My friend says mods aren't good on a portfolio, looking for opinions!

100Chihuahuas

I have been having a debate with a friend over whether mods look good on professional portfolios.
I am a professional environment artist, but am just now starting to get interested in modding my favorite game, Skyrim!.



I think a great-looking art-based mod would be good experience and look nice on a portfolio.

My friend thinks that time would be better spent on personal projects, because that is what employers would rather see.



I am looking for some more opinions from the Polycount community, please! Speak your minds, I will really appreciate it!

Macattackk

thats really stupid... your friend doesnt know what hes talking about. working on a mod shows you know how to work with a team and have deadlines and work within the confines of a specific style and cohesive piece.

Neox

Sorry to say so, but your friend is stupid.

And this is why.

Both can be worth the same, if its personal work or a mod and it is well made, it is well made.

BUT

for a recruiter it could also be worth more, if you integrate in a team, if you can adapt to their style and quality, if you transfor their concepts into something that fits into their game etc.

100Chihuahuas

Thank you for your opinions!
Maybe I will throw in one more question into here, if you guys don't mind.

Would working on a a mod with a decent-sized team look way better than working on a mod with a little bitty team?

Thank you in advance

Texelion

Yeah, and it shows that you like to invest yourself in something else than just doing regular stuff. I know some guys who get a job because they did great mods...

Of course it depends on the mod...

spahr

I can see an argument to be made that a mod is very specific, and a lot of work will go into one aspect of your skills. So what ever your game art style may be, you might be making that style for some time. While on a portfolio you can rattle off this and that, and you leave your options open to be diverse.

Also there may be a lot of work dedicated under the hood which for an artist is hard to represent in a portfolio. But to say its right or wrong is out of place.

There's also a concern, maybe, that if you show a mod, you may have a hard time spotting your specific work. "Oh I did 90% of the foliage, collaborated on water effects, did a 2nd and 4th pass on lighting"...its hard to stand out as an individual in a team. So I can understand their worry. But I'm not convinced its "bad" thing and I always recommend it.

Also, depending on the team, you may be holding peoples hands, or have an unfinished product in the end due to lazy members. Theres a lot of risks, but I think the pros out weigh the cons

Neox

spahr wrote: »

...its hard to stand out as an individual in a team.

as a recruiter this is what i would be looking for, teamplayers, not standalone rockstars. There are teams made from industry rockstars almost entirely but the vast majority needs team to compete, teams that work well together. The chances are given that people who are highly individual might not work that well in a team environment. Of course this also depends on the scale of the company you aim for, some are so small they have one man armies per department, so yeah - as always

it depends

spahr

Neox wrote: »

as a recruiter this is what i would be looking for, teamplayers, not standalone rockstars. There are teams made from industry rockstars almost entirely but the vast majority needs team to compete, teams that work well together. The chances are given that people who are highly individual might not work that well in a team environment. Of course this also depends on the scale of the company you aim for, some are so small they have one man armies per department, so yeah - as always

it depends

Thar be your answer mate

100Chihuahuas

Ok, thank you very much for the input : )

Add3r

I personally see having a little bit of both is your answer. I like to see mods (well done ones that is, where it looks more than just hacked together content), as it shows that you are able to work with an engine, create optimized content, and work with the existing content and be able to match art styles, gameplay, etc, as well as work with a team. It is also good to see an individual has the skills to be creative and bring personal projects to life. Either way, mods are good. Most people used to get started in the industry as modders. I know quite a few that started their stint as full time students and part time modders in their free time for fun. They can show serious skill if done right, but can also hurt portfolios if it is just hacked together, re-used assets, thrown together for some screenshots, especially if the mod just totally looks out of play (seen my fair share of that...).

futurepoly

I would say above all else, your work needs to look amazing. If you have to make visual sacrifices because of the engine you are using for the mod then it becomes a problem. If person x makes 5 bad-ass beautiful environments while you're still exporting a metal bucket for Skyrim then person x gets the job.

I do believe it's possible to do both but If you are trying to get a job as an artist then the quality of your work trumps all else.

I think the comments above are valid as far as being a team player but those are concerns that will come up in the interview process. The first step should be getting the interview.

d0kefish

Are you working on any project atm?

Blaisoid

If you have to make visual sacrifices because of the engine you are using for the mod then it becomes a problem.

i quite often stumble upon portfolios with assets made for big titles.
and guess what? these also can have low res textures, low polycount, and overall feel like they were made in rush. which probably was the case. the fact that something was made for actual game doesn't mean it's super polished and no sacrifices were made during its creation.

and even if your mod uses a crappy engine (mine are on Source, so yeah...), you can still use xoliul's shader or marmoset to showcase assets and you can make textures 2 times bigger then their intended size ingame.

did you see millenia's guns for Fallout New Vegas?

100Chihuahuas

@Add3r - Thank you. I do think it is important to be creative and always be learning new things, because every little bit I can squeeze in will make me a batter artist : )

@FuturePoly - My goal is to do work to Skyrim's default texture pack and general look/feel. Once I get going and get a solid technical grasp of modding, I will look for a small team. This way, I am still doing work that is relevant to my field. So it is still all about the art for me : )

@Blaisoid - Yes, I saw Millenia's guns for fallout, awesome!

futurepoly

Blaisoid wrote: »

i quite often stumble upon portfolios with assets made for big titles.
and guess what? these also can have low res textures, low polycount, and overall feel like they were made in rush. which probably was the case. the fact that something was made for actual game doesn't mean it's super polished and no sacrifices were made during its creation.

and even if your mod uses a crappy engine (mine are on Source, so yeah...), you can still use xoliul's shader or marmoset to showcase assets and you can make textures 2 times bigger then their intended size ingame.

did you see millenia's guns for Fallout New Vegas?

I totally agree that working on major titles also leads to visual sacrifice and Millenia's gun thread is top notch.

Millenia's thread is a great example of how a Mod can be a perfect fit for your portfolio.

My whole point is the artist needs to identify if the mod will be the best use of his time and that's the question that started this thread.

Let's say someone ultimately wants to work at Bungie as an environment artist. Their time would be better spent creating a fully realized environment that fits in with the Bungie style rather than working on a Skyrim mod and vice-versa.

A past student decided he wanted to work at Bungie so if you look at his portfolio it's pretty clear when he made that decision. He also got the job and has been killing it over there. Sorry Andy for bringing you up:)

http://andykreutzer.blogspot.com/

Valandar

There is a reason Team Fortress was a mod, and Team Fortress 2 is a commercial program. Ditto Counter-Strike and its sequels.

Ghostscape

Blaisoid wrote: »

i quite often stumble upon portfolios with assets made for big titles.
and guess what? these also can have low res textures, low polycount, and overall feel like they were made in rush. which probably was the case. the fact that something was made for actual game doesn't mean it's super polished and no sacrifices were made during its creation.

and even if your mod uses a crappy engine (mine are on Source, so yeah...), you can still use xoliul's shader or marmoset to showcase assets and you can make textures 2 times bigger then their intended size ingame.

did you see millenia's guns for Fallout New Vegas?

This was a huge detriment to my personal portfolio - I stopped working on personal work in my spare time and a significant amount of my professional work is not up to my personal quality level.

When I was trying to get into the industry I made a number of independent/student games and while I learned a lot about making games from them, none of the art (due to deadlines, etc) was up to speed. I worked on a mod that was too unfocused and conceptual to have any sort of deadlines, and basically got to work on art that might someday show up in a mod (it didn't because me and my mod-buddy never got it off the ground as I went and got an industry job and he already had one and hit crunch).

It's great to ship titles but if I were going to re-do my portfolio (I'm no longer looking for work) I would scrap all but 1-2 professional pieces and work on some personal projects.

Mods are great for a lot of things, but making an art portfolio is not necessarily one of them, and you need to be aware of that.

ScoobyDoofus

Hey Taylor. Your friend is wrong-ish. +1 to what Neox said.

Having great looking assets that were made for a game (mod or commercial) looks, in some ways, better than personal work.
First, it demonstrates the teamwork, the ability to work from concepts and hit styles(one of the harder things to do IMO).

It shows that you can do dynamite work on a schedule, unlike personal work, which you can spend as much time on as you like.

BTW: I think we worked at Vigil together...you were from Alaska right?

100Chihuahuas

@ScoobyDoofus - Thanks for the insight. And Yes, I did work with you at Vigil : )

BARDLER

Like others have said it depends. Good art is good art, so that is what matters. If you make some kick ass art and it is in a mod in your portfolio, then it makes you stand out a lot more. If you make just OK art and it is in a mod in your portfolio, then it makes that ok art a little better, however it is still OK art.

haikai

I admit when I'm reviewing someone's portfolio I don't really care if it's a mod or whatever. I just care about if it looks good and if you made it. The whole thing about teamwork and all that is great, but so hard to quantify. You could say that someone who has worked professionally at a studio for years must be a good team player, but that's not necessarily true in practice. At the end of the day, the only thing you can really go by when judging an artist is the quality of their work. Stuff like personality can be so easily misjudged even with interviews. Showing that you can do what the employer needs, the way they need it, and in the time they need it is as good as you can get from my perspective.

If I got two applicants, one with a so-so looking mod and the other with a knockout portfolio of personal work then I think I would favor the latter. I'm not saying that's right, but it's probably what I'd go with.

Kon Artist

You need a great portfolio to get an interview... Gaining experience working with a team (small, large, or mod) will give you something to talk about during the interview. Being able to explain why you made the decision you did and what you would do differently next time is always a good thing-- working with a team usually gives you a better understanding of this.

System

bullshit. its how i got my first job