[PORTFOLIO] - n0body, 3D Artist
http://ajp-port.com/
Hi, i just recently finished my portfolio. I want critique on the content, not the website.
Thanks in advance
Hi, i just recently finished my portfolio. I want critique on the content, not the website.
Thanks in advance
Replies
Here r some critique's that i think would help improve the quality of your portfolio:
1. Render them in a nice renderer. It seems you use marmoset, but displaying stuff on white backgrounds or blackish backgrounds is never really adviced. Put them in a nice & simple environment, or just tweak the settings a bit more.
2. Leave out the animations, displaying a rig is nice, but it seems your going for a character artist porfolio, not for an animator portfolio. Your animations aren't that good that theyr worth showing (having viewed two of m. I like that you show knowledge of animation, they just need alot more work, in the monk animation i see alot of distortion, pants coming through the robe, etc :P)
3. Your models are pretty awesome, i didnt see much flaws in the topology of the lowpoly's, but i didn't expect that the texture maps used were 2k maps. Im looking at the monk model right now. And what i see is bad bakes & blurry textures.
First im looking at the head, i can see the textures are pretty good when it comes to technique, but somehow they seem blurred, and the bad normal map doesn't improve that.
Second picture i look at, the head looks a TON better, because its viewed from a distance and doesn't look as blurred as in the closeup. However, the arm is pretty straight, the hand & toe is too big, and there's also very visible texture stretching in the robe.
Third picture is the one from the back, here again the head & shoulder texture look great. but from this angle the pose doesn't really make sense
Personally i think in most cases the first image (closeup) doesn't really work because of blur. My personal favorites are pic2/3 of Valkyrie, The homepage image of the monk (from that angle it doesnt look blurred/strechted AND the pose makes sense), and Soldier 1 in general. i love the hair. This is why i believe this is the only piece where the closeup really works.
Last bit of advice, lose soldier 2 entirely. or make it into a head bust.
If i were you, id work with on improving your texture and bake quality first. Since your using 20k tri's on some models, you could get away with using 2 or 3 texture maps per model, which might make it easier to get sharp textures, if your having trouble cramming everything on a 2k texture map. Also, watch some tutorials on baking normal maps
Thanks for the crit, glad you like my characters, I usually only use 1 map for everything not multiple maps, just to practice utilizing UV space, thats why the quality might not look as good.
I'm actually going for more of a 3D generalist, not just a modeler, I'll take some of what you said into consideration
@ Tadao:
You could be right, but i was having issues with rigging some characters (like texture streching, and deformations) because they didnt have enough edge loops in certain areas, which resulted in me adding more polys.
But i could definitely go alot lower if i had to. Although 20k tris was the personal limit i set for myself.
I changed some things
but anyway i know, its too late now though, i really dont feel like going back and changing it, i wish i knew that before
if its that big of a deal i will go back and change it. but i dont think it is
also as i've already stated i prefer critique on the content not the website unless its something i really need to change
and trust me im not being lazy, i already put alot of time, blood and sweat into this
And currently I have to scroll sideways to see all the content, it would be nice if it all fit on the screen at once.
I'm not much of a character artist, so I don't have much critique for the content.
Once you have a job then it is not as important to keep it updated, but like most works it should never truly be done.
Tried it, that doesn't work, because there would be a white outline around the characters, i wish i could get the alpha in dream weaver to work
Also you should upload the images onto photobucket and post the links to the work here, and just bypass your website all together since you're not interested in crits on it, nor are you willing to change it.
Noone's going to crit your stuff if you keep saying things like "that's not much of a crit". Not a very good first impression mate.
lol, ok fine, i'll change the backround, since im getting complaints about it.
But how do you like everything else?
Im changing the backround
and as far as the crit goes he could of said more. Do you mean change the white backround for just the front page? or the entire website? because the characters are only like that on the main page, the others are rendered in marmoset, so they have a brown backround
and like i said it is a little tedious to change the backround on my website, cause of the way i went about doing things, if it wasn't i wouldn't mind
Well i didn't look at the rest of your site because i couldn't stand looking at a white page. Not like changing a background colour should be hard and i know virtually no web design.
its not hard just tedious, it would be easier if the alpha worked, cause i get an ugly white outline when i change the backround in dreamweaver.
if i knew more about dreamweaver i could easily fix it but i dont, it probably has something to do with the code
but like i said im changing it
I agree that there are too many polies used in some places, but you also seem to be under-using them quite a bit too. For instance, on your monk, the foot is way higher poly than it needs to be, especially in the back where there's some weird edges that appear to add nothing to your model, meanwhile his robe has what, 8 sides, and almost no edge loops? And this model is supposed to animate?
