Portfolio Advice

r_fletch_r

Hi
I've been a bit of a lurker on these forums for some time now and it seems there are some very experienced folk floating about here, I'm hoping to get some advice and opinions on my work.

For the last couple of years I've been working in E-Learning as a 3D Modeller. Basically all our products were presented in either pre rendered 3d or in realtime 3d simulators. to which end I have very comprehensive knowledge of 3DS Max, and am familiar with the torque engine (:poly122:) and the ogre 3d pipeline. I also wrote some basic pipeline tools in maxscript.

Its allways been my ambition to get into the games industry and so now that im out of work I've decided to make a serious effort to break into games.

The first cut of my showreel is online at http://www.robertfletcher.org/showreel/

Any constructive crits or general advice would be greatly appreciated

Raider

pretty cool stuff man, but why the black background If you want to do a darker one do like a blueish or grey, pure black really hides the model.. the wrench was tough to see.

r_fletch_r

Raider wrote: »

pretty cool stuff man, but why the black background If you want to do a darker one do like a blueish or grey, pure black really hides the model.. the wrench was tough to see.

Thanks for the comment mate, im a little confused about your seeing the bg as black. On my screen its a textured dark blue. just between .25 / .5 luminance.

woogity

like the stuff textures are pretty nice

Disco Stu

Hello fellow shamrock!
Bg looked blue to me.
The models are looking very nicely done the main turnoff was no music!

Mark Dygert

The background looked blue but very dark, it was still robbing the silhouette and making it hard to see the model.
If you go too light it causes snow blindness and people have trouble seeing details.
If you go too dark it robs the silhouette and people have trouble telling where the model ends and the background starts.

Considering your reel will be seen on a lot of systems under different lighting conditions, it's probably a good idea to go with something a bit lighter and more middle of the road.

Too many title screens 10sec before I see anything, that's too long. Lead off with your strongest piece. Typically you have 15 seconds to sell me on the next 15 seconds. Get rid of the "LOW POLY" screen you labeled all the shots so this just eats up time.

The text on your contact screen is kind of thin and the effect even though its the same treatment as the first "2010 Portfolio" screen, it reads a bit like you bevel and embossed some rusty metal, looks kind of amateur.

r_fletch_r

Thanks for the positive comments guys, that very heartening

Vig wrote: »

The background looked blue but very dark, it was still robbing the silhouette and making it hard to see the model.
If you go too light it causes snow blindness and people have trouble seeing details.
If you go too dark it robs the silhouette and people have trouble telling where the model ends and the background starts.

Considering your reel will be seen on a lot of systems under different lighting conditions, it's probably a good idea to go with something a bit lighter and more middle of the road.

Too many title screens 10sec before I see anything, that's too long. Lead off with your strongest piece. Typically you have 15 seconds to sell me on the next 15 seconds. Get rid of the "LOW POLY" screen you labeled all the shots so this just eats up time.

The text on your contact screen is kind of thin and the effect even though its the same treatment as the first "2010 Portfolio" screen, it reads a bit like you bevel and embossed some rusty metal, looks kind of amateur.

Vig your a legend. Making the changes now

one question, i'd personally put the characters, and some of the low poly models as my strongest pieces. would you suggest mixing them or keeping them seperate.

r_fletch_r

Ok, i've recalibrated my monitor. Does this look better to you guys

OrganizedChaos

I don't know, personally I'd consider a different color. The blue on blue kind of kills it.