Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE Decor editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.When Corey Moriarty moved into a new home in Palm Beach, Florida with his four dogs—Maverick and Bauer (Golden Retrievers) and Blue and Titan (Siberian Huskies)—he found himself wondering what to do with his spare bedroom: “We had an extra room just sitting there, and instead of turning it into an office or a guest room no one ever uses, we thought, ‘Why not make it a space entirely for them?’”What started as a lark quickly turned delightfully over-the-top. Moriarty outfitted the room with custom bunk beds, a Murphy bed, and a wall lined with glass jars filled with the dogs' favorite snacks. There’s a ball pit, a full TV setup for nightly Bluey viewings, and a closet containing all of their outfits. Moriarty has been documenting the room’s evolution on TikTok, where his latest post racked up more than 24 million views.Corey MoriartyCorey Moriarty’s dogs have their own bonafide bedroom, complete with bunk beds, a TV area, and a treat wall. Pet ownership is booming in the U.S. In 2024, 59.8 million households had dogs, and 42.2 million had cats, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. And people aren’t just adding pets to their families—they’re investing in them. In 2023, Americans spent more than $147 billion on their pets, per the American Pet Products Association, with an increasing chunk of that going toward pet-focused home upgrades. These aren’t mere afterthoughts—they’re carefully crafted extensions of the home that call for thoughtful planning and, often, the expertise of an interior designer. In fact, the dog room has truly become the newest status symbol.View full post on TiktokA dog room's scale can range from a small nook under the stairs to a full-on suite complete with built-in feeding stations, toy storage, grooming areas, and plush four-poster beds. Some include tiled dog showers, temperature-controlled flooring, and built-in cabinetry. Others have more indulgent luxuries—like a TV with DOGTV, a streaming channel with programming designed specifically for canine attention spans. Think: dogs playing in fields, soothing nature sounds, and friendly humans doing relaxing things with pets. It’s ambient TV, but for your hyper-active schnauzer.For Moriarty, the trend taps into a bigger cultural shift. “There’s a continuing movement toward including pets more fully in people’s lives—as real family members,” he says. “Social media has poured gas on the fire. Everyone’s showing off these amazing pet spaces, and it’s inspiring others to level up.” The result is a growing “barkitecture” trend, where design for pets isn’t an afterthought—it’s part of the floor plan from day one. “We’re in the process of finding or building a more permanent home,” he adds, “and a huge part of that decision is based on what the dogs need—a pool, a yard, a room of their own, space to add a dog wash station.”Ken FulkKen Fulk’s three cream golden retrievers found a home in the curry colored library of his Provincetown home, overlooking the harbor in an antique captain’s daybed. Interior designers are seeing a rise in the trend, too. And some are even participating themselves. Ken Fulk, who shares his Provincetown home with four dogs—three English cream golden retrievers (above) and a wirehaired Dachshund named Wiggy—says one room evolved into their dedicated canine space, though it wasn’t premeditated. “Our often-photographed curry colored library became a de facto nursery,” he says. “Soon, no one would come upstairs with us to bed. They preferred their perch overlooking the harbor in an antique captain’s daybed.”Matt McWaltersKen Fulk’s L.A. shop sells wicker dog beds. And for those not ready to sacrifice a spare room? You don’t have to ditch your home office to make your pets feel like part of the design. Fulk says more clients are requesting pet-focused features, like custom dog beds, built-in food stations, and dog-wash areas in stylish mudrooms. At his new shop in Los Angeles, Fulk even offers wicker dog beds upholstered in outdoor fabric, including his own Designer Dogs print for Pierre Frey, as well as an Air Blue and Indigo Stripe. In a world where dogs are living better than their owners, what's next? "I got some very positive feedback on my idea of our doggy hotel called DEN," Fulk laughs. "It was dreamed up as an April Fool’s joke, but there just might be something there."Rachel SilvaAssociate Digital EditorRachel Silva is the associate digital editor at ELLE DECOR, where she covers all things design, architecture, and lifestyle. She also oversees the publication’s feature article coverage, and is, at any moment, knee-deep in an investigation on everything from the best spa gifts to the best faux florals on the internet right now. She has more than 16 years of experience in editorial, working as a photo assignment editor at Time and acting as the president of Women in Media in NYC. She went to Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for awards from ASME, the Society of Publication Designers, and World Press Photo. 

