[Portfolio pieces] Looking for feedback

Fozwroth

Hi! Havent really gotten any feedback lately wich is probably a bad sign that my work dont stand out. so I thought I start up a thread with my recent stuff and hope it brings in some feedback

I graduated a week ago and Im currently reworking my portfolio since I havent gotten anywhere on the job front with it. would really like to know whats wrong with my work and so on

My current site: www.simonbarle.com

and below is a few WIP shots of what I will be replacing most of the current stuff on there

thanks!

very WIP environment based on a concept for pirates of the carribean armada of the damned. alot of placeholder assets still there. faaaaaar from done ^^



some Props for it:









and some new trees for my foliage section of my portfolio, would like to do a "swedish forest" kind of environment with some cliffs and more trees.





and a video of them

[vv]42734039[/vv]



and a character following the different concepts sheets for the Hellchick character. I only work on it abit now and then, mostly to practice hardsurface and organic modelling/ sculpting. still in kind of blockout/trying things out phase.

Fozwroth

just a small bump as I really would like some feedback

Dysengaged

looking really good
Just with the cannon, inside/outide the start of the barrel it looks to be more like wood than metal. Id suggest just reduce the amount of detail on the end

and would love to see more of your character (hellchick)

Other than that, excellent job
Looking forward to seeing more of your work

Fozwroth

thanks alot! glad you like it yes I agree on the cannon I will fix it.

I might work on her a bit later this week and can post better renders since these where just a printscreen from maya ^^

Blaisoid

your wood planks look a bit clay-like. they have too many little bumps and those cavities might be too deep.

Fozwroth

thanks for the feedback! I´ll go back to the sculpt and flatten things out abit

Alberto Rdrgz

I don't think the cannon makes sense? i'm not sure if it would be safe to fire with those cracks. The environment you have would benefit from another angle or shot, the lighting is bland. I would suggest somehow blending the assets of the first environment and the birch forest you have. It looks pretty good man, keep that type of level and you should have a solid portfolio.

Toafer

I realize its still WIP so some of this stuff you might already have planned to do. The environment shot is really bland like Alberto said. Really try to push the lighting so you get some nice contrast in the scene as well as some much needed color. I also think varying some of the heights of the buildings would help to break up the skyline a bit. I think the water should be darker as well with some reflections from the windows. How water looks is really dependent on the environment around it and there is a disconnect between your water and the environment which is breaking the flow of the scene.

I like where its going. Could be pretty cool. Keep it up

Fozwroth

thanks! yeah I´m going to get rid of them didnt really think that trough. Im going to spend the week propping and finishing some texture for the pirate environment, havent really done so much when it comes to lightning yet.

I´ll keep that suggestion in mind! in case I feel it doesnt work out. Altough Im hoping to do both the environments

Fozwroth

yeah the water is UDK own shader right now and reacts a bit funky with the scenes fog I might have screwed something up. I will build my own watershader when I have done more work on the scene.

thanks for the good feedback!:) I will look into it during the week.

Fozwroth

just gonna bump this one last time

respawnrt

Personal preference: put the last 4 pieces to be the first, group the first 2 intro props, and put a header image like you have with other ones with the actual props ? Dunno just an idea of rearanging .

Fozwroth

thanks for the input! yeah I´ll probably swizzle things around abit on the website when the new stuff is done. thinking of having around 5 tabs of content.

an update on the cannon, removed the cracks and built a lowpoly. This is just a testbake Polycount is 3694 I´ll probably look for things to optimize a bit once I can see it in engine.

off to make a proper UV map! ^^

S_ource

Haven't read all other post just last and it looks good but i just must say for portfolio piece its not so good to do a canon pretty unoriginal (i mnot the one to talk about it if you look at my folio but just a tip for future work.)

Fozwroth

it´s for a pirate environment in UDK Im working on, so it wont be a stand alone piece just a prop

Fozwroth

got it inside UDK

Fozwroth

Tweaked post processing and lightning a bit. gonna try to add in some color in the scene now, maybe some banners/flags or open crates with vegetables and fruit

sorry for the bad quality it is a screenshot. the tiledshot command "cuts" my bloom effects in half leaving an ugly seam, going to investigate why for future screenshots. also the imageshack compression have a say in all this I believe.

still UDKs own water shader

monah62rus

Fozwroth wrote: »

Unlike the real thing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Betula_pendula_001.jpg

http://www.zelenahata.com.ua/files/lagre_pics/91_1.jpg

Fozwroth

thanks for the reference! I'll go back and redo the shape of the trees

Fozwroth

A little more progress in this. the untextured thing is going to be an upside down rowboat. the chimeny has placeholder texture at the moment and I borrowed UDKs own ivy just to test to get in some green in the scene.

