[PORTFOLIO] - Nidhin Thomas - 3d artist

orpheus85

Hi everyone, I had completed my course in 3D animation and visual effects a few weeks back. I am currently looking for an internship\job.
i have been advised by fellow poly counters to place myself in the market so as to improve myself and gain industrial experience.
Thus before doing so i am posting my show reel here looking for as much feedback as possible about my work.
I would also like to mention that the first female model in the show reel was my first entry in DW4.
Thanks a lot guys

DEMO REEL
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPh6zndyBjc[/ame]

orpheus85

i would also like to share with you all a short film made by me and three friends of mine for an annual competition at our institute.
The output is real crappy in certain scenes as we had trouble with maya files and rendering but we were happy to have finished the entire movie...which seemed to be an impossible task. we were able to pull it off just at the last moment.

MODELING AND TEXTURING
Nidhin Thomas
Gagandeep

RIGGING AND ANIMATION
Faisal
Naresh

SHORT FILM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3qnlw1X15Y

poopinmymouth

It's nice work, but the reel is insanely slow paced. It should be something like half this length. You also should work on poly optimization. Your low poly models are maintaining meshflow even when the edges are so close together they're adding nothing to the silhouette. You should either use those triangles to define actual volumes instead of leaving it entirely up to the normal map, or taper the triangle count so that as the edges squeeze together, they get fewer.

One quick example is the back of the heads, where you have the same number of edges at the top of the head (needed for roundness) as you do at the nape of the neck (way too dense).

Ben Apuna

My advice would be to set up a simple website with high resolution images of your work rather than a demo reel. Seeing as how you don't have any animation you are not taking advantage of what I believe a demo reel should be used for. In addition you are being forced to display you work at lower resolution and with higher image compression with the reel whereas with still images on a website you control all of those things.

Keep the reel if you like but definitely set up a website as your main method of showing your portfolio to prospective employers.

Before you go and make your website be sure to read the article from this thread: Your Portfolio Repels Jobs

Good luck with your job search.

poopinmymouth

Yep, forgot about that. What Ben said. Be sure to have a fast loading website with jpegs.

sub_roland

not to shabby, i would agree with everything already stated. Way to slow, and i to am a supported of portfolio pieces instead of a reel you a model/texture artist. You'll learn that after going to a GDC and try to show your reel on an iphone, i made that mistake a feel years ago, just makes your art look bad. if you gonna keep the reel though i would say ditch the software used and add in contact info at the end. The software should be in your resume.

Stertman

pretty nice work there but hey, if i had a bunch of applications to go through and fired this one up on my laptop i would probably close it down after like 30 seconds or maybe scrub through it and miss alot of what you are showing. as people said, make a fast loading website instead, or put in animations in you real and make it alot faster..

jmchristopher

Your work looks pretty good, but I have to agree that your reel is just too slow paced. Mine as 2 min and that was not as exciting as I thought it would be. Remember that you are trying to grab the attention of the viewer, so put your best work first, make it quick and make it interesting to watch. After the first piece I wanted to see what else you had, but I was getting tired of seeing the same model. Like you said, keep practicing and improving. Good luck out there.:thumbup:

orpheus85

hi poopinmymouth, first of all i would like to apologize for the late reply to everyone, its really good to know that u found my work nice, yes i have realized tat the reel is really slow as most of the fellow poly counters have adviced me to shorten the lenght of my reel..
poly optimization is something that is really troubling me, i have realized it every time i model something.. i fall in trouble with the mesh while applying normal maps, as i don't have any knowledge of triangulating poly in mesh flow.
are there any help sites\post\forums\tuts where i could learn the process of making a low poly with tri and the places where i can put tris which won't be faulty for the mesh deformation....

orpheus85

i need help in making low poly mesh....need to know where the tri should be put and wat all should be kept in mind while making a low poly with respect to a normal map. do u know any post in polycount or any link that would be helpful?

orpheus85

HI Ben Apuna, i just jumped into making a show reel and had put behind certain key factors that would have highlighted\made my show reel more interesting...turntable animation was avoided by me so as to save render time...don't have a very good PC....i agree with all ur points and i will be putting up my work on a website....am really happy that i have posted my work here....

orpheus85

Thanks Sub_roland, the contact info detail is something that i forgot to add in, my bad...HUGE MISTAKE...will correct it soon.

orpheus85

Thanks stertman, jmchristopher...will reduce the time of the reel, repetition of work will be reduced, but as Ben Apuna said i will also go for a website for a better display of my work. Thanks a lot Guys
Cheers

orpheus85

hey guys can u refer some show reel \videos\websites related to artwork, portfolio that i could use as a reference and compare...so as to improve my presentation

Orgoth02

If you have no animations there is no point is sending a reel. Just send stills, you will have a better chance at getting a job trust me. No one wants to sit around for 4 mins viewing what they could in less then 1. Plus I would take off that gun bases off of that one the Earthquake did. You want to show orginal stuff on your reel/portfolio.

butt_sahib

Yeah orpheous, your biggest concern should be 1) POly flow and b) textures.
For the very first character (your DW entry), alongside with what others mentioned, you should have added/removed polies in places. Main problematic area being the tummy imo. Its waaay too blocky

Orgoth, i personally prefer seeing my models aswell as others from different continous angles.It looks better(shows off the model alot better than stills) and its easier to see the work someone put into the model/vice versa. Ive seen reels where the character was on a pedestal and was animated with a standing idle pose, which really appealed to me