[Portfolio] - Alex Wells, Prop and Environment Artist
polycounter lvl 12
http://alexwellsartist.weebly.com/
Hellos, I would love some crits on the work in my portfolio. As of now there is only three items but I have another prop almost done and a environment coming together. I would rather go for quality or quantity.
So be honest and straight with me, after looking at your own work for so long it becomes hard to judge how good(or not good) it is.
As for the site, I plan on ditching carbonmade once I get the money to buy my own domain.
Hellos, I would love some crits on the work in my portfolio. As of now there is only three items but I have another prop almost done and a environment coming together. I would rather go for quality or quantity.
So be honest and straight with me, after looking at your own work for so long it becomes hard to judge how good(or not good) it is.
As for the site, I plan on ditching carbonmade once I get the money to buy my own domain.
Replies
You have the right idea with going for quality over quantity, but you also have to consider the subject matter. The two props you have now are a little on the plain side. If you are going to just have a few props, I would try to go for something that will really push you in terms of modeling and material definition.
You've definitely improved a ton since you first joined Polycount, so keep it up. Hope that helps!
The thumbs I wish could be bigger and that's the main reason I want to leave carbonmade for my own domain. With their free account that's as large as the thumbs can be and even in the main pictures that is as large as they can go. I figure if im going to pay for anything, I might as well have full control over how the site looks and functions.
I defiantly have some more interesting props on the way so those will be replaced with new ones.
Will be making changes to fix the negative space and email. Thanks again!
Your environment that you have on there looks great; can't wait to see more from you.
I would get a professional email address, something like 'Firstnamelastname3D@ ____. The one you have now will be harder for people to remember, and is just not as professional.
I moved from carbonmade to weebly to and im much happier
I like you enviroment a lot!!!!! That futuristic dumpster is a bit disapointing when compared to your awesome environment..
But those texture sizes are crazy big for such small props, 2048 for a dumpster? 1024 & 512 for a sci-fi flowerpot?
One 512 max for any of that.
The deux ex scene is a good start, replace the dumpster & flowerpot with two more scenes, perhaps a medieval and a modern to show variation.
sci-fi is very clean, so those would give you a better chance to show texturing ability.
That alleyway scene would do for the modern one.
Gud luck with it
@Mask_Salesman: yeah they are a bit big. I figured since they were portfolio pieces it would be alright to have them a larger so everything looked crisp. I downsized the textures and they still seem to look alright.
Added some texture sheets to the Deus Ex scene and should have a new environment by next week from the game artist Collaboration Challenge(if it turns out well)
I'd say, just make sure after you done it, to grab a couple of references of trees you like, and just make a set of trees/flowers/plants that weren't done in the tutorial.
You can compare it to a hard surface tutorial that teaches you how to make a aircraft, making the aircraft with the tutorial next to you isn't gonna be very convincing as portfolio piece, but using the concepts you learned from it to make a tank (for example) isn't gonna hurt, that's how people learn this stuff usually
And if you do a scene like this (up to you) it also gives you some opportunity's to do some things such as rocks, some wood planks (maybe a small bridge/boat next to a river/etc).
Maybe even go wild, do maybe a small japanese foliage scene, lots of stuff you can do away to break away from that tutorial, to show that you can apply those concepts, and do more then just follow the tutorial.
To close it off, just a quick thing that is bugging me on your last piece.
Redo the scratches on the vent, now it just looks as if you scribbled a bit on your texture instead of making actual scratches/worn off metal there.
And they really stand out because they don't match the general style of the other wear on the piece, it's almost as if someone else came along and did those.
I have updated the original post with the new url. I switched to weebly as others have suggested and created a more professional email address.
http://alexwellsartist.weebly.com/
Sent my portfolio a few places, I hope to hear back from at least one, even if it is a no. The waiting is what kills you.
change your palette, and you should start raising eye brows.
I think ill be doing a few days of pre planning before I even open maya.
(Concept by John Liberto)
It will be epic when done nicely... can't wait..
