Reply To: Your CG routine – how do you keep up the pace ?
I’ll link to an article I wrote a while back that might help others: https://blog.cgcookie.com/i-don-t-have-time-to-learn/
Even before I started working with Unity and CG in general on a more full time basis I always tried to keep a schedule going for things I wanted to learn. I think one of the big things to help you out is having an actual deadline to get something done. When I finally decided to really pursue this more I was teaching through videos on Youtube. It was a weekly thing and I wanted to teach something new. I always tried to do bigger and better things and that pushed me to continue learning. Even now it’s a continuous process of learning. If you have no real reason for learning something it’s much easier to put it off.
Above my desk I have this quote, I like looking up at it whenever I’m feeling like I don’t want to continue with something:
I post it because the more engrossed you get into something the easier it’ll be and the more you enjoy it. You don’t have to spend hours a day working on something. We all have busy lives, but you must be willing to give something everyday. If you really do want to become a great artist, create something small everyday. Even if it sucks, if it’s hard, just do it and feel good that you accomplished something that day that moves you forward.
Start small, really small. If you said, today I will just delete on face on this model, would you do it? Once you get started you start to realize “oh I can do this too”. Take the pressure off by ensuring you’ll do something incredibly small, anything else will feel like extra. I do this with game projects I work on. I say “I’ll just add this one idle animation”, soon enough I have a fully functional moving character because I had already started.