http://www.patrart.com/


**update 2/2/2012**

I have updated the Layout of my Website. I have pretty much built it in Blogger. I ditched a lot of the weaker pieces.

I know as of right now the site doesn't present a specialization. I am working on that.

I've gotten plenty of critiques saying I need to tight'in up and display some stand out pieces.

Probably the best feedback I've gotten is to retouch my foundations. Over the next month or two I am going to be working on figural sculpts which I will have posted in my WIP Tab.

My history with 3d has been a tumultuous and unfocused ride. I went to a private liberal arts school with an art department that didn't quite "get" 3d, and my graduate degree was built to nurture technical effects artists. But at each institution I still had amazing peers and instructors that helped me as much as they could within the bounds of their knowledge. In a way I am excited by this. I have a lot of the technical workflows down, so all I get to do now is focus on the art. Any suggestions or helpful comments would be taken to heart.

My real education begins now.

A couple of things I hear a lot is to put your contact info all over the place so a potential employers don't have to search for it. Such as in the header, and on your screen shots. So that way if an employer saves a screen shot to look at later he/she will know where it came from.

A side note, whenever I try to click an image from your 'Home Page' I get an error.

Multiple Choices

The document name you requested (/~roeder//propvehicleart) could not be found on this server. However, we found documents with names similar to the one you requested.
Available documents:

/~roeder//propvehicleart.html (common basename)
Please consider informing the owner of the referring page about the broken link.

Nothing stands out. Every piece you have is below mediocre. Your props/vehicles aren't textured or really presented all that well. Your portfolio is all over the place and not appealing to navigate. Most employers don't want to hire a generalist, they want to hire bad ass specialists. You have foundational skills and I'm assuming drive. I say focus on one aspect of art and bang the hell out of it. You will have a lot easier time

Agreed with Erich.

The concept of the generalist isn't very common in the way you are considering it. Even at smaller companies like where I work, artists have put wear a lot of hats, but we come from a strong foundation to begin with. Where as, none of your work has that.

BTW, I grew up in the same area as you. So I wish you well, but you really gotta rethink your approach. This portfolio is a cluttered mess of variety. Focus on some nice environment scene in a realtime engine (UDK, CryEngine 3, Unity).

agree with above people

but i have a question.... did you really forget to crop out your work space tool bars etc in your environment screenshots? that screams rookie man, once you build up your art put effort into how you display it, starting with rendering.. your gun looks like screenshots from one of maya's view-ports rather then MR or UDK etc

Site doesn't load for me in IE9. Also, you spelled environment wrong on your environment demo reel.

Echo pretty much what has been said and add this.

Why in the world for portfolio shots would you include the tool bars from unity? It looks bad. Really bad. Unless there is a specific reason to have that ditch it.

But yeah you really need some pieces that show you can do something really well and it's pretty much missing now.

I might be a little harsh, but I think that if you feel the need to call yourself a generalist, your skills are not worth much in any particular aspect. Specialize! its all about impressing your employer and having it stick. Don't dilute your presentation.

Well, the grad school I attend doesn't really have a strong art presence as they mainly focus on Technical Direction in Special Effects for movies. I've had to basically teach myself, and never had the time to specialize due to the breadth of the course work. Now that I am graduating I'll finally be able to do just that. Its just too bad that even with a masters I am still not on the level.

in that case, welcome to polycount

The saying Jack of all trades, master of none is pretty applicable to game art. Focus on one area first then diversify.

I like the concept of the site. It feels sharp. That said, here's my beef:

I don't like the way that the center panel fits with the rest of the layout. First, things are inconsistent in the space that they occupy when you pull them up. Second, its hard to 'know' where to look especially when changing sections.

I know its knit-picky but I think the color of the highlighted text when you pick a section could be like a cool blue. Red stands out, but it doesn't jive with the feel of everything else.

Hope this helps!

Site also didn't load for me in IE9 even clicked the compatibility mode thing and didn't work either.

For me the left menu is a bit large for my tastes, but my biggest problem is how you have the thumbnails in each of your sections setup. The thumbnails are narrow and don't really give an impression of what I will see when I click on it.

I would just have the images load the width of that container and the site be vertically scrollable, with each image linking to a higher res version, and you could setup some lightbox script that would replicate the gallery feel you see to have going on now.

Also there aren't any construction shots (Wires, Textures etc..), environments screenshots are all from the same angle, characters are all the same layout (you can rig so no reason not to give them an interesting pose as a beauty shot and show the orthos in another image).

Updated the original post.

Lose the character and lose the fruit. Id say lose the gun too but should be worked on more to be made into a ingame asset.

Your lighting in all of your scenes is a little bit below averge. Nothing stangs out compositionaly and it just all seems flat. I dont think you have a specular map on anything minus the lamp. It makes things pop a whole lot more. You have to much white light in some of your scenes. Why are their so many tabs? good gravy. Lose them all (but leave maybe a home and resume tab) and condence your best art work into one single page. Grey background is boring.

display your best work first, not your newest
provide breakdowns, its nice that the images click for bigger resolutions but it would be better to have more shots for each piece, or at least some wires and flats

things are improving, keep it up : )