in large blocks of text. Stick to using them for headlines, short phrases, or decorative elements rather than body text. Formal Design Contexts Museums, government websites, legal documents, and other formal institutions should generally avoid kawaii fonts unless they’re specifically creating content about Japanese culture or targeting younger audiences. How to Choose the Perfect Kawaii Font With so many adorable options available, here’s how to select the kawaii font that’s just right for your project: Consider Your Audience Are you designing for hardcore anime fans who will appreciate subtle references and authentic Japanese typography? Or are you targeting a broader audience that just enjoys cute aesthetics? More authentic kawaii fonts work better for anime enthusiasts, while more generally “cute” fonts appeal to wider audiences. Match the Energy Level Some kawaii fonts are quietly cute, while others are energetically adorable. Match your font choice to the energy level of your content. A gentle, soft kawaii font works for meditation apps or skincare brands, while a bouncy, energetic one suits gaming content or party invitations. Test Readability Always test your chosen kawaii font at the size it will be used. Some highly decorative kawaii fonts lose their charm (and legibility) when scaled down for mobile screens or small print applications. Consider Cultural Sensitivity Since kawaii culture originates from Japan, be mindful of using these fonts in ways that respectfully appreciate rather than appropriate the culture. Understanding the context and meaning behind kawaii aesthetics will help you use these fonts more thoughtfully. Remember: The best kawaii font is one that feels authentic to the kawaii aesthetic while serving your specific design needs. Don’t just pick the “cutest” one – pick the one that works best for your project. Kawaii Font Pairing and Color Tips To get the most out of your kawaii fonts, consider these design best practices: Color Palette Magic Kawaii fonts shine brightest when paired with the right colors. Think soft pastels, dreamy gradients, and colors inspired by Japanese aesthetics. Pink and lavender are classics, but don’t overlook mint green, peach, sky blue, and cream. For contrast, pair your kawaii fonts with pure white or very light backgrounds. This creates that clean, airy feel that’s essential to kawaii design. Smart Font Pairing When combining kawaii fonts with other typefaces, balance is key. Pair a highly decorative kawaii font with a clean, simple sans-serif for body text. This gives you the personality you want while maintaining readability. Never pair two competing kawaii fonts together – let one be the star while supporting fonts stay neutral and clean. Layout Considerations Kawaii fonts work best when they have room to breathe. Give them plenty of white space, use them for shorter text elements, and consider how they’ll look alongside images or illustrations in your kawaii aesthetic. The Psychology Behind Kawaii Typography Understanding why kawaii fonts are so effective can help you use them more strategically in your designs: The “Baby Schema” Effect Kawaii fonts trigger what scientists call the “baby schema” – our evolutionary response to infant-like features. The rounded shapes, soft edges, and playful proportions mimic characteristics that make us want to nurture and protect, creating an immediate positive emotional response. Cultural Comfort For audiences familiar with anime and Japanese culture, kawaii fonts provide cultural comfort and belonging. They signal that you understand and appreciate their interests, creating an instant connection. Stress Relief Through Design In our increasingly stressful world, kawaii aesthetics offer a form of visual stress relief. The gentle, non-threatening nature of kawaii fonts can actually help viewers feel more relaxed and positive. Expert Opinions: Designers on Kawaii Typography Trends I reached out to several typography experts and anime industry professionals to get their insights on kawaii font trends: Yuki Tanaka, Anime Production Designer: “Kawaii fonts have evolved beyond just being ‘cute.’ Today’s best kawaii typefaces understand the balance between authenticity and accessibility. They respect Japanese design principles while being readable for global audiences.” Maria Santos, Digital Brand Designer: “I’ve seen a huge increase in clients requesting kawaii-inspired fonts, even for non-anime brands. There’s something about that gentle, approachable aesthetic that resonates with people seeking comfort and positivity in design.” David Kim, Gaming Industry Designer: “The gaming community has fully embraced kawaii typography. We’re seeing these fonts used not just in obviously cute games, but in UI design for apps and platforms where user comfort and approachability are priorities.” Common Kawaii Font Questions Let’s address some frequently asked questions about kawaii fonts: What makes a font “kawaii” versus just “cute”? True kawaii fonts draw specifically from Japanese aesthetic principles and anime/manga typography traditions. While cute fonts might just be rounded or playful, kawaii fonts embody the specific cultural aesthetic of Japanese cuteness, often incorporating elements like asymmetry, soft imperfection, and emotionally expressive details. Can I use kawaii fonts for commercial projects? It depends on the specific font’s license. Many kawaii fonts are available for commercial use, but always check the licensing terms before using them in paid projects. Some require purchase of a commercial license, while others are free for all uses. Do kawaii fonts work in languages other than English? Most kawaii fonts are designed primarily for English and basic Latin characters. However, some include Japanese characters (hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji) or extended character sets for other languages. Check the font specifications to see what languages are supported. How do I make my own kawaii font? Creating a kawaii font requires understanding both typography basics and kawaii aesthetic principles. Start by studying authentic Japanese kawaii design, practice drawing rounded, expressive letterforms, and consider using font creation software like FontForge or Glyphs. Remember that cultural sensitivity is important when creating fonts inspired by Japanese aesthetics. The Future of Kawaii Typography As we look ahead to the rest of 2025 and beyond, kawaii fonts are evolving in exciting directions: Variable Font Technology New kawaii fonts are beginning to incorporate variable font technology, allowing designers to adjust cuteness levels, roundness, and playfulness on a sliding scale. This gives unprecedented control over the kawaii aesthetic. Cultural Fusion Styles We’re seeing kawaii fonts that blend Japanese cuteness with other cultural aesthetics – Korean-inspired kawaii fonts, Western cartoon influences, and even minimalist Scandinavian approaches to cute typography. Accessibility Improvements Newer kawaii fonts are being designed with better accessibility in mind, ensuring they remain cute while meeting readability standards for users with visual impairments or reading difficulties. Conclusion: Embracing the Kawaii Font Revolution Kawaii fonts represent more than just a design trend – they’re a bridge between cultures, a source of visual comfort, and a powerful tool for creating emotional connections with audiences. In a world that often feels harsh and overwhelming, these adorable typefaces offer a gentle reminder that design can be both beautiful and kind. Whether you’re a hardcore anime fan looking to create authentic Japanese-inspired designs, a brand seeking to connect with younger audiences, or simply someone who believes the world needs more cuteness, kawaii fonts have something special to offer. The key to using kawaii fonts successfully lies in understanding their cultural context, respecting their origins, and applying them thoughtfully to create designs that truly embody the spirit of kawaii – making the world a little brighter, a little softer, and a lot more adorable. So go ahead, embrace your cute side, and let these kawaii fonts add some much-needed sweetness to your next design project. After all, in a world that could always use more kindness, what could be more perfect than typography that makes people smile? Final Tip: Remember that the best kawaii font is one that feels authentic to both the aesthetic and your project’s needs. Choose with your heart, but design with your head, and you’ll create something truly magical. Zoe Santoro Zoe is an art student and graphic designer with a passion for creativity and adventure. Whether she’s sketching in a cozy café or capturing inspiration from vibrant cityscapes, she finds beauty in every corner of the world. With a love for bold colors, clean design, and storytelling through visuals, Zoe blends her artistic skills with her wanderlust to create stunning, travel-inspired designs. Follow her journey as she explores new places, discovers fresh inspiration, and shares her creative process along the way. 10 Warm Color Palettes That’ll Brighten Your DayThere’s nothing quite like the embracing quality of warm colors to make a design feel inviting and alive. As someone...How to Upscale Photos Without Blurriness or PixelationMaking a small picture larger without it turning blurry or blocky is called ‘image upscaling’. Suppose you make a small...The Influence of Font Size and Weight on Cognitive LoadAs designers, we obsess over kerning, color palettes and grids, but how often do we stop to consider how our...

