[Portfolio] - Amotaf - Portfolio update
Hi everyone,
I have updated my folio with a few new pieces, I was hoping I could get some critiques on the work.
http://fatomahai.carbonmade.com/
Regards
I have updated my folio with a few new pieces, I was hoping I could get some critiques on the work.
http://fatomahai.carbonmade.com/
Regards
Replies
One thing that really stood out to me as being something to remove or re-work was the bronze/gold helmet - the "damage" to that was far too large and deep, it just didn't make any sense. It looked low-res too, and quite grainy. The shield was handled better, it looked more natural.
Also I'm not really sure why you had that one page (the game-artist wall prop) which had a Flash viewer for those 2 images, and the rest of the pages had a much nicer layout of just having all the images inline. I'd ditch the Flash viewer, there's no reason for it.
Thanks for the critiques I will try and sort it out asap.
Kind Regards,
And the images are rather cluttered, claustrophobic like. I might space them out to the sides and have some welcome text/image somewhere to introduce yourself/the website.
I can't account for the jaggy white text as it's fine on at least four monitors I have checked on. I have checked on CRT monitors and flatbed lcd monitors. It's appears fine, I'm not for one minute saying that you are wrong but only I don't see what you see yet.
I have an about me page, if you click on "about" at the top right of your screen it has a page worth of details about myself.
Regardless I am just an amateur who likes 3d and games etc any advice and critiques I get I am very thankful for.
Kind Regards,
I concur upon reflection I wouldn't be able to give you a clear explanation as to why I actually do that. I understand that it can be quite misleading and maybe I should take it out altogether or just show tri count.
I think it stem's from my perception that everyone always goes on about quads being really important like a constant mantra. That when it comes to giving technical specifications like a sub-conscious reflex, I always refer to my quad count rather than tri count.
I will try and amend it.
Kind Regards,
But most people are going to want to see "tri-count" because most people are from the days of game dev where everything had to be triangulated.
But if your character is 15,000 quads, and 30,000 polygons... you might want to consider remodeling it.
Unless it's the size of the entire screen most of the time. It's difficult to tell what a good polycount for most objects are without an understanding of what the intended use is... so I wouldn't sweet the polygon/try/vert count too much on anything... as long as it looks like it's using all the polygons wisely.
I'm not noticing any jaggy text, but i do notice that the font choice is terrible.
Not only that, I don't need every image labeled... I can tell it's a tank or warhammer character by the image. If you were doing something that wasn't part of your personal portfolio... then it wouldn't be in your personal portfolio... so you can remove that text as well.
Welcome images are over-rated and over-used... when I look at a persons portfolio and they have a welcome image... i want to call them just to tell them their welcome image is annoying.
about your work...
Dreadnought -
Looks ok... Specular makes it look like wet plastic, and the normal maps are clearly generated in crazy bump (even without you saying so). I wouldn't say this was a good choice of things to actually model for my portfolio. It's boxes and cylinders... this character doesn't even have a kick ass head.
My Watch -
Nice render. Doesn't look like the watch you referenced though, unless you were trying to restore the watch? some information about your pieces would be helpful. (i need to do the same thing in my portfolio ... describe the renders, that is.)
The tank looks cool... but why does everyone use color in their specular maps? OMG... seriously... sometimes it can look cool... on leather and other materials... but painted metal?
or is there some kind of logical explanation for all this?
Props - the knife and shield look good... the helmet is terrible... the scratches are a bit much and the thing looks like it has no hard edges... not really sure what happened here on the texture bake... but it looks like the normal maps aren't working correctly... either that or the zbrush model looks all soft and mushy. It looks like what would happen if you took a 2048 and resized it to 256. Sword and shield look fine. maybe a tiny bit overkill on the scratches of the shield... but aside from that... good job.
The Jeep - looks fine, too much crazy bump? other than that, the metals look like plastic, but it's a good job for the most part.
Wall prop - I don't even know what this is... looks like you made the concept art... which is cool... Not sure how i feel about the color choices... but the overall design of the thing is kinda strange, so
Building - not a bad model.. the scene is executed the way I would expect from this art test... but the textures are too obviously photo manips... not sure what the spec was for this art test... so i think it looks right
Hope this is helpful,
D
Your carbonmade portfolio is the first one that I actually liked navigating. Usually with carbonmade people put all that unnecessary flash player stuff in and it ruins the whole experience, at least for me.
