Envato Notes

Make Data More Human

Adrian Try — Wed, 23 May 2012 06:00:30 +0000

Over on the Tuts+ Premium blog, Skellie has listed 20 Must See TED Talks for Creatives. This is one of them.

“Jer Thorp creates beautiful data visualizations to put abstract data into a human context. At TEDxVancouver, he shares his moving projects, from graphing an entire year’s news cycle, to mapping the way people share articles across the internet.”

Five Quick Web Design Tips From Team Envato

Adrian Try — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:16:04 +0000

Do you love the design of Envato’s gorgeous websites? Would you like to know the secret formula, or at least get some tips from our amazing devs? You’re not alone!

While in Malaysia, Webdesigntuts+ editor Ian Yates had the opportunity to pick the brains of our designers and developers and pick up some amazing tips. I mean, what does a web design guru do in KL except talk design with other web design gurus!

Luckily for you he’s not keeping his discoveries a secret. He collated some amazing tips from five different developers in a helpful article on Webdesigntuts+ called Five Quick Web Design Tips From Team Envato.

Here’s a list of the devs he got to speak to, along with the tips they gave:

Stuart Richardson: Multiple variants of one theme using Sass and Compass.
Cameron Jones: Test your layout for responsiveness in seconds.
Rodney Blackney: Gimme Bar FTW!
Jacob Zinman-Jeanes: Never let your iPad out of your sight..
Jeffrey Way: Don’t close your list items, let the browser do it for you.

So race over to Webdesigntuts+ now and check them out. Now!

What was your favorite tip? Let us know in the comments.

Weekly Inspiration

Carmen — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:30:16 +0000

What does the word Failure mean to you?

Legendary inventor Thomas Edison was once asked how he felt about the 1,000 failed attempts he made before creating the lightbulb. Mr. Edison had a great attitude towards the word fail.

“I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Instead of thinking about failure, focus on how much to you have learnt! When you think of each pitfall as a lesson, you will get the most out of your experiences.

New “Compatible With” Feature Added For ThemeForest

Josh Sprague — Tue, 22 May 2012 06:21:23 +0000

ThemeForest has a new feature we hope you will like. We’ve added a new field to the upload page that will now allow you to select certain compatible services in relation to your upload type.

Basically this will allow you to tag your files with different services. So rather than uploading a WordPress theme into a Buddypress category, you would instead upload it to the most relevant WordPress > Descriptive category and then use this field to add in any services the theme is compatible with (i.e. Buddypress, WooCommerce).

At this time, only WordPress themes are completely built out but more will soon follow including Joomla, Drupal, etc…

Update: Mark Brodhuber has provided further information to help clarify.

It’s kind of a mixture of both here’s some more information. Within our current situation if an author submits a theme for a band or artist it would normally go under something like WordPress > Entertainment > … But lets say the theme author decides to integrate social aspects using BuddyPress. Right now the BuddyPress option would take precedence and the file would go under WordPress > BuddyPress. This type of categorization lacks the extra descriptive information gained with our descriptive child categories. Additionally, it limits the theme to only being classified as a “BuddyPress” theme.

Where as under the new method, an author could submit that same theme into the proper category of WordPress > Entertainment > XXX and then attribute it with BuddyPress. But he/she could also integrate other services like WooCommerce for sales. So now you could have a WordPress theme that’s categorized based on description, and then using the Compatible With attribute, it could be sort of tagged with both BuddyPress and WooCommerce.

Another nice thing about this new method is the way in which our items are displayed. If a WordPress theme with both BuddyPress and WooCommerce functionality was submitted before, the author would have to choose one of the three categories to place their theme in. Now it could technically be displayed in all three.

So to answer your question, compatible with should be used when a theme has been built and designed to not only work with the compatible addons selected. But these platforms should also be well integrated and styled to match the rest of the theme.

Just saying something like “tested BuddyPress with this theme and it works” is not sufficient.

Extended License Changes – Part 2

Lance Snider — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:55:12 +0000

Note: This is a 2 part article. If you haven’t already read it, be sure to read part 1 first.

In part 1 we talked about various usages of items purchased with an extended license. In this part, we’ll discuss a couple of fringe cases that, after reading part 1, people tend to ask about, but it’s still worth clarifying.

If Item A is licensed under an extended license, and incorporated into a larger project, Item B, can Item B be offered for sale by Author B under an extended license?

