Lack of Motivation

[AdV3nt]

Hi guys :)

I started studying animation earlier on in the beginning of the year, the course is really good and our lecturers are professionals that have worked in the industry and know pretty much what they are doing.

I love my course but never realized how much work it requires to actually become a professional, i'm stil pretty new to everything but i know how to use Maya and Photoshop fairly well but my art skills are severely lacking and not improving as they should be and as a result i lack the motivation to draw. Due to my lack of motivation i cant seem to get to doing anything that requires drawing or at least applying myself to it.

I realize this is quite a bizzare request but does anyone know of a means or at least steps i can take to get to drawing and enjoying it enough again to continue it in my free time?

[Zaxser]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJowNFmuul8&feature=related

[JashuanWinters]

Our lives are constantly at war,
With our love and passion,
Fighting our knowledge and reason.

Art needs to be a passion for those of us who do not make any money or have no other reason to create other than to create. And a passion for anything is hard to find. Some of us are born with the natural passion. Others passion comes from the desire to have that skill.
If your passion is gone then I suggest you find the reason in your life that gave you the passion in the first place. And if that reason has changed, then you need to rekindle or start anew.
I have lost the love of art so many times, but my passion for it always burns. If you look you should find the reason why.
And good luck.

[AdV3nt]

Zaxser: thanx for the video it was quite helpful :)

Jashuan: thanx Jashuan you said it to me in a manner i never even expected, made me realise that i actually have lost the passion for something that i orignally loved, the reason for that may be that i've gone from doing it in my free time to something that i have to do for class making me a full as if i am being pushed (our art lecturer is a little rough at times)

I think what i need to do then is exactly what you said find what made me love it in the first place, although this may be quite hard or else i wouldn't be here :) Perhaps just start small and do what i used to in my free time which was just simply sitting down finding a random pic and see if i can replicate it :)

[tomwaits4noman]

Hi guys :)

I started studying animation earlier on in the beginning of the year, the course is really good and our lecturers are professionals that have worked in the industry and know pretty much what they are doing.

I love my course but never realized how much work it requires to actually become a professional, i'm stil pretty new to everything but i know how to use Maya and Photoshop fairly well but my art skills are severely lacking and not improving as they should be and as a result i lack the motivation to draw. Due to my lack of motivation i cant seem to get to doing anything that requires drawing or at least applying myself to it.

I realize this is quite a bizzare request but does anyone know of a means or at least steps i can take to get to drawing and enjoying it enough again to continue it in my free time?


I had to laugh when I read this... reminds me of something I went through.

Animation is intensive, not only do have drawing skill but there is also timing volume story telling acting to consider

The people who succeed in my course were the ones who kept their projects simple in terms of story and animation most used flash and stayed away classical. I am not saying to aim low just aim for what is achievable

as for lack of drawing skill it don't really come into play with animation, I know most of my lectures preferred something to be crudely drawn and well animated than visa versa

You have to enjoy animating, remember drawing a picture and animating it are not the same thing.

[Black Spot]

What did you want to animate in the first place? You must have had a dream of what you wanted to animate. Maybe the course is not fulfilling it the way you envisaged, but go back to it and see if it has the same pull. Do you still want to do it? Dream it, live it, in your free time. And then, when you get to where you need to be on your course, you will be able to give your dream life.

[J Wilson]

It's actually not uncommon to lose some of your steam for art when you realize it's actually hard work. Art can be a lot of fun, but other times it's something you need to really push yourself. If you enjoy a challenge it's a rush. If you just thought art was a fun easy way to earn a living then you've now learned otherwise :P

You can get that desire back by occassionally creating just for you. Forget assignments. Forget rules (although in reality you won't forget them, you just give yourself permission to not stress about them so much). Get back to when art was fun. Better yet is always try to find a way to MAKE your work fun and exciting for you. I had an assignment recently where the brief seemed very generic, and I could have created a generic illustration to fill it. Instead I took generic to mean that it was wide open for me to go crazy with it. I decided what I'd rather be painting, and fit it into the assignment. The art director loved the direction I took with it, and the painting came out much better than it would have otherwise because I found a way to paint something I was excited to work on.

