Website Critique

Penzer

Hello everyone, I'm looking to get some input on my website. I'm working away on my portfolio and demo reel, I'll be posting new work as it comes. Feel free to comment on both my work as well as the website itself.

http://sammunro.com/

Thanks for the feedback

hawken

you realise that your background colour is different to the background colours on your logos and headers, right?

Penzer

It shouldn't be, does anyone else see it that way? I've checked it here, at school and on several other computers. It was the same color on all of those, I just double checked in internet explorer now too.

Smirnoffka

Fine here.

JDinges

Colors are fine for me too.

MoP

Yeah, no problems here on IE or Firefox. What browser are you using, Hawken?

Penzer: I'd make the images bigger, especially since in most cases you're only displaying one or two per page.
Also, that very wide 3-panel image posted in this thread should probably be cut up into 3 segments and shown vertically, because nearly everyone prefers scrolling their browser vertically rather than horizontally.

Tulkamir

Looking good Sam.

Not a website critique, but a resume one. Your resume seems way too drawn out. 3 pages is a fair amount for someone with a good amount of experience, for a junior it is pretty excessive. Try condensing it into one page. Picture yourself as an HR person with 100 resumes to go through. Reading a full 3 pages is a bit much.

Also, your title/menu seems like it should be centered to me.

Penzer

Mitch - just need to convert my condensed one into a pdf, that was the same comment Paul made. As far as the title/menu being centered, apparently it isn't centered when you view it in ie. In firefox its centered, in dreamweaver it's centered, but not in internet explorer. I'll check into that asap. Thanks for the input

Mop - I'll re-orient them to a vertical format on my next batch of renders. Thanks

simplyrude

Looks pretty good, but I have to say this since its bothering me. You should change those hands on the first guy. Those fingers are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to freaking long. They look like stringbeans.

Penzer

Thanks, I wanted to have big hands on him but fingers came out wonky. I think I've got them fixed now. I've got updated textures on almost everything as well as the addition of my next piece.

I started rendering the first pass render of my demo reel lastnight. I'll be going to school to pick up the frames this evening. Next update to the site should be this weekend.

Tulkamir

Just looking at the Ogre guy again, it strikes me that the white part doesn't really read as skull at first. It took me a bit to realize that the skin is ripped away showing his skull. A close up of the face would make it easier to tell, but I think that some extra work there could make it a bit more believable. Also, the eye socket on the skull is lower than the eye on the other side.

Anyways, keep it up Sam, your stuff is definitely looking good so far.

Penzer

[ QUOTE ]
Just looking at the Ogre guy again, it strikes me that the white part doesn't really read as skull at first. It took me a bit to realize that the skin is ripped away showing his skull.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just wait till I post the update on him and I hope it will be a lot more impressive, the updated texture looks a lot better. Thanks though

EDIT: I still don't know why my top menu is off centered in internet explorer but not in firefox. I have it set to centered in Dreamweaver, and it looks the right way in firefox.

Panupat

[ QUOTE ]
EDIT: I still don't know why my top menu is off centered in internet explorer but not in firefox. I have it set to centered in Dreamweaver, and it looks the right way in firefox.

[/ QUOTE ] Your top menu is in this table

<td width="789" valign="baseline" height="188" align="center">


Every browser will interpret the code differently, IE maybe is placing that <td> to the left and not center.
You could try put 90% or 100% width for that td, and center your image with div instead.

I recommend you learn a bit CSS if you have some spare time, it's not hard and helps organizing page quite easier.
My site is nothing spectacular but take a look at what I'm doing with CSS
I didn't do anything to my thumbnails at all, they are just <img>'s using 1 single CSS for margins and borders.
http://www.penguinvisuals.com/2d.html

Penzer

I'll try putting %'s for the td for my next update.

hawken

here u go. Using a mac. Basically, the hex code on your background doesn't match the colour profile of your images. Of course if you go into photo shop and compare them, the hex will be 939393 but if you take a screenshot it will be 818181.

obviously it would be easier to change the background. But in this case you can't. You need to saveforweb in photoshop and hit the small triangle near "save". Choose "uncompensated color".

