[Portfolio] Troy Mishler - 3D Environment Artist
Hello Polycount!
Long time lurker (like quite a few), and I've finally decided to start positing my work.
I've recently Graduated from the Art Institute of California, San Diego and am looking for work as a 3D Environment Artist. All critique is welcome of course, just ... you know... don't crush my soul please.
Seriously though, I am always looking to improve, so feel free to lay on the suggestions, comments and critiques.
Thanks!
www.troy3d.com
Long time lurker (like quite a few), and I've finally decided to start positing my work.
I've recently Graduated from the Art Institute of California, San Diego and am looking for work as a 3D Environment Artist. All critique is welcome of course, just ... you know... don't crush my soul please.
Seriously though, I am always looking to improve, so feel free to lay on the suggestions, comments and critiques.
Thanks!
www.troy3d.com
Replies
Website has the right format, straight to gallery and huge images and vids. My only crits are the thumbs on the gallery/frontpage are too small, leaving a lot of blue wasted space. And your resume looks blurry on my screen (might be just my screen).
I second that about your thumbnails are super tiny. Make them larger.
Also larger screenshots of your work when you click on the thumbnails. Youtube is cool, not necessary though.
Also 2 pieces of work is not enough for a portfolio these days. Do some props. Those would add to your portfolio well. You show you can handle scenes. I'd tweak the lighting in the jungle scene as well. There isn't enough contrast and lack of a focal point with the lighting. That's the problem with doing movies for pieces is you sometimes lose focal points. Some games have this problem as well. It's a hard balance. Just try to think about what the viewer should be looking at.
Also check out http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275 I can't post that to read enough. It helped me a ton with my stuff.
Jungle scene: some small grass blades around would help sell the ground and hide the lowpolyness of the terrain, but I like it, the lighting is interesting and the composition too. There's always that nice point of interest in the background.
The other scene is weaker, you can feel it went too big and the attention to detail dropped. Still it's clean, composition's good at some places but lighting is often what breaks the place on this one.
Keep it up
Edit: Also this image doesnt load the right pic : http://www.troy3d.com/images/attavi5s.jpg
Also, thank you for the critiques on the lighting. I used some of these files for my print portfolio and had to lighten and change the contrast, so some of them may need to get fixed. I'll go through them when I get some more time and update them to be accurate.
@RexM:
I'd love to explore your critique a bit further. What exactly do you mean by pushing the lighting more? Are you referring to the design aspect of it (leading the player, focus points, paths, etc), or are you referring to something else entirely?
Thanks!
Any webgurus know what may be happening?
great work btw..If you do fix that problem, i think bigger thumbnail picture would be nice..but im prty sure someones said that
Make the SSAO a little more intense, and add specular to some of the plants; like the flat ferns. Small leaves can have specular too depending on the species, if the leaves have smooth surfaces or slightly soft surfaces. Where the first would be more glossy and the second would have more of a highlight effect.
I would also make more mid-detailing in your normal maps, so depending on how far away you are, you can always see some level of normal map detail. Do you have normals on everything in the scene? For natural scenes like these with lots of rough surfaces, normals are a must to help everything pop.
You could also try doubling the normal map intensity for all normals in the scene. If you do have normals on the tree trunks, it is hard to see them right now.
I would also think about raising the resolution of the ground textures, rock textures, and tree trunk textures.
The first this I would suggest is to have your city scene first and your forest scene second. I personally feel your city scene is more interesting then just a forest with a stream running through it.
You might want to think about removing your W.I.P Coming Soon picture as it shows nothing really of interest and serves no function. Either make it a button where people can learn more about what you are working on or make it a shot of the focal point of what you are working on.
Focus more on the details of your assets. As a whole your scenes look ok because you have a bunch of stuff to fill them up. But looking at each individual asset there is no real characteristics to them and the texture work is really simple.
Do some high poly work either hard surface or more zbrush. This is a major part of the development pipeline in a lot of companies and they want to see that you can do it.
Finally on your Resume section I would recommend that you just have your resume as html text and not a image. It seems hard to read to me.
Honestly I would focus more on getting an internship then trying to actually apply for a environment position. The field is really flooded right now with really good people looking for work. I think it will be easier for you to get into the industry that way and I think you would be a very good candidate for it.
Like i said, just my two cents