[Portfolio] - Bryan Shannon, Environment Art
polycounter lvl 6
Hello everyone,
My name is Bryan Shannon and I am currently a Junior at Ringling College of Art and Design... working the fingers to the bone with the Game Art & Design major here, but it doesn't feel like work so much when you love what you do.
ALSO! I am currently looking for an internship for the summer of 2012.
http://sketchwax.blogspot.com/
My main focus is to develop in to an environment artist or level designer. I feel like the two should go hand in hand. Certain aspects like VFX, UV'ing and lighting appeal to me as well.
I'd love to get some feedback on my current site layout, as well as feedback on the individual 3D works. Personally, I feel like my portfolio could benefit from a very "realistic scene" or some high poly works (still learning a proper workflow for high poly).
The 2D stuff is more of like a bonus even though its not terribly strong (think of it as getting a package with a special gift inside) and not really a focus of my skill-set, but if I got a job doing 2D stuff, I'd be pretty happy
Thanks for your time,
Bryan
My name is Bryan Shannon and I am currently a Junior at Ringling College of Art and Design... working the fingers to the bone with the Game Art & Design major here, but it doesn't feel like work so much when you love what you do.
ALSO! I am currently looking for an internship for the summer of 2012.
http://sketchwax.blogspot.com/
My main focus is to develop in to an environment artist or level designer. I feel like the two should go hand in hand. Certain aspects like VFX, UV'ing and lighting appeal to me as well.
I'd love to get some feedback on my current site layout, as well as feedback on the individual 3D works. Personally, I feel like my portfolio could benefit from a very "realistic scene" or some high poly works (still learning a proper workflow for high poly).
The 2D stuff is more of like a bonus even though its not terribly strong (think of it as getting a package with a special gift inside) and not really a focus of my skill-set, but if I got a job doing 2D stuff, I'd be pretty happy
Thanks for your time,
Bryan
Replies
Formatting:
First imprerssions - Why are the images justified to the center, but everything off to the left? I'd remove the "posted by Bryan Shannon" and "Recent Work". Center your header, or make it work a bit better with your images. The design of your header is pretty bland. Add a bit of color in there eh? Turn yourself into a brand. Are you just white on grey? OR ARE YOU A COLORFUL PERSON FULL OF ARTISTIC TALENT?
This is your portfolio site. If you want a blog as well, have it be a sepperate section. I know you're using blogger, but I think there should be a clear distinction between blog and portfolio. Maybe set up a different url for the blog and link to it somewhere? Going off that, remove the 'older posts' link at the bottom right if you can.
I'm using chrome, and the the 'Home' text is the same as the color of the background. Either remove th box, or change the color, or even just through your header and stuff in there as a home link.
The Work:
Your thumbnails have a tiny white border of like one pixel. Looks like its from sloppy cropping. Add titles to the work either in the image, or above em. Also, be consistant with the placement of your name and whatnot on your images. I don't think you need the programs used on each image, just the icon for UDK in the corner.
Mass effect scene:
Looking really sexy. It would be great if all the work was your, but it also shows that you can work with a team which is damn good to. I'd make your images and videos the same resololtion. I'm getting this strange stacked tower feeling from em. Thow up some wireframes of the shots, and if you have any hi polys you made for this scene, put em in there as well. This is your money-piece right here, so pull out all the stops. I'd like to see a few more still images as well, as not everyone will take the time to watch through the videos. Maybe have a little blurb about your responsibilities on the team project.
Vanitas:
This might be a little hard to hear, but I think you should remove this. The best looking asset in here is the cut lime. The table is noisy, the glasses are noisy, the skull which should the most interesting asset in the scene isn't done very well, the cloth is blobby and looks like sand. Material definition leaves much to be desired. You will be judged/remembered by your worst piece, and this is detracting from your work a lot.
World of Warcraft inspired:
You can come up with a better title than that can't ya? I think another pass at lighting this piece would up the quality significantly.
2D Concepts:
Have these be their own thumbnail on the front page. Your concept work is good, and it is a skill that is great to have. Slap people in the face with it on the front page with a sexy thumbnail, rather than hiding behind another section.
Resume:
Add some download links for at least a PDF, and a .DOC if you are feeling schnazzy.
OVERALL:
The site itself needs some work, and you need to get cranking on some more environment work. I hope this helps, and I'm looking forward to what you decide to work on next.
I actually agree with your assessments. For me, I am certainly using blogger solely because of the ease of use and the fact that I don't have a lot of money right now (being in college and all). I'll make as many of the changes I can to the layout, as well as the formatting of the images themselves (just listing UDK for programs used).
With regards to the works I've made, I know my body of work is limited so thats actually why something like the "vanitas" project is still shown. I am actually working on three different projects right now (including a character that is sculpt, baked, rigged, and posed). Once one of those projects finishes up, I plan on replacing that section entirely.
While my main focus is to stay on environment art, I have other abilities that I am gaining confidence in as well... I think this is the reason why I don't have the 2d work up on the forefront -- However, I do agree that I need to make a center image for that section as well.
Even though I don't consider character's my focus, I used a character assignment as an exploration for furthering my development with zBrush & 3dcoat as well as high-to-low baking. Here are some posed WIP shots:
~10,600 tris
2k diff, spec, norm
and disclaimer is that I don't animate so a lot of this is a stab in the dark... lol
For this guy, I'd tweak the spec for the wood. Maybe add a subtle touch of blue in it and tone it down a tad. He looks a little wet right now. The texture for the rock is decent, but I think you should sharpen them up with more rough, chunky shapes rather than the smoothness it has now. It will contrast better against the wood and help define each material better.
