[Portfolio] Jacob Christopher, Environment Artist

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

Hello, I just joined the other day. I usually hang out at www.game-artist.net but decided I need to expand my horizons. I just revised my portfolio and added a new piece to it. I know I don't have that much yet. I graduated 3 months ago from Full Sail University and have been working part time, job hunting and doing portfolio projects.

www.jmchristopher.com

I am looking for criticism on both my work and portfolio site. Both are about 99% done, so I thought I would ask if there is anything I over looked.

Thanks

Jeremy Lindstrom · Jul 2009

http://www.jmchristopher.com/portfolio/MCS/MCS.html

images at the bottom of this page do not load.

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

Fixed, thanks.

PixelMasher · Jul 2009

for the demo reel, the car is a pretty boring start, I like the enviro work much better. the unreal level looks great dude.

killingpeople · Jul 2009

blooom

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

PixelMasher wrote: »

for the demo reel, the car is a pretty boring start, I like the enviro work much better. the unreal level looks great dude.

Your right, that's what pretty much every one told me. I don't think it is worth changing now, I should do some more game art and put new stuff into a second reel.

Thanks for the comments.

Bloom!? what about it? too much of a cliche among unreal engine content?

killingpeople · Jul 2009

jmchristopher wrote: »

Bloom!? what about it? too much of a cliche among unreal engine content?

i don't mean to cool-police the bloom. i was thinking the use of bloom, depth of field, blur, or whatever kind of post processing you're using in those shots is hiding your work. it's just a big blur! like i've got chlorine in my eyes.

Minos · Jul 2009

The unreal level looks amazing and the break downs are very welcome. That's a really great use of modular meshes.

My only crit is that the level could look better if you tunned the bloom down a little.

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

Minotaur0 wrote: »

The unreal level looks amazing and the break downs are very welcome. That's a really great use of modular meshes.

My only crit is that the level could look better if you tunned the bloom down a little.

i don't mean to cool-police the bloom. i was thinking the use of bloom, depth of field, blur, or whatever kind of post processing you're using in those shots is hiding your work. it's just a big blur! like i've got chlorine in my eyes.

Excellent, the bloom will get toned down a bit for the final version of the map. There are still some small tweaks to do before I release the final version. I will hopefully have at all wrapped up by the end of this weekend.

Glad you like the breakdowns, it took a lot of time and thought to put together the presentation for that map. I hope it was effective.

Edit: One other question, would it be useful to show just the lighting or a wire frame for the images on the index page? I could make it show that with a rollover. what do you think?
Thanks for the crits guys

monkeyboy_garth · Jul 2009

I agree with KP, the bloom is killing your contrast - turn it right down. Everything looks washed out and it's hard to see all that great work you've done.

rasmus · Jul 2009

Looks good! Good breakdowns of the Unreal-level, and I love those rock formations, very effective. Maaaaybe throw in one or two wire/shaded views instead of the progress shots?

killingpeople · Jul 2009

also you should consider touching up the textures on those mushrooms, everything else looks so good, those mushrooms become more of a blemish, then a decoration right now. they are accent colors, glowing neon colors, that become major points of interest. removing the seams and fading them into the ground, adding some dark spots and spoils on them are quick and simple touch ups that i think will improve the shots they're in.

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

rasmus wrote: »

Looks good! Good breakdowns of the Unreal-level, and I love those rock formations, very effective. Maaaaybe throw in one or two wire/shaded views instead of the progress shots?

Will do. I must confess, I got a lot of inspiration from your site. Its very effective at displaying your work. Your work is really good too. :poly121:

Thanks

rasmus · Jul 2009

Thanks

Agree with Killingpeople on those shrooms, forgot to say! I'd paint some of the ground texture into the base where they meet the ground.

Ancient-Pig · Jul 2009

This is a terrific entry level art portfolio. I hope you're able to find a gig soon!

Pope Adam · Jul 2009

A very seriously awesome portfolio man! Well done! Work is top notch!

JasonLavoie · Jul 2009

Gonna have to jump on the bandwagon as well Jacob, really solid portfolio you got there (bar has been risen for entry artists once again... dammit!).

I wish you would maybe either change your demo reel to showcase the environment that the car was in first (that was excellent by the way) and maybe put in the new unreal level. The car is nice and all, but like others have said, just doesn't seem to fit all that much.

Either way, great work you have there, makes me want to work that much harder (which is ALWAYS a good thing.)

Good luck buddy

Kawe · Jul 2009

From the front page Im actually missing images from player view. The bloom and athmospheric crap might look a little overblown from that angle but from player view it might look good?

The demo reel could really do without the name thing the first 10 seconds before getting to the reel imo. Maybe integrate it into the demo.. like putting your name on the car tires and zooming out and swirling around. I dont think there's much more effort and it'd be a lot cooler and you would show your stuff faster.

Also I must agree... the environment is a lot cooler than the car

Everything looks very good though!

jmchristopher · Jul 2009

Alright, site updated based on your suggestions. I toned down the depth of field and bloom, added wire frame rollovers to most images. I spent a little more time to get the mushrooms to not look as dumb. They could be better, but I think i need to take what I learned from this project and apply it to a new one.

I have decided to leave the demo reel as is. I think my time would be better spent focusing on a new project. This level has given me some fairly solid low poly stuff. Now it is time to work on some high detail assets, I don't have any of those yet, and I think that is what my portfolio needs the most.

For my next project I am considering doing a very old tree that will eventually be the center piece for a new ctf map I am designing. Adding all the character and detail will require extensive sculpting in z-brush. The theme of this map will also allow me to do a few more high detail meshes as well.

Thanks for all the comments, they were very helpful. Please let me know if you have anymore ideas about the site or my work.

00Zero · Jul 2009

yea, very cool. im digging the vehicle model. wireframe rollover is a nice touch i think. wireframes turn me on hahah.

the rocks on the ground of the michigan central station look weird because theyre all the same size and very small, and round. some larger chunks would sell it well.

i know its not meant to be lowpoly but there are a lot of places where you can get rid of edge rings because they dont affect the shapes.

overall pretty good, keep adding to it

jmchristopher · Aug 2009

I have been revising the site (should be spending a bit more time on making more 3d stuff, but summer in Michigan is short;)). I have also begun to revise some older pieces to make them game engine friendly. So this is what I have updated here. It is the 3rd item from the top.

I think I have improved the layout and added some memorable little effects to it, but what are your impressions?

Firebert · Aug 2009

i really dig the updated site man... great stuff for sure. i agree with zero on the edge loop comment. a bit heavy, but still very good work!

Ark · Aug 2009

Really nice work.

A few of your scenes are quite poly heavy were the extra geometry doesn't seem to be adding anymore definition to your models. I figure you could get away with less polies and just concentrate on the silhouettes.

Also i echo what's been said about the car, your environment work is much more impressive.

penrod · Aug 2009

I think this shows a lot of potential for someone right out of school. Good luck!

conte · Aug 2009

dude, that car model f&#king killed me. aadauy^*#JKL

jaball · Aug 2009

what did you use to build your site? it is a very clean design, I like it. Especially the fade effect you have for all your pics. Although it did take a while to load

Nice job thou! Good luck

jmchristopher · Aug 2009

jaball wrote: »

what did you use to build your site? it is a very clean design, I like it. Especially the fade effect you have for all your pics. Although it did take a while to load

Nice job thou! Good luck

I used Dream Weaver with some help from the interwebz. Took a while to load eh? I will see if there is anything I can do to optimize my images.

adam · Aug 2009

Er, there's no way some of those environments are for real-time use. What are you looking to get hired as?

cycloverid · Aug 2009

Very pretty site man, and some great looking stuff in there. I want to do an environment like that rocky one sometime! Looks like fun.

Snader · Aug 2009

I assume you have only tested your site in IE, FF and maybe chrome and safari..
Opera 10.00 Beta 3 gives a jiffy.

I see things double.

I figure you put up images behind the flash video as a fallback for people that don't have flash, but it's not displaying properly in opera. Shouldn't be that hard to fix in the CSS though...

Also 1 of the fallbacks seems to be pointed to the wrong image.

jmchristopher · Aug 2009

adam wrote: »

Er, there's no way some of those environments are for real-time use. What are you looking to get hired as?

No, only 1 of them is. Michigan central station is rendered with Mental Ray. I am looking to get hired as an environment artist.

I assume you have only tested your site in IE, FF and maybe chrome and safari..
Opera 10.00 Beta 3 gives a jiffy.

I see things double.

I figure you put up images behind the flash video as a fallback for people that don't have flash, but it's not displaying properly in opera. Shouldn't be that hard to fix in the CSS though...

Also 1 of the fallbacks seems to be pointed to the wrong image.

I have not tested it with opera. I am also using css and java. No flash. Which image doesn't work?

Edit: I just tried it with opera 10 beta 3 and I get the same thing, but I dont know why it does that. Everything is really simple html, its just tables with images in them.

kodiak · Aug 2009

bookmarked. killer work, man.

Snader · Aug 2009

the image with the hall props , your fallback image shows the hall, instead of the barrels etc (see screenshot)

i have no idea how to fix the double image thing with java and css though.
you could try having it as a fixed width DIV with no visible overflow? or put the fallback image as the div's background(latter one would require every image to have its own div)

bounchfx · Aug 2009

some really solid stuff dude. sweet!

jmchristopher · Aug 2009

Snader wrote: »

the image with the hall props , your fallback image shows the hall, instead of the barrels etc (see screenshot)

i have no idea how to fix the double image thing with java and css though.
you could try having it as a fixed width DIV with no visible overflow? or put the fallback image as the div's background(latter one would require every image to have its own div)

I c you what you mean. I fixed the image. I will see if I can figure out why it doesn't work in opera.

Thanks

Edit: Fixed. It should work now. I made the cells on each side 50% width, this prevents the cell in the center from expanding. Thanks again for pointing this out.

[Portfolio]  Jacob Christopher, Environment Artist

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[Portfolio] Jacob Christopher, Environment Artist