Kindly Requesting Portfolio Feedback

Jonnyboy0121

Hello everyone,

I've been working on my portfolio and sending out applications for game art jobs (mostly 3d environment/character/props). I'm living in NJ currently, and have been applying all over but I haven't garnered any real interest.

I've been working pretty extensively on it, and the past few months have taught myself Zbrush, dDo, TopoGun, Vray, xNormal, and some other programs. I'm wondering if the projects I'm picking and spending the majority of my time working on aren't showcasing what employers would like to see most.

So, I was wondering if you could offer any suggestions to improve my portfolio?

www.jonyoung3d.com

Are there pieces that you would like to see added or removed?

I was thinking of starting my next project making either a mech suit of some kind (showcasing hard surface modeling) or a future soldier complete with gear, a rifle and side arm (to show a genre other than Medieval Fantasy)

Thank you for your time!
Jon

Justin Meisse

Your environment work feels stronger than your character work but I would rather see in engine shots rather than Vray renders.

cholden

Very confusing, lots of repetition

Most of the work from the demo reel isn't in the portfolio.

The two knights aren't bad, but they cancel out the base male's value as a portfolio piece.

The open face knight face is WAY too clean (rough, dark armor with strong spec vs. matte, clean boy face) Like two different artists made them.

World machine scenes look nice, but like Justin said: real time no vray.

Skull mountain is just sloppy. Why make a 3d concept when you can make a realtime game scene?

None of the Pit Arena images have any purposem but the last two (ruined tower, wall breakdown). Those look good, drop the rest.

Tropical scene looks neat, but again, why is this a concept and not a scene? Doesn't make sense. Also, WIPs are lower value. I wouldn't even write that on there as it looks nice enough, and you can update it still.

Composer, confusing mish-mash of mixed style and too dark scenes.

Castlevania scene is kinda neat. Suffers from the usual "too dark". Gold statue scale being off hurts the scene composition quite a bit.

Drop the 2d section.

Site itself:

Reorganize Portfolio to have the Demo reel at the top with Portfolio images below that on a single page

The staggered thumbnail loading gets annoying real fast. They should all load up at the same time.

Contact page is redundant, remove it. This info is on the resume where it should be.

Press page is redundant, remove it. Again all it shows is your demo reel, and it's listed in your resume.

Blog is fine.

Remember, you're only as good as your worst piece. We should ONLY be seeing your BEST work.

LMP

As other have mentioned, the ruined tower and ruined wall those are good, but their being lost under the rest of the work, and I didn't even know they existed until I looked down in there.

Take out your 2D art, it's not relevant to games.

I would remove most of the characters. The royal guard is acceptable.

Shrike

You will be measured by your worst piece. To make it short, for a proper job, you will need to pump good new works out the near future. You have to leave nearly all behind what you did in the past, it hurts but that is the usual thing to do. Your demo reel is not presentable to be honest.

Your new knight is at a good level anatomy aside. You gotta train on that a lot if you want to do characters. The armor is nice, and if you are on that level now, you will do stuff that will bring you an application next, but you need to scrap the old stuff and do new things now. The world machine thing is timeless, you can keep that id say, and the marble gallery could be touched up. Fix the head of your latest knight and you have a good starting point.

Portfolio page has taste and is alright by itself.

I see that you are on a pretty good level by your latest piece, but the older ones arent. And your next thing will be better, so just wait with your applications for 2-3 weeks , dont waste your chances now. Focus on what you want to do, get 3-4 good things done, keep your portfolio nice and clean with those 4-5 good works and nothing else and there you go.

nathanbarrett

I'd reverse the order of the posts on the pit arena. I nearly clicked 'back' when scrolling through the crude design work, only to find out just in time that there was actual UDK blocking-out and some modelling work at the bottom. An employer may click this, see the designs and think 'oh here's a game idea - we don't hire people based on ideas'. Just a thought.

Jonnyboy0121

Hey guys,

Wow, thank you for all of the feedback. Really honest and straight to the point. That's exactly what I was looking for. I've taken your comments and made some changes already like:

- Only including what I consider my best stuff (newest stuff I've worked on)
- Taken my demo reel down. Once I get another few strong models completed I'll rework it.
- Consolidated my contact information to my resume page
- Removed the "Press" page
- Will add a "About me" page

It's tough to get rid of other personal projects but your right, your portfolio is only as strong as your weakest piece. Just have to put better stuff in it's place.

I have a thread with the knight in the green armor on polycount.. the consensus there was to fix up the face anatomy as well so that's next up on my plate. Here's a link if your curious:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124444

I'm going to try for a much more realistic looking face, found a really nice break down by a guy doing a Last of Us inspired face sculpt. Here's that thread:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123076

I'll update this thread in a few weeks after I've put some more time into my portfolio and has something substantial to show.

Anyway, thanks again guys. I really appreciate the time you put in to look through my current portfolio and give some honest feedback.

Jon