Portfolio feedback needed (for MIGS Career Fair)

Pioldes

Hello!

I am a recent graduate trying to get a place into the industry. I wanted to have feedback about my portfolio, since I'm going to attend the Montreal Internation Game Summit Career Fair in a few weeks.

I'm going to go out and say it right away, yes, I do know that I have both props and characters on my website, and that it would be best to stick to one and perfect it more.

That being said, while I really enjoy doing characters, I also know that my anatomy skills are far from perfect and that it's incredibly hard to find an entry-level job in this particular field. Not to say that I dislike props and environments, far from that, I just happened to have more character-centric projects during my classes. Which I always found very odd since character artist seem to be quite a saturated and demanding(experience-wise) field.

Anyway, the website (as well as some pieces) are still getting worked on. I have an interior environment featuring the old man in the WIP section on the way, as well as a cartoony zombie for the Mixamo contest. Again, yes, very character-centric, but I'm slowly moving out of that. Next project is going to be a sci-fi environment since I didn't really touch on that.

What do you think? Also, in all honesty, do I seem to have the level of skill to get into the industry? (I really have no idea where I'm at and what would be the requirements for a junior).

Thanks a lot!

Website: http://www.pioldes.com

PyrZern

These are my opinions

First off, take out the Work In Progress. A portfolio is your showcase. Only the best of your best should be on it. A bunch of WIPs shows that sometimes you can't just finish a proj.

Everything in the Gallery section should have more than just 1 shot. Each project in there should include a few of the followings... 1. Beauty Shot (1 or 2), in case of character, pose him or her in an interesting way, with some kind of Stand or Pedals, or some kind of floor. 2. Construction Shots; this should show your Wireframe, High Poly, Low Poly, texture maps, Polygon Counts, and such. 3. Conceptual Shot, either your drawing or references you gathered for the project. And, all and each of these shots, should include Title, your Names, Website, and Email Address.

Maybe just me, but I would like the Resume to also feature an English version. (I don't know how they do things in Canada though...)

Oh, and clicking on the Logo, or on the 'Artiste 3D' sends you to a blank page, so there's no point doing it.

Same with the Email icon at lower left corner. There's already 'Contact' in the Menu.


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Hope that helps

I'm not inside the industry, so I can't tell you how far you are into the Junior position, I couldn't break in myself <_<" And now, guess what, I'm a ballroom dance instructor instead.......

Pioldes

Thanks!

Yes, I think you're right for the WIP section. I usually tend to leave it to current projects to be finalized soon, but I guess that might not be appropriate.

For the gallery, I'm going to try to see what I can do, but I'm only using a flavors.me website, so my options are limited on that point. I can't code/script to save my life : /
Same thing for the email icon. I haven't found a way to remove it, and it's way too small on his own so I added the ''contact'' button. Yeah, the website is far from perfect, I know.

As for the resume, you are absolutely right, It'll be translated soon, as well as my cover letter.

Pioldes

I'm also looking for crits on individual pieces!

Benton

Don't forget, you could get your own domain and use Wordpress for your site, without touching code

Fireflights

I agree with everything PyrZern said. Take that advice! The multiple shots thing (with relevant information) is very important.

Website-wise.....IMO, the top section with your dude-in-a-hat and navigation is way too big. It takes up a lot of space that requires me to scroll down to see even the first few pieces. I think the text on your resume page is also much too large - I have to scroll, again, to read much of it (I'd also throw an English version in there as well). The portfolio link is redundant, as the viewer is already on your website. If this was a downloadable PDF, I'd say sure...but just leaving it as a link when you're already on the site is a little silly.

The broken links should really be fixed. If that's difficult for you, you might want to look into finding pre-made website galleries that require little to no coding knowledge.

I barely noticed the little translucent button in your navigation that makes your email address show up. Why hide it? You want them to contact you! I'd either remove that option entirely (and just show your email on every page, all the time) or remove it and keep it on the contact page. Personally, I'd suggest you leave it up and remove the Contact page. You want to keep your website visitors happy - and one of the ways you accomplish that is by giving them the information they want in as few clicks as possible. That's something that you could carry throughout your entire website, really.

