Portfolio Building - Matt Nelson

mats effect

Update March 30 2015
Just updated today with new work and a new site. Want to send in for a few entry level positions that have come up so any advice/thoughts would be great!

http://www.mattnelson3d.com/

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Hey guys,

Wondering if I could ask a few people to take a look at my portfolio in its current state and offer me some feedback. http://mattnelson3d.com/

Few things:

1. I am going with the really simple layout at the moment its actually that template that was posted a year or two back. What are the current thoughts on that approach?

2. I have a few changes I still want to make to the sci fi environment but, I am happy to get any and all feedback on all the work I have posted on it so far.

3. Any advice at all would be just awesome, I know I still have more work to do but, hope to start sending it out to some places soon.

Thanks guys.

dschmidt3d

Your stuff looks cool. I don't really understand the need for everything flying everywhere in your second scene. Nothing else is really damaged. If something else was damaged it would make sense but right now it doesn't make much sense to me. What were you thinking about changing in the sci fi enviro?

mats effect

@ dschmidt3d

cheers for the feedback. In the sci fi scene I was thinking about playing with the lighting a bit more and maybe now that its more or less done doing a few extra props to fill it out a bit more. Will prob take another look at things like the glass material too.

As for the second scene, I added in the parts flying around towards the end to try and add a bit more interest and make it look like the rest of the room had been pulled away or something. I get what you are saying though, it could have done with more context.

CarlK3D

- I think the Abandoned View has a cool sense to it, like it's deconstructed.
- The blue background is really contrasting to the wall and lighting I dont think it looks good.
- Some of the wood is green (I assume its painted?) and then some is the normal brown
- Since you already have the props in the Environment I think you should remove them and if you want to should them up close use a short from the scene it will look far better then showing them in a Plane in Marmoset. Also they look far better in the Environment, Lighting is far better
- The Sci-Fi Scene looks good the only thing I notice is the top support arch is a but blocky. makes it stand out in the scene since everything else is spot on

Hope this helps!

DWalker

The texture on the arches' web is very busy. The arches themselves are very blocky. Also, all of the lights are beneath the top of the arches, so the ceiling should be in shadow; make sure you're using directional lights rather than point lights.

The lighting on the plants is very poor; they should be well-lit and yet are almost completely black. Also, the stray plant doesn't make much sense.

mats effect

Cheers guys, I will get on this stuff tomorrow morning.

JedTheKrampus

Just a niggle with your writing. Some of the images were rendered in Cryengine, and others were rendered in Marmoset. In addition, you overuse the passive voice. So instead of saying:

"The entire scene was completed in just under a month and is presented in the Cry Engine 3"

you should say:

"I completed the scene in just under a month, using Cryengine for the final render and Marmoset Toolbag to render some props."


Also, the texture on the windows on the sci-fi scene looks pretty low-resolution. You may want to go back and add some higher-frequency detail there.

mats effect

Thanks for the advice Jed.


Made a few changes to stuff this morning. Do people think the arch's are still too blocky looking? I played around with the verts a bit but I might just add some extra tri's to them.

Also i have my own plant models in there now as had cry engine ones in there as place holder.

mattnelson3d.com

mats effect

made a few changes to the layout. Anyone have any thoughts on the CV etc too? Just noticed a a position i am kind of keen to try for and looking for any and all feedback before I throw my hat into the ring

mr_ace

i would render out smaller images for the actual website view that open up to larger images when clicked, rather than using the really big images for both, as they load pretty slowly and are like 2.5mb each.

there's no point using a 2.5mb 1920x1080 image on the main page when it takes up a quarter of that space on a 1080p monitor!

mats effect

Yeah fair point that was pretty lazy of me actually, I will get on that first thing in the morning.

mr_ace

a few nit pics with your CV; you say you're self taught, and then immediately follow that up with the fact you have a games degree, I get what you mean, but it seems like an odd way of phrasing.

Also, I think the sentance
Founder and operator of game art portfolio wall a site that collects game
artists portfolios and displays them all in one place

should be

Founder and operator of game art portfolio wall, a site that collects game
artists portfolios and displays them all in one place

you asked for nitpicks!

gl with the job hunt

mats effect

Thanks man! great feedback.

GOBEE

For the Routine environment: I can't help it but all I see are those yellow lines. They're cool but it looks like that's your highlight of this scene when its not. Its distracting. I would break those lines up a bit. Like along the sloped part on the right and near the window. Also, Play with the lighting some more. It feels pretty consistent throughout. I wonder how far you can push the mood if you remove some lights above and near the window. And draw the eye along the right corridor and highlight the door at the end. If i m a player, I'm guessing I need to go through that door so highlight that more. Draw the players attention. You may even be able to darken the outside windows enough to show off an interesting skyline.

I would read over your resume a few times. The profile part has some mistakes I think you will find if you read it aloud.

Also, that gameartportfoliowall site is brilliant. It pisses me off I didn't think about that first. Please keep that going. I'm always looking for other peoples work to get inspired and you created a treasure trove. Good luck!

mats effect

Thanks GOBEE that's some great feedback.

Glad you find portfolio wall useful

mats effect

Just updated today with new work and a new site. Want to send in for a few entry level positions that have come up so any advice/thoughts would be great!

http://www.mattnelson3d.com/

Nosslak

The biggest problem is definitely the number of pieces. You simply don't have enough work to show off consistent skill. I were recently contacted by a recruiter who gave me the same advice and, at that point, I had nine of my best projects up, now I have 16 of them up instead (I'll trim down the size a bit more soon). Quality is of course more important than quantity, but quantity is important to show that you can consistently pump out good work as well.
I'm not trying to be an asshole, but to be honest with you I don't think you have enough work on display to land a job right now and some of the work you do have on display just isn't that good. I think the rock needs to go, but the scene in general doesn't look that good or interesting and looks kind of unfinished (the water isn't very good, the rocks look very outdated, and the foliage is still lit weirdly). I do like the generator and drone though, they are both good pieces IMO. I think you should try to make some kind of post-apoc, beaten up assets to show that you can do some damage and grime texturing as well as clean models.

You also need to include your name, URL and/or email address on your pictures.

Lastly I'd make the email address at the bottom more prominent (you could probably place it in the banner).

mats effect

Thanks Nosslak, na I like feedback that gets to the point I would rather know where I am at. I totally agree about the rocks don't know why I was telling myself they needed to be on it at all. I think they are a bit better in the scene but a bit crappy in general and certainly didn't need to be displayed on their own.

I guess I will focus on getting a few more quality assets done as my top priority and some rock study's. Though I think I went a bit to low poly with them at the same time so I might try some re builds from the orignal highpoly mesh to see how that looks too.