Is there something you wanted to learn for some time but you could never get to it?
I am a car enthusiast, an artist and I like video games.
These together mean that I was always interested in 3D modeling.
Creating car models and animations, or even assets for driving games is very high on my interest list.
But I never started learning.
Until now!
In today's issue you will learn:
- Why we delay learning something new
- What are the challenges and
- How to approach them effectively in order to be able to make the progress we want.
Stay to the end if you also want to read my 3D modeling learning story.
This will be a long one, so here's an index of the big topics:
- Why do we delay learning something new?
- Why I couldn't start before?
- What you can actually do to change
- Step-by-step guide
- An applied example: learning 3D modeling
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Why do we delay learning something new?
Well, the "problem" is when the skill is hard to learn.
When it takes years of investment to develop in a meaningful way.
Because of that, one faces what's called "limiting beliefs".
Limiting beliefs
For those unfamiliar, limiting beliefs are pretty literal.
They are things that you believe, they are usually not true, and they limit you.
Let me give you an example:
- You never drew or painted anything "with intent" in your life.
- You think "I cannot draw".
- Therefore, thinking that "you cannot draw" is what actually limits you from drawing, or more importantly, from learning how to draw.
The reason why you cannot draw is not, like you think, that you "just cannot draw".
It's because you believe that you cannot draw.
That you are not and will never be good enough at it, so you don't even bother.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy in its own right.
If you never try to learn something new, you will for sure not be able to do it.
Why I couldn't start before?
This comes down to two specific reasons:
And I am sure we are all familiar with both, because they are related.
Excuses
Some of the excuses I told myself can be applied to a lot of areas. They are as follows:
- "It's too hard to learn.": So? You don't need to be a master at it on day one. Allow yourself to be bad at something. That's how we all start.
- "I don't have the necessary gear.": This is a valid concern, but not at this point. The thing with "necessary gear" is that you probably don't need what you think is necessary at first. Start with basic gear and more importantly, take action. At this point, experience is so much more important than gear. You will grow into that gear and then know what new gear you need. Don't let this hold you back from starting.
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Procrastination
One can always find a reason not to start today. I'll drop some hard truths below:
- "I don't have time.": Here's the thing about time. You don't "have" time. You "make" time. If you say "I don't have time" you are actually masking a "I don't want to make time" for it. And sometimes you have to "force" yourself into making that time, until things kick off and you are properly enthusiastic about it.
- "I'll start when I'm ready.": Spoiler alert. You will never feel ready. Even when you are experienced, the "imposter syndrome" kicks in and you feel like you are not "good enough". Truth is, you're plenty. You just have to push through those feelings and you'll be fine.
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What you can actually do to change
There are several ways to tackle a new skill.
I will now share what I found that works for me but might also work for you, or spark an idea for you to come up with a similar strategy that's closer to what works for you.
The biggest blocker is the feeling of overwhelm.
How do we get rid of that?
Here's a 3 step list of things you can do to immediately feel like it's not that big of a deal.
- Pick the smallest project.
- Pick something you care about and want to have done.
- Learn just in time, not just in case.
Pick the smallest project
You need something small, but meaningful.
Don't shoot for the moon.
Shoot for that small hill in the distance and take it easy. Learn from this experience. What worked? What was not as you expected?
Take it all in and then focus on improvement points and avoid repeating mistakes on the next iteration.
Pick something you care about and want done
Something doable, but exciting.
Think of a thing that made you come back to this desire to learn. What kept this in your mind for long.
Learn just in time, not just in case
Learning from 0 can be daunting if the right approach is not in place.
One thing that might be tempting, and also a way of procrastinating, is to sink in tutorial hell.
You might think "I will learn *gestures at everything* all of this and THEN I'll start building". My friend, I'm afraid that's not how it works.
Seeβ¦
You are a beginner. Just like you don't know what gear you need, you don't know what you need to learn.
Learning "a lot of things just in case I need them" is not the way to go.
The beauty of picking a small but doable project is that you can make some effort and actually finish it.
You are faced with a challenge you picked. You do learn some basics, of course, but then you start doing. You create, you build. Until you find the first challenge or hurdle.
That's when you investigate how to solve that specific problem (the hurdle).
I call this "Just In Time Learning". You don't waste time learning things "just in case", but you learn them "just in time". Exactly when you need them.
The return of investment in the learning and the feeling of satisfaction is immediate which is why it's so worth it.
Step-by-step guide
If the above confused you a bit, here's a direct itemized plan you can follow to get started:
- Decide what to build
- Start building it
- Learn along the way, not before ("Just In Time Learning" instead of "just in case")
- Give yourself time
- Allow you to make mistakes
- Don't be super ambitious with the goal
- Be realistic with where you are and what you can do
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The most important thing is to make progress. This will give you a very nice feeling and motivate you to go further.
You need to be challenged just enough for it to be interesting.
Not too much for it to be frustrating.
Not too little for it to be boring.
