[Portfolio] Liam Tart - Environment Artist
polycounter lvl 10
Hey guys!
I've been swamped down with uni work over the past few days (you may have seen some of my stuff posted in various places around Polycount), but I've set aside some time this weekend to get my portfolio online.
It's my first real attempt at HTML so apologies if it's a little buggy. Do let me know if anything is not working correctly!
http://www.liamtart.com/
A few examples of my work:
I'm really looking for some feedback on pretty much everything in my portfolio, except for the earlier level design stuff. I am about to finish university and I am so excited to start looking for jobs, and I really want to push everything up to university standard.
My plan for the next few months after university is to model a load of tools that my dad has in his garage (he has the most amazing collection of weird tools, that I've never even seen before) using subdivision modelling, and make low polys and texture them all.
I think my environment shows my understanding of environments as a collective, but I want to focus on some smaller pieces now to fill in the gaps. I want to add a lot more to my portfolio!
Anyway guys, crit away! Seriously, anything. Even if its so miniscule that you think 'nah I wont mention it'; mention it!
Would just like to thank everybody who has helped me over the past year or so with all the assets I've posted up here on Polycount. Without you guys, I wouldn't have got to where I'm currently at and I'm eternally grateful!
Thanks,
-Liam
I've been swamped down with uni work over the past few days (you may have seen some of my stuff posted in various places around Polycount), but I've set aside some time this weekend to get my portfolio online.
It's my first real attempt at HTML so apologies if it's a little buggy. Do let me know if anything is not working correctly!
http://www.liamtart.com/
A few examples of my work:
I'm really looking for some feedback on pretty much everything in my portfolio, except for the earlier level design stuff. I am about to finish university and I am so excited to start looking for jobs, and I really want to push everything up to university standard.
My plan for the next few months after university is to model a load of tools that my dad has in his garage (he has the most amazing collection of weird tools, that I've never even seen before) using subdivision modelling, and make low polys and texture them all.
I think my environment shows my understanding of environments as a collective, but I want to focus on some smaller pieces now to fill in the gaps. I want to add a lot more to my portfolio!
Anyway guys, crit away! Seriously, anything. Even if its so miniscule that you think 'nah I wont mention it'; mention it!
Would just like to thank everybody who has helped me over the past year or so with all the assets I've posted up here on Polycount. Without you guys, I wouldn't have got to where I'm currently at and I'm eternally grateful!
Thanks,
-Liam
Replies
E: ooh, actually, my one crit would be that you should show off the wall and archway parts of your medieval scene - What seems to be lacking in your portfolio to me is evidence of understanding modular workflow, reusing building parts etc.
Greentooth icon looks jaggy and has an ugly outline, it ain't even round. Looks really crappy and was literally the first thing I noticed
A bit of redundant text on some of the pages repeating the same words and giving the same kind of information.
I'm currently away from home and thus do not have access to my work and I'm simply using screenshots from my Dropbox. I will upload proper model breakdowns when I get home tomorrow.
The general consensus seems to be to remove the character, so I have now removed it from the site and I am keeping it to just environment work.
As I said, my plan over the next couple of months is to do more high poly work and show them, as that is what I want to show more of on my portfolio. I also want to work on another environment to show how I have progressed since doing those 2 previous environments, I have learnt a lot more since then.
Yozora - You're right! That Polycount logo is a bit lacking at the minute, I'll have to change that today. I'll have a read through all the text on the website and consolidate it a little more. Was there anything that stuck out in particular?
If anybody hears of any jobs that you think I should apply for, please do let me know. I'm currently in the process of looking around and applying for jobs. I would owe you big time!
Thanks for all the feedback guys, I really appreciate it!
Few thoughts:
1) "preview" picture for "low-poly" and "level design" could be split into 2-3 sections to show that u have few different samples of content in there. Its like, "oh, so he has not only misile silo but also modular buidings there..." or "he has got not only TF2 level but also other stuff..."
2) LD section lacks breakdowns and more precise description fo what u did. Level art looks cool, but those screenshots showcase level art, not level design. So if u did some level art u could mention what and where (i assume there were other ppl on it as well maybe). If u did only level design, then floorplans, LD schemes and some design studies would be more helpful i guess as well videos on the flow within your levels.
