Your CG routine - how do you keep up the pace ?

I guess most of us with those daily jobs sit in similar boat. Sum up time for job (+preparation, travel) , sleep and you are left with 5 hours daily left for everything.  And thats for EVERYTHING. Last autumn I was feeling good with my progress in animation but had to put blender a bit aside and time moves so fast that its autumn again and I feel like I have to start almost from the beginning to refresh it.  As tthepainter says I try to steal some time too if I have chance but it leads to a thing that you have to rewatch/reread the same resource later at least few times.

Edit: Deinstall games!

Get addons & training vids instead!

@theluthier I agree with that.  I've found that if I take time to do other things such as write a novel, read one of Shakespeare's plays, or play the piano, making 3D art is much more enjoyable.  The same applies to the other activities that I mentioned.

@theluthier all that is cool, but my situation isn't about personal projects. It's about CG at all. My current work is nothing related to CG and it consumes 9 hours at the office and 2 hours at the road to and from it. Add 6-8 hours of sleep to it, and all that is left is like 5-7 hours for everything else, and almost no energy after a workday. It's no longer a hobby for me, I'm on my path to becoming an AAA character artist, and having an unloved daytime work slows me down a lot. That is what is depresses me, not CG. But still doing my best, to change the situation.

nekronavt can totally relate to your situation Pavel.. when you figure out how to manage it all let me know, would love to know the secret!

In addition to this my SO has many troubles following from the past, a lot of mental crap to deal with, can't work and such. So I have to pay the bills and when I come home that can be tough too, no rest from the madness... no complaints tough, I love my SO to bits! But it is an extra layer of challenge to even focus on CG..

nekronavt I´m facing a similiar problem right now. My goal is to be able to make a living from my art (drawing and modelling). I got to a point where my art was good enough that people started to ask to commission me.  My job got hard soon after, as well with university stuff coming up, which lead me to not having enough time and energy for practicing drawing and modelling. I´m finished with university now, but I´m still burned out from the last months so that I still have problems to get back on track and my skills also got worse after not practicing for such a long time.  Additonally, I have the feeling that my work is slowing me down more and more and keeps me from creating. I´m going to apply for a graphics and design academy in two weeks and will hopefully be accepted. I hope, that learning and working in a creative field and leaving my old job, will help me with my creative flow D:

Well, I recently decided to just use my transportation time from my workplace to home using Blender. I got an old but still working laptop out of the closet, put a fresh windows install on it, and now, I dowload the exercises videos on them and complete them in the train. I've got 90 minutes of Blender per day which for a hobbyist like me is fine. 

I love my family and time with them so I too find myself burning the midnight oil, after everyone's asleep, in order to do my projects. Somewhere between 2-3 potential hours each night. I've averaged about 5-6 hours of sleep the past 4 years. Every few days it adds up and I go to bed early.

If you ask me, a good pace is all about balance. I need it all to be satisfied: Time with my wife, time with my kids, time to do projects, time to do other lame adult stuff life budgeting, taxes, and honey-do lists. I'm generally a happy person when I balance time between them all. When any of those things tips the balance, I need to course correct or I'll get negative.

I guess the point of all this is to say: Mind the balance.

@theluthier I am finding myself coming to this level of ambition and motivation really relies on the balance. I spend time with my wife and 3 kids during the afternoon after a full day's work as an engineer. (But I secretly want to be doing my passion project). However I am in control and decide some days that family must win because when I am doing my passion project sometimes I secretly want to be with my family (vicious cycle).

So for me the balance is 3 things: 

1. When kids are in bed, I get 2-4 hours a night to be able to work on CG as a newbie.  Some nights I need a break and also go to bed early but I have tried to just eat the elephant one bite at a time each day. 

2. I started a polybook on my training last week mainly just to motivate myself to make a daily log of "today I successfully/unsuccessfully did this.......) It is turning into a Star Trek captains log kind of feel and I feel like it is become very routine.

I agree with the commentary that the hardest part is the motivation to start each day....... and then stop haha. Once I get into the 'flow state' I don't want to stop and sleep becomes a burden. 

