Portfolio Workshop

Portfolio WorkshopMade with love by OdinWhat is a Portfolio?

A portfolio is a compilation of work that showcases each individuals projects / games that they have worked on and completed.

A Portfolio is usually comprised of 8-15 pieces of your BEST work. Many portfolios contain a Demo Reel with all your work on it.

*Remember* Companies will view you only as good as your weakest piece of work on your portfolio site.

What is a Demo Reel?

A Demo Reel is a compilation of all your work into a video that can be watched in about 2 minutes or less.

What kind of Portfolios can I make?

There are different Kinds of Portfolios based on the field that you are specializing in.

Common Portfolios focus in an area that the artist specializes in.

*This may seem super scary but your portfolio is something that you will be working on for the rest of your life. You will always be revising it, taking down old work and replacing it with new and improved work. Art forms are always evolving and you will constantly get better the more and more you practice your craft.*

Environment Artist/Level Designer

Both these positions are very similar and many concepts overlap from one to another. Environment Artists generally create their own models, textures, and environments from sketches, color compositions to finished environment (lighting included). Level Designers dont necessarily do those items listed above but they focus more on Set Dressing in 3d engines, laying out levels, and scripting engines including triggers and cinematics.Contains a demo reel with breakdown of some modular assets (wireframe, UV layout, Texture, color map, ect).Contains Pages with information about their models and assets on them.

Continued Contains any 3D engines that they have worked with, and games that they have worked on that have their environments in them. I would highly recommend that you work on games to have them in your portfolio; being able to work under deadlines and to a high standard of work really goes a long way to show people your abilities. Videos of gameplay in levels that you have created and flythroughs of the levels are great to have.Having programming and scripting experience is a huge bonus in getting hired. Environment Artists need to be able to paint textures as well as photo manipulate. I would recommend that you are proficient in Adobe Photoshop.

Links

Level Designerhttp://jraymond.squarespace.com/http://mattlefevere.daportfolio.com/about/

Environment Artisthttp://www.sharp3d.net/

Character Artist

Ryan AvisThis is a very difficult field to get a job in unless you are the best of the best. *Warning*Continued Contains all the characters that the artist has created. This would include breakdowns for each character as well as a demo reel.

A character artist should be familiar with modeling and texturing characters (including humans and creatures), they should know how to rig a character and even animate it. Continued A character artist should have great 2D drawing skills, with the ability to create concept drawings of their characters giving them character, telling a story through their character, and creating something believable. (Should be an excellent figure artists and should have a great knowledge of the human and animal bodies. The best artists can take from real life and create something extraordinary from it but still keep it believable).

Recommended additional tools to learn would be Z-Brush (a sculpting program) and Photoshop. Links

http://www.ryanavis.com/http://www.bensoderstrom.com/index.phphttp://adriendebos.cgsociety.org/gallery/990745/

3D GeneralistCombination of character artist and environment artist

*BONUS* Strong 2d drawing and graphic design skills

AnimatorContains a demo reel of their animations.

This is pretty straight forward; Animators need to have a strong sense of the theories behind animation as well have multiple animations to showcase this. If you are interested in animation for games then you should get your models into some game projects.

A big plus for animators is having great 2d character animation skills.

Animators need to be Storytellers! They should be able to write and animate something that tells a compelling and/or funny story.

They should be able to take a regular inanimate object and bring it to life, give it personality, and make it the star of your piece.

Links

Funny:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_t9VCKLXmIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt3Gvn7ouzI&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wTT_DZLuRU

Demo Reel:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0-UpT-1sNA

Pixar:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cers3vJcos

Game Designer

Contains all the games that they have worked on as well as systems or mechanics that they have created for them. Most good designers present their non-digital work on their websites with print outs and rule sets for those that look at it to play and test their game.

Very few game designers create demo reels but those that do create demo reels are generally a step ahead. On the demo reel they can showcase gameplay footage from their games. Continued Game Designers must have strong verbal and written communication skills. When they write game documents for the team then the game should be able to be made just from reading over the game doc. Game Designers must also be able to clearly explain their ideas not only to fellow games but to people that dont know a lick of things about games. You will experience this a lot when dealing with clients, publishers, bosses, and investors. (Drawing from experience).Continued Game designers should be able to be very critical and objective not only on their work but on any other game that is out there. A good way to practice this is to give critiques of games that you have played including what went right, what went wrong, what can be improved, what can be changed, and break down each system to analyze them seeing why they are necessary to the gameplay and the core of the game.

Game Designers work a lot with flow of a game as well, including menu design, gameplay development, and even conceptual design including writing game pitches. Continued IMPORTANT: those that are interested in becoming game designers need to have a good foundation in programming. If you can program and have a good conceptual mind then you will have an easier time getting employed.

IMPORTANT: Game designers need to have a plethora of game knowledge. This includes hundreds and hundreds of games that they can reference and know the systems and mechanics to, as well as they need to know a little bit of a 3D tool, animation, a game engine, production, and the whole development process. This will allow you to understand what a feasible design is when you create it.

