It's no secret Adobe is going full send on AI, after a full fleet of AI partnerships and Firefly taking centre stage, blossoming into a full-fledged creative studio. It could all start to feel a little existential, but beaming under the stage lights, future Adobe CEO Anil Chakravarthy assures me, "Adobe will meet you where you are”. And I start to believe him.

AI has persisted as a divisive topic among creatives, but Adobe has shown a refreshing self-awareness around the tension. Emerging on stage, vice president Deepa Subramaniam wastes no time addressing that "things feel uncertain” in the wake of AI.

Assurances of “reliability” and “safety” are thrown around, honing in on Adobe's legacy as a brand shaped and "built by creatives that care about the craft”. She assures the sceptics among the crowd (myself included) that for Adobe, "Creativity isn’t a side project; it’s a way of life,” and to my surprise, the typically eye-roll-worthy sentiment soothes me. At its core, it seems Adobe hasn't forgotten about the creatives that shaped its brand.

Deepa raises some valid points. In an increasingly content-driven world, more is asked of us. The humble graphic designer is now expected to be a web designer, motion designer, and social media maverick all in one – something that Adobe's “rich learning ecosystem” can solve, according to Deepa. Creatives are trapped in a battle with waning time and resources, with demand for content ever increasing. If handled correctly, time-saving AI could offer the respite we need, but it raises a moral dilemma. Where do we stop?

For more Adobe news, check out why Adobe's Google partnership hints at a radically different future for Photoshop or take a look at the new AI features coming to Photoshop.

The entry-level specs won't interest professional video editors (see our guide to the best desktop PCs for video editors if you're in that category), but dedicated Nvidia graphics mean this budget setup is ready to handle lighter content creation as well as gaming, and it would mark a step up from a laptop with integrated graphics.

Why choose a desktop PC

Whether it's for gaming or content creation, there are two big advantages of a desktop PC over a laptop. Firstly, you tend to get more bang for your buck in the first place. As a rule, you tend to get more powerful internals, in the form of a superior CPU and GPU and more RAM, compared to what you would get in a laptop at the same price point (of course, some of this is outweighed by the fact that you also need to invest in a monitor and peripherals).

But the biggest advantage of a desktop PC is upgradability. If you find you outgrow the RTX 5060 too quickly, or processes are getting bottlenecked and you need more RAM, or more storage, you can buy the additional internals that you need as you need them and upgrade the configuration yourself, potentially multiple times.

This is a full 5.1.3-channel package with real rear satellite speakers and a wireless subwoofer. This makes it stand out from all those one-piece soundbars, which use virtual processing to try to mimic the effect of surround sound. The result is a fuller, more rounded and more immersive experience (also see our best headphones if you want options for listening alone).

• Browse soundbars at Amazon

A real 5.1.3 soundbar system for wraparound audio

Modern flat-screen TVs are too thin to house quality speakers, often resulting in muddy sound and hard-to-hear dialogue. Soundbars provide a budget, space-friendly upgrade without having to run speaker wires across your room or buy an AV receiver.

Many of them come as a single piece and use processing to try to replicate the effect of surround sound. The LG US80TR 5.1.3 does things properly with physical rear speakers and subwoofer for more immersive sound while still keeping clutter to a minimum.

It comprises the main soundbar, wireless rear satellites and a dedicated subwoofer. With an output of 580W, it can handle quiet dialogue as well as loud sound effects and soundtracks with nuance and sensitivity. The drivers bounce sound off your ceiling to create overhead effects like rain, while the dedicated center channel puts dialogue at the fore where you want it and the subwoofer delivers a punch at the low end, also serving for music and gaming.

Now a new update introduces an attempt to police generative AI content along with more complete AI declarations and more control over filtering. The aim is to make it easier to users to control what they see, but it's got a mixed response from artists so far.

When publishing content on ArtStation, users will now be asked to declare whether generative AI was used in the creation of the piece. Creators can identify their work as primarily generative AI, mixed generative AI and non-generative methods or 100% non-generative.

This relies on users being upfront, and ArtStation says that most are. However, it's recognised that there is a problem with people uploading AI-generated content without flagging it as such.

That leads to the second aspect of the latest update, which is a dedicated channel for reporting AI content. If users come across artwork they think is AI-generated but which isn't labelled, they can report it. ArtStation says that every report will help improve its AI filtering for the whole community.

Users also get more control over what they're shown: they can choose whether to hide declared generative AI content, or to allow mixed generative and non-generative workflows, and they can adjust how aggressively ArtStation filters content based on user reports of suspected generative AI.

The 'Strict' setting hides artwork when just a few reports suggest it may be AI-generated. 'Balanced' filters it out when there’s a moderate level of reports and 'Loose' removes it only when user signals are strongest. By default, the filter will be set to not show any project declared as AI-generated, tagged with 'CreatedwithAI' or tagged with generative AI tools, and suspected as AI will be set to strict.

The platform risks becoming useless if it's impossible to find interesting work because of the sheer volume of low-quality AI-generated content. Many users have welcomed the latest update as a move in the right direction, while others have raised doubts about how effective the measures it will be.

There's a strong reliance on user moderation, which will depend on users accurately identifying AI art. Some may still go undetected completely, while the 'Strict' filtering could remove work falsely identified as AI.

It's not yet clear if artists will be notified if their work is flagged or whether they will have a way to contest that decision. That could be a concern when even long established digital artists like Loish have been falsely accused of using AI over on platforms like TikTok.

The update highlights the difficult balancing act of policing AI content. ArtStation has a big focus on concept art, and some in the industry now see generative AI as an inevitable part of the pipeline in this field. The new Disney deal with Adobe will focus on developing custom AI models specifically for concept work. In that context, KitBash probably sees banning AI art from the platform as counterproductive if not impossible.

Perhaps most exciting is a collaboration with Google DeepMind to develop new AI editing capabilities for Photoshop. The companies are exploring a customised Google image model that could allow users to make near-real-time edits using text prompts, switching between variations without disrupting their workflow. In theory, that could make generative editing feel less like a frustrating cycle of prompting and waiting, and more like working with a traditional Photoshop tool. The catch? It's still exploratory, with no release date announced.

