3D Environment Artist Showreel
polycounter lvl 12
Hey guys, Iv got a working version of my website finally up and running so please take a few minuets to have a look and watch my showreel if you can.
Many Thanks
www.perrystringer.com
Many Thanks
www.perrystringer.com
Replies
Komatsu G40 : Would be nice to finish it with textures.
Urban Fishing : Too much wasted triangle. You don't need to model the ceramic on the platform, make it in texture. Also, the left side has too much polygons. You don't need them. I would say to take 90% of the triangle on the left island. This number will only be useful for blending textures.
Modular building : Bake some ambient occlusion, walls looks flat with and it will looks more interesting with shapes that stands out. I guess 2048 is a bit big, 1024 would be a better solution. Watch out for the proportions!
@megalmn2000: Thanks for the comments man, i argree with you on every point, ill get on sorting all that stuff out too.
thanks guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89pSMMfdLv8&feature=youtu.be&hd=1
http://vimeo.com/35233788
Not sure how to embed the videos, but here's the vimeo and youtube links to my showreel, its always best to have options.
I am going to list a few crits i have, please don't take them as being offensive - I like your work a lot but obviously telling you the good stuff first isnt going to help much:
- the website is pretty bad, you have lots of different fonts, sizes, a harsh gradient backdrop and lack of much design really. I would stick to one or two typefaces and have a header size, subheader size and normal text size.
- make your thumbnails evenly sized and spaced.
- I honestly reccomend either a plain background or a gradient which has colours / tones that arent too different from each other so like grey to black or dark blue to slightly lighter blue.
- usually the whole top banner would be a link back home, i couldn't see the home link due to scrolling so almost closed the page.
- your 3d work is actually alright but your site really lets it down, maybe get a webdesigner onboard.
Chimp
Everything Chimp said is really solid critique. Something to consider if design and website isn't really your thing is a portfolio service. They look clean, simple, easy to use and aren't going to hurt your work.
You might even start out by looking for inspiration in other portfolio websites and even non 3d related sites. Because at the moment it looks like you did your designing in photoshop with no inspiration which is why you settled with using contrasty gradients, strokes, and massive drop shadows.
Keep it coming and don't get down man!
thanks for you comments guys, what your all saying is exactly that I was thinking. Unfortunately my design and presentation skills are a big let down.
Going to re-work the site in the morning and make the changes that have been suggested.
Thanks again, I appreciate the time you took to look around.
- http://www.eklettica.com/
- http://www.alecmoody.com/
- http://polygoo.com/
- http://www.oscarlen.com/
- http://portfolio.tomaslidstrom.com/
- http://www.mayvin.be/index.php
- http://www.simonfuchs.net/folio/
>> Small texts, huge images
>> Really easy text to read
>> Uniform layout of presentation
that Urban Fishing scene is confounding to be honest, the meshes are not optimized...it's like a stage or something.
Why not make your header go back to your home page, it's big and it doesn't take you anywhere?
The miss-mash of fonts are a bit confusing. Also their prominence tells me you think they are important but its the content that should be bold, large and in your face.
You have drop shadows or black glow on some titles in your CV but not others?
I personally wouldn't put education above experience, it's just not that important to this job. Normally don't they tell you to put the important info first?
No need to put dates when you attended unless someone super important said to, just list whatever you got out of the program "Art University, Certificate in Art". That way if you've been out of school for a while no one is wondering why you haven't landed a job in XX years.
Everything in the CV is larger than life, like the site, even after its scaled back to 100%.
The all caps font makes me think you're that 75 year old guy who has a broken Caps Lock key, or that guy that actually does mean to always yell in text.
The statement on your CV is a little disjointed and needs a period at the end.
The CV statement reads a bit more like it bullet points than a statement about yourself. I'm not even sure this is necessary, maybe you should just state your goal and not muddle it up with interests and hobbies?
[pause]
Anytime you compose a paragraph these are the places they will look at to figure out how well you will communicate with the people around you, your future co-workers. Fragmented sentences, all caps fonts and firing buzz words buckshot style isn't going to cut it.
[/pause]
If you're sloppy on something as important as this, how sloppy will you be on something that is more mundane and monotonous? Sure you're probably saying "but game art is super important I would make sure its done right!" but realize its a job and like all jobs there are shitty aspects to it that won't lite the fire in your belly when you wake up. When places look for solid candidates they want people who deliver dependable results even if they aren't jazzed about the task. Also the "get your foot in the door" jobs are often filled with these types of tasks...
Who is extremely hard working? Passionate about what?
