Portfolio upadate

scnd22

 Hi, everyone. It's been a long time since I posted my portfolio here for feedback. I learned a lot from then and my portfolio has grown a lot in size (might be too big?). I have been posting most of the individual pieces, so I would appreciate feedback about the general image of my portfolio. Personally I think my weakest pieces are the "Windmill" and the "Old house". Should I remove them?  Let me know your opinions !

Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/sakisscnd

Ashervisalis

Yo! First, start putting signatures on all your work.

Old Church: The branches don't really look too natural, and the bark material needs a little work. The cross is a focal point but it's a little boring. Some damage or a crow or something could improve it. I'd like to see a wide screen version of the image. It was a 2 day challenge, but I think if you put a few weeks into it, you could improve it quite a lot. 2 day challenges shouldn't really go into a portfolio.

Medieval Inn: Cool! I want to know what you did though. Did you create all the materials from scratch? You've got no descriptions anywhere. Once again I think your branches on your tree looks a bit off.

Fresh Air: Also looks cool. I'd be careful about how you UV your brick walls as your corners have really thin brick pieces. Same as previous: did you make all the materials? Something in the foreground would make the image go a long way, like a wagon or something. Ground is really flat, could use a few stone meshes to give some depth. Your focal point (the water spouts) is in the shadow of a tree, which is a no.

Cemetery: Looks cool, as I said in a previous thread. However, if you're going to sculpt damage in a way which alters the silhouette, you should be retopologizing to match the change in silhouette. The bowl thing at in the bottom image has a chunk sculpted out of the side, but you've not included this interesting silhouette in the low poly. Did you make the trees and materials yourself? There aren't any descriptions.

A Real Boy: Nice! All 4 images look the same though. Cut it to one image, and another image or two showing the wireframes, materials you've created, etc.

Bus Stop Diorama: I think this one can go from your portfolio. Nothing too bad about it, but nothing that draws the eye too much.

Old House: I'd remove this as well.

Windmill: Remove.

Hallway: I like it! I feel like if you cluttered the walls with pictures, it would give a lot more character to the image. 4 images is a bit too many, once again show some wireframes, UVs, materials, etc. The wall material could be dirtied up a bit.

Larry

scnd22 said:

 Hi, everyone. It's been a long time since I posted my portfolio here for feedback. I learned a lot from then and my portfolio has grown a lot in size (might be too big?). I have been posting most of the individual pieces, so I would appreciate feedback about the general image of my portfolio. Personally I think my weakest pieces are the "Windmill" and the "Old house". Should I remove them?  Let me know your opinions !

Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/sakisscnd

Hi Sakis! I'm from Greece as well After taking a look at your portfolio i would say there's a consistent problem with lighting in your scenes, and that is bringing them down by a lot. Fixing these issues would hugely improve your pieces with little effort.I will try to address them one by one so bear with me. Note that i am just a self taught individual and not yet working in the industry,but what i'll say is purely for constructive purposes as i know you put a lot of time in these environments.

Church: The direct light falling on the church is too bright compared to the background sky image. Also keep in mind that sharp shadows indicate a lot of brightness like the middle of the day, so you can lower the shadow bias

I like the medieval inn itself, but the dark alley you placed your camera in, shows a few issues. Shadows on the right building are extending a lot from the wood planks(or is it AO?If it's AO you should disable it) The split wood logs on the left and the door are weirdly bright and the metallic elements have no shadows.

I think "fresh air" has appropriate lighting compared to the sky (maybe a tiny bit too bright) but your trees and foliage are not being lit properly. Or it's the base color that should have lower values. (https://youtu.be/dmXAptOv0J4?t=2949 here this guy shows a nice technique to achieve the best result with trees in ue4 49:35 ) Also the material proportions in the ground needs adjustment. The scale is too big

Cemetary: Same thing, a lot of brightness for the sky + moon

A real boy: This scene needs baked lighting and a lot of lightmap resolution since it's up close.

Bus stop is nice and moody, probably the best piece in your portfolio

The old house i would get rid of that. 

