Portfolio Review

Jenesis1214

Hey ya'll!~
I've been ghosting this site for a while now but friends have been urging me to post/ get feedback so here we go. I concentrated mostly on art for mobile games while in school but I want to branch out of that.

I'm an associate level 3D artist and illustrator looking to improve my work/presentation/portfolio.

Any help/comments/critiques would be greatly appreciated.

My portfolio site:

www.jenmelnick.com

Thanks all!:)

-J

Suba

It doesn't load or is it just me? Website seems off.

BagelHero

EDIT: Site loads fine for me.

First off, good job so far! Your art is colorful and pretty well designed, attracts attention very well.

But I think you need to figure out what you really want to do, rather than showing off... everything. I can't tell quite what you're showing off specifically and you have no title (Character Artist? Environment Artist? Even 3D generalist would do, but there's illustration here too...), which effects how I'm viewing this. I, personally, have assumed that you want to and like to do Characters, because that's on the first page. Both designing them, and the actual modelling and texturing.

Still, though, it leaves me feeling a little confused, and you could really stand to make a harder goal-- If you no longer wish to work on casual mobile games, show the kind of art that would go into a game you actually wish to work on. So figure out exactly what that is, and show it up front.

Just some other niggly bits I noticed;

• Only your phone number at the top of the page? Possibly not a great idea; add your email up there as well... In a way that's more obvious than the button.

• I would re-think or remove the Swamp King piece. Everywhere on him has a very high level of detail, and the contrast isn't telling my eye where to sit, either. It's very hard to make out his forms. I'd simplify his lower body texture, make his face lighter, and give the details a lower contrast.

• Your sculpts aren't fantastic, I personally wouldn't show them (especially just with what looks to be the Toolbag 2 Default lighting on a middle grey with no posing...). Work on that until they're up to par; your painting is pretty good, so it shouldn't take too long for you to get a handle on creating forms that are more aesthetically pleasing and correct.
  
  This is pretty noticeable on your "baby felpurr" piece, where the sculpting doesn't correspond with the really nice handpainted texture for her face at all. The forms you lovingly painted in just aren't matching up with the sculpt, which misses a lot of those same key forms. Though, I really like the floaty buggy shimp-y thing, and it's presentation. That thing is cool. The Devil Ray is really nice, too, though it's a shame you didn't get to make a slightly higher rez version of it with the normal maps playing a bigger role.

• Not super important, but do you really need a picture of your pets on your portfolio? And a lot of the photos of yourself are pretty low quality. It's alright to keep them, I suppose, but I don't think they're entirely needed either.

• Your stuff that isn't mobile assets (both high res 3D and illustration) could really do with cleaner presentation, too. Comparatively, it seems a bit boring and low-key for the higher resolution 3D pieces, and a little messy on your illustrations and concepts. Some are better than others, but I can't tell which represent your current skill level.

On that note, there's a lot of stuff here. Remember to cull all the old stuff that doesn't reflect your skill level, rotate them out for newer pieces, and be selective with the pieces you put up. Quality over Quantity and all that. :poly142:

Keep it up, maybe post some personal WIPs on here once in a while. Having people chime in while you're still working can be really helpful. :thumbup:

Jenesis1214

@BagelHero

Fantastic, this is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. Parsing through each point atm piece by piece. Will tackle some of the easier stuff tomorrow and work on the bigger issues with the models etc over the next week.

Thank you!