2008. - year of the global financial crisis, the Chinese Olympic Games and the launch of the The Large Hadron Collider. I’ve been working for about a year now, drawing various kinds of icons, illustrations on photstocks, got some confident in vector illustration and developing my skills futher.
A year earlier, in 2007, new Harry Potter, next Pirates of the Caribbean, Third Shrek, Ratatouille and... Transformers were released in cimemas. Those very first Transformers, in which unimaginably large robots-aliens fights in battles. An impressive list of releases, by the way.
With the passage of time, one may doubt the plot depth and acting of Michael Bay's "masterpiece", but we can confidently say that Transformers significantly influenced the film industry. They definitely influenced me, that’s why I started studying 3D more and really wanted to draw robots. There had been attempts to get to 3D graphics before, but that year it was truly successful, in my view.
I found several tutorials that, I think, are still relevant today, adjusted for the outdated 3DS MAX interface, which is where most 3D artists worked back then. Everything is fine, but the rendering process in 3DS MAX is like preparing an airplane for takeoff. In Blender there are so many buttons now, but somehow you can get the result without necessarily setting all this up and checking a bunch of parameters; this won’t work with Max.I was so inspired by the idea of creating a three-dimensional robots that I was fascinated, for a month, constantly watching tutorials and creating my first model of a robot. Despite the fact that I was not spurred on by circumstances such as a freelance request or a promise to do the work to someone even for free, every day from early morning until late evening I've been digging all the intricacies of modeling, the principle of constructing complex geometry and other features of the process.
To get the final render, I even had to upgrade the video card: the model turned out to be too complex and did not fit into the memmory buffer of the existing video card. Most likely, I could somehow optimize the model to avoid card updating, but I think it was the right move anyway.
Looking back, I've been in a similar situation of intense focused learning many times. Which makes it possible to look at such moments of Obsession from the point of view of cold statistics. And take advantage of the assessment results.
Crazy interest
The first thing to note is that I was incredibly interested. I was not interested in the money for which I could theoretically sell a model or render. I was trully interested. It was this Interest that supported and forced me to deal with all the seemingly boring details necessary to obtain this result.
Well, judge for yourself, how excited you are to find out what the buttons in airplane pilot’s cocpit do? It’s worth mentioning that this is actually interesting too, to be honest ) But I’m not going to fly in the pilot’s seat and I don’t dream about it at all. Motivation effectively smooths out the ladder of obstacles on the way towards desired result.
It should also be noted that in 2008 I was many years younger, I had, perhaps, an ideal job, at least it was like that at that time. I could easily switch off from the production line of illustrations (made for photostocks) for a month and not worry about being left without money. Which removes a significant burden of money variable from the equation. Therefore, I had time, financial opportunity and desire - such variables are not easy to collect together) Moreover, I was not married and had no children - this is called youth)At that moment, I was driven by a certain picture of the future, which I did not write down on paper and did not purposefully plan. Although this element cannot be completely dismissed, the desire to do 3D was nevertheless conscious and robots were the best fit to try.
Intriguing result
Therefore, it is worth noting the second important detail - not only the very fact of the desire to learn a new interesting skill, but also to use it to create something that inspires you. Well, how cool are robots, don’t you agree?! By that time, I had already drawn several different robots in vector, but 3D is completely different, it’s considered real, that’s how I saw it.
If I would approach the same problem today. I can think of several ways to do it, including, unfortunately, image generation using artificial intelligence. Yes, of course, this will not be a full-fledged 3D model, but this is a result that can be adjusted one way or another.
Motivating responsibility
There is another variable that contributes to motivation - responsibility before someone. This is exactly what happened when I was looking for a job for the first time in my life, I was offered a position in a small print house. I didn’t work with a vector before, only with raster - I had to study and do a test job within a couple of days, I’ll tell you more in another letter.
I am sure that you have been in similar situation more than once, while studying at school, for example. You haven't prepared for the exam and study everything at the last minute. These are excellent and completely real examples of what this looks like in adult life. If you suddenly thought that it would be different, then do not have any illusions.
At the same time, it is not at all necessary to be financially obligated to your boss or customer; you could promise something to your friend - this also works great.
Exactly these 3 components (interest, inspiring results and responsibility) are natural components for quick and focused effective learning. And the fact that in the case of the robot there was no motivation for money does not mean at all that it cannot be. I don't mind motivation in the form of money. I am sure that in most cases money is the motivating factor. But why can't they go hand in hand with what inspires you?
Extreme focus timeframes
In my case, the time of maximum focus lasts about a month, I would even say about 3 weeks. After this time, the desire to overcome boring difficult moments becomes dulled or the barrier to entry of new information is significantly reduced. There is even a danger that you will quit immediately after this period. Because you simply burned out in the process. It may turn out that you have spent so much effort and time, but when you start comparing with industry standards, you notice that you have not achieved great results. It's definitely frustrating and demotivating.
It's worth taking a break, or at least giving yourself some time to step back from the situation to give yourself the opportunity to evaluate whether you're moving in the right direction. If there is no doubt about this, then simply build a more gentle working regime. Any conscious person will tell you that the rest is no less important than work.
At the same time, you can consciously use your resources to further this magical extreme focus in order to quickly get involved, so to speak, in the topic. You have already overcome the step of starting and achieved most of the results of the average person in this field, and what follows is only improving your technique and deepening your knowledge, which is called experience.
An obvious question arises: is it possible to create such conditions consciously? I'm sure it's possible. The way I see it is that all of the listed components of focused learning, work, can be part of the plan that you build. If you have consciously set goals for yourself, built a theoretical chain of necessary steps that will lead you to your goal, then all the ingredients automatically appear before your eyes. It's easier said than done, to be honest and everything very much depends on how much you really want everything that you have planned.
