Portfolio Review
Well... I'm finally doing it. I'm terrified, but I'm doing it.
Greetings folks! My name is Brian, and I'm gunning to be an environmental artist. I've spent the past five weeks hunched over my computer creating portfolio piece after portfolio piece. The time has come for me to humbly present it to you guys and shudder in a mixture of dread and anticipation.
Joking aside, I would truly appreciate any feedback on my portfolio site:
http://brianbann.weebly.com/index.html
Before I go ahead and drop the money on a domain name, I figured I'd ask you guys for any advice and feedback. I have some concerns of my own, but am unsure if they're valid or not. The load-time seems kind of slow, but I'm unsure if that's because the cable company has been working on my street for the past week, or if it's the website. All of the images on the website are 1280x720. Is that too large?
I don't want somebody from HR closing my portfolio because they've grown impatiant!
Of course, I know there's other things that I must be missing, I just don't know what. Any bits of advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks polycount community!
[Sorry if I posted this in the wrong area -_-]
Greetings folks! My name is Brian, and I'm gunning to be an environmental artist. I've spent the past five weeks hunched over my computer creating portfolio piece after portfolio piece. The time has come for me to humbly present it to you guys and shudder in a mixture of dread and anticipation.
Joking aside, I would truly appreciate any feedback on my portfolio site:
http://brianbann.weebly.com/index.html
Before I go ahead and drop the money on a domain name, I figured I'd ask you guys for any advice and feedback. I have some concerns of my own, but am unsure if they're valid or not. The load-time seems kind of slow, but I'm unsure if that's because the cable company has been working on my street for the past week, or if it's the website. All of the images on the website are 1280x720. Is that too large?
I don't want somebody from HR closing my portfolio because they've grown impatiant!
Of course, I know there's other things that I must be missing, I just don't know what. Any bits of advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks polycount community!
[Sorry if I posted this in the wrong area -_-]
Replies
Edit: added 2 tests for speeds etc. for you website. One from LA and one from amsterdam. Gives you an idea of all the load times and how long it takes to load the website (wich is at worst almost a minute). Heaviest loads are your png's. Maybe a different format can solve that. Something lighter without any or much quality loss.
LA: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130227_2R_A0Z/1/details/
A.dam: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130227_2J_9Z7/1/details/
Thanks for the advice; I value your $.02! I'll change the format of the pictures to see if it helps with the load time. I assume .jpg would be the ideal format?
I think I'll also remove the gallery style formatting for my images and replace it with simple images. I had my technically illiterate brother test out the website and he didn't know you could click the thumbnails to make the images larger. I go by the ideal that if HE can't figure it out, it's not simple enough, haha.
I'll also edit my resume a bit as well. I was wondering if I was being redundant...
Thank you!
Should be more like,
"My name is Brian Bann. I'm an environment artist with the ability to create a wide range of different game environments, from highly detailed next-gen scenes, to mobile-friendly worlds with tight technical restrictions."
The very first thing someone sees when they visit your site should at least be written well.
And as others have said, that loading time is crazy, considering it's only 6 images in a slideshow, and noone wants to have to download your CV or wait around for a browser plugin to load it up. Stick it in plain text with sensible formatting and it's much more user-friendly and professional looking.
Aside from issues with the actual site, I'd say your work needs a little love, and presentation is a bit bland.
The Sci-Fi environment needs some reflections in there, and the lighting is a little plain and flat.
For the tower defense environment, start with talking about how you're actually making the game, not how you made the environment, because to be honest the environment isn't very nice to look at. In this case it's far more impressive that you can also program some game mechanics; you're extra-useful! Personally I was just flicking through, but I had to revisit that page a few times before I realised that you were actually making a game. Stress that part straight away, not the texture sizes you used. Renaming that page to 'Tower Defence Game' or something would make it much more obvious.
