Website Pimp
Hello
Long time no posts. Years really and busy years at that, but ive free time on my hands once again since im officially unemployed.
Im not hoping to get myself into Graphics as a career instead of a hobby so ive been working on my portfolio, and with the help of my friend Pete, we have a site up and running. Not 100% finished, but hes done a great job and given me the time to work on my cg work while he hammered on the site.
Anyways heres what we got.
http://www.zenpoly.com/
Needs more content and im working on that and we are workin on the loading speeds, crits are more than welcome and please tell me how it loads for you and if your on dial up, cable, or DSL.
Adam
Long time no posts. Years really and busy years at that, but ive free time on my hands once again since im officially unemployed.
Im not hoping to get myself into Graphics as a career instead of a hobby so ive been working on my portfolio, and with the help of my friend Pete, we have a site up and running. Not 100% finished, but hes done a great job and given me the time to work on my cg work while he hammered on the site.
Anyways heres what we got.
http://www.zenpoly.com/
Needs more content and im working on that and we are workin on the loading speeds, crits are more than welcome and please tell me how it loads for you and if your on dial up, cable, or DSL.
Adam
Replies
Tiny tiny washed out thumbnails? Get the art to smack me in the face! It's a portfolio site, innit?
Make those thumbnails bigger and more obvious (users shouldn't have to hunt for them), and do what MAUL0r suggested with the Darth Maul renders, having him on a black background is killing his silhouette.
The models and artwork looks nice though, just needs to be more accessible and better presented.
I'd say keep the site as it is, as far as possible, while just making the thumbnails much more visible and clickable.
The scrolls no longer roll down and so they show better and the how too text on each page was removed to take your focus off of the text.
http://www.zenpoly.com/index.html
Im pretty happy with it now. I just need more content!
My monitor its set to 1280x1024 and everything its to small and not centered. U could easily correct that.
About the layout i think its very funny but u could arrange better the images of your models.
So specific suggestions and crits... The way the thumbnails are laid out is too compact, having only three thumbnails at that size is almost an oxymoron. If you only display three, why not show much larger thumbnails? I would suggest making those much larger or having plenty more thumbnails to choose from. With only 3 thumbnails, the "Next and Previous" arrows are enough to make me leave the site right away (a little annoyed). Also, the way that the thumbnails are grayed out, and still have a bit of sepia tone even when they are highlighted doesn't help the viewer out at all. When you click on the next/prev buttons some of the thumbnails are the same, I get different results each time, that's annoying, and counter-productive. I agree with the Darth Maul comment. He needs either a mute or complimentary background. The site is also very colorful, which hurts the presentation of your work. A lot of your work looks very dull with the site behind it, you don't want that. There are viewer scripts that can overlay the rest of your site and help mute it out when a viewer is looking at an image. Though I would suggest muting the site elements anyway, as it is also hurting the viewing of thumbnails.
Well, I know that was kinda brutal, but I really think you can do a lot to present your work well. I hope it's helpful
We will ad "best viewed" to the home page.
The way the site is set up is to avoid scrolling. Scrolling only replaces clicking, and this way everything should be onscreen to everyone who runs a larger res than 800.
The reason you see images over and over is that the content is not finished yet. Right now the site is set up to have 27 images per set so what you are seeing is just images that are added for now just as placeholders. Eventually it will roll around seemlesslly.
Need poly count numbers on the low poly, wires, flats, etc.
Keep it simple stupid. Name > position sought > contact information > resume > portfolio content, all on one page.
While its a memorable site, its not for your art. To me, this site says Hire Pete to make a site instead of Hire me for my art. I suggest completely redoing this site as a simple gallery.
- Increase the number of thumbnails and the size. Move the left Chinese dog statue farther left, reduce the space between thumbs and make one standard brick spacer so it downloads quickly. If its small enough people won't notice. They should be looking at the thumbs not the space between em.
- Make the pop up image click to close.
- Include info such as polycount, texture size/format in the scroll to the right of the bigger thumbnail.
- Give proper credit where credit is due, I'm not sure if you actually made the Beatrice model or just made a texture for it? I remember it being a community thing everyone was making textures for. Make sure you don't take credit if you didn't make it. If you did, then all is well.
- Standardize your renders, make a simple scene and lighting set up that works well with almost any kind of character. It will help give uniformity to your site.
Put yourself in your next employers shoes. Which would you rather do;
Click, art, click, art, click, art, you're hired. (see three pieces of art in 15sec)
Or
Click, click, click, squint, click, squint, click, art. (see one piece of art 3 different sizes in 15 sec)
I think you can keep the site memorable and still have it be functional. Lets face it if they have a lot of portfolios to sift thru they won't take the time clicking to hell and back.
Yeah shes mine.
Anyways, thanks for the crits and Chris Holden, thanks for puting it in words that made sense to me, even if they did make me sick to my stomach.
Ive got some ideas to keep the site fun and more Work Orentated. But im off for the night so Petey try and call me later, but im prob out till the morning.
Wasn't till I saw Beatrice that I finally remembered ya. haha. I sure had fun helpin you out with the unwrap with you.
Holy carp, man! Great to see you back on here, man. I kept thinkin that the name Cheshire was familiar to me (not just the Alice reference).
Wasn't till I saw Beatrice that I finally remembered ya. haha. I sure had fun helpin you out with the unwrap with you.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh man you changed your name though, what was it before? (feels age setting in)
*_*
Great to hear from you.
I was... KMan.
*_*
[/ QUOTE ]
O_____________O!!!
http://www.zenpoly.com/
Shes pretty much done, but im still for crits. All im doing now is working on content.
And yes, i rmember everyone from the old old days.
Double Bump
Any feedback on the changes?
Spacemonkey! awsome model btw on your sig i saw it at CG and was stunned. Great stuff good to see ya again.
Loaded pretty fast on my connection but i would work more on how you present your models.
not sure if this has been mentioned but you had an error on your contact / info page. you said you were looking for a job in graphics desing but it should read graphics design. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal but it's attention to detail which can make or break some games, models, jobs, etc.
Loaded pretty fast on my connection but i would work more on how you present your models.
[/ QUOTE ]
Cool ty fixed!
One thing, your main page (index) is meaningless. I'd replace it with your contact/info page as the new index or just straight to your 3d work.