"looking for work in the industry" The fact that they will be looking at your resume means you're looking for work you don't need to remind them of it. It also tells them you're on the outside wanting to get in. Not the image of a solid pro who can walk in and get stuff done on week 1.
Suggested text:
"I am an extremely hard working artist with a passion for game art." It might not be a show stopping line that has them rushing to the phone but that is what your art work is for.
To do what? There are a lot of driven and motivated people in the world. Stalkers are motivated and driven... Link this driven motivation to something.
Change 3D artist to "game artist" (or the other way around) because it matches your previous statement about being a "game artist", better.
This is great! It shows you have outside interests and that music is important to you. This is normally key to leading a balanced life and keeping the creative fire burning. Normally the guys that are only living and breathing game art are the first to burn out. There is more to life than polygons...
Suggested text:
"Music is a big part of my life, I love listening to it, playing it, and writing it. I also enjoy playing games but what I love more than anything is, creating game art".
[grammar police] Notice I used a comma to create a list of things, instead of using and and and. I also used separate senescence to talk about different topics.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my site, its all been very helpful.
@Mark Dygert - I really have to thank you for the time you took in your reply! Im glad you told me like it is.
Its been a while since I have been back on poly count due to my extreme work load for my final year. I have changed a lot of things on my site now although I am still not completely happy with it, its a good start perhaps?
I would love for you guys to check it my site out again if you have the time and see some of the changed I have made. Over the next month of so it will all be changed up even more with lots of new content and a new showreel and games trailer I am just about to finish in the next week or so.
Thanks again guys I really am taking all of this on board!!
Been a while since iv been on here im afraid, not really having any luck at all with the job search since leaving Uni in June, so thought id re-post on here and get some feedback about where im going wrong.
www.perrystringer.com
Thanks everyone
I would also consider with your current pieces to bring in more breakdowns if possible. Isolate relevant assets and showcase the DM, Spec, normals, etc. More than anything though, I would really start working on full scenes, while really trying to showcase the industry workflow. GL man!
Thank you for your reply a few weeks ago, Since then Iv put up another piece, trying to do the things you have recommended (which was really great advice by the way, thank you).
Iv put up a new scene which I feel is a bit more of a full environment, I have also added a new Show-reel and updated some of the pieces that where already on there.
www.perrystringer.com
I like it, but the lighting seems like it's just flat white lighting, so these end up looking like screenshots of props that just happen to be arranged together instead of actual scenes. I also think all of these are very small pieces and none of them read as actual environments, more like dioramas or small prop showcases.
Might also want to get some variety in there, every piece is a grungy urban thing of some sort.
Good luck on the job search! It is hard, but keep working at it and growing as an artist and you'll make it.
Usually, lots of your texture details would be very blurry when you made it as video file.
a lot of this stuff has potential, I would suggest pushing everything further. Pull out the big guns! Zbrush some destruction, add some good lighting, etc!
it seems to me in the show reel that you don't use specular/gloss maps...? If you're not, definitely go back and do spec passes on these props to really make them POP (especially the old school gas pumps). In a studio setting, we'd just rip out the spec map(s) from props during an optimization pass <i>if we needed to</i>. We're moving on to next-next-gen with stupid amounts of memory and GPU power. Get fancy with it!
push farther. again, this stuff has some good direction, you just need to keep going!
Thank you all for your comments! I took them all on board, made a new piece and changed some stuff around.
And added a new showreel of course.
Let me know what your thinking if you have the chance....
On your resume, you should list your tools by name, rather than just the icon. The first hurdle for almost every resume is the HR department who, as a general rule, are working from a list of required words and know almost nothing about computer graphics or the tools use to create them. Also, make sure you list any game engines with which you have experience.
Never ever use Bleeding Cowboys, thats like comic sans and screams "im in middle school"
You need a new name "logo"
What were you thinking with your image borders ? Be consistent, choose one and keep that for all the images. This is just a mess. I didnt read what all the others said for once, but im sure they helped you a lot with your work itself, which is pretty decent, I really miss some colors tho.
Be careful with layer styles if you dont Really know what youre doing. Theyre only making it worse else. Flat black and white will look a lot better.
Skip all the strokes, the outer glow, dont even think about bewel and emboss : P
Put your images in proper lines with same size constraints and you have something which is kinda presentable.
Edit: your resume needs a rework. Leave the green, leave that name pattern,
make a completely new headliner, make everything smaller, dont use red for text
I now have a job lol Junior 3D Artist at RailSimulator.com and I couldent have done it without all this help and feedback.
Thank you very much