YSALEX portfolio thread.
interpolator
Tried this twice before; got a lot of good feedback.
There was a lot to dislike about my first attempt apparently, so I went back to the drawing board.
Here is my new site: www.yurialexander.com
Comments on content and site much appreciated. The only thing I have yet to finish is the 'detailed breakdown' sections for each piece, but the main portfolio and the subsections are up.
____________________________
First thread was here, if you'd like to see where it started and then went, not sure where the second one is, not in my user history anymore: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94103
________________________
EDIT: whoops. Just found the second thread. I started this new thread because I couldn't figure out where the last one had gone. I just realized that google searching for myself here brought me to dev.polycount, and not actually polycount, so searching for it turned up nothing.
I apologize if this is redundant then, but since this is here I will avoid resurrecting the old one.
There was a lot to dislike about my first attempt apparently, so I went back to the drawing board.
Here is my new site: www.yurialexander.com
Comments on content and site much appreciated. The only thing I have yet to finish is the 'detailed breakdown' sections for each piece, but the main portfolio and the subsections are up.
____________________________
First thread was here, if you'd like to see where it started and then went, not sure where the second one is, not in my user history anymore: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94103
________________________
EDIT: whoops. Just found the second thread. I started this new thread because I couldn't figure out where the last one had gone. I just realized that google searching for myself here brought me to dev.polycount, and not actually polycount, so searching for it turned up nothing.
I apologize if this is redundant then, but since this is here I will avoid resurrecting the old one.
Replies
Second I think a darker background would look nicer, again thats just personal preference but i think it makes your work pop nicer then whites, especially if you have lots of skin colour humans.
I would up the size of the small txt everywhere on your website. especially your resume page. Not everyone has the best eyes (i myself have bad vision in one) and if people are looking at your portfolio at nighttime which is very possible, it would help to have the txt bigger. I know for me that my eyes get tired and go blurry trying to read small txt at night.
Other then that your work looks decent! Im still a beginner myself (still in school) so i wont comment to much on that as im sure other people will do a better job. But do love the lion and the two slaves holding up that building. Would be awesome to see that scene textured and finished!
Im surprised, last time there was a line to rip apart the site and this time hardly anything. Not sure what's a worse sign.
Not complaining, I know it eats peoples time to help, just that I'd braced myself for the onslaught.
Go back to your first and second thread and re-read whats being said there.
I'm sorry, are you just assuming that or is that your actual opinion? I just think it shows that he's actually willing to make changes.
Anyhow, I like the colors and what greats me at the first page. I don't know if you benefit from having all that old work in there, it's not really raising your standard. In other words, your more recent work is so much better.
The most annoying thing though is the speed of the site. It's horrible. It takes several seconds for just one image. Maybe that's just because I'm in Europe or something. (Just presumed that you were American, it doesn't say where you live on the site. BAD)
My critics I think you have that yellow outline on to much, where it says "My Portfolio" it looks ok and maybe to show what page you are on, but I would not use it on anything more.
The projects breakdown does not load for me, might be what sltrOlsson meant.
Other thing on the front page I would like 1 big nice presentation photo and when you press that it takes you to the to the project breakdown of that project.
And I don't know if showing that cigarette pack is doing anything really. 1 more thing would be cool of you finished Akira texture the gun and all that.
Take care.
I say stick the sci fi bust at the top because it kicks so much ass, and give yourself many pats on backs.
I don't understand why your navigation is different on every page... the main page is a column of images, your "more images" is a gallery of thumbnails (which doesn't work in Opera btw, clicking an image causes the entire page to hang), and your anatomy page is a slideshow... Just pick one and keep your navigation consistent across all your pages.
Formatting in your resume blows my mind, you've got three different flavors of huge headers, one of which is color coded, and all of your descriptive text is microscopic. I'd really try to downplay the stylization in favor of making something that is actually easily readable.
Awesome work though, I agree with fearian that the sci fi bust of the chick should be at the top, it's an excellent piece.
Anyways, lots of great advice here. I've already changed a bit, but there's more to do.
@darbeenbo & Others -- I moved the helmet bust to the top. People seem to dislike the hipster girl, and it is the oldest piece there, so I suppose I'm going to need to replace it with something new when I get the chance.
@dii - Lots of good points, thank you a ton. I am going to have to redo the main content body so that all the images will link to their breakdowns, but I agree with you (thinking about it now) that this is a very basic feature and important. So I am getting on that. The navigation thing was just me being 'feature' happy I think, but you are absolutely right in that it should stay consistent. I changed these styles on all the pages.Also right about the resume. I added new header styles and reformatted to something simple and less loud. It looks a lot better now.Thanks for all the input, really helped me nail things down more. BTW, your sketchbook is amazing, I loved every image.
@Stromberg90 - I liked the yellow, so I was being too protective of it. But you're right, so I changed it up. Now the headers are yellow, and small amounts of text are yellow, but links etc. are not. It looks much better in my opinions, much cleaner. Very much appreciated.
@sltrOlsson - I will have to remove some of it. I'm thinking about removing the hipster girl. Less is more I suppose. Also thanks for informing me of the speed. I think I am uploading everything too high-res (lossless PNG), which is why it loads slowly (I am guessing). I will do some experiments and try to find a good balance between image size, file size and compression ugliness. Thank you for your time.
that's just already say it is your portfolio - can you understand?
Ham... I lov the hipster girl !
Anyways, thanks for the input. I'm still tweaking here and there.
The plastic helmet on the sci-fi bust needs much better highlights. Sharper, tighter, and brigther.
Not that it's excusable, but the cigs are there (for better or worse) because the working title was 'cliched hipster', but I got a lot of flak for supposed self deprecation, even though it was just meant to be a joke.
I tried so hard to get nice highlights on the helmet in Marmoset, but in the end I kept getting messed up lighting results with it. I see people here doing such great renders in marmoset, but everything I do beyond one standard lighting goes weird on me, and marmoset guys don't answer back. Strange shadows, transparency issues, meshes popping though other meshes etc.
Still, she needs some work, thanks for the notes.