Hey friends! Hope you had an interesting week and week-end.
I managed to find some time to pick up where I left off my journey with 3D this week, more on that below. Let’s dive into this new edition, hope you’ll like it!
Here are today’s topics:
What I’m working on
Thoughts on breaking your routine
Tool(s) I’m currently trying
Interesting works of the week
What I’m working on
As mentioned above, I took a short break this week with moodboards.gallery and my other projects to follow some new tutorials about 3D.
I started my journey with 3D about 5 years ago with Cinema 4D, I was mainly focused on reproducing city buildings and creating some low-poly stuff (remember this trend?). I have been following the work of Mt. Mograph and Eyedesign since then, I still recommend their YouTube channels if you want to start with 3D!
Now I’m more focused on understanding materials, lightning, and renders. I followed a tutorial from Roger Kilimanjaro, allowing me to play a bit with Redshift render settings.
This weekend I reproduced LEGO’s famous brick separator. It still needs some love, and more fine-tuning on lights and renders, but I like it so far.
Thank you Thibaut for your help with the Remesher tool and your tips!
Thoughts on breaking your routine
Let’s make another comparison between our brain and our body. When you’re doing strength training regularly (3+ workouts/week), it’s recommended to have a “rest week” every 6-8 weeks, to allow your muscles to fully recover from the stress they did endure.
When you think about it when having a side project in addition to your 9-5 or freelance activity, you tend also to have these 3 “brain workouts” per week — let’s call them sessions. These sessions can be mentally exhausting, ups and downs can be difficult to follow, etc, even if they lead to greater benefits: new approaches, and new tools, as mentioned in Pilcrow #15.
That’s why having some kind of “rest week” for your brain every 6-8 weeks can be very beneficial to your side-project I think. You’ll still think about it, build new connections in your brains, and even have new ideas while recovering and filling your energy stocks.
“But wait… did you just reinvent the concept of paid time off?”
Well, it’s an interesting point. Indeed, PTO serves the same purpose but only works for employees, and side projects are not really taken into account, as they happen on your personal time. Here I’m focusing on people that take a certain amount of their personal time to work on new products, experiments, etc on evenings and weekends.
Ultimately, the key to success with a side project is finding a balance between hard work and rest. By taking care of your brain and allowing yourself time to recover, you can ensure that you're able to continue making progress and achieving your goals over the long term. So, the next time you're feeling tired or overwhelmed by your side project, remember that taking a break is not only beneficial but also necessary for your success.
Tool(s) I’m currently trying
As mentioned in the “What I’m working on” section, I’m learning new techniques inside Cinema 4D and diving into all sorts of tutorials for Redshift. Greyscalegorilla’s YouTube channel is definitely a great source of inspiration, as well as Maxon’s workshops.
Interesting works of the week
That’s all, friends — have a great Sunday! 🖤