Your opinion about my website/portfolio

I plan on making a living from CG design, I have created my website/portfolio which is supposed to attract customers and show them my skills. Before making my business I want to make sure that my website is completely ready to start so I want to hear your opinions about my website. I am open to all kind of constructive critiques.

https://vizioart.com/

What I would like you to directly tell me:
1.) Do you know what I am doing and what you will be getting from me?
2.) Does my website send the message that you are working with a professional?
3.) How much would you be willing to pay for the quality of the product I can offer to you (judging by the quality of the images I made)?

Might I recommend the landing page show some of your selected portfolio?

My experience was to wait for a few seconds assuming something was going to happen. Nothing did, then I scrolled down to what felt like a “dead end”.

After looking around, I browsed to portfolio. Which I really liked.

The portfolio page also seems to prioritized the title rather than the artwork.

Just a new users first impression, so feel free to ignore.

Blissful autumn is great. JDM is amazing, but I think the headlight glare is distracting. That last one is very cool, but seems to be missing depth. Lighting perhaps? It just comes across pretty flat when the subject matter could really “pop”.

Disclaimer - I’m just figuring out how to make a cube blue, so don’t take my critiques as those from someone with ANY expertese!

:vulcan_salute:

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Thank’s a lot about your personal opinion, your description about the experience you had when viewing my homepage really gave me a new perspective at things :slight_smile: .

This is a somewhat harsh review of your site. Think of it as “tough love”. I teach students who have to enter the design industry, and I have seen quite a few online portfolios, good ones and terrible ones. Yours is not terrible, but neither is it terribly good :wink:

If you have trouble with honest and bottom-line critique, stop reading now.


I would get rid of that first page, which is basically a useless intro page. It adds nothing to the impact of your portfolio, and forces potential clients or employers to look for the content (which happens to be validated by @Fracture98 experience). Flash intro pages are a thing of the past, and that is where they belong: in the past.

Instead, begin with showcasing your best and latest work. It’s not about you, your company/brand, or about a dull looking intro page. It is about your work, and what your work can do for your potential clients - how it solves problems and answers needs which your clients have.

Secondly, check your grammar: “These are one…” should be “These are some…” or “These are…”. That line is vague and strangely worded as well: …in my favorite CG branch" - what does that exactly mean?
Also check the final sentence: “on books”, “whereever it is”, “from zero”, “3d environments followed with professional skills […] to fill the gaps.” Strange, vague, and obscure wording with grammatical mistakes is not going to win you clients.

Clearly state who you are as an artist / designer, and avoid fluffy vague statements.

The project descriptions contain grammar mistakes too. Check those.

I understand that English is not your first language, but at the very least have the text proofread by a native speaker or someone who is fluent in English. I would rewrite that entire message.

And as a client I would not be interested in reading that top section in the first place - when I click on “Portfolio”, I expect to see your body of work displayed, not vague messages. You do not have to tell me that those are your finest projects either: that’s an open door. A client assumes that you are showcasing your best and latest work first. There is no need to repeat that, because it is assumed.

Sort of. You seem to be a 3d generalist, and the quality of the work is all over the place. Neither do you provide a clear narrative in the images, or how you present your body of work. As a whole, it lacks a clear focus and intent.

For example: the 3d model implementation page. The initial thumbnail seems to showcase some kind of product. When I visit the page, I am presented with three badly-lit renders with rather rudimentary looking cartoon characters placed in a few completely unrelated environments, and one architectural render with a bad crop. No explanations about the first image. No explanations about what goal or need these images serve.

I feel the quality of those examples falls flat compared to the warfare page, which looks much better.
But on that page I read that the soldier model, with which I initially was quite impressed with, isn’t your work. Now I would not mind IF the rest of the composition and other components would be top-notch work. But it isn’t: the robot in the background isn’t even a real model, but seems to be composited into the image and blurred.

That doesn’t impress me as a client. Or at least, as a client who would be somewhat knowledgeable about 3d work.

