Portfolio Feedback/Critique/GodSaveTheQueen

Deathstick

Hello all,

I'm currently looking to try and break into a game industry studio again and was wondering if you guys would be so kind as to give some feedback on my portfolio site. I'd prefer to do environment art although right now it's pretty general.

Online Portfolio link: www.anthonyrussello.com

I currently have two versions of my resume as well, the one linked on my website and a private version for direct applications which includes my cell phone number and address (fearful of unwanted calls/pranks/sales/etc in this age of the internet)

A lot of my time has recently been taken up since December (I have aloooooot of student loans to pay back) in doing contract-based advertising work and I'm not sure if or where I should even include some of it. The nice part is I get paid for doing sort-of creative work, the not-so-nice part is I feel like the deadlines are kind of ridiculous/there's never time given to polish or move past basic block-in models (5 days max for modeling, animating, and rendering an introduction of their ad house being "built", one month for a 2-minute video in concepting, storyboarding, modeling, animating, rendering, and putting into aftereffects with some simple motion graphics text, along with all the discussions and meetings that go with it)

I basically have to do a lot of hacks like using Quicksilver renderer on my laptop rather than mental ray because the time is always so tight and no one seems to understand videos and 3d animation/custom graphics takes alot longer than writing a document in microsoft office or using shutterstock images.

Here's probably the better of that work, not sure if I should include some of it, cut it down to some sort of short reel, or nix it entirely.

2-min animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOD8xG4X_3o
http://www.ca.com/us/devcenter/ca-lisa-release-automation.aspx
(Not a fan of the audio FX/intern overdid it imo.)

tradeshow design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7b_agIrihY

house building intro for a demo reel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_WtMPkGDsg&feature=youtu.be

Nosslak

I think you need to make it a lot clearer what position you'd actually fill at a company. Right now it's very unclear if you want to do 2D or 3D work or maybe even game programming. I think the 3D stuff is by far the best so IMO you should remove the other stuff as it just doesn't live up to that standard. It can be okay to include 2D in a 3D portfolio but only if the 2D stuff is exceptional, which TBH they are not.
The skunk scene isn't very good as the models are simple, textures are boring and the lighting is very flat.

You should also skip the homepage and just jump straight to the portfolio stuff as you want visitors to see as much stuff as possible with as few clicks as necessary.

The buildings could be broken up a bit better with some vegetation alpha planes and or vertex colors. The textures could use a bit more rendering to become a bit smoother as well as they currently look a bit too rough.
Otherwise I think the 3D work and webdesign looks pretty solid even if they are a bit simple. However the text description for your game project feels more like something I'd expect from a blogpost than the description of a portfolio piece.

CharlieD

I'm guessing your 3D is your main focus based on the quality of your work. You need to make it clear what your focus is. Whether it's your hand painted 3D(which i feel is by far your strongest skill set), programming or 2D. I'd personally drop all your 2D stuff and do at least a few more polished hand painted 3D environments and props. Programming skills could be an asset if you're trying to be a technical artist, but I'd recommend checking out established tech artist's portfolios if that's the case.

BagelHero

• Keep the 2D stuff (ESPECIALLY SKETCHES) to your blog, if it's not good enough to get you a straight concept position, all it does is bring your portfolio down a notch.

• Your landing page should be your portfolio, the "home" page is redundant.

• I pretty firmly believe the order of things shown should be
  -3D modelling
  -Game Project
  -Other stuff

• I think on your contact page, your contact info should be right at the top. In fact, your email should be at the top of every page, as a mailto link. Make it easy for potential clients and employers to contact you.

Now, on separate pieces...

• Your machine gun doesn't look stylised, it looks half finished and untextured. Choose a stronger style and re-texture it, or remove it.

• The Goblin character has a large number of anatomy flaws, the texturing is bland and the sculpting is blobby. I would just remove this.

• The mental ray scene with the skunks looks half-finished because the floor is highly textured and kinda realistic, but nothing else is. The skunk poses also lack character and most importantly... They aren't realtime as far as I can tell.