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.   Is an architecture firm designing its own studio the equivalent of an artist painting a self-portrait? (Should we coin the term “auto-architecture?”) Perhaps this isn’t a perfect analogy, but it certainly contains parallels that are productive to parse… Studio spaces are distinct from offices in that they not only shape daily rituals and structure relationships between colleagues but also act as an expression of the values at the core of the firm’s design philosophies. Freed from the usual constraints of client briefs, for many firms, designing their own workspace offers a unique opportunity for experimentation and self-expression. The studios featured in this collection span diverse geographies and contexts — from a vaulted school library repurposed as an “anti-office,” to a carbon-neutral warehouse conversion in Sydney, to a minimalist tiled atelier in Casablanca. Despite their differences, each workspace shares a commitment to thoughtful design that blurs the line between functions and offers a vision for cultivating creativity. More than places of production, these studios are active expressions of architectural identity; spaces that support not only what architects make, but how they make it. They also challenge outdated typologies and embrace the hybrid realities of contemporary practice. Skylab HQ By Skylab, Portland, Oregon After spending years in a historic structure in downtown Portland, the Skylab team decided the time had come to create a space that reflected the dynamic nature of their practice. They asked themselves: “How can our studio evolve from a dedicated workspace to a playground for the art and design community? Where can we find a space to integrate gardens, an event venue, and a fabrication shop, as well as our studio?” Leaving the downtown core, they opted to transform a pair of WWII-era prefabricated steel warehouses into a hybrid studio, fabrication lab and cultural venue supporting both architectural production and artistic exchange. Strategic insertions — like a 60-foot-long (18-meter) ridge skylight, 10-foot (3-meter) operable window walls and CLT-framed meeting rooms — maximize daylight and material contrast, balancing industrial grit with biophilic warmth. The adaptive reuse reflects the firm’s ethos of experimentation, extending their design process into the very architecture that houses it. Alexander House By Alexander &CO., Sydney, Australia Jury Winner, Architecture +Workspace, 10th Annual A+Awards Alexander House functions as both studio and experimental prototype, integrating low-carbon construction with hybrid live/work spatial typologies tailored to an evolving architectural practice. While functioning as an architectural residential showcase, the team also works from this home, and their clients meet with them there; the project challenges preconceptions of home, land, family and work. From a voluminous material library in the basement to a concrete mezzanine bench designed for quiet focus, the layout supports varied modes of design work while challenging conventional boundaries between domestic and professional space. Crafted in collaboration with local makers, the building also pioneers sustainability through reclaimed timber linings, carbon-neutral bricks, and a solar system supplying up to 80% of daily energy demand. say architects Community Office By say architects, Hangzhou, China Say Architects’ office reimagines workplace architecture as a life-oriented, materially expressive environment, where exposed I-beams structure both the building and the studio’s daily rhythms. Cantilevered volumes, rope-grown greenery, and integrated misting systems animate the exterior, while steel-framed shelving and model rooms of rich timber textures create a tactile, inspiration-driven interior. Prioritizing adaptability and sensory comfort, the space dissolves traditional partitions in favor of spatial arrangements that align with design habits, offering a studio that is both tool and manifesto. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Philadelphia Studio By Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s Philadelphia studio transforms a historic social club (founded in 1923) into a contemporary workspace through adaptive reuse, prioritizing flexibility, daylight and material economy. The goal was to create a highly flexible work environment that would allow designers to move quickly between individual work, impromptu discussions and group meetings throughout the day. Restored terrazzo floors and ornamental detailing anchor a modern layout featuring hoteling desks, collaborative mezzanine zones and panoramic views of the city center.  The design supports agile workflows and hybrid collaboration while integrating repurposed custom furnishings to extend the life cycle of past projects. ADND OFFICE By Atelier Design N Domain, Mumbai, India ADND’s new Bombay headquarters is a richly layered adaptive reuse of a century-old industrial warehouse, reimagined as an expressive design laboratory charged with material experimentation and symbolic nuance. The studio’s soaring central bay reaches 26 feet (8 meters) in height, punctuated by 7-foot (2-meter) pivoting porthole windows that flood the workspace with southern light, evoking a cathedral-like ambiance. Throughout, bespoke interventions — from terrazzo-cast floors and mirrored reception desks to hand-sketched upholstery and looped oak chairs — translate the founders’ personal design dialects into architectural form, creating a space where industrial memory and contemporary authorship converge. Studio Cays X Studio BO By Studio CAYS, Casablanca, Morocco In this Casablanca-based studio, minimalist rigor meets material clarity through tiled walls and seamless epoxy flooring, crafting a luminous, low-maintenance workspace. At its core, a central bench anchors the open-plan layout, fostering daily collaboration and reinforcing the studio’s emphasis on shared ideation within a purified architectural envelope. Smart Design Studio By smart design studio, Alexandria, Australia Jury Winner, Office Interiors (<25,000 sq ft); Jury Winner, Office Building Low Rise, 10th Annual A+Awards Smart Design Studio’s headquarters fuses industrial heritage with cutting-edge sustainability, transforming a conserved warehouse into a carbon-neutral workspace powered by on-site energy and water collection systems. The studio’s open-plan interior is crowned by a mezzanine framed by original steel trusses, while a striking vaulted residence above features self-supporting brick catenary arches — an elegant synthesis of structural economy and sculptural ambition. Designed to reflect the material restraint and innovation of early industrial architecture, the building is a working manifesto for the studio’s interdisciplinary ethos. Architect’s Office at Kim Yam Road By Park + Associates, Singapore Popular Choice Winner, Office Interiors, 10th Annual A+Awards Photos by Edward Hendricks Occupying a former library hall atop a repurposed 1960s school, this studio embraces the latent grandeur of its barrel-vaulted, column-free volume to craft a boundary-less, anti-office environment. Full-height louvered windows invite daylight and breeze through the arching space, while the design resists conventional programming in favor of layered, informal settings that foster creativity and fluid collaboration. Rather than overwrite its past, the intervention amplifies the building’s inherent spatial expression; through adaptive reuse, the architects position atmosphere as architecture. Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.   The post Self-Portrait in Plan: 8 Architecture Studios Designed By Their Owners appeared first on Journal.

In the centre of the building, a ceremonial room is a calming space that invites community meetings and healing.   TEXT Elsa Lam PHOTOS doublespace photography Fifty years ago, four grandmothers founded the organization Anduhyaun—Ojibwe for “Our Home”—to respond to the needs of the city’s Indigenous women. The organization used a city-owned heritage house in the Annex to offer shelter to women and children suffering from the traumas of violence and homelessness. Last year, they moved to a building designed by LGA Architectural Partners.  The architects took the organization’s name to heart, aiming to provide not just basic shelter, but a place of nurture and grounding. The organization’s long-time executive director, Blanche Meawassige, told the designers that the building needed to feel like it was alive. “From Blanche, we understood that a shelter is a place where rehabilitation—growth and healing—begins,” says architect Brock James, partner at LGA. “Yes, it’s a roof over your head and safety, but it’s also where that spiritual part starts; it has to be about growth and life.” A curved ceiling-to-wall transition brings a unique quality to the bedrooms This thinking shows in the bedrooms, 16 of which are compact, single-occupancy rooms and two of which are designed for families with up to three kids. (Some rooms can also be interconnected, to accommodate larger families or to provide a physical link between friends.) Each room has its own bathroom, a wooden desk, adjustable lighting, and a curved ceiling-to-wall transition that reflects daylight through the space. The curve, says James, “makes the room very ‘here’. It’s only here. It’s not generic.” Curved, tiled walls define the circulation areas on the ground floor Curves recur on the main floor, where seafoam-coloured tiles sweep along flowing walls, adding to the building’s sense of aliveness and alluding to Indigenous teachings about water. The curves lead to a large communal kitchen and a central ceremonial space, currently known as Nookomis, or “grandmother.” The interior of Nookomis, the building’s main ceremonial space Many details illustrate LGA’s commitment to creating specialness with economical means. Nookomis, for instance, is clad with cedar shingles that came in pre-cut profiles. (“It’s just a matter of coming up with a pattern, which I did in my living room during the pandemic,” says James.) The burgundy walls of Nookomis’s interior are made, in part, with a simple foam in a custom colour. (“It’s a straightforward product that’s not good if you were touching it—but up high, controlling the sound, it works.”) A skylight caps the space, like a full moon casting a soft glow from above. Meawassige originally asked for the outside of the building to be anonymous, but later decided that the Indigeneity of the interior should be expressed outside, too. The architects created a design with a similarly elevated attention to detail. They achieved a high level of airtightness in the envelope, and composed a façade made out of standard Vicwest metal, applied in a pattern that ensures that the 300-mm width of the panels would stay intact, with no cuts.   “Good design, an elevated section, beautiful tiles: it’s things like that that makes it feel like somebody cares,” says James. “When I think about aesthetics, we can have lots of stories about them, but I know that it’s communicating that Anduhyaun cares. This is their building, and it’s emoting that they care.”  As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post Our Home, Toronto, Ontario appeared first on Canadian Architect.