The topology is all over the place, I suggest checking out some refs
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTopology
Your maid is your best work I think, I'm assuming it's your most recent? Even then you've got a lot of problems. I think a lot of your work could benefit from you simply spending more time on it. For instance, you went to the trouble of giving her eye-lashes, but the texture itself looks like it was scribbled on in about 5 seconds, and it's very obvious where the plane ends, etc.
To be 100% honest your animations are bad. They don't look natural, there's clipping evident in almost every one, and again it just doesn't look like much time was spent.
Some advice... go back and re-study your basics. I just don't think these models are marketable. You can model, you can make a texture, you can bake normal maps, you can rig - well, that's all wonderful, but then why is the end-result still sub-par? You're lacking some finer artistic instincts and foundational skills. Go back and study things like anatomy, color theory, forms, and just art in general. I think if you really put some effort into boosting up your foundations, even without practicing modeling, your next model will be about 500% better.
As for the website, the white background isn't ideal, it's a bit blinding considering most sites we game artists frequent are pretty dark. But, it's got other problems too - I recommend re-doing your site completely after studying your foundations again and it will be much improved also.
Also - it really isn't hard to change your background color, and even if you do have to manually fix alphas on some images.. so? It would take a few hours to fix MAX, and that's if you're completely computer inept. If you think that is long and tedious, that really explains why so many of your models seem rushed.
I'm not trying to be harsh, but hopefully this works as a reality check. I don't know where you think your skill-level is, but just the act of putting together a portfolio site implies you're looking for work doing characters in the game industry, and I have to say I don't think you're there yet. I would scrap these and start again. It's better to have only one really well done piece on your site, than six very amateur pieces.
I'm not the only one who said it. It's not a design issue, it just plain burns my eyes out, and my screen is by no means bright compared to some i've used.
I just went through most of the first post in this thread and there's only a handful of portfolios with bright backgrounds. Almost every single one is dark grey.
Don't want to divert this thread any further so i'll leave it at that.
2) I don't think the giant images are doing you any favors.
3) The content is pretty bad. I can go through model by model and critique them but none of them are up to industry standard. The maid is scary and there are all kinds of errors in the still shots, the hands aren't even holding the broom and the fingers appear to be missing, the broom also clips right through the dress... sloppy.
4) The animations are really really bad, I wouldn't even call them a proof of rigging.
The expressions are just eyebrows and the mouth deforming, expressions are so much more than that you need to rig up the whole face and do it properly if you're going to do facial animation. A huge chunk of emotion comes from the skin around the eyes, which you aren't even moving.
I agree it can be harsh on the eyes, but that is because there are big white plains of nothing. Thats his design flaw making his portfolio look unprofessional. The most used sites on the internet all have white backgrounds and are well designed. I'm just saying this because of the "for the love of god dont use white" made it sound like its some kind of outdated or newbie thing.
I don't prefer white at all, but it is definitely something you can pull off and make a beautiful website with if your typo and composition is good.
1. Keep in mind, that your portfolio is only as strong as your weakest link. With that being said, your website, blog, etc (however you present your work) is something designed and created by you. Thus, it is, in a sense, part of your portfolio as well.
2. That stark white background can work on websites (believe it or not), but as far as presenting some nice 3d models to show to potential employers, it can actually become a sort of eyesore. If anything, the white background actually detracts from your models (its hurting your work more than letting the work shine).
3. Always, ALWAYS, look for spelling errors across your text. "Triangals" is incorrect. Just be sure to change it. Yes, I know it is just a typo, but those little things can still have an extremely adverse effect (and yes I am sure there will be typos throughout my wall of text, maybe it will help get my point across?).
4. I agree with Sean VanGorder in that I prefer not to scroll sideways. Up and down is fine, but having work extend to far to the left or right, just seems like too much hassle to look at your work. Keep this in mind, "Make this site as easy, and as redundant as possible. The easier it is to navigate (i.e. up and down since some computer peripherals do not have side to side scrolling unless you manually do with the scroll bar), the easier time a potential employer has looking at it.
