Portfolio Critiques Please
Hello everyone,
My name is Bo Esch and I have spent the last year and a half teaching myself in order to become a 3d artist. Preferably, I would like to work with video games and think I might be ready to start looking for work, but I feel like I need some feedback from experienced artists before I know for sure.
Edit: I guess the thing that I am most interested in knowing at this point is if people think that my modeling and texture creating skills are good enough (or at least close) to start actually applying for entry level jobs.
Any feedback I can get is greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance for your time.
boesch.weebly.com
Edit: I apologize for the lack of a link. Polycount, for some reason, is unable to follow it, so I had to leave it as plain text.
My name is Bo Esch and I have spent the last year and a half teaching myself in order to become a 3d artist. Preferably, I would like to work with video games and think I might be ready to start looking for work, but I feel like I need some feedback from experienced artists before I know for sure.
Edit: I guess the thing that I am most interested in knowing at this point is if people think that my modeling and texture creating skills are good enough (or at least close) to start actually applying for entry level jobs.
Any feedback I can get is greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance for your time.
boesch.weebly.com
Edit: I apologize for the lack of a link. Polycount, for some reason, is unable to follow it, so I had to leave it as plain text.
Replies
secondly, it seems that youve triangulized your mesh before rendering the wireframe shots, and that makes the topology a bit harder to read. Its easier to view if you just render them with quads or whatever topology you worked with.
also, (not necessarily a portfolio crit but ill fling it anyway), you should always try to align your UVs so that any straight shapes you may have in your texture are kind of aligned parallel with the UV edges. Its a bit hard to explain but if you look at your strat backplate, its at a slight angle, and that means youll need to use a bigger texture size to render it without jagged edges.. just something to keep in mind for the future
Even if it's not straight on the model (if it's not too extremely bent), just make it straight in the UV's, no one will ever notice that minor distortion and it makes your textures look heaps better and it's easier to texture also!
If you guys or anyone else have anything to add, please keep it coming. This is super helpful.
Your page layout could use some vertical space - everything feels very compressed at the moment. From the start, I'd place your title (3D Artist) on a separate line, and place the navigation buttons on their own line at the bottom. Add some vertical space between the banners.
On the sniper rifle, many of the accessory details are off. The picatinny rail should be at least close to the standard, with rails & grooves being roughly the same size. The anti-reflection device should have thinner cell walls and is only on the front of the scope - if somebody is seeing the reflection from the eyepiece, then you need to change the "this end to enemy" sticker.... The central tube of the scope looks much too thin; you might want to check the dimensions (most scope manufacturers actually list the major dimensions of their products).
On a katana (at least shinken or nihonto blades), the blade has distinct layers for the various composition of each part of the blade, and a distinctly wavy boundary between the cutting edge and the rest of the blade.
The sci-fi scene looks too busy & chaotic. Too many bright lights, overall, and the ones on the floor (which apparently just mirror the ceiling) really don't belong.
On your "Artistic Studies" page, clicking on an image will bring up a slideshow - evil in its own right - with images little large than the original. When I click on an image, I want to be sent to a page with a MUCH larger version of the image.
Change your resume page to a proper, boring, normal resume; it's really not the place for creativity. People looking at your resume are (hopefully) considering hiring you; just give them the bare facts in a pleasant, easily readable format using a legible font - you don't have to use Times New Roman or Book Antiqua, but Comic Sans and 8-Bit are right out...
I don't think your "About Me" section is really doing anything; other than your picture, it's really just listing your e-mail address.
First of all, I am sorry about the absence of a link. I was worried that it might come off as a little lazy to people who are considering helping me, but Polycount can't follow it for some reason, so I had to leave it out. I will definitely make sure to mention that in the future.
Thank you for pointing out my flawed placement of the anti glare piece. I am not sure why I did not think about that before. Also, Thanks for posting those specifications for the gun rails. That will be very useful in the future.
The design of the gun rail for my rifle was based off of reference images that I found, like this one (sorry it's kind of small).
I don't want to give the impression that I am careless when it comes to details, so do you think it would be wise to stick to a general standard, or would it help clear up confusion by adding a link to a picture of the real thing on my portfolio?
Regarding the katana, my intention was to reproduce the way that the blade would react in real lighting conditions, similar to this example.
Do you think that it looks less interesting or less realistic on the portfolio because of this? Should I include pictures taken in more controlled lighting conditions to accentuate those details?
