Portfolio review of an aspiring junior 3d artist

jeffry

Hello, guys i would life your honest opinion on my portfolio as i am struggling to start my career at the moment as a junior 3d artist or generalist, i have been told in the past that my portfolio was not bad in the sense that i had the skill required for an entry position, to have more different models and later after to be more focus, so it's kinda confusing, this is the link https://www.artstation.com/jeffsart but of course i will post images right now as well

thanks in advance, more images and break down on my art station page

Ashervisalis

So if someone says you have the skills required, I'd take that as there is a chance you might be able to land a job. If you want to ensure you can land a job you need to figure out how to stand out from the pack! First thing I see when I look at your portfolio is way too much work. Do a cull. Cut your portfolio down to your top 5 projects. Then, every time you finish 2 new projects, remove another (until you're 100% sure everything in there is professional level). Right now the only projects I would look at, if I was recruiting, would be your 2 vehicles and your sword. I would urge you to start working off of really good concept art, and continue make full environments. I'd stay away from characters, but if you want to do characters, just go balls deep and focus 100% on characters. Watch these 2 videos and try to implement what you've learned in your future projects;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8i7OKbWmRM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj1FK8n7WgY

Last thing I'd say is to jump into a chat community. Whether its discord or Slack.

InvaderRoxas

Hi there! The biggest thing I see with your portfolio just at a glance is that I can't tell what kind of artist you want to be. Granted, it's good to experiment with different styles and avenues to try and see where you want to go as an artist, but since you're telling me you're wanting to be a junior artist your portfolio needs to get straight to the point as to what you excel at. With your layout here, I see bits and pieces of character art, hard surface, stylized dioramas, realistic props--you're not properly conveying to a potential employer what your strengths are, nor your focus/interest. I think if you focus on what you want to do, and improve upon those skills, that would help dramatically! 

I also think a lot of what you have in your portfolio is working against you. Just out of the gate (and I'm listing these in the order they appear in your post) images 3, 5, 9, 10, and 19 are much weaker than much of your other projects, and you're often judged by the worst out of your portfolio. With that being said, in my opinion your hard surface models are much more interesting and more well-put together. 

Working on your presentation I think would really help your portfolio too. So far nothing is consistent, and much of what I believe to be your construction shots don't appear to have much thought put into their lighting/placement/breakdown. It can be crazy how much some balanced composition and well-placed lighting can turn just an "ok" shot into something fantastic, so I would go out of your current comfort zone and really spend some quality time on your final renders.

Hope this helps!

jeffry

@InvaderRoxas thanks for the comments, i have a few things to point out, you mentioned that some of the pieces are weaker then others and i understand but most of them are part of a bigger post breakdown on my main page that i linked, i understand that on this post it kinda looks confusing but this are only images from my main portfolio, and also lets say i apply to be a generalist artist, wouldn't having a variety of work be a good things for me? Thanks for all the comments either way 

InvaderRoxas

@jeffry Understood! Even with that being said, they really aren't doing much for you, breakdown or not. A breakdown should help lift up your and compliment the final product and show a peak into your process (at least, in my opinion), and I did not see that with the projects I listed. As far as a variety goes, I don't think having a variety is a bad thing, but it still needs to be consistent in quality. With what you have so far for example, your hard surface projects are much more impressive than your character work, as I mentioned before. If you can't provide the same level of work in trying to show off variety, then you need to really focus on polishing those skills that aren't yet up to par. 

slosh

I agree with most of what is being said so far about inconsistency and general quality.  As for applying for generalist positions, these are probably the hardest to be qualified for.  You literally have to excel in everything.  As a jr, pick one thing, and excel at that.  You will never be able to show off the variety you want, this early in your career.  That's incredibly rare that ANY artist would be that good at 5 different forms of art, let alone one.  As people have mentioned, pick one area such as props, and make 2-3 AMAZING portfolio pieces in that area.  In fact, if you just made ONE folio piece that was mind blowingly well done, that could even be enough to land a Jr role potentially.  As it stands now, you show you understand how to do basic modeling/texturing but the quality and polish is lacking in both areas.  You have to evaluate your work against other people in the industry.  Technically, when it comes to quality of work, there is no such thing as Jr.  Everyone makes amazing art.  A Sr artist will just be more experienced, faster, and just understand professional pipelines and etiquette better.  

jeffry

thanks for all the advice, i understand and i will improve