“Adobe’s mission is to empower everyone to create, and our AI innovations are helping more people express their ideas and create in ways that amplify their voice, while maintaining creative control,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president and incoming CEO of Adobe. “Our expanded partnership combines Google’s frontier AI with Adobe’s industry-leading creative and productivity tools at global scale, enabling us to deliver differentiated experiences and bring Adobe’s innovations to more people across Adobe and Google products.”

Meanwhile, Adobe is bringing its creative tools to Google's AI Mode in Search, potentially allowing users to go straight from searching for inspiration to creating something without opening a separate app.

Adobe is also expanding its integrations with Gemini and Gemini Enterprise, enabling users to enhance images, customise designs and work with PDFs through conversational prompts. For designers churning out multiple versions of campaign assets, for example, that could be a genuine time-saver.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the announcement, though, is what it suggests about Adobe's direction. Rather than expecting creatives to work exclusively within its own apps, it seems Adobe increasingly wants its tools accessible wherever people are already working, such as Google Workspace.

For more announcements from this week, take a look at our main Adobe Max 2026 page.

This comes alongside a host of Firefly-based AI updates, which effectively turn it into a full creative studio. You can read more about that here.

• Relight adds a virtual light to your image that you drag into position. The Properties panel lets you tweak its colour, intensity and size, and you can add up to three lights to a scene.

• Generative Restyle regenerates an image in a different style, with a slider in the Properties panel to control how far the effect goes.

• The Remove tool also gets an upgrade. It’s now better at taking out an object’s shadows and reflections, so you no longer need to select them as well.

• Quick compare: See your edits easily with a before and after

Creative Agent and a new AI workspace

Adobe is rolling out Creative Agent, an AI agent, across several Creative Cloud apps, Photoshop included. It’s pitched at handling busywork, and can also answer how-to questions, like where a tool lives or how to complete an edit. Photoshop’s AI Assistant also gets a new AI-first workspace built around natural language prompts, with a simpler interface. You can leave it at any time to get back to the full toolset.

The betas designers should look at first

• A tool that converts flattened graphics, such as a flyer or PDF, into editable layers
• A mockup creation tool
• Generative Recompose, which changes an image’s aspect ratio and repositions elements
• Camera Angles, which lets you explore alternative viewpoints of an image by interacting with the canvas
• A tool for removing atmospheric effects such as lens flare and haze
• A timelapse feature for sharing your process

That, of course, raises questions about who used to be handed those repetitive but creative jobs and whether those roles are now no longer viable. But for many creatives, particularly freelancers, handing process work to an AI agent is likely very enticing.

So let's take a closer look at the new Generative Media Tool for those looking to speed up their workflows. Instead of jumping between apps and AI services, editors can generate video, sound effects, soundscapes, and music directly in Premiere's timeline. You can select a range, describe what you need, and add the generated media as an editable clip, so you don't have to break your editing flow to get the material you need. The demo was certainly impressive.

More controversially, Adobe is also bringing supported third-party AI models into the workflow, giving editors more choice in how they generate video but also opening up Adobe's app ecosystem to external AI models such as Kling and Seedance 2.5, which have greyer areas than Adobe Firefly. More practically, a new Generative Remove tool, currently in beta, can delete unwanted objects from a video frame and shot, filling the space with realistic detail, even figuring out where related shadows of a now-omitted object should be removed.

Color Mode gives grading a new home

Color Mode is another big part of the Premiere Pro update. It's a dedicated colour-grading workspace that reshapes the interface around the job, with editable Style Presets that can apply a consistent look across an entire sequence. They're a bit like traditional Looks, only you can get inside them and adjust the individual elements.

You can also work across groups of clips, making it easier to fix inconsistencies between shots without grading each one individually. New on-screen HUDs provide feedback as you make adjustments, helping you stay focused on the footage rather than a wall of sliders.

Adobe is also expanding its AI-powered audio tools, including Enhance Audio, Separate Crosstalk, and Separate Sound Source, to clean up dialogue and separate elements in a mix.

Premiere Mobile and the MCP

Premiere Mobile is getting the Creative Agent in private beta, bringing agentic editing to phones. It can turn footage into editable first cuts, make changes using natural-language prompts and help refine videos while keeping the creator in control.

Adobe is also adding hundreds of thousands of licensed music tracks from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to Premiere Mobile on iPhone, with Android coming soon. There's a catch: the music is licensed for personal, non-commercial videos, while commercial projects can continue to use Adobe Stock Audio.

Finally, Premiere is included in Adobe's Local MCP integrations preview. This allows third-party agents to work with native Premiere project files locally, alongside Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. Importantly, sequences, bins and other project elements remain editable, meaning you can step in and make changes yourself.

As ever with these tools, the real test will be how much of the creative process editors are comfortable handing over.

The UE 5.9 Preview is Epic Games' first engine release built mainly via agentic workflows. A lot of the updates it introduces are also around AI-assisted workflows, including the use of Unreal MCP, Unreal Assistant and a new AI-driven content creation tool called Unreal Canvas.

"Invite your agents," Epic tells developers in its announcement of the Unreal Engine 5.9 preview, highlighting the ability to work with AI coding agents directly in Editor and explore AI-assisted content creation.

Unreal Canvas is described as a shared workspace where people and agents create and refine content using Unreal Engine and the other connected tools. Its canvases include text, images, videos, and mesh generators that users can control with prompts and a chosen generation service.

The companion plugin Unreal Canvas Bridge exposes Movie Render Graph rendering to Canvas as MCP tools while Unreal Canvas Spatial Annotations places annotations in the 3D scene and captures the scene for use in Canvas.

Other updates in Unreal Engine 5.9 include improvements for animation, rendering and world-building with Lumen World Cache and improved Nanite culling. You can also run projects in browser again through WebAssembly and WebGPU.

Epic stresses that this isn't a conventional preview. It was put together in about a week for the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which runs from 12 to 15 November. It says the aim of the release is to learn how to build the engine with multiple people directing swarms of agents working in parallel. In addition, the timing seems intended to allow the jam to serve as a testing ground.

"A handful of people directed fleets of agents to port the AI tooling from our UE6 development branch and implement Web as a target platform. Agents wrote the web platform code, starting from UE4's retired HTML5 platform, with engineers directing, reviewing, and testing the work," Epic says of how it developed the preview.

It adds: "we're already seeing benefits from this approach, and it allows us to deliver more UE5 releases with faster bug fixes and development on targeted features, all without pulling focus from UE6."

