New Years Resolutions for a 3D Artist
How to Create Achievable Aspirational Goals
Happy New Year!!
It’s the start of 2023. A fresh start. New beginnings. Clean slate. All that jazz.
It’s the time of year for optimism and setting goals for what you can accomplish in the next cycle around the sun. And the optimism is in full bloom. I’m sure there are some things to better yourself personally and spiritually. And for you go-getters, you may even have some professional goals on there like:
“Learn Blender!”
“Create a new demo reel!”
“Make an animated film!!!”
Amazing! Look at you all motivated and ready to conquer the world. I love it. But how do you set these goals? How do you create realistic achievable goals to push yourself but not set unrealistic expectations?
Here are a few tried and true methods for you to try.
Evaluate your 2022
The best way to start is to evaluate what you have done already. What were some of the projects you created that really “mattered?” Those that truly pushed you technically and artistically? Those that really made an impact and helped you grow and move toward your ultimate goals?
Once you’ve identified some successful work in the past, you could break down those projects to their core components. Why would I deem this project successful? How long did it take to complete? Is the process I used to create this piece able to be replicated?
Use this “data” from your past accomplishments to help shape what you want to do next.
Focus on End Results, Not Software
Please don’t create a goal to learn a software. I have done it many times and this is a fool’s errand. Focusing on software will lead you to take an online course for a specific piece of software and you will watch all the tutorials and do all the exercises. And you will feel great about it and cross it off your list.
The software will then sit idle for a bit until, eventually, a project will pop up that will require the software and you will want to hop back into it. But you launch it and realize that you’ve completely lost all the knowledge you think you have. And you will have to rewatch all those lecture videos with an eye on how it affets your actual project. And it is only through that process of making a real-life project using the software sticks.
Why does this happen? I have no idea. But something about creating an actual project makes the ideas and processes solidify more prominently in your brain. The closest example I can imagine is like learning a language.
Because yes…you can sit on your couch doing Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons for 30 minutes a night and theoretically learn Spanish in a year. But I guarantee you, if you plopped down in Barcelona for 12 months and immersed yourself in the culture, you would learn much faster and more profoundly. You wouldn’t just do some theoretical situation of casually asking for directions from a friend.
You would be genuinely lost and in a real fear that you cannot find a place to use a proper bathroom. And that added pressure of peeing your pants would give you the extra kick to solidify your “¿Dónde está el baño?”
So learn from my mistakes of thinking you will learn software by going through lecture videos and mock scenarios. Jump in there. Create a real project for yourself and figure it out along the way. Just remember to take regular bathroom breaks :)
Follow the KISS Principle
3D is hard. Like really really hard. And the number one thing that torpedos 3D projects is unnecessary complexity. Don’t burden yourself with an overzealous goal that will stretch you too thin and leave you with a mediocre project.
The greatest example I can think of is an egg. Have you ever tried to draw an egg or recreate one in 3D? It’s silly hard. The general shape is easy enough but the surface detail gets you. There are super subtle bumps, little dots, and a sprinkle of subsurface scattering. Nailing that would be an accomplishment all to itself.
So if you’re dreaming of becoming an environmental artist, maybe don’t set the goal of crafting an entire, photorealistic forest. Instead, just focus on creating one stellar tree or rock formation. Then once you have that amazing asset, you can build that out into a larger and larger set.
Start small and nail it. Then move on from there.
Layout checkpoints
Annual plans can feel daunting. Sure you want to create a full product line of custom 3D garments, but how will you get there from here? How can you accomplish it in one big step? Quite simply…you can’t. You need to create smaller goals for yourself and periodic check-ins to ensure that you are on track to hit your larger achievements.
If you want to create 20 garments for your new product lines, create check-ins where you have 5 garments done every 3 months or all the designs done by the end of March, the 3D models created by June, fabrics, and patterns by September, and final renders by December. Breaking large projects into smaller, accomplishable chunks is the only way to knock them out.
Avoid Soft Goals
“Improve Drawing Skills!” is a soft goal because it is a run on a hamster wheel with no definitive end.
How do you determine if you’ve accomplished it? When are your skills improved enough to satisfy this goal? I would encourage you to create something more measurable and definitive than that.
“Draw every day for at least 10 minutes or a total of 3650 minutes by the end of the year”
“Fill my entire sketchbook with ideas by the end of the year”
“Draw 3 photorealistic versions of characters from either season of White Lotus”
These are measurable, tactile goals that you can feel good about accomplishing by the end of the year.
Be Okay To Pivot
The world is cray cray. Something unexpected will happen to you in 2023 and we just don’t know what it is yet. You could lose your job or suffer a medical issue that causes a setback. A family member may need your help or you might meet the love of your life and now your only go is to go on some whirlwind trip eating your way across Southeast Asia.
Whatever the case, please be kind to yourself. These annual goals are not a measure of whether or not you were successful. They are merely here to provide a lighthouse and general course forward in your life based on where you sit today.
So go out there and manifest some goals.
I would love to see them so reply to this post and send me your 2023 goals! You’ve got this!!!
3D News of the Week
A roundup of interesting 3D-related news you may have missed this week.
Most Important Tech & Software Releases of 2022 - 80.lv
‘South Park’ Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone Land $20 Million in Funding for Their Deepfake VFX Studio - variety.com
Twitter thread about the current state of AI - twitter.com
Meta Unveils Its Meta Reality Mixed Reality System - VRScout.com
The use of 3D printing in homebuilding is set to drastically expand in 2023. - businessinsider.com
3D Artist of the Week
The remarkable 3D Artist Zhelong Xu. There is little to say other than this artist has created a remarkable portfolio filled with breathtaking work that anyone can appreciate.
Link to Website with social links and full portfolio
3D Tutorials
Creating SpongeBob with Blender, Zbrush and Substance Painter
3D Job Spreadsheet
Link to Google Doc With A TON of Jobs in Animation (not operated by me)
Michael Tanzillo has been 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. Currently, Michael is a Head of Technical Artists with the Substance 3D team at Adobe.
In addition to his work as an artist, Michael is 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.
www.michaeltanzillo.com
Free 3D Tutorials on the Michael Tanzillo YouTube Channel
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Thank you for doing this, Have an excellent year! I will organize myself and make specific goals to improve my texturing/LookDev demo reel this year.
Just fell on your blog and I am in love with your content !
I always ended up giving myself soft goals, and I never realized until now how hard it is to make them happen without further precisions.
I am a Rigging TD and I want to have better career opportunities and be a better technician in general.
Here my list of goals :
- Python : Improve my understanding by creating small tools for day to day tasks (ctrl creation, skinning transfer, limb creation, etc)
- Rigging : Re-address my fundamentals by creating small setups that shows a specific rigging aspect
The final idea would be to create a project that regroups both of these developments
I am scared but also very hopeful that I will stick to these, and if I take longer than I thought, it is ok because what matters is to get it done
Thank you so much Michael for the inspiration!