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

[rhemmali]

arthur shapiro you are my motivation for today men

[Keith]

I’ve started, stopped and started again; in learning 3D (specifically geared towards indie game-dev, and making art assets).  I’ve done this more times than I’d like to own up to.  My current job is quite stressful (going on 13 years now), and isn’t at all creative.  In fact, I’ve worked for around 24 total years in government work….in one path or another.  I’ve totally deviated from what I started off in, in life.  I’d like to seriously change that.  Now, with a Family and the reality of the daily grind, I’m finding it very hard to break away from that.  Most days I’m totally drained, especially mentally.  But the things I do to relax and calm down, give me nothing in return.  I may as well just watch endless YouTube videos about nothing.

I have found that I learn quicker (apart from initial training on any application or program), with project-based learning.  There is a great course on another site, that has you going from knowing nothing about Unity, to putting together some workable levels, with basic AI and everything….with emphasis on art pipelines.

I find myself monetarily supporting CGCookie from year to year, without truly utilizing the amazing help from content providers here.  What it comes down to, is realizing that my expectations are way out of wack, and I need to be more realistic….and focused on my learning phase.  Self-discipline.  I do like that the CGC Staff are always evolving the way they do things, to better support all of us and our different journeys.

I guess this was more of a ramble, than anything else.

[sekodilemo]

I also have a regular job and just take my first steps in CG, because I want to work in CG and quit my current job. Well.. anger at my job is strong motivation to practice in something I really LOVE. I don’t have enough free time to practice at work, so I do this at home. I wouldn’t risk my life saying to my wife “Hello honey, this evening I’m not gonna spend time with you and our daughter because CG Cookie lessons are waiting” – so I work in Blender at late evenings and even night hours when everyone is sleeping.

And sometimes it’s really hard especially when it’s not weekend, and I have my alarm lock-n-loaded on 6:30 AM. So I usually practice from 10-11 PM till 00-02AM. It’s hard to sleep 4-5 hours per each night, so I use usually 4 days per week for Blender. (My record was to start at 22 PM and to go to bed at 5AM. And then after an hour and a half I heard my alarm rang and went to work).

Later I noticed that my activity lacks of structure, I tried to learn of everything at a same time. So I’ve made some schedule (e.g. Monday – modeling, Wednesday – texturing in Substance, Friday – animation, and so on), because I think 3 hours of “scheduled” work are more valuable than 6 of “random”. I get involved in the mobile game project, just with 4 enthusiasts like me, so I have quite a tight schedule, and my motivation is not to let the others down.

[sekodilemo]

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[sekodilemo]

https://blog.cgcookie.com/forums/topic/dominics-polybook/

[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.

[William Miller]

I’ve been trying to make it a habit to do Blender stuff between 10:00 and 11:00 pm.

[CG GroundBirdie]

“

Analogy: 3D Art

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

“
That’s Brilliant (very funny 🙂 )! I like you’re analogy. For learning i’d say, don’t forget to experiment! Experimenting with various features you can learn and improve your understanding of they’re usage. And just be amazed what Blender can do. That’s also part of the learning process, not “just” watching the video’s. From experience, i’ve found various fancy things in modelling, texturing and shading that are worth remembering. If i get this “wow”-moment, i just take a screenshot of the settings so i will not forget it later. Because there are so many things to learn and combine, making a kind of library of (digital)notes and images may help you in the future and possibly re-understand things you’ve forgot.

In the matter of shading, its particulary useful to make a central Blenderfile with interesting materials. Like wierd texture combinations, glowing or transparent Fresnell and radomized circlepatterns.
You’ve stated that you’re not sure what direction you would want to go (maybe modelling) and you’re time is very valuable from what i understand. Perhaps its helpful for you to formulate a goal for the long run and make a checklist of the courses and learning flows wich help you to achieve it. It helps you to guide you to what you want. Atleast that’s what im doing, as the’re are so many things to see. Plus i also keep track of all previous activities to atleast be able to reflect back. Otherwise i’ll just wonder what the heck im doing these 2.5 years. Maybe that also works for you.

[lightbringer]

That’s awesome man! Keep at it and good luck with the game.  

[Martin Starchel]

Also want to quit my job and go deeper into CG. My main problem is that I get stuck sometimes because there seems to be so much to know that I had to start splitting everything into pieces.(like “sekodilemo” mentioned) A day Lightning, then modelling, Animation, texturing… Tried always everything at the same time wich I found useless because a week later, things just got forgotten. 

So let’s move on, let’s do some modelling, wish you all the best in your progress

[tiramisu]

I started learning Blender late last December with Andrew Price’s donut and coffee cup tutorial. After I was done, I felt like I could do anything, so I went online and looked up what else I could do with this newfound power. A friend suggested cgcookie so I can get a handle on Blender tools. (I watch other youtube blender channels as well.)

I practice pretty much every day, probably hours.  I have time for it because I work short hours at a warehouse, and I think I’m only decent at modeling because I’ve drawn in 2d before starting in 3d modeling.

I made my first basic human mesh about two weeks ago! And that’s great.

I guess my goal is all over the place but mainly I want to start rigging and modeling characters for avatars and 3d printing. 

[rstich]

My personal “secret” is to not overstress ist.
I dont say that i need to work for a certain amopunt of time on this or that.
My Goal is it to open up Blender and to Modify one thing.

Fact is if you do this you will not stop after that one thing but its very easy achievable. So you feel not guilty if you dont have much time today and get your little bit of achievement every Day.
From my experience it is far more important to do it regulary than to spend a large amount of time at once.

Im doing this for Drawing since a few years. Goal of the Day is to Draw one single line, there was not a single Day where i stopped after this one Line.

Dont forget that you have a Life too and you really need it to fuel up and not burn out in a short amount of time.  

[springzephyr]

I totally agree with you. It is hard to prioritize where to start first.  I wish there was a perfect scheduled lesson calendar that would tell you what to work on next. I keep trying different tutorials but they all seem to have an aspect from other tutorials that I haven’t gotten to yet.  For example I was doing the treasure chest and going along well until the UV editing which I had no knowledge base for and I hit a road block.   Is there a place on CG that has all of the tutorials in order?  So I don’t have to spend so much time finding the next lesson? I love it though, don’t get me wrong, great resources.

[Author]

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