I would remove that portrait and 'winter scene'. Winter scene is just too simple and the portrait doesn't make much sense in the 'environment' artist portfolio.
I agree with OP about the portrait and winter scene
The props are good but I think the dustbin is a bit generic, it seems to be the new barrier mesh nowadays. It took me a while to notice the buttons on each prop which had the HP and LP, instead of forcing me to click them why not just tile the shots vertically below the render? Saves me the time from clicking each one of those tiny buttons which i can barely see the text on, then clicking another, where as if I have all the renders infront of me and can scroll down, it's much more accessible.
As for the portfolio of work I think you could do with more environments with breakdown shots, because at the moment this looks like a prop artist portfolio and not an environment artist one.
The site layout is sound. Looks like you took inspiration from Art Panda, same style anyway, looks good.
Biggest problem i see with regards the site itself is the miniscule icons for the different shots of the models you have, i thought they were just some pattern on the webpage at first. Thumbnails would ideally be better so people can see what they wanna take a closer look at. That poly breakdown text going along with those icons is tiny too.
Other than that i'd say you could use your email somewhere that's visible all the time, preferably on the header or the footer, and probably embedded into the images of your work themselves as well. Oh, it's not all that obvious that you can click on the pictures to load a higher res version either.
i had the same rollover thing on my site but i was told before not to use monochrome thumbnails so you might want to think about just making them color.
When you view the pictures there should probably be a link to go to the next pic from there as well as a home link other than your logo. awesome scheme tho
Ever image needs to be the same size. Every time I click on those tiny icons on the bottom to see the different view, it changes size. Im chasing those stupid thing cause its different every time.
To that, why are those things so tiny and inconspicuious? how am I supposed to know what those are? Make it clear to me, HIGH POLY, LOW POLY, WIREFRAME, not this tiny box with HP,LP, WF, LOL, WTF!
You have one environment too. Your an environment artist. Get more of it in! Put that care in a scene with grass and a sky box. Put that desk in a room full of desky stuff. Single props tell me you did it for an assignment and not because you had a train of ideas to go with it.
Thanks for comments, I updated the site with email on most pages and made the icon system have clearer instructions on the home page.
I figured if someone was interested enough to look at my work they would at least read the welcome message which explains this.
The winter scene was a procedural shader test done in scanline which I kind of liked and want to keep. The portrait, yeah maybe it does seem a little out of place but it was to show some painting skills and it did take quite a while to finish BUT...
I'm aiming to finish off Freddy's Fried Chicken sometime soon and use that as a centrepiece.
The header takes up a crapload of space. I'm on a 1920x1200 screen and the clayrender only barely fits. I'm also not fond of the liney look, it looks like an incorrectly scaled and stretched image.
You should try to make the borders on images via CSS, not only will this save you a wee bit of space, but it'll also be easier to modify later on, and it'll get rid of the JPG.
Snader, thanks for the crits.
My screen res is 1680x1050 so it's more apparent! I'll try removing the welcome box underline and push everything up to compensate.
About css borders: I'm not sure how they would affect the current layout, are you suggesting this so that when the page loads there is always some visible container being seen before images are loaded and not just background colour?
alexk, yes, I went out to a festive party after posting the update and have just got back. I'll work on a modified layout for clicked features tomorrow am, although it's bothering me just how to go about this without loading a new page!
Did a total redesign on my portfolio, not everything is uploaded yet but it should be finished within a couple of days or so. Let me know what you think so far!
Hi and apologies. This took alot more work than I originally thought it would
Site is back up with large views available for the paintings but still working on the breakdown of 3d objects (on image click) due to a change of mind about how to handle that.
All links should now work, plus there's a php script on the contact page for sending messages, if you want to of course!
Your description bar underneath each image stretches outside the template on firefox, and also when I click on your highpoly house render it takes me back to the leather chair.
Site itself is very nice though just seems to have a few bugs.
Nice chair and knife. I also quite like the wheelie bin.
I would put your 2d work into a different section/page. Some good 3d work there but the site needs sorting. At the moment I would rather go to a Carbon Made template.
