Leinad - Portfolio feedback (any advice is greatly appreciated)
polycounter lvl 11
Its that time again where I turn to polycount for advice.
I generally try to focus on taking out pieces that are bringing the quality down. I am a bit bias since there is generally an emotional attachment to everything I do, so I wanted to turn this question to you guys once more! Is there anything that sticks out that is questionable in terms of keeping consistent quality?
Overall, any advice you can give is immensely appreciated! Dont worry about hurting my feelings, if I had thin skin I would have quit a looooonnnnnggg time ago.
Portfolio: http://leinadirabka.blogspot.com/
I generally try to focus on taking out pieces that are bringing the quality down. I am a bit bias since there is generally an emotional attachment to everything I do, so I wanted to turn this question to you guys once more! Is there anything that sticks out that is questionable in terms of keeping consistent quality?
Overall, any advice you can give is immensely appreciated! Dont worry about hurting my feelings, if I had thin skin I would have quit a looooonnnnnggg time ago.
Portfolio: http://leinadirabka.blogspot.com/
Replies
iirc, Leinad just recently transitioned from Character artist to Environment/Prop(/Generalist?) after it was suggested to him that it may be easier to land a job, among other reasons I'm sure.
I'm interested to know exactly where you're aiming with this, too, Leinad.
Robot sketch 2 is just a blob of rusty metal, not a good thing to keep. Ask yourself if someone experimenting in zbrush couldn't do the same thing, especially so if it wasn't textured and didn't have the mist.
Monster Bust is also a generic blob with generic sharp teeth. They shouldn't be that white if they're used for what they look like they're used for. Make it a whole creature and pose it, or remove it.
The owl and woman need something just a little extra. The woman needs better skin, and some more work to make her less symmetrical and form fitting.
The owl is good, but very simple. I feel it needs to be part of a larger set of low poly hand painted models.
The sword needs more color variation, variation in the knicks and grooves, with them being placed close where there those would be if it was used in combat.
Demon Centaur needs more color and material variation, and a pose.
Stop it with the T poses.
Steampunk gun is blobby towards the handle, and lacks more color/material variation towards the front.
When it comes down to what kind of job, I am just looking to be an artist at a professional studio. I don't mind doing props, environments, or characters since I enjoy it all but I don't want to be mediocre either. So right now I am working on polishing the environments/props and doing some simple characters every now and then to relax and have fun.
Edit: o wow, a lot of responses while I was typing this message, I'll edit this post with a more detailed response soon.
Ideally I would like everything to be on one page, if the quality of the asset is too low I would rather remove it completely than to have another tab. The reason why I havent removed the female character is because its the only female on my portfolio, so at the very least it illustrates something that my other pieces dont (I have a moderate understanding of female form). I see what you mean about some of the pieces missing something extra. I agree, Ive been trying to distance myself from scenes that dont tell a story of some sort (to keep it more interesting). You can see the difference in some of the new pieces like the environment with the birds and the Gaara piece. I will definitely stop with the t-poses
BagelHero:
Hey! Ive been working towards making better environment art and props. Part of me hasnt removed the character stuff because they often bring in a lot of attention, whether its freelance work or potential jobs. I started the car model because a potential employer was wondering if I could model vehicles, so the next day I started to model it. When I got a bit burnt out, I decided to take a break and start the Gaara character.
I am in this for the long haul, so as long as I am doing something 3d or art related (even painting traditionally) it's something I guess. So I still dabble in other areas that might not be relevant if I get a bit burnt out from one project. If I had more time I would be brushing up on my animation as well, but Id do that once I am doing the 3d stuff professionally.
Rather than showing that you can do what's needed of you, by adding random stuff when you get someone interested in it, it looks like you can't make up your mind and we don't know what to expect from you. Whether or not it's actually the case, having all of this unsorted work looks like a jack of all trades-master of none situation... Worse, may indicate to an employer that you can't concentrate and get bored doing the same thing all the time (which if you're employed onsite in a bigger team you may actually be expected to do).
At the very least, put these things under separate sub-titles, but I'd actually suggest splitting your portfolio into a number of different sites; one for Environment/Prop jobs, one for Character jobs, one for animation for example. Or maybe one for Freelance assets, one for indie-level assets, one for AAA assets... Something like that. That way, you can apply with less of a shotgun approach; you have all the opportunities you'd like to have, but you can still aim.
