Portfolio Critique requested

[Mandinga]

Please visit my Portfolio site

FIXED URL, THANKS GREEN

www.rebirth-productions.com

I'm looking for honest opinions on all pieces and website layout. Really appreciate it guys.

[Goopygoo, Lord of the Whilst]

I can't load the page. Sorry.

[Dashe]

I'm getting a wikipedia page on Hypertext Transfer Protocol. At least now I know what http stands for.

[Pitch]

He did the link wrong, therefore the BB-code interprets it poorly and the clickable link doesn't work. It's the right URL otherwise. You can copy‘n’paste the link and it should automatically fix the error - at least, Firefox does. Honestly, you guys don't even try to figure out what's wrong.. or anything beyond just clicking the link.

Mandinga, URL's use forward slashes(//).

www.rebirth-productions.com

xD Mandinga I love your modeling work. Don't really like Angel - looks too much like Zero.. But it's all really cool. The site looks a bit bland and direct(the Contact link hardly seems necessary). But it works really well. Loads really quick for me, no headaches whatsoever. Half the webpages I go to these days take forever and a day to load.

[Dashe]

I like the layout, even though I'm not particularly fond of black. I don't know if you're going to do this later, but it might help organize things a little better if your in-progress and completed works were on separate pages. And even though I know very little about modeling and probably shouldn't be judging the quality at all, that couch you did kind of looks like it's made of plastic with a fabric texture mapped onto it. Did you bevel the cushion edges or is it just me?

[Frankenpetey]

I have no problem with the site layout. Minimalism keeps the focus on the actual artwork, and the site loads very quickly. The only change I'd make is the same thing Dashe pointed out: some distinction between the in-progress and completed work would be nice. You wouldn't want someone to look at a WIP and think that was what your finished product looked like!

As far as the artwork goes, I really can't comment too much on the models themselves, since I don't know much about it. I do really like your color choices. A lot of sci-fi art I've seen is really desaturated and drab looking. The colors of the sand and water in the desert scene in the second row from the bottom are especially striking.

The only big piece that doesn't really grab me is the female character's armor. That's not to say it's bad, but compared to the male's armor, which is so architectural and fun to look at, it's just sort of...expected. If that's the word I want.

I'm not sure if a glass breatplate is really wise (I'm assuming that's what it is; it looks to be the same material as her visor). If you came up with some kind of armor for her lower torso, I think the whole thing would flow a little better, and you'd be getting around that whole "metal bikini" cliche. (And she won't die of a painful gut wound. Hooray!) And I'm not really digging the big shoulder guards, but now I'm just nitpicking.

I'm assuming she's one of your in-progress designs, so I hope I don't sound too negative about her. Her armor just doesn't make me want to look at it a second time, and the male armor does.

[Mandinga]

Green/Pitch: Thanks for the link fix, I was kinda gone when I posted it. glad it loads, I traded beauty for speed. Angel was a character inspired by zero and leviathan, along with other things non MM related I am thinking of changing her colors to a more white scheme.

Dashe: I probably won't be changing the black lay out , sorry but as far as organizing the inprogress ones that will come soon, as textureing these things takes so damn long. As for the couch, the couch was a model I made back in 2001 when I first got into 3D. Really didn't wanna mod it so people cold see that I have flaws and that I've corrected them. I do need to organize em though.

Petey: Hmm I've been getting mixed responses about angels armour. She is still in progress, thats why it looks ify. She has no custom textures, just mental ray shaders. Glass breastplate stays, serves another purpose, Shoulders are made (in the game) to reduce impact shock and to give her the ability to magnetize her weapons to stick to em.


Everyone seems to really like Advent (black armour suit) I'm happy with that response as a main character has to look good.

Thanks for the heads up guys, I'm adding animation samples to the site aswell, those should be up soon, I'll post again when theyre ready. I'm trying for .mp4 download easy videos.

[Dashe]

mandinga said:

I probably won't be changing the black lay out , sorry but as far as organizing the inprogress ones that will come soon, as textureing these things takes so dang long. As for the couch, the couch was a model I made back in 2001 when I first got into 3D. Really didn't wanna mod it so people cold see that I have flaws and that I've corrected them. I do need to organize em though.

Frankly, the color's just my personal preference, use whatever the scrumpets you so desire. Your portfolio reviewers won't give a darn if it loads all right and is easy to navigate.

One thing I must say about portfolios is that if you want your work to truly be taken seriously, post only the best of your best work. There's no sense in showing that you've improved, because employers aren't looking for work you did when you started out. They want to hire people with the highest quality modeling skills out there, not people with flaws, so you should reserve your portfolio site for the best and most up-to-date work you have to offer. Ditch the early stuff (unless it looks amazing), it'll help you in the long run.

