Hey everyone. This might be a difficult question to answer, but here goes:
I’ve been using Blender for several years now, and have had successful projects and creativity and project ideas came easily to me. I love Blender and it really interests me, especially as a facilitating tool to a future career.
However, I’ve been EXTREMELY busy this year (my junior year in high school) with standardized testing, extracurricular activities, college search, and just school in general. As a result, I have seldom used Blender since the summer. With the introduction of Cycles, I’m kinda behind in adjusting myself to the “modern” Blender, as i have also had limited time for tutorials. I guess the question I’m asking is how do all of you get inspired for projects or new ideas, and what have you done to get over creative blocks if you’ve had them? I’m in a creative rut right now and I need to get out of it before the summer, as I plan to seriously get back into Blender.
how do all of you get inspired for projects or new ideas, and what have you done to get over creative blocks if you’ve had them?
I know how you feel. I just finished my finals a couple of weeks ago.
Relax, got out to the movies, the park, somewhere peaceful. Once your head is clear, watch some tutorials, play around with the new features.
thanks for the advice. I definitely need to catch up with tutorials and what not. At the same time, I’m getting tired of tutorials and want to do something original but that’s where the creative block comes in haha. I can tell relaxation and time are key.
I definitely understand where you come from, I’ve been there once too!
Personally, after not using Blender for several years, it felt really discouraging hopping back on. I started back when blender was at version 2.42, which was quite a few years ago. I did it for a few years, but over time, right before the release of 2.5 I faded out of the blender-verse. Since then, not only has blender seen a bunch of feature improvements, but also it has seen an entire new face-lift. I didn’t think that I’d be able to hop back on again. But now, I’m back and excited as ever to start blending again. I think the most important thing to remember when you start up is to expect to be a little rusty, and thus take some time to re-learn some old tricks as well as getting up to date with the new ones. www.blenderguru.com has been a big help for me, as well as a few other sites you can find across the web. I’d suggest doing a little blending each day, and have a goal set for the end of the day. For example, maybe you want to pick up again on rigging so you spend your day rigging a character. Maybe the next day you work on some basic animation with the character, and then the next day you dedicate to materials and cycles rendering. Every day you will see an improvement, and by spending some times on every aspect of the development process will only make your final project better. If you try to breeze over everything too quickly just so you can have a “finished” render by the end of your first day, you’re likely to not be happy with your results and thus discourage yourself for “being bad at it” but in reality you just rushed your work. Take it one step at a time, and that’s the only way you will achieve success. It is totally possible to learn quickly, but only if you set realistic goals for yourself and stick to them. Fortunately, you have the summer coming up for you, which you can use to catch up and get where you want to be.
That would be my advice for learning in a nutshell. But remember, as an artist of any type, you must also feed on inspiration. No tutorial can teach you that. Go out, look at nature, go to a museum, or find some art website like http://www.deviantart.com/ or my favorite http://www.artician.com. Of course look for some 3D art too, but don’t limit yourself to it! Inspiration comes form all over the place, and you need to find where it comes form for you.
I got lost in some fiction sometime ago, and lost the urge to blend. That does not stop me from coming to this site, and hopefully I will fire the blender again at some stage.
I think the only reason I thank my mid-term exams is because now I have to study for about 1.5 months and have no time for Blender. I can’t wait till exams are finished because I am bursting with ideas.
If you have any other creative talents, try switching them up when you get stuck.
Or just sit somewhere and still your mind; concentrate on what you see and what you hear until you’re no longer aware of any thoughts going through your head.
The worst thing you can do is worry about not having inspiration. Do whatever it takes to keep from getting worried about it.
