--- title: "Idea Seeds" canonical: "https://rmanwiki-27.pixar.com/space/RU/569278526/Idea%20Seeds" format: markdown --- ![ideasSeeds_Header.jpg](media://9c6c446c-b9a9-461c-a8c6-977663e9c0d4) *Author: Eugene Riecansky* ### One thing I learnt over the years is that it’s essential to nurture multiple ideas when starting a new project. You can very quickly have an idea and decide that it is the one and speed onward. I would advise you to sloooooow down. Give your mind the space, time, and a chance to spin its wheels and create ideas. Write down your ideas, whether it’s in a sketchbook or on the computer. Personally, I like paper and pen as I can carry them around with me and write notes and ideas down as I wander around. Pause. Go for a walk, think, and then come back to the list. Don’t worry if the ideas initially seem rubbish. Just let them flow and write everything down that comes to mind. You might be surprised that an idea you initially thought was rubbish turns out to grow into something you really like. Whilst AI is ‘ok’ for coming up with ideas, the problem here is that it’s not always ‘you’. You can feed it a prompt, and it will return some ideas, but these ideas are typically quite generic. Part of what makes me ‘me’ is my mind. It’s the way I think, the things I like, and the style I like to create art in. My mind is unique to me. You have a mind that is unique to you, so start by letting your mind do its creative job. The art you make should be an expression of you. I found that listening to music was a great way to encourage ideas to come forward. It’s very easy these days to go online, look through social media, and be inspired by someone else’s work. That’s not always a bad thing, but you can be led down a path that’s not always original or an artistic statement of yourself. There are many other sources of inspiration out there. Books, stories, poems, paintings, art, films, and, of course, the real world outside! Find your unique inspiration source. Search for inspiration in places others might not look. Having directed music videos before I joined Pixar, the music was always the first thing I received from the band. So, closing my eyes, listening to the tune, and mentally seeing and ‘feeling’ what the song evoked in my mind was a helpful process. As I listened to the music, I began creating visuals in my mind to that song. Try finding a piece of music that conveys the initial seed of your idea and see what comes from that. As your idea list grows, you’ll start to have ideas that you begin to gravitate towards and write more about. Even write more about the ideas you don’t especially like. You never know where this process will lead … and that’s the exciting part. I have always had an inner built creative mechanism, called ‘The Click’. It’s a switch that happens in my mind when I know an idea has developed into what I want to make. I usually don’t stop thinking of ideas until ‘The Click’ strikes. Yet, the struggle to get to ‘The Click’ can be painful, and often there are times that you feel you’re not going to achieve it, but trust me …. it always arrives, no matter the thought pain and artistic fight I go through to get there. Trust your creative instincts….. Continue developing the list of ideas until your ‘click’ moment arrives. At this initial stage, no idea is a bad idea; embrace the process, go forth, and let your mind create. --- ![RenderManUniversity_logo_Small.png](media://5d6b0f2f-9def-4e43-92ec-963d68ef9adc)