Junior Artist Portfolio Critique
polycounter lvl 4
Hi everyone,
So I just graduated with a B.S. in Game Art Design and just moved to the greater Seattle area in search of a jobby job. I have a long way to go yet with the quality and professionalism of my art and my savings are quickly dwindling. I'm hoping to get feedback from you to help me land my first position at just about anywhere -- nothing is beneath me if its in the games industry; seriously, I'll take out garbage and make everyone sandwiches and develop, schedule, and implement "Foot massage Fridays".
If you have the time and don't mind offering feedback on my layout, content, presentation, art direction, ANYTHING to help me I would be absolutely grateful. Thank you all for your time and I hope you're having a great day!
www.sethblakely.com
So I just graduated with a B.S. in Game Art Design and just moved to the greater Seattle area in search of a jobby job. I have a long way to go yet with the quality and professionalism of my art and my savings are quickly dwindling. I'm hoping to get feedback from you to help me land my first position at just about anywhere -- nothing is beneath me if its in the games industry; seriously, I'll take out garbage and make everyone sandwiches and develop, schedule, and implement "Foot massage Fridays".
If you have the time and don't mind offering feedback on my layout, content, presentation, art direction, ANYTHING to help me I would be absolutely grateful. Thank you all for your time and I hope you're having a great day!
www.sethblakely.com
Replies
I think your homepage is over complicated. also your images takes a few seconds to load
I want images to look at directly at your first page, right now I have to click at least once to even see what you have there, then once more to get to a specific project.
And here we go, as always, the Portfolio Bible by Jon Jones.
Beyond that, I would focus your portfolio on showcasing some of the basic skills you've listed on your resum
As a very brief aside a about your writing, you really should have a professional (or at least a very skilled friend) proof-read it before posting it. An artist can get away with mistakes as long as their intent is clear, and certainly programmers have difficulty presenting subject-verb-object constructs in an understandable form, but designers live and die by their writing. One glaring example that stands out (granted, thanks to my own English teacher's strong opinion) is "most unique" - unique means exactly one; just as you can't say "very one" or "most one", you can't use "very unique" or "most unique". If you are serious about pursuing a career as a designer, I'd recommend taking courses in BOTH creative and technical writing at a local CC - you'll need both. I'd also recommend looking at professional design documents, but bear in mind that most of these are below the level you'll need to impress an employer.
On your resume, your clearance level probably isn't relevant unless you are applying for a job that requires one. Having said that, have you considered applying to a DoD contractor? Both Boeing and Lockheed have significant simulation departments, and they would seem to be a natural fit to your past experience.
You should probably eliminate the home page and start directly on your portfolio.
The substance designer video doesn't have a concrete purpose. It does, I suppose, show that you know how to use the tool, but lacking any audio or even readable text it can't really serve as a tutorial. And as with sausage making, the process is far less important than the end result for a potential customer (i.e. an employer). Concentrate on showing the end results.
I was going to comment on the size of the images you get when you click on a thumbnail, but that turns out to be an artifact of the slideshow tool you are using. The image themselves are large enough, but you can only get to them by clicking on the thumbnail, then right-clicking and selecting "View Image"; get rid of that intermediate step and just link to the image.
The textures themselves feel rather noisy and bland. Once you have generated the basic material, you need to give it life. Add dirt; add wear & tear; if it's metal, add verdigris or rust. I think you could benefit from taking a simple object - the ubiquitous crate or barrel - and concentrate on its materials. Perhaps take the same crate and take it from being shiny & new to travel worn to forgotten & abandoned using only changes to the textures. Try to use the full gamut of textures, not just normal & diffuse but also specular and the rest. Understand why colors in the specular map can be important. Look at real-world objects and understand wear patterns and formation patterns for dirt & grime. Keep in mind that as a junior artist you'll spend a great deal of time creating simple objects.
@ lotet: thank you very much for the link! It's a fantastic reference and I'll pass it on to other folks and friends.
@ Amipor: As I mentioned above I'll be creating a new asset and documenting my workflow completely -- wireframes included. Thank you!
@ CrackRockSteady: You're absolutely right about my hand painted textures -- my 2D art skills are by far my weakest. The texture atlas from the sandbox project is a year old but I can do much better now. My focus on this next asset project will be to hand paint and photo manipulate the texture set. Thank you very much!
@ DWalker: You've offered me feedback a few times now on my work and it's always very insightful and blunt, thank you. I do love to write but you're correct, it is not my focus and adding it to my website is unnecessary and distracting. I have thought about becoming a DoD contractor but after 13 years in the military I wanna chase my dreams more than money. It is definitely an option, don't get me wrong, but I'll choose a game company over a DoD position any day. You're correct about the substance designer video -- it definitely wasn't meant to be a tutorial but rather showing my process in creating the brazier asset. I'm definitely not skilled enough to create any tutorials yet but I have it specifically to show anyone who is interested in using substance designer's .sbsar files in an engine rather than bitmaps. Is there anything you can suggest that would help me accomplish that better? I really love the software and I would jump at the chance to work for a company that is interested in using mostly .sbsar files so I can build them as efficiently as possible and include different damage and wear sequences!
Thank you all again very much and I'll post updates soon! Btw, I just got an interview for The Creative Group this Friday here in Seattle; has anyone ever dealt with them at all?
Good morning and hoorah Seahawks!
I've made a lot of changes to my website and resume and am going to get started with a new portfolio project this week. Rather than revisiting old work I will to replace it with new stuff as quickly as I can.
Thank you all for the wonderful feedback from before! I think my website is much improved and it wouldn't have been without your help. If you have the time, I'd really appreciate another round of critique. Any help is great help and I need all that I can get