When the Project becomes the Mountain #IWSG #b3d

Since today is the first Wednesday of the month, it's IWSG Day. Time to post about our writing insecurities or encourage others. Normally I go the encouragement route, but for today, I thought I'd visit the scary side: an insecurity I'm currently harbouring. Eek.

It's about my Mystery Project, the one I've called my non-writing project, only it does include writing. A different kind of writing. And a bunch of other stuff that's sending me slightly insane.

So what's this Mystery Project all about? Well, I can say there are no ducks involved, or any mysterious elixirs brewed under a full moon. I'm not ready to say exactly what it is, but it does involve 3D art and animation.

As some of you know, I was a 3D animator and graphic designer in another life. My program of choice for the art was 3ds Max. It's one of the industry standards for professional work. However, it costs around six grand. That was fine when a company provided the program. Alas, I no longer have access to it. That means learning a whole new 3D program. Double eek!

I'd heard good things about Blender. It's a free 3D package which can be used for commercial work. Anyone can download it and have a play. While it lacks some of the nifty time-saving features of 3ds Max, it still does everything I need. And the images I can generate from this package have the potential to be spectacular.

So I set myself up with Blender, just one of the new programs I'm going to have to learn for my Mystery Project.

A screen shot of me fumbling around in Blender. All this for a pipe!

Insert insecurities: It's been a few years since I'd dabbled in 3D so I soon realised how rusty I'd become. Turns out the keyboard shortcuts in Blender are completely different to 3ds Max. But I still remember the Max shortcuts (three deadpan cheers for muscle memory), which means I'm moving meshes when I want to pan the scene, or doing who-knows-what when I want to change the view, among other things. I feel like a noob all over again, taking hours to create objects rather than mere minutes.

Am I taking on more than I can handle? This is a question I'm asking myself on a daily basis. I'm still excited about the project. Ultimately it will even help my writing. So that's a major plus. Over time I'll get the hang of it—already, I've started to speed up—but in the meanwhile, I need to remember to take baby steps and celebrate the little victories.

What daunting tasks have you taken on? How did you find the reserves to complete those tasks?

#IWSG #b3d