Portfolio review - losing interest in 3d

tgm79

Hi,

Here is my Artstation page - https://tihicha.artstation.com/

I would like to hear your opinions and comments on my portfolio. I have been trying unsuccessfully in the last few years to find a job and am wondering what could be the reason. Is my portfolio really that bad? I'm not getting any responses (with the exception of the very rare automated reject email), not even a request for an art test. Technically, I did made an art test once, made a chair from a really bad reference photo, but didn't hear anything from that guy.

I feel like the industry is very hostile towards people like me who are self-educated and haven't been in a 3d school. I rarely see open positions for junior artists. Usually when I try to apply for a job, I get sent to some ridiculous 3d party filter site that asks me to upload a CV, a resume and a short summary, and also asks me in a condescending way what 3d school have I finished, and do I even have the legal ability to work in the country. It's like these people don't care about my art, but more about convenience.

So, all this made me very jaded and bitter, unfortunately, and I lost my enthusiasm and desire to create anything. It's really hard when you are under constant pressure from lack of finances and are being ignored all the time.

If you have any advice on how to stay motivated - I'd like to hear it.

Meloncov

Your portfolio isn't "really that bad". But the standard to get hired isn't "not bad". It's "really, really good".

And I know that's rough. I was there too not that many years ago. But the simple fact is that there are dozens of aspiring professional 3D artists for every entry level job out there. And that's not due to some devious scheme to keep the little guy down, it's that you need to have a certain ratio of junior to senior level devs in order to allow the seniors to give the junior devs the mentorship they need while having time to actually get their own work done.

For what it's worth, unless you're trying to get visa sponsorship, no one is holding a lack of formal education against you. Yes, applications will collect that information, but it's not gonna make or break an application. It really does come down to portfolio first, and networking second.

ModBlue

Meloncov  covered a good bit of it for industry realities, so I'll respond to your last paragraph.

So, all this made me very jaded and bitter, unfortunately, and I lost my enthusiasm and desire to create anything. It's really hard when you are under constant pressure from lack of finances and are being ignored all the time. If you have any advice on how to stay motivated - I'd like to hear it.

I personally think the best advice anyone can give you is to take a step back and clear your head. Don't even worry about 3D for now. Clear your head of all the stress and worries. That is the first step above all else. So many people ignore this step when running into these types of issues with art in general that they get tunnel vision and often put themselves in worser situations by trying to "tough it out" when such an approach is clearly failing them.

Once you have a clear head I think you need to now be practical and ask yourself how much do you really want to pursue 3D? Particularly ask yourself things like certain studios you want to work for or games/films you want to make or something else. Really take a good day or two to think long and hard on that one.

If your serious about it:
You need to really improve your quality to the point that its impressive. Just being good enough doesn't cut it. There are too many good guys out there and employers know they have their pick. On top of that you need to also improve your gameplan in ways that avoids having to apply so much. Applying has been proven through many studies to be the least effective way to get a job because so many other people do it. Try other routes like networking, joining groups, going to meet ups, etc.

If not:
Then I think its best to pursue something else. There are plenty of other creative jobs out there that are easier to get, more plentiful, less competitive and possibly more fulfilling than doing 3D. Definitely don't be afraid of trying this one as too many artists seem to believe they have to do this/that thing and nothing else, which only gives them tunnel vision and they become trapped in a losing situation.

-----
One other thing to consider here is asking yourself are you in the right art job? There are many artists who pursue the wrong art job and end up either wasting years pursuing it never getting hired and in some cases when they do get hired in, they get fired right afterwards because they're just not a fit. How do you know if you could be pursuing the wrong thing? Well that's gonna vary from person to person as you'll just have to pursue it first, but in your situation you've been pursuing 3D for a few years so you already have perspective. Consider some of these classic hallmarks:

-your quality level just isn't that good and you feel like you can't get it better
-no success on the job front even after years of applying
-being stressed to the point that you start disliking what your doing
-you find it easier to do this other thing in art that you turn out to be good at/enjoy more often
-your goals can be done in another way that you find more enjoyable (i.e. writing, graphic design, illustration)
-in general, you've just lost interest with things as a whole

If you fit most of them, 3D may not be for you and you should consider other creative fields that could work better for you. I know this isn't motivational advice you requested, but it is practical and will help.

nOLpte8

Meloncov said:

Your portfolio isn't "really that bad". But the standard to get hired isn't "not bad". It's "really, really good".

