Portfolio question

Middnight

Hey guys!

i'm currently finishing up the first piece of my character artist portfolio but i'm realising i overlooked a very important issue, namely the size;

i have no idea what kind of polygon count/ amount of maps/which maps i should use, and hoped some of the more experienced people here could help me out.

Guess it has to be tuned around what i want to do; i'm crazy about fantasy, everything with swords and magic really ;D Working on games like Ryse, skyrim, kingdom come, deep down,... would be my lifetimedream coming true. Beside that, also love cinematics more then some of the games themself, i think i watched all diablo cinematics atleast 50 times and "...sacrilege!..." still gives me goosebumps. So Thats something i'm definatly interested in doing aswell.

So if you could be so kind to help me on the way, it would be greatly appreciated!

kind regards,
middnight

cholden

How many polygons in a piece of string?

It doesn't really matter. What matters is

1) Does it look good. Immediate reaction to visual quality will make potential employer look further into...

2) is it efficient for it's platform. Cinematic characters vs mobile RTS characters technical specs are radically different.

3) Does your work fit into the company's product "look". While not required. If you're applying to a company with a realistic style and all your art is cartoony it's not going help. This is why you might want to include variety and/or cater your content to the company you apply for.

LMP

You should use the minimum required for for the desired level of detail.
Well, that's quite complicated...

Middnight

thanks for the replies!

i'm gonna rephrase my question a bit ;P

- Should i show sculpted stuff or only remeshed/mapped stuff? or both?
- should i render my portfolio image with more maps/higher polycount then the real game character? ( like gloss/displacement etc?)
- around howmuch polygons would the main character of a next gen character be? ( lets say the main character of Ryse son of rome), don't need exact numbers, but more like, under 10K, around 15K, defenatly not above 20k... etc.

again, thanks for your time

CarlK3D

- I would show both. The Sculpt then the Game Ready character with Maps.
- I would not render images with a higher polycount or any maps that I dont use for the final Game ready character. Most game engine shaders have the ability to contain maps in the Alpha such as Transperancy & Glow so I wouldn't bother showing those. just Diffuse, Normal, Spec & Gloss if you want.
- When I did a character I was working from the limitations of Dominance Wars competition. I think they were 12,500 Tris & 2048 Maps (4 Maps)
But for current gen I hear some character such as the Player from Ryse & In Uncharted 2 (PS3), Nathan drake is 37k Polys, and Chloe is 45k Polys.
Ryse Info

So I'd say just as others have only use as much as you need depending on the complexity of your character.

Hope this helps a bit.

Middnight

thanks alot guys, wow 40k polygons, and here i am, trying to stay under 10k with a complex model back to retopoly it is!

Tobbo

I wouldn't get wrapped up in the actual amount of polygons, unless you have specific limitations such as for a mobile platform. Just use what you need and what makes sense in the context that it will be used for.

If the model works with less. Don't add more geometry to make it 40k polygons just because you "can".

Use what you need. No more. No less.

Shiniku

Use as many polies as it takes to look good. For next gen I think we'll be seeing a lot of tesselation. I don't think that the Ryse character is actually 85,000 tris, that would be a bit unwieldy to work with. Chances are they are subdividing or tesselating the model in engine. It might be worth trying some lower poly models, just as a study. It will take some practice before you get the hang of how many polies you're going to need.

The final polycount doesn't matter too much as long as it looks good, as long as it's optimized. Just throwing polygons at a model won't automatically make it better, don't be wasteful... but don't be stingy if it will help.

Shrike

As far as I read is that they started with 80k and then noticed that it dosnt work as they want, or is too much, not sure, and then vent back to something around 40-50k
Killzone characters are around 40-50k but those are people pushing the boundaries hard
Last gen was from 15k and up, I think Unreal tournament 3 was around 11 in the times, and the last of us in the 25s. Just use what you need, but dont go lower for no reason.
Portfolio art needs to pop, nobody cares about your poly count if your work is not standing out.