@DavidCruz I think whatever engine you are referring to might be outdated
Also optimization is key. Plus you want to have next gen work in your folio, not last gen. Studios are working with the next hardware / consoles generation already.
As a best practice better to have good optimisation, though I can't say for certain that all studios use it the same way a portfolio is expected to show it.
Like with games that are multiplatform, optimisation is automated, they use a program to scale models down so its unlikely you'd be doing any real optimisation to begin with. Even with the release of new hardware, its highly doubtful that a company that makes these sort of games would invest resources to significantly improve them graphically unless their revenue absolutely depended on it. The game itself poses a multitude of limitations to justfying this.
We see a bunch of wireframes daily at work from several AAA titles, from the perspective of the advice given here on polycount the optimization is horrendous , though I'm not sure if fixing them to portfolio standards would actually help with the optimisation of the game as a whole which is more a priority for that game.
Or if that's even necessary given the time you'd put into it when you'd rather be doing something else.
Again its not like they're lying, its just that producers, HR and the art teams are so disconnected from what they actually want and the project needs can change at a moments notice that ultimately they might just go with what is safer or available at that time.
The large bulk of the work for a colleague of mine is optimizing outsourced models. though in his words not a single one of them would pass muster on artstation as a portfolio piece if he showed the wireframes. And this is because he just has to get them done well enough to slap on some textures from a library and pass it on.
Its why his portfolio like that of so many others has shots from the game with a disclaimer saying "worked on this as part of a team" He certainly feels he could do more, but there is only so much work to go around and its mostly an internal matter at the end of it.
Yes rethinking it after a bit, realized that, came from nds ultra low requirements, still haven't got my head wrapped around more is okay. =p thanks i agree.
Also Provided this is an asset that you are making to get a job, I think the first thing that matters is what the job requires.
Like there was an inconclusive forum thread about what constitutes next gen and we couldn't quite decide what that was. https://polycount.com/discussion/211447/what-defines-next-gen-game-asset I'm thinking its along the lines of how companies want to hire "Ultra talented Samurai ninja's". It makes little sense, but usually people who write that up are just following a script so they can get paid and go home.
The actual meaning of next gen would be a product releasing on next gen hardware even if it doesn't necessarily make the fullest use of that hardware and what constitutes fullest use is highly speculative.
Like Ubisoft downgrades like crazy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc And whatever their reason for it, the game technically is still current gen I think. Way too much can go wrong towards release to require a near total overhaul of a level.
Also it comes down to what platform we're talking about, is it Stadia, switch, xbox series X, PS5, Samsung Galaxy S!!?
The confusion is mainly because what usually comes to mind when you say next gen to the general public is high quality realism for most people since that is what is reported on exclusively, usually because the games are part of big franchises that have the most players, so attract the most readership and interest. Its simple marketing.
Also companies do work on a number of projects, not all of which require Last of Us 2 style graphics. Some are more prudent than others to actually list what they are working on so you'd have a better idea of what is expected.
For instance EA works on FIFA and Battlefront, their latest iterations which are current gen have totally different requirements so versatility is what is expected, but I can't fully say that they understand how to correctly assess for it.
Usually the term, if it appears in an advertisement is accompanied by more details about what's expected, so better to read the full writeup before applying
NikhilR said: Also Provided this is an asset that you are making to get a job, I think the first thing that matters is what the job requires.
"me:Yea, i am really confused tbh, they say they want one thing but then, i hear people end up just doing sculpting or modeling or uving, so its like ? little confusing, yes you want someone to know more in case one of the chips get fired or fall off the earth you can pick up the slack but start with what you need. We need sculptor, we prefer you have these skills as well. so you get what you are looking for, idk. "
I think its gotten out of hand, to the point people are getting frustrated and just end up doing indie projects because its like i am a team all by myself with all these requirements.
Also keep in mind that, especially on bigger platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit etc, a huge amount of the activity is by bots. Artstation not so much I guess, but as far I know, they are not as well protected against botting than instagram. So likes are alot less "worth" than many people think.
Social media is a necessity and grants us amazing possibilites to reach out to a very specific audience. It also can boost confidence, appreciation is always a nice thing. But it should never be the driving force behind making art, or anything in life.
Can we stop talking about 'gens' ? A decent proportion of artists in the industry still can't even bake a normalmap competently. Implying that the fact people are making games for PS5 means some radical shift in technology or workflow for most artwork is naive and misleading.
