was clearing up some of my folders...you know..where you store images you started to render..left it to work on..and well..i figured if it's there for a couple of years, i'll never work on it again.

probs is..everytime i hit that delete button, my heart cried. i've realized that it was a tough road. to  separate yrself from your art. to distance once created. God did not succeed in doing that. so how can we humans do any better??

does this happen to all? or can you guys keep your distance?

reminds me of when i was a budding reporter. all reporters were told to stay away from editors while they were editing our work. reason? the eds butchered out work. the agony was too much.

has anyone ever figured out a way to be hard when it comes to our work? not in terms of criticisms, but in terms of distance?

close your eyes grit your teeth and think of the freed up space!!. or do what i do and fire everything onto cd/dvd. sometimes i go through old renders and can  see them in a different light because i may have learned a new technique which can add something to it. so in answer to your question...no i cannot distance myself, and lack the courage to throw away much of what i have created (unless it really bugs me!)also its a good way of backing up mats/skies and objects that i like.

I still have all of my old .br3, .br4 and .br5 files backed up out onto DVD.  Get rid of them?  NOT A CHANCE!  No way ... nope ... can't do it!  They are, after all, much like my babies.  They're a part of me.  

If I ever get the chance and can get RL to give me a minute, I've got a couple of .br5's I want to open again and re-render to see if I can do them better now.  I don't know if B6 will open the .br4 files and I know it won't take the .br3 files but I keep them anyway.

I burn my stuff to CD and DVD just so I can delete old files and begin again. Sometimes I end up using the stuff I've archived, but more often not. The only time I regret losing an old work is if I actually need it later and I don't have it. Other than that, my CD archives are a comfort to me. They're there ... just in case.

Yeah, I know what you mean.  So, I zip files up to save space, since I don't have a CD burner.  Deleting them is very hard though and I've had to do it a few times.

mdb

I have even the stuff that consists of nothing more than my first SOWs.  I have real trouble getting rid of anything I put any time into.  Hell, I still have the first down parka I made ... must be 25 years old by now .... I never wear it.  Give or throw it away?? Not on your life.  I MADE it!!

I decided that was what removable hard discs were for. Once I had used it to transfer what I really needed from old to new PC I backed all my bryce stuff onto it.

I once read a auto biog on steven king who said (something like) with editing that you have to sometimes 'kill off your little darlings so in relation to writing I sort of know the editorial pain in a small way with my own stuff....I haven't ejoyed the editors blood letting yet.

In relation to most things including writing my response is BURN BABY BURN!!!!

jENNY

Just DVD them....   it's the best of the two worlds...     keeping them in the hard drive or throwing them away...

DVD them things. Put them away in a closet somewhere or in a box in the attic. You'll forget about them. Then years from now you'll come across them again and it'll be like finding old friends.

I didn't save a lot of my stuff under my old handle (mainly Terragen stuff, but what the hey..;) Saved most of the pics, all of the Pz3s, B5s, etc., so if maybe I want to go back and redo something...

someone once said that no great work of art is finished, merely abandoned...

i did save some.. but i had to do a lot of housecleaning.. me being one of those neat freaks. sigh..
 pakled..whoever said that was right..great works of art are never finished.
boofy..( i like your name!) - be happy you are not in the eds position. i was..to the teens section of the newspaper. i had college kids as reporters. i still suffer nitemares from the butchering i had to do!
feel a bit better...

Cheers
GG