After work, do you have time and energy to work on personal projects?
polycounter lvl 9
Today, during lunch at the the studio, I was talking with a former classmate about our current satisfaction working in the CG/game industry.
As most artist, what geared us first toward our jobs (he's a character artist and I'm an animator) were our great interest in various form of visual arts. And like a lot of artists, drawing, sculpting and doing alternate artistic activities were something we used to do a lot in our free time when we were in high school/college. We basically used to work on our own things and be really passionate about it.
As the discussion progressed, he started talking how, even though, he feels privileged to be making character models and sculpts all day long, he and a few of his friends have come to realize that working in the 3D industry, if you're not a lead, a director or supervisor, you're most likely an executant. You don't really ''create'', right, you execute tasks according to the desire of the higher directors and will most likely be spending more time sometimes on fixing things with ordered retakes than to create things from scratch from your desires.
It was something that personally, I had realized a long time ago, even before graduating. Work is still work and even when going into freelance and running away from 9' o 5 studio life, you will probably be put under more stress to fit desires of picky clients (if you even managed to find theme)...
However, I told him that I actually found sometimes great satisfaction when doing my work, because even though, I'm not the full author behind its creation,it's still something that would have not been done this way if I had not been working on it; it still has my mark, my signature and not only that, it can also be put into my reel/folio if I'm really proud of it.
I then kept going and encouraged him on doing personal projects at home, alone or with friends to not lose his creative drive and that's when the discussion fired up.
He whined about how he did not have any time or energy left when he'd get home, that he had other responsibilities and duties. That he doesn't even know if it's possible to even finish home projects when all of his mental energy have been focused on doing studio work .
I wanted to have Polycount's insight into this one. I'm mostly targeting people who've been or are actually working studio jobs.
Personnally, I have some rough days which leads to tiresome evenings but I often try to manage my energy to keep some left at night for my personal projects. But I know that later on, it'll be very different. I'm in my early twenties, don't have children or a wife/girlfriend to manage. I'm still living at my parent's home so no huge expanses and my biggest concerns at night or on week ends is cleaning the house, doing dishes and mowing the lawn
.
But I'm seeing so many professionals out there pushing out amazing work out of their free time, aren't you tired?
I mean art takes a huge load of time to make. I even had to drop gaming completely since a few years to focus on other things (art, language learning, gym,reading books, events) and I barely have free time in my schedule...
How do you manage it?
PS: skipping sleep is not an option for me. I need my doodly 6-7 hours of sleep or else, I'm unefficent on the long run...
As most artist, what geared us first toward our jobs (he's a character artist and I'm an animator) were our great interest in various form of visual arts. And like a lot of artists, drawing, sculpting and doing alternate artistic activities were something we used to do a lot in our free time when we were in high school/college. We basically used to work on our own things and be really passionate about it.
As the discussion progressed, he started talking how, even though, he feels privileged to be making character models and sculpts all day long, he and a few of his friends have come to realize that working in the 3D industry, if you're not a lead, a director or supervisor, you're most likely an executant. You don't really ''create'', right, you execute tasks according to the desire of the higher directors and will most likely be spending more time sometimes on fixing things with ordered retakes than to create things from scratch from your desires.
It was something that personally, I had realized a long time ago, even before graduating. Work is still work and even when going into freelance and running away from 9' o 5 studio life, you will probably be put under more stress to fit desires of picky clients (if you even managed to find theme)...
However, I told him that I actually found sometimes great satisfaction when doing my work, because even though, I'm not the full author behind its creation,it's still something that would have not been done this way if I had not been working on it; it still has my mark, my signature and not only that, it can also be put into my reel/folio if I'm really proud of it.
I then kept going and encouraged him on doing personal projects at home, alone or with friends to not lose his creative drive and that's when the discussion fired up.
He whined about how he did not have any time or energy left when he'd get home, that he had other responsibilities and duties. That he doesn't even know if it's possible to even finish home projects when all of his mental energy have been focused on doing studio work .
I wanted to have Polycount's insight into this one. I'm mostly targeting people who've been or are actually working studio jobs.
Personnally, I have some rough days which leads to tiresome evenings but I often try to manage my energy to keep some left at night for my personal projects. But I know that later on, it'll be very different. I'm in my early twenties, don't have children or a wife/girlfriend to manage. I'm still living at my parent's home so no huge expanses and my biggest concerns at night or on week ends is cleaning the house, doing dishes and mowing the lawn
.But I'm seeing so many professionals out there pushing out amazing work out of their free time, aren't you tired?
I mean art takes a huge load of time to make. I even had to drop gaming completely since a few years to focus on other things (art, language learning, gym,reading books, events) and I barely have free time in my schedule...
How do you manage it?
PS: skipping sleep is not an option for me. I need my doodly 6-7 hours of sleep or else, I'm unefficent on the long run...