Also : how is this an actual discussion? If you genuinely think that a cow-clicker number on a button next to your artwork in any way makes it more legitimate or qualitatively better, there is something wrong with you.
Sorry to bump a semi-old thread but found the insight here very interesting. It still blows my mind when someone has something like 30,000 followers on Artstation(usually 2D art but not exclusively so).
Also keep in mind that, especially on bigger platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit etc, a huge amount of the activity is by bots. Artstation not so much I guess, but as far I know, they are not as well protected against botting than instagram. So likes are alot less "worth" than many people think.
Social media is a necessity and grants us amazing possibilites to reach out to a very specific audience. It also can boost confidence, appreciation is always a nice thing. But it should never be the driving force behind making art, or anything in life.
Hard disagree, social media is not a necessity in even finding a job let alone in life. Having a private page that is sent to employers or a LinkedIn to communicate is different from actively engaging in social media.
If you want to build a business or your goal is selling/freelance it is a different story but for the average personal artist looking for a place to post their work/ get a job the most helpful thing is having alerts setup to email you job openings from Artstation or LinkedIn. Artstation keeps trying to make it more of a community but it just isn't happening IMO.
Sorry to bump a semi-old thread but found the insight here very interesting. It still blows my mind when someone has something like 30,000 followers on Artstation(usually 2D art but not exclusively so).
My experience small but it seems to me 10% is kind of like a magic number. 10% of people who purchase a game will leave a review. 10% of total impressions will buy the game. 10% will donate money on patreon. It just seems to be like that in many places.
So for somebody with seven artstation followers seeing an artist with 30k might seem really impressive, but when it comes down to bottom line what does that number really translate to? Maybe nothing impressive.
But eyes and followers definitely can't hurt in opening doors of opportunity. It probably is unhealthy and counterproductive to get feeling jelly or defeated in comparing numbers like that though
Sorry to bump a semi-old thread but found the insight here very interesting. It still blows my mind when someone has something like 30,000 followers on Artstation(usually 2D art but not exclusively so).
My experience small but it seems to me 10% is kind of like a magic number. 10% of people who purchase a game will leave a review. 10% of total impressions will buy the game. 10% will donate money on patreon. It just seems to be like that in many places.
So for somebody with seven artstation followers seeing an artist with 30k might seem really impressive, but when it comes down to bottom line what does that number really translate to? Maybe nothing impressive.
But eyes and followers definitely can't hurt in opening doors of opportunity. It probably is unhealthy and counterproductive to get feeling jelly or defeated in comparing numbers like that though
Totally agree, especially with the last part LOL. Everytime I upload a piece of work I expect it to do better than the one prior. Often times it doing just the same or worse! Now I just view it as improving/expanding my port folio for potential employers and studios.
A decent proportion of artists in the industry still can't even bake a normalmap competently.
Is this true? In what way do they do it incorrectly?
Unfortunately, yes. A lot of them doesn't know about what a synced tangent space is. Not to mention the importance of triangulation during baking vs viewing. Third thing is smoothing groups, and even there are a bunch of people who believes that their zbrush baked normalmap should work.Thats why we still have a lot of "wrong normal maps" threads here, even these days.
A decent proportion of artists in the industry still can't even bake a normalmap competently.
Is this true? In what way do they do it incorrectly?
Unfortunately, yes. A lot of them doesn't know about what a synced tangent space is. Not to mention the importance of triangulation during baking vs viewing. Third thing is smoothing groups, and even there are a bunch of people who believes that their zbrush baked normalmap should work.Thats why we still have a lot of "wrong normal maps" threads here, even these days.
Oh wow, that is very interesting. I always triangulate before I export to bake, I don't go back to the non-triangulated version after that. Is that fine?
For the smoothing groups I always apply them to the UV shells with Textools and break the UVs at sharp angles(close to 70 degrees or so).
Yeah it does suck a little when you work on something for a month and it gets like 20 likes while chad's 15th m4a1 or big tits lady #5231 gets 1k likes every 5 mins. But they do tend to be very... defined ladies though, I'll often find myself leaving a like as well for "reference".
But such is life, if you're doing this to get a job, it's nice to remember that the guy going through your job application isn't going to reject you because your cool 3d model of a hoverbike has -5 likes or something.
he's going to reject you because you live in some random country and your maybe slightly above average portfolio isn't worth the massive headache of visa sponsorship and relocation.
