Many hobbies come with a steep barrier of entry. The worst and most common is money. Learning to play an instrument, participating in club sports, resorting to alcoholism to forget the pain of a breakup and sculpting require equipment, materials and/or lessons.
The barrier I prefer is difficulty. There are plenty of hobbies out there that require nothing more than Internet access, time and dedication. The learning curve is steep, but learning something new and creating something are two of the best feelings in the world. Here are five skills you can learn right from your desk if you have any kind of computer, the ability to download and install a program and an iron will.
1. Photo Editing
The Adobe Suite, which includes the latest iteration of Photoshop, has moved to a recurring-payment model like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Now, for this article, we will assume piracy is not an option. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up with a virus-infected computer or a stern letter from your Internet Service Provider. Oh, and I guess it’s morally wrong or something, too. Luckily, you can download the ancient Photoshop CS2 here and use the activation codes provided to “license” your software. It’s old, but it works just fine. Online tutorials can have you touching up photos or creating fantastic light and color manipulations in no time.
2. Music Production
Have you ever listened to a song and wished you could make other people feel the way that song makes you feel? I do. A lot. The first step in music production is acquiring a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Each DAW is vastly different from the next, but no matter which one you choose, you’ll always be able to transfer the skills you learn from one to another. Reaper is free for 60 days, then you “have to” purchase a license. Reaper is heavily customizable and if you have a heart of gold and wish to purchase it, it’s one of the cheapest options out there. Ableton is another popular option. It has a 30-day trial, during which you can take advantage of its helpful suite of interactive tutorial sessions. After your trial ends, you can still play around with the software, but you will be unable to save or export songs. Music production is difficult to master, but it doesn’t take long to start recording or lay down a beat.
3. Digital Art
Computers are becoming a popular medium for painting and drawing. You can start right now with Krita. Photoshop is popular for digital artists, but Krita is built specifically for digital art and its free forever. It has more than enough tools for a fledgling artist: brush presets, layering, color grading and pressure-sensitivity tools. That last item relates to the one caveat—most digital artists use a drawing tablet to more accurately transfer mechanical skill and hand pressure to the screen. While these tablets can be cheap, they’re not free. However, with enough dedication and patience, it is possible to make beautiful art with a computer mouse.
4. Programming
With computer programming starting to appear in education as early as elementary school, it's never a bad time to start gaining some experience with coding. A bit of knowledge in even one language can be applied to many real-world scenarios and, the best part is, it's fun. Codeacademy is a free online service that offers lessons in computer programming languages and web development. The lessons are easy to follow and start with the absolute basics of programming syntax. Python is widely considered the best language to learn for beginners, but programming knowledge in any language helps when learning another, as the structure and syntax are often similar.
5. Game Development/Animation
Game development is just one of the many artistic applications of programming. All you need to start building a video game is access to a game engine. A game engine is the basic framework upon which video games are built and includes the tools to do so. Two popular engines are Unreal Engine 4 and Unity Engine. Both are used to build best-selling games, both are accompanied by thorough documentation and interactive tutorials, and both are free for hobbyists. Blender is another great free program. Using Blender, you can create 3D models, characters and scenes that are anywhere from cartoonish to photorealistic. You can create animations in Blender using the assets you’ve made or you can export them to a game engine to be used in a video game. If you're not into game development, you can also animate using a game engine as well.
Game development and animation probably seem the most intimidating of the hobbies I’ve listed, but fundamentally, they’re all identical. Download the program, learn to use the tools it provides you, then let your creative juices flow. Regardless of which step takes the longest, if you’re interested in art, music or games, don’t get discouraged. Let yourself be a toddler picking up a crayon for the first time and allow yourself to enjoy the process.