Portfolio Advice. What to keep so far.

theonewhoknocks

I'm working at getting rid of old college work to update my portfolio with newer work. It's been a little tough with time as a new dad, but it's been more encouraging than ever.

Wanted to get some advice on what to dispose of in my portfolio or if there is something I can keep and improve on. Just finished this Imp Alter and wanted to know if I should put that in as well. Putting everything I got into the Throne Room next. Thanks Polycounters.http://www.jonathaneiger.com

Joltya

You got a lot of cool stuff. Definitely get rid of the "coca-cola" bar, though. It feels too empty and you already have another bar scene as well. The castle scene feels boring as well, but if you add more stuff and camera angles it might work better. IMO those are your two weakest pieces.

Deathrey

As Joltya mentioned, I would probably also get rid of the cola bar.
Perhaps you could do some tweaks to your castle scene also. Grass seems to be growing on a plain stone. Foliage would also look better with edited normals.

As for that altar prop from MNC, the model looks good but texturing seems to be lacking details and material def. It would probably be a good choice to add a glow map to that green blood thingy.

Shrike

I would cut the cola bar, the vending machine (if you show such an asset, then it needs to be superb) the garage and the castle.

the new altar looks well baked but in general texturing seems to be your biggest weakness, try comparing material definition closer with real materials, on that one everything is very glossy and every time you do cracks, they have the same crack size and depth, making them look fake (+ crevices are way too dark, dont use such black ao thats just not happening, global illumination prevents that). Most importantly try to work on your edge definition, which is like the essence of texturing imo, if you get that right, youll make a huge step forward and its not too difficult

i did a poor paintover but i think you get what i mean, i could not change the base material gloss and spec too much in Photoshop

your recent bakes look solid but dont be afraid using more quads, aside you seem to be on a good way, just make sure to look at a lot of artworks so your brain saves all the patterns of good aesthetics and you can replicate that better subconsciously over time which helps a lot. Website looks good

theonewhoknocks

Thanks for your crits, I appreciate it a lot. I'll defintely be getting rid of the cola bar then and some of the other older environments.

@Joltya, yeah I agree with the cola bar being empty in a way, I was just trying to match the concept. It was probably one of my first environments as well. I would love to spruce up the castle a bit more, but unfortunately lost those files awhile back. So i'm probably just going to get rid of it.

@Deathrey, wish I could edit that castle a bit more, lost those files though. I'm going to focus more on the texturing for that Imp Alter prop though.

@Shrike, I agree with removing the cola bar, vending machine, the futuristic garage and the castle for sure. I'm going to spend more time texturing the Imp Alter. I was using Substance Painter for the first time, so I'm still getting used to it (Always used pure photoshop and NDO/DDO.) Thanks for the paintover though it helps a lot to see what you're talking about

theonewhoknocks

Wanted to bump this post to get a few more critiques before I go at it and start making changes. I appreciate all the critiques.

Poseidon8734

Nice Portfolio! I also really liked your resume. How you got and associates first and then went to bachelors. Any tips for a freshman is HS?

theonewhoknocks

Thanks Poseidon. You are already doing something right by being on here. Just make sure you are passionate about producing art for games. Look at tutorials and create new art everyday. Challenge yourself and make sure you are always getting critiques on your work. A lot of things are going to change between now and the time you graduate so just make sure to stay current with everything as far as game development goes.

JVoye

Removals aside, the site is very crisp, looks great and I love the minimalist approach when it comes to the text itself. I also think the texture studies are a nice touch. If you don't mind me asking what web host are you using, Weebly? Great layout.

theonewhoknocks

@JVoye: No, just hosting on GoDaddy. Put the site together myself. Just HTML, CSS and some Javascript.

theonewhoknocks

Adjusted a few things on the Imp Alter

HowToTrainAZombie

I'm not an industry expert or anything, I just like cool graphics, but as a consumer, I like artwork that has a bit of character or feel to it, like something is happening. I like your environments they have a rich texture and atmosphere like your castle one and first one, but have you thought about designing some characters? adding wildlife? As an artist, I would also like to know what kind of stuff you usually focus on creating when you're at work? Good stuff btw

theonewhoknocks

Thank you for your comment. I've been wanting to do character art, but I love doing environments and props a lot more. I'm big on anatomy drawing and do a little bit everyday. I will probably take some time to do some sculpts and try to get into it.

theonewhoknocks

Alright so it looks like i'll be removing the Cola Bar, The Vending Machine, The Garage and the Castle Scene from my portfolio. Then adding this piece here. Any other crits would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

Nosslak

You still need to work a lot more on the gloss to separate the materials from each other, as others have already said. All your materials look like they have the same value right now, which makes the model look less interesting and realistic.
If the brown parts are supposed to be untreated wood it needs to be a lot less glossy.
It's very unclear if the teeth are supposed to be sculpted or if they're supposed to be actual teeth from an animal so you might want to work more on that.

You're are also wasting a lot of geometry on the brown part of the altar where it seems to hardly make any difference at all.

I think you need to dirty up the crevices a bit and, as Shrike said, paint in some edge wear as well to make it a lot more interesting to look at.

The modelling looks solid, but the texture still needs some more love IMO.

theonewhoknocks

Thanks Nosslak, I definitely see what you mean with the materials being over glossy in a lot of areas. I'm not sure if I may have plugged in the maps incorrectly in toolbag 2. But I inverted the glossiness, which I think gave me a little bit better of a result for the wood parts, not sure about the concrete though.




Still getting used to Substance Painter which is what I used for this. Anyways I'm going to dirty it up a bit more and see if I can close some of those loops for the top wood part.

theonewhoknocks

Thanks for the critiques everyone

Deathstick

You might want to credit the concept artist and either have a link or show an image of the original piece of concept art somewhere in a section if an environment is based directly off of it, it's just a good habit to get into.

Nice work! I particularly enjoy the composition of the wooden cabin scene.

theonewhoknocks

Thanks Deathstick, I'm actually working on crediting the concept artist now. I had it on before, don't know why I took it off, it's definitely always a good thing to have on there