Ysalex new portfolio construction thread
interpolator
Just as an FYI, this is a construction thread. I've decided to go back to looking for a job as a character artist in the coming new year. Even though freelancing is going well, I would love the opportunity to work in a studio. To that end, I've decided to revamp my portfolio and update it at the same time.
This is dual purpose. I at once want a stronger portfolio for looking for jobs, and a stronger portfolio for attracting new freelance clients.
I expect this process to take a couple months, as I am full-time up on freelance right now, and there are WIP pieces that I would like to finish for this new portfolio. I will update this thread as I make progress on all of this.
I figured the first step was to examine my portfolio and to make a list of all the things that I am going to change, or would like to change but have no idea how I would like to modify it. Looking back on my old portfolio, it occurs to me that I made a large number of unconscious decisions about what work to include, how to organize it, how to display it, etc. I largely relied on imitating other peoples portfolios, which was fine at the time, but I think I would like to make this revision a lot more conscious. When I make decisions, I want to be making them for the right reasons, and know what those reasons are.
Right now my inspirations are photographers portfolios. I love graphic design, and I have found that good photographers rival good designers for style. Additionally, the act of showing off a photo or illustration is much the same as showing off a game-art piece.
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Some photographer portfolios and other sites that really inspire me:
FFFFound.com - I love the gross simplicity of this site. It really embraces digital nature of the images they are showing off, sometimes very small, and makes it work by using the blue text and standard web font unashamedly. It's kind of like a proud overweight guy who has no problem with his own nudity - that is, it's maybe not the greatest to look at, but the confidence is extremely impressive and rather bold. I would not be opposed to this. I will file it under "grossly confident".
http://www.ezgipolat.de/ - I love these simple, white, side-menu styled portfolios. I worry how effective a horizontally scrolling portfolio would work.
http://www.lisesarfati.com/category/photographs/she/ - Like the top menu, and the no nonsense close styling on the links, just spacing etc.
I'll post more of these as I find them.
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Here is the main part of this. I've written up a list of things I am considering and changes I'd like to make or implement.
1 - Organization?
Right now I have two types of work. 1 is game-res stuff, and 2 is renderings. Splitting off the game-res stuff from the render stuff would require a top-layer split, where a user would go to 'renders' or 'game art'. I'm not sure I'm super up on that idea. How does one go about organizing this? What do users see when they land on a home page? A combination of things? Just game-res stuff? That would be fine, but right now I get as much non-game work as I do game work.
2 - Styling?
On my current portfolio, I have horizontal images, almost like stacked headers, which lead to each project.
Verticals are probably better for single characters, but the horizontals leave better composition for text and multiple characters. In my revamped portfolio, I will have several galleries/projects with multiple characters. Or, should I put up verticals for each character, even if they are from the same project?
3 - Colors?
White background is arguably more flattering and minimal, but there is merit to a darker background for showing off some images. Most of my characters are rendered on a 50% grey background.
4 - Blog section?
This section would be completely for me to post up WIP's etc, without cluttering my finished works section. I'm not sure if it's a good idea. If I neglect it, it could make the site seem dated.
5 - Name?
Doing freelance under my name or under a company name? Moon Balloon? Logo? Benefits of each? Can I name my company yurialexander LLC and still claim it to be a separate entity of myself. The way I understand LLC laws, if there are any legal problems with a client (longshot, but it happens), a lawyer could argue that my LLC is simply an alter-ego of myself, and that would negate any legal protections that an LLC provides. This might be wrong.
6 - Taking out props and environments.
At this point I'm not going to get a job in these areas, and the work in this section is poor compared to the rest of my mediocre work.
7 - Contact and Resume.
Need a downloadable PDF and this section needs to be polished off. Phone number? I really don't fucking want any phone calls, and the only people I imagine calling are recruiters, who are annoying enough with just my email.
8 - Awards?
s this egotistical? If I do, should they be presented in a group, or on each image that has won an award.
9 - Pieces?
Which should be kept, and which should be removed?
Right now I'm considering removing
- the Hipster character
- the Kaneda Interpretation
- the Photojournalist
- the Survivor Husband
- the realtime head studies.
Adding Sarge (mech suit alien guy), new characters i've been posting to my anatomy thread.
10 - Anatomy study?
