Castlevania Dungeon Forums
Off Topic => Off Topic => Topic started by: MDI on June 19, 2008, 09:09:20 PM
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This topic seems relevant to Fan Art..but the content of this thread itself isn't Fan Art..hence why I posted here..ANYWAYS
Have any of you ever started working on any type of personal project, from a painting to a sketch or even a music video or just video in general, or any thing that you'd consider art, and just got so frustrated?
For example...you all saw my Castlevania Holy Trials video in the Fan Art section..and I worked really hard on that.
But for the past few weeks I've been working on a new video for another video game that I love..and its just like..every little test or attempt I've made at it just..I dunno, I hate it and just start over...its like I'm striving so much to achieve perfection and its frustrating.
IN SHORT...this isn't necessarily me venting rage or anything, I was just curious if any of you ever get this feeling. Like you want to create something awesome but you just get so pissed because you want it to be perfect.
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I was working on a psuedo-glass painting of Link's Hyrulian shield, with the master sword going in the center, but I never had the time to finish it, so I just opted to create a cross-stitch of Simon Belmont's standing sprite.
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Are you kdding me? You are not alone my friend. This is the qunitessential artist's pet-peeve: trying to prove oneself or validate one's existence through his talents, and the expectations we set on ourselves based on the second conscious. (The voice of other's in our head judging our accomplshments). It's somethig you feel; not hear: the fear of failure.
The trick is to learn to love yourself and your work. And as Nike says, "JUST DO IT". Once you get to the point where you're in it to win it based on how YOU feel about it, you're one step closer. It matters not what other's will say until you yourself are happy with it. And if you like it but they don't, screw 'em. They can't take that away from you.
Again, pointing to the Nike slogan, it's very important to guage progress and achievement for a given project. You can't realistically work on it forver, because you grow as you go; you're very, very likely to lose interest or even touch with the project (Lucas' Star Wars Episode 1 for example). A good idea is to set realistic milestones: little achievement marks or points along the way that you can earn efficiently and in a timely manner. Pat yourself on the back for each one accomplished. It is also imperative that you set some sort of deadline for the finished piece, so that your egging yourself on to finish it.
As my physics instructor used to say, "Don't just sit there -- DO something." Make your move; even if it's the wrong one -- less thought more action... all that good stuff. It's so true. Let me tell you,potential employers want to see conclusion -- they want to see things finished. It doesn't even matter the content, if you can make it clear to them you accomplished SOMETHING, they'll be all the more impressed, because they'll see you as a disciplined and dedicated individual.
You're never gonna do it right until you do it wrong. We learn from our mistakes and build on our experience this way. And you can always, always learn something new.
My advice to you is to just keep up the work on it and guage the milestones you set for it. Note how many milestones you've accomplished after awhile and guage further how realistic it is that some of your ambitions will be met. If not, (and this is the hardest part), you're going to have to settle for stripping it down, or compromising in some way (What Slayer did).
If you feel your in some sort of mental block and just can't make real on any ideas, WALK AWAY from the project for awhile and try to refuel your creativity with games, movies, TV, Books, or even another project (just don't get too carried away with the new one) Maybe set a maximum amount of time alotted to the new one before you go back.
The most important thing to remember: you can always fix it later.
Now if I could just practice what I preach
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In Reply To #3
Very well said..!!
And for me personally, I've been editing videos (for fun) since 2003, so I've made pretty much as many mistakes as you can think of in past vids, such as
-Overload of filters
-Music that didn't match well
-Shitty footage
-Unexpected end (The type that makes you go, oh, thats it?)
-Crappy presentation
So at this point I've pretty much learned a lot of what to include and what to avoid, and once again as I said before I am pretty much perfectly content with how my last video (CV:Holy Trials) turned out.
But this new video I'm doing, I have done about 10 or 11 videos for this particular game, (Lets call it Game X for now. I just want to keep it secret for the time being.) and all of them have had their faults and high points. So the other day I took about 45 minutes to watch all of them in order one after another. The first video being one I made in 2003...
So I was pretty much refreshing my own memory and reminding myself of what I did right and wrong in the past with these vids. I've also been playing Game X a lot all week..
But the reason I am stressing so much over this is just like..I want it to be THE video ya know? I want everything that I love about this game, and everything awesome about it to just be fit into one great experience so that people that have or haven't played it can watch it and go, wow, that really is amazing!
But you are right Antraxx, one must appreciate their own work rather then just basing their judgment entirely on what they think other people might think of it. ;D
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You're talking to a guy who took 4+ years to do ONE Castlevania IV song (Forest of MOnsters), because it never quite sounded like my vision.
I've learned that my vision is too lofty and that I will always be somewhat disappointed by the finished product. Every time I am working on a tune for Fan Stuff, when I finally call it 'Finished' and put it up on the 'net, I always get that voice... the one that tells me I could've done a better job, that I could've spent more time on it, and that I could've invested in better hardware/software to get it to be acceptable by my own standards.
Then I tell that voice to stop being such a spazz. XD
I often do that only because it is too annoying. If you focus too much energy into those things, you will not get the thing done. Of course, you get that mediocrity feeling if you settle for the 'best for now' version of something, but at least you can call it finished, and you can always go back later on after you've gotten more experience and/or tools and do a new version.
