I have posted stuff here before, but this is by far the most nervous I have ever been before a post. Please take a look at my portfolio. Looking for crits on both the site and the work.
I think it looks good. very simple - but that's no bad thing - The environment looks good. I think my main crits would be that the environment doesn't have much focus, there is no scene or room that I can piece together from the shots. It's clearly screenshots from a project of some kind but I have no idea how it all really fits together. To put it simply, there's no meaning visible.
The other would be that I don't think you should lead with the lava shots, they lack the details of the other screens, so switch the order around a bit!
Your individual assets are really solid, good work. The vertex painting and lava explanations are awesome, i love seeing some level of technical understanding in a folio.
However i don't feel your final completed level shots, do your assets justice. I recommend taking some time to re compose and re light your UDK shots.
Perhaps someone around here can give you some more direct tips on UDK lighting? i think it would make all the difference when it comes to showing off your strong individual assets.
I'm curious as to how to do the heightmap/displacement map in UDK - can I see (part of) the material nodes?
The work you have is nice, especially the materials being more than standard application of diff/norm/spec maps makes this stand out. BUT. You only have one environment, get some more in there.
PRESENTATION
Screenshots 1+2 and 3+4 are too similar, cut them. Well, one of each pair.
Your prop sheets aren't too optimized, spend too many pixels on the texture and you're almost completely ignoring wires. Wires, btw, are not preferred as pure wireframes, but either wires on a clay render or on a flat color (or at least I prefer them as such):
Anyway - show your maps smaller, show the props bigger, and show some wireframes. For the metal pieces, I don't think you need to add the polycount for every separate object, it feels crowded. A total for the whole set should be enough.
I think your material images are a bit too texture focused as well. Showing them all as 256² should be enough, would cut your images in half. You could include a shot of the material on a plane/sphere/cube in the UDK editor. Maybe you could make an animated GIF of the lava? Keep filesize small though.
In short - use more efficient breakdown images.
In your case it's also a good idea to provide a flythrough of the environment as a YT movie. You can create custom sized viewers, so you can make it as wide as the images are for optimum awesome.
SITE DESIGN
The menu serves no purpose. The only link on the page (resumé) is a direct download. By the way, It'd probably be wise to offer several formats (html, pdf, word) and use icons to signify that (current image links to html page, word/pdf icons link to files).
Not liking the header. Colors are okay, font is rather meh, rectangle in rectangle is... not making sense? Supersize that middle rectangle! Make it full-width! Get rid of the large one! Make me a sandwich!
The font is consistent, yet not. The font is consistent on the images, but breaks with the resumé document. The color changes in each each image, and it's usually too close to the background image. Low contrast colors, a badly legible font (it's designed for headers, not main/block text) and a small size make it hard to read.
Oh also - make sure you put your website on your images - it's even more important than your name. Especially since your name leads to this Ian Mathews instead of you via google...
@fearian - I will place a little blurb at the beginning detailing what the environment is and how it is to be seen.
@lennyagony - I've always struggled with lighting. I will work on it for this project in the WIP thread I've got here for it. It will be a few days before I can work on it though
@snader - As for the oil in the brazier, you don't really see it on account of the flame particle effect covering it so I never really spent any time on the spec map there. In retrospect that was sloppy. I need to either pair the brazier with the particle effect or actually paint a proper spec map there.
I always like seeing a large-ish texture map, but you are right. Your layout is way better than the ones I came up with, which do waste a lot of space. Also, I will see if I can find a font color that works for all the images. I was having trouble doing that, which I why I tried to swap it out for each. So that the fonts blend in, but you can read it if you want to.
The header for the page was designed to lead to a main menu with other things. Since I haven't got any other things yet I opted to cut the menu page, which lead to nothing and slowed people from getting to the work. I will redo the header and add some more options for the resume.
Thanks for the help everyone. I will hopefully have some edits tomorrow.
Your work looks solid. I don't think you have an environment shot that looks finished tho. When I look at your work it looks more like WIP than a finished version that i would not change something around. You should focus on getting all of your finished assets and make a composition that really shows your capabilities and your work. I like your explanations and the technical side... this really boosts you as a candidate, trust me. A lot of places now really demand that extra knowledge being demonstrated.
Try to get some other props in your portfolio. One scene is not enough to demonstrate the variety people are looking for. If you don't have enough just build some props.. high res, to low res... a lot of people are doing that and it really fills their portfolio with quality work.
Apart from that I think your workflow and assets look in good shape. I like your use of color, but be careful not to over saturate them. Keep up the good work, and i look fwd to looking at more of your work.
@glottis8 - I'm curious what makes you say the environment doesn't look finished. I've been feeling the same way, but I can't figure out what exactly makes it that way. I think is is a lack of tiny detail props. You know, things nonessential to game-play. Plants, broken chains, corpses. That kind of thing.
