Week 10 - Monday: Small Chair

As I draw closer to the end of my degree, I have been researching ways that I can make my portfolio stand out and be more marketable to employers. I found an article on Artstation interviewing industry veteran Robert Hodri, who is currently the senior environment artist at id Software. In the interview he highlighted what to focus on when building a game-centric portfolio.

"At the beginning of your career, you normally won’t be working on a whole level or environment where you have to do everything on your own. At least that’s how it is when you’re working on bigger AAA games. Usually you’re assigned to work on smaller props. That’s why I think it’s important to have at least a couple of high quality props and textures in your portfolio. That can be anything from crates, rocks to weapons and vehicles. Just show that you can create good game art and are familiar with the whole process. Making high poly meshes and baking them down on a low poly is something that every 3D artist needs to know and your portfolio should show that." - Robert Hodri, Senior Environment Artist at id Software.

With this statement in mind I have been creating some more props that I will be displaying in my portfolio. I have been trying to find a balance between giving the model a nice silhouette and keeping it low poly. As such this asset is a lot more expensive than the previous armchair I had created. Currently the mesh sits at around 9k triangles. I can reduce the mesh further so that it is less expensive in-game, but right now I feel getting a strong portfolio piece is of greater importance.

My new chair props that I have put in my portfolio.

I now have two distinct chair assets in my portfolio showing that I can create props in different styles if needed. I based this model off of this Italian Baroque chair as I felt it would provide me with a good challenge:

A 19th Century Italian Baroque Chair that I used as reference.

I am going to continue tailoring my Artstation page to what triple AAA studios are looking for, as I feel these will be where the most employment opportunities are coming from.

ESCH, N. (2018), One 19th Century Italian Baroque Chair in Peacock Blue [Online Image]. Available at: https://www.monc13.com/products/one-19th-century-italian-baroque-chair-in-peacock-blue-furniture-seating [Accessed: 23/07/2018].

MON, S. (2017) Everything You Need to Know to Become a Game Environment Artist. [Online] Available from: https://magazine.artstation.com/2017/03/game-environment-artist/ [Accessed: 23/07/2018]