Student portfolio critique
polycounter lvl 6
Hi guys,
when I started uni about a month ago, I've build up a portfolio with the stuff I've done unitl now to show it to possible future employers and other contacts I may establish during uni.
Since I want to start applying for internships soon and hopefully get one where I can start when I graduated, I would like to hear what you think about my works and the website itself and how I can improve it.
www.artbysebastianschulz.com
I'am doing game art for about two and a half years now and so I have tons of stuff left to learn before I'am able to break into the industry I think.
At the moment I'am working on a new portfolio project I definatley want to finish before applying.
Thanks in advance!
when I started uni about a month ago, I've build up a portfolio with the stuff I've done unitl now to show it to possible future employers and other contacts I may establish during uni.
Since I want to start applying for internships soon and hopefully get one where I can start when I graduated, I would like to hear what you think about my works and the website itself and how I can improve it.
www.artbysebastianschulz.com
I'am doing game art for about two and a half years now and so I have tons of stuff left to learn before I'am able to break into the industry I think.
At the moment I'am working on a new portfolio project I definatley want to finish before applying.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
- Your website background is too busy! It's distracting and disorienting when trying to view the actual art(which looks nice btw).
- Sci fi machine room: The first image (and the banner is not the strongest) re-order your images showing the strongest first (imo the strongest is the 4th one down.) Perhaps even consider removing all of the hallway images because there have been thousands of these hallway type scenes before and yours is lacking something to make it unique. It's not a bad piece, it's just not going to get you any extra points, so maybe just focusing on the machine room itself would be best. Also the text is hard to read on the banner on the main page because it's white and also happens to be over an area with bloom in the image behind it.
- Your high-poly renders look quite nice, but for some reason in the layout they take a backseat and I feel like they may not get as many views if someone had to go through your site in a hurry. Which would be a shame because they are awesome.
- Victorian slum could use some lighting work. Same with the sewers. Both of these scenes don't have a focused composition. I'm not really sure where to look in either of them due to relatively even lighting.
- Old luggage is nice but I think it could use some better material definition and some lighting adjustments to create more contrast.
- Nordic Hammer: I really like the sculpt of this but the final textured version seems to be lacking a bit of punch. The metal doesn't look like metal and the gold feels like painted wood but it has too high of gloss for that imo. Same with the red cloth wrapped around the handle.
- The props could probably benefit from a lighting pass aswell.
Good luck! You have some really nice stuff in your portfolio.
I'll definatley look into those issues you mentioned! The problem on some of the older stuff like the props is that in some cases I don't have the files anymore so re-rendering could be difficult.
The background images is definitely distracting I would scrap that and maybe even contemplate going for a more simple website such as carbonmade or something, either that or copy a simple template like that cause it just makes work easier to view
sci fi room: I would get rid of the massive CE3 banners cause they are distracting, but if you have to keep them make them a little smaller. My favorite shot is the one close to the metal grated floor in the main room as that is quite nicely lit. 6 down I believe. my be interesting to see a shot of that massive machine baked down and textured, maybe with texture breakdown too. I would get rid of probably 2/3 of the images too because a lot of the hallway ones are very similar looking. Try and show something different with each image.
In regards to lighting try and highlight a focal point, ask yourself what the most interesting thing in the scene is and focus your attention on really selling that.
Also instantly remove things your not sure about because it probably means they shouldn't be in your folio. I personally would take the sewer out cause I think its one of the weakest things. Obviously you can replace this with more stuff as you progress through your time at Uni.
Hammer: I think you should try and nail the material definition a little more, try and really sell the gold and give your textures a little more variation. Have section that are worn and less shiny for example. It also looks a little busy and perhaps could do with some areas of rest. I would personally give less normal map detail to those straps as the details doesn't really sit right.
I don't know if your very close to finishing your Uni course, but if you need any help or advice I would be more than happy to help. Just graduating in a few weeks and have a job lined up so just drop us a line.
If it were me, I'd start over with the lighting on all three of your 3D scenes. Turn the textures off and work with greyshaded renders until the forms and the space are reading well--THEN bring the textures back in, with an eye toward making sure they don't overwhelm the forms (i.e., dark-colored surfaces punching "holes" in the picture.)
Hope that is of some use.
I've fixed some of the issues that were mentioned and made new renders for the hammer, removed the background image, made the cryengine icon on the machine room pictures smaller, changed the order of the banners, removed some of them and also got rid of the sewer.
The problem with completley redo the lighting in the scene is that I really would like to use the time better and make new stuff with new and better lighting instead of spending a week or so on tweaking the lighting in the "old" scenes.
Thanks again guys!
Any kind of crit is still appreciated!
Just my opinion: If you're not going to re-light and re-texture the "machine room" and "Victorian slum" I'd recommend you take them out entirely. The poor lighting and texturing on those scenes is really bringing the quality of your portfolio down.
Well you gotta have a sense for that, that comes with time.
There are way too many fonts and changes in font styles and the styles are not really appealing / bad and your font choices are not the best either. Get something sans serif for your name on top, and try cleaning up Atleast your frontpage with the previews. Make fonts smaller and keep all the same color, put a small darker box around or something so they are a little caged , and try place them on all images in the same place and size
You can totally do each piece in its own style with a own font and presentation, but it needs to be done well, else its just a big mess. Also leave a little space on frontpage between the images, that just makes it even messier when theyre so cluttered.
