New portfolio
Hey polycounters, I've been working on pieces for my portfolio and would love some feedback on it so far, I am trying to enter the industry and am unsure of where I stand quality wise vs industry standards. I'm still learning the process of texturing/lighting so I'm trying to emphasize my modeling skills vs my texturing skills on the site. I did just recently (an hour ago) finish the spear model, which was my first attempt at fully texturing a model. Let me know what you think.
http://rjgarcia3d.weebly.com/
http://rjgarcia3d.weebly.com/
Replies
Put a finished game-rez model up top, so that spear. I think you put that car model up top because it's more complex, but if it's not game-rez with beauty renders and break downs it... kinda doesn't matter. It will just look WIP. I'm also seeing some tight edges on it that look like they won't bake down too well, but that's besides the point right now.
You should really learn to light and render well, or no matter how good your modelling skills are, you'll still look amateurish. Get out a nice hi-poly render for that car (even just Toolbag2 with some decent AO, Post FX and quality settings would be good), and move the spear to the top.
EDIT: Also, put a background on the spear that isn't plain black, and provide texture and wireframe breakdowns, as well as some more shots. Have a look at some high-level portfolios and try to match that userfriendliness and quality. Take some initiative and think about what would be really impressive to see for an employer who needs work done.
My take on it. Never ask me to enter, just have the pictures right there for me. I'm lazy and got an attention span of a small, sugar-filled child.
Opinion on art:
Do something the whole pipeline, because now you have lots of high poly stuff but they aren't used. You'll see if your stuff is usable when you bake it down and preview it in Marmorset.
Some breakdowns would be nice, ortopgrahics (turn arounds) for your models too would be awesome.
Right now, I find it's too much WIP. Saying that your stuff doesn't stand up to industry standards would be too early to say because nothing is really finished.
But you seem to have a good work ethic, so keep on the grind and do some games stuff imo!
Proper texturing and getting everything game-ready is probably more than half the battle.
Basically, I was under the impression that while bigger companies do share the load more, specialized texture artists that only do textures (and at that, take other peoples models and texture those) are definitely the exception to the rule. The rule, of course being that you will be expected to do most of your own texture work, even in reasonably large studios.
You need to start at learning how to choose something that you can tackle and learn from, then focus on pre-production (collecting ref, filling in any gaps in the concept, etc), then focus on modelling, then focus on UVing, then texturing, then lighting and presentation.
In order, and put your all into it until you have a finished piece. If you've learned a bunch of stuff on it, and it came out well, slap it up on your portfolio and start the process over again.
This is about setting up a personal pipeline, so that if you're asked to do something that should be in you skillset, you never have to answer with "I don't know how". So you have nice things that you can claim were all your own doing, that don't look half-finished to people who might hire you.
Also, compared to grinding on one subject for an eternity, I personally find its better for my brain to learn lots about a thing in small bursts then leave that to soak in so I can apply it the next time I have to do that, but I have a short attention span so that may be a personal quirk.
For game companies almost all of them expect there modelers to texture their stuff. There are only a few companies that have dedicated texture artists.