1 Year Plan

CarlK3D

Summary: My 1 Year Plan for where I want my Work quality & Portfolio to be in 1 Year from now, lets say 1/1/2015

I've been seeing lots of really amazing Environments, High Quality & Hand Painted and I realize I have none of that on my Portfolio. This is partly due to the fact every time I try to create an Environment my Art Style & Textures don't work well together or look believable. So I've seen building my skills 1 step at a Time (2D Textures, Props & then Prop Packs)

Goal: After reading Neil Gowland's Post on 10 Tips to Improve your Portfolio I set-out my Portfolio Layout to comprise of 6 pieces most of which are Props, crappy guns or Artistically unimpressive Games I made during my Uni Studies.
My 1 Year Goal is to keep the idea of Quality over quantity and stick to 6 pieces/ sections.

What Kind of Art I want to do: I realize now I enjoy working on Environments, High Quality or Hand Painted, It allows me to be more creative and not spend loads of time on just 1 piece aka. Character, Gun.

Layout: I'm happy with my Layout now and cant see anything that needs changing, let me know what you think.

Let me know what you think. Critique & Criticism are always appreciated

Portfolio

chazzur

I personally think the current layout works the best (2x3). It gives each image plenty of space and minimizes the amount of scrolling a viewer has to do to see your work.

Bartalon

Hey, awesome. Your project goals are very similar to mine!

I agree with chazzur, the 2x3 looks best. Don't forget that you can line your stuff horizontally as well. I use a horizontal layout because I can cram all my thumbnails on one screen so the user doesn't need to scroll on my main page.

I've heard people should tailor their portfolio to the studios at which they'd like to work, so I'm not sure about the split between sci-fi and fantasy you have, though there certainly must be a balance between that and showing diversity.

Which studios are you aiming to get into?

CarlK3D

The Dream would be Blizzard or Ubisoft...just like everyone else

Realistically somewhere in Australia, Hopefully Victoria so I don't have to move.
Somewhere like Firemonkey, Endgame Studios or Twiitch that make fun Mobile Games.
I just applied for Twiitch, waiting for a response. Though I don't think my work is good enough to have a chance but gotta be in it to win it right.

I idea behind the Sci-Fi piece would be diversity and its a different style with different techniques I'd like to learn. Saying that I might end up changing it to a Medieval Piece but its to early to say right now.

CarlK3D

I made a quick template of what I think it will look like. I think I'll go with 1x4 & 2x1 since most people use wide thumbnails for environments as a panorama view so you see more of the piece

Ignore the blurry Thumbnails for now weebly doesn't seem to like the resolution
- Mockup

Jeff Parrott

Awesome idea Carl. I know you're split into what to focus on. But for what you're trying to do I would say focus. Laser focus. Pick 1 thing and get really good at it. If it's a super small niche it might take a while of find a job. But the job will almost find you. If it's more general you'll be able to apply at more places but also have more competition and the likelihood of being the best in the world will be really slim (no offense).

My advice is if you love guns and hate hard surface then figure out how to enjoy it. Maybe the material and texturing workflow? Be a Texture Artist? You want to do 'hand painted' work? Cool. HAND PAINTED GAME COMPANY NAME is the end goal? Why? Can you get there on day 1 or will it be in a few years? Etc. Pick something and ask questions. I tend to write them down. Like why do you want to work in this style or at that place? Writing it down with actual paper makes it real and you have to take time to think about your response.

The end of the day this field that you need to enjoy what you do. If you hate doing hard surface work then being a Weapons Artist at a current gen place will drive you nuts. If you want to generalize well maybe working in mobile games is the thing for you. Where are those companies? What do the portfolios of the people that work there look like? What stands out from those? Mimic..not copy the things that work.

You're on the right track with this thread and planning it out. Anxious to reread this thread in a few years and see your progress.

CarlK3D

@Jeff Parrott You've given me lots to think about, In short I enjoy Environments & Hand Painting the most, it lets me be creative with what I do and doesn't constrain me.

I think I will continue to aim for Environments & Hand Painted Props at this point.

CarlK3D

Filled out the bottom 2 with Props/ Textures and an App I'm currently working on, Flame Run.
I'm happy with my new layout and it will be my final I think.
Only section that has content right now is the Props & Textures. Flame Run should be done in 2 months or so.

I'll be buying out the domain & removing the adds in due time but for now Ignore them.
http://carlkent94.wix.com/artbycarlkent

CarlK3D

Added some new art and setting up sections for both Flame Run & Lost Island Environment.
Both are currently WIP, I know you shouldn't have WIP stuff on your Portfolio but this is my WIP Portfolio so no one except you guys will see it so for development purposes its fine. Let me know what you think.

obviously I'll be creating more art for both Flame Run & Lost Island so there thumbnails are just to get an idea of what the end product will look like

design, layout, quality of work, should I remove anything? does something look bad or stand out and pull the rest of the work down?

http://carlkent94.wix.com/artbycarlkent

CarlK3D

Added some work from Miscreated I've been doing over the last few weeks. my top 10 pieces. better pieces will replace old as I make them

CarlK3D

So I've been a bit busy working on 2 title Flame Run (My Mobile App) & Miscreated.
I have added 10 pieces to Miscreated which I think it more then enough so when better/ new work gets finished I will removed out the older/ not a good work.

Same goes for Props but I don't see myself starting anything until I at-least finish Flame Run at the end of the year. 2 projects is enough for now