A Portfolio Goal to GDC
Hello. I do most of my posting on CG Society but since I am thinking about going to GDC in 2015, Polycount seemed like the better place to get some feedback.
I have been doing 3D now for roughly 5 years with a focus on modelling. I am mostly self learned I did go to an Art Institute for 2 years before running out of money.
Anyway I am just throwing up a huge collection of my works and projects I am working on currently to see what the public opinion would be in making a Portfolio for such an event as the GDC.
You know something along the lines of 4-5 pieces that might be worth a dam. Most of what I have is only base models. But I do plan on doing more with them especially in preparations. The models are all between 10,000 - 20,000 Tri's.
But mostly I'm having artist doubt I guess. Am I going in the right direction. Do I actually have stuff worth while. Is it even worth my time/money to go to the GDC with what I got?
I will start with my newest going to the oldest. Remember some are still works in process.
A Basilisk I am currently working on.
A Character I am working on.
Another Head
I have been doing 3D now for roughly 5 years with a focus on modelling. I am mostly self learned I did go to an Art Institute for 2 years before running out of money.
Anyway I am just throwing up a huge collection of my works and projects I am working on currently to see what the public opinion would be in making a Portfolio for such an event as the GDC.
You know something along the lines of 4-5 pieces that might be worth a dam. Most of what I have is only base models. But I do plan on doing more with them especially in preparations. The models are all between 10,000 - 20,000 Tri's.
But mostly I'm having artist doubt I guess. Am I going in the right direction. Do I actually have stuff worth while. Is it even worth my time/money to go to the GDC with what I got?
I will start with my newest going to the oldest. Remember some are still works in process.
A Basilisk I am currently working on.
A Character I am working on.
Another Head
Replies
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=43&t=1090597&page=1&pp=15
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1078353
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=43&t=1061000&page=1&pp=15
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1002729
Your dragon is too dense on the wing area, IMO. You animal models generally are lacking of structure and anatomy, they are not defined well. Check the proportion as well.
I think your mouse is nice, polish it more. Also, your eagle on CG Society is looking nice, but drop out your BG painting as it looks mushy and unprofessional. Slap on some photo-realistic background texture will do the trick.
Also, make sure you set up a nice lighting to make your model look nice, lighting is everything.
Finally. I know you liked the mouse and Eagle and I know that I showed just base models that I could polish up within the next six months. But do I really have enough to make a portfolio? is the subject matter worthy? Or should I stuff these away as personal stuff because they are really not were they need to be.
Essentially is it worth pushing forward with what I got. Texturing, Rendering, posing. ect. Or should I not be wasting my time and money this coming year because I need essentially a whole new set of stuff and ideas.
Choose one of these and use it to learn how to bake, UV and texture if you're aiming for the games industry. I think you'll want to learn to sculpt, too, rather than only using smoothing and subD for organic structures. But yeah, definitely finish some of these. Just UVing and texturing them would help a ton, but learning to bake from a high poly is a necessity, and you'll probably want to bake from a sculpt with more surface detail for you to work with when texturing and defining materials, especially if most of what you do involves fur and scales.
Honestly, though, seeing all these smoothed models is kind of weird if you want to get into games, if you're aiming for animation it doesn't strike me as quite as weird, but if you're going for games you're better off showing your base mesh straight up with hard normals so we get a better idea of your base mesh silhouette, if it'll look weird in-game, etc.
UV, Bake, Texture and Render some pieces and you'll get a better response, I think. Your modelling is good, but nothing is finished so it's kind of hard to judge right now.
Again I know how to texture. some of these have basic rigs I just don't have them shown and I can use Zbrush to make and bake normals. In the last 6 months I have decided I just wanted to model things and not worry about the other processes for now.
So non of these are portfolio peaces as is. I am just wondering if what I do have can be usable in a portfolio in the next 6 months before the coming GDC. As in if I were to make them into something would they be worth it. Or are they simply to plain or not good enough as base models to waste my time doing that.
