Taking the Next Step
Hello,
I am a long-time reader of this site and, at the persistent urgings of my friend (oglemeanimations), I am finally getting serious and putting my work out and asking for help. I have been chipping away for years at learning how to become good enough at the craft of creating 3D art for games to get a job as an artist, and the time has now arrived for me to take a much more intense focus at preparing work that will take me to the next level. It is quite a daunting task for someone like me, who has been working professionally (in one form or another) as an artist/graphic designer for nearly 20 years and who has grown accustomed to confidently selling myself and my work, to stand up here and say that I really don't know it all and that I need help to move forward.
Honestly, it is just safer to keep lurking and I think that has kept me back for too long. So here it goes.
I'll be starting on some new work soon, but by way of introduction, I thought I would show some of the work I have done in the past. First, here is a link to my current portfolio.
http://www.bewilderbug.com/
I'm not really looking for critiques (nor fishing for compliments) on this at this point. Although I am proud of the strides I have made over the years and I like the work enough to show it to people, I am fully aware that my body of work and portfolio do not scream "hire me!" Don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunity to critique my work -- I just kind of feel that these pieces are in and of the past and I am determined that they will stay there. My goal is to have three solid full environments by March of next year and I envision that most of what you see on my site today will be rotated out by then. It's an aggressive goal for me given the time that I have, but I am determined to get there even if it means passing out at my computer at 3 AM every night.
Here is a sampling of some of my work.
I like doing lowpoly prop models and I have done a bunch of them:
I am the main instigator of a project that gives away free models (http://www.lowpolycoop.com/):
I have occasionally gotten paid as a freelance artist:
Mostly, though, my work is of the favor-lancing variety:
Sometimes, I manage to sneak some 3D work into my day job:
And finally, just for the amusement of the people here who remember the dotcom bubble of the late 90's. Ten years ago, Ray Dream Designer. Many many hours of work -- I honestly don't know how I convinced Ray Dream to make something that looked even as OK as this:
Thank you all for your time. I hope to have some new work on here soon and I hope that as time goes by I can contribute back to the community.
Thanks,
Scott
I am a long-time reader of this site and, at the persistent urgings of my friend (oglemeanimations), I am finally getting serious and putting my work out and asking for help. I have been chipping away for years at learning how to become good enough at the craft of creating 3D art for games to get a job as an artist, and the time has now arrived for me to take a much more intense focus at preparing work that will take me to the next level. It is quite a daunting task for someone like me, who has been working professionally (in one form or another) as an artist/graphic designer for nearly 20 years and who has grown accustomed to confidently selling myself and my work, to stand up here and say that I really don't know it all and that I need help to move forward.
Honestly, it is just safer to keep lurking and I think that has kept me back for too long. So here it goes.
I'll be starting on some new work soon, but by way of introduction, I thought I would show some of the work I have done in the past. First, here is a link to my current portfolio.
http://www.bewilderbug.com/
I'm not really looking for critiques (nor fishing for compliments) on this at this point. Although I am proud of the strides I have made over the years and I like the work enough to show it to people, I am fully aware that my body of work and portfolio do not scream "hire me!" Don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunity to critique my work -- I just kind of feel that these pieces are in and of the past and I am determined that they will stay there. My goal is to have three solid full environments by March of next year and I envision that most of what you see on my site today will be rotated out by then. It's an aggressive goal for me given the time that I have, but I am determined to get there even if it means passing out at my computer at 3 AM every night.
Here is a sampling of some of my work.
I like doing lowpoly prop models and I have done a bunch of them:
I am the main instigator of a project that gives away free models (http://www.lowpolycoop.com/):
I have occasionally gotten paid as a freelance artist:
Mostly, though, my work is of the favor-lancing variety:
Sometimes, I manage to sneak some 3D work into my day job:
And finally, just for the amusement of the people here who remember the dotcom bubble of the late 90's. Ten years ago, Ray Dream Designer. Many many hours of work -- I honestly don't know how I convinced Ray Dream to make something that looked even as OK as this:
Thank you all for your time. I hope to have some new work on here soon and I hope that as time goes by I can contribute back to the community.
Thanks,
Scott
Replies
hehe lookin' forward to seeing some new work from you, man.
And thanks to everyone that stopped in here for a look. I kind of abstractly knew that there were a lot of people who read this forum, but it did not really register exactly how many there are.
Now, where to start -- too many possibilities.
Crits:
- The wolf is pretty bad, I would take it out or burry it really far down the list but not put it at the top. The overall shape looks like you modeled it from what you "think" wolves look like instead of what they actually look like. I can appreciate a stylized look but those characterizations need to be founded on real world anatomy. Digging up ref of stylized wolves would help the next time around.
- The wolfs UV layout has some really innocuous pieces taking up unusually large chunks of space. The mouth stands out most of all.
- Most of the textures are really great for a base diffuse, but need spec, and possibly normal maps to really sell them. An additional weathering pass is needed on some of them.
- The utility pole looks really well done. But I'm kind of curious why the bottom of the transformer takes up a smaller portion of the UV space then the top. I think its important to maintain a consistent pixel density with most of the pieces. I do agree that some pieces can be scaled to give others precedences, but I'm having trouble understanding the logic behind the scale on some of the pieces? Try to think about the angles players will be viewing your props and what really needs pixels to pull off the detail. Chances are the top doesn't need to be that big.
- The coin crusher looks to be a pretty old piece and unnecessarily high poly. It reminds me of a lot of the standard 3D work from the mid 90's, boarder line falling into the "chrome sphere on checker board pattern" category.
- The props like the flood light, roof props, switch box and crosswalk switch are great! I would put these first and like Funky suggested put them in an environment.
Good stuff, keep at it, I think its pretty clear that your current skill set above a few of the older pieces and if you where to replace them with newer, your portfolio would be really strong.
I agree with your critiques on all counts. Thanks for taking the time to go through in such detail -- there is a lot in your comments that I can take with me to future works. I'm actually going to leave my portfolio the way it is for a little bit so that anyone coming along will know what you are referring to, but changes will be coming soon.
Re: Wolf and Coin Crush. I actually caught myself typing up excuses and explanations and needed to remind myself to not do that. Yeah, they need to go. This work is not really where I am going anyways.
Re: Diffuse textures. Learning normal mapping and more current texturing skills is top of my list and I think the lack of this level of polish is what dates my work the most. You may have just given me the answer of the question of what to do first.
Thanks again everyone for helping point me in the right direction. I am actually glad I waited as long as I did to come here for help because I am just now reaching a point (with my youngest son turning 2 next week) where I have the time to make good use of your comments.
Thanks,
Scott
I expect some killer art in the next month from you, sir. Hit me up anytime you want a second set of eyes to look at your stuff, you know where to find me. Now go forth and wreak awesome.