ZBrushCentral

Looking for Feedback

Hi,

I’m looking for feedback on my work… I’ve been looking for work In London, UK as an entry level 3D Artist for a while now without any success. I’d like to know if my work simply isn’t good enough or if I just need to keep looking. I received a 1st Class degree in 3D Animation, which I feel should count for something.

Thanks!

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I feel like I’m in a similar scenario here in the Los Angeles region. I think I would need to see more like a the animation for this to better advise. One thing I notice is the scene shot is that you have motion blur, a good thing. You might try to add some dust effects on the ground where the feet touch the ground for running because it looks very dry. This could be done in another application like After Effects if this is a video or additional layers. It’s better than a lot of the work I remember from my peers when I had classes.
The dragon’s feet and hands could be further developed. The scales seem to abruptly end or become small too quickly to my eyes, especially near the arms. This is where I would use photo references of several lizards to see how the scales progress from the large ones to small ones.

The best advice I have would be to work on developing connections with individuals in the industry.

Hey, thanks for replying, that’s some good feedback! There is no animation though i’m afraid, the motion blur was done by moving the background, and certain areas of the character. I agree about the scales, they do end a bit abruptly… I didn’t have the luxury of time when working on the dragon which is why it’s a little underdeveloped. I’ll go back and see if I can add some good looking dust effects in Photoshop.

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This was a short student project, and one of my first attempts at Zbrush, as such there is clearly a lot wrong with it, however I feel that the detail on the clothing is worth showcasing… But perhaps not!?









Her is a link to my Showreel-https://vimeo.com/128581439

And my website-
http://samsmillie.co.uk/

Thanks for your time, and don’t be afraid to criticize… I need honesty

Hey, love this one :wink:

I am in the same boat, cept I am going through the pseudo seft taught thing, to the point where I have privately tutored people on entry level ZBrush usage and am seeking a PT teaching job to have even more time learning while teaching.
Pseudo, in that you always hear or see something that inspires you, and with the internet, instructions and examples are everywhere, its up to you to make stuff. But to reiterate, I am a student and am in the same boat, I would love to have a entry level job at a studio or whatever where I can play / learn with zBrush!

As an artist (of ANY denomination, or whatever) you should just be making “stuff” for the sake of it, like you are compelled by an unseen force.

I read and watch ALOT of successful artist interviews (successful in that they are employed, have good reputation, and make awesome stuff personally and or professionally), and alot of them say things like this in reference to landing the job.

Diversified portfolios : Like, can you make toon-like stuff? (which clearly you can!), can you make realism? can you (fill in the blank) themed assets and characters?
Tailored portfolios and pieces: Which company / studio do you want to find work in? What do they make? Can you make that kind of work at that quality? Example: Sci-fi studio or project; do you have Sci-fi stuff you can demonstrate?
What are you trying to do specifically? : You want entry level right? Entry level modeler? Entry level animator? Entry level FX? Just foot stuck in the door (which is still relevant hahah)
Are you a nice, balanced, and team player? : Seriously, this is the human element. Can you work with a team without losing your mind and/or causing others to lose theirs?
Trade shows and Conferences: Network with people and meet and interview. Have your portfolio ready to rock for them!
Skill, Demand, and Cost : I hate going here but its there. Highly skilled reputable artist are strongly demanded and generally charge a high cost. If you can fill in a blank by providing an option to a studio that never knew you existed, then your in a great place.
Know your strengths? : Notice I did not put “weaknesses”. We all know our weaknesses, but do we focus and sell our strong points?

Like the way I see it in terms of specificity of objectives:

You would develop into a generalist or director after proving the industry does not burn you out but only makes you stronger.
To be freelance you have to be willing to be CONSTANTLY looking for new projects, jobs, studios, ect. In a way we are all freelance because studios evolve like biology. You evolve with it :slight_smile:

Ok preaching aside with a focus on your pieces:

Your strengths I see are:

  • Acknowledgement and acclimation of “Anime” style
  • Capturing an emotion with a scene
  • Persistence over diverse subjects
  • Willingness to ask for and receive feedback

And I have to play bad cop, but Ill only say one thing:

  • On your angel samurai character I notice you are hitting one serious “not so easy” to avoid pitfall with Zbrush: Primary, Secondary, then Tertiary shapes. You can make something that looks fairly awesome with a focus on Primary and secondary shapes. The pitfall many of us hit when we first start making digital sculptures is plowing through these stages to get to the fun part : the details. Secondary shape stage is critical.

…namely, “what job position are you looking for?”

Simply saying “3D Artist” leaves a lot open to interpretation, especially since on your website you point out in the Land Rover app how you did just about everything from modeling to post production work.