It would be different if someone is a Houdini visual effects technical artist, and they used a third-party 3d model to showcase a technically impressive visual effects scene. But you are not doing that here: what you are doing, in essence, is using someone else’s work to render a portfolio piece that is not really yours.

To be honest, I feel that you are bamboozling potential clients. And did you ask for permission from the original creator of that model to use it like that in your portfolio?

If you star a fellow artist’s work dominantly in a piece like yours, I feel that is entirely disrespectful towards that artist. Did you ask for permission to include it in your work? It really feels like you stole someone else’s model to create a portfolio piece.

In short: don’t show half-finished or below par work. Or the work of others, unless it somehow demonstrates other valid key skills. Only showcase your best work and your OWN work. NEVER showcase other artists’ work!!! And certainly NOT without properly crediting the original artists. That is just wrong, and I wouldn’t hire you just because of that, because it is plain disrespectful - even if it is CC0.

And no-one cares about the background story. Show us additional renders of the models and environments instead. I also want to see the wireframes as a client, btw - how you handle the geometry.

No, due to the reasons listed under [1], but also for the following reasons:

  • you showcase only personal projects, excepting the very last one.

That is upside-down: your client work should in principle come first, because it tells potential clients that you have actual work experience.

And even with personal projects it is important to have a clear focus and narrative. For example, our students showcase mock project work on their portfolios that is directly relatable to typical jobs asked for in the industry that they are targeting at for work.

A designer interested in doing book cover illustration work will focus on showcasing book cover designs with their illustration art.

And it is a better idea to present a few extraordinarily executed project-based pieces, rather than a lot of arbitrary pieces that are of an average quality. At the very least have two or three superbly executed portfolio pieces that really show off what your abilities are and are focused on what kind of jobs you are after and you are capable of pulling off at a high quality.

A lot of your showcased work is rather unfocused, and just “art for art’s sake”. There is no directed project idea and process involved in many of the examples. Most are just some images, random topics, without direction. You need direction and focus to land jobs.

  • the focus and intent of your work is all over the place.

For example.
When I open the JDM Phonkrace, you present a render in which the car is the focal point. But there are two issues: one is that the car is not your own model. And secondly, the environment is not showcased at all.

What I mean is that in the 3d department at our school students vying for a 3d environmental artist job render a fly-through to showcase their environment. Often combined with a 360 degree render as well seen from a distance. With wire renders, and important details pointed out.

A still image that focuses on someone else’s car model (without giving due credit) is not going to cut it. And why only one render? Really showcase that environment you made. As a client I want to know if it would hold up in a short animation, for example.

Or are you specializing in still images only? But even then I, as a potential client, would be interested in different angles, different uses of that environment. Rendered at different times of the day, for example.

  • after viewing your work, I am left confused about what is your work and what is the work of someone else. A good example is the Synthwave page: you re-use the same car model a bunch of times in those renders. But I know it is not your work (you stated that in the Phonkrace section), and now I am left confused.

If it is not your own work, you should state which assets are yours, and which are the work of others. At this point I can’t even be certain whether those robots in the background, the explosion in the Trivial Overkill image, and other assets are actually yours, or sourced externally. You have lost my trust as a client.

  • finally, it seems as if you are mostly putting yourself forward as an environmental artist, but overall the focus on what you are best at is lacking. You might be a 3d generalist, yet many of the models are the work of other 3d artists, or their origin is unclear. It is all a bit confusing to me. Who are you as an artist? What is your niche? What kind of work do you excel at?

You mention books, online sites, images for movies, posters, wallpapers, book covers (I think), but then you also tout 3d environments and your professional 3d modeling skills. But I don’t see any high level professional 3d modeling skills on display, yet I do see environments. I see no book covers, or video game related images either. Or wallpapers.

You assert that you are able to create everything from scratch, but the only decent looking humanoid model is someone else’s. As is the car. So am I to believe as a client that you can actually model a humanoid or a car like that? At this point I am not even convinced that you created that palm tree by yourself (which is copied and recycled in too many images, btw).

