[Portfolio] Sam Roberts - Modeler/Texturer
polycounter lvl 9
Hi guys,
Here is my portfolio: www.samroberts3d.com
it's not the most lavish, over the top and extravagant web design but i think it does the job. I would love some crits, ways i could improve etc. Some of you may know me from GA (if i'm allowed to mention other websites here)
I'm only 15 btw
Thanks,
Sam
Here is my portfolio: www.samroberts3d.com
it's not the most lavish, over the top and extravagant web design but i think it does the job. I would love some crits, ways i could improve etc. Some of you may know me from GA (if i'm allowed to mention other websites here)
I'm only 15 btw
Thanks,
Sam
Replies
Im sure you have heard it before but great work! I have never seen work of this quality from someone your age. In general i think your models and textures are very good. i think the texture on the tank is very nice but you could improve it by losing some of the noise on some of the surfaces so that when you do see wear and tear it has more weight. this would also make it read better from a distance. the pistol has the same problem where it could use a little bit of contrast adjustment. The grip doesn't read very well, i think you could lighten it up and some some textural detail. i think your models have quite good silhouettes however you could work on improving your mesh flow and lose some of the triangle fans and poles. i also think that the tank model looks too perfectly geometric, large objects made out of metal usually have imperfections on their surfaces, large plates usually have subtle concave shapes for example, right angles are seldom perfect , that is a very minor observation.
Another suggestion i would have is that you include some organic props in your portfolio, when i put together my last one i included various 'feature' tee props with different stylization of the model and texture, it got a very good response from employers. I think it could'nt hurt to show some different styles and maybe some versatility with low polycounts (I.E. DS and PSP specs) its quite often that if you end up working in a studio that has several versions of the same game or even just several games in production, newer artists wouldent likelly be put on to the PS3 or xbox 360 game but often on the handhelds, ps2 or wii.
your work should get you a job if you include some more examples. right now the economic situation in North America is making it hard for artist to find employment( well in Vancouver at least) but i have also heard the same thing is going on in the states. dont let that discourage you, you have skills beyond many junior artists that i have worked with.
good luck
these kinds of good crits are right what i need.
I'm working on some environments atm so that will be a good variation to put on my portfolio. I'm now sure what the situation with the industry here in australia is like. Any senior polycount members from australia could fill me in on that one perhaps??
It never hurts to hunt down some more references for say the gun handle as it will show how much more diffuse and contrast there should be. The gun itself it good, but you could wear out the edges where most contacts would be made.
The pump jack in itself is OK, but the color palette itself is very uniform, for metal you'd expect to find some more color variations. I think you may have a mistake on the upper level (The wear seems to off register) and it's a little big in scale. Some hints of paint flaking off would be good to show.
The best of all would be the tank, it's functional in design for what it is, most of the futuristic stuff I've seen from folks your age tends to lack that element. As for the art itself, what Sean said.
As for your site, I'm glad to see you use a simple image gallery, employers can save your image and backtrack your review if they are interested. It is also simple to navigate without opening windows etc.
Certainly come next year things will pick up again.
Keep us posted.
I'm not sure what the rule of thumb is on posting things that i never finished
Here is a my first character i tried to make about 5 months ago and i'm not sure if its worth putting in
worth putting in or not?? (still no one told me if i should put the zbrush sculpt in)
A few notes if you do though:
-stc#28 means fuck all to employers.
-mention that the model isn't yours
-There's no real need to mention the time it took you. If you do, you'll need to do so for everything in your portfolio.
On another note, don't post about your age. You'll never get honest criticism that way, and I know from experience that it will just piss some people off, as they feel you're just trying to play on their sympathies.
Yeah, its interesting to me that you were able to produce this only being 15 years old, and if I were as smart as you, I wouldn't have waited untill I had two college degrees to get into 3d art.
So I am glad you shared your age with us, but like MightyPea said, it might not be a good idea because of the reaction others might have.
Keep at it dude, there is no doubt in my mind you'll have a job when you turn 18 if you do.
on the other hand its good when people are like you can do that at 15, shit.
i'll put the tyres into the web when i get the chance (tonight probably)
Animal Logic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia to those who haven't heard of it
i know its not game art but hey, how can you turn down things like this.
