I dunno; you're work's amazing, but your demo reel is just a slideshow of the images on your blog. Which is fine I'd guess, but it might also seem less professional?
You're also going for environment artist, but you have a bunch of redone texture's for characters. I don't have any experience hiring, but from my own perspective its kinda weird for you to have work that's not 100% your own, and also has to do with characters, with the rest of your environment stuff.
I mean it demonstrates a skillset, but you're not really lacking good work, so it feels to me like it's the oddman out.
Overall I'd say it's solid work, but not astounding.
First off, I'd ditch the blog format and code your own super simple site - it's really not that hard. Small thumbs in a huge vertical column is a bit daunting. Perhaps break assets out into pages? Like put all of your Red Dead stuff on one page, etc? Something to think about.
Some of your textures are lacking a good deal of contrast. While normal/spec maps and realtime lighting help cover some of that, it's best to have your textures leveled out more, since it helps with the way lighting affects them.
One object that bothers me a lot right now is the ambulance. If I didn't see the text, I would have thought it was using a 256x256 texture, not a 2048x1024. It looks absurdly low res for having such a monstrous texture. The bump sheet metal for the foot lift is also scaled badly. Each bump is as large as the door handle!
On the presentation side, there are a few objects that have bad texture seams. While they might not be completely avoidable, you don't need to point them directly at the camera (traffic bollard, rusty car).
Aside from that, I'd say work on speed. Some of the timeframes you have listed on objects is (no offense) just atrocious. Seven hours to model 1 set of stairs and 3 photo-texture variants? Seven hours for a propane tank? One full day for a generic, empty, metal cabinet? Certainly room for improvement there.
The newer work you post is getting progressively better, so you're heading in the right direction. Just work on your speed! Find shortcuts, map them out for quicker access, etc.
Definitely get a simple html setup. My first thought when hitting your site was "how do i make it slow down and or stop". People want to look at your work at their pace. Check out http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=39516 while you're working on site design.
I'd agree with Vassago that the Bully work and boathouse are your stronger pieces, the boathouse could benefit from fewer images to a page and I feel the unreal shots were more appealing than the unity ones.
I kept having the controls at the bottom cover up your information. Tad annoying since it keeps covering up the info. The pieces are pretty damn neat, man. The only thing that stuck out to me was the lack of variation in detail density in the dock. So overall things get fuzzy to look at.
Someone burns lightbox for me please
Seriously I can't stand it!!! After the first two images (if they even load at all) I usually close the website and forget about it.
I don't know if anyone has said this but I dunno if its a good idea to have the Eat 3D tutorial (the pillar) in your portfolio, its a tutorial its meant for you to learn from an apply your technique to your own projects, the only thing this shows to other people is that you know how to follow directions step by step. Plus lots of people have done this tutorial and if they have done it or seen someone else that has done it better it won't help you.
I did this tutorial too, and wow you don't want to see mine, but it was when I was first learning. Still compared to the original and yours its still not as good, the first thing I saw was the scale issues but I didn't look that close. What I usually do in cases like that is I have a blog, w.i.p and tutorial work goes there, along with my port pieces, but as far as what people can see when I apply for a job, only the best of the best no excuses. Im not saying you shouldnt let anyone see this, but you should probably have a website to host your portfolio and keep this flickr thing for everything else.
Both.
First one has thumbnails but no way to save images.
Second one saves images but gives no clear view of your art range.
Both rely on annoying fade in/fade out effect and big apple-like fonts and loading animations that just piss off some people (me included). Some folks like their stuff to be delivered bare bones and instantly.
Simply do thumbs opening standard images, that way you'll be sure that no one will be annoyed.
Headache-free gallery, no fuss, just balls and art.
Even on a slow connection I can see his images downloading. With scripts like the ones you use, I would be stuck with a rotating icon on a black background until the image is finally loaded. Not something you want to do for a portfolio review really.
