Tips for Creating an Amazing portfolio

[Thumper_34]

I didnt really know where to put this so Im going to put it here.
http://www.picklesofwar.com/index.php?pid=7

[yaustar]

Be wary of his (the article's author) advice. He has never been employed to a creative role nor been in the position to hire someone else. That screams "blind leading the blind" to me.

[Thumper_34]

Its actually a lot of advice I have heard from others. Ive also read alot of books on making portfolio's I just put it in my own words.... Just trying to help

Heres my quote in the first paragraph:
"So after reading many articles and a couple of books I have compiled a list of what I think to be the best tips for creating an amazing portfolio that will stand out from the competition."

[Thumper_34]

I will post my references as soon as I get home

[yaustar]

Oh, its yours... hmm this is awkward.

The advice is valid but your credentials don't put you in a position where you can judge what advice will make someone's portfolio stand out considering you have never been in that position to make that decision.

The advice you give is high level and doesn't detail what employers want to see in a portfolio. For example, a character animation portfolio piece would be accompanied by supplement detail on how it was constructed such as screenshots of the rig, texture layouts and model complexity (wireframe renders). Maybe even concept drawings,

One thing to avoid in portfolios are cliches. In my experience, nothing turns off a viewer then seeing another 'generic space marine' or 'space fighter'. Be as original as you can and emphasise work that you have done in your own time over coursework done in education (only if it is the same level of polish).

[Thumper_34]

"The advice is valid but your credentials don't put you in a position where you can judge what advice will make someone's portfolio stand out considering you have never been in that position to make that decision."

I know that I have never been in the position to look at employee portfolio's but there are certain things I do know that will make everyone's portfolio better. I just went through a portfolio class and it motivated me to right this article on what Ive seen a lot of people do wrong or right.

"The advice you give is high level and doesn't detail what employers want to see in a portfolio. For example, a character animation portfolio piece would be accompanied by supplement detail on how it was constructed such as screenshots of the rig, texture layouts and model complexity (wireframe renders). Maybe even concept drawings,"

"One thing to avoid in portfolios are cliches. In my experience, nothing turns off a viewer then seeing another 'generic space marine' or 'space fighter'. Be as original as you can and emphasise work that you have done in your own time over coursework done in education (only if it is the same level of polish)."

Yes!! I will add something about that to my tips


The article is generic, it wasnt just for 3d, although some of the examples are 3d. A lot of it I read and I was like hmm.... I remember my teachers talking about that.

Thanks for the Crit it was very helpful. I wasnt trying to sound like I new everything. Just wanted to help out some of the people working on portfolio's like I am now.

[HagNasty]

Originally Posted by yaustar

Oh, its yours... hmm this is awkward.
One thing to avoid in portfolios are cliches. In my experience, nothing turns off a viewer then seeing another 'generic space marine' or 'space fighter'. Be as original as you can and emphasise work that you have done in your own time over coursework done in education (only if it is the same level of polish).

Actually that's a bit of a misconception. When applying for a job (entry level for most people here) you want to show them the plain old things. This goes doubly for modelers. No robots or space aliens or sci-fi buildings. Instead make things that you would see every day but make them awesome. A few examples would be:

couch, table with dishes, pool table, trash can, wooden crate(you know how many of theses are needed for games!) Lamps, Toasters, Cell phones. Just model them and texture them to the tee. Specular, normals, bumps, diffuse, reflection and ray tracing. Use a skylight to light everything and make it look as real as possible.

They want to see these things because that's what an entry level modeler will be doing. It's great if you can create a transformer that has all it's parts fit perfectly together but both a transformers game and the Sims are likely to have a table in it somewhere. And somehow I don't think a company will trust a junior modeler to model Optimus Prime right off the line.

A general rule of thumb is to customize your portfolio for each job. IF your going to be doing 2d pixel art don't show off vast landscapes you created. If your applying to a company that focuses on racing games show them car models. (Pseudo interactive comes to mind)

Animators have it easy i terms of what to do. create a short 5-10 min Demo reel and show it around. This should include some sort of combat, interaction, walk/run cycles transition techniques and you can blend it into some video captured Maya work to show the technical side as well.