As chrisradsby says you need to find a FOV that works, cause this scene has some crazy perspective, but I hope you figure it out cause I love vertical scenes like this, makes them look massive
The section outlinethe rest of the towers have a more asian style like the green chunk so ill be able to reuse and rotate it to create the rest of the tower.
The orange highlights areas will used a tillable brick texture with a reusable unique unwrap for the windows.
The blue is just highlighting some objects connected to the building that will need to be uniquely unwrapped.
As for the rest of the scene im not too worried about, ill just need to get the scale right in the block out.
Feel free to offer any other suggestions on how to break this down more!
Finishing up this prop from awhile back. I wanted to get any almost finished projects out of the way,it may replace the mass effect planter as I think it is the weakest of the bunch
i guess this is how i will see things when my eyesight turns to crap.
model looks nice, but texture could use more material variety. for example you could make rims metallic or add some black plastic here and there.
also, is there a reason for leaving all those useless edge loops there? i recall your other models had the same issue.
Edit: Yeah splitting the model up and removing the edge loops shaved off almost thousand tri's
What are you referring to when you say "ribbon textures?" I haven't heard that term before and a stroll through the wiki and a search through the forums yielded nothing but hits for Max's ribbon UI. Maybe there's a more commonly used term for the same method that I'm more familiar with?
Ah, thank you. I guess I just never had a word for that. That's a fantastic tutorial, by the way.
The first of is almost done I feel deserves a spot in the old portfolio!
Just need to texture the gate and add some plants on the sides and get the ground textured! Crits as always are welcome and encouraged!
Here's the wires in Maya, the wires in UDK look all busy due to the tessellation.
I think its clear my folio is just average and that just won't cut it. I'm hoping to replace everything in there with new and better work. I only have a part time job for now so it's going to be nonstop cranking out work untill I have to start paying back student loans.
I'm still in the process of blocking things out but this scene has been much more enjoyable to work on.
I'm pretty sure this will be my next piece then I will go back to the flooded chinatown environment. Just having too much fun with this one.
Not sure if there is a better way to do gravel...
Oh hey look ive got wood!
I think one of the biggest issues environment artists have at first is that of making everything in their worlds at perfect angles. That isn't to say that everything in the scene should be beat up or destroyed, but creating everything out of perfect rectangles and straight lines will never look quite right in most cases, unless it's something like a pristine sci-fi hallway. Even by breaking up the lines a little you'll create a subtle effect that will feel more natural to a viewer and add a lot more character to a scene.
The biggest offender at the moment is the wooden walkway and supports, in my opinion. Adding some slight bowing and bending of the wood will add some visual interest to it, instead of it reading as cube primitives with a wood material applied. Depending on how old this area is you could also do the same with the roofing. Chip some pieces off of it and break it up some.
Looking forward to seeing this progress.
Right now each section modular but I may combine it into one mesh so I wont have the same bends for each one. I don't want to take it too far because I wanted this area to only be a few years old but just slightly so it does not have that cube primitive look.
I removed the dumpster and mass effect inspired prop, added the water cart and a section for two wips im working on.Also made new banners for each section. Starting back up full steam for both of the scenes!
These are the three environments im working on right now, trying to just churn through work!
and the Normandy SR2
and of course still working on the Japanese garden, just not wanting to show that untill I get a bit more done.
I'm hoping the Japanese garden breaks up some of the Sci fi. its just taking a bit longer since I have not done as much natural stuff. I also want to put in some random foliage and such to add some variation.
Just need a few plants and I think I can put this in. Really wanted to push DX 11 effects for this one.
Of course C&C are welcome.
Got a tree in for this scene, hope to get maybe some kind of hedge and another small prop and I can call it done. of course crits please, the more the better!
This scene has no real budget, it was just a fun scene in what I hope next gen will offer. Tessellation on just about everything that makes sense, higher poly and texture budget and things like that.
Just gotta fix the wood on the inside edge of the door(some stretching) and add some scuff marks too it and I think ill be done.