Using Quixel for portfolio work?

jordank95

What’s your take on using Quixel Mixer for portfolio scenes? How do studios perceive using Mixer for portfolio work? Wouldn’t they prefer someone know Designer rather than using Mixer?

I guess the same question goes to using Megascans assets. I see a lot of portfolio work that looks great recently, but it’s all using Quixel assets. 

I’d love to hear what people think. 

(Apologize if this is the wrong forum. I wasn’t sure where to put this?)

Synaesthesia

Perhaps I'm biased, but I don't see why you shouldn't use all available tools to demonstrate how you're able to work with current industry standards. With Unreal Engine users having unlimited access to the scan library it seems only natural that you're going to start seeing more content out there using Megascans data. Personally I'd say use what works and gets the job done with the best looking results in the least amount of time.

If I were paying you to do work, that's what I'd ask for.

Andreicus

I don't know about Mixer but for the Megascans thing i don't see anything wrong.
For some years now, companies have been using scans in both games and film.
It makes sense after all. Photo realistic results, minum time and at the end of the day a tree is a tree and a rock is a rock so why should i sit down for hours to sculpt a pine when i can simply take a scanned one that looks better in any case ?

In my opinion the only reason to model from scratch a tree/plant/rock nowadays is if you need a hero tree like the one in Harry Potter.
Job wise as said before both AAA  and indie companies use scans ( ex. EA in Battlefront or Battlefield and Asobo Studio in A Plague Tale ) as well as movie productions obviously so it's not a problem.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't know how to model a tree. I think that you should be familiar with the process in either Zbrush or a dedicated software like SpeedTree or TreeIt ( free ).

Obscura

I would say it depends on what you are doing. If you are an asset modeler, and you want to showcase modeling work, don't use megascans assets because that would be misleading. On the other hand, if you are a level artist, technical artist, or something that doesn't actually involve modeling, it would be stupid not to use them. 

But in the reality (in production), even if you need to model things sometimes, at some point it will very likely happen that its just faster and more efficient to use some megascans assets instead of making a thing from scratch. This is a phenomena in realistic products these days. But stylized stuff still needs to be made and you can't rely that much on Quixel products.

slosh

I think its fine as long as you display your modeling and texturing skills with other pieces in your scene or separate projects.  Designer is definitely a great skill to have a well but you can show off your abilities by creating separate materials for that.