Unsurprisingly the heavy focus on AI is causing debate among developers. Those not interested in using AI agents are making a note to steer clear over concerns for the stability of the release. Epic has already clarified that some of the agent-written code still and parts of the web renderer are prototypes that will need to be cleaned up before the full release.

"I think we’ll just be staying on 5.8. LLMs are a great help, but literally everything about this preview sounds like something that crosses a boundary. Focus on optimising your code, what possessed you to add 3D model generation?" one person comments on X.

Others feels that Epic's approach is reasonable. "I'm not a fan of the asset gen stuff. But I do love more integration for agents! Including not trying to force us to use an agent IN the editor," on person argues.

Let us know what you think below. You can learn more on the website (also see our roundup of Unreal Engine tutorials and Unreal Engine courses).

A new wave of desktop UV printers has arrived at affordable prices and manageable sizes. And they offer exciting new creative opportunities to designers, illustrators, crafters and anyone wanting to make stuff to sell on Etsy.

A UV printer jets ink onto an object and cures it instantly with ultraviolet light, so the ink sits on top of the surface rather than soaking in. If you want, you can build it up in layers to create raised, tactile textures. Many of the best UV printers also add white ink for printing onto dark or clear materials, and a varnish channel for gloss and spot effects. Of course, there's also the old fashioned choice of the best 3D printers out there, but make no mistake – UV printers use use a far more sophisticated (and expensive) technology.

In the article below, I've listed the three best UV printers on the market today, along with two Kickstarter projects that are well worth keeping an eye on (and potentially supporting, if you believe in the project).

Best UV printer overall

xTool is best known for making some of the best laser cutters, and the O1 Omni is its first UV printer, which it describes as a 4-in-1.

You can use it for UV printing onto standard surfaces. It can also make UV DTF transfer stickers for curved and awkward surfaces. And the top-of-the-range, "UV + DT" model can print directly onto cotton (DTG), and onto film for heat transfer to fabric (DTF). If you want to do all of those things, then, you're saving yourself from buying two or three separate machines.

It's also very precise. Rather than relying on a fixed overhead camera, which distorts things towards the edge of the frame, xTool's Pixel-Scan system combines laser sensing with a scanning imager to map the bed one-to-one.

On the downside, the O1 Omni prints a whole job at the height of the tallest object, so mixing a chunky item with flat coasters can leave the lower ones blurred. It's also big and heavy (41kg) so you'll need a sturdy surface to work from. On the plus side, xTool's cartridges are pretty affordable. And overall, if you want one machine that does nearly everything, this is the top dog.

Best UV printer for beginners

Eufymake is a sub-brand of global hardware company Anker, and the E1 is arguably the machine that kicked off the desktop UV boom. It became the most-funded project in Kickstarter history, made TIME's list of Best Inventions of 2025, and is now on sale generally.

If you want something that's easy to set up and use, this is it. The UV printer arrives fully assembled, the cartridge system means you don't have to mess about with syringes or bottles, and it's quick and easy to get from unboxing to a first print. The E1 stacks ink up to 5mm high, allowing 3D texture effects. You can in theory, then, reproduce brushstrokes on a canvas print, raised lettering on a business card or a leathery grain on a phone case. There's an optional rotary attachment for printing on curved surfaces like mugs and tumblers.

It's not perfect: the cartridges are more expensive than rivals', so if you're printing at scale that's worth considering. On the plus side, it's around half the size and weight of the Xtool, making it easy to fit into a home studio. In short, this is the one we'd recommend if you're new to the world of UV printing.

Best UV printer for phone cases

Procolored has been making DTF and UV printers for small print businesses for years. Its UV printer, the Procolored V4, was created primarily for one specific job: printing onto phone cases.

The 120 x 170mm A5 bed with a 15mm height limit is the perfect size for a large smartphone case laid flat. An infrared sensor measures the height of what's on the bed, and you align your designs using printed guides. The V4 is able to print onto cases made of hard plastic, soft silicone and glass. It doesn't just work on phones, either: Other small, flat items such as acrylic keyrings, badges, tiles and metal nameplates work too, as long as they fit within the print area.

Ink comes from bottles not cartridges, which helps keep running costs affordable. The V4 automatically cleans its head every 10 hours when it's left on, using about 1ml of ink a day, to keep the nozzles from clogging.

On the downside, it's slower than the newer machines and there's no varnish channel for gloss or raised textures. The software only works on Windows, and isn't the simplest to use. And for only slightly more money, you can get one of the larger all-rounders above. If you only want to print on phone cases, though, the V4 delivers exactly what it promises.

Kickstarter products to watch

These UV printers haven't actually shipped yet, so we haven't included them in our main list. They're close to doing so though, so assuming all goes well, they're well worth keeping an eye on.

Most desktop UV printers slide the bed back and forth under the printhead. On the Morpho UV Printer, the head moves on a gantry, allowing more space for taller objects: 168mm of clearance, to be specific. The bed will bear items up to 10kg, and Morpho is also promising G7-certified colour calibration for print-shop consistency. It looked pretty good to us at the consumer electronics show IFA this September: here's a short video of it making a bookmark for us.

We don't know much more at this stage, though. This is a crowdfunded product, with shipping estimated between December 2026 and January 2027. But hands-on reports have been positive, and if tall or heavy objects are your thing, it's worth watching closely.

Heygears has spent years making resin 3D printers for dental and audio manufacturing, and with the G1X, it's applying that expertise to UV printing. In its standard form it's a high-end desktop UV printer, but it's built to grow: the Full-3D Pack will add a resin system that lets the same machine build full-colour 3D objects layer by layer.

Even if you never touch the 3D side, though, it looks like a serious UV printer. It uses Epson's industrial i3200 head, which is rated for up to two years and is less prone to clogging, along with eight ink channels for a wider colour range. Again, this is a crowdfunded launch, with shipping targeted for December.

FAQs

Rather than prompting a model for one AI-made image, you describe what you want in plain language, and the new Agent orchestrates Adobe’s tools and a growing list of AI models to get there. You stay in the director’s chair, with the option to review the agent’s plan before it starts, pick a model yourself or leave it on auto-select, and step in whenever you like. Adobe believes this workflow will bring new projects within reach that were once out of reach and builds on Firefly and other Adobe AI tools added to Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro over the last three years.

