Portfolio critique & review

KAE · Jun 2020

Hey guys!
a couple of days ago I came across a similar post about getting portfolio feedback, and there were a lot of useful tips and people sharing their experiences, so I thought I'm gonna give it a try. Especially because I'm gonna start applying for a job in the next couple of days.

So I'm a student and trying to get a job in the game industry as a junior hardsurface/ weapon artist. That's why most of the stuff in my portfolio is about game ready weapons/concepts made with different workflows. I have also some arch vis stuff (which can be removed based on your feedback).

I really appreciate your comments and critique here to improve my portfolio and get better chances when applying

.

Here is the link to my Artstation profile:
https://www.artstation.com/khaledalaaeddin

Ashervisalis · Jun 2020

The gun metal material on the PPsh-41 and Ingram mac-10 is a bit odd, like it's made with polished metal. Having a tiny bit of trouble reading those materials. The N0-VA96, I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out where the thumb and non-trigger fingers are meant to go. Aside from those two critiques, your portfolio looks rad man. I wouldn't foresee you having issues getting a job. Good luck on the hunt!!

fdfxd2 · Jun 2020

It's really fun seeing the progression in your works, learning what works and doesn't. There's a clear linear progression of the quality of your work. To me what I thought was the main problem with most your props was the the procedural feeling of all your textures but it seems like you've already managed to fix that with your KEL-TEC gun.

KEL-TEC Broad Shot

I love how toned down and purposeful all the procedurals are, it's a massive improvement over your HK-416 where you could kinda feel the "dusty-fingerprints-grunge-04.png" tiling in some areas.
But I also think that the great modelling quality of most of your old works are good enough to hold up the iffy texturing quality... Except for the Mac-10 and PPsh-41. They're not bad, they're just not as good as your newer works. Since you have Artstation pro, consider putting them in a separate folder.
Overall, your portfolio is good and I'm surprised you haven't found work yet.

KAE · Jun 2020

Ashervisalis said:

The gun metal material on the PPsh-41 and Ingram mac-10 is a bit odd, like it's made with polished metal. Having a tiny bit of trouble reading those materials. The N0-VA96, I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out where the thumb and non-trigger fingers are meant to go. Aside from those two critiques, your portfolio looks rad man. I wouldn't foresee you having issues getting a job. Good luck on the hunt!!

Thanks man your feedback means a lot. I agree with you with every single word you said. I had a lot of issues with materials, texturing in general, and presentation and was trying lately to overcome these issues and focus more on material definition. I'm gonna try to rework the textures of these weapons and delete stuff that I can't edit.

Thanks again for the time you spent reviewing my portfolio and wish you all the good too.

KAE · Jun 2020

fdfxd2 said:

It's really fun seeing the progression in your works, learning what works and doesn't. There's a clear linear progression of the quality of your work. To me what I thought was the main problem with most your props was the the procedural feeling of all your textures but it seems like you've already managed to fix that with your KEL-TEC gun.

I love how toned down and purposeful all the procedurals are, it's a massive improvement over your HK-416 where you could kinda feel the "dusty-fingerprints-grunge-04.png" tiling in some areas.
But I also think that the great modelling quality of most of your old works are good enough to hold up the iffy texturing quality... Except for the Mac-10 and PPsh-41. They're not bad, they're just not as good as your newer works. Since you have Artstation pro, consider putting them in a separate folder.
Overall, your portfolio is good and I'm surprised you haven't found work yet.

Thanks man! the fact that you see any progression in my latest works is very motivating and appreciated. I'm gonna definitely try to rework some textures, especially where there is a big gap between texturing and modeling quality.

Yeah, actually there are often indie studios where I live that expect people to be good at everything starting from VFX, character to environment art. That's why hard surface and weapon art is too specialized to find a job.

jose.fuentes · Jun 2020

glad to see that you have a focus on what you want to do, keep it going. each one will only get better

KAE · Jun 2020

jose.fuentes said:

glad to see that you have a focus on what you want to do, keep it going. each one will only get better

thanks man! yeah, you're right. It's only a matter of time and some dedication

slosh · Jun 2020

Are you rendering with shadows on? The lighting always feels very ambient in your shots. I would think it would be nice to get more contrast in your lighting. Models looks pretty solid to me though!

KAE · Jun 2020

slosh said:

Are you rendering with shadows on? The lighting always feels very ambient in your shots. I would think it would be nice to get more contrast in your lighting. Models looks pretty solid to me though!

Yeah, it's not about shadows its about the light I use. Although I use 3-point lighting am still having hard time getting correct lights. I started recently taking these issues more seriously because I'm either having too flat images or too contrasty in some cases. Thanks for your feedback that was on point.

Zi0 · Jun 2020

The KEL TEC you made is really nice design wise, the texture is quite good but if improved it would elevate this piece a lot. Imo the biggest problem is the lack of material separation. Adding a sight even if its a small red dot would help as well. The HK416 is way to grungy. +1 to what like fdfxd2 said, the "dusty-fingerprints-grunge-04.png" is overused. NOVA96 has a interesting shape but the design does look very unergonomic, the procedural texture hides a lot of the details and interesting shapes on the weapon. AS-M has a cool design but again the texture could use more work and the presentation could be improved as well. The arcvis stuff looks nice and I dont see a reason to remove it. You dont have to delete the MAC10, revolver and Ppsh41 from your artstation, they show your progression but you can exclude them when applying. Since you have artstation pro you can make a additional Portfolio tab without these 3 pieces.

Your KEL TEC shows that you have improved a lot when it comes to designing firearms

In general you just need to keep working on your textures. Again the KEL TEC is very close to becoming a amazing portfolio piece, when improved it will have the potential to land you a job as a weapon/hard-surface artist IMO.

KAE · Jun 2020

Zi0 said:

The KEL TEC you made is really nice design wise, the texture is quite good but if improved it would elevate this piece a lot. Imo the biggest problem is the lack of material separation. Adding a sight even if its a small red dot would help as well. The HK416 is way to grungy. +1 to what like fdfxd2 said, the "dusty-fingerprints-grunge-04.png" is overused. NOVA96 has a interesting shape but the design does look very unergonomic, the procedural texture hides a lot of the details and interesting shapes on the weapon. AS-M has a cool design but again the texture could use more work and the presentation could be improved as well. The arcvis stuff looks nice and I dont see a reason to remove it. You dont have to delete the MAC10, revolver and Ppsh41 from your artstation, they show your progression but you can exclude them when applying. Since you have artstation pro you can make a additional Portfolio tab without these 3 pieces.

Your KEL TEC shows that you have improved a lot when it comes to designing firearms In general you just need to keep working on your textures. Again the KEL TEC is very close to becoming a amazing portfolio piece, when improved it will have the potential to land you a job as a weapon/hard-surface artist IMO.

Thanks for your feedback man! you're right with the KEL TEC I used only two materials and there is nothing that can catch the eyes in terms of color. Except for the signs, I added, and they were too small or not very noticeable. I don't think I can model additional stuff for this weapon. But I will revisit the textures and concider adding a sticker with light color somewhere. I hope this will break the monotonous look of these materials.
For the AS-M I'm re-rendering all of the shots with completely simple materials, that just show off the forms. And as you and fdfxd2 mentioned, I moved older works to a different container and am also re-rendering them or making some changes to their textures.
I will have to thank you again for your comment. That's very motivating!.

Portfolio critique & review

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