portfolio critiques

DLoud

Hey all, I've been browsing polycount since the days of quake2 but have yet to post anything. I'll be graduating from school in a few days with a certificate in 3d animation. I'd like some critiques of my website/portfolio. Much of it is a work in progress and I have some newer work that hasn't been posted yet.

Please disregard the demo reel. It was done as a school requirement and is going to be completely reworked and centered around modeling(turntables, wireframes, polycounts, etc).

But, you can get a feel for most of my work through the website. I'd appreciate any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks

http://www.danaloud.com

slosh

I dig the design...nice and simple and without useless frills. I think the first thing to comment on is the site itself:

-what are u going for? game art? fx studios? graphic design? it seems like ur 3d points more towards gameart. if so, u need to get rid of the graphic design portion. i also think the "texturing" portion should be together with the 3d stuff since they fall into the same category of gameart. in fact, i wouldnt put any of the thumbnails on a separate page. have categories with the thumbnails right under them or something. that way u never have to navigate to another page. ur stuff loads fast enough but this will just make things even easier. u can have the a couple other links for bio and resume with contact on one or the other.

ok, now for the art:

ur only as good as ur worst piece! therefore, only show ur strongest pieces. i think the warrior guy in the jungle is ur best piece. i would maybe go back and polish it but its def going in the right direction. the house piece needs a lot of work...the textures are bland and boring. the best part of the house is the lighting...go back and make the textures more interesting...broken boards, dirt, imperfections in the grain, anything to add interest. for the car, again, go back and really work on the texture...all i see are flat colors which is not texturing. also, you don't need 4 separate renders of just an un textured model. everyone in the industry can model...its the texturing thats going to let people know ur worth hiring. the room scene has potention...but again, there really isnt any texturing going on. it looks like a lot of flat photo reference with nothing else....i'm gonna say same for the hammer. for the girl, it looks like it has potential as well...but u gotta normal map it, texture it, whatever to complete it. don't leave unfinished work on ur site unless its a WIP and u actually are showing constant progress. the only other thing i'm going to comment on are the textures u have in ur "texturing" page. these all look like photos to me? if they are, that's not really texturing...u gotta at least add something of ur own to it. and most people who use photo reference prob arent going to post the textures since they didnt paint them from scratch. they may post a shot of an entire scene that was created using photos but it will still show off how well they manipulate and add to those photos to make them look natural and unforced. grabbing a photo and simply making it tileable isnt going to do it. if u really want to show off textures by themselves, paint em.

alright, i know this was a long shpeal. i dont mean to sound too harsh...trust me, i know how it is. i went to school and went through the same deal. i got lucky cuz the first guy who hired me gave me a similar speech and he was right about all of it! keep ur head up and u'll get this stuff right!

Michael Knubben

Taking the "you're only as good as your worst piece"-route, what I see right off the bat is that that tiling background and that 3d-rendered header-graphic are both absolutely terrible. Not a good start, and possibly a dealbreaker for someone in a hurry. Secondly, you should pander to whoever you're applying with. If you're going for a job in 3d, don't make them choose between graphic design and 3d or texturing. In fact, don't make them choose at all. Display thumbnails in groups, rather than links to pages with these thumbnails. And since your page title claims you're an environment artist, why don't you put groups of thumbs for 3d and textures to the top, and then a little bit of the graphic design to the bottom, and do away with the 'coming soon' altogether.

Then, there's the work. I don't think those trees in that first piece are doing you any favours. It being the first one, it should be pretty impressive, so as an environment artist, I wouldn't put a piece up that focuses on the character and basically just has a badly unwrapped tree with a noisy tiling texture in the background. These trees are a recurring element, sadly, as your second piece of work features the very same ones. I'll be blunt here: They'll scare away potential employers. And rightly so. Finally: that character has to go. It's not doing you any good to have your worst piece be a character. It's dragging down your portfolio without adding anything important to your body of work.

All in all, I would focus on making some actual realtime content, and to analyse what you find in current videogames, and try to make something similar to get to grips with the technique some more.

EggE

hey Dloud,

I think if you label yourself as a enviornmental artist your website should reflect that, so 3d models of characters have to go...props like objects, weapons and vehicles are great. you also have to keep the way you present your artwork consistent , informative and stylized a bit. (informative meaning , wireframe, poly count, what types of textures did you use ext.)

in portfolio_ graphic design can be axed because you want to make it clear what you are... the texturing section in my opinion can be scraped...instead you can apply those textures onto objects and give a small description that you generated them from scratch.

your art really needs to be tighter, concentrate on props and presentation is what id like to get across to you. i hope i helped bro.

DLoud

I appreciate all of the input guys. I am focusing more on game art. I'm in the process of making somewhat of a total conversion map for halo (textures, geometry, props, weapons, etc). I'll also be reworking the organization of the website. I think that's one of the biggest flaws of it. What do you think about organizing things into projects. The jungle witch doctor, the room, halo map, etc? Then show thumbnails and descriptions of them?

The website has a lot of my old stuff on it. The swamp scene and the car are my earliest works. I'll probably end up just cutting them out and try to crank out as much new stuff as possible. Thanks again.

Minimoose

i like the "by project" organization idea. but like everyone said, your only as good as your worst piece. when ppl look at your portfolio, your not gonna be there to explain your mistakes away, the work needs to speak for itself. Your still a student, and your trying to prove yourself here. steer clear of procedural texturing, your not gonna see any of that in games. show your wires, show the unwraps and textures. hiding those things are what students are known for doing, because their hiding mistakes and poor geometry. those gray models arent helping you. and if you label yourself as an environment guy, dont show characters. just get a few strong props together and show those off, dont show "your earliest work" cause its def not your best. and if you havent improved since your earliest work, you got a problem. within a month or two, your best work. should be your worst work