Artist habits
polycounter lvl 17
Hey, I sometimes have some habits that drive me crazy, and I only notice after I do it, I'll share 2 of mine and you guys can go ahead and share yours:
1 - I usually try doing my renders and light setup of my levels before I finish the models.
2 - Or I usually get myself polypaiting in zbrush before I even finish my sculpts!!! Like polypaiting the head, and later on sculpting the rest of the body.
Whats wrong with me? Not sure. Is that normal for anyone around here? I just notice it after a while I'm doing it and I have to get myself back to where I was. Sometimes that can be critical time wise. Can't it be?
I wonder if traditional artists do the same. Start paiting before planning or something like that.
1 - I usually try doing my renders and light setup of my levels before I finish the models.
2 - Or I usually get myself polypaiting in zbrush before I even finish my sculpts!!! Like polypaiting the head, and later on sculpting the rest of the body.
Whats wrong with me? Not sure. Is that normal for anyone around here? I just notice it after a while I'm doing it and I have to get myself back to where I was. Sometimes that can be critical time wise. Can't it be?
I wonder if traditional artists do the same. Start paiting before planning or something like that.
Replies
every experience is a learning experience!
Usually, we tends to be very excited to see an amazing artwork and start to make it as fast as possible.
The problem with that, is we get bored really fast, since the current workflow is going through some process before getting the final result.
As a natural "people who like pretty stuff", we get distract very easily and we can change project easily because it looks more attractive and we often lay down the current one because it's boring to not see immediate result.
So the only solution I would suggest is to going through the step-by-step way and stay focus.
-Make the materials/shader of my model ahead of time, without a working asset to test it on (lets face it, creating a Cloth shader for a sphere is one thing, but a beaten up, patched vest with several maps to drive the looks of several parameters is another).
-Start at the end of the project instead of the start (some movies actually film the ending first, the beginning second, and the middle third. No matter how you cut, you can't do the same with your models, so keeping course if the only solution one can hope to stick to).
-Stay up late and try to bum-rush 'what I had planned for the day' if other important things came up, such as setting up your wardrobe (lack of sleep, or pulling all nighters might sound 'ok' in theory, but in reality are actually not, they lower your performance greatly, even skipping a single night is bad, at it can really skew the final result of things).
-Having background noise with shows that need you to be focused as opposed to be listened to 'passively' (having Battlestar Galatica, Breaking Bad or any other show that has your traditional show progression system can actually be really distracting, forcing you to sometimes stop and spend a good 15-30 minutes just watching the damn thing, on the other hand, stand up comedy, some mundane music or cathartic shows like Curb Your Ent. which first hand following of every single line isn't needed, are great).
-Jump to another project, and getting two projects running at the same time (the best way to combat this I found is to simply have one main project, and run it alongside several smaller projects. Like speed-sculpts or other stuff. It also helps to invert the work you're doing, if you're making a full on character, try painting some rocks or other enviro. stuff, but always keep it small in scale, as in speed-X small, as in you can make that thing in a day or less, no more then maybe 12 hours tops).
-Breaking my Pomodori half-way through the day (honestly, this shit is cray' and it makes me feel bad when I do).
This is SO me! Yeah I'll try to get to speed stuff. But somehow I feel that speed stuff are not portfolio worthy. Is it? Maybe just for learning/practice.
-Have just really random stuff as "background noise", series, tutorials, streams and not actually paying much attention to them, just having something there.
-Sometimes I'll check my mail and PC more then actually doing work, other times I'll work for like 8 hours straight without even paying attention to skype popups or forgetting to eat.
(wich has annoyed a couple of people who were talking to me at that time)
-Going into what in eve is called "ship-spinning", sometimes for no reason I'll just go into this mode where I am just looking at my model for 15 minutes without really doing anything.
-Not finishing stuff, "hey this didn't turn out as expected, maybe if I start doing X with what I have learned I'll do better and finish it this time"
My wip folder the past couple of months have been growing like silly.
Altough I'm improving on that and finishing stuff.
Haha, yes.
It really depends, I just do it so I can distract myself for a short while, so it doesn't get 'boring' for me working on say retopology only, so in most cases, just for practice or fun.
At the same time, there is nothing stopping you from creating a speed-sculpt bust of a busty demon, and then one day, coming back to it and completing it if you look at it and say "You know, I had something interesting going on here, let me see if I can take this further!".
I can honestly say, a large number of my so called 'completed projects' always came from old speed stuff I did alongside my major stuff, that I came back and visited a few days/weeks later.
- Even though the artists here dont give a damn about what tools they use or if they have thorough understanding of the tool or not. I tend to ask as many questions as possible before I start learning the tool.