As an example, let’s say I buy an extended license of a button graphic from GraphicRiver and incorporate that button into my WordPress theme. Can I sell an extended license of that theme? The answer is yes, as long as the original button graphic is only used as part of the theme, and not on its own.

We’ve clarified the regular and extended licenses to ensure that the original item that’s used in a larger project cannot be used on its own; it must only be used within the larger project. This is important for authors and buyers to understand.

How far can this chain go?

If item B can be sold with an extended license, does that mean that item B could also be incorporated into a stock item for sale, item C? Could that result in items C, D, E and so on, all using item A’s original file? Not in reality. That chain can only go so far. Remember, to sell it as stock, item B must be a larger project (see examples of what constitutes a larger project here). For example, a button graphic could be used in an image gallery for CodeCanyon. Technically, that image gallery could be used within a WordPress template. That’s where the chain stops. A template can’t be incorporated into a larger project and sold as stock. That’s as high as it goes. In all of our brainstorming, we couldn’t think of a single case in which the chain would exceed 3 steps.

Does our approach protect the authors of the original items sufficiently? We think the balance is about right. First off, the vast majority of extended license sales are not for reselling the item as stock. Also, the extended license fee is higher in order to reflect this type of end-use possibility. Authors can also now control the type of re-use that is considered “Limited Re-purposing” (a modification of an item for re-sale as stock). And finally, there is only so far the chain can go.

We know some authors may disagree with this outcome, however if that’s the case you have the option to opt out of extended licensing altogether. But we hope you won’t, as we have a vibrant community of authors who interact and build on ideas across our marketplaces.

We know that there are many other improvements that can and should be made to our suite of licenses. We’re going to be working on some clarifications over the coming months. While, due to technical constraints in our marketplace system, this won’t result in a radically different licensing system, we’re really hoping it will provide some much needed clarifications to our current licensing approach.

Questions?

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of questions as well as feedback. That’s why we’ve created this dedicated thread where we can discuss it all in one place.

Extended License Changes – Part 1

Lance Snider — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:55:10 +0000

On the Envato Marketplaces we don’t sell items, we sell licenses for those items. This is an important distinction and highlights how important those licenses are. They determine what rights authors grant and what buyers purchase.

Since we’ve had some interesting licensing questions come up recently, particularly around extended licenses, we’re rolling out a few changes to the license texts to make them more clear. This is part of an ongoing process to improve our licenses, so there will be more improvements to come. For any and all changes we’ll make sure everything is thoroughly explained for both authors and buyers.

Today’s changes are mostly for the Extended Licenses, so all authors, and particularly those considering whether to opt-in or out, will find this article useful. We think the changes mean good news for authors who previously opted out of extended licenses, as you might now find them more suitable and be able to opt back in to them. If you’re a buyer, we hope you’ll also be interested in the changes!

So what’s actually changed in the extended license?

Our previous extended license was not clear about when an item could be purchased, modified, and then resold on a stand-alone basis (rather than being incorporated into a larger project). For example, whether a flash photo gallery could be converted into a JavaScript photo gallery, or whether a website theme in one format could be converted to another format and then re-sold. One reading of the license allowed these examples. This didn’t happen as often on ThemeForest as we have long had a house rule that didn’t allow authors to ‘re-purpose’ someone else’s theme and then sell it as their own. And we generally find that our ThemeForest authors don’t want to do this anyway.

Some authors in other marketplaces, however, found that they had to opt out of all extended licenses if they didn’t want their items to be modified and re-sold on a stand-alone basis. The extended license now clarifies that this can only happen in a certain way, as I’ll explain below.

What hasn’t changed under the extended license?

The more usual uses of an extended license are either re-using the item in a larger project (which might be a template), or re-selling the end project not as a template but as a final end product. Those more common uses of extended licenses have not been impacted by the changes, but the license wording has been made more clear.

Examples of what could be done under the old license, and still can:

A button graphic can be incorporated into a website.
A sound effect can be utilized in a game and that finished game product can be sold to end consumers.
A magazine template can be used to create a finished magazine that is sold.
A game starter pack can be used to create the final game sold to consumers.
An illustration could be used on the cover of a book that is sold.

Here are some more examples of acceptable and unacceptable uses.

If I purchase an extended license of an item, can I include it in a project that I will sell?

