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Portfolio Review

Hello all,

This is my first post here at the Polycount forums, but I've been a visitor for quite a while now (dating back to the days I worked on a mod for the original UT and needed help learning how to texture, the large page of tutorial links were greatly helpful).

I was recently convinced by a friend (Sayanora) to post my portfolio and recent works in progress on here so that I could get some good feedback (which is extremely valuable to any artist). My portfolio is mainly targeted towards a 3d Generalist position as I have a variety of pieces in there right now. I will be constructing some scenes fairly soon and probably doing some more characters (it all depends upon the time I have). Please feel free to be as cruel as you like in your criticism, I only ask that you be clear and specific as to what needs improvement or what needs to be added.

Thanks all



preview_01.jpgpreview_02.jpgpreview_03.jpg

-Andrew

Replies

  • Ott
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    Ott polycounter lvl 13
    Lots of really great stuff! That Y-Wing is pretty sick smile.gif

    The only crit I would have right now would be to condense the number of shots you choose per prop, or maybe put several renders on the same image. You don't want a potential employer having to sift through 50+ images to find the "best" shot....they would get bored looking at 20 angles of the same gun.

    Your stuff is really good. Some people might tell you to put up wires and texture/normal sheets as well...but it's up to you. You have a very large volume of pretty great stuff, you should just consider how you want to show it all off at the greatest of its potential.
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    Nice work, sorry to hear you went to UAT...

    BTW what do you want to do for a job? After looking at your art having to ask that is not a good thing.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    its ok

    does the job, your work is great.

    but tables and popups infuriate me. Tables are not meant to be used for design. popups are terrible and you'd be better off showing your images inline.

    also, you might want to give this a read and see how it might apply to you:

    http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=73945&an=0&page=0#Post73945
  • mvelasquez
    I really like your hard surface stuff. Like Ott said, that y-wing is gorgeous!

    Do you have the normal and specular displayed on your character? Those shots look diffuse only.
    Also with the character, your diffuse texture is really flat. It looks like a diffuse you would use if you had some heavy normal map usage. Though when i check your normal map its just nvidia plugin work, mostly blue. either normal map it up or paint some lighting in that diffuse! smile.gif
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Agreed with Ott and hawken, I think it would be a good idea to have all of the views on one page, instead of having to click through multiple pop-ups to see front, side, back, etc. I think the faster and easier it is to view your work, the better. Your prop, vehicle and weapon pieces are awesome, but I think it would be a good idea to show some wireframes and tri counts. The texture on the character needs a little more love, the hair texture in particular is bugging me, it's muddy and the hair looks like it's greasy and stuck together. The rest of the texture needs more contrast, like mvelasquez was saying, that or make a proper normal map. Overall the work is solid, it just needs to be showcased in a better, simpler way. Good job and keep at it.
  • Andrew_Morris
    [ QUOTE ]
    Nice work, sorry to hear you went to UAT...

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yeah...clearly one of my major regrets in life. Although the poor quality of the education really pushed me to teach myself as much as I could, but hindsight is 20/20. smirk.gif
    It always nice to see someone else who got out alive and well grin.gif

    So far everyone's opinions on my website have been greatly helpful and have convinced me to redo my website (I originally used tables because I knew no way better, now I do) and focus my work in a clear direction. I'm glad to hear positive comments about most of my work and that my hard work paid off (with the exception of the character which really was, looking back on it, more of an experiment in the end that a finalized portfolio piece.) I may still add it in a section on the new website but it won't be the focus of my work. If any of you have any further criticisms on the work please feel free to post it.

    Thanks all

    -Andrew
  • stoofoo
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    stoofoo polycounter lvl 18
    I strongly suggest condensing that portfolio down. There's al ot of good stuff in there, and I only found it cause I was looking in my own time. If I were reviewing portfolios, I would have been frustrated. Haha.

    Condensecondensecondense. Try and make it so i dont have to ACTUALLY navigate. It's just displaying work, not your web design. A page with a lot of images is better than 6 different poopups for the same piece.

    Condense. Your page also has more header than work. This is silly. Less header, more space for work. Fix it gogogogo!

    Did I mention condense?

    I am positive that if you look at your work with a critical eye you yourself can pick out the pieces most representative of your skillset. So do it!

    All arond respectable work though. Good luck.
  • Ninjas
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    Ninjas polycounter lvl 18
    I think your portfolio would be stronger overall if you cut some things.

