[Portfolio]-Salman Ahmad, Environment Artist
Hi,
First of all I want to thank Josh Powers, who have helped me quite a bit by offering great critiques for my work and my website. I am also thankful to polycounters who have critiqued my work.
I will probably start my job hunting in spring(again). In the meantime I am wanting some advice about my website. I will be adding some more contents in December/January. The address is http://www.salman3d.com
I am looking for any thing that would help me look better in the eyes of employers. I avoided the idea of showing wireframes/textures on homepage as I think it will look a bit cluttered.
Thanks,
Salman.
First of all I want to thank Josh Powers, who have helped me quite a bit by offering great critiques for my work and my website. I am also thankful to polycounters who have critiqued my work.
I will probably start my job hunting in spring(again). In the meantime I am wanting some advice about my website. I will be adding some more contents in December/January. The address is http://www.salman3d.com
I am looking for any thing that would help me look better in the eyes of employers. I avoided the idea of showing wireframes/textures on homepage as I think it will look a bit cluttered.
Thanks,
Salman.
Replies
As for your site, I wouldn't change anything but how you link to your resume. Using Vista, I click on the link and immediately get a warning popup. I think this is really bad, and annoying. The way I have it set on my personal site is I have a separate page where you can download your preferred choice of resume software application. By this I mean, I give the choice of downloading the resume as a .doc or .pdf. I heard before that some employers are very picky about what they like, and doing it this way is best. It doesn't mean you have to make a dedicated page like I do, simply give them the option of what format they would like to download.
What I would change on the site Art wise:
-I don't think you need to show a prop as simple as a barrel by itself, and the spray paint looks cool, but a little too bright IMO. I think possibly showing the specs on it as a side note in one of your scenes is okay, but certainly not as one of your main pieces on your site. Same goes for the lamp, but you might be able to get away showing it alone.
-The decorative piece looks pretty cool, but I am not really sure what it is exactly. In other words it doesn't read very well. I can't tell what it is made out of, at all. Also the mesh flow of it is bad IMO. If you do want to keep a poll in the center like that to make the center part slightly extruded from the rest, I don't think it should have nearly that many sides.
-Lastly, the gas station doesn't sit well with me. It looks cool, but a bunch of things look a little off. The textures on certain things look really low res; on areas like the metal gate out front, while other areas of texture look really detailed. Also, the brick color is too vibrant looking IMO. It appears that the brick was completely new looking, and someone went around with grease and smudged a bunch of areas up. The barrel placement seems a little cluttered. And the chip off the top of the building doesn't make sense. If part of the building broke off, it wouldn't be placed perfectly in tact on the ground. It should be a pile of broken up bricks if anything.
Hey, I hope you don't take any of this as a harsh crit, because I really think your stuff here is great. Really, with just a little more work on a few things, you will have some outstanding stuff on your portfolio. Good luck!
One comment though.
I wouldn't put some of your older stuff like gas station or gray building with huge arc since they look not as good as your 2 more recent buildings and other props.
The quantity is not that important as the quality. It is always better to show off the best and most recent of your work and you do have what to show but not oldies
I would echo the point about resume.
I will be putting my current wip building to replace the large Arc building as soon as I finish it. Also picked GTA 4 so I might use something from that game as a reference and ditch the gas station.
As for props the lamp, Deco and barrel will be replaced. I am trying to search for good reference for not so simple props. Hopefully I will find something. Resume will be fixed too.
There was a rumor at work that we might be off half December and January so that's when I will really get some stuff done fast.
Again thanks guys for commenting and don't worry about being harsh:)