Ok, ok... so it finally happened! The creative juices has finally dried up. I have lost that spark and don't know where to go to for more inspiration... I have been looking over the galleries of others and it seems that I have become so blase,that  there's nothing that WOW me any more not even my own...

So I am coming to you all, now with the question of :

What do you do when you hit the creative block???
Where do you go for inspiration?

:b_uncertain:

For me it's random creation........letting my inner ID take reign........trusting in what it is that my inner ceativity knows.

Don't try so hard, let loose with what makes you feel good creating. That's when the magic happens.

I've tried so many types of structured pieces, though when I rely on where my skills are, I'm really pleased with the results.
I mix 2D, 3D, and free form well.
Example, a 3D object, exported from Amorphium,  rendered in Bryce, lots of layer compositing and manipulation in PhotoShop along with free form manipulation on the drawing tablet. Backgrounds from Apophysis, photos, textures.....blah,blah,blah.....So much more.

Let it out.......

Well I've had a creativity block for about 2 yrs now, so I can't give any advice (that works, lol).
I did read somewhere that moving your eyes diagonally from up on one side to down on the other, is supposed to stimulate the creative juices. Not sure why I haven't tried that yet, but I haven't.
Good luck and if something does work for you, please share.

I do nothing,,,,  I've been in a mental creative block for months,,,    My creativity is finally coming out...  getting away from the computer for a while..  helps me...  doing other things does also..  It will return...     sometimes it comes out of unfulfilled artistic expectations...  But that's  just me..

ThunderStone, thanks for bringing this topic up, and Rod, thanks for the sage advice.

I've been banging my head on the creative wall for months now. Just like you ThunderStone , (and others I suspect), I feel frustrated by my lack of ideas.

I've taken long walks, hoping for the 'Aha!' moment. Read books, listened to music, nothing. nada, zero, zip nothing seems to kick it in gear.

All I have to show is a series of unfinshed, boring projects and a hard drive filling with junk.

Even going to the Getty Gallery here in Los Angeles, (it's free, and so close I can go every day if I want), doesn't get it going.

Rod, you're right. I need to freeform for a bit, not focus on singular projects. I've been too busy 'working' and stopped playing. I've been too busy trying not to screw up, that I'm screwing up. :D

I'm going to take your advice Rod. I'd forgotten that you don't have to 'do anything'. :) 

As the Buddha points out "The way to do is to be".

Jack

I stopped looking for something "spectacular" to do and started doing everyday things...getting ideas from commercials..the parking lot outside..whatever I see that goes on around me..and now and then I get a vision in my head and have to do it as best I can.  
When I hit a roadblock I just don't try to hard..instead...that's when I try to learn something new about one of the programs I work in.

I'm just mental,so I hibernate.

Cheers
GG 

Thanks guys for making me feel like I'm alright. I thought something must be wrong with me why I could no longer create something. You're right, tho about getting away from the computer and doing something else. I am going to do that. So there won't be any more rendering coming from me for a while.  Only have 16 more rendering to go to hit that magical number of 100. Maybe soon I'll reach that number in under a week if I take a break now...

I'll still be here, reading and looking...

You could check out other peoples work and see if it gets you inspired.

Can be any form of art and design, but personally i most often find myself inspired by modern or surreal art, or a broad variety of professional design and/or photography work... Also looking at galleries like the one on 'rosity can help.

Ofcourse you could also start doodling with pen and paper, and see if you run into any interesting ideas there.

Here's a few links i find inspiring:
http://www.behance.net   (Great variety of very interesting design and photography made by some very talented artists)
http://www.cgtalk.com   (A lot of very professional looking and sometimes really original 2d and 3d graphics)

You could slice your ear off, or drink absenthe till you go mad, but I don't recommend it.

Lot's of creation comes from the analysis of dynamic forces. Didn't just loose the love of your life to another, good. If you are not about to be sued or evicted be thankful. Maybe you are at a point where nothing needs resolving. You don't have to create.

Don't go to another SciFi movie or read another book from your favorite author. Go down a different isle and pick a western or something you would never touch. Ever been to a horse track, watched a game of bacci ball, visit a greek orthodox church? Try stepping way outside your comfort zone. Not necessarily dangerous, just different enough to make your mind go< "whhaaat? I'd never do that". I guarantee you will at least be thinking about it.

i've taken to asking the question here.... you get the craziest suggestions which take up all your time and family life at weekends and you end up sneaking it in under thradar at work just to get the modelling finished! - Dont we Bryster! you know what i mean - Hans Bloody Holbein.

