[Portfolio] – Lewis Labram - Environment Artist

invaderZim

Hi everybody,

I graduated from uni earlier this year and I’m looking to become an environment artist. I’ve been on this site quite a lot reading the feedback given by the members on other people’s portfolios and work. I’ve decided that my own portfolio is finally ready to be torn to pieces.

Please can you take some time to look over and critique the assets I’ve created.

Here it is: http://lewislabram.carbonmade.com/

The site does not contain "all" my work, but it contains what I think is the best of my work, so for what its worth, it might as well be "all" my work!

Thanks in advance!

Lewis

jimmypopali

I'd probably just check a few things with the first 3D peice.
The corner of the chimney. The bricks are totally different where they are going around the corner. Very obvious seam. Also, I think that texture overall is very bright compared to the rest of the scene. For such a basic part of the scene, with not much detail at all, it seems to be the main focus point - where everybody's eye goes to first. It's lit pretty nicely though.

Since the top environment is lit nicely, it seems that the alley-way street scene is not lit at all. For the sun to be behind the tree and through the leaves, I'd say it would be a good opportunity to get some interesting light, shadows or even some light beams around.

vofff

I can see your 3D part is stronger than your 2D, I recommend you skip your 2D category I wouldnt post them if I got few good critz from somebody else.

invaderZim

Hey thanks guys, I’ve realised I’m not trying to become a 2d artist, so I’ve removed the 2d section as suggested.

I also removed the alley scene as it is weak and defiantly stands out badly against the rest. So it’ll stay removed until I re-work it into something better (probably by deleting it and starting again:\). I think I had too many lights in there which diminished the shadows too much to the point they were gone.

And I’ve sorted that wall. I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before you pointed it out Jimmypopali, guess I spent so long staring at it my eyes had glazed over.


Thanks again!

whats_true

remove the one thumbnail and just have the portfolio jump straight into the art work. No point in clicking the thumb since its the only thing their~

ParoXum

In my opinion you should only keep your top 3 pieces on the page as the 2 other ones are lower quality. I speak about the Hong Kong scene which is really generic and at some places looks unfinished, the NS rail car is weak too, and doesn't show a great metal treatment, where's the specular pass on it?

The top piece (I think it's a war-hammer concept?) is looking good and polished, but some of the textures are going for photorealism like the plants and other for a more painted look (like windows).

Ah, and what whats_true said about main page.

Barnstable

I agree with the above two posts. The top three pieces are your best, and there's no need for that first page with the singular thumbnail.

That said, I'm really digging your work. I had to do a double take to realize that room was 3D and not a picture. The alley and ship house look like models that have been painted, and I like that quality.

BlvdNights

Are you rendering any of this in a game engine? If not, it's always better to get your stuff in an engine and grab a screen of it there.

invaderZim

Hey guys,

I can’t remove the thumbnail from the first page, it’s just how the site that I used has been designed, however I’m going to create some props without scenes to demonstrate that skill next (is this a good idea?) and that would give me a second section to have reason for the first page thumbnails.

ParoXum, I’m currently re-doing the NS car by sharpening up the normal map, adjusting the lighting and re-making the specular as it was pretty naff and I know that I can do better.

BlvdNights, I’ve never thought to do that before. These images are all straight up renders out of 3dmax. Are there any engines that you could recommend me using? I have UT, Crysis and source (but my experience with importing into source was tiresome) so I assume I have their editors too so ill look into experimenting with them over the next few days.


Thanks for the feedback, ill get to work with the comments

BlvdNights

invaderZim wrote: »

Hey guys,

I can’t remove the thumbnail from the first page, it’s just how the site that I used has been designed, however I’m going to create some props without scenes to demonstrate that skill next (is this a good idea?) and that would give me a second section to have reason for the first page thumbnails.

ParoXum, I’m currently re-doing the NS car by sharpening up the normal map, adjusting the lighting and re-making the specular as it was pretty naff and I know that I can do better.

BlvdNights, I’ve never thought to do that before. These images are all straight up renders out of 3dmax. Are there any engines that you could recommend me using? I have UT, Crysis and source (but my experience with importing into source was tiresome) so I assume I have their editors too so ill look into experimenting with them over the next few days.


Thanks for the feedback, ill get to work with the comments

My personal preference is Unreal 3/UDK (fairly easy to import too.). But Crysis and even Marmoset are also some of the top game rendering engines to use at the moment. Source is definitely showing some age, I wouldn't bother use it unless you are working on a project in it.


Also, a critique on your site. I wouldn't put "more images available on request". Just put them on the site.