What am I doing wrong? (unable to land on a job)
polycounter lvl 5
Hey guys. I'm finding really hard to set foot on a job. Sent more than 30 CVs to the game industry in Brazil, 3 answered that they would analyze it and then no response for months. Not even a single interview. I'm having a hard time landing on freelancing too. Is my folio that bad? What can I do? Is it the lack of visibility? I'm getting sad since it seems I am unable to break in the industry. No need to work in AAA. I just wanted to work. I'm graduated on a bachelor for game design with focus on game direction, so I understand very well the entire pipeline for games.
Here is my artstation: https://www.artstation.com/neoferd
Replies
You need to be a lot more liberal with your poly count in a lot of your work. Your mobius suit is super cool, but the renders kinda suck. Try giving 3 or 4 different angles, but side by side, in one render. Your orc is cool as well, but it looks like you skimped on the poly count for the fur on his armour and his ear. I'm not sure about the GDI soldier, but remove the rest of your works from your portfolio. Compare your character art to that of a professional.
over all thoughts:
the presentation and renders are inconsistent in terms of posing, having a diorama base etc, it makes your portfolio feel inconsistent and jumbled, why do some characters get more love in the presentation department and others are floating renders? were you just bored with the project and didn't want to put in more time? it just raises questions for employers.
Wonder woman: the stylized proportions but semi photoreal texture style is a bit strange and not super visually appealing. it is that weird middleground between super stylized and a beginner model that didn't nail the proportions/ anatomy. the lips are super photoreal but the eyes are big and anime style, which makes it feel strange.
the raveshaw: there is a lot of glow/bloom going on that makes it feel like there is vasoline on the lens and makes it feel super 90's in terms of the design.
the 2 soliders look decent, but the presentation could be better with some form of base/posing etc. the materials could have more contrast in them for the metal/cloth/synthetic stuff in terms of roughness etc.
I hope this isn't too harsh, like I said in the beginning, your orc is definitely a big step up from the rest of your work, so pump out some new characters of equal or better quality to that and you will be on the right track. Like Ash said above, make a collage of some industry character artists portfolios and use those as a quality bar to hit. good luck!
If you're looking for entry jobs you need to stand out. You are in a much larger pool of artists that want to get hired, meaning more competition. There are already people making AAA quality work looking for entry level jobs at the same time. Employers are going to pick skills first and not potential skills.