Plain and simply,
most people here have a passionate hate for flash-based image viewers.
and its understandable. its slow, annoying, and prevents your work from showing up as good as it can. ie: if i dont stop moving my mouse for at least five or so seconds, the flickr bar will block the information and images at the tops and bottoms.
if i was an art director and wanted to save an image from your site to take a closer look or to review later, i cant, without using a print screen.
a lot of the people who visit this site are also working in the industry if not hiring as well.
if you feel that you are too good for the people who will turn away your site for the way its laid out, then so be it. good luck with the other companies who will actually take a look.
and as far as tutorial pieces/art test pieces showing up in your portfolio, its debatable, but it shows bad practice. shows that you have to be walked through each step of the way to get to a respectable piece.
so far, the strongest pieces you have are the eat3d pillar, the splash damage art test, and the ambulance, to which the top is cut off (with the flickr bar)
Well as far as saying you don't have a site because you can't design is kinda pointless because for one, if you did have a site and you did design it, people would tell you not to have a design. Look at my site, all it took was some photoshop skills (which Im asuming you have) and enough html knowledge to say put this picture here after this picture. It took me a day, so whenever your tired of your highpoly work for a bit you can throw it together. Honestly about the flickr thing it kinda screams "im too lazy to actually make a custom website so im just going to use this template because it works." Which is usually the case when people use things like this, true or not people are going to assume that. Also the fact that you have to explain to people how to use it, is a red flag as it is, art directors dont want to read your instructions, if they cant figure out how to look at your stuff the first second they look at it then they arent going to take the time to figure it out, and its on to the next portfolio out of 30 or so they even have to look at that day.
About your pillar I just noticed that the electrical box was way too big, it makes you pillar look short and fat, it takes almost the whole bottom third of the piece, when in the original example on the tutorial it is much smaller and composed on the model nicely. These are things that probably wouldn't stick out as much if you didn't have something to compare your model too, but since you do these things would stand out to anyone, trained eye or not. This is another reason not to use tutorials in your port.
Im not trying to sound harsh here, Im just repeating what I have had people say to me on this forum, and things I have come to learn in my experience. I know that a website isn't the thing you want to spend your time on, but sometimes you have to look at the big picture.
2nd I have my downloadble PDF from the blog (link at the top)
for art directors to just download a small 4mb file and view and zoom to their hearts content.
My last word of advice would be ... by all means, give that blog address when you apply places, instead of the flashy portfolios/image viewers. Blogs can look lazy too but at least it is easy to scroll down - as long as you keep it structured like that. A one shot kind of frozen blog/folio in a way.
Edit : did a quick paintover ... I think black is a bit too 'default blog-esque' but you get the idea ...
(dont tell me it's hard, it took five minutes and all I did was removing stuff and moving stuff around. Bulding such a site from scratch would take what, two hours?)
hey make sure you have hosting to go with that domain, unless you have a computer that's awesome enough to be used as a server. Most places offer package deals.
Oh and if everyone hates .pdfs I guess Im screwed too, but better to please everyone and have both.
i wouldnt use that pillar as portfolio piece, since its obviously based on the eat3d tutorial, and everyone did it .
This keeps being said, but I'd just take a step further it's not a bad piece and you've spent time on it but.. in it's current state everyone knows where it's from.. soooo throw it in a scene and "viola" it's still a portfolio piece and it's part of a bigger scene...
What I meant was people here really don't like it when the only way to download or save anything is through pdf's. Or if the resume was just a PDF download.
Id rather DL a pdf than open up MS Word. At least I dont have to open up an entire software just to look at someones resume and print it. The only other option other than that is HTML and if you can manage to format it and make it look like a professional resume that way that can be easily printed then by all means do that, but html formatting is veeeery limited.
Its always good to have it online and include a download link, unless you have no industry experience, then I'd just leave it off and they can contact you if they really want to know your work history. I'm not a fan of adobe reader, and it crashed IE on my schools computers for a while, so its good to have options in that case, just have a work and a pdf icon next to the online resume, You can easily format it nicely with dreamweaver (30 day free trial ftw).
Replies
You're also going for environment artist, but you have a bunch of redone texture's for characters. I don't have any experience hiring, but from my own perspective its kinda weird for you to have work that's not 100% your own, and also has to do with characters, with the rest of your environment stuff.
I mean it demonstrates a skillset, but you're not really lacking good work, so it feels to me like it's the oddman out.
First off, I'd ditch the blog format and code your own super simple site - it's really not that hard. Small thumbs in a huge vertical column is a bit daunting. Perhaps break assets out into pages? Like put all of your Red Dead stuff on one page, etc? Something to think about.
Some of your textures are lacking a good deal of contrast. While normal/spec maps and realtime lighting help cover some of that, it's best to have your textures leveled out more, since it helps with the way lighting affects them.
