[Portfolio] - Spencer Kern

nrek

Hey guys, I am getting close to finishing school so I am finally posting my website. I hope some of you have a thing or two to say about it since I am sure it can be improved.

http://spencerkern.com/

I also have a question about demo reels. I never saw much point in having one unless I was showing some game animations or things like that. But I need one to graduate so I figure I have two options, let me know which you think is the better choice.

A. A reel full of assets spinning on turntables with wires, highpolys, etc. Basically the same stuff shown in my gallery.

B. A reel made up of slow panning shots and gameplay sections showcasing the three different environments in realtime. This allows some of the work to be seen in motion with all of the triggered events and stuff.

Thanks in advance for checking it out.

ZacD

Just do whatever gets you the best grade for the demo reel.


I really like the inside view of the creature, something different, but pulled off really nicely.

You have enough content that I'd remove anything that was done with a team (so just show off the dinos and plants)

Bobby J Rice 3rd

That's some stunning work for a graduating student. Nice job. I don't know how to answer the demo real question because i share that opinion as well. You do have several high poly models. Turn Table presentation might be appropriate.

Frump

If you are required to make one to graduate, you might as well make it good enough to actually use in your job hunt. A lot of VFX houses want reels instead of galleries. For environments, I suggest doing fly through renders with breakdowns and a couple prop turntables if you can fit them in.

I had to make one to graduate as well and I hated it. We were all rendering and comping right up to the last two days before we had to present and graduate. But we all did our best on them and got to use them for a while until they became outdated.

The Race Track and Fantasy environments are really cool and I think would benefit from having the option to see a video fly-through. Good luck.

PredatorGSR

Great portfolio, and nice clean site. I really liked the triceratops and the trip shot revolver. The mouse over masking was an interesting concept, I haven't seen it done that way before. It is kinda hard to see though, I would cover up the mask areas with gray or black or something more solid, because the transparency over diagonal lines isn't a very clear effect. However, in those shots, it looks like you just did the ground, which is the least interesting part of those images, so I would just cut them out entirely, and show the elements you made separately. You have so much other good work that it isn't worth keeping it in. I would also add stronger/more contrasty borders to your images, but thats a nitpick.

cycloverid

I love dinos, you don't see enough of them I think! Really well done and optimal. Very inspiring for me. I'm jealous of your diverse range of skills!

The yellow borders on your site feel unnecessarily intense. That's my one gripe!

Nice work.

roosterMAP

ur HD work is inspiring. good job mate!

StefanH

wow nice one.. you're really talented

MoP

Super work man, I love your stuff.

I don't think you'll have a problem landing a job after you graduate

As for demo reels, I guess it depends what your target is. Do you want to be a character artist? Show your characters and creatures (posed if possible) in turnarounds. Animations would be cool but not required.
If you're just looking for a generalist job then I'd do your option B and try to put as much game-related stuff in there as possible, in full colour and motion, it should be pretty impressive anyway.

Serp

You must have gone to a good school to finish with that kind of work. You'll be able to get a job easily.

nrek

ZacD, PredatorGSR - Thanks for the thoughts on the team stuff. A big reason for showing it was so that I could have shots of the dinos in a real environment. Maybe I will just go back and redesign an alternate version of the enviro consisting of only my work.

Crazyeyes, cycloverid, roosterMAP, StefanH - Thanks for the kind words you guys, I really appriciate it.

Frump - Yea I don't look forward to putting the reel together lol. A combo solution might be a good idea.

MoP - Thanks man, it means a lot coming from you. I know I dont have enough human characters to go after a character modeling job at this time so I am going to focus more on a prop/generalist job. I will make sure to show off as many of the gameplay elements in the flythrough as possible.

Serp - Haha thanks, I am at the AI Schaumburg school. But I think hanging out here on polycount is what made the biggest difference.

MegaMoogle

You've got some pretty awesome stuff here! My only suggestion would be to add a PDF or zipped version of all of your images for employers to download, that way they don't have to save each image individually. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see what else you come up with!

Paulewog

nrek and serp - yeah I feel you there, I would not be nearly as versed in any of this stuff I know if I had not been lurking on poly count.

Paulewog

and i am also attending AI-schaumburg

Serp

That half brain thing is ridiconculous.

Wayfa

Very impressive stuff for a student.. you have serious talent. :thumbup:
Congratz!
I like the webpage.. clean and quick. For a modeller is not always necessary to have a reel.

nrek

Thanks everyone! I will make sure to add the pdf/zip version of my images to the site as well, good call.