In the start,
I wanted to construct a fantastic image, the work of the works, the super screen, high end in 3D; he left me to this sad when he saw that the objective had not been reached.
I started to look at other galleries in the hope to catch hitchhiking in another work, but not yet he had fond of no place, was there that I discovered as to open mimnha box of pandora ---> I started to look at for inside of me exactly.
Miknhas imgens is not the supremacy, but the important one is that they please me and some friends, and this is the sufficient.
Now when I have period of blackout in my creative sector I am not worried, something is being prepared.

The imagination is the food of the spirit, feeds it.

It forgives me for the translation.

Sorry, but I an't help. My trouble is that as I am in the middle on project I end up thinking about a dozen others. Maybe getting drunk might help?

LOL@The Bryster... You're a crazy guy... LOL

usually, when the inevitable 'block' hits me, I go back to one of my previous renders and begin turning it into something totally new....removing objects, terrains, trees, adding other things, changing the POV, texture mats, etc.  Once you get going, creative juices begin to flow, once again.  When that doesn't work, then I know it's time to just comment on other's work for a while and enjoy the break. 

Personally, I often feel the need to turn-out something different regularly, like clock work.  That works for a while, then the inevitable 'block' hits.  Also, I find a good diversion for me is to try your hand at fractals using Apophysis.  There is a free download on the Web. 

@photostar,
That sounds like an idea... fractals... been meaning to take a crack at those. Perhaps also taking one of those old renders and trying to make it into new ones might get me rolling again.... Thanks!!!

Yep, Apophysis fractals.  

As an example:  "Free To Roam" from today, actually grew out of "Along the Rocky Coastline" from April 1.  Ya just never know what surprises may occur.  Have fun, Thunderstone, and create what you do best.

I know what you mean. For me it took a switch to photography to get things kick started again artistically. I think I needed a rendering break. Unfortunately I can't post them here due to TOS issues (erotic content). Got some ideas going for works for here though.

I go shopping. I mean i look in the market placed, on daz, 3dcommune or anywhere that sells poser files then i find something i like that gives me the kick in the pants i need to get creative again.

Oh be warned this is one way to upset the wife if you buy 3 or 4 items and nothing comes from it..

I walk away from the whole process. I play games, go some writing, watch some documentries. I don't attempt to do anything creative until I can't stand it.

I go through the galleries, and look for creative misspellings and grammatical errors that suggest pictures to me. Also, sometimes I'll take a different view of famous pictures. Mainly I do modeling, put them in Bryce (sometimes), then throw in a pretty girl so I get someone to look at it..;)

Do anything else, and wait for creativity to 'strike'. I go through phases, come up with 3/4 half decent (usually related) ideas, and maybe see them through into finished images. Then it dries up again... Just wait and see what happens.

I also find that museum visits trip on a few mental switches but if I’m in company with others I don’t take notes…only mental ones that often go un-hatched. A museum artist’s sculpted model of a Egyptian palace perhaps as seen from different angles as you revolve around the model. Perhaps a beautiful celestial image while at a planetarium of primordial gases floating in space in beautiful translucent colors.

But what really gets me going sometimes is viewing DVD films at home. Those great in-between scenes in great movies that go almost unnoticed and you can pause the scene and take it all in and wonder if you can do it justice or make it better. Maybe even adding something unique to it. See the attached grabs of some scenes I thought inspired me at the time from the movies: “The Matrix” and “Frankenstein” (the village in particular).

As a small child I remember that as most small children do while playing we improvise common home objects to sit in as props that represent other objects like toasters became buildings, parts of vacuum cleaners became spaceships, and some dominos became fortifications and so on. But in our young minds they were rich with the detail needed to fulfill the fantasy. Imagining ourselves as if we were two inches tall and everything else in that tiny world was made to fit the fantasy. I believe that as we grow up we tend to lose that flight of fancy imagination that is rich in young children. If I could only re-tap that well!

..and then of course there is the Flying Scotsman or the Crystal Palace......:LOL:

Thanks for the tips... I got part of my mojo back. Went over to CGtalk and browse thru some of their galleries. Too bad they think that Bryce is beneath them. I think Bryce can compete with those elitists' rendering in a way far better.  Just takes imagination to see things differently.

I did "Window Dreamer"  based on a rendering called "Girl by the Window" or something like over at CGtalk.  I tweaked the whole concept a bit to make itmy own....

Thanks again!  

I have not had a block for a while because I have tons of influences or maybe its these pills.
hides hands
Have more of a problem of finishing stuff.