Linkshttp://www.jenovachen.com/

Programmer

*Programmers generally do not have a portfolio but there are many that do. It doesnt hurt to have one in order to showcase your work.*

Continued Contains the games that the programmer has worked on with a description of which sections they were responsible for. This is rare because generally programmers will have all their information on their Resume which they will send in to the companies with work related experience. Programmers will usually receive Programming tests from the studios that are interested from their resume in order to do a skills test to gauge the programmers knowledge. Following this it would go into a phone interview with either the producer, or lead programmer talking to you, getting to know who you are as well as your knowledge.

Programmers should have Video gameplay of games that they have worked on.

What if I dont know what I want to do yet?

That is ok! Most people dont know what they want to do until their last year of college or even after they graduate. You are already way ahead of them with the ability to start thinking about these choices now. But even so you do NOT need to make a decision for a long time.

Just do what is fun, work on what you enjoy and when you find something you love to work on day in and day out then you will want to pursue that further.

*Best thing in the world is getting paid to do something that you love to do.*

So what should I do for college?

When you are preparing your portfolio for college you should provide a variety of pieces of work in your portfolio.

Gear the portfolio that you create towards the college that you are applying to.

Continued For Example, if you are going to an Art College then make sure you show a lot of artwork both 2D ranging from still life, figures, and observation as well as any 3D experience you have. If you have maya or starcraft or unreal experience in their level designer or with making models then you can include that.

Continued If you are going to be attending a programming college then you should showcase some of the projects that you have worked on already, show some sample code to showcase your experience with it, and provide any other relevant materials which Wander will go over.

How can I make a portfolio?First thing you can do is take all your work and put it in one folder on your computer which we can call a Working Portfolio.

Having it all in one location will allow you to have easy access to all your work that you deem important.

In order to get Non-digital work on your computer you can take picture or scan it in. Videos, renders, or fraps of your 3D work is great too.

Continued *TIP* Every so often Burn your portfolio work folder to a CD or DVD so that you have backups of all your work. The more backups you have on CDs, DVDs, or on external hard drives// flash drives the better. Computers crash all the time and if you lose your work as a result of that happening then its hard to start from scratch again.

Website?There are multiple approaches to website portfolios. The Easiest way is to create your own online portfolio. A few really easy sites to use are:

http://www.weebly.com/http://www.wix.com/http://carbonmade.com/http://www.bleidu.com/http://www.blogger.com/http://wordpress.com/

Continued If you wanted to create and personalize your own portfolio then you can create it using Photoshop and an Adobe Program called Dreamweaver. There are a few different methods to this that everyone uses.

I personally enjoy creating my entire website in Photoshop, then splicing the image up and importing that into Dreamweaver, then just programming the rest in there. This Method, however, requires a hosting site online.

Continued Hosting sites are places that you can purchase domain names, create Ftps, and host your websites. Although these are great they cost some money to do so. Some Hosting sites are a little confusing as well to navigate so you have to be very patient when dealing with them.

How do I get my demo reel on my website?There are a few ways to do so. Certain sites allow you to upload your demo reel on them for free but others you have to pay for the privilege.

A Great way around this is to upload your Demo reel to Youtube then add a link for people to click on to see them. What is a Resume?A Resume is a 1 page document that tells about your work experiences, education, your skill set, and games that you have worked on or relevant experiences. Pretty much its a 1 page document that sells you to companies (or in this case to colleges).

The only exception to having a 2 page document as your resume is if you have a lot of experience working on games. How do I make a Resume?Resumes can be made as a word doc, pdf, or in photoshop.

Items that must be in your Resume:

NameContact informationPortfolio Link (if you have one)Objective (what this resume is hoping to accomplish)Work ExperienceSkill SetEducation (for college include your High School GPA)Games that you have worked on (If Any)What is a Cover Letter?A Cover Letter is a letter that goes with your resume that allows you to address your employer(or college) directly. How do I make a Cover Letter?Your Cover Letter should start off with something like Dear Hiring Manager or Dear College Admissions, Its even better if you know who you will be addressing such as Dear Odin.Continued Then it should be 1-2 paragraphs selling yourself to the college with relevant information. This should be kept as professional as you can. (For example do NOT beg or talk to them informally). Talk to the employer or college and tell them why you are qualified for their position.

Tell them why you ,over every other person out there, are more deserving because you:work hard you study hard you are talented you are a team player you are a leader you are specialect. Continued *Important* You need to show them that you are passionate about not only their college but about the job/major that you are pursuing.

Tell them why you are passionate about it. The above list are things they will hear all the time, you need to be unique and stand out from them.

Tell them a story about how gaming as affected your life, about why you are so passionate about learning these programs so that you can make games. Continued *MOST IMPORTANT* Be Honest! You need to be completely honest in your cover letter, your resume, and if you have a phone interview as well. You will ALWAYS get caught in your lies eventually and its never good if you do. Honesty is the best way to go about getting a job and living life in general. Questions?