5. Here may be a solution to the left to right scroll bar. Perhaps consider making thumbnails of the work you want to present. I say this because part of the reason you have to scroll left and right, is due to the size of the images on the home page etc. Why not make thumbnails of the images on the homepage, which then lead to the main page for that model which has the nice, big images to look at.
5A. Yes this is 5A. This sort of goes in line with the previous suggestion. Why are your textures so much smaller than the actual model? Why is the image of the rigged character so much smaller than the image of the model, yet bigger than the texture image? These are questions you need to be able to answer (and no, saying "just because" or "I thought it would like fine" aren't really good reasons). As far as answering these questions, you need to think design wise.
5B. Why can't the images of each model page be thumbnails as well? That would save so much space. You could add even more images if you wanted. Why not implement something like shadowbox, multibox, lightbox, etc? Then you could have them as thumbnails, save space, and use one of the aforementioned viewing application to present your bigger image of your work.
5C. Why are there at least 3 views, poses, etc of each model on ONE image. Why not one view or pose on one image? Then a different pose or view on another, and yet another. There is no reason to try to cram several views or poses onto one sheet for viewing. Split those up. Let each view/pose shine, rather than stuffing so many into one sheet.
5D. Another thing to keep in mind, try not to make your images larger than what a computer monitor can hold. 1920 x 1080 I think is just about becoming the norm. If you have to scroll sideways to view an image, I think it is just too big.
5E. I think that is all for 5, but I just made this just in case I come up with anything else later.
6. Personally, I would like more text. At the top, below each set of images, at the bottom (I dunno where, experiment to figure out the best laid out design). Just more text. Describe what you did, in what program/programs, maybe a little process (but don't go overboard on process), all the specs (which it seems you have).
7. I see normal maps (even though they are microscopic compared to the rest of the images. If there are normals, I assume there is also a high poly. Where is the render of the shaded high poly models? I wanna see them.
8. So on the textures, I see a diffuse and normal map. Is that it? Was there no specular? Opacity? Emissive? See what I am getting at? If you have those maps, post them up, show them off. People WANT to see what all you did. No reason to not have them on there if you did them.
9. When creating a website, draw from inspiration. Look at other people's websites. These websites don't have to be fellow artists. It could be an industrial engineering website (if you find something that inspires you to create something awesome on your site, go for it).
10. Now I may start getting even more nit picky. Alignments are off. The spacing between images varies, some have the same space between each image, others have more, and maybe even less. Keep it all consistent. Decide on how much space should reside between each image, and make it all the same.
11. Try not to put that Marmoset 8 Monkey Labs logo over your artwork. Maybe that is just a personal opinion, but I don't like how it overlaps your artwork.
12. Think about adding more info to the top (beneath your header, where Home and Resume are). Maybe add a page for contact information, link to your LinkedIn (or anything else you use for networking). Not saying you absolutely have to, just something to think about.
13. Ok, here is some inspiration to draw from. You might find some examples of what I am talking about as far as critiques go. I have mentioned some things that Jeremiah Bigley has done (why Jeremiah, because he is a buddy of mine, and he is good at what he does, so why not?) So here is the link to his site jeremiahbigley.com
I am not saying copy his layout to a T (never do that), but his site is clean, simple, redundant, and yet it has some neat features, its unique, and it is easy on the eyes, and easy to use. I am not comparing actual models here, just the website layout and functionality.
I guess I really don't have to many critiques or comments as far as the actual content on your site goes. These glaring problems I have pointed out kind of distract me too much from the actual work. I suggest posting images straight to this forum, in your own thread, showcasing your work (that is at a reasonable size), and getting critiques on what to fix as far as your work goes. Then work on the site on the side (you don't have to have finalized images to test the site). Just use dummy images and such to get a good design going then just plug in images once you finalize the site and the renders, screen grabs, etc of your models/animations.
I suppose you may feel some disheartenment (is that even a word?) after reading this and any other critiques that are here on this thread. With that, I always like to leave with words of encouragement, because, believe me, as artists we have all been there, and done that, and we do know what the feeling is like. So here is a suggestion, feed off these critiques, because at the end of the day, you did ask for them. Take these suggestions, and let it drive you to completing this work. Keep in mind, that all these people posting here, are trying to help you.
