Nice work , i don't even have a portfolio myself but from looking at others getting crits about this i think i could give you some tips,, i think the thumbnail pictures should show more of what it contains, atleast in the 3 later pics.
good simple site.
It's good that you put me directly in your gallery. I don't mind what the thumbnails show, but I think there should be some kind of line/marker between the thumbnails. . . it took me a sec to understand that it wasn't just 1 button that led to the actual gallery.
it's good that you show your texture on the treasure chest, I'd do the same for at least one or two of the TF2 props.
Overall very good implementation, you just need more content. But that will come with time, just keep working!
just wondering; why do people like to see flats in portfolios so much? I always thought it was just about if the end result looked good or even great, and bogging down artwork with technical details or bombarding with images just sort of seemed excessive to me. A simple state of the tex sizes uses is what I'd use, that way they can see the results you've squeezed out of the size, which is the only reason I'd ever have thought accounts for flats.
Im not bashing or anything, I'm genuinely curious.
Edit:
About the site. I agree, it's great that we're put directly in to your gallery, something more people should do, and its quick and easy to use. I personally dont like new windows popping up on something so instant as your layout, something like lightbox might be good. Its used alot but for a good reason imo
Thats just my opinion.
Afew more pieces would be nice and perhaps a little text under each one saying "game model" or "concept art" as it seemed random on what content was... I'm just preconditioned to have all thumbs categorized I suppose.
I don't have a big brain, so I'm not real familiar with using the .png format. But I do know that the last image took awhile to load, and if I wanted to save it to my desktop I apparently need some fancy plugin and weird shit happened, so maybe a .jpg would be easier. If I wanted to send it to someone else, it might cause even further confusion if they aren't up on whatever fancy schmancy plugins you need to view .png. Can never go wrong with .jpgs, but that's more of a personal choice.
Don't put links up that don't work, unless you intend to put something up very soon. (I presume this is a WIP, so no real issue just yet)
Let me actually CLICK your email address and have it launch my email browser. If I'm going to send you an email, I really don't want to sit there and type it out. Check out any tutorials about setting up this link...or i'll just tell you: mailto:yourname@youraddress.com
As far as the work goes, it's getting there! The UI element would be a bit stronger if there were another 2-3 to go with it. Right now it's kinda uninteresting, and would drive your abilities further home if you proved you could stick with a style and create more thn 1.
It might also be wise to start seperating your 2d/3d/UI stuff as opposed to having it all crammed together. What you have now would work if you were looking for a "3d generalist" spot, but so far it is unclear what position you are shooting for.
The TF2 stuff is cool.
The building assets are looking good...be sure to finish it. Showing you can complete something is far more important than just a model / zbrush sculpt.
Fire would probably not be modeled nowadays...it would be some sort of an effect, and having a double sided alpha map on a super low poly object is a little odd, considering the platform hit.
Overall your textures are really nice and you are on the right track!
[ QUOTE ]
just wondering; why do people like to see flats in portfolios so much? I always thought it was just about if the end result looked good or even great, and bogging down artwork with technical details or bombarding with images just sort of seemed excessive to me. A simple state of the tex sizes uses is what I'd use, that way they can see the results you've squeezed out of the size, which is the only reason I'd ever have thought accounts for flats.
Im not bashing or anything, I'm genuinely curious.
[/ QUOTE ]
Same reason that people like to see wireframes. They want to see how efficiently you use the space.
Yeah I understand that, but if the model looks great, and you give the dimensions you've used... surely that suggests you've used your space well? iono. Its a little different for wireframes though, as there might be some cripplingly bad geometry going on that can be masked... but I didnt think bad texturing can be masked?
Jonas: Thanks, I'll fix the thumbs, for me it's ok because I know the works, but someone else might not recognize it.
Tumer: I have the flats on all TF2 props, they are just really tiny
Ruz: I'll get working on it right away!
SlightlyBored: Good suggestion on the little texts, I had someone else say it, but I thought people would understand, I'll insert some text.
Rick: Thanks, working on getting more to show. The UI and teamaster aren't good enough to be there? Thought I could link to some fellow artists and game art websites.
