Porfolio - Christopher Morgan Robinson_ Environment artist

Loqq

Hey guys I am posting my portfolio site here today to get some feed back on my layout, design and overall feed back on my work. I just recently graduated and would like help to spruce up both my work and my site. My website is www.mrenvironments.com. looking forward to hearing from the community and taking my work to the next level!

Vadien

I noticed your normal maps don't really have any info in them. A good example is the news paper box you did or the wooden crate. The wooden crate has all these extra small wooden planks in it and that could all be put in the normal to make them pop. But right now there only seems to be normal information where it is already modeled. Normal maps should make the model look high poly. Right now your normal maps aren't doing anything and are going to waste.

whats_true

You have a running theme of everything being dark and dull. Your props are also the generic, school assigned props that I see a lot in portfolios: Light pole, garbage bin, trash can and newspaper stand. Break the mole and do something different. Model your desk with everything on it, model a shelf with the books and all. Your work is to obvious that it's students work. Do something different so that you don't have that on yeah. aka, get rid of them and start over.

I like the approach your going with the first environment, but what Jet_Pilot said is spot on. Your second piece has no lights in it. Your third is vastly empty. Also, your color maps have no information on them. To flat. Given, you never want to put a whole lot of lighting information, but your don't have a lot of love in them, and dulls out everything because of that.

Jet_Pilot

Yea I think the best thing you have is that first scene, and that's not real great.

Whats_true is right about your maps and such but the lighting is way off. Every light MUST HAVE A VISIBLE source. You have a couple of lights coming from the windows that need to go. Work on messing with the falloff from that main light in the ceiling to fill the entire room.

cholden

At a glance, get a real name and some lights. The Mr Environments thing is cute, but I don't know who you are. That's poor marketing. The blood temple is crying for some lights.

You can save everyone a lot of time by implementing this
http://www.thejonjones.com//2005/10/your-portfolio-repels-jobs.html


Drop the main page. Take the user DIRECTLY to your art.

NO contact page, it's just more clutter. All contact information should be clearly visible on each page of your portfolio as well as every image of your portfolio.

As for your art, it goes from flash-of-brilliance to "I just got 3d prog!" quality. I'll give a few examples. In the office scene, there's a pretty well modeled robot but the chair is two cylindar primitive arms rest and a box with middle edges moved up. The room itself is about as low poly as it could be while still translating enough detail to get the point across. On the other hand, the smallest prop in the room, radio, is almost high detail and the TV(?) has modeled in buttons.

Inside the temple, the front of columns have four extra horizontal edges for no reason. Speaking of the interior, I don't fully understand, did you model any of this? Since it says model provided by someone else is there any need presenting their wireframe?

Remove the props page entirely. Your normal maps aren't really doing any work. The newspaper box is three boxes the textures are pictures your googled. Why you would destroy the credibility of the office scene and all the hand painted work of the other environments with this I do not understand. Remember, you're only as good as your worst piece. Secondly, the user is most likely to remember your last piece presented as your defining work. Considering that newspaper box is next to last and the very last piece is an unmodified 12 triangle primitive BOX with a picture of wood on it... well you get the idea.

Again, you do have some work that stands out, but if you clear out the poop you can greatly improve your chances.

BradMyers82

Hey man, there are some really tough crits here, but if you want to make it into the games industry this is the kind of stuff you have to hear
Everything that has been said is very valid, and honestly, there are very, very few students that graduate from college and don't have a ton of work to do before getting a job in the games industry these days.

My advice is start looking around the forums here and see what other environment artists portfolios look like. Compare your work to there's and really work hard to understand what they did, and why their work looks as good as it does. This will help a ton.

As for critiquing your work, the environments are way too clean. Overly simplified geo, and textures that don't have any sense of history. For example, take a photo of something and look at it really close. You will be surprised at how many different color pixels are in the most clean looking of materials. At this level even the most brand new things look beat to hell. I recommend this tutorial for starters with learning how to texture: http://eat3d.com/texturing
Take these crits and let them inspire you to get better. Good luck man, you have the foundation now you need to really push yourself.

LoTekK

In addition to what's already been mentioned, the two images of the office, along with the thumbnails, are jpeg'd all to hell. There's so much artifacting going on, that that's all I end up seeing, instead of the actual render/shot.

Also, those fonts you're using are godawful (not helped by the overdone bloom thing).

Loqq

Hey guys I really appreciate the feedback It's tough love and this only makes me want to work harder!

Loqq

oh sorry the name is actually my initials (M) Morgan (R) Robinson