The tool is not the thing

Tools, and I mean software tools for 3D, continue to change, and they’re very impressive indeed: yet another toolset, this time for texture artists. There are already impressive ones in the killing fields and there is bound to be more; it is bound that these will continue to improve. Perhaps you can relate to this sentiment: you can never have enough of new software capabilities.

I find myself, like many others, being at awe with the amazing technologies that come out. It’s like this never-ending creation and re-creation of stuff. Industry lessons are learned, and these new methodologies are passed on to these new tools. And they will always impress. That’s because they will always be geared towards solving today’s so-called problems.

But what are those problems, really? I would like to point out that they are essentially technical problems. Technical problems birthed by past technical problems that were solved. “Now you can do this” is the cyclic tagline of many a software product.

I’d like to phrase the problem this way: Imagine yourself imagining your work. This is the impression I have when I see new software, or improvements to it. I get so enamoured by the capabilities of the software that I imagine what I can do if I had it. And that, to me, is part an advantage, but largely a curse. It is an advantage to those who can tune it out, because they’ll reap the benefits minus the curse. And the curse is, I think, that we can never sit still enough to ignore the fanfare and get on with it.

I am putting this in the context of a creative artist, not a production artist. In a production, in an industry, the creativity lies in many nooks and corners, dark hallways, or wide-open spaces – depending on the  group you work with. But as a rule, tools are meant for streamlining methods, making people or systems more efficient. But not everything that is efficient for production is efficient creatively. Whatever efficiency can be gained by an individual artist adopting a new tool every other month or so must be weighed against the distraction of a new feature that he or she has just got to have so the artist can achieve the look that wasn’t sought for before it came around.

Lastly, I’d like to add that, at some significant point, we become more creative by limiting our tools. And I quote Bruce Lee: “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

In modern-speak: Cut shit out.