Animator's Block

[Bog]

I've not been at my best for the last couple of weeks, between blood-pressure escalation and a molar being subject to the wonders of English dentistry, and it's occoured to me that I haven't had a single creative thought for at least a fortnight.

Being one of those people who get occasional night-terrors that their creativity's packed up and left for warmer climes, can anyone bung me some good creative exercises to do in the hopes of finding the rock my muse has hidden under?

[bobakabob]

Bog,

Good idea for a thread :)

If the dreaded block strikes I either

a) Switch the computer off and go for brooding melancholy walk in the nearest available wilderness (Peak District is great here up noorth).

or...

b) Go to an old man's pub, take a little black book to scribble notes, sit in the corner (a la Tommy in 'Early Doors') and drink one glass of cold Guinness slowly. This is even better following brooding melancholy walk. Ideas should start brimming after half a pint. Warning: Succumb to temptation and ideas will vanish just as quickly after the second pint.

c) If the muse has failed to strike and little black book is bereft of notes go home (provided you can walk by this stage) switch computer on and set yourself a simple but challenging task e.g Model perfect human foot from a cube.

[flakester]

Exchange the Guiness for a good, dark real ale from a small local brewery, and I'm with you all the way on that one bobakabob. :thumbsup: And yes, the Peak District is simply a wonderful place for walking.

Other suggestions from this side would be:
Kind of as above........ doodle. Don't start with anything in mind, just scribble and see what appears.

Do some DIY, the sort where you don't really have to think - like undercoating. If you don't have any walls that need doing, just turn up on a random doorstep with a bucket'o'paint and a brush, introduce yourself and off you go!
Seriously, I find allsorts of strange thoughts happen when I don't actually HAVE to think about something - the classic wondering mind.

Maybe you could release some of that block by meticulously planning the downfall of British Dentistry through an elaborate plot involving a bowling ball, one smoked mackrel and a kirby grip.
I'd sign up to help you! :D

Let us know how you get on.

flakester.

[bobakabob]

Exchange the Guiness for a good, dark real ale from a small local brewery, and I'm with you all the way on that one bobakabob. :thumbsup: And yes, the Peak District is simply a wonderful place for walking.

Other suggestions from this side would be:
Kind of as above........ doodle. Don't start with anything in mind, just scribble and see what appears.

Do some DIY, the sort where you don't really have to think - like undercoating. If you don't have any walls that need doing, just turn up on a random doorstep with a bucket'o'paint and a brush, introduce yourself and off you go!
Seriously, I find allsorts of strange thoughts happen when I don't actually HAVE to think about something - the classic wondering mind.

Maybe you could release some of that block by meticulously planning the downfall of British Dentistry through an elaborate plot involving a bowling ball, one smoked mackrel and a kirby grip.
I'd sign up to help you! :D

Let us know how you get on.

flakester.

:thumbsup: Agreed... you can't beat a good doodle.

[SplineGod]

Increase the dosage on your pain meds. :)

[sammael]

Sounds like you need a holiday to me. Nothing a few evenings strolling on the beach would'nt fix. Sometimes it just gets to that point.

[Bog]

Sounds like you need a holiday to me. Nothing a few evenings strolling on the beach would'nt fix. Sometimes it just gets to that point.


Oh, God yes - I'm desperately overdue for a break! And all good suggestions, cheers fellers. I have Guinness, Guitar Hero II, and I found a toy Buck Rogers Starfighter from 1980 in the local Old Toys Store (£15! Steal! The wings still pop out when you push the button!) so hopefully between those, I'll at least be able to fire up the modelling brain and build the durn thing.

I've already noticed that if you gave the wings more foreward sweep, and some gloves, they might actually be useful in a low-speed atmosphere configuration.... hummm.... playtime! :D

I cannot state the importance of a good local toystore without undue emphasis.

[Steamthrower]

You...you...fnording subvert, you!

[Bog]

Whut? Whuddido?

[flakester]

Sounds to me like a shortage of toystores, or toys.

Or quite possibly a scenario where one has led directly to the other.
Poor fella.

I remember my days with no toys. *sniff*

Better now though. Much better. :p

[archijam]

TOYS. (http://www.daftpunk.com/5555/index.html)

Most important is to do something you would not usually do .. jump off a pier into cold water in your clothes, flirt with a nun etc.

If you usually go for a walk in the forest and a guiness, I can't see it helping, tho I'm willing to try ;)

j.

[Steamthrower]

Personally my kind of toy is taking a 12-gauge out in the woods and blowing holes in things. Usually inanimate things.

Or just good old Enemy Territory vs. 48 other players without anything better to do.

[iconoclasty]

Call of Duty 4 comes out in a week. That should cure what ails ya.

[animotion]

Kick Squirrels in the park.

Never fails.:thumbsup:

[Steamthrower]

Squirrels are too fast for me. I personally do that to cats, but perhaps Bog is more athletic than I.

[Bog]

I shall make sure neither of my cats read this thread ;)

It's a pain - I've tried freedrawing, but I've just ended up drawing my own hand out of sheer lack of ideas. I've played more games this last week than I have in the rest of the year, which is good for distracting oneself, but for coming up with decent ideas and stuff it's not so great.