In Unity 2021 LTS, UI Toolkit offers a collection of features, resources, and tools to help you build and debug adaptive runtime UIs on a wide range of game applications and Editor extensions. Its intuitive workflow enables Unity creators in different roles – artists, programmers, and designers alike – to get started with UI development as quickly as possible.See our earlier blog post for an explanation of UI Toolkit’s main benefits, such as enhanced scalability and performance, already being leveraged by studios like Mechanistry for their game, Timberborn.While Unity UI remains the go-to solution for positioning and lighting UI in a 3D world or integrating with other Unity systems, UI Toolkit for runtime UI can already benefit game productions seeking performance and scalability as of Unity 2021 LTS. It’s particularly effective for Screen Space – Overlay UI, and scales well on a variety of screen resolutions.That’s why we’re excited to announce two new learning resources to better support UI development with UI Toolkit:UI Toolkit sample – Dragon Crashers: The demo is now available to download for free from the Asset Store.User interface design and implementation in Unity: This free e-book can be download from hereRead on to learn about some key features part of the UI Toolkit sample project.The UI Toolkit sample demonstrates how you can leverage UI Toolkit for your own applications. This demo involves a full-featured interface over a slice of the 2D project Dragon Crashers, a mini RPG, using the Unity 2021 LTS UI Toolkit workflow at runtime.Some of the actions illustrated in the sample project show you how to:Style with selectors in Unity style sheet (USS) files and use UXML templatesCreate custom controls, such as a circular meter or tabbed viewsCustomize the appearance of elements like sliders and toggle buttonsUse Render Texture for UI overlay effects, USS animations, seasonal themes, and moreTo try out the project after adding it to your assets, enter Play mode. Please note that UI Toolkit interfaces do not appear in the Scene view. Instead, you can view them in the Game view or UI Builder.The menu on the left helps you navigate the modal main menu screens. This vertical column of buttons provides access to the five modal screens that comprise the main menu (they stay active while switching between screens).While some interactivity is possible, such as healing the characters by dragging available potions in the scene, gameplay has been kept to a minimum to ensure continued focus on the UI examples.Let’s take a closer look at the UIs in the menu bar:The home screen serves as a landing pad when launching the application. You can use this screen to play the game or receive simulated chat messages.The character screen involves a mix of GameObjects and UI elements. This is where you can explore each of the four Dragon Crashers characters. Use the stats, skills, and bio tabs to read the specific character details, and click on the inventory slots to add or remove items. The preview area shows a 2D lit and rigged character over a tiled background.The resources screen links to documentation, the forum, and other resources for making the most of UI Toolkit.The shop screen simulates an in-game store where you can purchase hard and soft currency, such as gold or gems, as well as virtual goods like healing potions. Each item in the shop screen is a separate VisualTreeAsset. UI Toolkit instantiates these assets at runtime; one for each ScriptableObject in the Resources/GameData.The mail screen is a front-end reader of fictitious messages that uses a tabbed menu to separate the inbox and deleted messages.The game screen is a mini version of the Dragon Crashers project that starts playing automatically. In this project, you’ll notice a few revised elements with UI Toolkit, such as a pause button, health bars, and the capacity to drag a healing potion element to your characters when they take damage.UI Toolkit enables you to build stable and consistent UIs for your entire project. At the same time, it provides flexible tools for adding your own design flourishes and details to further flesh out the game’s theme and style.Let’s go over some of the features used to refine the UI designs in the sample:Render Textures:UI Toolkit interfaces are rendered last in the render queue, meaning you can’t overlay other game graphics on top of a UI Toolkit UI. Render Textures provide a workaround to this limitation, making it possible to integrate in-game effects into UI Toolkit UIs. While these effects based on Render Textures should be used sparingly, you’ll still be able to afford sharp effects within the context of a fullscreen UI, without running gameplay. The following images show a number of Render Textures from the demo.Themes with Theme style sheets (TSS): TSS files are Asset files that are similar to regular USS files. They serve as a starting point for defining your own custom theme via USS selectors as well as property and variable settings. In the demo, we duplicated the default theme files and modified the copies to offer seasonal variations.Custom UI elements: Since designers are trained to think outside the box, UI Toolkit gives you plenty of room to customize or extend the standard library. The demo project highlights a few custom-built elements in the tabbed menus, slide toggles, and drop-down lists, plus a radial counter to demonstrate what UI artists are capable of alongside developers.USS transitions for animated UI state changes: Adding transitions to the menu screens can polish and smooth out your visuals. UI Toolkit makes this more straightforward with the Transition Animations property, part of the UI Builder’s Inspector. Adjust the Property, Duration, Easing, and Delay properties to set up the animation. Then simply change styles for UI Toolkit to apply the animated transition at runtime.Post-processing volume for a background blur: A popular effect in games is to blur a crowded gameplay scene to draw the player’s attention to a particular pop-up message or dialog window. You can achieve this effect by enabling Depth of Field in the Volume framework (available in the Universal Render Pipeline).We made sure that efficient workflows were used to fortify the UI. Here are a few recommendations for keeping the project well-organized:Consistent naming conventions: It’s important to adopt naming conventions that align with your visual elements and style sheets. Clear naming conventions not only maintain the hierarchy’s organization in UI Builder, they make it more accessible to your teammates, and keep the code clean and readable. More specifically, we suggest the Block Element Modifier (BEM) naming convention for visual elements and style sheets. Just at a glance, an element’s BEM naming can tell you what it does, how it appears, and how it relates to the other elements around it. See the following BEM naming examples:Responsive UI layout: Similar to web technologies, UI Toolkit offers the possibility of creating layouts where “child” visual elements adapt to the current available size inside their “parent” visual elements, and others where each element