[Portfolio/Site Review] Student looking for internship in 3D Environment Art

Talicus

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for feedback on my 3D art website. I am looking for an internship as a 3D environment artist and I would love to get some helpful and inspiring critiques to improve my work. So please take a look at my website:

http://www.joshuavangageldonk.com

Or if for whatever reason my main website is down (which shouldn't happen but you never know) this is my mirror website:

https://googledrive.com/host/0B8_iv...jU3c/index.html

Thanks!!

alexk

Hi, this is going be a bit blunt..

If you're looking for a position as a environment artist, it's generally best to focus your folio to that. So I would take out your character art as it's quite weak.

Your environments could use more work in general. Your work doesn't compare enough to what is being released right now for end of cycle consoles, not to mention that the next generation is just around the corner.

Spend more time learning about texturing and reproducing materials (ie: brick, wood, metal, plastic, ect). Right now, they look muddy, faint and almost procedural based. I can't really tell if there are any normal maps or specular maps being used. The lighting is also very.. strange looking, but it might be due to the textures.

So where do you go from here? Firstly, be objective when evaluating yourself. Ask yourself: How does this compare to the art in shipped titles? How can I make mine look like that? What do I need to learn and practice to get there? Secondly, post your WIP's here on polycount to get feedback. Best of luck!

Overmind

There are some good and some bad things about your portfolio that I would like to address.

Website:
The website loaded fast and is very easy to navigate through. It may seem obvious but I have seen many interns with really bad websites so good job there.

Characters:
I don't really like the skeleton character in your characters page. It drags down the level of your portfolio which is a shame because you are aiming to be an environment artist, not a character artist.
I have a mixed opinion about the other (kwaidan?) character. I like the detailing and the colors in the armor and the leather arm pieces also seem fine.
The body of the character however looks a bit off.
I would recommend either keeping just the Kwaidan character or removing the characters page completely and show your armor and arm pieces as separate assets maybe.

Projects:
Not much to say here, it looks decent for what it is. They seem like fun little small projects but they don't prove that you can create AAA environments.

Environments:
I agree with the previous post that the lighting in the environments can use some work. My guess is that in most of your projects
there is a really strong ambient light which makes your levels look a bit flat and dull. I think you should tweak the lighting to make it really shine.
However there is also a lot of potential that the other user did not really address well, especially considering you are just looking for an internship.
I like the architecture in the "game architecture" (which is kind of a dull name by the way) level. It has a nice sense of height and architectural integrity.
The Dynamic Environments have good dynamic effects but the ground material is a little dull and muddy.
The Kitchen in my eyes looks decent but again the lighting could have been better. I like how you closely matched the reference photos rather than recreating a scene that "sort of looks like it".
The goo factory has a nice theme but not the best modeling or texturing. Then again it is your first work so I won't comment on it too much, but if you have more work to show I'd recommend to remove that.

Overall I'd say that there's potential but you're not quite there just yet.
If you can create a projects that has the best of all your works (which in my eyes would be the architecture of "game architecture", the dynamic environments from "dynamic environment", the materials from "kitchen"
and the detailing from "kwaidan") I think you're well on your way to finding a nice internship!