It's a similar Agentic approach we learned about when Nvidia announced its plans for NVIDIA RTX Spark, to connect 3D apps in one AI-controlled space.

Firefly is now design everything

Firefly Design, in beta, is a new editor built from scratch, with vector, image editing, animation, 3D and print on one collaborative canvas. You can work with AI, use Adobe’s precision tools, or move between the two. The image editor gets new tools for objects, text and lighting, including Edit Object, Edit Text, Relight and Retouch, plus a gallery of dozens of Quick Actions for small jobs like removing an object or knocking out a thumbnail.

In a demo ahead of Adobe Max, I learned how it all links up. A Firefly Boards project, with fonts from Adobe Fonts’ library of around 35,000 typefaces, carried straight into the Firefly Video Editor. Adobe Stock supplied the music, ElevenLabs the text-to-speech, and the new cut detection did in seconds what Adobe’s own presenter says can take minutes, even hours. Title motion presets are in there too.

Firefly also offers models from Google, Kling, OpenAI, ByteDance and ElevenLabs alongside Adobe’s own and Topaz Labs’, with recent additions including Kling 4.0 and Dreamina Seedance 2.5. If you already pay for several of these services, seeing them under one roof will appeal. But this also raises more questions about Adobe’s famously ethical AI approach, as the foxes are now in the henhouse. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.

Back to the details, Firefly Graph is in beta and lets you string tools and models together, save the result and run it again whenever you need to. Builder is still in private beta; you type a prompt, and it spits out a clickable prototype for a site or app, and Adobe claims it won’t wander off your design system. That’s the claim I’d test first, because most AI prototyping tools drift the moment you ask for something unusual.

Adobe is also previewing ‘always-on agents’ (sounds ominous) that keep recurring work moving while you’re away, like organising assets and checking quality. For example, a restaurant owner gives an agent their menus, URL, and brand assets. The agent drafts weekly social posts for approval, learns from feedback, and reports back on performance.

Creative Cloud gets the agent too

The agent is also spreading beyond Firefly into Adobe’s flagship desktop apps, including Illustrator, Premiere, InDesign, After Effects, and Frame.io, though the AI Assistants there are still in beta (in Photoshop only, in the Photoshop beta app). What caught my eye is that Adobe is also opening the door to rivals. The local MCP integrations, previewed now and due in private beta in early 2027, will let you point your preferred third-party agent at native Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and After Effects project files on your own computer. Layers, vectors, bins and sequences stay editable, so you can step in and fix things yourself. Plenty of pros already use outside agents, and Adobe clearly wants its apps to do their work where they do it.

Away from the agent, the app updates keep coming. After Effects gets an AI assistant that can make sense of an inherited project, debug expressions and generate images and video. Photoshop gets Relight, Generative Restyle and Quick Compare, and its remove tool now spots associated elements such as shadows. Lightroom adds Glow, one-tap blemish removal and a beta Open Eyes fix for dodgy blinks. Separately, Topaz Labs, which Adobe recently acquired, has introduced two new models, Wonder 4 and Image HDR, for upscaling, denoising, deblurring, sharpening and HDR. Illustrator gets refreshed content libraries and new on-canvas Blend controls, and InDesign gets a co-editing beta, Flex Layout for text frames and rewrite tools.

What's the Firefly Design catch?

The idea that the artist stays in charge is Adobe's way of easing bad news for any creative fearing how AI is affecting them, and I can believe that for filing, resizing, and checking. Whether that holds once the agent makes calls on composition, layout, and style is the big question, and the more capable these tools get, the blurrier that line will be.

Adobe still has to show that more automation really does mean more time spent making things, and that comes down to how much control creatives get once the demos are over. More importantly, with agentic AI now a trend and spreading to more and more creative software, artists and creatives who want to stay AI-free will find it harder than before.

What did those poor kids do to upset the editor of these posters? The designs each feature one of the principal cast members' faces in close-up, with their wand held aloft in front of it. Their faces are effectively cut in half by the wand, and some feel they look bizarrely stretched. Poor Ron seems to have been particularly afflicted. Not only that, but each half of the faces appears to be lit by a different light source, making the whole thing look weirdly spliced together. Suffice to say, these aren't among the best print ads we've seen.

"Unfortunately, this is the first major mistake since the beginning of the marketing campaign. It’s already receiving a lot of negative reviews on the official pages. I’m shocked they released it like this, especially after how flawless the attention to detail has been from the very beginning," one Redditor comments. Another adds, "Each poster looks like they took one half of their face from two different photos and combined them along their wands. Absolute terrible editing work, imo."

And to add insult to injury, fans have quickly knocked together an improved take on the design, focussing on just one half of each characters' face. These are arguably more striking and dramatic, and, more importantly, the faces don't look distractingly wide.

Time will tell whether the series lives up to the books, or the original film series. But one thing's for sure: these aren't among the best posters of the year, let alone all time.

This is where new talent, both in front of and behind the camera, gets to show people what they're made of; where fresh and off-the-wall ideas get their first airing in public. A typical festival is a bubbling cauldron of visual styles, storytelling techniques and new voices, which will then gradually filter into mainstream cinema, advertising, music videos and more.

Occasionally too, a festival hit will break out in its own right. Reservoir Dogs started its journey at Sundance; Parasite at Cannes. Even if you've seen neither film, you'll have felt their ripple effects on culture in general.

Wth all that heated experimentation and ambition, you'd think a film festival logo would be another canvas for creativity. But too often, these events seem to just throw together a bunch of elements (a camera, a film reel, a clapperboard) without much thought. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the logo for the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) does something very different.

A single idea

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of West Bengal in India. This year the 32nd edition of its annual film festival runs from 16 to 23 December. Recently, its organisers revealed this new logo (shown above), which is the work of Sandip Ray.

Sandip is not only a filmmaker himself, he's also the son of the legendary Satyajit Ray: a director who was also a designer working on book covers, film posters and typefaces. And in this logo, Sandip has done his father proud.

Where the typical film festival logo juggles several references, this one commits to a single idea, and is all the better for it. Heavy black letters are cut into by burnt-orange triangles, each edged with sprocket holes like a strip of film.

If someone had described that to me before I'd seen it, I'd probably have thought "That sounds awful". Film strips are the clip art of cinema: as big a cliché as a popcorn box, and increasingly anachronistic to boot.

