As a storyteller/artist, I really like to polish my works until they shine like diamonds. But sometimes that polish takes years! It dosen’t help that I’m rather critical of myself and my work, I don’t accept anything less than perfection, for myself anyway. This leads me to working on projects that take years of time, because I have to make every little thing perfect.
I have a project that I’ve put full effort into in the last year, but it actually is an idea that initially was conceived of back in 2013. The project barely resembles the original idea, but it’s definitely has been a journey to take this idea and evolve and grow it all these years.
So I thought it be fun to see if anyone else have any projects that turned into a years long endeavor. It dosen’t have to be a large project either, could just be an idea you’ve had in your head for a long while.
Absolutely, both when it comes to modelling/animation and otherwise.
I never quite know when something is finished. If I feel like I’m improving, I’m aware of what I didn’t know before (and I thus become increasingly less trusting of my earlier work)… and if I feel like I’m not, I’m aware of everything I can’t yet do.
Of course, procrastination or shifting attention can also be a factor, and then sometimes it’s just that I’ve taken on very large tasks.
My current big storytelling project isn’t all that old (I’ve only been working on it for a couple of years so far), but I’m expecting it to last me a long while; there’s a lot of background to write and models to be worked on.
(A very short summary is that it’s about a prototype AI super-soldier inadvertently discovering that “mythology” is a misnomer; the story is heavily down to how she decides to react to the existence of an entire world that humans mostly can’t see, with a theme of not-quite-human main characters - said AI, a newly infected vampire, a spider daemon, and a half-dragon.
Lots of work, but also lots of fun - although I’m not planning on launching into the main animation yet, the models have needed testing, and I’ve been able to use the test scenes to explore all sorts of mundane aspects of the world(s)… even clothes shopping becomes somewhat different when the characters aren’t quite human).
I have a few. But the one I’ve been working on the longest is a top-down shooter that’s heavily inspired by Hotline Miami, in fact its the idea that got me to learn Lua (used in the Roblox engine, ended up making a few top-down concepts there.), and now getting me to learn C# (For Unity.) I rather not go into too much detail, but I will say that my project’s overall story is based off a few real-world conspiracies, most notable being Operation Mocking Bird and the Assassination of JFK, while the art style follows a similar vibe to Hotline Miami and Akira. However one of the bigger difference’s to my projects art style is the characters, they will be anthropomorphic, reason for it is I find that you can portray a more interesting story by mixing the animal type with a setting. Project will take a few years to form shape, but I’m enjoying the trip and learning new things as I go along.
…got like a dozen other “mini game” ideas as well, but not really anything I’ve followed, just thought about and refined the idea a few times over the past 2-3 years depending on the project. However the biggest and longest project of mine, is living long enough to see some good in the world.
@MarcoSkoll
Ah yes, I forgot to mention my good pal procrastination, never get work done when they’re around!
You’re project sounds neat. Good luck with bringing it to life!
@BluDragoon
I’ve had many game ideas over the years myself! The difficult thing is that I’m quite good at programming and art, yet I just can’t find a project that I’m passionate enough for. That, or the scope gets out of hand! Good luck on your game!
I like to return to some old projects and improve them, as new tools and techniques become available, like new PBR and new SSS method, or Filmic color management (great difference, using the last one). Sometimes I improve and reuse old models in new scenes.
@rogper Whoa, that’s almost ten years ago! Good job staying motivated for all those years… So when’s the release date?
@Miss_BB Yeah, returning to old models and projects is always helpful and time saving. Sometimes I reuse old props, buildings, and character models and turn them into new ones. Though with how much better I get at modeling, I can’t help grimace at my old topology.
@ArtAvenue: Not sure Depends of a lot of factors, I’m applying it to the Portuguese Film Founding 2019, so if they acept it it will be fast. If not I’ll have to try again to 2020 and so on. By these days I work about 12 hours by day as Blender Freelancer so I can’t work on RS unless the project is also a client.
i have tuns of ideas that i wrote down, along time ago,
some go back to 2011 ,but i couldnt work on thim, becuase thy are eather hard for one man, or impossibole for me to do with my skills !!!
3D for me is by itself a long-range project. I have screenplays I have written that go back to the PTSE (Pre Toy Story Era)…lol For me that is the game changer for 3D. Since it was the first feature, well, or the first feature film that was widely known anyway. There may have been others that no one ever heard about. Because the technology was there, pre 1995 for a few years. And I was involved in that scene on an independent level.
When I finished a short film in late 1994 that had 4 1/2 minutes of 3D animation in it, I was inspired to explore that as a medium to tell stories rather than just VFX. And I wanted - incredibly enough - to make a feature film in 1995. So I started developing stories using robots to side step the very lacking (readily available) bone deformation technology and headaches it would come with. There was Hash Animation back then (actually still available) and a few high-end apps such as they used for Jurassic Park and so on. But the most cost effective app for an entire modeling and rendering solution back then was LightWave. And at the time LightWave had very limited character animation tools.
