Portfolio/demo reel, Ivan Mitkowski, 3d modeler
hey folks
here is my site/ demo reel
http://konjosworld.wordpress.com/
I am a 3d modeler looking for work, and critiques! thanks for checking out my work
I have published 2 iphone games
-Ivan Mitkowski
here is my site/ demo reel
http://konjosworld.wordpress.com/
I am a 3d modeler looking for work, and critiques! thanks for checking out my work
I have published 2 iphone games
-Ivan Mitkowski
Replies
A lot of the models seem a little too perfectly straight and even. A little adjustment to the overall shapes could help a lot, I think. Some of the designs are a little odd and difficult to understand... maybe making something a little more common would be a good thing.
As for the texturing, it looks like you have a good grasp of tiling and stuff like that, but it might be a better show off your artistic abilities by integrating your textures together more. Right now it looks like you're thinking, "this wall is made of rock so I'll put a rock texture on it, and this door is made out of wood so I'll just tile a wood texture on it." In order to get a bit more believability in your textures you're going to have to think of how to make things work together and feel natural.
Some questions you can ask yourself while working: Is there cast shadows and bounced light that I could be painting in? Did I adjust the contrast levels of each texture to work together in the scene? Are there any variations in the texture I can add to make it feel more natural and to the proper scale? Is there an area of focus on each piece and is each scene easily understood for first time viewers?
I'm not an environment artist, and obviously there are limitations with tiled textures, but I'd recommend getting really nice looking stuff first. Tile where you must, but be ready to create some unique textures for important areas as well.
I would also narrow your scope. I really don't think there's any place for the rigging/character stuff in your reel (assuming you mostly want to be an environment artist), you really need to pick just 1 thing (environment art, character art, rigging, animation) and work on that till you are at a professional level. Juniors dont get hired b/c of potential, they get hired b/c they can make game-ready assets.
Really cool that youve gotten this far with everything, you just have to make some intelligent decisions with how to manage your time and keep at it a while longer!
thank you both for writing such detailed responses to my work, this is priceless input. I of course agree with everything that both of you have said. In this time, jobs are hard to get, and employers are going through tons of student portfolios looking for any reason to toss them to the side, and I need to really stand out to get good work doing this.
haikai- I agree about the turntables being dizzying, i will try and think of a new way to present them. Also agree about the straightness, some imperfection in the geometry would add character, and some scratches, dirt, rust would definitely help the textures.. i should be taking more advantage of zbrushs polypainting. Your comment about my texturing, it is definitely what needs the most work. These models need a lot of work done on every texture for sure, and i agree about blending, scale, and thinking about the lighting while texturing. This is all stuff i need to learn and get better with.
James- I agree about the quality, i need to step it up to get a professional job. I definitely should take the rigs out of the reel, it even says so at gameloft job lists.. If you apply to a modeling job, don't have any animation in the reel as a rule. I will take it out.
I have a lot of thinking to do, and a lot of changes to make And yes, i want to be an environment artist, so I should stay focused to that, and learning how to make 100% finished texture sheets, and bring each model as far as i can take it.
OTher then improving the models i already have , do you have any idea's for future models to add? Gamelofts lowpoly modeling job description said brownie points for car models, so im working on one of those
thanks again for the priceless input, i really appreciate you guys putting in time to help me
You need to set some real goals and meet them. Set a target company or game you want to work on, and build assets that would appear in that. Also, put it in UDK. Get some seriously feedback specifically technical to push your knowledge. Consider it a learning piece, then throw it away and make something real. That's how you have to treat your current skill level. At this stage, it'll be your next or third piece from now before you'll be truly learning.
I wouldn't even bother with modeling your own designs at this point... Make a lot of simple, everyday props and experiment with different styles such as realistic objects with photo-sourced textures as well as completely hand-painted and stylized objects. Make sure your models are clear and attractive.
For practice, try making a model without thinking too much about technical limitations such as poly counts and texture sizes. Make it look as good as you possibly can make it. It should look like it could fit in a professional game. Once you're happy with that, try to do something even better with the real-time limitations again. At that point, you'll probably have a good idea of what you need and don't need to make a good looking model.
Maybe the most important thing to prove is that you have a good enough artistic sense to produce appealing models. It probably matters less about the technology at this point in your career. Once you get more confident making nice, well-rounded models, then I would worry about normal maps and stuff like that if you plan on switching to a job working on more high-end games.
I also recommend making a nice online gallery with screenshots/renders of your works. This is probably a lot more useful than a video demo reel.
- You structures look too "organic" in other words learn to use smoothing groups, since alot of your poly work is so low I can tell straight away that you used soft/harden on the entire object at something like angle 90/180 making everything appear rounded.
- Get your scales right, alot of your structures look like miniatures, more so things like doors and table heights/sizes, won't work in a real world setting. Use one of these free models as a stand-in to get your scale correct http://wiki.polycount.com/DigitalSculpting
- Ditch the character/rigging stuff at the end, it's not helping and I know, I know, you want to show your potential... but no focus more.
- This may sound strange, but check your music volume, it's not going to be to everyone's liking, making the loud tunes overbearing (and you don't want the potential employer doing extra work like turning down/off the music)
- Lastly, the reel is of very low quality, it's heavily compressed and does you no favors, so suck it up and take the time to upload a high quality version that isn't so compressed.
Now get to work, good luck man
~t
Basically i figure.... get all of my models into a UDK level, scale them all to eachother accordingly, and then redu all of the textures one by one in order of importance. The UDK is amazing, ive just been putting learning it off because i was working with the shiva engine to publish my games.
Now seeing how UDK handles normal mapping, it does make sense to practice making some normal maps for rock faces and simple stuff at first.
lildragn-
I agree about the soft edges, it doesnt look right at all. And when i import my textures into the UDK they look ridiculous and stand out like a sore thumb next to the nice wall textures given by the UDK... So obviously huge changes need to be made. And everyones right about practice... I need to stop thinking about designing, and focus on recreating specific props /models from games, both WOW style- cartoony/stylized- to UDK- detailed and realistic.
Conclusion: im ditching the demo reel and replacing it with a gallary of my UDK level with improved models/ textures. meaning, no stupid loud music, no dizzying turntable animations, and no rigging throwins
And I am trying to get a part time job at a mac fix-it store. I will work to develop my portfolio and adapt it for a real environment artist position for next gen games.
So instead of trying to get a job with my crappy demo reel, i will work, and possibly develop my new portfolio for the next year.
So it was great that i made a crappy demo reel and posted it here. Ive been learning the software for very long time, but never really made anything great with the awesome programs and functions ive learned. Its like sometimes you hafta stand back from your painting and look at it from far away with a bunch of better artists telling you that you suck, then you can re-evaluate your life and move on to something better.