as someone whose first step when i want to write about something is to write a huge list of all the ideas i can possibly think of for where to go with it this is a really helpful perspective shift
I understand how that feels because I’m actually in the same situation. I am about to start planning my first comic series and it’s overwhelming. I learned to really respect writers who just get started. I wish you luck!❤
I like the boulder analogy, it sucks that we always have boulders we need to push up and we might not even enjoy some of them but we know that they’re necessary. I have something similar which is viewing my day like a pie chart divided into 24 sections representing each hour. It’s really mind blowing when you see how little time you have in the day after you carve out sleep and work, especially for those who aren’t working a job that makes use of their artistic skills.
I’m glad you covered this topic. I fell into the trap of spreading myself too thinly by wanting to learn and do everything in art. Oddly enough, it came to the point where I thought more about creating than actually creating anything. I’ll try focusing on one boulder while continuing my studies of art fundamentals.
I just realized that I've been flailing about at the bottom of the basin for years, completely engrossed in deciding which boulder to move first, and coincidentally nudging one every once in a while in my fit of madness. My GOSH, me, get a GRIP.
This video made me feel seen. I've definitely been putting myself in this position a lot lately, going from working on a novel, then teaching myself comics and wanted to try and make a graphic novel while telling myself "Once I get to *this* point, I can start on the sequel to my first novel. Then once I finish the first draft of *that*, I'll pivot to-" and all of my projects make progress, but end up being half-done. I keep seeing things that I want to work on or improve on because the new ideas get me excited and the current projects take so much longer than I expected... Plus, sometimes, as you pointed out, I get scared of exposing my own weaknesses and move to another project to hide them. This definitely happened with my comic when it got to an action scene. I delayed on that for months, procrastinating with different new and shiny projects and challenges. That bit at the end about the reality of the situation hit a little hard in terms of shattering my dreamy expectations for what I'm capable of, but I think it still felt necessary and wasn't as crushing as I feared it might be to consider such a thing.
that last line really hit me, ive been developing an idea for a story specifically about my massive idea bank and my fear that i'll never be able to put everything i want into world. i wasnt really sure what the main theme of the story was gonna be since i didn't fully know the answers to the questions i was posing myself, but you just kinda plopped it into my lap at the end there haha. very thankful for this video
it's difficult when you find yourself in the dire situation of trying to earn a living, dreamed to become a game designer ever since I was 18 years old, ended up taking the 3d art route to that but the scenario of living in a 3rd world country with basically no job openings as a 3d artist, switching to freelancing doing other stuff not related to 3d art at all, leaving you too burn out to even try something on the little free time I had, then switching to remote, finally being able to land a job in an indie game studio to finally do decent 3d art, getting to confortable with it until the project ended and got out of a job again, it's been 2 years since that, freaking imposible to land a remote job now, trying to get into character art instead of just making props, not only feels like pushing a boulder but also getting squeezed on the neck
literally everything in this video is so incredibly relatable and hit all the right places. esp comparing pushing too many boulders with ADHD bc man... i wish the ADHD a very go away so i can put my focus into the few things i want rather than barely in the too many things that should prolly be tackled at different times.
I feel called out lmao. Learning the additional skills (read: art) is so intimidating that I just havr a big pile of boulders halfway out of the bowl, but can't bring myself to get them all the way out when I could just code another proof of concept
Nice video. I enjoyed the extra effort you put into the visualization of everything. Theres a lot of work in the editing here to get a complex idea across in a very simple to understand way. Also, a very relatable topic!
How's this for a slightly different perspective. Since I've become quite ancient, I realized that anything I do quite possibly might be the last thing I do. That realization has resulted in how I give consideration and assign importance to various projects. I mean, what project would I really want to make sure is completed before I fall off the twig?
Helps me a lot to have a project that needs drawings. When I just sit down to draw, it's really difficult for me to come up with ideas out of nothing. When I think about my project, I have the issue where there's almost too many pictures to draw.
If you don't have any ideas and you want to be a character designer. You should start by learning the most you can about your country/culture. Learn about native animals, native plants, spiritual beliefs, culture, fashion history, art history, and everything specific to your country/culture. That is the standard if you want to work as an artist in your country. However, if you plan to work drawing in a specific county, you should also know the most you can about that country. Art always references things we know in real life, even if you create something extremely fantastical, it's a mix of things that exist in real life, this is how fantasy worlds can be so realistic, detailed and believable.
Heya Brookes! I really feel the Sisyphean tasks! I’m now redoing my entire portfolio now that I’ve been practicing for a while. It’s definitely crazy hard and rewarding at the same time. ALSO I will be heading back to Lightbox and I can’t wait to meet with you again! I’ll pick up some more pins from you! I can’t wait to see your show!
