H. Alex Martin - Environment Artist

TheDust

Hey, I am about to graduate, Im looking for a job, please critique my website, and my environment pieces. Thank you.

http://henryalexmartin.wordpress.com/3d/

ErichWK

Put your art on your first page. I don't want to read your blog, and neither do recruiters. More breakdown shots from the levels you worked on. The second level shows you worked with other people, well.. what did YOU do specifically? Your hand painted textures are pretty cool but your pen and ink drawings are unnecessary/too abstract. Remove them.

We get a couple of resumes a day here and everyone in the office receives them. I am just telling you what we like and don't like..and we see a specific trend in portfolios we don't like.

Dan!

erichWK beat me too most points - also would like to see larger thumbnails -right now on my screen its a very narrow strip.

zakhar2

The first thing you see is some random blog posts which im 90% sure no employer is gonna care about, so you should probably put your environments first. Unless im missing something, each environment only has one picture attached to it, so you should throw up some texture breakdowns, wireframes, alternate angles and more info about each piece. Also ditch the "abstract" images, and probably the life story.

Edit:lol eric beat me to almost everything

Killaball

Ok, lets do some role playing eh?

Lets pretend that I am an art lead and I like what I see on your site. I right click and save the images to a folder of potential people for job (which is filled with many many other artist's art).
Later on I go though the folder and find only that I like your images... but since I have seen thousands of sites and artists, I can't recall where or whom I got these images from. So I can't hire this person and go to the other choices.

So the moral of the story is... put your name website and contact info on all your images so people can find you later.

TheDust

Good points. Thanks for the critiques. I really enjoy having the about me there, its an optional click away, so not everyone needs to see it. More screenshots will be added, I wanted to get an opinion on how I put it on my site. thank you.

I remember seeing tyler wanlass go through and chenge the color of each mesh he worked on, I could try soemthing along those lines. Doing a diffuse/normal/spec breakdown is a good idea, thank you for reminding me.

I really really enjoy having those random art pieces up, Having just those hand painted ones feels a bit empty on the page. also, it is an optional click as well.

I will move environments to first page.

thank you alot for feedback.

TheDust

zakhar2 wrote: »

The first thing you see is some random blog posts which im 90% sure no employer is gonna care about, so you should probably put your environments first. Unless im missing something, each environment only has one picture attached to it, so you should throw up some texture breakdowns, wireframes, alternate angles and more info about each piece. Also ditch the "abstract" images, and probably the life story.

Edit:lol eric beat me to almost everything

Great example to use, I will change that asap.

ErichWK

*shrug* Just cause you like something doesn't mean it impresses recruiters. Do as you wish, But I'd recommend looking at portfolios of some Devs here and seeing how they layout their portfolios. Check out the similarities and then compare that with the difference to yours.

TheDust

True, and that is the point of a website huh? I want to put some personality in there. Ill have to scale it back a bit then. Do you have a few portfolio links that you are specifically referencing? I have been looking at a lot of different ones. Wordpress may not be the best site to use, but its cool for a base.

Samfisher84

The graffiti on there dont make sense to be that high unless they where giants! Good luck

ErichWK

Good portfolios? There are so many.

http://www.wireframeworlds.com/index.html
http://art-machine.com/
http://adambromell.com/
http://www.brameulaers.com/

Or click mine. I think my layout works..got me 3 jobs.

TheDust

Samfisher84 wrote: »

The graffiti on there dont make sense to be that high unless they where giants! Good luck

you have just given me some more inspiration for this piece!

And wow its always cool to see some new portfolios, just saw anthony vaccaros art dump today, amazing stuff. It seems i have under estimated exactly what I should be putting on my site.

dpaynter26

Hey Alex I would also look into making your images either open into a new window or open in a way so that you dont have to click the back button to get back to your gallery, thats one thing that always kills me when i look at a portfolio is clicking an image and wanting to get back to look at the other images and not being able to quickly and having to go and click the back button everytime

TheDust

dpaynter26 wrote: »

Hey Alex I would also look into making your images either open into a new window or open in a way so that you dont have to click the back button to get back to your gallery, thats one thing that always kills me when i look at a portfolio is clicking an image and wanting to get back to look at the other images and not being able to quickly and having to go and click the back button everytime

Ah yes, good point, just fixed that. I also put my name in the pictures. im starting on doing the d/s/n pages for a few models, Ill be working on it for the next few days. I guess a good way to show people my site would be giving them the url to the environment page right away instead of the home address. thanks for all the critique's and keep it coming!

Computron

Tor frick's got a balller portfolio.

jeremiah_bigley

I would take the space picture out... it is random. I would also get rid of the abstract pieces as they don't do anything for you.

And seriously get rid of those blog posts. They are a bit off putting as they are kinda emo and talk a bit about religion. You also openly admit a bit that you can't operate at your best because of what is going on in your life. An employer isn't going to want to hire someone who can't keep their problems out of their work. Don't mix your personal life with your professional life.

All that aside your work isn't bad. But it is lacking in breakdown. Where are all your maps, other views, wireframes... anything? I don't think anyone will hire you off of 3 single images. Breakdown of your work can say a lot more to an employer than just a final product.

Cheers!

Neuropozyne

would really like to see some more images then just your 3 main