Mr Bear, these problems have been fixed since this latest update. You need to refresh the page or clear your internet cache to see the new site! Cheers.
Fomori, it did cross my mind to put all 2d stuff on one page and 3d on another but I wanted to hit with a multitude of different work at once. Is this the only thing you mean by sorting?
I would drop the church of the damned matte, its really flat and looks really photoshopped. I would also drop the portrait and worm baby they dont look anywhere near the industry standard for 2d work so i wouldnt let that impression get in the way when an employer is looking at your work.
the ice cave should be dropped too, it looks like a procedural material render and those ususally tend to scream newbie, it looks like something people make when they are 1st learning max. the red car also looks a little low quality but i would say keeping it or dropping it would be up to your prefference.
sorry if it seems I am hating on your work, just trying to convey my 1st impression if I was looking to hire. Your chair looks awesome, same for the truck and cleaver and the other props are decent. I would work on flushing out that environment with the house with some textures, and most importantly I would want to see some realtime enviros in an engine like UDK or something. that would benefit you the most when looking for a job.
cheers man, keep at it and with a couple full enviros up to the quality of some of your props I bet you could snag a job in no time.
I would drop the church of the damned matte, its really flat and looks really photoshopped. I would also drop the portrait and worm baby they dont look anywhere near the industry standard for 2d work so i wouldnt let that impression get in the way when an employer is looking at your work.
the ice cave should be dropped too...
I was just about to post the same thing. Those first four pieces are extremely weak, especially next to everything else which looks nice, relevant and professional.
Make it fit on my screen without scrolling. Having to scroll everytime I click a link to get to the thumbnails again is super annoying. You have tons of unused space at the top just crunch that together a little bit so people don't have to scroll down constantly.
Hmm still getting it on chrome and with cleared cache.
You were right! After installing a developer plugin for google chrome I switched to a lower screen size and found the image description text stretching across the screen. Fixed and re-uploaded all files and thanks for the warning
PixelMasher, your honesty is appreciated but your saying drop all the 2d work?! Call me egotistical but I don't see better quality in industry work, maybe it's down to art style?
The ice tunnel is procedural, I made the description clearer and the street racer description has changed also, pointing out it's diffuse only and low poly.
Surprised you like the chair, it's actually my least fav. and was thought as the weakest 3d piece and I'm not saying that just to oppose your views.
Good point about getting a scene into unreal, I was thinking of putting the victorian scene in there as a high poly. Wondering how that might turn out with maxed out settings and a few million polys, should be fun anyway.
cholden, seeing as you have the same opinion as pixelmasher, would you mind pointing out what is wrong with say the portrait, which I feel is the strongest painting? Thanks.
NoChance, originally the idea was going to be full object breakdowns in the html pages, which would have meant even more scrolling! I know what your saying though about catering for 1024x768. May mean some ugly changes to the style but I might have a go if it means better accessibility.
---
ps: object breakdowns are now uploaded and available by clicking on any large image. eg;
Call me egotistical but I don't see better quality in industry work, maybe it's down to art style?
Hmm... That was egotistical. No offense man... but if you don't see better quality in industry work you need to open your eyes or get out on the internet a bit more.
Here are some of the 3d portfolio's I pulled out of my bookmarks that have some strong 2d work as well.
I also agree that you might consider taking your 2d work out completely. It is kind of a turn off to your 3d work. Your work seems to be all thrown into one place without really any organization to the order it is presented. What are you trying to sell yourself as? A 2d artist who dabbles in 3d or a 3d artist that dabbles in 2d? I don't think either are good as you don't have the best quality 2d work in the industry... and I am not sure if you would want to come of as someone who just likes to play with 2d.
I really like your 3d work though. I think you need more and it to be the first thing I see, If you are really that in love with your 2d work and you don't want to take it all down, maybe you should consider putting it in it's own category as many of the artists I provided did, that way people have to dig a little bit to get to it.