How to Upscale Photos Without Blurriness or Pixelation In this article:See more ▼Post may contain affiliate links which give us commissions at no cost to you.Making a small picture larger without it turning blurry or blocky is called ‘image upscaling’. Suppose you make a small sketch on a sheet of paper and then attempt to stretch the paper, your sketch will get larger, but may look odd. Computers follow a similar process when enlarging digital pictures. Consider you have a tiny patterned blanket and you want a larger blanket with the same pattern. Upscaling is like figuring out how to make that bigger blanket without distorting the pattern. 👋 Psst... Did you know you can get unlimited downloads of 59,000+ fonts and millions of other creative assets for just $16.95/mo? Learn more »Traditional Upscaling Methods There are simple ways computers make images bigger. These are like different recipes for stretching pictures. Nearest Neighbor Interpolation Nearest Neighbor is the most straightforward approach. Here, the computer just enlarges each dot (pixel). It’s something like building with blocks – quite basic but can appear very blocky if you zoom in excessively on a digital image. This method works quickly but produces the most basic results. Bilinear Interpolation Bilinear Interpolation is slightly more advanced. In this method, the machine looks at surrounding dots and mixes their colors. This method resembles color mixing to create intermediate shades between existing ones. The outcome is softer than Nearest Neighbor, but might be somewhat unclear or blurry.Get 300+ Fonts for FREEEnter your email to download our 100% free "Font Lover's Bundle". For commercial & personal use. No royalties. No fees. No attribution. 100% free to use anywhere. Bicubic Interpolation Bicubic Interpolation is the smartest of the traditional methods. Here, the machine looks at more dots around each point and performs more calculations to find out what should be in between them. This resembles an artist carefully combining shades to refine an image. It produces superior results compared to the other traditional methods, yet requires more time for processing by the computer. Popular Upscaling Tools There are many tools available that can make your pictures bigger and sharper. All-in-One AI Platforms Picture increasing tools are quite plentiful out there, including the comprehensive platform, Cabina.AI. It has an AI In Painter feature with an Upscale function that makes your pictures larger and sharper. Besides upscaling, it offers varied AI models you can use to create and fix images. A unique model includes the Magnific AI upscaler which excels greatly in improving the appearance of tiny photos when enlarged. With such convenience, you can work on all your pictures in one spot without moving from one program to another. Free and Specialized Tools GIMP operates like a free digital art workspace on your computer. It’s capable of enlarging pictures using the traditional methods discussed earlier. We also have ‘Waifu2x’ which is specifically designed to enhance cartoon-style images when they’re enlarged. This tool works particularly well with anime and illustration-style artwork. Professional Solutions Adobe Photoshop is like a premium art studio that professionals prefer. It packs excellent picture enlargement tools with advanced algorithms and fine-tuning options. There’s also Topaz Gigapixel AI, a specialized software with only one purpose – increasing picture size using intelligent AI technology. This tool focuses exclusively on upscaling and often produces exceptional results. Tips for Better Results When you want to make a picture bigger and maintain quality, here are some helpful strategies to follow. Start with High-Quality Originals Always pick the highest-quality image available. Picture it like baking – using great ingredients makes your cake delicious. Similarly, using a high-resolution original image grants you a stunning enlarged result. The better your starting material, the better your final output will be. Set Realistic Expectations Don’t expect miracles from any upscaling method. Turning a tiny, unclear photo into a flawless enlarged version is quite challenging, even for advanced AI. It’s akin to predicting dinosaur appearance from just a tiny fossil. Sure, you could make educated guesses, but most likely there will be minor discrepancies from the original detail. Experiment with Different Methods Try various upscaling techniques to see which works best for your specific image. Occasionally, one method of enlarging an image outperforms others depending on the content. Imagine it as testing different paths to school – some may be faster depending on the circumstances. What works for one image type might not work as well for another. Scale Gradually Rather than amplifying an image tenfold in one go, attempt doubling its size gradually, repeating the process as necessary. Consider it like climbing stairs versus trying to leap straight to the top. Stepping up bit by bit usually works better and produces cleaner results with less distortion. Apply Final Touches Post-enlargement, improve the aesthetic appeal of your photo by tweaking colors or enhancing sharpness and contrast. This resembles adding icing onto a cake to make it look more enticing. Small adjustments can make a significant difference in the final appearance. Wrapping Up Making pictures bigger is something computers can accomplish in many different ways. The simple traditional methods like Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear, and Bicubic work adequately for basic needs. The newer AI-powered approaches can make pictures look much better when enlarged, producing results that seem almost magical compared to older techniques. Remember that starting with a good picture helps tremendously. No matter how intelligent the computer algorithms become, they cannot perfectly reconstruct details that were never present in the original small picture. As computers continue to get smarter, making pictures bigger will keep improving. Soon, the difference between a picture that was always large and one that was enlarged from a smaller version might be nearly impossible to detect, even for experts who specialize in image processing. Zoe Santoro Zoe is an art student and graphic designer with a passion for creativity and adventure. Whether she’s sketching in a cozy café or capturing inspiration from vibrant cityscapes, she finds beauty in every corner of the world. With a love for bold colors, clean design, and storytelling through visuals, Zoe blends her artistic skills with her wanderlust to create stunning, travel-inspired designs. Follow her journey as she explores new places, discovers fresh inspiration, and shares her creative process along the way. How AI is Changing the Typography Landscape for DesignersFew — if any — technologies have had as profound an impact on creative industries as AI. As generative AI...From Boring to Viral: Transform Your Instagram Feed with AI-Powered PostsIn the fast-paced world of social media, standing out is more challenging than ever. A visually appealing and engaging Instagram...AI Meets Pop Culture: Designing Merch for Movie Fans and FandomsFandoms and pop culture are strong phenomena that unite individuals from all walks of life to celebrate their favorite films,...

