[Portfolio] - Brad Myers, 3d Artist
interpolator
Hey guys!
I'm posting my portfolio up again for crits, since it's undergone a lot of changes in the past year.
I'm currently working as a freelance artist, but I still would like to get a job in-house at a studio somewhere.
Specifically, I'm looking for a job as a 3d artist generalist, so that I can apply to a wider array of jobs.
One thing I have been considering is changing the format of my website to a single page full of images, which many people seem to like. I'm actually thinking that my index page could be in the single page setup, and I could call this "Quick view", but also leave an option for my website as it is now and call it "Gallery View". This way, the viewer can choose how the art is organized and viewed, but by default they would get the all one long page setup.
So I'm interested in what you guys think of my idea.
I would also like crits on everything and anything that has to do with my portfolio, the art, the layout, everything.
Feel free to crit is harshly as you like, I have a thick skin.
http://www.bradm3d.com/
I'm posting my portfolio up again for crits, since it's undergone a lot of changes in the past year.
I'm currently working as a freelance artist, but I still would like to get a job in-house at a studio somewhere.
Specifically, I'm looking for a job as a 3d artist generalist, so that I can apply to a wider array of jobs.
One thing I have been considering is changing the format of my website to a single page full of images, which many people seem to like. I'm actually thinking that my index page could be in the single page setup, and I could call this "Quick view", but also leave an option for my website as it is now and call it "Gallery View". This way, the viewer can choose how the art is organized and viewed, but by default they would get the all one long page setup.
So I'm interested in what you guys think of my idea.
I would also like crits on everything and anything that has to do with my portfolio, the art, the layout, everything.
Feel free to crit is harshly as you like, I have a thick skin.
http://www.bradm3d.com/
Replies
You have nice stuff there dude. Morgan Freeman, wow spot on. You don't even need to mention who that is.
I really wouldn't waste time on a news section. If it even takes 1 minute of your time it is more than needed. Employers I'm sure don't care. If it is there to keep your friends updated as to why you are locked in your room, then that is a different story, heh.
nice 3d work aswell...
But you know what would be more awesomer? If you did a low poly and textured his head. And made him as photorealistic as you could.
...I'm not a fan of random zbrush sculpts like that hand you have. It is a nice hand, but as a character artist it should be given that you could sculpt hands. Which I'm guessing is your goal seeing as it's mostly characters on your portfolio.
Get that girl finish, she's looking hot!
I would get rid of the news section...especially with updates like this "11/18/09 - I haven't been keeping up with my news section, but I have still been working hard..." lol.
I would also get rid of your "about me" section...especially those damn pictures, seeing your face as your avatar...more pics of you on your portfolio...we get it, you love yourself, lol.
Anyways, sick work man, I wish you good luck on the job hunt!
Your sculpting/modeling has improved a lot since your first posts, they're really good now and you are able to get a likeness.
Personally, I'd say remove your age and pictures from the About Me section.
Those are two things that don't really add to knowing who you are.
Your 2d is good...but when I first looked at Brad and Megan, my first impression was that they were traced. I saved them, put them in photoshop and overlayed them, your painted ones seem to be just a barely scaled up version of them. Because once I scaled them down and nudged it into place, every crease in the eye, fold on the shirt, hair on the head lined up. That's not really something you would want potential employers to see. Yeah, you did paint in all the shading and colors, and it's well done. The pastel of your gf is really good, great colors..but after seeing that brad and megan were possibly traced, I felt like that one might have been as well.
You're 3d art is good, and so is your attitude toward constructive criticism, keep at it. I'm sure you'll land something.
-Don't dig the grey backgrounds, if they were black or a more suitable color the portfolio site would look more slick and professional. A quick magic wand selection and fill combined with a soft very small outter glow in layer properties is a quick easy way of doing this without redoing renders.
-Ditch the bruce willis, or put him out of the way, he's a real eye sore among your higher quality work. Not saying he's bad, for low poly he's great, but when you put him next to your other work it just brings it down. You definitely want to take him out of the header, maybe replace him with a scaled down version of your gun.
