Portfolio Critique

codyleehewitt

Hey

I'm trying to get into the game industry as an Environment Artist and I received an onslaught of rejections. Now I know this is part of the industry and I'm usually understanding of it but I've been feeling a bit beatdown lately and was wondering if you guys could look at my portfolio and give me some tips on what I need to work on and improve to have a better fighting chance at this endeavor.

https://www.artstation.com/codyleehewitt

Thanks for anytime you give it and I appreciate any feedback.

Ashervisalis

Hey Cody, first off, rejections suck. Doesn't matter what industry you're in, nobody wants to receive a letter telling them they're not up to par. I've gotten so many rejections and I never fully got used to it. It is best to try your best not to get emotional over the rejections, and just keep making more art! Your work has nice, clean renders, and is well done.

Regarding your portfolio, good work! You obviously know what you're doing. I feel for your upcoming projects;

- Choose carefully the concept you're going to work from. Use the Collections part of ArtStation to build up collections of 2D environment concepts, so when its time to move onto your next project, you already have a giant folder of cool thing's you'd like to make.

- Try making a few different styles. If you have some stylized things, you can apply at stylized studios and have a better chance.

- Tailor your next project(s) to local studio's art styles!!!!!!

- Show some images with wireframe and texture maps.

Zi0

https://www.artstation.com/kierangoodson/blog/0Kw8/the-road-to-rebellion-getting-my-dream-job-in-the-games-industry

fdfxd2

in order of personal preference

Ruined lab > Bar > Apple computer > tape recorder thingo

 a nice linear progression.

I'm facing my very own "onslaught of rejections" myself, so I'm speaking from a place of comradery(if that's a word, firefox isn't convinced it is)  You seem very technically competent, you seem to have this environment art thing down

It's a good portfolio clearly, but nothing really "stands out", there's no one environment that makes me instantly want to click and hit save for me to fail to recreate weeks later. I've heard someone say in another one of these portfolio review threads that bar scenes are a bit cliche, so I'm guessing bars are to environment artists like what  modern military guns/cars are to prop artists, which I'm  very guilty of

The way I'm trying to solve it is by modelling some prop/vehicle from a random concept, in this case the bi monthly challenge. The  concepts there look very cool and I'm sure they'd make for nice portfolio pieces once modelled.  I think you should do the same

slosh

Your stuff is incredibly solid.  I think you will definitely get a job soon.  It's just a very saturated market and the pandemic doesn't help.  Hiring becomes a bit more difficult.  Perhaps companies just aren't willing to take a risks on Jr level artists because they can't evaluate you on site at the moment.  If I were to say one thing, it would be that you need a hero prop.  Something that really blows people away.  Doesn't need to be an entire environment but something that is both visually well executed and rendered but aesthetically stunning.  But take pride in what you have, it's good enough to be working in the industry IMO!

codyleehewitt

Thanks everyone for the advice. It has put me in a better state of mind than I was.

9999thStarvingArtist

If I were you, I would put some computer control surfaces or something on the door in the ruined lab scene, or work on the ground a bit, or something. That lab scene is really awesome and I love what you did with the machinery and plants, and the door looks ok but compared to the rest of that scene it stands out as not being as cool is the picture of just the door 

RobinK

I think the lab needs more props to break it up a bit like knocked over tables and office chairs, maybe some moulding heaps of paper, a whiteboard or two to help break up the walls a bit. Some cabinets and/or shelves would've helped as well.

There's a lot of flat walls, floors and ceilings (aside from the big hole) without much going on aside from piping. One way to break them up could have been to have a little walled off side-room with a door and window or you could've extruded in a bit of a gutter in the ceiling or floor to run some pipes/details inside of to get some more depth. Also it looks like there's nothing holding most of the piping in place in the ceiling, it looks like it could just fall down easily.

You could have a stronger blue light being emitted from the one intact tube as well which would help separate it more from the rest of them and just add more interest to that general area. Could add in some monitors as well which could potentially add some life via animated UIs or just a flickering light.

It's not a bad piece I just feel like there's room for improvement.