Tips to Build a Great Portfolio & Land the Job You Want -- with Ben Erdt

Ben Erdt and Laura Gallagher review 8 character artist portfolios and provide critiques and tips. Learn how to build a great portfolio to break in the games industry. See below for links to all reviewed portfolios.
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KZbin thumbnail art by Savelii Kalmykov (link below)
Artists reviewed today:
Diego Aguilar: www.artstation.com/diego161803
Jessica Canales: www.artstation.com/jesscanales
J. Mario Morales: www.artstation.com/jmariomorales
Kenny Oprins: www.artstation.com/kennyoprins
Henrique Sales: www.artstation.com/eatmylazer
Caiden Curry: www.artstation.com/caidencurry
Nadine Malan: nadinemalan.artstation.com
Savelii Kalmykov: www.artstation.com/savka
Ben Erdt's portfolio: www.artstation.com/benerdt
Special thank you to Lars Bundvad: www.artstation.com/larsbundvad for moderating the review session and to Étienne Bourdages: www.artstation.com/etiennebou... for helping edit the video.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:28 Diego Aguilar
00:11:35 Jessica Canales
00:22:18 J. Mario Morales
00:33:41 Kenny Oprins
00:43:34 Henrique Sales
00:56:23 Caiden Curry
01:08:42 Nadine Malan
01:22:32 Savelii Kalmykov
01:42:30 Ben's Closing Thoughts

[@Ramtin_Deghat]

For anyone who is trying to break into the industry as a character artist. This video and the whole outgang library are literally such a life saver and your putting this video which could have easily been behind a paywall or something for free. You are an absolute inspiration to me and a im sure to a lot of other people too laura! Im gonna give this a listen tomorrow morning cause the advices could be applied to other fields as well.

[@Outgang]

Thank you Ramtin! I'm happy to serve.

[@matmachina]

Can we just take a quick moment to appreciate how abslolutely no-one scolded Henrique for not being in attenance! You just assumed he has good reason and you proceeded to help him just the same. This is very wholesome and rare. Props to you all.

[@HeartlessCyborgs]

I literally fell in love with the instructor so I had to buy an Outgang subscription. 😅 I gotta say never thought I would get a crush from learning 3D. 🤣

[@Waqar_Naqshbandi]

Ok I am following this comment to see what happenes 🤣

[@Outgang]

That's very kind of you Heartless. I'll try not to break your heart ;)

[@wei_chung]

Thank you Laura! This is so helpful!. Hope we can see more videos like this! also love the intro warm background you have :)

[@unreal-forms]

really really love what you do Laura! thank you

[@Stillenacht3D]

Good stuff! Ben is a good dude. He's taught me a lot about game dev when I came from pre render/film production.

[@AnecProductions]

this has been both amazing and super insightful for someone who's just starting out seeing the level of some of the featured people here that are just trying to break through while their art is mindblowing and a slap on the face in terms of minimum quality you need to reach just to be considered for an internship its ridiculously insane lol crazy how high the bar is nowadays

[@justinarmstrong6126]

This is so awesome, Laura. Thank you ♥️

[@Sculpted_stache]

Thank you for the vid Laura. Ever since I’ve decided to work towards a career in 3D I’ve become addicted to watching portfolio reviews.

[@mastjappa]

This is a really good and educational video! Thanks for sharing and good luck to all the contenders.

[@MrJoatan01]

Laura, thank u so much for this concent!!! 💜💜💜

[@akagarbi]

The most complete and useful "reviewing portfolios" video I've seen so far, and trust me, I've seen A TON.. thanks for all the good info you put out there!

[@Outgang]

Thanks Garbi!

[@samitk89]

Thank you Laura for such informative Video 🙏

[@Rjmckinnon]

Thank you for this !

[@claral.vegelgrady1156]

THANK YOUUUU!🙏

[@enricbagur8105]

Really interesting video!