I was going to crack a joke or something but I've actually been doing a "Stop & Assess" dealie for the past few yrs. It's how I've learned to just let some ideas sit & why more of the characters I've made during my October drawing thing have ended up elsewhere. Every so often, I'll ask myself: - Can this idea live on its own (Generally the one-off image it started as)? Yes or No. - Is there enough There there to warrant putting more time into it? Yes or No. - Can this idea be better served in my comic? Yes or No. So far, I've been sidetracked less by random ideas & projects. = )
I have been trying to figure out how to overcome this issue, the last few months, to widdle down the amount of projects I take on. I am happy to hear I am not the only one.
Haha, not to be a dick but it's spelled "whittle" as in, the art of shaving wood down to form it into artistic shapes. Widdle is baby-speak for little!
@@Eilavamp Oooooh~! So it’s kinda spelled like whistle 🤔Good to know. XD tbh this is the first time I have seen it spelled out😅 Haha. Thank you for taking the time to teach me ^^ My one brain cell needs all the help it can get lol. ( ^^/)/✨✨✨ hope you have a wonderful day!
Reminds me of... The Hole. Worst case scenario if the boulders... all fall down back to the same hole you pushed them out. By circumstance or not, the things you managed to get off the hole... fall right back in because of some flaw. Used to have a schedule that got me to draw... and it got broken because of personal circles... AGAIN. And it's Summer. And I am juggling between... 3 different projects. One has progress, the other is on hold... and my original one is under endless revisions, and improvements... and drafts. Meanwhile, I am in Art Fight.
Bruh I have a 50 item list of things I’ve thought of that have near zero percent chance of me picking them up. I understood the absurd already (especially with my career direction being biology) but this video really brought it to a point.
Hmm, I partially agree and partially disagree. I do think that to an extent "one boulder" is a pretty good ideal. I also agree ideas are sort of but not completely overrated and execution is a lot more important. But execution is also partially dependedent on sub-ideas, and planning. How good and realistic the plan is has a huge effect on how good the outcome will be and how feasible it is to actually finish, and how likely it is to get stuck. There is a huge value in actually finishing things though. Both small easy wins and bigger things. For newer creatives I personally like the "complete a lot of small things one at a time" approach. I think creating a plan and then a strong prototype or MVP is pretty important, and that only a portion of the projects that get that far actually should be finished. To extend the metaphor, I feel like there are a few natural "shelves" in the bowl. Where you can leave a ball for awhile and which getting to that point makes it easier to judge how hard it would be to finish with that one. I actually found taking more ideas to that point tended to result in me creating more ideas and bettwe quality ideas than I did before, And gives more of a mix of scales. If I only do small projects/easy wins it can eventually get frustrating, and you can easily end up training yourself to automatically discarch bigger ideas. While taking the time to plan some ideas that are bigger, but still not huge can make it easier to find something big that is still feasible. I do agree it's not a great coping mechanism. I completely agree we will always have new ideas, Although at the same time, it doesn't necesarily mean they are good. (Although almost any idea can work with a good execution, a good execution takes a good plan or a lot of experience/luck/dedication/passion, soooo.)
This video is a case of using an illustration to make a point, I appreciate the additional thoughts, not sure they qualify as disagreement more than just expounding in another direction!
I'm currently trapped being an "Idea Guy" at this point because I honestly don't know how to move the boulders forward anymore. Not sure why I stopped or what stopped me to begin with, but I'm kinda just stuck here watching the moss grow on them. It honestly sucks...
Typically, yes, because you're building up your skill and learning to criticise your work and figure out your style. All progress is good progress, and as long as you're only comparing yourself to your previous work (not comparing your work to others work) you will see that over time your work is better and better and your ideas are much more focused and interesting.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Roc Steady (feat. Flo Milli) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HozPPyqW0dY/mqdefault.jpg)
as someone whose first step when i want to write about something is to write a huge list of all the ideas i can possibly think of for where to go with it this is a really helpful perspective shift
I understand how that feels because I’m actually in the same situation. I am about to start planning my first comic series and it’s overwhelming. I learned to really respect writers who just get started. I wish you luck!❤
I like the boulder analogy, it sucks that we always have boulders we need to push up and we might not even enjoy some of them but we know that they’re necessary.
I have something similar which is viewing my day like a pie chart divided into 24 sections representing each hour. It’s really mind blowing when you see how little time you have in the day after you carve out sleep and work, especially for those who aren’t working a job that makes use of their artistic skills.
Yep! Either way, whether your work is creative or not, it’s all energy, and that energy is finite
I’m glad you covered this topic. I fell into the trap of spreading myself too thinly by wanting to learn and do everything in art. Oddly enough, it came to the point where I thought more about creating than actually creating anything. I’ll try focusing on one boulder while continuing my studies of art fundamentals.
