Portfolio Check Please

onizuka92

Hello all,

My goal is to be an environment/prop artist for the game industry.

I have Updated my portfolio since I was last here based on multiple suggestions.
I have tried to streamline everything for ease of use and showcasing my work.

Please take a look at my portfolio and tell me if it gets my goals across is not hard to use and properly showcases the work already there.

http://davonaallen.wix.com/davonaallen

PyrZern

I don't recommend WIX... It's flash-based. Slow, and unable to save images... And it's quite frowned upon...

onizuka92

What site would you suggest I use?

onizuka92

Just did some basic research and i hear that wordpress is a better option? but I haven't really understood how to use it. I have read down in the comments that wix is now html 5 based so is the flash statement still a problem? http://craigthegraphicartist.com/i-disapprove-wix-com/

Shrike

Weebly seems to be one of the nicest ive found. Squarespace is pretty popular but the gallery sucks for our usage imo

oxblood

I think wix is ok aslong as you use the html version, and avoid things like page transition affects and slideshows it works pretty well on all browsers and smartphones also. I do agree the flash type websites can be a nightmare when it comes to performance.

Joost

I'd use Wordpress. Most web hosts provide free Wordpress installations so there's no extra fees if you already pay for hosting. And there's no ads anywhere. The Wix ads can be quite annoying. I have 0 experience with web design and I set up my site in a day of playing around with the settings. The most important thing is finding a good theme to use as a base. There is a drawback to using Wordpress though. It's not as easy to change specific elements of the theme. You have to go into the code if you want to do that.

The portfolio itself is pretty good. Just needs more stuff.
Also in your antique study you have really hard shadows. I don't use unity but I'd try to soften those up somehow.

onizuka92

komaokc
Wouldn't the reason that there isn't any ads be because you are paying for web hosting? Unfortunately I don't have an income to pay for web hosting.

Does the drawback you mentioned take away my creative freedom to make a website that is unique to me and not limited like some Carbonmade examples?

My goals are to showcase my work efficiently but to also stand out from the crowd. If that can be done in Wordpress then i will try to make a second site for the sake of usability for the people looking to hire

Bartalon

I would say to design your own site if you want something fresh looking, but since you say you don't have the funds to spare, your options may be limited. I recently heard of a portfolio Website called dropr. Might be worth your time to check out. I haven't used it so I can't say whether it's good or bad.

Here's an example portfolio I noticed relating to 3D art.

CarlK3D

I Highly recommend wix, I've use most other popular sites such as Wordpress, Weebly, Carbonmade, Cargo Collective and they all have one thing in common....Templates, While you can add your own CSS to customize them a bit its just not enough to create your own style your looking for. The thing I love about wix is sure you can start from a template but then if you don't like it anymore just delete everything on the page and add your own stuff. 100% freedom to design. If you've used wix you'll know what Im talking about. you can do anything you want. Its great for artists who and to be free to design but dont want to code there own site (ie. me :P)
If you optimize your Images for Web I've found it loads fast enough, Try to keep Images Under 500kb, if you don't have many on the page maybe push to 800kb, If PNG goes over this save as JPG.

Now for your work, your modeling seems fine and In sure its the same for UV's.
The Problem is the Textures, In the Antique Study while I'm not sure if this is an intended style its just far to clean and basic. Normal Maps seem good but the diffuse and Spec really need work, the scene reminds of amnesia so this would be what type of quality I'd be aiming for

The Seat & Wheelchair are better but (and correct me if Im wrong) they seem to have been done mainly in dDo.
The Thing with dDo is, its not a learning tool, It doesn't teach you to texture. Its meant for speeding up existing workflows.

I recommend staying away from dDo for now and practicing traditionally used texturing practices (ie. Photo sources, different Detail Maps, masking and just general painting in Photoshop) CG Textures is a great place to start.

John Ehresmann

I actually just recently got an email about dropr, but didn't give it a second glance until Bartalon's post just now. As for me personally, a Wordpress blog couldn't hurt, if you see a decent layout. Before I started designing my own site I used wordpress, and liked the layout for it, but in this case I'd have to go with Bartalon's suggestion and check out dropr.

Joost

I share someone else's hosting account so I only pay for the domain name. Which is like €10 a year. And besides, most web hosting sites will be cheaper than the premium services on sites like squarespace, wix and weebly. If you want to keep the Wix site, I'd just invest a bit of money when you start applying for jobs to get rid of the ads.