Fozwroth

Got some more props in and tweaked lightning some more.

k21n

I really like what comes out of this. My advice is to make a horizon on the sky [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaoOJ3m60s0"]sky dome - Julio Juarez[/ame] and some dense clouds, just a bit...

ivanzu

Looks good but houses are looking boring and too repetive ,add some decals with cracks and bricks stcking trough the mortar and that stuff.

Fozwroth

I borrowed the existing UDK sky for now, going to make my own. thanks for the good idea!

yes they really do:) I will be using meshpaint to get in some color variation, cracks bricks and such. been waiting abit with it since the building Atlas is not finnished yet

CandyStripes05

S_ource wrote: »

but i just must say for portfolio piece its not so good to do a canon pretty unoriginal (i mnot the one to talk about it if you look at my folio but just a tip for future work.)

Disagree - If you can step your game up on any "unoriginal" model and make it something to remember. I say go for it.

nathanbarrett

I like the docks environment! Looks like it be from a stealth game, you've really nailed the mood. The water looks a bit weird though.. Too flat

k21n

nathanbarrett wrote: »

I like the docks environment! Looks like it be from a stealth game, you've really nailed the mood. The water looks a bit weird though.. Too flat

I agree with this too, but i think he must focus on the props for now, it is a real pain to make a good shader in udk (at least for me) The guys from 3dmotive.com have some pretty good material tutorials. Also this guy has a great Ocean Material [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zggG0wCD7yw"]UDK Ocean Material Download Knights: Spiral Islands - YouTube[/ame]

Fozwroth

Yes Im focusing on props and such at the moment going to make an ocean shader soon! or try atleast.

I havent been able to figure out why this is happening when I use the Tilesshot command from play in editor mode :




anyone have any ideas? its not always happening, but most pictures get some of this wierd cuts.

jackalope

I would guess it's from the editor rendering part of the scene at a time, which i believe is what it does. If i'm not mistaken it takes multiple screen shots and then combines them.
so since the light wouldn't be on screen for the top set of screen shots the bloom renders differently.
I ran into a similar problem when I tried adding a vignette post process effect. It would tile the vignette. I had to add it in photoshop.
Rotating the camera a little lower so the light gets caught in the upper section might fix it. Don't know for sure though.

Fozwroth

thanks a ton! now I know whats causing it.

since my target size is about 1400 pixels wide I could do normal print screen in the worst case scenarios. shame to loose abit of that extra crisp from highres shots but oh well

SimonT

wouldnt do that much glow to the windows. normaly windows doesnt have such strong glow.

Fozwroth

indeed. Im currently making the glow feel better

I jumped on the shotgun wagon as well. I had an old shotgun lying around so I felt the itch to go back to it and redo the textures.

some stuff left to do. also experementing a little with presentation layouts, let me know what you think! the signature itself isnt very hot :P cant really get it right on a tablet yet hehe, its just to show the idea.

danpaz3d

Everythings looking good so far! The docks enviro is looking good, just yeah, tone down the glow a bit and add some variation to the windows...just have like one or two unlit, here and there...

The pres shot for the gun is ok... I wouldn’t go with the gradient background. What I try to do is 'theme' the background to my model. For this one, I'd go with a really dark or really light metal texture. EG.. http://hailswebzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Black-Background-Metal-2560x1600-by-Freeman2.jpg

The main thing is try to make the whole image look good, attention to every detail. Rather than just focusing on the model. Try to give the whole image a theme that focuses on the model you're displaying.

Eg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iuly9c3jUHI/S9h93WZGyyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/aFjVF0fjYBc/s1600/M_commando_1.jpg

Not a great example, but you get the idea.
At least for portfolio images, you want every image to look just as good as the next.

Fozwroth

Thanks for the good feedback! I will keep that in mind

I started goofing around with some of the suggestions. used the linked image as a test.



better/worse ? the model isnt final yet either

danpaz3d

lol I didn't mean use the texture I give you... Make sure you have permission to use that one before you do. I was thinking to make that effect on your own...

Otherwise it's looking better already

Fozwroth

your right my bad there It was just a quick test as I had very little free time today. never intended to keep it for the final shot

thanks again!

Fozwroth

starting to feel like its time to move on to other things now. was a fun practice in materials and first time using a gloss map

any crits are welcomed. posted the flats aswell. Im not claiming to be a weapons artist and I know its probably not so very impressive piece but it was fun anyway!