Ott: That is strange, I can save .pngs just fine, and I was under the impression it was a widely used web format. Good suggestion on the email address. Shit man I need to finish that building?
Major thing that's holding me back is not enough content I guess, which I kind of already figured. How much is "enough" ? Not that I'm trying to skimp out of doing art but I'd like to send in my folio to do some freelance work, which might bring in more assets.
I must not have whatever format it is that reads .png at work. When I double click it runs some sort of dos script and then opens in some wonky viewer and I can't zoom or anything.
However it opens just fine here at home. Again, it's a personal preference, but there's always a good chance that someone else might have the same issue I do and not have the latest plugins.
How much is enough? Well, do you show a full range of abilities in your portfolio? If you are lacking in one area, do you kick ass in something else?
More and more studios want to see someone who is well rounded in all areas of asset creation, from smart modeling to knowing the limitations of platforms. If you are using 8 material calls on a 200 triangle object, you are obviously misinformed.
I have seen guys get jobs with 3 or 4 decent props, while others with a full portfolio turned down. Right now, as far as freelance stuff goes, I'm not really convinced you could deliver a vehicle, a building, a weapon, etc...so what would I have you do if I were to hire you for freelance work? You only have a couple completed assets. Would you flake out on me and stop the project halfway? Would it take you a year to finish something? These are just some questions you have to prove wrong.
I would suggest another environment piece or a few props that go together as a start, IMO.
Dekard (at) Gmail dot com or an image like he did so they don't get on spamlists from robots and webspiders scouring the websites for email addresses. I look at my logs and get hit about 15 times a week from a spyder
If you want to email him, you'd simply cut/past and change the (at) to @ and the dot to a .
Or you'd have to use a shitty free email address you don't mind getting bombed.
StJoris, how much is enough? I would much rather see 3 fantastic pieces than 15 crappy ones. So you should always put only your best up (that's why people are telling you to pull the tea & UI stuff). However more is always better. So once you have your 3 best up there, keep working, and every time you think you have something that's really good, put it up too. As you start to fill it up, you'll find yourself looking at older pieces and saying "meh" and pulling them down. There are no hard numbers here, it's just doing what feels right for your portfolio.
Imslightlybored: I like to see wires & textures for the reason stated above. Sure, the final renders might look good, but that doesn't mean that it's hiding a lot of stuff. Yes, you can hide bad texturing. I see our test come in sometimes and someone's used 256's for most things, and then a 1024 for something small, and then a 512 that is 90% alpha for something that obviously doesn't need it. None of that was obvious from the renders. It's just always best to show you're doing things in a sensible way.
I disagree, making me load everything at once and/or making me scroll forever, is a bad idea. Having good thumbs that show what I'll be looking at, and are easily identifiable for when I want to show something to another interviewer etc. is a much better way.
Yeah but theres only 3 models, if there were 20 models then maybe your way would be better (I still want everything to load at once) I hate thumbnails, too many clicks aaggghhhh. I think everyones page should have an option for no thumbnails.
Also 2 of the images are around 1 meg, I know everyones got high speed internet but I still have to sit and watch the image load.
Pale green isn't a very good colour for the radiosity render. It would be nice if you could unify the presentation of images, least edit out the dialog boxes, choose one background colour and not paste images on top of each other. I can see the fuzzy pixels where youve upsized the text on the images and you havent even bothered to align the text in the same places in the buttons. I dont know, is that deliberate?
Tumerboy you need to fix your portfolio, all your gallery pages link to /3D/Gallery.html where the actual page is 3D/Gallery.php
HA HA Frankie! I didn't say I was a good example! I haven't touched it in nearly a year, and it's been due for a redesign for 3 years.
As for the thumbnail debate, sure I'll give you that. He's only got 3, but one would assume that he's going to be adding to it, so there's no reason to due it one way for now just to toss it out in a few months when he's got some more to show.
I've updated it, made some slight changes, new fonts, something to tie it together more. Also I took off the teamaster and UI, I like the looks of the site now.
Thinking of doing this art test for putting on my folio: http://www.splashdamage.com/?q=node/56
Now I know how you think about putting art tests in folios, but in this case, wouldn't it be ok?
