Fresh Meat: Needs a portfolio review

clearrose

Hello poly counters, I've been creeping around here for a while. Made a post or two got intimated and stop posting.

But now that I'm just graduated from college (May, 15, 2014). I'm ready to take those next steps into to a new career into the video game industry.

However, this time I'll keep too the forums and stick to my guns. In determination to achieve my goals and passions. So fry up this fresh meat, stick in the oven, roast it, cook in the campfire, and leaving it black and burnt.

I'm ready go...

Portfolio:

http://njumer.carbonmade.com

Demo reel:

http://vimeo.com/94791216

Dimfist

Hey just wante d to say welcome to the struggle. Not much to say about your portfolio other than start focusing on the basics. Are you doing characters or environments? You should have a plan of attack and daily /weekly goals for yourself. Join the polycount challenges. I myself have learned a lot from them and everyone is very helpful.
Cheers!

clearrose

Dimfist wrote: »

Hey just wante d to say welcome to the struggle. Not much to say about your portfolio other than start focusing on the basics. Are you doing characters or environments? You should have a plan of attack and daily /weekly goals for yourself. Join the polycount challenges. I myself have learned a lot from them and everyone is very helpful.
Cheers!

Thanks, dim fist for the advice.i was thinking about enter a few of those challages. Before I didn't have the time because if school, but now that's all over with. I can focus on that type of thing.

Also, I' m not sure if I want to do character or environment, I love them both. I guess it would came down to what I'm better at, and I'm not sure which one I' m better at.

reverendK

regarding presentation: you only need to display the actual tricount. don't worry about the other stats so much.
the "making of" image for your creature render doesn't really belong in a portfolio.
If you're going to show a maya viewport at least hide the grid and stats - it makes for a poor presentation. Same goes for the Unity gizmo.
your texture flats don't need to be displayed at actual sice - you could put them in a row at 1/4 size or smaller and just mention the dimensions.

Highpoly/lowpoly is a weird way to separate your work - especially for games. If you can do highpoly that's great, but 9 out of 10 studios don't care unless you can take it to a low poly piece. Otherwise it's just a nice digital sketchbook picture. There are exceptions, of course.

You would benefit from deciding what discipline you want to pursue. knuckle down and work on your characters or your environments - and everything extra gets filtered out into a different page on your folio.

I don't personally care too much for bios on portfolio sites. Link your resume, demo reel, etc - the rest if something employers probably don't care too much about until the interview.

clearrose

reverendK wrote: »

regarding presentation: you only need to display the actual tricount. don't worry about the other stats so much.
the "making of" image for your creature render doesn't really belong in a portfolio.
If you're going to show a maya viewport at least hide the grid and stats - it makes for a poor presentation. Same goes for the Unity gizmo.
your texture flats don't need to be displayed at actual sice - you could put them in a row at 1/4 size or smaller and just mention the dimensions.

Highpoly/lowpoly is a weird way to separate your work - especially for games. If you can do highpoly that's great, but 9 out of 10 studios don't care unless you can take it to a low poly piece. Otherwise it's just a nice digital sketchbook picture. There are exceptions, of course.

You would benefit from deciding what discipline you want to pursue. knuckle down and work on your characters or your environments - and everything extra gets filtered out into a different page on your folio.

I don't personally care too much for bios on portfolio sites. Link your resume, demo reel, etc - the rest if something employers probably don't care too much about until the interview.

I tried to do everything you suggested, but I'm not sure if I succeeded though. Anyways thanks for your guys help so far. Any additional crits are of course welcomed !!

clearrose

Any one else? I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right? and I'm not quite sure if the 2D section I added is working?

shotgun

The 2D section is the nicest, imo.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'working', all sections are presented pretty much the same way.

Your 2D stuff show me you have a good understanding of form and the first piece a nice touch for color. No proper color theory, but fun feel overall. That feeling doesn't translate to your 3D. I want to see the same vividness there.

You rendering has plenty of mid-tones and ambiance, but lacks highlights and proper light source(s). Your 2nd and 3rd 2D pieces have the form but flat lighting. Look up lighting setup and pull the switch on in your 3D scenes as well. This is critical for presentation as well as for composition and atmosphere, especially in your low-poly scene.

This applies to your textures too: the leaves, the barks, they've got 'low-level' gradients and details but as a whole, if you squint at them, they're pretty dull and monochromatic. Decide where the highlight is, make sure its the brightest and lay a gradient down from there. Some people prefer to work up from the bottom (of the tonal range), whatever works for u.

This applies to both small-scale elements (leaves & bark) and large-scale assets like the entire mountain range or the sky. Either by texture, light-setup or otherwise (fog or whatever) add tonal and color richness.

clearrose

shotgun wrote: »

The 2D section is the nicest, imo.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'working', all sections are presented pretty much the same way.

Your 2D stuff show me you have a good understanding of form and the first piece a nice touch for color. No proper color theory, but fun feel overall. That feeling doesn't translate to your 3D. I want to see the same vividness there.

You rendering has plenty of mid-tones and ambiance, but lacks highlights and proper light source(s). Your 2nd and 3rd 2D pieces have the form but flat lighting. Look up lighting setup and pull the switch on in your 3D scenes as well. This is critical for presentation as well as for composition and atmosphere, especially in your low-poly scene.

This applies to your textures too: the leaves, the barks, they've got 'low-level' gradients and details but as a whole, if you squint at them, they're pretty dull and monochromatic. Decide where the highlight is, make sure its the brightest and lay a gradient down from there. Some people prefer to work up from the bottom (of the tonal range), whatever works for u.

This applies to both small-scale elements (leaves & bark) and large-scale assets like the entire mountain range or the sky. Either by texture, light-setup or otherwise (fog or whatever) add tonal and color richness.

well, what I meant by "working" was it worth being in my portfolio. I've heard others say that way before. I wasn't aware that lighting was a problem, It can be hard to be objective when looking at your own work.

I guess there is allot of hard work ahead. Thanks allot shotgun !!