The answer is, yes … in 3 cases. These are the 3 categories in which it’s acceptable, and they’re now clarified in the extended license wording:

When you include the item in a larger project
The larger project is usually not a template or stock item. Meaning, what you’re selling is meant for the end user, not something the buyer would modify and use in another project. For example, you could sell a final product like an app, shirt, movie, or printed material. Occasionally, the larger project is a template item. For example, you could use a button graphic in a WordPress theme you sell. (On the other hand, you could not convert an HTML template to WordPress, as this is not a larger project.) Here are more examples of what is considered a “larger” project.
When you modify a template or software app to create an end product
This means customising a template or software app item, to create and re-sell an end product on a stand alone basis, but not as a stock item. For example, you can use a magazine template to create and sell the final printed magazine to consumers. More examples here.
When you modify the item to create a similar item, get permission from the author, and only sell on the Envato marketplaces
This means not putting the item into a larger project, but modifying it in some way and re-selling it as a template or stock item. For example, using an HTML template and converting it to a WordPress theme to sell on ThemeForest. This is called a ‘Limited Repurposing’ in the updated extended license, and can only happen with the permission of the original author and then only if your item is sold on an Envato marketplace. More examples here.
If you’re the author of an item and another author asks you for permission to modify or convert it and re-sell it as a stock item, it is entirely up to you whether to agree. Think about whether you’re planning to sell the proposed modification yourself or if you’re happy for another author to do and re-sell the work. Your incentive would be your share on the extended license fee. If you, as an author, do decide to give permission, you should keep track of what permissions you’ve given out. Of course, you wouldn’t want to give out overlapping permissions on the same item, which would result in duplicate items being uploaded to the Envato marketplaces.

The following examples are never acceptable:

You may not resell the item as is.
You may not buy multiple items to sell as a bundle.
You may not break out parts of a file and sell them individually (ex: Buy an HTML template and sell the button graphics on GraphicRiver).

Hopefully, these changes will make authors more comfortable about offering extended licenses on their items, because you can automatically allow the more usual uses under an extended license, but control stand-alone re-purposing for re-sale on a marketplace.

Note: This is a 2 part article. See part 2 here.

How do I make sure I’m opted into the extended license?

Log in to any of the Envato marketplaces
Roll over your username and click Settings
Click Item Licenses
Make sure Extended License is checked
Click Save

Questions?

I’m sure there will be plenty of questions, as well as feedback. That’s why we’ve created this dedicated thread where we can discuss it all in one place.

Featured Profile Image: MatthiasAndre

Adrian Try — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:15:11 +0000

There are almost as many approaches to creating a profile image as there are authors. Some focus on showcasing artistic skills, others prioritize with slogans and company information. Some show their personal photo, while others display abstract forms. This one belongs to MatthiasAndre.

Matthias is Envato’s 3D guru. He’s keenly waiting for the day we have holographic profile images. In the meantime, the colors and textures on his image give it a cool layered look.

What do you think of Matthias’ profile pic? Have you come across a creative profile image recently? Let us know in the comments!

Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.

Adrian Try — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:00:06 +0000

Over on the Tuts+ Premium blog, Skellie has listed 20 Must See TED Talks for Creatives. This is one of them.

“Chip Kidd doesn’t judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book — and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs.”

Show Your Appreciation: Activetuts+

Adrian Try — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:04:59 +0000

Activetuts+ is Envato’s tutorial site about Flash, Unity, Silverlight and HTML5. If it’s your favorite Envato site, give it a shout out in the comments!

You might like to browse our previous posts related to Activetuts+.

Site Summary

With 874 posts and counting, Activetuts+ is the perfect place to learn about video effects. With tutorials for beginners to advanced users, you’re bound to find something right at your level.

Activetuts+ — named for the awsomely interactive stuff it will teach you to create — is a site aimed at designers and developers, offering tutorials, tips and articles to improve your skills at creating browser-based games and apps. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner, covering Flash, Unity, Silverlight and HTML5.

We hope that reading Activetuts+ will help you learn a few tricks, techniques and tips that you might not have seen before and help you maximize their creative potential!

If you’re interested in writing a tutorial for the site, you can learn about the submission process on our Write a Tutorial page.

If you want to take your Flash & RIAs learning further, visit Tuts+ Premium – our online education platform for digital creatives.

Be Social

If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest tutorials from Activetuts+, you’ll find it on most social networks.

There’s always a lot going on, so follow us in multiple places so you don’t miss out! So how often do you visit Activetuts+? Let us know in the comments.

On Listening to Twitter Users

Adrian Try — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:57 +0000

Over on the Tuts+ Premium blog, Skellie has listed 20 Must See TED Talks for Creatives. This is one of them.

“In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.”