I need some feedback

[timcoolmode]

I am looking to get some feed back on my portfolio. The url is www.timcoolmode.com.

Timothy Porter

[Bl1tz]

Hey, welcome to mapcore

For the character models:

Half of the renders are blurry or out of focus for some reason and the models aren't really posed optimally to be shown off in screenshots. You're really not presenting yourself well by doing that.

The environment art:

It looks pretty low-res & low-poly which can be OK if, for example, you want to show a good range between really high poly and really low poly, but in this case it seems like this is all you have to show. Again, you're really not doing yourself any favors by taking screenshots like this:

The textures themselves seem decent when looking at the sheets but the way you've rendered them just looks really bad. The same goes for the "London" shots.

Judging from your site it looks like you're trying to focus more on environmental art so I'd say start finding the websites of some professional environmental artists for examples of the sort of quality you need to match with your work as well as to get a good idea of how to present your work.

Here are a couple of mapcorians who have some nice environmental art portfolios:

http://www.thiagoklafke.com/

http://www.philipk.net/

I hope this helps

P.S. I looked at your resume and saw that you wrote:

"Able to communicate in speaking and writing – clearly, concisely and effectively."

That is about the least clear and concise way to say that phrase, so you might want to have someone proofread your resume as well.

[Nurb]

The portfolio looks very -90's html. Even if you do only know html there are still ways to make it look "not 90's". The presentation of your textures is also very confusing. Some of them can quite easily be deducted as to what they are and where they belong, but some textures would really need some kind of explaination or not be there at all. For the "church" you have 2 speculars which are identical except for a black square in on corner on one of them, what's up? Also I got a feeling of dissapointment when I saw the very little text saying that the character models whern't yours. I think you should present this fact alittle more clear, right now it looks as if you are trying to hide it. And I have to be honest, the character models (especially the centaur:ish one) hold alot higher quality than the textures you put on them

As for the work itself I feel that you have some things down but it doesn't seem like you quite know what to do when it comes to beeing a game artist. I would recommend trying to join an active mod team or atleast do some personal level projects where you do textures and models yourself. I think then you would realize alot of things that you won't quite get if we just point them out to you. When I look at your portfolio today, everything feels like school projects with no real ties to what is actually done in the games industry.

Sorry if this sounded harsh. Keep it up though and you'll get there.

[2d-chris]

Your getting there man

Modding is a great way to go - you can keep improving your skills and learn from everyone else how they do things.

Keep it up!

[Buddy]

www.littlelostpoly.co.uk

www.kolbyjukes.com

[2d-chris]

Amazing - but seems a little harsh posting it in here ;(

[kleinluka]

Well they are good references actually on how to make a successful portfolio. I think if you look at those sites and concentrate on not even just the quality of the work itself but how the work is presented you will get a better idea of what is expected by companies.

[Thrik]

Seems to me like the skill is around the right mark, but more relevant experience is needed so you can build up a portfolio of the kind of things game developers want to see. As suggested above, working on mods or independent games is a superb way to build up material, and it'll give you a great understanding of the process of making a game.

Note that you don't have to necessarily be on the development team of a mod. As you can see from our Work Release forum, plenty of people regularly produce excellent custom maps and such for existing games such as Team Fortress 2. I'd go so far as to say most Mapcorians in the games industry mostly did this before getting their foot in the door.

Just be prepared to give up a good chunk of your personal time doing it. That's kind of a prerequisite for any job related to art/design.