"Just keep doing what you're doing!"
polycounter lvl 6
Lately I've been feeling really low on juice. Normally I'm a super energetic and confident person, when it comes to my dreams and hopes on where I want to wind up in the games industry. I want to work as an environment or prop artist at Blizzard Entertainment, and have wanted to for a good long time now.
For all the way back as I can remember I never doubted my ability to do so up until very recently. I'm a strong believer in the "Say it enough to yourself and it WILL happen mentality." so I'm not really sure what brought about this change. I feel like lately I've just been floundering, and that I'm running on fumes so far as staying motivated is concerned. I might have had a day or two a year that I really just didn't see myself getting anywhere, but recently it's really just felt like I'm never going to get to my dream job.
I've been in contact with various people in the industry and a lot of them tell me to "Just keep doing what you're doing." but I'm really not sure that that's enough anymore. As much as I appreciate each and every one of their feedback, what I'm doing doesn't seem to be working.
What I'd like to know though, Polycount, is what you guys do when you feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and the next breakthrough is millions of light-years away, if it's there at all? I would appreciate any and all advice you can offer.
-Thanks-
For all the way back as I can remember I never doubted my ability to do so up until very recently. I'm a strong believer in the "Say it enough to yourself and it WILL happen mentality." so I'm not really sure what brought about this change. I feel like lately I've just been floundering, and that I'm running on fumes so far as staying motivated is concerned. I might have had a day or two a year that I really just didn't see myself getting anywhere, but recently it's really just felt like I'm never going to get to my dream job.
I've been in contact with various people in the industry and a lot of them tell me to "Just keep doing what you're doing." but I'm really not sure that that's enough anymore. As much as I appreciate each and every one of their feedback, what I'm doing doesn't seem to be working.
What I'd like to know though, Polycount, is what you guys do when you feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and the next breakthrough is millions of light-years away, if it's there at all? I would appreciate any and all advice you can offer.
-Thanks-
Replies
If your not tired of design work but really are just feeling like it's all for naught then you may need to just reassess your goals. You know what you want to do so why is one day when you feel down any different than the day before when you felt good? It is usually not. One day is not going to lower your chances of success and even so you can raise your chances the next day.
The real question is, since you know where you going, do you know what you are doing? As in do you know what you are doing to get to your goal? Just keep doing what you're doing does not mean much if your not aware of what you are doing.
It helps.At least me. Especiallt coding.
And yeah, recreational. Learn ballroom dancing for a change.
But yea i took a break here and there, if environment modeling is your career choice find a hobby if you can or learn something else that might benefit that goal.
Perhaps style studying ? break down what you like find out why you like it and re-create that feeling in your artwork.
best of luck
QFT
I second this as well, also excercise helps a tremendous amount to your psychology and overall feeling of motivation, if you're feeling good about other aspects of your life it'll make you want to push yourself further
For example, a character artist will benefit greatly from anatomy studies. And that can be broken down further to muscles, fat, facial expressions, proportions, caricature etc.
For many people, it is much easier to then get started on improving, because you can then start studying a specific area or sign up for a course that improves THAT point, which gets you 1 skill closer to being able to do the job you want.
(BTW, if you strictly want to be a prop/env artist, do prop/env work. No need to implement characters in your scenes, IMO. I took a super fast look at your site, with a goblin house or something. My impression is that the texture work was really nice, but the goblin character was lacking and pulled down the overall impression a lot. If you dont want to do characters anyway, why put them in your portfolio?
After every work you complete, make note of the shortcomings. Why isnt it blizzard level? What could you do better next time, what do you need to practice more of? Start with the skill that is most lacking. Focus on getting ONE thing better at the next project, not all of them at the same time.
This is just stuff that works for me. It might be different for other people.
But I hope it can at least give you inspiration for how to help yourself improving.
Because, as long as you see improvement in your work, you will be motivated, right?
I'll definitely consider maybe trying to take a break for a week or so at some point soon. Lord knows my fiance wouldn't mind.
Now of course these two are linked (when you are in great shape, chances are, you brain will be pretty energized too) ; but what I am trying to say is, if you feel sleepy/tired ... I think it's a good idea to just embrace it and take a nap, as opposed to "fighting through it". I did the mistake of doing that for a while, and its just counter productive.
