What are the Core Pilars for a good Portfolio?

General Discussion
1

I saw this post by Abe Leal and was wondering what the VFX artist equivalent would be, e.g what fundamental aspects of vfx should you cover as a junior to show a range of knowledge?

1 Like
2

check out the “Killer portfolio, or portfolio killer” gdc talks! (theres more than one).

1 Like
3

I think for the VFX most important is understanding fundamentals.

  • Timing (Something deals damage? Making it feel impactful. Buffs/Heals? Soothing feeling, etc.)
  • Shapes (Understanding both natural behaviour, like smoke that expands in size, but lowers it’s density with time and things like understanding gameplay limitations, if a spell damages in a certain radius, then VFX should very precisely showcase that)
  • Colors (https://youtu.be/8iTkIDYupu4?si=xts7PoYjn1vOH_oN, basically those other topics can also be taken from that apart from the next one I will list)
  • Immersion: Something that I feel not enough people talk about as it’s really important fundamental. Understanding the meaning and how your effect grounds into the world. You shouldn’t just make effects that don’t make sense in a content. So as an example, if you have some interior and you want to make VFX for it, probably things like dust, godrays etc. would make sense, but falling leaves are probably not a good idea unless there is open window or literally tree within a room xd Other thing is how they blend with the world and environment. One mistake I see a lot is that VFX doesn’t have proper fade in/out and in this world nothing just pops out/in of existance, even lightning has a VERY quick transition. So always fade out/dissolve/scale down your particles instead of just killing them instantly.

Those for the fundamentals.
Then I personally value a variety (for content, not style), so if you are doing stylized: show me some character abilities (defensive/offensive), environment effects, pickups etc. For realistic can be something like explosions, environments, impacts, blood etc.
So that I could see that you know different techniques and if I were to put you in the development, you would have a decent understanding of what needs to be done and might just need some guidance on how to higher up quality even more.

Also… at least in my opinion; simplicity is a key. I really dislike seeing in portfolio some epic ultimate abilities based on Korean courses, they don’t show me too much practical experience and when you join a studio there is a very little chance you will work on effects like that… especially as a junior. Most likely it will be more like environment effects or low risk abilities.
And simple is beautiful. I find really well polished simple pieces mesmerising! But that’s just me xd

Here are some good examples of juniors that I really like portfolios of. They aren’t perfect, but definitely catch my eye with variety, creativity and presentation:

And if you have commercial projects already and looking mostly how to present them, then I guess I can post my portfolio? Seems it worked really well during recruitments and from what I heard it was very clearly showcasing my skills.
https://www.artstation.com/manusvfx

5 Likes
4

ooh will check these out :smiley:

5

thanks this is really insightful I’ll definitely refer to this! I do feel like I get lost in folio’s that are solely ultimate abilities seeing junior folios is really cool

1 Like