1. doesnt seem like the best example of your skills, as it just just a series of heads and all of it is unfinished.
2. size is fine, but when you get more images in there it will probably start to feel a bit unwieldy.
3. servicable is the word i would use, it doesn't have any flair and looks like it could have been spat out of a website generator. You can do better esp in colours.
4. I'm pretty sure most character artists make character props as well... so yes.
I agree about including props but putting them in a separate tab would be a good idea. I like how all your characters show up immediately and I don't have to click a bunch of crap to see any kind of artwork. I'd try to get at least one of those fully textured and show a full body in the thumbnail image just so it doesn't look like a bunch of high poly heads. You said you didn't have everything up there so maybe that will change. The work thats up there now looks awesome though imo.
If your tf2 packs (or pack) win *Crosses Fingers* post those there for sure, and post some more finished things. Size is good for images, but if you ever follow up on any of those busts, sections for each of them might be needed, so far so good, just get more content up and organize it
Props for sure in a character portfolio. They can demonstrate that you can do hard surface stuff and props in general. It shows that you can do more than just charactersl.
If your props don't bring down the portfolio, there's no reason to leave them out. In your case, they will definitely add to the quality because your tf2 stuff is awesome.
For presentation, you need more images. Only 2 of the items have more than one image. Show the work off some more.
Navigation wise, I prefer seeing all the images on a page so I can scroll through them and click specific ones to open up in a new tab at high res. As opposed to just one big image with different views. It would look like this. Main Page>click spy thumbnail>page of spy images>click single image>full res image opens in new tab
In that way you could keep the props in their own section. Clicking the prop thumbnail would take you to a page with a bunch of prop images. One image per prop.
As for the work itself, it depends what you want to get into. I will assume games. For games, you need more full body characters and you need them to be textured, normal mapped; all that jazz. Having a few sculpts/high polys is fine as long as there's game res stuff too. The Edward James Almos one is fine to leave as it is now, whereas the funky old guy and announcer look like they could use some more work.
Good start on this. Keep at it. It's definitely worth it to have a portfolio. I need to make a new one for myself soon. I have lots of work to add and don't like the current style/navigation/art.
Thanks for the feedback, guys. It's all very helpful.
I'm definitely going to add the TF2 packs now that you guys have mentioned adding props and stuff. I also need to actually make some presentation images and pages for the main part of the site - the game art. The images I have up right now are more placeholders to test functionality than anything else, but it's still good to get feedback on them.
I've simplified the look of the pages from the version I had up earlier, so that should help things. Any thoughts, good, bad, whatever?
Now new website is not better. Now it feels like a power point presentation!
Use some proper typography for the title, and i really want to see something actually artistic in the site, instead of just different colours and fonts.
I'm only being harsh because i know you can do better.
I think it's excellent, you could pretty easily get a job with this imho, well, I'm an animator but I think it's as good as the stuff the 3D guys at my job do.
Stuff looks good apart from the last prop set (farm) appearing to be untouched flat colours multiplied over ao.
Your whole portfolio minus the high poly is based on TF2's unique style, it strikes me that you are either the ultimate fanboy or you have difficulties demonstrating realism. (I'm not saying you can't do realism, I just can't see any lp examples)
I actually have some other stuff I need to get up there, so it should look less fanboyish a little later. I was a bit more interested in feedback on the design of the site itself, though.
Still some great work as always Swizzle. But you should really fill the other side off the page. At first glance, it looks more as if you don't have alot of finished work, and that you care to greatly about quality than quantity. I just say to level and space it out or somethings. That's a huge empty area.
I really like the solid greytones and single color for the site itself, it's really clean and easy to navigate the site. It would be really helpful to see some concept art and wireframes, to show your process and how faithfully you interpreted stuff with the modeling/texturing. Also, since you're described as a character artist, it concerns me a little that you don't have any finished full-body realistic figures or examples of realistic texturing.
If you had more work, it would be cool to see just a section for characters, with concept drawings, high poly, low poly, wireframes, etc. and another section for props and other miscellaneous things.
With the whole site basically shifted to the left it doesn't help that the characters are facing left as well. It's like when you frame a character talking in a film, you don't have them to one side of the frame, facing that same side. I would just center everything if it was me. The header and colors all work well, but the rest of the text is a bit too tiny and hard to read.