    The characters are not as good as your other work and it was the first thing I saw. It is nice that you can do that stuff, but I wouldn't have them in your portfolio.

    The guns rendered on the white background are hard to read. Also, some guns are better than others.

    If you cut it down to your amazing stuff you will have a fantastic portfolio.
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    also try to include screencaptures, renders are a bit misleading sometimes wink.gif
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    its ok

    does the job, your work is great.

    but tables and popups infuriate me. Tables are not meant to be used for design. popups are terrible and you'd be better off showing your images inline.

    also, you might want to give this a read and see how it might apply to you:

    http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=73945&an=0&page=0#Post73945

    [/ QUOTE ]

    What's with the table hating? My portfolio has tables and it got me a job... it also has large clear thumbnails, contact info on each image, and no popup windows.
  • Sayanora
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    Sayanora polycounter lvl 11
    That's right, pay your respects Andrew, without pc, you were nothing! Well, I figured I should probably drop by, pad your ego and tell you how great your portfolio is laugh.gif Of course I kid but, I digress.

    Obviously, you already know what I think about your work. It's good to see you've finally decided to expose your work to the public, and the public is good people here at polycount.

    Ton of good suggestions thrown out here as far as revamping your site, so you'd better take them into consideration :P Anyway, get your site updated and maybe I'll actually get mine off the ground this weekend.
  • Cubik
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    Cubik polycounter lvl 18
    I would cut your character, my opintion is that the amount of error the human eye is willing to accept in anatomy is much smaller than on building and props. This model just looks weird and unatural (since I'm not a character guy I can't say anything concrete about it, just my gut feeling).


    What I dislike most about all of work is the lack of dirt, grime and suble shadows in your models. Almost nothing feel like it is one complete model rather it is all just forms slapped together with that have no shared dirt or wear.
    Take the ion cannon(?) as an example and look where the box shaped barrels meets the spherical body. There is nothing that indicates that they belong together or that they have affected eachother, no dirt, no indents, no shadow nothing at all.
    Do a occlusion texture and a proper dirt pass for all your textures and it will really lift your work.


    The Y-Wing is definatly your best work, give it some more focus in your portfolio. Also, maybe won't be out of place with a Lucasfilms copyright notice for the design.

    The figther plane is nice too, maybe some windblown dirt along the top of the wings would look cool, those look like some serious engines strapped on there.


    Your presentation is, honestly, downright dumb. I mean what the hell is this:

    weapon_19.jpg

    weapon_20.jpg

    The same model, rotated maybe 15 degrees and you suddenly think that it deserves another image? This is repeted several times in your portfolio.
    Present everything in single images with multiple angles of each model, perhaps a closeup or two for important details, one textured version, one wireframe version and one for textures.
    And be clear about polycount and texturesizes. The Y-Wing is really nice but what am I looking at here? 3x1024 textures? 3x512 textures? 5000 polys? 3000? This is important information to the AD reviewing your work.
    Also put a link to your page on each image.


    I would cut all of this down to the six pieces you like the most, give them the occlusion and dirt treatment, fix the presentation and reupload them. You have some good work in here, don't let the less impressive pieces drag them down.
  • Andrew_Morris
    Hello Everyone,

    I've officially updated my website with a much better format taking into account everyone's opinions on how to make it better (condense my work, skip a splash page, showcase it better, get rid of popups, etc.) I've also labeled very clearly what job I am looking for, updated my resume, and added a links page for friends and sites I've found extremely useful (which naturally includes polycount).

    I personally think that the site looks 10x better than it use to, but, as always, its open to criticism so feel free to tell me what you think.

    As for future plans, I am in the works of building an environment (since that is clearly what my portfolio is lacking) and I will likely post WIP soon either in here or in a new thread.
    Thanks again for the comments everyone gave and let me know what you think.

    -Andrew Morris
  • Cybroxide
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    Cybroxide polycounter lvl 17
    your Y Wing makes me happy deep inside my heart. I didn't see your previous set up but your current one seems very functional which I think is the most important aspect of an online portfolio.
  • stoofoo
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    stoofoo polycounter lvl 18
    This portfolio is orders of magnitude better than it was before. Congratulations on a pretty respectable set of work. Good luck.
  • Ninjas
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    Ninjas polycounter lvl 18
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Your portfolio looks loads better! Looking forward to seeing the environment. Good luck.
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