Entry Level 3D Artist Showreel and Portfolio Critique

Lewis_kennedy

Hey, during Quarantine I updated my Showreel and Portfolio with some new pieces, and just wanted to get some opinions and critiques of how they look so far.
I'm trying to become a professional Environment Artist for the video game industry so any suggestions on how to improve my chances of getting into an entry level position would be appreciated, thanks for any suggestions.

https://youtu.be/4CHIWs6yTNg
https://www.artstation.com/lewis_kennedy

KatharinaSuhany

Hey there!
It may be the dumbest of things I could point out but somehow the Substance logo (the red S is more on the bottom left than in the center) in your showreel is not as centered as the other logos are. I personally would change that.
You showed improvment on your work on Artstation - good job!
Maybe remove some of your older work because they are not as strong as your newer work.
The office scene has some rather strange lighting that comes in through these curtain thingies (I am really sorry but I do not know how they are called ). I would either change that or completly remove it. Another candidate for removal might be the bear - at the end of the day you are aiming to be an Environment Artist and not a Character Artist. 
Maybe add some breakdown shots or wireframe models. Show that you know how to model and texture efficiently!

Hope that helps!  

Lewis_kennedy

KatharinaSuhany said:

Hey there!
It may be the dumbest of things I could point out but somehow the Substance logo (the red S is more on the bottom left than in the center) in your showreel is not as centered as the other logos are. I personally would change that.
You showed improvment on your work on Artstation - good job!
Maybe remove some of your older work because they are not as strong as your newer work.
The office scene has some rather strange lighting that comes in through these curtain thingies (I am really sorry but I do not know how they are called ). I would either change that or completly remove it. Another candidate for removal might be the bear - at the end of the day you are aiming to be an Environment Artist and not a Character Artist. 
Maybe add some breakdown shots or wireframe models. Show that you know how to model and texture efficiently!

Hope that helps!  

thanks for the advice, I've removed some of the older works like you suggested, the bear, the old portfolio poster, the creative practices city and the low poly office scene, yeah the light coming through Venetian blinds was acting odd going at a sharp angle at the top, I'll probably rework some of these old pieces and re-publish theme eventually after improving them.

Also now that you point it out the Substance painter S not being centered with the rest of the logos does look off, it's a simple fix thankfully, getting wireframes to be clear in unreal can be a struggle but I should be able to transfer the scenes over to 3DS Max and get some good shots that way.

Lewis_kennedy

https://youtu.be/KVQPWvwEpbU
updated my showreel, I fixed the Substance Painter logo to center it with the rest, I've added some more wireframes showing the scenes and assets as well as a breakdown showing the development of the forest scene

Lewis_kennedy

double post by mistake

7bajwa

Hello Lewis,
I went through your Artstation. I liked the variety of the work you did.
For now I would like to share these articles you can read.
http://highpriority.com/tips-for-starting-artists/
http://highpriority.com/building-a-portfolio-that-gets-you-hired/
One thing you can do is picking some that you like the most and think are good.
polishing them more and hiding the weak ones or old ones.
If you look at some inspiration like the art style and quality you want to achieve.
It can be any game you like or even artwork and trying to achieve the quality.
That will help a lot, Feel free to ask if you have any specific question.

Lewis_kennedy

7bajwa said:

Hello Lewis,
I went through your Artstation. I liked the variety of the work you did.
For now I would like to share these articles you can read.
http://highpriority.com/tips-for-starting-artists/
http://highpriority.com/building-a-portfolio-that-gets-you-hired/
One thing you can do is picking some that you like the most and think are good.
polishing them more and hiding the weak ones or old ones.
If you look at some inspiration like the art style and quality you want to achieve.
It can be any game you like or even artwork and trying to achieve the quality.
That will help a lot, Feel free to ask if you have any specific question.

thanks for the links, it gave me some good advice about cleaning up how I present my work, will be cleaning up my presentation for projects on artstation some of them definitely could be cleaned up and show a bit more of the development side, I actually have been going back to older projects and polishing them every now and again, like the bar scene, alien spaceship and kids game environment scene, some scenes like the spaceship I reworked the assets to make an entirely different version of the scene, while with the kids game environment I just improved lighting and render quality.

