i need a job...so you need to make this count
polycounter lvl 18
ok...im just gonna put this out there, and walk over to my bed and curl up like im about to be hazed. i need a job really bad so tell me what i need to do to get that.
i am already touching up the rock guy texture
www.richkidlabs.com
have fun and be constructive
i am already touching up the rock guy texture
www.richkidlabs.com
have fun and be constructive
Replies
not a character artist, but I have some comments
the lighting on all of the normal map characters looks very flat. It doesn't show off your normal maps very well. I mean if your going to show off to an employer that you understand the normal map process at least demonstrate that you know how to make them look good.
The caveman model you show off your texture maps, yet the others you don't, why is that? Consistency?
Would be nice to see a wireframe model, normal mapped (no textures), then the final model with texture sheets.
The dom war entry image has the same flat normal map look, add some spec on him, some better shadows. Make a quick interesting background, maybe he's on top of a mountain. The composition looks really boring for such an interesting character.
atm the images don't promote you very well, but what do i know I'm a level designer
i'm not going to pretend i'd know what i'm talking about, so I'm not going to suggest anything job-wise, other than maybe applying a few places might help
I tend to agree with Lee on your 3d art. your 2d art is fairly nice, but a poor layout as I said above.
So on with the crits on what I see.
First up is your cave dude.
I really love the style of this guy. I think he can become a very interesting and kick ass piece BUT this is what I see right now.
- The normal maps just don't seem to be jumping out at me and it is hard to see them on the model. It almost looks like everything was painted into the diffuse.
- I also think the spec map isn't doing as much as it could for this piece. I don't get the real feeling for skin or the feathers on his clothes and his hair look like giant turds placed upon his head.
- I think the spec map just being black and white is why it may be doing this. A lot of times I see people using slight blues / purples in their spec maps to help with the skin and the way light reacts to it.
- Presentation. This applies to everything overall but I'll just say it here. If I save your image and look at it later I have no idea who made it and how to contact this person. A good thing to do is add a watermark or some type of way to identify yourself that points back to your website / email address and use this same format for all of your portfolio.
It will create a consistent look and appear much cleaner and put together well.
- His environment. While you want us to focus on the character having some rocks, small fire pit, stones, maybe having a giant skeleton of a buffalo or dinosaur behind your guy with him holding the bone or maybe make a little spear for him. That would be pretty bad ass.
Ok on to the next piece.
The Giant
- The background. It's killing me sir! I know you aren't the environment guy but this guy deserves more than floating around in a crazy reddish / purple sky all by his lonesome.
- Textures... I think you mentioned you are working on them. I'm not sure if there is a normal map on this guy or not. It almost looks like there is but not quite at the same time.
- Textures still... I love the cartoony style / hand painted for this guy. I think if you could take the warhammer painterly style and apply it to this guy that would just be kick ass.
- There looks to be some major stretching going on in his fingers on his left hand.
- Once again Presentation... keep everything around the same layout.. Where are the texture flats on this guy?
Ok moving on.. Keep with me.
Ahh the little hell demon guy.
- Presentation as well.
- Still the normal maps really aren't jumping out at me. and it also feels like everything is painted into the diffuse.
- Environment. Give this guy something to stand near or on. He's floating in space. Poor guy. Hell even I'll model some environments for your guys cause I love them so much.
Ok moving on since you are bugging me on im.
Dom War General Guy.
- God I love this guy so much
- Presentation...again.
- I can see your normal maps a bit more in this one but i know this could be pushed more to really bring out this guys forms and muscles.
- Textures. I wouldn't mind seeing a close up of his face to see your work on this.
- Environment. Oh god please let me do an environment for this guy for you to pose him in. I think putting him in a dirty, grungy environment like you mentioned during dom war 2 would really push this guys character and his believability.
Ok thats it for now since this is a lot to read already from me.
Some people are gonna read this and wonder who the fuck I am but I know you personally and have for quite some time and I know you will cry your little eyes out for a bit, grab that box of tissues or that dirty rag off the floor and wipe your nose and eyes (in that order too) and push on.
I have seen your work for a while and know you can really create some awesome and amazing creatures / characters now you just have to find out how to really bring them to life in 3d and push them onto the screen and make us love them and love you and want you in the cubicle next to us working.