But here, the execution is everything. Crucially, Sandip hasn't used the film strips as decoration of the logo, but as its foundation. They're not just a way of adding interest to the logo design; they are the logo design. It's the difference between committing to an idea and not actually having one in the first place.

To my mind, the triangles could be seen as doubling up as play and rewind buttons… although admittedly this might just be me.

Breaking the mould

Overall, the important thing about this logo is that it doesn’t look like anything else. I've spent so many years looking at perfectly formed sans serifs that it's made me weary. And the idea that more and more people are going to use AI tools that serve up an average of this style depresses me even more.

KIFF’s logo, in contrast, is chunky, angular and a bit odd. Some people might dislike it for that very reason. But I love the fact that two colours and one bold idea are all it needs to be instantly recognisable, and that’s got to be an inspiration for logo designers everywhere.

The 8th generation iPad mini upgrades almost everything about the tiny tablet. The headline feature has to be the OLED display, which is brighter, crisper and more vibrant than any iPad mini display we've seen. Meanwhile, minor design changes have resulted in a thinner and lighter body – which is a much more meaningful change than it might sound.

• Get the 8th generation iPad mini for $699 at Amazon

I've always been a fan of the iPad mini. Sure, larger models like the Pro feature M-series chips and ProMotion displays, but sometimes there's no replacement for portability. As the famous saying goes, 'your best iPad is the one you have with you' – and being able to sling the iPad mini into a tote bag is invaluable. And the first thing I noticed when picking it up was the reduction in size. At 5.4mm thick and 255 grams, it's just ridiculously thin and light.

And the second thing I noticed was, yes, that OLED display. While it isn't quite as stunning as the new MacBook Pro's PROLED XDR display, those bright colours and inky blacks look stunning. For creatives, a bright, colour-accurate screen is a must, and now the smallest iPad delivers one in spades.

But there is a glaring omission. In this day and age, a 60hz refresh rate feels slow and stuttering on any device, let alone one that starts at £699. Apple's 120hz ProMotion display has made its way to most of its products by now, but it's surprising, given the scale of the rest of the updates (and the price increase) that the iPad mini hasn't been blessed with one. Reddit, as you might imagine, has not been kind.

But if you can put aside the lack of ProMotion, there's so much to love here. Performance-wise, that A20 Pro chip (which also resides in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo) is incredibly speedy and efficient – I'm managing to eke out around ten hours on a single charge.

Another improvement is the sound quality. Apple has somehow managed to place the speakers underneath the display (or as Apple calls it, the 'acoustic display'), and the result is powerfully punchy audio for a tablet so small.

Overall, if you're somebody who already loves the iPad mini and has the cash to burn for an upgrade, the 8th generation model is a winner. Every improvement adds up to a meaningfully enhanced experience, particularly the OLED screen and the weight loss. Now, if Apple could just bring itself to give us a 120hz display, the 9th generation iPad mini might just be the perfect tiny tablet.

Now, it's adding another wireless in-ear headphone to its lineup. The Astrid will sit somewhere in the middle of its current offering, so they won't enter our pick of the best budget IEMs, but they offer an intriguing proposition: three driver technologies for the ability to both adapt sound to your own unique hearing profile and adjust it to how you want it to sound.

They look sharp too with an intricate silver-toned frost-like pattern over the glass fiber earbud and the charging case.

Hybrid earphones are a familiar territory for Noble Audio, which has explored driver combinations in its universal and custom in-ear monitors. Astrid brings that experience to a new wireless design.

There are three driver technologies in each ear piece: an 8.3mm dynamic driver, 6mm planar driver and a balanced armature. The first uses a PU diaphragm with an aluminium-magnesium alloy dome. This works alongside the other two technologies in a hybrid system that takes account of differences between your left and right ears as well as the way your hearing differs from other people’s.

Using Audiodo Personal Sound, a short test checks each ear and creates a personal hearing profile. This is then used to adjust playback to your ears. Meanwhile, the Audiodo Equalizer allows you to adjust bass, mids and treble as preferred: the result is sound that accounts for both how you hear and how you like your music to sound, the company says.

The new TWS has Active Noise Cancellation and a Transparency mode to let through outside sound when needed. Microphone noise and wind reduction are intended to help with calls, while Bluetooth 6.0 and two-device multipoint make it possible to keep a phone and laptop connected at the same time.

Noble cites up to 11 hours of listening per charge and up to 40 hours including the case, depending on settings, with USB-C and wireless charging. There's a choice of silicone ear tips, and the buds have IPX4 splash resistance.

Priced at $539 / £499, the Astrid sits above the $200 Osprey and the Rex5 but below the flagship Prestige Encore II in Noble's growing TWS range. You can order at nobleaudio.com and selected retailers.

The package includes a wide range of tools and materials and even Cricut's BrightPad Go lightbox. It's a big saving, but how does it compare now that Cricut has released the Maker 5, which has a slightly lower starting price? It's worth comparing the bundles available for each as both are among the best Cricut machines you can get.

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Is Cricut Maker 4 still worth buying after the release of the Maker 5?

At this price, yes, I'd still consider the Cricut Maker 4. The Maker 5 was released just two months ago, and it does have a couple of advantages, but the difference in capability and performance is very small. After all, the Maker 4 isn't yet two years old.

One advantage of the Maker 5 is that it has 25% more carriage clearance, allowing it to cut and engrave approved materials up to 3mm thick (compared to 2.4 mm on the Maker 4). It's also around a third smaller in size and nearly 2kg lighter than the Maker 4. It has an open-top design instead of the traditional flip-up lid and introduces a new snap-in Universal Pen holder and an integrated cutting tool housing, whereas the Maker 4 uses a classic Clamp A and Clamp B setup.

However, both machines have the same maximum cutting speed of up to 14.1 inches per second, and the same materials are compatible with both, so there's no issue of the newer Maker being more future proof. The smaller, lighter Maker 5 might be more convenient for smaller desks, easy stowing or travel, but if the size factor isn't a deal breaker for you, Very's Black Friday deal on the older machine may be tempting, allowing you to get started with more tools and materials.

See our full Cricut Maker 5 review and Cricut Maker 4 review for more details on each. For something more compact and travel-friendly, consider the Cricut Joy 2.

