[Portfolio Review] Help! I need to be better
polycounter lvl 3
Hi everybody! I think I learned (and I'm still learning), thanks a lot polycount for that and now I'm feeling is time to do some more, because I'm working with freelance and it's having some return, but not enough yet and I'm doing a lot of different jobs (2d, 3d, a little rig and animation sometimes, some basic concept, advertising....o.o")
I'm trying to get a job in a studio, but I'm always having 2 kinds of replies now (this happen for studios in my country in most cases)....one wants me "to be a co-worker and work for free" and another says "I'm not good enough yet so let be in contact in future".
So that's it....please give me some advice and feedback for my portfolio and thanks all for this ^^
here is my portfolio
www.fefs.weebly.com
Replies
Cyber Caterpillar - wtf am I looking at, honestly didn't know what it was without the title, textures looks dull and the model is really low rez without statement if it's done for mobile etc, also you toss is a concept credit but no link to the concept so I don't even know if it matches all that well and honestly didn't even want to write this much about that particular model never mind google search the concept
Soothsayer - I like it. Has that Warcraft vibe to it, doesn't match the concept proportionally which would be a huge drawback if I was an employer looking at it
Zilean - I like the option of having the 3D viewers to look around with but don't like how I feel I need to use it to understand the model. It's very busy and you don't have a high rez version nor a good angle of it. The one you do have feels like the magic floor decal thing get's equal attention as the complex model. But concept matching wise, this is your best one so far!
Sculpts - delete Horatio and the barrel dude. Also why the sudden change in layout? Polish up the girl with wings, her face needs attention, bring it back to realism and you got yourself a solid sculpt that is portfolio worthy
Cave Altar - just display what's in the concept, the background walls are distraction and make it overall look unfinished. Work on the lighting and adding in more green like the concept. Normals seem flat but easy enough to adjust, This one has potential.
Illustrations - I'm not a fan of this section in general on portfolios unless you're amazing at it. Other wise it shows off a weakness and gives off the noob vibe. It's good in a bio to say you sketch etc but in the end it's a personal choice.
Games - depending what the employer is looking at you for or what you applied to they might skip this all together. Make sure to be detailed on what you did on each project. Deff worth keeping as long as you make your contributions clear
Lowpoly - needs breakdowns
OVERALL:
After viewing each section you seem to be way to wide spread. You have mobile gaming, sketches, highpoly sculpts, mid - low poly models, environments, and characters. So what I'm trying to say is by looking at this I can't tell what you want to be. You're spreading yourself too thin, narrow your focus more and master that area right now your work isn't industry ready. But obviously you have knowledge of most of the programs used so shouldn't take you too long to better yourself.
Hopefully this helps : )
What I want to be....I love to draw, but I think I have more ability in 3D now, so probably this is the path to go. I like to learn stuff (right now I'm trying to learn a little python, for maya.) but sometimes I'm too shy to ask the noob stuff, I have to change this too.
I'll leave some more the other things to people see.... but I for sure I'll take off the sculpts ( and fix the angel), and make something new and probably more directed to animation and advertising.
Low poly was for a work, so I just got permission to show this, the girl there I rigged too...Is better take off this?
The games section I just don't make the code for those, all UI and visual was mine. And some little animation. It's very bad? I remove or is good to show this the way it is?
The game section is fine as long as you make it obvious that you did all the visuals for it and not the code.
If 3D is what you want to focus on I would keep Soothslayer, reworked angel sculpt, and leave the game section because it shows you were involved in a completed game pipeline. But otherwise I would ditch the rest and focus on a new project to top the current. Then once you start seeing a major difference in skill level between old and new projects, start ditching the old ones again so you only have your best stuff on display.
***Just checked out the concept for the caterpillar, you did a really good job at matching it. Pose looks like he is going to fall over though. Up to you in the end, not an overall fan of the concept either tbh
Right now for me it appears like you can do everything okay-ish but nothing in a really polished, high quality.
Main things I would work on are texturing and lighting/presentation. The combination of those two makes a lot of things appear kinda flat/dull.
Take the soothsayer for example: The texturing itself is not bad, but needs a few more passes to really pop.
Maybe also take a deeper look at pbr texturing to get more material definition.
For the cave altar, I really don't like the lighting - the purple makes it look less detailed than it is, and overall it's missing some kind of color contrast.
I would stay more true to the concept in this case.
Overall, I would say it's not bad work, you just need to focus more to hit the quality level needed,
Topology is good for you? Just one last question...
Thanks again! @CandyStripes05 and @Shyralon