Portfolio Critique Desired
Hello all! I'm a 2d/3d artist (focusing mostly on assets and environments, but I also do some character and concept work), out of school and been working freelance for the last couple years. However, actual studio jobs have been hard to come by for me to even get callbacks in. Art tests have gone well for me when I get them, so it's not like I can't do the job--its that initial call that can be elusive, and I'm trying to pinpoint why.
I've been kind of dreading/anxious over asking for an honest, brutal critique of my portfolio because there are so many that simply make me feel outclassed, but honestly I could really use the feedback-- and not just on the work itself, but how it's displayed on my website and how easy/attractive it is to access.
My portfolio is www.firebombe.com, and thank you in advance! *Dons the helmet*
A few shots from the site (there are more on the actual site):
I've been kind of dreading/anxious over asking for an honest, brutal critique of my portfolio because there are so many that simply make me feel outclassed, but honestly I could really use the feedback-- and not just on the work itself, but how it's displayed on my website and how easy/attractive it is to access.
My portfolio is www.firebombe.com, and thank you in advance! *Dons the helmet*
A few shots from the site (there are more on the actual site):
Replies
I like the Everquest II Assets and Thexian Wagon. Is there a way to show texture flats in the 3d viewer? When I was looking through some of your pages I think I only saw textures on the Low-Poly Lava Monsters.
You have some older models "Bloody Marie" and Cyber Elf. These models don't seem to match the quality of the assets and environments you have and may hurt the overall picture of what you can do.
I think you might want to remove the characters for now and probably show off the environment assets.
The MarstrosLute and the Thexian Wagon were my favorites.
edit: the twitter link doesn't go to your twitter page.
- Focus on 3D assets as it clearly is your strong suit.
- Remove the blog and twitter as it adds nothing and they are pretty dead anyways.
- The header is too big and takes attention away from your work.
- You shouldn't have an update section as needlessly exposes how often you add new things.
- Remove dates and author on the pages (this is easily done in the wordpress admin page) and instead make sure that you have your name and mail embedded on the images themselves.
- The turquoise color is quite ugly and distracting while trying to look at your art, make it something less intrusive.
- SHOW MAPS. If you have a big scene it may not be necessary to show all but at least some of them. The viewer have no idea about what maps you used, method (PBR/traditional etc) or how the UVs look.
- Wireframes. There should be wireframes for all your entries. You must be able to show off that you understand how to properly optimize a mesh for realtime rendering.
- I would consider rerendering your environments as the lighting are flat in almost all of them. Consider porting them to unreal engine 4 or Unity 5.
- Let your environment speak for itself, in your "Goddess Sept" scene you talk about some back story. If there is a story it should be telegraphed through what you present visually and not via a supplemental text. Explanation on within what bounds a project came to be is perfectly fine though.
- Remove the "concepts and fine art" section as it isn't up to par to the rest, formating is broken and some things like the bike menu concept is really off-putting.
- Your resume buttons are not pretty, consider just putting the links in textlinks. Also put your resume in text on the page with the download being optional, there is no need to have a .doc file either as PDF is standard.
- Personally speaking the font you use in your header and in presentational shots is not appealing.
- Pictures are really small, I want to be able to see big and crisp pics of your pieces.
Sorry if I come across as harsh, I am mostly just regurgitating pieces of advice I have received in the past that helped me.
As far as the models themselves, is the quality (rendering issues aside, as lighting is my bane) up to snuff? Are there things I should focus on showcasing?
I think you probably don't quite have the eye for 3d art yet. This is something that takes time to develop and when you start to get it, your work will improve very quickly. Quick story, I remember my first head sculpt. I was so excited to show my teacher and he said: "good, but you will do better next time". I thought how could it be better, it looked perfect in my eyes. The reality was it was quite horrible and I simply couldn't see it.
So I think you need to step back and really look at your work. When I see it, it looks like something from 10 years ago made by a modder or soothing thats trying to make a game by himself and just throwing things together. I know that sounds mean, but its my honest first impression.
Your first mistake is not posting up wip stuff here on polycount to get crits as you go. This is huge and you will probably learn something from every crit you get so its well worth the effort.
One thing you can try to do is find an asset someone else already made in 3d based off some concept art that you like, and literally try to make the same thing. This can give you exact feedback where you are going wrong. Like, "why is his looking good and mine not" as you figure things out. I think this may sorta awaken you a bit so you can develop your eye for making things look appealing.
But by all means keep working man, I don't want to discourage you. Anyone can do this stuff if they work at it hard enough. You just have to put the time in. Good luck!
[edit] Oh and nobody likes attached images, don't be that guy. lol. link them directly with dropbox or something.
My feedback is more about your style and overall approach.
Something that's probably not immediately aware is the art in EQ2 isn't made to intentionally look the way it does, if that makes any sense. The only reason it's super low poly with really unrealistic lighting is because the engine is very, very old.
The processes we use are the same as the specular workflow, the only difference is when we throw all the maps on and into the engine, there isn't much help. That's why most normal maps look flat, texel density gets exaggerated from all the image compression, and specularity on objects is mostly faked if not completely missing. Throw all of these issues on top of a game that doesn't benefit from having a stylized look, and you get EQ2.
With all that being said, it looks like your art is trying to emulate EQ2's style, when it's not really a style in so much as it's just an old sucky engine.
I read that you've played Guild Wars 2 though. If there's ever a game to idolize for its artistic integrity, it would be Guild Wars 2. They have a much more painterly style, but in terms of quality, GW2 is near the top of games that still use a specular workflow with a realistic art style(in my opinion).
I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here though. If you're not trying to match your style to EQ2's, then everything Brad said is doubly important for you to succeed.
Best of luck.
I'm going to work on some new pieces and remove the older bits that just aren't up to snuff. And I'm definitely going to seek out critique more often.