Beginners Guide to Python

tac0m

Hey all. I'm a 3D Artist and i'm looking into some scripting/programming. I realized how powerful and artist/scripter can be at my last job where I learned just a little bit and made my life A LOT easier.

Can someone point me in the right direction where I can find a good beginners guide to Python. I have very limited programming knowledge and am not looking for a guide to python which requires lots of previous programming knowledge.

Thanks in advance for any help.

crimeny

edx has an intro to programming class offered by MIT. It's focus is in programming in python. but is general enough that what you learn can transfer into anything.

and Codeacademy has an entire lesson plan for you to follow in python and many other languages thats more at your own pace than the more traditionally structured EdX.

also the edx class is also available in opencourseware
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/

tac0m

thank you very much crimeny

z0ltan

The code academy stuff is actually really nice for learning the basics of python. Once you have that done, you can go in a billion directions depending on what you want to do with it.

Telling us which 3D package you use could help us point you in the right direction towards some more tech art related python stuff. (I could assume, but where is the fun in that )

Ben Apuna

Along with what's already been mentioned:

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/

http://inventwithpython.com/

Xoliul

Ben Apuna wrote: »

Along with what's already been mentioned:

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

This one is really good I think.

kio

i started programming with the http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ - its really good

the other one i used was http://www.openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/ - i really liked the small excercies that are given after each chapter.

dont hesitate - theyre easy to get along and teach you all the important concepts


one thing to mention - ifyoure into 3d graphics and want to do programming for this, you really should refresh your linear algebra - look the khanacademy videos on this topic - theyre great. Without the math you wont get all too far.

Farfarer

The Codecademy one is alright. I ran through it not too long ago.

If you're completely new to Python/programming, it's fine, but if you've got a basic grasp, I'd skip it; it's too simple and shallow.

CalxDesign

Suspect you're a Maya user. These are supposed to be great, I always meant to watch them, but I'm all Max these days.

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/3414-Python-Scripting-in-Maya

Desperad0

Here is a web page full of very simple lesson, notes, and exercise from my python instructor, Stephen Bell: http://nccastaff.bournemouth.ac.uk/sbell/publications/