Character artist portfolio review
polycounter lvl 9
I've just finished another project that I was working on and wanted to get some feedback on my portfolio standings. So my portfolio's short-comings in my eyes is:
1: Not enough finished characters, too many busts/WIPs (All the WIPs in the project titled "WIPs" are currently unable to be worked on, on a harddrive that I had to leave behind after a hurricane, yada-yada, but in any case can't work on those yet, but I felt they showed something about my character work so I decided to put them in)
2: Some of my texturing work is somewhat lackluster, mostly alien-amphibian and the King of Thorn projects. Not quite sure where to focus my efforts on this particular issue.
3: Topology. I feel this isn't a huge issue in my work except for the King of Thorn piece which I felt had just a bit more topology than necessary
I'm curious what you guys think about it. I'd hate to apply to jobs for the first time and not put my best foot forward. Then have to reapply after fixing/adding things and have them bin my application because they already looked at it recently and weren't too enthused with what they saw then so they wouldn't see the changes.
So what would you change/add/remove? I'd love to hear your feedback.
https://www.artstation.com/samnwck
My major pieces:
Ice Dragon (most recent): https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qGY4e
King of Thorn: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LBGDP
Alien Amphibian: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/85oon
1: Not enough finished characters, too many busts/WIPs (All the WIPs in the project titled "WIPs" are currently unable to be worked on, on a harddrive that I had to leave behind after a hurricane, yada-yada, but in any case can't work on those yet, but I felt they showed something about my character work so I decided to put them in)
2: Some of my texturing work is somewhat lackluster, mostly alien-amphibian and the King of Thorn projects. Not quite sure where to focus my efforts on this particular issue.
3: Topology. I feel this isn't a huge issue in my work except for the King of Thorn piece which I felt had just a bit more topology than necessary
I'm curious what you guys think about it. I'd hate to apply to jobs for the first time and not put my best foot forward. Then have to reapply after fixing/adding things and have them bin my application because they already looked at it recently and weren't too enthused with what they saw then so they wouldn't see the changes.
So what would you change/add/remove? I'd love to hear your feedback.
https://www.artstation.com/samnwck
My major pieces:
Ice Dragon (most recent): https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qGY4e
King of Thorn: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LBGDP
Alien Amphibian: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/85oon
Replies
Companies looking for a character position all short are already rare so you want to maximize that potential by showing that you can tackle as many types of character assets as possible -> stylized and realism ? real world and fantasy ? humans and animals/creatures ? hard surface armor and clothing ? hair, eyes, morphotypes ? If you can show that you're adaptable to many styles and assets while retaining quality consistency in every of them, you're good. Of course this should remain an ideal, in reality a good portion of us have weaknesses and that's ok.
I also believe in concentrating on one thing that a company is known for in order to work directly for them, no wonder why this guy https://www.artstation.com/timmoreels is now making skins for Overwatch considering how dedicated to mastering the blizzard style he has been.
But unless you're very good at a type of character or an art style, I think diversity is best to get your foot in the door.
If I were you i would try to make more finished characters, more humans from head to toes, and improve some of the good stuff you already have in terms of creatures. I like the neat texturing on your ice dragon even though the scales look like they are following a grid pattern. The topology density you have on most of your models doesn't bother me particularly, better putting too many polys (reasonably) than not enough. I'd dump that red dot sight and space glider now. The underwater lighting for your alien amphibian looks cool but the model itself is very simple and doesn't show much about your skills. The king of thorn is your best piece IMO, could use more color and material variation, but you clearly have the skills necessary to build full characters and it's only a matter of time and hard work until your portfolio is filled with them.
Overall I think you're a bit ahead of the majority of your competition but not quite there yet enough so there's still a good risk someone else takes your place because he shows qualities you don't, or/and doesn't show weaknesses you do. This is more or less true depending on where you live and which studios you're applying to.
So I think for now I will focus on getting another human character or two done to showcase that I can do people before applying. I guess for me I was just kinda stuck in the mode of doing what I enjoyed more than what would get me hired, but at this point I really need to focus on what will get me hired more than anything. I will probably stick to realistic PBR type characters as that's what my skillset has been geared toward this whole time and I think trying to learn a whole other style just seems daunting.
Another thing, I have no problem removing the glider as it was just a fun project that I thought ended up looking cool but really has no application in a real-time workflow or anything. Does the gunsight add anything to my portfolio? I figured it'd be nice to show I can do some hard surface stuff, but if it's too simplistic to really be worth it then it's gone.
I appreciate you taking the time to write a detailed response. I guess in my mind I had been gearing my portfolio in one way thinking that just showing I could do the workflows at a certain level would be enough but now that I'm looking at it, it's definitely lacking. Thanks dude.
Toss the non-character work. The sight and the glider should go, they confuse your portfolio.
Definitely need more humans but... If you only really have an interest in creatures, definitely put your creatures first. Just have some finished humans to prove you don't make creatures to hide the fact you can't make a human that looks human
Probably worth taking off the WIPs. The T-rex is nice, but compared to your dragon and King of Thorn (which is beautiful btw), the humans really aren't up to snuff. Even with the disclaimer of "WIP", they raise questions that a portfolio should really be answering instead.
Your texture variation and detail could be better. Your attention to detail when sculpting seems good, but it doesn't quite follow through in the colors and materials. The ice dragon seems to be a step in the right direction in terms of addressing that.
Good luck dude, and keep us updated!
So yeah I'm currently in the brain storming process just what I want my next character to be but I think I have a pretty good idea roughed out where I want to take my work to. I think on the next one I will be working towards bettering my time management. Sometimes I get into the mode of just looking at the model just turning it and spinning it without getting a ton of work done or just getting sidetracked outside the project altogether. That's just something in my life that I don't want to feed much more into so for this next project I'm going to be making daily goals, keeping track of new ideas I want to throw in and when I want the delivery dates for each thing to be. I'm at the point where a job is getting more and more imperative by the day, so anything that keeps me from getting this next project done will be keeping me from putting in applications and thus jeopardizing my livelihood.
Thanks for the kind words though. Feels good to know I'm making headway towards being a character artist.