Criticize my portfolio *[Update: Sci-Fi Katana]

HectorLucas

Hi all, I'm quite new to this site and I see it appears to be one the biggest 3D community on internet. I was looking for many different sites where all the 3D discussions are but is not easy as you know forums are kind of old-fashioned stuff but I still prefer them over social media, Twitter, etc. so I'll try to stick with this site and participate more

So basically I'm a 3D artist specialized in modelling, texturing and more recently lighting. I was working last year on a studio on-site till the production got finished and now it's time for me to look for a new job while doing some freelance stuff and trying to improve my portfolio. 

Portfolio

As you see the first couple of projects are professional work and the rest is personal projects. Most of my first early models are characters as I started with character art until I realized that the competition for these kind of roles is quite brutal and switched more to environment art.

I would like you to take a look and tell me the weakest points of my portfolio and what to concentrate on to improve first. Also, what you suggest me to do next as new models and if you think it's worth it to keep trying on characters or should I go more into props/environments. Any other suggestions or things to point at are very welcome.

Thank you all for your time and I'm very pleased to join this community

HectorLucas

Improved this fella I did around 2 years ago

HectorLucas

Updated the topology of this creature a little bit. I added extra loops on the joints so it deforms better once animated. 10.520 Tris in total.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/n4wB1

defragger

Your work is pretty solid already. I really like the Lizardman.

But! You should learn PBR texturing (spec gloss is a bit last gen). And the polycounts are low compared even to todays standard. With a portfolio piece you want to aim a few years into the future. So your creature could or should have at least ten times the polycount (in Lod 0).

Make some Lod's and put it into UE4 ... everyone loves to see next gen real ingame shots on a portfolio. You will be pretty much able to choose which studio you want to work at if you have something like that on your portfolio.

HectorLucas

Hey @defragger thanks for your feedback As of now I'm learning Unity more and how to do shaders with it. You're right about PBR workflow as it is the standard nowadays. Many of my pieces on my portfolio are Specular/Gloss as it's how they teach us to do it in my school about 3 years ago, when PBR was kind of a new fashion. In my last job but I did PBR with Substance all the way. So I'm already very familiarized with it and I'll make sure every new model is PBR from now on.

Same applies for the topology, they teach us on how to made a low poly model ready for PSVita/Mobile phone games. So should I just increase the polygon resolution one pass or completely redo my topology?

Thanks a lot!

defragger

Hey,

ok I can see how it makes sense to teach / learn restricted low-poly first so you know how to optimize and don't waste polys before jumping into higher polycounts.

I suggest to leave the creature as it is because it's good for what it is now (PSVita/Mobile compatible). Push next gen details and PBR texturing with your next project.

HectorLucas

Hi people. Following the suggestion of @defragger I integrated one of my characters on real time with Unreal Engine 4. Feel free to give feedback on it. 

ZacD

I'd avoid having fan art unless it looks better or is at least a different take on the original.

The styles are a little all over the place. Doing stylized pieces is fine, but generally you want to be able to show some consistency.

Characters can be a hard part of the industry to break into, but the creatures are pretty good. I'd just keep making environments, props, and creatures, and skip the characters. 

HAWK12HT

Ok so first glance it is pretty good 3d, now from hiring / review perspective its hard to gauge what you really love doing. Like for instance some of your characters have nice details and some look like being done with not so much love, also the environment art work of yours look much solid and refreshing but it does not give me much insight if you will be right fit for enviros or characters.
I would suggest looking into folios of artists from AAA studios like Naughty Dog / Bioware etc and aim for that level, bigger studios have people for every specific area like vehicle or vegetation. Just keep in mind that Enviros and Characters are two very major domains that require very different mindset and technical skills apart from just modelling. 
All the best for new job hunt!! keep rocking!

HectorLucas

ZacD said:

Characters can be a hard part of the industry to break into, but the creatures are pretty good. I'd just keep making environments, props, and creatures, and skip the characters. 

Hey ZacD. You're right about it. That's something I realized later on after I first studied how to model characters, anatomy, etc. Everybody loves to do characters and many people wants to specialize on it so the competition is brutal to say the least. Now I think for future models I will concentrate more on environments and props but as of now I'm trying to improve what I have because honestly it's quicker to push something you already did a little forward than creating new things from scratch.

HAWK12HT said:

Ok so first glance it is pretty good 3d, now from hiring / review perspective its hard to gauge what you really love doing. Like for instance some of your characters have nice details and some look like being done with not so much love, also the environment art work of yours look much solid and refreshing but it does not give me much insight if you will be right fit for enviros or characters.

Hi HAWK12HT, thanks. It's not the first time people recommended me to specialize. Back in the days they were telling me to do either props/environments or characters but I'm a little bit like "Why not both?" I enjoy doing both things so I really don't mind and I think for smaller studios can be something positive if you can do both things but I also understand from a big studio perspective they want people strictly specialized on each area.

Talking about what I enjoy the most I would say definetely texturing. I love to use Substance Painter, Quixel Suite or Photoshop and detailing the model as much as I can either if it's a character or an environment. Then shading, lighting, etc. I love to do the last steps of a model when you see how everything is starting to look like a real finished piece.

Can you tell me which pieces in your opinion are "being done with not so much love" I'm thinking about deleting/redo some of them. Like the first human for example. I keep it there to show only pure anatomy study but it's also the oldest and weakest piece in my portfolio.

HAWK12HT

Yes sure you can do both things even be an animator however keep in mind that if going this path be at the top of your game, kinda like balance those domains well, its hard not impossible. 

I would say that t pose character, head bust rocket and geryscale character 
Enviro and that green monster thing are ace and should be upfront. 

HectorLucas

Hi people, following the overall suggestions you gave me (more props/enviros, PBR, real-time, etc.) I decided to finish and texture this Sci-Fi Katana I started some time ago. Concept by me and loosely inspired by John Chalfant's Steamblades Collection. It's not 100% finished yet and I didn't uploaded it to my portfolio so feel free on comment and give feedback on it