looking for advice on my portfolio

Maymoun

Hello guys,

I am mainly looking to be a hard surface modeler (at this point I think it is hard to be a designer)! Anyway, I have been practicing for a long time and went through so many difficulties reaching this point.

First here is my portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/maxo

I took off over 15 pieces and I am looking forward to take more of what I have now.

some deleted pieces still in my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maaxo11/

What stood in my way of getting a job is mainly my location, I can’t relocate but I worked remotely before but sadly I can't do that for now neither.

But I am giving myself one more chance to get back better.

 

What advice would you give me in order to improve my chances to get hired?

-If I haven't work in a AAA studio before, will a good portfolio overcome that?

-Should I model others concepts and show a real-time low-poly models?

-Should I keep improving the quality of my hard surface modeling and designing techniques and exploring unique ideas? (in high poly).

I would like to know how studios might judge me despite the location.

Any thoughts would be appreciated especially from those who got hired.

PS. I recently earned a bachelor degree in Architecture, don't know if it is relevant when studios require one.

Thanks a lot.

Ashervisalis

Dude, your portfolio is pretty kick ass already. Maybe try making other styles? If someone was hiring for and artist to make buildings, or something more cartoony, you obviously could do it, but a few examples of you copying other styles might help. I'm wondering if it is indeed your location which is preventing you from getting hired. Don't give up on it though, you're killing it in the art department.

CybranM

Your portfolio looks good man, maybe add something other than robots, I saw you had made some ships on instagram but I couldnt take a closer look since you need to log in apparently.
Not being able to relocate could be whats holding you back honestly.

Good luck, I hope you find something!

slosh

I'm not sure the degree helps unless you want to relocate.  You say you can't work remote, what does that mean?  Are you saying no one is willing to hire you remotely because of your location?  As for your folio, it looks really solid and so I can't imagine that would stop you from getting work.  Only thing I can think of is location like you said making it difficult for companies in Europe, NA, or Asia to pay you?  Or its a personality issue that you are unaware of maybe.

fdfxd2

slosh said:

I'm not sure the degree helps unless you want to relocate.  You say you can't work remote, what does that mean?

His Artstation says he lives in Damascus and wants to get in the CG industry, I think there are... several major pointers as that would point to him wanting to relocate. 

---

Honestly your portfolio is amazing, that jet engine has been in my reference folder since 2016 thinking it was a real jet engine. Yeah if I had to guess I'd say your location is the reason companies aren't... springing up to hire, that and the lack of production experience(which is a bit of a catch 22 because how is someone in your country supposed to get experience on a shipped AAA game?)

Though admittedly a lot less good at this than you are, I have similar problem, not a lot of video games are being made where I live either, plus I don't have a 4 year degree

The way I decided to deal with this is to pivot to environment art, partly because I've kinda always wanted to make something that I can put as a wallpaper, mostly because realistically very few companies would sponsor a prop artist with no experience to relocate. But maybe they might with environment artist since there are fewer of those.

If that doesn't work out..  it definitely sucks to have spent so much time getting good at something, at the expense of so many other things I could have done only to find out a decade later, that because of where you were born, that time was more or less wasted. Having to do it again would be... disappointing.

But i suppose with environment art it wouldn't be completely wasted, I imagine there'd be a lot you'd learn along the way that'd you be able to apply in other industries, so it'd be easier to pivot to something like graphic design or illustration if it had to come to that.

Maybe in 5-10 years our countries will stop being... the way they are now and we'll be able to do something related to CG. Or maybe the industry will become more open to remote work. Whichever comes first.

Maymoun

Ashervisalis, CybranM

Thanks guys, appreciate your comments. Diversity is something I thought about before but it might sacrifice the overall quality, I will think about it.

 

Slosh

I used to work remotely before and I still get some offers but I can’t work now and yes it because of my location,I mentioned the degree because I saw some studios requiring a bachelor!

 

fdfxd2

Glad to hear this from you man, I understand you.

I made environments before (not real time) and to be honest I saw very less people exceeding in hard surface/prop modeling comparing to environments especially when it to comes to robots for example.

I understand what you mean about putting something as a wallpaper, your recent artwork is a great example, it is up there and it is not an environment

 

Anyway, adding better environments might be good idea and creates some diversity.

 

Thanks.

Maymoun

fdfxd2 said:

If that doesn't work out..  it definitely sucks to have spent so much time getting good at something, at the expense of so many other things I could have done only to find out a decade later, that because of where you were born, that time was more or less wasted. Having to do it again would be... disappointing.

That’s a great point. I have always asked myself am I wasting my life.

valentin_baguirov

I think your stuff looks very nice man. I can take myself as an example here, I do get russian outsource companies always reaching out to me for work, maybe try and look for something local as well?  That might be worth a shot in case you need a job