[Steamthrower]

You could always join Andrew March in the film project he's orchestrating. He posted a thread of it a while back and I joined up. I can't reveal anything since it's under an NDA but I'm sure he'd let me tell everyone that it's well worth investigation. Quite professional stuff going on.

[Bog]

Link, please!

[Steamthrower]

Actually, it's in the Sci-Fi Meshes forum, somewhat hidden with passwords and memberships and cultic initiations and all, so why don't you just PM Andrew March? I actually don't even have his email as of yet.

[Exception]

THC or Mushrooms.

In short, a nice boat ride to Amsterdam.
Steer clear of the British tourists that only come for the drugs though.
Horrible creatures.

:)

[Bog]

THC puts me straight to sleep, mushrooms make me drink entire litre bottles of Plymouth gin, and every other recreational pharmaceutical on the planet basically has some adverse effect or another - I already hug people as a matter of course, so MDMA's contra-indicated, and I beleive that alkaloids are best used as topical painkillers.

So my entire drug intake consists of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and capsicin. Glory, Glory Jalapeno.

Ho hum.

[Sande]

"My advice to you is to start drinking heavily."
-Bluto

[colkai]

You could always try going off on a tangent.
I was driving home one day from one of my regular visits to Staffs and got stuck behind a horse box.
"Horses in Transit", too many cartoons led to a chuckle... "Neddys a go-go", which led to an idea forming in my brain which I have neither the skill or time to do, but I noted it down anyway once I got home. :p

...
Start off with shot of the back of a horse transport, with the notice 'Horses in Transit'. Have some sort of transition effect which transforms into "Neddy A Go Go", the door opens, not up like a shutter, but 'pulled back' like a set of stage curtains. On stage is a horse boogie-ing a-la the chipmunk from caddy-shack whilst on its rear legs (as if humanoid, could probably get away with just head/neck front legs to avoid too much work). Throw in disco lights etc... and anything funky / cheesy for disco vibe.

...

See what I mean? Of course, over-exposure to cartoon humour helps enormously. :D

[LW_Will]

What I've found is that if you try and be creative, you can, after quite a long while, FORCE yourself to be creative. However, if you let the creative sneak up on you, you can easily become creative...

Random suggestions:

I keep a sketchbook with me at all times. I make sketches with little reason, but I keep making them quick sketches. Tonnes of them on a page. I was listening to last week's "In Our Times" on podcast, and I suddenly was filled with the idea of how antimatter must work. And I drew about 3 pages just to organize my thoughts on the matter. (I think I shall use it for SF story in the future...) But, the point is, I worked the pencil with my thought process. Make it part of your body. The most important part of what you take our into the world; you, coat, money, car keys, sketchbook and pencil. (also, a side note, I find that using the large mechanical pencils, over .7 leads, I have a series of .9's that I love, works best for me. A wide lines in my images.) The free drawing is okay, but draw and keep drawing. It should be a part of you, not something you do instead of something else.

Two, in the realm of Not-Trying-To-Be-Creative creativity, do not sit at the computer and try to be creative. Don't think about how you need to manipulate your surroundings, like the interface for Photoshop or Lightwave, to be creative.

I think that the interfaces we have to use in the real world; English, pencils and brushes, tend to push us away from the process a bit. Conforming to a computer's interface, then the interface of several programs, each with its own distancing of the creative processes, well... you are miles distant from where you want to be when you sit down at the keyboard let alone when you want to be creatively.

My big thing, still working through it, is procrastination.. but I'll talk about that later...

I don't do the illicit substances, the alcohol, or (currently) any mood enhancing drugs... the only thing I am on is caffeine... gobs and gobs of the stuff. I drink 1 1/2 bottles of diet Coke a day... I take 44 oz. drinks like they were teacups. But, that is my thing. You can find your thing that helps you.

Also, get out of the house. I'm a bit weird on this one, but I can't work on work in the house. I need to go out and sit in a restaurant, or a coffee house, or by the ocean or something. I plop down, get some french fries and a diet Coke, and write and draw. I cannot write or draw at home. I'm not sure why. I can do the mechanical parts of an animation or a story at home, but I need to be out to find the creative spark.

I don't know what you have in the UK... is Starbucks there by and chance?
Go there, or go to... we have them here in America, they are called BURGER KING... that's a big one too.

:-)

Just try to go and be in a different place. Does a world of good for me.

The one piece of advice I can tell you is not to worry about your creativity going anywhere. You are creative, you still have your muse.

The problem is that you have to hear her and let her influence you.

Here endeth the lesson...

[Iain]

Watch Babestation.

You'll feel so disgusted with yourself and sorry for the poor dweebs who sit and watch that stuff that you'll........................

"switch off your television set and go and do something else less boring instead. Sittin at home watchin TV, turn it off it's no goo-oo-ood to me........"

[Steamthrower]

Watch "Time Bandits".

You will soon appreciate 1) the humor of Monty Python, and 2) the boon of modern CG effects.

But will you come away from it self-improved? Uh....