[Portfolio] - Navillus, Environment Artist
http://navillus3d.com/ Hey guys, I'm lookin for a job, less than a week away from graduating from the Art Institute of Phoenix, and need some critique on my portfolio (content and/or site layout). The links to my team's game don't work just yet cause we're still workin on it. It'll be ready to download and play by this thursday.
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The home page is the same as the gallery, so you don't really need it.
For the demo reel, well, it's so much faster to see screenshot now than a video.
Don't forget to include the wireframe of your scene, it's important to show how you made them and how optimize the meshes are. By the way, indicate the number of triangle too.
Otherwise, the web site is simple and the screenshot are big, which is very good!
I suppose the Play and Download buttons on the Dust project should do something
Can't really tell much from the screens on that, or the model renders. They are a bit smallish I think.
I like the ground and the left building in the alley scene. The right building(s) looks a bit rough and almost looks like they were made with BSP brushes, I think some frame on the window up there would be nice and some texture matching. Right now it seems there's a lot of different contrasts going on in the various textures.
I think I like the swamp scene the most. Even if it's a bit hard to tell what's going on in some parts due to the lighting and shadows mostly I believe. But the scene has something to it that makes it very appealing. I think it's the fog and lighting together with a nice setting. I'd love to see some more screenshots of that one though.
It's a bit sparse to only have one screen from each scene. And I believe you've spent some time on them so it's quite a shame to not utilize that by taking at least 3 screens from different angles. That way you also force yourself to make stuff look interesting from more than one single angle (preferably to have it look appealing from any direction), which is so important when you work with games anyhow
Nicely done though, and good luck with your job hunt!
EDIT: Whoopsie, I see now that you said those links wouldn't work yet... My bad.
The lighting on the pieces doesn't seem that focused. It's hard to tell what we should be looking at.
I would read this and try to apply it to your scenes:
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275
Also some more portfolio pieces would be smart. Smaller objects are probably fine. You don't need to make all full scenes. You've shown you can do that.
Good luck!
@megalmn I have the home page and gallery page set up so that I can add to the gallery page later, and the home page will be highlights of the first things I want people to see. I know that images are what will sell my art, but the reel shows movement that I think needs to be conveyed. Thanks for your critique man
@PhilipK, Thank you for the revelation, If I was gonna make single shots it probably would have been better to just take renders. Both of these scenes were set up only to be viewed from those shots. I absolutely will follow that advice for my next scene. For the buildings on the right are the silhouettes too simple? They are meshes, maybe I need to have some bricks jutting out? Thanks again, this is really helpful
@Jeffro that's a really awesome link. I've wanted to make a really high detail prop for a while, that's definitely gonna be my next project. Thank you
@Poff I was worried about the same thing with the wireframes. I'll see if I can do a cool difference pass with detail lighting and wireframe mode.
Nice stuff here! Also thanks for that cgsociety link jeffro.
The next thing I'm workin on for my portfolio is an environment piece. The concept is from Darksiders by Paul Richards
Low Poly
I'll post the sculpt as soon as it's ready
And here's the first texture and lighting pass in UDK
The projection has been giving me all kinds of issues. Need to find a better solution to get the normals on the pillar bases