What do i need for my Portfolio?

[RichardK]

Guys I want to go into the game industry and i have a company waiting to see if there is any positions for a 3d artist. I have done loads of models such as:

3 game characters that i modelled by my self

Lara Croft
Crash Bandicoot Allied solider from DOD MOD for Half-Life

Models of guns
Shark (cartoon like model)
Mech Robot

Alien city that i modeled my self from scratch and more.

I just spoke to a guy who worked on Tron 2.0 and he said:

"We've had several people apply for positions where they used existing models from games with excuses such as: "but the boots & hair are different"... that does not showcase any skills, and guarantees your resume gets skipped almost instantly"

So please can any of you suggest if my models that i done would be ok? Just to let you know

"I modelled them my self"

[Helix]

I'm probably in nearly the same situation as you are in right but my advice to you would be as original as possible. Stay away from tutorials being included anywhere near your portfolio. I would say thats like telling an employer that someone showed me how to do this rather than applying my talent and skill to complete something that is an expression of myself.

Even though you've done them on your own several of the things you mention you have doen I have seen tutorials out there to do them. If you liek game models concentrate on designing your own character complete with backstory and development. The same goes for anything else you want to do in 3D. Be original and make it your very best and that will determinehow well suited you are for a job.

This is my opinion, I just graduated with my BA in Art and this is my take on the whole subject.

[RichardK]

Thanks i have just finished working for a game company as a QA tester and i will graduate next year with a Bsc in Multimeida, but i do agree with you about doing your own character models but i havn't done one before.

I have one character i drew and i thought about modelling it, but i don't know that much about designing your own game characters, concept art etc.

Is it ok if i designed and modelled a character based on a game but my own design?

There is however a new mag called:

GAMEMAKER which wil be out tomorrow here in the UK...

Create levels, characters, vehicles and weapons for:
Quake3
The SIMS
WarCraft 3
Neverwinter nights
UT2003
Half-Life/Counter Strike
GTA: Vice City
MS Flight Simulator

Learn how to create your own mod
Learn 3D Design

HUGE 5GB DVD
Hundereds of maps, characters and tools to expand your games libary, plus dozons of exclusive game design programes

But thanks for the advice. I did speak to a guy over at Black Angle Software Forum room (Offical Tron 2.0 Forum) and he wants to see my work but now i think of it i don't think it's all that good.

Some of my models are good like the range of weapons, vehicles etc but when it comes down to characters they are not my own or they are from tutorials even though i modelled it.

So yo don't think by doing models from tutorials will help just abit just to show that you can do it and by having you own models too?

If you know a site or something that will help me creating my own character and how to draw out conept art for it please that would be great if you could tell me.

[Jenn]

Well the games industry really isn't my area of expertise and there are several other members that can give you some specifics and more meaningful advice on the games industry than I can but I will give it a shot.

1. Figure out what your true strengths are. What I mean by that is you need to be honest with yourself and decide whether organic models like characters or inorganic models like vehicles, props and environments are more your thing. A lot of the time it's where your interest lies.

2. I agree with Helix in that if you are going for a character modeling job it would be best if you had your own characters in your portfolio.

3. How to design your own characters? There are several approaches. I recommend that you take a look at the character sheets on http://www.fineart.sk and the concept art on http://www.conceptart.org. (Disclaimer: conceptart.org showcases some of the most amazing concept art talent I have ever seen. Be prepared to be blown away by the raw mind blowing talent and don't get discouraged)

My approach to designing characters (not the only approach and probably not the best) I start with a vague idea of the kind of character I want to create. Ususally it is just an attitude or emotion that I have in mind. I start sketching little thumbnails. Thumbnails are quick little drawings, just scribbles really, to get an idea of pose, proportion, costume etc. I usually do about 25-30 of these little sketches, filling up a couple of pages. If I see something I like at that point and only at that point do I refine it.

Usually, my character concepts are in an action pose. So at that point, when I'm happy with the design I then break it down and draw front and side views of the character so I can use them as modeling templates.

