I have seen a number of threads that deal with “Blender Doodles” or in plain English: “Things people have created when they are bored.” Most of these threads pop up in the works in progress section and I believe that we should start a sub section, specifically with “Blender Doodles” in mind.
The current posting method for doodle threads poses 2 problems:
The WIP area is for works in progress, as apposed to something that is “done” but not quite complete.
The “Blender Doodle” threads, often contain allot of projects, rather then just one. So once the thread is buried, it becomes difficult to find a particular item.
I propose that we open a new sub-section labeled “Blender Doodles” so that artists can post one thread, in which they may deposit all of their “Blender Doodles.” In addition to keeping the WIP area, for works in progress, this will also allow us to quickly view other artist’s “Blender Doodles,” without having to slog through the WIP area.
Well, I’m not sure we’d want the test forum filled with stuff that isn’t necessarily testing anything. I occasionally browse the test forum in the hope of finding interesting uses for old features or different tests of new features. If it was also filled with “doodles” then browsing would be difficult.
I guess my question would be why people feel compelled to post doodles? If it’s worth posting at all then it’s either a work in progress, up for critique or finished - isn’t it? Heck, if I posted every doodle I’ve done in Blender we’d need a new forum!
I guess this depends on your way of looking at things. Is art a product or a process? If you view it as a process, than it seems perfectly appropriate for a doodle thread to go into the ‘works in progress’ page.
For what its worth, my ‘doodles’ thread has pulled in about 10k views since I started posting doodles on their regularly. Heres some samples from the thread:
I started the thread for several reasons. One is that I spend most of my Blender time on development these days. I also did it as an exercise in developing an approach or attitude to Blender work that mirrored the approach to figure drawing and painting that I developed in school.
I reasoned to myself if I could do figure drawings that are ‘complete’ like those, which were completed in 45 minute sessions, that I should be able to do the same thing with Blender compositions. My doodle thread is to document my own personal artistic struggle with that. As an artist, I’m trying to figure out what is holding me back from doing in the digital medium what I so easily do with charcoal on paper. As a developer, I want to identify areas of oppurtunity to improve the program so that this process becomes easier.
So for me, I put my doodle thread in the ‘works in progress’, even though it documents the evolution of my own artistic process instead of an artistic product. That process is far from complete, and something that I intend to work on some more.