The first point is the worst I would say because it never allows me to finish anything and post here. I am still trying to learn to avoid that.
* watching C-SPAN 1, 2 and 3 while i should be working...
* constantly checking my fake twitter accounts and fake facebook accounts while i should be working...
list goes on...
LOL
"* constantly checking my fake twitter accounts and fake facebook accounts while i should be working..."
What??? Why!?
Also, being out of your own work sometimes is healthy! Right?
Lol, been trying to fix this
I think I need to focus on smaller, quicker things
Next thing I know, I take a glimpse of the time, BAM! 3-4AM, I spend 2 hours thinking how I can be more awesome and wasted time not sleeping because my brain is freaked out on 'excitement', kinda like when you're a kid and your friend is coming over the next day and you're thinking on how to make stuff more awesome.
If you feel guilty for not getting things done, you could always have a small booklet and pen next to you, write down what you plan on doing next day to recoup the lost time, OR, just sketch it in. I tend to do this with Shaders and how to optimize them, helps me ease away from my blarring laptop to a more quite, relaxing, but still 'working' environment so brain doesn't decide to say "Hey listen, if you do X, Y, Z, it will be soooo awesome" in the middle of niddley, dibbley.
- Start texturing before even blocking out properly (ie I need to put more thought into all the shapes)
- When I start working on personal projects I want to neglect everything else to get it done.
As for the background noise. VERY BAD at home. I will start and then realize that it is best to just turn it off. At work I have things that I have seen before many times (simpsons, 24, FLCL, GITS SAC) so I do not need to pay attention to them.
Haha, I'm terrible for this. I'll often stand admiringly like a proud father, slowly rotating the model round and round, endlessly checking every possible angle and zoom factor. And then suddenly deciding that it looks like ass and fixing everything.
Recently I've been putting renders and finals into my dropbox so that I can check out how it looks on my phone screens and then compare it to my monitors. And then zooming in and out, trying it in different lighting conditions. I'll even lie in bed, not sleeping, flicking backwards and forwards through screengrabs like a crazy person.
But, to be fair, even though it eats up a decent chunk of time I've ended up spotting so many flaws, and refining stuff as a result of errant pixel-wanking.
I'm also quite bad for just deleting everything I've done if I'm not happy with it, much to the horror of of my friends and co-workers. But again, it did always end up better for it. So I'm sticking by my crazy habits :P
• Gripping the stylus/pencil to hard when working
• Still deciding to Use Maya even though blender has yet to crash on you ONCE out of all the years you've known of it
• Anxious to show unfinished, rushed or half assed work expecting praise
• Getting ready to work blacking out just realize theres 30 Fb and 20 different WAYWO tabs open when you come to your senses
• Trying to hand paint lens flair when theres a perfectly good filter in Photoshop for it
-Over estimating what I'm capable of, "This totally won't take more than a few hours, I don't have to start it now."
-Putting projects off until the last minute
Get a stand up desk, or mount a 'clamp' desk on your desk, so you can either sit or stand up while in the same position.
AA!
me too
always kills my weekends, so i never have time to do personal stuff.
-starting sculpt, seeing its kinda cool, putting way too much time and effort into it and then recognizing the design doesnt realy work because i had no concept. mostly this is the moment my motivation lets of and i get too lazy to adjust the design
Start working on thumbnail silhouette in photoshop. Do a one I like the look of. Realise i'm working directly on the background layer. Decide to start over. Can't reproduce a thumbnail as good as the one I liked.
But my worst habit of all is picking my beard hairs out. I do this a lot while i'm working. I have a mild form of trichotillomania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania, which means I can't stop myself from pulling hairs out. In my case specifically beard hairs. I do it subconciously and i'm unaware that i'm doing it until I've pulled a few out. Sometimes its so bad that I pull out bald patches. If I shave the problem goes away. Trouble is I like having facial hair. My version of trichotillomania is born out of bad habit rather than some psychlogical problems or from some traumactic experience in youth that is found in more severe cases.... Thats what we keep telling ourselves anyway. ;P
I do this with my drawings all the time....I just lose interest if I spend more than a week on any piece.
Posting as my real name and not under an alias.
When working with others in the real world after having seen their recent work and seeing that its below my own in both quality and complexity I lead them to believe that we have a democratic relationship for too long so i can see if they start asking me for help when they see that my work is a lot better. They never ask for help. I should alert them sooner to the fact that the group is going to be a dictatorship and not a democracy.
+1 on that
trying to break the habit these days :poly142:
Sometimes it can be good to do materials/colors early to make sure everything is working. Test early and often!