[Portfolio] Prop art crits

StevenEgan

Hello all,

I've got my portfolio almost up and running, this is going to be focused on prop art, as this seems like it might be the ideal way to break into the Game art world. I've only got 3 models up at the moment as I'm re-texturing 2 others, and will be working on a sci-fi rifle to spice things up a little too.

Big thanks to Dan! for providing the template for this portfolio. That can be found here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91572

I'm looking for crits on the site (though I realise it's loopy simple) and also the content. Tear it apart, I don't mind.

There are a few bits missing, like my CV, but I will be writing that up tomorrow. (gone 1am here)

Any and all feedback is most appreciated.

Thanks!

www.stevenegancg.com

Migano

I am just a noob, but impressed by your work! Well done! From a technical point of view it is perfect in my eyes, but i am missing some different styled props. Maybe something cartoon'y, maybe something with "non solid" elements to show how versitile you are.

Swarm22

I like the simplicity of the site, thats the way to go, but I would also like to see breakdowns of the props. Wireframes/textures. Solid pieces so far though, good job.

TomGT

Very nice! The site seems simple enough and going in the right direction. Though have you considered a centered view? On my screen, 1980 x 1080, the pictures are aligned to the left and there's plenty of black space on the right.

As for the content itself, those shots are pretty amazing! Call me nitpicking but I'll mention these:

- The handle of the first prop (not the telephone handle) looks like it has a very sharp edge.I'm not familiar with antique phones like this but usually you won't find real life edges that clear cut.

-Consider putting a few construction shots of your wireframes in there, I'm sure that is important especially for the game industry!


Overall this is a really nice portfolio. I disagree with Migano above about having some cartoony pieces as I think its better to stick with one style and apply to studios that have a similiar style for their props.

StevenEgan

Thanks guys... the images on the main page are links to project breakdowns. With construction shots. I will have to make that more clear.

TomGT, thanks for the crits. I will have a look, I think you're talking about the black plastic handle on the crank? If so, I can see what you mean.

Thanks again all.

ElectricEchoes

Can’t fault simplicity when it comes to portfolios, but you still need to include more info (tricount, texture size, wires, maps, etc.).

Also, put your contact information on each image, even just your name. You never know, one of your images might pop up in the depths of the internet. They’ll be able to find you that way.

Nice work on the models though, top stuff!

nastobi123

newbie here, impressive work man, holy cow.

Tobbo

There are breakdowns when you click on the images. The work itself looks nice. I would try and make it a little more clear that you can click the images for breakdowns.

beefaroni

Everything is looking pretty nice now!! Just a quick crit on your chainsaw thingy!

Bigglesworth

Very good chair, very good chainsaw. I like your content.
1. The main problem – it’s hard to understand you can click on pictures. May be you should make some previews for every model. Something like this

Or just resize your main page pictures and make them smaller. Like this http://polygoo.com/ . I almost finished my own portfolio and I made previews for every project http://alpinsky.com/
2. I don’t like postprocessing on white chainsaw. It looks too blurry and too purple.
3. There is no information about you. Where do you living now, what’s your education, age, experience etc. Of course all this information can be found in your resume. But I think you should make “About” page.

Perfect_Storm

I think the simplicity of your website is great. Bigglesworth has a point about the cropped pictures.
I could only give you some advice about your texture maps. They are all 2k maps. If you look at the size difference between the phone and the chair I would also expect a difference in texture map size. With the new hardware texture sizes get less and less of a problem but you should still not overdetail your models. It can also show potential game studios that you think about the usage of your models. I would suggest making the telephone and chainsaw both 1k and see how they turn out. You could also experiment with different sizes per texture map. For example keep the normal map 2k but decrease the spec to 1k or even 512.

BARDLER

Your lack of gloss maps is really killing the final quality of these assets, and you are not taking full advantage of Marmoset's PBR pipeline. You are getting these even highlights across all your surfaces which is making them look a bit dated.

Also in PBR workflow you shouldn't be baking your AO into your albedo maps, that should be slotted in separately as a mask.

Hope that helps! and good luck.

StevenEgan

Thanks a lot for the great feedback!

Beefaroni: Thanks for the crits. The the casing on top is made of plastic vs the metal of the rest of the chainsaw. But yeah, some more dirt wouldn't hurt. And that area on the engine is actually a raised piece, but you can't tell from that angle. Thanks again for the input.

Bigglesworth: Thanks a lot. Yeah, I can see that's a huge issue. I liked the idea of having a landing page that gets the point across, but yes, I will need to add a mouseover feature, or make them more thumbnail sized. Thanks again. I'm planning on having a html version of my resume available. Maybe that can act as an "about me" page.

Perfect_Storm: Thanks. I just finished the Game Art Apprenticeship course at Uartsy. I had originally set the textures at lower resolutions, but was advised by our tutor to leave them at about 2k for the portfolio. It does make more sense to change them, as you said shows some understanding of usage/optimisation. Thanks again.

Bardler: Thanks a lot for the advice. Again, and this is starting to worry me a bit, while taking the Game Art Apprenticeship we we're instructed to steer clear of this method as we were to learn the fundamentals of asset texturing, but I absolutely agree, I wish we'd been taught about this stuff. The projects I'm currently working on will be taking advantage of the PBR system fully. Thanks a lot.

Thanks again, this is very helpful. I will work on making the thumbnails a lot more obvious.

StevenEgan

Ok, CV added. Rollover images added. I liked the idea of maintaining the full size images, as it essentially acts as a gallery too, for people who might be in a hurry; Best to try and impress early perhaps.

Thanks again for the crits everyone, I'm going to be tackling the PBR stuff with my latest piece, I'll use this thread to flesh that out too.