CSS can be used to style and animate scalable vector graphics, much like it is used to style and animate HTML elements. In this article, which is a modified transcript of a talk I recently gaveat CSSconf EU and From the Front, I’ll go over the prerequisites and techniques for working with CSS in SVG.
I’ll also go over how to export and optimize SVGs, techniques for embedding them and how each one affects the styles and animations applied, and then we’ll actually style and animate with CSS.
Introduction
Scalable vector graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics, with support for interactivity and animation. In other words, SVGs are XML tags that render shapes and graphics, and these shapes and graphics can be interacted with and animated much like HTML elements can be.
Animations and interactivity can be added via CSS or JavaScript. In this article, we’ll focus on CSS.
There are many reasons why SVGs are great and why you should be using them today:
SVG graphics are scalable and resolution-independent. They look great everywhere, from high-resolution “Retina” screens to printed media.
SVGs have very good browser support. Fallbacks for non-supporting browsers are easy to implement, too, as we’ll see later in the article.
Because SVGs are basically text, they can be Gzip’d, making the files smaller that their bitmap counterparts (JPEG and PNG).
SVGs are interactive and styleable with CSS and JavaScript.
SVG comes with built-in graphics effects such as clipping and masking operations, background blend modes, and filters. This is basically the equivalent of having Photoshop photo-editing capabilities right in the browser.
SVGs are accessible. In one sense, they have a very accessible DOM API, which makes them a perfect tool for infographics and data visualizations and which gives them an advantage over HTML5 Canvas because the content of the latter is not accessible. In another sense, you can inspect each and every element in an SVG using your favorite browser’s developer tools, just like you can inspect HTML elements. And SVGs are accessible to screen readers if you make them so. We’ll go over accessibility a little more in the last section of this article.
Several tools are available for creating, editing and optimizing SVGs. And other tools make it easier to work with SVGs and save a lot of time in our workflows. We’ll go over some of these tools next.
Exporting SVGs From Graphics Editors And Optimizing Them
The three most popular vector graphics editors are:
Adobe Illustrator is a paid application from Adobe. It is a highly popular editor, with a nice UI and many capabilities that make it the favorite of most designers.
Inkscape is a popular free alternative. Even though its UI is not as nice as Illustrator’s, it has everything you need to work with vector graphics.
Sketch is a Mac OS X-only graphics app. It is not free either, but it has been making the rounds among designers lately and gaining popularity, with a lot of resources and toolsbeing created recently to improve the workflow.
Choose any editor to create your SVGs. After choosing your favorite editor and creating an SVG but before embedding it on a web page, you need to export it from the editor and clean it up to make it ready to work with.
I’ll refer to exporting and optimizing an SVG created in Illustrator. But the workflow applies to pretty much any editor, except for the Illustrator-specific options we’ll go over next.
To export an SVG from Illustrator, start by going to “File” → “Save as,” and then choose “.svg” from the file extensions dropdown menu. Once you’ve chosen the .svg extension, a panel will appear containing a set of options for exporting the SVG, such as which version of SVG to use, whether to embed images in the graphic or save them externally and link to them in the SVG, and how to add the styles to the SVG (by using presentation attributes or by using CSS properties in a <style> element).
The following image shows the best settings to choose when exporting an SVG for the web:
The first Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer showed more than our share of ass-kicking (and getting asses kicked). But this second look at next year's best movie settles a quieter score: Who can lift Thor's hammer?
While it's fun to watch Iron Man try to lift Mjölnir like some billionaire playboySword in the Stonerewrite, it's even more interesting to see the context behind Ultron's grand entrance. What we're seeing here is pride; based on the rest of the trailer, the fall looks to be steep and explosive. And of course, there's also all that Hulkbusting. Oh, and the look Thor gives after Cap jiggles the hammer a little, which is the definition of priceless:
Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out May 1 of next year, and frankly I just want to fall asleep right now and wake up then.
It's been a long time since I craved a computer program, but now I want Space Engine so much that I'm ready to buy a PC just to be able to immerse myself in it. Developed by Vladimir Romanyuk, Space Engine is a complete sandbox simulation of the Universe with mind-blowing graphics. Check this out:
From the description:
SpaceEngine: a free space simulation program that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions, from planet Earth to the most distant galaxies. Areas of the known universe are represented using actual astronomical data, while regions uncharted by astronomy are generated procedurally. Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, countless planets - all available for exploration. You can land any planet, moon or asteroid and watch alien landscapes and celestial phenomena. You can even pilot starships and atmospheric shuttles.
You can use a number of tools that can help you generate ideas, make the writing process easier, and even market your content for you.
Here are 35 of them:
Tools for content discovery
Before you can start writing, you need to come up with ideas, ideally ones that will be popular.
Quick Sprout – if you put in a competitor URL on the home page of Quick Sprout and then click on the “social media” tab, you will see a breakdown of the most popular content your competitor has written. This should help you generate some ideas.
Buzzsumo – type in a word or a phrase, and Buzzsumo will show you the most popular posts around the web that contain that phrase.
Portent – if you are struggling to come up with a cool idea or title, just type in a keyword on Portent, and it will generate catchy titles for you.
Quora – this is a great place to look if you need some inspiration. People ask questions in every industry, and Quora will help you spot the hot ones.
Google Trends – the last thing you want to do is blog on a topic that isn’t popular. Google Trends will point you in the right direction as it shows search volume for different keywords and phrases.
Alltop – not every blog is worth following. Alltop ranks and organizes the top blogs around the web so you can see what others are writing about.
Twitter – most people use Twitter for distribution, but I also use it to see what’s trending.