3. So I put an annoying lockout in place on the computer and our internet to 'motivate' me to work at a good pace because I know the end is coming. That helps me prioritize my modeling activities and to 'jump start' better without the fear of mindless browsing of content to learn which I was sooooo susceptible to in the past; and to help me stop so I can get needed sleep!

This is helping me go from "what should I do today because I am getting a little bored with what I am doing.................only to waste hours and do nothing or end up with 50 unfinished projects; 

to "today I get to work on this part of the  project I am on. Let's see if I can make it within my time limit"

I'm not perfect with this new work flow but I have to say it is much more regimented and helps me complete things quicker. 

Weird thought: Boundaries/Rules/Timers actually make me more productive!?! 

My attitude for making myself keep up with practice is basically just:

• Open Blender
• Do something, no matter how small,add an edge loop, merge a double, just something, starting is the hardest part.

Just about 6 weeks ago i got an idea, well it´s not my idea really. Many before me have done it actually. 

The point is, it´s a brilliant idea because when you decide to do it, you get motivated and give that little bit extra.

What i am on about is starting a 10k hours project. You might get a little bit overwhelmed and think that you will never be able to complete it! Maybe you wont, but you will at least find motivation to keep it going for a while. In that time you might have learned much, and the road ahaed might not be filled with too many rocks. 

During the 6 weeks i have been at it i have used blender, watched tutorials or done something else that applies for 145 hours. That´s way more than before i started the project.

Here is some math.

If you work one hour a day, it will take you 27 years to complete. That might seem overwhelimg but if you increase to two hours, the time to completion will be half of that. So it´s basicly about what you put into it.

Once a week i subtract the hours i worked and do a new count of the time to completion. If i can manage to keep up the paste, i will be able to complete this in 5 years. Thinking of everything i will learn in that time keeps me motivated to continue.

So this is how i make time for learning.

I realize this thread is over two years old, but I just wanted to offer some feedback: 

I see that you have now implemented  learning flows, and they are WELL DONE. The progression is good, and it absolutely makes sense.

That's actually how I primarily navigate the site. I'm currently on the Learn Blender 2.8 flow (modeling, texturing treasure chest). But I love looking ahead and thinking about what flow I should learn next.

Backstory: I've been coming to cgcookie as far back as I can remember (10-12 years ago-ish?). And I love the direction it's been going (the new community building, learning flows, etc..). I have fond memories of CGC, beer, and me drunkenly attempting to model a gun.

Several factors help me.

Firstly: I have already written about thirty scripts and my goal is to start producing animations based on written texts.
So, the first one is: set a goal.

Secondly: do classes every day. No excuses, just develop a habit to do these classes and devote maximum time to it. That has to be your daily routine.

Thirdly: make short notes during each course.
The more information I learn, the more I forget. In order to assimilate the maximum of the material, I make short notes of interesting techniques, decisions, actions (it's absolutely not necessary to record everything).
Just basic things so I'd easily freshen up the material and all the tricks.

And the last one: watching the best of industry. Always compare yourself with the best and strive to surpass them.

arthur shapiro you are my motivation for today men

I've started, stopped and started again; in learning 3D (specifically geared towards indie game-dev, and making art assets).  I've done this more times than I'd like to own up to.  My current job is quite stressful (going on 13 years now), and isn't at all creative.  In fact, I've worked for around 24 total years in government work....in one path or another.  I've totally deviated from what I started off in, in life.  I'd like to seriously change that.  Now, with a Family and the reality of the daily grind, I'm finding it very hard to break away from that.  Most days I'm totally drained, especially mentally.  But the things I do to relax and calm down, give me nothing in return.  I may as well just watch endless YouTube videos about nothing.

I have found that I learn quicker (apart from initial training on any application or program), with project-based learning.  There is a great course on another site, that has you going from knowing nothing about Unity, to putting together some workable levels, with basic AI and everything....with emphasis on art pipelines.

I find myself monetarily supporting CGCookie from year to year, without truly utilizing the amazing help from content providers here.  What it comes down to, is realizing that my expectations are way out of wack, and I need to be more realistic....and focused on my learning phase.  Self-discipline.  I do like that the CGC Staff are always evolving the way they do things, to better support all of us and our different journeys.

