Hey guys!

I've been swamped down with uni work over the past few days (you may have seen some of my stuff posted in various places around Polycount), but I've set aside some time this weekend to get my portfolio online.

It's my first real attempt at HTML so apologies if it's a little buggy. Do let me know if anything is not working correctly!

http://www.liamtart.com/

A few examples of my work:





I'm really looking for some feedback on pretty much everything in my portfolio, except for the earlier level design stuff. I am about to finish university and I am so excited to start looking for jobs, and I really want to push everything up to university standard.

My plan for the next few months after university is to model a load of tools that my dad has in his garage (he has the most amazing collection of weird tools, that I've never even seen before) using subdivision modelling, and make low polys and texture them all.

I think my environment shows my understanding of environments as a collective, but I want to focus on some smaller pieces now to fill in the gaps. I want to add a lot more to my portfolio!

Anyway guys, crit away! Seriously, anything. Even if its so miniscule that you think 'nah I wont mention it'; mention it!

Would just like to thank everybody who has helped me over the past year or so with all the assets I've posted up here on Polycount. Without you guys, I wouldn't have got to where I'm currently at and I'm eternally grateful!

Thanks,

-Liam

I say you ditch the character, it's in an "environment artist" portfolio, and by far the weakest piece in your portfolio, but overall the site is really great, I think it'd be cool if you showed some more high poly renders as well, good luck in your job hunt!

Ditch the character. Rest is great.

Spot on mate! You're work is nice, and your portfolio is simple, straightforward and effective at presenting your shots. Drop the character yadda yadda, Well Done!

E: ooh, actually, my one crit would be that you should show off the wall and archway parts of your medieval scene - What seems to be lacking in your portfolio to me is evidence of understanding modular workflow, reusing building parts etc.

Nice work and site, couple of minor annoyances;
Greentooth icon looks jaggy and has an ugly outline, it ain't even round. Looks really crappy and was literally the first thing I noticed :p

A bit of redundant text on some of the pages repeating the same words and giving the same kind of information.

Hey guys. Thanks for all the feedback!

I'm currently away from home and thus do not have access to my work and I'm simply using screenshots from my Dropbox. I will upload proper model breakdowns when I get home tomorrow.

The general consensus seems to be to remove the character, so I have now removed it from the site and I am keeping it to just environment work.

As I said, my plan over the next couple of months is to do more high poly work and show them, as that is what I want to show more of on my portfolio. I also want to work on another environment to show how I have progressed since doing those 2 previous environments, I have learnt a lot more since then.

Yozora - You're right! That Polycount logo is a bit lacking at the minute, I'll have to change that today. I'll have a read through all the text on the website and consolidate it a little more. Was there anything that stuck out in particular?

If anybody hears of any jobs that you think I should apply for, please do let me know. I'm currently in the process of looking around and applying for jobs. I would owe you big time!


Thanks for all the feedback guys, I really appreciate it!

overall its a good portfoilio imo.

Few thoughts:

1) "preview" picture for "low-poly" and "level design" could be split into 2-3 sections to show that u have few different samples of content in there. Its like, "oh, so he has not only misile silo but also modular buidings there..." or "he has got not only TF2 level but also other stuff..."

2) LD section lacks breakdowns and more precise description fo what u did. Level art looks cool, but those screenshots showcase level art, not level design. So if u did some level art u could mention what and where (i assume there were other ppl on it as well maybe). If u did only level design, then floorplans, LD schemes and some design studies would be more helpful i guess as well videos on the flow within your levels.

3)the way u describe the LD projects makes it hard to tell if it was something official or an addon, or a community mod etc.
Maybe its me, but to me it sounded more like as if someone tried to "disguize" a mod into something that sounds more "official" by writing "this was made for Half-Life2", "I worked for Black Mesa" etc. just sounds a bit confusing to me. If it would be written something like "community MOD for HL2 called bla-bla ..." etc it would appear more transparent.

Ok, thanks for that Matroskin.

Changelist:

-Gave a little more information about the level design projects and included a download link for the TF2 map. Also included information on what exactly 'Black Mesa' is.

-Fixed up the jagged-edged Polycount icon. Out of interest, where did that logo originate from? It's very (excuse the pun) 'iconic'!

-Changed the thumbnail images for Level Design and Handheld to show that there is more than 1 project contained within.

-Changed some of the descriptions for Handheld/Mobile to be less wordy.