Also you could get away with no table, why you are using one I will never know. Just simply use:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
background-color: #939393;
text-align:center;
}

div
{
width:768px;
text-align:center;
}
-->
</style></pre><hr />

then throw everything in a div. I've written the code up there for you.

why is your resume an image? that defies all logic

Penzer

I have the resume in pdf form for download. I have it displayed there so that if you go to my resume section, you see the resume without needing to specifically choose to download it. Some of the portfolios I'd been to have it as a jpeg, and since theres nothing else that needs to load on that page it shouldn't take long to load. If you click on the jpeg, or the link at the top, the download version is a pdf. I realise the jpeg isn't optimal, but I figured its okay since theres nothing else on that page to load.

I just went to go check on one of the mac's down the hall, and it does appear different colors. Apparently I have more to fix than I thought.

What I'll do is update my website this weekend with some new renders and new content. My final semester ends in a few weeks, and then I have a week off before my schools portfolio show. It's more important to focus on my demo reel right now, but I'll rebuild the website before my portfolio show. Thanks for the help, I never would have found that the colors are off in Safari but not in IE or Firefox without that.

EDIT: Thanks for the taking the time to show the exact code and numbers to fix it.

Penzer

Hey everyone, my next update finally made it up. I've got my demo reel online now, and I updated my portfolio section as well. There are still more updates coming to my portfolio section, but I wanted to get input on my reel first.

My plan of attack for the next two weeks is as follows:

Start applying at local studios! I'm aiming to get my first industry job as soon as possible.

Friday the 22nd is my graduating classes portfolio show at the Art Institute of Vancouver. If anyone in the neighborhood wants to come, let me know and I can get you the info.

After the portfolio show I'll be switching hosts for my website and fixing the color issue for all the Mac users.



Let me know what you think of my demo reel
I'll be adding more renders to my portfolio section soon. Are the bigger images too big?

Thanks for the feedback

Joao Sapiro

nicve work overall but get rid of the textures with a pseudo normal map ( crazybump or nvidia normal map filter ) that just shows that you are too lazy to model stuff or you know how to press nvidia/crazybump buttons.

im sorry if i sound like a banana.

Snowfly

Straightforward navigation and the presentation of the full view jpegs is consistent. The content itself is decent for a fresh grad. Hope to see them replaced with more polished work in months to come.

Good luck on the grad show, collect lots of business cards! And don't forget to smile, you never know when the guy/lady strolling past is on the hunt for talent and good attitude goes a long way.

Penzer

Johny: I'll take down textures on the Persian warrior then, as soon as I've got some more shots of him. I did do a high poly for the ogre, but Persian was done with more time constraints. Its okay, bananas are pretty cool

Snowfly: There will definately be more work and updates coming over time. Hopefully now I can finally make time to do some of the Polycount contests.

Is there a way to change the topic name of this thread? I'd like people to be able to know that without going into the thread or me opening one up just for the reel.

swampbug

First thing I notced was...

1.gray background, green text (I think you can do more with color on your page to make it more interesting and pop a little better. More values, more hues. I'm not talking about making your site look like a rainbow, but I'm thinking you can do more with more greys and more greens. Think about hints of unexpected color too.

2. There are no pics or images on the main page. As a suggestion You can think about adding some kind of image on your page, small background thumbnail type images, or "teaser" images that fit with your background and are seamlessly intigrated. Something small and simple that adds Flare and shows what you are all about. Otherwise, its just a main page with nothing but text really.


Those 2 were my first reactions to your site.


peace up in and around ! but never out.

Tulkamir

Looking good Sam.

Some thoughts on your reel -

For your Arab guy, it's good you did the variations and stuff, but some parts seem to hurt the overall effect rather than be impressive. I think the part that seems the most rushed is the colour changes. It basically looks like you fiddled with the hue/saturation on the textures, which is not something that will impress anyone looking at your reel, especially when most of the changes look oversaturated and monotone. I also think this whole part could be shorter, as the point that there are variations got across in the first part where there were two models showing. The part with the arrows changing and such is kinda neat, but overall not needed IMO.

The only other suggestions I have are to maybe think on trying to cut down the overall length, and to maybe rearrange the orders. (To me the Arab is not your strongest or most impressive piece, which is what you want to start with).

Anyways, all that stuff said, good job Sam, turned out very nicely.