Would love some thoughts on my portfolio!!
polycounter lvl 4
Just started to apply for environmental design jobs and really would love some critique. Please and thank you!
https://smealer.artstation.com
Tell me what I do Well, and maybe what I should do more of? And what I need to improve on! Thanks guys
https://smealer.artstation.com
Tell me what I do Well, and maybe what I should do more of? And what I need to improve on! Thanks guys
Replies
- Pick a specialization, either characters or environments.
- Don't show unfinished work.
- If you apply for a video game job show video game ready assets
- Show wires and texture flats to show you understand the technical aspect of making art for games
These are just a few pointers but the best tip I can give you is to stop applying for now and focus on building a better portfolio because what you have right now won't get you a job. I know it sound harsh but trust me, all you need right now is to improve as an artist. Find the portfolio of artists already working in the industry and get your portfolio at the same quality as theirs.
You clearly have a good grasp of the tools and the technical fundamentals but you need to create more stuff, to practice and become a better artist before you can get a job.
But I think it's haphazard to apply with what you have right now. For starters, you have both character art and environment art. It's always advised to focus on one discipline as both require high attention to detail and splitting your resources will only mean 2x the work.
Looking at your Dragon Lands, one immediate thing that stood out to me was the artstyle. It's 99% seems like you wanted to do something stylized, but I still see other elements mixed in. For example, why does the tree trunk texture looks like it's a photo? This should be handpainted.
I'm also a bit confused by your roughness maps. They seem to be photos or ran through a generator of some sort. You need to think of your roughness as being different from your albedo/diffuse textures. They represent surface detail that dictate how light will run across it. So you need to consider painting in detail that should be very rough or hard (i.e dirt, dust and rust) as well as combining it with other surface properties that can be smooth or blurry (i.e water, paint, sticky substance etc).
Speaking of the environment itself, I would invest in telling a better story. Since the name is "Dragon Lands" I would include more detail that sells the idea that it's either set in a medieval-esque setting or it is in fact home to dragons. Right now you have foliage, some pillars and barrels. How did those barrels get there or what is their purpose? I would include more proof or reasons why Humans would be in that world.
Also I'd spend more time on lighting and set dressing. I think it would serve you better to make a smaller space and focus getting tight shots in there. You can make or break sculpts with lighting. Really need some storytelling assets as well I think. You're mostly doing big architectural stuff and you need small and medium sized assets to get a full picture.