Resolved Issue, well, sort of…
If you own the house, then kick them out. Tell your girlfriend “It IS you”. If they want to make you the butt of jokes and don’t respect you, move on; they’ve committed their sins and should face the consequences. I know you care for them, but they don’t seem to care for you, it’s hard, but necessary to remove bad influences. You wouldn’t hang around a drug-user or pedo, don’t hang with haters. Sit them down and tell them “You’ve done nothing but use my hobby as an excuse to convey your hatred for me, it hurts me that you don’t respect me even though I have a life. You justify your mocking by using my hobbies on the computer. Either tell me why you hate me or have a nice steaming cup of shut the f**k up.” You can edit it for your uses, but if that doesn’t stop them, you could do what I would do. Kick them out, or move.
That’s the issue with most people, sometimes they just know what it is to be a blender artist.
Ha, ha, ha!
PlanetKiller is a bit harsh, but I think his advice is spot on. You are surrounded by ‘toxic’ people. I doubt tossing your mum out on the street and dumping your girlfriend is an actual option, but you might start by disinviting your asshole brother-in-law when you go out for a beer. Having a beer with friends is supposed to reduce your stress, not increase it.
If all your friends disrespect you, it’s time to start looking for some new friends. Find out where the artists hang out in Adelaide, and just go there on your own to meet new people who respect artists. You say you study: if you are at University, drop by the Art Department or College, wander the hallways and check out bulletin boards to see what is going on socially with Art Majors. If you are not at University, find one with an Art Department, go there and wander the hallways, etc, etc.
Above all, feel free to rant here all you want.
That is me being mild, but yes get some new friends.
Wish I did own the flat, but it is technically my uncles. Complicated story, but I wont bad mouth him here as he’s the only one who kind of thinks what I do is “interesting” (he doesn’t understand it, but I can be myself when he’s over)
I hear what your saying, and though it sounds hard, I guess I sort of agree with you on a couple of things. Yes, I love my family very much. Even my brother-in-law is a decent enough bloke underneath his crudeness, and though he’s an asshole sometimes I can’t forget that he’s gotten me out of a few very nasty scrapes.
Maybe sitting down with them and asking them what the problem is might be a good idea. I couldn’t be any worse off then I am, could I?
I think its mainly is ignorance. I mean, my brother-in-law loves sci fi movies, he just took my sister to see pacific rim. He loves the CG effects, but when he was commenting about it to me and I said “That’s sort of what I do when I’m on the computer” he just says “get real, only big companies can do that” whenever I show him a piece of work I’ve done he looks at it and says “Yeah, you didn’t do that! Sure I’ve seen it on google images before! Stop playing around on that computer mate, and help your mum out”
I don’t know, maybe if I get him to sit down in a chair next to me while I’m blending me and have him watch me make something from start to finish he’ll see that I am the artist behind the work and he’ll respect me. At least If I can endure him for that long… :no:
planetkiller is correct. dump them all now.
There is no reason to explain anything/blender to them, you like it that is all they need to know.
I come home from work and I Blender all the time, who cares what others think. I have one old fart a neighbor 84 years who comes over and gives me a hard time, I just give it right back. I show my wife my Animation and she says what I told her to say " Oh that’s nice, good job" I know she could care less. Some people can deal with it not me there is no reason to. I support my friend, neighbors and family and they support me.
You can find people who will support you.
I think what you need is to learn some mediation tactics and try to talk the issues over and see if you can’t compromise by allowing yourself to spend time with your mother.
As for the advise given, has everyone else gotten their advise knowledge from America’s ‘Dear Abbey’ column, because it seems quite apparent that the average tendency of advise from today’s generation in terms of perceived issues with parents is to rebuke them, rebel against them, or at worse just toss them out of your life.
This type of thing it would seem has affected two generations now and yet people wonder why the concept of the family unit is falling apart.
Silicon Valley seems to be taking over the economy. The internet and computers are becoming necessary tools for more modern job markets and that includes art. Whether or not you are able to explain it to the people around you, that fact still remains. I think you could think of this as a character builder and show some of that integrity later on by not saying “I told you so”. Things have changed drastically in the past two decades and there are trends of it speeding up. You are fortunate that you enjoy what you do. :yes:
You seem to be enjoying some personal success in spite of others opinions. I wouldn’t be too concerned about it.
Here’s a tip: Grow a thick skin and ignore the digs.
However, do give some thought to the possibility that you might be spending too much time with your Blender-work. Are you always talking about it? Do you spend so much time on the computer that you don’t give enough time to your friends and family? Could they be concerned that you might be burning yourself out?
It maybe why they are so negative towards what you are doing. If you think there’s a chance you might be “over doing it” then for a week, spend a little less time on the computer…and see what happens.
For the record, I was in a similar situation when I was younger and teaching myself programming. My parents claimed they caught me playing games all the time, when infact - holding down a full time job, skipping holidays and losing out on a social life - I was programming non-stop, to the point of burn out and depression(had dark thoughts at one point). All in the vain hope of getting a better job etc just to appease them. The games they thought I was playing were in fact the programs I had written myself and was testing them for bugs…
Now, being much older, I say “Would you like me to discuss algebra, Calculus and Discrete maths with you? Right,well then…don’t start.”
