how do you help yourself finish projects?

Youngy798

I have started quite a few projects, but I never seem to finish them. I always get half way through a project and then start thinking of new ideas and wanting to start working on those.
What are the best ways to help yourself focus on finishing a project before moving on?

Gobliness

I like to have visuals that keep me excited about the current project I'm working on. Such as mood boards, other artists' work, shots of my own progress, etc.

Torch

Start a smaller project, a prop, a bust, etc. rather than going for a full scene or character. Little by little!

iconoplast

Break the whole of the project in to logical chunks and work on those one at a time. That helps trick yourself in to thinking that the next chunk is something new (and sometimes it is), which helps alleviate the need to change to something different. Take notes about your new ideas and wait until you're done to start on it. If necessary, let your excitement over the new idea push you to finishing the original project -- if you have a hard rule that you have to finish first, your enthusiasm can carry you through.

Also, it helps to understand that the urge to change projects is often a sign of working on something that's either too difficult or too easy. It's hard to say which without knowing more about what's specifically happening with you. Perhaps you could try adjusting the scope of a project that's stopped being interesting to you.

I've also found that working on smaller projects that will eventually contribute to a big one can help a lot (it's sort of a variation on the breaking in to chunks strategy above). If I know I'll eventually want to work on, say, a spaceship environment, I might start by churning out some props that would fit that sort of scene. The key is in viewing the props in this case as a project in themselves and not as a part of the larger project. This way, when you do start on your hypothetical spaceship, it's still new to you and it goes faster because you've already got a bunch of props you can use. And if you later decide not to do Hypothetical Spaceship, you're still left with some nice props instead of a half-finished ship.

Brian "Panda" Choi

There's always joining a game development team that has an active art production schedule. That can force you to reach finish milestones.