I guess this was more of a ramble, than anything else.

I also have a regular job and just take my first steps in CG, because I want to work in CG and quit my current job. Well.. anger at my job is strong motivation to practice in something I really LOVE. I don't have enough free time to practice at work, so I do this at home. I wouldn't risk my life saying to my wife "Hello honey, this evening I'm not gonna spend time with you and our daughter because CG Cookie lessons are waiting" - so I work in Blender at late evenings and even night hours when everyone is sleeping.

And sometimes it's really hard especially when it's not weekend, and I have my alarm lock-n-loaded on 6:30 AM. So I usually practice from 10-11 PM till 00-02AM. It's hard to sleep 4-5 hours per each night, so I use usually 4 days per week for Blender. (My record was to start at 22 PM and to go to bed at 5AM. And then after an hour and a half I heard my alarm rang and went to work).

Later I noticed that my activity lacks of structure, I tried to learn of everything at a same time. So I've made some schedule (e.g. Monday - modeling, Wednesday - texturing in Substance, Friday - animation, and so on), because I think 3 hours of "scheduled" work are more valuable than 6 of "random". I get involved in the mobile game project, just with 4 enthusiasts like me, so I have quite a tight schedule, and my motivation is not to let the others down.

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https://cgcookie.com/questions/9096-your-cg-routine-how-do-you-keep-up-the-pace

I'd like to add my own insight to this discussion.

It's about subject literacy, the ability to not only read, but also to be very good at writing.

Summary:

It's still early days and I'm sure I will delve even further into learning, but a big breakthrough in how I go about learning new skills has been made:

I need to achieve blender literacy. Until that time I will spend about 5 to 15 minutes per day:

One lesson per day. On cgcookie this mostly means: watch one video, then recreate what they did from memory (I only take notes for specific things such as colour values used).

I expect this will take 1 to 2 years before I will be literate enough to pursue my own projects.

I suppose a relevant idiom is: learn to walk before you try to run.

Once I am literate (know what I'm doing), I'll start doing personal projects. I'll be able to practice an unlimited amount of time each day without becoming anxious or stuck.

1. Background, my previous models of learning.

Most people organise proficiency into the following categories.

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Expert

But this year I made a big breakthrough in my understanding of how we become competent at things and it's about a concept I call literacy.

The problem that we have though, is that we may think we're literate when we've really only scratched the surface. Some examples:

in reading and writing, we may think we're literate because we can write words (like I am doing now). And yes it is a very important milestone to be able to write a sentence, and I think we can all agree that you are at a massive disadvantage in life if you cannot even read. I am not fully literate at language, but I know who is: authors. 

I now have a new set of levels of proficiency to work towards and a few behaviours that I need to practice in order to reach the next level.

1. Illiterate (previously called novice or beginner).
2. Reader
3. Writer
4. Author

The level names are still a work in progress but I'll try to explain them with a few analogies.

Analogy: Writing

Illiterate: you can't read

Reader: You can read books, perhaps even write words, emails etc but you'd definitely not consider yourself an author

Writer: You understand grammar better and are able to create stories or articles. But you definitely aren't good enough to get paid.

Author/Literate: You have the expertise and experience required to write commercial quality documents: books, papers, articles, scripts etc.

Analogy: Car driving

Illiterate: You can't drive

Reader: You're a learner, you can operate a car and follow someone's instructions, but you certainly wouldn't be safe to drive out solo.

Writer: You are a licensed driver, you can go to work, get groceries, you know (almost) all the road rules.

Author/Literate: Rally car driver.

Analogy: 3D Art

Illiterate: You don't know the difference between a vertex and an armature.

Reader: You can watch 3D Movies and appreciate them for their technical marvel.

If you're learning 3D software, you can follow along tutorials.

Writer: You could work as a junior 3D modeller turning concept art into 3D models... with supervision to get you through some trickier puzzles.

Author: You're good enough to lead a 3D project/team.

With all that said... I think the problems with motivation and progress that we as learners encounter stems from a lack of understanding of the theory behind becoming an expert. So what happens, is we try to run before we can even walk. We take on a huge project before we even know (let alone have mastered) the basics. We find ourselves unable to put the long hours in, it's too tiring, stressful and anxiety inducing. So we take a few days off, and days become weeks become months become years.

I first started learning Blender in 2011. It's now the end of 2020 and I still consider myself a beginner. Why? Because I didn't lay down a foundation of literacy.

Here's where I am in the stages of 3D expertise:

I'm a reader, I can follow tutorials. That's all I should try to do at this stage, I don't have enough knowledge about the complexities of the software or the workflows of what is possible to solve problems, I cannot play around with the software because I don't have enough of a mental model to even udnerstand what my prodding and clicking on buttons even means.

So, here's my learning plan based on the 4 stages of literacy.

Illiterate: I've already got myself through this stage, I've done super basic Blender courses such  as the "Learn the Blender Basics (2.79)" here on cgcookie.

Reader (where I am now):

Complete one lesson per day (that's 1 5 minute video or if it's a big video I'll break it down into chunks of good stopping points (such as model the leg, or create the hair, rig the skeleton etc).

I will do this indefinitely but I expect this will take me one year or more. I just have to be patient.

Very important: I will do this every single day, missing a day is okay, but only if I really cannot find 5 to 15 minutes to work on getting through lesson material. Also important: I need to practice what's in the tutorials, just watching isn't enough. I need to watch the video, then replicate what they demonstrated

But, something else that's important to keep in mind: I do not need to understand what's going on. It's more important to simply replicate the results at this stage, understanding will come later, right now all I need is a large volume of tutorials to follow along and gain experience.

Writer: 

When I reach this stage I will start using my skills to join in with projects with other people. Perhaps I'll model props, or rig models for animation (depending where I specialise, probably modelling). At this stage there won't be a limit to how long I can practice, and I shouldn't get exhausted. The only limit will be real time availability. So I will try to do 4 hours on a project with a team every week, preferably more but that will be a minimum.

I'll also continue with one tutorial per day, but they will be more complicated topics (what we typically call intermediate and advanced), but the main bulk of my progress will come through practice. 

In this stage I will build up and refine my mental models. Perhaps I'll participate in competitions, do speed arts etc.

Author:

I don't yet have a concrete plan on how to reach this stage. I suspect it will happen after years of practice, 10 000 hours, learning many tools (blender, houdini, cascadeur, maya, substance etc) or maybe it will never happen.

It would probably require some dedicated, deliberate, focused practice.

I'd need to find some sort of professional benchmark (a certification perhaps, or a degree).

I would need to create a high quality production... a masterpiece as they say. 

I might never reach that stage, that's not that important. The important thing is to be mindful of where I actually am, and to realise that I cannot go faster. It would just end up "spinning my wheels" or "tearing muscle and tendons".

You will see me around over the next year, my first objective is to complete all the beginner level blender 3D courses on CG cookie. Then I will start participating in contests and doing more advanced tutorials. Eventually I will start doing original art (I plan on making art pieces to give as gifts to people). And maybe after all that, I'll go pro, maybe not. 

This is only the first draft of my own personal theory of competence, but I think it will be the difference between my previous floundering (wasted 7 years now) and rapidly getting up to a professional quality level of expertise.

My Principles of Learning:

1. 15 minutes per day. Or one lesson per day, whichever I feel like.
2. Lesson Every single day, no days off, 7 days a week. I see this as the same as eating, typically we don't take a break from eating unless extraordinary circumstances.
3. One tutorial/course at a time. Even/especially if I get bored. I'll see it through or abandon it permanently (if the course turns out to be garbage).
4. Revision: go over courses a second time (or even more) after a break to do a different course. But when replicating the lesson material, do it with other examples of my own devising. I can save some time by only doing the end of course practice project, perhaps with a different theme but using the same techniques (e.g. model a crown instead of a wheel for modeling with modifiers).
5. Grind, have patience. It's not always going to be engaging or interesting. When that happens, just remember: 15 minutes then I'm done for the day.