Creativity is a medium where we can express ourselves. It is
a way of thinking, and it can be a very individual process. Creativity can be
viewed in many different ways, from creative thinking, to creating something
unique with your hands. Creativity can also be the way you approach a problem.
You may approach it differently to someone else, in a more creative way
perhaps. It can also be down to your initiative, and how you apply yourself to
a given task.
Talent is a particular ability to do something; again it
could be unique and therefore classed as a talent. It is an ability to do well
with a particular thing. You could have a talent for singing, for writing or
for any number of different activities. Talent and skill can be
interchangeable. It depends on the situation. But often skill is a usually
described as an effective way of performing a task. So they could have a talent
for drawing, and their skill is the way they execute that talent.
I don’t think that craft and skill hinders creativity and
talent, only stimulates it and helps it develop. Craft can be a way of
expressing a talent. Skill can be the way the talent is performed in the
quickest and most efficient way possible.
Is talent a skill you are born with or something that is
learned? This is a difficult question, since there are so many examples of
skilful and talented people being described as having a natural talent, and
that from an early age they were already great in their type of creativity. I
believe that it is something that you learn. While there is plenty of evidence
that intelligence and other traits can be passed down in the DNA and genes, I
think in general, creativity and talent are something that you develop usually
from an early age. I believe that if a child has an interest in a subject, and
they constantly work at it, through repetition and their enthusiasm for the
subject, they will develop a talent for it. If they focus their time on this
one thing, they will become better at it. I think this kind of enthusiasm also
depends on parents and teachers feedback to the child. If they create something
and get praise for it, they are more likely to do it again to get more praise.
Therefore, with the correct encouragement from the key figures in a child’s
upbringing, they can develop a great talent for something they enjoy. Often
there are only two or three children in a class that would have a great talent
for something. For instance, one is good at drawing, one is good at playing a
flute. As for the other children in the class that apparently don’t have a
specific talent, this could be down to the way they were introduced to certain
things and also their own choice. If they didn’t enjoy playing an instrument,
it could be that they just had no interest in doing so, or perhaps when they
were told to play, they felt like it was a chore and therefore they come to the
conclusion that its boring and some kind of punishment. Where as, if they were
presented with a task, and told it was a fun activity, given lots of
encouragement and then praise with the outcome, they begin to feel that they
are able to do that thing well, so they will do it again because it was more
enjoyable and the praise they received from adults and maybe peers too was worth
it.
Of course there are times when someone could be forced into
a specific role, maybe they are forced to learn piano from a young age, and
they become good at it because they are told that they have to. Here they could
still have a talent for it that has been developed, and they are skilful in it,
but they wouldn’t usually be happy in such a situation. And likely they would
have an interest in an entirely different subject.
Creativity can manifest itself in the way someone performs a
task. It is the way someone approached a problem. The way they solve it can be
judged by the uniqueness, the imagination and the application.
In a game industry environment, I believe that everyone in
the process of making games does some form of creativity. Considering it covers
a range of meanings and applications, most people in this environment will be
applying their form of creativity in their work. It can indeed be hindered by
technical constraints. But, it could also be part of the creativity, by finding
the most creative way of sticking to the constraints and yet completing the
work to a level of creativity you are satisfied with. It can show off a lot of
your skill if you can show your employers what you can do under the given
technical constraints.
Games can manifest creativity in a number of ways. They can
show it in the story, how unique and fitting it is. It can be shown in the
environments and the colour schemes of the environments. It can be within the
characters and their personalities, it can even be within the AI of enemies and
NPCs. Creativity could be shown in the way a puzzle works in a game, and how a
player can discover the clues and right down to the result in completing the
puzzle, which could be a door opening to a new area or a key/treasure could now
be within reach. The entire gameplay can be showing off the creativity in a
game.
I think that Ubisoft is a creative company, particularly in
their Assassin’s Creed games. They have taken historic events, people and
places, and recreated them in a way that fits a new story. They used certain
events to justify their imaginative and unique story that the games tell.
For me, I show my creativity through the way I complete
tasks. I try to keep to constraints but still make my work have a personal
touch. I would hope that others would see the personal touches I make to my
work. In my drawings, there’s a style I use that could be recognisable as my
work. I believe that I have a skill for shading and rendering within my pencil
drawings. And I believe that I have a talent for drawing something that is in
front of me. Since from an early age I was always drawing from looking at books
that had paintings of birds in them, and also from things I saw outside in the
garden. Because of this, I know that I need to develop better skills in drawing
from imagination. There are some things I can draw from imagination, and
generally its easy to think of something new, but its down to actually drawing
it how I picture it in my head, which is not always an easy task. So I believe
I need to develop skills in that aspect. I also know that I need more
development on my perspective drawing skills and my use of colouring and
rendering in a digital painting.
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