Windmill: I like the setting with the sun behind it etc, but you need to fix the foliage shading. You also need some variation even if it's only the scale/height of the flowers, and rework the visibly tileable texture on your windmill, or just add some decals to break it up

The hallway is nice, it just needs better baking, and the scale of the plaster wall needs adjustment

A few general pointers. Try setting your lower hemisphere to black(or  dark green if it's outdoors). It will help with the shadows.
For portfolio pieces i would enable the screen space reflections in your post process volume.
If you are looking for environment artist job you should consider showing some technical stuff as well like LODs, or some storytelling in your environments.

A few videos that really helped me get better with lighting are all the lighting academy sessions (https://www.youtube.com/user/51Daedalus/videos)

UE4 live training videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCsrWzt9F28&t=0s 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1slxtF_qA&t=0s

and especially this 80lvl article https://80.lv/articles/setting-lighting-in-unreal-engine-4-20/

Also if you download the "city subway" map that is free in the UE4 marketplace, you can see how powerful a LUT image can be to your final look.It takes a while to open at first (mine got stuck at 50%) You can fix your colors in photoshop with this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-RXsQLvFNQ&list=FLoKB0LX8ZBgq8VVjagAy_aQ&index=2&t=0s and use it for UE4 final look

You have the environments ready, they need a bit of polishing and your portfolio would be lifted very much! Also whatever more you need don't hesitate to pm me or add me in my media. We can discuss further there.

scnd22

Hey guys, thank you both very much for the detailed feedback!

I'll delete the windmill and the old house.

I like to take the knowledge I gained while making my previous environments, and trying to apply it in my new ones. I have already made a couple of props for my next environment, I'll start a new thread once I finish the blockouut.
That said, I'll try to do any "quick" fixes like lighting and presentation on my portfolio.

Ashervisalis said:

Yo! First, start putting signatures on all your work.

You mean like adding my name on the bottom of the images?

Church: This bark material is from textures.com.

Inn: I made the ground and wall material from scratch in substance designer. I'm using a few downloaded materials (brick material, bark and the stones that go on the building). Almost everything else is textured in substance painter (I also use some downloaded textures here as well, either as a starting point for my smart materials or as masks)

Fresh air: I made all the materials except ground and bark.

Cemetery: Also made made all of the materials except the bark, the bricks on the fence, the roof and wood siding on the small houses on the background, all of those are materials that you can barely see in this scene. 
I understand your point about the silhouettes, I'll try to apply it on my next pieces.

A real boy: I'll look into improving the presentation in this one, it's my favorite piece so far   .

Bus stop: As Larry said, I like the atmosphere in this one so I thing I'm going to keep it.

Hallway: I'll also try to imrove the presentation in this one. 

Thanks again for your feedback!

Larry said:

After taking a look at your portfolio i would say there's a consistent problem with lighting in your scenes

Yea, lighting has always been my weakness .

Note that i am just a self taught individual and not yet working in the industry,but what i'll say is purely for constructive purposes as i know you put a lot of time in these environments.

Of course, no need to explain, that's why we are all posting here . I am self taught as well.

I have watched most of the lighting academy videos, I just haven't put as much time into practicing lighting  .
Huge thanks for taking the time to provide me with all these links. 

You are the second person here to recomend city subway. I have it downloaded, it is awesome.
I do use LUTs, here is an example of the inn without the LUT: 

 ps: I've send you a fb request

Ashervisalis

Yeah, spend some time creating a logo/signature for all your work, and put it at the very bottom. If someone downloads your pictures, and later wants to hire you, how are they going to find you?

Also, all my questions of what you made/where you got your textures were kind of rhetorical questions. You should put those answers into the descriptions of the images on your portfolio, as this is what a recruiter is going to be looking for.

Good luck in searching for a job!

scnd22

Ashervisalis said:

Yeah, spend some time creating a logo/signature for all your work, and put it at the very bottom. If someone downloads your pictures, and later wants to hire you, how are they going to find you?

Also, all my questions of what you made/where you got your textures were kind of rhetorical questions. You should put those answers into the descriptions of the images on your portfolio, as this is what a recruiter is going to be looking for.

Good luck in searching for a job!

Oh I see    lol

Thanks again