-The wrench would look better if it had shiney parts to it, probably best suited for the top of it, maybe it's been used as a melee weapon and there are lots of scratches revealing shiney metal beneath, or that area simply hasn't rusted yet. It would add interest to the object and give it range in tone and spec, something you need in portfolio pieces. Right now it suffers from "quake brown" syndrome. Needs some pop, deserves it, it's a great asset. The red painted areas are money, don't touch 'em.
-Your header doesn't meet flush on the left with the rest of the site, where it says "brad myers: 3d artist".
-The horse: By far the best shot of the horse is the in game source engine shot. I'd ditch all the shots above that one and possibly link a cropped version of that for the main site. In fact you might want to blow it up a bit and have it take up more realestate, along with a larger shot of the wrench, just to have some really kick ass eye catching stuff right on the front of the site to pull people in right away.
-I have really mixed feeling about your monster. You obviously put lots of time into him and the high poly looks pretty good, the low poly version just doesn't seem portfolio quality to me, and the high poly version, without texturing I want to say the same. Any chance you could throw more polys on his fingers, put him in an environment and just do a really high quality render of it, just make him look as cool as possible? *shrug*, tough call on this one. Oh and hte texturing on the bones seems to noisy overall, might want to clean up the texture on those everywhere but where they first emerge from the skin.
-You probably want to ditch the clone wars girl. Just doesn't look like game art and it's an exact copy of something that isn't too complicated to begin with. Pulls the portfolio down, this is the kind of work you see from artists who can't do their own good art, exact copies of simplistic art, (not saying you are, your other work is better than this).
-Your Mexican dude is actually quite good, just needs a new face and hair. You should make a new head and take some really nice shots of him, put him in your main portfolio area. Would be great to have a full color shot of him next to a full color shot of your horse.
-You probably want to ditch the 2d section, as well as the tutorials. They're just more buttons that might prevent someone from seeing your 3d work.
Hope that helps. Good luck with the site, rehashing old stuff can be a pain in the arse but it's worth biting the bullet.
I dunno, the 2D work is just very cool. I'd think there is some cross over there, especially the digital painting stuff demonstrating a handle on photoshop.
if you don't expect it to be part of what the company pays you for... don't show it to them. that's my opinion anyway.
That wrench is really solid. One of the more believable things i've seen. I wouldn't change a thing other than to make it a more pronounced piece in your 'folio.
Right but I'm saying the work-flow demonstrated in building up Brad Pitt has crossover with how some people build up their textures. I just think it shows a great deal of competence in layering to get an end result. That and it just looks damn cool. :poly124:
Finish the girl as she seem to be the most powerful character piece so far. I also really really like your theron guard and think it deserves a top spot, its better than bruce willis,
also if you're planning on the 3d generalist thing, shouldnt you have an environment?
makecg: Thanks!
AutopsySoldier: lots of good points there. About the random sculpts like the hand, I'm going to work those off my portfolio eventually. As I get more art in, I'll move it to the Old art section, (now called prior art) or completely remove it. ha ha, man this is honestly far from the truth, lol. I just know that I personally always like to see the artist behind the work, so I posted that stuff up. But since some people don't think its professional or necessary, it's gone now.
The avatar pic stays though. It's a man bear pig reference and even if I am the only person who gets it, its still worth it. ha ha.
Cody: Hey man what's up?! Got the scrolling setup down now, thanks for your 2 cents. Interesting thing about the Runic character, I get all types of feedback on him, some like version 1, some version 2, some love it, and some think it sucks. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with him, but for now I still think it's one of my better pieces. I might change my mind tho, who knows, heh.
mLink: Thanks for the advice! Regrettably, you are absolutely correct about the tracing thing you mentioned with the 2d art. I did those purely as a study for painting (and using pastels, in the one piece), and I sort of took a short cut by tracing from the original photos. I didn't think this was a big deal at the time, but enough people seem to think this is cheating that I wish I hadn't taken that shortcut now. I still feel that if I hadn't traced, I would eventually get the same results, but it would take a lot longer, but in any event, lesson learned, and I'm taking down my 2d art section anyways.
Thanks so much.
crazyfingers: Lots of good points you have in there, and it's especially helpful to hear your views on what you think is best and what is worst. I'm planning on re-visiting some of the work you mentioned, but it might be a little while till I can get to that. Got rid of the 2d art section also, but I'm going to keep the tutorials up for now, since I have people email me from time to time saying that the tutorials helped them. Awesome crits there, thanks!