4. Another good reference are those how to draw comics books.

[RichardK]

thanks for that the second site link dosn't work http://www.conceptart.org. I'm not sure what the Artist manager said i will be doing if he accepts me but i think it's a 3D Artist creating characters. I'm going to give it my best shot at this and I'm going to create a few characters (own designs) as well as including my best models that i have done. But thanks for the tip.

I think it would be good not just to have chracters in my portfolio but also to have different ranges of models to just to show that I can do other things too. So i will have my own character models and other models that i have done too. Just to make my portfolio interesting.

I'm gonna wait for tomorrow for this game maker magazine to see if that can help me too

[Fizzy]

I'm not sure if this helps or if it's frowned upon...

I'm in the same position you are - looking for game work and not sure where to start on my demo reel's content. I'm not as confindent in my concept drawing, so I got a friend to sketch out a few characters - some of his, some of mine, and modelled those. If you have a friend that can draw, ask them for some help, otherwise find an image you like and model that. There's a tonne of art sites online - JUST MAKE SURE YOU DON'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THEIR CONCEPTS. You will have to include a shot breakdown with your reel, so make sure you name the person who's character you are modelling.

I think it's a good thing to show that you can take someone else's work and translate it into a 3D model. This is how you most likely work if you get a job as a 3D modeller. Although, the more skills you can demonstrate, the more appealing you will appear to an employer. So you decide what it right for you. Remember that you are applying for a 3D position, but drawing skills are a very nice addition.

I hope someone from the industry could help you out more than I can, by validating or dismissing points I've made.

Here's the link for fantasy drawings that was on the front page a little while ago. You might find something there, if fantasy is your thing.
http://www.therionweb.de/comics/comics.htm

[RichardK]

Thanks for that, yeah fantasy is my fav thing look here i found these drawings and these are the kind of characters i like. My concept art isnt that bad im good at drawing and i have just sketched out one of this chracters already and it looks ok. I would say it's a rough but good drawing. The hurdle i have is thinking of a chracter without it looking the same as original work then it's modelling it. Im gonna give it my best shot! I'll post a pic of my first attempt of my concept drawing, when it's finished.

http://www.fineart.sk/anime/art02.jpg
http://www.fineart.sk/anime/art03.jpg
http://www.fineart.sk/anime/art01.jpg

Ok Richard, I've read up extensively on this project & I've had interviews at games companies, so I'll share my experience of portfolio requirements.

First, you will need to show some 2d work. Illustrative pieces or paintings are good, pencil drawn life studies are pretty much invaluable, especially if you are going for character artist. You need to know a fair amount, if not a LOT about human anatomy for a position like that.
When I had an interview at codemasters, (& I hope I don't sound like I'm name dropping there,) they picked one of my character models apart for anatomy problems. I thought it was pretty good. Apparently it had more flaws than I had realised. They were nice about it, but fairly 'no frills' with critiques, which personally I was happy about. Well at least I was after the briusing on my ego went down...
Another company I sent work to sent me back a critique saying that my 2d drawings were 'amatuerish.' It stung to read that one too, but they were right. I've since adjusted my idea of my chances of getting in to the industry at my current level & also made an effort to improve my drawing skills.
If you feel your 2d work is something you wouldn't be confident in showing, (I'm not quite there yet after my reappraisal of myself - I'm embarressed to think about what I HAVE shown at interviews...) then the simple but harsh answer is you need to work on it more.
Most companies WILL want to see evidence of good drawing skills, just accept that as a fact & move on.

On to your models. Personally I would never show a model I did of a character that already exists.
Why? Because you are shooting yourself in the foot. The first thing that will happen, intentionally or not, is that the person viewing it will compare it to the original. Now unless you are an amazing, & I mean really amazing modeller, it's unlikely that it will be as good as the original.
You know when you watch a tv show or a film sequel & they've replaced one of the actors - what's the first thnig you do? You think about the previous actor that played that role & you decide for yourself if they are as good as the old one.
That's exactly what will happen if you submit a model of Lara Croft, or Mario, or third hired goon in splinter cell or whatever. If it's been done before, you will get compared. If you model something of your own, the person viewing it looks at it from a blank slate. They have no expectations and just view the model as it is.
Like your friend said, someone submitting Lara with "her hair a bit different" or whatever, the first thought will be "why is that bit different? Couldn't they model that bit? Did it create a problem for them?" etc etc. I'm sure by now you get my point.