My last question was about the "about me" page. This page was left blank because I am still debating it's necessity. I see this on pretty much everyone's portfolio and I just been wondering if this is something that potential employers are even interested in, or if it is just for the artist. Do you think this should be included and filled in, or do you think it should just be taken out?
Thank you again for your time.
If anyone else has any thoughts, I would love to hear them.
2 different fonts, 3 maximum, and they have to fit together.
Use a nice sans serif, no crazy cheesy free fonts.
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=501
> a clean and unified presentation.
You have the luxury of having to put no effort into the actual 3d presentation because of marmoset, and I have the impression that you are getting carried by that a bit. the modeling and bakes seem pretty good, but what think I see is a lack of artistic vision, that would be more obvious if rendering wouldnt be a no brainer.
Your textures only look fine because of marmoset. If you take that away, there is barely anything. In unreal 3, the rifle would look unacceptable per example.
Maybe im biased here, I dont know what you all did in the past. The barrel looks well textured on the other hand, but you see my reaction, thats my first impression, and you dont want that of course.
The sci-fi environment also should be cutted out.
What I would advise is to look a lot at art of other people, but more in general, not only 3D modeling. Here you mainly see copies of real things, and you seem to emulate that fine, but you need to train your eye for aesthetics, and you hardly get that in such a way.
Id advise to bookmark http://abduzeedo.com/ and check out the daily inspiration in a regular fashion per example. It will give you a better sense for all the other things (composition, layout, type, colors, perspective etc etc) and you will grow as an artist. Developing that takes mainly time, you cannot learn it from tutorials sadly. Some guys are more technical and they get the programs down easier, some guys get the artistic thing easier, both have ups and downs, but you mustnt neglect the other side
I hope this helps , keep on pumping
First, regarding the fonts, were you talking about the site in general, or just the resume?
Second, I think I am confused on your comments about marmoset and my "artistic vision". It sounds to me like you are saying that my textures skills need improvement and that marmoset is making them look better than they are. Does that sound right? I don't mean that to sound defensive, I am just trying to understand what I can do to work on this issue.
The last thing was about the sci-fi scene. I know that I am not supposed to include work that is not the best that I can do, but I included that mostly to show that I am able to import into UDK and work with grid units. Is this important to show, or should I just stick with the best pieces.
I don't have any experience, so I chose to focus on the basics of modeling and texture creation by using objects that I could compare. I figured that realistic models would help me get an entry level position and that I could develop my own style as time goes on. Would you suggest that I try to do something more artistic and original for my portfolio?
Thanks again for taking time to help me out.
Same 2 fonts, rectangles and simple colored only, no layer styles or patterns at all and it will look a lot better. Dont stop trying out stuff in photoshop, but dont put it in your portfolio until its on the level of a o.k. graphic designer.
Ignore the sci-fi scene, nobody is going to go and say "Oh i bet he used the grid very nicely there"
For the artistic thing, there are like 2 seperate areas to improve, one is your technical skill and the other is you artistic skill. I call it eye for aesthetics as i think it fits best, as there are only vague terms i guess. Its how you percieve things, your brain telling you what looks wrong and what right, a bit like taste, ultimately decided how good your designs are. Thats what 2D artists mainly need. Learn how to use a couple brushes ? Easy. Its the eye for aesthetics that fuels the rest, including technical knowledge, like anatomy and proportions, colors etc.
That part is underdeveloped still as you just recently started doing art-stuff, and you can hardly rush to learn that, the best way is through observation of others stuff. Currently you think your 2D art is fine, but in a year or so you will feel ashamed, as you progressed percieving things more accurately.
You got the modeling and most of texturing down for a decent position (not 100% sure with texturing, havent seen too much) but dont miss out to really check a lot of other artists stuff regularity thats very important, and the rest will come with time and interest. No need to change modeling habits or doing something special for portfolio, thats all fine. What i always can recommend is viewing some concept art tutorials that explain the basics of 2D art, that can help a lot in any field.
CTRL.paint is a great site per example
I agree with this. The scene that stuck out most is the sci-fi scene. The entire scene is way too noisy. I'd suggest looking at some popular sci-fi games/movies and studying what makes their corridors so interesting. You'll notice that they have a lot of detail; however, it isn't all over the place.
Also, Thank you beefaroni and slosh for taking time to look over my portfolio as well. Your input is also very much appreciated.
I am looking forward to getting back in there and using what I have learned from all of this. If anyone else wants to contribute anything more, I am always greatful to hear it.