Looking for portfolio crit/ industry advice

UnfamiliarMox

Hello! I'm a recent college grad trying to break into the gaming industry.

I'd really love for some feedback on my work, as well as any advice for the industry.

The short: I'm trying to gauge if I have the chops for the industry right now or if I need more work before I should even bother applying. Is there a place for entry-level people fresh out of school? If so, where do I look?

The long: I'm really trying to go for modelling as a props/environment artist. I have no illusions about the industry- I know it can be tough to get into and the entry-level stuff isn't glamorous. However, I'm just looking for a chance. Seriously, I'd kill for the chance just to model all the meaningless crap players stepped over if it meant I was working in the industry with all the big boys, where I could learn how the pro's do it.

The really long: The issue I've been running into is- how do I know if I'm good enough to cut it as an entry-level hire in gaming? What skills do I really need to focus on? Do I have a shot with my current skillset? Do the big companies want you to know everything right out of the box, or is there an expectation that your skillset is gonna be a bit rough, but you'll learn as you go?

A lot of my skills are self-taught, so I have varying understandings of different processes. Until recently I only built things at one level of detail, and UV'd and textured the models at the detail level they were going to be displayed at. Only recently have I gotten into the process of doing both high and low poly's and transferring the details over as normals, or really working with maps in general for materials and otherwise. I have some materials/lighting/rendering experience in Maya, but like I said, I figured it'd be best to focus on the thing I like most.

As for what I'm working on now, I'm trying to make props and environments that show that I understand the workflow for gaming, that is, making detailed high-poly's and well-optimized low-poly's, and rendering out all the appropriate maps to make it look shiny and awesome and whatnot. I'm also trying to learn as much as possible about working in game engines. I had some success teaching myself the GECK editor, but I really want to show that I'm a fast learner and that I understand editing environments/engines/pipeline by running myself through something like UDK or unity. Any thoughts on these endeavors would be appreciated.

Welp, sorry for the huge amount of text, and thanks so much for any feedback/ advice!


-Alex

[Deleted User]

http://alexanderleich.com/portfolio.html

Brian "Panda" Choi

[post deleted]

DWalker

I'd really recommend for you to become familiar with one of the common engines out there (e.g. Unreal, Unity, Crysis) and go through the complete cycle from creating the asset to exporting it into the engine. Note that the specific engine isn't that important; they have differences, but the skills required transfer well among them, and companies expect to do a little training at any rate. The important thing is to get an idea of the process, and to become familiar with the capabilities and limitations of a modern real-time engine. On the bright side, each has a free version of some sort.

Your textures at the moment seem a bit flat, and for the most part include only a diffuse channel. I'd recommend looking into materials how materials use specular maps to affect highlight colors and intensities, and to show details that vary with the lighting. Look into how even a subtle normal map can really change a material. Play with reflection maps, perhaps something as simple as a wooden floor that's only shiny where the polish hasn't been worn away.

Olli.

your renders could use some work. especially the prop/weapon ones. The prop itself might not be bad but the crappiness of the render isnt doing you any favors. Its not 2002 anymore, get some lens flare up in there

edit: but dont go offline.. if youre looking to get in to the game industry your renders should be real-time (at least in my opinion)

Kyuzo

There are just no specular affecting props at all, have to make better presentation.

Also i'll suggest to change image sliding script, this one right now dont allow user to save something to PC without dirty tricks. Also sign your images, so person that downloaded it will know, who they belong to

KartoonHead

"LEVEL DESIGN: FALLOUT 3" is very misleading if you're just skim-reading. You should instead use the name of your mod (if it doesn't have one, give it one) so it reads more like "MYMODNAME: FALLOUT 3 MOD".

As mentioned before, as far as actual GAMES are concerned, you've not got much to show. Your offline renders won't do you any favours unless they're explicitly high poly renders for a low poly game asset. You're also not demonstrating that you understand how realtime shaders work - get marmoset toolbag and do realtime renders of your props with proper diff/spec/gloss/norm. Demonstrating your ability to efficiently LOD your mesh down a few steps is also something developers really like to see.

I think your next step should be to take your train station environment and bake it down to game-res props, and reconstruct the scene with proper textures in CryEngine or UDK.

Benjam

Hey man, I am also a recent college grad and have been in the industry for 8 months now so I understand the pain and frustration of trying to break in!

I am by no means an experience veteran but I do think I might be able to give you some pointers.

First of all your portfolio layout is good but not so good at the same time. Make the text stand out against the background a bit more, dark on dark is never too appealing to the eyes.

I instantly hated the fact that when you click an image a new window comes up and you have to cycle through, also a lot of them didn't work for me. This is a huge area of concern. Put yourself in a recruiters shoes, it's 5pm , you've had a long day and been looking through portfolios for hoursssss and hours and yours is the last on up before home time. What does he do if the images don't load up...he goes home without a second thought. You want to avoid this at all costs!!

http://www.grimmsorg.com/

The above link is to my colleague and friend Neil Gowland, he is an experienced artist in the industry and the layout of his portfolio is excellent in terms of ease and simplicity. I would consider putting all your images onto one page and having the recruiter scroll down to see them. They will like you for this!!

You are also missing breakdowns which are important, texture maps, normal maps, spec maps etc. and wireframes. Especially wireframes!!

The above comments are also very relevant so I would definitely recommend putting your work into a game engine like UDK or CryEngine.

All in all, good work and keep ploughing at it, you will get your break eventually

Memory

Another portfolio using lightbox. So in order to save your images I have to click one, realize it's lightbox, get out of that, then right click to view your images in a different tab.

I don't know who invented it, but I know - to me at least, it's just another fancy thing that gets in the way of your art.

Have a look: http://www.peperaart.com/ and if you like thumbnails: http://www.hazardousarts.com/
Less clicks, more art!

[Deleted User]

Thanks so much for the feedback. Good to know I'm heading in the right direction- I had just downloaded Marmoset and UDK before posting this thread. Lots of work to be done though.

I guess the portfolio setup surprised me a bit- all I heard at school was to have a really nice presentation, but I guess it makes more sense to just get your work in front of the reviewer as quickly and easily as possible, even if it means just a page with naught but a stack of images.

Would you recommend having each image be devoted to one prop/scene, and having all the various meshes and maps (HP/LP, diffuse/spec/norm) all displayed together for that prop, or is it ok to split them across several images so you can see more of the models?

[Deleted User]

Also, anybody know what kind of skills are like, the bare minimum for getting a job in the industry?

A lot of the postings you see are really intimidating, that they list very specifically the programs they want you to know, and they want you to have x amount of industry experience, all for a "junior modelling" position... A few of the industry people I've spoken with said to just ignore some of that if you roughly fit the bill, say you know Maya instead of 3DS Max, that the most important thing was that you understood the process and could pick up on that studio's workflow.

Benjam

There is no minimum standard really, if you have a good piece and they call you in for an interview if you seem super keen, passionate etc. they will like you. I would consider learning both Maya and Max, it helps a little bit to know both. And yes, lots of artwork can be intimidating but don't let this put you off, instead try to aim for that level of quality it will help drive you