I also think you should make it a little easier to get to your lowpoly wires and such because the only reason I knew it was there was because someone said something about it. Thus I went back and tried to find it and it still took me a bit.
yeah dude, your only as good as your worst piece. The worm thing has some really bizarre muddy surface information that doesn't really make sense with the volumes, the woman while having some REALLY nice attention to detail and great attention to the way light rolls across skin- she looks busted. Not in an ugly way- but in a "plains of the face" kind of way.
The "church of the damned" honestly comes off as a quickly photo shopped mockup. The scale of the water in the background is HUGE compared to everything else. I dont really even know what to say about the ice cave one. Its not bad- but it certainly isn't anything that's going to wow any potential employers.
Hurry up and finish that chicken shack!, that's going to speak volumes.
I like your hand painted stuff looks really nice. There are a few odd things with a few of the models but nothing really major. The one thing that did stand out to me was the wheel wells around the truck you can see the segments. But for a lower poly model theres nothing wrong with that.
Dude, drop the "baby worm", it does not make sense. I would move the first picture as the last together with the portratit. I would also get rid of the "ice tunel".
Okay, I will shift all the 2d stuff onto the index2 page to provide some order to the folio and add some links in the description bar for breakdowns
The only gripe about general opinion here is that all you guys are obviously talented which means you know: if you suck balls at painting/drawing you will suck just as badly at 3d art. This notion kind of constitutes removing everything and making an application to work at Mc.Donalds! Oh and if Mc.Donalds hears that, I probably blew my chances with them as well - half of that was serious, I joke alot and can't help it!
Thanks for the input and comments everyone, I need to get some stuff finished up as said but also need a job now. Time to go hunting...
@jeremiah_bigley, Sze Jones blew me away!! - added to the awesome list.
I think the point some of us are trying to make is: market yourself to the specific job you are looking to get into. I know I suck at 2d painting so I just dont bother having any in my portfolio. if you are looking to get into an environment artist roll, then no one is going to care if you can paint characters. same for the procedural material ice thing, I have never used a procedural max/mental ray etc, material in my 5 years in game dev, which is why I think employers wont care about it and makes it look like student work.
some awesome unreal materials focusing on blending or shader work within a realtime engine would be more impressive and applicable, like what virtuosic was doing a while back.
dont feel the need to have content for the sake of content. I would rather look at 3 awesome pieces than a bunch of stuff thats all over the map. like others have said, your worst piece is what you will usually be judged by, I remember seeing some awesome portfolio's and all of a sudden there is either a really bad or outdated piece and you think "ugh what the hell were they thinking having that in there" which automatically makes you have a negative view towards them.
I know there is a couple pieces in my folio that are outdated or kinda shitty that I would blast outta there the second I was actively looking for work or suddenly unemployed, fat trimming can go a long way to work in you favor even if it makes you feel kinda shitty in the process.
fearian, still recoding the site and will include your suggestions in the fix while trying to overcome this weird ie positioning bug (image description) that keeps occouring. Yes I thought I had fixed it but no
ps: if there is no fix for the ie bug, how would you feel about having no image description?
Cheers.
PixelMasher, I understand what your saying about being a specialist.
The main reason for the 2d stuff was to show skill range but my mind was wandering, thinking about situations where someone is off work and an art manager needs overtime covered by another who may not be a specialist in that field. Does that even happen?
I do love painting, maybe as much as 3d but yeah, I've not been doing it anywhere near as long.
Thanks man
regarding your question about if someone is off work as to whether or not you would pick up the slack really depends on the studio you work for. If you are working for a small studio... then maybe. And when I say small I really mean the type of studio where when you get hired they are like "OMG you know how to do 3d?" The bigger the studio you usually have enough specialized people that you wouldn't be doing the other persons work because hopefully they would have more that one person doing 2d artwork.
Some studios like to see people are technically sound and can draw but I would say on average if you apply to a 3D job and they have to sift through a bunch of 2D pictures that they don't care about they're going to very quickly give up looking at your portfolio.
ps: object breakdowns are now uploaded and available by clicking on any large image. eg;
There wasn't anything to indicate to me that this was possible unless I hovered the cursor over the image, and waited for the text to appear. Before I saw it I just thought that clicking it would lead me to a larger view of the same image like in a few of the other ones. This behavior should likely be made more obvious.
