my site is up, check it out!
took me a long time but it's finally up.
http://stonerooster.com/
This is my first time doing any kind of web design so pointers are appreciated.
http://stonerooster.com/
This is my first time doing any kind of web design so pointers are appreciated.
Replies
I'm not a fan of odd shaped thumbnails. I prefer to get a better idea of what I'm about to click on.
Main window smaller than images, forces scrollbar. Not a big deal here, but too easy a fix to leave in.
Army Bag and Cannon stand out as weakest pieces, in the way that I remember those two because of that, and not your other work because it's better. May consider dropping the two. I can't exactly put my finger on why, possibly the diffuse or lots of little things.
I'd like to be able to download your resume. You could also fit it in the window without scrollbars via a tighter font.
Most of that is al nit-picky stuff, nothign that's going to really break the deal on the job hunt I'm sure.
Agreed on the thumbnail size too, twice as wide would be nice, makes them easier to click on as well as seeing more info.
Oh also, your "AcmeLeaver" lever model has the text flipped on the model even though it's the right way round on the texture, that seems a bit sloppy, I'd fix that since it wouldn't take very long to do and removes a negative point.
Any small stuff that is easy to fix, but otherwise leaves a bad impression on the mind of an employer is usually bad, so spend an extra 5 minutes and sort it out
Other than that it's pretty cool, nice stuff.
Aside from the scrollbar issue, I think the site looks pretty good, though.
Additionally, I'd make the demo real load in an embedded player, with a download link under it, or just make the demo reel link go directly to the download (instead of a seperate page). But that's just a preference thing.
I like the site overall though. You've got some good pieces on there.
Please get rid of the black border you have around everything. It's really distracting and it takes away from your stuff. I should be able to read the edges without that there.
<font color="red">Army Bag:</font>
I don't like this piece and here is why. I don't think it looks as good as some of your other stuff and it really isn't telling me much.
Normal map doesn't seem to be doing much for it. I mean I can see a few things here and there but honestly that could have been painted in.
You missed all the detail like stitching, zippers, creases, pouches, etc.
Plus I have no idea how big this is. Is it a small bag that I can fit my keys and wallet in or is it a huge seabag type pack?
Spec map is plain shades of gray. This makes it boring.
Diffuse. Looks like you just took a camo pattern and tossed it over the uvs and painted some dirt here and there with a few custom brushes.
Where is the soldiers name tag? Where is his ssn? Stuff like that is usually on bags to help identify who they belong to since everyone usually has the same exact bag.
<font color="red">Cannon:</font>
A school project I know. Like the Army Bag not a strong piece in comparison.
Normal map is making some detail here and there but nothing really solid. You could probably get away without the normal map on this and it wouldn't look much different.
Diffuse map is really plain and it looks like some areas got more texture space then others. The wood under the cannon barrel looks to be higher res then the cannon itself.
This texture just looks really messy and for the most part doesn't make any sense to me. If you look at Donald Otts Cannon you will see more of what I am talking about. ( www.donaldott.com ) His has detail on the wheels and I can see the different materials and how it's put together.
<font color="red">Sofa:</font>
3556 tris. WOW thats a lot for a static prop of this size. I would say max this should have around 900 tris. I can see a ton of wasted polys on this and where things could have been much cleaner.
Normal Map. I can see the surface of the couch and the pillows. So far moving down my list this is the best use of normal maps yet.
Specular map. Boring. Again with the same flat colors. Wood should have some blue, purpleish hues to it.
Diffuse. It's better then the other two pieces I mentioned but you are missing stuff like wear spots and stuff that makes it interesting. Toss in some coffee cup rings on the wooden arms, show us that someone has sat in this thing for a while. Add some areas where the cat scratched it all up. Something.
<font color="red">Handle:</font>
Why is the text backwards? I can't read that.
Normal map. Better use here but you could build a high res object for the screws and the handle and frame and get much nicer results combined with the detail for the other areas from nvidia or crazybump.
Spec map... same as all the others.
<font color="red">Plant:</font>
Not bad. Foliage is really tough to get right.
On your diffuse you have a single giant leaf on this sheet. move that to the left or right and then make a copy and rotate it and I bet you could squeeze 2 leaves onto that sheet to create variation or better yet. Create a larger texture and use 1 texture for all of the foliage models. You can have this on the sheet, vines, flowers, grass, etc...
Polycounts really aren't the issue these days as much as texture memory is. Try to be efficient.
Specular is again very boring. Add some color to this. Add some slight transparancy to the plant. Look at Crysis screen shots. Hell just go outside or better yet you are in San Diego go to the botanical garden in Balboa Park with your digital camera and just snap pics all day long inside there.
I would like to keep moving on but I really think you can get what I am trying to help you out here with.
Your environment piece shows promise and looks like the most solid piece on your site.
I'm not sure where you want to work but practice some high poly skills and learn how to take a high poly model to low poly and to a finished product. Don't just use nvidia and crazy bump.
I'm actually working right now to replace a few things in my spare time. I can't show anything I'm doing at work...which pretty much smokes all my stuff in my portfolio, so I gotta come up with some stuff that's gonna be replacing a few of my props
As for your work, aside from what everyone else said, just a couple things.
The tents don't really make any sense at all. They look about 8 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Also, why have a tent if there is a brick / concrete structure directly above you? The boxes sitting next to the tent have handles that I presume are for a person to put their hands into, so therefore I would assume that the boxes are our best sense of scale....further making the tents seem really out of whack.
Textures need to go past photo/color-sampling. (The bag, the water handle, the crate, the mailbox, the bookcase.)
Identical reality is boring and drab and hardly finds its way into game art. Extra scratches, details..."character" is the only way to stand out from people who simply "make 3d". Not saying everything needs the shit kicked out of it, but it definitely needs to stand out a little more than just slapping the original source material down.
If you click the bottom links in Firefox it opens up another version of your portfolio in the browser window. Check it with Firefox and disable those dead links at the bottom.
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Polycounts really aren't the issue these days as much as texture memory is. Try to be efficient.
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Yeah, I hear that a lot, but it isn't "always" the case. It really depends on how well your engine occludes...what system you are working for...how close / far the object is. ..and another big issue is how fast the game is moving or if it is intended for online play.
Obviously, however, polycounts are still important in the sense that excess geometry is always a bad thing
I know how to take high poly to low poly but i couldnt really see the point to doing that on any of these props.
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What johny said plus it shows a company you can do it. While your work is pretty solid for what it is I don't really see anything that would be in a current generation (360, PS3, PC) title. The cave as a scene maybe but it's still missing all kinds of detail and the normal maps / spec maps aren't really popping like they should that will really push this area.