We rate the Kobra X as an excellent value mid-range FDM printer that's suitable for beginners while providing the versatility for those who think they may want to grow their craft. As well as native multicolour printing, it allows larger print sizes than cheaper beginner 3D printers, meaning there's less risk of quickly outgrowing the machine.

If you're not sure which type of machine is best for you, see our guide to the best 3D printers based on our own reviews.

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A great value multicolour 3D printer for beginners

The Anycubic Kobra X is solid choice for those who want to jump straight into multicolour 3D printing, making it well suited for hobbyists who want to make cosplay props or creators who want to make decorative prints and ornaments without splurging on a Bambu Lab device (you might also want to check out the Bambu Lab Black Friday sale).

There are two main families of 3D printers: resin and FDM, and the latter is the way to go for most beginners. It's easier and safer to handle, has lower running costs, less clean up, and you can get larger print sizes for your money. The exception would be if you really need the extra detail that resin 3D printing can provide for miniatures like tabletop gaming figurines or small, detailed jewellery.

The Kobra X isn't the cheapest 3D printer for beginners, but we think it may work out as a better long-term investment for those who think they're going stick with the hobby and possibly develop professionally. A newcomer can start with it, but it's advanced enough that most users won't outgrow it quickly.

Auto levelling, app control and AI monitoring make it easy to use, while the native 4-colour printing – expandable to 19 – mixed-material capabilities and large build volume mean you can grow into the hobby without having to upgrade your machine a year or so down the line.

Under the terms of the deal, Adobe will work with Disney to develop custom-made AI models trained on its own intellectual property. These will be used to generate and explore concepts for Disney and ESPN productions as well as for theme parks. The move's raising eyebrows given that Adobe isn't an OpenAI, Google or Anthropic, but that could also be why the partnership makes sense for both parties.

Disney's attempts to bring AI into both internal pipelines and consumer-facing output haven't gone so smoothly so far. Some internal developments were ridiculed, and a deal with OpenAI collapsed after the ChatGPT maker pulled the plug on its Sora video generation model just three months in. The nearest replacement so far is an agreement to let TikTok creators use Disney IPs.

The Adobe deal focuses on internal pipelines rather than finished content. Adobe will provide access to tools like Firefly AI, Premiere for video editing and Photoshop for image editing (all available in Creative Cloud Pro). But it will also provide Firefly Foundry proprietary AI models and dedicated engineering and research resources to support production pipelines.

Disney will work directly with Adobe on the creation of new custom AI models trained on specific unique world knowledge like character attributes, environments and visual styles. These will be developed to meet the needs of StudioLAB (Walt Disney Studios’ collaborative innovation hub for prototyping) and ESPN Edge (something similar for sports broadcasting). Customer AI models will also be used by Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and Disney Cruise Line.

The idea is that some development processes that previously took months could now be compressed into days or even hours. Hannah Elsakr, vice president for GenAI New Business Ventures at Adobe, describes the collaboration's approach to AI as "an accelerant for artistic vision, creativity and guest engagement” and that they'll allow artists to do more creative work as well as faster work.

As announced in June, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development is already using Firefly Foundry in its Theme Park Design Toolkit. A sketch-to-image model is being used to transform hand-drawn concepts into fully rendered 2D concept art, while a custom image model generates on-brand creative assets linked to Disney franchises.

The companies say the new models will be "artist-led", but that might not be reassuring for concept artists. The Walt Disney Company has already made multiple waves of layoffs in 2026 under CEO Josh D’Amaro, and there are plans for a larger wave targeting up to 20% in annual cost savings across various divisions. In July, it was confirmed that one batch of cuts included job losses among Pixar artists. The fact that these cuts were announced first is unlikely to dispel suspicions that the Adobe deal is facilitating job losses by allowing fewer artists to work faster.

Some people have expressed surprise that Disney has chosen Adobe rather than one of the tech giants behind the frontier AI models, but that could make this the safest decision from risk management point of view. Rather than relying on general-purpose models trained on vast amounts of content, Disney and Adobe are building private models trained on Disney's own assets, which should help control brand consistency, provenance and ownership. Disney's IP will remain inside a private system instead of getting passed to an external foundation-model provider.

This builds on Adobe's commercial strengths. Firefly was never likely to win a race to build the world's biggest foundation model, but Adobe's found an opportunity to become the company that helps brands safely use AI with their own content.

Disney may be the most important proof-of-concept customer it could have hoped for for. If the arrangement works, it could provide a template for how other major entertainment companies could adopt AI. It would also signal Adobe's shift from creative software provider to an infrastructure partner comparable to Microsoft in enterprise office work, AWS in cloud computing, or Unreal Engine in gaming.

"For Castlebound, we took the enemy waves idea from Warcher Defenders and took it to the next level by allowing the heroes to move around the entire screen with auto-scrolling levels, while also making it a solo or co-op experience for up to four players," says Ogre Pixel director Steve Durán.

Another level-up is in the visuals. Whereas Warcher Defenders used pixel art, Castlebound takes a more hand-drawn illustrative approach reminiscent of a children's storybook. That said, the aesthetic still draws inspiration from Warcher Defenders, as the main character, Lenora, is an archer like the mobile game's first playable character. As a co-op game, it also offers other playable heroes designed around different gameplay styles, including Vargus the Mage (also Lenora's wise grandfather), Galahad the Knight, and Quinn the Slingshooter.

Castlebound's charming art is designed to be easy to read

According to Durán, the decision behind this charming art style was that it was also "easy to read for the action gameplay. It does have design advantages because having the heroes represented with 2D sprites and a sticker-esque outline makes all the action to be easily identifiable."

It's also reminiscent of the paper cutouts of the characters in Paper Mario, which gives it license to use a limited set of animations rather than the painstakingly smooth, hand-drawn animations of Hollow Knight.

Similar to Paper Mario is how these obviously flat characters are presented in 3D world, or at least the illusion of one. "Something interesting about the Castlebound’s art style is that all the assets made by our artists are flat sprites exported as PNGs," Durán explains. "The 3D look comes from a configuration we have inside Unity, the game engine we used."

He credits the studio's lead programmer, Marco Elizondo, for using Unity to create 3D scenes that the sprites can be added to, as well as teaching the studio's artists how to create these scenarios with 2D assets and scene configurations.

