Portfolio Critique?
Hi there all,
First time properly posting on here (I'm a little nervous!) but I really need some sage portfolio advice so here goes;
-Portfolio link-
I specialize in 3D Modelling and aim to be considered for Environment or Props Artist roles.
With that target in mind, I'm looking for some suggestions for my next portfolio piece to strengthen my employability, so any opinions on what you feel I lack/you'd like to see would be appreciated also! (I'm considering recreating this church setting realistically in UE4?)
Hit me with your honest opinions and be brutal :-)
First time properly posting on here (I'm a little nervous!) but I really need some sage portfolio advice so here goes;
-Portfolio link-
I specialize in 3D Modelling and aim to be considered for Environment or Props Artist roles.
With that target in mind, I'm looking for some suggestions for my next portfolio piece to strengthen my employability, so any opinions on what you feel I lack/you'd like to see would be appreciated also! (I'm considering recreating this church setting realistically in UE4?)
Hit me with your honest opinions and be brutal :-)
Replies
Your modeling is great, and the stylized textures are top notch IMO.
You don't have a quick way to glance over your projects. Overall I have to do a ton of clicking and navigating just to get to what I want to see.
I have to direct myself to each project's individual page. I have no idea if "Barkingham Palace" is visually what I'm searching for, but I have to guess.
On your index, or perhaps on a new "Projects" page, show a thumbnail for each of your projects so I know what each one is going to be about.
Specifically on projects such as "Barkingham", you showcase an interesting view of your palace, but there's only one image and it's pretty zoomed out.
I can't adequately analyze the image and since you claim it's "WIP", you should maybe rename the page to focus on the character or wait until the project is more complete till you put it on your website.
This lack of extra angles & images seems to be a consistent theme when I see your other pages such as "Taco Store" and "Throne of the Dead"
Oh, and you might want to add a quick "About page", with a tiny blurb of who you are / what you're looking for & any particular interests.
In addition to what Swarm22 and Zephron mentioned in regards to making your home page a gallery index, I'll add a general (admittedly harsh) feeling:
"Too long; didn't read"
So what does that mean?
I tend to look at portfolios two or three times when I'm giving critique, each time closing out the browser tab completely and opening the link fresh. The first time, I act like a recruiter or art lead looking over a portfolio for a specific application review...and I move fast. REALLY FAST! Because sometimes all you have is about 30-40 seconds to impress someone or get them interested in your work or they'll just close the page. That is why it's so important to make navigation super simple and let them get into the work they want to look at immediately. You have to earn their attention and interest by giving them something to be interested in. With that drop-down menu system, a viewer may only make it through three of those projects before getting bored and not seeing anything they like. Having a gallery with thumbnails gives them a launching point to come back to and quickly find something else to investigate.
Additionally, all the writing, backstory, development process, etc. is just fluff and should be treated as such. Tack it on the end, parse it down, leave it out, or do something that doesn't require someone speeding through your work to scroll past giant titles or blocks of text to look at pretty pictures. Very few pros are going to actually care enough to read through the explanation of student projects or process unless you have seriously wow'd them from the beginning or they are returning to your site to take a second, more detailed look as I will do the second time I visit. We're all artists and consequently we're all fairly visually driven creatures. Given a picture book, we will look at the picture first, then read the text. So give us the pictures, let us feast our eyes on your work before we go looking for context.
Aside from that, there's the usual mantras of you're-only-as-strong-as-your-weakest-piece and quality-is-better-than-quantity, etc., but overall some pretty strong student work. Just keep at it and keep posting on Polycount. :thumbup:
Following your suggestions, I've spent a lot of time today making corrections and updates to my site (particularly the home page).
What do you think? :-) -Link-
Project 1
[Thumbnail][Thumbnail][Thumbnail]
Project 2
[Thumbnail][Thumbnail][Thumbnail]
Project3
[Thumbnail][Thumbnail][Thumbnail]
This way I know you are showing me all your pieces and I won't miss one. I will also be able to see the whole entirety without scrolling or clicking. If something is interesting I can click and view a fuller version of the thumbnail. You are treating your Taco Store as a "project" instead of a 3D piece. Meaning it doesn't need it's own page. If you took the taco store and it was part of a cartoon city with several artistically similar props, then it would be a "project". I would still employ the idea of small thumbnails though. For instance your Off the Map project page...ok its a project, now thumbnail, don't make me scroll. Also, I would post more pieces on this page. The video shows quite a bit, though I don't think people really want to view the video, some might some might not. Regardless, they want to see your contributions. Snap renders of buildings you did, any more concept pieces you did. For instance if someone worked on Halo, they would show their contributions, not just one piece of concept art and then a Halo gameplay video.
I think you need more content in general though. Focus on either characters / props/vehicles. Personally, I can't really judge your skills all that well. For instance: Can you create realistic characters? Realistic props? You could go to your matador concept and create several other characters / designs and fill a whole page. You just basically have 1 piece in a bunch of areas that don't really go along. For instance a tree. That might be cool if you had a stylized world to put it in, but the tree alone I think just about anyone could make.
It is confusing reading your role on the 3D side scroller. I'm not sure what you did:
"Communicating ideas and issues across a 'studio size' team," everyone does that, what did you communicate.
"Working closely with the concept artists to design the level layouts." What does this mean, are you touching up levels, are you simply giving suggestions.
For instance all those paragraphs seem to be able to sum up to Art Director: and then give a bit more detailed tasks. I have no clue after watching that video what you did to contribute to the project.