Whatever happened to the Girabbit

Celes

Hi all,
I guess I should post the end result of the Girabbit (amoung the other things I had put on polycount for critics at some point or another). So here's my 2nd demo reel, made 2.5 months after graduation--
http://www.celescreation.com
So I took this to GDC 2010. Bigger companies would be asking me "what is your focus anyway?!" 'Not realistic enough' and 'not stylized' are also some of the feedbacks I've gotten from medium to larger companies. Smaller ones and the slot machine people seem to like me showing varieties of skillsets and assets. And if anybody asked for low poly stuff, I would whip out my phone and show off the 500 tri koala and pug. Other than that I think i need some urban/sci fi stuff as well as some large scale detailed hand painted textures.
I know people'd try to mimic the style of the companies i want to get into... but I don't want to limit myself as if now just trying to get my foot in the door doing whatever I can. Thus came out with an all-inclusive demo reel. I'm also kind of curious of what you guys think of my approach. Crits and comments welcome!

cholden

I like the girabbit scene and animation. It stands out as your strongest piece. You have a soft style that works well for this scene, but betrays you in others. The Ice Dragon is the strongest offender since somewhere in a scene full of icebergs and dragons we'd expect at least a hard edge here and there.

That demon's scene is pretty bad. I would not include it.

The Saloon girl looks good overall, but the princess is a tad wonky. She has a flat, dead face, and her hands don't appear posed as much as floating on the ends of her wrist.

I can understand the focus comments. You present yourself as someone that wants to do characters, but are just a piece or two away from an environment artist's portfolio. And it might not be a bad idea to get your foot in the door. That said, you do come off as a bit of a jack-of-all-trades which can be a real letdown unless you're really good at one of those trades.

Celes

Thank you cholden. Do you think I should focus more on the soft style models/textures? and advertise myself that way?

achillesian

I think you should consider focusing on a particular part of 3d, because at the moment it seems like your pretty good at both (character and environmental) , but not good enough in either. I think the saloon girl and her environment were the best, but the scene still lacks something, something next gen, something realistic. Don't know.

StefanH

i find it really annoying the the video player doesnt seem to have a bar where you can skip to another part. firefox here btw

fearian

I think what was missing from the saloon girl that achillesian wanted was a feeling of 'HD': Its very dark and very... lumpy. What I mean is nothign feels crisp or sharp, it has a playdough feel to it. I think the black shadows contribute to this somewhat. Try setting up some more natural lighting.

cholden

If you guys want to give feedback on the saloon itself, it was made by another artist (as it states on the site). Here's the recently posted thread.

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=71260

Celes

aye, the saloon was the only environment I didn't make -_-;
but yea I've always have trouble keeping normal details whenever I render out stuff mental ray. sometimes I lose a bit of diffuse details too. They look much crispier in high quality render view in Maya's model panel. Any suggestions for keeping details?