online portfolio suggestions
polycounter lvl 3
Hi, I'm trying to get a job! I'm going to create a portfolio specific page, I've been sending links to 3D/game companies to my whole site which is maybe too cluttered.
For the past 7 years I've developed and maintained 4 different "best selling" Android®™ apps, but Google recently deleted my apps for failing to agree within 90 days to a new market terms of service agreement. My phone gmail wasn't "syncing" properly and I only accidentally noticed the TOS gmail warning, which said that logging into the developer account would be an automatic agreement to the terms, but google is using some new form of html5 that no longer loads on my android device, so I'm putting Android behind me, but now I have to scramble as my family are saying to grow up and get a real fast food or landscaping job
I'm asking for opinions if I have enough in my past projects to cobble together a portfolio or if I need to create some more character work. I'm going to go through the animations I've created to try to put together a showreel. I've sent out many submissions, but I've only received a personal reply once from a company ten years ago, a very nice rejection letter from weta digital, so I figured the industry is perhaps impossible to break into, but I've read this is not the case, and figure my blog is too cluttered to be considered a portfolio and immediately disregarded.
Here's my website, thanks for any suggestions!
For the past 7 years I've developed and maintained 4 different "best selling" Android®™ apps, but Google recently deleted my apps for failing to agree within 90 days to a new market terms of service agreement. My phone gmail wasn't "syncing" properly and I only accidentally noticed the TOS gmail warning, which said that logging into the developer account would be an automatic agreement to the terms, but google is using some new form of html5 that no longer loads on my android device, so I'm putting Android behind me, but now I have to scramble as my family are saying to grow up and get a real fast food or landscaping job
I'm asking for opinions if I have enough in my past projects to cobble together a portfolio or if I need to create some more character work. I'm going to go through the animations I've created to try to put together a showreel. I've sent out many submissions, but I've only received a personal reply once from a company ten years ago, a very nice rejection letter from weta digital, so I figured the industry is perhaps impossible to break into, but I've read this is not the case, and figure my blog is too cluttered to be considered a portfolio and immediately disregarded.
Here's my website, thanks for any suggestions!
Replies
This environment:
http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af41/3dcgfx/dsentry7.jpg
And these two:
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4118/dragonenginene4.jpg
More so the dragon design, i found it super interesting then i look at the hands and they just seem like floating geo and not connected, how ever the head/body "functionality" works well, and again didn't get to read the entire page or site. Those wondering it is the blog section for these.
That environment is pretty nice to look at (to me anyway) until you look for flaws like the stairs are noticeable and stick out immediately as CG.
I think environments along similar lines are your strong point(Victorian), if you made a full "game environment" around this very setting or even just expanded on that scene into say Dracula's castle that would look pretty damn good if an upgraded quality was kept throughout the project. The quality of the scene is okay for a rough but not for a final and if that was done in two days well then if you spent 1 - 3 months on it, i think it would look insane. (Just my opinion based on the information on the site, on what i managed to read.)
Good luck, if there is a struggle with funds, i'd look into other outlets of artistic endeavors that suit your needs and or desires to continue the art path.
Hope that helps in any way.
(Also please paragraph your text, I just went straight into the link saw a few meaningful words and wrote this up for you.)
usually viewers of this site have limited time to be as helpful as they can, I just put in extra effort for you, since your in a R.L. pickle.
For 3 years I pencilled comic books for Top Cow Productions, I pencilled Witchblade 1/2 which was worth 50$ in comic shops, but I quit comics shortly after the industry collapsed. I loved Top Cow, but for another 3 years before that I worked for Comico which had a pretty notorious reputation, so for the most part I do not want to draw comics. My brother just became an electrician, and was telling me that anywhere he can get a job, so I might think hard about carreer options.
Gragh, I might try developing apps or quick custom html games for fiverss.com, but that just seems like the worst situation
I also have to... I have to tell you, man, your entire site comes off as a joke. Lensflare over text, the text that instead of being laid out via html/CSS is laid out using a super-compressed image, plugins and images that don't work, site's got a different layout on every page, unrelated personal work taking up whole uncategorised pages... Don't even get me started on that name. "3DCGFX"? Really?