I like your Dreadnaught, but I really can't see it too well on that dark background you have it on.
The watch is pretty cool too, it would be neat to make a textured low poly version with all the wear and tear of your reference.
The jeep needs a bit more work on it's specular and is a bit off here and there from the reference if you're going for a high accuracy reproduction that is.
I think you should add a sky to your venetian house scene, it just sort of feels incomplete with that gray background behind it.
Oh and don't worry about quads so much, they really aren't as important as some people make them out to be. Quads are really only good for selection purposes while modeling and high poly subD/sculpted smoothing even then n-gons are good for some things too. With real time rendered stuff it's all about the triangle counts, or at least that's what people are used to.
sorry guys
(((removed)))
Thanks for the clarification on the quad,tri issue I think I will just amend all the images so that they read the triangle count anyway.
@ nfrrtycmplx - I'm kinda happy that you critiqued my work because you seem to be in that honest and frank mood,which is great because I like people who are honest.
The subject matter was my personal perference I like Warhammer and I just decided to make one I thought it would be cool. But you are right I could have chosen a more flamboyant dreadnought, as halfway through making it I found the Chaplain Dreadnought and I was like ohh that's bad ass.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=chaplain+dreadnought
The specular looking like wet plastic?..fair enough I suppose that is one interpretation, though I am aware that I need to work on how I create specular maps.
I agree about the polycount though I think you nailed it on the head that it depends on what your making it for.
Though if I was set an art brief then I would definitely stay within the realms of the technical limits.
Watch - Indubitably you are correct it doesn't look like my watch currently but I felt I had two choices either make it look old and rustic, or make a product shot version with it being brand spanking new.
I went with the latter as I was trying to restore it to it's former glory.
Challenger tank - The reason I put colour in my specular maps is because everyone else does, I was just jumping on the bandwagon. Jokes aside the reason I do it because it add's that reflected colour sometimes, which I feel add's a vibrancy to the work.
Though I will say that I have been told not to go overboard with colour specs as it can have a detrimental or "Christmas ball" effect on work sometimes.
I am noticing a trend here
Props - yeah MOP mentioned that about the helmet and I am trying to sort it out.
wall prop- it's a concept on GA.net they usually have mini competitions on there I found that concept in the archive. When I initially saw it I didn't know what it was either so I decied to make it.
@ Ben
Dreadnought - I will try and sort that out maybe I might try a gradient background instead.
Watch - A few people have mentioned that to me I will definitely look into it.
Jeep - I will work on the specular, as nfrrtycmplx said I think I need to spend more time with speculars in general.
Venetian house - I did have a sky background behind it but I took it out I might try putting it back in if it makes the scene more complete.
I have noticed a constant trend here that I need to spend more time with speculars and getting to know them better.
Alright guys and to everyone that made a post in my thread thanks for the critiques I have to thank you all for taking the time out to steer me in the right direction and I appreciate that.
Kind Regards,
If I was in charge of hire / fire, I'd hire you, you show an understanding of art that is a great basis to work upon, I've seen so many untalented artists in this industry it scares me, it would be an honour to hire someone like yourself who has an deep understanding of the processes and techniqus upfront. Good luck, sir.
Regards.
I have been a bit preoccupied with New Years Eve preparations and at the moment I am trying to act upon Mop's advice, by sorting out that Spartan Helmet. This time I am trying to add the plume to make it more elaborate and interesting.
I humbly appreciate all the critiques I am getting thank you all for the advice.
Do you mean the boldness of the font??.
On Carbonmade I only get an option of two fonts, anyway I have changed up the font to the other setting and I have taken the personal portfolio text out.
Tell me if it's still fuzzy on your screen.
Kind Regards,
n88tr, do you have ClearType turned off in the Display settings (if you're using Windows)?
If ClearType is on then fonts like that will be anti-aliased automatically. If ClearType is off then they will not be anti-aliased.
Either way, I'm pretty sure that's an end-user setting and not something amotaf can fix.