Wordpress has a ton of themes and most of them offer quite a lot of customisation. And you can always edit the css as well. It's probably easier to get the end result with Wix though.

CarlK3D

yeah with a coupon (found by googling) you can get wix premium (Hosting, Domain) and remove all the ads for $99 usd a year

Its the more expensive option but I had a design in mind for my folio that no other service would match %100

Tobbo

If you're going to list UDK as a skill you have, why not create a portfolio environment in it? The same could be said for nDo and dDo. List them if you used them with your portfolio pieces. There's really no excuse not to demonstrate that you know the software with your portfolio pieces.

Also with your Antique Room, why is there tiled wallpaper on only one of the walls?

Personally instead of using UDK for your next environment I would go ahead and just use UE4. You can plop down a single payment of $19 and pick up UE4 and then cancel your subscription. You will still be able to use it after your subscription expires. So it's not like you have to stay subscribed and pay $19 every month in order to use it.

The biggest change you'll have to make if you are familiar with UDK is working with PBR materials.

slosh

You site feels very cluttered. Honestly, I didn't want to stay on it too long cuz of the layout. I tried one 3d viewer thing and it didn't work. I would axe all of those. Also, I would do another texture pass on most of your stuff. You don't need to show concepts for all of them. You can just credit the artist in a short description. Also, simplify your layout to just nice thumbnails. Try to consolidate into a cleaner less chaotic layout.

onizuka92

ok ill try to answer the questions in order, this thread is really heating up.

CarlK3D ,I agree with you on the reasons you use wix and I like the advice on making the images for web and png. I have found that png doesn't pixelate nearly as much as jpeg does so I have been trying to use is at much as I can

Secondly, my intention was going in with clean materials and very new room with basically polish antique stuff. Since this was for class and that is how I presented it to my teacher I wont change it just yet. After my class is over I am open to making it darker as I have also seen this more as a scene from the old school resident evil games as I played around with the lighting.

Finaly, as for texturing I don't feel like that image from amnesia is utilizing spec maps very well either. I am now reassured that that is my main problem and I need to correct that ASAP. I have been trying and I will post and image of the textures I have generated for some of my other pieces not on my portfolio.

these are heavily altered from their photo originals utilizing blend modes adjustment layers and layering of filters, colors, other photo sources etc.

and they are tileable textures



these are the unity materials




Is this something I should be showcasing? or is it not good enough?

onizuka92

For Tabbo
I know kismet and the bsp brushes how to add models and materials. When I learned how to do that my skills as far as modeling weren't up to par.

I don't feel that I should put any image up that doesn't properly showcase what my intended goals are. I have projects where I have done camera fly through's, made things operate with kismet and have a full bot death match with way points in unity with what I feel was beginner modeling.

My school dropped UDK so most of the time I have been using unity to do school projects that take most of my time up.

I will try to do a UE4 scene next just to prove I can do it. Its the same from ndo and ddo.

My last two projects in my portfolio were made with NDo and DDo so I have it there but I will retry my hand later on when I have made sure my texturing skills are up to par to showcase my ability to utilize ndo and ddos features as a helper rather than a crutch.

onizuka92

Bartalon I almost forgot you. I checked out the site link you gave me. Its really good but there is one drawback. It forces you to sign in with twitter or Facebook or signup with gmail in order to get in contact with someone. That is not something I want to make an employer go through. everything else about it works. I can save images and have a pretty normal layout from the looks of it.

onizuka92

Slosh,
I had someone else check as well and I agree with you. It does feel cluttered but I am going to try another route then thumbnails only because I feel that I only know how to link them to another page. Something I don't want to make the employer go through

onizuka92

Hello again,

I want to post this up here for feedback since we were last talking about texturing this is my first texture based on the PBR system and with some clear direction thanks to a mentor of mine.

and here are the maps

Albedo

Roughness

Normal


Is this going in the right direction of good texture work?

Tobbo

I'd say it's reading well.

onizuka92

thanks tobbo I tried really hard to make this look correct.
I am still trying to wrap my head around PBR so that I can make it my focus when texturing. would anyone have any tutorials or general tips on how to properly train yourself to think when texturing?
I have done research myself but it seems that texturing for PBR is vaguely explained.