That cinematic you did was really cool. I think what helped to sell it was the sound effects. If you were to have sound effects for your "Lightning" and "Flame" material I think that will go a long way in helping sell your materials.
The design of your website is straightforward and I found it easy to read. I also like the fact that you can do work in a variety of styles. Overall I found your work to be very impressive. Can't wait to see more!
I am not a VFX expert, but those all look really high quality and believable. As for your portfolio I think the header clashes with the background a lot, those colors do not really blend well.
the particle effects mostly look quite nice, your textures however seem massive. i realise if it's just portfolio work it's not that much of an issue but a 1024 64 frame flipbook is pretty huge and doesnt really make a better looking effect than a 512 16 frame one. you'll get a better resolution per particle and use less memory with a smaller texture. budget constraints are really important for effects artists in my experience so i'd want to see that taken into consideration.
Yea, I made the textures big just for the purpose of showcasing my stuff. But when I make them for games, I scale them way down.
I guess I should explain that in some of the texture descriptions.
Thanks for pointing that out.
And I'll definitely look into changing the color scheme of my website
Some performance notes:
You could save a ton of texture space by removing motion from the smoke/explosive textures. I understand that the fluid sim has to have the motion in it to billow correctly, but it actually works pretty well to just move the frames down to a common center point in PS and then simply animate the upward motion in cascade. Saves a lot on texture space!
You could save yourself a lot of space on the lightning texture too. Theres no reason with UDK that the subUV frames have to be square. Just scrunch the lightning together as much as you can leaving JUST enough space that you dont get any edge artifacting on the sprites in editor. Same issue with the fire texture.
Now for some art notes:
Your fire could use another pass. The sprites visibly pop in and out. With elegant plasma-y fx like fire its really key to hide your sprites spawning as much as possible.
The ice spell reads more like wind than ice. I think the biggest culprit for this is that the mesh you're using seems to be curved and mobile rather than angular and rigid like natural crystalized ice.
The Frosty Gloves stuff is pretty cool. The textures have some nice appeal to them. If you want to take that idea a step further I'd recommend looking at the work of the old disney fx masters in particular Joe Gilland who has a book called Elemental Magic which is super helpful for this type of thing. Another cool resource is flashfx.blogspot.com. They post lots of fx keys from old movies and tv series like avatar. Great references!
Presentation notes:
I'd definitely recommend spending the time to put together one tight, cohesive reel rather than having a bunch of individual videos. People who are going to be looking at your work often dont have much time to do so -- ESPECIALLY at GDC or another conference. You want to be able to pack a punch in as tight of a format as possible -- definitely under 2 minutes unless you've worked on some serious titles imho.
You can elaborate in other parts of your site, but I think if your work depends on motion (read: vfx) then first page = demo reel.
As I hinted at, having a tight demo reel is great for conferences too, especially if you have a decent tablet (WITH A GOOD VIEWING ANGLE) to view it on. It helps people view your work in the best possible light, which is the goal.
Thanks for the critique. I will definitely re-size my textures and fix my fire.
And as far as the demo reel goes, it's a work in progress. I'm gathering all my effects and trying to add sound effects for everything. Hopefully it will be posted within the week.
Recently updated my portfolio and finished my Demo Reel. Take a look at let me know that you guys think. Still trying to update a few more things. Currently working on trying to fix my textures and utilize the space. But i did fix the Lightning texture.
I think having a reel to show off your best work is a great idea. I think the second half is actually stronger, I would suggest you shuffle things around. Your frosty breath seems like something better to start with than the explosion. Also your magic spell/aura stuff has lots good stuff happening.
Some feedback:
- Your explosion is really lacking in lots of areas. The timing in both the particles and the tile meshes are off and they don't blend well together. Try adding some sort of shockwave for starters, and lots of dust. An explosion with that much energy doesn't just happen and everything's fine n' dandy. Really make the scene show that it was impacted. The core of the explosion is really small, and the way you have the explosion trail out doesn't look right to me. I think I know what you're trying to do, but really look at stock footage of explosions and study them. A fireball like that would linger much longer. The fire also needs to be sped up considerably for starters. And I'd like to see more fire particles and more variation. Speed, size, lifetime, try and make it less repeatable and more chaotic. Remember, fire is wild
-On your first magic aura / AOE, those round particles that spin to make a coil seem really harsh on the cohesiveness of the effect. Maybe smaller particles with an orbit module instead that just have on offset on X and rotate on Z?
- On the final effect, the spike coming in intersect each other at the center. Play with the lifetime or velocity to avoid that. Also the explosion at the end is completely missing. Where's the giant bright flash? It has so much possibility with small ice sprinkled in the air after being vaporized. Take it to the next level!