And remember:
- There is no right or wrong way to do it
- You might ask yourself "Is there a better way of doing it?" Probably! You're just starting. Allow yourself to not be optimal.
- You need to learn in order to know what you don't know and what you need to learn next.
- It's all about building on top of the previous thing. If the foundation is good, what you construct on top will be good.
An applied example: learning 3D modeling
I know the above instructions work, because I applied them when I started learning 3D a week ago.
I didn't know where to start.
There are many different ways to "start from scratch". I could have started with the famous "donut tutorial". Or tutorials for beginners in general.
But I went ahead with the plan:
- Pick the smallest project I cared about
- Pick something you care about and want to have done
- Learn as you go
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The smallest project I cared about
One of the reasons I bought a 3D printer recently, is to cusotmize my Hot Wheels by creating new body parts and wheels.
So I thought "why not model a Hot Wheels wheel to 3D print?".
- It's "as simple as a cylinder", but of course with lots of nuances.
- It is not as complex as a donut or something else.
- Since it's thought for 3D Printing, it also does not need to have rendering, shading, etc.
Don't make it more complex than it needs to be.
Keep it simple!
Reducing overwhelm by splitting into smaller goals
Since I knew nothing on the topic, I already felt overwhelmed by all the concepts and things I didn't know about.
One approach that works for me is to "walk backwards".
Don't think about a group of basic things to do in order to get to your goal.
You don't really know much on the topic. It will be harder for you to know how to order steps in terms of priority. They can overlap and become a worry for you.
Instead, think about where you want to be. The end result. And go backwards from there.
Walking backwards
I wanted to create a Hot Wheels wheel.
What did I need to get there, the immediate step before?
- A two part rim and tyre construction
Then repeat.
What do you need to get that item done? And the previous one? And so on, until you are at the very base with a goal you can achieve now, as a first step.
In my case, my learning/building plan looked something like this:
- A two part rim and tyre construction
- A curved edge for the tyre
- A face with the shape I want to have
- A stem where the axle goes
- A very large cutout on the inside cylinder for the interior part of the rim
- A deeper dish in the inside cylinder
- A cylinder with a smaller cylinder inside (rim, tyre)
- A cylinder
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So going from bottom to top, I now had a plan on how to proceed.
The process itself
Of course I did not know how to even make a cylinder. But now I had a plan.
Seeβ¦
The beauty of this approach is that now you don't have to go and watch 1 hour (or more) "beginner tutorials".
- Learn a small thing
- Build a small thing
That's all you need to make progress.
I can go to YouTube and find a way to learn about that first step.
- "create cylinder blender" is literally what I would search for.
- I would pick some short videos and apply what they teach, until it clicks.
Since the objective is so "simple", I will probably also learn how to move around the UI and some basic concepts along the way.
Reviewing
The last topic I want to talk about is reviewing what you have done.
Be critical.
It's ok to make things "work", but you also need to think a bit after achieving your goal.
"Is this the best way I can do this? Can I do it better?"
You don't need to take action on the spot. But just have this mindset so you can be on the lookout for improvements and self growth on the topic.
In my specific case, I created the base shape of the wheels with boolean division operations to make holes out of it. This is a mindset carried over from my vector art.
Turns out it was very overkill and there's a better way to do it, with 3D modeling concepts like inset and extrusion.
All these probably don't mean much to you if you never learned about 3D modeling (I didn't know about them a week ago), but what's important is that I reached my goal but didn't stop there. I wanted to know if there was a better way, and learned even more.
And speaking of learningβ¦
I spent over 5 years learning how to illustrate cars so you don't have to
There was never a better time to start illustrating cars.
You don't need to learn how to draw.
You don't need to spend years practicing until you get something you are proud of.
Some of the biggest challenges for aspiring artists are:
- Not knowing how to start
- Not knowing how to draw
- Not knowing what software to use
- Not being able to come up with ideas or things to illustrate
- Being able to create traditional art but struggling with digital tools
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And I know this because I asked you, and also because I was where you are now in 2018.
A car enthusiast interested in creating automotive art but feeling a bit lost.
I learned from a ton of different resources.
Back then, there was not one single resource that mixed creating art with automotive examples, so I had to spend time gathering mixed information and figuring out how to apply to my interests.
That is how my free course called "0-100: How to illustrate a car from reference".
It's a course that I would have loved to have when I started.
If you:
- Don't know how to draw.
- Don't have time to figure it out on your own.
- Know nothing about digital illustration software.
then this course is ideal for you.
You can read more about what's inside by visiting this page.
There you can sign up for free, just with your email and get started right away.
The course is self contained, and nothing is held back.
You start from 0 and end up with a finished illustration you will be proud of.
Did you know that I created my latest Toyoda AA illustration in a couple of hours exclusively following this course?
Here's the kind of result you can create as well:
βGive it a shot and if you do, please let me know! I'd love to read what you loved and what can be improved on it.
And that's it for this one. I hope you enjoyed it and see you on the next.
All the best,
Juanma from Creating Lightly
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