[Portfolio] - Andrew H. King
Hey guys,
Might as well toss this up and get a general impression! I recently graduated from ETSU with a B.S in Digital Media, and this was the portfolio I ended with.
Work wise I'll be looking to get into the game industry, somewhere along the lines of a 3d modeler or something (though ideally I'd like to be on the design creation side of things such as ideas, story, characters, etc) - but I am also open to anything that matches my skills at the moment.
I'll be updating the portfolio eventually. practicing and learning things that I don't and getting better - as well as learning new techniques. One of the big things that I didn't do in college was really put in a lot of face time with the compute outside of class, something I'll have to make up for now. :-)
The portfolio is at www.andrewhking.com
Please critique, suggest, and comment on everything and anything - particularly the site - but all the work is fair game and everything.
Thanks, have a great day!
Might as well toss this up and get a general impression! I recently graduated from ETSU with a B.S in Digital Media, and this was the portfolio I ended with.
Work wise I'll be looking to get into the game industry, somewhere along the lines of a 3d modeler or something (though ideally I'd like to be on the design creation side of things such as ideas, story, characters, etc) - but I am also open to anything that matches my skills at the moment.
I'll be updating the portfolio eventually. practicing and learning things that I don't and getting better - as well as learning new techniques. One of the big things that I didn't do in college was really put in a lot of face time with the compute outside of class, something I'll have to make up for now. :-)
The portfolio is at www.andrewhking.com
Please critique, suggest, and comment on everything and anything - particularly the site - but all the work is fair game and everything.
Thanks, have a great day!
Replies
Best of luck (us noobs need it these days)
-N!
Another big "no no" is having a home page that simply says "Enter". Even worse, I had to wait for it to load. All this kind of stuff will be a turn off to employers who have to go through countless websites of people applying for positions.
So my advice is to simplify the website, as much as possible. Check other peoples websites around polycount to get an idea. Then find an area of game art to specialize and focus on that. Again, check professional portfolios to see what works, and how you shoud go about presenting your art. Good luck man!
Don't use flash for portfolio sites.
Splash screens are useless.
Your work should always be on the front page of your website, don't make employers hunt for it.
If you're looking for a job in game-art I would suggest only showing work relevant to that position. Things such as videos should probably be removed.
IMHO I think you should simplify the site and not use a theme, personally I found the theme quite hard to read and unnessacery, employers are going for your work and while a good looking site can be important, you don't want to draw attention away from your work.
Hope this helps you mate, keep at it.
EDIT: This is what I was looking for, this is very helpful.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=39516
QFT
- preloader
- click to enter button
- times new roman font (or not being able to embed fonts the right way)
- unique layouts that only work with the content it comes with (makes updating impossible)
- empty blogs
- default flash movie player skin
suggestions:
- make it html
- make it UBER- simple (no fancy background images, no fancy effects)
- just images in a table
Just a note on the resume - it was there at one time on the contact page, but in messing with the site the contact page reverted to an older version that didn't have it. It will be up on the new site. :-)
From looking at your site I see that you can make very basic 3d models, unwrap them, place base textures and have some knowledge on lighting and rendering. What I'm saying is there appears to be nothing stylised or finished in the sense of being game engine ready. You need to show you have an art style (whether it's totally your own or based upon another artist) not just generic stuff ready to be stylised.
Suggest you look around at some of the great artists here and other places, their portfolios and professional work to find out what is considered to be a finished asset.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but just changing the site may help with navigation and helping people stay long enough to view at least one image but it won't get you that job!
Just a quick update - wanting some critiques and comments on a new layout idea.
http://www.andrewhking.com/flashIndex.html
This specific portfolio will be geared for a Flash position and to demonstrate Flash work (which means this will be animated later on.
However, the layout of the page is sort my planned layout for all my portfolios. My 3d specific will be HTML, with maybe a JavaScript gallery player or some non-flash equivalent.
The idea is to have the user be presented with work right off the bat in the form of those four thumbnails - the "featured projects" are the ones in the thumbnails, and the titles are color coded to match the "marker" above each of the thumbnails (as well as the stroke around the thumbnail).
When the user clicks on the ".projects" link, he/she would be taken to a page with a gallery or full list of the projects "blog style" (both of which I've seen from other sites), which would have some further information such as my contributions (in the case of group projects) or more images, etc.
The ".resume" tab would be a mini game where the user plays an employer battling through waves of applicants' resumes with a variety of weapons such as pencils and door-surfboards until he finally reaches the "golden resume" - which is mine....
Just kidding, it really just takes you to my resume. (Though with the option to download! Talk about interactive!)
The contact gives you standard contact info.
Crits and comments!
Note: This isn't a fully functional website, this is just an image so you can see the layout. Also, feel free to compare from the previous portfolio's layout, etc. - to this one.
Note 2: the ".back to main" takes you back to a central "hub" page where the user can see all of my portfolios. I plan to create portfolios for specific fields such as 3d or Flash, and then I'll simply send the link to the right portfolio to whatever job I'm applying for - however, by clicking that "back to main" link, the employer could see other work I can do as well.
That way it avoids a splash page and work not necessarily related to the job - but still let's employers have the option to see more of my work in different fields. Plus, it goes with my slogan idea.