Crisis of imagination? Penny for your thoughts...
RenderPretender
Posts: 1,041
in The Commons
Ever had thuat feeling where you just want to rip all your work out by the roots and start over? Really swerve hard in another creative direction with this medium? Whether it's technical frustrations or limitations, crises of imagination over content or theme staleness... or whatever it may be... I'm curious as to how artists here might address such issues from a creative and practical perspective!
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Pause, take a break, watch a show or read a book, maybe clean the house for a bit, come back to it.
I second that Ghost.
The boundaries of work/play/creativity are blurred enough as it is, I find it super important to put boundaries around what I'm doing to keep my life in balance. If I work too much in one direction, the other parts of me feel left behind and complain. When this happens, I have to take care of them. The symtpoms you describe sound like a break is exactly what you need (5 weeks rather than 5 minutes) and wait for that creative muse to return.
Colm Jackson told me that he's like that with 3D art and music: if you don't see him on the 3D circuit, he's focussing on music for a while before returning to 3D. Take a look at your other creative endeavours and indluge in those, and after a while the interest in 3D will return.
Good day ... as stated above, taking a break (sometimes short, sometimes long) is usually a good thing when creativity drags.
HOWEVER: sometimes a change of pace will help really well also. For example, say you have been overdoing it with rendering, go learn something new about modeling or texturing ... or go to an artist site and look around at others work and styles and themes and ... well everything ... sometimes you will suddenly find that change of direction you were needing [for example, you have been doing hyper-realistic images but realize that a more relaxed or dare-I-say almost cartoony look might help with a new series].
Any which way, try to relax and not put yourself under such pressure for awhile.
Consider a walk, just a quarter mile, around the block. Go to a park, mall, museum, zoo... look at life and nature around you. If you have a small pad, pencil, pen, draw. Or use your camera. See what exhibits are available where you live, especially from a medium you have not experienced. Check it out. Take a walking tour of your historic area of your city, play tourist.
Give yourself permission to relax and have fun.
RenderPretender,
Yeah, I've felt that empty feeling before, from the top of my head all the way down to my soles. A general sense of dissatisfaction. Here's what I keep in mind to stay motivated.
[1] In the 3D medium there's a never ending interplay between the left side of the brain and the right. I find it useful to feed both, from learning more about computer graphics and software tools, to understanding art theory or how images and languages are related. One aspect feeds the other; more specifically, the enthusiasm carries over, motivating me to continue learning something new -- and opening my wallet, to Daz's continued happiness!
[2] On the surface it sounds as if hanging out with fellow artists is a sure fire way to benefit from the community. But in practice, when everyone is busy creating, and measuring their worth either by their own yardstick or against their fellow artist, the so-called communty becomes a group of individuals that operate in isolation. In a way it reminds me of toddlers and how they parallel play around one another. At some point, sharing in a gallery or a forum becomes a solitary exercise.
Instead of this, a better way is to put one's art before non-artists, and have one's work be part of a larger endeavor. For example, in print/digital media for ads, books, product promotions; in motion graphics, music videos, or video games. (In my case, I GM a long-running D&D game in which my renders become part of visual handouts. The art is a handmaiden of the unfolding RPG story.) The point is, art that's solipsistic ("Hey, look at me and what I can accomplish!") versus art that's purposeful ellicits less satisfaction, IMHO.
In a world where affordable tools have lowered the barriers to generating 3D art, what's the point to it all?
If you've read Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince" then that question echoes the Little Prince's dismay once he realizes that his Rose turns out to be just one among many in a world full of roses. And yet ... in the end he discovers how his Rose is disctinct from others, why it's intrisically meaningful to him. In my opinion the key to appreciating one's own art, in a world awash with art-at-a-click-of-a-button, lies in placing one's talents at the service of another goal, one that others -- non-artists -- truly appreciate. And that, for me, is a source of satisfaction.
Hope all this navel-gazing and rambling helps.
