[Portfolio] Tim Lewis, Environment Artist
Hey everyone, my name is Tim Lewis and I graduated university earlier this year with a focus on environment art. You can find my portfolio here. Im currently not working in the game industry, but I do the occasional 3-D work in the form of product renders where I am at. While a lot of this work on my site is outdated, Id appreciate any feedback you can give me and suggestions or tips for any future work. I'd love to work in the game industry one day, but I know that I've got push my skills further. Thanks!
Replies
If you're not part of a mod team, that would be a good thing to get into. But you have to be careful where you go with that, because you might end up doing all the work, only to get the mod fall apart and have it go to waste. But if you can get a good portfolio piece from it, then that's still useful.
Or, you could take an Env. Art test from online, and do that for another example, or try and re-create a scene from a game you like/that would be challenging/ well known.
I would loose the vases all together, they look really basic :P The uzi and binoculars are your best pieces, now you need to make more art and replace the outdated environments.
Edit:Ignore my previous statements to prevent any more misunderstanding.
This is more what I mean. Yes it can be props/objects as that's what makes up the Env, but I mean arrange them into an Env, and not just show a crate by itself.
Edit: I'm not confused, just to me, showing single props on a page doesn't prove to me you're an Env. Artist. He does have a partial scene in there though, so that does help.
Of course its important that you can produce high quality assets on there own but it is a necessity to be able to make assets that fit together in an over all composition and in a budget. The majority of studios outsource the mundane 'filler' props anyway, so being able to put together a scene well is very important. Once more a lot of what an Environment Artist should know is how to make the most of tiling textures/ modular meshes and reusing textures - you can't practise these on small, high quality assets.
A mod team can be a very good way to learn how to produce assets at a specific rate under time constraints. Yes at first your quality will suffer because of this but this are the exact same constraints you are going to be put under when you get your first studio/ freelance job.
Mod teams generally don't finish the project, but there's no reason why you can't produce good art for them - just try joining a mod team thats respectful, it's probably best to talk to other people about what mod teams they suggest. Afterall, doing any art at all, for whatever cause, is never a waste.
Actually, environment artist is a very good starting position in the industry because of its broad focus.
Lewist,
As others have mentioned, your vase scene is probably the weakest, and also its not realtime which makes it even less useful. It looks like you've made a good start on the spillway and if you keep pushing it (have you got a WIP thread for it?) you could get some nice results. The site layout is fine too, though you probably could do breakdowns on the pieces.
As the other posts above me just demonstrated.
lewist: I think from a resume point of view you're overselling yourself in terms of wording. "Exceptional, Highly skilled, etc" yet I don't see what you describe there in your portfolio. If you're going the environment artist route you should make at least one kick-ass complete environment from start to finish, which is a tad bigger and more thought out in terms of composition than what you have right now. Just my two cents.
All I was trying to say that he should have some variety in his portfolio something like this http://orbart.free.fr/index.php?Gallery=105
No need to teabag and vilify me. Everybody has different experience and I was simply speaking from mine. I had bad luck when it comes to mods. And my statements about Environment art perks hold true, as they are referenced from my friends in the industry who are currently holding that position...
If you're going to dish it out, then you have to expect to get something in return.
for something like that fence, you should probably put the actual chain link texture by itself as a tileable little 256 or 128 and then the poles as a seperate material. having a huge 1024 mask seems like a big waste and is inefficient. by re-using the poles and having the link texture be tileable you could make all sorts of lengths and shapes of fence, which would be ideal.
the vases scene is probably your weakest piece, mostly because its just kinda boring subject matter and doesn't really seem to have a purpose.
on looking to hire an environment artist, fully realized, well lit and composed scenes are what most of the recruiters and fellow artists in charge of hiring look for. thats the job title, environment artist, not prop artist, which is a seperate job usually and most of the everyday props are being outsourced more often than not. so really try to show you can assemble beliveable environments which are made up of a bunch of high quality assets, and you should be on the right track. hope this isnt too blunt and hope it helps.
my suggestion on content is I would lean towards a full env or two with lighting and stuff if your going for env. art what you have is a great base to build on, as it demonstrates great fundamentals in a 3d package. so good job! keep at it.
Haha Thanks myles now i don't have to type.
Telling an ENV. Artist to NOT work on whole environments is sooo counter productive... i forgot the punch line.
Benefits of working on whole environments are Composition, Lighting, Atmosphere, Mood, Modular Texture practice, Modular Assets Practice, Point of interest Practice.
also,
Um, it pretty much is. Except for 'Designing' you work pretty close with Level Designers and other Level Artist on the overall design. It is almost impossible to get hired? Env Artits are one of the most abundant positions when studios seek to expand...
Alex3d: Thanks for the feedback! The vases are getting the axe as soon as I have something better to show. Also, I appreciate your opinion on mod teams and props vs. environments; its an interesting discussion youve sparked.
myles: Thanks for your opinion. Ive looked at mod teams before, but its hit or miss with what youll find. On the bright side, I currently work with several people who are skilled with both art & scripting inside of UDK. Were currently working on drawing up a design doc for a UDK mobile game in our spare time.
ParoXum: Thanks for the two cents. Wording resumes definitely isnt a strong suite of mine, so Ill be sure to take some time to evaluate what I have written and run it by some others. Theres a fine line between confident and cocky, and my work needs to live up to what I write.
PixelMasher: Im still on the fence if I want to salvage that piece or not. I was just starting to get off the ground with it before I graduated and never got to finishing it. What little assets I have displayed are embarrassingly simple. Oh, and dont worry about being too blunt - how else am I going to improve if I don't get a honest critique?
BluePanda: A really good idea for a change/addition to my site. I wouldnt have even thought of that otherwise!
Alberto Rdrgz: A good reinforcement of what others had said earlier. You may think its a joke, but during my time at school I was told by many instructors to focus on just making props.
nick2730: Ive seen parts of this tutorial before, but the decision to do binoculars wasnt related. Still, this isnt what I want others to think when viewing my portfolio so it may be for the best that I remove that piece.
A couple of questions for anyone to answer
Thanks for the feedback so far, it's been really helpful!
Looking at your portfolio, I'd say you're a prop artist, not an environment artist. You have lots of individual elements but no real scenes. Take the time and build a nice full scene. It doesn't have to be fully flushed out 360º but at the very least, great from one angle (kind of like the Unearthly Challenge entries). Get some real env stuff up there if you want to be considered for such.