Environment Art Portfolio Critique

b_beauchamp

Hi everyone, over the past few months I have worked on two major projects that I hope can replace my current portfolio. My goal is to be a game environment artist, so I would like your opinion on whether these projects show I have the skills needed to be hireable in a junior position. If not, please let me know what I should be working on. I am also interested in any advice you may have on how to best present my projects on Artstation. Thank you! 

Here is a link to my current portfolio if you are interested: https://www.artstation.com/breannabeauchamp

I made both of these projects for the Polycount bi-monthly environment art challenge. The first project has several issues and I don't think I should show the whole scene in my portfolio. My current idea is to instead break out some individual elements as stand-alone assets. I am also curious if I should show off the trim sheets I made for each project in my portfolio. 

Project 1: Library (Based on “The Book Club” by Andreas Rocha)

I think the strongest elements of this piece are the chair, table, and lamps. I made the books with a trim sheet, but I don’t know if they are good enough to be highlighted. Overall this project was a slog and did not turn out that great, but I learned a lot and things went much smoother on the next piece.

Project 2: Armenian District (Original work by Max Bedulenko)

Almost the entire environment is textured with trim sheets, which sped up my workflow immensely. There are about 7 unique UV unwraps in the whole project. The scene is basically 3 main layers: Modular stone structures, industrial metal pipes, and fancy gold decorations. I feel like the lighting could still be improved, but overall I am very proud of this scene.

Ashervisalis

Hey Breanna. I'd say it's fine for you to be applying for roles.

Your library environment is cool. I think it needs some other things. Some lights hanging from the ceiling would be cool. If you had some square pillars to decorate the corners of the walls, that would help them look a bit better. I'm not a fan of the lighting, might look better with nighttime lighting. If feels void of post effects.

The Armenian District looks cool. I think the arch needs more polygons, but I dont have many other critiques about it. When you post this stuff, make sure you show off your wireframes, trim sheets, etc.

b_beauchamp

@Ashervisalis Thank you for the feedback. I'm happy to hear that you think my library environment is worth saving. I think I'll make another trim to add the extra details you mentioned, and fix the dull lighting as well. I made a couple of simple renders as a test for how to show off the wireframes and models. What do you think? Also, is the best way to show the trim sheets a simple front angle like the one I have below?

Ashervisalis

I like how you've got the trim sheet shown. For the wireframe of a prop, I always like to show a render of the prop from a few angles, plus the wireframe. Here's how I've shown off one of my assets with a wireframe;

2 different angles, plus the wireframe, plus some basic info. This way you've condensed some of the non-beauty shots in the project into one image.

A big issue I see with your wireframe above is you a) are making the mesh out of one solid piece, when it should be made of multiple pieces (at least it looks this way), and b) are not terminating edges. Your mesh isn't really optimized for video games at the moment. Maybe leave the wireframe for this chair out of the project :P

I would also like to see some condensed maps plus wireframe snapshot in your projects, so we know if you're making your UV maps properly.

Also, start throwing a logo/signature/url or whatever onto every image you publish.

Jimmito

This is so amazing, good job!

b_beauchamp

@Ashervisalis I tried to copy your format of showing a model from different angles, but I couldn't get Marmoset to show only one of the models with a wireframe, so I used Photoshop to put the images together. Is there a better way to do this? When I built the meshes for the library scene I was under the false impression that all game assets had to be one singular mesh with no n-gons, so I spent a ton of time merging vertices to create pointless edge loops. I am also concerned about my UV maps in general, something always seems wrong about them. How should I show a wireframe snapshot of my project? The UE4 (where I rendered both projects) wireframe view and mesh edge view seem very confusing to read. Thank you for your help. 

Ashervisalis

I would avoid wireframes for entire environments, just have the wireframes show for maybe one or two of your more complicated objects in the project. The way you rendered your lamp is the way I do it, but I save the PNG render without the background, and then composite together in Photoshop. There is a way to save renders without background in Marmoset, but I forget as I haven't rendered in that in a bit, so maybe just google for that answer.

Regarding the maps, what modeling software are you using? If you're using Maya, go into the UV editor, and go Image > UV Snapshot. I'm not sure how to get a UV snapshot in other modeling programs. This allows you to save out a PNG snapshot which is easy to overlay your textures with in Photoshop. I would also combine all 3 of your textures into one image and cut pieces away, to show each one. Here's one that I did a while ago;

Don't use this as reference for good UVs :P But here you can see I show my colour, rough/occlusion/metal, and normal map, all in one image, with UV snapshot overlaid. You could also note/label each section, or put a divider between each part of the image. On top of the pretty pictures, a recruiter wants to know if you know how to do stuff, and this sort of image shows that, but also condenses this down into a single image for the recruiter to look at. If something always seems wrong with your UV maps, people on this forum can help, but you gotta post images of them!

You can combine different pieces of a mesh to import into a game engine, but you dont have to weld verts or anything. If your chair has wooden legs and a leather seat, you can have the model as one, combined mesh, but the mesh itself should have multiple parts that make it up.

BradyJ

I am learning a lot just from reading posts by @Ashervisalis, great feed back! I'll follow you on artstation, great work!

Ashervisalis

@BradyJ Hey, no problem!

b_beauchamp

Thank you for the advice! I use Maya for modeling, so I was able to follow your instructions exactly and I think I ended up with a pretty good condensed map for my lamp mesh. What I mean by "something always being wrong with my UV maps" is that I'm often worried that I'm not maximizing the available space used or straightening the shells enough. Is it acceptable, for example, to have a layout like the one below?  I've gotten better at making UV maps since my library project, but the Armenian district environment doesn't have any nice complex meshes with unique unwraps that I can show off. Should I make a new project with some complex geometry to fix this void before applying for jobs? 

Edit: @Ashervisalis I just realized I forgot to tag you in this post. Sorry about that. I decided to rework some of the better assets from the library project into a new project with a smaller space (still WIP). I'm reusing one of my trim sculpts from the Armenian district project, but I think I might have to make a new one since the wood textures are looking off. There's also some strange shadows on the right wall that I can't figure out how to fix.