Also the arrows on the bottom of the page don't function intuitively. I'd expect them to either show the next image in the series, for instance after the Church of the Damned, show the Ice Tunnel, or do what they currently do and update the bottom row of links, and do the above, but not to show the trashcan in the main section when I'm on Church of the Damned, as I don't know where it came from, or why its there, as I haven't yet seen it on the list.
For the main links at the top of the page, I can hover over the buttons and have them light up, changing hover state, but not be able to click them. Hover state should indicate that I am able to click the button/link.
Thank for the info, it was something maybe I shouldn't have been considering but thought I would ask anyway out of curiosity.
Made some changes to the coding and have completed the first 3d section of the site. Also managed to fix that text floating error, now the document will resize and and text remains in it's containing div, no matter what browser is used.
local view
Unfortunately I only have the local view to show as the files haven't been uploaded yet. This was mainly due to me having to recode the .htaccess file to include hotlink protection which actually worked and stopped that rougue who made a comeback... happy about that
Ok, so I made some progress and finished off the presentation for Freddys Fried Chicken but it would be nice to hear some opinions.
It's a fantastic collection of work GCMP! I enjoyed your site, I have zero crits to offer and think that portrait of a woman painting has a great feel to it. Really arty stuff, really well made, i love it. Thanks for sharing.
All the problems are now fixed and everything is re-uploaded. It seems to work in the 3 main browsers: firefox, chrome and ie and every page passes xhtml strict, w3c validator.
If you experience any browsing problems or have any suggestions, please let me know.
* Added coloured link on every page leading to larger views/breakdowns.
* Removed racer car and replaced with high poly model air conditioner.
* Shifted all 2d and unfinished stuff onto the second index page.
* Fixed mailing problem, contact page now works properly.
Cheers guys, it's been a long process and your suggestions and recommendations really helped :thumbup:
Replies
The props are good but I think the dustbin is a bit generic, it seems to be the new barrier mesh nowadays. It took me a while to notice the buttons on each prop which had the HP and LP, instead of forcing me to click them why not just tile the shots vertically below the render? Saves me the time from clicking each one of those tiny buttons which i can barely see the text on, then clicking another, where as if I have all the renders infront of me and can scroll down, it's much more accessible.
As for the portfolio of work I think you could do with more environments with breakdown shots, because at the moment this looks like a prop artist portfolio and not an environment artist one.
The site layout is sound. Looks like you took inspiration from Art Panda, same style anyway, looks good.
Other than that i'd say you could use your email somewhere that's visible all the time, preferably on the header or the footer, and probably embedded into the images of your work themselves as well. Oh, it's not all that obvious that you can click on the pictures to load a higher res version either.
Hope that helps some
When you view the pictures there should probably be a link to go to the next pic from there as well as a home link other than your logo. awesome scheme tho
To that, why are those things so tiny and inconspicuious? how am I supposed to know what those are? Make it clear to me, HIGH POLY, LOW POLY, WIREFRAME, not this tiny box with HP,LP, WF, LOL, WTF!
You have one environment too. Your an environment artist. Get more of it in! Put that care in a scene with grass and a sky box. Put that desk in a room full of desky stuff. Single props tell me you did it for an assignment and not because you had a train of ideas to go with it.
I figured if someone was interested enough to look at my work they would at least read the welcome message which explains this.
The winter scene was a procedural shader test done in scanline which I kind of liked and want to keep. The portrait, yeah maybe it does seem a little out of place but it was to show some painting skills and it did take quite a while to finish BUT...
I'm aiming to finish off Freddy's Fried Chicken sometime soon and use that as a centrepiece.
Cheers.
You should try to make the borders on images via CSS, not only will this save you a wee bit of space, but it'll also be easier to modify later on, and it'll get rid of the JPG.
Snader, thanks for the crits.
My screen res is 1680x1050 so it's more apparent! I'll try removing the welcome box underline and push everything up to compensate.
