Portfolio critque time!
polycounter lvl 8
Hello polycounters,
Would you kindly give me opinions on my portfolio? I have spent a few months working on it and haven't had much success with getting any employer responses, so I'd like to know what people think.
I'm going to add a prop section with a few quick pieces later in the month. I think that will make it a bit stronger, maybe.
link:
www.andyleung.net
Would you kindly give me opinions on my portfolio? I have spent a few months working on it and haven't had much success with getting any employer responses, so I'd like to know what people think.
I'm going to add a prop section with a few quick pieces later in the month. I think that will make it a bit stronger, maybe.
link:
www.andyleung.net
Replies
2. More screenshots less talking - generally a wall of text in each section before screenshots is a bad idea, consider minimizing your text count. If you find you're writing more to compensate on the lack of content to fill a page, well.. That speaks for itself.
3. It seems as though some screenshots are of incomplete work, consider finishing and finalizing an environment before posting it to your portfolio.
4. Consider spending more time on a piece of work, it seems as though if you had taken the time and effort from the four separate environments and used it on the one environment, your work would shine a lot more.
5. Lastly, I'd consider working on your portfolio a lot more, getting more content together and working on more things, (I know that point is counteracting my previous point - but you get the drift). It just seems a little.. bare.
That's all the crits I have right now. Keep working!
- Sy.
Your high polys looks better than i have imagined. Dont know why but the environment kills the quality in my opinion.
Basement:
The same, i dont see reflection or specularity
Palace:
The floor has a very repitive pattern and your pillars are to perfect, nearly unreal. The shadows are weak and the lightning too.
The ornaments are cheap yellow and not like golden ornaments
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73285 has good looking gold because of the lightning and specular map.
roots: Same problems
Your modelling Skills are okay but your material definition is not very good. Your environment cant support your models and make them cheaper.
What is really good: The task-thingy. I think that is a great way to show that you're organised and have a goal.
IMHO the main "problem" is not that your portfolio isn't good. You should get more into modelling and texturing. That said, don't let me bring you down. Not my intention.
Idea on the website:
- Bigger font (+1pt - maybe)
- Improve the WIP section, looks unfinished to me.
- Menu should outstand a bit more (grey on grey isn't that good. A light grey or even white would do.)
- I wouldn't write the portfolio pieces in the menu. (Maybe a group of personal and client work?)
2nd thoughts:
- Your low poly models and textures look kinda washed out. The should be more crisp. (Very noticeable on the "roots" site)
These are things that came into my mind. I haven't read every line of the text. As I said you should improve your skills (texture/modelling).
Cheers
@Sythen
I agree the floor texture reptition is too annoying, I think I will reorganize the bricks and crank out another texture entirely. Won't take too long. There is already vertex blending with a mud texture which clearly doesn't work as well.
@cibo
For the infested space I wanted to go for a dirty look for the environment. I think that's the problem. I will find references of dirty environments and see how they're textured to make it work.
@shadow_walker
thanks for talking about the layout of the site. I will work on that. In terms of reorganizing the pieces though, not sure that's going to work since well... there is no client work to speak of
Having already spent months working on the portfolio, I think it always feels its getting there but never quite. Main takeaway here is modeling and material definition. The latter I think will take less time than the former.
The 'problem' I think here is the modeling shown are done on a need to be there basis for the environments, and not on the basis on what I think represents my level. I think this reconfirms the need for a props page. The pros I see have a page of guns and mechs to show off, and that takes a while to build up. I'm going to keep hammering this out.
Anyway more advice and crits please!
Get rid of the WIP page completely. Get a blog or tumblr and have a link to that somewhere on your portfolio if you want.
You have a lot of text before each piece which is distracting.
Your work looks a little dated to be honest. I think its a combination of lighting and material definition that reminds me of Doom 3 era of games. I think doing smaller projects and studies would benefit you greatly, instead of trying to do any more large environments. Try to make a few little props that have a range of materials to texture on it, but isn't complex to model. Marmoset 2 just came out so getting that and learning the PBR workflow will be completely necessary, and will improve your work greatly.
Sorry to sound harsh, but I hope that helps a little bit.
I'm actually considering dropping roots completely because I don't want to work on that project at all. Like move it to a small section in past game projects. Palace I'm not really sure, I think its redeemable but, I'll consider it.
Aside from those two pieces, can you tell me how the other two are dated? I'm using the workflows and softwares that seem pretty common here.
Thanks for the crit.
So yea this is what I mean by dated.
First lets talk about materials and texturing.
Here is Doom 3
Geometry and resolution differences aside notice the constant gloss value across everything, and the low detailed spec map. Also notice how the metal is not reflecting anything in the scene.
Here are a few assets from your environments.
Notice how everything has a flat gloss value and little to no detail in the spec map. Your brass boiler is textured incorrectly, the diffuse should be a dark brown, and your spec should hold that orange varied look that defines brass, and your gloss should make it shinny. Also you need to be reflecting the environment in order to get metal to read properly, which you are not doing here. The door is also one solid spec and gloss value, I am not sure if that is suppose to be glass, and I have no idea what material the actual door is. I can only tell that the frame is wood because it has grain on it, but it is super shinny for some reason. The scifi props suffer from the same issues as listed above.
Here is a screen from the amazing Arbor Vitae level in UDK.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127659
Notice how well all the materials are defined. Notice how the metal is reflecting the environment and how the stuff that is wet has a higher amount of reflection. Notice how each material has variation in the specular and gloss to really sell the material. Note that this is a professional level environment, and these guys have wicked skills. I am not telling you to just simply go make something that, but I think it is important to understand where you need to go, and what areas you need to improve.
I was going to dive into a light critique as well, but I think materials and texturing would be the number one thing for you to concentrate on. Hope that helps a little bit.