In this article:See more ▼Post may contain affiliate links which give us commissions at no cost to you.When you’re racing down the highway at 80 mph, you’ve got about 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention with your billboard. In those crucial moments, your font choice can make or break your entire advertising campaign. As a designer who’s worked on countless outdoor advertising campaigns, I can tell you that billboard fonts are a completely different beast from what works on your laptop screen. What looks stunning in your design software might be completely illegible from 500 feet away. Billboard typography isn’t just about being big and bold—though that certainly helps. It’s about creating maximum impact with minimal reading time, ensuring your message cuts through visual noise, and making split-second connections with drivers who are focused on the road. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the art and science of billboard fonts. From the towering sans-serifs that dominate Times Square to the custom letterforms that make brands unforgettable, we’ll break down exactly what makes a font work at highway speeds. 👋 Psst... Did you know you can get unlimited downloads of 59,000+ fonts and millions of other creative assets for just $16.95/mo? Learn more »The Ultimate Collection of Billboard-Ready Fonts Not all fonts are created equal when it comes to outdoor advertising. I’ve compiled the most effective billboard fonts that deliver maximum readability and impact from distances that matter. Here are the champions: METZLER METZLER is a minimal sans-serif typeface that embodies simplicity and clarity. Its clean lines and balanced proportions make it ideal for modern design projects, especially in digital environments where readability is crucial.Qualivite Qualivite is a bold serif font that combines vintage charm with contemporary flair. Its strong character and elegant serifs make it perfect for creating impactful headlines and adding a touch of sophistication to design projects.Get 300+ Fonts for FREEEnter your email to download our 100% free "Font Lover's Bundle". For commercial & personal use. No royalties. No fees. No attribution. 100% free to use anywhere. Carientz Carientz is a modern, minimal, and bold sans-serif font that exudes confidence and strength. Its clean, geometric shapes and thick strokes make it an excellent choice for branding, logos, and striking headlines in contemporary designs.Glofin Glofin is a modern and soft bold font that bridges the gap between vintage and contemporary styles. Its rounded edges and bold presence create a friendly yet impactful impression, suitable for a wide range of design applications.RNS Guaire RNS Guaire is a modern and elegant sans-serif font that exudes sophistication. Its refined lines and balanced proportions make it perfect for high-end branding, editorial design, and projects that require a touch of class.Space Space is a minimalist sans-serif font that embraces simplicity and functionality. Its clean, uncluttered design makes it highly legible and versatile, ideal for modern web design, user interfaces, and minimalist branding projects.Lonzies Lonzies is a display sans-serif font with a soft bold style that uniquely combines Christmas and graffiti influences. Its playful yet bold character makes it suitable for creating eye-catching headlines and designs with a urban, festive twist.Boldy Grotesque Boldy Grotesque is a condensed sans-serif font that embodies minimalism and strength. Its narrow letterforms, similar to the popular font Impact, and clean lines make it excellent for creating impactful headlines and efficient use of space in various design contexts.Harlet Harlet is a modern sans-serif font designed with headlines and fashion in mind. Its sleek, contemporary appearance and balanced proportions make it perfect for creating stylish designs in fashion magazines, posters, and branding materials.Alaska Alaska is an adventure-inspired sans-serif typeface that combines minimalism with a nostalgic feel. Its clean lines and subtle vintage touches make it ideal for outdoor-themed designs, travel branding, and projects that aim to evoke a sense of exploration.NORD NORD is a minimal display typeface designed for headlines and logos. Its clean, geometric forms and versatile character make it an excellent choice for modern branding projects, creating impactful headlines, and designing memorable logos.MARXURE MARXURE is a bold headline typeface with a modern edge. Its strong presence and contemporary design make it perfect for creating attention-grabbing headlines in web design, posters, and other media where impact is crucial.Girast Girast is a modern condensed font that combines boldness with efficiency. Its narrow letterforms and contemporary style make it ideal for designs where space is at a premium, such as in packaging, posters, and responsive web design.Bondie Slab Bondie Slab is a condensed slab serif font that combines strength with elegance. Its sturdy serifs and narrow proportions make it excellent for creating impactful headlines and adding a touch of sophistication to various design projects.Roadway Country Roadway Country is a sans-serif font inspired by highway and street signage. Its bold, clear design makes it highly legible and perfect for creating designs with a road trip theme or projects that require a strong, directional feel.JUST Sans JUST Sans is a clean, modern, and minimal geometric typeface. Its simple forms and balanced design make it highly versatile, suitable for a wide range of applications from branding to user interface design where clarity and simplicity are key.BERLIN Rounded BERLIN Rounded is a sans-serif display typeface featuring soft, rounded edges. Its friendly appearance and good readability make it ideal for creating welcoming designs, particularly in branding, packaging, and digital interfaces.CRUX CRUX is a minimal display typeface designed for headlines and logos. Its clean, geometric forms and distinctive character make it perfect for creating memorable branding elements and impactful headlines in modern design projects.Glacier Glacier is a clean and minimal font family that embodies simplicity and elegance. Its crisp lines and balanced proportions make it highly versatile, suitable for both body text and headlines in projects that prioritize clarity and modern aesthetics.Prinles Prinles is a bold font that exudes strength and confidence. Its thick strokes and solid presence make it ideal for creating powerful headlines, impactful logos, and designs that need to make a strong statement.Bensoud Bensoud is a sans-serif font that combines modern simplicity with subtle character. Its clean lines and balanced design make it versatile for various applications, from body text to headlines, especially in projects that require a contemporary yet approachable feel.Quicksed Quicksed is a condensed sans display font designed for efficiency and impact. Its narrow letterforms and clean design make it excellent for headlines, posters, and designs where space is limited but visual impact is crucial.Valeno Valeno is a decorative display font that blends sans-serif simplicity with subtle serif-like details. Its unique character makes it stand out in headlines and logos, perfect for creating distinctive branding and eye-catching designs.Pinnid Pinnid is a modern font that combines sans-serif and serif elements. Its hybrid nature gives it a unique character, making it versatile for various design applications, from contemporary branding to editorial design where a touch of sophistication is desired.Tactico Tactico is a bold font that blends vintage charm with modern boldness. Its strong presence and subtle retro touches make it ideal for creating impactful headlines, logos, and designs that need to combine strength with a hint of nostalgia.NOAH NOAH is a minimalist font that seamlessly blends sans-serif and serif