More Advanced CSS: Zombie in a Ballgown (Undead Institute)

Covering such apocalyptic topics as CSS shapes, blend modes, filters, gradients, counters and much more, this guide to smacking down zombies wherever they exist will take your CSS skills from afternoon luxury to evening gown elegance.

You'll learn how to cut shapes out of text with CSS Shapes. From circles to ellipses to rounded rectangles to polygons and gradients and images, you can flow text around just about anything.

With blend modes and filters you can add live effects to your pictures and text and elements, leaving you free to manipulate them at runtime in flexible layouts, animations or easing the preparation of website graphics.

Gradients provide you ways to make complex backgrounds that flex with your content, provide visual interest and leave the large file sizes and overhead out of the equation.

The book also looks at some special @ queries, how to resize an img like a background-image, and a variety of other apocalyptic weapons.

How You'll Learn to Smack Zombies Around

You won't just passively take in the view, like a zombie shuffling across the mainland. You'll have plenty of combat practice with analogies, examples, and code tutorials you can build, break and fix again. Working with your hands and your head you'll craft code that pleases the eye and knocks a zombie into last Tuesday.

All the code and directions are provided as both codepen tutorials and downloadable html files, so you can fight the apocalypse how and where you like. You can work with them on the codepen site or on your own device.

And later you'll bring those skills together in a final project that cements those skills into zombie smashing muscle memory.

Why Zombies?

Are zombies just a gimmick? Why would this be any better than a straight laced book that sticks to the facts?

Straight laced books are often straight boring. And if you have insomnia problems go buy that book. The author, John, has read the boring books and knows that staying awake and engaged are also important for learning. But this book uses zombie references and analogies not just to make you smile, but to help the material stick. If a tough technical concept is related in silly terms you understand, like a zombie trying to buy gum at a super market, it's much more likely to stay in that brain those zombies are so intent on eating.

There's no reason good learning can't live right alongside good fun. So get all gussied up for tonight's ball, hit that buy button and lets take these zombies to task.