I have a ok laptop but its not the greatest, i want to have something such as a creative outlet that i can do in a simple manner? Ive thought about many of things but im unsure if i should try them? Im stuck inside alot and im bored alot aswell. I just want something to do other than light gaming and watching youtube.
What would you advise and why so?
I second 3D modeling, it’s super fun and entertaining. Blender is the software.
Indie game development. Tons of great, free (even foss), frameworks out there these days. Try ebitengine for an awesome 2d framework.
Blender. Free and incredibly versatile 3D modelling software. Learning curve is a bit steep but YT has tons of tutorials to help you stumble along.
I write fanfiction and make YouTube videos using a program called imovie
Ive thought about many of things but im unsure if i should try them?
You should definitely try them. What have you got to lose?
Since you’re a creative sort, why not make zines? Scribus is a free layout tool you could use to build them and there are plenty of free templates available.
Writing is cheap and easy to start, but with so much skill to build
Learn Rust or another programming language. Useful to know something to expand your ability.
Make music
3D modeling.
Check out Ryan King Art on youtube. Follow along with his guides.
Needs pricey software. the Freeware is shit.
Not gooning.
You know what? I want to goon even more now!
Assuming you want to use the laptop for this hobby, I would suggest getting a cheap, secondhand camera, old DSLRs are like £50 with a lens and perfectly fine starting point, but you can spend as much as you want on a setup. Only recommendation I would make, is get something thats still supported today for the lens mount type, that way you know you have a constant upgrade path.
Get the camera with the right lens included for what you want to start taking, additional lenses will increase the budget significantly even at the bottom end as they can often work well with better (and more expensive) camera bodies if you decide to upgrade later on.
Then you can use Darktable & GIMP to play with the photos to your hearts content or “spend” on Light Table & Photoshop. You can do anything from basic image correction up to full blown re-imaginings of your photos. Plenty of online tutorials to walk you through the processes.
That doesn’t really work if they’re stuck inside a lot.
Macro photography is always an option for indoor
If you think making music in your web browser sounds be cool and arent completely averse to text based programming, you should try out https://strudel.cc/
There are many things not requiring the use of any laptop, powerful or not.
- Read books. There are billions of books out there waiting to be read. New ones, old ones, fictions, essays, in whatever ‘genre’ you may fancy. You can even read them for free, by borrowing them from your local public library.
- As suggested: a #2 pencil (HB, for the non-US world, but I would suggest 2B myself: a slightly fatter/darker type of lead), a few sheets of paper or a sketchbook (for portability) and start sketching. You can sketch daily life objects. If don’t believe me (and why should you?) go read/look at ‘Everyday matters’ by Dany Gregory (he also has a YT channel, if you prefer watching moving pictures instead of turning pages but I think are way more… complete and interesting than most of his videos). You may even throw in a small and cheap set of non-pro watercolors (it will be much cheaper than artist-grade ones, and you need needs hundreds of colors either: a set of 12 is more than enough, heck even just 6 colors would be excellent), as they can help you realize you’re more interested in painting than sketching. And since they’re water-based, you wont get nasty smells like with oil painting, eve when doing it at home ;)
- Find some craft, DIY activity you enjoy? Younger I was into little scale models (plastic planes and tanks that I glued and painted), now I’m much more into crafting things we will use at home.
- Play chess? A great way to make people IRL: chess clubs, cafés, any places where (amateur) chess players like to meet. Unlike most video games it’s not ‘limited’ to a few hours of fun and excitement: people have been playing chess for thousand of years and they’re still playing it with the same excitement today: it’s challenging and there is no end to it… and every one can play (even little kids, and even bad players like myself) ;)
- Exercises. I do long daily walks. It changed my life at least as much as learning to read changed it when I was a child.
Ive thought about many of things but im unsure if i should try them
Why would that be? There is no harm in trying things out.
It’s unclear if you want to have a hobby on a laptop or whether that doesn’t matter.
If it doesn’t - mending is great. Some people have already recommended knitting and crotcheting, and while mending clothes is usually a mix of these two and sewing, I find it easier and faster paced than making something anew. Also regarding the sustainability aspect - buying new yarn and making something that you possibly might not need or enjoy vs repairing something you own and might otherwise throw out (and if you end up messing up you have hardly any losses. It was a try to save something from the landfill). It’s in a way a gateway to knitting, sewing, crotcheting, embroidery, but it is great on its own.
But it doesn’t have to be just clothes. Trying to figure out how you can make broken stuff last longer or adapt it as necessary is also great.
The only downside is that if you work a lot on your computer or something desktop-ish, then you might want to choose something outside to give your eyes a rest from focussing on something that is rather close.
Hobyist math can be quite fun, especialy if you know a bit of programming.