Trying to replicate the feel of an existing style will definitely help for my next work as well . do you think there's anything in particular missing from my showreel by the way? because I'm considering cutting parts of it down so it won't linger on some shots, like some of the bar shots and ship environment, and speeding up the forest development pics, feel it'll make it better paced to show my work.

Ashervisalis

Hey Lewis! Everything which I've put a cross over, remove it from your portfolio.

Your fantasy forest scene is neat, but needs more work. The trees look way too low poly; the branches look weird. I would remove the sword and shield and props. Your water material should probably be remade to be less shiny and more like painterly water. Maybe rethink your watermarks and signatures.

The abandoned train is cool but it's lacking a story.

I would stop putting YouTube vids at the first bit of every project. People tend to not click on those, especially recruiters.

Wicked job on the arc viz apartment. Put some really good angled images first before any walk through. There are error messages in your renders which is a huuuuuge no no. Show off a few UV maps and wireframes (do this in all your projects).

Restaurant Bar scene is cool. The curtains kinda stick out funny. I think you have a tad too much bloom, especially in the image of the table.

If you want to show off lighting only or colour only shots, do it all in one image. Have an image of the environment split in 3, each section showing off a different aspect. If you have 3 videos starting off a project, the latter 2 videos being just base colour or lighting, a recruiter isn't going to look any further.

The pacman is cool but the textures seem pretty low res.

You're really close. If you did a few of the things I suggested, it might help you land a job. Honestly, keep moving forward! Make sure to spend time picking your next project from a cool concept art, and really spend time making it the best you can. At this stage, every time you upload a new project, pick one old project to cull.

Lewis_kennedy

Ashervisalis said:

Hey Lewis! Everything which I've put a cross over, remove it from your portfolio.

Your fantasy forest scene is neat, but needs more work. The trees look way too low poly; the branches look weird. I would remove the sword and shield and props. Your water material should probably be remade to be less shiny and more like painterly water. Maybe rethink your watermarks and signatures.

The abandoned train is cool but it's lacking a story.

I would stop putting YouTube vids at the first bit of every project. People tend to not click on those, especially recruiters.

Wicked job on the arc viz apartment. Put some really good angled images first before any walk through. There are error messages in your renders which is a huuuuuge no no. Show off a few UV maps and wireframes (do this in all your projects).

Restaurant Bar scene is cool. The curtains kinda stick out funny. I think you have a tad too much bloom, especially in the image of the table.

If you want to show off lighting only or colour only shots, do it all in one image. Have an image of the environment split in 3, each section showing off a different aspect. If you have 3 videos starting off a project, the latter 2 videos being just base colour or lighting, a recruiter isn't going to look any further.

The pacman is cool but the textures seem pretty low res.

You're really close. If you did a few of the things I suggested, it might help you land a job. Honestly, keep moving forward! Make sure to spend time picking your next project from a cool concept art, and really spend time making it the best you can. At this stage, every time you upload a new project, pick one old project to cull.

thanks for the advice, sorry it took so long to respond, just been a bit busy at work, I've started making the changes you've suggested.

added a trail of blood in the train to give it a bit more visual story telling, it's a pretty basic thing to add story but think it should work.

the error message thing is something I knew about from before but just forgot to fix a while ago, thanks.
 
the not putting videos first thing definitely makes sense in retrospect, don't know why I didn't realize it thanks, I also made the changes to show off the 3 different aspects in one image thing like you said. removed some of the old weaker projects you suggested as well.

Seriously thanks man, your suggestions have been a big help, still need a bit of time to work on a few of them but they've made a big improvement.