Of course, that's only if you're really damn sure you're okay with being a generalist. Maybe you are, I'm not you so I don't know. Just try to look at it realistically-- would you really be happy with anything? It's better to narrow it down a little now than find out a few months into a job that you really don't like doing something day in, day out.
Just some food for thought there.
On a more pointed note;
- you need more beauty renders for properly final work; UV, texture, pose and do shaderwork on the characters if you want to keep them. The Goblin 'sculpture' is awesome-- but you even have a low-poly for that. Finish it!
- Animation stuff is out of place here.
- Texturework in general needs work-- that bust needs to seriously level up or be removed entirely, and I think it'd be better for your other almost-there pieces to just remove it. Same goes for the Aftermath sketch, and the Demon Centaur-- which could probably look really damn awesome with a pose, better textures and fancy shader work btw.
- Work on your material definition. The only thing that really sells me is the PBR sword, but the actual sculpt is a little unrefined, and the texture(color)/material design is boring. Why does it have scratches there? Why is it so lumpy? Why is it only metal + black stuff? The silhouette's pretty cool though.
- Your resume isn't great (not terrible, just... eh.)
Have a look at these (I've found that not just one gives perfect advice, read them all).
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DariusKazemi/20090428/83855/Writing_a_Resume_for_a_Game_Company.php
http://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/how-to-build-a-great-resume/
http://thegameprodigy.com/writing-a-stand-out-game-development-resume/
I think I've addressed most of the things that stood out here.
After that ramble through, something really stands out to me under closer inspection; nothing really feels like a finished piece (except The Owl, Gaara [who's textures feel like they're missing highlights], maybe the rock). You need to take your stuff that extra mile. Rather than finishing MORE stuff, maybe go back and do a rework of what you already have that you really feel the need to keep. Quality over Quantity.
Seriously, I love that Goblin-- you even have the LP there. Finish it!
The girl's pretty good-- Do a final pass for spec and material definition on your textures, Do the skin up to not look so flat, maybe try to add some extra believability to the hair cards with some stray hairs and a better spec/shader. Do that and pose her, and you'd have an awesome "suburban girl" that would really draw attention.
Redo the textures for the Steampunk Gun-- you could make that look fantastic with a PBR pass.
A quick shader-pass for the car.
Rethinking the textures and design of the Demon Centaur.
Do you see where I'm going with this? On practically every piece there's something pretty simple you could do to really make it quite impressive instead of just leaving the vague impression that you model stuff.
I'd like to see where you go with your work in the future, and wish you the best of luck. And seriously, make separate portfolios for each of your talents. Even now I'm finding it weird that everything is under the same headings.
Some pieces I think lack details and don't look too good on the front page. Owl, Aftermath and car WIP for example. While your goblin, gun and sword are really awesome, much better than the 4 you have on top.
Yea, I dont want to make it seem like I cant concentrate, because thats not the case. What I do want is to always be working on something art related rather than avoiding a project I am not enjoying. Like anything else in life, getting burnt out is a struggle that I would assume everyone faces when getting good at anything hard. I am sure all of you know what I mean, I fail far more times than I succeed so feeling down is something Ive learnt to effectively deal with. The way Ive effectively kept active when I feel down when progress seems slow is by switching to something else to get some positive reinforcement before switching back. I dont see this being an issue in a studio environment, making a living and working as part of a team is an immense motivator for me. Currently, I spend almost all of my time being a bit isolated while working on my portfolio.
I do love being a generalist, but I am definitely not ok with being mediocre. The plan is to one day be an expert modeler, painter, and animator. I wouldnt say Id be happy with anything (for work), a lot of my enjoyment would depend on the people I work with and whether or not I feel like a valued employee. So if I am around cool people doing art related stuff, then I am good!
After reading your feedback, I'll be removing the Bust and the "aftermath" sketch from my portfolio.
In regards to the animation, I am a bit conflicted on what to do. I dont quite have enough to start my own tab for them and often times smaller studios have asked about whether I can animate.
I will also update the demon character with all of the advice given. Ill see what I can do about the sword and Ill work towards giving the gun a PBR pass. The goblin has always been tricky for me to texture, Ill give the texture another shot.
As I finish projects I make fairly large artistic leaps that make most of the old stuff standout as unfinished. I will revisit them all and apply your feedback.
Direwolf: Thanks for the feedback, right now I am working on creating an environment for the owl character. It should bring it all to life when I am done. Thanks for the compliments on the layout, it's something that took me a while to figure out =P Everything on the portfolio should either be getting a facelift or outright removed in a few months. Thanks everyone for the feedback!