WIP portfolio critique
polycounter lvl 7
Hey guys!
recently started putting together my portfolio and looking for some critique, what more should I add? Is there enough on there? Is there to much? Should I break down each asset and environment more? etc.
http://artbyry.com
Thanks! appreciate it
(site is a bit torn up for the moment, plan to go back to it mid december,thanks for the feedback everyone!)
recently started putting together my portfolio and looking for some critique, what more should I add? Is there enough on there? Is there to much? Should I break down each asset and environment more? etc.
http://artbyry.com
Thanks! appreciate it
(site is a bit torn up for the moment, plan to go back to it mid december,thanks for the feedback everyone!)
Replies
This is not a good thing on your portfolio, man, especially when it doesn't look like you took longer than this.
I'm going to be a bit brief but
- Cut the zoom from the thumbnails. It's distracting and kind of annoying.
- Remove the "young, aspiring" from your title. It comes off more as an excuse that your work looks student-y. It's fine to just say "Environment artist". You are one already.
- Speedsculpts don't really have a place here yet. Finish it and present it in a game engine, polish it more and show it as a sculpt, or remove it.
- Rock doesn't look natural or good. Remove it (It's boring out of context, anyway). The Door, the Cart and the Guard tower could probably stand to be grouped together under a title like "medieval props" or something, but they desperately need better presentation. Are they in an engine? As far as I can tell, shadows aren't even being cast (and inorganic sculpts shouldn't usually be presented with a waxy matcap). Redo the presentation or remove them.
- The fire hydrant is one of the only props that comes off as up to scratch and at least lit well (though I'm still not a fan of this template), why is it so far down the list? Move it up more.
- Stompy has no context, I don't know what it's for and I don't know what you made here.
- Highlight specifically what you worked on in the pirate cabin scene. You might have done the best bits or the worst bits, I don't know so I skimmed over it. Show more shots. I question your choice of the Pirates theme; it's better to go with free to use music that.... actually fits the scene. This feels quiet and eerie, not swashbuckle-y so the music is odd. Consider fiddling with the FOV on the camera a bit. It warps on the edges and I personally get motion sickness from that.
- Include your email at the top of the page somewhere if you can. Its not exactly difficult to find, but it does kind of look like you expect me to contact you by form at first. Center the bio text on that contact page, too.
All in all.... quality control. You don't need everything on your portfolio. A thing your threw up in 2 hours really shouldn't have a place here. Specify what you worked on in group projects. Don't be afraid to lump similar assets together under the same header, it actually looks more impressive than padding out your portfolio with single props on their own IMO. Your presentation should all be more like the fire hydrant, frankly. A clean beauty shot, the wireframe, the textures, some closeups... But stop specifying time. There's no need for it.This is a good start. Spend more time on finishing some prop sets or a diorama/small environment of your own, though. You need some work that sets you apart from other graduates and this is pretty stock standard. Not bad at all, but... in this industry you kind of need to be above that average a little (especially in Australia right now). Keep up the good work, sorry if this is a bit straight to the point. :thumbup:
The zoom when you mouseover images is kinda annoying, and might slow down loading of the site.
Include more breakdowns of the scenes; the overall impression is pretty good, but I can't see the quality of individual assets.
On the pirate ship cabin, make it more clear what work you yourself did (maybe an image with an overlay showing which assets are yours).
The bat creature strong, but it also feels a bit out of place in what's otherwise an environment portfolio. I wouldn't get rid of it right away, as it's probably the best hand-painted work you have, but I'd move it towards the bottom and look to replace it eventually (or add more character stuff if you're aiming for a generalist position at a small studio).
Don't have an WIP stuff in your portfolio; that's what the blog section is for.
The quality of the standalone assets seems to be stronger than the assets in any of the scenes. I wouldn't get rid of the scenes, as showing full scenes is important, but your goal going forward should be to create a couple scenes where the quality is consistently on the level of, say, your fire hydrant.
@Meloncov I've changed it now to not mention the school part as I actually did both environments on my own, so there isn't really a need to mention which parts I did as I did it all haha, thanks for the critique, appreciate it!
@DooDee Would have to be a problem from your end as it has worked perfectly from many devices and places so far.
Sorry for the late reply! Have been a bit busy but really appreciate the critiques guys
Doesn't work here either. Stuck in loading.
Hmm, that's really odd, I've seen it work for a lot of people so far, thanks for letting me know I'll look into it.
I don't understand the hate for the rock. I think it looks pretty nice. Maybe just give it some more sharpness and polish around the edges, or make a series of them so it fits in a little bit more. Also, there's a weird cut in your pirate cabin video around the 0:13 mark. Check your editing program for a clip overlap. While you're at it, I suggest you change the song. I'm surprised Disney hasn't flagged the audio from that video yet. Just from a quick search on Pond5 (great site), I found this for only 17 bucks. Worth the price in my opinion and royalty free.
On royalty free music, thanks for the link jhoyt! Looks like a great resource. In the interest of sharing, I usually nab mine from here: https://freemusicarchive.org/
To anyone who might peruse FMA, make sure you double check the copyright for each song individually because a few aren't actually free to use, it's also more free tracks that you can repurpose than specifically good BGM (and that's why you pay for the convenience of Pond5-type resources!). It's just a really interesting and fairly large catalog of tracks, though, haha.
@BagelHero yeah definitely starting to try have a bigger online presence than what I've had previously, polycount/artstation/twitter are generally the places to do it so here I am asking for crits basically
@Beard3D Bandit Thanks man! appreciate that you've noticed the changes already
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022096/Killer-Portfolio-or-Portfolio-Killer
Lemme know what you think!
This might be personal preference but when I open a portfolio I like to get a quick overview of what I'm going to see. When I load yours I see a very big image thumbnail from your first piece and part of the second environment. Maybe play around and see how re-sizing the thumbnails so that both images fit in the splash page works. Again this is personal but you might want to consider it
Hopefully this helps!
Kind of hard to get an impression of the assets if there are no close ups or bigger screens, looks pretty decent however from first impression.
The website looks good, almost too good, so I dont trust you on making that design yourself. some small issues tho, like why is the name on the right, and the contact page is crammed and the contact box should be below or on the right. Also dont point and inset the skills / program profiencies, the - point or none at all is enough as theres tons of separations between categories.
Also I had to laugh when you wrote "Work experience: Woolworths"
Not because I think working there is funny, but because you decided to make that a point people should know.
If you have no relevant previous workplace, just don't talk about it. Don't wake sleeping dogs. Nobody cares if that line is missing on the page, nobody will notice or care.
Focus on strenghts.
Thanks for the feedback though! really appreciate it all