PortfolioContents

Portfolio Contents

What should be in your game art portfolio? Here is what Art Directors are looking for when evaluating an artist. Each artist will not have all these skills, but the more you have the better your chances of being hired.

Beware: there are differing opinions on what is required here (forum thread). Judging portfolios is often a highly subjective process. Just make your portfolio as awesome as possible!

Animator

• Solid understanding of the 12 Disney principles of animation.
• Realistic humanoid motion (walk, run, die, idle).
• Caricature motion (anticipation, squash/stretch, follow through, telegraphing, secondary motion, etc.).
• Facial animation, lip sync.
• Acting ability... ability to get inside the character's head, ability to convey emotion and tell story.
• Looping, blending, working with limited frame counts.
• Focus on character work (don't show bouncing ball anims).
• Extra Credit: Rigging & skinning, good camera work, editing skills, behavior trees, how to work with modular animation systems, UI animation.

Character Artist

• Ability to nail archetypes: tough man, attractive woman, badass monster, well-worn robot.
• Strong understanding of anatomy, organic proportions, biological structure.
• Low-poly edge-loop modeling, clean modeling, good edge flow, how to make good joints that can deform well.
• High-poly sub-division surface modeling, clean surface shading, good edge flow.
• High-poly sculpting (zbrush/mudbox/3dcoat), ability to extract good surface maps (normal map, displacement, ambient occlusion, etc.)
• Texturing, both realistic and stylistic (painterly). Material differentiation (metal, fabric, flesh, etc.), wear and weathering. Efficient UV mapping.
• An eye for color, value, composition, & lighting.
• Extra Credit: Rigging & skinning, prop modeling & texturing.

Concept Artist

• Ability to inspire, come up with new designs, express ideas.
• An eye for color, value, perspective, composition, & lighting.
• Can render characters, buildings, environments, props, vehicles.
• Can render consistent proportions that can easily translate into 3D models.
• Ability to render the same subject from multiple angles... weapon design variations, costume variations, different lighting setups, etc.
• Anatomy, clothing, armor, weapons.
• Quick sketching & silhouette studies, vs. full renderings.
• Extra Credit: 3D modeling for paintovers (Sketchup).

Environment Artist, Prop Artist

• Ability to nail archetypes: modern urban, pristine nature, rough-hewn primitive town, sci-fi technical.
• An eye for color, value, perspective, composition, & lighting.
• Whole environments, interiors & exteriors, individual props.
• Ability to tell a story through scene composition, asset placement, player flow.
• Low-poly edge-loop modeling, clean modeling, good edge flow.
• High-poly sub-division surface modeling, clean surface shading, good edge flow.
• High-poly sculpting (zbrush/mudbox/3dcoat), ability to extract good surface maps (normal map, displacement, ambient occlusion, etc.)
• Texturing, both realistic and stylistic (painterly). Material differentiation (metal, fabric, stone, foliage, etc.), wear and weathering.
• Lighting, lightmapping.
• Modular design, modeling on a grid, efficiency & reuse, cohesiveness, efficient UV mapping.
• Extra Credit: Concept painting, shader creation, visual effects.

Generalist

• A strong eye for color, value, perspective, composition, & lighting.
• Low-poly edge-loop modeling, clean modeling, good edge flow.
• High-poly sub-division surface modeling, clean surface shading, good edge flow.
• High-poly sculpting (zbrush/mudbox/3dcoat), ability to extract good surface maps (normal map, displacement, ambient occlusion, etc.)
• Texturing, both realistic and stylistic (painterly). Material differentiation (metal, fabric, stone, foliage, etc.), wear and weathering. Efficient UV mapping.
• Solid working knowledge of at least two disciplines.
• Extra Credit: Tool scripting, rigging & skinning, effects.

Technical Artist

• Solid software engineering practices, creating tools for artists. Fluent in one or more coding languages: C#, C++, Melscript, Maxscript, Python, etc.
• Rigging and skinning: characters, props, environments.
• Understanding of game art pipelines, clean and efficient code, good documentation.
• Physics, shaders, performance tracking, optimization, asset tracking.
• Problem solver, good communication skills.
• Functional knowledge of applicable mathematics.
• Extra Credit: Show your process of tool development.

User Interface Artist

• Strong graphic design skills, strong knowledge of fonts and their usage.
• A strong eye for color, value, composition, lighting and presentation.
• Understanding of User Experience and menu flow.
• Skilled at both pixel art (icons, elements) and vector art (Illustrator, Flash, etc.).
• Motion graphics animation: motion design, timing, composition, flow.
• Extra Credit: Flash, 3D, FX, After Effects.

Visual Effects Artist

• A strong eye for timing, color, value, composition, lighting and presentation.
• Solid knowledge of at least one major particle editor (UDK, CryENGINE, Unity, etc.)
• Skilled with shaders, strong ability with node-based shader editors.
• Demonstrates skill with several types of effects: explosions, spell effects, environment fx (water, fire etc.).
• Fluid simulation samples for flipbook textures like muzzle flashes, smoke, fire (FumeFX, Maya Fluids, etc.)
• Extra Credit: Functional knowledge of applicable mathematics like 3D geometry and trigonometry.

Links

• Your Portfolio Repels Jobs by Jon Jones
• NateWhitePortfolioAdvice
• Quick portfolio site tips for 3D artists building their first site by James Taylor
• GDC Vault - Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer: Advice from Industry Artists (Part 1)
• What should be in your portfolio? Polycount forum thread

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