styles. Its clean, versatile design makes it suitable for a wide range of applications, from body text to headlines, especially in projects that require a modern yet timeless aesthetic. What Makes a Font Billboard-Ready? Designing for billboards is like designing for the visually impaired—everything needs to be bigger, bolder, and more contrasted than you think. But there’s more nuance to it than just cranking up the size. Maximum Contrast is your best friend. Billboard fonts need thick strokes and generous white space. Think of fonts like Impact or Bebas Neue—letterforms that create strong silhouettes against any background. Thin, delicate fonts simply disappear at highway viewing distances. Wide Character Spacing prevents letters from bleeding together visually. What looks perfectly spaced on your monitor becomes an illegible blob from 300 feet away. Billboard fonts often feature naturally wide spacing, or you’ll need to manually increase tracking significantly. Simplified Letterforms eliminate visual confusion. Fancy serifs, decorative flourishes, and intricate details get lost in the distance. The most effective billboard fonts strip away everything non-essential, leaving only the core structure of each letter. Consistent Weight Distribution ensures every part of every letter maintains visibility. Fonts with extreme thick-to-thin variations might look elegant up close, but those delicate thin strokes vanish when viewed from afar. Size Matters: Typography at Scale Here’s something that might surprise you: the biggest billboard fonts aren’t necessarily the most readable. There’s actually a science to sizing typography for outdoor advertising. The rule of thumb? For every 10 feet of viewing distance, you need at least 1 inch of letter height. So if drivers will see your billboard from 250 feet away, your main headline needs to be at least 25 inches tall. But that’s just the starting point. Consider the viewing angle too. A billboard positioned perpendicular to traffic gets viewed straight-on, while one at an angle requires larger text to compensate for the distorted perspective. Highway billboards also need larger fonts than city billboards since viewing time is much shorter. Hierarchy becomes critical at billboard scale. Your main message might be 30 inches tall, but secondary information should drop to maybe 15 inches, and fine print shouldn’t go below 8 inches if you expect anyone to read it. Color and Contrast: The Billboard Font’s Best Friends Even the perfect billboard font can fail spectacularly with poor color choices. High contrast isn’t just recommended—it’s absolutely essential for highway visibility. Black on white remains the gold standard for readability, but it’s not always the most eye-catching combination. Dark blue on yellow, white on deep red, or black on bright yellow all deliver excellent contrast while adding visual punch. Avoid color combinations that create vibration effects—like red text on blue backgrounds—which become even more problematic when viewed through car windshields or in varying light conditions. Remember, your billboard needs to work in bright sunlight, during golden hour, and under streetlights. Background considerations matter enormously. A font that’s perfectly readable on a solid background might disappear when placed over a busy photograph or gradient. Many successful billboards use solid color blocks behind text to ensure consistent readability. The Psychology of Highway Typography Billboard fonts don’t just communicate words—they communicate emotions and brand personality in milliseconds. The psychology behind font choice becomes amplified when you’re designing for split-second attention spans. Sans-serif fonts dominate billboard advertising because they project modernity, clarity, and straightforwardness. Brands like Apple, Nike, and Google use clean sans-serifs on their billboards because these fonts align with their contemporary, no-nonsense brand personalities. Bold display fonts work when you want to project energy, excitement, or urgency. Think movie posters, event announcements, or retail sales promotions. These fonts scream for attention—literally and figuratively. Custom lettering helps brands stand out in a sea of standard fonts. Coca-Cola’s distinctive script, McDonald’s golden arches typography, or Disney’s magical letterforms are instantly recognizable from highway distances because they’re completely unique. Digital vs. Traditional Billboard Considerations The rise of digital billboards has changed the font game entirely. Static billboards have one shot to communicate your message, while digital boards can cycle through multiple messages, each with different typographic approaches. Digital billboards allow for animated text, which can help with readability—but it can also become distracting. Simple animations like fading in or sliding can help direct attention, while complex animations often reduce legibility. Digital displays also deal with pixel density limitations. Fonts that look crisp in print might appear pixelated or blurry on LED screens, especially when viewed from angles. Sans-serif fonts generally translate better to digital displays than serif fonts. Brightness and contrast work differently on digital billboards. These displays can achieve much higher contrast ratios than printed billboards, but they also compete with ambient light conditions that change throughout the day. Common Billboard Font Mistakes to Avoid I’ve seen enough billboard design disasters to fill a horror movie. Here are the most common mistakes that turn potentially effective advertising into roadside illegible art. Script fonts might look elegant in wedding invitations, but they’re billboard poison. Cursive letterforms, decorative swashes, and connecting characters become unreadable mush from highway distances. Save the scripts for intimate applications. Thin fonts simply vanish. What looks sophisticated and minimalist on your computer screen becomes invisible on the highway. If you wouldn’t use a font for an eye chart, don’t use it for a billboard. Too many fonts create visual chaos. Stick to one or two fonts maximum. Using three or more fonts on a billboard usually results in a confused, amateur-looking design that fails to communicate effectively. Insufficient contrast between text and background kills readability faster than anything else. That subtle gray text on white background might look trendy, but it’s useless for outdoor advertising. Industry Secrets from Billboard Designers After years in the outdoor advertising industry, I’ve picked up some insider knowledge about what really works for billboard typography. Test at distance before finalizing your design. Print out your billboard concept at a much smaller size and view it from across a large room. If you can’t read it easily from that distance, it won’t work on an actual billboard. Consider viewing conditions beyond just distance. Will drivers see your billboard while going uphill or downhill? Are there trees or buildings that might partially obstruct the view? These factors influence font size and placement decisions. Design for the worst-case scenario. If your billboard is readable during a rainstorm at dusk with dirty windshields, it’ll definitely work under optimal conditions. This usually means going bigger and bolder than your initial instincts suggest. Prioritize the primary message. Your billboard should communicate one main idea instantly. Supporting information can be smaller, but your core message needs to hit like a typographic freight train. The Future of Billboard Typography Billboard fonts continue evolving alongside technology and changing urban landscapes. Digital displays, augmented reality integration, and responsive outdoor advertising are reshaping how we think about highway typography. Variable fonts are starting to appear on digital billboards, allowing designs to adapt based on viewing distance, time