Judge my Portfolio please!

Facepalm Ranger

Because we all know how much we love to judge each other.

This is my first portfolio of work for getting employed, I've previously worked on two game projects. I have a rough idea of the criticism I'm going to receive but hit me with it anyways. I need to get better! I know I've got a long way to go (as I've learned on my internship) so any advice to improve not only my portfolio but also my skills and the kind of work I should be doing would be appreciated!

Link Below:
http://kenmcfarlane.daportfolio.com/

Brendan

I didn't have any idea what 'Drop' was, so I pressed that button.

Drop Guy looks like it's using too many polys. The centre (symmetry) loop doesn't look to be doing a whole lot, and the loops around the chest are the same. From other angles they could be useful, but I don't know and right now they look like you just forgot to clean up your mesh (seemingly artefacts from the base cylinder).

Opening previous projects with Shark Bot didn't seem all that impressive to me. Maybe the pure concept artists would like it, I don't know.

The only other thing is, I was looking to seem more 3d models (even wires) and texture flats; it seems a bit light on the models/texture examples.

Facepalm Ranger

hey thanks for taking a look. Drop is a project I'm working on whilst I'm doing my internship, I'm still relatively untrained to the whole modelling thing especially complex characters so I tried to complete it in as little polys as I could. (I've only just learned about base meshes )

I have cleaned up the model as it had much more needless polys before that but when I make my next model I'll bare in mind to tidy up the faces more.

I shall add some more models and texture things into the portfolio too.

glottis8

hmm... i would have just work right off the bat.

Facepalm Ranger

I don't have that much work to show, the only think that isn't shown here is a game level and the file seems to be corrupted for it which sucks.

What kind of things should I model/sculpt for good practise?

nick2730

Like Nerf said im having a very hard time figuring out what you want do to. Try and stick to 1 dicipline

Facepalm Ranger

Nerf Bat Ninja wrote: »

Took me 3 clicks to get to really see any artwork.

You describe yourself as a modeler / texture artist / concept artist... I see 2 models, one is a character the other is a piano and I did not see a single texture sheet anywhere on your website.

I also saw some UI design in there somewhere?

Your website just seems like it's all over the palce. I think you need to figure out what it is you'd really like to do and focus on that. In most cases studios are going to hire people that specialize in a certain field.

It also seems like there's a lot of unfinished work. I can't be sure.

Okay,so more models is a must, include texture maps of things. would it be good to layout an image that contains the model, wireframe and texture map (possibly with some stats about the model?) kind of like this? (I can't figure out how to get the alpha channels I painted in to work in maya...)


What I really would like to do is conceptual art, modelling and texturing but I feel really bad about my work so I try but the best of all the stuff I've worked on into it.

The work is all finished....

Brendan

That chicken has style, especially the textures, but it looks like the ~100-poly model it letting it down.
Don't let simple and stylized fool you into super-low poly counts; Valve nailed it perfectly with Team Fortress 2 and the poly count and amount of detail; simple, elegant shapes with the poly count to carry the curvature and silhouette.

roosterMAP

I like your concept style, but your side holds almost exclusively that. I would suggest having some strong traditional art pieces in there, just to show that you can do it.

Facepalm Ranger

roosterMAP wrote: »

I like your concept style, but your side holds almost exclusively that. I would suggest having some strong traditional art pieces in there, just to show that you can do it.

traditional art pieces like pencils and stuff? crazY I've just beginning to get good with a tablet.

honestly though, just did this since my last reply, is it better than most of the stuff in my portfolio? despite just being a head?

Laughing_Bun

I think your illustrations rely on black outlines way too much. I know you are going for a comic style, but they make your drawings look dead and amateur. Color your lines with similar shades of hues to create volume in a way that color actually works in the real word. Black doesn't happen in the real world and outlines like you are using destroy any sort of natural contrast. People have done that style a lot in the past but it looks really dated now. I suggest looking at Disney stuff or other high quality production stuff for a more tasteful way to do a similar style.

here's just one simple example:
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb58378/disney/images/0/08/Nala-Simba-Pumbaa-Zazu-Timon-Rafiki-walt-disney-characters-19844880-1024-768.jpg

Facepalm Ranger

Laughing_Bun wrote: »

Color your lines with similar shades of hues to create volume in a way that color actually works in the real word.

ha I just did that in the previous post! so...do that more?

Laughing_Bun

ha yah you posted that right before me. yes more of that.

Facepalm Ranger

Thanks everyone for your crit, I'm gonna get on and reorganise my portfolio.

Any last things I should be aware of?

fearian

I think you might need to trim some of the chaff, make it more obvious that the link on the top are projects (maybe have large clear thumbnails for each project on the landing page).

But all in all I think your work is very well suited to Mobile dev and the range of skills you've shown is actually a big pro in this area - many smaller mobile studios will require you to wear alot of hats during development and I think you fit this well.

Good luck!

Facepalm Ranger

fearian wrote: »

I think you might need to trim some of the chaff, make it more obvious that the link on the top are projects (maybe have large clear thumbnails for each project on the landing page).

But all in all I think your work is very well suited to Mobile dev and the range of skills you've shown is actually a big pro in this area - many smaller mobile studios will require you to wear alot of hats during development and I think you fit this well.

Good luck!

So should I change the whole format as I use deviant art's portfolio service and I don't think theres much room for changing it around in html terms. Should I build a better portfolio on wordpress or blogger or something similar?

I'm aiming to start out in the mobile kind of market, so to recap;

more models and work showing the texture maps. Better high Quality of work, a refined portfolio focusing on what I want to do (Get rid of GUI stuff?)
Layout website better or get a new one.

right?