A-Train: Thanks,
nfrrtycmplx: Yeah, you convinced me to get rid of the 2d art there. It's hard, but I know it's for the best so I appreciate the honesty.
natetheartist: yeah, I'm with you on leaving the wrench as is. But like crazyfingers said, some of it boils down to just personal preference. But yeah, the wrench is one thing I plan on leaving alone.
Junkie: Yeah, I thought about that too. The whole crossover with painting 2d and hand painting textures. But It's probably better if I just show it on 3d verses 2d anyways. I sort of wish I could still share this sort of work some way, but at this point I'm all about doing what I have to, to get a studio job. Oh well.
vj_box: Thanks man!
achillesian: Yeah, I definitely don't feel the same way about what pieces are strong and weak, but I always appreciate hearing how others view my work.
About environment work, yeah, I do want to do something like this. However I'm still learning and building skills, so I'm trying not to do too much since I only have so much time. I do have a really good idea for an environment though, and I do hope to work on it in a few months or so.
Wow, so thanks so much for all the feedback guys, it's all been far more helpful than I could have ever imagined.
As you will see, I have made quite a few changes.
Mainly, I re-organized my gallery section, and I made my main index the "Quick View" page so all my work can be seen as quickly as possible. And of course, I cut a lot of stuff out, based on feedback, namely the 2d art section.
One issue I noticed though:
I'm not sure what I did, but my Main gallery page jumps a little to the side now, compared to all the rest of the pages. I still haven't figured out what is causing this, but if anyone has an idea I'm all ears.
As mentioned I also plan on re-visiting some older work, possibly messing with the site design as crazyfingers pointed out.
I hope you guys like the changes, thanks again!
If your wondering what I was talking about here, I fixed the problem now.
Again, I hope you guys like the changes, and thanks for the help.
but this tiny bit of "web-design" the top part could look way waaaaay better.. esp. compared to your work.
And I would also remove this lowpoly head from the top.
Also use a more unique type face for your name (but not such a strange-crazy one
Your work is really good. So I would say. Design the top und you're fine!
Personal preference of course. Cool stuff though.
Your stuff is looking ace man , I really think a quick catagory type would be nice, not so much making each individual sections but on your splash page where you have all your art load at once.
in example
1st few images that load are your completed next gen based props, and then your high rez sculpts and then after that your low poly work.
right now its just randomly layed about. Thats a minor thing though
Get a jerb so we can celebrate already! Also whatever happened with the master plan? Still thinking of heading our way?
I re-did the top "banner". Hopefully it's looking better now.
I still haven't gotten around to the type face, but once I get the major things ironed out (the art) I'll play around with that for sure.
Baj Singh: Yeah, at times it is nice to simply have the Gallery. Although, I believe that this setup is indeed best for H.R. when looking at my site, so that's why I have gone this route.
Seforin: Hey man, I got close to getting a job several times now, so it's probably only a matter of time. I think I have been growing a lot as an artist lately, so possibly I will catch someone's eye. In the meantime, I'll just keep cranking away on freelance.
I like your idea about categorizing stuff. I'll probably play with that some soon.
Alright, so I have been doing a lot of my real-time rendering with Xoluil shader lately, and I think my skills have jumped a little, so I have been recently updating my portfolio again.
My top two models on my website (the dogs) were done as professional freelance art. I have been fortunate enough to get the O.K. recently to show these pieces so I'm really happy to put them on my portfolio.
One thing though, I have been asked to not reveal any information about the company I did these for, so I'm not going to mention the company just yet. And if you know somehow, please DO NOT mention on this thread.
I have a very specific plan with what I'm going to work on to get my portfolio looking better art wise. But basically, I plan to re-work a lot of the textures, on my older art, and re-render with Xoluil shader.
There are also some new characters in the works, as personal art, but it might be a while before they are finished with how busy I have been lately with freelance.
Oh, and just to be clear, I am working freelance right now, but I am still trying to get a job in-studio somewhere in the U.S. or Canada.
I hope you guys like the updated work, and expect to see a lot more!
Best of luck on the job hunt!