has an absolute position anchored to a reference point, akin to the Unity UI system. The sample uses both options as needed through the visual elements of the UI.PSD Importer: One of the most effective tools for creating the demo, PSD Importer allows artists to work in a master document without having to manually export every sprite separately. When changes are needed, they can be done in the original PSD file and updated automatically in Unity.ScriptableObjects: In order to focus on UI design and implementation, the sample project simulates backend data, such as in-app purchases and mail messages, using ScriptableObjects. You can conveniently customize this stand-in data from the Resources/GameData folder and use the example to create similar data assets, like inventory items and character or dialog data in UI Toolkit.Remember that with UI Toolkit, UI layouts and styles are decoupled from code. This means that rewriting the backend data can occur independently from the UI design. If your development team replaces those systems, the interface should continue to work.Additional tools used in the demo include particle systems created with the Built-in Particle System for special effects, and the 2D toolset, among others. Feel free to review the project via the Inspector to see how these different elements come into play.You can find reference art made by the UI artists under UI/Reference, as replicated in UI Builder. The whole process, from mockups to wireframes, is also documented in the e-book. Finally, all of the content in the sample can be added to your own Unity project.You can download the UI Toolkit sample – Dragon Crashers from the Asset Store. Once you’ve explored its different UI designs, please provide your feedback on the forum.Then be sure to check out our e-book, User interface design and implementation in Unity. Download

Got a project that’s too bold to build? Submit your conceptual works, images and ideas for global recognition and print publication in the 2025 Vision Awards! The Main Entry deadline of June 6th is fast approach — submit your work today. Architectural visualization has gone from a technical exercise to a creative discipline in its own right. Once treated as a (more or less) behind-the-scenes tool for client approval, rendering is now front and center, circulating online, shaping public perception, and winning awards of its own. There are many reasons for this shift. More powerful software, changing client expectations, and a deeper understanding of what visualizations can actually do have all contributed to it. As a result, photorealism has definitely reached staggering levels of clarity, but that’s just one part of the story. In this new era of rendering, visualizations also have a role in exploring what a building or a space could represent, evoke or question. This conceit is precisely why the Architizer’s Vision Awards were created. With categories for every style and approach, the program highlights the artists, studios and images pushing architectural rendering forward. With that in mind, take a closer look at what defines this new era and explore the Vision Awards categories we’ve selected to help you find where your work belongs. Rendering Is Now Part of the Design Process New Smyril Line headquarters, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands by ELEMENT, Studio Winner, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Photorealistic Visualization For years, renderings were treated as the final step in the process. Once the design was complete, someone would generate a few polished visuals to help sell the concept. They weren’t exactly part of the design conversation, but rather, a way to illustrate it after the fact. That’s no longer the case, however. The best rendering artists are involved early, helping shape how a project is perceived and even how it develops. This results in visualizations that don’t just represent architecture, but influence it, affecting crucial decisions in the process. Through framing, atmosphere and visual tone, renderings can set the emotional register of an entire design, meaning that rendering artists have a much bigger role to play than before. Image by Lunas Visualization, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Architectural Visualizer Of The Year Recognizing this shift in studio culture and design thinking, the Vision Awards treats rendering as its own form of architectural authorship, capable of shaping how buildings are imagined, remembered and understood. To reflect that sentiment, the program includes categories that celebrate mood, meaning and precision alike: Photorealistic Rendering – For visuals that bring spatial clarity and technical realism to life. Artistic Rendering – For painterly, stylized or interpretive representations. Architecture & Atmosphere – For renderings that evoke emotion through light, weather or tone. Technology Expanded the Medium Image by iddqd Studio, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Architectural Visualizer Of The Year Rendering used to be a time-consuming process with limited flexibility. Now, however, entire scenes can be generated, re-lit, re-textured and even redesigned in mere minutes. Want to see a project at dawn, dusk and golden hour? You can. Want to swap out a concrete façade for charred timber without starting from scratch? That’s part of the workflow. But these new capabilities are not limited to speed or polish. They open the door to new kinds of creativity where rendering becomes a tool for exploration, not just presentation. What if a building had no fixed scale? What if its context was imagined, not real? Silk & Stone by Mohammad Qasim Iqbal, Student Winner, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, AI Assisted Visualization And then, of course, there’s AI. Whether used to generate inspiration or build fully composed environments, AI-assisted rendering is pushing authorship into uncharted territory. The results are sometimes surreal, sometimes speculative, but they speak to a medium that’s still expanding its identity. The Vision Awards recognizes these new roles of visualizations, offering categories for rendering artists that focus on experimenting with tools, tone or technique, including: AI-assisted Rendering – For images that push the boundaries of representation using generative tools. Artistic Rendering – For stylized visuals that embrace abstraction, mood, or imagination. Context Became a Key Part of the Picture Image by BINYAN Studios, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Architectural Visualizer Of The Year Architecture doesn’t exist in isolation and, increasingly, neither do the renderings that represent it. By showing how a design sits within its surroundings (whether it’s a busy street, a lakeside, or a forest) visualization becomes a way of understanding context, not just composition. In this new era of visualization, renderings show where people gather, how light travels across a building, or what it feels like to approach it through trees, traffic or rain. Movement, interaction and use-cases are highlighted, allowing viewers to grasp