Mock Interviews

This week our lesson was cancelled because we had mock interviews on the tuesday. The idea was we get our 15 minute time slots and then we have an interview with Dave and Andy Gahan. Andy works for evolution studios and also is the founder of 3D for games were i post most of my work for good crit. We were told that we would be interviewed and we must be proffesional and anwser all questions asked and show our work to both people. I wont lie at first i thought this was daunting because Dave has told us how Andy is when it comes to interviews and we have been told he rips your work apart.

Anyhow my interview was at 4.15 which was good because it gave me more time to get things ready and also I could ask other students how they got on and they could tell me what not to do in the interview. When my time came I was pretty confident that my work was up to standard to show both my tutor and Andy. The interview started with Dave expalining what they do and that that they had seen some of my work but now they wanted to see more and see if i would be good enough for the job.

I started by showing my children of men scene and instead of just talking about the shots on screen I expalined how i ended up with them shots. I did a walkthrough of how myself and Danny did that specific scene and also the problems we had and overcame. I also had shots of what I had specifically done in that scene which Andy said he liked because it showed what was mine. They did both agree that some of the shots were nice but on some shots I show too much of Dans work and not enough of mine, so this will be the first thing I will be changing on the website.

The second piece I showed them was my western scene which also had some props sheets. I went on to explain that after doing the children of men scene I wanted to do something that would be a personal challenge. I explanied that I knew my weaknesses were ZBrush, High Poly Modelling, and realistic lighting. I said that in the western I feel I got the western looking pretty close to how it should look in real life. The other two I currently working at to get better at. Both Dave and Andy appreciated honesty in the interview but they said sometimes your too honest. They said only be honest if the question is asked, dont them if they dont ask.

There main crit was the props sheets, the both agreed they didnt look right and needed redoing with a different layout. This is what I wanted from the interview, I didnt want them just to say yea everything looks good. I wanted harshness so that I can amend the work to make it better than it is and then make it easier to find a job.

The 3 main crits were

Make the western a little brighter
More shots of my stuff in the Children Of Men Scene
Re do props sheets so they look a lot more proffesional

These are on my list to do and I will be defintaly doing this in the upcoming weeks. To have 2 people who have been there and done that crit your work is what I wanted. You cant ask any more than 2 industry proffesionals telling you how to make your work better. I have taken a lot from these interviews and if another was to make itself avaibale I would jump at the oppurtunity, because you always come out of the room knowing a lot more than you did about your own work

Crytek Visit

This week we had a visit from crytek. Aiden Wilson came into look at our work and give us advice on how to make our work better. I showed both of my environments that are currently finished these being the western scene that I am doing and the children of men scene.

The western scene Aiden seem to like, he gave me some good criticsm on the trees that I have modelled and also gave me some good advice about modular building. He asked questions like what did I find the most difficult part of the scene and also what i was most proud off. Personally I think the most difficult part of the scene was getting the atmospheric lighting into the scene to give the realistic look. This is also what I am most proud off because how loong it took to sort out and make. Overall for the western scene i was happy with the crit and also happy with Aiden liking the scene.

For the children of men scene again he seemed very happy. I explanied that the children of men scene was 2 of us. He really appreciated the amount of work and effort that had gone into the scene and thought that as a team we did well to make everything fit very well together.

I think after the visit and having a talk with Aiden I feel a lot more confident as an 3d artist, He gave me good criticsm and also said that everything looked really nice, and to hear that from someone in the industry always makes you feel good about your work.

Also this week I have a little look into getting business cards made for the end of year show. I havent looked in detail and I am still debating whether to make my own business card or use a pre made template. I am edgeing towards making my own business card. I had a look a site called good print (http://www.goodprint.co.uk/) this site allows you to either use pre made templates and also make your own design. The thing i liked about the site is the variety. The variety of different things you can do on this is pretty good. You can add your own designs, have different shaped business cards, and your allowed to do what you want with them.

There also very cheap to buy and you get a good bulk of cards for the price. I think in the upcoming weeks im guna do some mock designs and start to get some preview cards made and hand them to my tutors to get an opinion on how to make them better.

Website Creation

This week I have focused on getting my draft website up and running. I decided to use the website Weebly because I had freinds that said it was a good way to get my website up and running. Also they said that weebly didnt need any programming unless you wanted to add something unique to your website.

