My new site layout.
Hello All,
I have recently started to take a new direction with my portfolio site design because I was getting bad feedback. I wanted to get some more opinions and JesseMoody has been stressing the fact that this is my best resource. Here are some of my ideas, nothing is set in stone. Jesse mentioned that I might want to take out the contact section of the site and shrink the header to allow more room for the artwork.
I would also like the links and images to open in a new window but then again I don't because there are those that do not enjoy pop ups. I would use Lightbox but most people have trouble with it loading quickly so I am laying that to rest. All of the thumbnails will be loaded on the front page with my contact information at the top and listing the sections below with thumbnails to follow. These thumbnails will only contain my best projects. I've heard not to put any WIP's on the site from some of my instructors. If you guys don't think so I am all ears.
I will be updating this as much as I can through out the week so please check back. I should have a working alpha within the next few days.
Each person will be able to download my portfolio for better viewing as well as my resume and demo reel (once it is complete).
The size of the site is 800 x 600 for the actual working area of the site: 720 x 480 web standard.
Everything will be saved for web as a 24bit .png for optimized browsing. Everything is compiled in Dreamweaver using CSS and HTML.
Any tips and crits greatly appreciated.
My old website address is:
www.3d-j.net
I would also be forwarding the url to my new one once I purchase it www.joshmarlar.com.
I have recently started to take a new direction with my portfolio site design because I was getting bad feedback. I wanted to get some more opinions and JesseMoody has been stressing the fact that this is my best resource. Here are some of my ideas, nothing is set in stone. Jesse mentioned that I might want to take out the contact section of the site and shrink the header to allow more room for the artwork.
I would also like the links and images to open in a new window but then again I don't because there are those that do not enjoy pop ups. I would use Lightbox but most people have trouble with it loading quickly so I am laying that to rest. All of the thumbnails will be loaded on the front page with my contact information at the top and listing the sections below with thumbnails to follow. These thumbnails will only contain my best projects. I've heard not to put any WIP's on the site from some of my instructors. If you guys don't think so I am all ears.
I will be updating this as much as I can through out the week so please check back. I should have a working alpha within the next few days.
Each person will be able to download my portfolio for better viewing as well as my resume and demo reel (once it is complete).
The size of the site is 800 x 600 for the actual working area of the site: 720 x 480 web standard.
Everything will be saved for web as a 24bit .png for optimized browsing. Everything is compiled in Dreamweaver using CSS and HTML.
Any tips and crits greatly appreciated.
My old website address is:
www.3d-j.net
I would also be forwarding the url to my new one once I purchase it www.joshmarlar.com.
Replies
That menu bar makes the text/links too difficult to see--I would recommend making buttons for the links there, which you can do by simply copying the bar as it is but color it blue (blue is the most pleasing color to the human eye).
One of the best ways to demo your work is to give each piece its own page. This way, you have enough room to show off the renders, wires and flats but it will still load quickly enough. Protip: PNG isn't always a good choice for images. JPGs actually work better in most cases, especially renders but not wires--it's the way it compresses the data. Just experiment yourself.
The people looking at your site (a graphics lead or someone else from a game studio) will have a screen resolution of at least 1024x768--use it.
WIPs are good to have--they show you're always chugging away at new works, and those who pay attention will notice how fast you are. Just don't show WIPs that are too early--they still have to show off some skill.
You can click on my folio link below here for an example of what I'm talking about, so you can get a feel for it and see if it's for you. Good luck.
I have seen it from way too many people and I am not the only person. Everyone has done that test and most of the time they weren't even given the test from Concrete.
You want to set yourself apart from the crowd. Don't forget that. If you show something that 100 other people are showing then you are automatically putting yourself up against them. Not a bad idea if you are a total bad ass but well...you know what I mean.
Like I said to you on chat. Contact info on all your pages.
Brand yourself man. You are selling yourself and your art to a studio or the person looking at your site. Make your name stick to their tongues. Look at my site. While it's not the most innovative and crazy design it works well for me.
My address and contact info is all at the top on every page no matter what people are looking at.(*except for a wip page)
Add your name and email addy to every render you have. If someone downloads your stuff it's hard to tell who it belongs to if your name isn't on it.
Don't put a huge watermark type thing but a simple border is good.
If you do decide to keep the contact me page. Keep things like im info that you use for your work on there.
I am glad to finally see you put it up on here to be "reviewed" I can't stress that enough to everyone that attends AI and how much it will improve them as an artist and still no one listens...
Waiting to see what you come up with.
You still need to change the color of the links so that they stand out more. Flat shade their backgrounds or something, anything that will distinguish them from the rest of the header. But like I said, nothing distracting, so another slight shade of blue would do it.
You're doing well, nice job already.
Spark
heres a quick paint over of more along the lines of what i meant.
Thanks,
Josh
It was on my grille.
I know yours has the little dot added but they really are too close for my tastes.
it looks like them buttons is rollover buttons, and some glass slider opens up on mouse-over? just wondering.
is this all photoshop and html coding, or are u using some other software? watever it is, its really sweet looking.
oh, and i was wondering, u could have ur contact info [ie. email and ph # on the blue bar at the bottom of the page. or maybe the chances of some1 scrolling all the way down are too low to make that viable.
its nice to see so many portfolios pimped. it'll help n00bs when its time to make our own
I also just took the logo out of the header. I am still playing with the way I want the header to look with the text on it. I like it but then again I don't. Im going to get back to trying different things.
It can be done with text as well.
I am assuming that the title area and header all the way to where the blue meets the dark gray will not move and will be constant on the screen.
Thats good.
Still though I would try to get your contact info up top some how or create a footer that is always on display as well that has it.
I don't know. It's more of a personal preference for me I guess.
Spark
P.S: And you might want to rethink the BBQ logo:)
Is your content easy to find? Is it neatly presented? That's the meat and cheese of all you really need to express in your website. The rest of it is just fluff.
- See through wireframes = bad
- Turn the max filter off on your renders (see my previous posts if you dont know how to do this)
- The actual render space on your sheets are too small and there is way too much white. You obviously look like you have a good grasp on the modeling, but you use so much of your sheet's space on the concept that it's hard to see what you did with the modeling.
- White backgrounds on your renders / sheets is a bad idea.
- Unless your normal maps are badass, or you used a high-res projection, what's the point in putting an unrecognizable blue-ish purple square on your sheets?
- Demo Reel = dead link...remove it.
and yeah, u just need to do simple rollovers. well 'simple' [i dunno html for the life of me]. but ye, even without those, it'll be cool. i really like it
There are still design aspects that need to be attended to and then ill post my work so you guys can crit it. This thread is for the site, not for the layout design of my work at the moment. I totally see where you are coming from with the portfolio page layouts but there will be another thread for that type of stuff. As for the dead link, I will remove it once I have the new site coded. I am trying to effectivly shrink the amount of browsing. I will probably will not show any of the normal maps in my portfolio created in photoshop. I have heard the high to low is of more importance and I believe that. All of my props in my portfolio will be from high to low from now on. Each project will open within its own page showing much larger renders and textures than the ones on the old site.
Jesse-
If I really want to get into doing fancy mouse overs and things i'll save it for the flash based site. For now my main concentration is making it fully functional and ill make it fancy later. Appreciate the tip though. I knew that I could still do it with dreamweaver or any of the web languages and that touch can still be added later. Again, Thanks keep 'em coming.
I am going to update the layout once more and then start coding tonight once I get home from work.
your header is still a little tough to read and honestly man the bbq logo is killing it for me after knowing where it is from or how similiar they both are.
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I find the glossy overlay on everything rather distracting at that strength.
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One thing though, that little symbol logo kinda looks like a sac, you might wanna change it a bit, maybe I'm just too interpretive.
The gloss is tacky and detracts attention from the content. The menu font on the gradient/gloss headache of a bar is difficult to read because of previously mentioned ridiculous gradient/gloss fill. The white font on light blue is difficult to read on the bar. There are simply too many bars. You have 5 sections the person is looking at instead of just 2. I would frankly omit including such a large chunk of your art content in the header bar. You could probably get a way with a 1/5th size focus piece. As it is now, its just more random distraction without any discernible function. People will see art thumbnails on that page, IF you get rid of that ridiculous gloss.
The logo does'nt really mean anything, and its very similar to a grill manufacturer which will kind of make you look like a joke to a reviewer who recognizes it. The font and spacing of your name vs the title looks plain bad. I understand what you are going for, but it does not look etched into that gloss. You need to focus on quickly accessible and easy to navigate with your eyes. The contact information styling is perfection, great colors as well.
Your art should be the focus, and showing that you are not skilled in web design will only hurt you. No one cares if it's css + xhtml either, and again just detracts from the site.
I don't have time to run a mock up for you but take a look at some more simple site that just get you straight to the art:
http://www.randallwhiteis.com/ (simple straight to the art)
http://www.gausswerks.com/ (same with added character)
http://www.skankerzero.com/ (big print, easy to read)
http://www.jelmerboskma.com/ (has focus art in logo header)
Still a few things... the links I would put your Portfolio out front as the first link.
get rid of the css+xhtml at the bottom.
Much easier on the eyes.
Great work!
But yeah now just being nitpicky...
Jesse - I'll see what I can do with the other site to change the name on the pop-up window.
Thanks again everyone,
Josh