And I know that's rough. I was there too not that many years ago. But the simple fact is that there are dozens of aspiring professional 3D artists for every entry level job out there. And that's not due to some devious scheme to keep the little guy down, it's that you need to have a certain ratio of junior to senior level devs in order to allow the seniors to give the junior devs the mentorship they need while having time to actually get their own work done.

For what it's worth, unless you're trying to get visa sponsorship, no one is holding a lack of formal education against you. Yes, applications will collect that information, but it's not gonna make or break an application. It really does come down to portfolio first, and networking second.

My thoughts as well. The bottom line is for anything creative (3d art, UI/UX design, animation, VFX etc...) there is a whole lot more people who want the job than there are job openings. Pair that with the fact that in general creative jobs are usually not gate kept by needing a degree (i.e... if you want to be a nurse you have to graduate from a nursing program and pass the nclex-that is a hard legal requirement) means not only are you competing against all the game art graduates, you are also competing against all the hobbyist/ all the people learning on their own who are also trying to break into the industry- that is a huge swathe of people for again a very tiny amount of openings. 

Hash_Code

Sidestepping the emotional aspects, i will just highlight a few feedback points on your portfolio artworks : 
- you seem to like to include both highpoly/midpoly and lowpoly versions of assets (in some cases with duplicating textures or rendered in different renderers) - i think its unnecessary -- if your goal is to work in gamedev then low poly is all you need to show (in a real time renderer like Marmoset or Unreal)
- jumping off the first point, the violin asset has too high of a polycount, so its actually quite hard to classify it as gameready because its topology isnt optimized at all. The same with the Colt pistol. At a junior level it is very important to show that you know how to optimize a low poly model.
- kind of in a similar vein of optimization -- you dont show your UVs. Which once again is very important to show in your portoflio especially at a junior level. you need to show employers that you know how to do an optimized model and tighly packed UVs. Sure, if an artist is a middle or senior level then its not as important because everybody just assumes that they know how to do it, but for the first job its crucial.

As for finding a job - i cant recommend much, only that maybe applying to some smaller outsourcing studios in eastern europe and such could bring more result for your first job, in comparison to knocking on the AAA western studios doors. I feel like such outsourcing studios could arrange a remote type of work arrangement.

Alemja

I'm going to give you some portfolio feedback and advice I don't think quite has been touched upon yet.

First thing is first, I can't tell what you want to focus on. You have props and you have a character. The industry is increasingly specialized and while there are 3D generalist positions that is not how the industry leans as a whole. I think your props are better than your character and if you're interested in that, I would pursue that more. From what I understand for prop portfolios, if it's not a complex prop that can stand on it's own then usually providing some context for the prop is really helpful. For example I've seen renders where a gun is made to look like it's laying on a workbench. Stuff like that can help a lot.

I think a good way to self-direct yourself is to find games you enjoy or styles you enjoy and find people who worked on them and their portfolios. This can help you understand the quality bar you need to try and hit. You just have to make sure you still show all of your work, textures, UVs, low poly, high poly and all of that, as professional artists with years of experience may not do that because they don't have to.

Giving yourself goals, short term and long term can help keep you motivated. I usually like to make short term (example weekly and monthly) goals more solid and like a hardcore deadline, while long term goals (6 months or more) are more high level and flexible.

Now I really have to touch upon a couple of things in this statement, as there are some real things that can influence this:

I feel like the industry is very hostile towards people like me who are self-educated and haven't been in a 3d school. I rarely see open positions for junior artists. Usually when I try to apply for a job, I get sent to some ridiculous 3d party filter site that asks me to upload a CV, a resume and a short summary, and also asks me in a condescending way what 3d school have I finished, and do I even have the legal ability to work in the country. It's like these people don't care about my art, but more about convenience.

