Program to use when displaying environment props for portfolio

kevingamerartist

Hi all,

When you display environment props by themselves for your portfolio, do you use a game engine, or do you use something like Marmoset Toolbag? I'm very close to purchasing Marmoset Toolbag for this reason, but I do have Unreal Engine 4. I just don't know if I can just use the game engine, or if the environment props will look better in Marmoset Toolbag?

Any feedback on this is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Amsterdam Hilton Hotel

You can use either, they're both realtime engines with PBR / SSR / etc. Toolbag is probably faster for showing off a single prop with a standard shader.

PyrZern

Toolbag I believe is more for simplicity. And can get you decent render in no time.

UE4 however will better show your skills to the prospect employers.

kevingamerartist

@PyrZern so Toolbag is just for showcasing the prop by itself, however employers look more closely when the person is using UE4?

vertex_

Marmoset Toolbag contains excellent functionality for quickly producing renders of 3D props, characters, and small scenes/dioramas. It is my go-to for both prototyping and high quality render output.

When it comes to 3D environments, in my experience it is always better to use a game engine like UE4. Toolbag lacks in asset management that can make working on a large scale project a bit of a pain, plus there is no baking solution or global illumination, which makes sense given what I assume to be its intended purpose - rendering assets and small scenes.

I tend to think of Marmoset Toolbag as a simulation of a game engine. I've never come across someone in my career who does not approve of it during the hiring process or even in production. In fact I use Toolbag on an almost daily basis at work for prototyping. It only becomes inefficient when I'm working with a few meshes in a scene that each contain multiple material IDs, in my opinion their material window does not handle a large number of materials well. Toolbag 3 is supposedly coming out this year though, so hopefully the Marmo team will revise that.

If you choose to render in Toolbag it should be fine for your portfolio. Just make sure to post breakdowns of your work when necessary.