Thanks for the critiques.
I've been working on fixing some of the issues pointed out.
I switched up the order of my effects, swapped out the explosion for a different one, changed the first AOE spell, and I added some more to the last effect.
Replies
That cinematic you did was really cool. I think what helped to sell it was the sound effects. If you were to have sound effects for your "Lightning" and "Flame" material I think that will go a long way in helping sell your materials.
The design of your website is straightforward and I found it easy to read. I also like the fact that you can do work in a variety of styles. Overall I found your work to be very impressive. Can't wait to see more!
P.S. Just kidding about the "some skill" remark.
And I've been working on a few more spells, so I will definitely keep posting more!
I guess I should explain that in some of the texture descriptions.
Thanks for pointing that out.
And I'll definitely look into changing the color scheme of my website
Some performance notes:
You could save a ton of texture space by removing motion from the smoke/explosive textures. I understand that the fluid sim has to have the motion in it to billow correctly, but it actually works pretty well to just move the frames down to a common center point in PS and then simply animate the upward motion in cascade. Saves a lot on texture space!
You could save yourself a lot of space on the lightning texture too. Theres no reason with UDK that the subUV frames have to be square. Just scrunch the lightning together as much as you can leaving JUST enough space that you dont get any edge artifacting on the sprites in editor. Same issue with the fire texture.
Now for some art notes:
Your fire could use another pass. The sprites visibly pop in and out. With elegant plasma-y fx like fire its really key to hide your sprites spawning as much as possible.
The ice spell reads more like wind than ice. I think the biggest culprit for this is that the mesh you're using seems to be curved and mobile rather than angular and rigid like natural crystalized ice.
The Frosty Gloves stuff is pretty cool. The textures have some nice appeal to them. If you want to take that idea a step further I'd recommend looking at the work of the old disney fx masters in particular Joe Gilland who has a book called Elemental Magic which is super helpful for this type of thing. Another cool resource is flashfx.blogspot.com. They post lots of fx keys from old movies and tv series like avatar. Great references!
Presentation notes:
I'd definitely recommend spending the time to put together one tight, cohesive reel rather than having a bunch of individual videos. People who are going to be looking at your work often dont have much time to do so -- ESPECIALLY at GDC or another conference. You want to be able to pack a punch in as tight of a format as possible -- definitely under 2 minutes unless you've worked on some serious titles imho.
You can elaborate in other parts of your site, but I think if your work depends on motion (read: vfx) then first page = demo reel.
As I hinted at, having a tight demo reel is great for conferences too, especially if you have a decent tablet (WITH A GOOD VIEWING ANGLE) to view it on. It helps people view your work in the best possible light, which is the goal.
Hope these notes help!
Thanks for the critique. I will definitely re-size my textures and fix my fire.
And as far as the demo reel goes, it's a work in progress. I'm gathering all my effects and trying to add sound effects for everything. Hopefully it will be posted within the week.
http://www.shimamotovfx.com/
Thanks
I think having a reel to show off your best work is a great idea. I think the second half is actually stronger, I would suggest you shuffle things around. Your frosty breath seems like something better to start with than the explosion. Also your magic spell/aura stuff has lots good stuff happening.
Some feedback:
- Your explosion is really lacking in lots of areas. The timing in both the particles and the tile meshes are off and they don't blend well together. Try adding some sort of shockwave for starters, and lots of dust. An explosion with that much energy doesn't just happen and everything's fine n' dandy. Really make the scene show that it was impacted. The core of the explosion is really small, and the way you have the explosion trail out doesn't look right to me. I think I know what you're trying to do, but really look at stock footage of explosions and study them. A fireball like that would linger much longer. The fire also needs to be sped up considerably for starters. And I'd like to see more fire particles and more variation. Speed, size, lifetime, try and make it less repeatable and more chaotic. Remember, fire is wild
-On your first magic aura / AOE, those round particles that spin to make a coil seem really harsh on the cohesiveness of the effect. Maybe smaller particles with an orbit module instead that just have on offset on X and rotate on Z?
- On the final effect, the spike coming in intersect each other at the center. Play with the lifetime or velocity to avoid that. Also the explosion at the end is completely missing. Where's the giant bright flash? It has so much possibility with small ice sprinkled in the air after being vaporized. Take it to the next level!
Ok sorry for all that, hope this help
I've been working on fixing some of the issues pointed out.
I switched up the order of my effects, swapped out the explosion for a different one, changed the first AOE spell, and I added some more to the last effect.
http://www.shimamotovfx.com/