You guys seem to do lots of stuff. Me too, well but for me it's mostly PLANNing. i plan on what to do. and i ask questions. i prepare stuff and learn how to do stuf fin poser.. but the actual projects that i have,, i just don't find the will power after i'm so tired at work. what helps you get back into the spirit of creating after your dead beat tired? And also with the fact that some o f us may have carpal tunnel syndrome thanks

Spirit? Heh - let's try "time" as a more appropriate word :) Still not too hard to scrounge up if one enjoys doing it. /P

Here's another thing. After work i'm so tired of sitting so i do 1 hour of exercise. that takes me to 8pm.. then the day is over.

  Time? I heard somewhere that if you work for yourself that you could have enough.  LOL. I wake up with keyboard impressions in my forehead... I think it's becoming a permanent feature.
  Seriously, though, one thing that helps me, is to take some time out, and decompress... make a sandwich... just fiddle with something for a bit... that kind of thing.
  Excercise? Well, I'm teaching my daughter....... don't tell her I told you, but she's in her 30's... Swordsmanship, using full-sized Scottish Claymores..... let me tell you... swinging twelve pounds of steel for two hours a day gets..... interesting... especially since she's getting much faster.
  I think, though, that, you have to have fun with what you're doing. If you can fall, exhausted, into bed, feeling that you accomplished something..... isn't that worth it? Lou.

P.S. Yes, I wake up in the morning, grumbling about not enough sleep.... quoting from a Miyazaki movie... "More sleep, please".

I found work was a habit with more pain than gain, so I gave it up.

One hint that might help: "Start at the end, not the beginning."

In other words, don't put any energy into planning.   Get the rough outline
of the picture together instantly, using primitives if necessary. 

Then look at it, enjoy it, put yourself inside it, imagine what each
part should look like, and start filling in the details.

"Swordsmanship, using full-sized Scottish Claymores..... let me tell you... swinging twelve pounds of steel for two hours a day gets..... interesting... especially since she's getting much faster."

Just got the most recent Gen2 hand and a half in the mail yesterday.  Husband has been nagging to teach me some - but that sucker really is heavy ; )  I prefer the little Paul Chen ninja myself !!

Anyway for me I work at home too - actively though, so I do my "creating" and at night when the munchkins drift off - tbh sometimes sleep suffers ALOT.

  One thing you might take time to think about. Everything involves expending a certain amount of energy..... but if you're expending more than you should, you might be "working at it" too hard, and might take a look at how you're going about it.  Does this make sense to anyone? It sounds like some congressman's bafflegab. Lou.

I agree with Ockham; which is why I do alot of character studies, more so than scenes.

This subject is near and dear to my heart. I work in  the computer industry and often have 10 hour days and then do support all night via laptop and pager and over the weekend. I Have the grandkids every other weekend so I often don't get to use poser for  a couple of weeks at a time.  The planing phase is often what keeps me going. It gives me something to look forward to. But, I often find that it's sometimes very hard to stay creative when your tired from work and end up vegging when I could be working on my next poser project. 

I often envy my wife who can spend the day oil painting with her friends. If I survive till retirement I have big plans though. They will have to pry my cold dead fingers off the Mouse and Keyboard when i finally pack it in.

I do most of my work at work!  lol

Routine is the key.  If something is a habit, how tired you are or whether you are in the mood to do it doesn't enter into it.  You just do it.

As for how to get into the habit...start small.  Setting up a whole scene or animation can be overwhelming, especially if you're tired. So tell yourself you'll do just one small part.  Just create the character, say, or the pose, or the prop.  Or tell yourself you'll only work for 15 minutes, then you can quit. 

Chances are, you'll forget about the time and keep working.  Or if not, you can still accomplish a lot in 15 minutes a day.

COFFEE

That huge pile of dishes and laundry over there may help explain my "work" habits...

I seem to spend a lot of my day at work thinking up things to do :) Hope my boss doesn't read this board though

I guess I am a bit lucky now because I dont have to go out to work. However,  I used to have a full time job and two little girls to take care of and I still found the energy to start painting in the evening, or go out to painting classes.
Now I have more time, less responsibilities and more space but I get a lot less done... (I blame my age, but I know it's a poor excuse).  Getting over the initial barrier to starting is the main problem,  so I agree - need to find a routine to get over this hump.
I was very lucky and most of the time I worked in rooms with windows overlooking great views - orange groves, pacific ocean, campus pond, medeteranean sea, gardens (not all at the same time). Now I have my studio set up in the basement with large windows &doors to back garden, park-like public area and the mountains in the background. Enough light during the day, and a "day-light"  type light for the night.  Sounds too good to be true... well, probably wont last.

