As a part of being a technical artist is learning new subjects/things/technologies/…
Every person has his personal process of learning new things, so my question :
“How do you define your way of learning ?”
With this question I am looking for :
tips and tricks
different methods of learning
how to help people find there suitable way of learning
…
Here are some that have helped me :
Imagine how I would teach someone else the subject
visualize the problem through sketching
simply the subject as much as possible
talk out loud to a piece of fruit
I am very interested to hear your view about the whole concept of learning.
I learn mainly through a lot of background reading and then some practice tasks. I really like to understand a good chunk of theory before I start any work - which sometimes holds me back. To be honest, I’m at a point where my learning style isn’t solid or often 100% effective, but the following helps me learn:
I’m still pretty novice to technical art in general…
breaking down existing work or deconstructing how someone might have done something (quite the obvious one)
looking into what I call the “conceptual map”, which is the theory behind everything and how all the elements of a topic link together. For example, I found it extremely helpful to understand the fundamentals of Maya and it’s node-based structure before I really “got” rigging. Understanding that everything was a series of connections to these floating “nodes” was really beneficial to how I pieced together information. This is something that when it “clicks” it makes learning new bits of info related to the subject so much easier.
I also like looking into understanding WHY things are done and not always how. Ties to the same concept as above. For example when I recently learned that textures are often done in powers of two because it’s easier/more accurate to get mipmaps from them - it made huge sense as to why they scale the way they do, as well as the impact it has on the engine. I don’t know how much help a fact like this can do, but when I learn and a lightbulb goes off it encourages more learning cause it’s a hugely satisfying experience.
Learning how is good too! You will often learn something new you didn’t know just by replicating steps - and not even something that is related to that particular task!
I also try to learn it and reiterate it like you are teaching it. Making a physical series of notes or “how-to” is actually another really good way to do this as well! Especially if you’re aiming it for an audience, i.e. a user with basic knowledge - or advanced tricks. This is really good for ORGANISING information, which is actually half of the battle.
It’s important to note that learning styles are super important too. I know a lot of people who learn by doing, but I find that hugely frustrating sometimes as I don’t really understand what I’m doing. A healthy mix of the theory and practice seems to work for me - often in steps.
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for. I’ve thought about HOW I learn a lot and I still don’t understand it. It might actually help if some people have some good papers or links to this stuff, as I know surprisingly little about it!
EDIT: I also want to note a lot of my learning comes from watching the trends and current works of the talented people around me and online, and I keep my eyes open to all parts of the artistic spectrum - can’t hurt! A lot of people, especially in technical art I’ve found, are really open to teaching and often really good at it! I think it comes with the nature of the job.
I think it’s important to have a goal. a task or project. That’s when I know i’ve learned something. You can always read books and study, but to set a goal for the future, not only helps you learn, but gives is more of a “real world” thing; direction and a deliverable.
A really good question as knowing how to learn makes the process more streamlined and efficient.
First there’s going out to find the information you need, making sure that it’s from a quality source or check to make sure it’s the most updated version you can find.(you don’t want to be studying from a youtube video that will teach you how to model in outdated packages using tools you no longer are using or needing when there are updates out for new ones.)
Follow through with a small example project, if you can take it from beginning to end and it works as you desired then that demonstrates that you’ve learned it.
Though the most important step, at least the one I value most, is once you’ve learned it, go and teach someone if you can. And then teach it again to someone else, (helps if you around those learning the same subject), With each time you teach it your brain is making more and more connections around that area, strengthening your own understanding of the subject.
definitely need a goal or a fake project - even better a real project but not time critical -that the little pressure added by having a real project helps me to stick to it. Drawing and sketching stuff - definitely the way to go. I like to visualize things and draw diagrams. Writing stuff down as a learn is important too.
Google is also a good friend - Some stuff I figure out myself, but I also value sample code which serves as working example, which I can then take apart and understand command-by-command what’s going on, and from which I can develop my own solutions. I like having a working example because I can run it and know “this works”. Sometimes in books you encounter code examples and when you type them 1:1 into the computer they don’t work because they’re outdated or whatever and you just waste time understanding code that doesn’t run and you’ll keep thinking it’s you not understanding it when in fact the code is broken.
Good tip about simplifying - break stuff down in manageable junks and work on one problem at a time, and even within code iterate from simple to more complex.
Personally I also prefer anything printed over tutorial videos. Videos are okay to enhance printed articles, but video only? I don’t like. I cannot bookmark specific parts, I cannot annotate it, I have to do play-rewind-play-rewind-play-rewind on difficult parts. I cannot print it and put it next to me on the desk. Making notes, annotations, highlighting stuff, is important to me when learning.
Going back to basics always teaches me new things. The stronger my foundation, the easier it is to learn more in depth topics.
Looking at it from a different perspective gives me new insights.
Reading a book in a coffee shop helps me a lot with learning Strangely enough I am learning less when I am at home. I guess that is more my place where I have to relax …
My way of learning is via YouTube, yes I search for something not clear at all. The videos on YouTube have helped me a lot, and it´s FREE!
Thanks Google, thanks YouTube!
Well I’m really a person who needs to do things with my own hands and brain - theoretical learning just isn’t for me because I quickly get bored. And I’ve learned from experience that if I am bored, I will forget all the things that I learn. Trying to be a wikipedia within some field might work for some people but it doesn’t work for me (and paradoxically enough, I’m autistic! lol)
So the best way for me to learn is with personal experience. For that, doing your own small projects is a great thing.
Also I learn a lot by listening to others (coworkers and such) - even more from than watching some tutorial video with a guy saying “this and this is good stuff - do the good stuff”. Maybe the factor of face-to-face communication plays an important role here, I dunno…
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