I just finished an anatomy study in my anatomy thread. I wonder if this is a piece that would be okay to put in a portfolio. It's not sexual, but it does portray a woman naked. How do you group that? Do HR people want to see that? Could it be offensive, and thus better left out?
11 - Tutorial Section?
I have one tutorial right now. I've posted a couple of process or workflow mini-tutorials in various places when people have asked for them. Is it worth it took make a section for this?
Or is it better to get it on a site like 3d total? After I made the first tutorial (only tutorial) that's on my site right now, i submitted it to 3dtotal. They wrote back saying that they would publish the tutorial on their homepage (yay), but two weeks later said that because I had used so many images, and because they couldn't remove the writing on those images, that they would not be able to publish it. Is it worth it to go back and rewrite it/restructure it to get on a site like that, or better to host it on your own site?
12 - Style?
Traditional game art portfolio or go for it?
I've seen a lot of advice that champions a very basic setup. I get a lot of that, but there are some design elements I'm considering using that might go against this. Stuff like horizontal scrolling, etc. When people use this they get comments like 'it took too long to figure out how to scroll horizontally'.
Is treating a HR person like an idiot a good way to go for the fear of being ignored, or would it be okay to do something with more style, as long as that's actual style and not just crappy design by an amateur?
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sorry about the length of the post, just my initial thoughts on the subject. I'm going to buy a test domain and do some testing later. Input would be greatly appreciated on any or all of the things listed or not.
This is dual purpose. I at once want a stronger portfolio for looking for jobs, and a stronger portfolio for attracting new freelance clients.
I expect this process to take a couple months, as I am full-time up on freelance right now, and there are WIP pieces that I would like to finish for this new portfolio. I will update this thread as I make progress on all of this.
I figured the first step was to examine my portfolio and to make a list of all the things that I am going to change, or would like to change but have no idea how I would like to modify it. Looking back on my old portfolio, it occurs to me that I made a large number of unconscious decisions about what work to include, how to organize it, how to display it, etc. I largely relied on imitating other peoples portfolios, which was fine at the time, but I think I would like to make this revision a lot more conscious. When I make decisions, I want to be making them for the right reasons, and know what those reasons are.
Right now my inspirations are photographers portfolios. I love graphic design, and I have found that good photographers rival good designers for style. Additionally, the act of showing off a photo or illustration is much the same as showing off a game-art piece.
_____________________
Some photographer portfolios and other sites that really inspire me:
FFFFound.com - I love the gross simplicity of this site. It really embraces digital nature of the images they are showing off, sometimes very small, and makes it work by using the blue text and standard web font unashamedly. It's kind of like a proud overweight guy who has no problem with his own nudity - that is, it's maybe not the greatest to look at, but the confidence is extremely impressive and rather bold. I would not be opposed to this. I will file it under "grossly confident".
http://www.ezgipolat.de/ - I love these simple, white, side-menu styled portfolios. I worry how effective a horizontally scrolling portfolio would work.
http://www.lisesarfati.com/category/photographs/she/ - Like the top menu, and the no nonsense close styling on the links, just spacing etc.
I'll post more of these as I find them.
__________________
Here is the main part of this. I've written up a list of things I am considering and changes I'd like to make or implement.
1 - Organization?
Right now I have two types of work. 1 is game-res stuff, and 2 is renderings. Splitting off the game-res stuff from the render stuff would require a top-layer split, where a user would go to 'renders' or 'game art'. I'm not sure I'm super up on that idea. How does one go about organizing this? What do users see when they land on a home page? A combination of things? Just game-res stuff? That would be fine, but right now I get as much non-game work as I do game work.
2 - Styling?
On my current portfolio, I have horizontal images, almost like stacked headers, which lead to each project.
Verticals are probably better for single characters, but the horizontals leave better composition for text and multiple characters. In my revamped portfolio, I will have several galleries/projects with multiple characters. Or, should I put up verticals for each character, even if they are from the same project?
3 - Colors?
White background is arguably more flattering and minimal, but there is merit to a darker background for showing off some images. Most of my characters are rendered on a 50% grey background.
4 - Blog section?
This section would be completely for me to post up WIP's etc, without cluttering my finished works section. I'm not sure if it's a good idea. If I neglect it, it could make the site seem dated.
