What is your study routine?
polycounter lvl 6
I really need some help with this, because I have a huge problem coming up with a well planned way of studying (modelling, in this case). Every day I end up looking for something I have to improve knowing that there are a lot of things I'm not doing really well and I should get better at. In the end I lose a huge amount of time searching for what to do just to study that subject-matter (animal anatomy, texturing... whatever) and search again when I feel it's time to improve at something else.
The problem is that I lose too much time in those in-betweens and stress myself because I know I should be studying something, but I don't know what and how. If I think it's time for studying age, for example, I just start making models of old people until I grow tired and another subject crosses my mind.
So, do you guys have some kind of structure that you follow? Like "it's human anatomy week" and you start doing ecorches and going into every part of the body again and again or three days of studying master sculptors, or you just jump from one project into the other, being that whatever you want to do at the moment?
The problem is that I lose too much time in those in-betweens and stress myself because I know I should be studying something, but I don't know what and how. If I think it's time for studying age, for example, I just start making models of old people until I grow tired and another subject crosses my mind.
So, do you guys have some kind of structure that you follow? Like "it's human anatomy week" and you start doing ecorches and going into every part of the body again and again or three days of studying master sculptors, or you just jump from one project into the other, being that whatever you want to do at the moment?
Replies
- Do your research when you're not at your desk. Like when you're on the train, lunch break at your day job, waiting in line at the grocery store, times when you can't really work on stuff anyway so it's not wasted.
- Alternate between doing studies and portfolio pieces. The large portfolio projects will show you what you need to study and the context you'll use specific topics in. No point in studying human anatomy if all your portfolio projects are cars and the like. Studies will give you a break between projects and give you time to gather ideas for the next piece.
Once I've done that (and this is the most important bit!) I like to then give myself a small project to complete which gets me to apply what I've learned from the tutorial to a project where I can't rely on a nice step-by-step of what to do.
As for what to specifically study... for me I'm relying on the learning paths on Pluralsight to guide me in the direction I want to go. I know I'll have to move away from that at some point but by then I should have a better idea of what I need to do to get better.