LLama, I took all comments to heart, and fixed the things I thought needed fixing. The unneedingly triangulating of models for the sake of "because I allways do that" was not one of them. Please keep that discussion in it's respective thread though.
You are very right Archanex! That is because I still need to create my resume, next on my to-do-list.
What format is preferred: pdf/doc/other?
If the test is on an open webpage that anyone can access, I can't see why putting a test up would be a bad thing. If the company asks you not to share it, it's a different story. Otherwise, it's your model. I would suggest that you mention where the concept came from, though.
Pdf or doc, I'd say. But if you go with pdf, at least make use of it and don't just bung a whole lot of black text on a white background and call it a day. It might also be a good idea to have it viewable online in an html-page in addition to having a link to a doc/pdf
Separated the thumbnails and put up a resume, also added some new props. I'm really curious what you think of the resume, I'm not quite sure whether I did it entirely right.
You are right Tumerboy, the site shifted to a new server and I forgot to update the FTP location, so I updated the older, not seen site, it's all fixed now!
Finish that environment scene. The high poly start looks great. Over time, get a few more hot pieces up there to show your skills.
Resume being centered bugs me. Seems a bit unprofessional and unorganized. Easy to clean up. Also easy to add a downloadable .DOC and .PDF. Employers love that stuff so they can print it up and grill you on it come interview time.
Replies
It's good that you put me directly in your gallery. I don't mind what the thumbnails show, but I think there should be some kind of line/marker between the thumbnails. . . it took me a sec to understand that it wasn't just 1 button that led to the actual gallery.
it's good that you show your texture on the treasure chest, I'd do the same for at least one or two of the TF2 props.
Overall very good implementation, you just need more content. But that will come with time, just keep working!
Nice job.
Im not bashing or anything, I'm genuinely curious.
Edit:
About the site. I agree, it's great that we're put directly in to your gallery, something more people should do, and its quick and easy to use. I personally dont like new windows popping up on something so instant as your layout, something like lightbox might be good. Its used alot but for a good reason imo
Thats just my opinion.
Afew more pieces would be nice and perhaps a little text under each one saying "game model" or "concept art" as it seemed random on what content was... I'm just preconditioned to have all thumbs categorized I suppose.
Only 5 items though, and the UI and tea master don't deserve to be there. Only 3 artworks, all good though.
Why do you have a links page?
I don't have a big brain, so I'm not real familiar with using the .png format. But I do know that the last image took awhile to load, and if I wanted to save it to my desktop I apparently need some fancy plugin and weird shit happened, so maybe a .jpg would be easier. If I wanted to send it to someone else, it might cause even further confusion if they aren't up on whatever fancy schmancy plugins you need to view .png. Can never go wrong with .jpgs, but that's more of a personal choice.
Don't put links up that don't work, unless you intend to put something up very soon. (I presume this is a WIP, so no real issue just yet)
Let me actually CLICK your email address and have it launch my email browser. If I'm going to send you an email, I really don't want to sit there and type it out. Check out any tutorials about setting up this link...or i'll just tell you: mailto:yourname@youraddress.com
As far as the work goes, it's getting there! The UI element would be a bit stronger if there were another 2-3 to go with it. Right now it's kinda uninteresting, and would drive your abilities further home if you proved you could stick with a style and create more thn 1.
It might also be wise to start seperating your 2d/3d/UI stuff as opposed to having it all crammed together. What you have now would work if you were looking for a "3d generalist" spot, but so far it is unclear what position you are shooting for.
The TF2 stuff is cool.
The building assets are looking good...be sure to finish it. Showing you can complete something is far more important than just a model / zbrush sculpt.
Fire would probably not be modeled nowadays...it would be some sort of an effect, and having a double sided alpha map on a super low poly object is a little odd, considering the platform hit.
Overall your textures are really nice and you are on the right track!
just wondering; why do people like to see flats in portfolios so much? I always thought it was just about if the end result looked good or even great, and bogging down artwork with technical details or bombarding with images just sort of seemed excessive to me. A simple state of the tex sizes uses is what I'd use, that way they can see the results you've squeezed out of the size, which is the only reason I'd ever have thought accounts for flats.
Im not bashing or anything, I'm genuinely curious.
