[Portfolio] Alex Underhill, Environment Artist
polycounter lvl 13
I apologise for the very lengthy post, I've got a lot on my mind about it.
[only tested in firefox so far]
was wondering if I could get some feedback on my portfolio design before I go ahead and finish it. I'm more interested in design crits for the folio, btw. Please bare in mind I've not (but will) put any construction shots yet, and most links at top dont work yet, and any non active links I am aware of.
Currently the only fully functioning pages are the SAW room and slums enviro, so please regard those as what would function throughout. I dont want to appear lazy, just cautious that I'd have to redo it all again if I put all my faith in a layout.
How is the darkness on the entire thing? Been having problems recently with monitor profiles.
Second question, is about layout. I hate websites that require me to ever click back on my browser, so I wanted it all to function off one page. Steered clear of lightbox (which seems to have divided opinion, no right click save as, and highslide borked up my layouts on different browsers.) So i used iframes (lol webdesign 2003.)
Any crits or suggestions regarding layout would be great. I dont know how it bears up on smaller resolutions, how much scrolling is needed, etc. And also, layout of work? Which would you suggest goes first on the front page, etc.
I am not sure how the categorisation of work will go down either - worth keeping, or just clump all thumnails on one filmstrip or something? (they are split in to environments and set pieces, and the props are split two ways - ones I spent alot of time on just making detailed HP models and processing, and the production props were produced with a more professional timescale in mind - under a day or less.)
As a final note, one concern I do have about the work is the house model (not hallway.) Is it worth keeping? To be honest, I'm verging on no. I had kept it because it worked to texel density specs I hadnt done before, but since then, I have. Any second thoughts would be good, even if its just telling me what I suspect.
As you can see, I'm full of questions and thoughts. I'd really like my website to work in my favour, is all.
[only tested in firefox so far]
was wondering if I could get some feedback on my portfolio design before I go ahead and finish it. I'm more interested in design crits for the folio, btw. Please bare in mind I've not (but will) put any construction shots yet, and most links at top dont work yet, and any non active links I am aware of.
Currently the only fully functioning pages are the SAW room and slums enviro, so please regard those as what would function throughout. I dont want to appear lazy, just cautious that I'd have to redo it all again if I put all my faith in a layout.
How is the darkness on the entire thing? Been having problems recently with monitor profiles.
Second question, is about layout. I hate websites that require me to ever click back on my browser, so I wanted it all to function off one page. Steered clear of lightbox (which seems to have divided opinion, no right click save as, and highslide borked up my layouts on different browsers.) So i used iframes (lol webdesign 2003.)
Any crits or suggestions regarding layout would be great. I dont know how it bears up on smaller resolutions, how much scrolling is needed, etc. And also, layout of work? Which would you suggest goes first on the front page, etc.
I am not sure how the categorisation of work will go down either - worth keeping, or just clump all thumnails on one filmstrip or something? (they are split in to environments and set pieces, and the props are split two ways - ones I spent alot of time on just making detailed HP models and processing, and the production props were produced with a more professional timescale in mind - under a day or less.)
As a final note, one concern I do have about the work is the house model (not hallway.) Is it worth keeping? To be honest, I'm verging on no. I had kept it because it worked to texel density specs I hadnt done before, but since then, I have. Any second thoughts would be good, even if its just telling me what I suspect.
As you can see, I'm full of questions and thoughts. I'd really like my website to work in my favour, is all.
Replies
I think the links could be fine if you had everything on one page and the links just jumped you down to that part of the page.
Some real solid work
or all the pieces are loaded at start?
I think the overall layout is quite nice actually, and the colours almost compliment your work (nothing too distracting, easy on the eyes). My one crit would either maybe make your name stand out a bit more (use the white on that maybe).
Also for the 2 first pieces (the ones where you have all the different shots) I didn't notice the links before... so I thought it was just one screenshot. Maybe you could underline the links, or bold them / make them a size bigger just to tell the viewer there is more...
Resolution seems good to me (fits from top to bottom) and I think the thumbnails are large enough to get a solid idea as to what to expect.
Overall man this is a really nice site, the layout is nice and the colour choices compliment your overall work. Just maybe use a white colour for your name, and make sure the viewer knows you have included more shots with bigger / bolded links.
Love your lighting man, and also... what does vertex blended surfaces mean? (sorry for the dumb question).
Great job
I cant get into your Resume or contact stuff at the moment.
some crits on scale... might want to make the "choose catagory" bar a tad bigger. i missed it my first time thru the site. as well as your name. larger.
the colors look great on my monitor!
i'm diggin the renders and the work overall. keep it up, man!
Alex
for every piece clicked on it loads all images.
you could then still have the links up top to jump down the page to the flats but it wont require people viewing your folio to have to click it to see everything that makes up that model
And yea putting the works in a gallery with just one page of thumbnails would do much better.