Replies
I do not see a solution to this besides burning midnight oil, but I like my sleep as well. Or sacrificing some other activities to working on personal projects.
Sounds like your "friend" (wink) doesn't feel like he has any ownership of his art, which I can understand. A lot of time, most of the time, in production environments, you are tasked with technical things or revamping things or "executing" stuff that isn't really your bag.
I would tell your "friend" that if he doesn't feel ownership of the art, to try to take ownership of the production. Don't be an artist, be a developer. Try to look at the game as the goal, not necessarily just a vehicle for your "friend" to make art, because that not exactly why "he" is there.
As far as Ive seen, and I haven't been in a studio for too long, the people who are invested in the process are the types of people who get to manage themselves a little bit more.
Take tough assignments, take tasks that are outside of a comfort zone, come up with solutions to problems. Take a larger overall view of development.
"I'm in my early twenties, don't have children or a wife/girlfriend to manage."
If you ever want one, dont suggest at any point that you are managing them.
"But I'm seeing so many professionals out there pushing out amazing work out of their free time, aren't you tired?"
Tired like sleep tired, but not tired of doing art. I speak for myself only but game art keeps me energized. I enjoy sculpting and creating, and trying new things, and a lot of time because like your "friend" said, at work you're executing for someone else, you have to do that stuff at home, its probably your only opportunity. When im on vacation or on a long drive or away from home, most of what I think about is the projects I have going on and the stuff I want to get too, the things I want to try and sculpt etc. There are people out there that are more balanced about it Im sure, thats just me, but I get excited thinking about it.
It's great that a lot of people manage to just keep working when they get home, but a lot of us just want to rest.
uhhh. keep learning at home, if at all possible. It's a great place to try new things and be 'in charge' of what you are making. Even an hour a night is enough to make meaningful progress. But as aesir mentions, rest is very important too.
As for keeping it up once you are working on art all day... I can see how that could be more difficult. Sometimes I get to do some creative work in my current job but it's still easy for me to go home and work on art because the work is totally different (game art rather than doing graphic design/vector artwork). Perhaps it helps to have an art project that is very different from what you do during the day, but still helps you to improve as an artist.
I just wanna improve my art skills, doing my personal project but sadly when I get home, my body is just feeling so tired and it needs rest, I need to relax I just wanna playing game, watching movie, hanging out with my friends, and it's really a big problem when I have a girl friends, I don't really have time for practicing.
There was times I could doing my arts after get home but it doesn't keep so long, and the circle is just repeated again and again.
I'm just slowly getting improved.
Sometimes I do think that I need to quit my current job so that I could focus on doing arts, but thinking about the monthly bill making me so discourage to do so.
I've been doing this for just over 4 years now and in my first year/18 months I'd do personal work every day during my lunch and after work, then I landed a job which although very enlightening, sapped the energy out of me during the day. After that gig I worked away from home for a long period of time which got me a bit depressed and after that I did a stint of freelance projects where I moved my work day into my home office which felt very isolated.
I was hit by an artistic drought which lasted months at a time, subsiding every now and again giving me enough time to pump out some personal work.
I've found out several things which have helped my get back into a groove...
I've moved my office equipment into my main bedroom, I've found that I'm a 'social' artist in the sense that I like people around me when I do work, so at night before I go to bed I get a couple of hours in whilst my Mrs is watching something on TV, I doubt this would work for everyone and could probably be detrimental to some. Another thing is getting solid sleep, eating into sleep time to do personal work has vicious consequences which will eventually lead to not wanting to do work anyway. Finally changing up my diet and not eating purely sugary foods etc... Again these might sound odd but for me they've helped me re-energize myself.
I've also found dabbling in another interest every now and again helpful and sometimes inspirational, for me working on my cars or doing odd jobs like gardening have also helped.
A good work around I found out is to do something different at home
Like related of course (actually, could also be non-related, that wouldn't harm), but not the same as what you'd be doing all day.
Exact same situation as you here, @Pain
Once I have something that starts taking shape, looking like smthing, well then hours go by very quickly and I could spend long nights on it, but getting there - reaching that point, that is tough.
Not everyone is a fountain of inexhaustible energy! Mad props to you, but I'm not built that way.
And I don't have kids. I get home after 7pm, by the time I've eaten its 8pm, and I generally don't want to be up much after 11 if I want to be productive the next day.
The real trouble is after spending 8 hours doing game art in the office, no matter how motivated I am, the mental energy just isn't there. A kind of multiplier to this is that if I am working on a personal project, I want to be working on something new - which takes more mental energy to figure out new technical problems or new ways of working.
If I wanted to go home and pump out the same kind of work I do in the office, I could do that half a sleep no problem. But the real motivation is to try new things and I seriously lack the energy on a work day.
