Random question on #1b, since there is a lot of ways to spell "Zac" I was thinking about picking a new domain. I was thinking something like zdonald but then I'd be worried spoken aloud zdonald.com might sound like the-donald-dot-com. I'll probably just come up with something else.
I don't know, man. :poly129:
[unrelated:] Polycount needs some kick-ass smileys designed by jFletcher, or someone. These ones aren't too cool.
As for nicknames, nothing wrong with them in general. I only mentioned it because of two specific edge cases that I think will make sense once I explain them:
Example 1: A consonant-heavy, very difficult-to-spell Eastern European name used as a website URL from a non-clickable, non-copyable link in a PDF resume. Had to retype it 4 times before it worked.
Example 2: Dude used a Youtube page full of his videos as his portfolio, and his name was something eye-rollingly dorky like DragonMaster1247, and his real name and other info was nowhere to be found.
That absolutely makes sense. I used my forum name for my website because my real name is pronounced very differently that it's spelling. And nobody can spell my name right from hearing it. Hope that wasn't a bad decision, never really though about it much.
Hey Jon, quick question regarding the breakdowns tip. As a tech artist if you cant get any breakdown shots (need approval etc etc) whats you're next best option? I just put a blurb of what I did and what I worked. I really need to move my stuff to my web hosting too haha.
Honestly yeah, just a blurb of what you did and didn't do is just fine. Without that, I just close the portfolio because I have no idea what I'm looking at, you know?
funny story, I recently got contacted by a studio recruiter based on my resume alone since I've taken my portfolio down. There's always an exception to every rule!
http://mv.cgcommunity.com/
i still think this is the one of the best portfolio site, atrociously simple yet ridiculously straight forward, there was a slight problem back then due to the slow internet connection, now it works much better.
Justin, true! Two things, though. First, recruiters may not all look at portfolios, but instead search by keywords, years of experience, etc. Second, checking out your LinkedIn profile, these are the things that stood out to me as being good and worthy of contact even without a public folio:
1) 6.5 years of professional experience.
2) Not a job-hopper.
3) Your career has been at large, successful studios with good reputations.
4) MMO specialization.
5) You've shipped games.
6) You've shipped games that were\are successful.
Those are juicy data points worth giving you a closer look, even without a portfolio. That's when HR\recruiter would contact you, take down your info, then get a portfolio to show to the art director\leads\etc.
Correct. Make a kick-ass portfolio, and learn how to get your art working in an engine like UDK, Unity, etc. Showing ingame art is a huge differentiator if you're trying to break into the industry without prior experience. And by "huge differentiator" I mean that it's virtually equal in importance to actual art skills. If your portfolio doesn't show ingame assets, all you've proven is you can do half the job.
As with everything, there are exceptions, but hiring junior artists is something I've spent a LOT of time on this year, and after hundreds of portfolios and resumes, those are the only two factors that matter to me.
Interviews are just as much about finding out if the studio is right for you, as it is them seeing if you`re a fit. So, my question is what's the best way to bring up OT and Crunch? I know OT is apart of the industry and that's fine, if it's for the right reasons. But is there a good way of asking how they handle OT and their reasons for OT without sounding like you you won't work OT and will rush out at 5pm? It's such an iffy topic that could make you come across as someone who doesn't work very hard.
A tip on preventing Youtube from displaying "recommended videos" at the end of an embedded Youtube video is to add ?rel=0 to the end of the SRC url in the embed code. This will make the video upon ending return to the preview image + play button icon (basically returning to the state it was in before you started the video). Much cleaner and more elegant that way!
(Note that this only seems to work with embedded videos; linking to a Youtube video will still result in seeing recommended videos at the end.)
Awesome tips!! My name is a problem for me to register a domain, mainly because someone already registered chiniara.com and i can't find any name that i can come up with that is good enough i don't like the .net because people always links websites to .com . Maybe i just need to think a little more.
I'm in the same boat, so I added "3D" to my name in the URL. Especially because in my case, just Googling "David Mann" brings up a famous illustrator of choppers and low riders, so none of my own links are to be found
Zac, I think you should roll with your current name, it's fine. If you feel like you need to make it more memorable, you could register http://zacdonalds.com and go for a theme:
ZacDonalds PolyBaked
Previously made at our place:
[thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail]
I recently spent A LOT of time remaking my website from scratch. A custom ground up website. After all sounds amazing, and one would think would really make you stand out.
After months of work, money, time and effort, I realized something very crucial here, all this time spent should have been spent in bettering my game art efforts and in reality like Jon is pointing out, simplicity is key. You never know who/how/where/when they are going to look at your portfolio, and bygeorge not delivering the crucial element (game art jazz hands) in the simple most effective way really killed my site. I'm now banging my head, and rolling over to Carbonmade... What really spurred my movement is how nice Carbonmade works on mobile.
Thanks for the wise words! Looking forward to the next CunchCast!
Replies
I don't know, man. :poly129:
[unrelated:] Polycount needs some kick-ass smileys designed by jFletcher, or someone. These ones aren't too cool.
As for nicknames, nothing wrong with them in general. I only mentioned it because of two specific edge cases that I think will make sense once I explain them:
Example 1: A consonant-heavy, very difficult-to-spell Eastern European name used as a website URL from a non-clickable, non-copyable link in a PDF resume. Had to retype it 4 times before it worked.
Example 2: Dude used a Youtube page full of his videos as his portfolio, and his name was something eye-rollingly dorky like DragonMaster1247, and his real name and other info was nowhere to be found.
Does that make more sense?
i still think this is the one of the best portfolio site, atrociously simple yet ridiculously straight forward, there was a slight problem back then due to the slow internet connection, now it works much better.
1) 6.5 years of professional experience.
2) Not a job-hopper.
3) Your career has been at large, successful studios with good reputations.
4) MMO specialization.
5) You've shipped games.
6) You've shipped games that were\are successful.
Those are juicy data points worth giving you a closer look, even without a portfolio. That's when HR\recruiter would contact you, take down your info, then get a portfolio to show to the art director\leads\etc.
As with everything, there are exceptions, but hiring junior artists is something I've spent a LOT of time on this year, and after hundreds of portfolios and resumes, those are the only two factors that matter to me.
Interviews are just as much about finding out if the studio is right for you, as it is them seeing if you`re a fit. So, my question is what's the best way to bring up OT and Crunch? I know OT is apart of the industry and that's fine, if it's for the right reasons. But is there a good way of asking how they handle OT and their reasons for OT without sounding like you you won't work OT and will rush out at 5pm? It's such an iffy topic that could make you come across as someone who doesn't work very hard.
Portfolio : http://www.behance.net/game_artist
(Note that this only seems to work with embedded videos; linking to a Youtube video will still result in seeing recommended videos at the end.)
I'm in the same boat, so I added "3D" to my name in the URL. Especially because in my case, just Googling "David Mann" brings up a famous illustrator of choppers and low riders, so none of my own links are to be found
ZacDonalds PolyBaked
Previously made at our place:
[thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail]
After months of work, money, time and effort, I realized something very crucial here, all this time spent should have been spent in bettering my game art efforts and in reality like Jon is pointing out, simplicity is key. You never know who/how/where/when they are going to look at your portfolio, and bygeorge not delivering the crucial element (game art jazz hands) in the simple most effective way really killed my site. I'm now banging my head, and rolling over to Carbonmade... What really spurred my movement is how nice Carbonmade works on mobile.
Thanks for the wise words! Looking forward to the next CunchCast!