Take a break.
Go outside and just relax.
I get tons of ideas from just walking around.
Leave your neighborhood go some distance away that is different from your neighborhood.

Folks here have said this, expose yourself to new things.

Spend some time and just play around.

I read a magazine called Juxtapoz, most of the time its full of stuff that I don't care about but then I see a few pages of great or interesting stuff.
http://www.juxtapoz.com/

Been reading White Dwarf for years, there are some great descriptions of different things in there. The Chaos demon issue had some great pictures. I don't play any of the games except for the Dawn of war series.
http://uk.games-workshop.com/whitedwarf/

Bought a $8 book on watch porn, its a book of sexy watches that you will not find in Kmart.
Should have seen the centerfold, wow!  Look at those jewels!

Always feed your eyes.

Strange thing all this about creative blocks.  Isn't a standard house brick just a creative block? or a piece of lego? In other words, if you have a creative block you shouldn't have any trouble creating.

@TheBryster: Huh???? Thanks, I think... :lol:

@SevenofEleven: Thanks... Being in a city like New York tends to make one jaded so I spent some quality time in my backyard, my little oasis of nature in a concrete jungle. It's amazing to see the lil critter all scampering around with little fear of human(me). They even came up a little close to see what that big bag of hairless skin with strange fur is doing in their domain. 

Book of watch porn??? You got to be kidding me!!! The prices must have been indecent. :b_funny:

Thanks again!

I don't have a backyard so I take a train into Manhattan and walk from 8th street to Wall street.
Plenty of sights to see. If I go down Lafayette St, there is an artist's gallery with some great pictures and less people than Broadway.

The magazine of watch porn is called the Robb report Watch collector.
There you can find sexy watches with black diamonds, platinum and swiveling top parts.
Some of the more saucy ones are transparent so you can see their inner workings.
If you don't want to wind in public there are self winders for your shy watch.

There is this magazine store on 14th before you get to 5th, been going there for at least 5 years.
They have an art section filled with all sorts of expensive art books.

ImagineFX, a magazine on digital artwork is probably more than $8, its an import from England.
You do not want to know how much the subscription is but I think its worth it for me.
Its mostly for digital painting but every once in a while they sneak in a 3d piece and talk about postwork.
http://www.imaginefx.com/

At the moment I am just thanking God that I haven't yet had a problem coming up with an idea when we get a brief - although I may regret saying that, as we have another deadline this Friday (just completed a brief for a deadline this last Friday) and I'm having problems with it.

I just hoping it's more technical than inspirational - i.e. I think I know what I want to do but can't find out how to do it (- not Bryce I'm afraid, it's working with sound so I'm using Adobe Audition.)

The last time I had serious creative block it was writer's block and I think I stopped writing and took up art again, or rather tried a different artistic outlet, i.e. not paint but 3D.  But I can't be sure about that since I'm still writing now, so maybe not....

I think what I did then (it was some long time ago) was I took a rest, I'd been writing very late at night - i.e. into the early morning - for quite a long time, a couple of weeks at least I think.  So when I ground to a halt it was probably long term tiredness, and taking a complete break for a while did the trick.

I've also often found that looking at other media, (I looked at art when I had writer's block - and listened to music when I've had artistic block etc etc) which seems to work quite well - like a total change of direction.  Takes the pressure off quite well.

I often find, when I make my music, that changing my working enviroment helps beeing creative

You move the furniture? 

Although Ive had my share of creative blocks, (one lasted 4 years), I now have the opposite problem. Iv e got a list of ideas for projects, mostly "Ugs" which only take a day or so admittedly, but  Ive just started playing Fallout 3, from the people who gave us Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion and that took a great chunk out of my life. now they bring out Call of Duty 5.  When am I going to get the time anymore. If youre not a gamer, youll wonder what I mean, but if you are, youll know.
BTW anyone seen the fire effects in Far Cry 2? Amazing!

Before I discovered Bryce, I was a frustrated writer. I had hit the proverbial wall, and couldn't progress any further on my current projects.

So Bryce kickstarted the juices and hopefully, I'll be returning to my stories. Through Bryce, at least, I've creatd visuals for my stories.

I write scifi. In Bryce, I'm creating the worlds and spacecraft from my literary universe.

Well I'm now collaborating in writing a soap opera, doing an animation of a TV Ident, creating the visuals for a soundscape project, writing a discussion... or argument, on (probably) the diversity of intertextual reference in an animated film... (help!)

Ideas aren't a problem right now, just time to do it all in.
I think having deadlines does actually help.

But research helps an awful lot too.