This could go in quite a few forum categories, but I am putting it here because it relates more strongly to computer graphics in general than just computers. Beware, it’s kind of a weird thought/problem. Here goes:
I am not new to Blender, but you might have noticed that you don’t see a whole lot of work on this site or on my homepage. What work I do have on my homepage is fairly geometric in nature - it looks kind of cool, but that’s about it. This isn’t because I’m no good at modeling; I do very well when I have something to make, and it’s not because of a lack of ideas; I have tons of scenes floating around in my mind just dying to be made.
It’s something else. Whenever I sit down in front of a computer and get ready to use it, I go into a sort of programmer mode - all the emotion goes away and my brain prepares for the clinical task of depressing keys. Those scenes I mentioned earlier just disappear, and I can think of nothing. In this state, about the only thing I can do is follow a form - paint by numbers, if you will - or color inside the lines like a well trained seven-year-old. As a result, I got huge compliments for a texturing job I did on a robot Skates modeled. It was no big deal, though; all I had to do was follow a form by looking at photos of the real robot and duplicate the look. Just another filled in page in the coloring book.
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Does anyone have any thoughts/comments about this?
I get the same way, yet if I have a picture or a an object to model i can then make it, texture it and then fill in details and make the rest of the world in which it lives.
But a computer keyboard is not a painters pallete, and your mouse is not his brush. Yet we are still artists, still creative minds, but we take our ideas and put them in a different format.
everytime I buy a new sketch book, the first drawing to the new, empty book, is sometimes very very hard to do… last time, I just put my coffee-spoon to the paper, draw the outline of it, and closed the book for couple of minutes… mixing of hot coffee and ink looked great… I moved on from there … resulting many coffee+ink pictures. later noticing that the paper on the sketch-book couldn’t handle light very well, I had to move on the more professional papers though…
but still… everytime, you should draw the first line, it’s the hardest. when that is done, and out of the way, you can continue normally with your project. you just need an open end.
with big canvases, I normally just mess them up very quickly… just to get rid of that burning white… then you start seeing something on the canvas, and it is possible to touch it… start working with it.
on 3d… this is a bit different of course… you have to decide what object you do first… and how to position things… but yes, I do recognize this feeling on 3d too… that’s why, I would suggest always to make sketches before starting. that way, you can just start modelling…
I have had same experiences every now and then, but luckily not too often.
Here’s a very interesting article about “flow”, a mental state which some reach easier that others:
What else, hmmmm… Play with Blender like a child. Forget you plans for a moment, and do some stuff on the spur of the moment. Try to reach the “flow” this way.
I think Basse gave some good tips too. I’m using one layer of Blender as a “sketch board”, trying all kind of things there. Playing. Then when I’m satisfied I move the object to the layer one, where my master scene is.
I also got tons of idea’s flowing in my head, but when it comes to actually modelling, it turns out a whole different way I actually ment.
I start on the smallest object, make it very detailed, and build up the scene, on brick at the time.
Wouldnt’it be nice to have allot of ur idea’s worked out, in the exact way you wanted…and have it totally completed?? Thats one of the rushes I get, when I complete something I intended to complete.
i hear u man! im the same way… one minute your sitting on the toilet sketching out a greta scene! and inspiration is running high! but nce u get behind the computer, it all seems to dull and lacking…
so, hears what u do, or what i do sometimes… unhook your computer, take it in your room and aon your bed… nuthing more comfrotable and great that making pictures while your on your bed…most of my ideas spawn from my sleeping quarters at night when insomnia kicks in, so it s the perfect spot to be making graphics, and ground zero =D
maybe itll work for ya =
getting my computer outta my ‘desk’ scene makes everything feel NEW to me =D lovely to say the least
LOL, I was just talking something similar. I just told a newbie that I always call my subconscious… “The master of trickery, creavity, and beyond.”
You must work around the tricks to get what you desire/see in your subconscoius in order to be successful. Your subconscious will try to change the direction immediately or lose the inspiration. You must learn how to keep it maintained… by programming it to be creavity even when you’re at the computer. You can work around the trickery traps by getting on the computer immediately when you’re inspired… lack of sleep with a lot of imagining there is a good example when to get on the computer and proceed from there.
Thanks all you guys for that discussion! I hold this forum in the highest regard because of the intelligence and the intuition of the people who come here.
As for creating sketches - I don’t do too much of that because I am horrible at drawing with a pencil. Clearly, my problem is getting what is in my head - out. Recently, though, something happened so now I can exactly describe in words every one of my thoughts - I can do my sketches in writing. I hope that works.
MoreK, that article on flow was great.
Nayman, you’re not the only one who works in reverse; Skates does that, too. He hums basslines while working, though - I don’t know if you do that.
