Tear my portfolio apart - RobinKarlsson3D.com
polycounter lvl 12
I've recently updated my portfolio and would like some brutally honest critique on it as I would like to start applying for jobs soon. Here's the link:
RobinKarlsson3D.com
Here's a sneak peek of what I consider my best model:
I am looking for critique on pretty much everything about the portfolio. I would like some opinions on which models are the best/worst, what needs to improve, the quality of the website, critique on the resume and so on.
Lastly I would also like to know if people think I'm skilled enough to land a job in the game industry (I'll primarily apply for jobs in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia if that matters).
Cheers
Robin Karlsson
RobinKarlsson3D.com
Here's a sneak peek of what I consider my best model:
I am looking for critique on pretty much everything about the portfolio. I would like some opinions on which models are the best/worst, what needs to improve, the quality of the website, critique on the resume and so on.
Lastly I would also like to know if people think I'm skilled enough to land a job in the game industry (I'll primarily apply for jobs in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia if that matters).
Cheers
Robin Karlsson
Replies
I'd suggest polishing that up a bit and as Laughing_Bun said, get a BG in there or something that is well comped in.
Guns and vehicules are done as often because theyre beautiful machinery and are what comes closest to characters in personification. If you do not like those, then theres not much left.
Portfolio looks good, personally I think a nice sans serif is better in any case, but the serifs are decent, still they have strong personality and not necessarily reflect the content they represent.
The presented things look all good, but they all have the same style. Theyre all semi realistic slightly stilized objects. Problem is that the most used and important setting is photorealism, and you do not have an asset where I can put my checkmark that you can realize such content.
Im not sure if you were trying for realism, but for me it looks like that common style is the result of your influences and current skill level, and not by choice. If thats the case does not matter, what matters is that you prove that impression wrong, and have atleast something that aims to be dead serious, so my advice would be to work on texturing to be able to present that
Good luck ; )
On your resume, I'd simplify the section headings - "Skills" instead of "Applicable Skills", and "Tools" instead of "Tools of the Trade". Experience and education are typically listed with the most recent first. You should capitalize the name of each language (English, German, Danish).
I did write what I rendered the lowpoly models in (Marmoset Toolbag 1 or 2), the highpolys are all rendered in Blender with either the internal renderer or Cycles. I just realized that none of my highpoly renders have any specularity at all which is a major oversight as it makes it hard to make out how well the geometry is done. I'll go over them all and fix this.
I have probably exaggerated the padding on my UVs a bit too much and too often but other than that I though my packing was pretty decent. I do pretty much all of my texturing in Photoshop so to make that easier I pack all my UV elements that are together on the model together on the UVs as well so it's easier to find what you're looking for. I'll try to improve my UVing abilities though though.
I noticed on your portfolio that you don't show your textures, so would you say it would be better if I removed the texture showcase altogether from my pieces especially as my UVs apparently are pretty bad?
When I made the revolver and posted it here I made a plaque for it as I though that would make the presentation a bit more interesting, but I got some comments telling me that if it was supposed to be a first person weapon I should skip that or if I wanted to keep it I should make it more like just a prop (presumably with lower polycount and lower res textures). I was surprised by the response as I otherwise agree with you that it would look better with a pedestal or something.
I thought the presentation was pretty good already (aside from the lack of a BG), but I'll look at improving it. I made this before PBR ever bacame popular, would you say it's worth redoing the textures for PBR?
Wow, coming from someone with a senior position that really means a lot to me. Thanks, man! This would be my first job (at all, not just game industry) so I don't want to aim too high yet and get disappointed so I think I'll apply mostly to entry positions. What kind of larger props would you recommend me to do (like a truck or a mech or something)?
I have tried to do a few environments in the past but they usually haven't turned out very well which has led me to mostly focus on making vehicles and weapons instead.
Just to clarify, should I remove the clock altogether or just the texture presentation for that model?
I tried a few sans serif fonts but I can't really say I liked how any of them made the website feel. I have heard people recommending sans serif fonts before however so I'll give them a second chance.
Yeah, I think your right in that most of the models and textures feel a bit stylized and not quite realistic. I really do love the steampunk/victorian style which might also be part of the problem as there aren't a lot of great realistic references for that. I think I need to make some kind of more modern and real weapon with lots of references, as some of you have already suggested, and really try to push the realism of the piece. I did actually make a MP5 a few months ago but that didn't turn out all that well so I won't post that here.
I think another big part of the problem is that I don't use enough photo-sourced textures as a few years ago I relied way too heavily on them which made all of my models look like shit. So to combat that I tried to mostly handpaint most of my textures with some light photo-sourcing to learn how to properly paint textures myself. I think the problem is that I never really got away from the mentality that photo-sourcing was bad/lazy. I know it isn't but it has still kind of stuck with me in the back my head.
