Moving onto planning my portfolio, Now I have gathered a large range of research on the providers, as well as professional and non professional standard examples, I was ready to start the creation of my own. Here I will be exploring different portfolio ideas, so that I can gain a good layout design for where I want to put my artwork, as well as what will look the most professional. I decided to use Artstation as my portfolio provider, as its one of the most popular used sites for game developers, and all types of 3D and 2D artists go there to look for new talent, and gain ideas for their own, so it will be most recognized for getting my work out there.
Menu/Pages: Planning process
To plan out the layout of my portfolio, I created a menu process to represent the different sectors and names for my digital website. I began this by listing the names of the menu’s themselves, as well as where they would lead to within the site. Artstation doesn’t allow you to manipulate the pages unless you have bought your own website directory, although, I can still create albums within the site, to hold my different sets of artwork.
- Portfolio > 2D >3D
- 2D > 2D Character Sketches
- 2D > 2D Character Concepts
- 2D > 2D Asset Sketches
- 2D > 2D Asset Concepts
- 3D > 3D Models/Asset Creation
- 3D > 3D models/Asset Textures
- About/Contact
Plan Navigation:
Here I created flow-chart representing how the menu would function more clearly. For my main sections, Home and Contacts would be the highest priority menu’s, as they hold all of my work, as well as my personal information. My portfolio would have subcategories leading to my 2D artwork, such as my sketches, final pieces, and concepts. Whereas, my 3D would show my Model assets, textures, wire-frames and final pieces. This is a more standard and traditional layout, but works nicely in displaying my work in an organised and structured manner that clearly highlight the different sectors within my project, as well as my personal biography where people are able to contact me for information.
This was another example of the types of menu layouts I would incorporate within my portfolio, its less advanced and is more centered in separating the different areas for my contact information. In addition to this, my menu’s have been moved together, so that you would have the option to access both 2D and 3D artwork off the bat, which separates into 2D concept and 3D models and textures within them sectors themselves. This is another option for the type of structure I could have for my projects, although I think its less clear, whereas my first layout you can clearly see the separation of my 2D and 3D artwork.
Page Layout: Art-station
Once the menu concepts were planned out, I then needed to focus on how everything would look visually on my portfolio. I created a wire-frame, that I thought best suited Artstation and how it lays out your work, the images represent how this would be shown in a grid formation, either separately or within an album. Although this is something that will be further explored during the actual creation of my portfolio. This layout maybe basic, although Artstation already virtually has the layout decided for you, meaning you haven’t got much room for experimentation with its design scheme unless you buy a subscription for full customization.
Art station Portfolio Set-up
Portfolio Web-link Address: https://www.artstation.com/morgsartdesign
When beginning my setup, the first page I was introduced too was my profile, this let me setup some personal information, and set a avatar. It also allowed me to show what areas i’m interested in for hire, where I was able to publicly show being either freelance or in the industry. I’m also able to put in websites such as personal social media’s, and other work representative websites such as ‘Sketchfab’ for my 3D models.
Moving onto the creation and ordering of my work, the Portfolio side bar is what allowed me to create separate albums for my different sectors of work. I mostly did this using my flowchart menu’s as a template, although decided to separate some into individual projects, as this worked better visually. Within these albums, I decided to make each individual image separate, unless it had a specific design sketch that went with it, as this was more compatible for the portfolio display option I chose. Within these options, you were either able to show your work with each individual piece within the album on display, or just the albums, where your work would not be fully on display. I chose the second option, as this was more organised to me, plus it had an option to show ‘all’ anyway, so I thought this display worked for both aspects anyway.
Now that the albums and display options were decided, I began by adding the work information. On each individual project, you were able to customize its title, the project thumbnail, as well as the captions and tags. These elements are what make your work more public, and depending what tags you add, gets your work out their to similar people interested in your type of artwork.
This shows how the albums work, here you are able to select using the blue titles, which album you want to view, and then click on the images themselves. I kept these simple, so people were easily able to access my work without any confusion. At first I had issues setting this up, as I setup my work using the second portfolio layout, but only had one album, meaning my projects looked bare, and my work was hard to find separately.
Once this issue was fixed and all my work was organised, and written up, my portfolio was virtually completed. In the future I plan on adding my final Western project, as well as my 3D models. Although this is something I need to progress towards, once all of my models have been fully rendered out.
Morgan Clark: Games Development L3 Year 2 