Polycount might be abit high but this mesh was for an old art test where I only got to use an AO map so the shading of the model was important and I decided to keep the topology as it was

Kurt Russell Fan Club

Don't worry about using that black metal plate texture, it's just a filter forge texture that I made (ha! http://www.filterforge.com/filters/879-v3.html )

Gun's looking really good. The specular at the tip of the tube magazine looks a bit plastic-y but it's turned out really well.

Fozwroth

thanks! ah yeah I see it too now, might go back and fix that later. I have a list of things I want to finish before summer ends

Lando_Mange

Nice stuff man, ny personal preference thing to say is, more dirt on them textures

The walls, the planks, the boexs (by the sea) they all need more wear and tear. Think about the environmental storytelling, where were those boxes before they ended up there, did they stand in some ship, out at sea, rocking about and baning into each other all the time. Were they scraped when someone carried them too close to the ground
Or whatever, stuff like that! Rain-leaking shit on the walls and stuff

It really adds alot to an environent, don't over do it though!


....Maybe bust a light in one room and keep one window dark, just to add some kinda assymetry I dunno

Hope it helps!

S_ource

Nice looking gun maybe a bit to strong specular on edges?

And some tips on your dungeon if its ok. It looks very greyish and mostly stone material, maybe mix it up with some more materials and also adding some more detail props looks very clean now. And the sand that comes out of the wall doesn't look very realistic/dynamic to me looks more solid. (I understand that you probably don't want to fix it and rather work on new project but i thought you might would want some feedback on it anyway.)

Fozwroth

thanks guys!:D

@Lando_Mange

nice feedback thanks! I will go over another pass on the textures I could very easily create a vertex color
texture for more "extreme" weathering on some boxes and stuff.


@S_ource

I can try to bring some of the specular sliders down in marmoset and see it that does the trick, might have gone
a tad overboard with them.

yes all feedback is welcomed! it is my oldest environment piece, about one year ago when we had a 2 weeks course in
UDK. I will go back to it and try to push it a bit further, like that sand thing. probably gonna do a propper
vertex blend with a cool mixmap and remove that lump:P and yeah try to add in some more variation in the scene,
might even go over some textures and such.

started working on some produce and bottles to add color and interest in my open boxes and barrels. still quite WIP. going to add some more things like Cabbage,fish and maybe oranges or lemons as they are a common seafaring snackable.

Maffew

Individually your assets look great. I feel like they're not being shown to their best potential with the scene lighting. Also, the window emissive stands out way too much. Takes away from the rest of the environment.

Fozwroth

thanks for the input! I will look over the lightning when all the assets are built. the current version has a lot less emissive will try to post some newer sceenshots later tonight.

Marchwarden

Fozwroth wrote: »

The faces of your buildings could use alot more variation. As somebody already mentioned, turning some window lights off could help, but I think you should do more to vary the actual structure. Buildings generally have a fair amount of variance from floor to floor to keep it looking interesting, but yours have a mostly square, gridlike appearance.

Fozwroth

yeah I guess they are a bit boring as it is now. should look into maybe building some addon pieces to spice up the shapes a little thanks!

here are some more up to date screenshots. still some things Im not 100% happy with.










going to spend a day or 2 fixing up things people have said about it this week

and those doors are pure CG textures atm, going to build my own doors soon! :poly136:

Fozwroth

made a fish for my boxes today

first image from marmoset and the second is inside UDK

Fozwroth

Did some of these ( dont know the name) glassglobes, glassballs shiny fishy ball...256 texture and only baked light on the spheres not surrounding yet.

some more small props to make and then look over the feedback people have provided and then I hope to be done... feel like its time to move on pretty soon from this.

Fozwroth

So Im going to call this done by tomorrow or something like that since I wont have acces to my computer for about a month. What is left to do is basicly build my own windowshutters since they are pure photosource at the moment. also to make the specular map for the building atlas texture ( no buildings have any specular yet)

But here is the current state of it! I apologize for not having the time to consider all the great feedback I recieved but I tried to adress some issues and now time is up

Fozwroth

So I called the Pirate environment done for now! tossed it up on my portfolio and made some smaller changes to it

www.simonbarle.com


Going to continue with these projects in about a month or so after I have moved and gotten everything fixed



and start making some real assets for my Swedish forest environment as well as going back to my old Castle cellar environment and freshen it up a bit as suggested

[vv]44203384[/vv]

biofrost

Great job on the pirate environment. It has a really nice feel to it.

The forest is looking good but right now lacks a center focus, my eyes are not drawn to any particular area. I know its early but just though id point it out.

Keep pumping out good work, I can't wait to see more of the forest!