Portfolio Critique Please

Dr.HeatSync · Oct 2014

Hi, I recently finished my Masters course at Staffordshire Uni. However, I feel that my portfolio at its current state might have some weaknesses and I was hoping you guys might be able to help me out. Any help is appreciated, the more scathing the better.

http://andrewfellowsart.weebly.com/

Avvi · Oct 2014

I think your art will surely benefit from having better lighting setups. Also, you could use some photo blurred backgrounds also instead of pinkish-grey gradient.
But... it can also show weaknesses sometimes, so be ready to revisit some models

For example, I have a feeling that T-Rex has wrongly baked normals in some places, like bend a little, not as straight/flat as should have been. Or maybe the high poly was imprecise? dunno.

Soundwave's polycount is faaar to heavy when you look at how low-poly its cylinder guns are.

I like the colors and materials in Bootcamp 2014 Alien Ship, but it lacks details. I'll treat the current shape as a good base, but I miss some low-scale bolts, plate edges. You know, like everything on it now has the same thickness, while it lacks differences (small bolts that hold on a big plate. Small ventillation that makes contrast with thick armor).
I think it applies to most of your artwork. I know it's easy to say 'look at what Tor Frick is doing', because he's the totally master level

but still have a look at how he mixes big smooth surfaces with little sweet details: http://www.torfrick.com/info/helm.html

WesleyArthur · Oct 2014

You've got some great stuff there, keep it up!

A couple of your models look like they've got slightly wobbly edges, so make sure you spend time making sure they're very crisp and clean cut.

Also, if you're getting some renders for a portfolio then make sure you whack that resolution right up to make it look as nice as possible. Have you experimented with Marmoset Toolbag 2? It's a brilliant piece of software, especially for stuff like that.

Really nice though!

Shrike · Oct 2014

Hm you have mostly characters there, so I suppose you are applying as a character artist

What is the most apparent has been said, you should re-render your things, maybe just use marmoset at best to eleminate that factor. Id also cut all those tool icons from the images, and maybe put them at the bottom of your page or so if you want to show them. It just clutters the pictures and drags them down. Slightly smaller text would also help but its not too bad. The website itself looks fine, but you should have a proper domain and weebly subscription, it just look unprofessional else.

Well there is definitely to improve in modeling and in texturing, especially texturing.
None of your stuff has textures that are somewhat realistic or conform to current standards,
and it looks like you are not correctly using the varied maps aside from normals.

The proportions of most things look solid, but never stop doing anatomy, its important and
will improve your stuff
Try to not limit yourself too much with polycount, you have to impress now, so make things
flawless, but in a smart way of course
The TRex looks like your edges were too sharp aswell, but not sure

Girl with hat has super strong AO right in her face thats strange aswell
Id cut soundwave atleast, its not very detailed and the textures are weak

I would advise you push out some new things, your newest stuff is always the best stuff,
and dont do anything that is not realistic, its what you need to learn most and what is most valuable. Look up some texturing tutorials and look at other peoples work often
Also you didnt show any high polies

Gotta push a little further but its not far away,
Good luck man!

Dr.HeatSync · Oct 2014

Thanks guys! You're right, I think they'll need some revisiting; Soundwave should be completely redone, I know he's supposed to be 8th gen, but he doesn't look it. I'll give the alien ship's some more high poly detailing. Grimlock's normals were troubling me back then so I should give them a revisit also.

It is fair to compare it to Tor Frick though, we're in the same ball game now... well, not exactly, but there's probably more people like him where I am that are competing for the same things.

I think I've avoided Marmoset for long enough now; I have the mindset that 'if it isn't in a real game engine, how do you know its going to work properly in a game' but when I think about it, developers are probably using their own engines anyway, so the quirks that I'd be having to do to dodge around Unreal Engine specific issues may be negligible (unless of course, they use UE3/4).

*Edit cus I did Quick Reply and missed out on Shrike's post*

You make a fair point about the tool icons, I'll try moving them at the bottom of the images. I'm hoping to get a subscription pretty soon.

Can you elaborate on how I'm not using the other textures correctly (specular, roughness, etc) particularly roughness, because I'm confused as to whether I should treat it as a solid parameter (i.e. put 0-100 in given areas) or if I should be approaching it some other way.

For 'girl with the hat' I'm assuming you mean Eva? Fair enough, I'll be redoing her anyway because her face currently lives in the uncanny valley.

Looks like I've got a lot of work to do! Thanks very much for your feedback, I'll try to get this work revised!

Avvi · Oct 2014

Yes, exactly. You will adjust to any engine the company's using in a first week or two. It isn't much compared to a time you will work there

so don't worry too much about engines.
Look, if it's a trouble for you, then think: won't you hire a person with super folio, showing eye for detail, perfect PBR materials? Would you turn the artist down only because (s)he has no experience with a specific engine exactly? Impress first, the details will matter later.

Shrike · Oct 2014

Its hard to tell about your textures since you used kinda strange shaders and setups before

I didnt mean to put the icons at the bottom of the images, but at the bottom of your page.
Theres no need to show them on each image, it just clutters everything

Also Id advise to not spend too much time on saving some old things, try push the best up, make a selection, but try doing new things, thats important

Dr.HeatSync · Oct 2014

I had a go with Marmoset earlier today, it was a little strange to use (particularly with setting up multiple materials on a single asset) and I'm hoping I can change that background to something custom. I'll be looking into it further in much greater detail. One thing that was quite good was that the MothGirl was able to be replicated almost exactly as her shader is very simple, but for characters that have animated effects like scrolling glows and stuff are probably gonna have a bit of trouble but I need more assets that prove my ability to represent forms, realistic anatomy and other non-technical things so its all good.

God I'm so stupid, I should've realised you meant move the icons onto the bottom of the page or not at all. I had a play with taking them off and they're a bit smarter without them, and when I think about it I don't need to specify what software I used (except maybe rendering engine). I'm really sorry, it should be obvious but unfortunately I really need such things said back to me.

Even trying to re-render Grimlock's high poly turned out to be quite troublesome, I think your advice of just pushing the best stuff up, and concentrating on new projects is probably the best bet; the idiocies of my old practices come back to haunt me (its pretty scary that most of this isn't even a year old). along with doing the Riot competition, I'd like a line of console spec'd characters and mobile characters going, and that way I can split it up into high end characters, mobile characters, and then all the other stuff that's relevant. I may even have it like others do as clickable thumbnails rather than the current Scrolling Cruise Control. I'll try to get started on this stuff tomorrow.

Thanks again for your comments guys! I value the reality of this feedback because its very enlightening, and I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

WesleyArthur · Oct 2014

Yeah Marmoset Toolbag is a bit odd to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it's great for presenting your work. I believe you can import custom backgrounds - you could in Toolbag 1 anyway.

Glad I could help!

Portfolio Critique Please

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