Portfolio Review
Hello all,
This is my first post here at the Polycount forums, but I've been a visitor for quite a while now (dating back to the days I worked on a mod for the original UT and needed help learning how to texture, the large page of tutorial links were greatly helpful).
I was recently convinced by a friend (Sayanora) to post my portfolio and recent works in progress on here so that I could get some good feedback (which is extremely valuable to any artist). My portfolio is mainly targeted towards a 3d Generalist position as I have a variety of pieces in there right now. I will be constructing some scenes fairly soon and probably doing some more characters (it all depends upon the time I have). Please feel free to be as cruel as you like in your criticism, I only ask that you be clear and specific as to what needs improvement or what needs to be added.
Thanks all
-Andrew
This is my first post here at the Polycount forums, but I've been a visitor for quite a while now (dating back to the days I worked on a mod for the original UT and needed help learning how to texture, the large page of tutorial links were greatly helpful).
I was recently convinced by a friend (Sayanora) to post my portfolio and recent works in progress on here so that I could get some good feedback (which is extremely valuable to any artist). My portfolio is mainly targeted towards a 3d Generalist position as I have a variety of pieces in there right now. I will be constructing some scenes fairly soon and probably doing some more characters (it all depends upon the time I have). Please feel free to be as cruel as you like in your criticism, I only ask that you be clear and specific as to what needs improvement or what needs to be added.
Thanks all
-Andrew
Replies
The only crit I would have right now would be to condense the number of shots you choose per prop, or maybe put several renders on the same image. You don't want a potential employer having to sift through 50+ images to find the "best" shot....they would get bored looking at 20 angles of the same gun.
Your stuff is really good. Some people might tell you to put up wires and texture/normal sheets as well...but it's up to you. You have a very large volume of pretty great stuff, you should just consider how you want to show it all off at the greatest of its potential.
BTW what do you want to do for a job? After looking at your art having to ask that is not a good thing.
does the job, your work is great.
but tables and popups infuriate me. Tables are not meant to be used for design. popups are terrible and you'd be better off showing your images inline.
also, you might want to give this a read and see how it might apply to you:
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=73945&an=0&page=0#Post73945
Do you have the normal and specular displayed on your character? Those shots look diffuse only.
Also with the character, your diffuse texture is really flat. It looks like a diffuse you would use if you had some heavy normal map usage. Though when i check your normal map its just nvidia plugin work, mostly blue. either normal map it up or paint some lighting in that diffuse!
Nice work, sorry to hear you went to UAT...
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah...clearly one of my major regrets in life. Although the poor quality of the education really pushed me to teach myself as much as I could, but hindsight is 20/20.
It always nice to see someone else who got out alive and well
So far everyone's opinions on my website have been greatly helpful and have convinced me to redo my website (I originally used tables because I knew no way better, now I do) and focus my work in a clear direction. I'm glad to hear positive comments about most of my work and that my hard work paid off (with the exception of the character which really was, looking back on it, more of an experiment in the end that a finalized portfolio piece.) I may still add it in a section on the new website but it won't be the focus of my work. If any of you have any further criticisms on the work please feel free to post it.
Thanks all
-Andrew
Condensecondensecondense. Try and make it so i dont have to ACTUALLY navigate. It's just displaying work, not your web design. A page with a lot of images is better than 6 different poopups for the same piece.
Condense. Your page also has more header than work. This is silly. Less header, more space for work. Fix it gogogogo!
Did I mention condense?
I am positive that if you look at your work with a critical eye you yourself can pick out the pieces most representative of your skillset. So do it!
All arond respectable work though. Good luck.
The characters are not as good as your other work and it was the first thing I saw. It is nice that you can do that stuff, but I wouldn't have them in your portfolio.
The guns rendered on the white background are hard to read. Also, some guns are better than others.
If you cut it down to your amazing stuff you will have a fantastic portfolio.
its ok
does the job, your work is great.
but tables and popups infuriate me. Tables are not meant to be used for design. popups are terrible and you'd be better off showing your images inline.
also, you might want to give this a read and see how it might apply to you:
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=73945&an=0&page=0#Post73945
[/ QUOTE ]
What's with the table hating? My portfolio has tables and it got me a job... it also has large clear thumbnails, contact info on each image, and no popup windows.
Obviously, you already know what I think about your work. It's good to see you've finally decided to expose your work to the public, and the public is good people here at polycount.
Ton of good suggestions thrown out here as far as revamping your site, so you'd better take them into consideration :P Anyway, get your site updated and maybe I'll actually get mine off the ground this weekend.
What I dislike most about all of work is the lack of dirt, grime and suble shadows in your models. Almost nothing feel like it is one complete model rather it is all just forms slapped together with that have no shared dirt or wear.
Take the ion cannon(?) as an example and look where the box shaped barrels meets the spherical body. There is nothing that indicates that they belong together or that they have affected eachother, no dirt, no indents, no shadow nothing at all.
Do a occlusion texture and a proper dirt pass for all your textures and it will really lift your work.
The Y-Wing is definatly your best work, give it some more focus in your portfolio. Also, maybe won't be out of place with a Lucasfilms copyright notice for the design.
The figther plane is nice too, maybe some windblown dirt along the top of the wings would look cool, those look like some serious engines strapped on there.
Your presentation is, honestly, downright dumb. I mean what the hell is this:
The same model, rotated maybe 15 degrees and you suddenly think that it deserves another image? This is repeted several times in your portfolio.
Present everything in single images with multiple angles of each model, perhaps a closeup or two for important details, one textured version, one wireframe version and one for textures.
And be clear about polycount and texturesizes. The Y-Wing is really nice but what am I looking at here? 3x1024 textures? 3x512 textures? 5000 polys? 3000? This is important information to the AD reviewing your work.
Also put a link to your page on each image.
I would cut all of this down to the six pieces you like the most, give them the occlusion and dirt treatment, fix the presentation and reupload them. You have some good work in here, don't let the less impressive pieces drag them down.
I've officially updated my website with a much better format taking into account everyone's opinions on how to make it better (condense my work, skip a splash page, showcase it better, get rid of popups, etc.) I've also labeled very clearly what job I am looking for, updated my resume, and added a links page for friends and sites I've found extremely useful (which naturally includes polycount).
I personally think that the site looks 10x better than it use to, but, as always, its open to criticism so feel free to tell me what you think.
As for future plans, I am in the works of building an environment (since that is clearly what my portfolio is lacking) and I will likely post WIP soon either in here or in a new thread.
Thanks again for the comments everyone gave and let me know what you think.
-Andrew Morris