Portfolio Crits Needed(Enviro Art)
polycounter lvl 17
Hello all, I have been lurking around here for a long, long time. I'm an environment artist and I'm looking for a new job after losing my last one to outsourcing. I haven't posted my portfolio here for crits yet, so I thought I would take the plunge and see what the experts thought I could do to improve it. Any crits would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Here's the link to my Portfolio.
Here's the link to my Portfolio.
Replies
Personaly i think that ur works loosing a lot when u show them in so low res. Without antialias and with bigger res it will works better IMO.
Nice props works u have done.
I've been thinking about reformatting my webpage to show larger images or an option to click to view larger, I think I'll go ahead and do that.
Your stuff looks ok, but I would have to honestly say that while you demonstrate some skill, and certainly have some talent, you're just not quite there yet IMO for the majority of games development. I see a lot of wasted polys, poor usage of texture space and obvious mirroring & repetition artifacting in your textures.
Take a look at the portfolios of many of the members of this & other forums. Make no mistake, these people are your competition. Your work needs to meet or surpass that standard.
I think some more traditional art practice will go a long way towards filling in those areas where you may be a little deficient.
Figure drawing, perspective studies, color theory exercises, etc. These are never a bad idea frankly for artists of any age or experience level.
You need to demonstrate more in-game or game ready artwork.
It also needs to be presented in a better way. Larger screenshots. Appropriate or neutral backgrounds. Wires over flatshaded, shaded renders & texture flats.
As an environment artist, show some in-game levels with props & textures you've created. I see some low-res scenes rendered out in Max, but that doesn't quite cut it.
You dont have to be a great concept artist to make great pieces either. Dont feel that you have to concept everything you make. Find some good source material, get permission from the original artist(usually easy) and model+texture it up.(Dont forget to note credit to the concept artist)
On your Demo Reel: Why the low-framerate on the enviro walkthroughs? Or is it the whole reel thats low framerate? Because that is the only motion, its difficult to tell.
Keep up the enthusiasm and hard work and you'll be there in no time!
As for the way you present your work, definitely get better wireframes snapped on a shaded mesh, these you have are really hard to read. Demo shouldn't be in such low frame rate. I'm not sure if it's good idea to show normal maps though, especially if they are generated using filter. In some of your textures, specifically it's a stone wall for courtyard entrance, you have very obvious tiling and even seams. There's no excuse to leave those in if you're using unique texture for entire wall (as opposed for tiling a portion, which still shouldn't have seam, but repetition would be unavoidable). Also, that texture seems to contain lighting information, but kind of random, you should perhaps be better off if you are to bake lighting you use in that scene and also add an occlusion pass.
A lot of your work is really solid, but some of it seems unfinished or rushed. It just needs some more care and polishing touches. And you also have the right attitude, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time until you get where you want to be.