so i'm a RPG programmer that only ever sees the black and green of an as/400. i miss creativity!! i have a huge interest in 3D programming and/or animation but have no clue where to begin with learning. i'm looking for advice, guidance, HELP!!! where does a newbie begin!?! 

Try this:

https://learnopengl.com/

thanks!

An alternative is to use an engine like Unity or Unreal which comes with a lot of ready-to-use stuff, so you can concentrate on the game rather than the layers under that. Have a look at the resources in the beginners forum for more information.

i graduated and started working in 2016. the only language i've really worked with is RPG. i've been programming with it for a little over 3 years. i had a few c++, java, visual basic, html/css classes in school as part of the degree curriculum and did extremely little with html/css while i was helping on my employers website. i'm still very new to everything programming related. I'm looking for something to learn and play with outside of work that i'm actually interested in and would enjoy.

I started a little more than 2 years ago. At first i tackled C++ and Vulkan simultaneously but failed because of the complexity and of being overwhelmed by too many subjects at once. But OpenGL is well graspable, imo as well as a game engine because however you turn it, you won't get around the math basics and programming/scripting, which were the biggest steps for me (former archaeologist).

OpenGL together with C++ is well manageable imo, but calculate with at least half a year before you see real progress. The linked site learnopengl.com is a very good start imo, but as soon as you have grasped the principles of linear algebra, buffers, textures and the game loop you should carry on. The blue book (OpenGL Superbible 7th ed.) explains the concepts of OpenGL 4.5, i know of no more modern introduction than that, together with the Red Book OpenGL Programming Guide 9thed (which teaches pre 4.5 despite the subtitle). Both explain the principles with examples etc. very well. Another good read is the latest version (4.5) of the GLSL Cookbook from packtpub.org. You will have to get into shader programming in order to accomplish something.

learncpp.com can be used to start over with c++. But consider a good book covering c++17 introduction, not just "modern" because after "modern" came "postmodern" and several other stages of art history until today ?

https://en.cppreference.com/w/ or http://www.cplusplus.com/ for language details.

The above OpenGL sources start with setting up an environment and going on step by step.

Start with C++, as a programmer already, it should be manageable, and you can get to the "secrets" step by step. Concepts like object orientation or templates aren't needed in the beginning, they come when you start to brew your own stuff, but until then you have already the overview you need.

imo

i started working through C++ on CodeCademy.... maybe not the best place to start but i like it so far. I will definitely download and try out the game engines suggested and see what they're all about.