As someone that wears both hats on a daily basis (Creative Director at a startup, spending 65% of my time coding, the other 35% with design and animation) I think that what it takes to get there is a huge amount of time and a general appreciation of aesthetics.

I have been programming in one way or another for 32 years - all the time basically building creative programs, UIs, programs that help me make music or do graphics and now I don't need to program those - I can concentrate on what my business needs.

People often mix up design and usability. Usability is something that is tangible and measurable, code is tangible but also highly creative output and good looking design is neither something that can be measured (expect in sales) or can be actually taught - its a factor of a good eye plus extreme amounts of practise.

I spend my spare time at the moment looking at design, architecture, or reading about chip design, and languages so that I can understand better how my code runs and how my environment around me is beautiful.

It takes an almost obsessive willingness to learn to be good at more than one thing at once but it is possible.