If there are character traits that are universally true for all of humanity, then one of them is certainly laziness. People are inherently lazy. And I mean that in a positive way. We always look for ways to do things better, faster, more efficient, with less effort. It’s an energy preservation mechanism. A large share of inventions, technological advancements and businesses are in some way driven by laziness. And that is what makes us great. Getting things done faster creates a surplus of time, energy and resources that we can then spend on other more important things like family, personal development, passion projects, or sleep.
Interestingly, at the same time we always admire people who choose the long and hard route. I saw a post today by a talented artist who created a beautiful 3D character. He spent 125 hours working on that character over a period of 6 months! If he had used some fancy AI tool to create a character in a couple of minutes – would we feel the same towards him? I think that, despite being lazy, we need challenges. We find satisfaction and pride in achievements. And we look up to people who don’t take the easy way out, who confront their weaknesses head on, who overcome fear and frustration, and succeed in the end.
I am not saying that doing things the hard way is superior. To be honest, I would rather choose automation and simplicity if I can get it. Who wants to spend hours on retopology if you can have a 1-click solution? Who wants to manually place foliage in a large environment in Unreal Engine, if you can have a smart procedural foliage system? Who needs the pain of keyframing complex animations, if you can put on a mocap suit and act it out?
But, as a self-educated artist I came to understand that when you want to really learn something, choosing the easy way is a big mistake. Why? I will tell you in the next post…