Help Need good Portfolio Critique
polycounter lvl 4
Hey Everyone,
I have been working hard to be a better artist but usually when I ask for Critiques either on a art page on facebook or even a couple of times on here I get glanced over and I dont know why. I really want to be a game artist I work day in and day out and am very willing to put a lot of hours in. I dont care how rough the critique can be I just really need advise to get better. If I am really that bad then please let me know and if you could show me where, or even better how to improve. I understand doing things over and over make you a better artist and every day I draw as I work security and every night I make models but things seem to look the same. Any help, any feedback would be gold to me and I would be forever in your debt.
My portfolio is http://gravittyart.blogspot.com/
For those who are willing to help thank you.
I have been working hard to be a better artist but usually when I ask for Critiques either on a art page on facebook or even a couple of times on here I get glanced over and I dont know why. I really want to be a game artist I work day in and day out and am very willing to put a lot of hours in. I dont care how rough the critique can be I just really need advise to get better. If I am really that bad then please let me know and if you could show me where, or even better how to improve. I understand doing things over and over make you a better artist and every day I draw as I work security and every night I make models but things seem to look the same. Any help, any feedback would be gold to me and I would be forever in your debt.
My portfolio is http://gravittyart.blogspot.com/
For those who are willing to help thank you.
Replies
The game industry is extremely competitive. I have a bachelor's degree in Game Art and Design (looks like you went to the Art Institutes also), have worked my butt off everyday for 5+ years, and still haven't managed to get my foot in the door. It's tough. BUT that's neither here nor there as far as your work goes!
Looking through your work, I would say that you have an interesting style. Your cow house feels like it almost works in a claymation world. Your other pieces are fine but as an environment artist won't get the job done.
If you don't have any concepts of your own, feel free to grab someone's concept out there (places like conceptart.org or artstation or even on here). Build that sucker out in 3d, I see you use quixel and zbrush so do some nicely detailed and textured models, then import the whole thing into Unreal 4 or Unity and work on your lighting and materials.
The scenes you have at the moment are needing some more detail and more props and stuff. They're just a bit lacking as far as that goes. Checking out other artists helps SO MUCH! Especially when they share their process.
Also what type of game style do you want into? Researching different studios that you want to get into and trying to go for a similar style or referencing artists from that studio and their work also helps because it gives you a benchmark of where you need to get to.
If I can give you any more feed back I would be happy to help. (Thank you for your service)
I'd say you're somewhere between "needs work, but I'm lazy" and "pretty good" -- though avoiding the "weird" bit.
You're just... kind of average, at the moment. And not necessarily is that bad, we've all been there (some of us are there with you), and it can take up a good chunk of your time and career as an artist or journey to becoming a professional. It's hard to critique someone in that spot because it really requires more in depth analysis and conversation, as opposed to a quick link or suggestion.
More specifically, now. Nothing in your portfolio really works towards it being a good portfolio. There's three pieces, but I'm not given specs or wireframes, I'm not seeing any proof of your ability to match style or bake or prepare stuff for an engine.
Where do you want to work? Clearly you like stylized stuff, do you have a dream studio?
Also, additionally, do you work off other peoples concepts? You might want to try modelling a scene from a good concept, and trying to match the materials and lighting in an engine. Not only does that show better that you can technically do the job you want to be hired for, but you can match what you're given to work from, and often it's easier to get an immediately impressive look.
Just some thoughts.
Focus on realistic assets and just keep pumping out, thats the most important thing right now.
Theres not much to say right now. You did the things decently, make sure you learn about the highpoly to lowpoly workflow
and just do more things, every new one will be better than the previous one.
Id suggest modeling a highpoly barrel or so and try bake that down to a lowpoly to start with. Check the polycount wiki theres a lot of stuff if you don't know how to.
follow your passions and never stop cranking out assets
as for your portfolio i would say It needs more stuff on it
and as for the things you currently have I am unsure how to critique it bc mostly there are no reference, but ill try
"Papilio Comedenti"
for your plants since you do have a ref pic...i would say it looks good though you should have stuck to your ref and created the bigger butter flies i also feel that the piece would be more interesting with like roots hanging from the dirt
"on the hill"
This is an interesting piece but i feel your specular or your lighting is weird especially for those yellow highlights you are getting on the wood....but none of that is reflected in the texture or anywhere else on the piece, i get that it is stylized but the highlights seems jarring to me
"Cow House"
I think this is a pretty good piece but the lighting and the sky seems to detract from it so much. I feel if you pushed these more it would help the piece alot! the grass clumps under the trees seem to pop out too much almost to the point where they seem they don't belong
but keep it up man
-Work more in materials
-You need a better presentation of your works
-Best render with lights etc...
-Study the color theory, some colors looks death
But keep it up! you have the talent bro
wish you the best
I fell into this rut for awhile as well. When you're just average as an artist and nothing really pops out. People tend to move on.
I have a couple questions for you.
1. Do you want to work on stylized toon stuff or realistic stuff?
2. Do you want to work on mobile games, AAA, or maybe an indie team?
3. Do you want to be a character artist, prop artist or environment artist?
Figure out what you want to do and then go for it 150 fucking percent. You seem passionate about game art so that's a great place to be in. Just keep churning out stuff but don't rush it. If you have 4-5 really nice clean pieces then that could get you hired before someone who has 10-12 just okay pieces.
PM me if you have questions or need advice for direction. Also, i think it's great that you served in the army. But it's not relevant work experience. Sure, you led a team of soliders, but leading a team of artists and critiquing people work without offending them is an art form in itself. I would shorten up the military description you have since it's not relevant to games.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2363455#post2363455
* The textures in general look smooth and nice.
* The hand painted metal looks flat and boring. No medieval stuff has that large chunks of metal anyway.
* Your contrast is way to low. I would advise on keeping low contrast on the tiling textures, but rather introduce contrast in the big shapes. (Except for the window-eyes, the horned house is basically all in one color)
* You waste a lot of UV space in some of your pieces. You should layout stuff like planks straighter and reuse textures more.
* I'd recommend working with other people's concepts for a bit, since your concept game isn't that strong at the moment.
Again everyone thank you for feedback and if anyone new coming in sees something to add please feel free.