^_^
You could definitely find a place in the industry while you bide your time.
If you're running out of juice, get away from a screen.
Do life drawing, or clay sculpting, or take a class.
But if I were you, I would consider going to a mobile dev or something for a few years.
Your work is excellent, texturing skills are right up there and this probably why you have been hearing "Keep doing what you're doing". Perhaps some attention to the networking / self-promotion side of things is what is needed. Do you know anyone at Blizzard? What other projects are out there that would make a great stepping-stone to work there?
I wish you the best.
Pior: Yeah. I totally understand. I think I'm pushing myself a little too hard in some areas like my sleep patterns and only getting 5.5 to 6 hours a night. I usually wind up telling myself that I need the extra two hours of work time to get things right in my portfolio, but it's beginning to take a toll, so reassessing all that is probably worth it. Should probably just go ahead and start aiming for 8 a night, as that's what most of those studies show works best.
Dfacto: So I don't really take any vitamins, but I regularly exercise, about once a day for an hour on my recumbent bike. I play video games while I do this, so it kind of knocks out entertainment for the day, and exercise all at once. I hadn't conisered a vitamin D supplement though, so I'll definitely look into that.
Praetus: I'm right there with you on trying different stuff. I'm actually on a contract to complete an entire game's environment art in hard surface/deus-exy style of stuff and it's kind of a nice change of pace. Aiming for something like the WoW team though, every second that isn't spent painting hand rendered textures is one that I'm stressing my portfolio isn't growing or evolving fast enough, and I feel that sometimes works against me. Either way, after GDC I'm sure I'll make more time for that sort of thing. Also! Good luck on your treck to blizzard, I've been following your exploits on the site for a while, and you're definitely blazing a path there!
Minos: That's actually a tip my fiance has been telling me forever. I realize that traditional art is a SUPER huge backbone for a successful artist, and I didn't get nearly as much of a background in fundamentals as I wanted, so I've been wanting to sign up for a community college course in life drawing or still lifes for a while. Maybe it's about time I just buckled down and did it. Thanks man!
JacqueChoi: Thanks so much for the kind words! That means a lot coming from a lead artist. And I know what you mean about focusing on mobile. I actually worked for a mobile developer for the last year, and we saw fairly limited success on the store. I'm thinking of aiming my sites at one of the "bigger" mobile developers like backflip or something along those lines and seeing how things go though.
Pegbird: Yeah... the numbers game V____V. Haha it's strange though, because as competitive as it is to get in there, somehow that drives me forward. I feel as though even though there's a metric butt-load of other people trying to get there foot in the door there, if I keep at it long enough, it's inevitable that someone will notice me and give me a shot. I really appreciate the compliments man! And so far as networking is concerned I'm actually going to be going to GDC next week, so I'm really excited to see how all of that works out. I'm hoping to get into the Blizzard party again this year (as I did last year, and it was one of the most heavenly experiences as a developer that I could've hoped for haha) I'm trying to balance that social aspect of everything with literally blowing people's faces off with the best work I can put out there. Gets exhausting, but I'm hoping things will pay off eventually.
You can still mix it up while keeping within "Blizzard style" I think. I imagine that most the people on the WoW team can do more than hand painted texturing. The Siege of Ogrimmar image dump shows quite a bit of ZBrush usage. While the end result is diffuse, you can use the AO, cavity, OS normals, and prt_p maps to dump down lighting information. End result is similar but the technique is different.
Don't be afraid to mix up workflows or try something different from time to time. If you're learning new techniques I'm not really sure it works against you. Research I've done for hard edge modeling and spec/normal mapping has actually helped me with hand painting as I'm more familiar with material definitions.
Sitting for more than a few hours, doing the same thing, will get you mentally exhausted pretty fast. You will start getting diminishing returns in terms of progress, and you will generally feel like shit.
I like taking 2 hour intervals between different fields. That way my ideas keep flowing, and I avoid frustration and stagnation. Zig-Zagging between different problems is generally the best way to keep things stress free.
I can also highly recommend "spirit walks".
Just go for a 30 minute walk each day, and try letting your brain cool down.
It's pretty hard to get inspiration, when you're sitting in front a screen for 12 hours a day.
I have all my windows blocked to keep my office nice and dark. A single neon light illuminates everything.