You're right, I'll fix that. I'll include the resume on that page and provide some download links as well.
I though my headings sounded a bit more interesting, but yeah, that's probably not the right place to try to be a little creative with the headings. I think you're right in all of your points, so I've improved the resume and have uploaded a new one with the changes you suggested.
I'll update the website either tomorrow or the day after to reflect on the changes recommended here (including resume, sans serif, specular highpolys, etc.).
I'd echo the packing UVs statement Snefer made. Back in my day people cared about wasted space!
I'd love to see you doing realistic weapons (ARK-blah blah whatever) just to show that you can make those as well. A lot of weapons these days are actual guns. You might have to make one of those on the job. Plus all the stuff looks like it is almost from the same game. Make a gun that would fit into Modern Duty game, then one for Halo Effect world, then another for Wolfenstein, then another for Ratchet and Clank, etc etc. Companies are going to want to see you have a handle on their style well. They want to minimize the risk on filling that position. The more awesome examples, styles, etc that you have the less questions they'll have about your artistic choices, workflow, etc. Which will minimize the amount of risk they will be taking on you. In the end making you a safe choice for the position.
As far as the folio site itself separate Weapons up top, Vehicles, then Props categories. Some of the stuff near the bottom I'm not sure what it is in a thumbnail.
The head is really really large. Shrink that part up. Overall site design and minimal color scheme work though.
I rambled a bit but hopefully it makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't.
Alright, a lot of people that I really respect have brought the UVs up so I guess that means they really are quite shitty. I honestly thought they were mostly decent, but I'll read up on UVs more and try to improve them for my next project.
Making weapons that would fit in specific games is a great idea as most of my weapons are indeed a bit too similar. I did make a weapon back in April (based on a concept by Fightpunch) that I think could kind of fit in with Halo:
At this point it's probably better to start with a modern, realistic weapon, but do you think it'd be worth revisiting and finishing this later or should I make something new instead?
Yeah, the plague doctor mask is pretty unique, but yeah, I'm not sure what to do to make it more recognizable. Do you think it would help if I zoomed the thumbnail out a bit?
Yeah, the head of the site could probably be shrunk a bit. I'll look into doing that. Would you believe me if I told you that it used to be even bigger?
It was all coherent and made sense to me. Thanks a lot Jeff and everyone else for all of the very helpful critique and comments! I really appreciate it all!
Changes:
- Remade all of highpoly renders with darker materials, specular and a bit of color thrown in for good measure.
- Remade a few of the lowpoly shots with tweaked lighting and/or textures.
- Changed the font to a sans serif one. I kind of liked the older one better, but whatever.
- Shrank the websites head.
- Included the resume directly on the resume page as well as a download link for it.
I still need to get some better renders of the binoculars as they look a bit dull at the moment (and lack a highpoly shot).
I still need to make a more realistic and modern weapon, but otherwise I think have implemented all of the feedback I've received so I would really appreciate some input on this newer version as well.
Finish that Scifi gun then do some real world weapons!
On your resume page, the dark text - apparently intended to highlight things - is difficult to read. I'd recommend changing the background color to a dark gray and the text to a light gray, as seen on a popular artists' forum. If you really need to highlight something, then you could use bold (<b></b>); multi-color text is rarely a good idea.
I'd probably shift the e-mail link to the right of your name in a much smaller font; this will also help reduce the vertical size of the header.
Alright, I just need to finish up my fusion coil for the noob challenge first. I do intend to go back and try to pimp up the highpoly a bit for it as it seems a bit lacking compared to what others have posted there.
You're right, I don't really need them so they're gone now.
I'm really not sure what you mean by this at all. It sounds like you might be experiencing some kind of problem with your browser if you're seeing multicolored text. There were a slight color change (from #ddd to #ccc) between the text in the header and the content. That difference was just a mistake so I've changed that now, but it doesn't sound like that was the problem. I've tried the page in Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari and the only text that isn't light gray is the R and K in the banner. Here's what it looks like for me.
When I first designed the page I used a much lighter gray, but I really don't think that looked good (even though it works here). So I don't really want to use that again. Earlier I didn't include the resume directly on the portfolio partly as I knew it would be easier to read it with black text against a white background.
I tried doing that but I don't see a way to actually make that look good, so I removed it again. Jeff had a pretty nice solution on his site where the whole banner is just the email address but I don't think that would work well with mine.
Thanks again for all the critique! The quality of my portfolio has really gone up since I posted it here.