5 - Name?
Doing freelance under my name or under a company name? Moon Balloon? Logo? Benefits of each? Can I name my company yurialexander LLC and still claim it to be a separate entity of myself. The way I understand LLC laws, if there are any legal problems with a client (longshot, but it happens), a lawyer could argue that my LLC is simply an alter-ego of myself, and that would negate any legal protections that an LLC provides. This might be wrong.
6 - Taking out props and environments.
At this point I'm not going to get a job in these areas, and the work in this section is poor compared to the rest of my mediocre work.
7 - Contact and Resume.
Need a downloadable PDF and this section needs to be polished off. Phone number? I really don't fucking want any phone calls, and the only people I imagine calling are recruiters, who are annoying enough with just my email.
8 - Awards?
s this egotistical? If I do, should they be presented in a group, or on each image that has won an award.
9 - Pieces?
Which should be kept, and which should be removed?
Right now I'm considering removing
- the Hipster character
- the Kaneda Interpretation
- the Photojournalist
- the Survivor Husband
- the realtime head studies.
Adding Sarge (mech suit alien guy), new characters i've been posting to my anatomy thread.
10 - Anatomy study?
I just finished an anatomy study in my anatomy thread. I wonder if this is a piece that would be okay to put in a portfolio. It's not sexual, but it does portray a woman naked. How do you group that? Do HR people want to see that? Could it be offensive, and thus better left out?
11 - Tutorial Section?
I have one tutorial right now. I've posted a couple of process or workflow mini-tutorials in various places when people have asked for them. Is it worth it took make a section for this?
Or is it better to get it on a site like 3d total? After I made the first tutorial (only tutorial) that's on my site right now, i submitted it to 3dtotal. They wrote back saying that they would publish the tutorial on their homepage (yay), but two weeks later said that because I had used so many images, and because they couldn't remove the writing on those images, that they would not be able to publish it. Is it worth it to go back and rewrite it/restructure it to get on a site like that, or better to host it on your own site?
12 - Style?
Traditional game art portfolio or go for it?
I've seen a lot of advice that champions a very basic setup. I get a lot of that, but there are some design elements I'm considering using that might go against this. Stuff like horizontal scrolling, etc. When people use this they get comments like 'it took too long to figure out how to scroll horizontally'.
Is treating a HR person like an idiot a good way to go for the fear of being ignored, or would it be okay to do something with more style, as long as that's actual style and not just crappy design by an amateur?
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sorry about the length of the post, just my initial thoughts on the subject. I'm going to buy a test domain and do some testing later. Input would be greatly appreciated on any or all of the things listed or not.
Replies
Since I'm also a web/graphic designer I will try and help out with all of the points if I can.
1 - Organization?
I would say that whatever you want to have a job in, be it making games or making high res renders is probably what you should show first. Since you say that you get about an even amount of work on both sides it might not be a bad idea to split them off into sections, with one being the front page and the other on it's own apge.
2 - Styling?
This is purely subjective and is really up to you, it is even possible to not have any text on your thumbnails at all. It's also really up to you if you want to group by character or by project, if you have characters that are closely related to each other then it might be best if they are on the same page and on the smae thumbnail. If you do consider a layout where you have text on your thumbnails, you might not want to do it like you have on your current portfolio. Though it is my opinion, I do find it really distracting the way it is now.
3 - Colors?
Again it's really up to you, most people prefer dark backgrounds since it does seem to help people focus on your work more and is easier on the eyes.
4 - Blog section?
To avoid seeming dated you could also have a blog theme or layout that doesn't display the dates at all. You can do this on the major blogging platforms such as tumblr, blogspot and wordpress with a little know how and/or the right theme.
5 - Name?
I recently got a LLC for myself and what my lawyer told me is that you can technically use whatever name you want so long as all of the important paperwork goes through the LLC. So for example you could publicly use your name to find work, then when you negotiate payments/contracts you will use the name of your LLC. It's very important that you do that so you are protected and the clients can't do what's called "piercing the corporate veil" where they can sue you personally through the company because there is little distinguishably of where the LLC ends and you begin. Pretty much you need to create a clear line between you and the LLC so if anything goes wrong they can sue the company, and you personally will be left untouched. You have to make sure that everything financially transacted through the LLC is corporate related, The (kind of) downside to doing things this way is you will need a bank account for your LLC and if you want the money you make from your LLC you will have to write yourself a check to transfer funds from the LLC to yourself. However it is worth it to protect yourself.
