Environment Art: John Emerson

I agree with your assessment that you should probably have some images as soon as you load the page. It seems like a waste of space.

Most importantly, I think you need more content overall. You only have 3 images in your 2d Art section, 2 top down screenshots in your Levels section, and an overall dearth of content in your portfolio. The formatting and the way it's laid out and everything is fine though.

Quote from Sigma

- Narrow my focus down or choose to remain a generalist.

Putting your work out there and asking for criticism can be frightening and I applaud you for doing this! Here's what I thought/asked myself when I visited your site: what job does he want? The jobs market is not that different from any other market. Employers usually have a demand for a person with a certain set of skills who can solve a specific problem/do a specific job. So think about what you want to do/can do and present yourself accordingly. "I am a computer graphics generalist" sounds very wishy-washy. You've got a couple of logos at display in the 2D Art section and 2 overview shots of Starcraft II maps is also a little light for a level design section. I can't really judge the 3D Art, looks to me like you're on a good path there, but sadly there aren't any shots of the assets in-game. My advice before you continue tinkering on the presentation or the website itself is to figure out what you want to do and then keep banging at it!

So you want to become a Producer at a game development studio? I think dipping your toes into as many aspects of game development can only be beneficial in that case. It shows that you know what different members of your team actually do and it helps to understand them. Many Producers have actually worked as designers, programmers or artists profesionally before. They understand the workflows and obstacles a team faces during development. Most importantly though they can coordinate a team, put the project first and can communicate well.

Having said that if you already KNOW that you want to become a producer, I wouldn't recommend to build a portfolio to move into design or art first. To me that's two different kinds of people: those who would like to work creatively and those who prefer to work in a management role. And building up the passion for one thing to get to the other feels wrong to me I'd try to somehow get project & team management experience and then move into an assistant producer role. Just my 2 cents.

well should you decide otherwise and aim for employment as an artist id say just make more stuff!

See nothing "wrong" with what you are doing just a lot of "inexperience" just keep making stuff and it will get better and better pretty much automatically.

welcome btw !

My biggest issue with your portfolio is that when I open it I'm not sure what your professional identity is. Are you a 2D- or a 3D-artist maybe? Level designer? Writer?

Content
I read through the other replies you've got and if you're sure you want to become a producer that's the first thing your portfolio should scream.

And to me, if I would look after a good producer I would be looking first and foremost at how many projects you've been working in and how many people you've been collaborating with. As you might know, a producer is the link between all members of the team, may it be art, design, code or QC - all of them has a link. Therefore, I believe it's very important you can show you have worked with people from different fields with different backgrounds, preferably with written recommendations.

If you haven't been involved with very many projects yet, maybe it's time you get to it. There are tons of modding groups, independent game developer who would very good to have someone around who is in it solely/first and formost to make the project happen and not the development.

Lastly, don't get me wrong about you showing off you know a good deal of multiple things. As a producer I also think it's important to have some kind of insight in all disciplines.

Layout
In terms of layout I like your portfolio, it is easy to navigate and has a simple design - just the way I like it. Also I think most people appreciate portfolios to be straight forward. I cannot find any big problems with the layout, so you go that going for you! There is this one thing that I noticed though, you are having different fonts for the image slices and your site header. Then you have your mailadress in itallic and all content text is in another font. My sister who studied typography once told me the fewer fonts the cleaner look you'll get. I'm not saying do this, do that - just maybe you could play around with different amounts of fonts. Maybe use one font only for all big texts and another for content. Now this is nitpicking but I thought I'd give it a mention.

Cool you made that bridge map with the timers in clan wars? That should be at the top and you should clearly show its been used on a widely watched tournament.

also get shots from pro games of the map in action.

Hey dude !

I would try to pick something else than "aspiring" to describe what you do. I'm not sure if it's super attractive for potential employers.

I was thinking the same thing. If you want to mention something about your experience in the title, maybe Junior would be good? You can also opt to leave the experience prefix entirely and just say you're a Producer. I don't think anyone will look down on that as long as you're honest in your CV. Either way that's not what's gonna keep them on your page, it's the content.

Yep totally agree with Stefan :).

I also caught that in your text "I employ my educational background as managing member of...". I'd maybe put that in the first few sentences then mention your experience with 2D art, 3D, etc. I feel like it sounds more producer-ish. Just an idea.

Hey there again John !

I've read your introduction and I think there's some little tweaks you could do in there (my opinion of the course :)). I've also dug a little deeper in your portfolio.

I'd really try to replace anything with "aspiring". Maybe Junior like Stefan said ? I wouldn't say "high level understanding" I think I would just go for "understanding". Some producer are very knowledgeable of pipeline stuff (anyone correct me if I'm wrong). In fact I would write this sentence with a different angle. More like... "I am a junior producer with a wide range of interests in game development things" and then mention what you like to do. In your enumeration of things you created I'd place game design documents first. I feel that for a producer it might be more important cause producers organize things, write things... For the "ultra-low resolution settings" I would rephrase that. I know what you mean, you know how to do low-poly things, but it could come off as I have this super high rez model and just put the quality settings to "low". "I employ my educational background" is super cool. The way it's phrased though I'm sort of waiting for a "I employ my experience with this ----- to do this". There's just the "to do" bit that's missing (example: I employ my expertise at climbing rocks. (To walk 4 steps at the time... that sort of thing)). Dude real talk... Your 3D things rock wayyyy harder than the 2D things. I was expecting concept art stuff. In the 3D part I would put that power up (that is totally siiiiick) way up there. So people don't have to scroll to uncover cool shit. The title for the things in the 2D art section are barely readable same thing for the 3D art bit. Imagine your readers to be a grandma who lost its glasses and has an attention deficit problem haha. In your resume I would say either "non-professional" or "personal", because they both mean the same things.

Hope this helps. Making a nice portfolio is the most fucking hardest thing seriously.

I know someone who's done some pretty cool stuff in a producer role at EA here in Vancouver and you know what he did back when he was junior, he made time organization sheets and pipeline sketches to prove he understood game producing stuff (waterfall things). If you do that you could showcase that in your website. That could make people go like... yep he's a producer he knows what needs to be done :). Just an idea.