First portfolio website, critique and advice wanted
polycounter lvl 3
I'd love some critique on my first portfolio site. Heck, im not even sure what i can even apply for since i haven't learned sculpting yet or drawing yet. 3D Environment Artist? Or perhaps only Prop Artist. I've only done modelling, texturing and UV unwrapping. I don't feel like an artist yet really, just a long time gamer who stares for hours at a time at conceptartworld.com.
http://thane144.wix.com/portf1
http://thane144.wix.com/portf1
Replies
Honestly I don't think there's enough work on the Portfolio overall to apply for a professional role. To apply for an Environment artist position I imagine recruitment are going to want to see at least one high quality environment project on there - at the moment you only have various props.
The legs on your character look quite short. Typically a person's height is around 7-8 times the height of head. Yours looks to only be about 5 heads tall. Your crotch/pelvis is a half way point on the body and his looks too low. The texture looks good, but it's important to be able to do this stuff by hand too and not rely on something like Substance Painter, because your Studio might not stock it.
For your cannon I think I can see a texture seam running through the middle of the barrel on screen. Try and paint seams out (Clone stamp tool or the Painting tools in Mudbox are good). The Cannon doesn't look like it has any material definition - is it supposed to be realistic or stylised? There's a Diffuse texture there which furthers this assumption. It's worth learning PBR texturing as it's industry standard for current generation.
For your Lantern asset you don't need to post UV layouts. Post texture sheets instead if you must - as these contain texture information as well as the UV layout.
None of your assets contain a wireframe shot or a triangle/vert/polygon count - include these in your renders as employers will want to see that students or people who're relatively new to 3D understand optimisation.
Good work overall, keep it up!
As far as crits on individual pieces, your character is strong but could use stronger lighting, he's looking a little flat.
I much prefer normal HTML and images. Take a look at Jeremy's free blogspot.
http://jermilex.blogspot.com/
I would say this isn't a great piece to include, honestly.
The other stuff you have looks alright, but decide what you would LIKE to do. What kind of assets do you most enjoy creating? Don't think so much about applying if you don't even know what you like doing yet! Hard to say if your portfolio is headed in the right direction if we don't know that.
Also, the layout for the site on my Phone is busted (android, chrome)
I recognize quite a lot of these models from his tutorials.
http://thane144.wix.com/portf1#!modelling/c10ba
I really just wanted to be a small, but very effective, cog in the industry, as i don't want to focus on how the "magic trick" works all day long, then go home and try to be immersed in a game, as gaming is my main hobby. That said, i already know some programming and have an animation reel so i already know pretty much how everything works, i just sorta wanted to avoid focusing on the main inter-workings all day long. I do want to eventually do level design though. I had planned on getting my foot in the door as a prop modeller, but i think this position is called "environment artist" almost universally now?
I have mixed feeling about showing the models from those tuts because i found that could retain the information from the emotional impact of trying to do the work myself FIRST, then seeing the Arrimus do it, usually more efficiently. So a lot of that work is my own. Just like learning 3D program or technique, when you've used Maya/3D Max for awhile, you've probably had the experience of finding a feature that would saved you a lot of time if you had known about it before and been like, "Oh damn... so thats how its done" and you will/may vow to never forget it. I imagine there are people with better memories than i who might retain the information much better and not benefit as much, but i really need to try it first, then see how much i sucked (or not) by watching the tut. Still, i agree the homepage as is now could could some confusion about my true abilities. Mainly concerning efficiency, not quality. I think almost everything on my page is pretty crappy, i just am time-challenged right now. ( and no, i am not Arrimus3D, i just really liked his teaching style so i kept watching his tut, which i highly recommend linking to, i saw many comments on his channels by people who said they were established 3D artists refining their skills and thought Arrimus was great. ) I should probably model out a Destiny (game) fighter plane or something pretty soon though or something of my own design, although i did not want to do design myself initially...
I can't afford Zbrush right now. I was hoping it would be the first thing i bought with my first "prop modeller" paycheck but that looks like maybe just a dream i shouldn't have had right now.
Interesting that your not sure about whether its supposed to be realistic or stylized, because i sort of wanted it to be a bit of both because im not completely happy with a lot of the PBR work i see because the high amounts of sheen remove so much of the texture detail. Most of it is great though IMO.
Tutorial stuff isn't worth putting on a portfolio because it doesn't show creative direction - it simply shows that you can perform a task when handheld, and therefore may have gained technical knowledge from it. Technical ability is only half of the job, you need to be creative and show lots of your own, high quality assets. :P Remember that the tools don't make the artist; the creative mind does!
You can model stuff from other people's concept art but you should state its their concept art and credit them for it - as an example. This is often a good way to demonstrate technical ability; much better than tutorials anyway.
your texture on that character may look ok, but if we go to another applicant, his texture skills would probably be about the same if not better. On top of that, that the person would of made the character, posed it, and enhance presentation in a composition through PS and other models to make it look better as a portfolio piece.
Bottom line, it's not JUST an entry level job at a large company. it's an entry level job in a highly saturated industry and you have to be the best of the best to get into a large company no matter what entry level position in art you want. You'll have a hard time getting a position in a large company with this portfolio. You might have more chance getting a entry level position in a small studio.