Thanks SamusDrake, appreciate your concern 
You could have a point with me being slightly too attached to my blender work, but having a very full schedule I often don’t have much time for blender. As I am still mostly learning blender, I do fill all of my free time on the computer, and this may be whats causing the problem. I don’t often talk about blender to anyone in my family as they just ignore me in regards to anything computer related.
I sure will consider giving blender a rest for 1-2 weeks, as I’m at the end of my rope and would do anything (bar give up blender completely) to build a stronger relationship with my family. Just pray it works, and if it does, then I’ll try and reschedule my time
thanks!
Just a quick clarification, I told a bit of a fib. She’s not really my “girlfriend” yet, but we’ve gone out a couple of times. Am hoping she will say yes to be my girlfriend when I ask her :eyebrowlift:
Thanks Orinco, your advise is most appreciated
when I say friends, technically I only have five really good friends. The rest of the usual group that I spend time with are friends of my friends, and their mostly the ones who disrespect and laugh at me. I’ve given back as much as they’ve given, but I’m still trying to uphold the “Any friend of yours is a friend of mine” rule for the sake of my real buddies. But I don’t want to be polite at the cost of them picking me to bits all the time.
Maybe if I talk to my friends I can arrange that we see each other without the throngs of tag-a-longs?
As for looking into active local art opportunities, there are a couple I’ve been looking into, and hopefully I’ll meet some great people there. The main issue with this of cause is time. I have very little time these days, and the rush and stress are really getting me down. Heck, I wanted to post this thread a month ago, but got so caught up in work I just forgot!
thanks again, really appreciate your support
Sorry for disjointed posts, am having trouble with my browser
directed to Ace Dragon
That’s the thing though, I don’t want to upset or disregard my parents, and I try to show them how much I love them both. The only problem is that their afraid of the unknown and don’t like what I’m doing, and I can’t change their views. What will make them happy? Giving up Blender?
Without sounding openly rebellious, I’m an adult, I have my own life to live, and should I obey them at the cost of sacrificing my passions and ambitions?
Thanks for the advise though, maybe I have been drifting apart from my mother since I started working, studying, and using blender. I just get so caught up in everything, that I loose track of the important people in my life and yes, have been negligent. However, I don’t want to give up blender completely, and though these things might be preventing me from having a better relationship with my mother, that doesn’t mean their evil and I have to give them up does it?
Hey mate, Another Adelaide here! I actually work full time as a artist
Not many people know about Computer Graphics / Visual Effects etc.etc… And as a result some of them may not understand what it is you actually do…I also find it hard to actually explain what we do, what the process is… We do a lot of ArchViz… so the way i explain it is that we do the fancy images / videos of those buildings that havent been built yet… as if they were built. But yeh its definetly hard to explain what you do, just try to show them some of the models / renders / animations you have made… showing is usually better then trying to explain.
Also explain how people make a living doing this full time… Theres a few places in Adelaide that do 3D work (us for starters… Convergen… then also Rising Sun Pictures is the big one, others include monkeystack / holopoint / kojo / resin / probably more that i cant think of right now)
Anyway if you need any feedback / advice on the Australian industry just shoot me a message.
My experience was somewhat similar. I found a real connection with programming. I originally set out to create a game, multiplayer (the hardest for any programmer, naturally). For the first two years my parents didn’t understand the interest, and reprimanded me for spending so much time using technology. However, two years ago (ish) a company approached me and offered me a freelance job, and ever since I’ve improved my skills, held down my own work schedule and earned money in the process.
This all said, the only area that I can find a cause for concern in relates to the amount of time that you spend with your friends and family, and finding that balance is important
Doughnut, sounds like you have more problems than you let on. You sound young, maybe havent left a good impression at being mature yet. That stuff takes time. Youth isnt often taken seriously because the very nature of being more idealistic rather than practical. There is nothing wrong with jumping into 3d but when you are young I also wouldnt eat, breath and crap it if it gets in the way of other real life priorities. For example, if you are relying on the income or support of another, make sure your priority is to keep that support…well supportive until you are self sufficient otherwise you are just going to shoot yourself in the foot.
Also region is important… regions where the market is huge will have a different reaction to such interest than regions where it is not.
You could set out examples as well. Take Andrew Price as an example, he is from Australia. He had no money to move to south korea so apparently he wrote an ebook on blender and it got him I believe $24,000, maybe it was more I dont remember. But it was enough to allow him to move to korea, which also has a much stronger market for CG work. Blender is also hard to sell when young because well, it doesnt have a good image when tied to that particular audience.
If you say start learning a bit of Maya or some other professional “image” application and sell it as a professional tool while showing off job postings which require that skill set, then you can start to change their perception somewhat (even if you intend to stay in blender). Layout the fields its part of, such as advertising, previz, vfx, video game development, movies. architecture…ect The harder the tool is to learn and be good at + the demand for such work = high paying jobs.
Dont give up on what you have a passion for, just be SMART about it. Thats the key word. Go with the flow of your situation without pissing into the wind. When you have more freedom and independence, the sky is the limit.
Thanks mate, nice to know you! Thanks for the advice, will defiantly send you a message soon, lol are these places companies, training academies or a mixture of both? And which company did you say you worked for again?
Thanks again 
Say to them: Hey you all are going to be without a job if you don’t do all the computer work I do. Laughs are only attacked with Fear. You will have all of them shaking for days and trying to learn computer things!
By the way: I am sure they all are right and you are spending too much time with the computer.