Portfolio critique please!
Honestly, any kind of feedback is welcome.
I want to be a 3D character artist. I've been a student and now I'm trying to get my first game job. I don't want to be under any illusions about my own ability, my work, or what to expect in getting a job based on what I've got here. I don't see any good coming from being ignorant to reality (aside from happiness).
I'll be very grateful for any criticism or advice!
I want to be a 3D character artist. I've been a student and now I'm trying to get my first game job. I don't want to be under any illusions about my own ability, my work, or what to expect in getting a job based on what I've got here. I don't see any good coming from being ignorant to reality (aside from happiness).
I'll be very grateful for any criticism or advice!
Replies
As for the work you show good anatomy knowledge and sculpting skills, plus your figure drawing stuff is super awesome. Your texturing, lighting, and model presentation are your biggest issues with your work. All your renders are flat lit, with little specular information, and not using advanced sss or PBR techniques. With some good PBR materials and a nice lighting setup I bet those mech/drone guys could look super awesome.
Hope that helps a bit.
I'm not going to really critique the site as a whole because I don't think that the site is the make/break linch pin here, its the skill level that needs to be addressed - basically meaning that there is no point talking about details like beauty shot presentation and lack of easy to see contact info, when the problem is really the skills aren't developed yet enough to be looking at getting a job.
The modeling itself is lackluster, the silhouettes are blobby and the shapes are muddy, and any anatomical representations are off-putting. Details seem hastily or lazily put together and basically nothing meshes with itself. I will add that there are no high-poly models to be seen (minus the one), which makes it very difficult to diagnose how much of the problem you're having is an inability to make high-poly models, and how much of the problem is the technical ability to translate the high-poly to low-poly.
The technical stuff, mentioned end of last paragraph, throws up probably more red-flags. I see seams, inverted normal maps, strange artifacts, bake errors, unsynched high-low meshes, gradients, basically all the stuff that good work avoids by taking care in the high->low translation.
The texturing suffers from the same stuff. Either laziness or inattention, or probably just lack of experience.
My suggestion would be to give up on the site for now, and just focus on getting better. Start with clean high-poly modeling. Take your time and go for clean shapes and accurate details. Personally, I wouldn't start with characters, I would start with simple props to get a better grasp on the workflow. When you can do that, move to clean baking, and then to proper texturing.
@antihero
Ysalex is a very awesome person and pretty much nailed it in my opinion. BUT I think he is going a bit to hard on you, he is right, but I don't think he paints a fair picture of your skill level. your first character on the left is not really that bad.
I would like to ad that the site loaded very slowly for me, im spending more time looking at loading bars then images. and the black n white overlay on the main page is hurting you too. the main page should look striking, not washed out.
your traditional stuff is really good though.
It's probably time to move on to something else.
What do you mean? Are you quitting 3D?
I have had worse critiques and I'm still going lol.
critiques can be scary but they are necessary to enhance your skills. Some people can be brutally honest though, but if they spent the time writing that, it is because they think it will help you get better and focus towards the right direction.
you might not be there yet, but the road ahead of you is def shorter then if you would turn back, that would be a lot of wasted time
I hope antihero didn't quit...
Really appreciate what you guys said.
If I remember correctly, ryan kingslien call it such period, which mean when you
start 3D all you work will suck and it might take 200 sculpts to get out of it or 500 but eventually you will get out of it. You just have to keep working and learning.
I put here an image of a creature I did back in 2009 and 2012,
the 2009 version is the shitiest thing I have ever seen, yet I sculpt
and work on my skills, I didn't see a big improvement and this is why I
resculpt it on 2012, to see how much better I'm now and only then I saw
the change. Today I can do even better job and I still working on my skills.
Dallas
The only difference between those who make it and those who don't, is getting up again and keep pushing through, over and over again.
looking at your stuff there will still be many bumps ahead, but you are at the edge, when things are going to become easier.
Yay! Don't give up. Your figure drawing stuff is really awesome, and you have a ton of potential. If you need some people to work with Polycount has a Google hangout that people just chat and work. Highly recommended it to get motivated to work.