The era of ARTISTS who CODE

     Finally I'm getting around to writing about a subject that has interested me for years: The moment when an artist decides to start programming. For me, it is probably not exepriment art like Laurie Anderson, although I still create fine art.  Professionally I've worked as a digital animator and primarily for video games. I hit the wall financially as an animator, infact as more game artists graduate from new "digital academys"  the lower the average salary for animators becomes. I needed to move on. When I decided to get a legit degree in computer science I was worried I couldn't handle the math.  My wife (an artist as well) wondered if programming would be creative enough and I wasn't sure if my right-sided brain had the attention to detail required of a programmer. But I'm doing it, and I want other artists to know that it can be done and you will be a better artist for it!  The purpose for this blog is not to document my journey as a middle aged guy going back to college, although that would probably be just as interesting. It's also not another how-to-program blog either. I want to share how I'm learning to program from an artists perspective. Artists are visual creatures (well, visual artists anyways), and as an artist you may imagine programming to be technically rigid world of math and abstract syntax. Truthfully, there's not much math involved, but there's an awful lot of rules to learn and things to remember. But if I recall mixing just the right shade of cerulean blue with oil paint is something that takes practice, and there's an awful lot of rules when setting up a blast furnace to pour molten bronze for a lost-wax sculpure. If you program enough, setting up a programming environment becomes a familiar workspace. You know where all your tools are kept. Your raw materials are always ready, you  feel comfortable in this studio. Object oriented programming begins to take on a visual sensibility, especially when it comes to making games. At first it's very abstract, figuring out what you want to happen, then figure out how its going to happen. Just like in the art world, you shouldn't work in a vacuum. You need other artists around for inspiration, to learn from and there will never be a point where you've learned everything there is to know. The nature of programming is always a group effort.  There are no programmers better than others, just ones that have been doing it longer, or are more passionate about their craft. I believe programming can change the way artists think, but also artists can change the way people feel about programming.