the idea that architecture is more than a single object, but rather, a part of a bigger picture. Image by Lunas Visualization, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Architectural Visualizer Of The Year That shift comes from a growing awareness that design is experienced, not just observed. A rendering can communicate density or calm, movement or pause, the rhythm of a city or the quiet of a field. It can reveal how a project sits in its environment or how it reshapes it. The Vision Awards includes several categories that speak directly to this expanded role of rendering, including: Architecture & Urban Life — For renderings that depict street-level energy, crowds, or civic scale. Architecture & Environment — For visuals grounded in landscape, terrain, or ecosystem. Exterior Rendering — For exteriors that communicate architectural form through environment, setting and scale. Architecture & People — For moments that highlight human presence, interaction, or use. Details Tell the Story Natura Veritas by David Scott Martin, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Photorealistic Visualization New tools have made it easier to render with nuance by highlighting texture, light and atmosphere in ways that feel specific rather than generic. With real-time engines, expanded material libraries and refined lighting controls, rendering artists are spending more time on the parts of a project that might once have gone unnoticed. Image by ELEMENT, Studio Winner, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, Architectural Visualizer Of The Year This shift reflects changing priorities in architectural storytelling. Material choices, interior qualities and subtle transitions are becoming central to how a space is communicated. Whether it’s the grain of unfinished timber or the glow of morning light across a tiled floor, these moments give architecture its tone. The Vision Awards includes categories that reward this level of focus, recognizing renderings that carry weight through surface, rhythm and mood: Exterior Rendering — For close-up visuals that highlight the materials, textures, and design details of a building’s outer skin. Interior Rendering — For immersive representations of interior space. Architecture & Materiality — For images that showcase texture, depth and construction logic. Rendering Is Architecture’s Visual Language — and the Vision Awards are Here to Celebrate It Cloud Peak Hotel above the Rainforest Mist by FTG Studio / Zhiwei Liu, Xianfang Liu, Special Mention, 2023 Architizer Vision Awards, AI Assisted Visualization Architectural rendering is no longer a supporting act. It’s a growing creative field with its own voice, influence and momentum. As visualization continues to shape how projects are developed, discussed and shared, it’s clear that the people creating these images deserve recognition for their role in the architectural process. The Vision Awards were built to recognize exactly this. By highlighting both the artistic, technical and conceptual strength of architectural imagery, the program gives visualization the space it’s earned — alongside architecture itself. If you’re an Arch Viz artist, you can explore multiple categories that reflect the challenges, innovations and opportunities of this new era of rendering—from photorealism to abstraction, mood to material. And if your work reflects a strong point of view across multiple images, the Rendering Artist of the Year accolade was created with you in mind. Winners are featured across Architizer’s global platforms, published in print, included in the Visionary 100 and celebrated by a jury of industry leaders. Winning means visibility, credibility and long-term recognition at a global scale. So if your work helps shape how architecture is seen and understood, this is your platform to share it (and, hopefully, your time to shine!). Enter the Vision Awards Got a project that’s too bold to build? Submit your conceptual works, images and ideas for global recognition and print publication in the 2025 Vision Awards! The Main Entry deadline of June 6th is fast approach — submit your work today. The post Is Rendering Is the New Sketch? The Rise of Visualization in Architecture Today appeared first on Journal.

Game Dev Digest Issue #283 - Retro, Graphics Tricks, Multiplayer, and more posted in GameDevDigest Newsletter Published May 23, 2025 Advertisement This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.comEnjoy!“ZLinq”, a Zero-Allocation LINQ Library for .NET - I’ve released ZLinq v1 last month! By building on structs and generics, it achieves zero allocations. It includes extensions like LINQ to Span, LINQ to SIMD, LINQ to Tree (FileSystem, JSON, GameObject, etc.), a drop-in replacement Source Generator for arbitrary types, and support for multiple platforms including .NET Standard 2.0, Unity, and Godot.neuecc.medium.comPathfinding - I've recently been working on the pathfinding for NPCs in my game, which is something I've been looking forward to for a while now since it's a nice chunky problem to solve. I thought I'd write up this post about how I went about it all.juhrjuhr.itch.ioMy Work at Unity - I worked as a developer at Unity Technologies from 2009 to 2020. When I started, there were around 20 employees worldwide and Unity was still largely unknown. When I left, there were over 3000 employees and Unity had become the most widely used game engine in the industry.runevision.comIndie Game Marketing Examples: Campaigns We Loved - From Crabs to Chess: Creative marketing lessons from indie game campaigns that really worked!impress.gamesMaking Video Games in 2025 (without an engine) - I genuinely believe making games without a big "do everything" engine can be easier, more fun, and often less overhead. I am not making a "do everything" game and I do not need 90% of the features these engines provide. I am very particular about how my games feel and look, and how I interact with my tools.noelberry.caWelcome to Unity Design Patterns - Examples of programming design patterns in Unity C#NaphierPalette lighting tricks on the Nintendo 64 - Below I have some notes on the directional ambient and normal mapping techniques I developed. They are both pretty simple in the end but I haven’t seen them used elsewhere.30fps.netCan Itch.io Success Translate To Steam Success? - In my previous blog I looked at the stats for an itch.io game and what an over performing game looked like. Today I want to deep dive on a couple games that took their early itch.io success and parlayed it onto Steam with varied results.howtomarketagame.comWork with strings efficiently, keep the GC alive - This tip is not meant for everyone. If your code is simple, and not CPU-heavy, this tip might be overkill for your code, as it's about extremely heavy operations, where performance is crucial.old.reddit.comIndie Survival Guide - ProductsThe Indie Survival Guide is your ongoing archive of real talk and hard-won insights from the devs and industry experts making games happen—often against the odds. Whatever tools you’re using, this growing library of Q&As, livestreams, and VODs is here to