My New Portfolio Page
polycounter lvl 5
My New Portfolio Page is coming together. It is still a major WIP but feedback is desired!! Also, I will be starting my mech live stream tomorrow. See you there!
Link to page.
http://aaronkaminer4.wix.com/aaronkaminer
Link to page.
http://aaronkaminer4.wix.com/aaronkaminer
Replies
When I clicked on your work, the image was really small and hard to see. Maybe have it so you can scroll through the images, instead of having one picture showing a bunch of angles? (the human robot one)
Also, having the setup where it shows strips, then you highlight and it shows more, then you click and brings a bigger version, makes it all very frustrating if you click the wrong one. Again, the scroll might be better in this case as well.
Anyways, this is just my opinion.
Great work man!
The flash work overall is just distracting. Having the thumbnails in vertical strips zoom out when clicked just slows things down and makes it more difficult to make sense out of a confusing initial screen. Unless you are trying for a position as a web designer, keep it simple. Mouse-overs are fine, but anything much beyond that won't help and can hurt. (yes, BTW, I do mean ALL the flash code - you don't need any of it.)
I'd probably drop the last two projects - they don't reach the level of quality of the rest. On a professional portfolio, it's always quality over quantity; you'll be judged by the weakest of your works.
Your home page doesn't serve any purpose; just start out with your portfolio. Also, since your entries are all under "Personal Works", you might as well just rename that to "Portfolio".
Include an About/Resume page.
Try importing your character & weapon into a common game engine.
The white back ground is not nice when you are trying to look hard at the images, try some thing darker than the images or with a dark texture like this portfolio http://polygoo.com
loose all flash architecture and make it more enjoyable to look at by getting rid of the high contrast between the black and the white, e.g what this site does with the dark back ground. Its a lot nicer for people to look at at night.
DWalker
jaker3278
Thanks so much. I am simplifying the site now. The message is clear. I will post and let you know when it is updated. Perhaps you all wouldnt mind a second glance.
As for your folio most of the issues have been addressed above but I'll dot point my findings:
- I recommend you buyout your site, remove the ads and get your own url (aaronkaminer.com) would work. But I'm sure this is already a plan of yours
- I'd remove the white section towards the lower part of the screen on the home page & the footer, I don't see a point for them being there.
- I'd remove the dropdown box since most people who come to your site will look at the work that most interests them which is based off Images not text.
- The Home button is in a weird spot, most of the time there to the left or right of the screen, yours in sotta in the middle to right. I tried to click on your name to get back to home a few times
- You need a Info/ Contact section so for the Header I think something along the lines of.... (Left)Home / (Middle)Your Name / (Right)Contact would work for the header
- I don't like the mouse over section thing for your art its annoying to navigate so I think a simple scroll through of Images OR gallery would work better.
- The Thumbnails are confusing and I should only need to click once to be able to see all the work on that section I clicked.
- Keep your best work, throw the rest. the question is what do you want to work as in the industry? base you portfolio around that. based on your current best pieces I think your suited to AAA Environment Artist or Hard Surface Modeler (Guns, Mechs etc)
Think you've heard most of this above but another opinion is always good
Thanks a ton! I have addressed all of these issues and will be posting the update shortly. And yes.. I will definitely buy out my site when finished.
You could just add a hyperlink to the concept when you are giving credit to the original concept artist in a brief description. I think that would keep it clean and keep the focus on your work.
http://aaronkaminer4.wix.com/aaronkaminer
Great Idea. I think I will do that after a while. Thanks!
As far as your work goes, it look awesome. However, I would suggest you pick just three or four of your strongest pieces for your front page and move the rest to subpages if you really want to show them.
I would show your aircraft interior first, your cyborg head second, and your desert character last, but that's just my opinion. The individual weapon props are very good, but I don't think they're interesting enough on their own.
For the videogame image galleries at the bottom, maybe you could upload a video instead. I feel like videos would do your games more justice than the still photos you have.
I plan to have some video content in there by the end of the weekend. For sure. Also my primary demo reel will be the first thing on the page as well. Thanks for the feed back!
I am having this issue as well.
It has improved a ton!
The 'thumbnails' on the main page are much too large. Their purpose is to give the viewer an idea of what you have and entice them to click for more. I'd advise using a standard, more compact size and spend some time deciding how best to use that limited area to present a preview. There's a reason web sites have chosen the size of their elements; I'm (almost) certain the developers of a certain art-based forum have chosen 990x140 to create banners like this:
I really wouldn't bother with a demo reel for your artwork. Videos in general are useful for animators and f/x artists, but not for the rest. If you have the videos showing your creation of the pistol, then that might be interesting, but even that would probably belong on a separate blog/personal site.
Your portfolio should focus only on presenting your art in the best, most accessible manner. Don't worry about videos, don't worry about fancy coding or web design, but DO worry about presenting a series of STILL images that best showcase your work.
Include your name & contact information on all of your images.
One of the reasons that I prefer thumbnails leading to larger images over slideshows is that it is easier to right-click and save the image.
As with many other artists, you should have somebody proof-read your writing, especially on the about page. (hmmm... you don't seem to have writing anywhere other than your about page; that's another problem...) As just two quick examples, you need a comma between Atlanta and Georgia, and in the final sentence of the first paragraph, you claim that your skills run "from" without including a "to".
Back to writing... You should include some information on each project. At the very least, include a link to the concept, list which tools you used, and of course the poly count & texture sizes.