Jay's Portfolio

JasonLavoie · May 2008

Hey all, I'm in need of some help from all of you.

Currently I've been looking for some freelance work to help pay for school, but it seems like I'm falling short.

My portfolio: http://jasonlavoie.wordpress.com/

I'm really unhappy with my portfolio right now and would love to get some good harsh crits to help me get focused on what I NEED to do to become a valuable artist. I've been talking to some friends and I think its time to start focusing on what I want to do if I ever get a chance to get a job in the industry, and environment work is that focus (I think).

I'm going to be pushing my high poly work as much as I can to help get more comfortable with sub d modeling, as well as texturing etc. but what else makes a valuable artist?

I need all the help I can get, and I figured Polycount was the place to go to get some harsh but solid feedback to help set me straight.

I appreciate all your help and I promise you any crits and tips here will not be unused.

Thanks again

WipEout · May 2008

As far as the portfolio site itself, I found the little pop-up speech bubbles on each thumbnail really annoying. It might just be me, but they were a little distracting, as tey popped up every time I even slightly brushed over a thumbnail. The other issue is, looking just at the site without reading your post here, one might ask what position are you hoping to gain? Character artist? Environment artist? Animator? Mainly because you've shown them all in one page. Which isn't wrong by any means, but you should put the environment stuff at the top at the very least, if that is your focus.

Otherwise the layout is nice, I think: clear & concise, not too flashy, art is right there.

As far as the models, I'd say just keep up the practice on sculpting the hi-rez stuff like you said. I can't really say what to do as far as the environment stuff, since I suck at environments

If you continue with environment stuff, keep building assets for UT3, Crysis, or Source. Make some MP maps for those games too. Everything I've heard, companies want to see that you can build good models AND show them in a game engine, which you've already started doing.

Showing wires of the environments would be cool, too.

Hope all that helped somehow. And I really hope I didn't sound like I was talking out of my ass :P

Joao Sapiro · May 2008

ill be honest man, iv been watching your work ever since i begun, and i gotta say that you are improving at a really slow pace, because i see no evolution on the work , and the textures are a tad weird i cant say if you are aiming at cartoony or realism, because there is a weird mix in them, id say define a style , and yeah practise more your highpoly skills , and you are done !

SuPa- · May 2008

Yeah, I'd have to agree, those pop-up bubbles are annoying. But nice work!

JasonLavoie · May 2008

Sorry for those pop ups.. I don't have them though

I think I may have turned them off... does wordpress do this automatically (make those pop up windows appear) I think it's time to switch to an actually domain.

Thanks Johny for the honesty, kinda sucks to hear that I have been evolving at a slow pace, but I'm going to have to agree with you I think.

Could you explain a bit more what you mean by the confusing textures? Just that I would like to know maybe what I'm doing wrong and what to improve on...

I'll admit that johny's post stung a litte, but thats the kinda honesty I need to hear, and hopefully followed by ways to improve, or tips

Thanks again Johny, you are a great artist and I do look up to you and appreciate the crit.

If anyone else has more to add, please do so, this is helping.

Thanks

fogmann · May 2008

I think what Johny is saying about your texture is that it's a weird mix of cartoony/stylized and realistic. If you are going with realism, I'd strongly suggest adding more color variation to your textures. Most of them are almost monochromatic for certain parts of your characters. Then if you're into cartoony style, then take it to the opposite direction and stylize+simplify the textures more.

I'd ditch the animation; it is not really helping you, I think. It is very basic and you are not really demonstrating animation skills, and besides, that doesn't seem to be your focus either.

I'd say show more normal mapped models, and if you are into environments, then do something cool with the shaders, as they are such a big part of making assets look good nowadays. Since you're already familiar with UnrealEd, go play with material editor, add some reflections and see what you can get out of your textures. Your basketball court environment doesn't look to me like it's normal mapped or that it has specularity. Also, it's nitpicky, I know, but those light glows on the ceiling are way too strong (and also pixelated). With such strong glow, the air would be very humid or dusty and have a visible mist/fog.

Also, I'm not so sure if you should keep the misc work section where you have untextured low poly models.

Well, hope that helps a bit. Good luck!

JasonLavoie · May 2008

That's why I love Polycount

Solid crits Fog, thanks a lot.

From what I gathered I think its better for me just to start-a-new. I've been thinking about what I could do to help create a strong portfolio, and I figured I could focus on 3 projects / areas.