A good portfolio would include:

Some 2d work - preferably life drawings and colour pieces of an illustrative nature. Again, avoid known characters like batman or whatever. I'd probably avoid comic page type stuff too. Think splash pages, book/album covers, posters etc.

Also any textures you have created. These can be from scratch or photosourced. They should show good UV layouts, especially for characters, which means as little wasted texture space as possible. Blank areas on the texture sheet are wasted pixels which means wasted memory which could have been used elsewhere in the game like the AI for example. It might only be a few pixels, but it will all add up & they WILL care about this stuff.
If it's not a character sheet, you might want to do some tileable textures, which of course should show as little obviously repeating detail as possible & should, of course, tile seamlessly in all four directions. (yes you might be required to produce textures that only tile in two directions, but all four is a safer option for portfolio material.)

some realtime 3d work:
A couple of original characters - showing good use of polys - make sure they have polys in the right places such as joints so that they will deform well during animation. Also it's better if you have textured them & can show the texture sheets. Remember to include wireframe views too - it's difficult to judge poly economy without them.

A vehicle or other mechanical 'thing' - your mech may work well here & could probably also count as one of your characters, depending on the design. A car, plane boat or other vehicle is a good addition.

A building or small level 'scene' - like a courtyard or something. Even a bridge or other architectural structure would be good.
Also a couple of pieces of level furniture - a street lamp or other sort of models that help 'populate' a level. The average game has far more of this than characters, so a lot of the time spent will be creating the boring stuff. You have to be prepared for this. Generally it's the work of entry level artists to do this stuff because the existing guys have paid their dues doing it & don't want to do it any more. "Oh look, here's a fresh sucker.., I mean new artist. Let's start him off gently with some level stuff..."
Only the biggest companies can afford to pay a guy to just do characters. In the rest you'll end up doing whatever needs to be done.


Some high res 3d work won't go amiss if you have any. Some companies like artists who can do that stuff for marketing shots, websites, etc etc, but you should push your realtime skills if that's what you want to do.

Phew...

If you want to send me some stuff you've done, I'll give you a fair critique. How honest it is will be up to you, but please don't ask for a blunt critique if you don't REALLY want it. I'll always be constructive, (otherwise there's no point,) but if I thought you needed to spend another six months working on stuff before you even THOUGHT about applying, that's what I'd tell you. I graduated a year ago & I haven't found anything yet, despite several interviews & even one 3 day on site test. The games industry is severely difficult to get into as an artist right now - I have 5 friends that I can think of off the top of my head in the industry, but even having those contacts vouch for me hasn't helped. Sometimes my work has been good, but just not quite good enough, (it had to be reasonably ok for me to even get an interview,) other times it has been my bad luck that another guy with experience showed up etc.
Not to put you off, but it might save you some heartache to be prepared. You WILL, in all probability, get some rejection letters, I have a small pile. Don't take it personally, but do listen to any crits you get.

Anyway, I could go on, but I won't. If you want any further advice or tips, let me know & I'll see what I can dig up.

[RichardK]

WOW! thanks alot man that really put things in prespective. The artist manager i spoke too talked to me about where i would end up if i took 1 of the 2 paths.

I was good at graphics, photoshop etc but that moves away from the game industry so if i wanted to stay in the game industry i had to become a junior 3d artist doing characters.

He didn't say exactly what i should put in my portfolio as i expected but he knows after i graduate next year in June/July i want to become a 3d artist as soon as possible cause im going to be 22 next month and he gave me his contact card if i wanted to ask him any questions.

