crit me - lurker portfolio
polycounter lvl 17
i would greatly appreciate any advice on tweaking my portfolio. i know most of you have some real world experience, of which i have none.
http://www.jimiyo.com/objective.htm
i have more stuff at http://www.jimiyo.com but i was trying to whittle down the images for the main port page. i tried to pick the most relevant, best images but maybe im partial.
if you see something i should kick out, or put in, let me know.
this is my most recent 3d model. im hoping to create 3-5 more, which should get better and faster with each one.
plan is
1. learn normal mapping?
2. zbrush?
3. better meshes
any suggestions?
beauty render
thanks in advance for the advice!
http://www.jimiyo.com/objective.htm
i have more stuff at http://www.jimiyo.com but i was trying to whittle down the images for the main port page. i tried to pick the most relevant, best images but maybe im partial.
if you see something i should kick out, or put in, let me know.
this is my most recent 3d model. im hoping to create 3-5 more, which should get better and faster with each one.
plan is
1. learn normal mapping?
2. zbrush?
3. better meshes
any suggestions?
beauty render
thanks in advance for the advice!
Replies
Your 2d paintings are realy nicly composed and stylized too but your textures are just mediocre. You should spend a lot of time on your next few models and then start thinking about the speed of your character creation.
Nah I like this, Its not Insane looking, but its a good step, Try your hand a humans a bit maybe. Depend what kind of work ya want to do. realy..
b1ll
You have to admit that other than the lion the rest of the textures look dodged and burned to much. But the 2d paintings look freaking awsome.
Clearly you're a highly skilled artist jimiyo with a passion for faces. But perhaps fairly early on in transition from 2 to 3D? Hard to answer your question on advice for what to commit your time to next, without knowing what it is you wish to achieve in terms of industry role. If it's character modeling for current/PSP gen then yeah, make more meshes in line with what you're making now. You don't have enough content. If it's modeling for 360/PS3 et al then yeah, figure out Zbrush. It all depends on what you're shooting for. You have the raw talent either way.
so i guess,
kick out bunker? texture.. (which i know it sucks, its like 4? years old)
kick out 13?
Laurana , the 2d/3d composite from Dragonlance, should be kicked out... probabaly.
tractor?
IF do what i plan, i will make 3-5 more polished models... so i can replace the crappy ones.
b1ll: thanks man. ill probably end up doing a humanoid soon. would be really good to have in the port since its probably difficult to make a good one.
malcolm:
DAZ: thanks for the reply. ive never really given it too much thought as to what type of work. i was thinking if i could land a game job, they would probably start me out doing low end art work like prop objects, then eventually as i became better move me up to more important objects.
ideally i would prefer to work for a company doing MMORPG since i assume that they would be long term placements. so those companies would probably have lower poly counts than next gen i guess.
i just want to get somewhere i can grow and be around really good artist that i can learn from. and a little more money. and also so i can tell my uncle 'BOO YEAHHH, cant always do what we want? IN YOUR FACE IN YOUR FACe!'
i was thinking a pretty cool way to build a portfolio would to build a mock game. so my idea is hunter vs hunter. animal vs humans pretty much. that way i can model humanoids too.
*** Am i supposed to avoid certain geometry when making a game model? someone told me 5 sided? which i would think 5 sided would become 3 tris? maybe it was for subd. ???? ***
You will get faster and faster with each character--it's hard to get around that. Modeling is a fairly technical skill and once you have the basics down its just a matter of repitition to get what you want. Err, well, you know what I mean right? There's just no mystic way to be faster--just do it. Straight up Nike shit.
keeeppppp goinngggggggg
Also: there's a lot of babble about omgomgomg everything has to be quads! this should be treated as such. It's easier to work with quads but by NO means is it a standard practice through games as a whole. Avoiding N-sided polygons(n=anything above 4) is good for you to keep control over how the mesh is triangulated on export. Helps keep things clean. Quads also allow you to use ring and edge loops to speed up workflow but let me repeat: ThEY ARE NOT NECESARY. pff.