Even married with a kid on the way, I'm working on stuff.
Give you a bit of an example of where my head was at the Past decade:
2005 - 2007
Projects at work: Tony Hawk, Gun, FarCry
All semi-realistic type games in terms of subject Matter.
I really went hard at Dominance War, and Comicon contests. Got my ass handed to me during Dominance War 2, and 3, and realised I needed to level up in a HUGE way to catch up to guys like Mike Kime, Alex Velasquez, Josh Singh Rawkstar, Peppi, Modelling Man, Mr.Kite etc. Kept doing projects and mini-projects to shore up some glaring weaknesses in my work.
Side Projects:
- Valkerie Girl (Started "Babe and her Gun" contest but missed the deadline)
- Dominance War 2 (total embarassing flop)
- Started making Tyrael from Diablo 2 in spare time.
2008-2010
Projects at Work: Cirque du Soleil
A fantasy style game (Concepts mostly by Marc Brunet).
I still made a habit of entering those monthly mini-contests on the now defunct GameArtisans. I used to pride myself on being a decent hand-painted Texture Artist, but then this WarCraft contest came up, and I remember getting just completely outclassed by Slipgatecentral's Death Knight.
I made it my mission to shore up this glaring weakness in my work, by doing TONS of challenges, studying handpainted techniques, researching things, doing tutorials, finding resources on lighting, brushes, etc.
Side Projects:
Dominance War 3 (Crappy Angel Thingy)
Dominance War 4 (Eyeball Grotesque monster)
Comicon (Morrigan)
Comicon (Ba'al)
Game Artisans Mini's (Lost to Firstkeeper like 3 times in a row)
- WarCraft DeathLord Contest
- Make Something Nintendo contest (Made a viking to Zbrush then incompleted)
- Cosplaying Characters - Chun Nova
- Make Something 8-Bit - Ino
2010-2012
Projects at Work: Rango / The Secret World
Started in-game models from ILM base-meshes, and doing some MMO work. Mostly working as a Lead, and doing heavy amounts of systems/management type stuff.
Once again, everyone got their asses handed to them by SlipgateCentral and his Dominance War 4 Winner (n0x). (Still till this day stands as one of my all-time favourite models).
Realise I need to work on my Hardsurface skills in a HUGE HUGE HUGE way.
Also realised I'm not even in the same league as guys like Grassetti, Mashru Mishu, Kolby Jukes, and need to try and close that tremendous gap.
I remember being in like an online support group on MSN messenger of other artists who all furiously trying to Level UP. We chatted a LOT while we were making a tremendous amount of art (I think B1ll was the one really helping several of us).
- Gav, Haz, Del, Dusty, HntrLuc
Side Projects:
- Polycount Brawl Contest - Mega Man
- Comicon (Sandman - Unfinished)
- Several SDKs
- Several 'Realistic' Head Studies
- 2 Art Tests
2012-2014
Projects at Work: Thief/ Deus Ex
Realised How amateurishly shoddy my understanding of Anatomy was relative to my colleagues (Eugene Fokin, Seb Legrain, Laura Gallagher, Magda Dadela)
Side Projects:
- Took all 3 of Scott Eaton's online Classes (did all the homework).
Still doing a few studies here or there in my spare time.
- 2 DOTA2 sets (Both Accepted into the workshop)
- TF2 Set (Accepted)
- Started 3rd DOTA2 set
2014-2017
Projects At work: Deus Ex Mankind Divided/Tomb Raider
All this grim/realistic stuff has me hankering to make a cute fantasy side project game.
Through this project I realise I am:
- Bad Concept Artist
- Not a great Tech Artist
- Horrible Environment Artist
- Not a great Matte Painter
- Have No clue on how UI works
- Need to learn everything about lighting.
- I have a LOT to learn about Art Direction.
Side Projects:
It's a fun little Fantasy twin stick shooter (Have permission from my employer to work on this) with a few other colleagues.
I'm always super pumped to work on my stuff and learn, but yes there are those day where I am just dead tired and cant even stay up. I always try to catch a 15-20 minute nap at work during lunch just to give me that extra energy to go further into the night. Once I'm in front of my computer at night I throw on a movie or show that I don't really care too much about or a podcast and just go at it.
Your love for creating art should be the factor that gives you that extra energy to sit down and create after a long day of work.
This way when I get home I still have the energy, unless I go to the gym. The sad reality is that I work on my personal projects about 8-10 hours a week at most. I'm taking a week off just to polish my portfolio full time.
something that really helped was not playing any video games. I uninstalled any games on my system, even though I'd only play an hour a night, and a couple hours on weekends, that was 10 hours a week I was spending on gaming and not art.
Ha ha, no need to put friend betqeen commas, it's a real discussion I had with a former classmate. It's not about me lol..And yes, instead of managed, I should've used the term ''take care of'''' sorry.
