First of all, dearest moderator, I spent 15 minutes trying to find the right place to put this thread, and can't figure it out! So please help me by putting it in the right place if it's in the wrong place...

Okay, now the question. As a Sims creator, how many projects do you have going at any one time? Do you work on one until you finish it or get stuck, or have 17 in the air that you constantly juggle...? I'm curious. Besides, some of the most fun discussions I've ever had with other creative types have been about the creative process. In addition to Sims creation, I'm also a writer, poet, stained glass artist, and a more beginning level graphic artist.

For Sims, I tend to have one or two projects on the front burner, and a bunch that have been shelved because I got stuck, and which I may or may not ever get back to. And, I keep an Ideas folder, and whichever Idea pulls me the most when I finish a project becomes my next project. So there.

Ooooh, I always have at least a couple dozen or more Sims projects going at once, which I constantly juggle - as I get frustrated with not being able to get one thing to work, I go off and start another or go back to a previous one for another try. I have far more ideas than either time or talent/experience, so lots of things end up in half-finished half-working states. Occasionally I create something that just comes out right first/second time and go off and quickly submit it, but most things end up requiring a lot of messing around, not least because I like making oddball stuff that isn't very straightforward.

I too do other creative stuff as well as Sims creation, mainly writing, graphic arts and photography, and also love hearing how others deal with their own creative processes!

I hear you about having more ideas than the time or talent. There's so much I want to do but I still don't know how. So much to learn!

I started a long negligee. No problem with the actual meshing part, but now I don't know what to do next lol. Need to back way up and do the very basic beginning clothing creation for S3 tutorials...

I'm also in the juggling a dozen projects camp, to the point I've started keeping lists so I don't forget something I've promised to work on. Not that the list does a lot of good because I'm constantly getting distracted by a new idea or someone asks about something that catches my interest and I drop what I'm doing to follow up, or (VERY often) a problem comes up with one of my tools or existing mods. It can be frustrating when I'm spending huge amounts of time for weeks without getting anything finished, but there are also the times when I finish up two or three things in a couple of days. :D

Those are the fun times, when you finish a bunch of stuff one after the other.

Right now, I have 5 custom content projects I am working on.. two of which are huge projects that I really haven't had time for, and the others are just basic projects. I also have a pose pack project I am working on and 2 machinima projects that I haven't really started on. All of this I have to juggle with school and AP preparation stuff. Fun times!

Haha!

Wow, measured by you three, I'm a piker. I only have two currently active projects, the others are fetal projects, not yet born.

In thinking about it, I guess I've learned that by keeping the "active" projects small in number, I feel less pressured. Mental gymnastics? Maybe...

I hate not having the time to build all of my ideas. Luckily, I found out a way to keep track. Well I'm a fast sketcher, so I got a graph notebook (since I'm mainly an architect in Sims), and whenever an idea pops in my head, i doodle a quick floorplan, along with basic elevation, then later, when i have the time, I put it into sims to refine the plan and add the details.

Well...

I have 2-3 houses in processing (putting together pics, then they're off to CFF)
I have 2-3 houses in the process of being built
I have about 5 drafted in my notebook.

All that on top of juggling a social life, and RPG server for GTA:SA, and HW for honors and AP classes

Glad to see I am not the only one. I do try to contain my creative powers to two simultaneous projects at a time but I usually have about ten others I am developing and researching on. Often more then not I will encounter something new and have to stop to figure out how to do something. Meshing is probably my weakest area since I started off as a texture grappler, manipulator, etc. I have been known to work on as many as 5 - 7 projects at one time though.

I have a bunch in the air right now, 2 lots, a few new Sims, some new paintings, and 3 new tattoo packs. Oh, and a video I want to do just for funsies. That doesn't include all the pictures I will have to take of them, as well. Story ideas, too. Every once in a while I get to squeeze in some actual gameplay. I wish I could get payed to play the SIms, it would make things so much easier.

Right now, I'm busy working in real life, and continuing with my comic strip. No time to make custom content, so instead I make the strips once per 10 day cycle. I have a few things I'd like to upload, but I'm saving them for after the comic strip is done at Issue 25. So by then, custom content will be flowing out from me again.

This thread made me kick myself in the butt and get to work. I completed two new lots today and posted them to my blog, along with a sim I had lurking in the wings for awhile. Yay for productivity!

Awesome Butch! We all probably need a swift kick in the butt to get us started.. lol.. I was lucky enough to get my other sekrit project started again.. but, I am only 1/4 done.. I have a lot of work left to do.

I, personally, think that hvaing more projects is the best possible thing someone can do! I always have at least 3 houses in rotation. When I get drained with one, I go work on another until I am inspired enough to finish another. It makes sure you don't get drained and bored creating one thing -- that way, it ends up as a higher quality. :D

I have a main project and one or two side ones...I try not to have many more than that otherwise I end up with lots of half-finished dreams

Let's see... I'm working on two movies at the moment, three legacies (I think) and I just keep adding more and more... oh, well. I am addicted to Sims!

Not sure how this thread got missed, but since it's not about art, I'm moving it on the toss of a coin to TS3 discussion (could also go in TS2 discussion, ofc).

For modding projects I only have one at a time. Currently I have no active projects (except bug fixing old mods) because none of the things I want to do next are things I can't live without so I'd rather spend what little time I have just playing. I do plan to start modifying moonlight falls soon in CAW. If I would start making a new mod I wouldn't mind even if the MF project is still unfinished, because they are two different things. But I wouldn't like having two projects of the same type active at the same time. I like finishing one thing before doing something else.

Typically, I have a couple dozen open projects at any given time. Quite often, when I get into a project, I discover that I do not have the technical skills needed to complete the project. So it may sit there for a year or two or three, until I learn how to do things better. I just do something else. Currently, I am experimenting with multi meshes for clothes -- now that someone else has figured them out.

A big part of what I have been doing lately is changing other creators' work. For example, I often break outfits apart, into their components. The jeans become a new and separate bottom, while the shirts/coats/sweaters become a new and separate top. I cannot upload these anywhere for obvioius reasons. Fortunately, it does not take me very long to pop these items out (typically well under 1 hour).

I also convert objects from other games. I cannot upload these anywhere -- again for obvious reasons. (When I do upload something, I usually get kicked in the teeth for it, so why bother?)

Occasionally I will make a new object from scratch -- new mesh, new texture. It's a lot of work and I have not done too much of this lately. Usually it's not worth the brain damage to upload these items anywhere; I simply don't want to deal with moderation queues or try to solicit advice from people who really don't know what they are talking about. (When it comes to meshing, Bloom is one of the few people worth listening to.) Also I don't care to let other people (eg TSR) reap a financial reward off of my work.

As far as world building, I usually am more interested in editing existing worlds than creating one of my own, even though I have plenty of ideas for new worlds (recently toying with the idea of Cayo Largo, Cuba; San Andres, Columbia; Gretchen or Lugano, Switzerland; Courcheval, France or Lukla, Nepal). Of course uploading an edited world usually causes nothing but a manure storm -- so why bother?

When I get bored with a project, I tend to leave it and work on something else. After all, I am doing this for fun, and not to be bored. I am not being paid for doing it, so it's not like I lose anything by not finisthing a project.