Portfolio Feedback

Bram_Steijn

Hello,

I would truly love some feedback on my portfolio. I’ve been trying to improve my environment creation skills for the past three years (I’m self taught, which in this day and age does not put me at too great a disadvantage comparatively to those who have a degree in the field, I suppose). I really want to land a junior position as an environment artist, like so many others. However, I’m not sure if I’m good enough yet. Well, I clearly am not good enough yet, but I also do not really know what to do in order to improve my chances of getting a job as an environment artist. It sounds silly to keep hammering on about wanting to land a job since 3D environment creation is definitely something I love doing and will always continue to do, regardless if ever I succeed in finding a job, but I would love to do this full-time as it would also allow me to make more progress at a faster rate. So, in short, if anyone could help me out and tell me what I can do to improve as an “artist” and increase my chances of getting a job, then that would be great and much, much appreciated! 

Link to Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/bram_steijn

Thanks and have a great day(!),

Bram

P.S. I can handle criticism, so don’t feel the need to sugarcoat things I want to grow, so I need to be told what I’m doing wrong!

HarlequinWerewolf

I'm not an environment artist, so don't lean too heavily on what I say! To me, your work is fine, but it's definitely lacking. The biggest stand outs to me are your lighting and your compositions. Your scenes lack a really solid sense of lighting direction and come across as quite flat. You scenes are lack a central point or a guiding figure. My eye is drawn all over your images with no clear focus on what is your key element. Your forest scene in particular lacks a focal point making it look like a bunch of trees and bushes were just scattered about with little thought. 

You can check out some articles on 80.lv that cover environment breakdowns as well as how to approach environments for game dev. Stuff like this is always good to study: https://80.lv/articles/outskirts-enviroonment-breakdown/

Bram_Steijn

HarlequinWerewolf said:

I'm not an environment artist, so don't lean too heavily on what I say! To me, your work is fine, but it's definitely lacking. The biggest stand outs to me are your lighting and your compositions. Your scenes lack a really solid sense of lighting direction and come across as quite flat. You scenes are lack a central point or a guiding figure. My eye is drawn all over your images with no clear focus on what is your key element. Your forest scene in particular lacks a focal point making it look like a bunch of trees and bushes were just scattered about with little thought. 

You can check out some articles on 80.lv that cover environment breakdowns as well as how to approach environments for game dev. Stuff like this is always good to study: https://80.lv/articles/outskirts-enviroonment-breakdown/

Thanks! I'll check out the article you linked and see if I can find others like it  

Ashervisalis

Honestly, your portfolio isn't bad. It's not super strong, but I've seen people land jobs with weaker portfolios. I think you need to condense each project a little: There are too many images of different angles. Maybe condense your material balls all into one image instead of having a different image per ball. I want to see more of the technical stuff, such as wireframes and stuff. You're definitely on the right track, all I would say for the future is keep making more art!!

Bram_Steijn

Ashervisalis said:

Honestly, your portfolio isn't bad. It's not super strong, but I've seen people land jobs with weaker portfolios. I think you need to condense each project a little: There are too many images of different angles. Maybe condense your material balls all into one image instead of having a different image per ball. I want to see more of the technical stuff, such as wireframes and stuff. You're definitely on the right track, all I would say for the future is keep making more art!!

Thanks a lot for the feedback! The material balls idea is a good one (the other ideas, too, by the way ). I'll get on that one  

InvaderRoxas

King of piggybacking on points others have made, but the biggest aspect that I believe is working against you is presentation! You have some nice shots in some of your environments, but I usually have to scroll through your Artstation to get to them (which I imagine a potential employer won't bother doing if the first image isn't fantastic from the get-go). I would take some time to really nail your thumbnail images, and really work on your composition skills when it comes to building and filling out these environments. Plus, it would be great to see breakdowns of your assets and textures as well. 

Bram_Steijn

InvaderRoxas said:

King of piggybacking on points others have made, but the biggest aspect that I believe is working against you is presentation! You have some nice shots in some of your environments, but I usually have to scroll through your Artstation to get to them (which I imagine a potential employer won't bother doing if the first image isn't fantastic from the get-go). I would take some time to really nail your thumbnail images, and really work on your composition skills when it comes to building and filling out these environments. Plus, it would be great to see breakdowns of your assets and textures as well. 

Thanks for the feedback! I have to say that I am surprised with how positive it is. I expected the feedback to be... well, less forgiving I'm going to try and incorporate all the ideas / suggestions into my portfolio soon. Thanks again