STAY MOTIVATED: WORK ON PERSONAL PROJECTS
01 It can be understandably hard to remain creative during these difficult times, where paid work might be sparse. A way to maintain your creative spark is to work on your own personal project. A good place to start is to see if there are any competitions or challenges that have been posted by software developers or on community websites such as Artstation or 3Dtotal. Some can come with decent prizes, but even if there is no financial benefit to a competition, it could spark ideas into new creative possibilities.
Social media can also be a great source of inspiration; looking at what other artists have created can be an inspiring way of sparking the creative juices. If there is a specific 'creative' project that you would like to try, do not necessarily look at how other people may have solved this on social media. This can create a situation of comparing your work (and workflows) with other artists, which is usually a quick way to feel inadequate. This is especially true if the project is in a new discipline or uses software or kit you may not have access to. Attempt the technique with the equipment you have, which will offer more creative opportunities than simply following another artist’s instructions.
02 When starting on a personal creative project, as with any creative brief, the best way to solve it is to break it down into small, manageable chunks. So for example, if the creative challenge that has been set is 'create a new personal animation project that best shows off my skills', break this down into the core elements as if it was a project for a client. So look at reference, create a storyboard, make a one-page synopsis/brief, start some basic character studies.
The great thing about doing this as a personal project in 'work' time, rather than trying to fit it around current projects, means that it is a way of finding out how long these individual tasks actually take. So, for example, if a day is given for the amount of time needed to create a storyboard – take a full workday and do nothing else, and potentially use a service like boords.com to create a shareable storyboard if working with friends. This is a useful way of 'road-testing' services such as this to find out if they will be helpful for real projects.
03 While working through the challenges of personal projects, it can be a good idea to set small 'challenges' within the tasks. The trick is to not make them so overwhelming they distract from completing the project. For example, if the task requires a character animation, and character animation is not currently part of your skillset, do not feel obliged to re-invent the wheel by learning a whole new animation program. See what resources are available in your current application that will enable you to complete the brief. Alternatively, it also a good idea to use online resources such as Turbosquid and Mixamo to get free assets and character animations. By keeping in a familiar 'skill bubble', this will ensure that the personal project gets completed rather than stalled by the separate challenge of learning new software or skillsets. It is good to find creative challenges during any project, whether paid or personal. Still, they should never get in the way of completing the work.
04 Once the project is completed, look back over it and try to honestly assess what elements were enjoyable and which areas you felt could be improved. This can also help you decide on your next challenge. The parts of the project that were enjoyable will show through in the work, so start putting those parts online, along with breakdowns and descriptions of how the creative challenges were met.
With the areas that could do with improving, this is the stage where looking at alternative solutions can become useful. If we carry on with the character animation example, a question to ask could be, is this something that can be done better in other software? For example, if you have gone through a character animation in Autodesk Maya with its standard toolset, it is much easier to assess workflows with new software such as ZIVA VFX to see how it could improve the character workflow. Many software companies are offering steep discounts or free versions for personal use during lockdown, so make the most of these to expand your creative toolset for when the work comes in.