It’s been 84 years…
Like a month 😭
@@CharacterDesignForge I like watching your videos while I draw
I just realized that I've been flailing about at the bottom of the basin for years, completely engrossed in deciding which boulder to move first, and coincidentally nudging one every once in a while in my fit of madness.
My GOSH, me, get a GRIP.
This video made me feel seen. I've definitely been putting myself in this position a lot lately, going from working on a novel, then teaching myself comics and wanted to try and make a graphic novel while telling myself "Once I get to *this* point, I can start on the sequel to my first novel. Then once I finish the first draft of *that*, I'll pivot to-" and all of my projects make progress, but end up being half-done. I keep seeing things that I want to work on or improve on because the new ideas get me excited and the current projects take so much longer than I expected... Plus, sometimes, as you pointed out, I get scared of exposing my own weaknesses and move to another project to hide them. This definitely happened with my comic when it got to an action scene. I delayed on that for months, procrastinating with different new and shiny projects and challenges.
That bit at the end about the reality of the situation hit a little hard in terms of shattering my dreamy expectations for what I'm capable of, but I think it still felt necessary and wasn't as crushing as I feared it might be to consider such a thing.
that last line really hit me, ive been developing an idea for a story specifically about my massive idea bank and my fear that i'll never be able to put everything i want into world. i wasnt really sure what the main theme of the story was gonna be since i didn't fully know the answers to the questions i was posing myself, but you just kinda plopped it into my lap at the end there haha. very thankful for this video
it's difficult when you find yourself in the dire situation of trying to earn a living, dreamed to become a game designer ever since I was 18 years old, ended up taking the 3d art route to that but the scenario of living in a 3rd world country with basically no job openings as a 3d artist, switching to freelancing doing other stuff not related to 3d art at all, leaving you too burn out to even try something on the little free time I had, then switching to remote, finally being able to land a job in an indie game studio to finally do decent 3d art, getting to confortable with it until the project ended and got out of a job again, it's been 2 years since that, freaking imposible to land a remote job now, trying to get into character art instead of just making props, not only feels like pushing a boulder but also getting squeezed on the neck
literally everything in this video is so incredibly relatable and hit all the right places. esp comparing pushing too many boulders with ADHD bc man... i wish the ADHD a very go away so i can put my focus into the few things i want rather than barely in the too many things that should prolly be tackled at different times.
I feel called out lmao. Learning the additional skills (read: art) is so intimidating that I just havr a big pile of boulders halfway out of the bowl, but can't bring myself to get them all the way out when I could just code another proof of concept
Nice video. I enjoyed the extra effort you put into the visualization of everything. Theres a lot of work in the editing here to get a complex idea across in a very simple to understand way. Also, a very relatable topic!
Much appreciated Trent! I hope the last little bits of game dev go well, I'm looking forward to playing!
He back 😮😮😮
Oh my thousands of notes and worldbuilding mixed with the file designated "CHARACTER DUMP"
How's this for a slightly different perspective. Since I've become quite ancient, I realized that anything I do quite possibly might be the last thing I do. That realization has resulted in how I give consideration and assign importance to various projects. I mean, what project would I really want to make sure is completed before I fall off the twig?
"ideas are the easy part" man that is so untrue for me. I'd like to draw more but I just never have any ideas
Pair up with an idea-cursed person
@@NoiseDay throw them my way
Helps me a lot to have a project that needs drawings. When I just sit down to draw, it's really difficult for me to come up with ideas out of nothing. When I think about my project, I have the issue where there's almost too many pictures to draw.
If you don't have any ideas and you want to be a character designer. You should start by learning the most you can about your country/culture. Learn about native animals, native plants, spiritual beliefs, culture, fashion history, art history, and everything specific to your country/culture. That is the standard if you want to work as an artist in your country. However, if you plan to work drawing in a specific county, you should also know the most you can about that country. Art always references things we know in real life, even if you create something extremely fantastical, it's a mix of things that exist in real life, this is how fantasy worlds can be so realistic, detailed and believable.
Heya Brookes! I really feel the Sisyphean tasks! I’m now redoing my entire portfolio now that I’ve been practicing for a while. It’s definitely crazy hard and rewarding at the same time.
ALSO I will be heading back to Lightbox and I can’t wait to meet with you again! I’ll pick up some more pins from you! I can’t wait to see your show!
Aw thats awesome, thanks! I wont be tabling this year, but I’ll definitely have a virtual booth sale going on with everything at the very least!
This video is quietly amazing, and has legit aided me this morning.
This video has some rock-solid advice.
Certainly it can help get the ball rolling!
I was going to crack a joke or something but I've actually been doing a "Stop & Assess" dealie for the past few yrs. It's how I've learned to just let some ideas sit & why more of the characters I've made during my October drawing thing have ended up elsewhere.
Every so often, I'll ask myself:
- Can this idea live on its own (Generally the one-off image it started as)? Yes or No.
