Feeling stuck, critique my portfolio?

kwagner

I've been out of school for almost 2 years now and I feel like I'm still struggling to find that first job. At first I knew I wasn't getting responses from applications because my school never taught us Substance, ZBrush, or much of Unreal. I managed to land a remote unpaid internship with someone who had graduated a couple years before me and knew the position I was in, and they quickly taught me all the industry standard software and a pipeline he'd learned working with Epic. 

Within the last year or so, I've had multiple art tests and companies have even flown me in for that final interview, but I'm always passed over. I always ask for feedback and it's always been, "we decided to go with a candidate that had more experience." I feel stuck and slightly afraid now, because I've applied and interviewed with so many awesome places, I feel like if I apply again in the future I'll immediately be rejected because they've already interviewed me once and determined my experience was not what they wanted.

And I know my current body of work, while miles of improvement from the portfolio I graduated with, doesn't feel like "current gen" work, but I am unable to make the connection as to how to get it there--which may be what highlights my inexperience in interviews. 

Please feel free to absolutely tear my portfolio to shreds and let me know what I need to improve upon.

www.artstation.com/kwagner

huffer

If you want to push to "current gen" you need to step up the realism a lot, especially in textures and materials. There are also a  lot of baking errors (Hub creature), UV stretches (top of door on Nostromo) and uneven geometry density. You should invest more time in a polish pass and making sure the bakes turn perfect. Also don't be afraid to push the triangle count - add as needed to avoid visible segmentation. For materials, you can try to look at more references (and interesting ones) and try to replicate - where scuff marks appear, what is worn, glossier, where dirt accumulates, etc.

moutoun

Yeah triangle count is way to low for portfolio piece in my opinion! and uv look stretches in alot of place, texture could be better maybe? like this https://i.imgur.com/aI41IpB.png pretty much the part you see the most in the models, same problem here with the texture, and you can see the edge from the uv... https://i.imgur.com/zSNFXmr.png.. modelling part look good !

Brian "Panda" Choi

I understand your frustation.

You're in a weird grey sweet spot where I don't doubt your skills, but really the only challenge it seems is finding the positions that matches you for whatever reason.  It's infuriating, but it is also to say, in my assessment, you are for sure good enough for an entry-level position, and will succeed.

Took me two and a half years to find my first full time position, and I thought I was hot stuff coming out of uni with a Blizzard QA internship, Reverge Labs Internship, and 4 games having been made with one that made Honorable Mention at the IGF 2013 awards.

Keep pushing, don't worry about the failed applications: it'll come in droves.  You're just looking for the one that will bite.

I do feel like your Blossom Tree and Chinese Lion pieces are weakest.  Blossom Tree could stand for a retexture and polygonal fidelity bump up.  Chinese Lion either needs to be redone or removed.

JordanN

Here's a great thread for Environment & Character Artists alike about what Studio level portfolios that get you hired look like.
https://polycount.com/discussion/187512/recently-hired-in-aaa-show-us-your-portfolio

I've been given advice before that you should really only aim for 4 really high quality environment pieces. Employers sift through hundreds of portfolios a day, you want them to feel immediately grabbed by your work instead of clicking through several pages of stuff they wont remember and then moving on.

Also, I noticed your environments are missing breakdowns. Show more wireframes, how you created your materials/texture maps, what your lighting setup, any high poly and low poly objects for baking etc. 

Edit: One more advice, if you decide to work on a new environment piece, aim it at a studio you wish to apply for. A common mistake I see made by people, they make these wonderful environments/characters, but the actual artstyle doesn't actually fit the mainstream market.

We see a lot of games that copy Overwatch's style. Games that copy what Naughty Dog is doing. Or a whole bunch of mobile games that look a certain way.  

kwagner

Thank you guys so much! All super helpful!

I've always struggled with poly counts because I don't know how much is TOO much. The Hub Creature is 20k tris and still feels low to me, but I wasn't sure if I should push the count further or not.

Alemja

On the pieces where I can see polycounts I think they are actually fine and it looks like you have a good handle on distribution. (This is for the totem and the hub creature) We're getting to the point where polycount doesn't matter too much for modern gen stuff, but if you can make something look good with less it will always be more impressive than if you use more geo than necessary.

What stands out to me is the lack of storytelling with your work, and the last 20% effort that needs more focus to push your work even further, namely in the texture and presentation.

The environment that stands out most to me is the Abandoned Mansion, it has a story to tell as the place has clearly been ravaged by time and has nice moody lighting that adds to that atmosphere. All of the other environments come off as a little too clean and the lighting feels uninspired. The sci-fi pieces really fall to this, they are good starting points, but I don't get any sense of what kind of people or aliens live there? what they do? what the place is for? Did some sort of event happen like invasion or meteor storm? etc etc. That final 20% of polish could really kick your environments further.

Here is one of my favorite pieces to show you what I mean. This piece by Scott Homer was done years ago, but I still remember it to this day because it just oozes atmosphere and does something a little extra where it looks like it's falling it apart. This takes what could have been a boring room corner scene and really turns it into something memorable. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KrVx

For textures I'm mostly going to focus on the Hub creature as it's the one we can get a closer view of and I think better displays some texture issues you're having. @moutoun pointed out some of the seam issues, but in that same area, having the hexagons looking like they are pressed in instead of popping out is a weird choice. The text that says HUB should experience some wear where the paint that is on parts that stick out will be more rubbed off than paint that is in crevices. This is why you also generally see wear around edges and corners, because it's where the shape sticks out and is more exposed. In general your wear and tear is a little all over the place, there are a couple spots that are good but for the rest I don't have a clear idea of how this droid is used, how old it is etc. Here is a sample of what I mean:

The green area is very clear to me, I can narratively see why that wear is there, the droid was floating along probably a little too high and scuffed itself on a door or something. The area highlighted in red on the top however is confusing, I'm not sure what would have caused damage to be concentrated in an area that also is facing several different directions. The red area highlighted "too much" is pretty much that, that is too much damage and wear for an area that is mostly concealed and covered away, if you adjusted it to the outermost, most exposed edges this area could look so much better. There are definitely times where less is more.

And finally a couple of presentation notes for Artstation in general. I like your totems, I think they are good work however I think the presentation and splitting them out to 2 different entries really weighs them down, when they could be so much more visually interesting presented as a set. The Ice/glacier material also has a presentation problem, you have a vastly more interesting picture that is second on the page, when it could be first and used for the thumbnail picture. In general unless it's something super impressive, material balls are kind of overdone.

I hope this is helpful and let me know if you need any other feedback!

kwagner

@Alemja

Thank you! That really helps explain a lot!

Cordero

A good idea might be I believe is to work on smaller projects instead of big scenes. The reason being is that if you work on a single asset, maybe a car, weapon, or statue, you have more time to make it look good, research and generally let the best out of yourself. Also it's easier to ask for critique on a single weapon, than on a big scene where a lot can go wrong. 

If you can present 5-6 solid single assets in a portfolio, employers will see that okay she can deliver assets if we give them to her, which is the first step to become an environment artist. Most likely you will not be responsible for whole scenes at first, since that is more advanced, required a lot of experience for it to be done well.

Also, if you work on single assets, it gives you mileage quicker, so you learn much faster if you focus on one thing reeeally well, and deliver it to the very edge of your abilites, then it will really represent your skills. The last 20% of the asset takes up like 60% of the making time, but thats where you improve the most, and thats how you can deliver assets above your avarage skillset.

I believe you have a lot of potential, and if you keep at it, soon you will land that first job I am certain!