Environment Portfolio feedback

poly_bob · May 2013

Hi guys and gals, I recently finished my demo reel and website.
I would love some feedback. Everything from my modeling to overall presentation.

I'm thinking about removing 1 or 2 assets in my demo reel to shorten it. I'm thinking 2mins is a bit long.

Any opinions?

Demo Reel in HD
https://vimeo.com/64114257

Website:
http://polybob.com

*website updated 05/13/2013
Made portfolio main page. Moved demo reel to bottom.
** 5/22/2013
I know demo reels aren't as important as portfolios. but I re composited my reel anyway.
Moved the intro to outro, removed a prop and shortened the boxcar rotation to make the video less time consuming.
Removed some unnecessary info

PyrZern · May 2013

If you wanna use Lightbox, make sure ppl can save images. And make sure you put your info onto every image. And more details about each of your project.

DWalker · May 2013

I'd have to agree with Chilly about the video, at least as far as most employers are concerned. I'd make the portfolio the default page and add an additional link on the main menu for the video.

Also, your pictures are your main selling point, so it's critical that you have your name and contact information on each - employers tend to download and pass around images so it's best to make things easy for them when they try to contact you.

For the same reason, I'd do away with the slide show and replace it with individual thumbnails that the user can click to enlarge. With the slide show, it's very difficult to download the images, whereas with normal images you can simply right-click to save them.

Your work is quite nice overall, but it does seem a bit limited at the moment - really just the one scene with additional pages showcasing props from the scene. While it's certainly better to have fewer pieces of high quality than many low quality pieces, I would recommend working on a second scene and posting that as soon as you can raise it to the quality of the first.

Some of your textures - such as the wood on the box car and the shack, seem rather noisy. Also, the weathering feels rather generic; wood that is uniformly aged, for instance, without showing the directional effects of wind, sun, and rain.

You are also lacking subtle details that should be visible. On the shack, for instance, nails and their accompanying rust streaks, should be clearly visible on the boards, especially those nailed across the door.

On the electrical panel, it might have made more sense to separate the warning label from the front of the panel. The you could have enlarged that part of the texture while reducing the remainder. This would let you use your texels more efficiently.

The wooden lathes on the building on the right side of your main image don't look realistic.

When rails cross a paved road. they are embedded in the road, so the top of the rail is (roughly) at the same height as the top of the road. Also, there is a layer of gravel under the ties.

poly_bob · May 2013

Thanks everyone. This is exactly the tips I was looking for.
I'll for sure make the changes.

@DWalker and @PyrZern
I never knew about recruiters downloading and passing around images. Do you think is would be a good idea to have a link to a rar file of my work? for easy access.

@DWalker
Thanks for the advice on my scene. I wasn't even thinking about some of that stuff.
I can't believe I forgot about the nails. This info will definitely make me a better artist.

sprunghunt · May 2013

the front page should be the portfolio with the still images - not the demo reel. Images are much quicker for grabbing attention. And for environment art reels and animation are really just extra content.

KartoonHead · May 2013

sprunghunt wrote: »

the front page should be the portfolio with the still images - not the demo reel. Images are much quicker for grabbing attention. And for environment art reels and animation are really just extra content.

+1 on this, first thing I did was look for the page with the stills

poly_bob · May 2013

sprunghunt wrote: »

the front page should be the portfolio with the still images - not the demo reel. Images are much quicker for grabbing attention. And for environment art reels and animation are really just extra content.

Yea, will switch it soon.

During school, the demo reel was drilled into my head as being so important and is what gets you a job. And the goal was to have an amazing demo reel.

there is a lot of misconceptions you learn while in school.

DWalker · May 2013

It's really about your intended audience. Demo reels are fine for show-casing your work and let you dictate the pace and presentation, so they're ideal for academics and casual viewers. Recruiters, however, want to set their own pace, whether quickly flipping through images or concentrating on a single page to analyze details. It's also much easier to hide flaws in an animated image than a still image.

I wouldn't bother with a zip file containing all the images - they'll typically just choose a few of the best (or most representative) images.

poly_bob · May 2013

I did the updates that everyone suggested.

better?

http://polybob.com

@DWalker
Thanks about the link

DWalker · May 2013

Your html link in the last entry is broken (missing the slashes); http://polybob.com/ works.

333DDD · May 2013

Heya. I think for an environment artist ( I assume that's your angle) it's a good idea to have at least 2 environments, maybe quite different environments to show range and that you solidly understand lighting and composition. For the texture sheets, there's not a lot of need having all of them at such high res on your site. Maybe display your textures for chosen assets on one image, like divided into d/n/s/ao, in a criss-cross. Then you can use a larger res.
Also, 1-2 images per asset. 2-4 per environment, depending on size and whether you know for sure it's doing you GOOD to have more. Some people smash their folios with badly composed angles just to fill it out. 2 nicely composed shots keeps the viewer interested and wanting more, then a third, if needed.

Basically, it looks like you have a whole lot of images for not a lot of work. If you condense it, it would be a decent start:)

p.s. your box car makes me want to do a 1960's train station:)

poly_bob · May 2013

@333DDD

Thanks, I'll make the changes on the maps.
And I'll see what shots I can take out.

And a 1960's train station would be sweet!
go for it haha

Shrike · May 2013

Your work is good, not much to say on that. Metal textures could be improved quite a bunch tho. Your Transformer diffuse looks really bland and shows it well. You miss edge highlighting totally out per example.

Website layout is good, but visually, there is so much grey. Tons of grey.
You need contrast, it needs to be in your face.

Grey font on grey images on grey background.
Make some of the grey fonts white. Make your webpage background a way darker grey.

Be consistent with your fonts. You use a serif with totally insane intense shadows on your watermarks (which is ok) but then you use the same serif with thin outlines on your frontpage. And then you use a grey sans serif for your headliner and other text. Try beeing consistent.

Your contact page is also tons of grey. Get white text in for the headliners id say

Also text spacing. Devil is in the details. (Paintover not accurate)

poly_bob · May 2013

@Shrike
Thanks for the tips. I'll work on the website over time

Environment Portfolio feedback

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