I just can't decide what to do!
namtar3d
Posts: 246
Hi all! First, i'm a hobbyist, a crazy one that spend a lot of money on this.
Finally after all this time, i have all i've always dream: A nice PC, DazStudio, Carrara, Octane, Zbrush, other nice software, and a nice library to make everything i want.
Then... nothing!, i just can't start! i'm blocked!
Years thinking hundreds of cool ideas are gone now! i can't decide what i want to do.
Any advice?
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Maybe be inspired by the concept of a pioneer and enter this month's challenge?
When I get a block:-
Choose half a dozen items at random and make a scene from them.
Browse the image librares at DAZ3D, Renderosity, and ShareCG for ideas that spark my imagination.
Check out the threads here at the Carrara Discussion for inspiration. Love the way HeadWax puts his spin on the old paintings, Stezza is always great for a laugh/giggle.
Look at my earlier work and see how I can improve it. With the release of the Digital Carvers Guild freebies I am also now looking at how I can improve using those excellent items.
Join in the competitions and have some fun. Plinths and Pioneers - hint,hint.
Go to the library and browse through the picture books looking for inspiration.
Select a theme I am interested in and do a google image search for inspiration - there are some great aliens out there !!!!!
double that
when I work I am telling narratives - start off with your protagonist - then hunt through your library and pick objects that dont fit with your narrative - then make them fit
eg 'she jumped off a bridge' - he painted the bridge green - the puddle was deep - a pelican sat on the top of a london taxi - the woman who juimped landed on the taxi - the pelican didnt see her coming - but three kids did - they just started to run as she landed on the pelican - the taxi driver was upset - he didnt call and ambulance for sevne minutes and by then it was too late - the pelican was dead on arrival
or whack up a plinth in one of the modeling rooms for Misty's side contest and plonk a Vicky with a sword on it
Look to a real master for inspiration.
Hahaha thank you guys for your advices.
You are absolutely right, theres a lot of things to do. I just need to focus :D
The pionners challenge looks awesome, by the way. I think i'm gonna join
Thanks! very kind :D
a) you're not alone on this phenomena - across the board: "all dressed up, nowhere to go..."
b) start small/simple, either still or animated. simple scene, be clever with your framing. *play* with lighting!
c) possibly use an existing Carrara (or DS...) scene/template (w background stuff and lights that are known to work) for the base and add 'your idea' - just to get going
c2) try to replicate, improve, or parody a well-known classic/masterpiece (mona-lisa, modern style, - vicky with a thong... etc.)
d) physically sketch something as a target render/image, and *don't* let yourself get distracted by anything 'more fun' (e.g. how does *that* work, or, I need better lights from that fastgrab set, or I wonder if I can model that better, etc.) . 'more fun' = distraction/avoidance. you'll never produce a render to your own standards if you break this rule. better done than perfect.
e) have fun doing it. make the scene funny, or irreverent, or risque, or somehow 'clever' to your own sensibilities, or you'll probably get bored with it and lose your inspiration. Something to make your best friend(s) grin or go 'whoahhh cool!'.
f) come in here and swallow your ego and see what others think/recommend. Remember that even if someone 'helps' you, if it starts out as your idea, there are only about 30 of actively here (out of 7 billion folks), and only we would know that you got some 'help', and none of us are gonna tell anyone! What happens in DAZ Carrara Forums, *stays* in the DAZ Carrara forums...
ETA:
e) stay out of the store(s) until you finish your final (first) render!
heh,
--ms
That there is a great image...
made my day!
--ms
I've mentioned the 48 Hour Film Contest, held in cities around the world every year. You have two days to produce a five minute video (animation in my case) given a random genre (comedy, drama, romance, scifi ... about 30 total) and a character (name -F/M- and occupation), prop, and line of dialogue. It really makes you focus and just get on with it ... I recall walking out of the kickoff meeting when the character was a chef. The (live action) team walking out in front of us said, "There's a restaurant over there, let's go shoot ..."
Here's one we did years ago that the judges liked (it was a special environmental contest, we drew "The Earth", meaning the soil).:
think of happy things ... then render it
Listen to this song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUL3ut4gyQ
Songs can be great to inspire.
Also walking is a great way to get creativity going, and just start thinking up characters and worlds.
No problem with that, but sometimes creating a scene completely from scratch can be too time consuming. I usually have a mixture of my own stuff, and stuff from other sources, like DAZ 3D or Carrara's native content.
I just feel that sometimes there is no need to reinvent the wheel, unless that is what you want to do. For instance, I may build an environment from scratch, but populate it with DAZ or Poser style figures because the time it would take to build, articulate and texture a realistic human or animal is not what I want to spend my time on, when I already have access to them.
Interesting theme - and it makes me think that it's not an either/or, but more of a 'ratio' between process and result.
I often start out in most things in life with a result in mind, but find that I enjoy the optmisation effort as I get there, even with something as mundane as vacuuming. Always looking for a better way to cover the area...
Likewise and practically, in 3D, I simply cannnot build everything I'd envision in a scene, but don't want to take an amazing Howie Farks scene preset, load it up and render it as if it were something I'd created, as much as I'd like the resulting image. Move the lights, add a castle and a couple of Vickies with swords and thongs, and a dragon or two, and ... now we're talking. Animate it all and suddenly I'm in the process, not just spectating.
