[Portfolio] Sean VanGorder - Environment/Prop Artist

Sean VanGorder · Feb 2012

Hey guys, I was going to hold off on posting this, since I know it needs a lot of work, but getting some critiques in the early stages can't hurt.

I graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in December, and I'm currently looking and available for a full time gig.

I'm fairly happy with the layout, but I would like to hear your opinions. As for the work, the 3 hard surface models are school work, minus the texture on the yellow dude, so I'm currently in the process of working on newer models to add. I am also planning on adding a full scale environment that shows off modularity in UDK.

So any feedback on my site, work, resume, or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

http://seanvangorder.com/

Saman · Feb 2012

Looks good, site is nice and clean and easy to navigate. I expected more environments though, you should work on a scene or something in which you could put these different models to use. Good luck with the job hunting and congratulations on the graduation

Edit: I just noticed that your resume is a picture. You should use text instead as it's easier to copy-paste in case the employer wants to save your e-mail address, phone number or something.

Sean VanGorder · Feb 2012

Thanks for the comment man. I completely agree that I need some more environments, and now that I have a bit more time, that's exactly what I'll be working on.

I'll switch the resume to text when I get a chance as well. When I was putting the site together it was just easier to have an image in there instead of formatting all the text, but I agree with your point.

Snader · Feb 2012

Your thumbnails are very unclear. Scale down the models for them a bit, so you can fit a larger part of them in those squares.

Serith · Feb 2012

Hey Sean, you've got a very good website. Easy to navigate and good aesthetics. However, I'm not quite sure what kind of 3D artist you are. You have environments and vehicles in there, and they're good models too, but it's hard to place you exactly. You can definitely have both, but I think picking a focus will help build a strength within that focus as well as help you land a job doing that focus easier. Hope this helps some.

chrisradsby · Feb 2012

Very nice

Performance/Loadtime
I'd be a bit careful of having 1700xSomething .png images scaled down. You'd be better off just having 1000xSomething that has gone through the Save for Web function of photoshop to save performance and done in .jpg

I'm on a really fast line and it still took me a while to see the whole image for hallway_final.
3.2 .png is not great to have on a site

I only have .jpg on my site , without really compromising visual quality with decent loadtime. All my images of my first page is still less than the one you have at 3.2mb. So in all honesty, yours loads too slowly.

Content
Texture tiles are great, I love looking at those, but you really should post the actual diffuse,spec and normal for that as well. Just showing off 1 texture tile isn't really all that either, you'd be better off creating a set of texture tiles that work together in an environment and show that.

I don't really feel like you're pushing the presentation ie lighting on your models, you could do so much more with the spec and different lighting setups. They come out kind-off flat and boring.

You really should show off more stuff from the main environment: textures, props, wireframes etc etc.

Nothing really screams: Creative Artist right now, I really like your environment though from an art standpoint it's very beautiful, even though the tiles on the left are completely black in the cracks. I feel like you could push it a little bit more, be more creative

You can create beautiful things with simple stuff

Hope I helped! and good luck with the job hunt!
:thumbup:

OddEyes · Feb 2012

Serith wrote: »

However, I'm not quite sure what kind of 3D artist you are. You have environments and vehicles in there, and they're good models too, but it's hard to place you exactly.

Are there even open positions like "vehicle artist" ? I always thought environment art is, level-, vehicle- and prop art .. almost everything except characters. I ask, cuz i might have the same problem with my upcoming portfolio.

artstream · Feb 2012

Echoing what chrisradsby about the performance, your images take a lot time to load. If you're going to use .pngs, definitely make sure to use the "Save for Web" action in Photoshop. Jpegs work fine too though.

Jeff Parrott · Feb 2012

Nice layout and easy colors on the eyes.

Your hard surface vehicle work is your best. Put that first and take down the ZBrush tiles. Then do some more hard surface work.

Make all of your thumbnails the same size. Having them different sizes is like using multiple fonts on a page.

I'll put in another comment about switching to .jpg instead of .png too.

Sean VanGorder · Feb 2012

Hey guys, thanks for all the great feedback.

Snader - I agree, I've scaled them down a bit now. I still have them being cut off a bit, just because I thought it looked a little strange to fit the entire model into the thumb. Let me know if that looks any better.

Serith - Thanks a lot for checking out my site and leaving a comment man. I completely get where you're coming from too. I originally started doing hard surface stuff, and I feel like that's what I know best. However I also really enjoy environment art, and I'm fairly competent with UDK. I just haven't really found the time between work and school to do any large scale environments, but I'm looking to change that now that I've graduated. I'm considering doing an environment that will show off my hard surface skills as well for my next project.

And a related question, would focusing on environments rather than hard surface models give me a better chance of getting an entry level job? Or does that not matter too much?

chrisradsby - Gold mine of feedback man, much appreciated

I'll admit I never gave much thought to image size, but now that you point it out, that wasn't too smart, haha. I've gone through and saved almost everything as .jpgs using the Save For Web tool. The load times should be significantly faster now.

I'll also add in the rest of the textures for the models too.

I agree that that presentation is lacking. I'll try to make something more interesting for my new projects. Now that I'm more familiar with Marmoset I should be able to come up with something better.

Your commment on not showing creativity is also spot on. I think I was so caught up on showing that I'm technically sound that I forgot to show creativity. Hopefully my future projects will convey that better.

OddEyes - I was somewhat under the same impression, but from what I've heard lately, jobs are becoming more and more specific.

artstream - Thanks man, I've gone through and saved everything as smaller .jpgs now.

jeffro - Thanks for the comments man. I took the zbrush tiles down for now. I'd like to have a tiling texture section, but I'll hold off till I have more to show.

About your thumbnail size comment, are you referring to the environment thumb being larger than the model thumbs?

Changes I've made so far...

Scaled down the models in the thumbnails
Changed all the images to Save For Web .jpgs
Dropped the tile page for now

SaferDan · Feb 2012

Sean VanGorder wrote: »

And a related question, would focusing on environments rather than hard surface models give me a better chance of getting an entry level job? Or does that not matter too much?

I too would like to know this! Currently I have two enviros and will have two hard surface pieces!

Serith · Feb 2012

well to clarify, hard surface is a huge plus! These days, developers roles are getting more specific. Vehicles, weapons, props are usually handled by props artists and all the other background stuff is environment. Hard surface is awesome to have regardless, because not only does it show great modeling skill, but also it's good to have when your environments utilize a lot of it. A good example is my friend Paul Pepera, http://peperaart.com/ He has very few environment pieces in his portfolio, but his work is phenomenal, and he's the lead mission artist at 343. However, when you're first starting off from school, personally, I've found that looking at a more focused portfolio is better, and it's easier for an employer to say "I know where I can put this person and how to teach them everything they need for this position" Sadly this industry isn't a one size fits all, so it's really up to you to determine your goals and how you want to present yourself. Again, hope this helps!