It is not fair that work interferes with Poser time!!! I work in a very depressing office with few windows that overlook an industrial estate. Fabulous...

I find if I actually create something when I get home, the excitement of doing that overtakes the tiredness and crap of work. I do plan, but it is important to do something with the ideas. And it can be difficult to find the time to work on all the ideas.

I often go for a walk - even just around the block. I imagine leaving the work issues behind me as I walk and start thinking about what I want to create when I get home. When I start to see something immerge out of the Poser workspace, even if it isn't quite what I want yet - and sometimes I don't really know what I want until I try it - I find I get inspired to continue.

Not that every plan works out the way I imagined it would in the final render but if something doesn't quite work, I try something else. Sometimes I even give up entirely, save the file with a different name and start over again.

But it is most important to remember that Poser can be a whole lot of FUN!!!

For me poser is theropy. No Joke. I have depression and when I'm having bad bouts I'm supposed to do things to help distract me. Poser does that well, usually. Of course sometime "preventive medicine" doesn't hurt either.

Quote - Yi just don't find the will power after i'm so tired at work.

For most people art is a hobby and not a way to make a living. I'm assuming it's a hobby for you too.

A hobby shouldn't be an effort. It should be something you do to have fun and relax and rejuvinate. If it's an effort for you, then it's not the right hobby.

However, if art is really something you enjoy, then perhaps just working on it for a few hours on your days off is enough.  Don't try keeping up with what others do, do what you can do with the time that you have. There is no quota or deadline to create anything.

Keep it fun and don't make it so much like work :)

An hour here, an hour there, sometimes at home, sometimes at work... Mostly, it's the matter of indulging a sort of an obsession I have with 3D. It's how I wind down.   Unless I get myself wound up with project ideas or learning something new LOL! Then sleep suffers.
When I lack inspiration, I acatually get some sleep!

way too much coke-a-cola and nicotine :)

Did someone say "coffee"? Coffe gets me through my day too.:0) I'm at home 24/7 but I take care of the house (as much as I can), look after two cats, a bird and my mother. cook, clean and at end of day I'm soooo tired but Poser and other 3d is my outlet. And I also do some for sale. I think i'd I'd hit a few dozen low spots without my artwork.

You do not do laundry until you run out of clothes. You never clean your house unless someone reports the smell. Eat? Well, maybe a quick burger from a fast food place. Social life? Only with Mike and Vicky. Sleep? Not much. That's how I do it but than I am insane and obsessed.

I make sure I don't turn on the TV. Otherwise I sit there watching vacuous crap when I should be working.

Also close down your email and browser while you're working, otherwise you'll get constant interruptions.

Of course, I go out to work, then do my moderator stuff here, then my store testing, and that's often it for the evening. It's actually pretty rare I get time to work on Poser for my own hobbies.

I'm with you there, tebop. I pull 6 days a week (for the last 28 years), eight+ hours a day dealing with retail. Nothing drains you faster than little tin godlets of office manager types or the consumer....particularly having to act like you don't know what utter shits said customers are being..... :/

3D is therapy for me.   After dealing with absolutely brainless corporate  types, I need to unwind.

Quote - You guys seem to do lots of stuff. Me too, well but for me it's mostly PLANNing. i plan on what to do. and i ask questions. i prepare stuff and learn how to do stuf fin poser.. but the actual projects that i have,, i just don't find the will power after i'm so tired at work. what helps you get back into the spirit of creating after your dead beat tired? And also with the fact that some o f us may have carpal tunnel syndrome thanks

As to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I've read that using a pen-based interface (WACOM tablet) is supposed to be good. My wife has CTS and its much better now that she's using a tablet.

i hate to say this but.... you end up with a lot more time if you cut back on email, forums and chat.

i mean, even if you have 12 hours for work and commuting, and another 7 for sleeping, you still have 5 for eating, cleaning and doing some art work.  let's say you give artwork just 2 hours a day.  2 hours a day of focused attention is actually a lot.  8 hours of unfocused attention isn't enough.   so if you want to get more done, take it from someone who hasn't finished an image in ages: it's distractions that hold everything up and focus that finishes them. 

My husband do laundry and all other domestic stuff.
Poser, Vue and game programming is my job.

I have the opposite problem:
I am a workaholic but can't work as much as I like because of an illness which keeps me bed bound most of the day. I get approx. 40-50 hrs/week of work done with the computer rigged up by the bed. :bored:

Quote - 3D is therapy for me.   After dealing with absolutely brainless corporate  types, I need to unwind.

 
Aaahahahaha, I can totally relate to that!
oh, and calling in sick, I get a lot of 3D done on those days :)