me thinks you should change "Home Page" to "Andrew Dyksterhouse Portfolio" or something along those lines. If I were to bookmark your site, it'd just say "Home Page" in my bookmark menu and I'd probably not look at it again.
as for your demo reel, the lighting on your textured gargoyle is not so great. I can't see nothin Perhaps do 100% self illumination if it's just diffuse, or go ahead and throw some more lights in there. I'd say the lighting on all the toons could use some work. Maybe you can render them in a game engine. Unreal, Quake 4, Crysis, any of those could work. Marmoset Toolbag is floatin around PC somewhere for free.
I'd like to see more of that rifle from the Manhattan Project, personally I think it's your strongest piece (The cheshire cat aint too bad) Show it from a FPS point of view and textured. I'm assuming it was for a mod though and you were probably just in charge of modeling it. MOAR!
Show some flats and sizes of your textures; that's always a plus. Others will be able to gauge rather or not you used texture space efficiently and offer some help in that area.
I'm not so fond of the "Services" tab, that could be replaced with Resume or something along those lines. But then again, just a personal suggestion. IT'S YOUR TIME TO SHINE!
You got some works to do my friend, but I'm sure you'll find all the help you need here. You gotta follow through though!
Alright, I made some updates, I took down the demo reel for now and ill have a new one with four new characters soon, probably January. So ya let me know what you guys think. http://www.gamemodeler.com
Always hate home pages. Should go straight to the portfolio because there's only two thing important a portfolio and resume. Everything else is a waste of space.
About and Contact sections are redundant as they are covered by resume section.
Your presentations are weak. No default lighting, characters floating in space. Making a small environment for them to sit in is always a great touch, but not necessary. Regardless, setting up lighting is really easy so there's no excuse. Also, specular maps can have color, don't be afraid. People like to see wires, and know tricounts.
nothing for nothing but i thought your sight was someone elses.
http://achaoticmind.com/ has the exact same site as you and for a while i thought you were him. If you know anyway of customizing the site away from the default i recommend it so this mistake isn't made by anyone else.
I'm sure other people are using the same as well. You want yours to stand out if possible.
I would not write "My goal is to obtain a job as a 3d modeler." in my resume. It's just one facette of what you want I assume. I'd rather go for something like "I want to participate with all my energy in the development of great games, share my knowledge and learn from others" as it doesn not limit you to just "I want a job and money".[FONT="]
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You're very wasteful with your space. All four images of your first character fit within your site's borders without being scaled down. Speaking of scaled down, while putting this together I got a chuckle that most of your materials were their original size. This must be playing hell on your loading to bomb 2048's every time. There's no point in that. I scaled them all into a nice, one screen presentation. Also drop that white background. The high contrast negatively effects the presentation.
Alright, I made some changes, compacted some stuff and shrank the size of the textures, and added a new model. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get rid of the white background. I using godaddys site builder thing, and there is the option to change every other part but that part. Any ways check it out and let me know what you think about the site and the models. I'm graduating soon and need to start applying for jobs so I want this to look as good as possible.
Good start for a portfolio website. simple is best. red dude looks sweet I would like to see more of the sculpture of him though maybe larger images aswell.
I wouldn't connect wire frame / concept image together as one image I would keep those seperate.
This is a bad portfolio design, much worse than what you had before.
Remove this image viewing system in favor of standard thumbnails and images. You force the user to view your content within your own image viewing system which controls their speed of viewing and the image they see. So in essence, you're hiding your work, it's completely unorganized, and will be closed before anyone's seen half of your work.
When companies put up job postings they can get dozens if not hundreds of applications. You HAVE to understand that they quickly plow through them. If your work is hidden, takes time to load or whatever, it WILL NOT BE SEEN. Additionally, when a portfolio is setup with some custom navigation you look like asshole because you are unconvincing a potential employer.
Having your background as your main piece looks bad especially since it's your main piece of content.
Your about page is a better portfolio than your portfolio.
Alright, thanks for your brutal honesty. I need this to look as good as possible because I'm heading over to GDC on wednesday and will be hunting for a job. So I changed everything to thumbnails. And let me know if the background is a bit much, I wanted something different from the default and this is what came to mind.
This is a big improvement, but there's still so much you can do.