So yeah, that voice is an overachieving bitch that sometimes needs to be gagged. :P
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No matter what, i always like and love the work that some guys are making here at these forums!! About 4 years ago i tried to make a fan project Castlevania game my self with RPG Maker and i was trying to make it as best as i could, always trying to fix the graphics or ad more effects at stages so that it want suck when i was going to release it for the others. What did i get at the end for all my efforts? Nothing and that's because i wasn't making backups and my computer has crashed and lost everything!!
My point is, that if i wasn't so perfectionist, i would have finish it and nothing would have to go wrong!! So no matter what, whatever you are doing you'll have to make it with your heart and standars and not thinking what others are going to say!! After all it's your work and spend time to make it and if you are happy with the result, nothing else matters!! Now i'm really lazy to star it again or make a new one!!
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Heh. Pretty much the message I'm seeing here from everybody is, just do it and enjoy it..don't take a million years to finish it just because it isn't the most amazing thing you've ever seen. :D
And I agree..one must get his ass moving rather then sitting around moping.
ALSO..one more thing I wanted to add to my first post,
Any of you ever make something that everyone seems to love and compliment, but then theres that ONE person thats like.."ehhh well it was ok but you should have done this and that." And for some reason, despite the majority of people saying you did a good job, you just so happen to let the negative feedback get to you? >__<
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In Reply To #7
Yes it has happen to me, but after some thought, i realized that getting worring for what that guy said, it was pointless. So no matter what, you'll have to keep going and fulfill your dreams and do not let others get inside your mind. If someone didn't like what you made, then let him make it better if he can and not just judging. ;)
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Any of you ever make something that everyone seems to love and compliment, but then theres that ONE person thats like.."ehhh well it was ok but you should have done this and that." And for some reason, despite the majority of people saying you did a good job, you just so happen to let the negative feedback get to you? >__<
Every song I make. :P
There's people out there who complain that I don't 'remix' the songs enough... that there's no point to them if they're going to sound exactly like the game. That they don't 'get' the purpose of doing it in the first place when they could just listen to the OST or the in-game music.
They will not be pleased no matter what gets done, so I try not to even worry.
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In Reply To #1
Yeah. I'm working on a Castlevania fan-art collage, all of my own work, and I made Simon look a little... well, not good. I'll post a scan of my work so far, if you'd like.
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In Reply To #10
Post as you see fit! ;D But either way I'll look forward to the end result.
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In Reply To #11
Thanks. You look forward to it, I dread it.
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In Reply To #11
Thanks. You look forward to it, I dread it.
Lol. Just get it done :P
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In Reply To #7
Thats happened to EVERY mod I made of Oblivion. Lots of ppl like em etc but theres always like 1 person or small handful of ppl that feel like I shoulda made the mod specifically for them or should remake my mod to fit exactly what they wanted. Never fails. Ive released 30 mods since OB came out and there might be 2 or 3 no ones managed to complain about.
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In Reply To #13
I spend so much time here, I barely do anything else.
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I also should mention:
If you're going to get anything done, you're going to need focus.
I get SO much more done when I turn off the INTRAWEBS for the day. You should try it.
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In Reply To #16
I may just end up losing my mind.
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yeah I cant live without the series of tubes I love so much. Even if Im NOT using it (which is very few and far between) its there and it comforts me. That and I need all my links to shit when Im modding.
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Oh, so familiar.
I doubt if I told it here, but I'm an artist too.
I write. I have two serious projects (books) I'm working on and I'm rarely satisfied with what I write. I always have the sensation that I don't write descriptively enough and have to add many pages of descriptions and dialouges that I don't find ultimately as all-so-interesting for a reader who seeks an adventure book, that is which my main projects are aimed at.
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In Reply To #19
I have the same problem with my books, Freddy.
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In a lot of ways the new modern standard of writing is to say more with less. So if you can describe something similarly with less words, you've likely done a better job at writing.
Instead of:
"She peeled the dusty, tattered pages apart and marveled at the dark-red archaic print."
...you could go smaller with:
"Peeling the tattered book apart, she marveled at the ancient crimson glyphs."
Perhaps not the best example (and yes, that's Shanoa ;D), but... In this case simply stating that the book is "tattered" will likely instill the image of it being old in the reader's mind anyway; thus dusty, worn... all that good stuff.
Give the reader credit. Try to get in their head and assume what they would feel at anytime when reading a sentence.
Less is more because you still achieve the imagery without losing the attention of your reader. This is why, despite the classic novels of the 19th century being very good, they can be so hard to read. They usually contain superfluous imagery; not to mention descriptions of things that're confusing to our times.
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I think all artists get frustrated at some time or another with their work--the idea that everything just comes out painlessly is certainly a fairy tale.
Sometimes it's best to just close the book on a project and move on to something new, or, take a break from it for a while and come back to it after you've had some time away and can look at it again with a fresh perspective.
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In Reply To #15
Hehe, same here. It's pretty sad. YOU KNOW WHAT?! I'M GONNA GO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE! >:(
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I'm back, but I forgot what I was doing once I got off the computer, so I played Resident Evil 4 instead. Is that productive? :-\