Moho Forum

ok here is my problem
i am battling with procrastination for 4 years now!
procrastination made me stand as a drop out from a university!
i was doing engineering!!
i always thought! i will make a fortune doing animations and finally when i am a drop out! i cant seem to motivate myself! to do a simple animation!
and its giving me suicidal thoughts!!
and yes i am on anti depressants for 4 years now! !
and i always blame it on the medicines i am taking. right now its escitalopram( cipralex) !
i am 21 going 22 now! !

i was so intelligent and hardworking before starting the so CALLED SSRI!
i was diagnosed with intense anxiety and panic attacks! (i couldnt even leave my house_ and so my doc put me on SSRI's ( he experimented all sorts of ssri like prozac cipram effexor etc ) the medicines did help my anxiety and all! but!
side by side i started to procrastinate!(may be i am again blaming the medicines)

i know this is not the forum to post all this ! but i dont know! u people look so cooperative!

sorry about my terrible command over my english! !
english is not the language i speak!
DOC always says
u r all right! i cant help u with ur procrastination and laziness!

so with and without medicines i feel crippled!

Your situation sounds like it could be the basis for a short animation, you should try creating it. PS You should ask your doctor about maybe reducing the medicines dosage.

...if that doesn't work, there's a spammer selling pills you might want to get in touch with...

bald_dude wrote:ok here is my problem

DOC always says
u r all right! i cant help u with ur procrastination and laziness!

Maybe try creating a series of small animations or tests? Things like:

• trying out particles
  a simple example with bones
  a sentence of lipsync

If you do small projects, then they may be more accessible and not to daunting.

You are not alone. I just came from the conitec forums and read this

http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/sh ... e=0#553409

just one of many posts I have seen in the forums I frequent. It's either a bigger problem for creative/game dev/animation folks or lots of people are in the same boat. It may not go away - at least in my case- but you can get better and learn to cope with it. Meds can be part of the solution but exercise, meditation, and other things are just as important.

Personally I think something funky is going on with the environment as this stuff is on the rise but that's me as I've had a chance to think about it a lot -too much actually- over the past year or two.

Don't beat yourself up. Set some small goals and work on techniques to deal with the stress and depression. Races are won, one step at a time.

I know where you're coming from. I've had similar anxiety/depression/procrastination attacks, not quite as severe as yours sound, but I can relate.

If it's at all like what I was going through (and many creative types as well) you're putting too much pressure on yourself. You look at other animation work and think, "I can do that." You're thinking you have to come up with that idea that will win major awards, get you a top job someplace, and people will climbing over each other to buy your next idea.

But what ends up happening is that you sit down, start to draw, animate, or write and within 15 minutes you think, "This is crap, if it's going to win awards it has to be perfect." You throw out what you've done, start working again, and start to think, "I wonder what's on TV?", "Does Zelda need rescuing again?" or "Have they updated my favorite porn site?" And before you know it another day has gone by with you having nothing to show for it except a bunch of frustration that leads to depression and more pressure to make up for it tomorrow.

Am I right? That's happened to me quite a bit. I've found a couple tools to fix it and I'll gladly sell them to you for the low price of . . . Just kidding. Here's what you do.

Start small. Doodle. Work on stuff that doesn't matter. Make sketches. Draw a walk cycle for nothing. If it sucks, who cares, it doesn't matter. Force yourself to do one short drawing, animation, page of writing, etc. a day. Keep it simple. A ball bouncing or rolling. A box turning around. A simple walk cycle. Try not to perfect it. They're just sketches. Avoid the eraser. If you're writing, use a typewriter without a correction tape.

Disconnect from the internet. Turn off the TV and radio. Work quietly at first. I'd recommend trying it without music, it's hard at first but really helps your concentration. If you feel you NEED music, find something without words, classical is usually a good choice. Unplug from the internet. It can be VERY distracting.

Work for an hour, or half an hour at first. Start small. If you want to work longer fine. But aim for a specific, short amount of time. Don't have any goal in mind other than you are drawing for an hour. Don't judge it until the next day. Just let yourself be satisfied with having done something today.

