Hey there, my name is c_aprii, and this is a general guide on what makes a good, impactful portfolio that you can reference time and time again.
Development History
Let’s begin with my history, i’m a render artist and 3D modeller/modeler, which means I have had to develop multiple portfolios in the past in order to score commissions, contracts, and anything akin to those. I am also a university student, currently in my last year of study, undertaking game development on an industry scale, which means I have had to also encounter many different portfolio types, as well as make my own.
So, let’s answer the obvious question, why do you NEED a portfolio?
Your portfolio stands to be your collection of finest work, whether you’re a scripter, builder, ui artist, animator, any development role really, a portfolio WILL be needed in order for a potential employer to gauge your work. This is something that 3D artists in the industry undertake daily too, so it’s worth getting to know the ropes when it comes to your portfolio.
Now, coming from a background where a portfolio is the key selling point in getting hired, your portfolio must be concise (straightforward) and show aim to document your skillset, now if you have experience in multiple development fields, then do document them. An example of this is if you’re a 3D modeller/modeler and an animator, then you can document both of these in the same portfolio, and so on.
Where do we make these portfolios?
Now there’s a bunch of reputable sites where these portfolios can be showcased, my go-to site is artstation, mainly because it’s super easy to get a portfolio up and running, and you are not obligated to pay for it. Other sites include: Behance, Carbonmade (free trial), PortfolioBox, Dribbble and so on, some of most of the ones I have mentioned here are free, but they do include premium subscriptions should you need more space.
You can always use website making services to also make your own portfolio, granted you will have to pay for it, but that’s another route you can take as it will give you complete and total control over the content your potential employer can see.
What makes a good portfolio, good?
There are thousands of portfolios out there, all differing in quality, so how do we tell which ones are sufficient, and which ones are not? Each development area has a different way of showcasing work; animation has showreels, scripting has showcases of scripted objects (the employer knows you can script, they want to see that script in action) and builders have map showcases.
But all the same, these portfolios must be able to be seen in a way where it reflects your best work as a whole, no point putting low-effort work, or a commission you do not like on it because that does not reflect your attitude towards the work being showcased.
A trend with industry standard portfolios, at least with 3D modelling, is that they’ve used in-game tools to render in the object, and this is the ideal outcome as it showcases what the model looks like in the game engine, however this might not always work depending on the game engine being worked with, so it’s good to exercise all your options.
For example, I use a rendering engine called Octane, which is a paid engine for MAXON’s Cinema4D, and that grants me the ability to make rendered images to go in my portfolio, other softwares such as Blender, Marmoset Toolbag, Maya (etc…) are also very good at this, which means you have all the tools you need at your disposal.
Your portfolio doesn’t need to be superbly amazin (like the top 0.0001% or any of that), it just needs to document your skills enough to convince the studio you’re applying to that you’re a capable developer with a good skillset; they’re looking for a demonstration of skill, YOUR skill, so be honest with yourself and see which of your work is applicable, and which isn’t. I have had many times where I have scrapped a project and remade it from the ground up because it was not sufficient for my portfolio.
Portfolio piece example
In order to make sense of what I’m talking about, let me walk you through a randomly picked portfolio piece (a single part of a portfolio, that will eventually add up into a full portfolio), and document what’s good, and what could be improved about it.
(image credit: Hamish Ames, Artstation)
So in this image, we can see that there’s a 3D model of a bike, quite detailed and with all materials accounted for. This is a good starting point, and let me walk you through why:
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The image is clearly contrasted, the most important part of 3D rendering, arguably, is the lighting, as it can clearly define the model, and this artist has taken that into account and made sure that there’s nothing in the background that would take away from the 3D model.
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The artist has also used multiple angles to ensure that their model is showcased in an array of settings; keeping your model in a singular angle, whilst it might look good in that angle, might not always be the best way to go about things.
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The artist has also given the piece a description, which can give it some character, the description is as follows: “A bike gives kids a greater sense of freedom, an item that cultivates imagination and a chance to explore their world while still holding on to that childhood innocence.” - once again, if you are able to relate the model to the viewer, then they’re going to relate back, and it creates this wonderful sense of achivement and relatability, i’m sure we all had some form of a bike as kids, didn’t we? that’s what the artist here is achieving by creating an anecdote that we can relate to.
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There are multiple angles included in this portfolio piece, however, there is an absence of a wireframe, now you might be wondering what a wireframe is, right? To simplify it, and create less confusion, it’s the topology-oriented view of a 3D model, which is made up of polygons. The higher detail a 3d model is, it’ll usually have more polygons, which is categorized as “high-poly”, with the counter being “low-poly” or low-polygon.
Usually artists include wireframe renders in order to showcase something called edgeflow, which is important depending on the 3D model - I tend to separate them into “man-made” and "organic, man-made being hardsurface (sharp edges, usually looks machined), and organic being the complete opposite, free flowing curves, like nature had made it.
Now depending on what the model is, I tend to mostly stick to hardsurface as it means topology doesn’t matter too much in that case, however if your model is organic (so something like an animal, which you need to animate otherwise it’ll look lifeless), then it needs to have something we call “quad-based” topology, which will make weight painting a lot easier down the line (anyone who rigs models knows exactly what I am referencing here).
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There is also an absence of something we call a “turntable animation”, which is the 3D model, animated on a turntable, so you can see how it looks from every possible angle, and it isn’t massively important, but some artists do include them to ensure that each and every angle of their model is captured.
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The artist also talks about the software used, which for the 3D modelling aspect is Blender, texturing aspect is Substance Painter and the rendering aspect is Marmoset Toolbag, with final edits made in affinity (an alternative to photoshop), and it’s not required you do this in your portfolio, but it’s good practice to put it in anyhow because you may get asked about it later.
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And finally, there is the lack of a polycount, but again, it might not always be included, it is something I include in every portfolio piece I make, but it is definitely not a requirement.
Overall, this is a solid portfolio piece, and you should be aiming to document all your models in a similar fashion, regardless of what the model is.
How can we link this to Roblox?
This is fairly easy to translate to Roblox; take into account the tips I have listed here and apply them to Roblox, so builders showcase your work in Roblox Studio, and not blender, Animators, make a showreel of all your animations in Studio, etc… I know that sounds quite simple really, but it’s effective in its approach, especially with all these bigger companies on Roblox now, it’s paramount that you have a portfolio that YOU are proud of, because a demonstration of your best work is the work that will get you hired.
And some advice for the future, don’t stress - once you make one portfolio piece, it’ll come to you quite quickly, and do not forget to make your portfolio YOURS! Give it some personality! maybe something that directly relates to you, maybe add in some colours you like, but be sure to follow the tips here to ensure you have a good portfolio that you’re proud to show off.
That’s all for now, keep doing what you do, and make sure you absolutely own it! (no pressure)