Environment Artist Portfolio Critique

brettmarshalltucker

Hey, guys!

I am a visual artist with a degree in sculpture who wants to work as an environment artist for games. I currently have a pretty awesome job at an art studio in Brooklyn where I design and build sculpture out of Lego bricks. It's been the most appropriate job for me to date (with some 3D modeling and animating involved) but I would much rather be working in game art. I have been working in game art after hours for about 1 year and 8 months. Everything I know has been learned through YouTube piecemeal as well as quite a lot of experimenting on my own. I know I have a long ways to go before being considered for a big name studio so I am curious what y'all think about my efforts so far.

Here's the link to my portfolio:
http://www.artstation.com/brettmarshalltucker

Here are some examples from ArtStation. Details and breakdowns available on there!





Thanks in advance,
Brett Marshall Tucker

CrackRockSteady

First things first:  Post some images in this thread in addition to your portfolio link.  The first thing everyone sees is a wall of text and no artwork.  You'll get more eyes on your portfolio and probably more responses if people see your art when they open your thread.

I like the first couple environments you have, looks like some solid work!  Consider putting Dirty Dishwater in some sort of game engine or Marmoset Toolbag or some sort of realtime application.  Also, one thing that stands out about Dirty Dishwater is that the dishes aren't actually dirty, in fact they seem to be perfectly clean.  It looks strange.

I would nix Makeshift Entertainment, IMO it is not nearly as strong as the other environments.

While The Disciple is interesting I would probably get rid of any art that isn't 3d/game art related as it only detracts from the rest.

Overall I think you're definitely on the right track.  You obviously have a grasp on how to create good looking game art, just keep cranking out work, challenge yourself with each new piece and try to learn something new each time.

brettmarshalltucker

@CrackRockSteady Thanks for the response! Dirty Dishwater was actually one of my first environments and rendered in Blender. There are tons of things I would change about it (including the skimping of texture on most of the assets) but people seem to like the lighting. I think I'll revisit this soon and apply what I've learned since to make it better.

I'm planning on using Marmoset Toolbag for my next project. I've seen most people using it to really show off assets so that the next step for sure. And I agree about Makeshift Entertainment and The Disciple. The former is just a piece of In Reverie and the latter is just there to show a tie in to my old work. I agree neither belong.

Thanks for the critique!

brettmarshalltucker

I am also curious if people think my texture authoring skills seem more potent than my modeling and texturing skills. I'm still not sure which facet of production interests me the most.