[Portfolio] Lynda Miller
Hello!
My name is Lynda, and I was really hoping for some good critique on my current portfolio. I graduated from DigiPen Institute of Technology in 2009 and, like many people, have had trouble finding steady work. I'm most interested in being a 3D Character Artist and am getting a little hazzy on what I actually need to build up my portfolio (besides simply more ZBrush examples).
Here's my portfolio link: http://www.impdragon.com
Any critique you could offer - particularly on my 2D/3D art itself - would be wonderful. Thanks, guys!
-Lynda
My name is Lynda, and I was really hoping for some good critique on my current portfolio. I graduated from DigiPen Institute of Technology in 2009 and, like many people, have had trouble finding steady work. I'm most interested in being a 3D Character Artist and am getting a little hazzy on what I actually need to build up my portfolio (besides simply more ZBrush examples).
Here's my portfolio link: http://www.impdragon.com
Any critique you could offer - particularly on my 2D/3D art itself - would be wonderful. Thanks, guys!
-Lynda
Replies
I think having more detailed textures would help a lot. At the moment most of your textures appear to be pretty generalized such as a local color and then a slight material pattern on top. I recommend going beyond the concept and taking a look at more references and really getting the texture to feel convincing.
Your normal map could also be a bit more detailed. In addition to a finer sculpt, it helps to add a bit of surface noise, especially on a creature like that. Additionally the specular map makes it feel more smooth and shiny than I think it's supposed to be.
Good luck!
In 2D it is critical. Remove some of them, leave like 5 or 10, maybe 15 of your best work.
Also I miss some textures. You show wireframe, final model, but no textures.
And like achillesian said, that orc fort and those guys are your best work in my opinion. They should be the first ones. :thumbup:
Also I found at the end how to see your work on higher resolution. It was not clear for me at the begining...
Do companies like to see wireframes? With my newer works (which will replace many of the ones there) I do plan on including sample texture files -- I assume based on your comments that companies like to see those.
At this point I'm going to be doing a lot of work on my portfolio preparing for GDC next year, and I know I need more detailed normal maps, a high-res human, and maybe some hard-surface props -- at least. Though environment modeling is much more in demand these days, I really feel like character modeling is my strength -- I just need to use ZBrush more.
Again -- thank you so much! A few of you I recognize from work I was browsing yesterday.
As you said, the only way to improve if to keep working as much as possible, GDC next year is your goal, so start working today - theres no better time to start.
I think you need to just start working, hard. try to get a few pieces done in a row, and dont even touch your portfolio or render out the pieces. If you really challenge yourself, you will be surprised at how much you improve.
Then render out your work and pop it onto the site.
The orc barracks look the closest to professional in-game work on your site, but that's only saying if the texture sizes and tri count are pretty low.
Also, to become a character artist, you will need to be really awesome with the entire game art workflow and have a few years experience as another kind of 3d artist in-house.
Or, you will need to be Godlike and not need any experience. I would shoot for a prop/environment role, and then work my way up.
Good luck!
What i was going to say has already been said, so let me make an alternative suggestion.
Try to get in the habit of getting reference, and doing some speed sculpting or speed modeling for at least an hour every day. We are in an industry where practice and reiteration literally makes ALL the difference. The more time you put in, the better you'll get.
So... actually, this brings to mind some other questions I have about portfolios. During my time at college I was constantly barraged with "NO, companies only want to see finished work, no works-in-progress!" but I see sculpts with no textures on so many websites. What is the "real" opinion on works-in-progress on a portfolio? This has always bothered me because I have constantly gotten opposite responses from so many people.
Also.. I'll totally work on that "being God-like" thing. lol
In my opinion I would only show finished works with plenty of breakdown images to support it, full transparency nothing to hide sort of attitude. You want the online portfolio to make a lasting impression so I wouldn't want unfinished work there.
When you see the high res mesh/sculps It's always cooler to see the finished article.
By all mean in the interview you could have some WIP stuff that you could show if needed.
There are a LOT of extra edge loops on that thing.
If the edges aren't contributing to the silhouette, or allowing for some sort of clever texture tiling, they shouldn't be there.
Yeah, I agree with you. At the time I had been doing too much low poly so I was going to try doing a "high res" model -- I know now that isn't quite what "high res" means. If it'll look better as a lower-poly model I'll get rid of a bunch of those loops.
Thanks a bunch! When I get some fixes and renders going I may post them on this thread. I appreciate all the helpful advice.
The final textured piece is pretty nice, but since its drawn from a cartoony source and presented in an RTS framing the expectation is for something with RTS like efficiency. The good news is that a lot of those loops don't appear to be UV seams, so you can probably just remove them without having to fix any texture issues.
It is ok to have extra loops in the actual high poly mesh from a high-poly project since it will only be used to bake normals onto an efficient low-poly copy. For those sorts of projects, though it is often a good idea to show both high and low poly meshes in a comparison render.
Definitely post stuff as you make revisions or move on to new work.