crit my portfolio

Phaeton1911

this is my first serious portfolio, put it together last month sometime

http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/

obvious issues to me:
its a stock carbonmade site, not a custom page
cant enlarge images
lack of environment work
actual game stuff is for mobile
maybe my images are 'too busy'


thanks everyone who checks it out

Progg

I wouldnt say having mobile stuff is an issue, there are plenty of fantastic portfolio examples with heavy mobile-centric imagery. One thing is you don't really express what you are, or what you are focused on. '3d Guru / machine / monster' isn't exactly the best way to lead as the first introduction to your work and can come off as cocky. The most glaring problem for me is the link to your work opens directly to a page full of 90% negative space with a very small thumbnail of some random work. Ideally you should lead right off with your best couple of pieces right in the viewers face. Minimizing the need to click through a bunch of dead/dull pages to get to the work will drastically increase how long people stick around to actually look at your work.

There are plenty of well crafted carbonmade sites, so I'm sure you can get something setup to fix the issues with how the page directly opens. One example of a great carbonmade portfolio that comes to mind is Genesis Prado's. Your work is pretty good. You do have breakdowns which is nice, although you are right about it being noisy. There is too much text all over the images distracting the viewers attention. I would try to keep the text as minimal as possible on the images and let the work speak for itself in most cases. I do like the compositions in some of the shots, I think they are well thought out.

Honestly if you open directly to some larger thumbnails or straight to the images themselves in a 'one-page scrolling portfolio' I think you'd be pretty set. Get rid of the 'Big Portfolio' title and call it what you are 'prop/vehicle artist.. environment artist... etc,etc.' And unless Im mistaken, you dont have a CV/Resume up anywhere.

Felixenfeu

http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/projects/5267733#1 That page, your porfolio page, should be the home page. Especially since you don't have a ton of artwork, you could just put all your stuff on the same page, with big pictures, a bit of text if you want. Lot of useless negative space at the moment.

There is a ton of other options if carbonmade doesnt do it for you (Blogspot, wix, weebly, etc.)

Take exemple on other websites. Look at the size of the pictures on these (including mine) websites. It shows right away what you wanna see on a porfolio : The work.

http://www.pioldes.com/#-portfolio-
http://www.yurialexander.com/
http://www.mariempepin.com/
http://www.felixcharacters.com/
http://www.hazardousarts.com/

So, don't hide your work, show it, right away, make it big, make it shine.

You have some good stuff, it's just poorly presented. Oh and, remove your oldest or unfinished pieces, especially these ones :
http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/projects/5267733#13
http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/projects/5267733#10
http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/projects/5267733#12

They are less appealing and dumb down the quality of your other stuff.

Use your name too, and what you are doing, as title, like James Towne - Environment & Props artist . 3D guru / machine / monster is unprofessional.

theStoff

Since you only have one item on your home page I'd just put all your images there so you don't have to click twice. It might also be a good idea to at least get a domain name so it's easy to search/find. That isn't the most necessary but I find it's easier for people to remember your website if it doesn't have .somethingorother at the end.

Phaeton1911

thanks people, i prepeared for a real ass kicking but seems i didn't get one.

yeah the introduction to the site is pretty poor and minimal, i think carbonmade is meant for people with multiple projects, i have everything in one package.

guru, monster and machine are the nicknames i was given on my team roster, so i saw them as something id earned but i'll still take em down.

i do have a CV written and ready but im not sending this link out anywhere special just yet.

DireWolf

Consider using sans serif font instead such as Ariel, they're cleaner and less distracting.

Also try to avoid using javascript or any fancy loading. Your images won't even load on my browser until I allow cross-site scripts to run.

Felixenfeu

Man, you really gotta remove that first page. If you can't make this page your homepage : http://jamestowne.carbonmade.com/projects/5267733 , use another service. It might be useful when, like you said, you have multiple projects, but at the moment it really is useless and hide your stuff under too many clics.

It's better though. And about your work itself, just keep doing projects and update your porfolio montly with new stuff, as much as possible.

Phaeton1911

thanks man, yeah i'm gonna jump hosting site, carbon isn't got give me the layout i want.
gotta finish my current model first, i'll have shots of that on here for crits soon