Fear Of new 3D Shapes?

Gazu

Hi Polycounters,

i want to talk with you about the situation that gets over me, everytime im starting a new 3D Model.

Often, when a concept looks heavy or complicated im feeling some kind of "fear" and im starting to think that i can´t handle that shape.

At the moment i have this problem at the M4/M15 Weapon.
Im afraid about most every shape of it. I think that i can´t handle that shapes... But when i start to model i figure out how to handle it! (Not everytime..)

Maybe it´s some kind of "pressure" in me, which expects to get better. Im afraid to fail, because i expect of myself better results from model to model and i think thats the point. Afraid to have a worse result then before...

What about you guys? When the concept Artist masters his job and shows up his works. Are you gettings some kind of "scared" and do you immediately think: Damn, how to start with it? Where to start? How can I as a 3D Artist handle the concept artists idea?What will my Team think about my works or what will my Boss think about my works?
Will i get sacked?

Am I alone with this feelings? xD

Hope to read some interesting stuff
Maybe of some experienced people?

Greetings,
Gazu

iconoplast

I got past a similar problem after I read a study that demonstrated that trying anything will teach you more than saying "I don't know", even if you're deliberately failing (yes, even taking the route kids do when they're sick of something and answering every question with "Poop!"). The particular case studied was looking at answering questions, but I'm sure it's applicable to active participation in things too. It's the fear of failure that's grabbing you there, and if you can learn to embrace failure as a positive it can't make you choke. Failure is fantastic as long as you get up, dust yourself off, and say, "What can I change?"

If you're having trouble with a starting point, find one aspect that you know you can do. Pick a cylinder if you have to, just start it. Compare how much time and energy you spend worrying about it and how much time you might spend starting over because you screwed up early on when you just jumped right in. Does the worrying help you go faster next time? Will it teach you?

The other question I started asking myself is, "Why am I doing this?" I try to ask myself that at least once an hour, but even once a day will help. If it happens when I'm working, I've usually got a good answer. If it happens while I'm worrying or procrastinating it's usually enough to get me to stop and get back to what I'm supposed to be doing. It takes some practice, mind you, but it's definitely worth the effort.

rino

i have that when doing weapons. because you have to be accurate and know a bunch of stuff before you can do it and references aren't always great, so yeah.

EarthQuake

Break it down into elements, draw flow lines over the concept/reference to help understand the shape. Everything is simple enough once you break it down.

unit187

You need to work on changing this attitude: school and society tought us that "fail" means bad. Failed a test at school? Looser!

Now, seriously, failing is a nice tool. Don't be scared, but be playful instead. If you stumble upon hard concept art and don't know how to do particular shape - do it anyways. You will probably complete this shape not from the first attempt, and final shape may not be exactly what you wanted, but you are just learning, you are not perfect. But you will also realize that you in fact did the job you were afraid of.

JordanN

It's just like drawing.

Imagine everything as a negative space. Once you can create a silhouette of something, you are half way to finishing a project.

ExcessiveZero

Chillydog12345 wrote: »

Everything is basic shapes man. A gun is really a few square shapes and a cylinder if you get really basic with it.

Yup its always better to think of objects like that in terms of this



rather than just this

McGreed

Blockout, blockout and blockout, especially if you are making something from a concept and not real world picture. Just getting the overall, lazy, shape out there helps me getting past starting on something, because it doesnt have to be perfect and it will catch some of the traps your object might have, but without the pressure of having to redo stuff and gives yoy more freefom to experiment.

At least that has helped me, I used to pick out something and start highpoly make it (like a stupid screw), and its so easy to get stuck in something, because you didnt think it through, but at the same time, dont overthink it.

igi

Yes I have a similar feeling too. I sometimes refrain to add a new primitive to the scene to start a new shape, I can't stop refining the current 'piece' I work. Somewhat I relate it to procrastination or simply frustration coming from the amount of time and work would take to finish it as a whole, thus refining the current piece more and more and ending up having even more frustration because the time spent on one single object increases. To get rid of this, initially blocking out everything gives a clearer view on the project, makes it easy to jump on the next piece and going forth-back between. Solving main shapes in the blockout makes the actual sub-d modeling session more fluent. Blockout first, don't directly dive in single pieces, it pays itself back.

Clark Coots

Great suggestions so far. Sometimes if i feel a little timid about a shape I'll block it out real simple then go work on another part of the model while I let the harder part simmer in my brain a bit. Sometimes the off time I take from a problem is where I end up finding a potential solution.

Envart

Nth'ing blockouts. You will get there eventually through practice.

Snader

Non euclidian 3D shapes are fine, but tesseracts and polychora scare the bejeezus out of me.

wenglish

yes, creating high quality, meaningful work is stressful. Its also fun. enjoy the mix of reactions that your work brings out. you put yourself into your work whether you mean to or not. if you have no emotion, your work would be lifeless. a piece that causes its creator apprehension, frustration, pride, accomplishment, exitement, is a good one. the hope is that some of that will be translated to the person who sees the finished piece.