another portfolio site
hey guys, been lurking here awhile, first time posting.
in the recent vein of portfolio site critiques, i thought i'd post mine.
http://www.rx-art.net
tell me what you think, hold nothing back. i haven't finished some areas like "about" and links. however, the work and style is up.. and thats what i'd like critiques on.
thanks guys :]
in the recent vein of portfolio site critiques, i thought i'd post mine.
http://www.rx-art.net
tell me what you think, hold nothing back. i haven't finished some areas like "about" and links. however, the work and style is up.. and thats what i'd like critiques on.
thanks guys :]
Replies
It also wouldn't hurt to convert your site to HTML, as opposed to using SimpleViewer. It takes a long time to load, and the people in charge of scheduling interviews and such will not want to sit around waiting for a page to load to get to the content. They'll likely just close it before it actually loads.
Listen to the comments said here on Polycount, and you should be able to hit this one out of the ballpark.
What bothered me most was that I didn't know immediately where to go to see your art--you're wasting someone else's time with that blank index page. (this is Rucks' site? and I can browse it?! YOU DON'T SAY.) Instead, put a gallery where you have your welcome page.
And yeah, your images are way too small--I can't see those normals or ao maps. Instead, ditch the flashy gallery (which automatically resizes the images, which is bad) for regular (and well-organized) sets of images that are big enough for any resolution to see... but small enough that they'll load reasonably fast.
Welcome to PC, hope you stick around
I'm guessing I'm not the only one.
Using a Flash-only site just reduces your potential audience.
I'd at least consider implementing an HTML alternative.
After all I assume your main point is to show your art and I actually got a bit angry as I wanted to have a better look for few of those
I also agree that site needs an alternative html option.
- Convert to HTML or some format that loads quickly. If you still want to use a gallery viewer check out the automated PhotoShop Galleries. PhotoShop > File > Automate > Web Galleries.
- If you are set on using that header, make the hot area for each button fill the button from top to bottom. It's annoying to see a big button taking up so much space and have such a small hot area. The advantage of having such a big header is lost since people are left to hunt for this mysterious button area.
- Size up the images.
- If you're going to use flash, and go for the wow look at my site not my art (highly don't recommend making your site the focal point, it should be your art) then kick it up a hundred notches so it will be remembered. It might be hard to do, but I would make each button shorter and as you mouse over, it would drop down like a paint stroke. Each stroke could help illustrate the section you are mousing over.
The "analog" could swipe like a paint stroke, maybe even bleed a little as if soaking into the screen. Brush lines fading as it bleeds. Could be neat.
The digital could have large pixels that randomly flash as they fill in.
Info could be large letters that spill out like a typewriter but overlap so much that it becomes solid very quickly. At the very least don't just copy the analog graphic and turn it black thats just cheesey.
- How would someone save one of your images? Getting your images out of flash is harder than it should be. If you used a normal HTML veiwer it means people can save them, pass them around the office or use them to compare. Which brings up my next point.
- If someone was to save an image from your site how would they be able to contact you if all they had was just that image? LIGHTLY watermark your images with some info that loops back to you.
- Drop the attitude "links go here when I feel like it". You sound like a prick, maybe you are, I dunno... It sounds like you designed a feature and had time to fully realize it but decided not to out of arrogance. Thats a nice vibe to give off to potential employers. A simple "under construction" or "links coming" would be much more friendly. On the flip side if you really are a cockface then its good they know that up front.
- The 2D artwork is pretty sketchy and I don't see anything besides a few sketches?
- The 3D looks pretty good but the small images and dark renders make it hard to tell. Also not having construction shots of the images along with texture sheets makes me think you're trying to hide some sloppy work? It may look good, but so does the other candidates and if I can tell that he knows how to optimize his stuff and use texture sheets to their full potential, guess who gets round filed?
like i said above, the links and about are still under construction, and i didn't mean to sound like a prick. that was farthest from my mind, actually, lol. its just when i was getting the style down, i made a bunch of placeholder pages and those never got replaced. weeks turned into months, etc and those pages never got changed.
either way, PC was just what the doctor ordered. i'll be getting the changes up when time permits so people can actually see my artwork! thanks again, you guys rock.
http://sacland.submatrix.org/crap/misc/03.jpg <--- my rendition of christian's little room
the site itself has had all the critiques it needs... I feel like I showed up late for the party! hehe.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h201/VeryKeen/Broach_L_Render.jpg
I'm also doing the gaspump/light project right now that I saw in your portfolio.
You might consider swapping those two out as soon as possible and replace with some more original stuff.
Getting an intership / job during school really helped though. Are you in Prototyping yet?
to see the pics in higer rez just right click on the image and press open in new window.
If you could simply left-click on the thumbnail to get a full-screen view, but as it stands now, you need to click through two thumbnails to get to the real image. That doesn't make much sense.
I'm also doing the gaspump/light project right now that I saw in your portfolio.
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Who is teaching that class?! Two props eh?
As for the portfolio site, everyone has said it. Larger images, better breakdowns of your work, lose the sketches, make your strongest work the first thing they see, don't assume anyone knows how to use SimpleViewer or anything for that matter. And if you're going to post your work online, make sure they can contact you (resume, contact page, etc) even if they grab a .jpg of your work to show to the art director or art lead. Lastly, its not quantity that wins, its quality. A single prop or environment can get you in, so don't feel like you have to post everything, atleast not yet.
Good luck!
Damn they better be bad ass props then. Wow.
My comments pretty much echo what everyone else has mentioned. Ditch the flash. Bigger images. Cleaner layout.
Keep posting.
pretty challenging, pretty awesome. great class since christian took over.