Cheers!
Learn some new software. Download Blender or, if you're feeling really adventurous, Houdini, and try tackling different aspects of 3D than you're used to. Not only can you acquire new skills, but you'll gain a new perspective on how you do your work.
I agree with everyone on here. Take a break from it.
I have found that even during a break, your mind is still workout things out creatively (a kind of background process that is always going on).
Then when you finally feel inspired to begin working again, you will have some new surprises.
It gives you time to think about the process, rather than just going through the motions.
I have reached a point to where doing storyboards with short dialogue synopsises is boring. Therefore, I've started, again, teaching myself Blender by paying for Blender tutorials and very slowing working through them. I have to admit this time I am better then my first try at it, although I'm still certainly technically lacking and a beginner. When I get enough practice in I can finally move on to animations. I am glad DAZ 3D made the pipeline to get their models into Blender, Unity, and UE, as I by no means am dumping the DAZ models I've licensed. Instead, I am learning to model to embellish them.
I would hesitate to class myself as an artist but I've had that debate on this forum before so I'll go with the flow.
Like many others here, I do stories - multiple (usually over 100) scenes that tell a short story. I have to say that I am never happy with the finished product but it doesn't matter because I do it for my own enjoyment and the doing is my pleasure. I can always see things that look wrong or that I might have done better so, in almost all cases, I delete the completed story and start another. I have an initial idea but the story always (and quickly) assumes a life of its own and I watch with fascination how it develops. For example, I'll use a prop or an environment and that will trigger a whole new direction as I can see other possibilities develop around it.
My frustrations are therefore not to do with my own imagination (or lack of it) but to do with the limitations of the tools at hand. Some things within DAZ Studio are very limited, some are very slow and cumbersome and I am imaptient to see where the story is going. I also find that I have to redo any given scene multiple times because I notice things out of place or that could be posed better (not to mention toes penetrating floorboards or hands through walls).
I could easily see a more fulfilling enterprise if I learned Blender and all the possibilities it offers for creating my own models or animation, etc., but I am getting old and my capacity for learning new skills seems to be waning quickly. So I hope for all the technical and feature improvements in DAZ Studio.
Great feedback so far! In my case, I'm very physically active and have many other interests. Rendering actually comprises a comparatively small piece of my avocational pie. For me, I think it's more about finding the right genre, such as realism oriented glamour or even mild fetish work, and concentrating on the presentation of one subject, with quality props and a minimum of other visual distractions. I've been lost for a long time in excessive props and multi-character interactions, and it's just not working. So it's time for a thematic and technical shift.
you could always do what I am doing, run your renders including old ones through an AI im2img app
online or locally installed
plenty of free ones
it hasn't stopped me rendering BTW or buying DAZ content, I render new things (I bought as recently as today) and put them through Stable Diffusion on my PC too
Please share more! I have played with SD online, but don't know how to run an image through it. I don't think my computer has the stuff to run it locally, though. Intriguing idea!
https://deepdreamgenerator.com/ is a good one with free credits each day
others
https://playgroundai.com/create
https://creator.nightcafe.studio/explore
I tend to do videos though on my own PC using batch image with Stable Diffusion Automatic1111, you need a nice Nvidia card though
gory one I did today original render at the end
Really cool stuff! And thanks for the SD info! I'll check it out!
Continue to buy stuff from the Daz store! Even on stuff you'll never use. Spend, spend, spend!!!!
Mostly I come here and write insane and distracting replies and comments to unwind or switch tracks...
Depending on where you live, sometimes going for a long outdoor walk, bike ride or hike can be inspiring... I live 60 miles from NYC, so I could always go to a museum or something culturally significant if I get really desperate... though it's hard to come up with different disguises all the time... (there were certain unpleasantnesses and misunderstandings so I'm probably not welcome in a couple of those establishments)...