I have plenty of time to work on my skills but i must say i have improved alot since the beginning of this year when i used 3dsmax for the first time. You might know this guy Demis Hassabis Developer of Republic: The Revoution which i tested, he also knows that i am interested in 3d modelling and he said it was good that was working hard to improve and doing tutorials.

Both the artist manager and Demmis said when anything comes up they will contact me but i'm a bit worried now that my current model work is not good enough i want it to be perfect.

I'm not sure how hard or easy it is to start as a Junior Modeller but please if you got anything that can help me on my way i appreciate it, links, sites etc.

I'm just worried at the moment that i won't be able to get my work just good enough, But this is the only thing now i got my heart set on.

I don't think the manager wants to see my models so that he can see it but as a gallery, wireframe, rendered, textures pics. Like i showed him when i was there a month or too ago.

I had a site that i designed with all my work on and i showed him and he was impressed with my first attempt at max and he said it was good.

He is a great guy all them are at that company, and he knows i'm determand.

I don't mind showing my work but the pics are quite big and i'm p of that i know now it's not good enough.

[kuman]

lotta good advice so far

just wanted to say that there's time enough to practice and refine your skills

remmeber that you don't have to climb a mountain in one step, as a matter of fact it's probably not possible

keep practicing, keep learning, be determined and disciplined and i'm sure you'll get to all your goals

-k

[Fizzy]

Wow, Mike, that post was awesome. I think it should help out a lot of us trying to get ready to enter the industry.

The only thing I'd add is to show things you are really good at modelling - so I'm told. If you model something mechanical or architectual and it doesn't seem right to you, then don't include it.

The only other thing you can really do is to keep modelling, modelling, modelling. Every time you do you'll see an improvement. I know I have. Right now I'm working on my texturing skills. In just under two weeks I'm amazed at just how much I've improved.

Can we see some of your work Richard? I'll be posting more in the WIP section soon also. It does help improve your models.

[RichardK]

Hey guys i just bought the GAMEMAKER Magazine it's really good i'm gonna start now on my concept work and start modelling. I can't show you my work at the moment as I don't have my own site yet. But I also included some of my art work too as well as my models.

[RichardK]

Guys just a quick note the game company that i just worked for has attached a copy of a 'Careers in Art' document and sent it to me. They are working on it and it has brilliant info when applying for this type of job. It really helps me understand exactly what is required of me when i apply for a 3d artist position.

Arrgh!
I can't believe I wrote all that & I missed out the golden rule!!!
The most important thing:

Only show your *BEST* work.

Now, just so there's no ambiguity, let me explain. Your best work means exactly that - your absolute, top of the line, extemely proud of, stuns everyone that sees it, work. Nothing less.
No, "Well it's not my absolute best work but it's damn close" - that just won't cut it.
No, "Well no it's not really my best model but I really like it because I'm proud of the shoes/whatever" - that's not doing you any favours.
try to put all ego aside. Try to forget which models you had most fun working on. Try to forget the model that you have an attachment to.

Here's the way you do it.
Look at the piece, be it model, texture, whatever.
Try to be objective & think "is it my best work?"
If you pause for even a second before answering yes, dump it.
If you only put pieces in your portfolio that you answer yes straight away to without hesitation, or else can answer something like "definately" or "without a doubt" you will have your strongest possible portfolio.
Be ruthless. It's better to turn up with 5 of your best pieces than 10 where 5 are only "good" or worse still, mediocre, average or 'not quite there'. You should never have anything in there that you are not very confident about.
Trust me, I've done it. In an interview situation, the last thing you want to be doing is thinking, "should I have included that piece or not?" Boom - you lose.

Another tip I had for you was to go to some game company & game industry sites - there are a fair few that have tips on getting in to the industry. I'll try & dig up a few urls later.

Last thing - if you get in somewhere, remember your old pal Mike-3DT who advised you & put in a good word huh?

[RichardK]

yeah i already know that, i have some models that i say and look at it YES straight away. I'm just gonna wait for the manager to email back, but his is extremely busy as i know. Oh i will put in a good word! he already knows people have been giving me advice!