[Portfolio] Looking for feedback

Zigzter

Hullo guys,

I gave my website an overhaul and am looking for some feedback:
http://www.ziggyshea.com/

I'm currently looking for my first work in the industry, so any feedback will be helpful, whether it's related to my website itself, or my work.
(Though keep in mind the current demoreel is more of a placeholder. My new one will be much more detailed.)

Thanks!

jordan.kocon

I really like your website layout, easy to navigate and find everything. Onto your work...

First off, your demo real is kind of nauseating to watch because it has really fast, crazy camera movements. I would say either go with slow turntables (which some people say are boring), or slow pans. Watch car commercials and see how they do the camera moves.

Secondly start your reel off with your strongest piece. If you are going to apply as a game artist, either show off a fully finished piece, whether that be a prop, level, gun, etc, or a nice high poly render, but not an AO pass of a low poly model.

Third is your work, it seems like you really only have one finished piece, the robot. I think you really need to do some research on spec maps, as the one on the robot is killing it imo. The diffuse looks pretty solid, and I really like the model itself, with a proper spec map it could be pretty awesome.

As per your your other models, I wouldn't show the Star Wars walker thing (I know I should know the name, but I am one of handful of people who don't like star wars :P ). A portfolio is only as strong as your weakest piece, and it is your weakest. It is just a random low poly model, it doesnt have a texture or anything to show. I think the car is really nicely modeled, with the exception of some pinching. Perhaps look up how to do studio lighting and give it a nice render? Or if you are applying to be a game artist it would be more worth your time to create a low poly and texture that. Same goes for the airplane, it looks like it coming along nicely, so you should work on getting some high poly renders, and doing the textured low poly.

Your demo reel only needs to be 2-3 good peicesm given about 25-30 seconds each. Thats a lot of time to show some nice, slow camera pans over the model, and show breakdowns (high poly, low poly, texture sheets, wireframes), as that's what studios like to see.

Anyways, there is a wall of text... I too was recently a student so take this advice with a grain of salt and good luck! I think your stuff is looking good, and with some work you'll be in a great position.

EDIT: You said looking for your first job, I am just assuming you went to school, though you could be self taught too

Zigzter

Haha yeah, my new reel will definitely be on the slower side. :P

I was thinking of giving the droid a major overhaul (modeling as well as texturing). It ended up being a little rushed due to the end of the semester creeping up on me.
With the AT-AT I was thinking of making into the 3d version of this cool modeling kit contraption I found: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Abandoned-Refuge/3007043
Never really got around to it though.

Thanks a ton!

weirdy

I like it! I like the AT AT, personally, but I agree you should lead the video with the droid/droids.
Keep up the good work man!

jordan.kocon

O my other question was did you model the humvee at the end that all the droids are standing around? The render looks nice, and the I wanted to see more of the vehicle, but based off your site it was hard to tell if it was yours or a group project. If it is yours I would love to see some still renders of it

Zigzter

weirdy wrote: »

I like it! I like the AT AT, personally, but I agree you should lead the video with the droid/droids.
Keep up the good work man!

Thanks!
Yeah I probably will, depending on how my airplane turns out.

jordan.kocon wrote: »

O my other question was did you model the humvee at the end that all the droids are standing around? The render looks nice, and the I wanted to see more of the vehicle, but based off your site it was hard to tell if it was yours or a group project. If it is yours I would love to see some still renders of it

I did, but I felt the modeling didn't really require much effort in terms out figuring out the shapes and such, so I didn't really feature it.


Also, one thing I forgot to ask: I was talking to someone who was a senior modeler at Image Engine, and he recommended first making a reel without textures, and then make one with textures while I apply for jobs with the texture-less one. Since my financial situation is getting worse and worse, I think it'd be good to follow that advice since I would get to applying with a decent reel much quicker. The thing is, my droid is fully textured already, so leaving the textures out would seem like a waste, but only having the droid textured would seem odd. Thoughts?

Zigzter

Updated my reel, would like some feedback if anyone feels like it.

http://www.ziggyshea.com/

Going to be slowing the plane turnaround a bit, and might fiddle around with the ferrari wireframe settings.