productivity time sink & barricades
polycounter lvl 18
hello my precious fruitcakes.
i've been trying to be more productive with my art creating. i was looking for advise anyone may have to offer that may help one become more efficient by avoiding time sinks and barracades. time sinks would be moments in creation that tend to pull you in and eat up your time, like getting stuck adding details that don't matter, and a barracade would be moments you come to a wall that either takes extreme concentration and patience to get passed or make you stop entirely only to start again later, such as a constantly crashing program.
i'd like to hear about your time sinks and barracades and how you've delt with them. i'd just like to concentrate on issues within the actual creation process. so internet forums and gay pr0n sites (per), need not be discussed.
my goal is to create a discussion where people can present issues that prevent them from being a better production artist and tricks or tools to circumvent them can be offered as a solution.
-kp
i've been trying to be more productive with my art creating. i was looking for advise anyone may have to offer that may help one become more efficient by avoiding time sinks and barracades. time sinks would be moments in creation that tend to pull you in and eat up your time, like getting stuck adding details that don't matter, and a barracade would be moments you come to a wall that either takes extreme concentration and patience to get passed or make you stop entirely only to start again later, such as a constantly crashing program.
i'd like to hear about your time sinks and barracades and how you've delt with them. i'd just like to concentrate on issues within the actual creation process. so internet forums and gay pr0n sites (per), need not be discussed.
my goal is to create a discussion where people can present issues that prevent them from being a better production artist and tricks or tools to circumvent them can be offered as a solution.
-kp
Replies
how i overcome it. very WIP
by working bit by bit.
i usually start without using a cage in my projection, then i see what needs fixing (some corner vertexs go wrong way, ends of cylinders), and go through the model section by section getting each bit right, and peicing the results together in PS. this seams to work ok, but ther can be more issues with seams then by producing a single map in a single pass.
Anyhow the sinks and barricades are mostly mental, so I find it helps me to skip around from task to task, temporarily shelving the tough bits, stuffing them into my subconscious. Usually by the next day solutions manage to pop into being.
Another normal mapping time saver I've found is that putting your UV seams along actual seams or intersections on the character can make a huge difference. I used to place equal importance on minimizing stretching and have reasonable seams, but I've realized that putting a higher priority on keeping seams in natural areas (cloth stitching, real hard edged areas on the character) and accepting some stretching (within reason) works out very well when using normal maps. This probably seams... seems... pretty obvious to some people but it took me a while to figure out and has really improved the overall quality of my finished models.
at work now i refuse to work on one thing at a time because its just so wasteful time wise. if i have 5 or 6 things i can knock out all the modeling at once, then the uvs, then texture or rig. way better than having to swtich gears right when your in the groove of modeling or texturing. its something i picked up in art school having 5 to 10 projects at a time, you have to work on all of them at the same time, if you get caught up in one piece you will never finish any of them in time.
...if i just do this a few more times, i might get a whole lot more time off =D
- Solution: Murder.
2) Textures, unwrapping and blending textures using vertex paint.
- Solution: Teach the 2D artists to unwrap.
3) Touching up textures and rearranging UVmap pieces to fit on smaller textures to improve render times and the look of textures.
- Solution: More training for the 2D artists to be more efficient when they unwrap and more Photoshop training for said 2D artists...
4) Render times. Since all the work I do is pre-rendered or cinematic, quite a bit of time gets spent running test or final renders. Even at 15fps 3min of animation takes a really really really long time to render.
- Solution:
Long term: Talk to IT about setting up a small network render server.
Short term: A few boxes sit unused, cobble together a small render farm on your own. Set up text message alerts when a job finishes (often on the weekend) so you can go in and get another one started. Just because you are not at work doesnt mean your computer(s) get a break. Use plug-ins to chain render multiple files, cameras, frame ranges, and automate post production effects. Also render without textures, effects or do just wireframe renders.
5) Losing focus and having trouble remembering all the cool new ideas I had the day before.
- Solution: Do mini a walk-thru of each environment I am working on, at the end of each day. Take notes, and take those notes home with me. Review the notes on the morning commute while stuck in traffic. Often I can build off of new ideas I get after a night away from it.
- Solution: Budget your time. Create a "fix/bug list" of things
- Solution: Bouncing from project to project helps give me new ideas about old problems. Sometimes I get bogged down on the technical side of trying to fix a certain problem and overlook the simple approach, which is normally throw out what you have and start from scratch. Thats when I notice I need to bounce to another project.
6) Working on a solution to a problem and getting way-laid by someone walking up wanting to chat.
- Solution: Headphones and telling the person, sorry buddy Im really really busy no really stop talking Im going to turn around now and pretend you are not here stop poking me, I am not going to turn around Im sorry I broke your fingers and made you eat your pinky.