Let's talk about the horse for example. Here is the ref from the Internet:
Notice the lower lip is more prominent, it has a "belly" and extrudes forward a bit. and horse's lips have unbelievable wide range of motion as well. The ear should face forward, not side-way (horses' ears can turn side-way of course when they try to "eavesdrop" human's conversation LOL, but the default state is facing forward), and they should be pointy and tapered at the top. The triceps and deltoid on horses should have more prominent shape, you indicated that on your model, but not as clear.
For the dog, I think the front leg is a bit too big near the wrist. The connection between the knee of the rear leg and the belly is too high (this area is particularly hard to model, on all quadruped, IMO)
By BG, I mean background painting in your Eagle's scene, it doesn't have a realistic look while your eagle looks realistic. I think you need to keep polishing your model s and shouldn't set them aside. Textures may be optional as a good model with simple clay shader is still better than a bad model with ok texture.
Learning and know zbrush is almost a requirement for any game art job, unless you do mobile. Mobile is a different beast all together and generally require good painting skills in order to get the most out of small textures.
One major thing I've had to learn about portfolio development is that we think so much about how many pieces we need to make, while the quality that is present is far more important. 2 or 3 solid works are much better than 20 OK ones. I don't recommend working on several pieces like this at once. What will happen is you will get them all done with the same skill level, which will then be outdated as soon as you get better (and if you are serious about working in the industry, that should happen quickly). Also pursue quality art in the folio, never completing any number. When you move up a skill level, its best to dump off the old works for news one because you will be judged by your worst more than your best. Complete one at a time, learn as much from the creating it as you do from the critiques, from critiques on other threads, research, study and seriously look into the level of quality that is expected of you.
What you have SHOWN us is a few models ... that's it. I understand that this is likely more an personal comment than an artistic one. I know the feeling quite well. Putting a portfolio together is overwhelming. My advice, from someone who is a job seeker himself for a long time, is again to finish one piece to completion and learn AT LEAST as much as you create. I've spent so many hours on projects that have been scrapped. The oldest piece in my gallery was done this spring. Looking back over years of worked scrapped (the Sega in my avatar was modeled in 2006) I wished I listened harder when I was told what I'm telling you now. That artist doubt alleviates with LEARNING, not getting things done. Someone on CGTalk was telling me not to worry about getting a dragon done before it was good. I thought my portfolio needed to be done in time for graduation (so I could get a job) so I called it done without it getting good. That was early 2008 ... I'm still looking for work. Be patient and don't rush your development by a date in time. I really hope this helps.
Alot of this doubt is stemming from the fact I got into this a little late in life. I didn't get interested or even start using Maya until after spending all my money on school for Anthropology only to discover after working in the field that it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Now I am 32 pushing 33 and feel like my age will be barrier if I don't start to hurry.
With doubt and maybe a bit of depression I want to know if I am working this from the wrong angle. Like one thing brought up is Zbrush. Yes I know how to use it and make normals, but should I learn to use it solely for characters and creatures and then learn to retopo because that is how its done these days?
Essentially in lament terms I am asking for a critique not for where I am at but where I am going, if that helps.
As for going to GDC this coming march I know how important it can be to rub shoulders and network with people in the industry. And I think it would be smart to take something even knowing it is not up to snuff just to go hey look at me this is who I am and what I do (That is if I should go at all). I know it probably won't get me job. But I also don't want to leave the wrong impressions.
But lets say I push these to finish, even if it is just a couple of them, and again I have posted what some of my finished work looks like. Would it be something good to "hey your not getting a job with this but a least you rub shoulders and we look forward to seeing your progress sort of thing".
I think you deal with this one two fronts here, the topo flow is very importance and you can find great examples on the polycount wiki and other big thing is your anatomy is not there. you need to do more studies.
Yup, more studies. The key is knowing what it should look like, visualizing it and then making it happen.