Ok, I have gone back and done revisions on all of the image presentations. The youtube videos kind of murdered the quality. Until I can re-record the videos they will have to do. (which won't happen for a while as I cannot record at home)
There is now a resume page with multiple options. Doc, PDF, and a jpg if you don't want to download anything. Please have another look and let me know if I'm doing any better. All of your suggestions absolutely helped. Thanks! d-(^_^)z
Also, does anyone know how to stop photobucket from downscaling? Even my largest image is smaller than their max 2048x1500something image size. I will start paying for it if I have to, but they shouldn't be downscaling when it is under the max size. This is why the resume.jpg looks terrible.
Well i cant comment much on the portfolio, but about photobucket i do have a tips "i" got from a fellow polycounter, use http://imgur.com/ instead, i used photobucket myself before, and the downscaling anoyed me aswell :P
Replies
The other would be that I don't think you should lead with the lava shots, they lack the details of the other screens, so switch the order around a bit!
nice site!
However i don't feel your final completed level shots, do your assets justice. I recommend taking some time to re compose and re light your UDK shots.
Perhaps someone around here can give you some more direct tips on UDK lighting? i think it would make all the difference when it comes to showing off your strong individual assets.
The oil bugs me. It's not an easy material to simulate, but the specular map you currently use is waaay off.
[ame]
I'm curious as to how to do the heightmap/displacement map in UDK - can I see (part of) the material nodes?
The work you have is nice, especially the materials being more than standard application of diff/norm/spec maps makes this stand out. BUT. You only have one environment, get some more in there.
PRESENTATION
Screenshots 1+2 and 3+4 are too similar, cut them. Well, one of each pair.
Your prop sheets aren't too optimized, spend too many pixels on the texture and you're almost completely ignoring wires. Wires, btw, are not preferred as pure wireframes, but either wires on a clay render or on a flat color (or at least I prefer them as such):
Anyway - show your maps smaller, show the props bigger, and show some wireframes. For the metal pieces, I don't think you need to add the polycount for every separate object, it feels crowded. A total for the whole set should be enough.
I think your material images are a bit too texture focused as well. Showing them all as 256² should be enough, would cut your images in half. You could include a shot of the material on a plane/sphere/cube in the UDK editor. Maybe you could make an animated GIF of the lava? Keep filesize small though.
In short - use more efficient breakdown images.
In your case it's also a good idea to provide a flythrough of the environment as a YT movie. You can create custom sized viewers, so you can make it as wide as the images are for optimum awesome.
SITE DESIGN
The menu serves no purpose. The only link on the page (resumé) is a direct download. By the way, It'd probably be wise to offer several formats (html, pdf, word) and use icons to signify that (current image links to html page, word/pdf icons link to files).
Not liking the header. Colors are okay, font is rather meh, rectangle in rectangle is... not making sense? Supersize that middle rectangle! Make it full-width! Get rid of the large one! Make me a sandwich!
The font is consistent, yet not. The font is consistent on the images, but breaks with the resumé document. The color changes in each each image, and it's usually too close to the background image. Low contrast colors, a badly legible font (it's designed for headers, not main/block text) and a small size make it hard to read.
Oh also - make sure you put your website on your images - it's even more important than your name. Especially since your name leads to this Ian Mathews instead of you via google...
Bedtime for me, ciao!
@lennyagony - I've always struggled with lighting. I will work on it for this project in the WIP thread I've got here for it. It will be a few days before I can work on it though
@snader - As for the oil in the brazier, you don't really see it on account of the flame particle effect covering it so I never really spent any time on the spec map there. In retrospect that was sloppy. I need to either pair the brazier with the particle effect or actually paint a proper spec map there.
I always like seeing a large-ish texture map, but you are right. Your layout is way better than the ones I came up with, which do waste a lot of space. Also, I will see if I can find a font color that works for all the images. I was having trouble doing that, which I why I tried to swap it out for each. So that the fonts blend in, but you can read it if you want to.
The header for the page was designed to lead to a main menu with other things. Since I haven't got any other things yet I opted to cut the menu page, which lead to nothing and slowed people from getting to the work. I will redo the header and add some more options for the resume.
Thanks for the help everyone. I will hopefully have some edits tomorrow.
Try to get some other props in your portfolio. One scene is not enough to demonstrate the variety people are looking for. If you don't have enough just build some props.. high res, to low res... a lot of people are doing that and it really fills their portfolio with quality work.
Apart from that I think your workflow and assets look in good shape. I like your use of color, but be careful not to over saturate them. Keep up the good work, and i look fwd to looking at more of your work.
Ok, I have gone back and done revisions on all of the image presentations. The youtube videos kind of murdered the quality. Until I can re-record the videos they will have to do. (which won't happen for a while as I cannot record at home)
There is now a resume page with multiple options. Doc, PDF, and a jpg if you don't want to download anything. Please have another look and let me know if I'm doing any better. All of your suggestions absolutely helped. Thanks! d-(^_^)z
Also, does anyone know how to stop photobucket from downscaling? Even my largest image is smaller than their max 2048x1500something image size. I will start paying for it if I have to, but they shouldn't be downscaling when it is under the max size. This is why the resume.jpg looks terrible.
I want to thank everyone who posted feedback. Hopefully i can return the favor sometime d-(^_^)z