[@jzila9900]

your back, yay

[@piwypd0]

thanks for this

[@ThousandBlade]

I'm not in the 3D art business at all, idk why I'm watching this. But it looks pretty fun

[@sf4603]

This video kinda got me thinking how great it would be to have a place where we can share and discuss 3d projects and portfolios maybe even network and collaborate on group projects. You're probably way too busy to moderate a discord server or anything, but might be a good idea to grow the platform when the means to do so are available!

[@matmachina]

Could not agree more on this!!!

[@lenam9873]

This is such an informative portfolio review, I've learnt a lot in term of what to look out for and how to properly present your model and basically learnt from other people's mistake as well, you guys ROCK and thank you so much for doing this!! I'm planning to quit my current job as a data analysist and chasing my dream in the game industry at the end of this year. Regards of the portfolio subject, I'm planning to create 1 best portfolio piece and apply for the job. Do you think 1 is enough or it should be at least 2 pieces because I got 2 months left so the quality is going to drop down if I increase the quantity. Love you guys much, Laura and Ben!

[@Nexxorcist]

That was awesome

[@xxxYouDontKnowMexx]

You're so cool, thank you!

[@TheTorseHumtunja]

Laura, I just want to say that your videos are incredible, but not as incredible as you, your business, and your effort as a whole! Truly inspiring and helpful to so many artists. --the haters can kiss my ass--

[@Outgang]

Thank you Shayla!

[@cattuswitch7246]

That doggo armor 3d model is off the hook.

[@mrmiyagi6940]

Very eye opening video...90 % of the people here did not get it what are you trying to say to them. Except the last guy. By checking those portfolios one year later clearly shows the attitude their attitude.

[@kishoooo]

Exactly 🙏🏽

[@furynotes]

I think Caiden Curry I relate to the most. Struggling to make time to create art while you are at two full time jobs. That's tough when it takes up 80 hours roughly a weak.

[@matmachina]

Damn Caiden, that makes 2 of us with the PBR problem and the grind and the work. I graduated 2014 too and I got kids and a mortgage too now. It's tough dude. Very tough.

[@rjcasiquin7446]

Thank you

[@leto7789]

i think having a distinct, well groomed, style is the best thing you can do.

[@xylvnking]

I checked out Savelii's artstation and it seems he was able to relocate to montreal and is working as a character artist :)

[@saveliiK]

Yep, dreams come true :)

[@mad616]

yesss

[@majupiju2347]

Im no Character artist but rly enjoyed this review. Especially since you guys give very helpful feedback and pinpoint the weaknesses in a particular piece and how the artists can tackle does. Is there an animation channel beside Harvey Newmans that you could suggest in this regards? Cheers :)

[@Outgang]

Thanks Maju! I wish I knew of an animation channel I could recommend to you, but perhaps others reading these comments can.

[@majupiju2347]

@@Outgang Dont worry, thank you for the fast reply 😍 Wish all the best!

[@Steph-lo9sj]

Laura your videos are always quality, I'm beginning to get good at clothes making in marvelous designer and was wondering if it was possible to get a job just making clothes in marvelous designer for game companies or do companies want you to make/sculpt the characters too like the body and faces? It's quite overwhelming thinking about how much time it would take if I had to specialize as both clothes and characters body and face .

[@Outgang]

If you're a step above others in garment making, you can find jobs and contracts where that's the central thing that you do. Some general sculpting skills still go a long way but I don't think you need to be an anatomy expert or anything. I'm saying all that because I get a lot of freelance offers like that. Good luck!

[@roger4845]

What do you think about AI generated 3 d models? I thought that would take a couple of years, but Dream fusion AI makes them already.

[@Outgang]

Advances in technology allowed us to do 3d sculpting, it would be hypocritical to shun what will arguably be the natural evolution of that. I'm all for it as long as artist rights are respected.

