Need some reviews, please^^
polycounter lvl 17
I have been learning on my own and trying to get into the industry for a long time. Yet I have still have no luck. I was wonder if any professionals here would be kind enough to give my portfolio a detail crit. Tell me what I need to do to my portfolio to bring it up to the standard. I am not so lucky as a lot of people who has connections, I got none. So I have to struggle more to get to where I want to be. Thanks for your time in advance. My portfolio site is http://www.richardyaoart.com
Replies
I got a job with this
not the greatest content-wise but good enough for a foot in the door.
Get active in the polycount community, don't get scared off by criticisms and you'll build your skills up and make contacts that will help you get that job!
On the website itself, the way you lay out the selections blocks the images directly and I havbe to keep scrolling back and forth to see the nxt pic which got really ANNOYING.
Read the guide and take this into consideration
first, page (talking about the images) is a bit a horror to go through. go for a simple solution with the images; ordered in a table so that one can get a quick overview of your work - no one (who can give you work) wants to explore your quality/talent of/for your work in a "go through all the links" way.
show your focus! i suppose you intend to get a job in the game industry -> then show things like polycount/texture sized/textures/... show that you are able to get a normalmap out of your highpoly models onto a optimized lowpoly mesh. right now you just showed me that you are used to 3d modeling stuff and played around with it.
you have a good eye which can translate stuff (2d/3d) but that will not bother any company - show them that you have a passion for your work and that you are motivated to reach the best you can for every stuff you make. your 2d drawings are good but gave me the feel that you just drew them for quantity reasons > a bit more love & final touches will impress the right way.
...just saw that justin_meisse allready nailed it down with the links... trust the words writen there and you will get what you want!
My honest advice is just to keep practising.
Focus on making an easy to update website with a minimal amount of interface. You want your work to shine through, not be obfuscated by code.
It's also asking me to install a japanese language pack.. although I don't see any on your page.
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Damn... it does? That's a first to me. Anybody else got that error? Anyways, it seems I failed at creating the interface again. I guess maybe the best way is to create a new index just for simple navigation with html only and images and texts. Thanks for all your feedbacks. LOL so much work to do ... arrrrrrr. ; ;
Do a simple thumbnail list instead. No flash bullshit.
Focus on six pieces; it's much easier to get a job as a prop artist since everybody seems to fight for the valued character position.
Spend all your free time polishing the models, textures and shaders.
Post progress on polycount.
See you at work in 2 years.
HTML it is then. Any suggestions on the portfolio in particular? Which piece has potential? (or they all suck ; ;?) I'm like a blind bird right now just bump into things. Job hunt is just crazy, seeing how almost every job requirement is a little bit different. I always want to know, how much rigging and animation skill do I need just for a standard modeler? The more I do job hunting, the more confused I get. A of the requirements are just asking for everything. And there never seem to be ever an beginner postion. Everything ask for 5 years and 2 published titles. How can I get my foot in the door? Any advise is welcome.
Just keep plugging away till your brain hurts
I would ignore beginner positions unless you feel that it's your only chance. The risk it that you'll be used for mundane (but necessary) task. Then you'll be easily replaceable and won't learn much (from I have heard).
The easiest way to get in is unfourtunally to know someone on the inside. Ask them now and then when their company is looking for more people and fire off your portfolio as soon as you hear anything.
I got my job by having a decent, portfolio that was very logically designed (the best design they had seen all year
I had also focused it on what I thought the company would need, in this case vehicles, guns and simple props.
I wouldn't go for a character position as your first job unless you know that you can show stuff that are better than anything anyone in the company can do (you can't) since they in many cases will be gunning for the same position.
One good idea is to have all pictures (textured and lit, wireframe and normal+spec) using the exact same angles. This makes the ADs job much simpler since they can just quickly flick through images and see your textured model, flick, wireframe, flick, texture and back all in the same place and angle in the image. ADs will love it.
In your case it is simply a case of you not having any work that is good enough for a job. Nothing is modelwise geared towards games, no nicely done textures, no moody lightning not one thing that will stay in my memory after I have closed your site. That is as honest as I can get. Look at current games and do stuff that is better that what you see. All of that work has been done under a often tight schedule so you should be to show an employer that you can make better stuff given the time and at least close to the same quality under a selfimposed deadline. Don't lie about how long something took! That will come back and bite you in the ass very quickly.
Rambly, but it might be of some use.
To be honest, I think at the moment none of the images in your 3d gallery are going to help you land a job. My best suggestion to you would be to start fresh with a focused goal in mind. All it really takes is a portfolio with 3 decent models and you can get that first job (worked for me). Focus on quality, not quantity.
The good news is that although your 3d work is lacking, your 2d work shows some promise so I think if you keep working at it you have the talent to achieve your goal. You also seem to be taking suggestions well so you have the right attitude and willingness to improve. No one here would critique your gallery or website just to be a jerk; it's always with the intent to help you improve so keep that in mind!
You have a lot of practice ahead of you, but if you start posting your work and heeding the advice you receive on the forum, you'll be on your way soon enough.
Good luck!