[Portfolio] Last minute updates for GDC
polycounter lvl 12
Okay, when I say 'update', I also mean finish. 
But, first, before the link, let me explain what I enjoy doing game-art wise. I label myself as an 'environment artist'(can't really change that right now cause I ordered my business cards last night). But, I don't like limiting myself to just being someone that models environment-related assets. I enjoy everything to do with making a scene fun to look at, basically- concepts, lighting, modeling, texturing, prop placement, shader creation, post-process, and whatever else. I'm hoping to develop a portfolio that showcases all of these attributes, but I don't think I'm there yet. Also, for what it's worth, I would like to work for companies that push the hardware, and engine, and aim for realism. The companies that come to mind first for me are Dice and Crytek, followed by Bungie and the Activision studies working on the CoD titles.
Click this
I don't have much up yet, or even an About me page. I plan on getting all the personal stuff up with links to other things and my resume soon, but I'd like to get feedback on the art side right now.
Currently, the only things up are one asset, some digital paintings, and a level for a class some months ago. I decided to throw it up on the site for the lighting, post-process, and material stuff. This will definitely be replaced when I get more portfolio-quality work.
Also, here is a paintover on how I want to change the main page
And, here are some things I'd like to add. It's for a game I worked on with a group of 10-15 people, where I was responsible for lighting, post-process, some assets, some of the complex materials, and vertex painting.
with a few other shots of the environment and a few material breakdowns.
I'm working on another scene right now and I'll have a thread for it soon. I just wanted to get this started first.
But, first, before the link, let me explain what I enjoy doing game-art wise. I label myself as an 'environment artist'(can't really change that right now cause I ordered my business cards last night). But, I don't like limiting myself to just being someone that models environment-related assets. I enjoy everything to do with making a scene fun to look at, basically- concepts, lighting, modeling, texturing, prop placement, shader creation, post-process, and whatever else. I'm hoping to develop a portfolio that showcases all of these attributes, but I don't think I'm there yet. Also, for what it's worth, I would like to work for companies that push the hardware, and engine, and aim for realism. The companies that come to mind first for me are Dice and Crytek, followed by Bungie and the Activision studies working on the CoD titles.Click this
I don't have much up yet, or even an About me page. I plan on getting all the personal stuff up with links to other things and my resume soon, but I'd like to get feedback on the art side right now.
Currently, the only things up are one asset, some digital paintings, and a level for a class some months ago. I decided to throw it up on the site for the lighting, post-process, and material stuff. This will definitely be replaced when I get more portfolio-quality work.
Also, here is a paintover on how I want to change the main page
And, here are some things I'd like to add. It's for a game I worked on with a group of 10-15 people, where I was responsible for lighting, post-process, some assets, some of the complex materials, and vertex painting.
with a few other shots of the environment and a few material breakdowns.
I'm working on another scene right now and I'll have a thread for it soon. I just wanted to get this started first.
Replies
If you are looking for a job, you should include a web-friendly resume. It's OK to have a PDF, but make that a download link from the resume page. HTML is much better behaved in a web browser than Acrobat, and you'll have an easier time creating a web page that blends seamlessly with the rest of your website than a PDF.
Your About page is currently blank. I'm certain you mean to fill that, just make sure it's a valid link or remove the link before showing the portfolio.
The descriptive text for each entry should be in properly formatted paragraphs, and left-justified. Center justification should be limited to titles.
In the warehouse, the floor texture is a little busy; perhaps enlarging the tiles and reducing the contrast between the tiles and the grout would improve things. The cinderblock texture is just screaming for a simple normal map for the grout; it would be simple to create and would improve that first image.
You might want to tone down the wood grain on the crate's normal map; even in weathered wood the grain texture is fairly subtle. The diffuse texture seems very noisy; some of that is the normal map's fault, but the diffuse itself has a great deal of noise. Finally, the only difference I can see among the 3 diffuse textures is the base color, something which can be changed with just the shader. I'd look into changing color in the shader, or adding more variety to the textures - clean/dirty versions, versions with stenciled text or painted labels, etc.
Be sure to include a fully-rendered image as well as a wireframe. Also, make sure the wireframe is clear - yours shows only a few scattered and incomplete edges.
I'd probably ditch "School" from the banner for the warehouse; mention that in the description. I'd also use the same font & font size for each banner. Banner text for portfolios is generally either right- or left-justified, and placed in one of the 4 corners. This reduces the amount of art obscured by text.
