Portfolio & Career Direction Advice

Lukes3D

Hey everyone,

Looking for some honest feedback on my portfolio and advice on what direction to take next, mainly whether it’s strong enough to land work paying $40/hr or more.

Freelance has been the goal, though I’m open to an employer setup as well. I have a tendency to dabble in a bit of everything, so it’s easy to spread thin as a generalist. Still, it’s hard to know how much specializing really makes sense right now with AI tools evolving so quickly. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on learning how to use those tools effectively rather than spending tons of hours building out my traditional 3D Animation and VFX portfolio.

Any thoughts on where to focus, or how others are navigating the market, would be super helpful. 

Artstation
https://www.artstation.com/luke412/albums/323294

Benjammin

Its a very broad spread and I would remove the Sherman tank and forklift - they bring down the overall quality of your portfolio.
The value of specializing is directly proportional to the number of people you work with, but your kind of generalist is totally viable in a small ads studio (assuming such places still exist). 
Freelancing is difficult. You can do the asset pack/marketplace thing, but unless you're a good hustler you won't make a living from just that.
I don't see anything about past experience on your 'about' page, just an email. You seem like a hobbyist who's dabbled in things and has creativity, but if someone's gonna hire you for a $40/hr contract they need to know you're reliable, have experience and can hit the ground running. 

Lukes3D

Benjammin said:

Its a very broad spread and I would remove the Sherman tank and forklift - they bring down the overall quality of your portfolio.
The value of specializing is directly proportional to the number of people you work with, but your kind of generalist is totally viable in a small ads studio (assuming such places still exist). 
Freelancing is difficult. You can do the asset pack/marketplace thing, but unless you're a good hustler you won't make a living from just that.
I don't see anything about past experience on your 'about' page, just an email. You seem like a hobbyist who's dabbled in things and has creativity, but if someone's gonna hire you for a $40/hr contract they need to know you're reliable, have experience and can hit the ground running. 

Thanks for the feedback! Do you think the main issue is the quality of the portfolio pieces, or the overall amount? And if it’s more about quantity, what would you say is a solid number of pieces to have?

Benjammin

I'm not really qualified to judge  color grading or compositing so I can't really help you with quality of the 2d work.
As far as the 3d works I mentioned, they're just not that great. Maybe its more about presentation/rendering, but they look like assets I could buy for much less than it would cost to hire you to make them. 
In terms of quantity its about showing your skillset. Your portfolio is your personal billboard. Imagine you are a busy art director, with 100 billboards to look at and an hour to do it in.

sacboi

I feel that the Pontiac may've sat well in a 'route 66' sort of early 1950s diner scene because there's some nice automotive modeling too show off.