A lot of great info there on what to do for your portfolio site.
I also question why you are showing someone else's concept work in your 3D section? If you are showing it as a comparison for concept / model, put it on the same page as your model and <u>clearly</u> mark that it is not your work.
Well, as you reference, I think your presentation and overall design could use a work over.
*The flash based menu is doing nothing for your design... if anything it seems unimaginitive IMO (if you are trying to appear different for employers).
*You misspelt projects under your 'New Info'.
*I'm not sure why you have samples in your new info that isn't part of your other portfolios
*When your 2D and 3D pages first load, one of your pieces should appear in the box. The thumbnails seem a little small also.
Didn't you have more work than this? I thought I recalled you having done more work relating to Joust3D. Just curious why you didn't include it if you do
what resolution are u working for?
My monitor is set to 1024x768 and the site dont fits, expand and create a slide bar. U could fix that or put a warning to the best resolution to see the site.
Huge improvement. My only suggestion would be to make a standard sized box that they all have to fit into. There was one or two samples in your portfolio that caused the selection menu to jump to the left.
Make it clear what position you are going for . You have environment work and characters on that page and weapons . You need to concentrate on one or the other and become really good at one of them . Also you need High resolution work on there . Most companies are doing Next-gen games and so you'll need to show you can do Normal Mapped models .
That tennis player model is sub-par the rest of your work I would take it off of there .
I think this is a big improvement but I agree that you should try and use a standard, consistant image size.
I also personally find some of your images to be a bit cluttered. This one in particular:
Maybe in the images where you are showing the concepts it would look better to have the concept art in the corner of the image with an outline around it to seperate it out from the shots of the model?
Personally I think you should cull the low poly art test characters as well as those are not nearly as strong as the rest of the work in your portfolio (IMO).
It's a clean and concise website, but I'd echo others' concerns about presentation. When presenting a model with so many different views plus the concept art in the background all at once, the effect is dulling, when we should be focusing on your m4d polygon sk1llz. If you've got more work than can comfortably fit into one picture, please either strip out the miscellaneous details or just save out the alternate views etc. into a second image. Other than that, it's all laid out nice and clean and all in full view, nice work.
notman:
Thanks for mentioning the Joust3D models, How'd you rememeber that? Too bad the sites down from what I see, still wish it would have been completed. Oh well one of the many disappointments in the game industry journey, eh?
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm an old Atari 2600 owner I loved Joust and loved what you guys were doing with it. I must have missed that it was cancelled (or forgot). Too bad. I was wondering what was coming of it
those dips are showing up because your cage / reference mesh is too low poly.
when you process your normal map, meshsmooth your low poly mesh 2 or 4 times (the reference mesh to the highpoly). That way, you wont get as many of those funny "dips" you got in your normal map. You can either nuke those meshsmooths or just take a duplication of your old low poly and apply the material that way.
Another way to fix it would be to go in and single pixel stretch areas in photoshop. Be careful though, as it could end up making the low poly look low poly.
In your normal, you can make the deeps really pop by going into the blue channel and using levels to darken up the values. This will make the 'shadow' areas appear darker, giving elements a deeper feel.
For texturing Normal maped meshes, do not forget your specular, or even textural info in the diffuse. It doesn't have to be noisy or super gritty and fucked up, but spending the extra time to go in, add some additional textural information, complementing it in the normal map, and specular, will make the texture shine.
Replies
A lot of great info there on what to do for your portfolio site.
I also question why you are showing someone else's concept work in your 3D section? If you are showing it as a comparison for concept / model, put it on the same page as your model and <u>clearly</u> mark that it is not your work.
*The flash based menu is doing nothing for your design... if anything it seems unimaginitive IMO (if you are trying to appear different for employers).
*You misspelt projects under your 'New Info'.
*I'm not sure why you have samples in your new info that isn't part of your other portfolios
*When your 2D and 3D pages first load, one of your pieces should appear in the box. The thumbnails seem a little small also.
Didn't you have more work than this? I thought I recalled you having done more work relating to Joust3D. Just curious why you didn't include it if you do
How bout now?! Hopefully better!
Thanx astro, I read through that blog pretty good information there.
This time I kept it very simple.
Will put more up just wanted to show it off...
Halloween style
No sounds, no extra mumbo jumbo!
My monitor is set to 1024x768 and the site dont fits, expand and create a slide bar. U could fix that or put a warning to the best resolution to see the site.
BTW: very nice models u have there
Good Job though
That tennis player model is sub-par the rest of your work I would take it off of there .
I also personally find some of your images to be a bit cluttered. This one in particular:
Maybe in the images where you are showing the concepts it would look better to have the concept art in the corner of the image with an outline around it to seperate it out from the shots of the model?
Personally I think you should cull the low poly art test characters as well as those are not nearly as strong as the rest of the work in your portfolio (IMO).
notman:
Thanks for mentioning the Joust3D models, How'd you rememeber that? Too bad the sites down from what I see, still wish it would have been completed. Oh well one of the many disappointments in the game industry journey, eh?
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm an old Atari 2600 owner
when you process your normal map, meshsmooth your low poly mesh 2 or 4 times (the reference mesh to the highpoly). That way, you wont get as many of those funny "dips" you got in your normal map. You can either nuke those meshsmooths or just take a duplication of your old low poly and apply the material that way.
Another way to fix it would be to go in and single pixel stretch areas in photoshop. Be careful though, as it could end up making the low poly look low poly.
In your normal, you can make the deeps really pop by going into the blue channel and using levels to darken up the values. This will make the 'shadow' areas appear darker, giving elements a deeper feel.
For texturing Normal maped meshes, do not forget your specular, or even textural info in the diffuse. It doesn't have to be noisy or super gritty and fucked up, but spending the extra time to go in, add some additional textural information, complementing it in the normal map, and specular, will make the texture shine.
Nice site, I like the clean and to the point presentation.