Kickstarting Creativity

New on Glitch: Custom Domains #

One of our most requested features is the ability to use your own domains with Glitch, and now you can! We've teamed up with Fly.io to enable custom domains on Glitch in just a couple of clicks.

Function: All About the GIF #

Ah, the humble animated GIF. We use them on social media or in text messages as a way to signify a reaction, tell a story, or just to have a laugh. It's not all fun and games though — organizations and media companies are cracking down on animated GIF usage, with some going as far as issuing copyright notices against animated GIF creators. On the latest episode of Function, we take a closer look at this and other GIF-related issues with our guests Kenyatta Cheese and T. Kyle MacMahon.

Hands-on Code Labs in Google's Web.Dev #

This week was Google's Chrome Dev Summit. Among their many exciting announcements was web.dev, their fab new learning platform which helps you learn and apply the web's modern capabilities to your own sites and apps. They've integrated Glitch into the platform to power their hands-on code labs. Check it out!

Kicking-off with Codevember #

Last month we highlighted some of the amazing apps folks were creating on Glitch for Codetober. Now Codevember is in full swing and it's got many people creating too. Codevember is a challenge for developers to sharpen their creativity and improve their skills. The goal is to build a creative piece of code every day of November.

Algorithmic art creator n–schedé has been busy, creating spindles, cat-eyes, bomp and more.

Of course, this one is a fave of ours! 💖

Building Blocks #

We collaborated with WeTransfer on "facebox" - an audio and video recording app that enables you to record yourself in your browser and download the recording. It's a super-simple way to get started with WeTransfer's APIs that allow you to send things from one place to another, or organize content onto visual boards.

Michael Käsdorf created "face-api-js-for-beginners". It's a remixable version of Jeremy Ellis' face-api.js starter app, which makes it easier to get started with face detection and face recognition in the browser.

And if you’re curious about using Magenta to make music with Machine Learning but don’t know where to start, "hello-magenta" is an interactive introduction by Google Software Engineer Monica Dinculescu.

A Blast from the Past #

The 90s brought us a lot of things... the Spice Girls, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Power Rangers, Tomb Raider, Hypercolor t-shirts, and Magic Eye.

For me, Magic Eye mostly meant staring cross-eyed at a picture for hours, yelling "it's not working!" I hope you had more luck with them though, as Glitch Design Engineer Tiffany Tseng has brought them back!

In "magic-eye" you can draw an image, click 'Show Magic Eye' and it'll be transformed into a "Magic Eye" picture (also known as a random dot stereogram!). Save the image and share it with friends.

Serendipitous Connections #

Next up, we have a couple of creations by the Library of Congress' Innovator-in-Residence, Jer Thorp. Both help you explore the library's enormous collection through serendipitous connections.

'Library of Time' for example is a clock, and the numbers which tell you the time relate to the 25 million objects in the library's holdings. Every time you look at it, it's different!

And there's 'Library of Color' too. This one finds colorful words in the titles of objects in the collection and paints huge interactive rainbows that you can use to explore it.

If you're interested to learn more about innovation at the Library of Congress, then check out our interview with Jer about his work and exploring the human-side of data.

Featured Illustrator of the Week: Annie Ruygt #

Annie Ruygt is a freelance illustrator who works primarily with startups, helping them bring their brand and story to life through illustration. We're excited to have her as the guest illustrator on Glitch this week as she's worked closely with Fly.io, who we worked with on our new custom domain support.

See more of Annie's work on her website and Instagram.

Our featured apps this week are all about kicking-off creative endeavors - whether it's bringing things back from the past, or starting things afresh. We're excited to see what you create next on Glitch 💪🏼