[@vishalvkumar6796]

Should I just concentrate on my portfolio with realistic or stylized character or include both types. Does it affect my portfolio if I include both

[@Outgang]

If you don't have a job yet, it's often better to choose one and push and push. The problem with doing both realistic and stylized characters is one of time. It takes a long time for most artists to develop their skills to the point that they are employable. There's certainly overlap in terms of skills between realistic and stylized character creation but there's also challenges that are very distinct to each style. The danger in splitting time between realistic and stylized character creation is that both wind up just below the employability bar. Obviously, if you're already great at doing one and already getting the offers you want, there's nothing lost to spend time on the other one.

[@kaleo_mendes]

So many amazing guys out of the game, trying for so long... I feel hopeless. The bar is so high

[@Outgang]

Yeah it's a competitive field.

[@RadHD2]

I'm curious to understand one thing, as an aspiring worker in the industry and in conclusion of my three-year in 3D Art, the Portfolios reviewed in this video are all of people looking for a job or who want to move up? Some of them are extremely talented and show works of extremely high quality than the average of the students I know or who work in small studios, or in general, they work. What scares me is that before finding a job, I must necessarily reach a much higher level of skills before finding a job. I don't know if I was clear, anyway thank you very much for this video, of a unique utility.

[@Outgang]

Some participants already have jobs but their current employment isn't satisfactory to them, one works for a medical imaging company if I remember correctly but would like to break into AAA character art, another gets freelance contracts once in a while but nothing stable. They're all absolutely employable for small studios but some are not quite ready to move up to AAA quite yet.

[@RadHD2]

@@Outgang Thank you for the reply! My concern is precisely about the beginning of a working career, I was wondering if some of these artists could still be defined "Junior" or their skills exceed the standard of the "Junior Level"?

[@Outgang]

@@RadHD2 Level of seniority depends a lot on amount of work experience, perhaps more so than actual 3d skill.

[@mrmiyagi6940]

What is the recruiters job if you have few seconds to check those portfolios ? What do you do all day ?

[@Outgang]

3d creation, helping the team, giving feedback, going to meetings, playing the game... Y'know, Lead duties.

[@mrmiyagi6940]

@@Outgang So the lead then is a recruiter or it is different job positions ?

[@Outgang]

@@mrmiyagi6940 Different studios and different teams work in different ways. Somewhere HR/recruiters might pre-filter portfolios but when I was lead I wanted to see all applications. I don't trust a recruiter that is not specialized in character art to make the right calls as to whether an applicant is a potential hire or not.

[@mrmiyagi6940]

@@Outgang ok that makes sense now ..Thank you ..

[@killivalavan3245]

🍻

[@fractalelement857]

i would like to do the hair but how when x.gen is not user friendly at all, full of non-logical issues that keeps happening

[@Outgang]

Xgen has been like that since I can remember... you'd think they'd improve the code at some point.

[@samiranchakraborty3111]

love from india

[@relaxingtopology256]

55:26 Whenever someone asks me that.

[@bryanharrison3889]

Oh. and this video is the hero gotham needs. I don't think most viewers recognize the importance of a well put together portfolio.

[@1989johno]

jessica canales... if youre watching or reading comments... please mirror the boots. hes currently wearing two left shoes

[@OmniVenom]

Unfortunately for the artist who model the character with the elephant tusk is not his work, he probably model it, but I saw the original art from Manuel Sitompul in art station. Being a character artist is not just modeling but understanding visual balance and color scheme. So I don't give him full credit for that one.

[@OZZOZZ]

Ai is ending this market soon

[@AbhiMoz]

imagine being so narrow sighted

[@fractalelement857]

12:38 because she is a girl, and that's rare, they want girls in studios, trust me

[@scrappaper1418]

How do you know, you worked there?

[@toddie8233]

not too many people in this world are helpful these days

[@engrhaiderbukhari]

She is a girl or he is a boy?

[@ahora3854]

She is a transgender woman.

[@aybekogobaev1087]

What is the difference?

[@engrhaiderbukhari]

@@aybekogobaev1087 i am unable to understand the person tslking is a boy or a girl?

[@theodorsechesan593]

How about you read the name?@@engrhaiderbukhari