Few questions about online porfolios
ngon master
I haven't touched web design since I was in 9th grade or so I'm kinda rusty with everything, but I was working on putting together a rough portfolio and I have some questions for you guys.
What are some of the best portfolios you've seen?
(design, not content wise)
What are some good cheap web hosts?
Do you really need a demo reel anymore?
Whats a good number of "projects"?
(I know its varies if you do characters or levels or props, so specify)
BTW I'm more of a generalist right now trying to find what I like and what I'm good at I use to do mostly mental ray stuff, trying out the game side of CG.
What are some of the best portfolios you've seen?
(design, not content wise)
What are some good cheap web hosts?
Do you really need a demo reel anymore?
Whats a good number of "projects"?
(I know its varies if you do characters or levels or props, so specify)
BTW I'm more of a generalist right now trying to find what I like and what I'm good at I use to do mostly mental ray stuff, trying out the game side of CG.
Replies
I like Lucas Hardi's (DocRob) site as well
seems like most the web hosts out there have pretty cheap plans. I'm on Bluehost and I pay $6.95 a month, they keep increasing the space so it's never been an issue.
Demo reels are for animators
number of projects? just put your best stuff.
http://www.justhost.com/
Looks pretty attractive though.
Put your files in a img folder,
make thumbnails in a thumb folder,
Ahref all that, done!
Don't bother with anything complex, it would just be a waste of time.
Think about the following. Imagine a folder on your desktop, filled with pictures from a concept artist you really like. Now imagine going through all that badass stuff with ACDSee or similar ... it's enough to feel the coolness of the pics, right? Then thats all you need for your own portfolio website!
P
OR! a rather generous scaled down version of the full final image - if your folio mostly consist of widescreen matte paintings image as opposed to project pages showing many different screenshots of 3D assets/textures/and so on.
Good luck!
Also, stack of huge images can work very nice, as Paul Pepera's portfolio shows : http://www.peperaart.com/
No clicking needed, just scroll and drool.
Rashad Redic's site is great - not a single click required. Aside from his great work on Fallout, I always remember his site because of the minimal navigation.
http://www.icreateworlds.com/
i don't really think it needs to look any fancier than it is right now... albeit the white is somewhat blinding me.... good presentation is a factor, but it shouldn't detract from your work. remember the work is most important.
looking at the heading links... i'm a little confused. what's index? do you really need a gallery link? it is just confusing because at first glance, i would click the large thumbnails (call 'em what you will) before i clicked any of the heading links assuming each thumbnail was it's own gallery page. so do you really need all those up there on the heading line? what about just having resum
You don't need a separate link to a contact page - just list your phone number and email under your name. You don't need a blog, because nobody cares. You don't need to specify that your work is from personal projects, because that should be obvious to anyone looking at your site with a view to possibly hiring you.
I'm guessing that the 'Resume' link will take you to another page, then ask if you want to view it as a .pdf etc.... if you have to, just present your resume as HTML, with an option to view / download as a .pdf at the bottom.
Strip it right down. Cut the fluff, and emphasize your work with minimal navigation. As it is right now, it's too distracting.
In one of the GameIndustryMentor casts Canaday mentioned that portfolios before the digital age where just black books with your work tacked inside.
This is how your portfolio should be and I couldnt' agree more.
"A portable case for holding material, such as loose papers, photographs, or drawings." Photoshop has some ready made image galleries you can use, there is a bunch of gallery software you can normally customize. No need going super technical.
For animation definitely. For modeling and textures, probably not, higher res static images work a lot better.
I think 5-10 as long as its your best work.
Knowing MR is handy, if you've been putting shaders together that can help too, but really I don't think you should work too much on offline rendering techniques unless they can be transferred to games in some way.
You could move the links into the center if you wanted to, I wasn't sure as that's more of a personal aesthetic I think
Keep the "shell" elements as minimalist as possible. Overblown graphics on the structure of a site show off your web-design skill, not your artistic chops. Keep the site simple, and focus on showcasing your content simply and effectively. Less time spent on dandying up your site will translate into more time spent on dandying up your work. Someone looking to hire is only going to be interested in the content. They won't care about the web design unless they are hiring you to be a web designer.
A demo reel is only necessary when showing off animations, or large environments. (and most likely more than three or four of either) Don't bother if you only have static models that can be decently showed off with just images.
The number of pieces is not as important as the quality. If all of your work kicks ass, then go ahead and put it all up. But if some of your work doesn't live up to the rest, don't be afraid to cut it. Your portfolio should always contain your best work. Don't be shy of culling older pieces that don't properly reflect your current skill level.
www.adambromell.com
I think I'll have 7 "image after images" but each one its own project and clicking on it breaks it down and offers more screen shots and lists the specs and props, etc...
I'm gonna have to give it a shot.
It's not a bad idea to leave the break downs out of the site but have them ready to go if they ask. It might open up a line of communication.
I could make the all one page site my index and at the top have an option to switch from the "Quick view" to the "Traditional View" (traditional view being the way my site is now).
There would be a small thumbnail showing either choice so its clear, and again, by default it would be the all one page view, or "Quick View".
This way it's the best of both worlds, imo.
Anyways, don't mean to highjack your thread ZacD, just thinking out loud here.
[Edit] Oh, and Adam, you definetly inspired me to make the change to single page, awesome job with your new site. I have 3 x 24 inch monitors and stretched your site across them. It's totally sick!
I am planing to have the images link to a separate page with the break downs and keep the main page shorter. I guess whatever image quality I end up having will end up depending on the speed of the host.
I don't think there's one ideal kind of portfolio layout. For example, Eraserhead's portfolio works well on a single page because all his stuff kind of looks the same. If you don't like the first image, you needn't bother to scroll down, because there's little chance you'll like the other images.
But on Adam's site, it's real easy to overlook, say, the Ben Throttle residence, which, as a piece, is a nice change of style among all the gloomy stuff.
I'd also say that one page wouldn't do BradMyers' site a lot of good. Does an art director want to scroll through five low poly characters if he's looking for your skill as a weapon artist?
I redid my website just this week and decided against single-page for two reasons.
Firstly, I'm not looking for a job and I can add any kind of stuff I want. I can add as much crap as I want, the only increased loading time is a thumbnail on the index page.
Secondly, I believe my portfolio to be pretty varied and I like to leave the option open for the viewer to view just the weapons or just the stylised pieces or the lowpoly piece.
Disclaimer: this opinion is based on 0% industry experience.
www.isaacoster.com
Good luck!
On other hand Tyler Wilson and Mashru Mishu sites show of main thing don't know if they use template or not...but look good from viewer point