How does one decide on a project?
polycounter lvl 3
Most of the time I have no problem working consistently with a project, but when I start personal projects quickly, I seem to lose focus and become disinterested in the project, which in turn leaves me with a bunch of abandoned meshes. I can never decide whether I want to make a portfolio piece or a personal piece, and it sometimes feels like I have to be doing something detailed and high poly pr else I'm wasting time.
How do you decide in stone on what your personal projects are going to be?
How do you decide in stone on what your personal projects are going to be?
Replies
There's no neccessity most times to focus in on one project all at once. I think most freelancers do this, especially, for their paid projects.
For personal projects for fun it absolutely doesn't matter what you do or if you finish it, so meh. Its your time, your gain/loss what you do with it.
For portfolio pieces things are quite different. A portfolio isn't anything else than your job off the job, so you are not doing it for fun, but to make yourself diserable for a team. It shouldn't be a random collection of projects, but rather have a purpose. You should have an ideal place you want to apply to in mind. That gives you your style direction. Everything after that should be fullfilling certain goals beyond just having something finished in there. Search for concepts that help you practice/show what you want to.
I will give you as example what I did. When I started re-building my protfolio my first project was heavy on clothing since I was learning MD. Next I did a class with Adam Skutt, so the project was kept to a very simple design where I could focus on sculpting details in skin and clothing. Since both projects were based in modern times with male characters, I picked a concept with a female character in medieval armor to add female anatomy and hard surface into my portfolio. Based on feedback regarding weak facial anatomy I did 2 minor projects (one male, one female) with just heads going from sculpt to game ready including some hair solutions. Next project will contain biotics to practice hard surface with organic forms and add something futuristic to the portfolio.
As you see every piece adds an answer to a question a recruiter might have. Each piece has to be a stepping stone in my personal improvement as well as something finished for showing, since I don't have the time to waste as I need to apply for a job. This puts me under pressure and also ensures that I will see the things finished. Typically I also don't jump between projects if it can be avoided as I want to have a complete portfolio as fast as I can. Each next piece I typically start planing and chosing while finishing the current project to avoid too long down times and to be sure it is thought through when I start it to not drop it once I put time into it. Like everything in life planing and doing the basics properly saves a lot of frustration and wasted effort later on - which increases the chances of finishing projects.
Again, what you do to have fun is a completely differnt beast. But portfolio is work, so be professional about it.
Thanks! I'm trying this out to vary my attentions. It seems to be so far so good.
@Biomag
Sounds good, Thanks! I'm still a freshman in school so I have no idea where I want to work yet. Split between minimalist Low poly indie studio stuff and realistic AAA. But I'll try planning while I'm working on other things like sketches and all. Learning elements as I work sounds like it should be beneficial.
What I recommend is that you finish 90% of your projects. Just for the sake of finishing it. At least finish to model/sculpt it, even if it sucks. Because it teaches you to finish your projects and push yourself. When I was making lots of electronic music back in the days, I never finished my songs. I just made some cool loops or beats and then I threw them away. So I basically never finished anything there. That's what I learned when I got into 3D. I finished every little piece. Didn't matter how bad it was. But once you get into this upward spiral of "finishing" things, it will come naturally to you. It also helps with deciding on what to model next.
Sometimes I just pick my next project and stick with it. Once it gets difficult to go further, push through that. In the end, it was always worth it and fun anyway. You have to trick your brain sometimes and just do it. No matter what mood you're in. I promise once you get past it you'll look back and think "why was I having so much trouble finishing this last piece. It was actually a lot of fun".
I hope I could help you a little and I wish you the best!
If i'm making something simple or i'm trying out new stuff it will probably stay on the hdd.
And to decide what i want to do...i usually have a couple of methods:
1) I browse artstation looking for some cool concepts to make in 3D
2) I make fan art of games, films, animes
3) I make an original artwork, in that case i'll have the idea in my head and i just browse the net looking for some images to use as a reference
Now i want to say something about "specialization", "styles" and "sticking with one thing":
You should do what you want, a lot of people care too much about "sticking with one style" or "i want to try that but i can't because i'm specialized in [insert here specialization]", i'm specialized in environment art but i jump from realistic to anime style because i like diversity and i get bored if i do only one thing everytime, i also do procedural stuff with Houdini and some of them are not revelant with my specialization but i do them anyway because i like them.
When people say "you should specialize" they don't mean "you should do ONLY that thing" they mean "you should become good in a field first ( ex. environment ) and then you can try out new things because you are already good in your desidered field and experimenting and becoming good in other fields like characters or procedural stuff will be a plus".
So at the end, do what you like doing, pick up a specialization, become good at it, try out new things and put in the portfolio only the stuff that you want to be known for.