Portfolio and career advice.
polycounter lvl 11
Hello everyone, I have been in various 3D artist jobs for the past 5-6 years. I have been living in Cincinnati, but my wife took a position in Chicago, so we will be moving there soon. I was excited to finally live in a place that had game studios. I've applied for both game and non-game 3D positions in Chicago, as well as any remote positions I can find. After the past few months of applying for about 40-50 jobs I've gotten pretty much zero replies. I know it's the norm to not even get a denial letter, I applied for plenty of jobs and didn't receive anything back when I was first starting my career. I thought this time would be a little different since I have some years of experience, but I guess I was wrong.
I would like to know if there is something I'm missing, a reason that I'm not being considered for positions. for example when Netherrealm opened an environment artist position I was excited. But after a few months of not hearing anything back and the position still being open I'm guessing I wasn't considered or they are still taking applicants? I guess I don't know exactly how game studio hirings work to be sure.
Advice like "Oh, you're not nearly qualified for that position", or "The quality of work on your portfolio isn't up to standard", or "You don't have the type of pieces we are looking for in a portfolio" would be great.
My portfolio is here:
www.justinfrazee.com
I have been keeping my cover letter really short, something like "I am a 3D artist with professional experience with these programs, etc. etc. etc.". I personally like short emails that get to the point, but maybe that's a mistake?
I'll take critiques/advice on anything in my portfolio, resume which you can find on my website, cover letter, whatever. It all would be a big help. If you know anyone in Chicago that is connected to a 3D job you could put me in contact with that would also be very cool.
Thanks in advance to any help you can give me.
I would like to know if there is something I'm missing, a reason that I'm not being considered for positions. for example when Netherrealm opened an environment artist position I was excited. But after a few months of not hearing anything back and the position still being open I'm guessing I wasn't considered or they are still taking applicants? I guess I don't know exactly how game studio hirings work to be sure.
Advice like "Oh, you're not nearly qualified for that position", or "The quality of work on your portfolio isn't up to standard", or "You don't have the type of pieces we are looking for in a portfolio" would be great.
My portfolio is here:
www.justinfrazee.com
I have been keeping my cover letter really short, something like "I am a 3D artist with professional experience with these programs, etc. etc. etc.". I personally like short emails that get to the point, but maybe that's a mistake?
I'll take critiques/advice on anything in my portfolio, resume which you can find on my website, cover letter, whatever. It all would be a big help. If you know anyone in Chicago that is connected to a 3D job you could put me in contact with that would also be very cool.
Thanks in advance to any help you can give me.
Replies
I will not give you specific portfolio critics about your environment work because I'm sure a prop/enviro artist would do a much better job than me at this.
I will say however that you should remove the character art work from your folio. Overall it's a bad idea to show this kind of work if you aren't going to be a character artist and if the work is of lower quality for that same reason, It just ends up diluting your portfolio.
Aside from that I believe the older pieces (guns mostly) aren't really well presented, gray background, dull lighting...
Presentation shows that an artist is ready to put in the extra effort to really make their work shine, dull portfolio piece looks like you got bored/lazy at the end.
(https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DBOER)
Anyway hopes this helps a bit, don't be discouraged we go through that phase of applying to many places without ever hearing back
Your Ancient Gate and Iron Man Impromptu Repairs are definitely your strongest pieces. It looks like your older stuff is towards the bottom? It looks like you have improved since then. I would work on some new portfolio pieces to replace your older work.
If you're doing environments you can usually get away with making really awesome scene dioramas. It doesn't have to be a huge environment scene. Just do it well, and put lots of love into it.
Hang in there!
Your strongest piece is your ancient civ, but most of that comes from a really strong composition and lighting. But the assets themselves were not wowing me unfortunately.
As a step forward, I would think choosing a concept that really speaks to you and leaning in on it hard would help your portfolio stick out a lot artistically.
- remove your weapons (Environment Artists don't usually get to build these unless it's a small studio or a random shift of responsibility shift in the studio because they had no-one else to do it)
- remove the character (you'll never be asked to build a character if you're an environment artist in a studio)
- show more break downs of your assets/environments, you're giving a lot of final shots but barely any break downs to display any technical information for your employers to see... Shader setups, explanations, texture sheets, triangle counts, lighting setups, composition notes, etc.
- the iron man helm in your workshop scene feels like it could be pushed further, there's damage on it but it's missing a shift in colour where the scratches etc are so it feels like a quick texture job that you didn't bother polishing. Just spend more time on it, it's your centre piece and I feel like it's actually the least tend to asset you have in that scene.
You have a lot of potential in your work, most of which is strong but it's really just about pushing the bar further. I also feel you've got a small sense of story telling in your environments but it's still not enough because they still come across as "hey, here's an environment" and that's all it is... Any assets you feel could aid story telling will always add to the quality of the scene. When you're fighting against time right now, I'd refrain from starting something new and just retouching what you currently have, just make sure you make it shine as much as you can... that's just my suggestion but I know a lot of artists get bored of what they have and want to make something new so just go by what you feel essentially.
Either way, best of luck on the move... I honestly think the biggest problem is what was stated early on, not specialising. Specialise your portfolio and that's the biggest change you should make first.
Is it advisable to have maybe two urls that direct to an environment art focused portfolio, and the other to a more general one? If so is there a good URL scheme that doesn't make it seem like I'm holding back work, or something like that?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledgeable opinions. I hope I don't come across as fighting back, I simply need to ask questions I genuinely don't know the answers to so that I feel the best informed I can be.
Thanks again.