Sorry to keep spamming this thread, but I have now uploaded my CV/Résumé in both PDF and Word format on my portfolio.

Let me know what you think of the portfolio now guys. I'm going to be adding a lot more content to it over the next couple of months.

http://www.liamtart.com

Yeah that's looking really snazzy.

As for jobs, don't wait for them to come for you, apply around like a madman, you have the portfolio that shows you know what you're doing. Or wait until your happy with all your current work and portfolio then start applying around.

Thanks Mr Bear.

Sorry if it came across that way. I am by no means just sitting back and waiting, I am actively applying to places.

I am going to apply but keep updating my portfolio over the next few months. Can't hurt to look around now!

The repetitive text was mainly the bits about radiosity and baking on the low poly page and the descriptions of each piece being made with 3d max, photoshop, blabla. I think the CV is sufficient enough to explain the programs you use and you don't need to say it for each piece.

I could be wrong on that though, just my personal preference

One thing that is missing from all your images except the UC/level design ones is contact details. I suggest using the same template as you did for the UC pieces for all the other images to keep a consistent look. Personally I prefer the single bottom opaque bar of the UC ones than the double black bars of the level design ones at the top/bottom.
Keep the black border, I like it :p

Another thing I like is for "thumbnails" to be the same width. It looks tidier. For something like the tractor, you could do with a render of it's back perspective to extend the image, width-wise.

Won't be hard to make that UC texture sheet the same width as well.

For the mobile textures you could put the vehicle texture on the same image as the vehicles, and the buildings for the buildings.

You should also re-do how you laid out the level at the top... 3d max Viewport images look kind of unprofessional with all that perspective window text on the top left.
I can barely tell the difference between the top view and the one in the bottom left. The middle one is quite samey too. There's definitely a better way to present all of this.

And you could use some tri count/wireframes for the props in the dungeon page.

Ok Yozora, thanks for your feedback. I'm back at home now so I'll try to fix up most of what you said.

I'll be adding a new section soon: individual props that I'm working on to practice high poly. I will use the bottom bar with contact details and set that as my default 'style' and then go back and change all the rest.

Gah, why would you show the wires for that farm scene and not for the other with the giant cloth? I was curious how many tri's it was

Yeah it's stuff like that I need to give more information about. It's a little elusive atm haha. As far as I remember it was around 1,200 tris.

Lookin good man! Hope that recruiter thing worked for you btw.

This brings up a good question... should you plaster your portfolio with stats? ie should every image have your poly and tri count, normal maps, diffuse, ao?

I think all of the individual renders should have stats. That's something I'm currently in the process of updating; everything is a little disjointed atm.

Here's a model I've been working on for the past 2 days or so. Trying to speed up my workflow and practice subdivision modelling. Need to post up the high poly too, will be up in a bit!

This is also the new layout style I want for all my individual renders, going to go through my entire portfolio and update old assets to this new style.

I've also tweaked the textures of the tractor, and added its new style sheet:

really cool work

Thanks Greyman! Glad you like it.

Ok, I've re-vamped the entire first 3 sections: "Apocalyptic Cornfield", "Fantasy Dungeon" and a new section: "Tools Project". Check it out to find out more!

By 'revamp' I mean I've updated all the images to have a little more detail and show off models and textures a little more. They now all share the same watermarks at the bottom, so the site reads a little better now.

Now I can start cranking out some more assets, stay tuned guys!

www.liamtart.com

I've posted this in the 'what are you working on' section, but just thought I'd post it up here as a WIP, so you guys can see (hopefully) a progression with this piece.

Been working on a modular building set, as I realised my 'tools' project was going to be really similar to Scott Homer's environment that he's working on. I'll carry it on when uni's over though.

This piece uses 2 1024 textures, one for the top half of the building (brick section) and one for the bottom half (shop fronts).



Loosely based off this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...on_Montana.jpg

Next step is to make the building modular for UDK (splitting it into re-usable chunks), and texturing. Then I need to make individual props and the surrounding street for it too. This is so much fun!

WOW , great stuff man can't wait to see that modular building textured @_@

good luck

Looking good Liam, congrats on making the news with your WAYWO post. Will be worthwhile getting your FYP work on here when its textures, the feedback could prove very useful.

Thanks Ayou, it'll be textured soon. Working on the little street area first to get it all blocked out, then I'm going to texture everything and work on loads of little props to make it look more lived-in.

Stu - Thanks! I'll give you a shout when my FYP stuff is up here. See you on Monday!