[Portfolio] Steffen Kist, Environment Artist

Aigik · Sep 2011

Hey guys! I posted my portfolio a long time ago, and, well, it sucked. Since then, I've completely redone the site and have of course made new content as well. I'm looking for C&C on pretty much everything. I'm concerned that my portfolio may be a bit cluttered, but I'm not really sure.

http://steffenkist.com/Index.html

BARDLER · Sep 2011

My first complaint would be the website its self. First, I would center and align everything because it would just look a lot better, this includes everything in each category. Second you are an artist so you should put some thought into the presentation of your portfolio. Use some borders around your thumbnails, make some cool looking text for your name, and use more then two colors(white text, gray background).

Just as an example look at the portfolio a couple threads below yours http://www.evilart.biz/
He has a very minimalistic approach, similar to yours, but his is a lot more eye pleasing because of the presentation and color.

As for the art, it seems weird that you are an environment artist but the first thing on your portfolio is guns. I would put what you think is the best environment you have done at the top, then put the second best, third best, and so on. I also would not put WIP in your portfolio, but instead put a link to a blog where you can show that stuff off and talk about it more. I would take the guns and put them in the misc models section, because again you are an environment artist.

The last thing I would recommend is getting rid of the "misc environments" at the bottom, it is by far your weakest item, and if you have time replace it with a new quality environment.

Oh, and put your name/email on EVERY picture so they can easily identify your work!!
http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/

Aigik · Sep 2011

BARDLER wrote: »

My first complaint would be the website its self. First, I would center and align everything because it would just look a lot better, this includes everything in each category. Second you are an artist so you should put some thought into the presentation of your portfolio. Use some borders around your thumbnails, make some cool looking text for your name, and use more then two colors(white text, gray background).

Just as an example look at the portfolio a couple threads below yours http://www.evilart.biz/
He has a very minimalistic approach, similar to yours, but his is a lot more eye pleasing because of the presentation and color.

As for the art, it seems weird that you are an environment artist but the first thing on your portfolio is guns. I would put what you think is the best environment you have done at the top, then put the second best, third best, and so on. I also would not put WIP in your portfolio, but instead put a link to a blog where you can show that stuff off and talk about it more. I would take the guns and put them in the misc models section, because again you are an environment artist.

The last thing I would recommend is getting rid of the "misc environments" at the bottom, it is by far your weakest item, and if you have time replace it with a new quality environment.

Oh, and put your name/email on EVERY picture so they can easily identify your work!!
http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/

Thanks for the feedback! This was all very useful.

chrisradsby · Sep 2011

Hmm let's crit the portfolio as a whole. Right now I feel like having pictures with 1920px width is too much. Thumbnails have a nice size but I feel that when I click an go into them I feel swamped. I've got both a 1440x900 screen and a 1920x1080 wide screen.

Had a look at your portfolio, you've worked on a mod it seems? I think you should show some of that stuff off as well if you can.

Aigik · Sep 2011

chrisradsby wrote: »

Hmm let's crit the portfolio as a whole. Right now I feel like having pictures with 1920px width is too much. Thumbnails have a nice size but I feel that when I click an go into them I feel swamped. I've got both a 1440x900 screen and a 1920x1080 wide screen.

Had a look at your portfolio, you've worked on a mod it seems? I think you should show some of that stuff off as well if you can.

Yes, I have. Star Wars The New Era, on Source. The thing with that is, I'm just not sure how to present it on my portfolio. Should I make a whole section dedicated to just the mod? And how do I deal with situations where I worked on a scene together with others on the team? Do I put a disclaimer saying it was a group effort? Do I point out which assets in the scene in specific I worked on? Right now I'm reworking the site, and I removed the WIP and Misc Environments sections completely, and merged the weapons sections with the misc section.

I'll reduce the image sizes. Thanks for letting me know.

Aigik · Sep 2011

Alright, I just spent much of the day redoing a lot of the website, addings things, changing things, etc, based on the feedback you guys gave me.

What do you guys think of it now?

jeremiah_bigley · Sep 2011

I feel that bar on the left is a bit random... I am not really liking how it is cutting through the thumbs.

Edit: I just realized that it is because you designed your website at 1920 width. Shrink your browser and watch what happens. The gray bar you have on the sides get pushed into your content in the center. Keep in mind that there are going to be a lot of people looking at this website who don't have badass monitors. HR people, ect. So you might find a design that stays the same no matter the viewing size.

I think your name should link to your home/portfolio page. It is so common nowadays that I was momentarily confused. Take down the size on your name, portfolio and resume, as well as the size of the buttons themselves. And the "RETURN TO PORTFOLIO!!!!!!" lol You might also consider a better font. Something slicker and more mature.

And that glow man :P Everyone knows how to use a Photoshop glow so it comes off as a bit cliche with the intensity you have it at. If you are going to have it, have it subtle and not screaming glow.

And you might consider calling the last bit "Props/Assets" or something like that instead of "Misc."

Also might get yourself a downloadable PDF of your resume.

That is a good start...

Not trying to soud harsh. Just swinging in and out. I'll come back later and nitpick. :P

Alberto Rdrgz · Sep 2011

your first environment seems very empty and unfinished. There's no life to it... Where are the props?

Aigik · Sep 2011

Alberto Rdrgz wrote: »

your first environment seems very empty and unfinished. There's no life to it... Where are the props?

That's because it is unfinished, and I don't know what I was thinking putting it up there like that. I guess I just wanted a quick replacement for the stuff I removed.

Unfortunately, my desktop computer has just been decimated by a virus, so I can't work on anything right now. Thanks for all the feedback everyone, you have no idea how much it helps.

greevar · Sep 2011

Never use tables for page layout, that's what CSS is for. Tables are for data, CSS is for presentation. If you want borders, CSS can do that. Nine times out of ten, an external CSS document is better than an embedded style sheet. It makes maintenance and updating less tedious. It also saves on bandwidth.

The gaussian blur background on your text looks terrible. That effect takes literally 30 seconds to do and shows the reader at first glance that you don't put much thought into your work and that's before they've seen your actual work. That's a bad first impression.

Aigik · Sep 2011

Ok, I just made massive changes to the site. Thanks for the post, greevar, because I didn't know I was doing it wrong. I've redesigned the site completely to use CSS instead of tons of tables. The issues with it scaling badly on different resolutions has also been fixed as a result of this.

I also modeled out something to use as the header, which I think is much more visually appealing than the old crappy blur effects. My original plan was to make some dark greeble similar to that in the header to use on the sides, but I decided not to as I think it would be too much of a visual distraction.

So what do you guys think? Better?

Alberto Rdrgz · Sep 2011

starting to look better bro! this is a nice direction!

greevar · Sep 2011

Lose the "about" section in your resume, that should be in your cover letter.

jeremiah_bigley · Sep 2011

yeah everything is looking tons better. There is a sliver of white on the edges of a couple of your pictures that are bugging me. And your massive text still bothers me... but I guess that might just come down to preference. Though it does bother me less as it is better implemented as buttons and not those hideous grey things you had before :P

You might consider putting a 1 pixel stroke on things that way everything isn't just pictures floating in space. Something to ground them...

Now... Content!

[Portfolio]  Steffen Kist, Environment Artist

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[Portfolio] Steffen Kist, Environment Artist