It's inelegant. It's outdated to an extreme, all of it. I wasn't going to reply, assuming you were a troll, but after seeing your comic work (gorgeous stuff by the way) and managing to find one or two actual pieces of relevant work I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I don't know how often you look at other artists work and websites, but please do. See how other people who actually get hired present their work; because it's not that the industry is impossible to get into, it's definitely because your "portfolio" is really bad.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio Please have a look at this, but also:
http://gameartportfoliowall.com/
If you look at the site above, even without the advice from seasoned professionals from the wiki (which you should definitely read all of, especially jon jones' "your portfolio repels jobs"), it's clear that favored portfolios get right to the art. Its the first thing you see, with minimal text and all the important and impressive stuff cleanly laid out upfront.
Meanwhile, I can find maybe 3 recent things from you after trawling your site for ages, and they're not consistently good. Except for the character, the character is cool, but the images you're giving tell be absolutely nothing about what he looks like or even if it's a functional game resolution character, because they're tiny. There's no breakdowns, there's no turnaround, there's no HQ images....
Basically, and I'm going to be blunt; scrap this site if you want to be hired by anyone to do anything.
Get a real domain name that is YourRealName.com or .net or .anythingprofessionallooking, get an artstation or a squarespace or a carbonmade or a template that lets you just post your art in a clean grid format, and connect your domain to it.
Then add relevant work in a format that is up to date with current presentation standards. You want to make it so the HR guy or art director that's looking at your page only has to glimpse at it to get the idea of your skill level.
This means good quality images, well composed shots for 3D pieces, thumbnails that get the point across well. Additionally, you want some completed assets (not necessarily whole games nor apps) that show you can create complete, cohesive art that works for its intended purpose. For example, if you want to do characters, people are going to want to see multiple completed characters, (preferably nailing archetypes but honestly at this point having any done would be good) and breakdowns of the topology and textures, as well as beauty shots taken in engine, that make it obvious they work while looking good.
You have to assume that you're in a pile of dozens of other artists, and the person looking at your work has had a bad day. You want to make it easy for them to look at your art and be impressed and convinced that you can do what they need you to do. Your website, as it currently stands, had me ready to click away without even going past the landing page, so for anyone busier I'd be surprised if you're not getting thrown out at the mention of "blogspot".
So, some serious questions for you:
- What kind of jobs are you going for?
- Are you limiting yourself to games, or are you also looking at film or other CG related jobs?
- How often do you check sites like Artstation, the Polycount Recap, or read things like VERTEX magazine? How often do you talk to other artists or post your work on public forums?
Sorry for chewing your page and hard work out a bit. But all in all, your work looks like it could be good... if I could find it, or see it. And I would very much like to be able to see it (and also see you get a job). So please know that I only mean the best, and I'm only interested in giving you a bit of a boot in the pants as you stated this is what you've stuck with for 7 years+, and it doesn't seem to have been working.Good luck man, I hope this post finds you well.
Im sure Bagel wrote a lot of good stuff
From what I see is that you have pretty good technical skill and proficiency which is half of the deal. You're just greatly lacking artistic vision, which may come from being in bad environments for too long. What you desperately need is to surround you with great art, so your brain can memorize the patterns of what we as collective find aesthetic, and you will be able to recall
those patterns and integrate it into your work consciously and subconsciously.
- Check out art digest sites like http://abduzeedo.com/ and look at their daily inspiration every
day. Its important that you look at things that are not in your field only, so this is a great thing
(Polycount Recaps are great too but only 3d) - you need to get those subconscious impressions and try finding out for yourself what makes each piece you like and learn from it.
- Stay away from true amateur forums, Polycount is a good place with many professionals always compare yourself with the best not the average or beginner.
Check out http://www.ctrlpaint.com/library/ and look at many of the videos, theyre for painting but apply to your work too,
and you really need that foundation, it helps with so many things.
Edit: To repeat again:
Delete your site and get one at carbonmade.com, just put in a logo and your final images. Don't spend ANY of your time with web design and focus on making images of whatever you planned. Also stay away big time from any subject that is made up. Real life stuff only, no sci-fi no fantasy, your'e wasting time otherwise. Your living room shows good potential.
