The Creative Cycle: Telling Your Story Effectively

As an artist, I’ve seen beginners struggle with starting a new 3D software, learning all its quirks, and wishing they could just get to the fun part. Some abandon learning further because, simply, there’s so much to learn.

When learning something new, it’s normal to want to be immediately comfortable. Then the creative process can be smooth. Then all the worries about technical hinderances with the software will end.

I’d rather not prescribe a “do X and you’ll be fine” or “learn this shortcut technique (experts hate this)” and move on. Instead, let me share the creative components necessary as an artist, and how each one enables me to tell stories.

Habits

When you’re young, starting and maintaining good habits is most important.

Without habits, what you learn won’t stick for long. Even if you do remember it, it won’t be comfortable or natural for when you do need it. Experience is the best teacher.

Get comfortable with the entire workflow: brainstorming, planning, drafting, refining, polishing. This is why finishing projects is important: you can’t be comfortable with a workflow you haven’t seen to the end.

Not to say you must finish every project. Some will be too ambitious, too complicated, or life circumstances just slow you down. Knowing which projects to push through or abandon can only be taught by experience. But I will say there’s no finished project of mine that I wish I didn’t start.

And they don’t have to be big projects. Many artists just doodle on extra lined paper normally for their school assignments every day. Keep doodling. Just keep finishing them too.

Habits don’t need to be lifelong. Eventually it’ll be ingrained into your brain; your passion will keep you practicing without a schedule. But you’ll want to not just do more art. You’ll want to improve. That’s where technique comes in.

Technique

Another vague, “big art” word. How do I define this?

It’s the methods, materials, and skills to translate your ideas and stories into the creative medium (mixing paints, musical theory, understanding shaders in 3D graphics). To make the audience see and feel your stories, just like you do.

In other words, in a game of telephone from you, through the creative medium, finally to the audience, does the message remain the same? Is it still as effective?

With digital art, technique may include:

• Your taste/usage of details, composition, and color palette

• Familiarity with the software and its tools available to you

• Previously made or otherwise attained assets you can use

• How you choose to implement your art: modeling, sculpting, texture painting, scripting

But each creative medium has its own learning curve. Some are just harder to approach than others.

For example, when writing a story, technique requires visualizing your story with words. With a CG render, artists must model, texture, shade, and light a 3D scene and its characters to even show a rough draft of that same story.

Writing still takes its own skill to fully master. But a rough draft of a scene is much more approachable in the medium of writing than CG art. And to change something later, like a character’s clothes, changes in 3D software take a lot more effort than just changing a few words.*

^{*now I understand AI is doing this - quite radically. But, for now, if you have a specific vision inside your head, it’s far quicker to make/edit the art manually than have an AI guess what’s inside your head.}

Why am I saying all this? Because I know the frustration from learning so much that seems unrelated to your final goals. I started with writing or drawing, which are much easier to get into and learn than 3D software. It was tempting to give up and just go back to that.

This is why the “tutorial era” of being an artist is such drudgery. You’re only learning the techniques which, until you’re comfortable with them, can hinder your ability to tell stories through the medium.

But trust me, all this is the technique. Every medium requires it. And it is what will enable you to tell your stories. In time, you’ll remember the keyboard shortcuts without looking them up. You’ll solve new problems on your own. You’ll become comfortable with the medium; it’ll become an extension of yourself.

I know, your audience may not see any of that progress. They’ll only see the final image. But the final image will be closer to your story, and they’ll see that.

Story

So, what stories do you want to tell?

I don’t think I can even answer that for myself. It’s a loaded question. But as others tell you stories, ideas come to your head, or you experience the story for yourself in life - you’ll know you want to share them.

Here are starting points to brainstorm from:

• What life lessons mean the most to you?

• Which life lessons do you struggle with the most, or have to keep re-learning?

• Which life experiences have shaped you?

• Who are your role models? What traits do you wish you could have?

While genre (sci-fi, drama, comedy) keeps your art entertaining and engaging, story is what gives your art meaning. It allows your art to stand on its own.

As hard as it is to admit, stories need to be entertaining. If M. Night Shyamalan marketed his movie as, “A man who lost his faith and is struggling with it as the world changes around him,” most wouldn’t bother. But when packaged into a horror film about aliens and crop circles, you have Signs.

You can be entertaining without a story. But great stories only become better with genre. And genre helps you find your audience.

In Closing

You don’t have to master your habits or technique before telling your story. Start with steps.

It’s not a one-and-done process. You’ll cycle back to maintaining habits and learning new techniques. Especially as you experiment with multiple creative mediums, styles or software packages.

What are your favorite habits? What techniques have elevated your ability to tell your stories?