[Mimesis]

I am also going to art college. It has been a difficult climb uphill for the first two years... I've reached a plateau, and realized, you can take any old 'boring' assignment that at first glance doesn't appear very intriguing, and you can draw from a well of creativity and morph it into something that you find interesting to yourself!

The best part about it, when you go about it this way, originality usually ensues, and both you and the viewer are happy with the outcome.

[Mikko K]

I don't know what's up with all these 'lack of motivation' threads lately.

I think everyone has creative frustrations around here, that's for sure, but if you lack perhaps the most important "talent", which in my opinion is the ability to self-motivate, I think you're not getting very far in this industry which is driven by people who love what they're doing.. Think of all the passionate animators who never make it to Pixar or whatever their dream job is. How can you compete if you're not sure this is what you love doing? I think the passion needs to be there. If you're asking why you should like drawing, you got a long way to go.

Having said that, I'd say the trick to learning drawing (or anything really) is simply sticking to it, and trying to enjoy the process. You will suck like we all do. Don't compare yourself to the superstars, or if you do, think of your future-self in the process. Don't let it depress you, see it as a challenge. All in all, these people are proof that this can be done successfully. Persistence is the key. Divide the impossible sounding task into small, achievable goals.

Good luck!

[AdV3nt]

Hehe thanx for the reply guys and i am going to try what most of you have mentioned :D

Although there is one important thing most of you are missing i am also doing 3d and i love my 3d work and work at it naturally by myself, i also have acting storytelling art and photography all aren't too bad except my art subject as a whole :( and i feel it has to do with my lack of motivation and my lecturer doesn't help with that either never lets us do what we like :(

[Christian223]

I have been thinking about this recently, it happens with not only art to me, but also with video game programming.

I used not to care about how well i drawn or about how many people would like my games, when i started to think in those things my motivation went down.

When you choose a job that you think you will have fun, and you dont, then you procrastinate to seek fun, and sometimes you dont get any of them, no job and no fun.

Im still not sure, but the problem is to make something not fun into something fun, something that does not interest you into something that interests you.

When i draw a subject that does not interest me i try to put something of me in it. I try to find the right point of view so that it interests me more, so that it intrigues me, so that it seems weird to me, or so that i find it funny or fun.

When im programing something that is frustrating, hard, or not interesting, i try to find reasons to do it that really interest me, i try to link it to my objectives, saying things like "this is a really important part to program because of... so and so" and i make a mental list or reasons why its important to me, suddenly everything is clear and i find my motivation to do it, it might not be fun to do, but it really interest me to see it finished for many reasons.

To find good reasons to do something that really bring strong emotions to you, thats the real key i think.

When i was a kid and i loved to draw my motivation was that i drawn to play, because it was funny, because i could show it to my friends and surprise them, because i wanted to see my favourite heroes, because i could do whatever i wanted and i was free. Now i dont have the same motivations, childhood is in the past, but i can still suprise myself and others, i can still play a hard challenging game, i can find reasons that really motivate me to do it. Thats something i realized no so long ago, i want to be a profesional artist because i want to have work having fun like i did when i was a kid, but i guess that since things are different now, i should seek to find fun in other ways.

If you want to have fun, stay in your limits, draw for fun, dont draw to learn or to be better, just draw for fun, without worries, but if you want to learn, youll find obstacles, its hard, it takes time, it takes effort, discipline, managing, sacrifice, when you motivate yourself by finding the right motivation to do it you enjoy it more.

Maybe thinking on the difference between a game and a sport will help. People who play in the olympics are not really playing, they take it really seriously, are they having fun?, do they have passion for what they do?, do they make sacrifices?, do they suffer with what they do?, im sure they do, maybe what we need to do is to make our work a sport.

Those are my thoughts, maybe it will help someone :lifedrawing: