I need another portfolio review [for college]
interpolator
Hey, remember me from the college portfolio thread?
I took your guys advice and decided to learn texturing instead of just leaving the models as a vertex color.
Now, because I did that, I actually went past the submission deadline (I was suppose to hand it in February 20th). I've also been working on the island portfolio piece on the sidelines. Luckily, the college hasn't docked me but I did get an email from the professor telling me they still need my portfolio so I'm definitely getting ready to submit this week.
In addition to learning texturing, I made some other changes at your guys behest:
-I redid some of the models. The gun actually took the longest to do but I think it's more satisfying instead of the old version that looked like a box. I'm still getting around to the last 3 models.
-I fixed the photography section. You guys were right that they look like any other instagram photo so I decided to give them more composition and post processing. I also took another photo that I believe has unique lighting.
-I'm slowly weeding out the character art to make it more environment art friendly. Don't forget that the portfolio is for college so they ask there is variety instead of specializing in one job.
I also lit the models using the skylight but I also started dabbling with mental ray and the scanline renderer (as seen with the cabinet).
My Portfolio:
http://jordannelson2.weebly.com/
I took your guys advice and decided to learn texturing instead of just leaving the models as a vertex color.
Now, because I did that, I actually went past the submission deadline (I was suppose to hand it in February 20th). I've also been working on the island portfolio piece on the sidelines. Luckily, the college hasn't docked me but I did get an email from the professor telling me they still need my portfolio so I'm definitely getting ready to submit this week.
In addition to learning texturing, I made some other changes at your guys behest:
-I redid some of the models. The gun actually took the longest to do but I think it's more satisfying instead of the old version that looked like a box. I'm still getting around to the last 3 models.
-I fixed the photography section. You guys were right that they look like any other instagram photo so I decided to give them more composition and post processing. I also took another photo that I believe has unique lighting.
-I'm slowly weeding out the character art to make it more environment art friendly. Don't forget that the portfolio is for college so they ask there is variety instead of specializing in one job.
I also lit the models using the skylight but I also started dabbling with mental ray and the scanline renderer (as seen with the cabinet).
My Portfolio:
http://jordannelson2.weebly.com/
Replies
What do you want to do? Your title says an environment artist, but you don't have a single environment.
Your assets are incredibly boring, anyone can make a cabinet, box or a battery. If you're going to rely on simple assets like that, they should really blow me away, I'd want to see the most detailed and interesting cabinet ever created.
They also all appear to be diffuse only, and rendered in max. If you are looking for a gameart position, you really need to be rendering them and setting them up in a game engine. Unity, Unreal and Cryengine all have free sdk's that you can look into and work with.
You need to look into a current gen workflow, baking a highpoly down to a lowpoly, and creating proper materials with Diffuse, Specular, Gloss and Normal Maps.
On the 2d stuff and photographs, you have to ask yourself, is this really relevant to the field I want to be a part of?
The first three 2d items aren't environment based, and the others are a shading test that has been completed by anyone that everyone who has ever taken a drawing lesson, and two silhouette sheets.
No one hiring for a gameart position is going to be interested in your photography, unless it's to prove you can get nice evenly lit texture sheets, and even then it would really be pushing it to see them on a portfolio unless they were already incorporated into an environment.
The website itself is easy enough to navigate, your pictures are savable, which is good, but you need to have watermarks on them with your name and email address so people can trace them back to you.
NEVER EVER SAY "I need a minimum of 10 things for my portfolio!", your portfolio will always be judged by your weakest piece of work, I'd much prefer to see 3 high quality showcases than 10 padding items.
I understand that this is for a college assignment and a lot of this stuff might not be immediately applicable, but you really need to take this into account in the future. You have a lot of potential, but you're really going to have to work at it and make some amazing, kickass art.
Here's some handy links:
http://www.jonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130885
and pretty much everything on:
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryPortfolio
I put that there because that is what I want to let people know what I want to do and I'm working on my first environment piece to prove it.
I agree but there is a reason for this. I didn't want to overload myself. I rather do the previous things first like make the best cabinet ever or or create specular and normal maps before I have to learn an entire game engine. Actually, I find 3DS Max to be a stepping stone. Assuming materials work the same way as it does in say, UDK, it would make the transition much more smoother.
The photos actually have a hidden meaning to them. I put them there because that's what I want my art to look like.
I started to realize this near the end when I added my website link to photos.
This was a ruse. After I send the stuff to college, I am only going to put up 3-5 high quality environment showcases that represents the opposite of padding.
I have a lot of crazy things planned that's going to put everything you just saw today to shame. You'll think the new portfolio I have coming was made by an entirely different person!
Materials are in fact a little different in Engine than in 3d Studio Max. It's not going to behave exactly as you would expect it does inside of 3d Studio Max. You're wasting your time tweaking materials inside of 3d Studio Max when you could just be tweaking them inside your end result (game engine).
This industry is extremely competitive. If you're feeling overwhelmed by learning a 3d engine that is freely available to you with a ton of tutorials available for free as well, perhaps you should consider a different line of work. Because I can tell you right now that your future competition for employment is scarfing down EVERYTHING they can get their hands on.
The reason I miss the deadline is because I wanted to listen to polycount first. I could have submitted the stuff earlier but I worry more about the impression I make. I only got one shot at this so it's better I refine my work first, which I do have time for, then risking it all on nothing.
Edit: I see you edited your first line so I'll edit mine.
I don't know which school you're aiming, but you should definitely ask them what they want with the portfolio, because except a school like maybe FZD, they don't ask you to be already good, it's a school it's their goal to learn you how to.
100% they care more about a student who send is school application in the time ask, then someone with an hardcore portfolio 3months late because he went way over what they wanted.
A lot of time has passed since then but I didn't want to make the same mistake again so I went to polycount to tell me everything I needed to know before submitting.
Even now, I'm still worried. The game engine has been brought up a lot but I have UDK installed on my computer and I was ready to learn it. However, what if the engine isn't enough and they care more about models/textures? That's where I focused myself from the past few months. I also wanted to do some sculpting (mudbox?) but I wasn't sure how to balance it alongside other work.
But I will contact them for more info on their portfolio requirements.
No, it was definitely your portfolio. Either it's good and you get accepted or it's "meh" and someone takes your place.
The problem with your portfolio is that it isn't very impressive. If you are not very good at 3D yet maybe it would be better to post 2D artwork. Three of your images are 10 min sketches. Teachers are interested in studies and fully worked out designs. You should take on drawing lessons, they will make you produce solid studies.
I got accepted for character animation in UK with this portfolio:
http://public.carnet.hr/~kpavicic/
*The way I structured it was as follows:
*First tab are my animated short films
*Second tab are my best 3D models
*Third tab contains my 2D art, starting with live drawing, continuing to creative work and digital art
*Fourth and fifth tab are biography and contact info
I hope this will help you somewhat