One object that bothers me a lot right now is the ambulance. If I didn't see the text, I would have thought it was using a 256x256 texture, not a 2048x1024. It looks absurdly low res for having such a monstrous texture. The bump sheet metal for the foot lift is also scaled badly. Each bump is as large as the door handle!
On the presentation side, there are a few objects that have bad texture seams. While they might not be completely avoidable, you don't need to point them directly at the camera (traffic bollard, rusty car).
Aside from that, I'd say work on speed. Some of the timeframes you have listed on objects is (no offense) just atrocious. Seven hours to model 1 set of stairs and 3 photo-texture variants? Seven hours for a propane tank? One full day for a generic, empty, metal cabinet? Certainly room for improvement there.
The newer work you post is getting progressively better, so you're heading in the right direction. Just work on your speed! Find shortcuts, map them out for quicker access, etc.
I think the pillar, boathouse and your work from Bully is your best stuff.
Definitely get a simple html setup. My first thought when hitting your site was "how do i make it slow down and or stop". People want to look at your work at their pace. Check out http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=39516 while you're working on site design.
I'd agree with Vassago that the Bully work and boathouse are your stronger pieces, the boathouse could benefit from fewer images to a page and I feel the unreal shots were more appealing than the unity ones.
Seriously I can't stand it!!! After the first two images (if they even load at all) I usually close the website and forget about it.
http://www.peperaart.com/
or
http://www.icreateworlds.com/
Both much more professional that a flickr account.
First one has thumbnails but no way to save images.
Second one saves images but gives no clear view of your art range.
Both rely on annoying fade in/fade out effect and big apple-like fonts and loading animations that just piss off some people (me included). Some folks like their stuff to be delivered bare bones and instantly.
Simply do thumbs opening standard images, that way you'll be sure that no one will be annoyed.
example :
http://firestarter.burning.it/
Headache-free gallery, no fuss, just balls and art.
Even on a slow connection I can see his images downloading. With scripts like the ones you use, I would be stuck with a rotating icon on a black background until the image is finally loaded. Not something you want to do for a portfolio review really.
Good luck!
most people here have a passionate hate for flash-based image viewers.
and its understandable. its slow, annoying, and prevents your work from showing up as good as it can. ie: if i dont stop moving my mouse for at least five or so seconds, the flickr bar will block the information and images at the tops and bottoms.
if i was an art director and wanted to save an image from your site to take a closer look or to review later, i cant, without using a print screen.
a lot of the people who visit this site are also working in the industry if not hiring as well.
if you feel that you are too good for the people who will turn away your site for the way its laid out, then so be it. good luck with the other companies who will actually take a look.
and as far as tutorial pieces/art test pieces showing up in your portfolio, its debatable, but it shows bad practice. shows that you have to be walked through each step of the way to get to a respectable piece.
so far, the strongest pieces you have are the eat3d pillar, the splash damage art test, and the ambulance, to which the top is cut off (with the flickr bar)
edit: acck, pior beat me.
About your pillar I just noticed that the electrical box was way too big, it makes you pillar look short and fat, it takes almost the whole bottom third of the piece, when in the original example on the tutorial it is much smaller and composed on the model nicely. These are things that probably wouldn't stick out as much if you didn't have something to compare your model too, but since you do these things would stand out to anyone, trained eye or not. This is another reason not to use tutorials in your port.
Im not trying to sound harsh here, Im just repeating what I have had people say to me on this forum, and things I have come to learn in my experience. I know that a website isn't the thing you want to spend your time on, but sometimes you have to look at the big picture.
By the way, people here also hate PDF's.
Edit : did a quick paintover ... I think black is a bit too 'default blog-esque' but you get the idea ...
(dont tell me it's hard, it took five minutes and all I did was removing stuff and moving stuff around. Bulding such a site from scratch would take what, two hours?)
[img removed][/img]
Oh and if everyone hates .pdfs I guess Im screwed too, but better to please everyone and have both.
(.pdfs are awesome)
This keeps being said, but I'd just take a step further it's not a bad piece and you've spent time on it but.. in it's current state everyone knows where it's from.. soooo throw it in a scene and "viola" it's still a portfolio piece and it's part of a bigger scene...
Have your best stuff FIRST!!
What's wrong with PDF's Zac?
Done right they are clean, can contain high res art and it's all in one location. Easy to look at and everyone should have adobe reader...
I have never heard complaints about my pdf...
For PDF's there's an awesome free alternative called Foxit Reader which is basically what adobe reader should be.
I think I just remember it out of context.