May 2015 Portfolio

Most of the work that I can use for my portfolio is from this year, which is good because it shows my current skill level, but the main reason is because I didn't have a lot of opportunities to look into character design last year. Though I like my designs below, I would have liked to be producing things like this by the end of first year, rather than now; I have a lot of work to do over the summer to learn how to design to a more professional standard, as I don't think this would cut it in a professional setting.

I went for a simple layout so that the viewer wouldn't be distracted by anything else - I think that the lines at the top and bottom help to keep your view central, and feel more organised. I left it open at the sides since it continues on - I feel like it flows easier like this, and it will definitely look a lot better on Isshu and if viewed with an image viewer. I used colours that went well with the designs but weren't too saturated; I don't want them to distract from the colours in the image itself, but I feel like the layout is a bit too boring otherwise.

Content-wise, I didn't have a lot to choose from. I like the designs of Johnny, Cake Man and Barbara anyway, but I would have liked to made a much expressive expressions page, taking influence from Chris Oatley's portfolio tips and tell more about the character in each image if I'd have found those tips earlier. I wouldn't have minded maybe a bit more of a pose to do with their personalities for the turnaround as well, although since most of them were designs to be animated, I didn't want to make the design harder for anyone that I was working with to translate.

I would like to create a new portfolio by the end of summer using the things that I have learned this year, and try to find a style of presentation that I think is a bit more interesting. It would nice to have newer 'best work' to put at the start and end, but I do like Johnny and Barbara, so for now I am happy with those two being my best designs and sitting at either end.

Here is the link for my portfolio on Behance

Portfolio Research

For researching specific portfolios, I wanted to find ones that actually seemed to have personalities, and actually thinks about bringing the characters alive rather than just throws on whatever designs they may have. I feel like it is probably easy to just find whatever designs you have done that you think looks good and put them all together, but that would not be enough to catch a potential employer's eye.


https://johnjagusak.carbonmade.com/projects/4066465
Though this portfolio is too long in my opinion, and looks more like a character design dump, I think some of the designs really stand out. Jagusak uses expressions and body language to show the actual personality of his characters really well as the shape and design of the character. I could easily imagine how many of these would act in an actual animated series, even down to the sort of voice they would have. The visual style a lot of the characters have remind me a lot of Cartoon Network characters, which might be good for some studios but it means that Jagusak doesn't necessarily have a style that stands out, and I don't think I would recognise his work if I saw it again (minus the name).

http://www.celine-kim.com/
Celine Kim again uses very nice expressions and poses to get the characters' personalities across - their use of the line of action is very clear and effective too, making the poses that much more exciting. They show thought into the material of the props and specific measurements which would help so much for 3D animators especially. The storytelling is very strong even within only one image, and it is clear that they aren't just designing for the sake of designing. There is a lot of passion put into this - not only is the character design great but even the backgrounds, props and colour keys have a lot of effort put into them. Kim shows that they are effective at visual development with everything being clear and giving you a very specific, confident idea of what this story will look like, and I think that it is an effective portfolio.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/12109707/Portfolio-2013
One of the things I like most about Chiara Benedetti's 2013 portfolio is the layout - everything is clear and concise, with the headings explaining the project without being too distracting or boring. The layout stays consistent even when moving projects/area and definitely feels like a solid portfolio. It changes a little when it comes to the digital paintings but I think that is necessary to make sure that they stand out.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/17767069/Chiara-Benedetti-Portfolio-2014
Benedetti's layout changes for her 2014 portfolio but so does the theme and tone of the work - there is a lot more focus on props and backgrounds in this compared to character design, also showing more interest in colour and layout. The work quality already makes this portfolio look much more professional, and like there is a clearer focus on what jobs exactly Benedetti is pursuing. The layout could almost be boring if not for how well the images use space - there is not a lot left blank, yet things don't look too clustered. It would be nice to see some of the backgrounds on their own page and a little bigger but with everything going on in the images, I think that it works well.