Hunting for a junior position

As an entry-level 3D artist it has become a bit hard for me to land a job. You probably can imagine that it's very depressing for a beginning artist if you get rejected by companies for without a reason or you won't get any feedback after some art-tests. So at least I know what I should be improving to become a better artist. And if a company would give me a chance for an art test, they say "if you have any questions you can always contact us" but I found out the hard way it doesn't always work out like that. If a briefing is very vaguely described it's a bit hard to follow up to the expectations of the company. I didn't get any replies after I asked questions about a certain art-test but I've already lost 2 days out of my 7 days art test.

At the moment I'm just a bit sick of the games industry, on the one hand other artists say I have a decent portfolio and on the other hand companies don't even seem to bother and have a look at my work. I'm really having doubts if I should continue to pursue this "dream" I had for a long time. I mean, how can I improve if I don't get any feedback?

I've always tried to be nice and tread all these companies with respect since it's a small world. But it doesn't seem to pay off for me any time.

Cheers,


Stefan Groenewoud

Dressing the bar interior

Hey all,

It has been two weeks already since I've posted the last blog post! I just have a quick update for you guys about my post apoca scene. Filling up the bar took a bit longer because I was experimenting with several ways to light up the interior. I got inspired by a book I'm reading about setting up proper lighting setups in 3D-rendering (mainly focused on Mental Ray or other non real-time rendering) but it's very helpful, for me at least. It goes from the basic lighting tools all the fancy light baking processes with GI. So for environment and lighting artists this can be quite helpful too.

Anyways, for now I'll call the bar interior done. I'll revisit the bar later when the exterior is more dressed up too.

That's it for now if you have feedback, don't hesitate to contact me! I think I'm going to play Counter Strike Global Offensive, just to clear my head for a moment.

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Have a good evening!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

Post Apoca Update

Hey readers,

Right after I was done with the art test I got back on my post apoca scene I'm was working on. I wanted to fill up the bar first so I could get a decent part of the scene ready. Reason why I'm doing this is, it keeps me motivated and since it's a large scene to work on but also I can make a good screenshot already for in my portfolio. Normally I'm not a big fan of work in progress screenshots in my portfolio. But this time I really want to show off I'm capable of doing environment art, this can be modeling to texturing and set dressing efficiently. This is a huge challenge for me since I've never made a big outside atmosphere before.

Besides that, I'm also looking forward to make some camera materials in UDK. Like a vignette effect and chromatic aberration effect within the engine.

Well I'm off again, it's way too hot here in the Netherlands.

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Have a good evening!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

Facial update

Hey readers,

I know it's a bit early for the Sunday blog post but I had another small update. Last weekend I've worked on a head that I had laying around. During my graduation project I started working on it but never really finished it. This time I added a bit more detail and made the head anatomy a bit better too. It's based on one of the character design sheets from Brink, you might recognize it from its distinct caricature way the face has been made. Feedback is welcome guys!

Btw. It is a high poly render in Zbrush, no low poly whatsoever.

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

Small update

Hey Gamers/artist and a like,

I'm doing a small post this week since I've been busy with the art test. So I haven't done anything on my personal projects just yet. This week there's a small overview of the work of Paul Pepera. He's (coincidentally) also a 3D-artist at 343 Industries, like David who we've discussed last week.
Anyways, Paul also does some photography in his spare time and looks promising. Be sure to have a look at his photo folio and his 3D portfolio.

Portfolio
Photo folio

Artwork:

 

 

Recently I've bought the art book of Gears of War 3 and I happened to be one of the first hundred customers! At first I didn't know if I'd even receive it but it turned out to be a small surprise. Now I just need to find a decent frame for it!

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

I do not own the rights concerning the work of Paul Pepera, I am just sharing my thoughts and interesting artwork to other artist out there.

Week of the art test

Hello readers!

Time went by very quickly the past week or so it seemed to me. I have to keep this blog post rather short because I have an art test to do! Hopefully I'll be able to land a job this way at the company. I'm really looking forward to work for a game company again and expand my knowledge concerning 3d-art even more.

I also wanted to show a small update for my post-apocalyptic environment, where I've made a modular floor system and I started retexturing the foliage. Reason for re-doing the foliage was, if I'd look at it from a mid-distance the hanging Ivy would look like one green smudgy stain. At the moment I'm focusing on my art test and I'll revisit it as soon as possible 'cause I'm really looking forward to dress up the post-apoca scene more. I already have a list with assets I think that would fit the scene and could enhance the atmosphere.

The artist of this week is David Lesperance. Currently he is working as a Senior Environment Artist at 343 Industries. As far as I know he (unfortunately) doesn't show off real-time 3D-art on his blog or portfolio but I really do love his artwork. It has a lot of detail and always feels believable. You should really checkout his blog and get inspired by his work. It's worth your time.

That's it for now, I'm going to get back to work now and try to make this art test as awesome as possible. So please keep your fingers crossed for me ;) haha, have a good Sunday y'all. =]

David's blog
David's portfolio

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

I do not own the rights concerning the work of David Lesperance, I am just sharing my thoughts and interesting artwork to other artist out there.

The forgotten blog post (on monday)

Hey readers,

Argh, it's Monday already! I totally lost track of time yesterday and forgot to write my second blog post! At the moment I'm working on a small post-apocalyptic scene inspired by "The Last of US".

I really love an atmosphere where the nature is taking back it's territory. Here you can see the small setup I have so far, I did some lighting and added placeholder trees and blocks to get a good feeling of depth in the environment but also where all the assets are going to be placed.
Placeholders are (in my opinion) crucial to get a good sense how the environment is going to be filled in. It also helps to find a proper point of view to make your screenshots from so you have the one with the most visual interest.

Do not forget to check out the March-special about the Last of US at Gameinformer. They have very interesting interviews concerning the game development internally at Naughty Dog but also how they got the idea behind "The Last of Us".





That is it for my personal work for now. I am also going to show off the work of an environment artist that inspired me a lot. Most game-artist would recognize his name, Kevin Johnstone, currently he is a fulltime environment artist at Epic games. He has worked on Unreal Tournament 3 and the Gears of War series. These games inspired me personally to get into the games industry since these environments are highly detailed and full of life.

His work on Gears of War 3 & Gears of war 2:

On Polycount he also showed some very efficient texture re-use for his environment pieces. It's very inspiring and you'll realize how much you can actually re-use to save UV space.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1505313&postcount=162

Gears of War 3 art dump:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90110

Last week I also received the Gears of War 3 art book which I highly recommend. It has the most wonderful concept-art and 3D work stored in there. Although it's more aimed towards concept-art, it's still very inspiring and has enough eye candy for any artist. You can get it at Ballistic Publishing' their website.

Thanks for your time and please share the blog with other artist and friends!

Cheers,

Stefan Groenewoud
Junior 3D-artist

I do not own the rights concerning the work of Kevin Johnstone, I am just sharing my thoughts and interesting artwork to other artist out there.