Does anyone have any advice on dealing with burnout?
I love Blender. I really enjoy the learning part of it and the creativity but for the last couple of weeks my progress has slowed to a crawl due to burnout. I was worried it wouldn't pick up in time for the Colab but I am starting to get into it again. Right now I'm just working on the Low Polly Rocket to get into it again and just get something accomplished. But I'm worried about experiencing burnout again.
Do you have a burn out "only" in working with blender or in general? If it is "only" in Blender, I would say, take a short brake (like a week... that was enough for me), get inspired outside, hands off from the PC.
Find out what is the best for you to "empty" your mind so you can fill it up again with positive vibes.
Get new inspiration. I had to make a schedule on my calender and that is when I sit down and learn and go through courses. I burned out because I did too many things at the same time and tried to achieve everything at once but nothing happened. I felt like a disused train...
I am sure you find your way out of this but you have to start with something.... Every artist big or small is struggling with burnouts. Take a break and you will come back stronger.... I wish you all the energy you need and that you find the right way
Good luck :-)
Hey wendy10698,
Is it burnout, or is it motivation/lack of ideas?
Burnout would usually occur when you experience long-term stress in your job, or when you have worked in a physically or emotionally draining role for a long time.
All artists have periods with a lack of motivation or ideas.
Your experience I would guess is due to a fairly intense period of activity, being involved in our challenges and working your way through the courses, the excitement and anticipation of joining this years collaboration, but still being a couple of months away, gives way to a lull period.
My advice is to just do something, keep practicing. Sometimes I watch Darrin Lile on YouTube, he has a series of videos as he works on different projects. Just watching and listening I find quite entertaining as well as informative, which intern can increase motivation and ideas.
You're doing the right thing in following the rocket course, even if your skill level is beyond this course, anything is better than nothing. I noticed you started the Pothead course, I am convinced you have the ability to finish the course with a great result. You also created an awesome Celebi for the Pokemon challenge, take a look at some of the other challenges, they are still there to provide a project to work on in the lull periods, judging is closed but inspiration isn't.
I wrote an article recently, i-m-learning-blender-what-should-i-do-next. In the article I try to draw a focus to the stages of creating anything in Blender with a step by step process. From inspiration to final composition and rendering. Quite often we tend to focus all our energy on modelling and texturing, when there is so much more to the process, probably the most important being inspiration and ideas in my opinion. Without inspiration and ideas, the canvas remains blank.
By understanding the stages and steps to creating art, it may inspire a new focus of learning Blender, composition for example. By learning more about composition you could re-energise past projects, again this can in turn, increase motivation. The article is also full of links to other articles and courses to help get through this difficult period.
I commend you for reaching out, and by doing so others will know they are not alone and its not a shortfall in anyone's ability.
Happy Blending.
Hi Wendy,
I've been there and I completely understand.
For me it was my personal values were not matching at all with my professional and personal situation (it's not always only work.) That caused extreme stress that kept building up as the months went by, until the moment of exhaustion where you aren't able to function anymore (suddenly you are brushing your teath with hair gel, start being very irritable with others without noticing it, start not to notice things like red lights etc....)
2 ways to get out of it (or to prevent it):
- learn to cope with the situation by forcing you to reframe the way you look at things (difficult, but can help)
-change the situation
In my case I did a bit of both because I realized that if I didn't change my way to look at things, I would probably be pulled back in the situation later again just because some context just cannot be changed. I granted me time to do so, because under pressure it doesn't work.
I started walking, granted myself moments to go just sit in a coffeebar and enjoy a coffee, basically learn back how to enjoy the small stuff. Then I looked for activities that were energy positive. I did try to limit my screen time, because disconnecting was for me key to get back my head around.
Having a coach helps also, even though I'm not in burn out anymore, I'm still seeing my coach from time to time just because I feel working on yourself is a continuous process that can be equally important when things go well.
Concerning Blender, I certainly wouldn't stop, going back to the beginning and revisiting past projects is a good way to build up confidence again. What you made up till now is really impressive & looks very good! Just don't pressure yourself and make sure that it doesn't become energy negative. If going that way, take a little break, go for a walk,... and try something else later on.
Hope this helps
Great advice slenaerts,
Getting active with some exercise, especially walking, helps the body and mind.
Brushing your teeth with hair gel?
At least your teeth are nice and straight!
I think part of it may be what all are you doing in addition to Blender? (Or what aren't you doing?) It's not healthy to work all day, every day, even if half of your "work day" is your hobby. Especially if you have an office job and are doing another "sit down" job in Blender, and your entertainment is reading/watching T.V.
Do you have a full time job, school, kids, a house and chores, bills to pay, shopping to do, family or friends to spend time with, then, after all that, in whatever hours are left to you, you try to do Blender? I'm a single guy, and even without many of these commitments finding the time to do both work, and progress in Blender is difficult for me. I found it frustrating to do the creative things in "bursty" bouts of energy. I'd get good at something, then have to put it down. I'd lose so much in stretches of inactivity.
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I'm quitting the day job; not just because I want to pursue Blender, but because the people and environment at the job had changed, and not in a positive way. I'm taking that opportunity to focus on Blender, while at the same time trying to re-balance things. Since I won't be working I'll be doing more exercise, and trying to eat better. I'm middle aged, and find it challenging making friends in person, but that's part of what I'll be doing too. Since I won't have my coworkers around me at the job, and my friends and family are all out of state, it'll be important that I don't become the basement dwelling neck beard I have tendencies towards. (I can be very lazy, and with the roommates I'll be getting to help while I'm unemployed, I'll literally be moving into the basement. I'll need to make sure I don't stay down there 24x7.)
Not everybody has the luxury of quitting or cutting back on their hours at work, or their other obligations outside of work. If you don't, then maybe it' best to find a healthy amount of time to spend with Blender. For myself I find I'm not productive unless I'm doing things for at least an hour. If you're similar, maybe an hour a day, every day, is too much if you have all your normal tasks? What about an hour Tuesday and Wednesday, and a couple on a weekend day?
Or maybe you'r really good at texturing, but not modeling/sculpting. (Or vise versa.) What about working with somebody in the community to complement both of your strengths and/or the things in Blender you enjoy the most? (Making sure you're not over committing to something. You need to find somebody who's at a similar tempo as you if you're going this route.)
Everybody's circumstances are different. One can be trying to fit too many activities into a limited number of hours in the day. Ironically one can also find one's self with too much time on one's hand; something I'm going to have to be careful to watch out for. I'll need to make sure I'm getting in exercise, socialization, a reasonable diet and sleep schedule. All the things that keep people healthy.
One of the things I know about the day job is, five days a week, I roll out of bed consistently at about the same time every day. I put on my clothes, and I go into the office. I'm going to have to watch out for the creeping cruds - where one sleeps in longer and longer and one's sleep schedule gets sporadic. That way leads depression and maybe bigger diminishing returns than overworking one's self. I'll need to be sure that I get up, and probably out of the house, every single day.
That's me, and the things I need to look out for. You'll have to evaluate for yourself whether you're just in a creative lull, or if you're facing a larger systemic type of burn out. If it's the latter, you'll want to find a way that works for you to address it and alleviate the things that are causing the burn out. (I've been trying to find that balance for over 20 years, it's not easy.)
Well, this turned into a rambling post. I could spend a fair bit of time editing it, but I think it hits all the pain points I've encountered not just with Blender, but with my creative hobbies in general. (I've tried my hand at novel writing and game programming, other sit down hobbies that take a large time commitment, and the frustration is similar with all of them.)