I did stuffs! I'm so creative!

Creativity. What in the world does it truly mean. The word “creative” or “talented” or “creativity” are words that can mean so much to people, that it could crush them. What do I mean by that. When I was younger, I struggled a lot in most areas of school. I originally went to a pretty shit primary school, and finally got moved to a more higher-class, better quality, better Ofsted reported school. I felt like the dumb-ass out of everyone in the year and even the year below. In the year below, kids would be able to do their multiplication, they'd know their 6x tables and then there would be me struggling with my 2x or 3x tables. For me they were “talented” at multiplying. But that wasn't the case in the end. I never really thought about it being at a young age but now, they just learnt it. Yeah some of the kids had a knack for it, but all of them had to learn, they had to recite, they had to repeat over and over again. It came to tests, and it was one, where you had to learn a specific multiplication table e.g. 7x table. Then you had to say it to the teacher without fault and then backwards. I mean seriously. Backwards. Why?! But I had to do this homework, and for once in my life I wanted to be “talented” I wanted to be seen as a clever kid in primary school, I was fed up of being the dumb one. I don't really want to make this a sob story, I’m sorry. So I’ll get to the point. Basically it was the 7x table week, and I learned those 7x tables, forwards and backwards. I went up to the teacher, completely bricking it, and said it forwards and backwards. This was without any fault, mind you. I passed and got a gold star! YES! I walked away happy and never really thought about it again, until now. So, what was the moral of the story. Well no matter what, “creativity” or “talent” isn't something that is just there, it isn't something someone was born with, it isn't something you just know, a lot of it is something you learn. Yes this learning, that we do for all our lives. No one knows everything in the world, otherwise why are we still searching for cures, or figuring out what Mars looks like. If someone knew everything, we'd already be getting fuel from another universe.


But some people do have a comfort zone with areas, lets say. Some people are really good at rigging, naturally, they get a sense or a feeling with it. Then there are some (like me), who need to learn rigging. I need to learn about where everything goes etc. and that is all through the process of learning. Even those who are naturally good, aren't perfect, they'll make mistakes and they need to learn, but they just have something for it. It's the same with every area, hence why there's the whole debate about being a generalist or a specialist. Those who have a knack, or a natural feel for characters or environments or vehicles etc. will generally specialise in those areas, because that's where they feel they belong, but that's where they need to learn other areas. Everyone is OK at everything, not everyone is excellent at the same thing.


Within the games industry, you aren't expected to be amazing at everything, but have some strong sense about the majority of things going on. When it comes to being an art director, you have to have a strong sense of everything and also be great at one particular thing, but that's from having years of personal experience, to have a strong sense at all aspects. Us newbies as graduates, won't. Once we graduate, we wont have a strong sense of everything, we would have only just got a waft of smell, a hint of spice. This is why becoming an art director takes years of experience. But this doesn't mean he's more “creative” than others in the industry. There may be programmers who are better than him at programming, but that doesn't mean they're more “creative” than the art-director. Everyone is “creative”. The word “creativity” doesn't belong to someone who can do this, that and the other. It's a general term for someone who has keen eye for what they love. You can be “creative” when it comes to medicine, it's not just an artsy-fartsy word that artists use. Imagine how modern medicine would be if no one was creative, imagine if no one suddenly thought about putting a nail in someone's broken bone to fix it, imagine if their colleague didn't say let's put a metal bar in to help it. That's creativity. Bouncing off of each other, to create something. So here we are now, with everyday modern medicine and loads of people with broken legs, arms, backs, necks, skulls, you name it, with metal crap shoved everywhere. OK it's not shoved, it's carefully placed. But you get the idea!


As an artist, to learn, you will need to learn skills in areas which you lack. You need to learn your tools. You need to learn how to use them, how to live with them, how to eat, sleep, drink, make love to your tools. Because they are vital. In an aspect of this world, the tools are vital. By using your tools, you learn the skills, by learning the skills, you practise with the skills, by practising you get better, by getting better you become more creative and so one and so forth. Oh look that word “creative”. It is everywhere, but it does not fit one person. It fits everyone. Not all multi-million games are made by one person being “creative”. Actually it isn't made by one “creative person, it's made by hundreds + of “creative” people. See where I’m getting at?



Even now those “creative” moments in the past, are something we admire, but we don't turn to use them. We say “Oh that particle was fantastic back then, but how can we make it better?”. That's being creative, that's being talented, that's not just one person, that's a group of people, that's a “talented” and “creative” team. 

Yeah! You go Einstein