[Portfolio] Andreas Halonen
polycounter lvl 8
Hello Polycounters.
I'm a new 3D artist or atleast I want to work as one in the near future. I have been self educating over the last year and a half during my spare time. (I've been reading books, forums, tutorials and and watching videotutorials etc.)
The software I've focused on is Maya and a little bit on Zbrush. (+ Crazybump, Roadkill, Marmoset toolbag and so on).
I'm looking for comments and crits on my portfolio site and content. (read mostly content)
I would also like tips about what kind of models/material to add to the portfolio.
Current to do list:
I'm a new 3D artist or atleast I want to work as one in the near future. I have been self educating over the last year and a half during my spare time. (I've been reading books, forums, tutorials and and watching videotutorials etc.)
The software I've focused on is Maya and a little bit on Zbrush. (+ Crazybump, Roadkill, Marmoset toolbag and so on).
I'm looking for comments and crits on my portfolio site and content. (read mostly content)
I would also like tips about what kind of models/material to add to the portfolio.
Current to do list:
- I'm going to add contact info to the header so it's always visible.
- Going to add a downloable resum
Replies
-That handpainted texturetile... why was that done at 4096? you scaled it down to
512 so why not work at a resolution that is easier to work with?
-The rock has massive texture in the visible area of it. Did you bake it? did you use crazybump?
-The bridge uses a 2048 texture but the polygoncount is way too loo in my view, you got that giant texture size and only use 112 polygons?
Use tiled uvs for the asphalt and stuff you can achieve way better results that way.
-Lanterns texture looks way too noisy/low res for a 2048 texture. You can easily use a 512 or even 256 res texture for that prop. Just think how large the object will be ingame and how large the onscreen area will be which it covers (right, small)
so a smaller texture size is sufficent.
The metal parts of the lantern have a way to low specular vaule. Just keep in mind that metal in general has a really high gloss value and is dark itself and just appears bright because of lighting
(use the specular map and an env map to fake this)
Use colors in your spec map to achieve the patina look of it (I assume its old copper or sumthing by the looks of it)
-Are you using just desaturated diffuse textures for your specular? looks a bit like that. (especially the ammo crate) (no defined details, fibre glass (it looks like fibre glass) tends to have matte/dark/ non reflecting regions in it which need to defined like that in the specular map.
-ur uv layouts need repacking, atm your wasting alot of space.
-In general your textures are lacking overall sharpness and just look like you used a base material without any character for it. Make it look interesting, add damage. e// add damage means REASONABLE damage here. not damage for the sake of it. Add damage where it makes sense
Especially metal lives from good hand painted lighting (think of that knight) or in case of realtime lighting of a good high value specular map.
-Supply larger pics of the pieces. ( zeppelin) (atm the texture looks blurry as well)
( on a side note zeppelins were made of fabric painted with some grey paint as far as I remember, not wood) (use metal like spec here)
-Last: dont show your stuff on black backgrounds. Will look way better if you use some grey or sumthing just experiment with the background colors a bit.
hope this helps a bit keep it up
I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I think you need to realize that the work you've presented doesn't match the quality level of the work that you see in current games. It takes a lot of time and practice to get to that level, and spare time for 1.5 years isn't nearly enough, especially if you are starting from 0. To give you an idea, even once you reach a professional level, it still takes 2-3 weeks per asset for a good quality large portfolio piece, and thats full time. For a scene, it can take many times that.
I think you still need to work on the fundamentals on these smaller pieces, and once you've mastered those, you need to work on some impressive pieces for your portfolio. Small props are good for practicing and learning the basics, but for a portfolio piece, it needs to wow the viewer, and that means a really cool piece, preferably from some cool concept art you find. And then you need 5 of them.
Well maybe I should work at a bit smaller size doing the handpainted texture. I'll try that next time. ^_^
About the rocktexture I made the normal with maya transfer/bake + a overlay with a crazybump normal generated from the diffuse. Dunno why I did both but thats what was done.
The bridge I know I could or should slim the texture down a bit. Dunno what to add in polys for. Yes I've thought about using tileable textures for the "road part" and concrete. But have not gotten there yet.
I know I should be using smaller size textures and should get to it. The Lamp could definatly use a 256 or 512. Same on the footlocker I think.
I'll try working with the specs and adding some color. I'm very new to working with specs. Or at least getting them correct. ^_^ Usually I've been generating a spec with crazybump or desaturating a diffuse and trying to tweak it a bit in Photoshop.
About painting in light and damage yes I should do that, it would look better. I had restrictions to use only a diffuse for the characters (knights). So I should have painted in more light. Dunno how much it would show up in-game since the RTS characters are kind of small.
About the Zeppelin I should remake it from scratch I think both the model and texture... hehe. It's not ment to look like wood I was trying to make som brownish fabric.. (I know most zepps were painted in grey but I had my id
I know this too I'm not looking for a senior 3D artist spot or anything. I'm just trying to get better everyday. ^_^ The goal is to get employment but I have to start somewhere.
I'm not taking this the wrong way. I'm well aware of the time a "high level" asset takes and so on.
I'm working on that wow effect ^_^ just gimme some time and hopefully I'll get there, hehe.
The stuff I have in my portfolio right now is all beginner level but still it's the stuff I have to show so far.
Thanks for commenting, no hard feelings here.
1) If you look at a piece of work in your portfolio and don't believe it is as good as the artwork in a $60 game like resident evil 5, Battlefield 2 etc, you shouldn't be showing it to professional developers.
2) Try to condense everything down, you don't need to do a tonne of different pieces, even just 3 really good pieces of work with nice presentation can get you an interview/job, and it might be best for you to focus on 1 area above others. The biggest developers (who have the most positions to fill) hire specialists and have them generally working in 1 very particular area.
3) Don't get disheartened and under the impression that it will take you a million years to get into the business, I went from zero knowledge to employment as a game artist in 8 months, please don't lose faith (but I would not send out your reel atm).
4) Lastly I would really really like to stress, once your portfolio is good enough, it is not difficult to get a job, I've even talked to my boss specifically about this (since I'm interested in the process of applications and stuff) and the reality is, truly good people are very few and far between, if your work is as good as that in a nice looking $60 game, you WILL get a job in a reasonably quick amount of time providing you send it to enough people and display it correctly.
Well the point I was trying to make is that I don't think you would match up favorably to other candidates for an entry level job right now, your work just isn't at that level yet. The only thing I'm trying to say is that you should keep working on your portfolio and don't send it out until you can match professional quality. Posting individual pieces on PC for feedback while you are working on them will help accelerate this process.