Reply To: Your CG routine – how do you keep up the pace ?

[ironsoul]

I’d like to add my own insight to this discussion.

It’s about subject literacy, the ability to not only read, but also to be very good at writing.

Summary:

It’s still early days and I’m sure I will delve even further into learning, but a big breakthrough in how I go about learning new skills has been made:

I need to achieve blender literacy. Until that time I will spend about 5 to 15 minutes per day:

One lesson per day. On cgcookie this mostly means: watch one video, then recreate what they did from memory (I only take notes for specific things such as colour values used).

I expect this will take 1 to 2 years before I will be literate enough to pursue my own projects.

I suppose a relevant idiom is: learn to walk before you try to run.

Once I am literate (know what I’m doing), I’ll start doing personal projects. I’ll be able to practice an unlimited amount of time each day without becoming anxious or stuck.

1. Background, my previous models of learning.

Most people organise proficiency into the following categories.

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Expert

But this year I made a big breakthrough in my understanding of how we become competent at things and it’s about a concept I call literacy.

The problem that we have though, is that we may think we’re literate when we’ve really only scratched the surface. Some examples:

in reading and writing, we may think we’re literate because we can write words (like I am doing now). And yes it is a very important milestone to be able to write a sentence, and I think we can all agree that you are at a massive disadvantage in life if you cannot even read. I am not fully literate at language, but I know who is: authors. 

I now have a new set of levels of proficiency to work towards and a few behaviours that I need to practice in order to reach the next level.

1. Illiterate (previously called novice or beginner).
2. Reader
3. Writer
4. Author

The level names are still a work in progress but I’ll try to explain them with a few analogies.

Analogy: Writing

Illiterate: you can’t read

Reader: You can read books, perhaps even write words, emails etc but you’d definitely not consider yourself an author

Writer: You understand grammar better and are able to create stories or articles. But you definitely aren’t good enough to get paid.

Author/Literate: You have the expertise and experience required to write commercial quality documents: books, papers, articles, scripts etc.

Analogy: Car driving

Illiterate: You can’t drive

Reader: You’re a learner, you can operate a car and follow someone’s instructions, but you certainly wouldn’t be safe to drive out solo.

Writer: You are a licensed driver, you can go to work, get groceries, you know (almost) all the road rules.

Author/Literate: Rally car driver.

Analogy: 3D Art

Illiterate: You don’t know the difference between a vertex and an armature.

Reader: You can watch 3D Movies and appreciate them for their technical marvel.

If you’re learning 3D software, you can follow along tutorials.

Writer: You could work as a junior 3D modeller turning concept art into 3D models… with supervision to get you through some trickier puzzles.

Author: You’re good enough to lead a 3D project/team.

With all that said… I think the problems with motivation and progress that we as learners encounter stems from a lack of understanding of the theory behind becoming an expert. So what happens, is we try to run before we can even walk. We take on a huge project before we even know (let alone have mastered) the basics. We find ourselves unable to put the long hours in, it’s too tiring, stressful and anxiety inducing. So we take a few days off, and days become weeks become months become years.

I first started learning Blender in 2011. It’s now the end of 2020 and I still consider myself a beginner. Why? Because I didn’t lay down a foundation of literacy.

Here’s where I am in the stages of 3D expertise:

I’m a reader, I can follow tutorials. That’s all I should try to do at this stage, I don’t have enough knowledge about the complexities of the software or the workflows of what is possible to solve problems, I cannot play around with the software because I don’t have enough of a mental model to even udnerstand what my prodding and clicking on buttons even means.

So, here’s my learning plan based on the 4 stages of literacy.

Illiterate: I’ve already got myself through this stage, I’ve done super basic Blender courses such  as the “Learn the Blender Basics (2.79)” here on cgcookie.

Reader (where I am now):

Complete one lesson per day (that’s 1 5 minute video or if it’s a big video I’ll break it down into chunks of good stopping points (such as model the leg, or create the hair, rig the skeleton etc).

I will do this indefinitely but I expect this will take me one year or more. I just have to be patient.

Very important: I will do this every single day, missing a day is okay, but only if I really cannot find 5 to 15 minutes to work on getting through lesson material. Also important: I need to practice what’s in the tutorials, just watching isn’t enough. I need to watch the video, then replicate what they demonstrated

But, something else that’s important to keep in mind: I do not need to understand what’s going on. It’s more important to simply replicate the results at this stage, understanding will come later, right now all I need is a large volume of tutorials to follow along and gain experience.

Writer: 

When I reach this stage I will start using my skills to join in with projects with other people. Perhaps I’ll model props, or rig models for animation (depending where I specialise, probably modelling). At this stage there won’t be a limit to how long I can practice, and I shouldn’t get exhausted. The only limit will be real time availability. So I will try to do 4 hours on a project with a team every week, preferably more but that will be a minimum.

I’ll also continue with one tutorial per day, but they will be more complicated topics (what we typically call intermediate and advanced), but the main bulk of my progress will come through practice. 

In this stage I will build up and refine my mental models. Perhaps I’ll participate in competitions, do speed arts etc.

Author:

I don’t yet have a concrete plan on how to reach this stage. I suspect it will happen after years of practice, 10 000 hours, learning many tools (blender, houdini, cascadeur, maya, substance etc) or maybe it will never happen.

It would probably require some dedicated, deliberate, focused practice.

I’d need to find some sort of professional benchmark (a certification perhaps, or a degree).

I would need to create a high quality production… a masterpiece as they say. 

I might never reach that stage, that’s not that important. The important thing is to be mindful of where I actually am, and to realise that I cannot go faster. It would just end up “spinning my wheels” or “tearing muscle and tendons”.

You will see me around over the next year, my first objective is to complete all the beginner level blender 3D courses on CG cookie. Then I will start participating in contests and doing more advanced tutorials. Eventually I will start doing original art (I plan on making art pieces to give as gifts to people). And maybe after all that, I’ll go pro, maybe not. 

This is only the first draft of my own personal theory of competence, but I think it will be the difference between my previous floundering (wasted 7 years now) and rapidly getting up to a professional quality level of expertise.

My Principles of Learning:

1. 15 minutes per day. Or one lesson per day, whichever I feel like.
2. Lesson Every single day, no days off, 7 days a week. I see this as the same as eating, typically we don’t take a break from eating unless extraordinary circumstances.
3. One tutorial/course at a time. Even/especially if I get bored. I’ll see it through or abandon it permanently (if the course turns out to be garbage).
4. Revision: go over courses a second time (or even more) after a break to do a different course. But when replicating the lesson material, do it with other examples of my own devising. I can save some time by only doing the end of course practice project, perhaps with a different theme but using the same techniques (e.g. model a crown instead of a wheel for modeling with modifiers).
5. Grind, have patience. It’s not always going to be engaging or interesting. When that happens, just remember: 15 minutes then I’m done for the day.