Character Artist Portfolio Critique

razorbjc

Hello all! My goal is to work as a Character Artist at a game/ VR studio in either California or New York. I'd prefer AAA studios, but it's not totally necessary. I'd be willing to do MMO or mobile games as long as i get to do characters. I've spent most of my career as a modeller for feature films, but have struggled to break into the game industry. Been searching for about a year now. Could i please get some feedback on my artstation portfolio?

I'm looking for any honest feedback and recommendations. Like what looks good? what should i remove? What should i make more of? any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

www.artstation.com/james

slosh

I would say your folio still leans heavily towards film and stylized at that.  The 3 gameres assets aren't bad but not quite AAA level IMO.  The batou and batista characters are sorta realistic but still stylized in a way.  It's a bit in no man's land.  Batista looks kinda plasticy.  And while I can recognize Ron Perlman in batou, his face still feels a bit exaggerated.  I think the materials and texturing needs work on both of those.  batou seems to have like a AO dirty that has almost no breakup, esp noticeable on the jacket.  You need more specific wear and tear.  Hair has no value change...its like solid grey.  I don't thikn batou or batista have a hair cap painted onto the scalp to blend with the hair cards which could help.  biker girl feels like your best asset but she could also use polish.  Hair could use more breakup and more flyaways and some of the longer strands have odd flow that makes it feel a bit unnatural.  Materials could again use work in the form of custom wear on the leather where it makes sense.  I think you have solid stuff that just needs to be pushed further.  Just fyi, it's also going to be tough to be able to jump in anywhere with zero games experience and demand to do just characters.  Not saying it won't happen but it might be easier to tempter expectations.  My ten cents...

razorbjc

wow thank you for the critique, satoshi. I'm a fan of your work and the content you've put out to help other artists. That gives me a lot to go on and i will definitely rework those 3 characters. It sounds like overall my texturing and hair skills are still noticeably lacking. I was actually just looking into taking some online courses for those 2 skills.

I have been looking for junior/associate character openings, but they seem pretty rare nowadays and it sounds like i'm not even qualified for those. The postings say i need to have already shipped a AAA game, but i'm not sure how i will get that kind of experience in the first place. Maybe i'll start off with an outsourcing studio to get the experience.

jStins

I think you have some nice work there across a range of styles. Slosh hit a lot of good points in terms of the artistry. Maybe I missed it, but it doesn't look like you have any game rez characters in your portfolio? I recommend you make at least one character using a full game art pipeline to show technical proficiency. The film work is still good to show since it demonstrates artistry and your ability to work as part of team on a commercial project.

I wouldn't worry too much about the experience requirement you see on a lot of postings unless it's for a senior or lead role. I think this requirement is often there to filter out complete novices from applying.  Your work is good enough that you should feel comfortable applying even if there's a 'must have shipped title' in the job posting (imho). Good luck!