help. There’s no magic formula, but we believe shared experience—across design, business, and survival—can give you the best shot.Unity VideosMultiplayer Systems in 10 Minutes/1 Hour/1 Day | Clocked and Loaded - Unity Developer Advocate Esteban Maldonado shows us how he scales multiplayer systems based on time constraints and how his approach differs depending on the circumstances.UnityFrom States to Trees: How Behavior Trees Revolutionized Game AI - In this final video of our NPC evolution series, we explore how Behavior Trees transformed game AI. Moving beyond the limitations of Finite State Machines, Behavior Trees introduced hierarchical decision-making that allowed NPCs to evaluate complex situations, prioritize actions, and respond intelligently to player choices.Mindplay with AaronInside Doom: The Dark Ages - Creating id Tech 8 - Interview With id Software - Want to know more about Doom: The Dark Ages and the technical make-up of the new id Tech 8? John Linneman has this extensive interview with id Software's Director of Engine Technology, Billy Khan. Every key aspect of the new technology is discussed here, along with answers to key questions like why The Dark Ages simply isn't possible without hardware accelerated ray tracing.Digital FoundryLet's Fix Unity's Animator - Let's fix the missing animation preview in Unity's Animator!Warped ImaginationWhy Did Older Games Feel So Much Bigger? - The evolution of game design has taken an interesting turn, where modern level design often feels more constrained despite technological advances. While retro games created vast worlds with limited resources, today's AAA games sometimes sacrifice that sense of wonder for visual fidelity.Devin ChaseMind-blowing graphical tricks in classic games - Your questions answered! | White_Pointer Gaming - It's time to answer even more viewer questions about how classic games achieved their graphical tricks! This video includes not just Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo games, but Neo Geo as well. Plus the big one that you might have been waiting for - Final Fantasy VI / Final Fantasy III! What mindblowing tricks will be unveiled this time?White_Pointer GamingJetBrains AI Assistant Just Got a Lot More Useful (and FREE) - JetBrains AI Assistant, improved in version 2025.1 with enhanced context awareness and deeper IDE integration, brings intelligent code generation, inline prompts, and web-enhanced context directly into our workflow. Together, we’ll explore how it uses these upgrades to incorporate external knowledge into its suggestions as we refactor a simple C# class into a clean and reusable programming pattern—then save that refactoring as a custom prompt for future use.git-amend AssetsLevel Up: 5K World Building Assets Bundle - Build the game of your dreams in any setting or scenario with our Level Up: 5K World Building Assets Bundle.__The Supreme Unreal & Unity Game Dev Bundle - Dive into an asset collection that offers the widest range of stylized towns, buildings, and more with The Supreme Unreal & Unity Game Dev Bundle! Save time and money by accessing this library of 50+ asset sets, ranging from medieval Viking villages to deserted military outposts—specific standouts include Whispering Grove Environment and Asian Dynasty Environment. Get the assets you need to help bring your game to life, and help support the charity of your choice with your purchase!Humble Bundle AffiliatePoiyomiToonShader - A feature rich toon shader for unity and VR Chatpoiyomi Open SourceAPFrameworkUI - A Text Mesh Pro based text only UI system for Unitydklassic Open SourceUnityProcgen - Library of procedural generation code for use in Unitycoryleach Open SourceGeneLit - GeneLit is an alternative to standard shader for Unity built-in pipeline.momoma-null Open Sourcebarelymusician - a real-time music engine.anokta Open SourceColliderMeshTool - Generate custom mesh colliders in Unity with hulls or hand-drawn outlines.SinlessDevil Open SourceGraphlit - Custom node shader editor for Unityz3y Open SourceEasy Peasy First Person Controller (FREE) - Easy Peasy First Person Controller is a user-friendly, ready-to-use first-person controller for Unity. It provides a wide range of customizable features for seamless integration into your game.assetstore.unity.com AffiliateUnityInGameConsole - A powerful Command Line Processor and log viewer for Unity. It can be run in the editor or in a built out player for any platform, allowing you to see your log and callstacks in you final product, without having to search for unity log files.ArtOfSettling Open SourceDescant - An enhanced and user-friendly Unity dialogue system pluginOwmacohe Open Sourceposition-visualizer - Unity editor tool to visualize positions in the scene.mminer Open SourceLua-CSharp - High performance Lua interpreter implemented in C# for .NET and Unitynuskey8 Open SourceUnityNativeFilePicker - A native Unity plugin to import/export files from/to various document providers on Android & iOSyasirkula Open Sourceusyrup - A runtime dependency injection framework for the Unity Game Engine!Jeffan207 Open SourceUnityIngameDebugConsole - A uGUI based console to see debug messages and execute commands during gameplay in Unityyasirkula Open SourceContentManagementSystem - CMS based on XK's realization for unitymegurte Open SourceIsoMesh - IsoMesh is a group of related tools for Unity for converting meshes into signed distance field data, raymarching signed distance fields, and extracting signed distance field data back to meshes via surface nets or dual contouring.EmmetOT Open SourceNavigathena - Scene management framework for Unity. Provides a new generation of scene management.mackysoft Open SourceUI Cursors - UI for Mouse Cursors is a great start for the development journey you are looking for either testing or a finished game it offers a great variety. Animatable and make the game look alive!verzatiledev.itch.io25% Off Unity Asset Store - Get 25% off your next purchase—even on discounted assets! Use code TWXJ982ND at checkout and keep building something amazing. Limited to 5 redemptions.Unity AffiliateShop up to 50% off Kyeoms - Publisher Sale - I'm an individual game VFX artist. I'm interested in Cartoon style and Stylized VFX. PLUS, get New Stylized Explosion Package for FREE with code KYEOMS2025Unity AffiliateUltimate World Building Asset Bundle - Imagine it—build it—love it Elevate your next project with elite 3D assets, textures, references, and more from the Ultimate World Building Asset Bundle by ScansMatter—featuring 300 free commercial credits on ScansMatter.com, Rooftop Asset Kit, Office Environment Kit, and much more. This limited-time partnership with ScansMatter gives Humble Bundle members a unique opportunity to access countless professional-quality assets at a fraction of the price. Get the assets you need to bring your next visual project to life—and help support the World Wildlife Fund with your purchase!Humble Bundle AffiliateUnlock Pro 3D Modeling Skills With Blender - Software Bundle - Unlock awesome 3D tools for Blender__ SpotlightBrine - An upcoming boomer shooter from Studio Whalefall, a 3rd year university team from Falmouth's Games Academy.Slippery fishy enemies are attacking your quaint Cornish town, and it's up to one disgruntled fisherman to save the day. Fight your way through waves of local seafood and paint the town with red.