[Portfolio Review Humble Request] Brian Choi - Character Artist
high dynamic range
Hi Polycount:
May I humbly ask for a portfolio review for my portfolio at http://choib.blogspot.com/?
To give context for where I am at, just graduated from the University of Southern California, so I'm looking for associate full-time (preferrably) or contract character artist positions around Los Angeles, or anywhere else assuming there's assisted relocation. For me, I have a burning wick till July when my lease on this current college apartment runs out before I decide to probably move back home.
I have to admit I am scared since I don't have anything lined up right out of school, but I'm trying to keep realistic and keep telling myself I'm decent at what I do, just not sure if it's good enough for any solid families of developers out there.
May I humbly ask for a portfolio review for my portfolio at http://choib.blogspot.com/?
To give context for where I am at, just graduated from the University of Southern California, so I'm looking for associate full-time (preferrably) or contract character artist positions around Los Angeles, or anywhere else assuming there's assisted relocation. For me, I have a burning wick till July when my lease on this current college apartment runs out before I decide to probably move back home.
I have to admit I am scared since I don't have anything lined up right out of school, but I'm trying to keep realistic and keep telling myself I'm decent at what I do, just not sure if it's good enough for any solid families of developers out there.
Replies
My big concern is the content. It's all highly stylized, specific fantasy. As in, it doesn't really fit in with anything besides itself. In the perspective of an employer, it doesn't look like anything anyone can use. When marketing yourself, you need to showcase content that employers want to see.
To break it down, the first two pieces are essentially the same thing, wacky fantasy guy with cigar. And I think something is up with the blood elf JPG compression because these images look bad (muddy, doesn't read well).
Nothing really wrong with The Maestros stuff, it's just again, specifically stylized to the project while nothing looks like anything in particular.
Core sketches are kinda meh, the props look nice, yet buried in this page. I'd put them up top. AND that turret is the probably the most "looks like something" asset.
I'd remove the student showcase, it doesn't really show anything, tiny images.
Your content shows potential, but not proof you're the man for the job.
You need to dedicate yourself to characters OR env/props. Right now both of them suffer from lack of content.
A good character artist portfolio has to demonstrate solid understanding of human male/female anatomy, especially strong with faces (heads), before allowing the wilder, more stylized work.
For environment artists, we have to see strongly composed scenes, and lots of common prop objects. Simple things like a dumpster, it's silly, but a good alley scene is tons of games.
Think about it like this, you're an employer, and you know your game needs "BLANK". You open a portfolio and see "BLANK". So you say "ah, this is the guy!" Once you have that content, the doors are open for mushroom guys.
I'd have to agree with cholden about tightening your focus - most companies are looking for specific artists for specific tasks. Small companies/start-ups might want an artist who can do a bit of everything, but they tend to be very volatile and (overall) lower-paying.
I'd probably remove the blood elf character; it feels very derivative and less like your own work. It's also very low poly by modern standards - roughly what you'd have from the PS-2/Xbox era. This chart should give you and idea of the trend for main characters in more recent games:
Of course, mobile games are still at a much lower level; it really depends upon what you'd like to work.
If you want to become a character artist, I'd recommend adding 2-3 realistic characters in the 40-60k range.
@DWalker: Will make adjustments to the resume today or tomorrow.
Is there anyway to effectively say that I am open to both large and start-up teams without making it look like I am a bad version of jack-of-all-trades relative to my Character focus?
I personally see nothing wrong with having a variety of styles/specs in a portfolio. If you've got really well done low poly/diffuse work it shouldn't hurt your chances landing higher spec stuff assuming you've also got something in your portfolio that showcases those skills.
It really goes both ways. If you've only got "low-end" work in your portfolio, you're likely not going to find a job doing realistic high poly stuff. On the flip-side, if you've just got realistic high poly work, you're likely not going to land a job doing stylized low-poly/diffuse work. And I'm not just strictly speaking mobile, as there are larger devs still doing stylized work with lower specs.
Strictly focusing on high poly realistic stuff is good if that's the type of work you want to do. I've been following your posts and work over the last while, and I get the sense you really want to work at Blizzard. I think if that's your ultimate goal, putting more time into trying to match the new WoW characters could be a good route to take. Right now, neither of your characters match that quality, so there's work to be done. Doing more realistic work would definitely be good as well as it'll stretch your artist mind. It's up to you to decide what to tackle first as both are important.