Blocked/stopped

General Discussion
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I’m in a period where I’m completely devoid of inspiration and I have this mental block that’s stopping me from doing VFX. Between work and everything else, when I get home I really lack the desire to start/continue the project, perhaps because of the fear of failure? Of not doing enough?
The fact is, I talked about it with a friend and he said he’d had this block too, and the desire returned when he started writing to/joining a community with the same passion. I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever had a block like this and how you overcame it, if there’s a way to get this stuff out of my head :smiling_face_with_tear:.

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Hey SkyLabs,

yeah I definitely also had that at some point. I guess it can be quite individual why it happens, doing some soul searching def can’t hurt.
For me a couple of things helped with this:

  • Allowing rest periods without thinking you have to do more or “I am not doing enough”. Inspiration is fueld by curiosity and play and putting you under pressure / forcing yourself doesn’t help with curiousity or play. Just be okay with chilling for a bit.

  • For me it came from only connecting VFX with “work” and never “play” because I mostly did it at my job. So just opening Unreal every once in a while for 30 mins on the weekend, playing with something I always was curious about and then closing Unreal again without the expectation of needing to create something perfect helped with decoupling Unreal from an only work-mindset

  • But it also came a bit from the feeling that I didn’t know enough about tech to make VFX as cool as I wanted them to be, which let me freeze a bit. Which meant at some point I sat down to fill some of the knowledge gaps I felt I had. So Unreal felt more exciting again.
    So maybe pick a topic you’re curious about and see what you can do with it, play.

  • But also general inspiration for me comes from doing a bunch of different things and not only one creative outlet. Drawing, writing, just going outside to fill the batteries. Quite helpful.

As said, it’s possibly a very individual issue, but maybe seeing some steps how I’ve overcome it might be helpful :slight_smile: Good luck!

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Thanks a lot for the advice :heart:, I will try to apply this and other methods that I am finding online and see if i unblock myself

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I think most people here have had similar experiences. For me personally i find it good to take breaks occasionally. Sometimes the breaks are several months long. I understand not everyone is fortunate to take that long off from work but sometimes it can really help you recharge, even if its just a few weeks. During that time there were months where i didn’t touch the editor.

One thing that really motivates me is trying to do things that i personally have never done before or that no one has done before. I tend to lean a bit more on the tech heavy side of things and its been a blast digging into things like grid2d/3d, custom hlsl and scratchpads in order to do things i was never able to achieve previously. That sense of knowledge growth drives me forward. claude/chatGPT has been invaluable in these endeavors.

I tend to get extremely bored when im just making the same effects over and over. (explosion version 999) Try doing something that is completely far out in left field from what you normally do.

I also like to watch GDC talks from other people on how they were able to achieve their stuff as well as demo reels. I have a particular soft spot for the style from the Asian VFX community. Something about the composition, timing and everything is just flawless. Probably because of the 2d animation influence, although a lot of the effects aren’t “stylized”.

I also second the alternative creative outlet Coal mentioned. Having hobbies etc offline can help you unplug, go outside and touch grass. :laughing:
One of my hobbies is somewhat VFX adjacent, and that is giant soap bubbles. Some as big as a bus if you get serious about it! Try it out, it helps me turn off my brain and just be 100% in the moment, something that is quite difficult for me. Here is a good starter recipe you can make for a few dollars.
Recipe
Massive bubble example! (not me)

Good luck, i hope you find your stride again! :+1:

2 Likes
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Thanks so much for the advice. I recently started doing the challenge again (follow some Coal advice help me up), which I set for myself a month ago and i started to make the blockout of it. I’m getting the hang of it again but slowly, because i don’t want to stress me up again and risk to lose again my will of doing vfx like some week ago.

It’s pretty hard to stay motivated but i dont want to quit doing vfx, i think i just have do find my way to do it because i dont have any for now. I will stay positive about it and try to improve myself anyway.

By that the hobby with the bubble it’s incredibile haha, i think i will try to make the recipe with friends, I sometime cook because it’s help me relax and it’s pretty enjoyable. Anyway thx for the responde, i appreciate that :heart: :grinning: