programming jumpstart ?
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- quisque
so most of ya'll are graphic designers here. i've been really stunned, moved, etc. by john maeda's work. and wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions on how to start programming my mind to be both a designer an programmer...such as books, sites with types of languages?
- ganon0
just got his new book, you should probably check it out...:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido…
tons of great sites, it would probably be a big help to keep up to date with his MIT program(s), students, alumni, etc...:
http://plw.media.mit.edu/people/…
http://plw.media.mit.edu/
http://acg.media.mit.edu/http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/…
http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/…http://www.complexification.net/…
as far as languages, probably starting with C or java would be good...although you should really check out proccessing...:
yeah, maeda is the shit....
- chl0
Learning Perl
- phirschybar0
my suggestion is to learn Flash. And REALLY learn it from the inside out.. it allows you to be both left- and right-brained at the same time. Buy one of the friends of ed masters of flash books...
- +2. I'm gonna try and learn AS3. It looks nuts though. I know php pretty well too.section_014
- quisque0
this is a little late. but thanks to all who responded for the suggestions. i just pulled a quasi-36 hr allnighter.
i've actually a decent working knowledge of actionscript in flash. but i always seem to have to cross reference and go to forums to work out the bugs.
ganon: GRACIAS!!!! for all of the links. www. processing.org especially (hadn't seen it before).
i'd like to do a film entitled: maeda's mind...
- Jaline0
bump
I am already thinking about getting a book about Processing, and I have some Javascript ones, but what are the best books for Actionscript and Lingo?
Thanks.
- armsbottomer0
for actionscript 3.0, i would highly recommend looking at:
essential as3. collin moock is simply awesome, and most as3 developers i know are eager to recommend this book to those interested in learning as3.
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-…learning as3 begginner guide - not as in depth as collin moock's book, but if you don't have actionscript experience, i hear this book is good too.
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-A…and if your interesting in programmatic motion (i.e. physics, particles, random movement, etc.) this book is the proverbial shit
http://www.amazon.com/Foundation…
- modern0
Processing first definitely
- armsbottomer0
for as2, i did well with:
essential as2. collin moock. (the best).
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-…foundation as2. more basic that moock but still comprehensive and accessible.
http://www.amazon.com/Foundation…and there was a making things move book for as2 too, in case you're interested in nerding out
http://www.amazon.com/Foundation…
:)- but like skelly_b said, as3 is probably better to learn at this point.armsbottomer
- thanksJaline
- rounce0
To ease you into it a more visual programming language may be in order. Alot of peeps would say use Max/MSP and Jitter but if you're on Windows give VVVV a try (http://www.vvvv.org) it'll get you thinking in the correct fashion for how you should approaching large complex procedural animation, where many language elements and the learning curve for processing and Actionscript could be a distraction, it also supports shaders and is capable of far sexier visuals and audio than processing. Processing is kind of cool but also slightly overrated, it really really isn't as easy as slapping out a few lines of code and making something awesome. Actionscript is generally better if you want to make some cash, as it's by far the most used out of the aforementioned 3 and will most likely get you the most work.
It really comes down to a few main things:
+ Know the language. You wouldn't be happy hopping into bed with someone who was a crap shag now would you? The language isn't going to do it all for you, it's alot of give and take and if you're both shit you're not going to get anywhere, so you're going to have to work on things. However once you get into it more you'll start being able to work around it's short comings, provided it can do the shit that matters beautiful things will happen.
+ It's all relative, I could make a procedural animation in Actionscript, VVVV, Processing and C# with the same end product (albiet with a slightly different method of platform execution) but it would appear to be the same to the end user because I used the same programming concepts as certain language elements tend to be quite common nowdays, the syntax would be different but how I thought it up and the general application structure would be roughly the same.
+ Can't remember this one...
So yeah, I hope that helped. I wouldn't mind one of my (dare I say it?) heroes like mrdoob popping in and giving his $0.02 (come to think of it I'd really like to track him down and pick his brains as he's local to me, OH SHI-!).
Oh, and please do ignore people posting short crap about "_________ is the best" or "learn _________, some cool shit made with that" they've most likely seen a few demos and been impressed but haven't worked at it enough to really be able to use _________ but have stayed on the fanboy wagon to feel a bit smarter.
Good luck whatever your choice.
Feel free to drop me an email if you're getting stuck, as seeing other people's stumbling points helps me think of things differently and often improve myself.
Hope that made sense....
- In other words there is no silver bullet.rounce
- I bumped the thread.
Thanks.Jaline - +1 Max/Msp/Jitterarmsbottomer
- Only thing with Jitter is that it's sloooowww and it costs whereas VVVV is free but whatever.rounce
- rounce0
Go AS3 first though and then pick through it's differences with AS2 as AS3's OOP implementation is more complete and will teach you less bad practices.
- studderine0
dont worry, your neurons are degrading; you'll never learn properly again :)
- brandelec0
great thread