Looking for feedback for my portfolio

Ryten

Hy everyone,
I'm Horatiu, i'm 26 and i'm looking for feedbacks for my portfolio.
I'm a junior 3D props artist, I graduate from an art school (Sae Institue of Geneva).
This is the link of my protfolio : https://www.artstation.com/horatiu_coman
I posted only the best work i can make.
If there's something wrong with the work I produce or lacking of something in the skills set, do not hesitate to tell me, any feedback would be helpful thanks.

Alex_J

looks fantastic. i doubt much critique of these props could be made they look flawlessly executed to me and very attractive designs. if something absolutely had to be said, maybe the table cloth is a bit too thick and the folds don't make perfect sense? But if a gamer made a critique like that of a game that was full of art like this we'd just tell them to get a life .

If you do more cloth in future though - even if it is stylized and overly thick - you can get more realistic folds in easy way using zbrush or marvelous designer cloth sim.

i think the next step would be to make a small scale environment, like a diorama.

ThisisVictoriaZ

Hi! You have a very nice portfolio! Some critiques I have are I would have what you consider to be your best piece as the first one on your artstation. Your crystal sword is nice but in my opinion the maghar orc crest is the best looking one. Are you planning on trying to enter the games industry? if so I would have a lot more breakdowns including things like a wire frame render and a progress gif of your work flow. Employers like to see these things so they know you can do clean topology, and a bit about your process when creating a new asset. This guide is super helpful for knowing what to have on your portfolio as a junior level artist! Also I agree with @Alex_J that the next step would be to try creating environments next!

Ryten

Hi @ThisisVictoriaZ and @Alex_J,

Thank you for the feedbacks, I realy apreciate the time you spent to write those.

@Alex_J you're right, I should spend more time on the table cloth, it was a quick sculpt I made on Zbrush. I never try Marvelous Designer, so I'll check some tutoriels.

Yes @ThisisVictoriaZ, I try to enter in the games industry. I don't know where to find a job as a Junior 3D Artist, I still do a lot of networking to find one but I think, I need more assets in my portfolio. I've try to render a turntable only with the wireframe on Marmoset but i have an old version of it (Marmoset Toolbag 3.08) who shows only tryangles and not quads. I was thinking the viewport of Marmoset was enought to show the wireframe but i'm planning to change and apply that in my futur assets. I don't know what you mean by "process gif of my work flow" ?

I'm also working on an environement for my next post.

ThisisVictoriaZ

Yes, networking and just applying around is good, as well as looking for freelance and contract opportunities. As far as your portfolio the marmoset render is great but I would have a separate screenshot of your wireframe anyways, as this requires less clicking and searching for the thing that recruiters want to see. Tris are totally fine as an asset will be converted to tris in a game engine, this is mostly just to show that your topology is clean and game ready. 
By a process gif I meant, to put together a gif showing different stages of your project! Here's one I made for one of my projects 

This will show a recruiter a little bit about what your workflow is like, for example here you can see I started out with grey box and camera placement, then lighting, and so on. While its not 100% necessary I think its made a big difference in my portfolio, and when I have had interviews the person interviewing me has always commented on how this is helpful for them, so I would recommend it. 

Neox

I would not agree that these pieces are flawlessly executed. they are a solid start but i feel like they would need a fair bit of polish to really shine.

i jump between the assets because while i think i can see progress between your oldest and your newest piece, i think a lot of it just applies to all of them

on the modelling/sculpting side you have barely any material differentiation. metal feels like wood, feels like stone, feels like fur. everything is pretty much the same. if it is not, it doesn't feel intentional but just because of the density of your base mesh. (thumbs up for using a base mesh tho!)

as a rule of thumb, i would go with sharper edges for harder materials, softer edges for softer materials. overall the highlights feel too crisp in parts, so i would soften these and go softer per material from there. crystal being the hardest / sharpest, followed by metal, stone, bone, wood, fur, cloth etc.

the cloth folds need a polish pass they are really lumpy and oddly symmetrical without needing to be, considering you do not mirror the UVs.

try to avoid meshes clashing into other meshes, try to make them look attached or integrated.

on the lowppoly your priorities are a bit weird. tiny details get a bevel, while huge areas look blocky even at distance.

The Uvs are fine, could be straighter overall but its personal work so probably not a focus to make these assets work well with Lodding.

i feel like right now the weakest part of all pieces is the texturing.

the materials feel all over the place, it looks like its 90% filtered/generated while i would argue for this style it should be filter as a base and then will need a lot more work on a paint level.

to get a quick take on that, break up those curvature detection edges with the same edge width all around the entire asset. like really, everything feels outlined. but again not intentionally but because its what the filter does.

the dirt / roughness breakup feels random as well, just some noise generators bam done. put some more love into this.

i think spending a day or two more per asset will really help here. check out some reference assets, look at how they use gradients in albedo. roughness breakups and so on. some of your roughness/gloss maps are just straight up one color. come on, spend some time here. why is the tablecloth the exact same value as the wood underneath?

" it was a quick sculpt I made on Zbrush" this is a really bad excuse for a portfolio piece. you are competing against people who give it their all. or at least ... more.

i'd say one of the best artists to study for this kinda stuff would be Michael Vincente aka Orb. check how he balances details on all levels, Models, Sculpts, Textures, Materials.

Ryten

Hi @ThisisVictoriaZ and @Neox

Thank you @ThisisVictoriaZ for clarifying me with the process gif workflow, i will take some screens of every step i made in the process as you show me in your exemple.

Thank you @Neox for your big constructive feedback. You are right, it's not an excuse and not professional from me when I have to compet against artist from all around the world. I will be more serious on my work.

For the sculpt/modeling part, i will use more refences as Michael Vincente that you mentioned and other artists who has the same art style as him, I'm thinking now about the Darkseider art style for my next post. I'll apply your process of sharper edges to soften "crystal being the hardest / sharpest, followed by metal, stone, bone, wood, fur, cloth etc.". 

For the lowpoly priorities, I don't have a real method that will help me to know how much poly I can put on each part of an asset and knows if it's enough. If you have some tips, I'll be happy to hear it. It was a big mistake of my to mirror the UVs, I've notice it and I know, I'll not do it again. I wanted to win some resolution but i had more problems with it.

For the texturing part, I know I'm not good at handpainting so I basically use only generators and i watch tutoriels for the leather and crystal part. If you have some tutoriels who can help me to understand the others materials on a stylized style, it will be really helpful.

Thank you again for the time you two spend for writing those feedbacks, that helps me a lot to improve my art !

Neox

i havent watched tutorials like this in ages to be honest, so you'd have to find ones yourself. but i am sure they are out there

ThisisVictoriaZ

If you are interested in replicating a semi hand painted aesthetic by procedurally generating things in painter there are different resources like this tweet: 

https://twitter.com/ali3ser/status/1559136665846878208?s=20

that shows breakdowns of their graphs/layers, this post https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZaeJvw has a nice example of texture painting in photoshop. Ultimately if you want to get better at hand painting I would recommend practicing it alot! Its a skill that takes a while to develop tbh, so try to find artists who are doing a style you like and try to understand how they achieved those results. A lot of times they will make a post on how they did it, if not it wouldn't hurt to ask if they have any specific tips on how to practice the style. Tutorials are very helpful as well, there are a bunch on youtube! 

Ryten

Hi @ThisisVictoriaZ,

Thank you for sharing the work of Jacinta Vu. I'll take good note of her workflow.
I didn't touch Unreal yet but it's a software I have to learn to use it.