what to do when real life takes over
polycounter lvl 17
man ive been busy recently, ontop of a pretty full on job, im getting a house i own upto renting standards (bah fukin economy etc etc) travellling to and from manchester regularly (GF + house) and then occasionally going to raves that last all weekend, my personal 3d is really suffering... how do you cope, where do your priorities lie, i mean i love 3d BUT a good house party is good for the soul, i love env art these days but i rarely get the year long uninterupted free time needed to pull of what i want... wbat the fuk
feel free to post kittens
feel free to post kittens
Replies
There is something fantastically rewarding in actually doing real work with your hands, building something that exists physically.
Its great to have a life, and tasks to do outside of work/art.
there is no such thing.
my priority lies at art. its sad, it kills everything, but sometimes we need to sacrifice to achieve.
i havent build up much for myself outside all this, and i have kept it like that on purpose
that way, its easy to make art my priority, but it also makes it easy to leave everything behind and get started somewhere else once i've achieved my goal
I like a night out and sometimes go a full 3 hours without working:)
The trick is to pace yourself. I have been working on this stuff since 1995 and still enjoy it. priorities do change though and sometimes its best to get away from the pc.
I gotta agree with earthquake sometimes it's good to get away from 3D...in it makes you bust ass even more when you only have so little time to work on it.
B
There's a ton of 3d stuff i'd like to do too but at the end of the day, I do have plenty of time for it... if I'm not doing it is because it clearly has a lower priority than reading a book, going somewhere or staring out of the window.
I don't worry about it as should the time come when i'm really dying to do something, i'll just take the time to do it.
'Me' time is very important in a relationship, it can be scheduled, and so can computer time, 3d time, party time etc.
If you do 3d at work, it shouldn't be a big issue to schedule 1 hour twice a week or so where you stay at work after 5 and do some undisturbed private work.
Either way, time is usually there, just requires some scheduling and the will to actually want to do something... if the will and priority are not there, you clearly have other things you prefer to do at the moment in which case, all is well and you're doing what you really want to do, and not what you feel you should want to do.
More likely than not, you'll outgrow whatever is eating up your time and then you'll have time for the next thing in line, be it 3d or whatever.
A good artist needs to live a little to understand the world around us. Can't do that if all you do is work. :P
ITS ABOUT HOW HARD YOU CAN GET HIT AN' KEEP ON GOIN'
I understand the frustration, I just moved into a new place and for a few weeks every part of my free time revolved around the new place. Even at work my mind was occupied with what I needed to do. This might sound weird, but when I don't have time to work on something that I want to, I'll visualize it in my head, and really go through the different steps, from how I'd model certain things, to how I'd unwrap it, so on and so on. Then when I do have time to sit down and work on it, I have a gameplan already and less roadblocks.
I feel that every aspect of life is connected. If you feel great about yourself physically and socially then you get more enjoyment out of doing 3d, if you enjoy 3d then you will get more fufillment out of aspects of your life outside of it. I think that for the most part a 3d artist shouldn't be asking his/herself whether they should choose 3d or a social life, rather they should be asking themself how to balance the two. It's really the only way.
If you are in a situation where you need a good industry job asap, perhaps you got laid off or something, then yeah, 3d should be your choice, but if you already have a good industry job then a healthy satisfying dose of both art and having fun outside of it is key.
I've been out of work since December, doing contract gigs, getting rid of everything I don't need, selling my condo/cars/furniture, dealing with wife and kid and another kid due, preparing to move to another country and dealing with trying to get my visa in order. I am busy as fuck, but I still have time even if it's just 20~30 minutes to work on something.
Your art will never suffer if you keep on doing it. Change the types of projects you do. I do have a ton of free time now that the wife and kid are 4000 miles away :P
3d can't be taken with moderation so easily, some projects are months of work and you apparently don't see light at the end of the tunnel hahaha
If you do 3d after work, huge 3d personal projects are not so good, you may end procrastinating and bored :P. 3D = time-consuming. For that reason i divide all my work in "stages", and i disconnect doing different things, fast to do, like to draw. A pencil and a paper do magic!
My advice is to disconnect and forget the computer as much as you can. I pass weeks of relax without doing anything with the computer after finishing a project (that's because i work in a freelance basis). Now that it's summer, go to beach, to the pool, ride a bike, do sports, go to cinema, make barbecues, read some books, play games, etc. but do something different to 3d. 3d produces too much "mental fatigue", and that's something bad. You may end avoiding the 3d (personal work), because you could feel it like something so annoying like to study. Anyone likes to study? :P
To find another hobby is also very good, and if it's manual the better. Here where i live i have a small orchard, and we like to plant potatoes, tomatoes,
Monotony kills. Avoid that, organize your time
Procrastination is another problem U.U
For me, It's more like: "i can see all things i imagine done in 3d", so they lose interest and i don't feel the need of start. Once you know how to do 3d, you must be very motivated to do something
If 3d took you more than 10 years of your life, to gain a level, and then a job, to follow another path in the life is difficult. You can't go back so easily, because if you find that you don't like 3d after 10+ years, is time of your life you have lost.
Sorry if my expressions are not correct in english ^^', i hope you understand what i wrote hehe.
cheers
Plumber, Carpenter, Cook, Electrician, Paramedic/Doctor. These are the jobs that Civilization will always need. If I were to do anything other than 3d or animation, I would choose one of those. No joke.
We completely tore down a front covered deck (basically a thinly-walled room) and are now rebuilding in its place a livingroom addon at my uncle's house. It's been cool to see it come together - and along the way, for example, I can learn about the innards of a building, which could be useful at some point in game art.
So really, it's just life-enriching to get off the computer and do other things; if I've been without work for a while and the chance comes along to do something completely unrelated to computers (like construction) then I'm excited, 'cause I know for a fact that it's precisely the change of pace I need to get feeling motivated again.
To stay on topic though, man, at the end of the day this is just a job. Blah, blah, blah, "it's the best job in the world" and all that shit, but still...it isn't everything. Doing completely non-work related things, and not things that would "inspire" you, actual relaxing will help you actually be productive when you do sit down to work....or you'll just end up like adam and smoke weed ALL the time, looking at your own hands
My activities outside of work is autox and big track racing and working on cars/mechanical things. And I do those as much as I can. But I do like being in front of the computer making stuff when I am in the mood.
Also, I've found that I really need a clear distinction between work time and personal art time in order to stay motivated for the personal work. While I was freelancing a few months back I pretty much stopped doing any artwork for fun because I found it really hard to go back to my desk after I'd spent the whole day there. It's strange, but now I'm back in a studio job I find it a lot easier to come home, make dinner/go for a run etc. and then get back on the computer and do another couple of hours and I really enjoy it. I also think that just being around like-minded people again has been very healthy. The life of a freelance artist can be very isolating, in my experience at least.
I do also agree that you have to have a life outside of art. My wife and I love to travel and we visit new places whenever we can. Having interests that are completely unrelated to your work is very beneficial and may well feed back into your artwork anyway! So yeah, enjoy your art and enjoy your life, or something that sounds inspiring!
Ta, Nick.
So when I had to chose a course to study I tryed to choose something I liked that had nothing to do with games, art, computers or whatever. Now I'm a part time freelance artist and a medical school student (2 more years to finish). When I get tired of one I dedicate more time to the other, I just finish my final year exams of this year and you can bet how much I'm tired of that, so I'm starting some freelance works now on summer vacations
it works for me at least.
The physical jobs I've had in the past entailed moving and sorting heavy boxes in bleak warehouses. I hated it, and the worst days of sitting on your computer doing art are better than the days doing those thankless, tough, jobs.
I do worry that for the first couple of years as a junior I will be worked to the bone, but it will probably still be somewhat rewarding. Just don;t let the work define you.
All of these were totally unsuitable for my kind of personality. 3d is heaven in comparison.
I mean, you get to sit on your arse all day and make cool stuff
Man, I didn't learn many things as a games art student at uni, but I sure learned how to cook after almost 3 years of eating the same shitty pizzas from kebab shops. Cooking is a very enjoyable activity and the "girls like it as well" part is very, very true.
Just starting my 4th year of my Computer Art course and I'm still at that stage of shitty pizzas from kebab shops *shudder*. My girlfriend tries to teach me how to cook but I think I just prefer eating the finished product...
I'm forced to have a healthy balance of social and 3D at uni, I have no TV and no internet (two very time consuming things) so I just have to sit doing art all day to occupy myself which isn't a bad thing I guess. When I get bored of doing work there's always one flatmate willing to go out.
There's some really simple but great stuff on the nets about cooking.
but still 3D is better :P
Hmm... I got to try this thing once... maybe its more fun than 3D?
So basically you are asking help in choosing between lobster and caviar huh?
i agree, life can be hard my friend.
you probably should just be nice to yourself and give yourself a real treat. like, get out and have fun oooor do something for the soul like art, oooor get a GF.
sheesh, high level crying here.
ramsay is okay. i prefer heston though
It's like how hollywood always produces a few self-referntial movies that are about movie writers or actors.
The one thing that I've found over these past months though, is that I'm much more energized / focused on 3D and being creative in general, and its all thanks to being around you crazy talented people.
As long as I continue to visit polycount, there will ALWAYS be a drive for me to get better, because there is always constant (friendly) competition from everyone, and I would have it no other way.
reading a few of your comments i think i need to change what i want to do as a project, i love the big env but it aint going to be possible, so maybe im going to start fucking drawing again. cos alot of the stuff i want to get out of me 'ead is ideas, that i normally make into 3d or never finish, so concepting and painting is much better time wise, and fuck it i get all the env. practice i could ever want at work
now im off climbing and then gonna make a mean veg chillie and fuk the 3d off for another day :-)
hmmm might go via the wacom shop