Refining my skills

[MWard]

Hello all,

 

First time poster here and have been browsing the forums for a while now.

 

First of all this is my work : http://www.markward3d.co.uk/

 

I'm relatively fresh out of university I'm looking for the best way to take my skills to a professional level. It is obvious to see this forum has alot of stunning visuals and industry professionals that I aspire to be skilled as.

 

I use maya and mental ray, which tutorials are a bit hit and miss for and most of the positions I see advertised are for max and vray. I'm not really asking which is the best, but should I swop programs if thats where the positions are? or attempt to hone my skills in mental ray.

 

Any advice or step in the right direction would be really appreciated,

 

Thanks,

Mark.

[RyderSK]

Judging from your portfolio, doesn't seems like you're targeting architectural visualization but more general 3D, maybe you would get better response on cgsociety.org

 

One thing I think you should definitely change are those flames on your website, also the name could be smaller ;- ) It will appear much more mature.

[MWard]

Thanks for replying.

 

Well, originally I wanted to spread myself thin but I realise for being a generalist you need to be strong in all areas, not mediocre in all areas. I really want to specialise on architectural visualisation as this is what I enjoy the most, this is why I am posting here.

 

Thanks for the tips on website, i'll redo it soon.

[Scott Schroeder]

If you want to be in arch viz, then focus solely on that and leave the character stuff off your reel and website. If I'm on a hiring board for a position, I don't care about your characters unless you have some drop dead gorgeous character skills. Even then, I'd still rather see your portfolio be about architecture.

 

Yes, you'd need to have a familiarity with Max as arch viz places are a little less forgiving on training time, unless you really knock their socks off with your Maya skills. They generally want someone who can come in, sit down, and start working. They don't need someone fumbling around learning the interface of Max.

 

Good news is that you don't have to learn how to model, you just need to learn the Max interface. Knowing at least the very basics of AutoCAD will help you as well as knowing how to read a set of construction docs.

 

Mental Ray / Vray doesn't matter. What matters is you know how to light, texture, and understand basic color theory.