Career/portfolio review needed
polycounter lvl 8
Hey everyone,
I've been applying to jobs left and right for 3d artist and entry level character artist or cinematic artist even internships. My ideal dream job would be a character artist whether it be games or movies but I know we all got to start somewhere, and I know how competitive that field is. With the applying I've been doing over the last 7 months I haven't been able to get much word back let alone land a job. I was wondering if you guys could check my portfolio (www.adeline3d.com) and see where I'm missing the mark. It's easy to say "here's this superb badass artist, be like him" but I can't say that's terribly directive. My inkling is maybe I'm just missing a realistic game character? But does make me a good asset to a team just knowing characters? Not sure what are your guys thoughts?
Thanks!
I've been applying to jobs left and right for 3d artist and entry level character artist or cinematic artist even internships. My ideal dream job would be a character artist whether it be games or movies but I know we all got to start somewhere, and I know how competitive that field is. With the applying I've been doing over the last 7 months I haven't been able to get much word back let alone land a job. I was wondering if you guys could check my portfolio (www.adeline3d.com) and see where I'm missing the mark. It's easy to say "here's this superb badass artist, be like him" but I can't say that's terribly directive. My inkling is maybe I'm just missing a realistic game character? But does make me a good asset to a team just knowing characters? Not sure what are your guys thoughts?
Thanks!
Replies
The other problem that I can see at least for game art positions is that your meshes are very gridded and unoptimized for game purposes. For instance, your Iso Oni has a lot of dense geometry on the back of the knee and the forearms, whereas his shoulders are obviously angular looking. Try and reduce the gridding in areas that deform less, and increase it in areas that really need it, such as the shoulders, the back of the elbows, and the front of the knees. You also do not need to keep the same amount of sides along an entire limb; use more where the limb is thicker, less where it is thinner. Don't be afraid to use a fair amount of triangles to terminate loops. It's fine to use triangles on any meshes that will not get subdivided afterwards.
If you show that you can get a lot of good form out of your triangle budget, your chances of finding a job in games will increase a lot.
I've been on these forums for a while now and I've seen quite a few of these forums threads pop up over the years. I'll mainly stick to UI points and let the other professional artists critique the actual content.
First, let's step into the employer's shoes. They could get up to maybe a hundred portfolios a day and have probably seen tens of thousands over their career. So the bottom line for them is art, no bells and whistles, no gimmicks, just art. So with that in mind let's move on to what is good and bad about your portfolio.
The thing I would change right off the bat is your header. Your name and the wax stamp takes up a ridiculous amount screen real estate. Something in the range 40% of the screen is taken up on my 1600x1050 monitor. Shrink it down to about 5% real estate and increase the sizes of your actual art. Haz's page is a good example of this. (http://www.hazardousarts.com/) I guess a rule of thumb would be to never make you viewers scroll to get to your art. I would also get rid of the work in progress section. I believe your potential employer wants to see what you have finished as opposed to what you're just working on.
As for what I really like about the site is the nice grey background as it helps put focus on the art over some kind of flashiness. Another thing is the pictures at the bottom of the page that link to your other artworks. It's really nice not having to go back and click on something else.
I'm scrolling non-stop on your website and also some of the presentations just have a black background like the guitar on the first demon guy and the pictures are huge as well
It's just a Maya selection and a simple Render, render it in marmoset or a clayrender in Maya to make it pop but just a screenshot , not sure if that will attract anyone to be honest.
You should also show some texture maps and downsize some of the images and generally work on your presentation.
It's also very inconsistent what you do with every character.
One starts with a Concept presentation , the other one with a turnaround video.
Then you show the low poly -> textures -> high poly?
The Clothes on the Iso Oni look very undetailed as well , no folds no nothing.
Also I wouldn't put in text to explain your character , the chances that a recruiter will read it are slim I think. Just add the Tri count and the name on the character sheet.
Personally I would take Bruce Wayne of your mix as well , he looks rather incomplete and rushed and doesn't show off your character skills like the other guys do.
You have a lot of cool stuff but I think what's repelling is your overall presentation. The Pilot character is pretty awesome.
I think if you made a simple platform or a background for your characters they would look a lot more attractive.
Putting your real name on your work would also be important. You wouldn't hear someone say 'Oh I hired this Toxic 929 guy' 'oh yeah , i read about him somewhere '
Velktri: i shrank the header down quite alot. From that update so now hopefully there isn't constant scrolling. I also changed it to say character artist which I was reluctant to do because I fear it will disqualify me for other jobs like 3D artist but character art is what I want to do so I should jump headfirst with that i figure.
I kept the WIP because i feel that the work in there is strong and promising but I should probably still remove it because its WIP huh?
Francois_K: Presentation is something Im always struggling with. Maybe at the very least i could pop in a background relative to the art or paint a splatter in photoshop and see how that looks.
Your right I absolutely should make things more consistent from the sizing to the labeling and order and which they go in.
The Iso Oni I plan on going back to spruce up and i will make the clothing hopefully better as well as taking a second crack at the hair.
The Bruce Wayne model I removed altogether.
Putting my name on my work is a great idea and I have no idea why I hadn't thought to do so.
Thanks so much guys! As I update it ill post updates here.