How fast can I learn Sketch?
- Started
- Last post
- 13 Responses
- shapesalad1
If you can use Cinema4D, After Effects, code by hand in CSS, HTML, Javascript, PHP... were familiar with Flash and Actionscript.... then yes you can learn Sketch in a few hours.
It's barely got anything to it. Just compare the menu options between Sketch and Cinema 4D.
I played around in Sketch and thought to myself...damn the pay is better and the software is like Duplo compared to Technics Lego.
The amount of hours I've poured into Cinema 4D over the years, only to see 'Senior Motion Designer' jobs advertised in 2020 with a max salary of £35k in Central London. Joke. Whereas midweightjobs using kiddy toy Sketch are paying £45k minimal.
- Not to mention sinking £3k on buying C4D compared to the $99 Sketch price tag.shapesalad
- Yes I'm bitter about all this in case you ask.shapesalad
- Because of this I never bothered to re-learn 3D. Designing online experiences and systems is more valuable than producing 3D assets in any program!grafician
- Can I unread this somehow?CyBrainX
- mg330
grafician,
Question on Figma: when you use it do you ONLY design in Figma, or do you start elsewhere?
When I need to build a more complex prototype, I usually go from Sketch to InVision Studio.
Is Figma solid enough to do all design work there? Is it as flexible as Sketch? Ideally, I want to explore Figma for my team in 2021, and the appeal of collaborating between XD, visual design, and editorial teams is really appealing. Can't do that in Sketch.
We use Miro a lot for big virtual white boarding and can design wires together in there so quickly. It's just not a wire framing tool, lacks grids, all the features of something like Sketch. If Figma can be an experience much like the combo of Sketch and Miro, I'll be sold easily.
- Yes.grafician
- then again I can use any app to do the same thing, but yes, Figma is great for teams. Their community is also amazing, if not the best around an appgrafician
- But I would go with Framer for solid prototyping, the web version is also freegrafician
- never used invision, I think it's crapgrafician
- but with Figma you can also bring onboard the non-designers, as it runs in browser and they don't need to install anything elsegrafician
- no need for Keynote presentations either, you can do a presentation design, then share editing rights and they can go in and edit copy and it works, very simplegrafician
- so yeah, the hype around Figma is very well deserved, haven't seen a better design app since Macromedia Fireworks...grafician
- then again I can design apps even in Keynote, but that's just me lolgrafician
- We use Miro for planning and initial ideation when multiple stakeholders are involved - seems easier for non-designers to digest. Any layout/page/componen...duckseason
- ...designs are done within Figma. Similarly, prototyping and dev hand-off is handled in Figma. Spot illustrations, icons, scenes, patterns etc are still done...duckseason
- ...in Illustrator.duckseason
- We just transitioned off of the Sketch/InVision platforms after having used them, org wide, for the last 3.5 years or so.duckseason
- you can design all those assets icons, illustrations, patterns still in Figma, no need for Ai anymoregrafician
- Agreed. More about preference on that one for us - our brand designers/illustrato... are still on team Adobe.duckseason
- mg330
Literally helping onboard a few coworkers to Sketch this week. I've been using it for 3+ years.
The biggest downside is that there's no collaboration tools to work on the same files with others as you can with Figma (which I've not used yet). So, you have to figure out a workflow that allows someone to manage a master library, and others to design and customize the components within. For a big project, it can take a while to set things up - text styles, layer styles, color variables, etc.
I love Sketch though. I can't imagine sitting down and doing web design work in Photoshop; Sketch is just so much easier to use quickly.
Oh, and Figma... I really find the UI to be too minimal and hard to read. I think there's a dark mode plugin but the minimal nature of their inspector doesn't feel that user friendly to me. Needs more contrast across the board.
- we are all so different. I could never use dark mode in any UIgrafician
- also pretty sure most of us see contrast very differently, specially greys! as in I've observed people reviewing my designs and not distinguishing between 2-3..grafician
- ...2-3 different greys! they could see 2 out of 4 or 1 out of 3 most of the timesgrafician
- Lots of Figma videos if needed https://www.youtube.…grafician
- graf - I might have stellar eyesight or something, because I can distinguish color differences really easily.mg33
- And alignment of things on screen. Can be off by 1-5px and I'll be the only one at work that notices it.mg33
- I think architecture school did that to me. Just burned an intense attention to detail into my brainhole. :Dmg33
- yeah we're RGB while all the others see CMYKgrafician
- also working in print a lot does that to you, I can color correct by eye...grafician
- https://www.abstract… may be of interest to you, MG. Also, you can setup Sketch libraries that can be shared/used among designers.duckseason
- Sketch Cloud is also making strides to be more Figma-ish.duckseason
- grafician0
One thing I find very valuable regarding Sketch: it produces local source files.
As Adobe is pushing for cloud and Figma is cloud based, Sketch is still usable offline, produces local files that can archived for years.
I still have an old version of Sketch that I still use from time to time for small projects like presentations (exports PDF) and SVG files conversions...so if Adobe or Figma are down somehow, you can still use Sketch to finish production ready projects.
So yeah, buying a license and owning the actual app/binary on your system instead of a leased online subscription is very valuable still.
- For fintech/gov/security organisations this is critical, cloud = risk for them.shapesalad
- I use Sketch and Abstract for file storage and versioning. The enterprise version has SSO got through the security check at my companySlashPeckham
- grafician0
oh and also noticed that Adobe XD is mostly used by more multi-disciplinary creatives/teams as they regularly use Adobe CC and XD is included so they don't need to invest in Sketch or subscribe to Figma.
while many product-first teams use Figma as superior app over Sketch/XD, doing everything in Figma from apps to presentations and even project management
- multi-player is the killer feature in Figma for remote teamsgrafician
- ^Figma is the best for collaboration and the community is good too. Sketch gives your more control (for now) but Sketch Cloud sucks in comparison to FigmaBaskerviIle
- thumb_screws0
It's pretty easy to pick up if you know your way around XD.
It's learning and getting your head around how to use it the styles, assets, library and workflow properly, that can take time. Getting that stuff right initially saves a heap of time down the line.Also "familiar" is pretty loose. Depends on what level of aptitude with Sketch they are expecting.
Go for it.
- grafician1
If familiar with any of Figma/Sketch/XD you can learn the other two in a day, become fluent in a week or month, they're the same 80%
- mg330
Since Figma came up, anyone have a perspective on Figma vs. Marvel?
- BaskerviIle2
Designing flat layouts etc you'll be fine in sketch, it's straightforward.
Learning to build component libraries, nested components, styles etc and sharing them across multiple teams might take more time.
- nb1
Yes
- slinky0
Using Smart Layouts in Sketch is fun and simple but it can get pretty complex if you want...
- Chimp0
It’s easy to pick up. You might want to look at how libraries work.
- zarkonite0
She's asking if you're able to hit the ground running or not.
The basics of sketch are really easy, but if they expect you to jump into a workflow with a large design system that could be too steep of a learning curve to fake it.