I prefer nature for inspiration... sometimes you see unique lighting and things deposited or growing in random little vingnettes that you can take a picture of for later reference.
Taking pictures with a digital camera or smartphone of these kind of scenes or just interesting objects you might find on your journey are great for inspiring ideas... even if you never use them, they are a creative distraction and you get out and away from whatever rut you may have been in...
Often you get a fresh perspective when you get home... or out of the hospital, if it's been a particularly interesting adventure.
Some random examples of stuff I've come across...
(Above) It might not be so evident, but the tree had a natural spotlight shining on it from a tiny break in the clouds.
(Above) Its just a swampy puddle of muck, but the oily organic hydrocarbons produced by the bacteria in the mud made a pretty rainbow.
(Above) This might be a trypophobic nightmare, but the dried out tidal mudflats baked during a summer drought and then rehydrated, created an interesting mosaic of fractured shapes... (also don't wander out into these to take pictures or you could end up deeply empathizing with the La Brea mammoths).
(Above) A simple nuclear explosion in the distance... or sunset... it was probably a sunset... behind the dunes can set an example of interesting lighting.
(Above) And lastly... a trip to one's local abandoned psychiatric asylum as the sun sets and the voices of the many, many, many restless spirits that dwell within begin to moan and chant, clawing at the tattered fragments of your own fractured sanity, telling you their horrible secrets and urging you to join them in the darkest depths of despair and eternal madness, can be a refreshing and healthy change of scenery and give you lots of tortured nightmares to spur on your creative imagery.
Granted not everyone has rotting puddles of organic muck, nuclear explosions or portals to the underworld nearby, but.. everyone has something unique where they live and that can often prove interesting and quite possibly give one a different perspective on setting up lighting and scenery.
Or push one to the edge of madness when the tormented spirits follow you home... either way, it's often a great learning experience.
I hope this helped.
You mentioned trying to figure out what genre to work in, if stuck, why not try them all, one at a time of course, made for a couple weeks or a month, then switch to the next one, even if you liked the one you're on. By switching up you don't limit yourself and it helps find new interests in the field. Researching a genre can aslo help with this. Research can be fun, informative, a learning past time, etc.
These are really quite spectacular images! And yes... thanks for your unique perspective of options!
Maybe your mind is telling you something. Try going in that different direction, see where it takes you. If you're bored, do something that excites you. Experiment! One never knows what might happen.
Do like Hollywood does to create new TV shows and movies. Paste all the content listings onto a large dart board and throw three darts. Make an image out of those three components.
The old masters used to have their apprentices copy their work, simply in order to teach technique. Some people don't think of copying as "creative", but it can stimulate the imagination, as well as simply provide an opportunity to practice. Recreating a painting, photograph or even someone else's render are all good options, if you want to keep at it and improve your technical ability.
Or you can go outside, spend time with friends and/or family, go to a museum, gallery or movie. Sometimes it's good just to clear your head.
..drugs maybe? yoga?
Yoga is yummy... I like the one with the chocolate and almond toppings you can mix in.
I'm not recommending it, but alcoholism used to be fairly popular amongst the artsy folks.
If you are aiming for realism then makeup stories that have not much clothing needed because that's the biggest shortfall on realism along with hair.
e.g.
1) Roman, Greek or other ancient mythology (not for the quesy and you may want to engage in heavy censorship)
2) Ancient Greek Olympics
3) Classical / Renassaise arts depictions of traditional divinities usually don't involve a lot of clothing
4) Roman, Greek, and so on, art from ancient times
The more modern you go, the more likely a lot of clothes are needed in order to not give off a gratuitous shock value vibe. Maybe do Art Deco or 50s Retro environments with matching clothing. Some 50s color magazine advertising is so geometric, colorful and contrasting, with people dressed to the 9s, it is very nice to look at and would be a reasonable challenge to create a DAZ to try and match the advertisement.
