[Portfolio] – Royce Moreno

RoyceMoreno

Hey everyone, first time posting. I am currently looking for freelance or full-time work.
www.roycemoreno.com

I haven't had any luck finding a job, and I wonder if I'm doing something wrong? I guess there's always room for improvement.
At the moment I am trying to overhaul my portfolio after a period of inactivity and will probably be reworking my demo reel, but tell me what you think. Crits and job openings are very appreciated!

Thanks,
- Royce Moreno

Ged

Hey Royce its not the easiest season to be looking but I do think there are also things you could do to improve the quality of your artwork. I would say particularly work on getting cleaner more well defined textures that said your natural selection piece looks like an improvement on the other stuff but you probably know that. Im not in the game industry yet myself so this is just my opinion.

Ninjas

Hey Royce! Nice to see you posting here. It would be cool to see you make a WIP thread so that people can see your workflow. You will get more specific feedback that way too.

BradMyers82

Hey man, nice website and your work is looking pretty good. As for the web design its simple, and to the point which I like; however, I just don't like the flash loading thing on the images. But honestly, nothing really sticks out to me that needs to be changed.
Artwork wise, it looks pretty solid, you just need to put more love into the textures. Like with they cyborg character, there seems to be very little color variation which makes things look pretty flat. Also, it looks like the cyborg dude has hair in the normals but the color is the same constant skin tone for some reason. That alone screams to me, unfinished work; so you really need to fix that.
I agree with Ninjas about posting a WIP, so you get feedback on your work as you go.
Your certainly on the right track, just keep working on it.

whipSwitch

Concerning Lightbox,(which often gets mistaken for flash, but isn't), you'll get a mixed bag of recommendations about it. I myself don't mind it, probably due to the fact that I run into it so much, but many people find it distracting when they have to interact with a seperate element to view images. And considering that you are trying to convince people to look through your site (and, people who don't nessecarily want to, for that matter), the idea is to make finding and viewing images as simple and effortless as possible. It might be a good idea to develop a single-image-thumbnail-scheme or simply just post a handful of your best work on the first page. Lots of artists portfolios work this way and they still look very presentable and well designed.

RoyceMoreno

Hey guys, thanks for your replies!

@Ged: Yeah I agree, textures have always been tricky for me in the past. I'll definitely go back and see what I can do with them and clean them up more.

@ Ninjas: hey Casto right? lol Good to see you on here too.Yeah I'm thinking about hopefully starting a WIP thread soon. I've got a another character in the works.

@Brad: Thanks man! For the zombie head, I think at the time I wanted to create the appearance of the scalp having rows of flesh that's somewhat stretched. I took inspiration particularly from the comic book characters Spawn and Deadpool. But now that you point it out I certainly see what you mean, I'll try to get that fixed!

Hey whipSwitch, yeah I've realized lightbox isn't necessarily the best idea, I've been debating whether or not I should remove it and try to just have the entire images on one scrolling page, but the way the site is now I feel like I'd have to redesign it since some of the images are so large? And having resized thumbnails makes it almost the same since you still have to click to see them at full size. I saw another portfolio somewhere on here that had a simple design to it so I thought I'd make a similar quick mock-up: www.roycemoreno.com/site2.html Something like that could function better perhaps? But I dunno if its worth taking the time to switch over.

Thanks guys I really appreciate the feedback. I am wondering what new stuff I can add to the roster? I've got a few ideas, mostly more realistic stuff, or if there's anything in particular I should remove. Any more crits are welcome.

Firebert

It is such a tough market out there man. I feel your pain like you wouldn't believe! Overall I think your site works. Lightbox is a tough decision to make, but anyone that uses a computer and surfs the web nowadays should know what lightbox is and how to navigate through it. If you keep your optimized image sizes to an extremely low file size, I don't think lightbox would hurt your chances. The main problem with using lightbox IMO is putting large images on there which increas load time, hence, no one wants to sit there and wait for an image to load. If it takes longer than a second or two, optimize the file size. However, if you want that extra reassurance, put a "JPG Only Gallery" link at the very top of the page to that new page you set up. This will give them the option to quickly view your work and save images if they so choose to pass around the office. Some versions of lightbox offer the option to customize the viewport so the viewer can click a link that takes them to the full size image to download or view up close stills.
Another thing you could do is start a blog that is linked on your site. Then on your blog just have each image and a little comment beside each post. Don't use it for talking about your work too much, but use it so someone clicks on the blog link and can scroll all the way down and see all your stuff in a quick swipe. Don't know how often it would get clicked, but it is also a way to connect with other artists and link them to your blog and vice versa so everyone gets a little exposure.
As for content, take off the clint eastwood zbrush stuff unless you are going to finish it. It feels very unfinished with that zbrush background and red wax material. other than that, just keep pecking away. maybe competein dw4. find out if there are game developer meetings in your area and attend them. good luck man!