6 - Taking out props and environments.
Probably a good idea, you character work stands amazingly well on it's own.
7 - Contact and Resume.
I feel you on phone calls, but it's probably not a bad idea to have it on your resume at the very least. Somebody with more experience can probably shed more light on this.
8 - Awards?
Depending on how you present it, it can seem egotistical. It would probably be a better idea to list all of your awards in one section instead of slapping each award on it's corresponding piece, in my opinion that would be the more humble way to do it.
9 - Pieces?
Seems like you have a good grasp on what to keep and what to get rid of, so I don't really have anything to add.
10 - Anatomy study?
It's an amazing piece, it would be a shame to leave it out, if you are worried about nudity offending someone you could probably put it farther down the page where people are less likely to see it.
11 - Tutorial Section?
Again this is up to you, I personally don't think having the tutorial on your site would be a bad idea, it would drive more traffic to you.
12 - Style?
Again horizontal scroll isn't very good idea and doesn't present work very well. You do have amazing work that might make people look beyond the horizontal scroll, but it would be a risk that is up to you on whether or not it is worth taking.
IMO sticking to a traditional layout isn't really treating an HR person like an idiot, so much as it is having convenience over having to learn something for a few seconds to properly navigate your site. From what I understand to also make horizontal scroll work really really well and fluid you have to do some extra scripting beyond HTML and CSS coding.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
I'll be messing around with drawin out some thumbnails soon, I'll keep you're ideas in mind while I do so. Thanks again.
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This is closer to what I have right now. I like this too, but less. Thumbnails don't show off the characters well, although I have space to put text on them which I do like.
Scrolling is easier here, people I believe will naturally know that they can scroll down to see more.
As far as layouts go I tend to favor vertical layouts for characters and horizontal layouts for environments.
If you don't like the artificial feel of rows & columns, you can try offsetting alternate rows, something like this:
* * * *
* * *
* * * *
* * *
Of course, if you have too many on a single page, then you can overwhelm the viewer.
Personally, I'd probably keep the blog & tutorials separate from the portfolio; neither section is really relevant to your job search.
The vertical images fit a character artist portfolio really well.
However I personally don't like any of the examples you provided, makes me more aware of the contrast between the background and the text and takes my eye of the photos, reminds me of a news paper too.
Also try and keep the colors of your text consistent, not red and blue or having to saturated of a color.
You have top-notch work though, have been really cool seeing you progress
Edit: I would find something like this pleasing.
I remembered that Daarken has similar looking folio. http://daarken.com it might give you some ideas.
We are all used to blogs from news sites etc. So the site should just be a bunch of images you can scroll down through.
Daarken has nice work but the front page has too much artwork. I think just one big image of your best work should be the first thing you see.
For instant ysalex I can already tell your a good artist just by looking at you polycount icon. Less is more don't become a website designer. Spend your time with CG!!!
BTW I would hire you
..that's my 2 cents
For page layout, this is an idea I've been toying with for my portfolio; somehow implementing the golden ratio into the page layout. Reason being that you will guide the viewer in the order you want them to view your work.
As an example, this is how twitter used the ratio for their page layout
Example:
Needs:
- Well lit (not bright, but lit to show off the model).
- Realistic
- Simple background
- Something I don't see very often
Here is the first attempt at that, crits on how to modify it for use as a rendering tool appreciated.
I got one setup with a plain arced plane and reflection cards placed all around. I experimented with surface detailing, draped cloth etc but in the end it distracted from the main thing in the scene..the model so iv settled for a simple environment.
Personally, i would opt for brighter stage than what you have. i find it easier to make the material differences pop.
also in my render scene i have a scale prop so when i drop in models, i can quickly match the scale for the scene. the scale ref is also animated rotating 360 degrees so i can easily constraint the imported model to it and get identical angles rendered if needed.
This setup wouldn't do that, but I think I've ruled out a tiled design. Not because I don't like them, but because my goal is to really really limit the number of included pieces, and a scrolling format will probably be best, just keep it all on one page.