Pulse – LinkedIn created a product that is like an RSS feed. It allows you to subscribe to specific topics and interests so that you know what is being discussed.
Evernote – as a blogger, you’ll eventually have more ideas than time. With Evernote, you can keep track of all your ideas.
Trello – the more organized you are, the smoother the content marketing process will be. Trello is a great place to organize all of your ideas.
Once you have figured out what to blog on, the next step is for you to start writing.
Tools for writing
If you use the tools below, you’ll find that not only will you write better but you’ll also be able to create content faster.
Google Docs – instead of blogging in WordPress, consider writing your content first in Google Docs. It will help you spot grammar and spelling issues, plus you can collaborate with others when you need help.
Wunderlist – if you want to write list-based posts, check out Wunderlist. It makes it easy for you to create lists on everything.
Meme Generator – who said creating funny images is hard? With a few mouse clicks and keyboard strokes, you can start generating memes in minutes on Meme Generator.
Visual.ly – infographics don’t have to be expensive. Visual.ly will help you create your own.
Infogr.am – graphs and pie charts don’t have to be ugly anymore. You can now create pretty ones that generate social shares.
Skitch – from screen captures to quick photo edits, Skitch is a simple photo editing tool. It may not have as many features as Photoshop, but it is much easier to use.
Uberflip – sometimes you’ll want to create ebooks or PDFs on your blog. Uberflip is a simple tool that will allow you to do so, plus it gives you stats that show you how popular your content is.
TinyMCE – if you prefer blogging within WordPress, this tool will ensure you are using correct grammar and spelling.
Text Broker – ideally, you should be writing your own content, but if you don’t have the time, Text Broker can take care of the writing process for you.
Problogger Job Board – similarly to finding help on Text Broker, you can find freelance writers on Problogger.
Shareist – from capturing content around the web to embedding links and videos, Shareist helps with the whole content marketing cycle. It’s a platform made for small and medium businesses.
Kapost – if you want a tool that does everything, Kapost is worth checking out. It’s worth using if you need help with scheduling and writing, but it can do much more than that.
Editorial calendar – once you get the hang of blogging, you’ll want to use a content calendar to organize publishing of your posts. This will help you spot holes and figure out how often and when you should be blogging.
Now that you’ve nailed down the writing process, it’s time to focus on distribution.
Tools for distribution
Promoting your content doesn’t have to be hard. There are a lot of tools you can use to help you out.
Yoast – search engines are a great source of traffic. Yoast will optimize your blog for you so that you can maximize your rankings.
Buffer – pushing out your content to all of the social sites can be a pain. But with Buffer, you can do so with just one click.
Click to tweet – by making quotes and phrases within your content tweetable, you will get more social traffic. When I tested this out on Quick Sprout, I was able to generate 26% more tweets.
Tweroid – your followers may not be online when you are tweeting. Tweroid will help you determine the optimal twitting time to get the most exposure.
Slideshare – why not turn your content into a presentation? Submitting your content to Slideshare in a presentation format is a great way to get extra traffic and more branding.
Outbrain – if you want to generate more traffic, Outbrain is a good source for cheap traffic. For a few cents a click, you can get more people reading your blog.
Flare – social sharing buttons don’t have to be ugly. Flare lets you take control of the way your sharing buttons look, plus it tells you the number of clicks they get.
GetResponse – email is the best way to generate traffic to your blog. Through GetResponse, you can start collecting emails on your blog and then do an email blast to your list every time you publish a new piece of content.
Google Webmaster Tools – if you want to know where you rank in the search engine results, this is the only tool you need. You can then take the keywords that rank on page one, build some links to them, and increase your rankings.
LinkedIn Groups – one of the simplest ways to get more traffic is to submit your content to LinkedIn groups. Join groups that have over 100,000 members and are in spaces related to yours. Submit your content, and watch your social traffic grow.
Audience Bloom – these guys have an internal tool that helps companies get guest posts. They only charge you when their tool helps you land a guest post from relevant sites. It’s a great way to increase your referral traffic and gain new readers to your blog.
Google Blog Search – through Google’s blog search, you can find relevant blogs within your industry. Once you find a handful of blogs, read their content, and start commenting, providing great information. This will help drive people back to your blog, which will increase your readership.
Conclusion
Content marketing isn’t rocket science. The tools I mentioned above will make it easier for you to generate ideas, write articles, and promote your content.
We present a method for converting first-person videos, for example, captured with a helmet camera during activities such as rock climbing or bicycling, into hyper-lapse videos, i.e., time-lapse videos with a smoothly moving camera.
At high speed-up rates, simple frame sub-sampling coupled with existing video stabilization methods does not work, because the erratic camera shake present in first-person videos is amplified by the speed-up.
Scene Reconstruction
Our algorithm first reconstructs the 3D input camera path as well as dense, per-frame proxy geometries. We then optimize a novel camera path for the output video (shown in red) that is smooth and passes near the input cameras while ensuring that the virtual camera looks in directions that can be rendered well from the input.
Next, we compute geometric proxies for each input frame. These allow us to render the frames from the novel viewpoints on the optimized path.
Proxy Geometry
Stitched & Blended
Finally, we generate the novel smoothed, time-lapse video by rendering, stitching, and blending appropriately selected source frames for each output frame. We present a number of results for challenging videos that cannot be processed using traditional techniques.
We are working hard on making our Hyperlapse algorithm available as a Windows app. Stay tuned!
Update:click here to read about the difference between Microsoft's and Instagram's hyperlapse algorithms.
Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United State’s Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).
Interactive Map
The map plots the approximately 90,000 photographs that have geographical information. Customize your search by by photographer, date, and place.
