[Portfolio]--Sean Brice
polycounter lvl 11
Hey guys,
Long time lurker, decided to get off my a$$ and post my site so it can get torn apart.
www.artbyseanbrice.com
Let me know what you like, don't like, want changed, needs to be removed completely---no holds barred. I met a few of you out @ GDC (such an amazing experience) so for those of you that remember me saying I'd post, here I am :-D
Long time lurker, decided to get off my a$$ and post my site so it can get torn apart.
www.artbyseanbrice.com
Let me know what you like, don't like, want changed, needs to be removed completely---no holds barred. I met a few of you out @ GDC (such an amazing experience) so for those of you that remember me saying I'd post, here I am :-D
Replies
@ Tea Monster, I'm not using Flash, I'm using some javascript (that's the way my web guy set it up). I just loaded the full site in about 10 secs on a wireless connection and my site wasn't cached. I do have a few pre-load scripts running to load the art images for lightbox rather than having them load per click, which might be giving you the initial long load time.
Anyone else having load issues?
But it seems that there is a general load time issue, so maybe I should nix the pre-load scripts? It was either have the pre-load scripts or have the images load in lightbox later and I wasn't sure which was more off putting to an employer.
In regards to the loading speed...
Edit: I just noticed that you have individual sub-backgrounds and headers for every section of the page that are 75-100k each. With your 400k base background and probably 200-250k in images for the footer/header, Your website is well over a meg in just interface elements. This is a REALLY inefficient way to design a web page.
Unless you're looking to showcase your interface design ability, you're better off putting all your images on a blank page, well formatted with clearly visible contact information. The point of a portfolio is the work in it, what you have is not a portfolio so much as a personal website with portfolio pieces in it.
An example of a portfolio done right: http://www.fx81.com/
@Bibdendum, that's good to know about Opera--I don't think my web designer/builder tested Opera when he was making the site. All of the interface elements you see are his creation, so I will go back through and see if I can optimize some of that as well. Thanks for your crits.
If anyone has the patience to get through the load and look at the art, that would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll post another update when I get home that has fixed load issues.
In fact, one of the most important things when developing a portfolio site is fast loading times, and ease of use. No one cares how cool the site looks, all that matters is your work, and quickly showing your skill level off.
A bunch of plain images and links is what you want. A example of this setup, similar to what you are currently have (but works much better) can be found here: http://www.joshlennen.com/
Also, make sure you check out some current character artists portfolio's in the games industry, because that is your competition there. That should give you a better idea of where you skill level needs to be to land a gig. Character art is a tough route to go, and just know that you will probably be hard at work for some time to get a job in the games industry. I do think your work shows great promise, so keep it up man. You will get there!
P.S. The guy who's work I linked you to is a really badass character artist, as I'm sure you can see. He is currently looking for a studio gig I know and has experience in the games industry, so that's a great example of the competition you are up against.
When bibendum mentioned the load issues, I checked out the images at work. I still have some .png images that are pre-loading with the site, so that's almost 4 MB right there. All of the headers/pieces of images aren't as bad, so it's making me believe that the pre-load scripts are causing the issues right now over anything else. Thanks for the heads up guys: once I'm off work then I can fix it and get critiques on the actual art :-D
can't crit what I can't see
@n88tr: What browser are you using? I've never had the problem of the site not loading at all in the main browsers (FFox, Chrome, IE). Also, do you have javascript enabled? The site is heavy with it, so that might be the issue.
www.artbyseanbrice.com
The only problem I had with it was that your demo reel was tiny. I liked all the animations and stuff, but because I could only see the video at a tiny size, I just assumed that they weren't very good models. It seems like you are hiding them by doing that and they could be pretty good.
Just make it simple like everyone is saying. It is your work that we want to see!
@Laughing, thanks for the texture critiques. As for the site design, I said it before earlier in the thread, but I didn't create my website, a friend of mine did. Nevertheless, I do need to make my artwork stand out in comparison to his site design.
Keep the crits coming please! :-)
Also, the demo reel needs to be larger. Difficult to discern any sort of details.
Also the anatomy is off a lot of the times, try doing more study sculpts
leave out the details and try to tackle the big shapes first
on the site itself, it looks cool but it's overkill for a portfolio
@Raven, thanks for the crits man. The next pieces I do I'll be sure to take your crits into account when it comes to the textures. As for the anatomy things, I agree and will do more studies soon. You say it's overkill for a portfolio: is the dramatics of it distracting you from the art or is it just really in your face with the way it looks/functions? Thanks for the crits---it's the only way to get better!