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Portfolio Critique Needed Urgent

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NickXenos polycounter lvl 6
Hello everyone.This is not the first time I am posting this, but to be honest the previous times I didn't get a lot of responses so I hope this time will be different.I  have been trying over the past 6 months to get myself into the cg industry, mostly as an environment or asset artist in gaming studios or as a generalist/3d artust in vfx studios. I 've had a couple of interviews but so far I keep receiving the same answer which is <<we 'll take someone with more experience and so on..>>. Unfortunately there is an incredible small number of junior artists positions out there especially when it comes to environment design but I am starting to get a bit disappointed. I am going to post my portfolio here and I 'd like to hear suggestions on things I should improve,things that don't work and generally listen to all of your thoughts. In advance I know that most of you will probably suggest that I should try unreal or unity especially when it comes to rendering in real time, it's something that I have been learning, it's just a bit of a slow process because I am trying to create new projects in order to be active, on the other hand I am trying to learn a new software so it's a bit of a struggle..anyway thank you all and I am looking forward hearing your suggestions and honest thoughts.Here is my link to my artworks.

https://www.artstation.com/nikosxenos 

Replies

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Hardsurface;
    Your environments are more interesting than your singular props. Your hard surface models need more texturing work. To give you some idea of what I'm seeing;
    - The batmobile has splatters of mud but it kind of ruins the model.
    - The gun doesn't have any variation to the textures, so the texture is quite boring. It's just rust and grey.
    Your colours are quite bland and uninteresting, I think you need to spend more time figuring out what colours work together and are pleasing/interesting to the eye. Another thing to think about is images need areas of interest and areas of rest. There aren't really any places on your props for my eyes to rest.
    Regarding presentation; The prop in front of a black background each time gets really boring. Also, you've got no info in the images regarding tri-count, texture size, UV layout, wireframe, etc. Can you make a rifle like that less than 10k polys? As it sits, I dunno.

    Environments;
    I like em! I'm not a fan of how you've done your wall paper. I know I've said this to you before, but you always have wallpaper worn away in ways I've never seen wallpaper do so.
    - I'd take out the swamp house, or spend some time improving upon it. The wooden textures don't look that great, and the house walls look pretty flat, or like they're made with one plane (until you look t it up close). The red cross isn't really giving off a glow but it looks like it should. The lighting needs a ton of work and reference. It's difficult though, I've tried to do a night time cabin scene and the lighting was extremely difficult.
    - Abandoned Manor: If you could fix the wallpaper on this, I think it'd be your most powerful piece, and should come first.
    - I like both the detective scenes. Interesting lighting and props.
    - Sci Fi boiler room is interesting, but I'd want to see it textured, wireframes, etc.
    - Film Noire; The car's left tires are hovering in the air. I want to know if the car looks good too, so show me a separate render of it.
    You're only really showing each scene at one angle. If you want to be an environment artist, you've gotta show the scene from multiple angles, right? Is your film noir house as interesting from behind as it is from the front? Your scene has a bunch of trees that obviously have a ton of polys, which an employer wouldn't be able to use.

    Also, the colours you've chosen for your portfolio page are pretty bad. Red and green makes me feel like you're Santa Clause. All in all, work on picking appropriate colours, showing breakdowns and wireframes. Like you said, learn UE4 and start rendering in engine. It's not very difficult to import props into UE4, and lighting in UE4 is actually easier than lighting in Maya (though obviously not as accurate). Set aside an entire week to do nothing but tutorials in UE4, it won't take long to learn.

    Good luck on your job search!
  • NickXenos
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    NickXenos polycounter lvl 6
    Hey man first of all thank you a lot for the answer. As for the props you are right when it comes to the gun especially when you mention that it doesn't have a specific area of interest. But in terms of variety how much more interesting can it be? I mean it is a steel surface what else should I add besides a couple of normal maps to make it more appealing? The swamp house is next on my list to re texture and  generally it doesn't look really good but it was one of my first ones that's why i keep it.  As for the wall papers I get mixed reactions so far,some really like them, some really don't, but I have to say I really like them how they work...Anyway I guess that one is the only one that is up for debate.As for the scifi room I think that is going to be my first render project in unity with textures and everything..Also you are right I should have a better breakdown to all of my work (uv's,wireframe..) and I need more shots from different angles. Thanks man, I appreciate you taking the time to answer:)
  • theonewhoknocks
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    theonewhoknocks polycounter lvl 6
    Your modeling is pretty solid man. I think like Ashervisalis said above, you just need to work on your texturing. Are you using a PBR workflow? A lot of your props look like they are lacking a roughness or metal value, so it makes everything look dull. With the exception of the Sci-Fi reactor, which does have some values on it. 

    Make sure that you are constantly looking at references for what you are texturing, and matching what you see. The Sci-Fi Boiler room looks like an excellent place to start taking your time and making sure that materials are accurately represented.
  • NickXenos
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    NickXenos polycounter lvl 6
    Thanks man. Yeah to be honest the batmobile was more of a modelling task for me and i didnt put much into texturing and i guess it shows..as for the gun i must have done something wrong with the lighting because i used the same workflow and materials as I did with the reactor..Yeah I use substance painter/designer...As you mentioned scifi boiler room is the place to start :) thanks again for taking the time to answer!!
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    I'll get into some depth with my critique for the gun's texture;
    - You went a bit nutso with the edge generator for the rust. Every edge is rusty and it takes away from me being able to believe its a real object. If I use a generator like this, I usually throw the layer into a folder, add a white mask onto the folder, and then take away rust in various locations. Right now it just looks like a grey model with the edges highlighted with brown.
    - As Theonewhoknocks pointed out, the material doesn't look like something a gun would be made with. Is it meant to be gun metal? Plastic? Steel? I'd go back to your grey material and play around with it.
    - The plastic bits on the guns (ie parts of the lens) would be an excellent opportunity to use a new colour to break up the grey.
    - For a gun that is so old that it's actually rusty, the 'made in greece' and numbers and circles are in pretty good condition. I'd also think of some other markings which might be on it. It's so old and rusty but aside from the rust, it looks pretty clean. What about dirt and oil and charred markings and the like.
    - Would a high tech sci fi gun like this even be made out of a metal which rusts?
  • NickXenos
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    NickXenos polycounter lvl 6
    Thank for the in depth analysis mate.. I ll to implement those changes :)
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