3)the way u describe the LD projects makes it hard to tell if it was something official or an addon, or a community mod etc.
Maybe its me, but to me it sounded more like as if someone tried to "disguize" a mod into something that sounds more "official" by writing "this was made for Half-Life2", "I worked for Black Mesa" etc. just sounds a bit confusing to me. If it would be written something like "community MOD for HL2 called bla-bla ..." etc it would appear more transparent.
Changelist:
-Gave a little more information about the level design projects and included a download link for the TF2 map. Also included information on what exactly 'Black Mesa' is.
-Fixed up the jagged-edged Polycount icon. Out of interest, where did that logo originate from? It's very (excuse the pun) 'iconic'!
-Changed the thumbnail images for Level Design and Handheld to show that there is more than 1 project contained within.
-Changed some of the descriptions for Handheld/Mobile to be less wordy.
As for jobs, don't wait for them to come for you, apply around like a madman, you have the portfolio that shows you know what you're doing. Or wait until your happy with all your current work and portfolio then start applying around.
Sorry if it came across that way. I am by no means just sitting back and waiting, I am actively applying to places.
I am going to apply but keep updating my portfolio over the next few months. Can't hurt to look around now!
I could be wrong on that though, just my personal preference
One thing that is missing from all your images except the UC/level design ones is contact details. I suggest using the same template as you did for the UC pieces for all the other images to keep a consistent look. Personally I prefer the single bottom opaque bar of the UC ones than the double black bars of the level design ones at the top/bottom.
Keep the black border, I like it
Another thing I like is for "thumbnails" to be the same width. It looks tidier. For something like the tractor, you could do with a render of it's back perspective to extend the image, width-wise.
Won't be hard to make that UC texture sheet the same width as well.
For the mobile textures you could put the vehicle texture on the same image as the vehicles, and the buildings for the buildings.
You should also re-do how you laid out the level at the top... 3d max Viewport images look kind of unprofessional with all that perspective window text on the top left.
I can barely tell the difference between the top view and the one in the bottom left. The middle one is quite samey too. There's definitely a better way to present all of this.
And you could use some tri count/wireframes for the props in the dungeon page.
I'll be adding a new section soon: individual props that I'm working on to practice high poly. I will use the bottom bar with contact details and set that as my default 'style' and then go back and change all the rest.
Here's a model I've been working on for the past 2 days or so. Trying to speed up my workflow and practice subdivision modelling. Need to post up the high poly too, will be up in a bit!
This is also the new layout style I want for all my individual renders, going to go through my entire portfolio and update old assets to this new style.
Ok, I've re-vamped the entire first 3 sections: "Apocalyptic Cornfield", "Fantasy Dungeon" and a new section: "Tools Project". Check it out to find out more!
By 'revamp' I mean I've updated all the images to have a little more detail and show off models and textures a little more. They now all share the same watermarks at the bottom, so the site reads a little better now.
Now I can start cranking out some more assets, stay tuned guys!
www.liamtart.com
Been working on a modular building set, as I realised my 'tools' project was going to be really similar to Scott Homer's environment that he's working on. I'll carry it on when uni's over though.
This piece uses 2 1024 textures, one for the top half of the building (brick section) and one for the bottom half (shop fronts).
Loosely based off this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Russell_Lee_street_corner_Dillon_Montana.jpg
Next step is to make the building modular for UDK (splitting it into re-usable chunks), and texturing. Then I need to make individual props and the surrounding street for it too. This is so much fun!
good luck
Stu - Thanks! I'll give you a shout when my FYP stuff is up here. See you on Monday!
Let me know what you think guys! I'm hoping to make this a really bustling, old-fashioned city cross-section of an environment.
Good work!
I'm guessing you have normal map on this, but it's to weak. Try to find a way to pump it up!?
Only thing that I noticed which looked weird is the fire from the meteors, it looks a bit too uniform and repetitive. Other than that it all looks amazing.
sltrOlsson - Yeah the normals do look a little weak on the wip textured piece, so I might make the normal map a bit more depth. Though it is noticeable when you take the normal map, so maybe it would look better more subtle as it is at the moment.
Fletch - Thanks! I just checked the normals and the green channel was inverted on the text as it was made in nDo.