So here are some final stills of my most recent project. On this project we had a pretty extensive preproduction period where we were to design a "boss character" in 2D concept. After the original idea is approved, we make revisions on that based off of some in-class critiques. Finally after getting all of the 2D previs work out of the way, we moved on to sculpting, which took me quite a while. During this phase, I also threw in a demo rig to see if my decimated deformations were giving me good results (which they were). After the sculpt, I did a high to low bake for the base mesh. Then rigged it, painted weights, and posed it in Maya... and final touches in UDK.
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PHEW... looking forward to getting some more work done soon. Working on a "concept car" at the moment. Will post some updates of that as well.
Also, thanks again darbeenbo, took your critique and improvised a little on my site... some quick fixes that didnt require much redesign. I do need to think of an "accent color" to kind of throw around
index - Probably should be Portfolio or 3d Work or something along those lines. And should be capitalized like the rest.
I think your resume should go after 2d concepts. Seems weird it is in between your 3d work and 2d work. This could say that you are not very proud of it... and if that were the case I would remove it, but looking at it... you have some nice paintings. Usually everyone is saying to remove the 2d work but I would say be proud of it and put it up front because they are pretty nice. Another thing about it is the size of the button. lol I know that sounds crazy but the other buttons are kinda small and this one kinda breaks the flow. Maybe consider changing it to 2d Work?
The first thing that jumped out to me when I went to your page was that you were using 5? different fonts. Your fonts are really all over the place. You should really pull that down and use 2 max. 3 if you are going to do that name font variation.
One for titles... One for information...
It bothers me that the alignment is off from Shannon to Environment Artist. Design wise they should really be aligned because they have no relation atm. The T on artist doesn't align with the contact information below it. Align it to the very end of the T.
Get rid of this... "-. Awesome Inc. template. Powered by Blogger."
and this... "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)"
It can be done. My friend did his website through blogger.
You should have a downloadable PDF resume.
And I would suggest to start pulling away from your school email. No point in advertising you are a student. We want to come of professional.
And I think if you have the programs you use on your resume... they don't need to be on your presentations. It distracts from the work and doesn't really do anything for anyone. Keep the engine logo... I think that is nice to know... but why do we care that you used crazybump, photoshop, or maya for that matter? What matters is that you modeled it, textured it and displayed it realtime. Companies will train you on their tools or give you the package you are comfortable in if they are really nice.
Not being a jerk. Just nitpicking you know? I dig all the work man the presentation of the site and work could just use a bump.
You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar! Thank you for taking the time to write this up.
First off, thanks for bringing to my attention that I had accidentally left my tabs in their "technical names"... totally an accident and by the time you read this, consider it fixed.
I totally feel you on the off alignment.... that will be fixed shortly (next time I get to my production computer).
For the programs listed on the works, that was an old style template I created that I was using on those images. Basically, I had assignments back in 2011 that those were created from. I've got the note from a few others that I should only slap up the "UDK" logo on there just to get the point across that it was rendered in UDK. I just need to generate some new contact sheets.
As far as the other notes or anything else I may not have mentioned my feedback on, trust me I read it all... and I'm on board with ya. You're nitpicking in ALL the right ways and its everything I needed to hear! Much appreciated.
I am currently working on preproduction for an upcoming project that will take me approximately 1 year to complete. To give you an idea of the calibur I am trying to achieve... I am really looking forward to hitting the mark somewhere in between the "samaritan demo" & "hydzior's nazi bunnies". While this production will not be ready for at LEAST 10 months (its a school project), I do plan on releasing a new environment soon.... basically trying to achieve a photo realism through an image I found on photobucket.... simple storytelling image, but visually stunning.
Easy? Easy lololololo. Thanks for the feedback. Hope you'll check back once the updates come!
PS: As a hobbyist orchid grower, I love your handle
If you pull it off and it comes out looking really good then it'll be worth the effort and you'll stick out so good luck.
If no one have made a notice of this before though; I really, REALLY find high volume music in showreel videos EXTREMLY annoying. I like dubstep and bombastic soundtracks as much as any other guy, but when I want to check your cool stuff out and I get my speakers screaming at me, it makes me more irritated at that then focusing on your work.
If you´re going to have music, have it toned down, and use more ambient sounding stuff.
Also, on the 2D artwork page, you have some really nice pieces and some that doesn´t read well to me. From top to botton on the 2D page, the Second and Last of your pictures look good and all, but I cant get what they are portraying. The others are really good pieces of concept art, but those two others drags down the overall impression a little bit.
With that said, I like your work and I wouldn´t think you´d have any problem getting an internship somewhere. Good luck friend!
Now that you mention it, I originally did that in a spur of the moment thing... should have known better than to make that my soundtrack. At any rate, I reuploaded with an ambient track.
Also too, I met you half way on the concept work stuff... that old 2nd post was an image that was about 5x larger than the largest display size that blogger would allow... it was this huge matte painting that I did, but overall I wasn't satisfied with it and took it down.
I think with my 2D concepts, I try to capture a mood or a feeling of the environment, and even though they may lack clarity, I still try to make an appealing piece of artwork. I'll humbly say that I am not an industrial designer, though I do look to people like Feng Zhu for inspiration.
Side note: going to be replacing some of the contact sheets with updated tags.... ie: just a UDK logo instead of all of the other logos... that will be done soon. Also need to tone down the music in the World of Warcraft video (as well as export a better quality video)
As always, thanks for the help guys