[Portfolio] - Oliver Bartman - Environment Artist

Ginio Beast

Hi guys,
my name is Oliver Bartman, graduated from my course July 2011 and just finished off my portfolio, I'm looking for my first job in the industry, and starting to put my applications out. Any critique, comments or feedback you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

http://oliverbartman.carbonmade.com/

Kuki

Hi Olivier,

Before someone else will start giving you critiques about different aspects of the Portfolio, assets, textures etc...

I want to tell you one thing: you really need to study "lighting" and everything is related to it, because with a good lighting your work will be 100hundred times more appealing than it is now

jimmypopali

Also, where are these being rendered? In your 3d modelling package? Not sure if this looks like any game engine (UDK, CryEngine3 or Unity).

glottis8

I think your lighting can use a lot of work. Some love to the lighting and your envs would look way better!

Goat Justice

How are you generating your spec maps? Other than catching edges they look really even, which may also be making your textures appear flat.

Also I agree with everyone else, work the lighting more. It's great that you're tackling whole scenes, and good lighting will pull it all together. Right now its very even. For example both walls of the building in the french courtyard scene are the same value.

here's a randomly googled screenshot of a courtyard: http://mygaming.co.za/news/wp-content/uploads/Gears_of_war_3_screenshot_Mercy_Courtyard_2_941017960.jpg

have a look at how the building face is in partial shade, and there are dramatic shadows on the ground as well. There's a nice contrast between the structure on the left and the one in the middle. The textures are mostly green and tan, but the darker areas break up the scene and create more variety in the final image. Lighting is a BIG topic and there's a lot more to it than this, but this should give you something to look at for a start.

PixelMasher

glottis8 wrote: »

I think your lighting can use a lot of work. Some love to the lighting and your envs would look way better!

this for sure. right now everything is lit really flatly and looks almost like default lighting. get some warmth in your sunlight and some cool bounce colors in your ambient shadows. right now it looks like most of the lights are white with blackish shadows which usually is a no no. I did a quick paintover of one of your scenes, the art itself looks like its decent but the lighting is killing it. right now because your sunlight is kinda undefined all the shapes look flat with no real defined light direction. really push that to get more out of your geo.

also, break up your concrete floor with larger damage decals, puddle stains and bigger shapes to make it look less tiled.

original:




paintover:

Ginio Beast

thanks very much guys your comments mean a lot to me.

Lighting seems to be the main issue here as well as color volume, it doesn't have enough density and feels very flat, I'm getting straight on that and will strive to make my work better.

and pixelmasher thank you for that paintover its helped give me a different perspective on my work that I can take forward.

feel free to drop by over the next few days for improvements I'm going to be making to my work, your suggestions mean a lot to me and I thank you all for taking time out of your day to look at my work.

aminos

Apart from the lighting, do get some nice/moody sky texture to make your render more interesting.
Be careful with DOF, on your wall piece, it looks as if the wall texture has some motion blur in.
Also double check area where your texture looks jet black, is it normal error or post process effect? (like the area on top of the barrels)
Here are some links of works of similar type:
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-hall-fame/17837-abandoned-factory.html
http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18060&page=2
Hope you find these useful
:P Lin

Jeff Parrott

I just clicked on the link and didn't read the rest of the posts. But the first thing that jumped out was the lighting.

Look at well lit tv shows too like 24, CSI, movies too. Don't avoid saturation like you are doing now.

Take a screenshot in Photoshop and check your levels.



Notice the flat line area on the right side of the graph. You want to avoid that on regular basis.

Also get http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/185/ it will blow your mind on lighting. Anything by Jeremy Vickery is great. He has some older books out. But this video is like the audiobook version of those. Listen to PixelMasher too. He's a guru on game lighting.

Site design is fine. Simple, straight forward. The work just needs some tweaking. Also add a resume section.

Looking forward to seeing all the feedback you've gotten worked in. It's going to be real awesome.

toren3d

Add some supporting lights in these areas, as they are simply too dark at the moment:



You may also consider getting the camera lower and in a more dynamic position. Instead of showing the skybox and lackluster parking area, orient the camera more to the left, and show the building off more.

ajr2764

Good work so far man.Some great points to help your work were already made and I'd like to add that the transition from buildings/objects to the ground is kindof harsh. What im trying to say is that you get the appearance that their floating above the ground. In the courtyard and factory you can see. Alot is based on lighting and the how your presenting your work. Keep up the good stuff and good luck.

Ginio Beast

guys I can't thank you enough for your continuous support and great points about lighting and color tone.

Lin: is always try to be wary of my DoF but thank you for reminding me :P, and its mainly just post process effects but there's a little normal mapping error going on there, but I'm not quite sure how to fix it... I'll keep looking for an answer. thank you.

Jeffro: yes I see what you mean, there's a certain balance that must be addressed to avoid too much contrast between areas of light and dark, but in turn also creates a vibrancy and warmth that the colors need, thank you.

toren3d: yeah, I still need to work on my camera angles and support lighting to help create more interesting scenes and avoid lost or unnecessary details, thank you.

ajr2764: you know I hadn't noticed it before until now your right the transition does look very odd, and yes its light and camera angle that contribute to this, but also ambient occlusion that I forgot to add as part of the post process effects, seems so simple really, thank you.

thanks a lot guys I hope you keep coming back as I update my work daily and improve myself with your help.

take care.