I'd also remove the little bar between the navigation and the main bulk of the page - it's also redundant, and doesn't seem to be adding anything important that you can't access elsewhere on your site.

Pick the word "gallery" or "portfolio" and stick with it, on every page it's mentioned. You don't want to confuse people. :P

If you can manage to host your images somewhere that isn't your main flickr page (or limit the ability of viewers to visit your flickr page through your website) I'd suggest you do so. This just offers people a way to see all the other work you've done, but work you might not feel is "ready" for your portfolio site. It might show some weaknesses that you didn't intend (including some old work), so I'd try to hide the links to that if you can.

I'd completely remove the videos section, and remove any animation samples you have there. There are a lot of videos, and they're kinda long, with many, many still shots thrown in. It's interesting that you have still shots with even *less* visual information on your actual "gallery/portfolio" page, and you have - in an entirely different section - videos that offer the viewer a better idea of the wireframe, poly count, and full model shots. You essentially have two portfolio sections.

All-in-all, I think some clean-up is in order, and cutting down the amount of stuff you have on your site (while maintaining a single area that has only your BEST finished work, with everything Pyr mentioned) is your best bet. Remember - you want a portfolio website to show your work, and quickly, and not make it difficult for the visitor to access your information. Make it easy for them! Grab their attention quickly, and hold it. Hope that helps some

Azaraen

The tesla tilted picture (guy with vest and mustache) is most definately your weakest piece. Everything else looked pretty good! But as soon as I saw that one, it made all your other work seem not as cool. The shoulders are too thin, and the arms coming out look like doll arms (stuck on and out too far from body). Plus that foreshortening of the arm is not visually pleasing. If thats a frame from a movie you made, I'd suggest a frame from a different angle. But you have so many other human models to choose from that are better than that one.

Pioldes

Thanks Fireflights! I'll try my best to work with this damned limited pre-made website, haha. That's definitely very helpful, you're helping me pointing out major flaws and I will go over them one by one.

I think you're right, Evolvyn. I'll just remove it, it's not that well-done anyway. It was basically my first real try at ''not too cartoonish'' characters, but as I said, I still have a long way to go to study anatomy and such, which is why I'll try to aim more towards props/environments for now, I really could use the job, haha. Can't wait to be paid to do something I love, you know.

Keep de crits coming! Especially of the individual pieces, I think the website was covered a lot by Fireflights

Pioldes

Updated the website a little bit. There really isn't that much I can do with the default templates : s

Still trying to figure out a way to block all my non-portfolio content on flickr.

Maybe I should create an art dump thread dedicated to my pieces so the critics can focus on that? We'll see, haha.

Pioldes

Here's a bigger update!

I removed the WIP section and added a Making Of section where I put the technical details of most pieces. It's not the best workaround, but it's the best I can do with the templates right now : /

TheRealFroman

Hey man, so cool looking stuff first off, but I'd like to say in your UDK environment, the tiling brick floor texture looks a bit weird in my opinion. It seems to repeat itself too often and lacks variation in colors/detail. The sandy looking dirt coating on it looks strange as well. It doesnt really give the appearance of dirt (was that your intention?) and it would also seem pretty strange to find that much sand in there anyway. With that tiling all over it makes the ground seem way too noisy compared to your objects within the scene. Also, the window section of your image seems a bit dull too IMO. Try to play around with lighting or other effects to try and make it seem more interesting with paired with your other objects. Your hover monocycle seems really cool! But in a videogame, 20000 tris would be a bit much for something that small dont you think? I might try baking it down to a number much less than that. If it still retained detail that would be much more impressive

That darksiders axe looks sick btw :P

Pioldes

Thanks!

Yeah, I've got similar feedback on my ground texture from another person too. This isn't really the focus of this picture, but if it bothers people, I'll try to revisit it (I'm sadly unsure if I still have the UDK map : s).

Also, you're right about the hover cycle, it was done a year ago and it definitely could use more optimization. I was such a fool back then! Hahaha :P