I'm going back to work now. Good show, Jimiyo. Bye.
i apologize if i offended you.
the biggest problem i'm having with your online portfolio is that the images you've showcased have built a large amount of mistrust in me, as a veiwer. i'm constantly questioning, "what did he really paint or draw in this one?"
i'm sorry i think this. i think i do, because your design decisions seem to be all over the place. in one art peice you may show extreme understanding of an element of art and design, and in the next i see extreme carelessness in the same element. your paintings show that you rely too much on photoreference. this fact only raises my doubt of your natural abilities as an artist and i feel this crutch is hurting your works.
what i wanted to communicate was that your use of reference is bruising your artwork and presentation.
i see sketches that show very confident and skillful line quality. other showcased peices make me doubt they are even yours at all! a terrible thing for a veiwer to think. be warry which ingredients you showcase.
know what you're making. i see you're selling youself as a 2D/3D texture/concept artist in the game industry.
i'd suggest making two porfolios. one for a concept artist, and one for a texture artist.
i'd completely remove your older work (from 2003) and your '2d/3d composite section'. these peices aren't helping. i think your textures could be pushed further, your lion is getting there. the only aspect that's helping with the bobo models is being associated with the great bobo the seal.
for future studies, i'd suggest continue working on your current character concept so that you can develop your modeling skills, as you were.
i'd suggest more studies from life, and traditional art studies - it will transition into digital.
-kill.onion
it's often said that a portfolio is judged on its weakest piece, which is true, but what is also true is that each piece has to represent a necessarily larger portion of your body of work. to wit: if you have only a single character model in your portfolio and it has poorly laid out UVs, people will think you're not very good at laying out UVs, when that might be completely inaccurate.
your portfolio paints a sort of miniature portrait of you and your skills as an artist, so be careful what it says.
i don't think you need seperate portfolios for concept art and character/3d art, but you probably ought to throw out the old stuff. Afghanistan woman from the National Geographic cover should be out. in fact, I would consider eliminating "saphire" and "sticky" as well; not that they're bad paintings, they're more learning pieces than active concepts, and no where near the level polish and presentation of your excellent "sirens" or "queen of rats" (which i'm pretty sure i've seen before
but you might say "that only leaves me two models and 3 paintings in my portfolio!" at this point, that's all that should be in there, and be glad for it--that's 5 more decent pieces than some people people ever get in their portfolio
as people have been advising, pick your chosen path and get moving on it. your abilities are developing, so just cranking out more characters (and hopefully some enviro/propr pieces as well) will soon fill out your portfolio. also, the quick bear (badger?) model sheet you posted is very encouraging. if you had a nice looking model sheet + "action shot" style 2d piece to go with every character model you make, then you really would have a portfolio in no time. best of luck.
i'll be brutally honest - Laurana.jpg is by far the weakest piece on here. I can see the layers and the marquees, i can see the overlays on the helmet and the shield, dodge, burn, drop in background, wacom sensitivity, more layers, preserve transparency ... it looks like day 2 of PhotoshopPainting 101 ... and man, it just doesn't belong in anything intended to help a job search.
many good points raised in this thread, but mine is very specific - lose that image and look at the portfolio again.
stoofoo: thanks for the tip!
killingpeople: no offense taken. i know my abilites or lack thereof. i will defintely get rid of the old stuff. and bobos models too. and ill probably target being a texture artist. the concept artist thing... out the window.. i appreciate the crit.
guass: same as above. i think i should probably just use
lion warrior
sirens painting
socar myles - queen of rats painting
pet rat dragon? painting
and drop everything else. ill be making more models within the next few months to replace the old anyways...
danr: word. its only cool to people who've read the Dragonlance series anyways.. haha.
heres the update on my bear&rat - theres ALOT of vertice pushing to do.
http://www.jimiyo.com/2006/bearrat1.jpg
http://www.jimiyo.com/2006/bearrat2.jpg
4.19