OK,
Here's what helps me, I wait until late at night most times, then first if I am modeling, I visit some favorite Modelers websites, and check out their Galleries and also watch any videos they have, for inspiration, Like Glen Southern, or one of the Kid Movie Modeler / Animators, then I grab my favorite Stress Ball, put it on the desk, grab my Zune, select my favorite upbeat playlist, that contains songs like the themes to: The Great American Hero, Karate Kid I & II, and Various Themes from Rocky Movies, A-Team, Macgyver, then Some stuff from Eminem Like One Shot, finally Hard Smash Mouth Tunes like Trapt, 3 Doors Down, others from the Time Life Collection of: "The Edge".
Make sure it is cold in here from Air Conditioner, Then open up DBPro / Visual Studio 2008 Depending on what I'm using DBPro or Dark GDK or DGDK.Net, and I also open Silo / or Frag3D / or 3DCoat depending on what stage of Modeling / animating or texturing I'm in, if I'm on levels it is: Cartography Shop or Another faborito level editor, and on my 4th monitor I will be playing a random tutorial video on either Point or Subdivision Modeling.
Also I have to have one of those old school Reveal Clicky Ergo Keyboards, The MOST important thing is, it HAS to have Loud Mechanical Switches, with a clear audible click response and noise, this helps me type 90+ Words a minute with 0 mistakes, if it isn't forget it, I'll waste most of my time, doublechecking code, backspacing, re-typing, and sometimes erasing and retyping what I just retyped again.
A Huge Glass of Pepsi With plenty of ICE is a must, also my Glasses Must Be Spotless, Knuckles cracked, eyedrops in, just for good measures, headache pills taken, and then to get rid of the stomach pain, so I can focus I take my Pain medicine.
Then in 10-15 Minutes I'm almost Ready.
Also I have one of those Chairs with the Anti-Sweat Seats, also the Net Style Back, with built in pad, to ease lower back pain, has to be tall enough that I can lean back and rest my head if necessary, also I have it high enough that my feet are off the ground, and a briefcase foot rest under the L Shaped Desk.
The MOST Important of All, if I'm modeling is my 19" P-Active LCD Pen Tablet Monitor, freshly cleaned, ready to go, lowered into the correct angle, so my arm / elbow can rest on the arm of my chair, the Monitor is on the Keyboard Tray Pulled Out, and the Ergo Old Clicky Keyboard is on top of the desk in front of the 2nd LCD Monitor, still reachable at an angle when I am focusing strictly on Coding, I can rotate my chair to point at that monitor and my chair fits under that part of the desk, so I can hammer down coding..
Oh yea, on my 3rd monitor I have to have A Browser window open for research / double checking that I have the latest updates for my Modeling / 3D Painting or Coding Application I am using, and Plugins etc.. also, the Room Must Be Completely Dark, Cool.
The 47" Philips TV is Playing either Biker build off / or American Chopper Senior vs. Junior, but volume level is low enough that I can hear it if I want, but also that I can ignore it also..
Finally I put the Ear buds from the zune in, start the playlist, crank it to 20 - Old version of the zune before they lowered the volume levels..
Put my camoflauge No Mark glove w/ the finger tips removed on the index finger, and the thumb, so I can grip the pen, but still click the buttons, yet it slides just right on the screen leaving no smudges, Take a huge drink of Pepsi, Put some dip in my lip, skoal pouches mint flavored, so I don't have to worry about it traveling around my mouth while I'm concentrating on drawing and stuff, put the empty gatorade bottle on the desk, lid off, and then begin!
This is the formula has helped me crank out some masterpieces, both codewise and graphic wise.. If I need Straight lines in my 3d Texture painting, I switch to Blacksmith3D Suite or I will use the option to edit projection w/ external 2d editor in 3D Coat, and use Paint.Net then resave, and finish the sculpting, bump mapping, displacement / normal maps in 3DCoat, re-save / export to *.obj files, bring the model into either Frag3D or Character Shop, to Rig and Animate the model if Latter just rig and re-save it, as the animations are mo-cap'd and read to go.. Finally depending on what I'm using for the engine, I use either Frag3D or Ultimate Unwrap3D to do the format Conversions to a format like DirectX or DBO as necessary..
If I'm coding in DBPro, I have to have the IDE setup as Black Background, with easy on the eyes bright colors but not too bright as to cause a headache, and have the General Help file open also on another monitor, and in the web browser monitor I have the Codebase open, and also TGC's Forums, any / all examples I can find for inspiration, sometimes a book / manual God Forbid.. ehehe on the desk as well, with certain places thumb tabbed, w/ printed text on them for easily finding what I need..
Ummm Also, there is the issue that In Every place in this room, I have to have access to a computer, from the couch an HP Laptop w/ 18.6" Widescreen, hooked to the Philips 47" TV via the HDMI Cable, with the desktop extended to it sometimes, or my other tablet Acer C300 Travelmate w/ Windows XP Tablet Edition by the Bed, along with books / manuals, and that is what I have to do, in case inspiration strikes at a wierd moment..
K, sorry for rambling on, but I read alot of other users comments and alot of them were similar to the things that I do, I guess you have to be kind of a wierdo Freak ehehe to be a Coder / 3D or 2D Artist or Game Maker that is..
I hope this helps or gives someone on here, ideas on how to best prepare mentally and physically for that next masterpiece, btw: Being disabled, sometimes the Pain Medicine helps, but sometimes it causes me to ramble like this, so for anyone that I offended by such a long post, I'm sorry..
Ciao' 4 Now,
StOrM3
PS. Workspace Snapshot Attached for ideas on setup..
[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
[PKE] Of All The Things I've Lost..[PKE]
[PKE] I Miss My Mind The Most! [PKE]
