What makes a good portfolio or showreel?
Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Edward and I am an aspiring Game Developer and student at UWS. This is my blog where I will be going over several topics and as well as the documentation of my game development work as I strive to become a Technical Artist.
I will be discussing in this blog post, “What Makes a Good Portfolio or Showreel”. I will be coming at this from the perspective of a technical artist that does both art and programming, but I will also be referencing some information and opinions I have gotten from people in the industry.
So, what would I say are the key features that would make a good portfolio or showreel? In my opinion a good showreel must be short and to the point. It must convey your best work as well as a breakdown of it. In general, a portfolio should be 5 -10 pieces of a person’s best work. It should be quality over the quantity of work they have. In a showreel it should be eye-catching but also short. It should go by a minimum of 1 minute or a minute and half and should have a maximum of 5 different pieces. Alternatively, it could also work well with a 2 minute reel with 10 pieces.
Now if I was to put this in context of a technical artist, tech art is very big and very broad. However, from what I have been told after asking around the kind of professionals that create projects similar to work that would be in my tech art portfolio, I would focus on the tool building and content creation side of it over the character creation and rigging side. Items I would have included would be Blender and Maya scripts, Art tools, some Houdini work +, pipeline management, and VFX. I would work to show my artistic and creative ability as well as my dedication to learn and create something new as well as how I problem solve. Then I would include clips of my tools in action, any visual effects I have created, and any of my big projects which showcase my tech art from shaders to lighting in action for the showreel.
A good way to figure out what to put in your portfolio or showreel is to go around ArtStation or GitHub to find people who do the specific job title that you are aiming to achieve. You can very easily grasp the kind of work and the quality of work they have used to get their role at whichever company they work at. You can also try and network either through LinkedIn or Twitter to connect with people who have the roles you are working towards. This allows you to get to know the kind of thing they’re looking for and get real advice on what to work towards which can help with giving your portfolio a better focus.
In conclusion a good portfolio is a mix of different factors. The most important factor is quality over quantity. It is much better to have two or three really good projects with several good aspects than just lots of projects that don’t show your full skill. Other facts to consider would be asking around and doing your research by looking at other people who are doing your desired career. It should also be short and to the point. Keeping these factors in mind can help you make a good portfolio.
Thank you for reading and look forward to more.