Ok there you go sir. ;-)
-always include texture flats
-the more simple and clear-cut the website, the better (your layout is decent)
-it's very difficult to get a job as a character artist when you start out. Everybody wants to be a character artist, and 99% of the time, when a company is looking for one, they'll already have 10 people inside the company ready to be one. Keep doing character art in your free time, but if you want a job sooner than later, start workin on some props. (not that your characters are bad, just a ton more competition in that area)
some of the best advice i've ever received regarding portfolios/website design is to consider the person viewing the dumbest, most exhausted creature ever. a lot of HR people, or team members who end up being tasked with looking over websites just want to get to the good stuff; "clever" website touches usually make little impression.
what you need to do is get as few as clicks to your art as possible, basically. you should really be able to access some or most of the pieces with a single click, once the website has loaded--why make them click around?
that's the primary consideration. second to that, you probably need to do some cutting. this the worst step, and especially tough when you're just starting out. but as they say, kill your babies...
in your 3D section, the second and third models are just not doing anything for me. i think little caveboy is your strongest piece by far (the domwar character is good but very muddled, despite further tweakage). and don't tease us--there's a cool shot in the thumbnail of the boy with his mouth open, and yet we click on it, and we don't see that shot--what's that about? i agree that some of the art may not be presented as well as it could be--that might end up saving those middle two pieces from the graveyard. take time to pose and render models as best you can, and as consistently as you can. as has been suggested, wireframes and other alternate views are probably a good idea.
ditch the traditional/3d sections for your sketches. you've got some quality stuff in there, but again, we're trying to cut down to as few mouseclicks as possible here.
there's an extraordinarily jaded and tired person who is deciding your fate on the other end, cater to their needs, not to the casual visitor.
there's definitely some good stuff in here, but you're getting distracted trying to make the website itself interesting, frankly. don't. it should be transparent as possible--notice how the most talented of artists have very minimal websites... coincidence? they're not trying to get hired as web designers, they don't want anything distracting from the art. it's the equivalent of mounting a show in a gallery with flashing lights and honking horns--how are you letting the viewer appreciate what you really want them to see?
above everything else, be ruthless. portfolio time is the meanest time for an artist, personally... as it's been said before, you are always judged on your weakest piece, because that's what they'll expect you to produce when you're actually in a production environment.
far better to have less in your portfolio than to have filler. be careful about producing work solely for the portfolio as well, though, too--you've spent time on it expressly to put it in the portfolio, so that whole process can end up blinding you to the quality (or lack of quality) of the work.
hope this helps.
ok, nice work guys, that will keep me busy for a while. if any one else wishes to chime in, feel free. and thank you all for the crits.
as far as the layout of the site, i like ferg's site a lot, so it will be based off of that, only bigger thumnails. maybe a cross of that and mop's site. i like the unified marking idea. all on one page. and play with the lighting to show off the maps better. oh yeah, and put the maps and everything in for all the characters.
those are on the top of my list for now, i will keep checking back here for love and hate, and post up again with the new site for more bashing.
thank you all
I agree with a lot of what every one else said except for the environment stuff. I say spend your time on what your aiming for. My crit is that you are using next gen specs with the texture sizes and you are using normal maps, but your tri count is last gen. Your work would look better in my opinion if you added just a little more geometry to round out the silhouette. A lot of your angles are too sharp and jaggad.
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Shut up marco...no one asked you...
Oh wait...Gavin did. Good point on the tri counts and the silhouettes and being to jagged and sharp BUT I do gotta disagree with you on ignoring environment stuff though and spending time on what he is aiming for. Knowing that you go to AI.. How many people do you know that have left there that have landed jobs as Character Artists?
Not to derail Gavins thread because this is to get him better as an artist overall. What was being said is make a few props, get a job doing that and really tone and fine tune those character skills. I mean the man can't starve to death.
"ok...im just gonna put this out there, and walk over to my bed and curl up like im about to be hazed. i need a job really bad so tell me what i need to do to get that."
While his web site is filled with characters only it doesn't say he wouldn't take a job as a props guy if offered to him and many here have suggested that guys that want to do character art do some props as well to "expand" their portfolio and not limit themselves and while they have this non-dream job of making props work on their character skills to land that dream job of making characters at a studio.