First would be a next gen (small) scene that will focus on my ability to create next gen assets as well as textures (model textures / tillable environment textures) in UT3, and I would like to focus on a futuristic theme since A) I don't have any futuristic pieces yet and

it will really help me practice sub d modeling.

Second would be another small scene that will focus on next gen RTS type specs, showing that I can model within strict tri counts but still push detail with normal maps / high res models, as well as using textures to help push details. This will most likely be set in a Steam Punk universe since again... I've never really done anything like that before.

And lastly I really wanna do something with Handheld specs, it's something that I will always enjoy and have fun with. It would most likely be some sort of Game mo-cop of a level / environment hopefully focusing on some sort of tropical setting, something with punchy colours.

I have the entire summer off (besides work.. hopefully) so that should give me more then enough time to complete these projects... I hope :P

If anyone else has any tips as to what I could do and how I could improve please feel free to comment.

Thanks again all, I hope the new stuff will be a step up from the old.

Armanguy · May 2008

i really like the basketball court is that in an engine or in max?

butt_sahib · May 2008

Yo jason,
Whats up

Dont know why you didnt post this on GA (i had to sign up just to say what i think...)
I disagree with Johnny to some extent( Though i consider jhonny a god). i do have some idea how you evolved from the days of threedy and gamingartist. Me being a self-taught (still in process) artist, respect every other self-taught artist and youre pretty much on the top of the list (including rota). I mean, you have the knowledge of topology, you can uv, texture and all that shit- EVEN before going into Art school.

You have to ask your self a question, what do you want to do with your life? Do you want to do environments just because you wanted a job? Or do you really enjoy making environments? Which i have a hard time believing.

But seeing as you now plan on doing 2-3 more environments, i just cant accept that. Its pretty confusing seeing someone who has been doing characters pretty much all their life-suddenly do environments.
I believe your first oficial environment was just so as to give the game studios another excuse to hire you. Has that changed? Or are you just doing environments in desperation to get into the industry?

What i think you should do, is add 3-4 really sexy next gen characters-Which you will have time for in the summer, and an envo JUST to enhance the folio and apply as a general 3d artist. In time, you will most probably get to character art. And thats JUST based on the fact that chrc. position openings are a rarity...
I guess you DO know all that i have said, i just think you need to step back and analyze yourself.

I dunno....

BrodyB · May 2008

...I recognize that clock...

steady · May 2008

BrodyB wrote: »

...I recognize that clock...

You should also take note that it says "Art Test"...

renderhjs · May 2008

BrodyB wrote: »

...I recognize that clock...

not just those 2,- also this one:
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53387
mind anyone telling where it is really from? I´d consider ditching that one as quite a few people have it as well in their portfolio

JasonLavoie · May 2008

Oh sorry all, I didn't know we were suppose to post the name of the Company we were doing the art test for (it was on the picture). I did the clock for Red Jade (www.RedJade.com) as an art test, they are a Canadian based company that hires freelance artists to work on models and what not (like Liquid Development).

Sorry for the confusion, I actually thought it turned out fairly ok so I put it on my portfolio.

Ha ha sorry butt for not posting on GA

I have always viewed polycount as the best forum to get solid HARSH crits that really let you know what you are doing wrong and right. If you want I can post this on GA as well, but I think I got what I was looking for here... MAKE BETTER WORK!

You bring up a good point as well man. Obviously from sharing the forums with you over sometime its apparent that I enjoy character modeling (as do you, and you are getting very good man!). But we all know that it is near to impossible to land a job as a character modeler when you first get out of school (College for me). I've talked to some friends before who are character modelers in studios, and they say focus on next gen, high res characters etc. But to tell you the truth... I hate next gen stuff (for the most part) Whenever I see some of the stuff that is coming out of studios it is SO un-inspiring, I love sticking to low poly cause I always feel like it has more "character".

But that means I am limiting myself... I wanna work on stuff for Handhelds, Wii etc. but I also know if I want to evolve as an artist I need to start focusing on High res, and learning sub d modeling is a start... and I'll learn the basic better (most likely) from doing Environment work. From there I can go onto characters... and I'll still practice with Zbrush etc.

But Johny's post hit me deep (not in a bad way) but it basically told me that I need to get better (we all do I know) but I know I can produce better work then I have now... and that is where I am currently :P

Anywho, I think I wrote enough there

Thanks all for the help

Oh and Armanguy, its in engine (Unreal Tournament 3) i just took some screens from the editor viewports (perspective window).

Jay's Portfolio

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