I'm a fan of the hangar, but it looks a tad plain inside, not much personality to it, and I wouldn't say it entirely sells the era you're shooting for, not least because there's some crazy space-jet thing sitting in it. My favourite shot is the one from the exterior, showing the hangar on a round platform. The exterior lighting is very convincing. That's easily my favourite image on your whole site, so I'd like to see it on the front page!
Hope some of that helps.
The load times seemed slow for me as well, so you might want to try it on another system - a friend's computer, or a library.
I'm a little curious about some of your design decisions for the pirate's aircraft. Tail-draggers (more properly known as "conventional landing gear" :P) have been unpopular since WWII - their primary appeal was that they were lighter and gave better clearance for propellers, but they were also harder to control on the ground. You seem to have more than enough room in the nose for a tricycle arrangement. This would also allow you to use a nose-down attitude, which tends to look more aggressive.
I also can't figure out the purpose of the long blades leading from either side of the nose. I initially thought they were control surfaces, but the conventional tail removes the need for that. My next thought was that they contained a long-barreled weapon similar to the monsters used by the Germans on their tank-killers, but I can't see anything in the images.
Rather than stacking the bombs on a palette, you might want to consider using bomb trolleys. They're fairly low-poly, easy to model, and give a feeling of activity. I couldn't see any hard points, so I don't know how many bombs the craft could carry, but you'd never keep extra bombs just hanging around - they have a nasty habit of exploding...
Other items you might want to include in the hangar include a external power generator (used to start the engines), a fuel pump (a hand-powered system would work well here), and a tool cart.
The hangar floor seems too clean - at the least I'd expect tire marks, but oil spills, scorch marks, and water stains would certainly fit.
The windshield seems too low to be very effective - I'd raise it up and bring it back towards the pilot. I'd also consider modelling the cockpit after a racing motorcycle, having the pilot lean forward.
Finally - please remove the "No Step" from the vertical side of the fuselage. They only paint those on places the pilot/crew might step, but shouldn't - most typically on the wings. The wing should have a non-skid surface for the pilot to use when entering/exiting.
On your demo reel, you might want to add some simple animation to give life to the scene. In the control room, spin the wireframe planets, move the aircraft symbols, have scrolling text on the displays, etc. For the hangar scene, add a breeze to stir the palm fronds, or possibly slowly turning fans in the roof of the hangar.
BTW, don't forget to get rid of the sample image from your "About" page.
I'm fixing the issues with the load time right now. I didn't realize how large my .png files were. The pages that I've fixed are loading much faster -like a normal webpage.
I struggle with words when describing myself; I know that's not a particularly good thing. I'll work on making some more professional comments. I'll also make sure to note that I'm actually working on the Tower Defense GAME as well.
I hope you don't mind if I snag your edited version of my intro?
As for all the comments about the jet...
The game concept I had in mind while modeling that scene is based on a short story I've been drafting in my spare time that goes the good ol' route of alternative history. I won't bore you guys with the story -nor my research into the era in regards to jet technology. In the context of the story and world, the crazy jet-looking thing actually fits quite well. I'll model some bomb trolleys; that DOES make more sense. I actually originally had a tricycle landing gear but opted to change it to a tail dragger. I love the F4U Corsair a lot, and part of why I love it so much is because of how majestic it looks while sitting on the deck of an aircraft carrier with it's long front-end pointing skyward. You're right that it's not as menacing as looking at an F-15 head-on, but I'm partial to tail draggers.
Thank you for the suggestions on how to bring more life into the interior of the hangar as well as the ideas on how to improve the look of the jet. It's funny you mention sports bikes. I designed the cockpit area to be similar to a motorcycle, although more of a cruiser than a sports bike. Actually... I designed the entire thing to be like a flying motorcycle.
The forks in the front are supposed to be similar to the forks of a motorcycle, but initially I was going to have them act as a control surface similar to some Sukhois. That changed when I added the more conventional tale assembly; I left them on the aircraft because I liked how they looked. Putting monster guns in them though... I like that idea!
I'm going to snap a photograph of me tomorrow and post that on the 'About' page.
Go right ahead, very happy to help