Your CG routine - how do you keep up the pace ?
Hi :) I registered for around 6 months now, and have sometime hard time to maintain a good training tempo. Some weeks go really well and I can complete several exercises or course, and then it also happens that there's couple of weeks where nothing really happens.
Of course there's always moment where one does actually not have time, but I would be interested to know what are the community's routines and learning process. Do you have any tricks or technique to get yourself started? Do you allocate a certain moment of the day to practice ? If CG is a hobby or a side-job (that's my case, I have a "regular" employee job AND work as a freelancer in CG), how do you find a good balance ?
The motivations is almost always there, but I find the hardest to both get started and to go eventually complete a given course, without being distracted by other tutorials.
Please share your experience!
Cheers,
Thibaut.
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Yes, you've mentioned a briliant thing: just try to launch Blender, and you'll see - all these vertex and edges will hold you for hours! Even if your are not in a proper mood for practicing, just listen to a very beginning of any tutorial. Because sometimes the only first 3 seconds are the hardest
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For me it would be totally helpfull if cgcookies had more learning flows (guidance in general) and better time estimation to complete a course, sometimes you don't know if you are doing things slow or it's normal.
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I like the schedule idea, dedicating a day to a specific technique! I will give it a try.
Luckily I do not need to practice late at night, it's more finding a balance between different projects I work that is the challenge. But scheduling and prioritizing seems a good and smart advice :)
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Thanks for the link and for the advices, it's inspiring :)
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Whereas we'd like to think most members are like Z zickkie in that they're trying to develop professional-level skills
theluthier In that case, wouldn't it make sense to teach professional software pipelines? At least for people trying to get a job in the 3D industry, I would think their chances would be better if they were learning things like Maya, Nuke, ZBrush etc.
More than anything, I think Blender shines for independent artists and independent game developers. While it may never give you the best looking results on its own, it works amazingly well as a jack-of-all-trades kind of 3D software and costs nothing. Bearing that in mind, instead of focusing too heavily on highly detailed, professional-standard, sexy models, I think there should be more focus on utilizing Blender for what it is: a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I also think emphasis should be placed on video game related material, because gamedev is starting to become very popular and there are too many newcomers in that market looking for good learning material.
Er what was this thread about again?
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Good question, John. Ultimately we believe that software is a distant second priority to conceptual understanding of workflow. We often refer to this as the Why over the How. Conceptual understanding translates to other software whereas the software proficiency doesn't. Therefore if we teach conceptual understanding, our students stand a better chance of developing the higher-level skill which lends itself to professional success. It also renders the software, the tool, as appropriately less significant. Be it Maya, Max, Modo, Cinema 4D, or Blender - they all do 95% the same thing. They're all just jack-of-all-trades tools. It's the skills of an artist that studios are interested in.
Take for example, Pixar. They use proprietary software and thus no one can be trained to use their software unless hired. Pixar understands that they can train any good artist to use their brand of tool. They understand that it's the skill of the artist that's worth the hire.That said, Blender is the most accessible 3D tool. So it makes sense for us to embrace that large door of entry to the medium.
As a secondary motivation, we believe Blender has the potential to play a much bigger role in the professional industry than it currently does. Just look at how it's grown in the past decade. Valve is supporting the Blender Dev fund with large chunks of cash, Pixar sat down to talk with Ton a couple years back to discuss openSubDiv, the "Man in a High Castle" team uses Blender for the intro (I believe), I know that Epic Games has written custom Blender tools for the members of their team that use Blender -- that's just a few of the ways Blender continues breaking its way into the industry.
Back to that secondary motivation, we like the fact that by teaching Blender at a professional level, we can further push the software forward in that direction. Currently, Blender absolutely shines as an independent tool. But I think its potential is much bigger than that and the future is coming quick.PS: As we explore what CGC looks like in the years to come, specifically in terms of pushing the envelope of pro-level education, we will teach explicitly about using other software. Because you're right that professionals use a lot of tools and a good artist needs to know how to adapt.
I hope that explanation helps!
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sweenist many thanks for sharing, I can relate to most of what you describe indeed. What currently helps me is to accept that what I'm producing right now will not be perfect but I must be done with it regardless its quality. That way I believe I will avoid fine tuning over and over the model.
Then I can move on to a new project which hopefully be 1% better than the previous one. That's what I understood was a good way to progress, but the theory to application gap is pretty large !Do you write your goals down? When you are not motivated so much, is there something small you can do?
I have my own goals but not written, maybe it could a source of motivation to see them written black on white, good point!
Thanks again for sharing, and good luck to you too!
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I believe a big one is doing a mayor cut off the things that create those small dopamine dependencies that make you doze off into nothingness. Those are all inside the computer and cellphones, "social networks" youtube rabbit wholes, web surfing, reddit, etc. It is so much easier to sit in front of the computer to watch a tutorial when your day has been spent off of the chair elsewhere.
I think Simon Sinek describes it super well, check it out if not already done :) I disconnected for social networks a while ago and it's crazy how tempting it gets anytime. There's peak and plateau as well, moments when you just want to space out on youtube... Good tips and habits you describe, just updated my default starting tab :D Thanks!