"Another important tool we worked with are illuminations settings to change environments between day, noon, and night," Durán adds. Sometimes, a lighting change is all you need to make a level feel different, while 3D effects like shadows also add depth.

There's also variety to the enemy designs, which gradually expand beyond the initial medieval fantasy tropes of wizards, dragons, and - true to the studio's name - ogres. Durán confirms that players can also expect to encounter enemies inspired by ancient Egyptian culture, such as mummies, pyramids and sphinxes, as well as from horror culture, such as vampires, werewolves, and mermen. "We also have a secret area that we don’t want to spoil, but it does have some kind of cosmic vibes," he teases.

Side projects kept Castlebound fresh

During Castlebound's development, the Mexico-based studio has also been busy with other smaller projects, releasing titles on Steam during its two-year development, including the cosy hidden object game Hidden Around The World and the GBA-inspired adventure Black Tower Enigma this year alone.

"Castlebound has definitely been for us a bigger development endeavour because we have been iterating a lot of its development features like art, gameplay, and game balance," says Durán. "Moving into different projects has helped us feel 'fresh' during all this time."

Although still a relatively small game, with a roguelite loop that keeps each run feeling dynamic and different, a last-minute Kickstarter campaign has also enabled extra features, including a new volcano area, a secret final boss, and animated cutscenes. Together, they create a more substantial package that will help Castlebound stand out in a busy holiday release schedule.

Castlebound releases on 12 November for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch, and you can download a free demo on Steam.

Ready to get into the festive spirit? Then clear the next three minutes from your calendar, saddle up and watch the film below.

The Invisible Horse (above) was directed by Dougal Wilson, the director of Paddington in Peru and features cameos from Toy Story‘s Woody and Frozen‘s Elsa.

The story is about a boy called Jack who thinks he's too old for Christmas until he discovers what he believes to be an invisible horse. That leads him to get mocked at school, but of course, things soon take a surprising turn.

The short is part of Disney's “Make the Holidays Magic” campaign, which the company says is “bringing together festive experiences, entertainment and gifting, alongside initiatives supporting children and families.”

People are welling up on YouTube, but make sure you watch the piece before reading the comments, because some of them give the twist away.

The Invisible Horse comes just a couple of weeks ahead of the release of Hexed. Given all the controversies around that movie and Disney same-face syndrome, perhaps it shows that Disney's at its most magical when it finds themes beyond witchcraft?

Aside from the brief cameos, one of which led some people to expect a Toy Story spin off, the short is also a reminder than an emotive festive piece doesn't need to rely on a known IP. It just needs a powerful story. A subtle dose of nostalgia can also go a long way to reignite that feeling of childhood wonder among Disney adults.

It's enough to restore one's faith in the festive season after Kim Kardashian's shocking advent calendar.

For more inspiration, also see our pick of the best Christmas adverts of all time.

Kim's 'SKIMS Accessories Advent Calendar' has achieved that rare festive miracle: making a chocolate-based advent calendar look like a sound financial investment. Because what we have here, for a cool $148/£158, is twelve days of tat. Hair ties. Scrunchies. Bobby pins. Keychains. A squishy toy. Something called a 'bra elastic headband'. It's essentially the contents of a lost property box.

Unsurprisingly, the internet is having a field day. A viral TikTok unboxing has attracted tens of millions of views, with its creator becoming visibly more exasperated as each compartment reveals another object you could reasonably expect to find down the back of a sofa, culminating in the grand finale: a furry compact mirror keychain.

It's worth saying that from a branding packaging design perspective, it's almost impressive. It's a nice-looking object with pretty illustrations, and the SKIMS wordmark is striking in a bold, festive red. But there's something beautifully 2026 about taking a handful of mundane objects, putting them in expensive-looking packaging and asking people to cough up the cost of an actual spa day. Like so many of this year's main characters (AI, subscription-based everything, $10 matcha lattes), it's overpriced, overhyped and underwhelming. But unlike AI, that $148 leaving your bank account definitely isn't artificial.

In response to the backlash, SKIMS has emailed customers who purchased the advent calendar: “We wanted to reach out personally about your recent purchase of the Holiday 2026 advent calendar. We understand the product did not meet customers’ expectations, and we are truly sorry. We want every customer to be happy with what they receive, and we fell short this time.”

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time we've seen a celebrity's brand take a hit as a result of an underwhelming advent calendar. Back in 2017, popular vlogger Zoella faced backlash for her own calendar. Like Kim's it contained only twelve doors, all of which were filled with items that might be found down the back of a sofa. Unlike Kim's, it was a mere $60. Inflation, eh?

If you need help restoring your faith in the festive season, check out the magical Disney Holiday Short, which is moving people to tears.

All visual elements I design must serve the story being told by revealing the stakes, the history or the identity of the location. Before I even begin sketching, I always ask myself: “What happened here?” This helps me define my initial narrative intent. Every visual choice made is as much about building an atmosphere as it is about solving challenges related to composition, readability, or credibility.

I like to think that my images spark the viewer’s curiosity, inviting them to form their own interpretation of the scene. Through elements like composition, lighting or colour, a simple environment can tell its own story, inviting the viewer to imagine what took place there.

Below, I’ll share some of the key techniques I use daily to bring environments to life with a strong identity and visual storytelling. If you need to update your tools, see our guides to the best best drawing tablets and the best laptops for drawing.

The world around us is an endless source of inspiration! That is also why I enjoy observational drawing and studying my subjects before creating a unique image from my imagination. I might do this using traditional media directly in my sketchbook or digitally; I like to vary my techniques

I start by establishing the main shapes, then gradually work in the details. It is a decisive step for the rest of the project as during this stage I determine the function of my various designs. Using this process is common in video games.

A. Work in large shapes

After gathering photo references of architectural elements for this world, I begin working on the main masses. 3D can be a great tool for laying out initial, very simple shapes made up of primitives like cubes or cylinders. I model my 3D base using Blender.

B. Adding a precise line

Once I’ve blocked in the main shapes, I start drawing over them with more precise line work. This allows me to refine the designs and add small details like decorations, props, vegetation, etc. This line work serves as a solid foundation for moving on to colour.

C. Bring your design to life

For the final stage, I focus on colours and textures. I aim to achieve a pleasing colour harmony and bring the buildings to life by adding details that suggest imperfection: signs of wear, dirt and stains, etc. I wanted to depict a peaceful and unique place.