That said, I can't wait 'til the day I can say "I modeled and textured everything, created the HDRI lights, simulated the clothes in the wind, and animated the characters that I built...", but ... I need some baby-step wins to keep me on track to actually do all of that, so I'll grab my aiko3 and a few hero outfits and a dragon, and off we go!
Smiling the whole time!
--ms
this is great stuff to me!
Interestingly enough, some art forms (many of our favorites, actually), seem to be partially popular because they are in a form we're comfortable viewing (or listening to).
Take for example, the large amount of energy we spend trying to get that Disney 'cel' look in animations, that pulp-fiction and 4-color DC/Marvel look in our comics or that manga texture shading look, etc. And almost all of these 'styles' were driven almost entirely by the economics of printing and press reproduction techniques in their day. Music has the four person band era (drums/2 guitars/bass) that held-strong for years as a standard 'sound' that we still accept (if not like more than uch of the current dub-step/techno/rave/electrinica, etc.)
The faked lens-flares that are pervasive in modern animation... surface roughing to make scenes seem more authentic/grungy.
To the original topic, I wish I could do it all from scratch, but realize I can't, and yet I also don't want a 'make art' button either. Having pre-made stuff to tweak, and amazing tools to tweak stuff with seems to suite my creative side, as well as make me believe I can actually finish and present an idea in an amazing way, in a reasonable amount of time!
Add to that, I *really* like the journey of creating worlds, testing sliders, rendering variations, and otherwise playing with the overwhelmingly infinite options that are available to us in this playland of 3D polygons and pixels! That I might actually produce a neat piece of 'art' is icing on the cake to me!
cheers!
--ms
compose a sweetness that is Aiko 3
make something kewl with anything glows like a light sabre
holidays are coming. never too soon for some halloween spookiness
creativity needs a yummi snack and a favorite songlist. and soft cuddly jammies to relax in.
Here's a modeling idea, hah, ha
I have used Carrara to model and rig my hero inspired by Flash Gordon, Rocky Jones, Buck Rogers, Crash Corrigan, and a host of similar protagonists. My character is Brash Lonergan. You will find Brash wearing his sci-if helmet courageously exploring the dangers of outer space here.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3254981/#Comment_3254981
If you skim the page, or even look through The whole thread, you will see other references to his adventures (and Moxie’s). I generally prefer comic and other stylized renders, so keep that in mind. Would love to see some of your homages to Flash Gordon - inspired storytelling. I really enjoyed the thread on torus planets.
Bunyip - that is great. Hadn’t seen it before, and I am a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes.
thanks
My one and only desktop computer, that I use for my major CG work, turned into an "Iron Lung" vegetable last week. It starts but no single to the mouse, keyboard, or moniter, and no red light going on indicating that the hard drive is working. The computer is over 4 years old, and I used it's multimedia tools a lot.
I am currently using my Sony laptop which I bought in 2012, so it is getting on in years. If my laptop goes, then goodbye CG graphics work.
Money is very tight, so a new desktop would have to be bought on credit, and if Debtor's Prison still existed I would be a permanent resident for life as things stand now.
Maybe a Christmas sale would help, and my limit would be 900 dollars using Paypal Credit. Any suggestions on the best desktop CG graphics art computers at that price level. I don't play any computer games, or online games.
I will take a look at the images posted here when I cheer up a bit.
well you probably won't notice any differences using Bryce on your laptop
sorry about the PC, maybe can troubleshoot and find exactly what hardware is not working
it might be peripheral related, maybe remove the graphics card and boot up with your mobo monitor input, I am not terribly geek I am afraid
pulling out RAM sticks often helps if one faulty
a good de-dusting and reseating of everything can sometimes fix the problem.
I remember an older lady and daughter came in one day with the same problem as you described.. I plugged the the unit in and sure enough -- no go --
I opened the case whilst talking to them quickly reseated the processor and bingo.. came to life.. they did't see what I did and just stood there in amazement and asked what did I do.... Magic fingers I said ... and left it at that, gave them their PC back and said have a great day.. and no, I didn't charge a cent for it..
but yours could be entirely different and totally useless.. one never knows till one tries.
Stezza,
From your reply I assume you work for a computer repair company of some kind. I have a cousin who repairs desktop/laptop computers and makes good money at it, but he lives in Texas which is four states east of here.
This weekend I am going to clean off a tabletop, place the desktop on it, and then open the thing up to have a look. Hoepfully it is just dust, something loose, or unconnected, a spiderweb (hah), maybe even a small lizard crawled into it. (small lizards creep into this house now and again)
If the hard drive died, that will be sad because I saved most of my files, but not all. I didn't have enough room on external drives for the files; Which is another problem. Two of my external hard drives were purchsed in 2011, and 2012, and the third was bought in 2016. So, it's time to buy some new ones, another expense although thankfully 2, to 3 Terrabyte hard drives are not that expensive any longer.
th3Digit ,
I tried rendering some scenes using Bryce, and Carrara. with my laptop and my "temperature monitor" numbers starting going up to 130, and 140, so I stoped the renders. I don't want my laptop burning out from high temperatures. Even my old Painter 8 software makes the temperatures go up too high. Extra fans would help, so I will look into that. Any suggestions about the best external cooling fan system for laptops would help.
My laptop has two cores and 10 ram.
maybe you need to start looking at those online auctions JonStark was frequenting
grab some ex server dual xeon renderbeasts