I've revised the typography according to your advice, Shrike and I think it looks better now.
I'am working on a new portfolio project atm and don't know if I'am on the right track so any crit would be appreciated!
[pics deleted]
As you can see all the detail stuff is still at the blockout stage but I hope you can get a sense of what I'am going for. Its renderd UDK btw.
As I said above, all crits are appreciated!
@Jet_Pilot:
Thank you!
Yes, I know about that problem. The problem is that I sadlydon't have most of the high poly files anymore so I'am not able to do new renders.
Thank you again for your critique!
Thanks in advance!
That being said, I'll try to address a couple of your works and maybe that'll get the ball rolling for other people to offer their critique as well.
The Machine Room:
Overall looks pretty cool, certainly better than anything I did at college. There are a few factors that drag it down though.
In the first shot of it, the text that says WATCH YOUR STEP. First off, because of how it's positioned in the shot I think it breaks up the composition in a pretty dramatic way, as it's very close to the center, and distracts me from absorbing the image in one look, since we naturally wanna read whatever letters we see and place that in a higher priority over absorbing the rest of the image.
This leads into the other issue, which is it really looks like you Photoshopped it over the image after the fact (especially since it's not visible in the shot of the same area from the other side). It looks like it doesn't really match the perspective of the rest of the image, it's not broken up at all by the panels that it's written over, and probably the most egregious aspect of it is that it seems to infringe on the piping that comes out of the floor (makes it look like the letters are floating in the air). It's a minor detail but really does a lot to mess up the feel of the image and sticks out like sore thumb. I'd either scrap it or find a way to integrate it better into the texture/normal maps.
While the texturing on the scene is really good, in the third shot you have close-up of one of the central turbine. Some of the texturing on the dark areas of the casing looks noisy and generic, I'm not sure what material it's supposed to be. I would re-texture those parts (highlighted in the below image). While its possible to sometimes get away with noisy/generic textures on really small bits, that's a pretty large part, especially in the third shot where it occupies foreground plane.
Also notice how the warning stripes don't tile properly. Not the end of the world, but I would separate out each individual tile (like make a small border of some kind around it). The way you currently have it, it looks like you're trying to make all warning strips one continuous piece, but the lack of tiling screws up that impression.
EDIT: What I suggest:
Also you have some high poly shots of the control panel, that has a holographic keyboard interface on it. Once again it looks 'shopped since it doesn't align with the perspective at all! Throw a plane on there with a transparency map, and that way it will look integrate into the image. Same with the glow/bloom of the console screen.
I would scrap it since it's a high poly presentation and usually there's no point in sticking bitmap textures into those.
If you do decide to keep it, I encourage you to also come with a more creative interface than just a generic windows keyboard that's been hologram-ified
The runic lettering looks sweet, but I would re-do the squiggly lines since they don't look particularly Nordic to me. It looks like you were going for Nordic knot-work designs, but those are generally characterized by more variety and a juxtaposition of sharp angles with smooth curves, whereas the ones you have just look like generic squiggles. Also they usually have some animal motifs thrown in. There's a lot you can do with that texture space. I advise you to study some viking knotwork pics in detail and try to replicate that style more closely.
The good news is that since the problematic bits occupy pretty isolated texture spaces, you can improve them without having to re-pack/re-bake the whole asset.
I'd also get rid of the generic scratches overlay on all the metal, it floods the texture and creates a lot of noise.
Anyway thats my 2 cents, hope it's helpful.
Check out adobe.kuler (Web) for color shemes you can use and which will work
Also your new frontpage is a lot better with the new text, but you have chosen a bad font for general representation. This is no victorian era portfolio, its a mixed media portfolio and while the font on itself could maybe work, the box around dosnt go at all with it. It is sharp and pixel perfect, while the font is grungy and rounded, which is like the exact opposite. Get a nice sans serif for such general things. I recommend Bebas Neue which is free and always a good bet id say.
(Also cut the "Infinite" from Bioshock fan art, so your text fits in, that looks distracting)
I put the one text in green now, that only works if your frontpage images play with it. Like it is now, it would work, only the yellow from the hammer is a little against it. White is fine aswell, red looks really flashy and nice, but its agressive. Do as you want.
http://www.dafont.com/bebas-neue.font
Edit: But dont bomb everything with such a font. Thats a headliner font, its intense. Search a good "normal" font that goes along with it for your descriptions. Something sharp and maybe condensed aswell, sans serif ofc.
@Count Vader: Thank you for your detailed crit!
I looked into the points you told me and improved them. Maybe you can take a look at how it looks now and tell me what you think.
About the engravings on the hammer: this hammer was orginally inspired by a concept from Warhammer Online which I changed a bit in the final model (like with the engravings). The name "Nordic Hammer" came from my thought that the concept would show a nordic hammer but as you said, my hammer doesn't look really nordic so I changed the name to "Fantasy Hammer" which is a bit more neutral.
Also I got rid of most of the scratches on the surface.
@Shrike:
Thank you for your suggestions! I reworked the lighting of the machine room and made the header and the text in the boxes with Bebas Neue (which is great looking font btw!)
Thanks again guys!
Any crit is still appreciated!
Thanks in advance!