[Get the demo on Itch.io]Studio WhalefalMy game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on SteamYou can subscribe to the free weekly newsletter on GameDevDigest.comThis post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article. Comments Nobody has left a comment. You can be the first! You must log in to join the conversation. 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Tucked away in the pulse of the city, the Soft Form Studio, a project by Ans Render, offers a different kind of rhythm. One that is quiet, tactile, and deeply intentional. This urban retreat redefines minimalism by leaning into softness. It layers neutral tones, sculptural lighting, and cozy textures to create a home that feels both elevated and inviting. Every detail, from the woolly wall art to the curved form, is designed to slow you down and draw you in. A cream-themed foyer with an organically shaped mirror invites you into the Soft Form Studio. You will be led into the living space, first catching a glance of a decorated bookshelf. Here, an open floor plan, with a living room and kitchen area, keeps the ambiance airy. A cozy gray sectional anchors the living area, while the kitchen features a marble island, warm wooden cabinetry, and tiled backsplash. Despite being a compact apartment, the Soft Form Studio makes room for the homeowners’ priorities, one of which was working from home. This home office houses a gray two-seater sofa, adding modern design and functionality. A sculptural table provides room to hold magazines or other essentials, while a plush rug softens the area underfoot. On the other end, a sleek wall-mounted desk curves at one end, adding elegance. Natural light floods the space, making sure it’s illuminated throughout the day. The dining nook features a pedestal table, which makes for a space-savvy pick. This is paired with minimalist chairs and a globe-like chandelier. A special mention for the textured artwork, which instantly forms the focal point of the space. It is further accentuated by accent lighting. The bedroom in the Soft Form Studio features a soft upholstered bed. This is flanked by two different types of nightstands, adding a beautiful sense of asymmetry. The pendant lights hanging on either end add visual intrigue to the bedroom when the sun goes down. The bathroom is as luxurious as it gets! We see marble features adding a bold punch. A freestanding sink is paired with recessed shelving and a strategically lit mirror, making sure the space is as functional as is stylish

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.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Skullcandy vs. Bose: Sound quality Skullcandy vs. Bose: Noise cancellation Skullcandy vs. Bose: Comfort and design Skullcandy vs. Bose: Battery life Skullcandy vs. Bose: Companion apps and extra features Our winner: Get the Bose earbuds on sale How We Tested Frequently Asked Questions The noise-cancelling earbuds market is not just crowded — it's packed. If a brand wants to stand out with a new release, it faces the difficult task of bringing something new to the table that can outshine the products of the major brands like Sony, Apple, and, of course, Bose. Skullcandy's new earbuds, the Method 360 ANC earbuds, are attempting to do just that by partnering with one of those major brands — Bose. The earbuds come with Bose-powered sound at the very impressive introductory price of $99.99 (Skullcandy will be raising the price to $129.99 at an unspecified date in the future). The cheapest Bose earbuds, on the other hand, are the QuietComfort earbuds, which retail for $179. Though they are considerably more expensive, they do often go on sale for $149 and have reached the record-low price of $129, which made us especially curious to put them head to head with the Skullcandy earbuds.Below, you'll find our breakdown of how the Bose QuietComfort earbuds compare to the Skullcandy Method 360 ANCs. Skullcandy vs. Bose: Sound qualityIn the press release for the Method 360 earbuds, Skullcandy called them its "most advanced audio experience to date." In listening to everything from indie rock, video game soundtracks, and podcasts, I can see why. The Skullcandy earbuds had a balance that matched up easily to other impressive budget earbuds I've tested. Whether I was listening to the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack or a live Daft Punk performance, these earbuds punched above a $100 price point. How does Bose-powered sound compare to the real deal? Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable However, when listening to them side by side with the Bose earbuds, the Skullcandy earbuds felt muffled and muddier (though I wouldn't describe them as muddy on their own).When listening to Japanese Breakfast's "Savage Good Boy," I could still pick out different parts of the song's instrumentation, but I had to listen harder to pick up the piano past the guitar and vocals than I did with the Bose earbuds. While listening to the "Hush (Still Woozy remix)" by The Marías, the layers of the song were present with the Skullcandy earbuds, but shined with the Boses. Ultimately, the Skullcandys provided a solid listening experience, but the one the Bose earbuds provided was undeniably better. At the same volume, the QuietComfort earbuds sounded warmer, fuller, and generally more powerful. (I say this as someone who doesn't necessarily love bumping the volume super high.) Bose offers five total EQ presets, plus a custom setting. Credit: Screenshot: Bose Compared to Skullcandy's three presets and custom equalizer. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy For both, I found their standard mix to be on the bass-heavy side. However, Bose offers five EQ presets and a custom equalizer, compared to Skullcandy's three presets with a custom equalizer.Winner: Bose QuietComfortSkullcandy vs. Bose: Noise cancellationSkullcandy uses four mics to help block out sound, compared to the QuietComforts' three mics.That said, Bose's earbuds literally have the words quiet and comfort in their name. Not to mention, the brand's been a leader in the noise-cancelling space for quite some time. Whether I was working at home with my partner on the other side of the wall, in a cafe, library, or taking a walk, I generally found the Bose earbuds more adept at muting and outright blocking out sounds. That especially came through when I used just the noise cancellation without music to help it.However, the Skullcandy earbuds do offer adjustable ANC via the companion app, which isn't currently available on any pair of Bose earbuds. For their price point, it's not a feature I expected, but one I was pleasantly surprised to encounter. At its highest setting, the noise cancellation only had the slightest hiss. While Bose essentially had none at all in my experience, I was still surprised that the Skullcandy's noise cancellation was comparable at all, considering the price discrepancy. The Skullcandy companion app allows you to adjust the ANC on a sliding scale. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy And still, it's worth saying: the Skullcandy earbuds' ANC is very impressive for the price point. While working at the library, I could barely hear the murmurs of a conversation across the room that I could make out word for word without wearing the earbuds. On the Bose buds, the conversation disappeared altogether, giving them the slightest edge. Both earbuds allow you to toggle the ANC on and off and activate a transparency mode. With this last setting, the Bose stood out more effortlessly, amplifying the world around me just enough without overly emphasizing sounds or the room tone. The Skullcandy earbuds, on the other hand, exhibited a stronger background hiss in this mode. It didn't make it unusable by any means, but definitely less pleasant than that of the Bose earbuds.Winner: Bose QuietComfort, by a hair Skullcandy vs. Bose: Comfort and designFor how they fit into the ear, the designs are quite similar on these earbuds, which makes them wear very similarly. In my ears, I found the Bose earbuds to be slightly more comfortable, but both pairs come with three sizes of stability bands and three sizes of ear tips. At the end of the day, fit can be very personal, especially with earbuds. The earbuds have a similar shape, and both come equipped with a similar type of ear tip and stability band. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable As for the earbuds themselves, the Skullcandy earbuds actually resembled the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds more, with a slightly elongated stem and exterior touch controls with the perfect level of sensitivity. As someone who far prefers tactile on-ear controls, I was surprised by how well these earbuds distinguished the different types of presses. I think because the earbud has a slight groove where the touch controls are, it's easy to identify where to touch, and to not brush against the surface and activate the controls accidentally.On the other hand, the regular QC earbuds have a flatter, more rounded touch control surface, which, in my testing of these earbuds last fall, I found to err on the side of oversensitivity. While I didn't experience that issue much this time around, it's worth noting that I tested them initially during a time of year I was wearing more hats and hoods. The Skullcandy earbuds perform like the Bose QuietComfort earbuds (pictured left) but look more like the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (pictured right). Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable The Skullcandy earbuds might've taken the win in this section, if not for one glaring feature — their case. Unlike most other earbuds cases that merely snap open and closed, this one has a sliding mechanism with an O-ring and a slot for one earbud on either side of the interior case. If the intention was to create something outside of the box, Skullcandy did a great job, but it sacrificed some functionality in the process. This case is super bulky. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable As you can see, the case is huge compared to the earbuds, meaning if you're not using the O-ring, it is one of the least travel-friendly pairs of earbuds out there. In their design, Skullcandy seemed to assume that's how most people would use the case, as they placed the earbuds on the opposite side of the case. In other words, when looking at it head-on, the right earbud goes on the left side, and the left earbud goes on the right side. If you have the case clipped onto your belt with the front facing outward, this configuration makes perfect sense. In pretty much every other use case, it makes none.The Bose case, on the other hand, is relatively compact and has a clear spot for each earbud. The Bose earbuds don't have a clip-on ring, but feel marginally more portable. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable Both earbuds are IPX4 water-resistant, so they should withstand sweating during workouts just fine.Our winner: TieSkullcandy vs. Bose: Battery lifeThere's not much to say here other than both of these earbuds have excellent battery life. With ANC on, Skullcandy estimates you can get roughly nine hours per charge, with 23 hours of battery life in the case. Bose estimates 8.5 hours, with 31.5 hours in the case. Numbers-wise, Bose is the winner here, but in two work weeks of testing, I only needed to charge up the Skullcandy earbuds once. The Bose app has a feature that lets you easily see the hours breakdown of your remaining battery life, but it's not something I checked on super regularly during testing. Related Stories The Bose app makes it easy to tell how much playtime you have left. Credit: Screenshot: Bose For day-to-day use, I found these earbuds performed very similar in the battery life department.Our winner: TieSkullcandy vs. Bose: Companion apps and extra featuresWhen testing these earbuds side by side, I noticed right away that the Bose-powered element doesn't make itself hidden. Skullcandy adopted the Bose QuietComfort's power-on sound, voice assistant, and tiled app interface. The Skullcandy app. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy Versus the Bose app. Credit: Screenshot: Bose While the Bose app has a few more features, including a battery prediction, smart calls, and a voice assistant section, there's also quite a bit of overlap. Both have equalizer settings, touch control customization, low latency modes, and even a remote selfie section.Numbers-wise, Bose simply has more features you can mess around with to truly tailor your earbud experience to what suits you best. Features-wise, Skullcandy has a slight edge with adjustable ANC, but Bose's better ANC overall, alongside the greater customization, its battery prediction screen, and more varied EQ presets help it stand out ahead of the cheaper earbuds.Our winner: Bose QuietComfortOur winner: Get the Bose earbuds on saleThe fact that a pair of Skullcandy earbuds can stand up to Bose earbuds at all is a testament to what the brand has done with the Method 360 ANCs. While overall, I wouldn't call them exactly the same, I would say they're similar enough that you won't be upset to grab them at $100. If they stayed at their introductory price forever, they'd be easy to recommend as the winner of this matchup.However, they will be jumping up to $129.99. Combined with the fact that the Bose earbuds get marked down to $149 frequently enough that these earbuds will sit just $20 apart with some regularity, it's hard not to suggest just springing the extra $20 to get slightly better earbuds with slightly more features. Get the Skullcandy and Bose earbuds Bose QuietComfort earbuds $179.00 at Amazon Skullcandy Method 360 ANC $99.99 at Amazon Still can't decide? Check out our full reviews of the Bose QuietComfort earbuds and the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds. If you have a bigger budget, we recommend checking out our review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds.