Healthy Habits as a 3D Artist
A Key To Unlocking Your Creative Potential
The image of the tortured, struggling, starving artist is silly.
One Dutch painter cut off his ear over 100 years ago and now the notion that artistic genius must be intertwined with suffering is with us forever.
The reality is quite the opposite: only when you establish healthy habits to balance your mental and physical state can you create your best work.
Those In a Genuine Health Crisis
To level-set before kicking off…this article is not meant to address major physical or emotional conditions. Artists, like everyone else, often face challenges such as addiction, mental health issues, and a wide array of extremely difficult personal struggles like depression, chronic diseases, and everything in between. If this is your situation, you should seek professional help and not follow health advice from an article that randomly includes images of birds with arms.
If the above does not apply to you, please continue on.
Maximizing Your Creativity
Over the years, I've found that I am at my best creatively when everything in my life is in balance. When I felt stressed, I would often bury myself in my work to get through it, but those annoyances always found a way to creep into my work.
You cannot outwork stress in your life. You must figure out basic ways to find balance and control over things to maximize your artistic potential.
And the only way I’ve found to do that is to create and stay disciplined in essential healthy habits.
My creative output suffers if I'm preoccupied with a personal conflict, feeling tired or hungover, or distracted by other concerns.
This may not be news to you, but obtaining this balance is much more challenging than it might seem. Like everything else, I try to systematize everything to accomplish it as efficiently as possible.
Here is my checklist:
Ruthless Prioritization
One of the biggest obstacles to achieving artistic goals is being overwhelmed by other tasks. This prevents you from dedicating the necessary time and energy to your craft. The solution is ruthless prioritization.
Think of every decision as a "Hell yes!" or a "No." If you are asked to participate in a project or take on a freelance gig that doesn’t excite you entirely, decline it. By saying "No" to mediocre opportunities, you free up time and energy for the great opportunities that will help you grow.
If you want to read more about this, I wrote this article including a section about “Rethinking Productivity & Time Affluence”
Happiness As A 3D Artist
Exercise and Diet
A lack of regular exercise and a poor diet can leave you feeling sluggish and unmotivated. Early in my career, I worked long hours and neglected exercise and healthy eating, resulting in constant fatigue and discomfort.
Don’t be like me.
Eat colorful, fresh things and move your body to stay focused and active in your creative pursuits. Also, hangovers last an insanely long time when you get older. I recommend Athletic non-alcoholic beer and an occasional Penicillin cocktail.
Sleep
Even if you have a healthy diet and exercise routine, inadequate sleep can exhaust you. For years, I struggled with insomnia and tried various remedies like melatonin, acupuncture, THC gummies, and embarrassingly expensive sound machines. Eventually, I developed a nighttime routine that improved my sleep, and the positive impact on my creativity was immediate. If you are in this situation, I suggest checking out this New York Times article with great advice.
Meditation and Yin Yoga
Sleeping and eating well are great tools for your physical health. But for mental health, I mix it up between quick rounds of meditation and yin yoga.
I’ve tried mediation dozens of times, but it’s kind of hit-and-miss for me. I’ve found that yin yoga is a happy medium for me. Yin yoga is a more extended, slower, more deliberate version of yoga. It’s doing one yoga pose long enough for you to say, “Is there time to switch poses? They can’t possibly want us to hold the pose for that long?” And then you hold it for 2 minutes more.
This process helps you slow down during a hectic day when things get hairy. If I spend 10-15 minutes doing simple stretches and forcing myself to slow down, I can focus on the truly important tasks and ignore all the noise. If you want to try it, Yoga with Kassandra on YouTube is my jam.
As I age, taking 10-15 minutes to meditate or practice Yin yoga helps me manage stress. Yin yoga, a slower and deliberate form, involves holding poses for extended periods, promoting focus and relaxation.
Coping with Unemployment
If you are out of work, you might think these strategies don’t apply.
Nope. These strategies are even more critical.
During periods of unemployment, I allowed my bad habits to take over, resulting in poor sleep, poor diet, and, ultimately, subpar work at the exact moment I needed to be at my best to impress potential employers.
Stay disciplined and focused on maintaining healthy habits around your day and I guarantee your artwork will thrive.
Conclusion
While some circumstances, like major medical conditions, are beyond our control, maintaining healthy habits can help address creative struggles. By prioritizing well-being, you can unlock your best work.
To close us out…one last bird with arms…
The 3D Artist Community Updates!
Updates:
We had our first round of Blender Awesomeness with our own Kursad Karatas. Kursad is a 3D Generalist with 25+ years of experience and a fantastic teacher. In this first session, he answered community members’ questions about beveling, render settings and workflows, and creating assets for apparel design.
Last week, we had an inspiring AMA with Apple's Lead Motion Artist, Jeremy Postell. Jeremy gave incredible insights into his journey from his first job to Nike to Adidas and Apple. I highly encourage anyone in the community to watch the recording.
As always, we have our Virtual Café and Community Hangout for all our members to get together and collaborate.
3D News of the Week
Meta’s New Text-to-3D Generator Creates 3D Models in Under a Minute - PetaPixel
The Most Intriguing Animated Films You’ll Never See - New York Times (Paywall)
Fabric Collection Made With Substance 3D: Three Different Approaches - 80.lv
10 Books That Shaped How I Think About Design, Life, and Creativity - Better By Design
Make a Photoreal Game Boy in 3D with Unreal Engine - Grayscalegorilla
3D Merch is here!
3D Tutorials
3D Job Spreadsheet
Link to Google Doc With A TON of Jobs in Animation (not operated by me)
Hello! Michael Tanzillo here. I am the Head of Technical Artists with the Substance 3D Growth team at Adobe. Previously, I was a Senior Artist on animated films at Blue Sky Studios/Disney with credits including three Ice Age movies, two Rios, Peanuts, Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise, and Epic.
In addition to his work as an artist, I am the Co-Author of the book Lighting for Animation: The Visual Art of Storytelling and the Co-Founder of The Academy of Animated Art, an online school that has helped hundreds of artists around the world begin careers in Animation, Visual Effects, and Digital Imaging. I also created The 3D Artist Community on Skool and this newsletter.
www.michaeltanzillo.com
Free 3D Tutorials on the Michael Tanzillo YouTube Channel
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