Episode 14- What could have been, but wasn't.
I had a really fun plan for this week, and I’ll be honest- it devolved into something much different and less productive in the end. (Or more, but long term productivity?) I’ll explain. But before I do, please note that this episode of “Jake Vs. Houdini” is a little more “Jake Vs. Losing focus and Planning for the Future”. So I guess what I’m trying to say is skip this episode if you want your regularly scheduled Houdini-time.
I had this fun idea to do a short little video for Easter, since had I been on time with this particular post it would have come out Easter Day (It didn’t). As I’m finding out, Quarantine Jake is much more flexible on deadlines. And working out. I digress. I modeled out the entire scene from scratch, no tutorial hand-holding and it was simple but I was kinda proud of it. I pre-rendered one still-frame of it in the viewport and was getting ready to start animating a camera move and dialing in the minute details when I got derailed. The slow speeds I’ve been experiencing not just while rendering but also while working aren’t an uncommon problem. Plenty of people are in the exact same position as me, learning the ropes of Houdini with a computer that’s not really well suited for the task, but making it work. A lack of funds for a proper animation workstation- a tale as old as time. I fell down a bit of a rabbit’s hole dreaming of a better world, a world where I could have multiple iterations of an animation in minutes rather than days. A world dominated by those with serious 3D work/paying clientele, and by those with deep pockets and a flair for animation.
So I did what any reasonable person would do when faced with a self-imposed deadline- I blew a shitload of time researching computers I can’t afford and looking into what I could get if I had the best in the business. I even reached out to a friend who works at intel and builds his own PCs for fun. He made a STRONG case for getting away from my iMac and into a real workhorse of a PC. I’m actually surprised myself that I’m even considering switching- I’m what you would call “heavy into the Mac ecosystem”. Look, I like to drool over the newest Apple tech as much as the next guy, but when it comes down to it, I just can’t justify paying $10,000 for a computer that on paper shouldn’t even be as fast as a PC for less than half the price.
Before I dive right into this Mac vs. PC debate, I’m going to pump the brakes for a minute. At the end of the day, the best tool for the job is the one you have available to you. I strongly believe that with enough grit and determination, you can make the tools at your disposal work for you. Some will just be more of a fight to work with than others. Having said that, I’m at a real crossroads with this whole 3D experiment. I can keep having fun with this (and I will, either way) but keep it just that, a fun experiment. Or I can invest a decent chunk of money into a machine that’s going to last several years and save me time so that I can work faster and not click a button then take a coffee-break while I wait for computations to happen. If I’m not fighting the computer to get the results I want, I can focus more brain-power on the actual craft of 3D animation and potentially give this a real shot as a career. And that’s why I started this whole thing, to improve myself, learn a new skill, and push my boundaries farther than I thought I could so that I can do this full-time. It’s what I love to do. So I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to set aside the decent chunk of change for a real-deal 3D Animation workstation, but I’m committing to myself right here right now that my next goal is to invest in myself and invest in a setup that’ll allow me to continue to do what I love to do. (Whatever form that may take, Mac or PC.)
I’m gonna call it quits for now, before I get too preachy or start wining about how hard it’ll be for me to switch from Mac to a PC, but I’ll leave you with this- invest in yourself, you owe it to yourself.
Oh, and here’s that render of that single-frame. What could have been, but wasn’t.
Jake-out.
