Another Portfolio Critique

ObiWanScottobi

I know, I know.. Another newbie to Polycount asking for a portfolio critique... I just graduated college and want to make sure I'm as good as possible to find a job in this difficult industry to get into. Be harsh, be honest, be helpful. I'm going to start posting WIPs on here from now on and hopefully get to know some of you guys!

portfolio: http://www.scott-harris.net/

Kveer

Rather than showcasing multiple environments, try to concentrate on only ONE, make it believable. I personally like that Cambodian theme, what I would have done if I were in your place, use Zbrush extensively and have very organic feel to environment. Lighting is just decoration, a strong level design with good composition is necessary, assets share half the value of previous two I mentioned, so keep that in mind.

Marshkin

All of your pieces are from school. It would be great if you could add something that you made outside of school to demonstrate that you can apply the concepts taught in school without a teacher guiding you. 

The fog in your Cambodian temple really obscures a lot of your work, which I think takes away from it. It would be good to see a version with it toned back. 

lloydj14

I would say your Cambodian scene has the most potential but still could be improved. Your stone texture on the pillars and just above them are more towards the quality you want to be aiming for. Your floor texture looks a little shiny in some shots but looks like a fairly solid floor slab texture I would make just adjust the roughness/gloss on the wet section because it does look queit good in dry sections. Your vegetation, tree and roof tiles? textures need a good amount of your attention and work. Once you have improved that I would set about doing the same to your other scenes.

The olivander scene is really basic and doesn't really display either modelling or texturing ability. The wall textures looks to have an alright normal maps but the there is a complete lack of depth in the colour just all looks the same colour with no variation. The other assets look really flat. You need to add details to the texture (or if you have them get them to show up - an issue that I also struggle with)

The snow scene is also lacking. Again the wood log texture feels pretty good but the rest of them feel like the are lacking.The second shot in the snow scene is best for this scene but the wood planks texture feel really flat. On the underside of the porch roof I'm assuming it uses the same wood plank texture and this doesn't look great.

Final thing try taking higher quality images renders/screenshots as in some shots there jagged edges.

Sorry if the critique on the last 2 scenes seem a bit harsh but I feel they are fairly weak in their current state.

I hope this encourages  you to improve the quality of the scenes as there is defiantly some good looking individual elements just need to bring it together across a whole scene (this is the sort of critique I would like so hope it doesn't seem to negative)

ObiWanScottobi

Thanks all for your replies! This has definitely helped me see everything from a different perspective.

@Kveer I get what you're saying about focusing on one environment but does that show a lack of variation in my work? 

@Marshkin I completely agree with you about all of the work currently on there being from school. My plan after recieving feedback is to make a new environment from scratch that has nothing to do with any of my school work and then I would like to revisit the temple. I think by this point the other two projects can be purged from my portfolio.

@lloydj14 thanks for the detailed criticism! I agree that the temple definitely has the most potential. I wrote above what my plans are with that and I'll definitely take your notes into consideration when I come back to it.

Now I need to decide what's coming next.. Is there a specific genre/setting that would appeal more or should I just do whatever takes my fancy?

thanks again guys

Meloncov

ObiWanScottobi said:

 I get what you're saying about focusing on one environment but does that show a lack of variation in my work? 

Three great environments are better than one great environment, but one great environment is much, much better than three poor to mediocre environments, or even one great environment and two poor to mediocre ones. You absolutely can get a job from one great portfolio piece.

lloydj14

Now I need to decide what's coming next.. Is there a specific genre/setting that would appeal more or should I just do whatever takes my fancy?

The genre/style that is the same as the place that you want to work or the genre/style that you would pref to work in.