[WIP] Environment Portfolio in Progress

Soldeus

Hi, Im Soldeus, I've been lurking for some time this website and,finally, decided to make a thread. Im going to use this thread for two purposes :

1. Keep track of my progress working on my portfolio, and to help me deal with the procrastination I've been suffering for some time xD.

2. To get some lovely critics on my work. Im still learning some steps of the workflow, so this is going to be not only a Portfolio, but a learning thread for me. So all the help I can get is more than welcome! Thanks in advance!.

As I want to be an Environment Artist I thought of making 2 small dioramas, 1 with hand-painted style, and one with realistic style. So I can learn both techniques at a decent level.

As a goal for myself I chose to make:
1. A weapon(or a small set of weapons <aka> Sword + Shield etc)
2. A vehicle
3. Some other small props to fill the dioramas

One of each for each style. So 2 vehicles, 2 weps, and so on..

To start I picked up this concept by Jim Svanberg.

I just finished the highpoly of the weapon:


There is still a detail pass left, which will be done in Zbrush, or maybe directly in to the lowpoly with nDo2.(Mostly lines across the surface and small details which aren't worth of topology headaches). The handle will be made in Zbrush too.

Cordero

I'm not much of a hardsurface guy, but it looks like a solid start even tho the concept is a bit dull in my opinion

looking forward to what you'll make of this

jimsvanberg

Hey! I was surprised to see this model of my old concept as I browsed the "what are you working on" thread. Even I'm not too happy whit how the concepts looks today, you still have done a great job of capturing it ^^ Keep it up!

Jeff Parrott

Wait. What? You want to be an Environment Artist and have a bunch of different styles (which is fine I suppose but remember jack of all master of none) but you're doing weapons? There are people like Alan http://polygoo.com or Racer who solely focus on weapons. And they own that category.

The weapon looks well enough. Doesn't scream high poly detail at this point. Looks more like a slightly above in game res to me. I would push the detail more for high poly.

But also think about the stuff you're thinking about making and how that fits into your larger career goal.

Soldeus

I understand what you say, Jeff. I'm treating them just as another prop that can be part of the dioramas I'm going to make, not because I'm going to be a weapon modeler.

But maybe this isn't the correct approach to be an Environment Artist, what do you think should I have in my portfolio? Or what should I focus more?

I'm making some realistic environments to have some diversity in my portfolio, what I really like is making hand-painted scenes and props(To be more precise, I'd stay forever doing lowpoly-only diffuse props xD so much fun ), but I think its hard to find a job by just focusing in one style, am I wrong with this thought?

Thanks for the critics!

@jimsvanberg : Glad you like it! It was a really good surprise seeing you around this thread, ace work you have in your portfolio.

Jeff Parrott

I dunno. I see that approach. Like here's a bunker that has a gun in it. Scott Homer http://scotthomer.co.uk did that with his first portfolio (which was amazing btw). So I think there's merit in that. More so instead of spreading yourself thin trying this or that. Just focus on what you want to do. If it's current/next gen weapons or war games then go for it. If it's medieval hand painted iOS games then by all means go for it. Read The Dip by Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip it's a whopping like 200 pages or something. You can finish it in a day. A good thing he points out is with the advent of the internet and everyone having so much information available at their fingertips that you can't be the best general whatever. You need to be the best at something specific. It might take longer to find a job. But it will be worth it because you'll be the best in a category.

Again if it's guns then look at Alan and Racer. Cause that's where the bar is. If it's environments then look at Adam, Jason Lavoie, Chris Holden or any of the amazing other environment guys on here. Just know where the bar is and don't expect to be the best at hand painted stylized, and realistic weapons, and current/next gen shaders, and environments, and high res modeling. Specialize to an extent. It's good to have some experience doing other things and knowledge of workflows. But really good companies are going to want people passionate about what they do and the style they work in. Not something half in and half out.

Soldeus

I think I'm going to follow your recomendation. Im going to finish this weapon(so I can learn some nDo2 and so on, always helps to learn new things) and I'm going to jump in to the hand-painted things asap. Your comment really help me focus in to what I like and somewhat changed the way I look at my learning process. Thank you!