About css borders: I'm not sure how they would affect the current layout, are you suggesting this so that when the page loads there is always some visible container being seen before images are loaded and not just background colour?
alexk, yes, I went out to a festive party after posting the update and have just got back. I'll work on a modified layout for clicked features tomorrow am, although it's bothering me just how to go about this without loading a new page!
http://www.gcmax.co.uk
Site is back up with large views available for the paintings but still working on the breakdown of 3d objects (on image click) due to a change of mind about how to handle that.
All links should now work, plus there's a php script on the contact page for sending messages, if you want to of course!
http://www.gcmax.co.uk
Thanks
Site itself is very nice though just seems to have a few bugs.
I would put your 2d work into a different section/page. Some good 3d work there but the site needs sorting. At the moment I would rather go to a Carbon Made template.
Fomori, it did cross my mind to put all 2d stuff on one page and 3d on another but I wanted to hit with a multitude of different work at once. Is this the only thing you mean by sorting?
the ice cave should be dropped too, it looks like a procedural material render and those ususally tend to scream newbie, it looks like something people make when they are 1st learning max. the red car also looks a little low quality but i would say keeping it or dropping it would be up to your prefference.
sorry if it seems I am hating on your work, just trying to convey my 1st impression if I was looking to hire. Your chair looks awesome, same for the truck and cleaver and the other props are decent. I would work on flushing out that environment with the house with some textures, and most importantly I would want to see some realtime enviros in an engine like UDK or something. that would benefit you the most when looking for a job.
cheers man, keep at it and with a couple full enviros up to the quality of some of your props I bet you could snag a job in no time.
I was just about to post the same thing. Those first four pieces are extremely weak, especially next to everything else which looks nice, relevant and professional.
You were right! After installing a developer plugin for google chrome I switched to a lower screen size and found the image description text stretching across the screen. Fixed and re-uploaded all files and thanks for the warning
PixelMasher, your honesty is appreciated but your saying drop all the 2d work?! Call me egotistical but I don't see better quality in industry work, maybe it's down to art style?
The ice tunnel is procedural, I made the description clearer and the street racer description has changed also, pointing out it's diffuse only and low poly.
Surprised you like the chair, it's actually my least fav. and was thought as the weakest 3d piece and I'm not saying that just to oppose your views.
Good point about getting a scene into unreal, I was thinking of putting the victorian scene in there as a high poly. Wondering how that might turn out with maxed out settings and a few million polys, should be fun anyway.
cholden, seeing as you have the same opinion as pixelmasher, would you mind pointing out what is wrong with say the portrait, which I feel is the strongest painting? Thanks.
NoChance, originally the idea was going to be full object breakdowns in the html pages, which would have meant even more scrolling! I know what your saying though about catering for 1024x768. May mean some ugly changes to the style but I might have a go if it means better accessibility.
---
ps: object breakdowns are now uploaded and available by clicking on any large image. eg;
Thanks all.
Hmm... That was egotistical. No offense man... but if you don't see better quality in industry work you need to open your eyes or get out on the internet a bit more.
Here are some of the 3d portfolio's I pulled out of my bookmarks that have some strong 2d work as well.
http://www.shermancg.com/index.html
http://mattianelli.com/
http://www.cybergeisha.com/
http://www.pioroberson.com/index.php
http://artofgon.com/
http://maia3d.blogspot.com/
http://www.burnt-noodles.com/main.html
http://www.gardenturtle.blogspot.com/
http://www.artpanda.co.uk/index.htm
just a sample...
I also agree that you might consider taking your 2d work out completely. It is kind of a turn off to your 3d work. Your work seems to be all thrown into one place without really any organization to the order it is presented. What are you trying to sell yourself as? A 2d artist who dabbles in 3d or a 3d artist that dabbles in 2d? I don't think either are good as you don't have the best quality 2d work in the industry... and I am not sure if you would want to come of as someone who just likes to play with 2d.
I really like your 3d work though. I think you need more and it to be the first thing I see, If you are really that in love with your 2d work and you don't want to take it all down, maybe you should consider putting it in it's own category as many of the artists I provided did, that way people have to dig a little bit to get to it.
