[theschwa]

Graphical programming is a blast. I can totally see how it feels overwhelming, especially with a lot of ways to do the same thing. I will say though that once you get started a lot of the knowledge is transferable to different technologies and methods. I tend to recommend that people start with The Book of Shaders [0].

What kinds of things would you ultimately like to make?

[0] - https://thebookofshaders.com/

[jak6jak]

I tried the book of shaders but I think I got stuck when it got into the algorithmic drawing. I kept on getting confused on each individual line and how it fit into creating the whole picture especially when smoothstep() is involved. As for what I want to make, nothing in particular right now my end goal is perhaps to get a job as a graphical programmer somewhere.

[theschwa]

Yeah, that makes sense. There's some mental gymnastics involved in writing shaders since you're writing the code from the perspective of an individual pixel. As opposed to other methods like using Processing or the HTML canvas where you can just say "draw a square from here to here and make the lines this thick". When writing a shader, I have think instead "Ok, if I want a line here, and I was a pixel on that line, what would I need to know to determine my color".

If you're finding that to be the obstacle with shaders, it may be helpful to start with just learning a library like Processing, or general graphics library in whatever programming language you're comfortable with, and then come back to shaders. It will still take changing how you think about things, but then you'll have some solid foundation.

Personally, I've found it the most helpful to have some kind of goal in mind. Some kind of image or style that I want to make, then figure out what techniques I need to learn to get there. Starting from the technical side can work, but then it can be easier to loose interest when things get challenging. When I start with an artistic vision, then I often find myself over my head in the technical things I need to learn, but I feel motivated to push through that to get to the end goal.