Graduate portfolio
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Hi there,
I am a 3rd year student of animation at university and after this (final) year I will be applying for a job of hard surface 3D modeler for games (environments, props, assets) and/or advertisement industry (I want to focus on product visualization). For modeling I use Autodesk Maya and at the moment, I am starting to create my portfolio, so the question I want to ask, is:
What kind of models should I include in my portfolio to make the studios interested in my work? What is expected from a graduate's portfolio? Should I make textures as well or how does this really work?
Thank you for replies.
Matej
Replies
2. Cut out all the junk and clutter. It's better to have 3 awesome projects, than 10 crappy projects with 3 awesome ones.
3. Ideally everything should be cohesive, you don't want something super realistic, followed by something hand painted, and then something super stylized. Some variety is fine, but I'd sort it in a way the style isn't constantly jumping back and forth between projects.
4. Have separate portfolios if you are looking in multiple different areas, like environment art for games and advertisement.
5. If you haven't broken into the industry yet, only show finished projects. Pros can get away with having zBrush sculpts and high poly models with no in game model because they have the industry work experience to back it up.
Also this should help
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio
I'm gonna chime in here too with some stuff, as well as some advice since you mentioned the advertisement industry as well. I'll apologize in advance for it being a bit all over the place. I think it's smart that you are thinking of something beyond just games. I think too many students zero in too much on the game industry right off the bat, where sometimes skill level, geographic location, etc can make that a tough prospect, and taking a job in the commercial or industrial animation field can be an excellent way to get in the door and get experience and grow as an artist.
On top of what ZacD said, post your stuff here and get input on what is good and what isn't. It's very easy to get attached to some early college work you did and want to include it when in reality it has no business being in your portfolio. You are only as good as your worst piece.
If you are making your own site, be sure to just hit people with your art first and foremost. No intro pages, no having to click around to get to your art. Just BOOM, art. And always have your best piece first. A lot of people go through sites very quickly and are looking at others as well, so its a process of opening up all of them in tabs, and quickly looking over them.
While I agree that Artstation is good and all, depending on the industry, sometimes having your own site is a better way to go. For the game industry it's great, as the people looking at those sites looking to hire typically are people that just care about the art first and foremost. But you mentioned commercial or advertising as well, and for something like that, a personal site that has a cohesive design is definitely the better way to go, as your site might first be seen by someone in HR or someone that doesn't necessarily look just at content first and foremost and the whole package is what will sell you. It sounds silly, but to some people, having a www.johndoe.com looks a lot better and more professional than having a www.artstation.com/artist/johndoe as your site.
Put your name and website address on every piece of art you put up on a site. A lot of people save images to look at later, and having that info on there can be a real help.
Avoid "about me" pages talking about what got you into video games, and how this is your passion, etc, etc.
Showing group projects, game jams, mod groups, etc that you've worked in is a good way to show you can work in a group and such without having any industry experience.
In regards to commercial modeling or animation, having something a potential employer can look at and understand as something that relates to what they need can go a long way. Logo animations, actual real products that you've modeled and rendered and presented well, things like that can show a potential client or employer what you can do for their products.
Speaking of presenting well, look at the way artists here and elsewhere present their work. Good design is a lost art at times, and especially for commercial work, can go a long way.
You mentioned textures and how to show them. For games, I personally think just showing a diffuse with maybe the normals, spec, etc layered behind it where you can see how you laid out the UVs is fine. For the commercial industry, this really doesn't matter at all.
Speaking of specific stuff for each industry, for game models, being able to show assets in any real time editor is important. Whether it's Unity, Unreal, Marmoset, whatever, showing a model in there will be better than having a Maya render.
I think that's all I can think of off the top of my head, hope it helps!