[Portfolio] - Joshua Stubbles, environment artist

Joshua Stubbles

http://www.ivassago.com/

Recently made some changes to my site, for which I'm looking for feedback on. I'd like to know if it's easy to read/understand/navigate, as well as content feedback (is some of the work too weak? should something be removed? Is there a particular style/genre you think I am lacking?)

Any/all advice and (constructive) critique is welcome.

The unearthly challenge page is maybe 50% done, so there's more content going to be added to that page. I just wanted something online in the meantime.
I'm currently working on additional normal mapped assets to showcase that I am becoming proficient in that art style.

I am currently looking for work.

Thanks again.

Ark

Nice site man, the layouts really clean and easy to navigate. The overly stuff on the Forza is a really neat trick.

I think the Stacked environments still hold up really well considering it's an XBOX title. Although funnily enough, my favourite piece is the smallest prop you have, the Lantern.

Maybe add a few hi-poly model images that were used for the normal maps?

Joao Sapiro

i would reduce the screenshots you have of forza because on 50~% of them you show the same thing ( the cliffs ) , but cool stuff man

danshewan

I like it - nice to see your more recent work on there, and the images are large enough to see the overall quality without committing to clicking on a specific piece.

The only thing that might be a problem (and it's pretty minor) is the necessity of using the browser's back button to get back to your homepage. Not a huge deal, but maybe a couple of links at the top of each individual page to make navigation that little bit easier.

Also, maybe contact details on the homepage. Other than that, nice site, nice work. I especially liked the grayed-out work that you didn't do - much more effective than distracting text telling people what you didn't do.

Slipstream

Your sites really good! Presentation's awesome, and I especially like the overlay effect on the parts you didn't (sp?) do for Forza as well. Though I'd almost say that, since its only done there, you might want to add an explanation at the top for the effect (I mean, its fairly obvious, but still)

A-Train

Would anyone mind taking a look at my portfolio and giving me some feedback? I really appreciate it.

Vassago, your lamp is awesome man. Same with the Panzer.

Joshua Stubbles

A-Train wrote: »

Would anyone mind taking a look at my portfolio and giving me some feedback? I really appreciate it.

Wtf, hijacker? haha I'll check it out in a moment.

@Johnny - I only did that to show how much work I did in relation to the entire environment and how it melded with other content. It's hard to show off a full track. I'll consider chopping the amount down though.

@danshewan - that's the first time I've heard someone mention the back-button issue. I'll look into adding nav buttons on top.

@slipstream - the Forza pages do have a notification on the top of them about the greyed out bits not being my work. Did you miss those? Perhaps I should highlight them in some way.

thx for the feedback so far guys.

Slipstream

Ha! Well snap, so I did
If they were white they'd definitely stand out a bit more, but it might just be me. My mouse landed on the image straight away, and it did the overlay thing. Fascinated I continued downward, mousing over images as I went, and seeing nothing else . . . anyway, moral of the story is I get distracted by pictures. I wouldn't worry about it unless more than me missed it initially

Zack Fowler

Nice work, man. I noticed the bit about the greying out right away. The normals problem on the door of your M3 Halftrack (wrong html title on that page, btw) is pretty noticeable though. Also, UE3 wireframes are so ugly/useless I'd just go with an edged faces screencap from MAX instead. Again, nice work though.

Joshua Stubbles

ZackF wrote: »

Nice work, man. I noticed the bit about the greying out right away. The normals problem on the door of your M3 Halftrack (

Oops thanks for that
Fixing the html error right now. As for the normals issue, yeah. For some reason the smoothing groups I have in max aren't importing into Unreal, even though the ASE's are exported with smoothing groups checked. Strange. There's no normal maps, so it's just a smoothing issue.

Zack Fowler

Just guessing, but it may be an issue with the way that 3DS MAX handles surfaces with no smoothing group assigned versus how UE3 handles it. Basically MAX makes things of no smoothing group to be faceted, but UE3 makes them smoothed to each other.

Lee3dee

awesome work Joshua! the tracks are flying by in game, these screens really show how much work went into making it look awesome

Joshua Stubbles

ZackF wrote: »

Just guessing, but it may be an issue with the way that 3DS MAX handles surfaces with no smoothing group assigned versus how UE3 handles it. Basically MAX makes things of no smoothing group to be faceted, but UE3 makes them smoothed to each other.

Now that I did not know. I'll try assigning a separate smoothing group to the M3 and try that out. Thanks!

@Lee - thanks!

Paul Pepera

Love the work and the site design; simple, minimal, efficient.

Some things I would consider:

Change the name banner on the site, simply have "Portfolio of Joshua Stubbles" sans the pics (as nice as they are ), maybe replace them with something more relevant such as your work renders.

