Why does nobody talk about that DAW update that broke my workflow in 2018

I was at a digital art meetup in Austin when someone pulled out a tablet and showed me a 3D scene they built entirely in Procreate. That moment made me realize I had been overcomplicating my own process with layers and blending modes for years. Has anyone else had a random encounter totally flip how they approach their art?

3 comments

3 Comments

adams822mo ago

Man, YES. The thing nobody mentions is that sometimes these "happy accidents" actually expose how RIDICULOUS our tools have gotten. Like, I spent years mastering layer masks and clipping paths in Photoshop, then watched a kid at a coffee shop draw a full illustration using only the lasso tool and a bucket fill. It BROKE my brain. Made me realize I was hiding behind technical complexity instead of just making bold choices. That 2018 update you mentioned probably did you a favor by forcing you to rebuild your muscle memory from scratch. Sometimes the software gods are just telling us to stop overthinking and start punching pixels.

robinmason17d ago

Stop overthinking and start punching pixels" - that's going on a sticky note on my monitor. @briannguyen probably gets it too, that kid with the lasso is living in a different reality than us old heads. It hurts but you're right. I spent two weeks once trying to fix a mask edge when I could have just repainted the area in five minutes. The software makes us feel like we're being precise when really we're just being scared.

briannguyen1mo ago

Ha, RIGHT? That kid with the lasso tool probably has NO idea they just wrecked years of our "professional" muscle memory. You know what, maybe the software gods were just giving us a gift wrapped in a nightmare. Consider me CONVERTED to the "just punch pixels" religion.