3D Environment Artist in need of Portfolio Feedback.
polycounter lvl 6
Portfolio: https://vladislavkaragodin.artstation.com
So Im trying to find a job for a 1 year and 6 months, but without any luck...only experience I have as a freelance for 2 months. Im actually about to give up, on top of that I almost have no motivation left, after every rejection my motivation just disappearing piece by piece, cant even get a job as a Game Tester...even mod teams dont want me to help them out in my free time for free, telling me I dont have enough experience. Is my portfolio really so bad?
So Im trying to find a job for a 1 year and 6 months, but without any luck...only experience I have as a freelance for 2 months. Im actually about to give up, on top of that I almost have no motivation left, after every rejection my motivation just disappearing piece by piece, cant even get a job as a Game Tester...even mod teams dont want me to help them out in my free time for free, telling me I dont have enough experience. Is my portfolio really so bad?
Replies
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Some specific thoughts:
Half-Life 2 : The Citadel's Wall
You don't need all 3 of these shots -- they don't show off different aspects of this piece. Maybe just pick one of these and have another shot that's close up.
Forest
Again, all of these shots are pretty similar. They're not identical, but they're all fairly wide angle and zoomed out and don't show me different aspects of the scene.
Forest Camping 1906
This one is a bit better in terms of different shots. The thing that stands out to me here is I assumed the focal point would be the collection of props around the makeshift tent, but instead that whole area is in shadow. This makes it really hard to tell what's happening there in terms of materials and model quality.
Sci-Fi Hallway Re-Light
This seems fine. I'm not really a lighting artist as much as a prop/env artist I can't speak to this one as much.
Half-Life 2 Fan Art: Sentry Turret
This is crying out for model/texture breakdowns. How many tris is this? How are you packing your textures? What were your references and goals for this piece - I see you were basing it on an existing turret from HL2, but were you trying to achieve anything new with your version?
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One big thing here is gonna be introducing more variety into the shots that you use to present your work. Here are a few examples of portfolio pieces that do this very effectively:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nBNqO
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yE10O
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e0dxdY
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xmkwW
I especially like this last one - note all the variety between shots like this and this. The artist uses depth of field in that second one, too, to really show off the tree materials and texture. I can't get a great read on your individual assets because all of your shots are taken from far away.
Note that many of these examples also show how you can include asset/prop breakdowns at the end, like Ashervisalis suggested.
In general, it looks like your work is pretty high quality, but you need to present and light it in a way that makes that more obvious to someone trying to hire you. Keep going.
The work is serviceable, but it's not inspired. It looks like the work of somebody who has been studying hard to learn the ropes of 3d, has a handle on it, but has not gone further than that.
I sense no passion in your work. The execution feels minimalist. You need to maximize. If you prefer to make natural environments, maybe take a camping trip, takes tons of reference photos, and really strive to recreate some awesome area that really speaks to you. Maybe some place you have never seen created in 3d before. Something to really challenge everything you have learned so far. You don't want people to think, "eh, this guy can get the job done I guess." You want people to think "this guy is a fucking beast. He doesn't just get the job done, he explodes fucking expectations and nails every detail better than we thought possible."
Don't settle for one type of tree and scattering a few other types of flaura around -- make an entire ecosystem where every single plant shows careful attention to detail, and then compose it all in a way that forces a person to stop and say, "where is this place? I have to go there!" Something you would see on the cover of National Geographic or a travel magazine. Place every item with purpose. There is grass here but not there? Why? There is a cluster of dead trees here but not there. Why? If you spend more time studying what you aim to recreate, you'll be able to imagine all these little stories that will give your scene real character that people can sense.
And like mentioned, share full breakdowns so there is no question you know how to make it all work in a game engine environment.
check out this persons natural environments. They definitely go the extra mile:
https://www.artstation.com/artbyalireza
@Carabiner Well from now on I will making breakdown of my scenes too, I just saw that not many artist do breakdowns of their Scene assets. But is Marmoset Toolbag Breakdown isnt enough? It shows all of the maps I have used, shows the wireframe and it shows how many tris the prop has. I did the same thing with The Sentry Turret prop as this artist https://www.artstation.com/magichand86 with all of his props. Oh yeah btw I cant change/improve anything because of blue screen of death except Turret, this one I have created recently on my new PC.
You can match them. And it won't take you 6-10 years. Another year of hard work I am sure you will be right up there with them. The only difference is they will work faster, but that doesn't matter.
Check out some of the archived threads in the career and education section.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/58BWkW
(Just the first example I could find)
Specifically for your relit hallway, show us a shot in UE4 of just lighting and detail lighting. Maybe show a before and after so we understand more of what you can do technically. Show us a shot of the scene in Editor mode with all of the light actors and everything else. Let us see what lights you put where and why.
Having the Marmoset Viewer in the turret project shows a lot but, if you feel like you did something particularly interesting in the model, show us with a wireframe, a flat Lambert render or a couple of closeups. Not everyone will take the time to load up the Viewer but, if you have an image in there that could peak someone's interest to explore further, that may prompt them to do so.
Your work is great but I agree with @BIGTIMEMASTER, there's not a lot of passion in these scenes. Show us more narrative in the camping scene. The hatchet in a log is a good start but there's no story of who is there, what they brought with them, what happened to them, etc.
It seems that you've been focusing on lighting, which is fine and there's plenty of lighting artist roles out there. If you want to focus on that, you may need to rebrand and be explicit about it. Your lighting is great at capturing mood but your scene composition doesn't justify that mood or ask anyone to look closer.
EDIT: Also, you may be asking the wrong mod teams. I work on Installation 01 and I know they'd love to have someone who can make hard surface props like that turret.