of day, or even traffic speed. Imagine fonts that automatically adjust their weight and spacing based on current highway conditions. Interactive elements are becoming more common, with QR codes and social media handles requiring specific typographic treatment to remain scannable at highway speeds. Environmental consciousness is influencing font choices too. Some advertising companies are choosing fonts that require less ink or energy to display, proving that even typography can be sustainable. Making Your Billboard Font Choice Choosing the right font for your billboard campaign requires balancing readability, brand personality, and practical constraints. Start with your message and audience, then work backward to typography that serves both. Consider your brand first. A law firm and a music festival require completely different typographic approaches, even when advertising on the same highway. Your font choice should reinforce brand personality while maintaining highway-speed readability. Think about context. Urban billboards can often use slightly more complex fonts than rural highway signs because viewing distances are shorter and speeds are lower. Location matters as much as message. Test ruthlessly. The most beautiful font in the world is worthless if drivers can’t read your message. When in doubt, choose readability over artistry—your advertising budget depends on it. Billboard fonts represent typography at its most challenging and most impactful. These fonts don’t just carry messages—they deliver them at 70 mph, fighting for attention in a world of visual noise. Master the art of billboard typography, and you’ll master the art of communication itself. So the next time you’re cruising down the highway, pay attention to the fonts flying past your windshield. Notice which ones grab your attention and which ones blend into the background. That’s the difference between typography that works and typography that simply exists. Your billboard has seconds to make an impression. Make sure your font choice makes those seconds count.

May 23, 20253 min readNew Contacts Let You See Infrared Light—Even with Your Eyes ClosedStraight out of science fiction, these contact lenses convert infrared light into visible light that humans can seeBy Elizabeth Gibney & Nature magazine People who tested a new type of designer contact lens could see flashing infrared signals from a light source. Yuqian Ma, Yunuo Chen, Hang Zhao (CC BY SA)Humans have a new way of seeing infrared light, without the need for clunky night-vision goggles. Researchers have made the first contact lenses to convey infrared vision — and the devices work even when people have their eyes closed.The team behind the invention, led by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, gave the lenses their power by infusing them with nanoparticles that convert near-infrared light in the 800–1,600-nanometre range into shorter-wavelength, visible light that humans can see, in the 400–700-nanometre range. The researchers estimate that the lenses cost around US$200 per pair to make.The technology, which was detailed in Cell on 22 May, “is incredibly cool, just like something out of a science-fiction movie”, says Xiaomin Li, a chemist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. It opens up “new possibilities for understanding the world around us”, he adds.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Pros and consNear-infrared light sits just outside the range of wavelengths that humans can normally detect. Some animals can sense infrared light, although probably not well enough to form images.Night-vision goggles enable humans to see infrared radiation, but they are bulky and require a power source to work. The new lenses avoid these limitations while also offering richer, multi-coloured infrared images that night-vision goggles, which operate on a monochrome green scale, typically do not.However, the lenses do have their own shortcomings. Because the embedded nanoparticles scatter light, the images the lenses create are blurry. The team partially corrected this by putting the technology into glasses with additional lenses that redirect the light. Moreover, unlike night-vision goggles, which amplify light to detect low-level infrared signals, the lenses allow users to see only intense infrared signals, such as those emitted by light-emitting diodes (LEDs).For these reasons, some critics don’t think the lenses will prove useful. “I cannot think of any application that would not be fundamentally simpler with infrared goggles,” says Glen Jeffery, a neuroscientist at University College London who specializes in eye health. “Evolution has avoided this for a good reason.”Nevertheless, the authors think that their lenses can be further optimized and foresee several possible uses for the invention. For instance, wearers would be able to read anti-counterfeit marks that emit infrared wavelengths but are otherwise invisible to the human eye, says co-author Yuqian Ma, a neuroscientist at the USTC.Li, who was not involved in the work, offers another possibility: the lenses might be worn by doctors conducting near-infrared fluorescence surgery, to directly detect and remove cancerous lesions “without relying on bulky traditional equipment”.‘An exhilarating moment’To create the contact lenses, the scientists built on previous research in which they gave mice infrared vision by injecting nanoparticles into the animals’ retinas. This time, they took a less invasive approach and added nanoparticles made of rare-earth metals including ytterbium and erbium to a soup of polymer building blocks to form the soft lenses, and then tested them for safety.The main challenge, Ma says, was to pack enough nanoparticles into the lenses to convert sufficient infrared light into detectable visible light, while not otherwise altering the lenses’ optical properties, including their transparency.Tests in mice showed that animals wearing the lenses tended to choose a dark box that was considered ‘safe’ over one lit up by infrared light, whereas mice without the lenses showed no preference for either box. Humans wearing the lenses could see flickering infrared light from an LED well enough to both pick up Morse code signals and sense which direction the signals were coming from. The lenses’ performance even improved when participants closed their eyes, because near-infrared light easily penetrates the eyelids, whereas visible light, which could have interfered with image formation, does so to a lesser degree.“Witnessing people wearing contact lenses and successfully seeing infrared flashes was undoubtedly an exhilarating moment,” Ma says.The team now plans to find ways to cram more nanoparticles into the lenses and hopes to develop particles that can convert light with higher efficiency, to improve the technology’s sensitivity. “We have overcome the physiological limitations of human vision, as if opening a brand-new window onto the world,” Ma says.This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on May 22, 2025.