Looking for Some Tough Love

super_villain

I'm planning on applying for a job as a prop or environment artist in the Seattle area. I've never worked in the game industry so I'm looking for some input on my portfolio so that I don't embarrass myself. I have thick skin, so no need to pull any punches. Let me know what I should change or remove. Also, if there are some things (in general) that look good in an entry level portfolio, I'm open for such suggestions. Thanks for the help.

Website: www.digitalillusionary.com/gaming/

konstruct

your going to need a resume. try and put every little bit of anything you can think of thats relevant to getting a job in games. As far as propper resume format- just steal one and replace the info with yours.

also- the design suffers from the same flaw that mine does. crappy thumbnails. Try and fit as much of the main subject as possible into the thumb without it being un-recognizable.

Em.

Web page design and resume aside...
I would work on creating more finished work, full fledged environments with lighting and composition.

Your textures could use a lot more love, really get in there and work the details. Look up other artists texture flats and see the detail that goes into them, and try to get to that level. I noticed that your color choices tend to be really flat and saturated(i.e. the camo on the tank and the yellows on the pirate ship), it makes for confusion on what things are actually made of. If the front of that pirate ship is gold plated, it doesn't look that way now, it feels more like yellow paint. Work in highlights, color variation, depth and shadows, study real objetcs made of gold and paint accordingly. Gather a lot of reference images, study them, and try to replicate what you see. I see that you're trying to add wear and tear to your objects which is good, but right now it's very fuzzy and random, think about where dirt collects and why it's there, the same goes for wear and tear.

I would also get rid of the characters in there, they're not up to par and you say you want a job creating environment art, so I think for now it would be best to focus on that. Right now all of your work just seems rushed and the textures look very first pass. It's always better to have less pieces that are really nice and finished than to have extra pieces that are low quality and will bring the quality of your work as a whole down. Only show the absolute best that you're capable of.

Polycount is a great resource to get better with lots of helpful people willing to push you along. You might want to think about working on an environment of some sort and creating a thread here while you're working on it. Post some work, take some crits and apply them, continue learning and improving and you'll get to the level to get a job. Sorry I couldn't get more specific on your pieces, but I hope it at least gives you a starting point.

Best of luck and keep at it!

breakneck

i'd just like to add, that some of the comments in the "about this image" part sould be removed. the stuff like "a school assignment. . .". for example, the charcol piece, you don't need to tell the viewer you did it cuz you had to. to me that just brings something not nessecary to the table. just put something else that doesn't make it seem like you had to make it - like "charcol study" or something like that

super_villain

Thanks for the input.

konstruct - will do on the thumbnails, no point making some wonder what they are about to see.

oglemeanimations - thanks for the various pointers. I'll do some more texture work. I actually redid the tank for some of the reasons you specified, but it's part of a mod, so I'm waiting for the team to show it off on the mod site before I post it. I'll give some more love to the rest of my creations as well. Point well taken about the characters, as I'm not applying for such a position. This does seem like a great community for constructive criticism, starting a thread about an environmental project might be the best thing to do.

breakneck - will do

pliang

Imo, its better to keep mainly the environment art...remember anything that does not balance with the rest of the stuff you have thee in term of quality will repel jobs.

And it'd be nice to show some breakdowns when you are down
(i.e: Textures)

Keep us updated.