Martyn - Just googled your name (stalker!) and found some of your stuff, it's really good! Your high poly work is great. This is the sorta stuff I was making just under a year ago. I feel I've learned and really (REALLY) pushed myself hard this year to understand techniques more, and I hope it's beginning to show.
Thanks for all the positive comments and feedback guys, will post an update later.
Got a question for you guys though, would it be feasible to make all my grime/grunge simply painted on via vertex colouring and a fancy shader? I want there to be a little grunge on the original textures, but because the textures are extremely modular, I don't want to paint too much on to the diffuse. So I want to make a grunge map and be able to paint it on exactly where I want. Is this what you UDK gurus would do?
Got another little update. I may as well turn this thread into a WIP thread as well as a portfolio one, so you guys can see what I'm up to without me making a new thread for each individual project!
Been adding detail to the texture map and tweaking lighting within UDK. Getting some weird lightmap bleeding issues at the moment which I'm just fixing up, and I need to explore paintable grunge with vertex colouring next. And I also need to add loads more props to detail this building up a bit more!
Let me know what you think guys.
Xendance - There is a cubemap but I'm trying to keep it sorta subtle atm. I want to take out some of the 'white' of the reflection and replace it with more of the blue of the environment cubemap.
Probably won't post for a while now guys, I'm going to focus on some university work. Unless you want to see a 1,500 word marketing strategy on my portfolio, I won't be posting updates!
Basically, I am exploring modularity within UDK. Specifically, I want to re-create an older 2D game in 3D (I chose Zelda: A Link to the Past on Snes), keeping the art style similar but with more of a modern, handpainted twist. I am trying to make the dungeon pieces extremely modular, so a level designer can put them together to form any dungeon layout he/she wishes.
So far this has been really successful. The only issue I'm having at the moment is with lightmap seams, but that seems (pardon the pun!) to be an unfixable UDK issue more than anything. I'm still trying to find workarounds though!
At the moment I am just blocking in basic diffuse textures. I have completed a few textures: the floor, floor trims, and wall textures. Everything else is just single colours with a bit of gradient shading.
I do want to look at normal maps and see if I can make the textures pop a little more, and I am really interested in modernising this a little more, with added assets that weren't in the original, such as things like cobwebs and just generally things that add a little more detail.
Anyway, let me know what you think guys. As I said, it's all a WIP, but your comments and feedback will definitely be taken onboard and I'll look at fixing up any issues/suggestions you have.
Nothing else to poke at other than the AO, turn that thing down or off :P it's making everything look rather weird and blotchy shadow wise.
Looking forward to the next update, keep it up
I've turned down AO too, don't know why the default is so high!
I've been tweaking lighting over the past day or so, and I've painted a few more bits and bobs. I've also made the waterfall from the snakehead (using the Epic water splash particle system for the bottom of it), and a particle system for the candle flames.
I've also been working on the water shader. I made a thread a while ago asking about how to go about doing it. In the end I chose to have two separate water materials: one for water that rises/lowers, and one for water that stays stationary. The rising/lowering water has a translucent material applied to it so you can see underlying geo. The stationary water has an opaque material applied to it that uses a material shader to show the underlying cobblestone.
You can see the translucent water at the bottom of this image, and the opaque water at the top:
Here's the original:
I really want to push this project, and I think it's starting to look a lot more like the original now that I have tweaked the lighting.
Let me know of anything you think might improve this guys!
The French Awnings and lamp post have been made, as well as the alpha'd fencing on the top of the spire. Lemme know what you think!
Fearian: Yeah something's not quite right there. The texture map is a little messy and needs cleaning up a little. At the moment it's too noisy.
Snow: I'm just using a directional light to cast that harsh, vaguely-orange, midday sun lighting on the brick building, and the subtle ambient lighting is created using a skylight of a light blue colour.
The building is using lightmaps, not sure exactly what resolution though. I know it's not too high. I love how Lightmass has baked the colour of the diffuse texture on to the lightmaps slightly, gives it a warm, orange colour (you can see this in the nooks of the bricks at the top, where they meet the trim.
SltrOlsson: Yeah you're right. I was going to explore making a custom shader allowing me to vertex paint a little tileable dirt on there, but I haven't yet got round to it.