In one of the Synthwave renders a humanoid rests its hand on the car model (which is not yours, but that is not stated on that page) - is that your own asset, or grabbed from another external source?

The result of all of this is that your portfolio and its body of work on display is rather unfocused and unclear.

I would not hire you for any job, based on this portfolio. Sorry.

And that has less to do with your abilities, and more with how you present your work, the portfolio site, and the confusion regarding which part of the work is actually yours. And it’s a HUGE red flag that none of the external assets that are used in your work are properly credited.

On a positive note, I did like the DAYxNIGHTxDJS poster project. That’s where I wanted to learn more about your workflow and process, but nothing is mentioned. Is it all your work? All assets made by you? I have a feeling that is not the case here either.

I also liked the Tokyo image - it is one of the better compositions and lighting setups.

Other observations:

  • don’t turn off the right-mouse click on your website. That’s horrible for various reasons: a potential client might want to copy some text, or just one of the images and send it to others for review. Or print it for a meeting with others. It happens, and you are not protecting your work from being stolen. A simple F12 in a browser brings up the code inspector anyway. It will only frustrate visitors who might be interested in hiring you.
    It is a prime example of a terrible user experience. That alone almost made me walk away from your site.

  • your typography is rather uncontrolled and inconsistent across pages.

  • talk more about your process, rather than fluffy background stories.

All of this is meant in the most constructive way possible. Find your focus, your specialty, your narrative. And stop using other artists’ work in your portfolio pieces.

6 Likes

@Herbert123 Has already covered most aspects/issues (I would agree with basically 100% of their statements). It might be a tough read, but it’s good info. I’ve picked up things in my own portfolio that I’m doing that are unhelpful.

As a potential fix to some issues, you could try uploading some of your own models to Sketchfab for inspection and link from your project pages. This way clients can inspect the wireframe and rendering of the model, along with (optionally) the UV layout and texturing work. Obviously still include some final render stills or video, but a link or embedded 3D previewer would save a lot of faff.

It will also improve your work as the model inspector will catch loose triangles and ngons. Whilst some workers don’t think these are a problem, in my limited experience, many clients and employers still want to see full quad topology.

2 Likes

Woah, thank’s a lot for your professional feedback. Those constructive critiques cut me in half XD, but I will work to improve and fix the issues you mentioned. To be honest with you most of the models you see in the images are not made by me (at least the most photo-realistic ones). I will mention all the models/assets which were not made by me (and that would be quiet plenty of them :grimacing: )

Please remember this conversation about this topic because I will reach out to you when I am finished with all the fixes and improvements.

Hello, I am sending you this message in case you didn’t revisit my website :smiley:

Hi Vadrigar, I am swamped in work at the moment… End of term stuff, client work…

I’ll try to find a moment to review your new version later this week. :slight_smile:

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Hello Herbert, it’s me again :laughing:.
I managed to finish my website completely and I would really like it from you to review it. There is no need to write a lot like you did last time, just a simple opinion on how it looks now and will this portfolio land me a customer?

On your home page, “talk business.” Begin with a short statement of what you can do for me – with “why I should believe that you can now sell me what I need to buy.” Lead the initial encounter in that direction with obvious links.

Although your images are impressive, every one of your competitors has impressive images too.

Don’t put a website out there and expect it to automatically catch fish – any more than you would throw a worm on a hook into your kitchen sink. You will need to actively solicit potential customers within your region – at least, “Croatia” – and use the website as the thing that you point them to. Therefore, you should structure your website around the presumption that “the [only] reason why they are visiting [this site], out of however-many millions, is because of my marketing efforts.” The website is therefore “stage two, not stage one.”

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Thank you a lot for your constructive opinion, I will apply “business talk” onto my homepage.
Now about getting clients, yes I totally agree with you. I will actively search clients, be it face to face or online, present myself professionally and leave them my website link just as something more to search around.