Aster Crossing @asterfallisland - Tumblr Blog

hi there! i was just wondering if you had any good tutorials/resources for someone who's wanting to start skinning????

hi anon! this is a brilliant question and i am so humbled that you asked me. this depends a little on your comfort level with coding, i think.

if you are completely new to coding, i would recommend looking at something like codecademy to learn the basics of html and css with their interactive courses. i’ve personally utilised their tutorials and really liked them. if you have some familiarity but just want a good reference for css properties, w3schools is something i almost always have open in another tab or return to frequently. egg design (prev. espoirthemes) does some wonderful tutorial posts that i’ve enjoyed.

if you are comfortable with coding and want to learn things that will help take your coding to the next level, i would recommend learning something like flexbox, which can be done very easily with the in-browser game flexbox froggy. flexbox makes positioning things evenly and precisely very easy~

as for resources that can just be good for getting your creativity going, i like some of the following:

cssgradient.io - gradient backgrounds

fontpair - easy google font pairings

paletteworld - image-based color palettes

coolors - interactive color palettes

siteinspire - web design designated for inspo

fontawesome - my absolute favourite go-to icon font

finally, i know there have been a few base skin releases from various coders in resource sites. i don’t personally know them, but they may be a good way to learn how to make small changes yourself on a skin that is not quite as complex as jcink’s default coding. do note that to my knowledge, none of these base skins are permissive for commission/commercial use, but they are wonderful to tinker with as a learning tool. you can check around the remaining jcink-hosted resource sites for different versions. i hope i’ve helped a little in your search. please feel free to message me privately either here or on discord if you are looking for a specific resource. i don’t currently offer coding support outside of commissions but i’m always happy to spread the knowledge of existing resources.

monojcink

hi do you have any advice or resources on learning how to code for jcink?

sure! so first tip i would give is to just code. practice really does make perfect. and looking at other coders’ work and messing with theirs can definitely help. i can’t even tell you how much i learned by just peaking at other people’s codes/tutorials. just don’t try to pass it off as your own and use it for educational purposes only! stealing is not cool!!

when i was learning the basics i mostly did templates (i personally wouldn’t jump to skins until you are confident in css and html) to get the hang of everything. don’t be too discouraged at first, your codes will probably not look good when you start! mine looked absolutely terrible lol. don’t be discouraged and think you can’t do it, you can!! no one comes out the womb as an amazing coder. the more you practice and develop your style, the better you’ll get.

drawing out my ideas before i get to coding is a big help. i have sticky notes upon sticky notes of templates, headers, etc scattered around my desk for when i get sudden inspiration to use as references once i’m ready to code something. i used to use adobe xd to draw out skins and templates and that’s the best computer software i’ve found to use (and it’s free!). but nowadays, literally drawing it on a sticky note, on my ipad with a stylus, or even with my finger in a note on my phone at 3am gets the job done!

i learned basically everything i know from either tutorials on caution and w3schools (literally my bible, i would die without this site) which are both great starting points! my favorite place for inspiration when i’m in a slump has to be dribbble, but there are plenty more!

sorry this got rambly but i hope it helped you at least a little anon! good luck to any coders just starting out this year!! i believe in y’all and can’t wait to see what you make <3

lolitacodes

how to do skin mock-ups in photoshop

so, you want to learn to mock your skins up in photoshop before you start coding them? well here is lolita to help you figure out how to best plan your skin! this was a tutorial requested by @thefattesthansolo so give dallas a shout-out 💓 the image up top is what the skin looks like fully finished and at the bottom of this tutorial is an example of what the end result mock-up looked like. so if you’re ready for a straight-forward tutorial then click on that ‘read more’ button and let’s get started.

Keep reading

ashleighcodes

So you’ve seen some fancy templates around and you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at some doHTML? There’s just so much that you can do with coding and you can’t wait to see what you can...

First part of my three part series on basic doHTML. It was written with Jcink doHTML templates in mind but is mostly just basic CSS and HTML that can be used in any coding.

missycodes

how to: responsive coding

my last couple skins (parkside ave & this is gospel) have both changed based on the screen size with some design changes and people have asked how i go about doing that so this is how!

an important step for me when doing this is using the right click + inspect > toggle emulation menu on chrome. it’s also available on firefox and safari. what what’s going to do is allow you to look at your codes on different screen sizes without having a screen of that size. there’s a list of popular sizes (including various phone screens + tablets) and a responsive option where you can literally click and drag to make the view wider/shorter. this is super helpful when trying to figure out at what point the code should change and what needs to be reworked or hidden.

sagecodex

Jcink Coding Communities & Resources

Coding shouldn’t feel like some exclusive, unattainable club. We all started somewhere—most of us just messing with elements to try customizing them before we got ✨ambitious✨ and started building our own projects.

Most of us are hobby coders, and we can’t always hold everyone’s hand as they’re getting into the community. Plus, a lot of our knowledge is hobbled together according to need (maybe that’s just my personal experience though lol). But we can share the resources and communities we use to build our sites and skins with you. So here’s my ever-growing list of communities, resources, and learning tools I’ve used, and still use every day, to build my projects.

If I’ve missed a valuable community or resource, let me know so I can add it to the list! And if you’re a coder with resources on your blog, reblog this with a link to a tag that others can follow!

Forums

Jcink Support Community This should be everyone’s first stop shop when it comes to Jcink. The support forum has an active community that’s ready to help with specific problems, and is full of very specific codes that usually don’t ever make it to other resource forums. Learn how to use the search function to find what you’re looking for!

Caution to the Wind The OG jcink rp resource site at this point. It has a lot of what we now consider essential building blocks of our forums, as well as tutorials to teach you how to do things.

jCodes A community that is mostly full of JavaScript coders, with an amazing collection of Jcink plugins to optimize your forum and add functionality. Not necessarily the best for learning, but definitely a wealth of resources.

Sourced A mini-resource community, hosted by Essi. It’s the home of many useful resources for forum development that Essi and others have put together. This is not an active community, but a home for resources.

RPG Initiative A resource forum for more than just Jcink rp’s. There isn’t so much a coding community here, but there are some great coding guides in the codex.

RPG Directory Another general resource site, the coding community here is pretty quiet these days, but it has some classic tutorials and resources worth visiting.

Discord Groups

The Jcink Community Corner A great community for coding, as well as writing and general site management. For newbies and pro’s alike! This is the general home for most of us (afaik), and is probably the biggest/most active group of jcink coders on discord.

Coding Camp A discord community for all levels of coders. Camp offers regular coding challenges, as well as a variety of resources for beginners who might not know where to start but want to get into the thick of things.

General (and free!) Learning Resources

If you’re just starting out, want a general refresher, or are a seasoned pro looking to add some credentials to your name, these resources are for you! All of them are free and are not Jcink-specific.

Free Code Camp Learn how to code for free! It walks you through the basics to build the fundamentals you need to start on more complex projects. I’ve done the CSS and JavaScript courses and cannot recommend it enough.

The Odin Project A full stack curriculum that I’ve heart great things about! I haven’t used it myself so I can’t speak to it, but their JavaScript and CSS courses looks amazing.

Flexbox Froggy A game to learn how to use flexbox and all its corresponding properties by organizing some frogs and their lilypads. When I take a break from coding, I always play a round of flexbox froggy as a refresher.

Grid Garden A game to learn how to use CSS Grid! A lot like flexbox froggy, but with vegetables.

CSS Tricks Not recommended to open until you have a basic handle on things, only because it has a wealth of articles that are easy to get lost in. But if you’re looking for how to do something specific, chances are CSS Tricks has an article on it!

Stack Overflow An active community for coding of ALL kinds, every question about coding ever has been asked and answered here somewhere.

W3 Schools The reference sheets on W3 are tools I reference all the time. I always have a tab with the CSS or JavaScript references up, because nobody can remember all the properties and what they do off the top of their head!

CodePen A place to start creating your own codes! It has live updates, so you can see what you’re creating as you make it. And you can use it to create a nice little portfolio for yourself! You can also “fork” other users’ codes to play with them, figure out how they work, and learn how to implement those practices into your own work. (side note: if you see my profile on CodePen, no you didn’t, it’s a mess)

andhumanslovedstories

Actual truck drivers watching Griffin and Justin try to play a video game about truck driving is a beautiful and worthy thing that has improved my life

qr-closet

D&D-inspired character clothing

r0sequarks

After I made the first one I realized I’d accidentally done pride colors, so I felt the need to make the rest.

I stole the clouds off a design I saw on tumblr but apparently I didn’t save it + can’t find it again so I don’t know whose it was! If that was you gimme a heads up and I’ll credit ya