@slosh
Although, your message seems very encouraging, one year to finish a project might be an overkill for me, as grandiose and high quaility as it could be..I just can't see myself doing an animation/shot for more than like 3 months...The interests just fades aways and even when it's done and finished, I sometimes regret spending so much time on only one piece (which I don't even like that much usually)...
@JacqueChoi
Well your post is inspiring but since you're asian and you people are overachiever in this industry, it doesn't apply to us mere western people.
Haha but on a serious note, that's really encouraging to hear this, furthermore coming from someone who has a family and is quite experienced! That's really great!
So overall, it's a pretty common issue I guess. I remember watching a video about how the average person only has total amount of focus and mental energy in one day and that past a certain point, he just can't work on anything anymore before getting good sleep..I wonder if, just like muscle, there is a way to upgrade and train the mental of ''mental energy'' we have before reaching brain fatigue....
And it's hard af, I find more easy to do freelance work ( paid + deadline ) after work for multiple hours than fun personal project...
After work I have 3 hours of Swedish classes everyday but Friday, I love it but when I get home by 9-10pm I'm just too tired to do anything. And that's fine, instead of playing a game or watching TV, I just go straight to bed so I can do stuff in the morning before going to work!
I always have been a huge sleeper, and always considered I needed 9+ hours sleep to feel fresh. Now when I need time I cut my sleep, you can do that without damaging health if you're doing it right.
You just have to go to bed and wake up at the same time EVERY DAY, that does include week ends! Sleeping late on a Saturday is the best way to drain all your energy for a full week. My point is, if you always go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time you won't need an alarm anymore, your body will be the alarm. I usually go to bed at 11, 11:30 and wake up naturally at 6. That's still 7 hours of sleep, but for me it's 2 extra hours I didn't have before that I can spend on personal projects in the morning!
This only works if your issue is time, not motivation of course!
"do you have time and energy to work on personal projects?"
nope i do not.
same here... building a house and playing with the kid does eat all my time... and drinking to much beer...
In the end it's all up to you how you want to spend your free time. There are many other things I would like to do, but time is limited, no need to complain.
I stop playing video games for a bit.
I don't put myself under pressure to finish it super fast or enter competitions with time limits much.
I choose subject matter which interest me and me alone, this is my time to choose to make the art I want how I want.
Try really mixing things up and doing stuff you dont get a chance to try at work, say youre working on a lowpoly mobile cartoon game then when you have time at home try making a highpoly super realistic scifi prop etc or try something totally different and do a painting for your family to enjoy, anything really!
just make sure you are doing what excites you because thats where the energy to do it comes from.
Still there are times when I just cant do any personal art, there is just no free time for that, I need to relax instead and thats ok too!
If I was making art for the hell of it I might not care as much but I'm trying to get my portfolio sorted at the moment. The one thing that helps me right now is that my career is all very realistic work and I want to eventually work on hand painted or stylized stuff. It keeps me somewhat fresh as what I work on during the day is very different than what I work on at night.
Back on topic, I dont have any motivation to play games let alone make game art, I need serious help
Ok seriously. I'm doing my personal "thing" now as project but beside that I don't do anything. Simply bc I always would think "before spending time on <putWhateverInHere> I should better put the time in my game. So whenever I have some spare time I use it for friends, family or doing some sport - to not right out die in my chair from lack of 'fresh air' as my mother would say
That you cant work on certain things, sell certain things, work FOR certain companies etc
However, they seem very open to give permission when asked.
I'm a lost cause.
I work on my woodworking and automotive hobbies. I've also been getting into range shooting, lately. Also... whiskey.
In my experiences, spending all day at work and then bringing that home leads to a faster and more frequent burnout.
Over the last three years though, just as an experiment I dropped (Mostly) a hobby that was taking up alot of time. This was gaming.
I invested that time in doing personal work and leveling up / studying and achieved around seven personal project (Very small to large) that where completed in the last year as an example. Now I really cant go back.
The payback of doing this has been to great whereas heavy gaming for me had no real payback ....long term that I can discern now.
It also made me a bit grumpy; that, I did not like. I think I was aware that I viewed it as wasted time but was finding it hard to change the built up habit of it, but managed to eventually. Apparently it takes something like 30 days to remove old habitual behavior and build up new ones, so that was the resistance.
I am getting older now (Mid 30's) so I am pretty aware of my time and how I spend it now.
So I guess the crux of this is you can find the time. You just need to look at what is most valuable and prioritize that. Drop the less important time wasting bad habits and activities and you will be surprised with how much time and energy you will have free to tackle brand new objectives.
Yeah man...gaming and (Useless) internet browsing..... I dropped that and everything changed. Maybe a bit of an odd / extreme example, but worked for me at least ¯\_(ツ)_/¯