ENDA Episode 13→ The time when the Endless Apprentice learned about the Artitst’s complex (Part 1)

When I was in the 3D animation and VFX school, I met many people with heavy artistic tendencies and different backgrounds. Some of them came from Architecture, one from a National Art School, one from Graphic Design, etc. But all of them have an interest in learning the endless possibilities of the Animation and VFX world.

Many of them display an innate talent for the arts: drawing, painting, designing, modeling or any other discipline that would require an artistic vision, and the difference in details with the work from someone with a more technical background would be noticeable.

However, that was just in terms of RAW talent. Surprisingly, when the tasks were assigned or there were deadlines to fulfill, only 1 or 2 of them would consistently present iterations when they were asked and they would finish the work in the time assigned.

The rest? It was either one of these 3 cases:

➡️ They didn’t submit anything until the final day and the work would look in the best case “ok”, but because the teacher could not see it before and give any feedback, the grade would be barely passing.

➡️ They didn’t submit anything and on the final day, they would ask for an extension because they were “blocked” or they were not satisfied with the work they were doing. Most of the time they would get it, but even with the extra time the quality was not satisfactory for both sides.

➡️ They would actually submit iterations on the dates required, but they would be always unhappy with their progress because it was either “not perfect” or “horrible” in their perspective. Even on the day of the deadline, their final version would still be “not perfect” for them.

Curiously, when the whole class saw those iterations, almost everyone would agree that they were incredible, more the most of us had at that moment. The final version of their work would always be incredible on the day of the deadline. But the artist was not happy.

I observed this behavior happen multiple times and in different environments: individual tasks, group assignments, thesis short film, etc. Even heard about a case in the professional world.

With time I ended up calling this: “the Artist’s complex”, where an artist has a great talent to succeed, but lots of problems following a deadline or a schedule from a client or an institution. Most of the time this will be due to a “creative block”, not being happy with their work, not having inspiration, and more diverse reasons.

Many people might think that this is normal for people with artistic tendencies and they’re right, we all have some of that complex inside of us: most of us are VFX or 3D artists after all. Nonetheless, there is a catch for this in the professional world. Which is it?

That would be for the next episode.

Have you ever seen something similar to the Artist’s Complex?