[Portfolio] Vivek Choudry 3D enviro art
vchoud.deviantart.com/gallery/
hey all thats a link to some screenshots of some environments i made. They are all done with maya only. I am a student and will be applying for internships. I was curious what you guys think and if this stuff is good enough that i should be hoping to get something or am i way behind with my work. im a bit nervous honestly. Critical feedback would be great as well. Working on a couple of character animation demo reels at the moment should be done in a couple of days. Thanks all.
hey all thats a link to some screenshots of some environments i made. They are all done with maya only. I am a student and will be applying for internships. I was curious what you guys think and if this stuff is good enough that i should be hoping to get something or am i way behind with my work. im a bit nervous honestly. Critical feedback would be great as well. Working on a couple of character animation demo reels at the moment should be done in a couple of days. Thanks all.
Replies
Mainly I have to ask, what are you going for? Because if you go for realtime environment like in games I guess nothing of these will work for anything. It all looks pretty dull and empty. And from what I can see it looks like you just smashed some standard materials on it and played with some of the settings.
So yeah my suggestion would be, decide on what you want to do. And start a project to realize something that realy shows off your skills! Just take a look around these forums and you'll see many many awesome stuff from new and more experienced people. But that's just me, you should probably wait to see what some of the 'good' guys have to say, but I'm not sure if it would be any better news, hopefully some good advices though.
on the environments themselves, I don't want to sound harsh here, but I'm afraid I have to agree with Seirei. They're dull, boring, empty, and flat. also, the second I laid eyes on your gallery, only one word popped into my head: "BLUE", and that's not a good thing. the scenes are filled with these weird glowing blue globes that don't really make any sense, and actually none of the renders make any sense; they're just random things put in a scene.
again, please don't take this personal: I know this sounds harsh but that's just the trademark of feedback; it sounds really harsh but it's meant to improve your work, which is something i'm sure you want to do as well.
as for some advice from my part:
if you're going for realtime environment art for games, I really would suggest investing a lot of time improving your skills, from modeling over lighting to texturing, and to learn to work with an engine like the cryengine 3 or the UDK.
also, an important thing with environment art is to keep in mind that your environment has to tell a story: who lives here, what do their lives look like, what kind of person is this, and how would they treat this environment? what kinds of items would they leave behind/take with them? ask the important questions
finally, if you're going to apply for internships: when are you going to do that, and again, for which position are you going to apply, is something I would really like to know, since any advice we offer you completely depends on the answer to that question.
hope that helps
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Deciding between Film, Games, Architecture, or Other things will help focus your efforts, and make it easier for you to ask the right questions and get good advice. As for type of art, It looks like you want to do environment art, so at least you have that nailed down.
What it takes to get an internship will depend on the industry you choose and the particular requirements of the company you apply to. The best advice I can offer is to get your work to a point where it shows an understanding of the basics.
That being said; I think you've got some work ahead of you no matter what industry you're trying to break into. Right now, your work shows a very basic ability to create and light low poly geometry in Maya and not much else. The textures appear to all be 4-way tiling and look like they're from some default library. Overall the scenes look very simple and un-detailed. The good news is; you can improve, and I'll offer some suggestions on how to go about it.
From here on my advice is for someone looking at breaking into the games industry. Other industries my emphasize different things. your mileage may vary...
Usually my advice to environment Artists is to work on one or two fully realized scenes to anchor a portfolio. While that should still probably be your ultimate goal, you need to walk before you run.
Before tackling whole scenes, I think it would be good for you to take on a basic prop model. Any interesting object smaller than a car should do. I say that because very large objects (like buildings) require a different approach. For this prop you'll need to Model it, unwrap it, and create textures for it. Look for tutorials along similar lines and Seek feedback here or on other forums along the way.
Next incoroprate a high-poly stage into your workflow. Choose another prop. create the high poly, low poly, capture the normals/AO/etc, and create final textures.
if you choose a theme you like you can come up with a set of props that you'll eventually use in a scene. Once the response to your prop work is good, you can move on to things like architecture (again seek advice as you go).
With some good props and architecture for a background you'll be getting close to putting together a scene. Things like lighting and composition come into play here. Since you'll want to focus on a few killer shots of your creation.
You can apply for internships at any stage in this process really, but I would expect you to have more success with at least a nice set of textured props.
Wow That's a lot more than I meant to write starting out. I hope it helps. Master the basics, then go from there.
Your work is unfortunately way below the quality bar for any games or film studio. You've got mostly basic primitives, fairly basic and weak materials, no sense of lighting or composition or really much of anything. You need to push yourself with some more complex projects. I feel you've used your love of "magic" and "environments" as crutches to avoid going out of your comfort zone. That is not how you learn - you need to take on some more aggressively difficult projects and learn through your mistakes.
I would really, really caution you against trying to get an internship without seriously reworking this portfolio.
I don't want to sound cruel but what you have there is not competitive in any sense of the word.
I would recommend working through every tutorial you can find. Here's a good place to start:
http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial.php?catDisplay=6&search=&p=1&sort=date&order=1&detailsoff=
Wherever you're getting your BFA from has seriously let you down as an institution.
The main things that stoof out were a sense of direction and lighting. I couldn't really tell anything from the architecture, and the lighting is poor. I'd focus on these things first. Study architecture and learn good lighting workflows.
It looks like you're not aiming for games. You don't always need good textures and materials to make a good scene in Mental Ray. I've seen plenty of pros with demo reels full of scenes that weren't textures. So yeah, I'd focus on modeling good architecture and lighting.