Utilities
A list of tools, apps, hardware, and more that I use on a daily basis to design and code things.
Development
- I use VSCodium as my text editor and IDE, with the Dark Modern theme and Jetbrains Mono as my typeface of choice.
- MS Edge is my main browser for both development and general use.
- React is my front end Javascript library of choice. The component-centric mental model is the first thing that truly made sense to me as a designer.
- For 3D effects and image shaders I use three.js. It has a bit of a learning curve but you can do some really powerful stuff with it.
- For CSS I’ve used a myriad pre-processors and css-in-js solutions like styled-components, but these days I’m using vanilla CSS with PostCSS to get upcoming CSS features today.
- For Javascript animations I use Framer Motion, it’s a great way to add spring animations to React and three.js.
- For building and testing UI components in isolation I use Storybook. Check out the storybook for this website.
Design
- Any motion graphics I create are created in Adobe After Effects. So far I haven’t found a non-Adobe product that’s as good. If anyone has suggestions please message me.
- For any 3D models and video editing I use Blender. Since 2.8 it’s become way simpler to use and in a lot of ways better than expensive paid tools like 3DS Max or Maya.
Hardware
| Desktop | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, XFX AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 11 (Atlas OS v0.3.2) and Arch Linux (btw) |
| Monitor | 1080p IPS 75Hz |
| Keyboard | CherryMX Brown |
| Mouse | Glorious Model O Wired |
| Laptop | Dell Inspiron 7405 2-in-1 (don't get it) |
| Headphones | OneOdio A71/JBL TUNE710 |
| Microphone | $10 microphone from Amazon 💀 |