Portfolio work progression
polycounter lvl 6
Hello everyone.
I've barely done any 3D work for the past 3 years but I'm trying to get back into it now. I know I'm ways off from being able to get a job in the games industry, witch is the goal here, but I've got time and intend to use it to hone my skills. That is where I'm at a bit of a loss though. I've seen my stuff so many times that I think I've become blind to both the flaws and the possible strengths. Could you please take a look at my portfolio and give me some critique? What should I focus on improving first? Anatomy, textures, details, composition? Which pieces should just be cut from the portfolio and which can stay?
http://nathalye.daportfolio.com/
Thank you for looking.
I've barely done any 3D work for the past 3 years but I'm trying to get back into it now. I know I'm ways off from being able to get a job in the games industry, witch is the goal here, but I've got time and intend to use it to hone my skills. That is where I'm at a bit of a loss though. I've seen my stuff so many times that I think I've become blind to both the flaws and the possible strengths. Could you please take a look at my portfolio and give me some critique? What should I focus on improving first? Anatomy, textures, details, composition? Which pieces should just be cut from the portfolio and which can stay?
http://nathalye.daportfolio.com/
Thank you for looking.
Replies
1) look into making something that is rendered in a Physically Based Renderer
2) Have breakdown images of your textures and wireframes
3) Use a sculpt that isn't blobby, but clean and appealing.
4) Render the final asset in a real time game engine or renderer in proper lighting.
I would recommend focusing on anatomy. The strength of your foundational knowledge is not clear in a lot of the art pieces, and you'll find more long term investment out of more traditional art topics than focusing on texturing technology, etc.
Just adding to what the other two fellows have said, Anatomy first, use references! As many as you can find.
Secondly your textures need some work for sure, they seem very blurred and do not push any details. Decide if you are going for a hand painted stylized finish or realistic.
Again more references, even if you just find a reference for the bunny's fur for the texture it will help.
Always post your progress here. Poly-count has been a safe place to receive criticism that we all need to hear so we can improve
Good luck, you have some great possibilities here.
@Brian I didn't know something like that happened while I was away, thank you for pointing it out. Seems I have to get my hands on some new software for that though so it might have to wait. Showing textures and wireframes, that I can do at least.
@Earthyn I hear you about the textures, at least with the game assets. They were supposed to look like watercolours but that got lost somewhere along the line of creating them I think and they ended up just looking blah.
The WIP is coming along. I've tried to take you guys word to heart and focus on getting the anatomy right with lots of references. As you can see, I have noticed a couple of problem areas that came about because I was so focused on the smaller anatomy stuff and forgot about proportions. >.<'
Any other input would be very much appreciated.
Got Marmoset demo for trying out and will look into Substance when it's time for texturing.
You lose your audience for every click you make them do. It can take less than ten seconds for a portfolio reviewer to give his/her verdict, so you will want your work to be up in front and accessible.
Set your gallery page as your home page, put your best works in the immediate eyes of the reviewer. Not sure if DeviantArt's portfolio allows you to do so, but I highly recommend finding one that can like Artstation.
Horse update again. I scrapped the horn. The rest of the horse looks too much like a regular horse to be a special unicorn thing so I just let it be without.
Did a quick paint job in Substance Painter. I'm not completely on terms with the program yet but I will be eventually I think.
Also did a lot of planes for the mane. Had to make the transparency alpha from a ZBrush render of fibermesh because of my lack of tablet. Need to take the colour banding out of the diffuse though, don't know how that got in there. And it seems the renderer murdered the whole thing when I turned on ao anyway.
Still left to do is the tail, eye texture and a new paint job for the body. Then I want to rig it and such but no one wants to see that. ^^
I would also recommend trying some sculpts with a focus on planar structure to help avoid that 'blobby' feel that people mentioned. Stuff like this, for example: https://www.pinterest.com/kmacneil91/planar-studies/
(But doesn't have to be pushed quite that far)
I set it to subsurface mode, or whatever it's called, and then used 3 different fresnel layers on top of the diffuse to give a highlight and outline.