Portfolio review
Hello, I know I don't have a lot in my portfolio but I would really love some feedback.
I've been learning 3D on my own for a little more than a year and would like to get into the gaming or film industry. My preferred position would be a prop/texture artist but I'm interested in everything 3D and would have no problem filling a different role. I'm wondering if there are any important skills my portfolio isn't showing or if I need to improve something about the pieces themselves / their presentation.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks for your time!
https://www.artstation.com/caulderwasmuth8
Replies
All the weathering, wear and tear in your textures is feeling pretty generic and not very thought out as to how this stuff is happening. You're layering noise into these materials and not capturing how they would naturally wear over time. There is such an attention to detail in the modelling especially in the first sword with the animations, that the material definition is really holding these assets back.
Your normal map bakes definitely need a little bit more bevelling/exagertation of shape as well because when that normal MIPs down you're really not going to see anything from it.
The Tarrasque is cool but doesn't really fit with the rest of your portfolio. Maybe have it in a different category, and when applying places just send the props section.
Really focus in on material definition and making sure they read well. You're modelling skills are showing through well enough
Edit: This just hit me: If you want to just be a texturing artist you can download all the free models on art resources and just texture them as best as you can that way you focus only on the texturing of assets and put 100% of your time into that rather than modeling also. Idk how good of a plan this is now in these times but it was decent 10/20 years ago. You said you wanted to be a "prop/texture artist", so to me this would be the correct course to take in my eyes.
Like Lucas has said (I'd listen to them), look at images of old swords used in battle or over time use, then look at your swords blade, do they match up? Look at worn wood or aged wood and carved wood use-age over time, does it match up, same for metal(blade on 1st sword looks very odd to me, without looking into the subject).
When you get the hang of it, you'll be able to look at your pieces like the wooden blade handle and say to yourself if i held it here, grunge and grime will add up here, the wear will be there, ect.ect. you are not to far off just review real stuff if that is your goal to replicate "reality", it is not the worst, but its also not the best, it does read though as you just slapped on a few mats and called it done (again 1st sword, blade, stands out a lot).
I could be wrong and am fine with that part i am just an outsider looking in, how long did you spend on the texturing of these pieces might be worth mentioning in the thread. (from challenges on art sites people take a good week or 2 to texture things from what I've seen) but on videos i see people taking as little as over 2 hours for medium/small items on videos and it seems good enough.
Ranting, we used to specialize into just texturing, just modeling, ect.ect. however i suppose overtime with the changes of the world/tools we've all gravitated towards being all around general modellers then sprinkling our true interests in, example: Just texturing artist. Maybe people in industry can say if we are still specialists in one field and not sprinkled across others to save the studios the bucks? I wouldn't know.
Thanks for the reply! This is the critique I needed. My focus has definitely been on my modeling ability and my textures suffered for it. It wasn't until the folding sword that I found a good texturing workflow and now looking back at the other sword it feels very generic. I think for the bevels I was spending too much time zoomed in on the model and didn't realize how sharp I made everything.
Thanks again for replying to my post, that was very helpful.
Thank you for the input! I guess I should have said hard surface modeler/texture artist. I really enjoy texturing but I'm more interested in modeling. I do need texturing practice so downloading free assets to texture is a good idea. From watching people talk about how to get into the industry, it seems like you need to be more general nowadays. I could also be wrong but I don't mind being responsible for more steps.
Like you said I don't think I was looking enough at reference. I saw that I needed to add more detail but wasn't implementing it properly. For the Terminal and the first sword I would say I did spend a lot of time on the textures (maybe a week total for each), but it was time spent learning the software and workflow more than really looking critically at the piece.
Thanks again for your feedback! You and Lucas showed me where I need to improve.