Crits:
- No Texture Maps on all the stuff as the others said before?
- Wireframes?
- It seems like a few of the pieces the contour could be pushed a little more with the normals and the base mesh, some could definatly use a little more umph! Just a touch though because they're very solid as they are already
- As said from before the Spec maps aren't doing your things too much justice, maybe it's the lighting, or something, but it really needs to show more of the normals.
To be honest, I think you got a lot of things great, and solid, you're an amazing artist, I think going over small tweaks again wouldn't hurt and it'd def polish a few more things. Out side than that, I'd like some of the older webpage elements in the new style. Anyhow keep pluggin' away at it and you'll be fine.
The rock guy is cool, but honestly look way too close to the Warcraft 3/WoW rock giants to seem awesome and original. The proportions are almost identical, and the texturing seems very similar. It isnt a bad thing if you're aiming for a job at Blizzard, but imo it should at least look better than the stuff they have already done.
The caveman is totally rad. had to look at the first one a few times to make sure it wasn't a painting.
With your textures, i'd suggest removing all dark shade detail from your diffuse and let the normal map do all the work. I think its causing you some problems with lighting, and adds smudges and smears in places things shouldn't be happening. Some darkness is good, but i think you could sell it better with less dark values, and more with color variation/hue shifts.
Not sure if you're rendering the normal maps in Max or whatnot... but id try to find a better solution than that. Max's normal map rendering isn't the greatest from what ive seen. Roboblitz comes with a modified version of the UE3 editor, could try that out.
And I dunno why when I hover on the menu they flickr so much, you might wanna fix that, just a matter of consistency...your work has a promising start though.
No real human studies.
Nothing that shows you can use Z-brush or Mudbox really well. Do you want the employer to teach you? (The 4-legged guy is pretty good though, don't get me wrong.)
Nothing in your portfolio makes me think that any of this stuff is animatable. Just because you can model a cool character doesn't mean you can model a functional, animatable character. Get those wires in there.
Nothing shows me you know how to take a high poly and turn it into a low poly. (Show me both)
Nothing that has any sort of realistic armor, clothing, gear, equipment, etc. This would be part of your job.
Nothing that shows me you can do a regular everyday person walking down the street.
Your textures are there...that stuff is really good no doubt, but right now it tells me you are only interested in PSP, DS, or WoW style games. If that is the case, then keep up this style and get a few more good ones.
But if you wan't to be next-gen, look at any game with next-gen characters and then do even better than those.
I can't think of anything major to add that wasn't already said above except one thing:
Your entry for Dominance War had a really nice concept with it, and it's the only 3d piece you have on your site that DOESN'T show the original concept... what the ef?!
otherwise I think that the above comments are right on the money for what could make this site a winner. Gimme more content, I know u have it!
as for work. just try to do a bit more with your modeling and normals. go higher in polycount, instead of staying low like you are. most games are allowing character artist to push 6-10k tris, so deffinately use the budget to chamfer things and make the shiloete less jaged. for texturing, try a photo texture job next. you seem to have the painting down pretty well, now lets make a bit more realistic texture job.
i think with a touch up here and there on what you have, and one more piece that absolutely wows people and you will be set for a jobaroo!
good luck homie
http://www.richkidlabs.com/testsite/test.html
simple enough, just the gallery and contact pages. each thumb would go to a page with all the pics for that character or object. and the 2d thumb would either be traditional or digital, like my site is now
feed back is always good...thats kind of why we are all here
here's a quick and dirty for you, 80% full size.
BULLET POINTS FOR FASTER INFO-ENRICHMENT:
- ditch any and all handwritten stuff on the site, unify the fonts. handwritten never looks professional. your "style" might not be professional, but you need to fake it for the sake of your site. again, they're not hiring you for website design--the important thing is that it transmit the art cleanly and efficiently. they should barely notice it's there.
-i chose Arial here. boring, maybe, but you're not a typographist. no one ever went wrong with close-kerned Arial.
-remove excess detail and complicated framing. you're still not getting that the site is the conduit, the conveyor--no one wants to get distracted by these vaguely pixel-styled headers, borders, frames, whatever. yeah you can come up with something snappy, but don't let it take over.
