Finding time and/or motivation to mod

[luchian]

Hey guys,

Seeing so many cool projects in the works here lately, I would be curious (..and hopefully interesting for all) to find out what drives you to mod ?

I mean, most of the people are past their 20s, and that means maybe job, maybe family, maybe problems, or all. Or other. So how do you still get back at the PC and crush it ?

Speaking on my behalf, due to my day job, I sit at the computer already 9-10 hours a day. Sometimes when coming home, I would still like to model a little, but my eyes or my head hurts and even just scrolling makes me dizzy . Other times, eyes are ok but don't have the energy anymore.. In my head, I have so many projects and stuff I would like to model, or write about or share on the forum, but in reality it takes a lot of time before they eventually happen. I know that one of the things leading to this is a sort of OCD when it comes to releasing stuff. I tend to spend (waste ?) a huge amount of time on details very few will actually notice. But if _I_ know about it, I can't ignore it. Just can't help it .

Do you apply the 80/20 rule maybe ?
Do you have some examples of situations pro/against the above ?

Any secrets you might want to share ?
What keeps you focused ? What keeps you motivated ? How can you gain time in how you do stuff ?

 

[Ricardo Rey]

I probably will offer the least help, but...

Before I retired, from about 1999-2004, I was heavily involved in GPL track making and due to work, I rarely finished many projects. [Here is a link to all my tracks: http://www.gplpp.com/ Go to track, Beta tracks. The Long Beach 76 was mine, but gave it away. Not my name there. They all load in GPL. Frogring 67, IRP Road Course (1967), Langhorne, Long Beach (1976), Phoenix (1967), Trenton (1967)]
I simply did not have time and was too detailed; so I know what you mean. Work is real and important, but hope you find the time to do the fun stuff too. If I can/could help, I would.

Now I am retired and it helps me relax; even the learning.

 

[garyjpaterson]

Nice topic idea, I like it

For me, motivation is less of an issue, but in my early days of modding (coming up to 2 years ago now I suppose), it was tough.

At the beginning everything was so overwhelming, everything was new and therefore took an age to get anywhere so it didn't take long before I would get fed up and not feel like coming back for fear of not knowing how to progress further.

These days I'm a lot more competent, and while I still have a lot to learn its usually in small, bitesize chunks that are easy to digest now I have the basics down.

I remember just the thought of UV unwrapping and the whole texture process scared me away from continuing the Transit for probably 6 months! Nowadays I quite enjoy unwrapping, its mindless easy stuff that just takes a bit of time - usually something to do when I'm not feeling creating but want to feel productive.

I have a pretty easy, soulless job, and I often am sat researching or just thinking about what I'm going to be doing next for the current or future projects. I do sometimes come home all ready to get modding having been eager to all day, only to not find the energy to open up 3ds But usually it only lasts a a day or two before I'm back at it again.

I think my biggest problem (and everybody knows it) is finishing projects!
I'd start a new project everyday if I could! Recently I've had a bit of luck getting to create models for other people, and that's a pretty good motivator to finish what I'm doing

 

[AccAkut]

Dunno, I've always been a person that likes to know how things work, and one that liked to create stuff. On the other hand I've been more a "simmer" than a gamer, first game I ever "played" was the MS Flightsim, and even back in 2002 I already started creating liveries, with MS Paint as you should do.
One of the first gems was this :

(just found this on my drive, dated 30. June 2002)

During my many years of racing in LFS I made a few dozen skins, and then came AC which in contrast to LFS offered a SDK. I bumbled around with a few ripped models just figuring out Blender in its basics, than I started on the 996. And I'm still learning new things almost every day. My current day job is rather repetitive, so its a nice change from that.

Regarding making cars I find myself analysing a lot, and as such love cars where stuff is visible, like all those time attack and hillclimb machines, which follow my prefered DIY vibe. If their is a cable or tube I want to know what it does and why. A cage should feel as if it could really protect you.

Motivation? Depends, on many days I don't work on anything at all. And I don't run many projects in parallel, currently it's just the Lotus (that thing above is just a test balloon I practice on. Based on mesh from the LFS skin render pack released in ~2008, maybe 10% left of it. Not meant for release).

 

[luchian]

Riiiight! Now I remember seeing you on the LFS forums. Man, it used to be so alive there.. I guess, it's sort of ontopic since we're speaking about motivation . Quick, somebody give this link to Scawen

On the other side of motivation is procrastination. I have recently "found" a little workaround to that:
..having multiple projects going on. It goes completely against my "principles" but I've discovered that I can "procrastinate" from one project by working on another, depending on the mood. Supposing somebody would wait for a release from me, this way of working sure would be frustrating.. but:
1/ I don't think somebody is
2/ for me it seems to work. I have more fun, and feel that "release, release, release" pressure less .

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

 

[AccAkut]

It was a great place, but with that sudden switch in forum software right at the same time of yet another (Non-) progress report it just killed itself. Got rid of the last thing that kept people around, the familiar design and faces. Today all that's left is that mentally ill Kiwi and another hand of old regulars, it's a sad state.

I have around 4000 posts, even went to one of the kart meets in Wales, connecting faces to all those nicks and avatars.

 

[Marocco2]

What brought me to make track mods is to show that I can draw circuits better than Tilke
Jokes apart, I was bored of tracks with no sense corners or being extremely flat, so, when came RTB, I decided to build my own tracks