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here GSC Game World’s Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition remasters released to largely negative reviews from fans. While the new remasters don’t eliminate the original releases—in fact, buying the remasters also gives you access to their original versions—fans are upset at numerous changes across the games. One of the biggest changes in the Legends of the Zone Trilogy remasters is the elimination of Russian content across all three games. This not only includes the removal of the beloved Russian dub—which technically still exists underneath the Polish “lektor” dub—but also countless Soviet-era assets which leave the remasters feeling rather weird. Stalker Trilogy devs are listening to fans In a statement to fans alongside the games’ first patch, GSC Game World explained that it is “listening to feedback” relating to the new remaster. There have been numerous other issues across the game including new bugs, weirdly blurry visuals and the omission of techniques such as DLSS. However, the developer didn’t explain which feedback it is listening to. “We will continue to work on improving the trilogy,” the developer said in a recent statement. “Stalkers, we care about your feedback and are working on fixing the most critical issues. We really want to make your comeback to the Zone special.” GSC Game World also removed a number of references to Soviet Russia during the development of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. With friends, family and developers of the studio killed/injured in the conflict, the studio chose not to include Russian dubs and iconography throughout the game. For fans of the original games that want the cut content back into the game before an official patch—if it ever comes—the PC versions already received numerous mods on Day One to bring back the Russian dub and censored assets. For more news on the Stalker franchise, read about how the studio’s upcoming sequel expansions will offer “fresh perspectives” on the Zone that players have never seen before. Additionally, read about what was added in the sequel’s massive Patch 1.4 update. Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Images: CrytekCrysis was released back in 2007, and it was beautiful, which meant it had pretty high hardware demands – something that players still joke about with the "Can it run Crysis?" meme.Crysis's director and Crytek founder Cevat Yerli explained that the team wanted to "make sure Crysis does not age, that [it] is future proofed, meaning that if I played it three years from now, it should look better than today."If you are curious what was going on at Crytek during the development, you're in luck: Michael Khaimzon, former art director at Crytek, who worked on the game, generously shared some insights that you should hear."The back-stories are almost as crazy as the visuals, so I figured I’d start sharing a few," he said on LinkedIn.The developers, based in Frankfurt, Germany, were tasked to build "the most realistic jungle ever.""What do we know about jungles? We book tickets to Tahiti. The brief is simple: study how a real jungle works and shoot enough photos for textures. ... Ironically, none of the photos we took were usable. In the end we decided to model every single vegetation texture in 3D instead. It sounds insane, but that call ends up driving one of the biggest leaps in real-time graphics. So the trip was essentially useless other than a pack of reference shots."With Crysis, the team wanted to delve into photorealism: "Not “pretty,” not “stylized” – we wanted players to squint and wonder if it was real." Before, Far Cry was lauded for its amazing jungle environments, but for this game, the "trick of hand-painting specular and bump effects straight into textures wasn’t gonna cut it.""At the time, no one used high-poly models for foliage. Leaves were painted, not sculpted. Modeling them sounded insane – until we did it. Suddenly, we had full control over layout, and flawless normal maps where every leaf caught light at its own angle."Another solution that made Crysis look so good was light scattering. The developers simulated the color shifts and shadow plays of leaves, used vertex color and bone rigs to make leaves sway realistically, and did some manual alpha tuning for mipmaps to fix long-distance opacity glitches, "but honestly, the two real breakthroughs were high-poly leaves and subsurface light scattering."Yerli wanted to create "something the world has never seen," so art director Magnus Larbrant provided a concept showing winter in the jungle."As production rolled on, our regular jungles started looking insanely good – photoreal, even by today’s standards. Next to them, the icy levels felt gimmicky, but we’d promised them, so they stayed. ... Sometimes the image that sells the game isn’t the one that defines it. Still, that frozen-jungle concept sparked the entire franchise, so here it is for the history books," Khaimzon explained.What players do remember is the Nanosuit, which, it turns out, "wasn’t even planned until a year into production." Apparently, Delta Force agents were supposed to wear tank-looking supersuits mid-game, but "that didn’t strike a nerve, and Cevat was never satisfied with mediocrity," so the developer tried to focus on "the rubbery muscle structure" from early concepts, but it was not enough, still."And then came the franchise-defining idea: strip away all the armor. Keep the muscles only. Let’s go for a ninja-like figure – black, agile, enhanced. We made our first actual nanosuit... ...but it still didn’t work."The muscles were flat, Khaimzon says, so Crytek asked an external concept artist to look at the suite "with a fresh set of eyes, to take our design and separate each major muscle group as much as possible." This resulted in "the most amazing concepting and modeling feat I’ve ever seen."Crytek's artists created a low-poly model using smoothing groups to separate muscles and then a detailed high-poly sculpt."The Nanosuit was born."In 2004, voxels were all the rage, but they didn't suit the game: "No creature with an IQ over 1 would build a spaceship out of blobs and mush." Playing with the shapes, Crytek loved the organic feel and started looking into blending organic and technological forms, "how to make something that looked alien, but also engineered.""We quickly realized that the key to making it look like advanced technology was in repeating, parallel elements – something that looks artificially crafted."Once that was done, the team focused on zero gravity, which sounds great but demands a lot from developers. Players could get nose-to-nose to textures with zero gravity, but they didn't look good that close; they were "pixely and blurry." "Add detail textures, and they barely helped – they only showed when you were right on top of the surface. Using lots of unique textures wasn’t the answer either – it ate up memory and made the surface look noisy and chaotic from afar."So Crytek invented "one of the most unconventional art pipelines" it'd ever used: designing all alien objects using only tiled textures. The entire 1000-meter alien ship and its interiors were built with a handful of unique textures."Artists had to break objects into clearly defined zones, each mapped with a repeating texture. The structure and flow of the texture became part of the design itself. The real challenge? Creating compelling, alien shapes under such a strict limitation. A huge task."I'd say the developers succeeded in their task, creating a game that will stay with gamers for years to come, thanks to its amazing environments, characters, and mechanics that Crytek worked so hard on making work.Khaimzon has shared 6 parts of this exciting journey, and if you want to know more, follow him on LinkedIn.Also, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

When Apple TV+ launched back in 2019, one of the most common complaints was its lack of a back catalog. And to some extent, the criticism made sense, especially given that some expected Apple to (at least partially) bundle in its vast iTunes movie library. Now, more than five years later, Apple has quietly built up a surprisingly solid library of original films and series. If you’re a relatively new subscriber, there’s a good chance you missed out on a few of these great early releases: Defending Jacob Based on William Landay’s 2012 best-selling novel of the same name, this limited crime drama series stars Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, The Gentlemen) and Chris Evans (The Avengers, Knives Out), as well as Jaeden Martell (Knives Out, It) in the titular role of Jacob. Evans’ character is tasked with the defense of his own son in a murder trial, and the story explores the tectonic shifts caused by such an event in the life of a family. If you’ve watched Netflix’s recent Adolescence limited series, you know to expect this won’t be a light, dinner time, binge-worthy show, but it is definitely worth a watch. Watch Defending Jacob on Apple TV+ The Velvet Underground Being a Velvet Underground fan, I am partial to this one. But this excellently produced documentary explores how one of the most influential bands in history came together, and turned the rock scene upside down. As one IMDB reviewer put it, the documentary is “pieced together almost as strangely as the band itself”, which is possibly the highest praise director and writer Todd Haines (I’m Not There, Carol) could possibly expect. Even if you are not a Velvet Underground fan, this documentary might surprise you. Watch The Velvet Underground on Apple TV+ CODA For the standards of a three-time Academy Award winner, this remake of 2014’s La Famille Bélier flies surprisingly under the radar. CODA stars Marlee Matlin (The West Wing), Troy Kotsur (The Number 23), and Emilia Jones (Brimstone) as members of a deaf family whose hearing daughter, played by Jones, serves as their connection to the hearing world. Until her musical ambitions begin to pull her in a different direction. CODA became the first movie produced by a streaming service to win Best Picture, and it also scored Apple the Academy Awards for Best Adapted, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role thanks to Kotsur’s portrayal of character Frank Rossi. Watch CODA on Apple TV+ WeCrashed Alongside the Theranos case, the WeWork saga is possibly one of the craziest, most interesting and unbelievable stories that only reality could provide. The show features Jared Leto (Requiem For a Dream, Suicide Squad) as Adam Neumann, and Anne Hathaway (Interstellar, Les Misérables) as Rebekah Neumann. It explores the couple’s trajectory as they, well, manifested WeWork’s $47 billion valuation. Based on a homonymous podcast, this eight-part series is a must-watch for any tech enthusiast. Just by writing about it, I feel like watching it again. Watch WeCrashed on Apple TV+ Black Bird This is yet another inspired-by-true-events limited series that made a bit of a splash when it came out, but was soon unfairly forgotten. Taron Egerton (Tetris, Rocketman) plays a playboy turned convict who accepts a plea deal involving a fellow convict, played by the fantastic Paul Walter Hauser (BlacKkKlansman, Richard Jewel). Black Bird also marks Ray Lotta’s final performance, and earned Apple quite a few awards due to Hauser’s terrifyingly good portrayal of… well, you’ll see. Watch Black Bird on Apple TV+ Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry I had never been a big Billie Eilish fan. I did know one or two of her songs, but that was it. Still, I gave Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry a try, and I’m glad I did. The documentary takes you along (in sometimes uncomfortable ways) on the ride all the way up to the top, and the loneliness that might come with it. The documentary highlights Eilish’s creative partnership with her brother Finneas O’Connell and her fiercely protective mother, who is set on not letting her daughter become another cautionary tale for early stardom. Watch Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry on Apple TV+ Do you have a favorite forgotten Apple TV+ gem? Any recent favorites you can’t recommend enough? Let us know in the comments. Apple TV+ is available for $9.99 per month and features hit TV shows and movies like Ted Lasso, Severance, The Studio, The Morning Show, Shrinking and Silo. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Bringing Mojang’s beloved blocky sandbox videogame to the big screen posed a wide range of creative and technical challenges for Sony Pictures Imageworks. In this in-depth conversation, VFX Supervisor Seth Maury breaks down the studio’s work on Jared Hess’ hit The comedy adventure from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures stars Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge, and Emma Myers. Hess directs; Roy Lee, Jon Berg, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Momoa, Jill Messick, Torfi Frans Ólafsson and Vu Bui produce, with Todd Hallowell, Jay Ashenfelter, Kayleen Walters, Brian Mendoza and Jon Spaihts serving as executive producers. Oscar winner Dan Lemmon serves as the production VFX supervisor. The film is based on the hugely popular game Minecraft, first released by Sweden’s Mojang Studios in 2011 and purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, which, immerses players in a low-res, pixelated “sandbox” simulation where they can use blocks to build entire worlds.  Here's the final trailer: The studio handled environments and character animation for a number of key scenes in the movie, including Welcome to Midport Village, the attack on Midport Village, the Elytra wingsuit canyon chase, the diamond mines, Woodland Mansion – including the zombie baby atop a chicken fight and Endermen showdown. They also handled the Nitwit work where Jennifer Coolidge’s Vice Principal Marlene hit a Nitwit with her car… the romantic dinner they shared afterwards, and the scene in her office. “In the diamond mines, Garrett wants to take a bit of a detour because he wants to sneak some diamonds into his pocket as he needs the money,” Maury says. “Then the piglins chase him through the mine very briefly. We also did the creeper farm stuff where the big Great Hog and some piglins were chasing Henry, Garrett and Steve before it all blows up.” Maury says that the production relied on a combination of boards, previs, stuntvis, and live-action plates to build sequences. One example is the wingsuit chase. “They had boarded it, prevised it, then shot it based on the previs,” he explains. “They had Jack and Jason and some stunt guys for stuff that was a little more problematic physically to do. They shot plates for all of that.” Imageworks took those plates and roughed out the animation. “We were basically mocking up or doing postvis for those shots… moving cameras through the environments with those plates so that we had something that was more representative of what the final shots were going to look like.” While not fully animated at that stage, the postvis helped inform the cut. Maury notes, “It’s so rough that it’s not like, ‘Oh look at all the time I spent animating this character.’ It was like, ‘Hey look, we got this working so that you could say it’s moving through the environment in a real way.’” The goal was to create animation-ready sequences that could maintain spatial consistency. “You don’t want the actors going 500 kilometers an hour here and now going 20 kilometers an hour over there,” Maury elaborates. “Why does this feel weird? Because the clouds are suddenly blurry on one and not in the other.” To help populate complex sequences, Imageworks used motion capture for background animation - especially for piglins during the village raid. “We were lucky to have Derek Tannahill as a supervisor on the show,” Maury says. “He had access to the mocap suit. So a lot of the piglins in the background are actually Derek. A lot of the villagers are actually Derek too.” Maury adds, “I think there were three pigs that were kind of medium-sized, which would be the closest to a human. There were three smaller ones and three that were a little bit bigger. And then there was a couple that were just really, really, really big.” Rather than guessing what would be needed later, they mocapped a wide batch of piglin behaviors in advance, like “Do one as a heavy pig, do one as a light pig, do one as a twitchy pig, do one as, you know, a really, really frantic pig.” Those were then applied to characters of different sizes to keep variation high and repetition low. “If you’ve got a guy swinging his arm, then another guy swinging his arm in the exact same way, it’s obvious,” he says. “So even if we had a great