Before starting my website i wanted to have a look at how other 3D artists have layed out there portfolios and if there layout works. Like I said last week I had an intial idea on how I wanted my website to look but I wasnt sure how realistic this idea was. when looking at other websites I came along a few that were really good but obviously took a lot of time and they probabily had some programming knowledge.

The idea I wanted was simple but effective. I wanted a homepage that was my portfolio. I wanted the website to be effective and soon as you see it. My website idea was to have a small web banner sized picture of my work that was clickable, this would then link you to high res shots of my work. This would include props sheets, beauty shots and everything else. I would then have links at the top saying the recommended ideas. Resume been the first one followed by my show reel and a contact tab. The home page will be my portfoilio having one image from every piece work that is click able and links you to the more detailed page.

Above is the main page of my website so far. What I have done is I have put my main work on the homepage which is my portfolio, which then allows you see what I have done instead of searching for work. The pictures are click able and when clicked take you to a more detailed page about the work. This includes my beauty shots and all other shots from the work. I have also talked a little about the project and why I did it.

Also I have added my linked headings which I mentioned I was going to do. I have done a draft resume and I think there basics are there but looking back at it I will definitely be asking for opinions. The show reel isn't up yet and wont be for a couple of weeks, and the contact is what it says it is. I think this layout for my website is a lot easier to navigate than some that I have seen. Some websites visually are stunning but can take ages to find the work your looking for. I wanted mine to look simple and be effective. I think I have done that because the headings are clear and the images are clear.

The picture above is what you will see if you click on some work. There is a short paragraph that tells you about the scene and then they are followed by beauty shots. For the children Of men work I have also included shots that show what I did and what Danny did. At the minute that's all I have on these pages but I am going to be adding prop sheets and a Shell sheet of the buildings and textures. I will be doing this for all of my work unless the prop is a unique prop, then this will go in the props section.

My aim for the next few upcoming weeks is to keep adding to the website and maybe get the children of men link finished. I want to have all of my props sheets in there as well as other things I have mentioned. I will be rendering my props out in marmoset and showing both in game and wire frame shots.

Once I have the children of men link done this will be the template for all of my other links and then the domain can be bought and once the work is finished I can start sending the website out to potential employers.

Here is the link to the website http://keenan3d.weebly.com/

Website Research

This week I have being looking on whats the best way to design my online portfolio. I have being looking at prices and what extras the companys offer.

With myself already knowing what I want my website to look like I was searching for the website that offered me more for less. Before I started researching online I went around the class to get some ideas on the best way of making a website. There were loads of different ideas, some involving dreamweaver and making everything from scratch and some using a domain name and having the host website doing everything for you.

Looking at a couple of previous years online portfolios I gained a better idea nad understanding on how the website should look to keep people attracted to your website.

There is the really nice websites where you can tell quite a lot of effort has gone into it. For example Alex Legg is a 3D environment artist who's website think looks great but there is room for improvement

http://www.alex-legg.co.uk

There is also the simple route with just plain backgrounds and nothing attractive that makes you want to keep looking at the site for example Jared Skold website is very simple and when I look at it nothing attracts me to his website and keeps me on there.

http://www.jaredskold.com/

An overview on how I would like my website to look is simple, Firstly I would like the common heading etc, Environments, Props and all the others, but when these headings are clicked I would like all of my environments to show up with one picture each, each of these pictures beign the main link which takes you to the main page for that environment. Here there will be information about the project, Texture sheets and beauty shots. If I do this for all of my props and environments I think the website should then look preffesional and attractive.

So coming to the conclusion that if I want a good website I have to put quite a bit of effort, I have basically 2 main ideas that I can use. The first one beign I can use Dreamweaver and research website deveolpment and start to make my website from scratch. Doing this opens up more options but will obviously take more time.

The second option is using a host for my werbsite for example www.weebly.com., What you do with there website hosting is you pay them a yearly fee and then you have all of these templates you can use for your website. Doing this obviously does not give you as much options and you may even risk having a website looking a lot similar to somebody elses.

So in the upcoming weeks I am going to be looking in more depth on which area to choose to do my website and choosing which is the best way to start it. I will also be looking into business cards and which template may suit me better