Jushra's Portfolio for Review/Critique

jbh3d

Hey Polycount folks,

I've been a long time lurker in the forums, and its about time I ask for a full critique on my portfolio. I've been on active duty with the US Army for the past three years (long story), and most of my spare time was spent unlearning old ways and learning new ways of creating game content. I'm now fresh out of the military and, now that I have plenty more spare time, I'm able to focus completely on my skillset and finding a job. Before I start on the new, I need some 'do this, not that'.

Rather than upload a batch of images, everything is available to view on my website, and some workflow posts on my blog.

Thanks ahead of time.

cholden

The site is fine. However, your art is really strange. All wacky critters that don't have any grounding in fundamental anatomy, form and detail frequency. You could benefit from sculpting out a ton of anatomy studies, before focusing on a few realistic pieces to provide a few more marketable skills.

Dan!

layouts clear and concise-I was immediately drawn in by the color and intriqued by the thumbnails. BUT was let down by the same things cholden mentioned. The sphynx sculpt had a ton of potential- the low poly and texture work let it down hard.

Two Listen

Seconding cholden's crits.

One small thing about the website that's not a big problem just something that pops out at me. The banner up top of your name, and how it has an image inside the letters. I think that might be better off as just a solid color.

For some reason anytime I see that now I can't help but think of Matthew Klees.

Dan!

shhhhhh don't mention his name..HE is not to be named!!

jbh3d

@ cholden: thanks for the crits. I do have a few new pieces in mind, but you have brought a few things to light that my current biased eyes are refusing to see. I'll definitely be doing some more practice sculpts.

@ dan!: can you PM me or post specifics?

@ two listen: I have no idea who that is, but google showed some guy with an obsession with his own portrait; is that him?

riddlaz

lol.. I think his talking about this image because the picture is inside the letters XD

http://a2.l3-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/117/f6d7d66c5f0b4ac88a69ae24c8e9597e/l.jpg

jbh3d

Hrm, well... if we all start doing it, he won't be as cool. o.O

Alberto Rdrgz

Dude.... don't try so hard just have fun. The whole sphinx thing is just wacky (like cholden said) there's nothing to really look it's all over the place and on top of that it has tits. Anatomically it looks uncomfortable. The sphinx would break it's back running. Do some research, the more research you do the better the work.

achillesian

This sucks:


This doesn't:



This isn't so bad either:




I think you have some budding talent, but you need to develop your eye to know what looks good and what doesn't. These last 2 pictures I linked aren't even in your portfolio, and I think they are better than your entire port put together, especially the sketches, they're very nice.

Also, it seems like you're getting hung up on something looking unique, don't. Portfolio's are more about execution than concept.

spacemonkey

The guys are right, its always tempting to jump into work however art schools try to get you to do study's for a reason. Gathering references and spending time sketching like you have for the bird will pay off dividends.

jbh3d

Thanks everyone for the feedback thus far. I'm putting together a list of things to make sure I do (or don't do) with future models and portfolio pieces.

@Alberto Rdrgz: The original idea came from a sphinx statue in Spain, it had tits too. But, that said, I'm seeing what is being said about uniqueness versus execution (from comments by achillesian)

At this point, and from looking around at some more portfolios, a few strong models (with 'properness' on all aspects (design, technical execution, etc) seems like the way to go instead of my mindset of 'omg get this all done before (whatever self imposed deadline).'

jbh3d

I've made a few updates over the past few weeks. A couple new models were made after doing some other practice runs with some smaller projects. Further crits/comments are appreciated.

CKohl

Group specific pieces next to each other. The textured lowpoly Hussar and wireframe shots should appear right after the zbrush sculpt of the Hussar instead of halfway down the page. Same thing with the Raptor.

Speaking of the raptor, does it have a specular texture at all? It appears that it is just using a specular material without any texture map controlling the actual specular highlights which makes it look kind of like salamander skin (or is that the intent? Most people think scales when they think raptor.)

Aaand, speaking of textures, it would be useful if you had a 'summary image' for each textured piece that shows the textures and maybe even the UV layouts.
As an example here, see how she has her diffuse, specular, and normal maps next to the images of the assets: http://www.karinhagstrom.se/p/portfolio.html

Good job putting your website url into a little banner on the bottom of most images, but you missed one of the Hussar images, and it's not present in the concept art. Make sure you get it on all images. You never know when some art director might like an image and save it for later or forward it to someone else, only for them to be unable to find you for lack of contact info.

Shiniku

Dude your actual sculpting skills appear to be pretty nice! But the anatomy and forms are kind of all over the place. So focus on studying things like that - and maybe even do so out of zbrush for awhile. Also, your textured pieces really don't look as good as they should considering what you've got to work with - the Hussar in particular really goes downhill once it's been textured. And the face is somewhat inhuman... y'know, just work on anatomy and stuff awhile.

Also, you might want to try modeling from someone else's concepts, might help you break away from some design mistakes you have in your own work.

Nils_Carstens

Hey Jushra, i've seen portfolio's and work like yours quiet a lot (mostly from students of mine) and it shares a quiet common problem.
But first of i want to say that your sculpting and attention for detail looks quiet good already, same goes for your pencil sketches, you obviously know how to render with a pencil.

Often people "hurt" themselves by modeling their own concepts. After looking through your blog and portfolio i would say it's the same in your case. Right now you simply lack the ability to produce good concepts with good design. So no matter how good your sculpting skills might be or become it will always fall behind other peoples work who worked of an good concept (wich is also closer to the way the industry works).
Now combine that thought with the fact that both your texture work and art fundamentals are still lacking and will need quiet some amount of work.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier and faster improve your modeling/texturing/art fundamentals first?
I think this might be the fastest way for you to get a decent job within the industry.

If you want to be an 2-D/Conceptart guy there is no problem about it, just consider your level of skill and the current industry level and work work work for it.

Hope i haven't been to hard and a bit of help.

jbh3d

@CKohl: Thanks for the advice on the layout and whatnot, thats all been fixed. Regarding the spec map for the raptor, yes, there is one there. Regarding the spec map with the raptor, it has its own map. I don't have any intent for it to look like scales.

@Shiniku: Totally agree.

@Nils: I had thoughts about doing stuff based on other concepts, and the Hussar was a step in that direction. I'm just hesitant, and I really shouldn't be. Focusing efforts in one place should be what I'm doing, so I completely agree. I'm going to be going back to some studies for a bit, taking your and Shiniku's advice. You haven't been too hard at all, more helpful really.