Portfolio Critique - Level Designer / Level Artist

DA_Fox

Cheers guys!
I've been around for quite some time and finnaly decided to join such a great community. I'm a level designer / environment artist a bit of vfx artist. I've just put together some of my projects. I hope to listen to your feedback, critique and suggestions, guys!

I think I have to add more before/after and progress shots to support level-design side. How do you think?

And what do you think about overall design/usability?

Here it is: www.denis-armand.com

Thank you in advance!

mats effect

"level designer, environment artist, VFX artist" I think most people on here would advice you to pick just one of those and focus all out on it. The work its self looks pretty cool though

I think you also have way too many pages I am not even close to being an authority on portfolio layouts etc but the general consensus seams to be keep it as simple as possible.

JustGarry

Some really great work Denis, would lose the interior scene though it's nowhere near the standard of the other work.

pixelpatron

I gotta agree about the interior, the material definition is just not there. You also broke the cardinal sin of lighting, you placed point lights around your ceiling light fixtures. Thus making weird halo's around them. This is completely un-natural and really breaks the sense of realism. In reality, those can lights would make the area on the floor brighter not the ceiling. PLEASE PEOPLE NEVER NEVER DO THIS!

Exhibit A:



Light source - ceiling, light on table coming from said source. Sorry for the rant, this just always bugs me.

sltrOlsson

I'd say skip "VFX artist" since you don't have a proper demo reel for effects. It's a hard market to break in to without it.

I think companies looking for a world builder would find you interesting. You got the environment part (though you should show exactly WHAT you've done environment wise in those scenes, break downs and so on) and you have the level design part. The strength of your portfolio is the size of your pieces and that's why I'm saying world builder might be a really good fit for you.

Your individual pieces of 3D is not high enough quality wise (I don't think, it's hard to know without breakdowns) for you to be hired as a env artist and hiring a level designer without experience does not happen, kinda.

DWalker

I don't think it's the placement of the lights so much as the type; a directional light or even better a spot light would work there.

Overall, your outdoor scenes are over lit.

The harsh white background, especially when coupled with the diagonal lines, is really hard on the eyes.

I'd kill the slideshows and just let the user look at images at his own rate. Remember, you're showing of your artwork, not your web programming. If you are going to keep the slide shows, get rid of the quick slide and replace it with a traditional fade, and increase the time between swaps; at the moment it has an almost frantic pace.

Include your name & contact info on every page, and let the viewer download the images, (Another reason to get rid of the slideshows.)

DA_Fox

Thank you guys for all the advices!
Through my career I was a level designer, level artist, vfx artist, environment artist, lighting artist and even tech-artist. Various roles on various projects. Sometimes several roles on one project. I guess it's a specific trait of our game-development.

I wonder how Level Designer Portfolio should looks like? 'Before and after' or 'wip' shots that show progress of building a level? And what decisions LD makes through this process? Or just beauty screenies and some notations what was made by LD?
Any advices?

Cluly

I think the background on the website (the line pattern) REALLY fights with the images you're trying to display, I think it would help your work a lot more if it was a mid range value, 128 grey and no pattern ... something like that. I can just feel my eyes be distracted by it.

linkov

You forgot to mention being a part-time runway model.. Which is a big surprise even for me. But then again, I never really payed attention to your activities during Neuro lightmaps compilation hours Maybe it was your secret all along? haha Nice one Fox