I refuse to spend a month on something again under a hope of being discovered. I spent a month on a Doctor Who PBS video contest, and it was disqualified for being 01 second over the time limit.
Recently I've been submitting my webpage to many craigslist ads in different cities. I got one automated reply to be patient and if I make the second round of portfolio review they would contact me.
Mainly my website was for Android customers with no real consideration put in towards submissions to companies.
I had a blogger updated to a .com but godaddy hijacked my domain url, godaddy has a separate company called "domainsbyproxy.LLC" that claimed ownership of my domain and I just decided I wasn't going to deal with them.
I'm going to start investigating the best non art "staple" jobs that might be tolerable. I don't think I would like the danger of being an electrician, my brothers friend mentioned a story about a coworker who severely fried his back on a bunch if wires... Some similar type standard "busdriver" type job, but even that google will probably "robot control" the buslines in a few years, so I want to be careful.
1 - Get yourself an Artstation page. Upload all your best work to it. This will take about a day to setup.
2 - Get yourself a .com name, preferably www . firstnamelastname . com
3 - Put all your best art on it, in one single html page with your contact information on top and a link to a downloadable PDF r
Mainly I was just checking to see if I would be likely to get a job, or what I may need to get a job, but I was already pretty dubious. Before my apps were deleted they had a sudden sales collapse and I was dropped off at my grandfathers mountain house, which was abandoned for 8 years. It's pretty fun up here but I'm 20 miles from the nearest town, I never got a drivers license so I have to walk or take a grueling shortcut across a ravine river in the summer where I can use the library with my laptop for internet, so I'm trying to be sensible about probabilities. Now that my apps are deleted I have to figure something out quickly.
At the moment it's tough for us to give any opinion on wether or not your content is job-+worthy because it is scattered all around an odd website. Simply put all your jpgs in a web folder somewhere and we'll be able to have a look at it all and give you advice accordingly.
The next time I go to town I'll update my blog with a portfolio section, I might try to replicate the ArtStation format, or alternatively just use ArtStation. I tried now to make a jpg only page by editing HTML with my Android LG, but there's no easy way to copy specific image URL's without backspacing and reloading. I also didn't think about the common monitor pixel size that an art editor might use, and it's probably full HD 4080 DPI making everything seem very small, so I might see if I can maybe easily adjust the layout based on the visitors display settings.
I'm going to make some concept art, I have a few hundred videogames, so off the top of my head I know a few basic characters, like the dangerous chef, SWAT elite commando, dangerous mop janitor, etc.
Also I just realized I have some new topology study stuff, I've been recently modelling women with much better topology flow.
I opened an artstation, but I still haven't uploaded anything to it. I used Stoik to resize
which is probably something not to do, but I'm wondering if the images are too big now?
I only have a laptop with something like a max 1200 wide screen, and I'm unsure
if it's navigable. I also updated all my youtube videos to the new html5 embed codes,
I was surprised to find all my youtube animation videos had suddenly transformed into
around 20 "This version of Flash can compromise your computer!" warnings scattered
throughout my blog.
Mainly I want to send it to my storyboarding friend to see if he or his business partner
need any immediate assistance on anything. It is pretty garish though when it's laid out
in thumbnails, the thumbnails shifted a little on the bottom row, I have no idea how
and lack the energy to fix it
Thanks if anyone with high display settings can see if it seems to be navigable and
veiwable. Many of my things are in "print" aspect ratio, books, magazines, etc. which
are letterbox rotated 90 degrees, and I now realize doesn't translate so well to
computer screens which is pretty much standard letterbox.
I remember my friend mentioned years ago, before I realized he was getting a ton of work,
inquiring if I had high res images, and I'm just assuming now he has an even better mega pixel type of monitor
Work thumbnails too small and stacked too closely with no organisation.
Backgrounds! You spent so long making each piece of work but presented it really poorly.
Here's some examples posted up from a prior thread, http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92838
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http://www.torfrick.com/
http://polygoo.com/
http://www.scotthomer.co.uk/
http://www.alecmoody.com/
http://www.peperaart.com/
If you are having trouble, I suggest using Wordpress and a template. Some excellent ones around paid for and free.