If you miss a day, don't worry and don't try to make it up by working 2 hours the next day. That won't work. Just forget about it and try to work on it tonight. Remember, no pressure. As soon as you start pressuring yourself the procrastination is going to kick in. A little pressure is good, just don't make it a "I have to or else" situation. You're just trying to train yourself to regularly work on something that's important to you.

Your work will probably stink at first. Mine did (still does). But it will get easier. It will become fun. You'll find yourself wanting to do it. Sometimes you won't want to, but force yourself to sit down for one hour. I'm always surprised to find myself not wanting to start, then not wanting to stop as I go on. I'm starting to prefer working on my animations more than watching TV or playing video games.

I'm getting faster and it's becoming rewarding. I'm beginning to be able to put up on the screen what I had been envisioning. I want to do it all the time now and that overwhelming pressure to perform has been replaced by actually performing.

Here's my page with my evening animations.
http://www.galaxy12.com/latenight/

I have more animations to put up, but you'll get the idea. I've only been doing it for a week and a half now, and I already have more to show for it than the past year of struggling to find the perfect idea. I'm also feeling more creative and less frustrated than I have in a very long time.

Here's another site that inspired me to start doing this.
http://internalcow.tripod.com/

Nice, sketchy, and not too much time invested into any one drawing. It's still higher quality than my stuff at the moment, but I can feel myself heading there.

And definitly keep talking to your doctor. Tell him everything you've told us. If he can't help with the laziness/procrastination perhaps you should look for another doctor who can. Don't give up until they get your meds and treatment straightened out.

Oh, and get enough sleep. I always have a harder time dealing with life if I don't get enough sleep. You really aren't missing that much if you go to bed at a reasonable time (you're missing more if you're walking around like a zombie all day).

I know there's a lot in here, but I've had a much better attitude towards things since I've started thinking like this. I hope it helps.

I have been trying to animate for years, my animating skills are not sufficient to allow me to animate my ideas, and I used to put an enormous amount of pressure on myself until I realized that films like toy story were accomplished by hundreds of people and not by one individual. I am still obsesed with animation, but now I've decided to do the best I can and on my own pace. I remind myself that there are other things besides animation and will not force the creative juices if while doodling something comes forth I go with the flow. Being a pefectionist is the pits until you can learn to accept that doing your best is the only thing you can do. Remember small steps!

Ha! That's awesome. You just summed up my whole post with one paragraph!

Baby steps.

Nice job.

Words of wisdom. I decided to try to make a quick animation of a fish I had drawn before after reading this -no pressure just fun. Like those who have written I used to beat myself up a lot of making it perfect -still a bit of that but I'm getting better at just doing what I can.

Don't trip bald_dude, all will be well and the world will keep on spinning -unless our politicans really screw up big time -hey, there's an idea for you "The Day the World Stopped Spinning." Hang in there as best you can, things generally work out eventually.

It seems that those problems are the dark side or a side effects of the creative process.

thanks everyone for showing ur support.
kdiddy is so right thats exactly my problem.
and today i also switched medicine without asking a doctor!
i switched from ssri class escitlopram to an older generation tofranil(tricylic).

i have been on tofranil in the past. It did made me energetic but had no effect on my depression! i was so depressed i use to cry all the time.
lets see if all goes well this time! times have changed.
i have a pet dog now (a doberman cross something) . he is so entertaining and loving and is prolly the reason i cant seem to kill myself!.
no one in the house will take care of em if i will end my life. poor dog is dependant on me!.
i did work on an animation for half an hour today USING FLASH and went though the tutorials included with MOHO. i will try to increase the time i work.
i will post my creativity soon.
moho is a great program the bone animation system and particle engine is cool and very handy.
take care everyone.

I'm glad you're starting to animate. Don't worry too much about increasing your time at it. Just set aside some time to do it and you'll gradually find yourself wanting to do it more and not forcing yourself to do it more. Remember, don't pressure yourself too much to perform. Accept that you are going to suck at it for quite some time (I still do and will for the foreseeable future!) but it doesn't matter. You're just having fun. Start small.

And pets are cool, too. Until my son was born, I don't think I ever laughed so hard as when my dog or cat did something crazy.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you're doing. I think you'll find this forum very friendly and encouraging to people new to the craft.