Well I guess that is about it for now, I am sure this wall of text in this post, plus all the other posts from past and future are enough to keep you reading for a good while. I just hope i didn't need to put a "too long, didn't read" notice on this thing.
http://stevechelton.carbonmade.com/
http://carbonmade.com/
they give you lots of options and its free. You can upgrade stuff if you want.
Back to your portfolio... were you using ANY reference when making the characters? They barley look human.
this
Keep on keeping on OP, GL!
Well more people are telling me to change it, so i think i might do that, but thanks for your crit
i've actually spent over a year on this portfolio and have already re-did a bunch of stuff, and i've compared mine to others. And about the eye lashes, thats a problem that comes from marmoset, it looks fine in maya
i compare my stuff to others and i think its atleast decent, i think thats a pretty extreme opinion compared to others i've got, but nevertheless thanks for the crit
ok, other than the cinematography (which i had but was told to remove) i dont see the big difference as far as animation goes, but thanks
and as far as references go, you can pretty much look at any video game, but thanks for your time
you know, whats funny is i was getting alot more positive critique before i re-did the website and other things and it was alot worse back then. So i know alot of these opinions are very one-sided because of the way i came off, but whatever, im finished
Aaaaand that's the worst attitude you could have on these boards.
You do need a lot of work in your UV mapping. lots of stretching going on. I would had thought this was a 512 texture map. The texture space may be 2048.... but the texture your using I would have to assume your blowing it up larger to fit the space and therefore bluring the texture all around. A lot of areas you are depending on low poly information to carry.. when that should be the job of the normal map.
Keep working at it though! your doing good. its a lot of trial and error for sure. everyone goes through it.
It seems like a lot of people seemed to pile on about the site design when you where looking for critiques about the content? You might want to pull the content out of the site and post it in a new thread, it seems like everyone was mostly piling on about the site, which I agree needs some work, but if that's not what you wanted to talk about it might be better to go at it another way?
but i've already got good feedback in general from my school, and from others, so im not worried, but i do apologize if i came off bad
The Maid:
The hands are very small, and the fingers very delicate, which is to be expected to some degree but the fingers are spaced far apart giving her rake like hands, this makes creating a fist hard and in general makes fingers hard to animate.
The pose and the weightlessness of the clothing makes it look like she's floating. It would probably be good to ground her on something, even a small base. As for the clothing its very straight, stiff and paper like. Normally those maid outfits are a bit frilly and have folds.
The overlap of the various pieces of geometry is also a point of concern, this should have been addressed at the modeling phase and worked around. At the very least the rings and loops should line up so they can be weighted the same and avoid clipping, instead you have some of this going on, which is bad and normally not tolerated.
For as dense as the face is I would expect to see a lot more subtle facial animation. Also there are a lot of polys in the back of the head, but the silhouette is still blocky. The ear looks to be incredibly dense, its kind of hard to tell.
The lighting in the shots seems to have a weird effect that makes things that should be in shadow glow, like the inside of her nose, the inside of her mouth. You should be able to trouble shoot this and fix it, it shouldnt' be in your portfolio like that.
This... scares the shit out of me... and seems pretty out of character.
The arms are clipping into the head, and the skin tones don't really match that well.
The broom has some weird shading on it and a funky smoothing error.
It also expresses a level of emotion I don't see in the animations, it would be great to see the face articulate in and out of this emotion, which leads me to believe it was modeled specifically for this shot...
This is pretty cute and a great pose, I like it. It seems to match the character, but there are a few things wrong with it.
The clipping of course, but also the eyes, she's looking up and not at what she's hitting.
People normally shut their eyes when they do actions like this, they at least blink, it takes training and a lot of concentration to not. So you would expect her eyes to be shut >.<
on the surface the rig looks pretty standard, but looking at the bones used to control the cloth and the ribbons in the back I think it could use a lot more bones. The ribbon/ties in the back only have one bone? I guess they are in the back and could be pretty stiff but I think its just going to look odd if they never bend, might as well weight them to another bone and use those bone some place else, like in the front between the legs to help control the clipping?
There seems to be a lot of wasted space and the layout is pretty ineffective.
The scale of the UV shells seems to be inconsistent which would explain why her dress in the super angry shot is pixelated and stretched.
