Portfolio Critique/Review

samnwck

So I'm continually working on portfolio and I'm looking to hear what you guys think of  where it's at. As it is, my portfolio is mostly  just my props. Anyways, let me know bad or good where I'm at and where I could be doing better. Thanks!

https://www.artstation.com/artist/samnwck

Cglewis

there is some good stuff here but you are all over the place characters and props, your art station says your an environment artist but i do not see any environments on there, I think you need to focus your portfolio. And while marmoset is good i would lean toward showing all of you stuff off in an engine. 

samnwck

Cglewis said:

there is some good stuff here but you are all over the place characters and props, your art station says your an environment artist but i do not see any environments on there, I think you need to focus your portfolio. And while marmoset is good i would lean toward showing all of you stuff off in an engine. 

This is all extremely valid, I've thought about removing the "environment" tag off my profile before since my main environment I've been working on isn't quite at a point where it looks complete enough to show it on my main portfolio. 

I felt it was just too preliminary to show off in any "official" capacity. I wanted to at least get my ground and rock textures on it before I added it to the WIP section on there.

Cglewis

very nice! do you have a mood board or concept art you are working off of, what is the end goal of this piece? 

samnwck

As a matter of fact I do, just currently not uploaded (not at home at the moment). As well as several writing pieces for gameplay pacing to help shape how I layout the other assets. I don't anticipate it becoming a gameplay level (not yet anyway). Currently I'm focusing on it as just an environment portfolio piece and just using those resources to help make my design decisions.

n4uj

Some people like @Cglewishave given you good feedback already.
Also, your first rock model (titled as Boulder), the one in Marmoset, has baked AO in the albedo, which is wrong in PBR models. What I gathered from there was that you either: keep old wrong PBR models (so I recommend you to fix it or get rid of it) or you don't understand how PBR works (so I recommend a further research).
It is not big deal, I know, but some people do check PBR textures in marmoset, and getting them right can give you a job, and since the other rock don't have a marmoset viewer, you cannot check that out.
I hope it helped you

aaronmwolford

Your texture work is a bit to flat at the moment. Your container has even rust wear on each extrusion along the side and there are no focal points of where the damage would build up. Think about how this would function in the real world and if it were being moved with a crane or fork lift what areas would be likely to hit other obstacles along the way IE the corners. 

Your rock/boulder work is nice from a sculptural standpoint, but again is definitely flat. Google is your friend. 

I second CGLewis. Pick a specialty and hone your craft. The character is doing nothing for your portfolio and IMO is hindering it. Nice work so far. Keep it up!

samnwck

aaronmwolford said:

Your texture work is a bit to flat at the moment. 

The character is doing nothing for your portfolio and IMO is hindering it. 

As far as the texturing bit, my most recent texture work is my Halo Fanart texture. That is what I set my new "bar" at for where I at least want to meet for texture quality in all further projects. Does this still appear flat to you, and if so could you provide more feedback on that? 

And as far as the character (I'm assuming you're talking about the animal). Does it hinder the portfolio because it makes the portfolio look unfocused and less polished(since it is just an untextured WIP)? 

n4uj said:

Also, your first rock model (titled as Boulder), the one in Marmoset, has baked AO in the albedo, which is wrong in PBR models. 

I'm going to assume that you were looking at the Marmoset viewer to come to that conclusion. Because when I looked at that the albedo channel certainly appears to have AO info baked in, however I think that is more or less a result of Marmoset viewer and the way it condenses your maps together (I could be completely wrong on that).  But if you look at the actual texture breakdowns it appears to be more obvious that it doesn't appear to be that way. I will however check the files when I get home.

  
Also just wanted to thanks for the excellent feedback everyone! Keep it coming!