-the tumbling block elements are actually pretty cool. rein it in some, but it's definitely workable.
-2D/3D sections should be obvious so don't spend time with header graphics. again, we are going to put all the art right in the face of whoever is trying to give us a job, as fast as possible. streamline ruthlessly to get this accomplished.
-why have a contact page when all your essential info can be RIGHT THERE in the header graphic? what, so you can demurely hide your phone number away from other people? nobody cares about your phone number, and possibly not even the people trying to hire you. but if you want it on there, stick it right there where they can see you. put it all in the resume as well. if we're going to go off to a separate page, let it be the resume itself looking spiff, not a contact page.
-black is so dunzo. everyone and their mother who is an artiste has a black blog/site/portfolio/whatever. shake it up a little. i inverted your color scheme, but then softened it.. no pure whites to harsh out on giant LCD screens (keep them in mind) and a touch of color, so it's not straight gray.
again, think clean and crisp. separate out your art-making sensibilities from doing the website; the portfolio is a lethal, trim bullet straight to the brain of your prospective employer. all killer, no filler!
if you need to measure against perfection, of course, be my guest
http://www.gausswerks.com
also the lack of polys is also what is adding to that plastic bag look we talked about in your normals a while back...your not matching up your geo well enough with your hirez when sampling, and at least to me is really prominent in your dom war guy...
but as far as what I think you should cut, or just go back to and polish would...It would have to be your dom war guy, and stone dude...the designs are great, but in terms of pulling them off...I think you could have done better. the little cave guy and your slimy creature guy are my favorite and I think you pulled them off well.
and one more thing to add, dont forget about your spec masks!!! they can help you sooooo much, espiecally with your popping your normals.
but anyways good job man, and good luck. wish you the best as always man!
Best of luck!
Save all the fancy website concepts for when you have 6+ characters that are "job-worthy". Obviously you need to get a job, but I have a feeling right now it isn't your website layout that is hindering this.
And yeah, I agree...solid black background websites suck
A. gauss, i love what you have done with the place. the curtains match the carpet, gives that natural feeling ;D
B. donny...babe, i wasnt planning on putting the site up until i had the love to put in it. so dont worry your pretty little jar head.
C. on my path to self discovery i have stopped and "experimented" a bit...
im gonna see if i can import a new unwrap into zbrush cause this one doesnt give the body much room for love. i was thinking on a hierarchy when i unwrapped it so the head is gnar huge and the body not so much. but i have learned the errors of my ways since then.
ok boys... make it hurt in ways that shouldnt feel so good
also, i dont have the codec for your turntable avi's on a fresh install. Add .mov versions because most people will want to watch them in the browser and you cant scrub through the video with WMP.
IT may sound harsh but you're not a website designer so why try to be one? There are plenty of time saving alternatives that will make your site look decent (like wordpress or blogger or livejournal etc) and do the job of delivering the art without you pimping an obviously half baked funny shaped website experience.
if you need to measure against perfection, of course, be my guest
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loving the giant question mark slacker
and hawken, that giant question mark is strictly for you. as are the complete lack of updates for months on end!
anywho, i havnt tried to use the photobucket video hosting before but lets give it a shot. for me the full size isnt working. if that is the case for the rest of you just say something and i will either host it or put up some still shots.
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c37/hakysakninja/?action=view¤t=Pekk.flv
this is just some colors i threw down last night after i posted that ao pass that was all poopy. one of my biggest problems with this character was readability of overlapping parts. so i made the core of the body lighter and the limbs darker. so when an arm passes in front of the body it doesnt get lost.
and like i said, the colors are a first pass, i like this scheme a lot more than the old one though. instead of basing it off of a dauberman i based it on the dreaded WILDEBEAST. one of natures most feared creatures.
ok, just tell me what you think, i know you have something you dont like
Its kinda of a rule of thumb that you dont use sculpting programs to do straps and hard surfaces like that. the edges will never look as good as doing it in max. Also you should plan here and there where you can break apart this guy and bring each piece into zbrush by itself. This will allow you to go higher in polys in that area and to be able to kick out that highpoly piece into max as a OBJ and do a AO normal pass