I hope the article was useful to you, see you in the next letter,
Dmitry Kalabin.
A year earlier, in 2007, new Harry Potter, next Pirates of the Caribbean, Third Shrek, Ratatouille and... Transformers were released in cimemas. Those very first Transformers, in which unimaginably large robots-aliens fights in battles. An impressive list of releases, by the way.
With the passage of time, one may doubt the plot depth and acting of Michael Bay's "masterpiece", but we can confidently say that Transformers significantly influenced the film industry. They definitely influenced me, that’s why I started studying 3D more and really wanted to draw robots. There had been attempts to get to 3D graphics before, but that year it was truly successful, in my view.
I found several tutorials that, I think, are still relevant today, adjusted for the outdated 3DS MAX interface, which is where most 3D artists worked back then. Everything is fine, but the rendering process in 3DS MAX is like preparing an airplane for takeoff. In Blender there are so many buttons now, but somehow you can get the result without necessarily setting all this up and checking a bunch of parameters; this won’t work with Max.I was so inspired by the idea of creating a three-dimensional robots that I was fascinated, for a month, constantly watching tutorials and creating my first model of a robot. Despite the fact that I was not spurred on by circumstances such as a freelance request or a promise to do the work to someone even for free, every day from early morning until late evening I've been digging all the intricacies of modeling, the principle of constructing complex geometry and other features of the process.
To get the final render, I even had to upgrade the video card: the model turned out to be too complex and did not fit into the memmory buffer of the existing video card. Most likely, I could somehow optimize the model to avoid card updating, but I think it was the right move anyway.
Looking back, I've been in a similar situation of intense focused learning many times. Which makes it possible to look at such moments of Obsession from the point of view of cold statistics. And take advantage of the assessment results.
Crazy interest
The first thing to note is that I was incredibly interested. I was not interested in the money for which I could theoretically sell a model or render. I was trully interested. It was this Interest that supported and forced me to deal with all the seemingly boring details necessary to obtain this result.
Well, judge for yourself, how excited you are to find out what the buttons in airplane pilot’s cocpit do? It’s worth mentioning that this is actually interesting too, to be honest ) But I’m not going to fly in the pilot’s seat and I don’t dream about it at all. Motivation effectively smooths out the ladder of obstacles on the way towards desired result.
It should also be noted that in 2008 I was many years younger, I had, perhaps, an ideal job, at least it was like that at that time. I could easily switch off from the production line of illustrations (made for photostocks) for a month and not worry about being left without money. Which removes a significant burden of money variable from the equation. Therefore, I had time, financial opportunity and desire - such variables are not easy to collect together) Moreover, I was not married and had no children - this is called youth)At that moment, I was driven by a certain picture of the future, which I did not write down on paper and did not purposefully plan. Although this element cannot be completely dismissed, the desire to do 3D was nevertheless conscious and robots were the best fit to try.
Intriguing result
Therefore, it is worth noting the second important detail - not only the very fact of the desire to learn a new interesting skill, but also to use it to create something that inspires you. Well, how cool are robots, don’t you agree?! By that time, I had already drawn several different robots in vector, but 3D is completely different, it’s considered real, that’s how I saw it.
If I would approach the same problem today. I can think of several ways to do it, including, unfortunately, image generation using artificial intelligence. Yes, of course, this will not be a full-fledged 3D model, but this is a result that can be adjusted one way or another.
Motivating responsibility
There is another variable that contributes to motivation - responsibility before someone. This is exactly what happened when I was looking for a job for the first time in my life, I was offered a position in a small print house. I didn’t work with a vector before, only with raster - I had to study and do a test job within a couple of days, I’ll tell you more in another letter.
I am sure that you have been in similar situation more than once, while studying at school, for example. You haven't prepared for the exam and study everything at the last minute. These are excellent and completely real examples of what this looks like in adult life. If you suddenly thought that it would be different, then do not have any illusions.
At the same time, it is not at all necessary to be financially obligated to your boss or customer; you could promise something to your friend - this also works great.
Exactly these 3 components (interest, inspiring results and responsibility) are natural components for quick and focused effective learning. And the fact that in the case of the robot there was no motivation for money does not mean at all that it cannot be. I don't mind motivation in the form of money. I am sure that in most cases money is the motivating factor. But why can't they go hand in hand with what inspires you?
Extreme focus timeframes
In my case, the time of maximum focus lasts about a month, I would even say about 3 weeks. After this time, the desire to overcome boring difficult moments becomes dulled or the barrier to entry of new information is significantly reduced. There is even a danger that you will quit immediately after this period. Because you simply burned out in the process. It may turn out that you have spent so much effort and time, but when you start comparing with industry standards, you notice that you have not achieved great results. It's definitely frustrating and demotivating.
It's worth taking a break, or at least giving yourself some time to step back from the situation to give yourself the opportunity to evaluate whether you're moving in the right direction. If there is no doubt about this, then simply build a more gentle working regime. Any conscious person will tell you that the rest is no less important than work.
At the same time, you can consciously use your resources to further this magical extreme focus in order to quickly get involved, so to speak, in the topic. You have already overcome the step of starting and achieved most of the results of the average person in this field, and what follows is only improving your technique and deepening your knowledge, which is called experience.
An obvious question arises: is it possible to create such conditions consciously? I'm sure it's possible. The way I see it is that all of the listed components of focused learning, work, can be part of the plan that you build. If you have consciously set goals for yourself, built a theoretical chain of necessary steps that will lead you to your goal, then all the ingredients automatically appear before your eyes. It's easier said than done, to be honest and everything very much depends on how much you really want everything that you have planned.
I hope the article was useful to you, see you in the next letter,
Dmitry Kalabin.
