Does my character presentation suck?

Mathew O

Hey guys, I'm still in university and about to enter my final year so it's time to figure out my folio and modelling presentation.

Could you please give me any and all crit on this?



I have 4 characters in total that I need to get onto my portfolio and I am trying to figure out how best to present them, also If you don't like anything on my portfolio please let me know

_Erik

http://www.8monkeylabs.com/toolbag

Oniram

like erik "said", id look into marmoset, or even the realtime shaders for max/maya. id say the presentation is alright. i may ditch the background and maybe go with just a simple gradient. generally id make it a habit to put images on your website instead of just videos. its better for quick viewing.

Mathew O

Ok cool thanks alot guys, this is rendered in marmoset but I will keep trying to make it look a lil better.

Basically I need images like I have now, polycount, wireframe and my details?
I am dubious about putting the texture flats on my portfolio as I was the modeller and my friend was the texture artist, so is it better to not put it on or to put it on and include his name?

I'll take the background off now, and play with gradients instead

TortillaChips

Mathew O wrote: »

Ok cool thanks alot guys, this is rendered in marmoset but I will keep trying to make it look a lil better.

Basically I need images like I have now, polycount, wireframe and my details?
I am dubious about putting the texture flats on my portfolio as I was the modeller and my friend was the texture artist, so is it better to not put it on or to put it on and include his name?

I'll take the background off now, and play with gradients instead

I'd wouldn't show the texture shots but you need to make it clear that the texturing was done by someone else on the presentation sheet, and perhaps get around to doing a piece with your own texturing.

I'd look around other's portfolio sites to get a good idea about what they are doing, preferably the employed ones. I don't always follow this advice which I should do but it's good to have a couple of presentation sheets, including the wireframe without a texture, perhaps a shot with just the normals or high poly sculpt shot, and include all details about the character such as textures used (diffuse, normal, spec) and their size, and your name and website.

Your website seems confusing at the moment since it says 3D Artist but is all animation work.

Mathew O

Thanks man, Sounds like good advice, I'm starting a few new projects now that'll be all my own work. As for the animations I'm doing animation at Uni and it's only really in the last few months that I've decided to follow the 3D artist route so I need to try and get it all replaced with new work.

Butthair

I don't need to see a bunch of angles, front and back for a character is usually fine, maybe a close-up on some detail or the face, to really see that texture. If you unwrapped it, you could post that, unwraps are an element worth sharing.

I'd definitely give some indication as to where it came from, I know you said it was from Marm, but I mean on the page. The font looks fine, not too involved, not too dull, and it's not Comic Sans.

You wouldn't need it too big, this isn't going to be hung on a wall or anything, people are going to go to your site, where they're able to read font and THIS size. Just like the background, the font size takes away from the piece presented. I found myself looking back and forth.

I'm kinda curious why you have animation but your saying modeller, a bit confusing, I'm not sure what you want to do, maybe you like both? Dunno.

Oniram had a good point, I read it after I visited your site and right away I was trying to find a link to some pictures. To be honest, I didn't look at the animations, I was kinda put off that there was no awesome eye candy, like the monkey at least.

Mathew O

Ok man, thanks alot. I'll get rid of side angles, make the font smaller, big up marmoset and I will also do a second sheet with UV's and wireframes

skylebones

If you didn't do the textures and are showing off the model, put a wireframe in there. Also try a different lighting setup, you have very dark shadows that obscure the model. Show that beast off!

Mathew O

Ok, what do you guys think to this? I was thinking on the second sheet I could show Highpoly out of Zbrush, LowPoly with only AO and normal on and the two textures I baked?




Also I was thinking I would pose the two character who are stood like this just so that it's nicer to look at, or would people not really mind?

Mathew O

dustinbrown wrote: »

A more interesting pose for the monkey would help quite a bit as well. Break up some of that symmetry.

Ok I shall pose all four characters into moer interesting poses, I'm sure everyone is sick of default poses and no life in a character :P I think I know what you mean about being too close to the edges so I shall play with the overall compisition too, trying to figure a basic template for the rest of the year as I fill my portfolio up.

Maybe something like this for the second sheet? Or would one big square sheet per character be better?

seth.

I would consider re-packing the UV's to make better use of the space and throwing a texture of your own on that bad boy, posting the monkey the way he is is just a half finished job really, and you might be selling yourself short.

LRoy

Yeah I would definitely finish him yourself . The only times you usually see untextured models are the high res versions.

This for example. http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/124/6/2/recon_elite_hi_res_model_by_slipgatecentral.jpg

chrisradsby

The others have pretty much summed up the crits on the characters so I'll give you some pointers on other stuff:

I think one major issue is that I don't get the feeling that you are specialized. You have regular 3d-art, character stuff and a show-reel with animations. You need to focus on one thing right now and get that skill up to a professional level.

Post more on these forums, get crits, learn from others and compare yourself to others in the same situation as you ie students looking for a job.

