[Portfolio] – Jordan kocon, Environment Artist

jordan.kocon

Hey everyone, thanks for taking a look at this. Long story short, I am about to graduate from school in about 3 weeks, and I would really like any and all critiques, suggestions, etc. on my demo reel. I'll embed the video, but if you can, please watch the reel in HD!

Also please feel free to check out my site and give me crits on that as well.

Demo reel [UPDATE] - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pk7xsvC8XA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pk7xsvC8XA[/ame]

Portfolio - http://jordankocon.carbonmade.com/

EmAr

The 350z renders seem horizontally elongated.

In the L4D inspired environment, it says "in game" below the concept image if I'm not mistaken. In addition, it would be nice if you mentioned who's the original concept artist. Also, I wouldn't call it a L4D environment as long as it's not something included in the game. "L4D inspired" sounds better.

I like the weapons and their presentation. Maybe you could model the duct tape on the grenade launcher as a separate subtool. It looks nice on the normal map but this way it could look as good on the high poly.

Best of luck

chrisradsby

I like the presentations, the environment is really cool. I miss textures and stuff but I guess it's no point showing that stuff off in the video. Would've loved to see low-poly versions of the weapons. You already have the high-poly, go ahead a finish them

ParoXum

Map needs lighting rebuilt in your reel.. Not that pro if you ask me. Also what has been said on the 350Z, it seems to me that portfolio would look much more strong if you only focused on weapons since it's what looks the best to me there.

David-J

Everything that has been said. I would just add more info on the projects. Wireframes, polycount, texture sheets, etc.

IMO, I don't see the point of the initial blockout for the L4D environment. I am already seeing the final one. You are showing you can do it so why put the environment in it's blocking stage in your demo reel.

End your reel with your information again.

other than that good job.

jordan.kocon

EmAR: Cheers on the reply I think its just the perspective on the 350Z, but you are right, it looks very funky indeed. I may take that off my portfolio altogether, as it was one of my first school projects and doesn't reflect where I am at now. I don't know the original artist's name, but I will look right now, and see if I can find it so I can credit him. Good call on the tape, I will be making another similar weapon soon and will keep this in mind

Chrisradsby: Thanks man. I have a baked, low poly of the handgun, just been to busy with work to texture it, I will try and get to it soon though. And I plan to show some textures sheets/wire frames during the credits of my reel.

ParoXum: Thanks for the feedback! I'll get rid of that little error, and as stated previously, be taking down the 350Z.

Dadvid-J: Hey thanks, ya I think I will remove that block out video, clear up some more time for wire frames, etc. And yes I will be adding information at the end, just planning on doing that last. The end credits will include still images, with flats and wires.

Thanks for the reply's everyone, keep 'em coming

jordan.kocon

Here is an updated version. I think, or hope, that it is complete for the time being. Until of course I have a new piece to add.

Enjoy and tell me what you think!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umA6tqX9I9w[/ame]

Slave_zero

I like your portfolio and your highpoly work.
But why are you showing the texture of the airconditioning in your reel when you don't show the model? I must admit I've skipped a little through the video (but did this two times to make sure I'm not missing something) so there is a chance I just missed the airconditioning unit. Anyway either put the model and textures in or get rid of it completely.
I'm asking this because on your website the airconditioning unity instantly caught my eye. It was the first thing I took a closer look and I really like it. Although for me there are a few turn downs on this asset which should be fixed for a portfolio piece:

Polycount and polygondistribution

Although I wouldn't mind so much about the tri count as a whole, I think your model can easily be optimized. For the ventilation-grid you've used a 20 sided sphere. One could argue to just bake those details onto the flat surface of the mainbody as those details and thus the sphere don't seem to elevate that much from the main body and have nearly no impact on silhouette.
This measure would save you about 360 triangles (about 18 % of your tri count on the whole asset) with nearly no visual drawbacks.
I guess you planed the asset to be right in face of the player (judging from all the smallscale poly details you put in there) rather than hanging from the wall of the building. So if not completely removing the sphere you could reduce the number sides of the sphere as it narrows to its center. Like this: The first one is more or less your half-sphere with 360 tris the second one one looks nearly the same and has 90 tris. Cool thing about this: Maybe you don't even need to rebake the asset for doing those changes. If not at least your uv layout should'nt need a change for this.




Maybe I'm all to nitpicking here but in my opinion those fixes would really make sense and don't fall under the category of overoptimizing. The asset looks really good and is nicely textured so it would be a shame to have those drawbacks.

aajohnny

chrisradsby wrote: »

I like the presentations, the environment is really cool. I miss textures and stuff but I guess it's no point showing that stuff off in the video. Would've loved to see low-poly versions of the weapons. You already have the high-poly, go ahead a finish them

Chris you always take what i'm gonna say! ha jk but yeah great stuff, you should really finish that high poly!

jordan.kocon

Slave_zero: Thanks a lot for the picture! I actually just noticed someone else doing this method for round objects yesterday for the first time... weird. I agree there is definitely optimization that can be done to it, and I will go back and fix that. As for the model being in my reel, I was on the fence about putting it on, I just wanted to show an example of a texture sheet. But classmate told me I should put it on, and after your feedback I think it will go on I just don't want the reel to run to long.

aajohnny: Thanks I considered the high poly to be done, or are you saying I should bring it into zbrush as well?

jordan.kocon

Update time! Took some feedback and implemented it, other stuff not so much due to time and personal preference. Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pk7xsvC8XA