I wanted to learn 3d Modelling, so I could do everything by myself. I have learned some of the programs for 3D Modelling, like Blender, Maya and so on. I am familiar with almost all the tools and I can do a lot of stuff with these! The thing is… that when I want to make a Model, I start doing it… but in the way, I get confused, bored, and I dont want to continue it anymore, so i just give up! This is driving me crazy! Sometimes the model is not that good for me, because it doesnt have the detail i want, sometimes I dont think that kind of model is appropriate and yea… all the work gets deleted. I dont know what I am doing wrong! I have heard people say that making design in a paper helps a lot, but sincerely, I DONT know!
I would really really really like your Tips guys, coz i am willing to become good at Designing, it just looks like a labyrinth for me!
From the technical side it sounds like you’ve worked through the learning curve. You know the tools and understand the concepts behind them. Correct me if I’m wrong.
If you are constantly abandoning work, the first question that comes to mind is what is your real interest. What holds your attention and is there a specific focus that fits this best.
Example, I know plenty of people who hate modeling, rigging, lighting… Put that in front of them and they’re on Facebook in under 10 minutes… But ask them to animate, they skip meals since they are so focused on the work… So maybe modeling isn’t really where your heart is… The concept art will help you stay on track and give you a path to follow, but the underlying idea is to have a solid, polished concept… And if this is personal work, one that your really interested in.
You are right about the fact that i have gone through the learning curve. Programming is definitely what my heart is, but still, i feel passion for modelling, for creating cartoons, and giving them a life with programming… it has always been my dream!
Staying on task is a tricky thing sometimes when it comes to personal work. With clients, CT it’s, deadlines, and other dependencies keep moving you forward. There is external momentum that helps out. That’s absent with personal work. Do you have a WIP/sketchbook thread? Put your work out there for feedback, but also give yourself task & deadlines. Maybe even make them public on the thread so the community knows them. Ideally you can keep yourself moving forward, but sometimes having external motivation helps.
This is a motivation issue from what I see. It doesn’t work for everybody, but for some people, it helps to visualize(or even draw out) the final result. This could be the result of the single model, but complete, with details, textured, animated, etc… It could be the final game in its entirety. Or it could simply be the specific asset as seen in the final game. It could be a combination of the above.
The idea is that you get motivation from seeing in your mind(or in an image, paper or digital) of the completed project, how cool it looks, how it feels as part of the final game, or whatever depending on how you are visualizing it.
Also, personal motivation helps. I’m referring to two different things. One would be motivation on a team. You have a partner that you feel committed to and you wouldn’t want to let down(or more than one partner). Or, you post somewhere your plans, but somewhere that you would feel down about not finishing, as in a community you let down. This option works better the more you actually know the people, the more you interact with them, etc… because you feel obligated to be able to describe progress you’ve made. I play MechWarrior Online in a unit, and the enjin forum there has a topic about my game, the progress, etc… It is going really slowly so far, but I actually have voice communication with these people, and know them better than anybody here on the Unity forum, or Gamedev.net. It is easy enough to fade into anonymity in a forum where you don’t know the people, but somewhere that you actually know the people, whether online, or even real life, maybe people you see at work, or whatever, it is harder to avoid those questions. So it tends to be more motivating to complete/progress your projects.
The first one was going at it with the mindset of a programmer. I would got around trying to model following a specific curve pattern, ridiculously accurate positioning, hitting magic numbers and whatnot. This sucked the life out of me and slowed my progress. In the end, I had to wean this pedanticism off and accept “good enough” - or maybe even “others won’t look closely enough to see how bad it is”
Another related one was aiming for perfect results. I had a vision of how things should look and could not pull it off, so instead of just going at it with whatever skill I had, I procrastinated away. I’ve invested 25 years into another skill where I’m now an expert and produce great work, so starting a new skill from scratch and producing only sub-par work is something my ego doesn’t like to see. If I put off working on it, I don’t have to face that I’m still bad at it
Finally, motivation. Complicated. The most difficult part is always starting in the morning (or after any lengthy interruption). If I can make myself work on something for 15 minutes, after that, my head is filled with that topic, so I prefer working on that rather than what seemed interesting 15 minutes ago. If it’s really shitty work, I pull out the old Pomodoro timer and chip away at it (see Pomodoro method - set up a timer and make the commitment to work for a small duration, say, 5, 15 or 25 minutes on one task - helps willpower and trains focus).
And after all these years I still wonder how other people do it
To me this sounds like you know how the program functions, but artistically you’re not getting the result out of your fingers. It’s like picking up a pencil and trying to draw a cool dragon without a lot drawing experience. Sure, you know how a pencil works, but seeing this marvellous dragon in your mind and then getting it onto the paper somehow doesn’t happen.
The simple answer here is that this is a skill you need to develop and it’s a skill you will keep developing if you keep doing it. Even great artists are most of the time not happy with the results they create, they see the flaws in the work and their own shortcomings. If you’re passionate about modelling, just keep doing it and you’ll see progress eventually (compare it to stuff you did like a few years ago). But it’s not as simple as just learning the program. It’s a tool and you need to invest time into it to use it effectively.
