Creativity

[shurok]

hey guys,

im quite new to 3d art and drawing, i have recently learnt cinema 4d, after effects, and realflow, and i can use them quite well, the only problem is that i find it hard to be creative, i find difficult to create ideas to make, but once i have ideas im away!

does anyone have any techniques on how to create ideas, from 3d animation, to 3d modeling of everyday objects,

thanks alot

[Helioth]

I'll offer my 2cents, not sure how much I can help but as said, an offering:

Just let your mind flow and follow things, think of it as sniffing every flower on the way down the path. Only, you of course use your eyes and hands instead of your nose...

I guess you need to start with something you feel comfortable with and know a relative amount about.
Contrary to popular belief imagination/creativity isn't plucked from nowhere (not how I've experienced it anyway, although it seems close to it when you're on a high, very fast, very exciting ^-^ (not the kind you get from artificial drugs) Can't really argue with this as by the time someone can formulate a reply they already think with the same tools (words) as you do, I'm certain I've heard of babies dieing because of neglect and solitary confinement though, so you wouldn't want to try getting a reply in the first place). You need to mesh things together, So, just think of two things you love-hate-like-query and try having fun with them, in your mind.

What has always helped me is trying to dream, I have a weird knack for sleeping, which, like all things, doesn't always work; If I think of something enough I will dream about it and be instantly asleep, then, not sure if this is relative to time or w/e but, I'll be conscious in my dream shortly after realizing I'm asleep.

You know xiao xiao ? The stick men fighting animations etc, Imagine stick men at first, perhaps wireframes if you really have a good grip on things and animate them, just let them be as erratic or flowing or w/e as they can and see where it takes you(r mind).

I won't pretend I know how to explain more than a nuance of what I feel, / how I feel, IF that, especially not scientifically(If that's even possible).
But what I have discovered is the traits you need to be creative, consciouss or not: Open, Honest, Free, NOT-judemental, NOT-myopic (although there seems to be a strange duality here - you have to tunnel vision to have vision, in a way, especially when drawing, creating, with purpose), I guess I just mean the other harmful kind.

A good test for your "creativity", if you feel you might be developing it, is a huge gray canvas in Photoshop, try 10,000x10,000@300dpi. I always find when I have the best ideas, they just flow straight onto the page, which is more difficult for me to do digitally than on paper, seeing as I feel quite comfortable with pencil, but less so with a Wacom. I suppose you could think of it as that writing technique where you just start writing, scribbling even, and then what's on your mind will make itself manifest.

Another thing I like doing is just making grids / wire-frames, starting off with squares in the centre of the page, VERY lightly, this can also be a technical exercise, but I've used it more as a creative one. SO, you make a grid, with clear light lines and eventually twist the lines into shapes, from squares, to triangles to spheres - anything, Not only does this help you develop your overall mathematical/perspective drawing skills, whilst not directly trying, It's also fun, and usually ends with something worth looking at, even if only for a nanosecond to realize it's kitch cliché crap :P

Think of sounds as pictures, of smells as pictures, of how things "feel" as pictures, or any combination of these that you feel might help, e.g how a sound of a smell might look :P
Keep pushing yourself and don't ever let yourself be lazy, mentally!

Good luck fellow Human ! :D

Edit: P.s Don't try understanding the thought process that is creativity, you'll just depress yourself and be none-the-wiser, atleast I tried, failed, and came up with a cynical einstein like "creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" bull-shit of an answer.
The mind is too complicated to understand its complicated self, without more than a lifetimes worth of devotion at least.

[Aniboomer]

try stumbling upon stock images sites when you feel a creative block. I just enter a word that springs into mind and then look at photos until I get an idea for something I want to do.

[Vhan Juju]

Buy things that interest you, and put them on your desk. Expectually toy models. that normally helps.

Think "wow, I want one of those", because who doesn't want a plasma rifle that could fit in your backpack?

Think of something, sit down, have some fun DESIGNING it, really plan it out if you like, THEN go about modeling it.

Nothing is a joykill like looking at a subdivided cube with no idea in your head yet....

Get a idea, THEN go to your modeling program, its much better to "see" what your going to do with that cube than "wtf am I going to do with this stuiped cube!"

If your really stuck, build around a theme. "haunted house" "battle ready sheep" "war turnups" "if mario had a car".

:)