What should have in my new portfolio...

Obscura

Hey guys, I think its a generic question, but what should I make for my new portfolio, to get good chances in other countries too(I live in hungary). The main reason for asking this is that here we have just a few studios, and it is really hard to get in even to the "shit" noname ones, and, maybe sounds strange, but hungary lost its "up to date status" a long time ago. Basically it works like work harder/faster, to let us get more money quicker. It is the country's fault, I know. Money is really shit here, and you need to evaluate even that if you have a job. Here, there are a lot more workers than positions. I worked in 2 studios earlier and I have experience about the hungarian attitude, and I can say it isnt good to me. I mean when you get that "no problem if it looks shit, kids will download it, and we, and then you'll get money" then this is really disappointing. I learned all what I learned to use as good as possible, and not to use with this attitude. So after all of this, the question is still that, what should I need to make/have in my new portfolio to get good chances in other countries. Unfortunately, because of the really low money here, I can't save money for relocation, so I would like to get one where they would "help" me in this. I would like to stay open for multiple styles/genres, so I think I will mainly use two of my latest personal projects. Here are them:

This is a stylized/hand painted little enviro that I made in january:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129297&page=2

And this is the second one, which is a "prev gen(spec,normal,gloss)" sci fi environment(its wip atm, i'm working on it):
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130892&page=3


I have pics from some older "professional" works that I made at my last job, but as my situation shows (they are lot giving any chances here) they are useless. These were used in IOS games btw, which were made with Unity(I got the mentioned attitude here):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lzvskr0c3ik7yib/AAAoAyA8caf1VG8ZgIORJQWha

Other than these, I have some older personal works, which ones has been used to get my earlier jobs, but they are also useless and outdated:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aos0w72g5nojs88/AADLkdt3RDp9NrRzWQ7mraR0a

I have one more "strong part", which is the node based shader editing, if it counts at all...You can see dynamic sky shader, IBL, and a real time blur solution here, but I could show many more if it would be needed(Understanding in this doesn't divide, doesn't multiply at all in my experience in this country):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cxjauyjse7at432/AAAIpriwXRqdillZXidWXRO0a

And....As the last part, I took out my part many times here in the tech talk section as trying to help to people, and actually I could help many times, in technical questions, like proper setup for normalmapping, shaders, software help,etc. Still I don't know how much this counts. I mean how much it counts, when you have technical knowledge in specific things.

I feel like I'm ready to work on "good/average" games (or at least please don't put the previously mentioned attitude into my face) but as it looks like, it almost doesn't matter what I show to the studios here, it is not possible to get in, just if you are one who have many years professional experience. Actually I don't want to waste my time here anymore. With viewing other guy's PF, I noticed that the whole thing would be a lot easier in an other country. I feel like this county is lost in game development and it has no future. So, I also wouldn't have future here.

So... After collecting the important parts of my writing, I am working on my new PF, and I would like to make it good to get GOOD changes in other countres, because I would really like to go from here. Please share your opinions and thoughts. Thanks!

Obscura

More info: A small studio mean 5-6 guys here, the salary is betweem 500-1000 dollars per month. A good studio means Gameloft Hungary, Crytek Hungary, and it is not possible to get in, just if you are someome, like the really pro guys from here. I have a few connections, and I asked for a suggestion, and 2 years earlier they said make more normalmapped assets. Ok, I made more, but nothing changed, I still got a job just in a "low" studio. I can't really imagine that the technical/shader/engine experience doesn't count.But here it looks like it doesn't. As I wrote, basically it doesn't matter what I make, there is no way to get a decent job. Freelancing is not an option, because of the country. It pays even worse, I tried.
I have 5-6 years experience with 3d and 3-4 years experience with game raleted 3d, and broadly one and a half year professional experience.

...Or am I seeing things wrong and I want too much?

JedTheKrampus

Look at the stuff that gets put into the Polycount showcase and see if you can figure out what separates your work from that. From what I see of your work it generally looks technically correct and your renders are quite good, but your environments don't look like they've been lived in at all, and you can tell quite easily that it's CG. Everything is quite organized and neat.

I don't think I can really make a good recommendation for what might get you a job if the competition is as fierce as you say, but maybe try making an environment that looks more lived-in. This doesn't mean you should necessarily abandon the hand-painted style or all the other things that make your work great, but rather think about what the environment would need to accomplish in the real world. Does your building in the hand-painted environment have a bathroom in it? Maybe an outhouse would be more appropriate for an agrarian setting like that. Why is your Doom environment laid out the way it is? Should there be some dust, dirt, or litter? Who walks through that room every day, and what might they leave behind?

I'd wager that while your work is quite competent and you're obviously experienced, you could benefit from considering the function of your environments more. I think your results will be more believable and your work will benefit. I'd love for you to prove me right; I'm not even an eighth of the artist you are. And I can't guarantee that making a more lived-in environment will get you a job, but I don't think it will hurt you.

