Quick Portfolio Review - Environment Art

TheRealFroman

Hey guys,

So pretty soon during the end of May 2014, I will be graduating from a Game Art program in Burlington VT, USA. My name is Taber Noble, and my main focus is environment art. If you would like to look over my work thus far and tell me what your thoughts were, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

EDIT: NEW SITE! www.tabernoble.com



Old:
www.tabernoble.carbonmade.com


From where I am now, working up in Montreal sounds very enticing!

cholden

Content looks great, layout is standard carbonmade and nothing wrong with that.

I'd change "about" to a proper resume. That's it really.

TheRealFroman

Thanks man! Will do. By the way, I love watching the crunchcast every once in while when I'm doing UV work ^^

DWalker

I'd enlarge the title banner and move the buttons beneath the banner; this will also make it easier to add entries later.

I'd include a resume on the 'about' page, or add a resume button. I'd also change the 'work' link to 'portfolio'.

On the 'About' page, indent the various bullet points under awards, experience, and knowledge. This will also allow you to get rid of some of the empty lines, reducing the vertical space.

You could provide more information about the scenes, including total polycount for the scene and numbers & sizes of the textures.

Clicking on the image should link to the full-screen image, rather than requiring a separate link.

The breakdowns for 'Brave New World' all seem to be in the 'Technical Work Showcase', leaving the section rather barren.

TheRealFroman

Alright dude you got it, thanks for the feedback. Sadly I think I'm constrained by carbonmade in some regards. It wont let me link people to a fullscreen version of an image by clicking on the picture, which is really quite stupid.

Shrike

The work looks good, you have really over the top color grading tho, giving all 3 scenes a kind of similar grimdark feel. The textures for your second scene, I cannot read what they are supposed to be. The diffuses are only noise per example.

Also try out if the white carbonmade background dosnt look better. Its all so dark and uninviting.

Shrike

Doublepost >.>

DougClayton4231

Everything looks good, but I agree with Shrike about the color grading and the textures, I feel like they could use a bit more life.

TheRealFroman

Sounds good! Thanks for letting me know! As for color grading, would that be something due to the amount of tonemapping I have going on you think?

BJA

As mentioned already the website is the standard carbonmade one, nothing wrong with it. It's straight forwared and simple to navigate. Making your own site to stand out from the masses is always better, imo.

Your environment scenes are quite nice. Good use of tileable textures and particles/light. I would suggest to work more on simple props and learn more about highpoly/lowpoly workflow, efficient uvw layouts, texturing etc. This seems to be lacking in your portfolio. And as a beginner, at your first job you'll probably work most of the time on props/assets and less on whole environment scenes. I know it probably also depends on the company.

silver_hoodlum

that first shot of the cathedral is fu... awesome, modular pieces?

BradMyers82

on the first image it goes to another page and then you have to click on each image individually and to go back you have to hit the back button multiple times. You want to avoid multiple clicks on your site as much as possible.
However on your second image all your images are just there and you can scroll down to see them all. This is much better. So you should really just follow that format for all your links imo.
Great work btw, I'm sure you will land a gig eventually.

TheRealFroman

Thanks so much everyone!! I will do all these things, I think I have more than enough time to fix up these small issues and work on adding in more props as suggested. Once again, thanks for the feedback.

looprix

Looks good to me. The white background is too bright maybe a mid-tone would be easier on the eyes?

Jet_Pilot

IMO i think you need a better normal for the tile sheets. The diffuse looks great, I just with there was some lines in the normal, outlining the shapes. But not to big or deep, cause then it wont read well over the floor

TheRealFroman

www.tabernoble.com

Updated my site, also included a resume. Feel free to let me know what you think so far!

heboltz3

Ey Yo Taber! Just clicking on random folio threads, and now its you.. oh you *shakesfist*

I think to start, your name and your title should be centered or justified. Right now I want to believe they are in the center of the page, but the images of your pieces are throwing me for some weird loop, like I don't know what is centered, and what isnt, its weirding me out.

I think you could put the linkedin and mail icons up in the same bar as your folio and resume section as well. If you can, i'd axe the "powered by weebly thing" at the bottom.

I would have your resume visable when I click on your resume page. I wanna see your skills and experience now, not after the download. Also the type on your resume page could use some overall continity, theres a ton of fonts, and that just throws me for a loop, much like the centered thing on your main page.

And your work, well, we both know what I think of it . With your envos, it might be worth it to put up a tiny paragraph at the top of "This is what i wanted to accomplish with the project, this is what i learned, this is a neat thing I did to spruce it up."

It's a standard site, but it does the trick, and I think it fits the work well, so that's solid.


Anyways keep it up man, home stretch now!!

sushi

Great work you have there. Website looks good and navigation is fine.

I'd love to see another view of the cathedral to show off the detailed assets, and another couple asset breakdowns would be nice.

Your brave new world scene has a nice breakdown but again, it would be nice to see another couple images showing different perspectives.

My only advice for your future environments would be to try and shake your style up a bit. It seems like all three of your environments are based on similar color palettes and in large open spaces.

TheRealFroman

@heboltz3
Thanks Harry! Appreciate the support man, and I hope the post-college life is going well! I will be sure to fix the formatting issues, and get rid of the excess fluff mucking up the site design. I got some similar feedback on keeping the resume on the same page instead having it as a download, so I will be sure to do that too! Thanks again dude!

@Sushi
Thanks so much for the kind words! I will also get some extra shots in there for some of my scenes, and get some other smaller, more detailed props made so I can show those off as well. And your right, I seem to be drawn to large expansive environments! (They are just so much fun to make O.o) The future scenes I start will be much smaller though that's for sure, and filled with very detailed props. Thanks for the feedback!

Dimfist

The images remind me of 2d concept work. If that was what you are going for it is pretty amazing.

TheRealFroman

haha thanks.. I thought having my work showcased in such a way would be the most impressive type of presentation! It's also made according to the recommendations given to me by my professors, and the professional 3D art industry people I was fortunate enough to be mentored by!

beefaroni

Hey man. I've been following your work on here for a bit. Great portfolio + good luck!

Pegbird

I really like the first two pieces, you have captured a sense of scale and grandeur which isn't always present in larger environments.

Also you have focused on the overall mood/composition as a whole, rather than getting perfect topology/bakes/material definition on individual assets/textures. For environments of this size, this is a great way to go.


Good luck.

Yuke

Hey man nice portfolio, like the layout and design of it all too.

I think your top two pieces are the strongest, followed the Foundry piece on here was nice too see! I think the bottom two pieces come across as a little de-saturated/low contrast though so maybe that's something to look at.

In terms of content I think it would be nice to see some more construction pieces for each scene such as ZBrush sculpts for the Cathedral or Hard Surface High-poly renders for the Foundry. I'd also look at adding some more wireframes or breakdowns to show how you work and how your High Poly pieces have translated onto your final Low Poly meshes.

TheRealFroman

Late reply, I apologize

Beefaroni: Thank you! I appreciate the kind words!

Pegbrid: Thanks a bunch man, thank you for taking the time to such a supportive message ^^

Yuke: Thanks dude! I agree with you that there is still some more content I could show off in my breakdowns. I am also planning to come back to my refinery project and reiterate upon many things within it. So the colors may change by then! Thanks again.