Yeah it does suck a little when you work on something for a month and it gets like 20 likes while chad's 15th m4a1 or big tits lady #5231 gets 1k likes every 5 mins. But they do tend to be very... defined ladies though, I'll often find myself leaving a like as well for "reference".
But such is life, if you're doing this to get a job, it's nice to remember that the guy going through your job application isn't going to reject you because your cool 3d model of a hoverbike has -5 likes or something.
he's going to reject you because you live in some random country and your maybe slightly above average portfolio isn't worth the massive headache of visa sponsorship and relocation.
Completely agree with you. The actual 'likes' do not matter as such, but I feel that if you have a massive following, you get alot of likes by default which in turn would make the people at the studios take notice and they actually approach you. This has happened before.
I also feel that stylized work or characters tend to get a better like-to-view ratio in comparison to realistic guns or props(there are exceptions though).
Replies
Like with games that are multiplatform, optimisation is automated, they use a program to scale models down so its unlikely you'd be doing any real optimisation to begin with. Even with the release of new hardware, its highly doubtful that a company that makes these sort of games would invest resources to significantly improve them graphically unless their revenue absolutely depended on it.
The game itself poses a multitude of limitations to justfying this.
We see a bunch of wireframes daily at work from several AAA titles, from the perspective of the advice given here on polycount the optimization is horrendous , though I'm not sure if fixing them to portfolio standards would actually help with the optimisation of the game as a whole which is more a priority for that game.
Or if that's even necessary given the time you'd put into it when you'd rather be doing something else.
Again its not like they're lying, its just that producers, HR and the art teams are so disconnected from what they actually want and the project needs can change at a moments notice that ultimately they might just go with what is safer or available at that time.
The large bulk of the work for a colleague of mine is optimizing outsourced models. though in his words not a single one of them would pass muster on artstation as a portfolio piece if he showed the wireframes. And this is because he just has to get them done well enough to slap on some textures from a library and pass it on.
Its why his portfolio like that of so many others has shots from the game with a disclaimer saying
"worked on this as part of a team"
He certainly feels he could do more, but there is only so much work to go around and its mostly an internal matter at the end of it.
Also Provided this is an asset that you are making to get a job, I think the first thing that matters is what the job requires.
Like there was an inconclusive forum thread about what constitutes next gen and we couldn't quite decide what that was.
https://polycount.com/discussion/211447/what-defines-next-gen-game-asset
I'm thinking its along the lines of how companies want to hire "Ultra talented Samurai ninja's". It makes little sense, but usually people who write that up are just following a script so they can get paid and go home.
The actual meaning of next gen would be a product releasing on next gen hardware even if it doesn't necessarily make the fullest use of that hardware and what constitutes fullest use is highly speculative.
Like Ubisoft downgrades like crazy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc
And whatever their reason for it, the game technically is still current gen I think.
Way too much can go wrong towards release to require a near total overhaul of a level.
Also it comes down to what platform we're talking about, is it Stadia, switch, xbox series X, PS5, Samsung Galaxy S!!?
The confusion is mainly because what usually comes to mind when you say next gen to the general public is high quality realism for most people since that is what is reported on exclusively, usually because the games are part of big franchises that have the most players, so attract the most readership and interest. Its simple marketing.
Like this also likely qualifies as next gen, though the response to it has been quite varied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mfjdNf0SDY
Also companies do work on a number of projects, not all of which require Last of Us 2 style graphics. Some are more prudent than others to actually list what they are working on so you'd have a better idea of what is expected.
For instance EA works on FIFA and Battlefront, their latest iterations which are current gen have totally different requirements so versatility is what is expected, but I can't fully say that they understand how to correctly assess for it.
Usually the term, if it appears in an advertisement is accompanied by more details about what's expected, so better to read the full writeup before applying
Artstation not so much I guess, but as far I know, they are not as well protected against botting than instagram.
So likes are alot less "worth" than many people think.
Social media is a necessity and grants us amazing possibilites to reach out to a very specific audience. It also can boost confidence, appreciation is always a nice thing. But it should never be the driving force behind making art, or anything in life.
Also : how is this an actual discussion? If you genuinely think that a cow-clicker number on a button next to your artwork in any way makes it more legitimate or qualitatively better, there is something wrong with you.
For the smoothing groups I always apply them to the UV shells with Textools and break the UVs at sharp angles(close to 70 degrees or so).
I also feel that stylized work or characters tend to get a better like-to-view ratio in comparison to realistic guns or props(there are exceptions though).