Portfolio Feedback - Character Artist
polycounter lvl 7
I'm moving to Seattle in a few weeks to try my luck in the competitive world of 3D Character art. I've only heard back from a few places with no offers, so I'm trying to increase my chances by moving to the area.
Please let me know what I should polish, move around, or completely remove from my portfolio. What are my strengths? Weaknesses? What can I add to my portfolio to make it stand out more?
Have at it! Thanks!
Portfolio
Please let me know what I should polish, move around, or completely remove from my portfolio. What are my strengths? Weaknesses? What can I add to my portfolio to make it stand out more?
Have at it! Thanks!
Portfolio
Replies
One obscure critique is that you could make the file name of the Resume less random and more relatable for you incase they want to save that image and find it again.
If your looking for more schooling this has been my go to choice: http://www.futurepoly.com/zbrushcore.aspx
Its taught by actual industry professionals and is a lot cheaper than trying to go back to school
Go to meet ups and game jams great way to meet people and so much of trying to get into this industry is networking (even though I hate it)
http://www.meetup.com/Seattle-Unity3D/
http://www.igdaseattle.org/wordpress/
and PAX Prime
As far as a critique, I feel like you need more work from other peoples concepts, because for the most part that is what you would be doing at work.
Besides all of that keep at it, Ive been here for a year and change. It can get disheartening some times but stay driven and focused on you goals, you'll get there :]
Hope this helps, good luck!
think you should take out the retro space girl, WIP face head and anatomy study.
the retro space girl could use better materials and texturing.
my advice is to take a really good piece of concept art, and translate/execute the design, think of it being in-game and put side by side with in-game art work and your favorite character artists, and ask yourself is it same quality?
keep rocking man!
Thanks for the links artofmars! Maybe I'll see you around when I get to Seattle! Ever since I modeled the Space Cadet, I vowed to never work from my own concept again. Every piece I've added since then has been strictly from concept (mostly the speed sculpts). I plan on jumping into a fully realized stylized character again in the coming weeks when I'm settled into my new home.
carlobarley: thanks for the feedback. I feel bad taking down the space girl since she has the best breakdown at the moment (polys, uvs, etc...), and she took a huge chunk of time this past year. I think I'll keep her just until I create a better breakdown (my next character). But overall, I think you're right. I feel like she doesn't hold up compared to the "WIP face" that I'm currently working on. Speaking of which, is there a reason you feel I should take him down? There's still a lot I need to add to it, but I feel like it's one of my strongest pieces right now.
Good advice on the side by side approach. I think I would fail that test for most of my pieces right now
(Anatomy study removed-- Maybe I'll revist that idea again someday, but for now I think it's an eyesore.)
as for the head, i think it has potential with texture and material, but i think you can push it further. the neck, ears, scalp could use the same love as the front portion of the face. sorry, what i really meant is take it out "for now" since its a WIP.
my advice, you can definitely speedsculpt, but sometimes its good to slow down and execute and make production ready assets, market yourself as being "useful" to a studio.
Red = Actively showing your weaknesses regarding characters.
Blue = Sorta to highly irrelevant (2D section needs to go).
Look, I've been biting my tongue on the WIP head sculpt for a while. You jumped into detail before the main forms were fleshed out enough, and it's really inaccurate for it. There's a lot of weirdness going on, and you shouldn't show WIPs on your folio anyway as a general rule.
The bust doesn't really look like a Loish piece (a lot of easy things to pick up are glossed over, such as large shiny noses, shape of the lips and eyebrows, how much of the face the eyes take up and where they sit, general proportions), and the facial anatomy that is there is kind of weird and unappealing. That nose is so tiny and high up! And the paintover is really obvious which isn't ideal I think.
The Steve Zissou sculpt isn't so bad, but combined with the Bust and the WIP head it gives an impression of not being able to hit the right beats regarding likenesses and having some weird anatomical quirks.
The Retro Space Pinup I'm biased towards, but I still think it's one of your better pieces. The breakdowns and renders are probably some of your best, and at least the idea there is interesting, appealing and clearly "finished".
I really like the mount (always have) and I find the boxer charming, fun and all-around well executed. I also quite like the hipster, though the face misses a few hints from the concept around the eye area.
In the future I think you really need to work on your understanding of facial proportions and secondary forms, but also, you need to finish more game resolution work. I do look forward to seeing more of your stuff, I hope this isn't too brutal. I think you've got a decent portfolio if you strip out the stuff that does nothing for ya, all you have to do is keep making better and better work.
Your website is pretty nice, too, don't forget to add a download link for your resume.
Thanks for your honest feedback as always. I'll get back to work... heh. I agree about the irrelevancy of some of the pieces and I think I have blindness towards the Loish piece. Deep down, I know it doesn't really look like the concept, but I like it anyway. I see what you mean about the facial anatomy, though. I guess I could chop it.
I hope to start replacing some of my less polished work with some more finished characters and overall presentations (like the space girl). I'll have more time on my hands in the coming weeks when I switch over to part time.
When you get some free time, mind doing a paintover of what you're talking about with the WIP head sculpt? I've posted on here a few times looking for feedback and didn't get much, I'd appreciate your help! Here's the thread.
Seriously, thanks for the brutal honesty BagelHero. I usually need a drink after one of your critiques, but you make some good points. This is exactly what I was looking for when I posted my site. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than "good job."
But I'm glad you find them to be the helpful kind of post as opposed to a straight kick in the gut. I'll see what I can do with breaking down what bothers me about the WIP. :thumbup:
I think my biggest issues with sculpting a head is always the size of the eyeballs. Since I love making stylized characters, I think I tend to make eyeballs to large. And then trying to size the irises on top of those big eyes, and molding the lids around them creates a distorted look. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to avoid this in the future?
maybe crop out the shoulders, you can see that far more thought and work went into the head, so make sure that's all employers see :]
Hope this helps
Additionally, eyes. I do have this problem, too, but I prefer to make the eyelids first as a proportional block out, so the eyes don't make me work around them. Using a lot of reference while sculpting (and really studying and comparing that ref) also helps.
As BagelHero said you also need more lowpoly stuffs to showout , other than that i'm not a pro at the moment, but i give you some feedbacks to whats bother me