Hugo Gutierrez GDC Highlights

Post date: Mar 28, 2016 6:54:21 PM

This GDC was a great experience to me. I got to meet a bunch of amazing artists and people by getting tips and reviews from them. One of the main goals I had for this GDC was to get as much feedback on my portfolio from people in the industry as possible. Every review was different from the other however, I noticed some trends most of them shared.

1.- small /simple props. Most of the reviews I got from big studios wanted to see simple props in nice contact sheets. They loved the environmental pieces and bast scenes however they seemed very interested into seeing single assets. The reason they gave me about this was that even if your environment work is strong, when you get hired you'll most likely start as a prop artist. They'll give you small tasks at first to see how you develop before giving you such big responsibilities.  Having simple props in your portfolio will show that you can do the job they are hiring you to do. 

2.- consistent style. While my portfolio is mainly aiming for a realistic style, I have one very stylized piece in it. This has been in my attention for a while and I've considered taking it out before. What I was told from the reviewers was that despite them liking the piece, the drastic change in style was such a disconnection from the rest of the portfolio that it wasn't helping. It just felt like it didn't belong. In other words, I was told to keep a cohesive progression of styles.  

3.- edge quality. This was a very specific request that most of them pointed out. They didn't want to see 90 degrees angles. I was told by a handful of reviewers the importance of realistic contact points in between meshes or poly planes. They insisted in the big quality improvement a piece gets when there are in-between pieces to smooth the transition from one mesh to another. 

Other than portfolio reviews I spent my time making connections and meeting with some of the ones I made in previous years. It was very easy to start conversations with strangers this year. There were so many VR simulators that just asking if they have tried this one or that one was good enough to start a conversation. It was overall a great GDC for me.