Yes, this new background distracts from your content, I'd simply remove it. Nevertheless, it's a neat image. It also breaks and stops halfway down the page. Not sure if that's the intended look but it just looks like a web site bug.
If I clicked on Huntress for Attero, THIS is what we should see, a nice organized page of info, wires, flats, and so on. This is perfect for a portfolio presentation (short of putting the final on top). If you setup your 5 pieces do go to a similar page you'd be on to something here. It'd look much nicer that seeing your construction sheets randomly placed below your beauty shots.
Never really cared for WIPs in portfolios.
The white background generates too much contrast with your thumbs reducing their interest. It's usually best to go with a neutral color. Should you wish to use a white background, you must present your characters as such instead of all on a grey background with dark lighting. It's simply a conflict of presentation.
That also leads into somethign ZacD was talking about. The character renders do look pretty bad. They seem blurry and kinda heavy on jpg compression.
Replies
as for your demo reel, the lighting on your textured gargoyle is not so great. I can't see nothin
I'd like to see more of that rifle from the Manhattan Project, personally I think it's your strongest piece (The cheshire cat aint too bad)
Show some flats and sizes of your textures; that's always a plus. Others will be able to gauge rather or not you used texture space efficiently and offer some help in that area.
I'm not so fond of the "Services" tab, that could be replaced with Resume or something along those lines. But then again, just a personal suggestion. IT'S YOUR TIME TO SHINE!
You got some works to do my friend, but I'm sure you'll find all the help you need here. You gotta follow through though!
http://www.gamemodeler.com
About and Contact sections are redundant as they are covered by resume section.
Your presentations are weak. No default lighting, characters floating in space. Making a small environment for them to sit in is always a great touch, but not necessary. Regardless, setting up lighting is really easy so there's no excuse. Also, specular maps can have color, don't be afraid. People like to see wires, and know tricounts.
http://achaoticmind.com/ has the exact same site as you and for a while i thought you were him. If you know anyway of customizing the site away from the default i recommend it so this mistake isn't made by anyone else.
I'm sure other people are using the same as well. You want yours to stand out if possible.
- First page should be Portfolio
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http://www.gamemodeler.com/
I wouldn't connect wire frame / concept image together as one image I would keep those seperate.
www.gamemodeler.com
This is a bad portfolio design, much worse than what you had before.
Remove this image viewing system in favor of standard thumbnails and images. You force the user to view your content within your own image viewing system which controls their speed of viewing and the image they see. So in essence, you're hiding your work, it's completely unorganized, and will be closed before anyone's seen half of your work.
When companies put up job postings they can get dozens if not hundreds of applications. You HAVE to understand that they quickly plow through them. If your work is hidden, takes time to load or whatever, it WILL NOT BE SEEN. Additionally, when a portfolio is setup with some custom navigation you look like asshole because you are unconvincing a potential employer.
Having your background as your main piece looks bad especially since it's your main piece of content.
Your about page is a better portfolio than your portfolio.
Seriously, you have to redo this, it's brutal.
www.gamemodeler.com
p.s. anyone going to the God of War 3 Release Party in San Fran on wednesday, its going to be awesome
The lighting on the models are pretty bad, and I dont think any of them are actually in a game engine.
Yes, this new background distracts from your content, I'd simply remove it. Nevertheless, it's a neat image. It also breaks and stops halfway down the page. Not sure if that's the intended look but it just looks like a web site bug.
You see how you laid out this page?
http://www.gamemodeler.com/About_the_Artist.html
If I clicked on Huntress for Attero, THIS is what we should see, a nice organized page of info, wires, flats, and so on. This is perfect for a portfolio presentation (short of putting the final on top). If you setup your 5 pieces do go to a similar page you'd be on to something here. It'd look much nicer that seeing your construction sheets randomly placed below your beauty shots.
Never really cared for WIPs in portfolios.
The white background generates too much contrast with your thumbs reducing their interest. It's usually best to go with a neutral color. Should you wish to use a white background, you must present your characters as such instead of all on a grey background with dark lighting. It's simply a conflict of presentation.
That also leads into somethign ZacD was talking about. The character renders do look pretty bad. They seem blurry and kinda heavy on jpg compression.