My website... Round 1!

Talbot

For the next couple of day my desktop computer is going to be unusable, so I decided to take this time to review my website while on my very basic laptop. Since I'm on my laptop, I don't have any of the image files... so I'm limited on how much I can change at the moment. But I thought instead of doing nothing, I would get some input on what I should change before I get my computer up and running again.

Now instead of writing out paragraphs about the website I'm just going to make a couple lists.

Website Background:
- Not strictly a portfolio
- Blog to show progression of work
- No resume because... I'm not at that point yet (high school)

Known Issues:
- Everything but the blog/homepage has some spacing that needs to be rebuilt
- The comments app on the blog is half done
- I'm going to add a image viewing script to the screenshots section.

Here is the website:
www.iamtalbot.com

Let me know what you think. And keep in mind that, at the moment, this isn't supposed to serve as a resume...

cholden

You hide all your art behind a wall of text and clicks.

BradMyers82

Okay man, a decent start.
First off, I would get ride of the home page and either 1. post that news stuff below your portfolio stuff, or 2. have your news stuff on a page that is not the index (make your portfolio section your index), or 3. remove the news section all together.

Right, so if you have your portfolio as your index, the other main issue I see is that you didn't list your contribution to the images that I see. Are those unreal textures, did you mod the level in any way. Explain...

Lastly, I realize you are just starting out, but you should try and show some more completed works. It probably wouldn't take very long to at least assign some texture to those walls.

I like the setup of showing main levels to select, (in your portfolio section) and then continuing on to another page to see all the screen shots. However, since you only have one level that your working on atm, your better off just showing it all on one page. Once you have say, more then 3 levels, then you might want to go back to the setup you currently have.

I see that you say that its not strictly a portfolio, but honestly its best to get these things sorted out from the start. Good luck.

JohnnyRaptor

change that white background, it burns my eyes! aaah!
Ah, and i suggest having some kind of art preview/tease on the top of the front page, all that boring text scares people away..

Yozora

Well I have no interest in reading your blog, if I wanted to see someones work progression I will click on one of the many threads in these or other game art forums.
Tell me when you decide to make it into a portfolio.

Microneezia

I was hammering the news section of your blog for weeks wondering about your new gamertag ... :poly128: why no update?

EarthQuake

Blogs are for myspace/facebook, when i go to your portfolio i really do not want to read about what you had for lunch last tuesday. Get rid of the blog, start with actual images of your art. I should be able to see your art on the first page, instead i had to click through like 5 pages to see anything, enough to make someone in HR lose interest.

Talbot

Ok so... taking everything that has been said into account, I'm going to take my blog of and make it a strictly portfolio website.

Microneezia: It is "Mighty Render". My xbox got the e74 error though... so it is Fallout 3 and GTA IV PC for me.

BradMyers82

Personally, I don't find a news section all that terrible, I would just put it as kind of a side note to your art. Like if someone looks at all your art and wants to know more, they have that option. But it should be strictly game art related and not the first thing one sees.
For example, everyone knows Ben Mathis has a news section on his site: www.poopinmymouth.com and I think it works quite well, however; he may be an exception to the rule since he's a veteran game artist.
Anyways, I look forward to seeing the changes man.

whats_true

You could have the Portfolio as the main page instead of the Blog. Make that your homepage and I think it would work better.

And yeah, to many clicks.