Almost ready to search for a job... Portfolio Crit
polycounter lvl 17
Hi there. Just found this amazing forum today, can't believe I've never found this before. I'm looking to get into the game industry after being in the 'regular' computer graphics industry for a long time. I think I have what it takes, any feedback from anyone in the know would be very much appreciated. Please see my site and either email me or post thoughts up here.
Thanks bunches!
-Brinskee
Thanks bunches!
-Brinskee
Replies
Your talking about getting into the video game industry, but I don't see any low polygon work in your portfolio (maybe the concept car you are working on will be?). Its good to see some models geared twords video games if that's what you are trying to get a job doing..unless you will be doing cinematics. Not trying to take away from any of your other work, which might I say is very well done, but you need more content suitable for the job you want.
Good work!
Crits:
- If you're going for a Games gig, you need to show some low poly work and more textures. By low poly I mean show some stuff in the 500-10,000 tri range.
- The "low resolution models" are way to high in polycount to be used in games and lack enough small detail to be broken down into normal maps.
- The tri/poly ranges you show are more for beauty renders and not good preformance in games.
- The textures I see on what few models are "textured" are pretty basic and lack realism. We also don't get to see the texture flats so we can't see how efficent you are at unwrapping things. Is there wasted space? What are the texture sizes you are using. Could the same lvl of painting detail be acoplished with a lower res texture? Could several Flats be combined into one?
- The lack of low poly models will hurt you.
- Lack of showing wireframe overlays will hurt you. But in this case it would just show excesive polys so it might be a good thing.
- The lack of texture work will hurt.
- The work you have shows a great grasp of high poly which makes me think you should be able to handle lower poly.
- Demonstrate you have what it takes to do production art in games. Find a game that has a user friendly editor and make some custom content for it. It is always a big plus if you can show ingame shots of your stuff. Becareful to note what is yours and what is not if it ALL is not yours.
I think you have some great stuff, but you need to gear your portfolio for game art not beauty renders. Keep at it, you'll be great!
My goal is more high-end stuff, am I totally off base? Are there really no needs for this type of object modeling?
Thanks for the critiques, I really appreciate them.
B
Sure, there's plenty of work in normal mapping, but you wont be just handing off the boring low poly model to some lacky! You'll be doing that too, so you'll need to show that skillset If applying for videogame gigs. Your other option is to pursue hard surface modeling for pre-rendered CG such as film or advertising.
Thanks for the compliment and feedback... looks like I have more site updating to do...
I'd gladly take a job in the other fields you mentioned... But I'm a pretty avid gamer by nature, so that's a natural progression. As long as it involves me modeling all the time, I'll be happy...
Thanks again!
So if I toss in a couple low-poly game optimized models that will put me more on the right track?
The modeling part is easy. No problem. I know this is going to sound awful, but I'll be completely honest. I have NO EXPERIENCE whatsoever in unwrapping texture maps. None. Whenever I map, I'll use a combination of Planar, Spherical, Cyndrilical, etc. Never unwrapped before.
I'll have to look that up. I was told by a friend who works in the industry at a very large company (guess which one) that I wouldn't need to learn to texture if I wanted to focus soley on modeling. It's not that I don't like the process, it's just that I prefer modeling.
I guess I have a much longer way to go than I thought. All my professional work up to this point has been for cinematic TYPE animations. Pre-rendered stuff - so I've never bothered with anything in the gaming realm as far as texturing goes...
So is this the general concensus? My high-res models are great, but I need to go learn to texture map low res models and put a couple examples of those up as well?
All advice is sincerely appreciated... In my industry I have loads of experience, in yours I am a novice. Really want to break into it...
Thanks!!
Yeah, I think your hard surface stuff looks great, but it would have even more impact if they were normal mapped onto low rez stuff.
I understand that some of the newer car games have a pretty high polycount on their assets but I have no personal experience.
As far as modeling, I would say your 50% there or more, because taking your high poly and making it low poly shouldn't be too difficult..it should just take some practice.
Give us some Fantasy swords, or a goblin hovel. Give us a gigantic sci-fi gun, or space station. Up your detail level, and like everybody is saying, do a low-poly and normal map + texture those suckers!
I'm not being too hard on myself. I just realize I have a lot more work to do than I thought. And while it's a tad discouraging, I'm more than up for the task, and since I did a few of those models in Poly/Subd, I can use the rough cages for the low-poly stuff pretty easily.
Thinking about doing a character too... probably have to change the layout of the site as well...
I really appreciate the steering guys. I do think I have talent and value as well, I'm just ready to steer it to the game industry.
Cheers! I'll be back with updates soon... you can count on that!