I view colour as a tool that lends a unique feel to my images and serves as a key narrative element. Much like light, colour allows me to highlight and draw attention to a crucial element within the image.

Mystery is also a powerful narrative device; it is an element I love to incorporate into my images because it allows the viewer’s imagination and interpretation to run free. Lighting, composition, the depth of the various planes and colour harmony all play a role in creating this feeling and bringing it to life.

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Key to the viral success was a novel trailer that breaks a key rule but seems to have really captured people's imaginations in the current climate. It provides a sign of hope for other developers too, if only by showing that there's a still a big appetite for quirky games that display a clear human touch (if you're just starting your own developer journey, see our guides to the best game development software and the best laptops for game development).

Kaleb Lechowski's Drawquarium is an upcoming sandbox game that involves drawing your own fish and then feeding and raising it, and gradually building a cosy aquarium. You can then use your aquarium as an animated desktop wallpaper, if you want, and there are some built-in tools designed to help players focus or unwind.

Kaleb says he was inspired to develop the game because he wanted to bring his children’s drawings to life. That original impetus appears to also have inspired the fictional story of the trailer above.

A lot of people might say the trailer breaks a core rule by not showing any actual gameplay until past the halfway mark in what is a three-minute video. That might not normally be the most sensible way to promote a game, and it wouldn't work for everything. But in this case, the well-executed and emotive nostalgia marketing really paid off.

A post on Twitter has received over 128,000 likes, another over 100,000, and the game picked up 70,000 new wishlists in just a week. A lot of people are saying the trailer made them cry.

"Your trailer made me sob. It was way too relatable," one person writes on Reddit. "I can’t wait to play this little game. Thank you for putting your creativity into the world. We all need things like this that make us wonder in awe at the magic of nature, beauty, and art."

"Bro made a Cannes award winning short film to sell an indie game," someone writes on YouTube.

Kaleb has a background in 3D art for the film industry, and those storytelling skills clearly carry over to the trailer, which works as a self-contained story. But he was still surprised at how well it was received.

"What surprised me most was how strongly the message behind the trailer resonated with people," the developer comments on Reddit. "With AI becoming such a huge topic in gaming and art, it seems like people are really craving something made by humans, with genuine love and passion. I'm honestly overwhelmed and don't even know what to do with all these emotions."

You can download a Drawquarium demo on Steam. The full game is scheduled for release on 13 November.

Alas, the sudden attention has also brought with it the negative aspects of indie game success these days. Several unauthorised copies of the Drawquarium demo have been cropping up in the Google Play store, so make sure you check out the game via the official Steam page.

One of the highlights is Branch's Ergonomic Chair Pro reduced by 10% from $499 to $449.20 . Easily the best mid-priced option we've reviewed, it's one of only three office chairs that we've rated five stars and it tops our guide to the best ergonomic chairs.

There's a similar discount on the beautiful Verve, and 20% of the Duo Standing Desk. Read on for more details.

Branch chair Black Friday deals

Before diving into complex scenes like this, it’s a good idea to grab some inspirational images to build your visual palette; things like the architecture, environment, lighting, composition and mood. For these types of scenes, I like to pre-prep in 3D a bit, building up a library of foliage scatter systems and materials.

This allows me to create these complex scenes much faster and focus on the art, rather than get sidetracked with technical stuff. A fun fact for this scene: it wasn’t originally going to be greyscale. I turned down the saturation during the lighting phase to check values, and immediately got inspired to keep it that way, as it helped push that video was looking for!

Lastly, these scenes can seem extremely daunting to make. I find that the best approach is to write down all your tasks that you need to do to make it: make tower, break tower, make ground, detail ground, etc, so instead of seeing a big task, you see 20 very manageable tasks.

For more inspiration, see our Blender tutorials.

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Most of the advertising blitz uses familiar key art showing the game's two playable protagonists: Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval. But some of the best GTA VI ads don't show the game at all. in Vice City itself (that is, Miami, Florida), Rockstar continues to have fun with its many fictional parody brands, and the ads show just what a huge cultural event GTA has become.

To the disappointment of all those real brands that are GTA VI trendjacking, Rockstar doesn't do product placement, and it's also quite selective when it comes to real-world collaborations. Instead, the game will feature hundreds of parody brands.

Some of these have crossed over into real world advertising, with billboards and digital displays cropping up in Miami for the likes of Crowex watches, Beige shapewear and Dix makeup. The game's takeover of the Miami Heat's Kaseya Center has even included outlets for the fictional fastfood chains Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell.

Many of the ads continue Rockstar's penchant for using innuendo as a sharp social satire on real advertising, cutting through to real messages that brands are often communicating albeit in more euphemistic terms. "Always come early," the watch brand Kronos declares. "Suddenly You Are Big Enough," proclaims jewellery brand Kowalski on an ad showing a diamond-heavy engagement ring.

It's been estimated that Rockstar's total global promotional costs could reach up to $200 million or even $300 million over the game's full launch cycle. I've seen some people wondering how much adverts for fictional brands like Dix and Juice Loose can contribute to the cause if it's not clear what they're promoting (there's a small logo and QR code in the bottom of some of them).

But this is what makes them so ingenious. They avoid traditional game marketing fatigue by showing the setting rather than the product. GTA is known for its satire of American consumer culture, and fictional companies, ridiculous slogans, and parody advertising are a core part of its identity. Putting these brands out there communicates the game's tone without showing a single mission or gameplay mechanic.

By blurring the line between marketing and world-building, the ads also create intrigue among newcomers. When people see an advert for a bizarre fictional product with no obvious explanation, it generates curiosity and conversation, which becomes the marketing.

But, ultimately, they also reward existing fans who recognise names like Ammu-Nation, Sprunk, eCola, or other in-universe brands. For long-timer players, these are inside jokes that make them feel like they're being invited back into a world they love.

An advert for a kids' cartoon called Macca & Friends reads "Coming November 19 on Weazel”. The real message is clear to anyone who knows Weazel as the in-universe media company since GTA IV. This kind of advertising doesn't just promote a product; it makes people feel like they're part of the phenomenon. They deepen immersion, keep people talking and cement the game's status as not just the most-anticipated video game of all time but perhaps the most hyped entertainment product in any category.