Reply To: I’m trying to find a spot on the video game industry

[Jonathan Lampel]

Hey @elfideo , it takes time but I’m confident you can do it! I can see each project in your portfolio is getting progressively better, so you seem to be finding your stride. Take my advice with a grain of salt, but here’s my opinion: 

at the moment money is super tight, and I’m just maybe thinking of getting a regular job while learning this on the side.

If you’re not yet finding enough freelance jobs to pay the bills, this seems like the smart thing to do. While it may take you longer to get to the level you want to be at since you’ll have less time to practice, it’s much easier to find a job that’s a good fit while you’re not desperate, and you’ll be able to take your time on a few portfolio pieces instead of feeling the preassure to pump out things as quickly as possible. 

Contests are an excellent idea, definitely do one if you can!

Looking at your portfolio, I can see you definitely have the basics down, so I think you’re ready to step things up a notch. I’m not sure if you designed each one or worked from concepts, but the designs are awesome. Each model you have is good but fairly simple, so nothing really stands out as over-the-top awesome. Try something higher poly for the next project and focus a little more on the modeling stage. 

Since it looks like you like guns, here are a few examples of what I mean: 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WZ6O3

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Y36a6

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4qdEl

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mvwwE

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8B12m

Since your primary goal is to get attention, render out the high poly version in Cycles with sexy lighting, context, and reflections as well as putting the low poly version on Sketchfab.

Hope that helps, and I’m looking forward to seeing your WIP’s!