It doesn't matter so much whether your art has a normalmap on it or not as long as it kicks ass. Your fundamentals are solid, so set out to make something great!

Joao Sapiro

i think you are all over the place, you havent found your strength , i say ditch all your personal work and focus on achieving what you aim to, do you want to make levels ? then make playable enviros , heck , get hammer and do some team fortress 2 maps . You want to make mechanical modeling ? get some cool concepts and stuff out of your confort zone and just commit to it , not some boxy shapped crappy robot, i mean curved hard surface models. Do you want to do enviros ? then do some modular cool ones that would be useable in production.

The ammount of info available today is amazing and there is no excuse not to thrive but our own commitment !

get to work

Eric Chadwick

I compiled this recently for my students, with the help of people here on the forum. Might help you...
http://wiki.polycount.net/PortfolioContents

Obscura

Thanks guys! When I re-started the doom scene, I had a talk with ZombieWells from here (who worked at ID and I think he is working at EPIC atm) and I asked him about the dirt thing, and he said I should make it look clean. And actually the original environment is also clean. That scene will be a playable level, and there will be 5-6 rooms so it will be a relatively big environment. As I wrote earlier, I think I want to use my hand painted scene as the second portfolio piece, and now I think I should rework it, make it bigger, and the house should have interior too. I should grow it to not be just a small diorama, but a big diorama with more foliage/props. So then I would have 2 big playable environments. One futuristic interior, and one stylized exterior. My question would be still that would this be enough to get a job in an another coutry? Or should I make a third too (yeah it would obviously help I know, but I really need it?) I ask this because when I look at some other guys portfolio from here, I see a lot that he have 1 enviro and a few individual prop, or even just props, and he have a job. Sure, when I look at a "veteran's" portfolio, thats full of with awesomeness, but I'm not a veteran. Also, being versatile is not a good thing?

When I will applying next time, I want to go sure now.

@Eric - Thanks, but I must need to suit to every line there?

To talk a bit more about the situation that I mentioned in my first post, there is like 12-16 working and available studios in hungary. You can believel, I tried to apply to all. One problem is that the half of them are not responding at all. The second problem is that the half of the remained studios wants character artist, animator, and environment artist in one person. So basically they are looking for only generalists. The remained studios are the "really low" ones with really bad attitude and work quality, and with no technical understanding. To put an example here, currently my freelance job is to make models for a "low" studio, and they want realistic things from me, but actually they don't know what a specular map does, and they think they know. Their shader is not using a normalmap, and the specular method is something that I saw only in a 10 years old ati whitepaper.Its a really weird approach of an anysotropic specular. So their shader is not really good if you want realistic result, and they think it is, and they want realistic appearing from me. I already tried to explain to them whats the problem with this (it won't look realistic until you make the shader better) but it went in on his one ear, and went out on the another. So like I didn't said anything. This was one example for the why I call them "low" studios, but I could tale more.

Eric Chadwick

Well, you just have to move forward one piece at a time. Invest yourself in that piece and make it the best you possibly can.

About working with someone else's tech, unfortunately that's the way it is in most cases, and you just have to make the best with what their limitations are. That is part of the challenge when working for different clients. Use their tech, and try to make them happy within their limits.

If they like your work, this will lead to more work. It may also lead to connections with other studios.

If you don't like their attitude, then maybe you need to adjust your attitude.

Joao Sapiro

you are trying too hard in the wrong areas to "get the job" and "(...)would this be enough to get a job in an another coutry?" you seem to be more focused on logistics instead of sitting the fuck down and start to do cool art, there are more than enought concepts flowing in the internet, everything is practically spoon fed with video tutorials , i mean theres no excuse man , you can blame location blablabla, just.get.to.fucking.work.

You only have 2 portoflio pieces and neither are impressive enought for people to remember your work , sorry to be so blunt, but your attitude seems to be very common as of lately for some reason.

Torch

Joao I think you hit the nail right on the head. A lot of these threads are coming up lately, what app should I learn? Etc. All I remember starting off is having an active interest in 3D, getting a trial of Max and just starting to learn. It seems a lot of starters want to be spoon fed or waste time talking when they could be working which ticks a lot of people off.

Obscura

Hmm. I think this:

I compiled this recently for my students, with the help of people here on the forum. Might help you...
http://wiki.polycount.net/PortfolioContents

was a lot more useful than the answers like instead of talking, sit down and make awesome art, do not want to be spoon fed etc.

I think I know now how should I continue.Thanks!

Joao Sapiro

you found it more usefull because once again it was spoon feeding, it shows you didnt even glance at the wiki that this community has built with the years.

Eric Chadwick

I get your point Joao and Torch, more art less talk, definitely good advice.

There's also a lot of info to sift thru for new artists, it's not obvious how or where to begin. Some pointers can really help.

I find the best advice however is usually to post your work in Pimping & Previews, listen to critique, work hard to improve, and keep posting updates.

Which kind of gets back to the "sit down and work thru it" advice.