[Mandinga]

Dashe: I thought that at first, but when 3 consecutive employers 2 months ago asked for that in specific, I kinda left it in there (Then again they were leads from the university) But of coarse no one at EA or Sony or pixar would take me with some of these pieces.

[Dashe]

That's really weird. I never got that for any of my portfolio reviews, but then again, I'm not a modeler and probably never will be. I assume you're either currently attending or in the process of applying to a decent game design/animation school, right? Are you using the resources available to you in real life (i.e. professors, upperclassmen, people you know currently in the field) as well as online, or have your job hunts and evaluations been exclusively internet-based? I'm not sure if it matters or not, but it might. You never know.

[Mandinga]

dashe said:

That's really weird. I never got that for any of my portfolio reviews, but then again, I'm not a modeler and probably never will be. I assume you're either currently attending or in the process of applying to a decent game design/animation school, right? Are you using the resources available to you in real life (i.e. professors, upperclassmen, people you know currently in the field) as well as online, or have your job hunts and evaluations been exclusively internet-based? I'm not sure if it matters or not, but it might. You never know.

naw the internet just faciltates things, saves me from carrying stuff araound. I'm in my senior year in FAU for my BFA degree. Almost all of my professional work is owned by my clients, which sadly have expressed that they cannot be displayed until product release. So I just have to make due with my personal stuff, which is lacking in a few things simply cause it's free time work.

[Pitch]

mandinga said:

Green/Pitch: Thanks for the link fix, I was kinda gone when I posted it. glad it loads, I traded beauty for speed. Angel was a character inspired by zero and leviathan, along with other things non MM related I am thinking of changing her colors to a more white scheme.

White schemes are awesome..

You could add a bit more text maybe, that generally doesn't affect loading times. And maybe just like, take that Contact Link out and just put an Email Link at the bottom of the main page, maybe the word "Contact:" in bold in front of it(Minimalism = Good; Page with one Link and nothing else on it = Pointless).. Maybe you could slap an <hr> between your Works In Progress and your Completed Works, too... actually.. wait a minute.

Geeeez. You used frames? Who does that anymore? Oii.. And your actual code makes my head hurt. FrontPage code? Dreamweaver? You should code your own webpage(if you didn't), especially for something that simple. I doubt it would affect loading times but there seems to be so much unnecessary crap in your code. You have two-dozen+ empty DIVs with bizarre STYLE definitions at the top of your pages. That one-link Contact Page has like 50+ lines.. I can't tell what they're all supposed to do. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you wrote that all yourself, and maybe you had some purpose in mind putting them there.. Confused me that's for sure.

I have a feeling you were more interested in comments about your modeling work, though, so I'll shut up about that now. Is that some Unreal Tournament stuff I see there? o.o

[Mandinga]

quintquint said:

mandinga said:

Green/Pitch: Thanks for the link fix, I was kinda gone when I posted it. glad it loads, I traded beauty for speed. Angel was a character inspired by zero and leviathan, along with other things non MM related I am thinking of changing her colors to a more white scheme.

White schemes are awesome..

You could add a bit more text maybe, that generally doesn't affect loading times. And maybe just like, take that Contact Link out and just put an Email Link at the bottom of the main page, maybe the word "Contact:" in bold in front of it(Minimalism = Good; Page with one Link and nothing else on it = Pointless).. Maybe you could slap an <hr> between your Works In Progress and your Completed Works, too... actually.. wait a minute.

Geeeez. You used frames? Who does that anymore? Oii.. And your actual code makes my head hurt. FrontPage code? Dreamweaver? You should code your own webpage(if you didn't), especially for something that simple. I doubt it would affect loading times but there seems to be so much unnecessary crap in your code. You have two-dozen+ empty DIVs with bizarre STYLE definitions at the top of your pages. That one-link Contact Page has like 50+ lines.. I can't tell what they're all supposed to do. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you wrote that all yourself, and maybe you had some purpose in mind putting them there.. Confused me that's for sure.

I have a feeling you were more interested in comments about your modeling work, though, so I'll shut up about that now. Is that some Unreal Tournament stuff I see there? o.o

Most likely the white schem on that model will yeild better results. The extensive lines of code are to get those damned reflections to work(IE slightly under all images) and some server code to get things moving, I think I will drop the contact link, and yes, The Pyro and Advent are both fully functional in unreal 2004.

[Mandinga]

Added the vids finally, I'm gonna call it quits on this for now, gotta get back to summer classes.