[Portfolio] Any ideas how to improve?

Rageleet

Hey guys, just finished uni now im really trying to get into the industry been sending a lot of CV's off and getting no reply's, so i just wanted to check from the pros if my portfolio is alright, i think it needs some high quality renders of individual assets for one thing but im not sure of the best method for going about it, any crits would be great, thanks guys :thumbup:

Port: http://www.msouthall.com

mystichobo

The website itself work I suppose, no nonsense there. Not sure about having a WIP peice of work at the top of the page though.

In general the environments seem a bit flat, try and add a bit of contrast into them or something.
Here's a quick paintover I did of the church in PS (just added a gradient map, could pretty easily implement this in engine with UDK's color grading):

Original:

ivanzu

Show/Make some environments that are not for university.Currently your environments are let down by the dull lighting and some of the textures are are kind of boring to look at .Try applying to work on the mods and small indies games just to get some experience.

Blaisoid

i'd focus on lighting first. in most pieces it lacks depth, it reminds me of games from times when level designers had very limited tools for creating lighting.

the exception being temple grounds scene which feels more modern but it also blinds my eyes with its ultra bloom fest.

another thing is photosourced doors, they stick out since they look quite different from other textures.

Rageleet

thanks for the quick reply's, yeah the lighting is really flat on the church and my general lighting isn't great.

@mystichobo : thanks for taking the time there with the paint over, looks like a pretty cool effect. might need to Google gradient maps :P

@ivanzu : yeah that's really all i have though at the minute, working on another piece but its large project so im not sure weather to make a smaller environment that's not going to be soo taxing hmmmmm.

Shogun3d

Portfolio itself looks good. Very good layout with breakdowns, thanks for showing shader usage. Couple things.

1) Get rid of all the unecessary social networking links, leave professional services such as LinkedIn, Resume, Contact info on there.

2) The Max,UDK,PS icons on your large thumbnails are distracting, make them smaller or get rid of them completely. You can state what programs you used easily on the break down pages.

Outside of that, looks good, just need to push your environments and keep your top shots on the front page. Good luck!

AlecMoody

Less large scale noise in the brick texture and more directional lighting will improve it a lot. Right now surface noise and scene lighting are contributing equally to the contrast in the image which makes it look very flat.

Rageleet

thanks for the feedback , ill lower the icons, i thought it would be an important feature to be able to share the work, as i want to increase my online presence :S

at the minute im working on light the church and just improving in general, think iv got already got much better lighting using the grading feature.

gsokol

You have an unfinished env in there..icky.

I agree with what other people are saying about improving what you have up there now. But one gripe I have with your portfolio is that its just...forgettable. Not to say the quality is necessarily bad on anything, its really not...but nothing resonates with me after seeing your portfolio.


Try to work on an environment that hasn't been seen 100s of times before...something that people will remember. The rage inspired one is my favorite so far...but its not finished.


That being said, I don't think your portfolio is too bad, you've proven that you know the basics...now you need to push it to get peoples attention.

sybrix

I agree that the lighting is the weakest common denominator in your environments and is one of the hardest things to nail in an environment. I struggle with it too.

I think the tea garden is looking much too washed out and too bright. Some of the details are getting lost.

Your site layout is fine; no gripes with that. Everything's arranged nicely and easy to get to from what I see.

One nitpick I have is with how you present your wireframes on your presentation shots. You might want to have the wireframe overlay on the actual 3D model next to the beauty shot of the model so it's easier to see how the wires correspond to the model.

Overall not bad at all. Just keep plugging away!

Rageleet

thanks for the post guys,lighting is certainly my weakest strength, im still trying to play around with that church lighting and overall create a better atmosphere. ill post some examples up soon when i get something thats worth posting haha, its going that bad, thanks again

stxtch

At a glace the lighting needs a lot of work. It also looks like you could use a lot more variation in your textures; for example I see a lot of trim elements that share the same texture as the wall meshes they intersect with. The trim could be a different kind of stone than the walls - carved instead of blocked, for example. Even if you varied just the value of the trim it would start to look better already.

Rageleet

@stxtch

thanks for the comment yeah i need to really work on these pieces, btw Ur fantasy environment looks amazing!!


Im using grading to try and change the look but i cant achieve my desired result:(

Rageleet

been playing around with grading trying to get a good effect, not going very well, i seem to find its always the extremes of light or dark, i cant seem to get a middle ground.

nathanbarrett

I think it needs more fog.

Something that would sell it too, I think, would be the adding of a dominant directional light (night time one) over the top right of the church. A bright moon in that large gap with the moon light hitting the church in a sweet way would totally improve it IMO

Rageleet

thank yeah iv got one in, think im gonna start the lighting from scratch

Rageleet

jsut an update, adding a fire just to test some things

Rageleet

working on some lighting improvements what do u guys think?

Rageleet

update.

twigdamnyou

the inside is looking pretty good but the alter is kinda dark for how many candles you have there

ladyknowles

It's looking much better but try not to go to dark. I liked your second post much better than the latest ones, try to focus on that with a tiny bit more contrast. I think something that would help you much more with your lighting is to make sure you have some solid object where the light is coming from in your scene. For instance, you have some candles in your church scene; they would cast a much wider glow than they are now.

The same with the outside of the church; you have a moon there, it would be casting a brighter light than it is now

Here's a tutorial on creating an animated skydome that you might find helpful:

http://juarez3d.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/tutorial_animated_skydome_v1-3.pdf

Good work overall, its just polishing that needs to be done!

Rageleet

update of site added some new content

http://msouthall.com/

AlexCatMasterSupreme

I dont like the lighting you settled with at all.

Bertmac

^^ very useful comment ^^ AlexCatMasterSupreme
you might wanna to tell us why .
thank you

k21n

I agree with AlexCatMasterSupreme. Also it looks a bit plain, need to give it a bit of feeling, some more details (texture and props: perhaps some decals, fx etc). The Chinese scene, it is a bit boring, you have some pretty good things there but try to add more if you can. And the scene for the handheld devices, you realise that you have the interface on? no ? fix that, that needs also some details and i think the textures could be improved. And don't show WIPS on portofolios. Otherwise it looks ok.

JacqueChoi

The environments themselves seem pretty good,, but yeah as everyone said, the lighting/presentation is really making them look much worse.

What engine are you usung to light this?

Btw here's a decent ref:

http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm



Maybe remove all textures, and light it with a 50% grey material applied. This will help calibrate your lights.

If the levels look wrong after that, it's maybe your textures/materials.

k21n

He is using Unreal Engine as far as i can see

Rageleet

thanks for the replys

JacqueChoi @ yeah im using UDK.


lighting isn't really my strong point i know that, but what are the areas where my lighting needs to improve?

i thought the overall lighting was much better more contrast compared to the original desaturated image but where am i going wrong?

AlexCatMasterSupreme

Sorry I just am too lazy. But I needed to say it because he could at least re-evaluate it. It pretty much breaks the scene. It's just not as interesting. The earlier ones were better. But I dont really want to go into detail.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

Bertmac wrote: »

^^ very useful comment ^^ AlexCatMasterSupreme
you might wanna to tell us why .
thank you

That sounds like a lot of work. Just look at other peoples lighting, see why it's good, look at yours, see why it's bad, adjust. That's all I can really say without putting effort but it's a good starting place.

Edit: didn't realize I already replied to that...