I'm a New Grad looking for critiques on my portfolio

Karthik Jayan · Sep 2017

Hello,

I'm a new grad just finished college. My degree was BA in Game Art & Design. My college is kinda iffy and I never really got any useful critiques on my portfolio. Since, now I'm finished with college and want to start looking for job, I thought this might be the best time to get dome feedback on my portfolio before I start sending out my resume.

Everything you see in my portfolio I have learned for the Internet and practiced own my own.

Be brutally honest with me.

https://www.artstation.com/karthikjayan

mickeyvpn · Sep 2017

Hey @Karthik Jayan

I'll speak for the assets that you showed in your Artstation page. Texture resolution for most of the assets are huge, for example that knife with 8k by 4k. Compare to this knife model by Francois Hurtubise that have 4k textures, we can see that this resolution is more than enough for detailed, sharp textures. Same for the guns.

For presenting your work I'd recommend to attach wireframe shots, texture samples and UV's layout. Or include Marmoset Viewer or Sketchfab link.

Karthik Jayan · Sep 2017

mickeyvpn said:
"Texture resolution for most of the assets are huge, for example that knife with 8k by 4k. Compare to this knife model by Francois Hurtubise that have 4k textures, we can see that this resolution is more than enough for detailed, sharp textures. Same for the guns."

"For presenting your work I'd recommend to attach wireframe shots, texture samples and UV's layout. Or include Marmoset Viewer or Sketchfab link."

Thank you for your tips. These were exactly the type of suggestions I was looking for. Looking at my 3 years at college noe seems like waste

RustySpannerz · Sep 2017

Not a waste at all. Your Mad Max car and AKM are my favourite pieces, I would work on your presentation and make sure that you properly texture your models going forward. Just take a look on Artstation for thousands of pieces of inspiration.

BertR · Sep 2017

Hi man,

I think some of the presentations of your work could use some work.

For example, the composition of the flamethrower in the last three images are cropping the asset a bit unlucky in my opinion. I would either show the asset completely, or zoom in more on the details you want to show off. Right now it's kinda in between and it doesn't feel right.
Same thing applies to the Mad Max vehicle (image 2, 3, 4, 7), AKM (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10), Modo rifle (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).Don't be afraid to have some space between the border and the border of the image.
(model is nice btw)

On the McLaren I'd tone down the postprocessing a bit. I see you like the exaggerated look, but the lensflares (especially 4th) and overly bright colors are kinda hurting my eyes :') (also I could be wrong, but on some the right front light seems not to cast any light).

Lastly, for the Pistol / G18; It's kinda dangerous to design 'random things that come to mind'. Even the best (concept) artists always need some references when designing fictional objects! This will result in more logical, functional and realistic details and designs.

Hope this is useful!

Bert

Karthik Jayan · Sep 2017

BertR said:

Hi man,

I think some of the presentations of your work could use some work.

For example, the composition of the flamethrower in the last three images are cropping the asset a bit unlucky in my opinion. I would either show the asset completely, or zoom in more on the details you want to show off. Right now it's kinda in between and it doesn't feel right.
Same thing applies to the Mad Max vehicle (image 2, 3, 4, 7), AKM (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10), Modo rifle (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).Don't be afraid to have some space between the border and the border of the image.
(model is nice btw)

On the McLaren I'd tone down the postprocessing a bit. I see you like the exaggerated look, but the lensflares (especially 4th) and overly bright colors are kinda hurting my eyes :') (also I could be wrong, but on some the right front light seems not to cast any light).

Lastly, for the Pistol / G18; It's kinda dangerous to design 'random things that come to mind'. Even the best (concept) artists always need some references when designing fictional objects! This will result in more logical, functional and realistic details and designs.

Hope this is useful!

Bert

Thank you very much for your input. I understand the changes suggested and I will try to make these changes when I'm uploading my next project, which is in progress.

JRAnimation · Sep 2017

Good start. Keep it up. Also look at what do you want to do as a modeler? Focus on that. Use TONS of reference.

Your snowy scene looks nice, but feels very simplistic. Look at some snowy scenes that are in real life. What do you see there? Get more of those pieces in. If it's for a game environment, think even on the player that would traverse this scene. Where are they coming from? Where are they supposed to go? What's the path you (as the environment artist) are trying to lead them through?

Your Custom Pistol's texture work seems very plain in colours. Get some of that texture feel like you have in your madmax vehicle and punch it up. Even mess with the roughness and metal to get the look to push more.

Where are the Marmoset or Sketchfab viewers to see your topology and rotate the object around to see how the light is falling on the form and see how it looks rendered as close to "in game" as possible?

Hope that helps and good luck! Keep at it

~Josh

Karthik Jayan · Sep 2017

JRAnimation said:

Good start. Keep it up. Also look at what do you want to do as a modeler? Focus on that. Use TONS of reference.

Your snowy scene looks nice, but feels very simplistic. Look at some snowy scenes that are in real life. What do you see there? Get more of those pieces in. If it's for a game environment, think even on the player that would traverse this scene. Where are they coming from? Where are they supposed to go? What's the path you (as the environment artist) are trying to lead them through?

Your Custom Pistol's texture work seems very plain in colours. Get some of that texture feel like you have in your madmax vehicle and punch it up. Even mess with the roughness and metal to get the look to push more.

Where are the Marmoset or Sketchfab viewers to see your topology and rotate the object around to see how the light is falling on the form and see how it looks rendered as close to "in game" as possible?

Hope that helps and good luck! Keep at it

~Josh

Thanks for your advice and I wanted to ask for your opinion on one more thing, what should I focus more on, like more weapons, more vehicle, more environment, etc.

I'm a New Grad looking for critiques on my portfolio

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