Before I begin, shoutout to Wael Yasmina (http://www.youtube.com/@WaelYasmina) for the most comprehensive threejs tutorial I believe exists on YT right now, although I might eat my own words if I find something better in the future.

Learning approaches are very subjective. Some learn better from theory or documentation, while others learn more from a hands-on approach. I like the video/hands-on approach. I've seen it works for me better. But that doesn't mean I stick to tutorials where they only code without explaining what's going on. Even though you'd think that it'll save you time and teach you what you want to implement, learning the basics is equally important. That's the very reason degree-based learning is often appreciated over self-learning/bootcamps. Now I know I am going to get a lot of heat for this, but if they're held to the same standards, why do organizations still need employees with a certain degree qualification? Something to think about.

So the right tutorial should have a mix of both - teaching you the theory behind the implementation, and then showing how the architecture implements it in code. The code might be alien to you, but you'll retain the theory and will be able to implement it later on(using the beloved documentations). And a quick note from what I have seen, software/web development skills are very transferable. You just need to convert it to code (StackOverflow will come to your rescue here).

After trying out a few tutorials, I ended upon Wael Yasmina's tutorial, primarily because it fits all the criteria mentioned above. Not only is it extremely comprehensive, meaning it would occasionally cover things you might not need (but hey, you never know), but the best part - the first part of the video is him sketching and explaining what we're trying to implement. The tutorials are short and to the point. And provides you with the terminology you might need to look it up later. I've learned more about camera movements and scene lighting from a single video than I could have by randomly searching on the internet. And that's all you need as a dev right? The right thing to look for. The community has answers to all your questions.

I haven't seen a better starter video to a tutorial - a must-watch if you're just stepping into threejs.

Before this post becomes excruciatingly long to read, I wanted to update you on where we are, progress-wise. I started from SCRATCH (scary, I know). Set up my project with a package manager (vite). And as I am going through the tutorial videos step by step, I am retaining things relevant to my portfolio idea. Even though it is a slower approach, I believe it is a more proper one. Not much to show, just the aircraft I'll be working with(sketchfab, for the 3D model) and a plane with a grid, which really helps set things in perspective. I mean, can you imagine a graph without grid lines and axes?

I'm working on camera movements, aircraft movements and creating the scene in parallel, so hopefully have something exciting to show really soon. Till then, Cheers!