Searching jobs with this portfolio. Need Advice

mathieuvart

Hello, my name is Mathieu Vaillancourt I am a junior and want to gain experience to eventually become senior...
I try to find a job in Montreal, Quebec as a 3D environment artist and I need advice about my portfolio.
Is it good enough or should I add more things by prop?
This is the whole scene that I created before applying to jobs: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4bor6L 

Thank you!

Taylor Brown

I like your work though personally I don't think chromatic aberration should be on prop shots. You want it all to be seen as clearly as possible.

lucasz

In order to give some better feedback - can you make your Artstation Portfolio showing the Portfolio you actually want to send ( just in case it isnt already?) since im not sure if you want to show only 4 props for the application or the full artstation site of yours.

mathieuvart

@Taylor Brown Thank you for the advice. You are right, chromatic aberration blur a little the details.
@lucasz Sure! I give them my full artstation https://mathieuvart.artstation.com/

Alex_J

Check out the thread called "recently hired in aaa? show your portfolio." 

There was a trio of guys a litlte ways back who had portfolios mostly with props. I think overall they're work was a bit more complex modeling wise. 

ChristenLA

What I noticed immediately was how high poly your assets are. It's more in line with models for animation than real-time.

The candles are (while slightly higher poly than I would do) a pretty good polycount. Not many wasted triangles and a good edge flow. The inkpot, pen, and the books on the other hand are very very high poly. The desk seems to be pretty good poly-wise (not sure about the handles) but the chair and skulls have far too many wasted triangles.
If you want a good example of more modern-ish polycounts, The Order 1886 is a good reference:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RnoVW
This scene is somewhat similar in content to yours. A good example of books and miscellanious small objects.
In terms of what to add, I'll repeat what is always said: 'Better 1 great portfolio piece than 10 okay ones.' Focus on quality, not quantity. In an ideal world, you'd have both, but quality should always take precedence for a portfolio.

lucasz

Totally agree with ChristenLA - the polycount could/should be optimized. Also showing complex props with triangulation/backfaces showing is a bit meh because you cant really get a proper/fast look of the topology

Having sketches/2d art in your portfolio when applying for a Position where you would work in 3D Software feels a bit off unless youre so good that you could fill in if someone leaves or is sick on a tight deadline - I think that topic has been covered a lot of times in portfolio reviews.

In case you really badly want to show your 2D Art try to emphasize the environment part and make a environment with some callouts for the actual props? Not sure if thats worth the effort since in the same time you could improve your 3D Skills.

Does that Screenshot help? That would be the stuff I would sort out - cant judge much on the 2d art but the 3d stuff lacks in detail/quality - you could also just rework it a bit on the other side and then it should be good enough? ( the dice seem like a nice idea but it lacks a bit in terms of roughness/ having a feeling of being used)

On a Sidenote - I wouldn't hesitate tough to apply anyway - you can reapply again once you upped your portfolio and previous contact may even help.

One thing I wanted to mention is - currently your trying to make art and find whatever studio is willing to take you in? Wouldn't it be better to work towards a specific studio in your Area in the future? Might be more rewarding in the long term.

Hope that helps and only take this as opinion - the next guy hiring you might think 100% opposite

mathieuvart

@BIGTIMEMASTER Thanks I will check this topic.
@ChristenLA @lucasz This is helping me so much, I will remake some of my best props that I have right now and retopo them to be more low poly. For the 2D, I will conscentrate them only for concept art and not my personal work. I will post an update if you are interested.

kmacneil91

I think you have a good start! My recommendation moving forward would be to focus on creating less-generic props. Things like desks and books look nice, but they have been done many times before. I would think about creating your own items - things that don't even exist in the real world! (There's tons of fun hard-surface stuff on ArtStation to pull inspiration from, for example)

When I look at someone's portfolio, I really love seeing unique items that makes that person stand out. 
It's great that you're seeking advice and so open to changes! Staying humble and working hard like that pays off.