Portfolio Critique

alexmartina

Hello Polycounters,

my name is Alex and I love 3D art but I didn't knew about the Polycount forum and Artstation till beginning of this year. Also I didn't had the chance to create my portfolio.

But here it is with some of my latest projects: https://www.artstation.com/artist/alexmartina
I'm still working on some projects that will be added soon

Please feel free to give your comments or critiques

Thx.

jfitch

Hey Alex. It's a bit tough for me to critique your folio without knowing what your goals are. For instance: If you want to be an environment artist at a large studio, I'd recommend dropping the clothing and box designs, and invest in learning some lighting techniques for your scenes. It's good that you have them in toolbag and I can move around, but the lighting kills your gloss and reflectivity so I'm not getting a good understanding of what material read you intended. I would also add more complete scenes with breakdowns--show texture sheets (very important for anything tiling/modular), wires, any high poly assets nicely rendered, with maybe one or two beauty shots max. 

If you're trying to be a character artist, then make some characters!

If you just want to sell your models on creative market or w/e I think you're doing okay but I'd follow the same practices, and keep making more to improve yourself. I'd also make sure you add those breakdowns to those pages and make sure any model sets you upload are modular. 

Best of luck. Also thank you for just using artstation, that's really the best way to go these days.

Meloncov

First, it's totally fine to send your Artstation to employers. No one will be offended, and some actively prefer it. Just be sure to set up a folder with just your best stuff and send a link to that.

Your various stand alone game assets all look like they'd be perfectly respectable as one part of a larger scene, but none of them have enough detail to really stand out on their own as portfolio pieces.

The one environment you have has way too low of texel density and modeled detail assuming it's meant to be a first or third game, and way too much visual noise to work well for a top-down game. You also have very flat lighting, which adds to the visual clutter (since the lighting isn't emphasizing some areas and deemphasizing others). Finally, it's probably not a great idea to do a scene like this all in Marmoset, as you don't have the ability to vertex blend between more and less damaged materials.

I think you have most of the skills you need; your goal should be to put together a couple scenes where the quality of every asset is on part with your stand-alone assets. If you do that, and add some solid lighting, you should be in a pretty good place.

alexmartina

Thank you so much for your comment my friend
I really appreciate it.

Yes I would love to be an environment and prop artist. I went to the 3DTi in new york and got my certificate but kept developing my skills thru online courses like digitaltutors and lynda.

I don't have more stuff because like I said I just knew in the beginning of this year about polycounter and artstation.
I want to just focus doing 3D but it's hard maybe because the country where I'm living I can't use 3D to make income?
The creativemarket I'm doing it because I though that maybe it will be the start to get income in doing 3D.

I tried the unreal engine and unity 3d forum you know like joining those teams to create a game and after couple weeks the team just fade away and all the work was just for nothing

I always have said that I would give anything to even just work as an intern in one company that do 3d stuff to grow my skills and really do what I love.

But I will follow your comment and do as you told me... And hoping one day get a job in a company that I can do environment and props.

Again thank you so much @jfitch

alexmartina

Thank you so much for you comment as well

Yep I know I have to work more on my assets. i promise I will get better with all this comments and critiques.
The environment was one of my first 3d projects ... Was around 2008 after getting my certificate.
They didn't teach all those stuff about texel density and texture resolution.
It's really messy I know but when I added it in toolbag it looks so cool so i decided to add it to my artstation.

But I will start working on some strong environments and will keep you guys posted.

Again thank you so much @Meloncov

Tomtegubbe

Well looking at your models most of them are rather primitive, the barrel and cup are cylinders. You can create cylinders very quickly in just about any program and extruding a handle or some edges to your cylinder also isn't too hard. A shirt is something that in zbrush for example you can create by just masking out and extracting some geometry from a body.

I haven't even got a portfolio because I don't consider my stuff good enough to be put on a pedestal, see some of my threads. To me personally a portfolio is like a driver's license, here look I'm qualified to drive a car. To get a driver's license you've got to pass the tests, there is no official test in art creation but looking at your peers might be a good idea since it's those you're competing with. If your portfolio is just a hobby and you just like to share what you've made for fun the quality of your work won't matter.