Are you looking for work as a 3D generalist? Do you want to work in the main production pipeline, or pre- or post- production? Also, do you want to work with mobile app development, games, or TV and Film work?

Knowing those factors can help provide you direction, and focus your showreel on roles you want to pursue.

But for now, the only advice I have comes from the Gamasutra Game Career Guide (available for free download at gamecareerguide.com)

Character Modeler
• Figure drawing is important, to be able to show a clear understanding of weight, gesture, and proportion. Knowing how to express anatomy in 3D is also essential.
• Show the side view of a character model. It is almost always neglected in lieu of the front or back view, but this immediately shows if the applicant understands weight and form.
• UV layouts and texture sheets are important to see here as well. These texture sheets should show painting skill, as well as a good understanding of color theory, physically-based rendering and modern shader knowledge.
• It is also helpful to see the concept image for the character, so it is clear that you can translate 2D to 3D.
• Demonstrate awe-inspiring creativity with the character work and a solid understanding of anatomy, construction, gesture, and the like.
• Show something unique that hasn’t been seen in a game before. Display not only technical chops, but a unique vision.
• Many studios look for character modelers with strong traditional (drawing and painting) character art and illustration backgrounds, and a strong understanding of digital modeling/sculpting pipelines.
• Show a range of work that includes both stylized and realistic pieces, humanoids, creatures, robots, monsters, aliens, and so on.
• Pose and light your models. Gesture is important, and T-Poses never look as awesome.
• Show how you translate a concept to sculpt; show your clean low poly models, texture pages, efficient UV layouts, and final mapped asset.

Animator
• This position requires a strong sense of character, timing, and weight, along with the technical savvy it takes to get your animation working in a real time environment.
• For a junior position, previous experience isn’t so important, but your reel really needs to stand out. Animation Mentor portfolios provide a good base-line of the competition.
• The ideal reel shows both action and acting.
• Show strong and expressive character acting that includes dialogue and lip syncing work.
• 11 second club reels are great because they show your ability to make dialogue interesting.
• Don’t worry about trying to be a character modeler with a complex model. Keep it simple and potentially use a free model off the internet. On the other hand, poorly modeled character can distract from your animation.
• Use a good free rig. There is no need to make your own, a poorly made rig can cause your animation to suffer.
• Show strong gameplay animation samples within reasonable time frames (creative runs and walk cycles, deaths, attacks, transitions, fidgets, and so forth).

Yeah, the advice is geared toward the game industry, but some of these tips may also help out in TV and film.

From a compositing standpoint, I don’t like how there isn’t enough contrasts between the characters and the backgrounds.
Taka (the winged samurai) in particular needs a background where the wings, hair and pants are not the same shade as the background to help them pop out more. Alternatively, you could add extra lighting to the scene for highlighting the backlight.
Also, some of these are rendered in ZBrush with BPR and that means you can go under "Render --> BPR RenderPass and get any additional passes for tweaking with adjustment layers in Photoshop or your compositing software of choice.

I do agree you want to show a variety and range of sculpt/models. You may also want to emulate an illustrator’s visual style. You can do some that are iconic, like Tim Burton styled characters, DC comics and Marvel Comics.
You obviously have some, like Taka, that are in an Anime style. But there are other illustrators that you may want to also try to emulate like Mel Kishida, Range Murata, Yukiru Sugisaki, and Tony Taka, which are very different from the style of illustration of DBZ and Pokémon.
The point is that for character modeling, you want to show you can be faithful to the original concept art for these exercises while making a 3D version of these things.

For animation, it would be good to get at least 4 complete cycles of something like the walk / run cycles. Just one cycle is too short for these types. Addtionally, you may want to have things that go outside of the norm, like skating, figure skating jumps (I think there’s 8 different types), skate boarding, surfing, etc.
Heck, Even Ed’s run cycle (from Ed, Edd, n Eddy) would be impressive too.

Great feedback guys!

I’m looking mostly for character modelling work in the games industry, but job vacancies seem very few and far between in London, and the competition seems pretty steep… So I’d be happy for pretty much any job in the industry, at least to start off with. My next step is likely to branch out and show I can do assets and environments, as environment modelling jobs seem far more abundant than character work.

As for the backgrounds, originally it was because I couldn’t/didn’t have the time to work out how to get the backgrounds to render out of Zbrush… Now I have plans to go back and improve/re render them all out in their own environments using VRay.

Here is some of my early concept art (the character and clothing was reworked later). I’m just not sure if my drawing is good enough to show to a potential employer. Thoughts?

Front view.jpgback view.jpgSide view.jpg

I don’t have much to show I’m afraid, it’s all on Paper at the moment.

Silhouette exploration.jpgTenguanatomy.jpgTaka.jpg

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your progressing very well :slight_smile: