Bjorn Frechenhauser - 3D Game Artist

[hamzaaa]

Hello everybody,

*edit: just notice after 3 days that I didn't introduce myself

My name is Björn, try to pronounce it (byourrn). I am 22 y.o. and just finished my bachelor thesis starting to focus on modeling and level design for games with game design as a sidelane. As you can read below I started creating my portfolio and now want to apply for an internship to finally finish my bachelor. I already saw awesome stuff on the forum and I hope I can become a part of this community.

I want to share my portfolio website with you to get some feedback on the site itself and its contents. I am a newcomer and started making the site 2 Months ago. Note that it still is work in progress. I hope you enjoy some stuff that you see!

I am looking forward for your C&C.

Here it is: http://www.b3d.frechi.de

greetz

[hamzaaa]

no comments anyone?

[Rick_D]

there is not a lot to say, looked through your portfolio and it needs to be cleaned up a little, flash is annoying and having to browse a gallery like that is quite user-unfriendly.

the art is ok, but it's just stuff you need to work on that you will pick up as you go along, polycount will give you more useful crits as mapcore folks are too tired after a day of work to do anything but post pictures of dogs

[Rick_D]

http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/10/07/y ... pels-jobs/

[hamzaaa]

Hey Rick,

thanks a lot for your comment, I really appreciate it. I have to correct you, the Gallery is not Flash, it's shadowbox (javascript)

But is it really that user unfriendly? I thought it would be a good choice to make the gallery like that ^^

Yeah I read that article and other articles and tried to create some portfolio guidelines http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3601726/Portfolio%20guidelines.pdf

but maybe I wasn't sticking to them to the fullest. Do you think I should rework my Portfolio (what exactly should I rework?)

[Rick_D]

http://www.brameulaers.com/

[Chimeray]

You got the right stuff in there but you're just not showcasing it right. It's not "easy and clean". Your best bet if you don't know what to do is to browse through other people's portfolio's to get a feel for what is easy to navigate.

Basically too much clicking to see stuff is a no no. Too much different tabs and the visitor is lost. You want your viewer to know what he's looking at at all times and you want him to be able to go back to look for other stuff.

For instance... I would prefer if I went to the level design tab, then clicked on either of those projects and saw everything there was to see on one page. Cleanly. Perhaps a different page for a post mortem. This guy does his post mortems excellently (might seen him around): http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/

EDIT: On a second viewing, it's not that bad actually. It's just the first portfolio I've seen that has navigation like that (the buttons on top of the screenshot that are visible when you hover over it). Seems about OK now that I'm used to it. The gallery is sort of painful though, you can't really see all the pictures at the same time. Clicking next is sort of a hassle if you have to do that 5 times or more... For EACH different project. Make the gallery into 1 page with all images on it and I think you're gonna be better off. Then about the thumbnail navigation, perhaps have those "buttons" visible at all times instead of only when you hover over it, dunno...

[hamzaaa]

Hey Chimeray,

thanks for your comments. Maybe I had a wrong concept in mind because I thought scrolling was more annoying than clicking. I created my portfolio with the help of Helder Pinto's (he has these appearing buttons when you hover over a thumbnail) and Clement Melendez's portfolio (he has the shadowbox gallery) and sort of combined those two. Maybe it was too much. Right now I think I will leave it at that but after my Internship I may change the usability and layout. Thanks for your comments

[aaron_da_killa]

Hey Björn I actually liked your portfolio! The only thing is I would have the gallery and details on the same page and not have them separated. The details page is nice, seems pretty comprehensive and good as people (including myself) do like to read this kind of stuff though overtime I've tended towards letting my work speak for itself and going for a more minimalistic approach, I think it makes a greater impact.

[hamzaaa]

hey Aaron,

thanks a lot for your comment. Yeah I think after I finish my intern which I am starting on monday, I will redo my site. Making everything a little cleaner and easier to navigate. As soon as I have more portfolio pieces to show I will reduce or completely get rid of the details pages.

[RustedApple]

You label yourself a 3D Game Artist, but I only saw one 3D model; I did see two levels though. That got me a bit confused; maybe Level Artist would be a better title if you're looking to market yourself as an artist capable of using level editors.

Your portfolio, at the moment, makes you look like a level designer.