I need some advice / portfolio review
polycounter lvl 8
Hello people,
My name is Milos and I'm interested in 3d character artist. I'm self-taught. Also I study graphic-design but at college I dont learn almost anything about 3D. Btw place where I live dont have any game dev studio and number of people that know anything about 3D is really small. So I'm looking here for some advices and critique.
As I say I'm interested in 3D character design and I'm wondering how far currently I'm from some standard that is needed to get job in studio as a junior? I was applying for some jobs around Europe but I had no success so I think that I need to change something. I'm thinking about taking some personal courses from some skilled artist.
Here is link to some things I have done so far:
If anyone want to know something more, just ask.
Replies
so from a quick look at your portfolio there are still a couple of areas that need improvement. Keep in mind junior artist positions most of the time mean -> little production experience, same quality level as seniors. This is one of the reasons why it is hard to break into the industry.
Coming back to your portfolio:
1. Anatomy needs work. Both facial and body proportions.
2. Modelling skills. It is obvious you are using ZBrush for modelling as everything has this wobbly sculpted feeling to it. This won't cut it. Either learn a modelling package (what I seriously recommend, since most studios require it anyhow for pipeline purposes) or at the very least learn hard surface modeling in ZBrush - but again, it probably won't be enough. I know studios test hard surface modelling by requiring you to provide a file that definitely wasn't done in ZBrush but either Maya or Max.
3. If you are working on characters Marvelous Designer is a must, at least for realistic characters.
4. Game Ready assets - without that no chance in the game industry.
Overall you seem to have the potential, but there is a obvious lack of fundamentals, so taking some classes is going to be necessary or continue working on your own, but switch to learning the basics of game art
Good luck
Actually I use 3d Max for modelling, it was software that I used to start with 3D but in last period I'm trying to avoid using him and trying to do as much as I can in Zbrush.
What you want to do with a portfolio is prove that you know how things that are required for your job are done on industry level. Anything below doesn't help and most of the time it hurts, as people will judge you on your weakest piece (it shows your understanding of quality).
You don't need to have hard surface in your portfolio, but it helps. What you definitely don't want are armor pieces that immediately tell the viewer they have been sculpted because of their wobbly surface and because you can see that the separations are only done by brushes.
My advice would be - even though it might sound harsh - drop everything in your portfolio and start a new character. Make sure you get feedback for the anatomy phase of your high poly already. Actually the block out. Best to keep posting on this board and working with their feedback. It might need some time to catch attention, but work through it. Feel free to contact me if you ain't getting responses. Your goal should be creating a complete character and its game ready version. You are still at a stage where your progress from character to character should be significant, so don't waste time on the current models. Only reason to go back to them is to learn basics like baking/uvs/... if you already know that, then lets start something new and make it as awesome as you can
Another key thing - pick up a concept for a game that has the art style that you like and create a piece based on that. So you can always compare yourself with the game and see if your work fits in. Again - there is no junior artist quality level only junior experience level.
Another approach to character art would be instead of scrapping your current work, you could re do them, at the most one or two of them with good presentation and breakdowns.
That should suffice. Also know that getting work depends a lot on the market and character artist jobs can be notoriously challenging to get and networking and referrals are involved considerably, so its not just your art that matters exclusively.
I've also found the focusing on parts of a character can help get into a character team, like character props, clothing and portraits.
There's also the freelance market you can become a part of.
While its true that you likely need to limit to characters to get a character art job, having other pieces doesn't invalidate your portfolio automatically. Just make sure its categorised properly and in any applications for character art positions you could link directly to your character art, or provide work samples.
The judged by your weakest piece bit, well I don't know too much about that since art can be pretty subjective, but its best to be in control of what you can control in your art.
Many cases you may not even get any feedback to a submitted application so everything that happens on the industry side is more speculation than anything for the most part. You can get a lot more feedback here on polycount though.
Would need to see more breakdowns to know if this is possible though. Like the lows with the bakes will likely need to be scrapped, but a lot of the highpoly could be salvaged I feel.
You can practice your design skills separately, but your ideas are not holding strong muster in 3D. Your space marine guy is an example of this.
MAYBE:
The materials are pretty bad, they seemed rushed or low effort, almost like it was abandoned shortly after sculpting. The sculpting details are PERFECTLY mirrored, even the tiny details like chips and wear. It needed asymmetry much earlier on in the process and definitely before you got to those micro details.
Cossack guy:
He should go, there isn't much to redeem him, he is hurting your portfolio. You're only as strong as your weakest piece and this guy is killing you. The sculpted cloth details are the weakest part. There is a lot of tiny texture details but no seams? The materials aren't helping him either. They all individual pieces that don't blend together very well. They don't show age and aren't worn together and there isn't much tying it all together.
Steampunk Lamp:
This has a lot of issues and I don't think it hits the proper style to be defined as steampunk, it looks more "Atomic Age" than steampunk. That worries me, because we're artists and we need to speak a common language. When I say steampunk and you're thinking atomic age, we've got issues making our ideas match. That's a weird team dynamic that is setup for conflicting views and styles. To top it off there are a lot of floating pieces and the mechanical parts don't really make sense.
Future Marine:
He is probably your strongest piece. There are some good hard surface details and the overall design is pretty good. The materials are underselling the character and the detail. It all looks really new without much wear or age. His gear says he's a new recruit but his face says he is a vet? Dropping this guy in substance painter and doing some simple procedural wear and masking work could really make it great. Again the cloth details are pretty weak and need some structural changes. The pose isn't very dynamic. Stiff spine, awkward bent leg poses, he's still very close to your base pose, which tells me you aren't very good at posing, or rigging.
Viking:
Pretty good piece that is struggling with some harsh lighting. Some of the cloth quilted details are blobby and need to be defined better.
So overall, materials are the biggest thing that are letting your characters down. Character art is very competitive and you'll need quite a few characters under your belt at higher quality before you'll get noticed. You have some good hard surface details and it could be cool to see what you can do with some weapons or other gear or environment pieces.
To pick a reference, better to go close to the company he's hoping to join.
But before all of that, I'd really like to see more renders like that car, that could get OP some work a whole lot sooner than the time it will take to rebuild his whole portfolio from scratch.