Manuel Huertas - Environment artist portfolio

maze

Hi there!

although I've been registered in this forum for a little while this is the first time I post, I've seen many talented people here and that encourages me to do better stuff!

...Ok a bit about myself, I recently graduated at NAD Centre, in their videogames program in Montreal-QC and I will like to work as an Environment artist in the future. Modelling and texturing are what I like the most doing...although If I had to choose one I'll probably do texturing (doing both will be great...). I also like doing 2D concepts for my 3D projects, etc...But I am not close to the level of dedicated 2d artists...although I can manage to do scribbles here and there...and pull put a concept idea for a 3d project...

My artistic background has been pretty much....graffiti (which I love doing...) and advertising arts...

I will really appreciate any positive of negative commentaries, I 'd worked really hard and hopefully you'll like some of the stuff I do! Thanks in advanced!

manu


http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/


here is one of the props I recently done btw

maze

....And here are some 2D concepts, just freestyling in illustrator CS3

ZacD

Your last 2 projects little a little too abstract and not very marketable. What I would do is look at video games and studios you like/would like to work at/would like to make props for, and make stuff that would good in that game or fit that style. Everything you post in your portfolio should be practical, you what them director to think "I could see this guys work in our games" not "I wonder is thats suppose to be a crate or something" even you don't have a real use for it

maze

Hi ZacD! Thanks for looking my portfolio , you might be right about the "abstract" side of many of the sci fi things I have done...although I try to do them in a way that they make some sense at the end... although it might not be that noticeable , I will definetly continue looking at more video game art for future reference ...

here is some more stuff I pulled from my portfolio online..

Laughing_Bun

I think one major problem with your work right now is it all resembles a cube too much. A cube is the simplest shape a 3d artist can make, so you aren't really proving your skills right now.

maze

Hi Laughing Bun, Yes I tried to keep stuff simple on those models, I was mostly aiming at texturing though. Here are a couple pieces I did that have more modelling work

PredatorGSR

Your work is very solid, however I think there are 2 significant shortcomings in your portfolio. The first is that you are only showing a single type and style of asset. The overall impression given by your portfolio is that you only do hard edged metal objects with peeling paint. While you see that stuff a lot in games, it is only one part of a full environment. The employer needs to be confident that you have a flexible skill set and can handle anything that's needed by the project, whether its wooden buildings, foliage, ground materials like rock and grass, or anything else that isn't a metal object with peeling paint. Obviously you don't need to and can't show every possible type of asset, but you should show that you have range and flexibility by working on different types of assets and styles.

The second shortcoming is that depending on the company an environment artist may be tasked with creating a large part of of a scene or level. That means you need to show that you can tackle a larger project like that, and have the artistic sensibility to compose a good looking scene that tells a story and engages the viewer. The problem is that something like this takes a lot of time and dedication, but thats just the way it is.

Also, on a more specific level, you need to show texture maps for the props.

As an artist, I would also recommend toning down the sharpen filter on your images, you went a little overboard and as a result all the images look gritty. You just want to sharpen enough that it brings out your details and removes texture blurriness, but you don't want it so obvious that the viewer can actually pick it out.

Also, where's your resume?

TrevorJ

I really liked the plane scene the best, the camera robot is a good concept to. Other people have mostly said what i thought.

maze

Thanks PredatorGSR and TrevorJ for your feedback, I am here to learn, hence I'll appreciate your comments. About the repetition in the assets, you are right, they trully belong (most of them) to a hammer mode I was working on with some friends (Sci-fi mode) therefore many of the sci fi stuff belonged to that mode.

As for building a whole level...or environment scene...yes is a looot of work, I need to finish an abandoned theater piece in my porfolio. I'll post a couple stuff...not scratched metal this time... haha.

Is cool to have other's people point of view, because as you know after looking a piece for so long...you start losing some objectivity....therefore...I might applied to much sharpness...

I will be puting my CV asap.

(as you the svastica symbol if you ask yourselves, it is because that chair belong to an old german theater environment...although out of context it might look "a bit off")

(in the texture breakdown underneath please invert 2 & 3 I just realized about that sorry)

maze

and here is the plane txt...

Harry

how intriguing.... The style of your concepts is really weird. Your texturing needs a bit of work, but once you get it downpat i think youll really start creating something unique with your concepts.
I'd recommend maybe using a bit more geometry in your lowpolies too, they look noticably low atm

SHEPEIRO

agreeed ^^^esp the plane uses far to much texture resources and way too little polies, and there is very little need for most of the texture page to be unique

also selling yourself as an environment artist with a load of props and one simple environment wont work IMO, you need examples of full environments, as an env. artist is just as much about prop placement, composition, asset management and lighting as it is texturing and modeling

maze

Hi Harry & Shepeiro, thanks for your comments, as for the "weird" style...haha..., well maybe I have a "weird" graffiti influence...hahah...and I tend to do sharp lines, that might look a bit too cubic in the end, I will definitely work on that. The camera bot was the last prop I did... and I tried to push my modeling skills a bit further. also some of the crates were modelled long time ago for a school (hammer) mode when my modelling skills were limited, I just took them back as I found fun to retexture them...

and about selling only props as an environment artist you are right, and by no means I try to say something I am not, as I've sayed before, I am here to learn and share with polycounters. I just thought "environment artist" englobe the whole thing. There fore it should be Environment / prop artist I guess...