This is my thinking, essentially, except that I've been considering focusing on series (multi-image) portraiture celebratingn the athletic female physique. It's not new, certainly, but it presents the possibility for realism solutions due to the removal of ancillary preoccupations like visually unconvincing clothing items. Hair is still a perrenial challenge, I agree.
Another thing you can try if you don't live near a museum or if there were certain past misunderstandings and you are no longer welcome at the nearest one, is to browse through the galleries at the various 3D sites... ArtStation if full of great imagery and is great for studying lighting and poses, background composition etc... If you have access to a library or bookstore, sometimes browsing through graphic novels (or well illustrated comics) is a good way to study classic poses and perspectives... like hero poses and stuff like that.
I couldn't for a million bucks remember the name of the book, but ages ago I either had or was in the possession of one about drawing superheroes and it covered how many well know scenes and pose styles were actually based on classic paintings and sculptures... most artists probably pick up on that early on, but sometimes it can act as a refresher to go back and re-examine those things, especially if you are into rendering characters, not necessarily scenes with lots of stuff... if you are into scenes, sometimes books that are collections of movie art, like "The Art of Star Wars" or "The Making of..." are pretty good to examine because they often contain lots of storyboard images or concept art not used in the movie or promotions.
Going back to ArtStation, there are lots of great images of video game concept and promotional art there... stuff used to hash out what certain scenes in the cinematics would look like, character development and promo art. Apologies if any of that was mentioned previously, I just glanced over it and didn't notice anything specifically that...
One other thing you mentioned was the thing about technical frustrations... that's literally one of the hardest to deal with... For me its always either my computer isn't capable of doing the thing I want to try or whatever the tutorial I'm reading/watching is suggesting is just not happening... especially when it's video, there's a limit to how many times one can keep going over that same three seconds of video (and imprecisely trying to go back on it) before you go nuts and throw something important computer related out the window.
I come across that all the time and it's super frustrating, but eventually you just have put everything down and walk away... unless you are working on a paid project or doing this for money, don't "make it workl... Don't force it.
If this is a hobby, or you are doing if for the sake of creativity (so maybe you'll get money for your work at some point)... don't force it.
I know some people will say "dedication and perseverance and forge on...blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, mooo"
But I've been through enough deadline projects where not walking away and taking a breather or resetting a bit made everything harder in the end... being tired or sick to death of something that is based on creativity and skill is never helped by depletion of one's mind and body... so unless you have three hours left to deliver something to an insane client... walk away, go outside, hang out with friends (real or imaginary)... dress up squirrels in period garb in the park if that relaxes you...(pro tip: Some of the knockoff American Girl doll clothes fit squirrels extremely well)...
Don't make yourself hate what brings you joy, so learn yourself, what distracts you and do whatever it takes to distract and entertain yourself long enough that your frustration ebbs and the dark clouds pass.
And sometimes, especially with technical frustrations... they don't pass... so work around that... accept that might be a fact for a long while and you'll probably be a lot calmer or at least the squirrels in your area will be a lot more fashionable.
Wow, I think you may be chanelling my thoughts. :) Great wisdom there, and I thank you.
For anyone interested, attached are two quick raw images. The first is an unretouched render of my modified Freja in a simple anatomical pose with one prop, an HDRI light, and a portrait and rim light which oppose one another. The second image is the result of introducing my original to an online AI generator, coupled with a specific positive and negative prompt. You can see how the AI engine is capable of enhancing and improving an original work in many respects, considering its propensity to "warp" hands and feet. But generally, the parameters of the original composition were respected. Sadly, these tools can get expensive if you're paying for them (I used a free version which consumed a lot of points just for this one image), and there are a lot of other technical limitations as well. But you get the idea, and perhaps see the potential. I'd love to do an experimental series of various poses with the same setting and lighting with Freja, and introduce them to the AI engine to try to get the same model and look in each image, but I'd need the engine to provide an image "seed" in order to do that.
here's my 2 cents
