I'm new here. Quick intro please?

Hi everyone. I'm new here, so I don't really know if this is the right place to introduce myself or start asking questions. If it's not, can somebody please direct me to the right place?

I'm a student majoring in animation. I'm very good with Photoshop, Illustrator, digital painting, and I know how to make 3D models in Maya. I plan to make a simple 2D game, either side-scrolling or top-down, to show off my artwork in action for my portfolio.

I have no programming experience or basics. But I hope to self-teach myself if that's possible. I want to make 2D games with Unity, and it's been recommended to me to use the C# language to write the script. Here are some of my first questions about that.

How proficient do I have to be with C# to work with Unity? Do I have to be an absolute expert, or just know the basics? Should I learn how to use Unity first, get to know what and where things are. and then learn C# during that or afterwards? Or is it better to spend a week or two or longer learning C#.

Thanks!

 

Welcome,

Maybe a good place to first would be here :
http://unity3d.com/learn

and pick up what you want learn about

You don't need to be C# expert to use unity and start dig into it, just take your time and learn step by step what you need.
There is a lot of tutorials, so you should be able to always get the info you need without too much problem.

Maybe before get on the game you want to do, make couple mini test project just to put in practice what you learn , and slowly build up from that.

good luck !

 

As giyomu said. the Learn section is the most valuable asset for learning Unity.
Other than that (Youtube) offers A LOT of hands on visual tutorials that I found helped me more.

However, C# is my preferred language in Unity, there is Unityscript which is actually easier for most people I've noticed as a lot off tutorials are in Unityscript.

But in the long run in my personal opinion at least, i'd say C# is most better to learn. But that's just my personal opinion.
Good luck with your games buddy!

 

Welcome to the forum!
If you're trying to learn coding, the Documentation and scripting reference is an invaluable resource. It's stored both online and when you install Unity and should be reachable either through the Learn section of the website, or through Unity itself.

Click on that little icon and it'll take you to the relevant section of the documentation.

As I said, tutorials are plentiful for both C# or Unityscript. You don't need to be an expert to get things done, and if you encounter any problems you can solve most with a quick Google search or just ask here on the forums.

 

Thanks a lot for your replies.

So you guys think I should just get started with Unity, and the C# part comes gradually or later? Also, I want to learn to make games in 2D, because I do a lot of digital drawing and painting, but 3D modeling takes a lot of time, so 3D games are a little too ambitious for me. I want to make games with 2.5D graphics or parallax scrolling. Should I concentrate on learning 2D game making instead of 3D? Or do I simply learn Unity, and both 2D and 3D become available to me?

 

Honestly, do what's most comfortable to you for starting off. 2d, 3d, 2.5d all have there own challenges, like me, I can only do 3D. I don't understand the concept of pixel art, I love and respect it, just don't know how to do it.

Do what your passionate about and things will all come together.

 

I'd get comfortable with the programming side of things ASAP. You don't need to be an expert to get things done, but it's a big part of working in Unity and a fundamental understanding of programming would make things much easier.
I also forgot to mention, if you're not comfortable learning to script there's always Playmaker, or other Visual Scripting alternatives. It's something I haven't personally used but might be worth looking into.

As N1warhead said they've each got their own challenges but, from what I understand, most of the things you learn in one should translate nicely into the other.

Well said.