For your 2D page, the descriptions would probably work better if they came before rather than after the image. I'd eliminate the ambiguity in the descriptions - "sometime in 2010" reads better as simply "in 2010", and "before college (early 2009?)" should simply be "in 2009".
If you have a tablet, you might want to create a portfolio on the tablet. You can use it to show your stuff directly, without worrying about a reliable web connection or making people type in your web address.
Also , i would put more work there, because one room and a prop wont be enough imo to stand out from the crowd . I would make my priority producing more assets and levels .
Take care and good luck !
Thanks for the formatting help.
I'll go back over the crate. I'll set up a shader in UDK for the rotation/location-based color with a mask. I did have a mask for changing the color, I just didn't have enough to fine tweak it and get it set up with the material.
I plan on removing the text on the thumbnails for the actual scenes, but I could move the Asset and 2D text as well.
Having "in 2010" does sound a lot better. Thanks for pointing that out
I do have a tablet. I bought it mainly for GDC.
I was a little worried about how the light grey would look. I'll definitely tone it down.
I'll have some updated images by the end of the day. :thumbup:
I set up a little color variation material for rotation and location. Should I use a shot like this for the 'usefulness' and a Marmoset render for the quality? (I also removed greentooth because after looking over some of my other work, I realized I use him a lot for my school work as a logo/sticker
I forgot to post this last time as well. I would like to include this in my assets section(a cleaner render of course, with the 3 material types that I was required to make), but I also have a scene I'm working on that uses this as a prop.
One last thing, as someone that's only familiar with Marmoset and UDK, which would be better for portfolio stuff? In UDK, I can show off the material trickery, but with Marmoset, everything just looks better. Perhaps a Marmoset model render with a UDK material setup?
Thanks for the help so far!
If your serious, you need to rework a lot of your stuff. This is an example of someone's portfolio at a place you mentioned. SimonFuchs.net
Currently your not up to that quality. It'll be tough for anyone at that studio to consider you based on where their bar is and what your currently offering.
Your assets are not half bad but your warehouse scene is suffering a bit from a lack of art direction or real life reference. (If that is what your going for, real life I mean, currently it's confusing me.)
The lighting looks scy-fi yet the concrete suggests an older structure. Your scene lacks character. Example of what I'm talking about:
Your wall texture repeats way to much and really needs to be broken up with support beams or a blending texture of some sort. Currently your not telling any sort of story with this warehouse and it really won't impress anyone. What is it, why is the player there? Why do they care? There are some generators and some crates, There isn't a landmark or any sort of point of reference at all. Not cutting it. If it's a generator room find some proper ref and make the assets to support that type of room.
Example:
Take a good long look at just this image. (you don't have to stick with this, find whatever, but there are reasons to find ref). Looking at this image there are a ton of cool details (None of which would be difficult to make yet a lot of people don't take the tame to model em or pick them out of a concept or reference picture), Let's just break some of these down shall we? (If I were making this scene these would be things I modeled for sure.)
The valve in the center of the room
the support beams
overhead crane and pulley system
Clipboards on walls
clock
tanks in corner
railing and stairs
pipes along walls and large floor pipes
And to be honest that'd be just my starting point......
Another great thing about my reference I've chosen is it gives you a sense of a time period. Something I can't really make out in your warehouse. So make some decisions, find the ref to support those decisions and don't fake a scene with a generator a few crates and some pipes. Do your homework, and apply what you learn.
Good luck.
I didn't mean to come off as thinking I'd get a position with Crytek currently, it's just somewhere that I'd like to end up eventually. A long-term goal, I suppose. It was also just to clarify that I prefer to aim for realism in my textures and whatnot.
I agree with pretty much everything you said about the warehouse scene. It was originally for a level design class that didn't focus on the art aspect as much as it did the gameplay. I decided to learn UDK better and focus on the [technical]art side, but almost everything in the scene came with UDK. I'm happy with the lighting/PP/atmosphere, but like you said, there's no story.
Thank you for the portfolio(I've never seen his work before) and those reference images. I think I may use that concept for another project I'm working on. Do you think I should model some of my own stuff and add it to the current scene, or should I just scrap the UDK stuff and use the lighting with something else?
And an off topic question, is there a reason for using the Polycount logo?