Portfolio Review

OviØne

Hello guys! This is my first post here.

After a lot of years wasted at art schools and some months of self learning watching good tutorials on the internet I finally started to feel like I know what I'm doing when I make game art. So I decided to start building a portfolio and try looking for work. 
Now what I wonder is if with my portfolio I have a chance of getting a job or am I wasting my time looking for it.
So if anybody can give me some feedback about my portfolio I would be very thankful.

Things I would like to know about my portfolio:

Is the quality of my pieces okay?
Do I need more complex models or this level of detail is okay for a junior role? (I want to get a job as fast as possible)
How many pieces in my portfolio do I need so I can have any chance of finding a job?
I know most studios don't like seeing a portfolio mixing characters and hard surface together, but I don't really know if my robot counts as a character or a hard surface thing, so should I delete it or keep it?

I would like to know these things so I can make sure I'm in the right direction or not.
Any other critique that you may have about my portfolio is welcome I'm here to learn so don't worry about being too harsh or something.
That being said here is my portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/ovione


Thank you!

BagelHero

Some thoughts.

1. Quality over Quantity
2. Everyone wants a job as quickly as possible. Therefore, taking time to make sure your work isn't screwed over by this gives you a leg up (well executed work under pressure is a game artists' job, after all).
   
3. You're competing against the best of the bunch, not the basic minimum for a junior. Sorry; you'll need to do your best regardless of the role.

Your robots are fine in theory, but they're old. Cute, but old and wonky. No reason for them to be there right now. Good to know you've been reading up, though

I don't know a whole lot about weapons folios, but I wanted to see the high poly for the gun. Materials look a tad bland and procedural, too. I'd still say keep it, but it could be taken to a level where it'd be notable pretty easily without too much work. Overall, material contrast and attention to areas that should break the mold and be more hand-weathered/manually painted would benefit this piece.

Car is super cute, materials still look a tad same-y. Overall it's appealing though, so I want to say it's fine... I think this level of faceting (marked below) kind of lets it down. Looking at the wireframe, I don't even get the impression that it was for lack of room to optimise; you've prioritised modelling in things that I think could have been faked or normal map detail. A few things would have been actively better if you HADN'T modelled them, and spent the polys elsewhere imo.
Make sure to properly model and detail things like the lights, too-- they're pretty clear in the concept as just regular realistic car headlights, so it stands out that you didn't see fit to model them here (or forgot to make the cap translucent, idk LOL)

The wear in the textures could stand to be a bit more manually handled, again, the concept looks pretty dinged up. The micro details are there, but the impression of bigger dents and a bit of a story are missing.

Your presentation could use a little work, mostly lighting, but it's fine and you'll probably improve naturally with new projects. Not costing you a job I don't think.

You do need a bit more work in there... but I get the impression you're well on your way, and you seem to have a good sense of taste. If you keep making hard surface props like this I think you'll fill it out in no time flat! Hopefully someone more well-versed in vehicle/weapons can tell you what things (other than your high poly renders) are missing. Other than for-fun projects just to prove to yourself you can make a cool thing you like, the purpose of portfolio projects at this point is to show you have the necessary skillset. Make sure you can convey that, while keeping things looking impressive and nice, and you'll be golden.

While I think you could stand to have one or two more pieces in there, and maybe fix a couple of things, don't be afraid to apply to places that it seems like you'd be fine for. Always worth a shot, you can apply again later, and it might give you some perspective on what kind of things you need to add (eg, when looking at the job and considering the company, you might find you need X or Y if you really want to seem like you can fulfill the job requirements-- maybe that's because the company doesn't do sci-fi, or they need to know you can do more photorealistic work, etcetc).

Good luck! You got this.

OviØne

BagelHero said:

Some thoughts.

1. Quality over Quantity
2. Everyone wants a job as quickly as possible. Therefore, taking time to make sure your work isn't screwed over by this gives you a leg up (well executed work under pressure is a game artists' job, after all).
   
3. You're competing against the best of the bunch, not the basic minimum for a junior. Sorry; you'll need to do your best regardless of the role.

Your robots are fine in theory, but they're old. Cute, but old and wonky. No reason for them to be there right now. Good to know you've been reading up, though

I don't know a whole lot about weapons folios, but I wanted to see the high poly for the gun. Materials look a tad bland and procedural, too. I'd still say keep it, but it could be taken to a level where it'd be notable pretty easily without too much work. Overall, material contrast and attention to areas that should break the mold and be more hand-weathered/manually painted would benefit this piece.

Car is super cute, materials still look a tad same-y. Overall it's appealing though, so I want to say it's fine... I think this level of faceting (marked below) kind of lets it down. Looking at the wireframe, I don't even get the impression that it was for lack of room to optimise; you've prioritised modelling in things that I think could have been faked or normal map detail. A few things would have been actively better if you HADN'T modelled them, and spent the polys elsewhere imo.
Make sure to properly model and detail things like the lights, too-- they're pretty clear in the concept as just regular realistic car headlights, so it stands out that you didn't see fit to model them here (or forgot to make the cap translucent, idk LOL)

The wear in the textures could stand to be a bit more manually handled, again, the concept looks pretty dinged up. The micro details are there, but the impression of bigger dents and a bit of a story are missing.

Your presentation could use a little work, mostly lighting, but it's fine and you'll probably improve naturally with new projects. Not costing you a job I don't think.

You do need a bit more work in there... but I get the impression you're well on your way, and you seem to have a good sense of taste. If you keep making hard surface props like this I think you'll fill it out in no time flat! Hopefully someone more well-versed in vehicle/weapons can tell you what things (other than your high poly renders) are missing. Other than for-fun projects just to prove to yourself you can make a cool thing you like, the purpose of portfolio projects at this point is to show you have the necessary skillset. Make sure you can convey that, while keeping things looking impressive and nice, and you'll be golden.

While I think you could stand to have one or two more pieces in there, and maybe fix a couple of things, don't be afraid to apply to places that it seems like you'd be fine for. Always worth a shot, you can apply again later, and it might give you some perspective on what kind of things you need to add (eg, when looking at the job and considering the company, you might find you need X or Y if you really want to seem like you can fulfill the job requirements-- maybe that's because the company doesn't do sci-fi, or they need to know you can do more photorealistic work, etcetc).

Good luck! You got this.

Thanks for the review! 

About the optimization, you are right I was unsure of what to optimize and what not to, and how many polys to put to make a corner and curves look smooth without making the topology too dense. I think this part I improved a lot on the project I am currently working on.
The headlights are modeled but I guess I forgot to crank up the transparency (it looked fine in substance painter) and then I didn't payed to much attention to them while I was rendering, I just noticed thanks for telling me that lol.
Could be that the texture look so bland because of the bad illumination?

Thank you again for the feedback and I would definitely use the tips you have give me in my next project.