It would also be great to not have to open multiple windows to see stuff up close.
You're work is great though, just need to be better laid out.
I really like how every screen is realtime, nice to see a portfolio without a ton of GI renders. I really like the stairs hallway piece it looks awesome.
the ivy on the side of that house looks a little weird though, really dark.
I've taken everything on board and made an update:
Some things are a little off and embarassing (theres always something to be done differently
@Autocon:
Thanks again, I've now got all images relating to one piece on one page, just have to scroll down now... I left the links at the top to jump to anchors, but I'm undecided whether they are needed still?
I've tried to minimise clicking, so maybe still having those links isnt necessary?
@JasonLavoie:
Cheers man. Took what you said about the name, made it brighter, and larger, on the header, so now it should stand out more. I scrapped the top thumbnail row/choose category lark.
(By vertex blended surfaces, I probably have the wrong terminology. Its just vertex color blending on surfaces, using the alpha channel of diffuse to smuggle in some grime layer, multiplied atop the diffuse and then blended depending on the vert colors)
@WhatsTrue:
Legend. It's coming off decals (but thats splitting hairs). I will do that in the future, but at the moment I dont think they are too harmful (Which is why I may not remove them. I also quite like how they reinforce the fact its all in-engine... idno.) But that was something that had been bothering me in ages; ive tried turning off all elements through the drop down, to no avail.
Thanks again
@jlewis, sage;
cheers guys, yeah I took this on board. Made the name larger and tried to make navigation simpler this time round.
@Pliang:
thanks man!
I really got my mind stuck on that idea of just having a front page of thumbs, instead of what I had before, so thats what I've done this time. I think it maybe works better for it now? I enlarged the thumbs to take up the space and feel weightier.
@Pixelmasher:
Yeah something about the house wasnt settling right with me, made some alterations tonight but its still on the precipice I think. Just a shame it'd knock things down to 13...
So general comments/questions
I changed it to a thumbs gallery now which I've seen done plenty of times before. It takes me away from single page presentation I'd first thought of, but maybe thats ok.
My main question is, is there enough art straight off the bat? I know the critical rule is have art as soon as it loads, no splashes etc, so im a little unsure if it still counts if that art is just in thumb form? thats my only reserve at the moment.
Some pages still dont work, doing a little more research.
Finally, I kept it so larger images load in a new window. Is this completely frowned upon? I always liked large copies opening in a fresh window so it doesnt interupt the site. But what I like isnt always whats best.
Whats left (Assuming layout is ok this time):
C.V/Resume Page
Differentiation between clickable images/unclickable images
Contact page or just mailto:
final pass adding in break and returns where necessary for IE.
Thanks again everyone, hope to get this done soon and get it out there.
I think the linkedin link is good but I would just put it on the resume page myself.
Make sure to make your location clear on either your contact or resume page.
The internal page navigation links are a bit unnecessary. I would just kill em.
Your actual artwork looks great and I'm glad you're spending the time to present it well.
some really nice work
again great work but I think it could possibly be better if at the top of each piece you include texture size, polycount and texture maps used. right now you have tirs on your wires and texture size on your flats which is fine but i always find it helpfull to know the tries, texture size and what maps are being used right at the top near your first image.
I see this being helpfull if an art director would want to show off some of your work real quick and just grab some of your best rendered images and show them off. With the specs of the piece right there near the top it will be easy for them to know right off the bat alot more about the piece.
anyone website is looking great and you really have some great work there
@Autocon: considered done. Thats a great point, I had missed that out but I've gone through and made the ammendments.
Embarassingly I've had to remove the link for a bit, its the end of the month and my bandwidth is crawling up (thanks for changing my package!) , so whilst I apply for jobs this few weeks, and upgrade my contract, I've got to reserve it
But good luck buddy, lets us know when you get hired (which should be very soon)
(I've paid for 4 times as much bandwidth but they've not upgraded my account yet...)
So as SOMETHING to look at in this thread (A portfolio thread lacking content???) I took some quick photos of what I've sorted out for next weeks career expo in london:
Apologies for size and quality, its dark at the moment, and doesnt warrant a proper whitebox set up.
Its a printed book of work, and cards with my work on. They have their flaws (Would like to get another book printed in the future, but the turnaround was tight) but they are pretty good at the moment. I got the book done as something to show people at the expo, and also, if I got an interview, something to take along with me if needed.
That looks really great man, good luck at the expo buddy!
Cool artbook too!
Paul Wedgwood, Richard Jolly and Chris Sweetman (SD's owner, media director and audio director respectively) will be there for the career stuff, I think - if you see them, tell them MoP sent you
Good job on putting the hard-copy portfolio together, it looks very stylish and professional.