But if you're serious about becoming better and maybe one day share your work and have people appreicate it or praise it you've got to step up your game. As jfitch said it depends on what you're into, from the looks of it you like to create hard surface stuff. The most complex and impressive thing you could possibly create then would probably be a building or some kind of vehicle. Here are some suggestions of what you could start to attempt to make, a bit more complex than a cup or a box:

It's better to aim high and fail than to aim low and achieve your mark, find something that you think looks amazing and then try make your own version of that. It'll take you years, but that's how you'll improve. The person who designed the building above would be able to draw a box or a cup in seconds.

alexmartina

Thank you for the comment @Tomtegubbe

I am working on a environment concept that I will share with you guys as soon I'm done with it.
I will share the concept just for you guys to see whats coming.

And about those two concepts it wont take years to create a building like that if you break it down in to parts.
Most of it is modular so after creating those parts it will be pretty quick to assemble that building

Here is what is coming:

Tomtegubbe

I suppose it depends on how skilled you are, maybe it will take a pro a month or two. Interesting concept, is it a go cart arena? If you want to improve I would try challenge myself, why pick something as mundane as a modern arena designed on a low budget to be efficient and cheap as opposed to beautiful. Here's a picture of the seven wonders of the world, why not do some of them instead of some ugly modern architecture of today.

(from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (also known as the Mausoleum of Mausolus), Collosus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Just a suggestion since not too many people look at a tennis court and go woah. Just trying to help, when trying to recreate or emulate something that people appreciate for obvious reasons you'll often pick up some of what makes that stuff appealing and it'll become incorporated into your "style" often without you even being aware of it. Good luck.

alexmartina

Those are really beautiful images...
But to tell you the truth I am not good at doing characters
I can try create one of those concepts but they all have like character in it and I can't do characters just yet.

I have problems doing the face
So I try to only focus in environment and props for now.

Tomtegubbe

Just do the buildings then, no need to do the characters.

Meloncov

Tomtegubbe said:

It's better to aim high and fail than to aim low and achieve your mark, 

That's not true at all when it comes to learning 3d art. You will learn much more by taking something relatively simple and pushing it to a professional (or at least near-professional) level than you will trying and failing to do something grandiose.

That go-kart scene would present plenty of new challenges. There's no particular virtue into rushing into every possible new challenge all at once.

alexmartina

The concept I added before is a real-world project for real-time visualization.
I'm using 3ds Max for the modeling and after unreal engine for the visualization.

It will be a pretty fun project because it's what I love to do environment

Here is the AutoCAD plot I got for the Curacao Entertainment Center:

Tomtegubbe

That's not true at all when it comes to learning 3d art. You will learn much more by taking something relatively simple and pushing it to a professional (or at least near-professional) level than you will trying and failing to do something grandiose. 

The technical challenges will be exactly the same, it wouldn't matter if you create a very good looking building or a very crappy looking building, you'll still have to learn how to create normal, spec and diffuse maps. So what could possibly be the benefits of starting out creating a factory:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Wolfsburg_VW-Werk.jpg
as opposed to the tower of alexandria?
http://www.touregypt.net/images/touregypt/pharos2.jpg

No matter how good of a texturing job you do on that factory it will still be a hideous looking factory. I have created some 3d architecture and I've never even thought of creating a tennis court or a factory. Why would one want to spend hours doing that, you'll pick up bad habits and when you show it to people like myself they might say, "good you figured out how to create normals and spec maps, that is one ugly building though".

I noticed there is another thread on this page that is titled, my dream house, why would one tell that person to start small by creating an apartment building, you'll gain more knowledge from doing that? No way, the sculptors during the rennaisance studied old greek and roman sculptures and because of it we got David and Pieta. If they would be told to at that point to study say a superman toy or some viking wood carving I don't think we would have as nice statues today.

Aim high and fail, don't study cups and barrels. Of course this is only my opinion, everyone is entitled to their opinion, no hard feelings.

alexmartina

@Tomtegubbe you don't have to think like that...
You need to learn to walk before you can run

I appreciate all the comments and critiques you guys have  give me.
I just feel lost sometimes because I can't make any income from what I really like to do.
I created this post because i would like to listen what people think about my work... To find help and guide so one day I can at least get hired by a company that I can work as environment and prop 3d artist.

I uploaded some of my recent projects on artstation and have share it here so you guys can give me your opinions.

Here are some screenshots of my progress

Tomtegubbe

@Tomtegubbe you don't have to think like that...
You need to learn to walk before you can run  

From the looks of it you've learned to walk, time to start running. Good start on the go cart arena.