[ Portfolio] Callum Smith

edited in Portfolios
Hi
My name is Callum Smith,
I recently finished my Third year at The Open Window, with Majors in Animation And Game Design.
I'm skilled in a large variety of applications most notably
3dsmax, soft image, photoshop, Unity, Cryengine and many others.

I'm interested in jobs in Durban or Johannesberg.
crkswolf@gmail.com



Regards
Callum Smith
pdf
pdf
Callum_Smith_CV.pdf
346K
Thanked by 1damousey

Comments

  • edited
    [edit]
    I thought a bit more about what I said here, and while I still think my points are valid in terms of content, I'm not entirely sure what it is that you need to hear. I definitely don't want to discourage you: if you want to work in the game industry, then I very much would like to help you to do so. I think the "Reply with details and salary" sent me into hyper-critical mode, because of how I saw it as being rather arrogant.

    If you want help building a more game-oriented portfolio, you're welcome to contact me. Either way, work hard, be humble, and don't stop learning! :)
    [/edit]

    Hi Callum,

    Congrats on graduating. :)

    I think you'd have much better luck if you targeted your showreel at specific studios, or to show that it's more game-specific. You spend a lot of time (too long, in my opinion) showing turnarounds of ships, and you show no wireframes, UVs and other tech that's much more important in games. (I don't really have those in my current public portfolio either, but I've always included them in my applications to specific studios.) I think the pacing of starting with the turnarounds is a little bit weird too, because to me it makes more sense to show the final product to impress, grab and contextualise the work, before showing the breakdowns for it and potentially losing your audience very quickly.

    I feel as if you place too much emphasis on how many pieces of software you're familiar with, and not enough emphasis on being an artist, and understanding how to make your art relevant to games. Every studio that I can think of that hires game artists full-time and permanently (or with indefinitely renewing contracts), both locally and internationally, places much more emphasis on the quality of the art itself than the software that was used to create it. You say something in there about game design, but don't really show much game design itself, in terms of mechanics, level layout, and communication to the player. The impression is that you have a misunderstanding of what "design" is in the context of the game industry.

    Which parts of the "Making of" magazine thing did you do? Was it all of the 3D work as well, or the layout, or the logo?

    Making your own game controller looks pretty cool! Was it as part of your course or did you do it yourself? Do you have some stuff to show how you approached designing or building it?

    How have you found working with mocap? How easy have you found re-targeting, and how much cleanup have you had to do on the mocap data?

    I'd really just like to see more actual game-art, stuff that shows you understand what a game art pipeline looks like, that you know how to lay out efficient UVs, bake maps, and use all of those things artistically. Having additional skills like working with mocap and building your own controller are really cool, and it's definitely great to see, but I think their practical application is pretty limited. I mean, of the games that SA studios have released, I can only think of two that have used mocap at all (STASIS and Bladeslinger). The prior used pre-recoded data purchased off of Mixamo, and the latter... well, we basically re-animated all of the mocap because of how poor the results were for an action game.
    Reply with Details and Salary.
    That was quite jarring for me. I don't know if I was being hypersensitive, but it certainly didn't encourage me to hire you at all. If you're looking for a full time, salaried position (as opposed to freelance, and you imply the prior because of saying "salary"), then it's up to you to apply to game studios, and not up to us to have to advertise our studio to you.

    Good luck with the job hunt, and I hope you find the feedback useful.
  • I second everything Elyaradine said.

    my additional 2 cents:

    your reel is WAAAAAY too long. It should rather function as a tool to showcase your very best work. If an employer wanted to see more of your work, they will enquire further.

    Try keep it to around a minute, especially as you have just graduated. Many employers view 100's of reels when looking for staff and will stop watching after 30 seconds just to get through it all.

    I see you have some webdesign and logo stuff in your reel too? I don't think that as any place in a demo reel, perhaps one line in your cv listing additional skills.

    When looking for work, you may want to isolate your best strength (e.g. modelling) and then tailor your reel to showcase specifically that. One brilliantly executed model showcasing all requisite knowledge required to create would be all that is needed.

    Try an include a document that outlines your specific contribution to each project.

    And lastly, try keep your cv down to one page, ideally with work experience first, education second (you don't need to list all your subjects, just your major).

    The about me section you have written, can probably form part of a cover letter where you introduce yourself and mention a bit about why you are applying. It needn't be in the cv.

    your skills and abilities could be better listed as in short point form (avoid blocks of text, no one will read it), and avoid obvious things, e.g. "I am hardworking", those qualities should be reflected in the standard of work you present in your portfolio.
    Thanked by 1sumisukyo
  • Thanks shanemarks and Elyaradine
    Really Helpful and informative posts, Ill be sure to take your comments to heart and correct my mistakes.

    Regards
    Callum Smith
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