Creativity Through Programs

I think it really helps the creative process when you’re using the tools that are right for you. If you’re competent and well suited to the media you’re working in then you can let your ideas flow instead of being hindered by technical constraints. The reason I bring this up is due to the struggle with 3DS Max.

Max is a very technical program and it seems to work against me most of the time. Rather than having a piece of clay that I can shape and push and pull to my liking, Max has me concentrating on and worrying about every vertex I manipulate lest it destroy the flow of the mesh and create an array of unsightly angles. This can make it a real challenge to keep the model looking how I want it to but it’s all part of the fun of designing something that has to work in a game engine; it isn’t purely visual, it has to function and move and deform properly in game. I think that after a few years of practice it’ll become easier and easier to let the creativity shine through in the meshes I produce since I’ll be more comfortable with the program.

Using Photoshop has been good fun this year and I’ve really enjoyed learning how to manipulate it since I had no prior experience since I started the course. There’s so much to learn and I think the speed paintings we’ve been doing have really helped me to find new ways to be creative since there’s no time to sit and think about what you’re doing, you just have to dive in there and paint which leads to fun and totally unexpected results.

With more complex programs being developed it could seem that people will be able to be more creative and produce more and more stunning pieces of work but I wonder whether technical constraints might begin to hinder how people think and work so I think people should always remember the basics and do some doodling once in a while to free up their minds.

I think I’m going to dabble in the creative potential of new programs such a ZBrush and MudBox to see what opportunities they’ll present since from what I’ve seen, they allow more creative liberties than Max does, at the cost of an extra billion polys, but it should still be good fun