I once heard that many people simply don't have the patience to click more than abut 5 or 6 times when viewing a portfolio, which is the same reason I went for the unlimited scroll too.
Im honestly torn on the wood backdrop... On the one hand its cool and clever but on the other I feel like its taking away from your work a bit too. have you thought about maybe keeping the floor and tape but replacing the wood with something like this?
Maybe to make it a little more interesting, Throw up a really cheap back drop "Sheet" over the plywood, Half way falling off, with some of the plywood still showing, Maybe a few holes in it. Almost like a cheap porn set or something.
Edit: Damn. Hobo beat me to the back drop idea :P but i think a less formal, More gritty, "real world" set up looks cooler than a professional photographer set.
I'm not a fan of whatever those gold shapes are, though. Pretty much kills the balance in the image.
As for the layout, Perhaps a diagonal format? They say slants are dramatic, I don't know who they are, But they told me. This way its obvious there is more content below.
also really digging that s6!
I'd also agree with MrHobo, the wood is cool but it does distract from the work, which is what you're trying to push forward. The photo shoot/green screen background would be better I think while still giving a personalised/unique touch to your renders.
P.S: Your work is so bloody good Yuri
Your 2 first mockups look fine in terms of image layout, but the fonts and colors you use make it look very dated. Red and blue CC looks cheap in its current form, and the fonts are too small, and just not good looking. Id really avoid serifs, your presentation asks for a contemporary sanss, similar to your last page.
I would no use such small fonts, theyre hard to read, and do not compliment your
general impression.
The text placement on your dark layout is off, the text should not go over the borders of your images (theres so much space free)
From a UX point of view, the vertical layout is likely superior, always
keep user habits, and the web is kind of vertical alltogether, but if you have as few images so that you do not need to scroll, id see no problems in a horizontal one
Horizontal would be the perfect shape, since it uses similar proportions than a human
but I definitely would never get that you could scroll down on your first mockup.
I like the current logo and key color, its modern and minimalist, the small text looks good because its a vector webfont, but a bigger bitmap based one based on your general styleguide would make it easier to read and not as fiddly.
my portfolio is not updated for a long time if you look at that, so busy haha
heres what I d imagine (more or less)
font is a good old gotham, not too innovative but it never fails to impress, a more modern (maybe condensed) one can do a bunch better, I didnt search for long
its nothing too special, just bold contrast and clean, pattern is arguable I guess, looks decent on this laptop but gamma is probably very off, and thats a very fine tweaking thing, pure white is fine aswell
Inverted version, because why not https://hostr.co/file/0J3yucx6heyJ/A9nbdSR.png
hope i could help
Right now I am obsessed with Swiss graphic design and white space typography.
I just love this style, bold and lets the function dictate the design.
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When I think of the stuff that is going to end up in the portfolio now I have a couple nonsense pieces
- A woman with unidentified hands on her face
- A woman standing in an infinity room wringing her hair out
- A man looking off into nothing
- An underlit portrait of my wife looking away from the camera
and then some more technical game-res stuff that was for clients
- A modular male character set with many different outfits and facial combinations
- A brute alien
- A sci-fi female girl
- A sci-fi male astronaut that uses some next gen tech that should be pretty cool.
So I was thinking that was a pretty good mix. I'm not sure maybe I just throw out all the random nonsense renders and only put up the stuff from the second column stuff. I am, after all, when I eventually start applying to jobs again, looking for more of a technician position. I am not going to be an art director, I am not going to be a concept artist. I am not going to be doing much designing. I am going to be a 3d artist who translates other peoples vision and design to 3d games. That is what my goal is, that sounds like an amazing job, and I love doing that freelance so far.
Anyways, I feel like I can make a good site using some more simple elements than I currently have. Limiting my content.
One reason is because in cutting a lot of the fat from my portfolio, I think I can get everything on one page, and it seems like 800PX is about the right height.
http://www.yurialexander.com/03-space-dive-2030/
And here is a vertical scroller. Ignore the left-over images:
http://www.yurialexander.com/charactersmain/shadows/yurialexander.com
http://css-tricks.com/snippets/jquery/horz-scroll-with-mouse-wheel/
Always a fan of you're stuff ysalex
www.yurialexander.com
None of the links actually work, but this front page is how it will work/look.
The idea was to put a short description of each project, and then two images that I think best represent that, and then link to the rest of each project.
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This page: http://www.yurialexander.com/charactersmain/06kaneda/
Has an alternate sort of design. It's like my last design with header images that link in to projects.
I'd like to know what of these people prefer, and what they do/don't like.
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Also I moved my awards to the 'contact' page.
The double headliners are too much, and if you put the descriptions inside the linked pages instead of the frontpage, it be a lot clearer aswell.
Either put all headlines as bitmaps and give a little hint that they link to more images, or write it all with your webfont, but mixing both is clunky.
It seems like you want people to click on your images on one hand, but on the other you want that they see the info just from flying over your frontpage , and that is kinda conflicting.
It is possible to serve both sides, but is a difficult thing to pull off.
Also, your bitmap font and your webfont do not really fit together. They both work well with your logo, but not with each other. Also I thought you would want something like the swiss designers did ? The webfont goes in that direction but the bitmap one is totally another scene. And are you sure about the strawberry joghurt color ? Its a tone that does not like to be mixed with a lot of other colors
You could also maybe put your initials in the triangle on the top of the page only, but just a thought
Things like the spacedive 2030 specs should be left out (remade with new font), it just breaks your design
The alternate design is really overkill with the text. That could work if the text is smaller and is consistent in placement (aka left bound, bottom of the image per example for every image)
The bottom of the page does not use any descriptions, but the top does for some reason. If you put that just in your subsites, you had the frontpage clean and it would be consistent aswell
No matter what you aim for, just try being consistent. Having it all the same makes it look good, even if the quality of a couple of individual pieces is sub-par to a mixed design.
As for the second/alt design, you can ignore the words on that page, sorry I didn't realize I had them up. It would just be the clean headers, no text.
The logo I like, but it will need my initials or something I agree, for now it is a placeholder (I am away from home and have no photoshop tools).
I used to have everything as large vertical thumbnails, and used a carousel (similar to the one in the iOS app store).
But people complained about that the horizontal scrolling was counter intuitive.
So now I kind of have an hybrid.
I have the vertical thumbnails. When clicked it shows a bunch of images in plain html. No fancy layout or what have you.
Also for what it's worth, I had based my original website design of off hazardous' (older) portfolio website. http://www.kalescentstudios.com/troyfolio/Main.htm
You could also put small square thumbnails at the top of your page and use anchors to link to a section of your site.
Big noob here, so take my crits with a grain of salt. I think your layout in http://www.yurialexander.com is cool, but I think when there starts to be too much of that really big title font text, it starts to lose its punch. I feel when it is short and then there is a piece of art, it gives more meaning for the art and not just for the text itself.
http://www.yurialexander.com/charactersmain/06kaneda/ I really like this version too, but in some of the images I was at first having a hard time to focus on the text and read it. For example in the We are Chicago, Guildwars elementalist and Space dive. Where that title style worked really good for me was Shadows, Planetdrop, Renders and sculpts and Anatomy study. That triangle idea is neat, in how it makes all of your works feel like they are in unity with your site.
And I hate to say it but your triangle logo reminds me a lot of Dirt 3, mostly because I worked on it and triangles were the theme for the UI and front end
With bitmap font I meant the fonts you uploaded in image format (hence bitmap), the thin one. The webfont is vector not pixel/bitmap based, it
is generated by your site , you can copy paste it per example (there is a limited selection of fonts that can be displayed in browsers natively webfonts are such fonts, they are provided by your website kit or google .. no expert in this) ..drifting off
Clean headers sounds good, just dont overdo the font part, and put the same text alignment for every image
@KittyOwl, I was tempted to do a kill bill photoshop for a second out of the first one haha
It leaves something to be desired on the creativity/design front though.
Unrelated: Man, I love the breasts on all your characters. They are fantastic.
Got bored and tried some logo's.
I think it would be cool if you got the shapes/logo to indicate your name/initials somehow.
Not sure how to take it, but okay. Thanks for doing those mock-ups, but honestly I am not trying to insert anything too over-designed into things. I kind of like the pink/grey triangle because it's simple, it doesn't really have to mean anything. I have considered putting my initials into it, or perhaps adding something to it, but really I don't want to add much.
Thank you for the input man.
