Portfolio critique needed
polycounter lvl 3
Hi to you all!
I'm last year game development student and I'm at a moment looking for a trainee position or an actual job on game industry. I've been sending applications for few months now but haven't had luck getting a position yet.
I have now built a new portfolio and I tought it would be nice to get some feedback from it before I start sending new applications.
Link to my portfolio is Here: http://www.jolkio3d.com/
Thank you!
Samuli
I'm last year game development student and I'm at a moment looking for a trainee position or an actual job on game industry. I've been sending applications for few months now but haven't had luck getting a position yet.
I have now built a new portfolio and I tought it would be nice to get some feedback from it before I start sending new applications.
Link to my portfolio is Here: http://www.jolkio3d.com/
Thank you!
Samuli
Replies
1. Website Layout:
I like the top navigation bar that stays anchored to the top so I can conveniently navigate whenever.
I'm not sure how I feel about the image strip of the dusty hallway at the top. I found myself scrolling right past it to your actual work. Perhaps if it were an image of something more visually compelling.
Your name is nowhere to be found. I didn't know who you were until I got to your Contact page. Same with your focus of modeling and texturing. This had me wondering which parts of the projects in your videos you had a hand in making.
You misspelled "studying" and "really" on your Contact page.
You should include a resume/CV somewhere on your site.
This might be a regional thing, but I'm personally accustomed to the title and description coming before the content. I was a bit confused when reading about your videos because those things came after. It would probably make more sense to have them on top in a top-to-bottom scrolling layout like yours.
2. Content:
3D Stuff
The fireplace I think is your weakest piece simply because of the state of the low poly. The wireframe could be drastically improved, you probably have 100 times as many triangles as is necessary. Let the normal map take care of the small crevices between each brick, no need to model each one individually.
The caravan trailer is pretty bland for what it is. Your high poly lacks a lot of details that should be there, such as rivets and bolts, scrapes, tire tread & hub cap details, windows, a door, and possibly other interior components.
Your sofa could stand to be optimized a bit more. There are a few edge loops that probably don't need to be there.
I can clearly see a seam or some other strange lighting effect on the front of your rocks. Present the other side, or find a way to hide the seam better.
Generally, I think your lighting could be better on your presentations. It's really hard for me to see the details from the normal map. The root monster looks really flat despite all the details you show in your high poly. You also have a lot of black that shrouds your details in the presentations, such as the cracks in your rocks, the inside of your caravan trailer, and inside your fireplace.
2D Stuff
I would get rid of the farmer concept. It still looks like it's in the sketch phase and really takes away from other other three pieces you have.
Video Stuff
It's hard to say without knowing exactly what you did in each of these videos. If you did all of the content then I would say good job getting that all together: audio, animations, controls, models, textures, lighting, etc. but it's clear you're spreading yourself way too thin which isn't something you want to show off.
3. General Thoughts:
A lot of the stuff in here feels like homework assignments, which according to your Contact page you say that you are a student. There's nothing wrong with this, really, especially if you are still learning your trade, but I would recommend doing something outside of what your school wants you to do and put that in there instead.
Put only your best, relevant work on display. If you are going for 3D modeling and texturing, you probably shouldn't also have 2D sketches unless they are amazing. Three super solid pieces can be more powerful than twelve mediocre pieces.
You may want to consider specializing in either environment or character art. If you want to do characters, do only characters and nothing else so you can show that you are really good at anatomy and character modeling. This of course may depend on where you're looking to apply; if you want to do more indie stuff, it might be better to show you can fill multiple roles on a small team.
BagelHero, so it seems. I'll try to find a way to fix this, tought I'm not sure how much I can affect on that because I made this website with an website builder and phone version of the site should work automatically.
DireWolf, I'm not sure, because I'm not that good on html, but my images should be just <img> tought I have one video from youtube on my front page.
urgaffel, Unfortunately it is the right image. I changed the image to one on which I de-triangulated mesh faces. I probbalby have to make a new lowpoly version of it in some point.
Bartalon, thanks for detailed critique. I'll work on those layout issues. I lowered down the polycount of fireplace by making tris to quads, but I think I'll have to do whole new lowpoly version of it. I'll take another look at that sofa lowpoly too and try to make that normal map pop out a little bit more on root monster. I also got rid of the farmer concept and I'm taking another look to video descriptions to add more information on what I did in each video.
I'm not sure what you mean by "doing something outside of what your school wants you to do". There are some things that I have done complitely on my own time like sofa and fireplace, all 2d sketches and trilas tracks, and the rest of the things went "a little" over school time. Do you mean that they just feel like school projects and I should keep practicing.
2d sketches are there mainly because in one company I applied to 3d modellers made sketches of their models them selves. Their didn't have to be anything fancy just that people would get the idea.
On my location there aren't that many big game companies that make AAA games so I try to also please indie companies.
Thanks again for the critiques!
Making tris into quads makes no difference to the actual triangle count of a model, it will remain the same. It will look better in a wireframe but that's it. Remodeling it is a very good idea and you could make a thread about the rework here on PC to get some good tips.
Aah, Okay.
That sounds like a plan. I think I'm going to do that.