I do think however your portfolio might benefit from a cleaner layout. It's a bit awkward as it just having all your images scrolling down a single page atm.
you should invest in a simple thumbnail design to really help show off the good work you've done.
Some examples.
http://www.ashleyjukes.com/
http://www.thomasmahler.com/
http://rodriguepralier.com/
Cheers.
awsome progress man, love those dogs and freeman especially.
kinda seems like theres too many shots per 'character' tho which makes the one page scrolling thing loose a few points to the gallery view layout imo (which took me a second view to find... might just be me tho :P).
But yeah, really great work man. If you've got time, might be an idea to throw some textures on morgan freeman (similar to sebcesoir's high poly's). Would sell it a bit more i think.
Let us know how the job searching goes
edit: maybe drop the prior art thing too? keep things simpler mebbe :P
edit: cje, he has a thumbnail gallery. The link with the arrow up top points to it.
Although, I must say there are too many images per project. Try to use the width of the page and to limit your shots to only the best. If an employer doesn't like one of your projects and has to scroll past a lot of images, that might be a bad thing.
Make an impression with only a few shots.
aaalso (this is my fourth edit. I am the king of ninja edits), a lot of your pictures won't show fully (vertically) on smaller resolutions.
edit: now that I'm ninja-editing anyway: take out the reference for your girl warrior. She looks nothing at all like any of it, and that's sending a bad sign. I like the character she has, mind you, it's just that you haven't hit the reference at all and you don't want to show a prospective employer that.
- BoBo
It's probably already been asked but, do you think you'll ever finish your aspen model?
Not wild about the layout/design of your website. It's just too cut and dry (for my tastes), although I understand that you probably just want to make the actual work images the priority of the presentation. I do appreciate that you provide everything pertinent on there, like the texture maps, hi-res models, and final low-res "game-ready" models. Good job over all. You work very hard to achieve your goals, so just hang in there, as I'm sure something will turn up for you eventually.
Would love to see a lowpoly and textured version of the aspen character.
CJE: Yeah, we already talked about the thumbnail vs. the long web page deal. Pretty much, I'm just doing what HR people seem to prefer, and hopefully having the thumbnails "option", gives the best of both worlds.
Nizza_waaarg: Yeah, I think I might consider dropping the prior art section, or possibly just leaving it to only a couple of pieces. I agree, short and sweet is the way to go. As for personal art, making a low poly and texturing Morgan Freeman is at the top of my list.
ZacD: Yup, glad you agree dude.
MightyPea: Thanks for the advice. I actually ditched the Low Poly grabs and I think it made things a lot more simple. I totally agree with you. I definetly want to stick to my current presentation setup (that main image with the textures). So I might have to work something out if I want to condense things even more. But, I'll play around with some things and see if I can make it even more condensed. Oh, and got rid of the aspen references on the main page as well. It was supposed to be sort of a mix of all those references, but if it's not clear to you, it might not be clear to others. So no harm in just axing it I think.
About the vertical scrolling. I might just make more of my images smaller with the option to expand. I would like to keep things as big as possible, but there is a sweet spot I think that works well with lower resolutions. Got any tips there? Thanks for all the great tips dude, and I dig the ninja edits, lol.
Canadian Ink: Thanks for backing up what MightyPea said earlier. You guys convinced me.
Bobo_the_seal: Thanks man! I still have plans for a personal project to impress you guys down the road. I hope to get started on that soon!
RoosterMap: Thanks dude. I don't know of any tutorials, but I can just tell you cause its really easy. White value is a very, super tight shine or gloss, and a near black value will give you a really broad shine. So, eyes will have as tight a gloss as you can get, and stuff like fur, would be a darker grey (more broad in shine). Hope this helps!
Organized Chaos: Hey, glad you stopped by, congrats to you again! Let me know how the new job goes for sure! As for the Aspen model, I would like to finish her, but it's at the bottom of my list to be honest. Its one of those things where I feel I can spend my time better working on other stuff. But who knows, maybe one day I'll just up and finish her.
Ivanushka: Always awesome to hear people have followed my work. Thanks man! Thanks for crit man. Always important to hear things from both sides about pro thumbnail, and pro long web page. Thanks for the words of inspiration as well, I won't let you down buddy.