I would like to echo Johny's crit of possibly eliminating some of the Forza screenshots, they are all nice but too many I think.

Love the Hetzer, though maybe revisit the tracks to make them more accurate to a Pz38(t) chassis?

Definitely try to get some more high poly/normal mapped assets up thar.

seforin

as we discussed dude the only thing I think needed would be the stuff we did more for unearthly more put together nicely as well as individual pieces you worked on, other then that, as everyone else said, good clean and efficient

Joshua Stubbles

Tomorrow I'll tweak some things on the M3HT, Hetzer and remove some of the Forza pics. I'll take out the banner images as well. I need to get the UC scene sorted out (the one Vig zipped was the latest, right??), so I can merge in my updated machine stuff. I should probably tweak the BG tiles as well.

The feedback helps a lot, thanks all!

Rens

Got some great stuff in there buddy!



Tried centering your page? It might be nice if its not sticking to the left of the screen.

A black outline on a dark grey background isnt really popn, maybe try a white outline?

I really like the wireframe on the Panza tank, the M3 is a bit heavier to follow due to the style.

Besides the presentation, a crit would be, be careful with the random scratches in your maps, its weird if the suddenly fall in places they are most likely not to occure.


\o/

Joshua Stubbles

Alrighty, made some fixes today.

- centered all pages
- added new m3 wireframe
- added offwhite border on thumb images
- reduced amalfi images by 1/2
- removed several catalunya images
- added titlebar nav on all pages
- removed titlebar logo images and replaced with nav text
- highlighted Forza 3 overlay instructions

fixes coming tonight:
- repainted hetzer tracks
- fixed m3 smoothing

@Rens - some of the stuff I perhaps rushed towards the end on (especially if you're talking about the unearthly stuff), so I'm sure some scratches are in a few strange places. I don't have time to rework those, but I'll certainly keep my eye on that in future assets. Thanks!

Seaseme

I may be wrong, but didn't you have a series of really fun TF2 maps at one point? or maybe just one? You should put those up I think.

Joshua Stubbles

Seaseme wrote: »

I may be wrong, but didn't you have a series of really fun TF2 maps at one point? or maybe just one? You should put those up I think.

Maybe you're thinking of Vig?? I've never worked on a TF2 before

Talbot

Hey man

Nice work!

The only thing is that I don't like your wireframe images. It is very hard to tell exactly what is going on.

This for example:


There are so many layers of data that I can't really get what I want from looking at your wireframe. I personally like to see wireframes to see how other people model certain shapes.

Just a thought.

Everything looks great though! Good luck with the job search!

Joshua Stubbles

Guess I'll just remove the UE3 wireframes and show straight up max viewport wireframe grabs. I was just trying to keep everything in-engine.
Thanks!

Firebert

crap crap crap
it's all crap
:P
i dig the updates BIG TIME. really great adds to your work man.
not a fan of rollovers, but that's just personal taste. they make sense for your case and totally are a great solution to distinguish your contribution to a project. they just fill up my little lappy monitor and it makes it hard to see the entire image as every scroll turns into a rollover... not worth even worrying about..... i'm just progressively digressing in style

crazyfingers

Yeah, UT3 wireframes just don't cut it too busy when viewing a 2 sided wireframe.

The dude who did that epic tree was talking about how to export from UT3 including cameras so you could match your shot exactly. That way you could overlay your wireframe from max directly onto your UT3 render, but honestly that's probably more trouble than it's worth, but by all means match the blue wireframe color to match the UT3 "feel".

B.T.W. the UC prop is definitely your star piece, you should put that top and center, it came out kick arse!

Seaseme

Doh! Vig is who I was thinking of. Just the same, kickass stuff man.

seforin

you should become a doctor


No seriously gotta ring new changes looking ace, though I honestly think your name in the center should be more brighter (I prefer you know the persons name immediately and see it but just my opinion)

Jeremy Lindstrom

all your shit sucks josh, throw my name on it and let me put it in my portfolio. kthanksbye.

Joshua Stubbles

At the behest of several people, I removed my unearthly page until it's been completely retextured. I was dealing with a lot of BS last night and this morning, so the hetzer tread is coming today at some point as well. I fixed the M3 smoothing issues though.

I'm hoping to have an art test from Bungie this week, so that will cut into the time spent on my new projects.

Jeff Parrott

Looks solid man. It loads really slow for me but that might be my connection here. Having to click on images to see larger images of the work seems a little slow. Might be easier to just have a bunch of images on one page. But that's more a design thing that you've settled on. Otherwise it's hot stuff man.