[/ QUOTE ]
Same reason that people like to see wireframes. They want to see how efficiently you use the space.
Tumer: I have the flats on all TF2 props, they are just really tiny
Ruz: I'll get working on it right away!
SlightlyBored: Good suggestion on the little texts, I had someone else say it, but I thought people would understand, I'll insert some text.
Rick: Thanks, working on getting more to show. The UI and teamaster aren't good enough to be there? Thought I could link to some fellow artists and game art websites.
Ott: That is strange, I can save .pngs just fine, and I was under the impression it was a widely used web format. Good suggestion on the email address. Shit man I need to finish that building?
Major thing that's holding me back is not enough content I guess, which I kind of already figured. How much is "enough" ? Not that I'm trying to skimp out of doing art but I'd like to send in my folio to do some freelance work, which might bring in more assets.
However it opens just fine here at home. Again, it's a personal preference, but there's always a good chance that someone else might have the same issue I do and not have the latest plugins.
How much is enough? Well, do you show a full range of abilities in your portfolio? If you are lacking in one area, do you kick ass in something else?
More and more studios want to see someone who is well rounded in all areas of asset creation, from smart modeling to knowing the limitations of platforms. If you are using 8 material calls on a 200 triangle object, you are obviously misinformed.
I have seen guys get jobs with 3 or 4 decent props, while others with a full portfolio turned down. Right now, as far as freelance stuff goes, I'm not really convinced you could deliver a vehicle, a building, a weapon, etc...so what would I have you do if I were to hire you for freelance work? You only have a couple completed assets. Would you flake out on me and stop the project halfway? Would it take you a year to finish something? These are just some questions you have to prove wrong.
I would suggest another environment piece or a few props that go together as a start, IMO.
Dekard (at) Gmail dot com or an image like he did so they don't get on spamlists from robots and webspiders scouring the websites for email addresses. I look at my logs and get hit about 15 times a week from a spyder
If you want to email him, you'd simply cut/past and change the (at) to @ and the dot to a .
Or you'd have to use a shitty free email address you don't mind getting bombed.
Imslightlybored: I like to see wires & textures for the reason stated above. Sure, the final renders might look good, but that doesn't mean that it's hiding a lot of stuff. Yes, you can hide bad texturing. I see our test come in sometimes and someone's used 256's for most things, and then a 1024 for something small, and then a 512 that is 90% alpha for something that obviously doesn't need it. None of that was obvious from the renders. It's just always best to show you're doing things in a sensible way.
Also 2 of the images are around 1 meg, I know everyones got high speed internet but I still have to sit and watch the image load.
Pale green isn't a very good colour for the radiosity render. It would be nice if you could unify the presentation of images, least edit out the dialog boxes, choose one background colour and not paste images on top of each other. I can see the fuzzy pixels where youve upsized the text on the images and you havent even bothered to align the text in the same places in the buttons. I dont know, is that deliberate?
Tumerboy you need to fix your portfolio, all your gallery pages link to /3D/Gallery.html where the actual page is 3D/Gallery.php
As for the thumbnail debate, sure I'll give you that. He's only got 3, but one would assume that he's going to be adding to it, so there's no reason to due it one way for now just to toss it out in a few months when he's got some more to show.
Thinking of doing this art test for putting on my folio:
http://www.splashdamage.com/?q=node/56
Now I know how you think about putting art tests in folios, but in this case, wouldn't it be ok?
LLama, I took all comments to heart, and fixed the things I thought needed fixing. The unneedingly triangulating of models for the sake of "because I allways do that" was not one of them. Please keep that discussion in it's respective thread though.
You are very right Archanex! That is because I still need to create my resume, next on my to-do-list.
What format is preferred: pdf/doc/other?
I would also suggest you fix your email link
You are very right Archanex! That is because I still need to create my resume, next on my to-do-list.
What format is preferred: pdf/doc/other?
[/ QUOTE ]
all of the above?
Finish that environment scene. The high poly start looks great. Over time, get a few more hot pieces up there to show your skills.
Resume being centered bugs me. Seems a bit unprofessional and unorganized. Easy to clean up. Also easy to add a downloadable .DOC and .PDF. Employers love that stuff so they can print it up and grill you on it come interview time.