Comparing Skill

Comparing skill is a subject that comes up frequently enough for me to note. People make comparisons between what I create and share with their own abilities, and this results in the belief that they are not as good and that reaching such level of ability might not be achievable. I actually feel the same to many things I see, so I've been on both sides. No doubt those people I look up to can also feel the same way. My perspective is that it's easy to make it look like you know more than you actually know simply through not providing more context.

I'm aware I appear to have a lot of knowledge in many subjects. 3D graphics for example is one of them, seen in my projects such as The Mast. However, you have to consider that this is only in a specific subset of skills where I have been able to capitalise on them being combined. In my case it's a bit more of the artistic side - I've spent years (started in 2016) making 3D environments and models in Blender, and even then I feel I haven't touched a lot of the software at all... rigging, grease pencil, sculpting, real-time rendering, etc.

I too see what everyone else is doing with 3D and "feel dumb", I don't have the same knowledge they do, and I haven't put in all the time to learn it. Despite the use of textured triangles in my 3D projects, I could not say much about how they are implemented, less so being able to make my own. Same as the image scanning technique used. I'm merely a user of those things and the creators appear more knowledgeable just based on them knowing something I don't, even though they don't necessarily know the same things I do. Knowing how to make a textured triangle filler and knowing how to make a scene in Blender could both be classed as "good at 3D" but are not a good comparison to make.

Also consider the circumstantial factors in the comparison, time in particular. How many thousands of hours have I put into Scratch and Blender? Should it really be a surprise I have skills in them given the huge time investment? Available time is also dependent on a person's age. I am far older than the core Scratch audience and I still am on the older end of the people involved in 3D graphics on Scratch.

What I've expressed here ties into why my I've left my old projects shared on my account even though they are vastly worse compared to recent ones. I like the transparency and context they provide. They were the path to where I am now.