There doesn't seem to be much padding around the UV shells.
again thanks for your time, but i think i've recieved enough criticism, most of what you say is very subjective and extreme IMO, but thats your opinion
i've already had alot of good crit from people who actually work in the industry, i think i just got a bunch of negative crit right now cause of that commentand everything got blown out of proportion, but thanks anyway
theres no need for anymore crit
But if you think you're ready start applying and see where it goes.
you need to stfu and listen to Mark.
I know nothing about you or the beginning of this thread, but all the stuff that Mark pointed out are the things that will not get you a job. At least not a good one.
I know I wouldn't hire you just by looking at your work from a technical point of view. No subjective points of view there. You just have a lot of errors in your geometry and anatomy. (Yes, even stylized anatomy has to obey some kind of rules within itself)
seriously though, Mark took the time to give great feedback and you'd probably do well to listen to it
again i mean no disrespect, i dont have an attitude, and im not going to repeat myself
it would of been wise for you to read then, because if you did you would see that i mean no disrespect, and nobody has thrown out any insults until you came in
anyway i would appreciate if a moderater deleted this thread, it is getting out of hand
thank you
erm....what?
Mark went out of his way to post the sort of feedback that 95% of the community killl for, and you throw it in his face...
He's my one word of advice, no one will want to crit your work if you act like an arse ....sort it out, come back with a better outlook and we can all try again tomorrow.
p.s. ok its site based but we have established that you have had enough crit on your work for the time being....its spelt Triangles....tri's will do just fine too.
Storming out of this thread like an angry teenager isn't going to help you improve. I do think you are serious about doing this - and if that IS the case, it's in your best interest to really listen to these guys, even if it comes as a blow to your ego to endure some of these crits. I know you've spent a lot of time on this stuff and it can be hard getting negative feedback, but try to take a step back, think rationally, and understand that some of these guys are pros and they're giving you some kickass advice, and you should probably listen without giving an attitude.
Saying "again thanks for your time, but i think i've recieved enough criticism, most of what you say is very subjective and extreme IMO, but thats your opinion" after someone spends plenty of their free time, giving you critique that many others would fight for is extremely rude. Saying "that's your opinion" to someone who clearly has more experience of dealing with the subject also doesn't speak best about your attitude.
We've all been there at some point. If you are serious about doing this, then don't pussy out when poeple are giving you "extreme" criticism. Clench your teeth and take it like a man. I mean, what do you have to lose? If you follow their critique you will end up with something that is clearly better and will help you land a job. How do you expect to work in the industry if you can't cope with the idea of making multiple changes to your work?
Sadly, you do have an attitude. We're not out to get you; people here are giving you friendly advice that you should take to the heart. It will help you in the long run.
Come back to us when you're ready to learn.
I don't apologize for what I said because it's the truth. What you have is not good enough to get a job. If anyone is telling you otherwise, they are doing you a disservice. We do not judge here no matter how much you think we are. We're honest and blunt. Rough around the edges, but we will always be truthful with you. We aim to help others improve, and we do it on our free time.
I'm also a mod and I will not delete this thread.
Thats great I hope your friends and teachers will land you a job then, good luck!
So when you say you were looking for a little crit you mean you were looking for praise. Because you got nothing but great crits and feedback from some top notch industry guys here and still you acted like a spoiled brat because you didn't "hear" what you wanted.
Teachers and other students are OFTEN way too easy on their peers and other students. Teachers have to be very careful as to not upset students and show favoritism.
Polycount is as honest as it gets. If you have great work you'll be praised and asked how it was done and even then some guys will find faults. If you post crap well guys here will help you out to get better. I've seen guys with work like yours and a year or two later are beyond amazing. Hell some even faster then that. BUT THE DIFFERENCE. THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE. They didn't act like total douchebags and accepted that hey you know what maybe my works not that great.
I don't know what you play for games, where you are from or your back ground but take your characters (ANY OF THEM) and compare them to games sitting on shelves.
Does that Monk compare to anything from Uncharted? No way.
They aren't even close.
I'm not saying this to be mean at all. It's a lesson many of us go through. You can't grow as an artist if you can't yourself look at your work and see it's faults.
I look at my portfolio and I see quality work but when I see other guys post up I know my ass is isn't showing work in my folio I need to be.
So do you want to get better? Or are you happy where you are now? Think about it.
Just some food for thought.
Is it really up to par?