It's also good to note that grades in this industry means nothing, your portfolio does all the talking. When you study, you shouldn't aim for a high grade in the course, you should aim higher than that, you should aim for the skills needed for you to land a job, because that's what school is all about. You are provided with everything, even time. 2-3 years for you to get to a pro-level. The rest is up to you.

It's a very harsh industry and getting into that mindset early is a good thing , don't waste your time, you'll regret it. Look at some other portfolios and start making a plan for yourself, what skills you need to learn and what "level" you have to be.

Good luck friend ! You can always turn to polycount for questions! We're a helpful bunch of people.

Mathew O

Thanks dude, that's really helpful. I'm just now starting to figure out that I want to solely model but would a folio with Characters, props and environments be too generalist again or should I really specialise towards one now?

EVIL

also, remove the shadows the character drops on the gradient. keep it simple.

nothing should distract the viewer from your model

Thermidor

I would try and light your model using a 3 point setup, 1 from behind to light the outline or rim, and 2 in the front of slightly varying intensities. I always find this is the best way to light a model, and I almost always use a dark to light grey back ground, not a very strong gradient, just subtle.

I would try to shy away from having any black on your image (or at least large areas of it in shadow)

achillesian

look at more art, develop a better eye, and rhino skin, so you know what looks like shit, what looks good, as well as the difference between a good style/concept and its execution.

chrisradsby

Mathew O wrote: »

Thanks dude, that's really helpful. I'm just now starting to figure out that I want to solely model but would a folio with Characters, props and environments be too generalist again or should I really specialise towards one now?

Getting a character artist job is really really hard, I'd go for props and environment and focus on that. Learn UDK, CryEngine3 SDK stuff as well.

Mathew O

I can't seem to get overly good results out of marmoset so for now I am going to try and get nicer renders out of mental ray, is it preferred for realtime images or is it ok if I use mental ray for stills and Marmoset for turntables?

Butthair

Every company is going to want something different. It's hard to answer what should be used to render and so forth without a company or two in mind. Maybe you don't want to work on Ratchet and Clank, but if your stuff looks like it, see what they use, or similar companies.

A portfolio is all about showing the person that you fit within that company. Be sure you know which your aiming for.

As for placement, you could always change the image size. Possibly even the dimensionsm 1800x900 is pretty wide, thats a 2:1 ratio, when most common widescreens are 16:10 or :9. Things just fit better that way, that's why it's become universal. I like 1920x1080, it's common as a ratio and most people who look at your stuff will have that resolution. Wouldn't be impressive to just fill the screen up with your amazing stuff!?

Mathew O

Hmmm that's true, thanks alot dude I will try playing with 1920 x 1080, or atleast that ratio anyway and see what I come up with. Desperatly trying to figure out whether one of the free blog sites will work as a portfolio site and then hopefully I will have some examples for people to give their opinions on.

Thanks to everyone for all the tips, it's really helping me to get this built.

SimonT

giving the creatures a cool pose would be help i guess

Mathew O

Ok, here are some poses that I have been playing with. Lemme know what you think about the poses and the renders

EVIL

as I said, stop adding a shadow, It really hurts your model presentation

Mathew O

EVIL wrote: »

as I said, stop adding a shadow, It really hurts your model presentation

Ok no worries, I will turn try and keep them off now. It's a bit of an annoying habit

What do you guys think to these layouts? Am I missing anything or is it too cluttered?

Xoliul

Erm, you haven't done a single diffuse map yourself on these? That's gonna hurt you when applying...

Mathew O

Yeah I know, my job on this project was just getting the characters ready for textures then mark multiplied my AO's over his textures etc. During my last year of uni I plan on filling my portfolio up with characters/props/environments that are purely my own work as I'm worried employers would say no with no proof that I can texture.

Baddcog

I think the presentations look pretty good. But you say you posed them and to me they hardly look anything different than a standard pose.

Give them some life. The Monkey could be standing on his head or something. Yog could be reading his axe for battle. Grizle could be pointing, or messing with his gadgets..

One more point...
I think you should render the ao bake/wireframe in fullbright. Having real time shading on it hides the AO bake and makes it harder to read and 'dirty' imo.

LRoy

I think the last model is your strongest piece, but if you're aiming for a game asset the poly counts are way too high.

Knowing how to texture is pretty much a necessity if you're designing characters. Fortunately polycount has loads and loads of free info around to get you started.

Mathew O

Baddcog wrote: »

I think the presentations look pretty good. But you say you posed them and to me they hardly look anything different than a standard pose.

Give them some life. The Monkey could be standing on his head or something. Yog could be reading his axe for battle. Grizle could be pointing, or messing with his gadgets..

One more point...
I think you should render the ao bake/wireframe in fullbright. Having real time shading on it hides the AO bake and makes it harder to read and 'dirty' imo.

Thanks dude, I'm planning on getting all four put onto CAT rigs during the year so that I can have basic aniamtion son them in my showreel plus that will make it far easier to get much more interesting poses so I will definitely do that.

I'll also take them into maya or something now and replace the Realtime renders for flat shadowless ones on the AO/Normal model.