Critique for WIP portfolio

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Hi there, I've being around this site for a while but never posted anything, it's time I start showing some work for constructive criticism as well as giving others feedback. Any feedback to help me get better is welcome/ Don't hold back.

I graduated from Teesside University (UK) with a 2:1 (a

in 2012. I've since mainly been working in a warehouse for money, but really want to be a game artist either freelance or local-ish (Sheffield/Yorkshire). With working in a crappy crappy warehouse job full time I don't get all that much time to work on my portfolio really, But here are the odd bits I've been doing this year.

First images are from an indie game I helped worked on (not going to be released for a while) earlier this year. The concept is a destroyed house in Afghanistan. Everything is WIP and are just renders from inside ZBrush.
[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/1_zpsyoybjvh6.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/1_zpsyoybjvh6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/2 - Copy_zpsdfmzig2u.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/2 - Copy_zpsdfmzig2u.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url][URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url][URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/6_zpsikpcgtnn.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/6_zpsikpcgtnn.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

These are some of the assets for the house.

The vertical wooden sticks are to be moved about and used as a fence

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/6_zpsikpcgtnn.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/6_zpsikpcgtnn.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url][URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/4 - Copy_zpsst7udqh1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Here are some more including the house itself

Personally I wasn't keen on the idea of the rock structure thingy, or having a skirt of rocks go around the bottom of the building, but that is what the client wanted

I will be doing another building as well as more assets, the floor and rock faces for the environment scene

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/house_finished_03_zpsutmb1ddk.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/house_finished_03_zpsutmb1ddk.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/STEPS04_zpscdasjsh7.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/STEPS04_zpscdasjsh7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/rocks_zpsbfmiiimg.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/rocks_zpsbfmiiimg.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Here is some assets I have modelled, sculpted and painted all in ZBrush just for my own project. Just something quick to show off some more stylized skills. It will be a small turnstyle style scene of a hill with these assets on it, with the sheep being the main attraction. The fence again will be moved around to that it resembles a fence

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/Ewe_zpslfatcm1d.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/Ewe_zpslfatcm1d.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/Ewe_Exras_zps5muy8haa.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/Ewe_Exras_zps5muy8haa.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/Ewe_Fence_zpskw5jvbro.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/Ewe_Fence_zpskw5jvbro.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Lastly for now is WIP sculpts (again done in ZBrush) of a small indoor skatepark environment in an old warehouse that I am creating.

I still need to do the floor and walls, as well as some other small assets to keep the scene interesting.

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/HalfPipeSide_zps5pnszrem.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/HalfPipeSide_zps5pnszrem.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

[URL="[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/TomWoodArt/media/General_zpsq8d6omkd.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah164/TomWoodArt/General_zpsq8d6omkd.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Here are some more pieces

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

And lastly...

I'm not too keen on the girder. I feel I may have over done it with the rust and that the scratches aren't realistic enough. There wouldn't be that many scratches on it (if at all) as it's padded away anyway and wouldn't realistically get damaged

The shutter door too, I'm aware the colouring between the door and the sides and top are different. I need to change that. But again, I think I went a bit OTT with the rusting on the front of the door, I may tone it down. It might end up less visually interesting, but more realistic.

Because it's an old warehouse I've made some artistic choices in having different and brighter colours on certain asses to make it more visually interesting:

red padding
blue girder/door
green exit sigh
yellow pipe

I may add a few other colours for like a poster or such on the wall so it doesn't look too dull and drab. I kinda like how Uncharted 2 did that. With all the rubble around it still had bright and primary colours among the environment assets.

So yer, it's all WIP, but I'm hoping anyone can give me feedback for changes or even knowing it would be good enough to go in my portfolio (when the entire scene is finished, put together and rendered obviously), whether the sculpts/assets themselves are actually decent or not.

Thanks in advance

Shrike · Oct 2015

your stuff looks pretty good but please embed images by using image upload sites, nobody likes clicking on the forum uploads and as a result half of the images are not looked at
Also dont make screenshots in ortographic mode, its just strange and distracts from the object
Aside pretty solid all around, would be good seing something in a more normal environment with real lighting however

Meloncov · Oct 2015

Your assets look competent, but they're really not interesting enough to stand on their own as portfolio pieces. Either spend more time on a couple really great props, or start putting your stuff together into finished environments.

Since you said time is tight, I'd recommend the former. Take as many weeks or months on one or two things as it takes to really knock them out of the park.

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Thanks guys

Shrike - Yer I did the images like that because personally it does my head in when I have to wait for someones post to load cause of all the images, I will do what you said next time though lol

Also, yer I know what you mean about Orthographic, I realized that myself after already screenshotting half of the objects lol.

Arkaria - That about the house won't be hard to do, cheers for the advice. I hate the rocks around the bottom but it was what the client wanted. I may even get rid of them completely if changing (just for my own portfolio showcase) doesn't look all that better.

Meloncov - Thanks for the input! I won't be showcasing these images like this, this is just WIP that I was wanting feedback for. They will all be put in their own environment/scenes and properly rendered with good lighting. One scene in Unreal and one in Max/Mental or VRAY. I am going to be doing a couple of quick projects anyway that will hopefully be "standout" pieces on their own.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, I will be showing more updates when I have more assets completed/scenes put together and hopefully showing completely new projects for opinions

spiderspy · Oct 2015

Hey dude, you show promise but you are still quite some distance away from being a professional 3D Artist. I recommend you joining the monthly "newbie" challenges so that you can apply your skill, get constructive criticism and be able to compare your result with other people.

Some of the major issues at this point is that you are a bit sloppy with the sculpting of the mesh and materials look off too. It is very important at your stage to use a lot of references. Please use marmoset to showcase your creations and follow their PBR guidelines and materials will be easy peazy lemon squeezy! ^^ Best of luck! http://www.marmoset.co/

TomWoodArt · Oct 2015

Cheers Spiderspy

What part of the sculpting would you say is sloppy if you could give me a few examples? What do you mean by materials? I only used MatCap White01 or BasicMaterial for the renders. All of these WIP renders are done inside Zbrush so I haven't took any occlusion, normals, diffuse, specular or anything for them yet until the sculpts are complete and I'm happy with them. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean something else? Thanks for the advice

jhoythottle · Oct 2015

The assets look fine, but I'm so distracted by the sloppy presentation it's hard to really give you a good assessment.

Take a minute and look at the renders of your favorite environment artists or go on artstation.com and study the ways these artists present their work. None of them use plain black backgrounds or label their pieces using their own handwriting. Also, signing in the bottom corner is unnecessary. Make a nice template in photoshop with a simple gradient or subtle textured background with typed text. Make it consistent with all of your presentations and your work will immediately improve.

Critique for WIP portfolio

Replies