so ive been searching for something i want to do with my life. after doing some digging, looking at different careers and degrees available, I decided that i most likely want to do something like web design or video game design. so my question to you computer nerds is this.... How hard would it be for an absolute beginner to pick up on web design(or game design if you know anything about that)? now, by "absolute beginner" i mean that i have no previous knowledge of web design. I will say that i am very good at following instructions and with some hands on practice i can learn things fairly easily. im also fairly creative, but more so in the mind rather than with my hands. is this something i would be able to learn like that? or does it require some kind of advanced knowledge before i even get started? also, any kind of insight yall could offer on the job, career path, schooling or anything would be appreciated. this is kind of a stab in the dark for me, but its something that i think i can pick up on and enjoy doing. ive been doing nothing for far too long and its time to do something that interests me. so please, any information or tips you guys have would be great!
Codecademy is an excellent-and completely free-resource for learning web development skills. Give the Introduction to HTML (the standard language used to build pages) a try. Edit: To address your actual question, do you want to learn how to design or how to develop? Forgive me if that sounds flippant-those terms are often used interchangeably but describe two distinct skill sets. Regardless though, having at least a functional understanding of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript are extremely helpful even for a designer–the process is much more efficient when you're able to communicate clearly with with your devs. Once you have a grasp the basic workings, you can branch out into more advanced and specialized disciplines–you're limited only by your own ambitions. Remember, sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something–stick with it and you'll eventually be able to build some really amazing stuff.
i want to create websites, build them from scratch. im not sure if that would fall into the design or develop category lol. and thank you so much for that link. its really helpful and very good practice. i cant thank you enough.
If you want to run the entire circus yourself, you'll need to understand both front-end design (i.e. what the user sees when they visit your site) and the how to make the gears turn on the back-end. Unless you want to get into interactive design, more advanced server-side stuff, or building applications, HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript will get you where you're going. With that said, good web design starts with developing strong content and pleasurable, intuitive user experiences. No amount of design or coding ability can compensate for a site that lacks relevant, well-structured information or that sucks to use. Codecademy is a great starting point. Once you get your bearings and have a clear objective in mind, there are tons of (largely free) resources to be had-expect to do as much, if not more, reading than actual coding as you're starting out.
Codecademy is pretty much useless unless you just need refreshers on a languages syntax, I started with it and by the end of the python tutorial I didn't really know much more than the beginning. The reason is, it doesn't teach you to think like a programmer. It just teaches you to repeat code they give you. I learned by diving into the documentation and making small programs, then bigger ones, google and IRC when I was stuck. For web design, ruby on rails and python with django are easy to use and pick up. I recommend python and django because it focuses on accessibility and code readability.
i'd recommend https://www.codeschool.com/ to learn angular and jquery. these are very popular frameworks which let you build some pretty cool things. if you are more interested in graphic design, then you need to take a different approach and learn thing like color theory, composition, typography and tools like illustrator and Photoshop. when all said and done, you must learn the basics of HTML and CSS (and perhaps a css framework like bootstrap). you won't get very far in web design without knowing these two core things.
yeah it doesnt seem like codeacademy actually tells you how to do something. its basically just typing in whatever it tells you to. i think its still helpful for someone like me who is a noob but i will deff be getting into some more in depth stuff. ill be checking out the things you mentioned, even though i have no idea what they are lol.
Codecademy is very useful. I myself know: HTML/CSS JavaScript (Soon) php Java- public static void main(String computerMainArgs[]){} C - learned a little gles20 Precision mediump float; Attribute vec4 u_color; Void main(){ Gl_fragmentColor= u_color; } So... I'm pretty advance and have a good say in this industry. Codecademy introduces code syntax like everyone says, but repetition is important. You have to nail every keyword, method and class somehow. Sometimes you have to read a book twice to understand and school helped nail life's important understandings through repetition. Do understand. After codecademy, experiment with Java, then c++. After messing with c++, then mess with xda . In order to create AI you must first speak AI yourself it's life in a machine baby. WHOOOOOA CODING. At the end of the day coding comes down to virtual files that can be read through I/o-01, file endings tell what language it should decipher it and using the most of hardware. I can't wait till I understand hardware. I myself want to be a CEO which smokes. Something newly, yet unexpected.
Well to be blunt about the topic it is sort of like saying "I want to pick up learning Spanish, with no previous knowledge at all about how to speak the language, and I want to be fluent fast." The best way to get into it, is to jump right in the native community and start click clackin' away! For an absolute novice/beginner for web design I would suggest starting with something like MySpace, and start messing with the basic html formats of changing backgrounds, color schemes, font sizes and the like. That would be basic web design for dummies. If you are more interested in video game design, pick up any videogame you might already enjoy, and figure out the console commands, that would be the "gui" interface where you can change the "hud" or "heads up display" in game. These would be basic platforms for getting your hands dirty in the world of computerized logic. Two games I can suggest you try are Counter-strike, where you can mess with console commands while in game, or WarCraft III where you can modify and create your own maps for custom use. Granted, there are countless engines to use and languages to learn, but getting a start somewhere takes a guided effort. Best of luck to your trivial pursuits!
Check out the Murach's series for html css, dreamweaver. That will give you the front end. For back end you'll need a lot more. Look up Liang's Intro to Java Programming, Comprehensive. If that one is hard to read you might wanna look up some community college and take some math, as higher as you can up to Calculus 2. I'm a computer science major and I gotta tell ya, nobody is looking for just a front end developer. You gotta know the back end and that involves dealing with a lot of functions. It's all math. Not to discourage anyone, but you'll need to study a lot. It will pay off though.
Start with HTML and CSS (Bootstrap), get a free template and start looking at the code, get an IDE (like notepad++, sublime text or my favourite PHPStorm) and see how the code renders things out, these languages are the meat and bones of every website, following this is PHP and content management systems, which you must learn (functionally) to build a dynamic website, wordpress is a good start cos it's easy to pick up (i prefer Drupal though) Once you get the basics, you're good to go for web developemtn. The internet is the future so you want to hop onto the train and learn as much as you can I'd also suggest In your free time you play around with a programming language like Python to understand how programming works
Well, website design and video game design are two different things. Two completely different things. I think web design would be where you want to go because after you learn javascript you will have a foundation in programming, which can take you to (though not easily) to actual programming languages like C++ or Java. However, you CAN design video games without knowing programming these days, though, I believe you will be limiting yourself in what you can do. There are video game design engines if that's the path you would like to take. Some examples are Unity and UnReal Engine 4. You just gotta learn how it works, and there is a HUGE learning curve to game engines, but once you get through the initial learning curve you'll really take off. I"m sure this has been stated by others, just giving some personal insight. I learned HTML and CSS on my own when I was 15, and did it for a couple years before finding out it really wasn't what I wanted to do. Its the discovery process that will help you later in life, though. So I definitely do not regret learning what I have. Hope you find your calling!