Also, came across this cool app recently, 3dsmax Dialog Skipper, could be super-helpful for net render jobs. It's just been updated to send email alerts, among other things. It isn't on Martijn's site yet, but fire him an email if you're interested, and he'll probably hook you up. Totally saved my ass recently, for a game-batch-export job.
Cool thread btw killingpeople.
Maintain your computer, virus scan, disk cleanup, deleting temp internet files in internet options, and defrag, defrag, defrag to avoid your computer slowing down too much.
Personally when it comes to churning out work, I do it a helluva lot faster when there's a set deadline to work towards, such as forum contests, where you see others making progress along side you. As much as I love creating 3d, if there isn't a deadline telling me "THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE NEXT WEEK" I more easily get caught up in little distractions like checking emails or the latest trailers on quicktime.com.
Also the link to Martijn's site gives me a forbidden error. From the main page the maxscripts section is "under construction". I'll hunt around using his name and see what I can find. Do you have the name of the plug-in, that might make the search go a bit smoother?
Workstations, we used to have to manually click the render node button on each person's machine, so the net mgr could see it. So yeah it was a polite policy. That was long ago tho, tech may have improved since then.
In terms of my 3d/2d work I might break it down like:
- Texture front bumper
- Do rear window logo
- Model mirrors
and so on. Sometimes if it's a particular project I am not enjoying at the time I will go as far as to number these lists according to difficulty and proceed to do them from most difficult first in this order. Maybe some people would consider this approach anal, but it works for me and is rewarding at hourly intervals or however long it takes per mini task.
I find that if I don't organise myself this way then time is easily lost.
this takes it from a mamouth amount of work into managable chunks (being able to see the light at the end of a peice/ project is always a good boost)
I will just comment on my daily routines rather than getting too specific on certain applications. Generally I find that I am far more productive by listing my tasks in little chunks. I keep my dairy open on my desk everyday and just write down the days goals.
In terms of my 3d/2d work I might break it down like:
- Texture front bumper
- Do rear window logo
- Model mirrors
and so on. Sometimes if it's a particular project I am not enjoying at the time I will go as far as to number these lists according to difficulty and proceed to do them from most difficult first in this order. Maybe some people would consider this approach anal, but it works for me and is rewarding at hourly intervals or however long it takes per mini task.
I find that if I don't organise myself this way then time is easily lost.
[/ QUOTE ]
ditto.
I just write a list every day, and carry uncompleted items over to a new list the next day. Far better to do this on paper, for some reason.
along with lists, i suggest self-imposed time limits for certain activities if you know that you tend to take way too long on them. cause you know there are always going to be some of those time sinks that get the better of your time before you know it... so you can help yourself stay on top of that (or at least be more aware of the time spent) by saying, "ok, so i'm detailing this piece but i don't want to spend too much time on it. i'm going to give myself until 2:00 to do it." tends to make you work a bit more efficiently, and once the time limit rolls around you can evaluate whether or not more time is warranted on the piece or if you should come back to it later.
now something i know i need to work on but other people on here like Daz have mentioned for being greatly beneficial to working better is to take regular breaks. might seem counter intuitive, but the idea is that you regularly break every hour or so just for a few minutes--clear your head, blink and roll your eyes around a bit, stand up and get some water or something--and thereby keep a better handle on how your time is spent and actually end up working more efficiently, since you can better focus on each chunk of working time.
since when you take an entire work day as a whole, it can either seem daunting, or just as easily get wasted by getting caught up in only a few tasks that you know you shouldn't be spending that time on.
ok enough compulsive advice giving for me. i should be asking right along with you for tips since i've got a fairly rubbish work ethic myself
I just write a list every day, and carry uncompleted items over to a new list the next day. Far better to do this on paper, for some reason.
[/ QUOTE ]
For me - with my terrible memory, the act of writing burns that information into my brain. Plus I have a meticulous archive of all the tasks I've done - very handy for when other people need those details.
now something i know i need to work on but other people on here like Daz have mentioned for being greatly beneficial to working better is to take regular breaks. might seem counter intuitive, but the idea is that you regularly break every hour or so just for a few minutes--clear your head, blink and roll your eyes around a bit, stand up and get some water or something--and thereby keep a better handle on how your time is spent and actually end up working more efficiently, since you can better focus on each chunk of working time.
[/ QUOTE ]
not suprising
i find working on 5 or 6 things at once is a great time saver, ...
[/ QUOTE ]
Me too, I actually sit in at a table surrounded by 5 computers. I run a 1 limb per workstation workflow, it works pretty well hahaha.
Nah, I agree with that totally. I always like to have 2-3 things going on at once. I'm not sure how much it actually improves my (student) workflow, but I find that I mentally feel a lot better this way. You get to avoid the stress of getting hung up on things, plus if you work on 2-3 things at once you'll get a day where you finished 2-3 things in one day. When you feel better about working, it's easier to work harder.