I am posting now an W.I.P of an incubator... I textured some days ago, If you notice on my site I have that model 2 times, because I did it also long time ago, (modelling is not that great I know) but I thought of retexturing it to short of show a progression in my texturing skills...

Although I am sort of asking myself...if I shall remove the old one...texture is really bad...I think

Also If you have any comments to help me improve this texture that''ll be cool to know as I'll be working on it today...

thanks again for your time to everyone I really appreciate

(FRONT glass cover is still missing in this model btw)

Joao Sapiro

ill be honest i have no idea what your props are supposed to be even after you say what they are i recomend starting small , do some small environments and props. And compare yourself to other artists out there, and thats all you need to suceed

Also , graffitis only look good on a wall when they are nicely painted.

rumblesushi

I really like the plane and the camera on wheels, very nice indeed,.

I do agree with Predator though, one problem is that everything in your portfolio is metal with peeling paint

I think it's great to have a distinctive style, in fact in the fine art world - a trademark style > versatility, to some degree even in the commercial illustration world, but for a 3D artist I imagine you'll need to be fairly versatile in the different types of props/assets you create.

Though who knows, if you work freelance, you could market yourself as a roughouse sci fi specialist

It's more for a full time job that some variety would be important I think.

gauss

Echoing a lot of the previous sentiments, diversity is going to be important to showing that you'd be a valuable potential hire.

More than that though I think you're hitting a wall where your ability to build these techy models far outstrips your ability to design them. The incubator design is an illegible mess. I know what it is but I don't like looking at it. The eye doesn't flow. The shapes are abstract, the riveting is nonsensical.

For someone of your skill level I think a strong next step would be to build something tightly to reference of a real-world object. It can still be super futuristic in styling, but it should be put together like an actual object so you can learn just a few basic things. There's a critical lack of believability with your work at this point--and I don't mean realism. The best fantasy/science fiction designs still make a certain kind of sense, guided by logic I don't really see in your pieces.

I would recommend say a custom motorcycle, or an elaborate gun weapon or the like, something that you can find extensive reference for. That will help you develop your skills and more importantly, sharpen your eye for believable mechanical detail.

maze

Johny : Thanks for your sincere comment, I realized that overall the comments point towards the fact of a lack of consistency / believability in those sci-fi stuff I did, and truly is my bad, I must admit ...I didn't look at any reference for any of the scifi stuff I designed/modeled/textured... therefor there is a lot of no sense... and I agree with it. This was for my first sci fi project. and sci fi can be a little tricky itself to make something nice and readable. I will improve those weak points in the future!
As for graffiti...I agree best stuff is on a wall (althou I like to plaiy with color and illustrator some times...)I like can2 style a lot...btw there is a lot of sick graffiti artist out there in spain!

Rumblesushi: Thanks for your comments, yes a lot of rusty metal...and peeling paint, I like doing metal related texturing, but it was mainly because the projet I worked on at school had that as main subject... I am trying to finish and old theater scene, and also an abandoned hospital room (the bed I did belongs to that project). as for working in-house or freelancing. I seriously just want to keep learning and working my skills, if a good project comes either way that'll be cool for me!


Gauss: As I said to Johny, yes I definetly need to improve believability. next time I do any sci-fi thing I will for sure take a look at some real world related machinery, etc. To make stuff more consistent.

actually I havent start that yet because I have a couple of projects I need to finish in the coming weeks, but once they are done I was thinking maybe to do a futuristic version of montreal metro, I really like it's old squared shape ...probably some retro-futuristic will be cool! hehe

PredatorGSR

To answer your question, I don't think you ever want to show old work. The fact that you have improved doesn't mean much, everyone is always improving. Ideally you should have a consistently high level of quality across your portfolio and want to give the impression that you always create great work.

SHEPEIRO

maybe try some more organic modelling too...and by organic i just mean the shapes, maybe try a sports car...the knowledge gained may help soften those designs if they werent all straigth lines, remember curves are beutifull thats why women are covered in them

maze

PredatorGSR : yes it might be wise to take out any old content, you are right about that people just want to see kick ass stuff...nothing else..


Shepeiro...woman curves man...I can't model anything to compete with that...hahah, although I 'll try definetly to get onto more "organic" subjects as soon as I am finished with my current projects.

I am posting a wip of a hospital bed I put earlier, it belongs to a small hospital room environment I am doing in my spare time.

note: it is the first time I was texturing strictly using polypaint, I like that approach although I am having a huge problem, everytime I tried to export the polypaing "difuse" texture of that bed....if simply looks like crap! ...meaning that when I open it in photoshop there is a lot of blurry zones, and really wierd artifacts.... I post this problem in the Zcentral forum, and the answer I got was that too low polys and polypaint looks nasty (it makes sense) ...and too many, and it looks bad as well because of high interpolation. Does any of you had a problem like this? is there a way to make a more precise calcul to get nice polypaing. I am new to this method of texturing so I might passed over something really important...for the time being I am redoing the texture in photoshop as I'll do normally... if you can help me I'll take note for the next time I use that method. Thanks in advance!