• In the environment at the top, the weird style mixing and matching is happening again-- The rocks are, for some bizzare reason, photoref? Texture those yourself. I'd also suggest de-saturating the horizontal planks OR wood frames on the houses a bit, or maybe making them a little darker to match the fence wood that's in your scene, but that's a bit of work so take it as you will. Right now, there's no break in how bright the houses are from most angles and it doesn't look too great.

Try to put emphasis on Environment art, do more environments and fun props.

Good luck, hope this helps a bit.

slosh

Here's the deal from what I see in your folio:

-if you're going for a game industry gig, get rid of 90% of the stuff on ur site right now...just have a folio page with all your 3d assets

-if you're aiming for env artist, having nothing but props, scenes, and tiling textures on your folio page(along with contact and resume)

-if you want to keep your advertising stuff on a site, create a separate one just for that stuff so you can apply to those jobs as well.

-do a lot more well done props if you are serious about a gaming gig. it's insanely cut throat so you really need to be the best. pick someone who you idealize as amazing and do a prop as close to that quality as possible. then do another...after a few, you will prob have a decent base to apply for a gaming gig.

GOOD LUCK!

Deathstick

Thanks for the feedback! Spot on with basically everything.

I had a gut feeling those were the comments to expect. I should really listen more to that inner voice that says cut it, redo it, cut it! I'll be cutting the characters, gun, and the skunk image (sad about that one though, probably just the nostalgia as it was the first real 3d thing I made for an illustration assignment back in college that won an award) as that should be a quick web fix for tonight. Basically all that was made when I was completely new to 3D and was too dumb to realize texturing is at least half as important as showing modeling. Should of seen that coming

I'm a bit hesitant to completely cut out all of my drawings as I feel like it's a part of me and my playful personality, but maybe I can condense the two (Ink and Illustration) into one drawing category and chop it down to a third the size? I'm looking for a solution that let's me have both in one site.

You guy's are right in me ultimately having to have multiple sites, just trying to figure that one out logically so I can still apply to some jobs while working for my current job and updating it with better samples of what I can do.

Definitely cut the homepage filler crap, maybe make it go straight to the portfolio page with "Environment Art" "Personal Game Project" "Drawings" for now? I think portfolio wise in working on adding new environment work to cover different styles/areas as I continue to search for a job, that I'll start off with a smaller prop project like making a high-poly-to-low modern office chair sort of like this one and mess around with quixel suite http://imgur.com/a/wlDXc , do a fun contemporary setting like a post-DEA supposed gun battle Pollos Hermanos restraunt environment (registers, branding, knocked over tables, Police tape, chalk-outlines, the works; gotta have fun with it in maybe a GTAV / Max Payne type of style, and then probably way off for last some sort of sci=fi prop or environment. I'll save sci-fi for last as I have a feeling sci-fi is going to take a lot of time to do right compared to a modern setting.

On that note, I'm rather curious on what exactly is the pipeline that they used for GTAV, especially with regards to textures. (One of those companies I'd kiiill to work for... well not actually murder but you know ) To me it looks like photo-based textures that were softened up to be slightly cleaner looking and less high-frequency, although I'm not sure if photo-based work is used much anymore as I see a lot of people making high-poly sculpts in zbrush and quixel suite for everything even though sometimes I think they probably could of gotten away with doing it faster and about the same amount of visual fidelity in photoshop.

I'll also tighten up that description for the game project, you were spot on in your comment as my website was indeed at one point a blog I've been trying to convert over to more of a portfolio.

Again, thanks for taking the time to go through all of that and write some valuable feedback, I really appreciate it!

lamar McHaney

I agree with slosh on this, Most of your work is not game related. Kill your 2D section, its not need if you are going to focus environments. in your Environment art section only show 4 to 5 renders (i try not to go pass 3 sometimes), choose the renders that you feel are the absolute best. This is something I learned myself. Show multiple styles in your work PBR, hand painted, Hyper-realism, comic book, and etc.. Art directors want to see if you have the ability to produce artwork in multiple styles.