If you are applying to a company outside of your home country (especially the US), it is unfortunately a lot harder for you to get hired, this is especially true if you don't have a degree. You don't need a degree in this industry, but in the cases of Visas and Green Cards it can help a lot. There are a lot of legal, financial and time reasons why companies can't hire outside of their country. Even if they want to, it's not always feasible. You have to make sure your work is exceptional if you want to get a Visa without a degree. They aren't asking if you have a degree and if you can work in the country they are in to be condescending, but because this is actual information they need to legally know. They also have to know if you are worth sending through a lengthy, time consuming and expensive Visa process, which could get denied by the government.

As for CVs and Resumes... well unfortunately that's just how things work no matter where you go or what you apply for, games industry or not. Even if a recruiter contacts you and is like "I saw your portfolio and love your stuff!" they will still ask for a resume and sometimes even ask you to apply through their website. This is to make sure you wind up in their system. With some exceptions of very small studios, you have to go through a recruiter first and what ever systems they use. Having a good solid resume that to tweak and tailor to various positions, that is easily read by the recruiting software can get you past that first step if you aren't getting any responses at all. They are important, don't neglect them.

Fabi_G

While I have no experience hiring, maybe a bit more about you (what kind of subjects you like to work on, what's the best ways you support a project, motivations and goals), so people looking can get a better sense whether you're a good fit for them. Alemja put it nicely, "I can't tell what you want to focus on". Even when a generalist, ready to face all kinds of tasks and challenges, I would try to communicate this. Another aspect is of course what companies or openings you apply to. Here I would make sure the portfolio responds to their profile/brief. 

I think the models look pretty good! Presenting them into some more specific context might be nice, like a small scene in a game engine, potentially matched with other premade models. With megascans assets freely available for use with unreal it doesn't take much. Least this would do is show that you can setup assets in an engine.

I think motivation-wise joining projects like mods, or doing challenges can help. Something where there is external input and "pressure", like game design needs or an original concept that should come through. Collaborating with others might lead to connections and opportunities (team-members working professionally or becoming hired, reach out, recommendations). At least for me it worked like that - but of course everybody is different and not everybody has the time and energy to spare.

Keep it up!

NikhilR

Meloncov said:

Your portfolio isn't "really that bad". But the standard to get hired isn't "not bad". It's "really, really good".

And I know that's rough. I was there too not that many years ago. But the simple fact is that there are dozens of aspiring professional 3D artists for every entry level job out there. And that's not due to some devious scheme to keep the little guy down, it's that you need to have a certain ratio of junior to senior level devs in order to allow the seniors to give the junior devs the mentorship they need while having time to actually get their own work done.

For what it's worth, unless you're trying to get visa sponsorship, no one is holding a lack of formal education against you. Yes, applications will collect that information, but it's not gonna make or break an application. It really does come down to portfolio first, and networking second.

I do feel that its important to balance creating art that is to standard with making sure it reaches the right audience.
The one thing I've found from experience is that what companies value the most, is industry work experience and game credits.

If you don't have those I'd recommend showcasing consistent work to the people that matter, i.e people working in the companies you want to work at and you'll find these people on linkedin.
Many are happy to connect and offer advice. Don't bother with the ones that don't.

Also I'd like to elaborate on the portfolio first networking second advice, 
Certainly you do need a portfolio, but you need networking more to make sure it gets in front of the right people.
By this I mean if you have the opportunity to network (open house, industry mixer events) and have a portfolio that isn't quite ready, go and network anyway.
And work experience in the industry even if it is QA has far more weight in the eyes of a recruiter, not that your portfolio doesn't matter, its just that work experience is usually the tried and tested standard to see if a candidate is reliable and capable of working with others.

Also your networking experience will be different depending on where in the company the person is and if they have the ability to influence hiring decisions.
And also remember that many of them are overwhelmed with requests.
So I'd recommend getting as far as you can in your portfolio to bring it to standard (many on polycount can help you here) and then reach out to your network (that you are already connected with) and make them aware of your progress.

There is that impact of a finished piece, though you can post progress to your network and gradually build interest if that motivates you.
Getting the interview also depends on timing. It is quite common for a position that is listed to not actually exist or be wiped out because of a budget decision. Entire teams are laid off, so this aspect of the industry shouldn't demotivate you.
Your best bet is to become better at what you enjoy doing.