- Is there enough There there to warrant putting more time into it? Yes or No.
- Can this idea be better served in my comic? Yes or No.
So far, I've been sidetracked less by random ideas & projects. = )
I have been trying to figure out how to overcome this issue, the last few months, to widdle down the amount of projects I take on.
I am happy to hear I am not the only one.
Haha, not to be a dick but it's spelled "whittle" as in, the art of shaving wood down to form it into artistic shapes.
Widdle is baby-speak for little!
@@Eilavamp Oooooh~! So it’s kinda spelled like whistle 🤔Good to know. XD tbh this is the first time I have seen it spelled out😅 Haha. Thank you for taking the time to teach me ^^ My one brain cell needs all the help it can get lol. ( ^^/)/✨✨✨ hope you have a wonderful day!
Perfect timing for where I’m at now, and I love the analogy.
Reminds me of...
The Hole.
Worst case scenario if the boulders... all fall down back to the same hole you pushed them out. By circumstance or not, the things you managed to get off the hole... fall right back in because of some flaw.
Used to have a schedule that got me to draw... and it got broken because of personal circles... AGAIN. And it's Summer.
And I am juggling between... 3 different projects. One has progress, the other is on hold... and my original one is under endless revisions, and improvements... and drafts.
Meanwhile, I am in Art Fight.
Bruh I have a 50 item list of things I’ve thought of that have near zero percent chance of me picking them up. I understood the absurd already (especially with my career direction being biology) but this video really brought it to a point.
Return of the king 🎉
Loved that much needed dunk on AI ""art"" (algorithmically generated slop)
Almost one per video at this rate 😆
thanks for the advice.
All my fellow fanfic writters need to see this.
Hmm, I partially agree and partially disagree.
I do think that to an extent "one boulder" is a pretty good ideal.
I also agree ideas are sort of but not completely overrated and execution is a lot more important.
But execution is also partially dependedent on sub-ideas, and planning.
How good and realistic the plan is has a huge effect on how good the outcome will be and how feasible it is to actually finish, and how likely it is to get stuck.
There is a huge value in actually finishing things though.
Both small easy wins and bigger things.
For newer creatives I personally like the "complete a lot of small things one at a time" approach.
I think creating a plan and then a strong prototype or MVP is pretty important, and that only a portion of the projects that get that far actually should be finished.
To extend the metaphor, I feel like there are a few natural "shelves" in the bowl. Where you can leave a ball for awhile and which getting to that point makes it easier to judge how hard it would be to finish with that one.
I actually found taking more ideas to that point tended to result in me creating more ideas and bettwe quality ideas than I did before,
And gives more of a mix of scales.
If I only do small projects/easy wins it can eventually get frustrating, and you can easily end up training yourself to automatically discarch bigger ideas.
While taking the time to plan some ideas that are bigger, but still not huge can make it easier to find something big that is still feasible.
I do agree it's not a great coping mechanism.
I completely agree we will always have new ideas, Although at the same time, it doesn't necesarily mean they are good.
(Although almost any idea can work with a good execution, a good execution takes a good plan or a lot of experience/luck/dedication/passion, soooo.)
This video is a case of using an illustration to make a point, I appreciate the additional thoughts, not sure they qualify as disagreement more than just expounding in another direction!
I'm currently trapped being an "Idea Guy" at this point because I honestly don't know how to move the boulders forward anymore.
Not sure why I stopped or what stopped me to begin with, but I'm kinda just stuck here watching the moss grow on them. It honestly sucks...
Thanks for the great advice as always. Also I appreciate the animal crossing Amiibo. ❤
So pick on e thing and get it done?
Thought you were joining Artfol for a sec. Oh well I can dream. Still really good advice! I’m curious if lumiko is related to the mystery project?
Ah, I did join Cara! I believe thats a good guess!
Great video 💖
I need execute my ideas faster, then. Does my concepts get better as I execute them, though. The more ideas I execute, the better my next ones be?
Typically, yes, because you're building up your skill and learning to criticise your work and figure out your style. All progress is good progress, and as long as you're only comparing yourself to your previous work (not comparing your work to others work) you will see that over time your work is better and better and your ideas are much more focused and interesting.
@@Eilavamp I see. Thank you for telling me all that.
Are you working for Pixar?
OH GOD HE'S HOT
At least your life is interesting and you have some variety. Imagine doing a job like data entry numbers in spreadsheets all day. For 40 years.
I actually doing think i can imagine it 😂 but i need some balance like 4% in that direction
Nice vid
3:59 hello…… is me
damn this video is timely, I'm just about to restart old idea when I'm already on a project lol
GOOD VIBEO
I was just watching one of your videos from 3 years ago and you looked 17 and now you look 38?? wtf man
Huh? Whats the point of saying this?
4
so beautiful, Character Design Forge. Support..! have a nice day :))