Hi guys, ok its taken me some time to relaise what a web developer does and what a designer does:P, but I think i understand now. I want to work on front end stuff like css/html etc. I was woundering if anyone knows any good site that teaches u photshop and photshop specific webdesign tutorials. Also i see alot of people on various forums syaing they want a web designer and then start asking to do everything like PHP, JS etc. I dont have time to learn everything like JS/PHP/MYSQL etc. What route would people advise to take? ATM i am learning html/css. With web design also do u need to know Flash?.
There’s actually a graphics forum where you’ll get the best answers regarding stuff like photoshop tutorials.
I think the reason you’re confused about what a front-ender does is because so are businesses (as you said, they ask for a “front-ender” who does for example PHP and MySQL… lolWTF?) and also because there are plenty of people floating around who are polymaths… people who started out as back-enders may be asked to “make a website” and end up learning some front-end. There are also technologies who straddle the line: XML is a markup language mostly used to markup documents, which may sit on the server or be transferred between servers, may be called to a web page using Javascript (AJAX), may be styled with XSLT which, if it’s not a programming language, is damn close (and very Lispy)…
You’ll have to look at everything and decide what you want to be really good at, and what kinds of things you want to do for customers.
I’m learning Javascript right now because it’s what front-enders should know and it’s something front-end you would expect and average client to ask about, or need. I believe in general that a “front-ender” or “web developer” should know at least some Javascript, as it is part of the profession in a way that PHP and MySQL do not.
Flash is certainly front-end, and it’s really stuck between programming (on the client-side) and artsy design, because Flash does both. It has its own, full programming language, ActionScript 3 (1 and 2 were limited), which like Javascript is an ECMAscript but doesn’t completely conform to the same rules as Javascript (so there are enough differences that the two can’t be just switched around). It was originally designed to be a vector drawing program like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and sorta accidentally became the go-to program for movies and animations instead.
If you want to learn Flash, and learn it well, you would need to be willing to learn about vector graphics and one programming language (or, at least be able to read it and know what pre-written scripts do and how to change them to get them to do what you want…). Flash and Actionscript forum!
So if you don’t want to learn Flash (I learned a bit of it and hated it) then you may simply want to make sure your clients (if you want to do this for a living) know that you don’t offer that. Still, you should be aware of proper embedding techniques, which often involve HTML, CSS and Javascript, because the people making Flash movies/animations/applications are not always web-savvy people either… they may well send you a 25MB file for a banner ad (happened to my husband recently… it was hard to explain to them why that’s a bad idea on the web, lawlz).
hey there, thx for the reply:). To be honest I hate flash, i used it at uni and never touched it again. Really dont have the time to learn flash all over again:P. I was looking at photoshop more for designing the style of the site, with buttons, backgorunds etc etc. if you know any sites that give basic photshop tutorials on layers etc would be good:).
Ask the goofy graphics people over in Graphics… I’m a Gimp user myself (so I do use layers)… also, be aware that while buttons and things are what PS and Gimp are good for, be wary and careful of making sites in them. They make static, raster images which cannot act like a user’s browser, and so coding a “PSD” or whatever has to take certian things into consideration.
In fact, there are many of us who just don’t use the image editor at all until we need stuff like a cute little rounded corner, a button, a logo, whatever… instead, design purely in code or on a napkin as a wire diagram… user testing might be useful at this point (napkins are great!), etc… other people love to start out with the image editor, but know it doesn’t have to be the way you use : )
Yes, Gimp and Photoshop are great for making buttons and slices but so is fireworks and it’s very easy to make nice interfaces with that program as well. Sometimes Gimp can be a little glitchy on PCs but I think that they have most of the problems with it ironed out now. Photoshop is definitely my editor of choice.
Most of the Photoshop stuff online teaches how to do specific tasks (like create a torn paper effect) but I’d be wary of trying to learn the basics of Ps online. There are lots of good books that step you through the basics, tools etc.; and the software comes with its own user manual (such as it is).
Lately, I’ve been looking at online tutorials for doing specific tasks, and have found that a good way to get into Ps.