However overall, back then, LightWave did for 3D what Blender is doing today. Making it relatively cheep compared to what was otherwise available. To get into 3D back then it was something like 5 to 6 figures. But by 1995 you could buy a PC and a LightWave licence for around 4K and you were doing pretty good. So the future looked bright. But of course it was still very daunting.
So in 1995 I finally put all those story ideas and the two feature films I had written for 3D on the shelf. Where they still sit. I then spent the next 10 years writing a bunch of live action scripts but wound up making 2 of them as features independently within that time. And that was a great experience because I learned a lot about film production and cinematography.
By 2004 of course a lot had changed for 3D. And I was also ready to get back to it. Sort of like wanting to get back to more artistic roots. So that was more or less the inspiration back then. Explore my personal art - in motion - through 3D. By 2005 I had my first draft for a new feature film idea in 3D.
I was not aware of Blender in 2005. And other apps were still pretty expensive so I upgraded LightWave and continued on. I spent the next 3 years rewriting my screenplay and learning the current technology of 3D. By 2008 I had had enough of LightWave and switched to Blender. In the last 10 years, I have picked up other apps, Softimage, Maya, Zbrush. And in general learned a lot more. I improved my skills and started freelancing as a 3D artist. And continued to rewrite produce and reproduce my feature film. I also had a plan to open a studio and hire artists to help me. That is where I am today. We use mostly Blender but have a few other apps in the arsenal.
So this current project is 14 years in the making all told up to now (including early drafts and notes). I have rewritten it several times. But I now have a solid working production draft. I have about 3 out of 7 employed artists working on the project with me around other studio freelance work. And another 5 Interns from the from a local university who are working on this project as well as some of the freelance work. So currently 12 total.
Ah… so yeah, a post about long term projects kinda caught my attention… lol
So anyway, I guess I am going to start a WIP thread here at some point.
In the mean time an old thread over at the LightWave forums:
This gives some background information. Then of course Facebook:
And a temp site I will update:
Sorry if this is spam… did not intended to write such a long post. Anyway, it is done. And if you think you are taking a long time on a project, well… don’t worry. Keep at it!
@alf0 and everyone else reading this:
One man is actually better than lots of people when it comes to a student (without money involved) project. Lots of people working for free tends to give the same number of people talking about making something like Disney and quiting after making one object Anyway even if you find outstanding comited people you will spend all your time writting e-mails to coordinate everyone and won’t have time to do a thing in blender.
So trust me:
1 - You don’t need Any skills, you’ll learn them wile making the project;
2 - If you start today it will be done some day; else it wont exist ever.
3 - You don’t need a great computer also, make the graphics for the computer you have and not to try to compete with Disney
The 3 rules to make something:
1st You need to want to make something, and it’s not just typing on a forum, you realy need to want it on your heart;
2nd You need to believe that you can;
3rd You need to start doing it.
You’ll also need Time. Without time you can’t do a thing.
Best regards
thats actually nice from you
i kinda realised that i am inded aiming for somthing biger than me ," Disney" thats why i i reached for a conclusion last year, which is start small, thin go big !!!
the kind of ideas that i had and mention that i didnt work thim because i am one, and i dont have the skills for thim, wer actually short games ideas, and looking to where i am now, it might take me 2 years to do thim !!!
2 years or more… but hey! The years will happen anyway, so might as well have something done meanwhile
I’m talking by experience, I’m not talking by something I’ve read in a book or aforum.
I’m the guy that made a Blender short animation alone “Orion Tear” in 2 years from 2006 to 2008, without experience at all… it’s lousy in everyway but it got made
They Look great! I personally like very much that style of animation! Nice job! You are already much better than I was! hehe Way much better
When you complete them, if you remember, send the link to me Until next time!
I started a short film in late 2012 and it took 3-4 years to complete, finishing in 2016. I could’ve done it in less than two years if everything went smoothly but it didn’t for multiple reasons. One of them is what ArtAvenue describes, and it’s a trap you don’t often hear about. During the course of a project your skills grow, and with it, so does your ambition to make everything look better. This causes you to keep going back and reworking old parts a lot, turning into an endless loop where you’re constantly revising and polishing, but the project never gets finished. There’s also the part about procrastination - having no end in sight is a big demotivator and will make you want to work on your project less and less. Even when you do finish something important for the day, knowing that it’s still only a small part in the scope of the project robs you of that sense of accomplishment that makes you want to continue working on it.
My advice is to either keep your goals realistic or know when to quit. I finished my short but i’m not happy with how long it took. Then again, i guess you can only really learn this stuff the hard way. Here’s the short in question:
Yeah I remember that one. Very cool. I think it is amazing when people get anything done at all. 3D challenges your sensibilities because it is so hard to do anything even relatively decent. Doing something great is like climbing mount Everest even if for only a few seconds of animation.
Ah yes, i checked it out before making my post since you mentioned it above. What puzzled me is why you went with a whole 10 minutes… I planned my short to be 3-4 minutes, but even then in the initial animatics i noticed that the action tends to “drag on” too slowly in many scenes, even in the final product. Looking at it from a viewer’s perspective, i’ve found that you have very little patience to see a scene through unless it’s condensed with new developments and visual cues. Another one of those things you don’t hear much about and have to discover for yourself i guess…