If I was to be critical I'd really encourage you to remove the side logo and center the content. The logo is nice and all but really doing nothing for the site and having a detrimental effect on the content. When I loaded the page i figured the layout was broken.
Looking good. I don't know if I would bother showing the normals on tf2 characters though. It just looks like you have a bunch of wasted space because normals are used so infrequently.
What you have up looks good, and I like the layout.
But looking at just this, I would question your ability to texture. Almost everything is extremely simple colors with AO, and the one fully textured character is very dark and all brown.
I think spicing up what you have with a few more traditionally textured pieces would get rid of any questions, and make it feel like you could/would work someplace that wasn't Valve.
the one fully textured character is very dark and all brown.
Racist.
On a serious note, I agree completely, you need to show off your ability to texture. It also wouldn't hurt to have a bit more diversity in there. The only fully finished character in there that's not a tf2 character seems like it's not at all representative of your skills anymore. Incidentally, I also question if it should be in there in its current state. Personally I think it shows a much lower skill-level than your tf2 work.
Replies
2. size is fine, but when you get more images in there it will probably start to feel a bit unwieldy.
3. servicable is the word i would use, it doesn't have any flair and looks like it could have been spat out of a website generator. You can do better esp in colours.
4. I'm pretty sure most character artists make character props as well... so yes.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73849
It may be a good idea just to have a separate tab/link for props, at some smaller studios character artists also have to do assets.
If your props don't bring down the portfolio, there's no reason to leave them out. In your case, they will definitely add to the quality because your tf2 stuff is awesome.
For presentation, you need more images. Only 2 of the items have more than one image. Show the work off some more.
Navigation wise, I prefer seeing all the images on a page so I can scroll through them and click specific ones to open up in a new tab at high res. As opposed to just one big image with different views. It would look like this. Main Page>click spy thumbnail>page of spy images>click single image>full res image opens in new tab
In that way you could keep the props in their own section. Clicking the prop thumbnail would take you to a page with a bunch of prop images. One image per prop.
As for the work itself, it depends what you want to get into. I will assume games. For games, you need more full body characters and you need them to be textured, normal mapped; all that jazz. Having a few sculpts/high polys is fine as long as there's game res stuff too. The Edward James Almos one is fine to leave as it is now, whereas the funky old guy and announcer look like they could use some more work.
Good start on this. Keep at it. It's definitely worth it to have a portfolio. I need to make a new one for myself soon. I have lots of work to add and don't like the current style/navigation/art.
I'm definitely going to add the TF2 packs now that you guys have mentioned adding props and stuff. I also need to actually make some presentation images and pages for the main part of the site - the game art. The images I have up right now are more placeholders to test functionality than anything else, but it's still good to get feedback on them.
I've simplified the look of the pages from the version I had up earlier, so that should help things. Any thoughts, good, bad, whatever?
Use some proper typography for the title, and i really want to see something actually artistic in the site, instead of just different colours and fonts.
I'm only being harsh because i know you can do better.
http://www.xavierck.com/
Your whole portfolio minus the high poly is based on TF2's unique style, it strikes me that you are either the ultimate fanboy or you have difficulties demonstrating realism. (I'm not saying you can't do realism, I just can't see any lp examples)
On another note, is that just your 3D work?
If you had more work, it would be cool to see just a section for characters, with concept drawings, high poly, low poly, wireframes, etc. and another section for props and other miscellaneous things.
If I was to be critical I'd really encourage you to remove the side logo and center the content. The logo is nice and all but really doing nothing for the site and having a detrimental effect on the content. When I loaded the page i figured the layout was broken.
Better?
Nice work!
Although some non-stylized finished characters would be a safe bet for sure.
But looking at just this, I would question your ability to texture. Almost everything is extremely simple colors with AO, and the one fully textured character is very dark and all brown.
I think spicing up what you have with a few more traditionally textured pieces would get rid of any questions, and make it feel like you could/would work someplace that wasn't Valve.
Racist.
On a serious note, I agree completely, you need to show off your ability to texture. It also wouldn't hurt to have a bit more diversity in there. The only fully finished character in there that's not a tf2 character seems like it's not at all representative of your skills anymore. Incidentally, I also question if it should be in there in its current state. Personally I think it shows a much lower skill-level than your tf2 work.