I do agree with you about the mixture of content, but I haven't really figured or seen a good way of dealing with it.
My main problem is that I don't want to have to put anyone though a menu to see my work. I feel like menu's are the owners manuals of websites. Nobody reads them unless they have to, and mostly they get annoyed if it gets to that.
Personally I don't, not when visiting other artists sites. I like to scroll instantly and see some work. I don't mind following links that assert themselves in the content section, but I feel like putting a menu at the top that divides my content into sections wont do anything except keep people from seeing it.
And on that topic, I'm also feeling increasingly like mixing renders and game-res isn't as bad as it once was. The systems for creating characters are merging workflows and skill-sets, thanks to PBR, and I am of the mind that displaying that you can create pre-rendered characters is proof that you have at least x% of the skills needed to create a game res character.
(x here is arguable, but in my opinion if you can do this kind of rendering, you share maybe 80% of skills with a person who can create a game-res character. The last 20% being a knowledge of proper/efficient UV mapping, and proper/efficient topology/poly distribution. Everything else is high-poly creation and texturing, which they share.)
I am also seeing an increasing number of people who are dropping 4 million polygon heads into Marmoset2, complete with Fibermesh hair, and putting it into a 'realtime' category on their site. I'm not knocking anyone with that, I am just saying that there are these cross-winds starting to blow over the disciplines and pushing things together, and I think as long as you're honest about how your work is done (actually playable realtime or not) then showing your non-realtime work is fine.
Thanks, it seems like the larger font is a no go for several people. I don't mind taking it out, it was just something I was playing with. Appreciate your time and input.
Oh yeah, I didn't mean to make actual sections with links etc, but more in how you structure the content on the page. For example, start with your high quality renders, then have game characters, then something else. At the moment it's a free for all so you start with an image of game assets, the next image is a high quality render, then there's something else. It's more about bringing a bit of order to it rather than splitting it up and hiding things. Speaking of, you do have more art under your links at the top of the page so bringing those into the main page in discrete sections as mentioned above could work well. I hope that makes more sense
True, but then you could almost say that 4 million polys in TB2 would be a new genre; real time non-playable. I have nothing against putting super high res meshes in TB2 and so on, it's just mixing it all togehter that doesn't work all that well imo. Not saying that you are doing it, just that if people are jamming "proper" game assets together with multi million TB2 screenshots then that's a bit silly. Not wrong, just silly. And like you said, being upfront about what is what is paramount.
You said in the first post that you want a stronger portfolio for job looking and freelance clients. Sure your current site shows a strong portfolio of work but it doesn't show much of selling yourself to potential clients and jobs.
If someone is not familiar with you and what you do your homepage doesn't tell them much. It shows and describes your work but doesn't explain what that means to them. It doesn't say much about how you can help them. TO find that out you have to click on the contact page and by that point you may have lost people who didn't know, or didn't notice that is what they needed to do.
Usually it helps to have a little information telling someone what your website can do for them. I'll use twitter as an example since it was mentioned earlier. If you don't have a twitter account and you go to twitter.com one of the main things on the homepage is:
"Welcome to Twitter.
Start a conversation, explore your interests, and be in the know."
This tells someone right off the bat why they would want to use twitter. It focuses on user first. Then on the same homepage it tells you how you can connects and use twitter. The homage says how to sign up for an account and that you can download twitter on your devices.
What I am getting at is while a beautiful design, and your designs are quiet beautiful, is important it is good to put some focus into getting clients to know why they want to work with you. After all you are selling your service, whether that is to clients or possible job offers or other.
But also don't forget your still a person and you want to make the clients feel like you know them and can fulfill their needs. That is why they are on your site right?
I wish you luck with wherever your website goes!
The structure this time is that there is a handful of projects up front, and then thumbnails for other images at the bottom.
So my questions are, does this make more sense?, and, are those the right pieces to put full size up front, or should I go with something else?
I left places on the menu for a couple projects (they are not correctly linked right now), and also a couple of the tutorials.
I have a secondary question about the tutorials, which is the same as the main pictures question, which ones should I keep, and which should I toss? (tutorials aren't linked properly yet either).
www.yurialexander.com
Also redid contacts
Even if you keep the scrolling down for the images the menus aren't readable to me. Also accented your logo with a little color and texture.