Trouble breaking into the industry

PlasmaticJj

Hey everyone, I don't post much here, more of a lurker than anything. I feel like I am missing out on something key in breaking into the industry. Back in 2016 I had about three interviews and landed a month work experience/internship at a small games studio, but since then everything has been silent. There are no art tests or phone interviews, lots of automated replies.

I'm not sure where exactly I'm going wrong, I'm 27 at the moment and I'm feeling like I'm just not getting where I want to be at the moment. 

I feel like I'm a little lost, and I'm not sure which direction I need to take to become hirable and useful to the industry.

I've attached my CV and Portfolio for anyone interested to check out and tear apart (in the name of progress)

if there is anything that I could change, be it portfolio, or CV.

I find cover letters to be the hardest to make during an application, so if anyone has advice for it, I would love to hear it!

Thanks for taking time to read!

Portfolio: https://jjamieson.artstation.com/

neilberard

I like your Hydroponics Moon Base. One thing that stood out to me with your portfolio, object scale within your environments seems all over the place. Stuff either feels too big or too small. I would also cull some of the not so great pieces like first year solo project or pillar scene, just keep your very best work on there. Good luck.

PixelMasher

I agree, you need to cull some of your older work. your portfolio also seems a bit jack of all trades and gives the impression you havent mastered one skillset to an employable level. your materials lack that added extra love to take them to AAA quality in terms of clearly being defined as photoreal or stylized and tend to look like jr materials or materials I have seen a million times before, brick walls, cobbles etc. all square, simple shapes. 

your roman temple scene is nice, its feels complete and fleshed out. the lunar base is good too, especially the more complex shapes with the hydroponics props themselves. the exterior part of that scene feels more basic, lots of square basic shapes vs the more complex shapes in the center of the scene which feel more realistic and senior level. A lot of jr work relies too much on simple basic square shapes, while more senior level work and employable portfolios show a mastering of more complex shape language. I would focus on breaking boxy, straight lines in your next piece.

the pillar scene feels unfinished, avoid presenting work like this, finished, fleshed out scenes that look final are way better for showcasing you can take something to final quality which is an important skills employers look for. 

the Japanese scene looks ok, but again, the modeling work is pretty basic, lots of square blocky models, the roof pieces could have a lot more polygons to be up to current gen spec and the materials on everything feel the same in terms of material definition, there is no real difference in roughness values on the wood, paint, plaster etc. 

I think you need to cull your older work, and make something that can stand alongside current gen games, with fleshed out materials that read clearly. none of your work is terrible, it's just a bunch of stuff every recruiter has seen 50x a day, bricks, ashphalts, damanged pillars etc. 

my biggest advice would be to pick a cool concept you really like from another artist on artstation and try and make a 3d version of that environment, that is an important skill to showcase as well. that way you dont have to worry about coming up with the shapes yourself, you can get all the complex shape language from an existing concept. that helped me a lot while i was learning. 

hope this isnt too harsh, the intention is to help and give you some perspective why you are probably not getting replies. your portfolio should clearly show what role you want to do. if its materials, go all in on that and look at how other high end materials artists like javier perez, josh lynch, jonathan benainous present their work and the quality bar they are hitting etc. 

things are only going to get more specialized as the complexity of next gen (current gen now) increases, so get super focused on how you market yourself good luck! 

poopipe

I've already posted some thoughts in this thread... 
https://polycount.com/discussion/224176/what-do-i-need-to-learn-to-become-a-material-artist#latest

The active word in Material Artist is Artist - breathe life into your work and people will pay attention to it 

scottycharly

You have some good stuff, but it's diluted among less valuable portfolio elements.

Your substances feel like student work or tutorials and should be removed.

Your scans are very nice but you could regroup them in a single portfolio entry. You should polish your presentation too. Check how Daniel Thiger lights his stuff.

For the rest, I agree with PixelMasher that you should remove the less polished stuff.

Good luck!

PlasmaticJj

Thank you so much everyone! This is very valuable info!!

@PixelMasher don't worry, I would rather the blunt and unsugared truth than sweet words, its the only realistic way to improve

For specialising, I haven't delved any deeper into Photogrammetry, however since I do Photography on the side now and then (paid and hobby, so I have the gear already), would this be a good direction to explore or would that be a wasted time for other places?

On the subject of environments, I've noticed a few people using Megascans and outsourced assets to finish up their scenes, is this practice ok for employers or offputting? I've always been hesitant to use other peoples/studios assets from UE Store, so I'm sure what employers would make of people using them on their portfolios. The only one I've used to far is the Kite demo one.

On the question of CV/Résumé and Cover Letter, what would everyone recommend for layout (worded and look)? I know it carries less importance compared to the portfolio, but I'm not the best when it comes to words (Dyslexia).

Thank you so much for the responses so far! I appreciate the time you've taken to respond to this post!

sacboi

PlasmaticJj said:

On the question of CV/Résumé and Cover Letter, what would everyone recommend for layout (worded and look)? I know it carries less importance compared to the portfolio, but I'm not the best when it comes to words (Dyslexia).

Some informative advice:

https://www.artstation.com/kierangoodson/blog/nz0A/guide-to-game-art-applications-cv-s-and-covering-letters

Ripples

You’ve had some great advice here! For me, although I don’t work in environments, if I was looking at your portfolio I’d struggle to know what your main strength is. If you had some nicely finished props for individual objects that showcased got modelling, texturing and an understanding of how to make something convincing it would make all the difference. 

If you’d prefer to do a full environment, I’d aim for something that has a feeling of life to it. Right now your portfolio is a bit cold and process driven; there’s no hook there that makes me want to look further. Hiring managers see so many portfolios, so you need some work that pops a little; one glance at all the substance materials and they may even miss your better work such as the temple. Good luck, I think you have every chance to break into the industry, and I hope it works out for you.

PlasmaticJj

@sacboi that's a really useful link!! Oddly enough I'm following him on ArtStation, not sure how I messed it haha.

@Ripples Indeed the advice here is extremely helpful! And thanks for your contribution too! Do you think it would be better to focus more on small environments with hi-quality props?

scottycharly

PlasmaticJj said:

On the subject of environments, I've noticed a few people using Megascans and outsourced assets to finish up their scenes, is this practice ok for employers or offputting? 

As the years go by, the job of a 3D artist is increasingly specialized. In big productions, environment artists make fewer textures as there are teams of surface artist making substances and trim sheets. There also is an outsourcing department to feed in generic 3D stuff into production. So it's OK to do the same. In fact, you are showing your skills at combining different assets into something coherent. Of course, it's important to be clear about what you created and what you used.

tgm79

Your portfolio will benefit from more complex environments. Forest, a swamp, a bandit cave lair - something like that.

Meloncov

PlasmaticJj said:

On the subject of environments, I've noticed a few people using Megascans and outsourced assets to finish up their scenes, is this practice ok for employers or offputting? I've always been hesitant to use other peoples/studios assets from UE Store, so I'm sure what employers would make of people using them on their portfolios. The only one I've used to far is the Kite demo one.

If all the textures in your scene are taken from Megascans, I'm gonna assume you don't know how to make materials. For most, though not all, environment art roles that's a dealbreaker. But if some are Megascans and some you made yourself and I can't easily tell which is which? That's great. Just be sure to mention that you did make use of Megascans.

Same deal with props taken from libraries. If you have an outdoor scene where all the foliage is from the UE4 store, I'll assume you have no idea to make foliage. But if you've got five types of bushes in a scene and you just made two of them, that won't count against you at all. And it'll probably make for a better portfolio piece than if you try to make a scene using just two bush assets.