take, we didn’t want to overuse it.” For stunt-heavy scenes like the Midport piglin raid, the production had actors perform full choreography ahead of filming. According to Maury, “They shot the whole thing with stunt actors in a fake version of the set at the proper scale and size. It was really great. So when they actually shot the sequence itself on set with the real actors, we had that choreography to work from.” Maury says they focused on matching the stunt choreography with CG characters. “If the stunt actors did something that looked great, there’s no need to replace them. We just needed to find a way to get the piglins to fit in the same space.” Of course, blocky piglin characters take up more room than humans. “If you’ve got two humans side by side and then you put in a piglin that’s twice as wide, sometimes you had to copy the performance but move them over so that they would fit,” he says. “It’s like trying to put a bunch of cars on an elevator - they're so big they can’t fit in that space. So, you copy the motion, but sometimes you have to shift them over a bit to make it work.” Maury continues, “Those shots were pretty straightforward in the sense that they had practical actors in those costumes, right? So, we were doing head replacements on those characters because those costumes were quite large. You didn't put a little tiny Beetlejuice head on this big body. But, there's not a lot of guesswork in there as far as what needs to go into the shot. It's put the heads on the characters and then if they want more characters in the background, you add them in the same kind of style as they are in the practical costumes.” The infamous Garrett - baby zombie fight atop a chicken drew attention from early trailers - and required a very specific approach. “That was all keyframe animation except for the characters outside,” Maury says. “You can’t mocap a baby with really, really short limbs and a giant head riding a chicken.” Still, the production had live-action reference. “They shot this sequence again with the stuntvis team,” Maury explains, “then boarded it, shot it as best they could with the actors and stunt performers they had, and then gave us plates.” Using that as a base, the team refined it for animation. He adds, “It was just a lot of keyframe work. You look at it and go, ‘Okay, what’s the funniest, silliest thing that we can have in here?’” Creating motion that felt faithful to the game’s aesthetic while viewable on screen required experimentation. “For example,” he says, “trying to get the Great Hog to move in a way that felt aggressive… it didn’t have the body structure to move fast. That was a bit of an experiment.” The Endermen posed similar challenges. “In the game, they’re very static,” Maury notes. “They don’t bend their legs. So, there was a lot of back and forth. Do the limbs bend? Do they not bend? Do we have them take real steps?” Maury goes on to explain that character proportions created their own physical logic. “Imagine my head is this big [he gestures]. If I turn that too fast, it’s not going to feel like it weighs 40 kilograms. It’s going to feel like Styrofoam. So, we slowed stuff down.” These kinds of adjustments helped translate the game’s visual shorthand into something legible on film. Maury and his team had to figure out how to get needed weight and feel without the characters seeming too stiff. In the game, they slide almost like chess pieces. A number of characters, particularly villagers, were shot in partial costume and composited later. “They had their arms like this, with blocky stuff on them,” Maury gestures again. “We were doing head replacements because the costumes were quite large.” In some cases, the studio extended background crowds digitally. “They might have only had six costumes available for any given shot,” he continues. “If they wanted more characters, we’d add them in the same style in CG. That’s not overly complex - you’re populating a background to feel natural.” He goes on to say that all animals were fully CG. “There wasn’t anyone in an animal costume. They were added in after.” With so many characters and objects flying through the air, matching the logic of physical motion was essential. If cameras show characters flying past things really fast and then stop on a dime, they start to feel fake. “We tried to keep the camera behaving with the same rules as the flying characters. It has to feel like it’s within the same physical constraints.” That required close coordination between layout and animation. “Our initial blocking passes for flying sequences really helped because we didn’t want to reinvent each one of those shots later.” Looking back, Maury says one of the most rewarding aspects of the show was the team itself. “It might have been the longest show I’ve worked on. But because of the timing - the streaming pullback, the strikes - a lot of VFX folks I hadn’t worked with in years became available. So, I ended up working with Derek and a bunch of leads and artists I already knew.” “It wasn’t just my department,” he continues. “It was lighting, comp. The show was really stacked. And I got to work with people I’d normally only see in the coffee line.” Maury also got to enjoy the film with his family. “It was the first time I went to the theater with my kids for something I worked on. They’re Minecraft fans. That was great.” As for the reception, he’s measured. “It’s a fun, silly film. And if you laugh at it because it’s silly, then great. But it’s not Shawshank Redemption. Why would someone review it like it was going to be? Sometimes you just want to go [to the movies] and have a good time.” Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here GSC Game World has released Stalker: Legends of the Zone Enhanced Edition as a free upgrade for gamers on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. The new remasters, which enhance visuals and offer modern performance optimisations, have been met with immediate review bombs with many taking issue at the censorship of Russian content. A Ukrainian adaptation of the Russian book Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the Stalker video game series has a large number of Russian fans. However, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine which has resulted in the deaths of countless civillians, developer GSC Game World decided to remove Russian languages and Soviet era iconography from its releases. All three entries of the new remasters are sitting at “Mostly Negative” on Steam. While the original Stalker Trilogy is still available in an untouched form on PC, the developer’s new Enhanced Edition games no longer include the originals’ Russian voice options. Following the release of the new remasters, PC players on Steam immediately took to review bombing the new releases for their removal of Russian content. There are some major issues with the new remasters of the original Stalker Trilogy, including a weird blurry look even when you disable the game’s on-by-default FSR image reconstruction. However, while the game does technically run slower than before, it is a much more stable experience with less crashes, hitching and other major issues that plagued the originals. Thankfully, on PC, GSC Game World has not removed the original games from sale in favour of its own remasters. Gamers who buy the remasters have instant access to their original versions; everyone who owns the original also has access to the new versions of the games. Stalker: Legends of the Zone Enhanced Edition is a weird issue. The remasters are clearly decent options, and there will undoubtedly be a Steam Workshop mod to re-add the removed Russian content in the very near future. However, there are real issues such as the bizarrely blurry visuals, newly introduced bugs and more. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Action, First Person, Shooter 8 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share