I also think you should make it a little easier to get to your lowpoly wires and such because the only reason I knew it was there was because someone said something about it. Thus I went back and tried to find it and it still took me a bit.
Cheers mate!
The "church of the damned" honestly comes off as a quickly photo shopped mockup. The scale of the water in the background is HUGE compared to everything else. I dont really even know what to say about the ice cave one. Its not bad- but it certainly isn't anything that's going to wow any potential employers.
Hurry up and finish that chicken shack!, that's going to speak volumes.
The only gripe about general opinion here is that all you guys are obviously talented which means you know: if you suck balls at painting/drawing you will suck just as badly at 3d art. This notion kind of constitutes removing everything and making an application to work at Mc.Donalds! Oh and if Mc.Donalds hears that, I probably blew my chances with them as well
Thanks for the input and comments everyone, I need to get some stuff finished up as said but also need a job now. Time to go hunting...
@jeremiah_bigley, Sze Jones blew me away!! - added to the awesome list.
For the remaining work:
your work is nice, it just needs to be presented in a simpler more straightforward way!
some awesome unreal materials focusing on blending or shader work within a realtime engine would be more impressive and applicable, like what virtuosic was doing a while back.
dont feel the need to have content for the sake of content. I would rather look at 3 awesome pieces than a bunch of stuff thats all over the map. like others have said, your worst piece is what you will usually be judged by, I remember seeing some awesome portfolio's and all of a sudden there is either a really bad or outdated piece and you think "ugh what the hell were they thinking having that in there" which automatically makes you have a negative view towards them.
I know there is a couple pieces in my folio that are outdated or kinda shitty that I would blast outta there the second I was actively looking for work or suddenly unemployed, fat trimming can go a long way to work in you favor even if it makes you feel kinda shitty in the process.
ps: if there is no fix for the ie bug, how would you feel about having no image description?
Cheers.
PixelMasher, I understand what your saying about being a specialist.
The main reason for the 2d stuff was to show skill range but my mind was wandering, thinking about situations where someone is off work and an art manager needs overtime covered by another who may not be a specialist in that field. Does that even happen?
I do love painting, maybe as much as 3d but yeah, I've not been doing it anywhere near as long.
Thanks man
Heres a link that I think you should really take a look at http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/
There wasn't anything to indicate to me that this was possible unless I hovered the cursor over the image, and waited for the text to appear. Before I saw it I just thought that clicking it would lead me to a larger view of the same image like in a few of the other ones. This behavior should likely be made more obvious.
Also the arrows on the bottom of the page don't function intuitively. I'd expect them to either show the next image in the series, for instance after the Church of the Damned, show the Ice Tunnel, or do what they currently do and update the bottom row of links, and do the above, but not to show the trashcan in the main section when I'm on Church of the Damned, as I don't know where it came from, or why its there, as I haven't yet seen it on the list.
For the main links at the top of the page, I can hover over the buttons and have them light up, changing hover state, but not be able to click them. Hover state should indicate that I am able to click the button/link.
Made some changes to the coding and have completed the first 3d section of the site. Also managed to fix that text floating error, now the document will resize and and text remains in it's containing div, no matter what browser is used.
local view
Unfortunately I only have the local view to show as the files haven't been uploaded yet. This was mainly due to me having to recode the .htaccess file to include hotlink protection which actually worked and stopped that rougue who made a comeback... happy about that
Ok, so I made some progress and finished off the presentation for Freddys Fried Chicken but it would be nice to hear some opinions.
Cheers
All the problems are now fixed and everything is re-uploaded. It seems to work in the 3 main browsers: firefox, chrome and ie and every page passes xhtml strict, w3c validator.
If you experience any browsing problems or have any suggestions, please let me know.
http://www.gcmax.co.uk
* Added coloured link on every page leading to larger views/breakdowns.
* Removed racer car and replaced with high poly model air conditioner.
* Shifted all 2d and unfinished stuff onto the second index page.
* Fixed mailing problem, contact page now works properly.
Cheers guys, it's been a long process and your suggestions and recommendations really helped :thumbup: