[Portfolio] - In need of feedback

Pwnther

Hi guys. I recently finished my portfolio and would appreciate some feedback.
I'm planning to start looking for jobs/internships, and need to know if I'm ready.

Also, some tips on how to best advertise myself would be neat too!

My Portfolio can be found here:
http://www.osportfolio.comuv.com

Cheers!

magmabolt

the one thing that's jumping out at me is the text in your 3d section is taking up as much attention as your actual work. I would suggest shortening some of those sentences for the big projects you did and completely take out the ones for the smaller stuff like the barrel and what not. Most of those should be in your modeling sheet.

I'll leave the web design and art critiquing for some of the guys who are much more qualified than me

AimBiZ

Indeed there is way too much text. You don't need to have a back-story for every little thing you do.
For a portfolio site in general you want to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to utilize your site and view the work. Currently you're having a new page opened when clicking on a thumbnail which requires the viewer to go backwards to view the rest which slows the pace down imo. I suggest you have a thumbnail for each project, then collect all related big images on the page it leads to.

huffer

The image you're trying to sell is everything, and the key to your image is graphic design. You can pick up some free pdf's and create a nice, effective, simple layout, and futhermore, your knowledge of graphic design and visual composition will reflect on everything you do later on and will drive it to perfection.

For example, typography related: Don't use Times New Roman or embelished fonts. Times New Roman is not intended to be used as a small web adress. You can use them in the title, to suggest something dramatic, powerful, grand in scope, classy, or refined. Those features don't exactly go hand in hand with *any* 3d work, unless it's the dvd cover of a really big AAA project, an epic animation title or something along those lines. You're never going to make a piece of a mushroom man and use Trajan Pro (think ancient roman columns typeface) in the title, announcing "MUSHROOM MAN". You're going to go with something fun, a big, heavy sans serif font, tightly packed in white with red or black.

Go with something simple and easy, sans serif: Segoe, Calibri, Myriad. The goal is maximum transparency to allow *your* work to be the main focus. Don't use small caps, don't make the first letter a different colour, don't use many different font sizes, don't put bands, double spell check everything.

You come up with an graphic design or presentation idea. Next, the main question is: "Does this help put more focus on my artwork?". Do the blue capital letters do that? Do the white transparent bands barely visible over the grey background? No, so keep everything simple, with maximum visibility, and avoid doing things that seem "cool" like coloring a single letter from the titles, unless it's for a very very good reason and it ties in with the work on which it is placed.

Back stories are cool, but place them discretely to the side, or on a popup.

SanderDL

Your portfolio is kind of all over the place.
First you get a page with pictures, which is fine I guess. But then when you click one, you get another page with pretty much the same stuff and have to click again to start seeing your work. Either have all your images/projects on one page or have a page for each project. This way you have things more organized.

Also be consistent with the info you give. For example, you label yourself as a generalist on the front page when later you have images that label you as environment artist.

Pwnther

Thanks everyone, I didn't not except such a quick responses with so much constructive feedback. I am humbled. I will definitely trim down the unnecessary info/text.
The Collage with images on the front were intended as a preview of the content of my 3D page, but I see now how it could be confusing not being able to click on each one of the small images. I will figure out if there is a better way to present my stuff on the frontage. And I'm going to go over my typography and probably make new screens without any unnecessary things added to them.

Best Regards, and again thanks!

Pwnther

I have now updated my portfolio.

The following things have been fixed:

• The Preview image in the start have been altered slightly, and wont take you to the 3D page when clicked.
• All image content have been revised; The images are smaller, and all labels and other details have been removed.
• Image content is now opened inside the main page when thumbnails are clicked.
• Specs and descriptions are not visible by default when viewing content.
• Typography and formatting have been updated.

Things I have yet to do:

• Spell-checking
• Making more interesting scenes for my 3D content.

Zocky

Well, the fact that you can't click on the thumbnails is a bit annoying, as others have said, i'd changed that (as you already said).

Also, that "preview" image is a little confusing, you have everything on one place.
I'd maybe try to rearrange them, group environments in one group, characters in second, assets in third, and so on, just so that it looks better organized and easier to watch, if that makes sense.


And maybe similar with the 3d section, you have abit of everything there. Might help if you could maybe organize it a bit better so that you know what is environment, where are assets, and so.

Other then that, not bad, keep it up!

Pwnther

Thumbnails in the start page are now clickable and takes you to the proper images in the 3d section.

Thanks all for the feedback!

BradMyers82

Hey dude,
To be perfectly honest I think it will take a bit more work to break into the games industry. Don't worry though, it takes most people at least a year or so after they post there portfolios online for the first time.
So the main thing is that you make the best of your time to improve your portfolio. Currently the weakest link is the character you have there and your strengths lie in environments. Therefore, I would get ride of the character and really start focusing on making a new environment. There are a lot of environment artists here on polycount, so find someones work you like and make your own scene to mimic there quality. Post a wip thread here also to get crits along the way and people will let you know if you are on track. One really strong scene COULD get you your first job, so good luck. Keep working hard!