[Portfolio] – Randall Manning, Visual Effects Artist

Randalph_The_Black

Hello all. I'm new here to Polycount and was highly encouraged by my buddy Jerimiah Bigley to join and start posting. He's been an active memeber for a while and had lots of great things to say about everyone here. So here I am, excited to finally be here, and I thought posting my portfolio work to begin would be best.

To start off, please take a look at my site:

www.randallmanning.blogspot.com

I'd really appreciate any feedback on anything you feel needs critiquing. It's all still very much a WIP, but I don't mean to say that as some sort of "take it easy on me, I'm a noob" comment. My work is up there for the world to see, and I'm ready for all comments.

A little note about me, in case you happen to skip over it in looking at my site:

I'm a Media Arts and Animation Bachelor of Fine Arts honors graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas, Fall 2011. I also received the "best portfolio" award for my graduating quarter. I'm particularly fond of Visual Effects and hope to see my career take me far down that path. I am currently working for Avstar Media developing innovative and dynamic 3d graphics for their online flight training modules.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to look at my work, and or give feedback.
I'm looking forward to being an active member on this site!

jsargent

link doesn't work

Randalph_The_Black

jsargent wrote: »

link doesn't work

Okay, thanks for that, I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I fixed it now.

KyleJensen

I would get rid of the splash page and just have your gallery be the first page.

Randalph_The_Black

Shad0wForce wrote: »

I would get rid of the splash page and just have your gallery be the first page.

I'll take that into consideration, thanks for the input.

I also thought of doing something with movement or animation like a multiframe .gif or something.

Randalph_The_Black

I've made lots of updates and additions to my site. I wanted to post those here and hope that I can get some new feedback.

Thanks in advance to any who take the time to leave critiques.
www.randallmanning.blogspot.com

BARDLER

Personally I am not a fan of blogspot/template portfolios, I think it lacks that little bit of professionalism and design work that should go into it. I would consider buying a basic web hosting setup, or if you use somebody's excising account if they have some free space left. Having your own URL with your own personal designed website is just a lot better.

As for the layout, I think it is effective, but I would just put the thumbnails of each work instead of the scrolling window. It makes it a little harder to get to each page after viewing the thumbnail. Last thing is put your name, email, and website on alllllllllll your pictures so people can easily connect you back to the picture.

Randalph_The_Black

BARDLER wrote: »

Personally I am not a fan of blogspot/template portfolios, I think it lacks that little bit of professionalism and design work that should go into it. I would consider buying a basic web hosting setup, or if you use somebody's excising account if they have some free space left. Having your own URL with your own personal designed website is just a lot better.

As for the layout, I think it is effective, but I would just put the thumbnails of each work instead of the scrolling window. It makes it a little harder to get to each page after viewing the thumbnail. Last thing is put your name, email, and website on alllllllllll your pictures so people can easily connect you back to the picture.

Thanks for the input.

I plan to make a sister site that's just a simple designed webpage with less process content, and just main images and or movies.

The css/java scrolling window is for the front page. There's a "contents" page accessed via the redundant nav on the right to address what your'e talking about.

BARDLER

Randalph_The_Black wrote: »

Thanks for the input.

I plan to make a sister site that's just a simple designed webpage with less process content, and just main images and or movies.

The css/java scrolling window is for the front page. There's a "contents" page accessed via the redundant nav on the right to address what your'e talking about.

Yea I see the list on the right, but my preference is having just thumbnails straight down linking to the work page. I like it because it is simple, requires no text, and makes it easy to get where you want. Again its my preference, so take it for what its worth, lol. Go with whatever you feel best displays your content though.

Randalph_The_Black

BARDLER wrote: »

Yea I see the list on the right, but my preference is having just thumbnails straight down linking to the work page. I like it because it is simple, requires no text, and makes it easy to get where you want. Again its my preference, so take it for what its worth, lol. Go with whatever you feel best displays your content though.

No, there's a link on the right "contents". It's a link to a page with thumbnails listed up and down like you said.

I suppose I should find a better way to get that across or something.

Randalph_The_Black

There's also an option for "back to contents" at the bottom of each post, as another way to get people to go to the contents page.

I'm up for suggestions on this whole thing though.

In looking at other professionals sites:
http://johaneskurnia.com/main_projects.html
http://www.laurenscorijn.com/
http://brandonriza.com/3DVisualEffects/HTML/3DVisualEffects.htm

There seems to be a common theme of just images stacked with either videos, or higher res pictures. I get that this is simple, and pretty effective for getting contents across to people, but I'm a new professional, trying to make my way into the world and become better known, so a blog works for me. It works for me in that it lets me explain process and my mind set to people, which I think, in the career field I'm trying to break into, is important.

When I get to working for BLUR like Mr. Riza or Mr.Kurnia, then simple images with videos will be more than enough for me.

David-J

Randalph_The_Black wrote: »

There's also an option for "back to contents" at the bottom of each post, as another way to get people to go to the contents page.

I'm up for suggestions on this whole thing though.

In looking at other professionals sites:
http://johaneskurnia.com/main_projects.html
http://www.laurenscorijn.com/
http://brandonriza.com/3DVisualEffects/HTML/3DVisualEffects.htm

There seems to be a common theme of just images stacked with either videos, or higher res pictures. I get that this is simple, and pretty effective for getting contents across to people, but I'm a new professional, trying to make my way into the world and become better known, so a blog works for me. It works for me in that it lets me explain process and my mind set to people, which I think, in the career field I'm trying to break into, is important.

When I get to working for BLUR like Mr. Riza or Mr.Kurnia, then simple images with videos will be more than enough for me.

Exactly what you mention in the end it's what's bothering. It's just too much information. Your work should speak for itself. If it's Visual Effects your specializing, show the final composite, then breakdowns. If you did something special for that project, mention it under description but don't go into hardcore detail about it. That is what interviews are for. My 2 cents.

Randalph_The_Black

David-J wrote: »

Exactly what you mention in the end it's what's bothering. It's just too much information. Your work should speak for itself. If it's Visual Effects your specializing, show the final composite, then breakdowns. If you did something special for that project, mention it under description but don't go into hardcore detail about it. That is what interviews are for. My 2 cents.

Well, like I said, I do plan to make a sister site to this that's more like the links I shared. My only fear is that no one will ever care about the blog, and all the work I put into it will go to waste.