David Pierre - 2011 Demo Reel
Just finished the Game Art program in Full Sail University. My final reel has been made and was liked by quite a number of people, but I'm still craving some true critiques. Reasons you'd think someone wouldn't consider it hireable, details that could be tweaked to look better, anything is welcome. Both scenes are in UDK.
http://vimeo.com/22687799
(Is there a way to just embed the video on the forum?)
Also, in the mind of continuous practice, I was wondering if it would much more beneficial to make something hand painted next. The two scenes in the reel are both photosourced. I thought of making a third hand textured scene, but I was very low on time so I spent it on just making these two scenes look up to par.
http://vimeo.com/22687799
(Is there a way to just embed the video on the forum?)
Also, in the mind of continuous practice, I was wondering if it would much more beneficial to make something hand painted next. The two scenes in the reel are both photosourced. I thought of making a third hand textured scene, but I was very low on time so I spent it on just making these two scenes look up to par.
Replies
Preface: Sorry, I'm putting on my vaguely harsh critique hat. Please take no offense, I'm just going to give you my "true critiques" which you quite literally asked for.
Also, you should never stop making new stuff, frankly. If you feel a hand-painted scene would be a good next step, I say do it. It'd be a good compliment to your existing stuff and show that you can work in multiple styles, and not just google images for textures.
As for criticisms of the reel, I'd say the 2 scenes are very simplistic, and frankly a bit dull. There isn't anything really going on in either. No story is being told by your environment. I see a very red/orange/overly warm room under construction... that's also apparently spotlessly clean.
The second is a bunch of dark brick walls (as opposed to red brick like last time) covered in obviously tiling plants for no good reason...and there's a staircase which is apparently a magnet for falling leaves....with bad lighting.
At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself...Do either of those scenes hold up well when you compare them to environments in your favorite new games? No? Why not? And if not...why would the companies that make those games hire you? Keep working until you can honestly answer "yes" to that question.
When it came to making the scenes, it was more about getting a reference, and recreating what was shown. Didn't do much to give them individuality until this last month of class, and they honestly looked much worse before it. I suppose I should give the environments a bit more purpose? It looks like I've got something to think about.
You have to find a way to unify the color/brightness/saturation of your textures a little bit better, on your second scene you have a good balance...but the brick walls look far too 'dark' compared to all the other textures. It's a good idea when you're photosourcing to throw all your textures on some random cubes all next to one another and just tweak levels and such in photoshop and updating and seeing what they look like in conjunction with one another.
You should browse through some of these threads, just reading the step-by-step and the comments will help give you some ideas on how to make your next scene even better.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69458
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69345&page=16
The demon's throne really shows how lighting is very important, drawing attention to certain areas and guiding the player away from others. There's juicy stuff all up in there.