- First off i would rework your gun model, the grip looks really plain and blah! the main body looks solid but that also look like it needs a little more loving heres what it should use this image as reference it was made by kaskad over at game artist forums:
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/5690/makarov2fz8.jpg
as you can tell its not as shiny as your gun , tone down the shininess add some wear and tear if needed, the gradient of the gun is white and Grey take that and make it a little darker than it is.
- The futuristic tank looks solid my only 2 gripes are the noisiness of the texture a little and the the overall design of the tank which is really blocky but it is very well executed.
- both the pump jack and the tires are solid works and i would not change anything about them. take what you did with these 2 objects and make a vehicle or object.
it says your a modeler and a texture artist i would focus in one field doing characters or objects right now it looks a lot like you want to be a 3d level artist, if thats the case i would start learning how to use tools like Hammer and unreal editor and get cracking on a level to showcase in your portfolio you got time so keep up the good work.
yeah the tank design was not be me nor a professional concept artist but my friend who had a rough idea of the look and did an okay concept art.
www.samroberts3d.com
and a non game art project
http://sampson3d.profile.modshoot.com/thumbnail6.html
keep it up man. the spec map could use some tweaking. seems like its the same shinyness across the entire thing.
(i'm going to have to get another page or something because of my current limit of 6 thumbnails i might have to make it 12 add another page or something . and i'm not that great at web design...
C&C welcome.
Thanks alot man, your words help alot
Anyone have their moments when they just dont know what to model... i'm having one of those moments. even if i look at page after page of inspiration - nothing.
your website looks pretty slick. nice, simple, well put together.
just somethign small i noticed, your wireframe (at least the one for your gun), erase all that extra stuff around it. and the wireframe probably reads better when its black as opposed to white.
good stuff, keep it coming.
- Include texture maps, specifications, wireframes and ingame screenshots (if possible) for all models. This is a game art portfolio after all - you are expected to know how to put your stuff ingame
- Drop the WIP stuff - your portfolio is expected to show finished stuff only
- Drop the "back" link (or move it to the bottom of the page so you don't have to scroll up to return) and link the header to the index page
- Include the links bar in all pages
- Include a resume (at least a short version) or get yourself a linkedin profile - most people won't be bothered to e-mail you only to request a resume
As for the lack of inspiration you could try to join a mod. Having a completed mod in your portfolio can help you a lot to get a good job.
Keep up the good work sam
For the modelers block try some cartoons or movies, go out to some museums if you have any around, read a book, play some games, look up ancient relics.
As everyone before me has said keep up the good work.
I've got a building i can show you in a bout two days.
Minotaur0 could you tell me what this linkedin thing is all about? is it like a job facebook or something?
(The reason i have my resume more "secure" is that i'm a bit concerned about random people finding the phone number, address etc of a 15 year old boy)
The barrier is not much of a light mesh - more next gen.
it is 1400 atm (ut3 can handle it fine) but i could get it down to 800 or maybe less if i had to
i'm either going to find someone willing to hire me remotely or move :S
i didn't model or unwrap it. i just textured it...
i have a few crits myself (the stop sign thing specular/normal) but otherwise seems to look good.
max render:
unreal screengrab:
i just thought that when i made it it could be a bit more interesting than just plain metal? maybe not.. is it worth revisiting and changing?
Looks like you have some smoothing errors here in unreal, either your smoothing groups arent exporting, or the top image is a render, and likely not a good representation of how your normals will work in a realtime engine.
could you point me out to the smoothing groups your talking about? (on the base thing?)
Curious...in your tutorial section you go with the skylight/light tracer method for making ambient occlusion, why not just use the Mental Ray Ambient Occlusion? Do you just like the catmull-rom in the scanline renderer? Mitchell in MR does a good job too.
Curious to know the difference between the two as I never really tested side by side.
As far as I understand they are the same quality but the light tracer renders out much faster. I use the same method for my baking
Anyway, look past the fact that some sides dont have rails and it doesnt have support (it makes sense when it's in the level
unreal engine 3 screenie: