Finally finished a big personal project after 3 years of on and off work

I've been slowly working on a full fantasy landscape scene since 2021, and last week I finally exported the final version. I must have restarted the composition like 6 times before things clicked. The lighting on the castle towers took me about 4 full weekends to get right. Has anyone else struggled with knowing when to call a piece done vs always wanting to tweak one more thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan_ramirez16d ago

Exactly this. I finally called it done when I realized I was just moving pixels around with no real purpose. @king.derek hit on something there - I had to ask myself if my tweaks were making it better or just different. What worked for me was setting a hard deadline. Gave myself one week and a list of exactly what needed fixing. Color balance, a shadow in the corner, that kind of stuff. Once that list was done I was done. The last thing I did was zoom out to 25% and if it still felt right I exported it. No more pixel hunting after that.

shaneb1616d ago

Zooming out to 25% is a good way to see if you're just polishing a turd.

king.derek16d ago

The real trick is figuring out if you're fixing problems or just avoiding finishing.