This should be your letter of intent. Nothing else. None of your religious beliefs below this paragraph are relevant in a professional setting.
Most of us did. It doesn’t matter how you learned, it matters what is in your portfolio.
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My program was a bachelor’s degree, but it wasn’t super crowded either. People who failed to meet the qualifications still weren’t accepted. It’s not always about class size.
I also think my work is prettier than a lot of peoples’, especially since I designed it to appeal to myself. That doesn’t inherently make it better. For example, I know I’m garbage at composition because my brain doesn’t really process the methods artists use to guide the eye through an image to certain focal points without a whole lot of effort. Because I don’t usually see it to begin with, I don’t miss it when it’s not there. But other people do. When/if the school gives you an official reason, why not take a look at it (without bias if you can) and see where they think you fell short?
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I will certainly ask for the official reason, but the date that they allow me to ask is in like a month and half. I don’t want to get hung dry so long without any clue.
That’s strange. In my program, and the XRay (not art, but still had an application process) program a relative went through, when you didn’t get in they told you pretty much right away why. Maybe this school’s just busier. 
Speaking as a bit of an “outsider” here, in this discussion I am reminded of things that I was taught in the world of “conventional photography.” Where the “ruling constraint” was always the physical limits of “photographic film,” but the objective was always: “to create a ‘stunning photograph.’” But also: “a ‘stunning photograph’ that could actually be printed in a magazine or coffee-table book,” again using the printing technology of the day.
In the end, we are always trying to create an image “that the viewer will barely regard.” Let them never suspect: “how the trick was done.” Or that there ever was “a trick.”
For instance, the photographic artist “O. Winston Link” created a stunning collection which captured “the end of steam [locomotives],” precisely with the nostalgia that the public (of that time …) wanted to remember it with. To achieve this, necessarily “in a single ‘click’,” he used hundreds of flashbulbs. (Viewers simply said that “he was at the right place at the right time.” Just like viewers at “magic shows.”)
Nevertheless, he mastered “the technology of the day” so thoroughly that today there is a museum remembering him. (I presume that they have also archived his “meticulous (‘necessarily … advanced’ calculations.”)
I hope that this “fail” will not actually turn out to be “a fail.” Because it should not be.
(I frankly laugh at the term, “photorealistic,” because, as Mr. Link obviously demonstrates, “there is ‘obviously’ no such thing.” The image is what you make it, just as long as the viewer accepts it “barely regard.”)
Instead: “first, you ‘capture an image in your mind.’” Then: “you exploit available technology to realize it.” Finally: "Like any good magician, you make ‘the trick’ disappear."
Go, now, and use Blender to create “images.” Then, do your very best to realize them. (It actually doesn’t matter much if you [think that you] “fail.”)
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Hello,
Well, given our society there are many reasons it can go wrong, and nothing last forever anyway. But until it happens you’ll have to live and since you probably don’t have control over the world’s situation it’s better to focus on your own issues and secure yourself a situation to live your life properly until it’s not possible anymore for whatever reasons.
Keep in mind that work by definition is difficult and frustrating. You really have to love 3D, movies or games to survive in the entertainment industry IMO.
If you are passionate it can be amazing to do 3D all day and meet amazing artists. But you’ll probably have to face the same simplistic feedback at some point, and also face a good deal of pressure, overtime and so on…
For some people these downsides doesn’t weight a lot in comparison of the pleasure of doing what they like. For some others it completely kills it and they end up being quite unhappy at work.
For some people it’s best to keep CG as their hobby/passion and find a job where they are less emotionally involved so they can find a better balance in their lives.
But you probably have to find that for yourself and in any case every experience is a learning opportunity !
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This is the last time I’ll say this, because there’s no point in trying to convince a brick wall of anything- until you get over yourself and accept that you’re not as good as you think you are, you’re not getting into this school or any other.
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So, they hired you without a diploma? Well, they must have seen some potential.
How many “3D studio” jobs have you had so far?
Leave that bit out of future application letters.
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No more context is needed and nobody needs to consider anything.
EVERYTHING that is needed is supposed to be in the portfolio.
Can you do “the work” is the question and your portfolio pieces are the answer.
Show, don’t tell.
The second most important thing is personality.
If you are not a pleasant person to be around, people most likely don’t want to be around…
If you’d come at me out of nowhere with that end times nonsense, I’d give you an earful of logic and reason and then probably never talk to you again.
This is a huge red flag both on an professional and a personal level.
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@sundialsvc4 I reflected on it, and realized something. Yes, there are images that I want to see and I try to make them. The difference is the mentality I guess. When I make personal projects, I don’t make them to show others, I don’t want to make them to show others. I think the current portfolio turned out badly because my intent in personal projects was actually I don’t want to show you but I will show you some.
@sozap I did factory job before, and I wasn’t emotionally invested. But it really kills the heart, especially when people around you are harming you. Not everyone was bad, but at some point, you just know you can’t stay there anymore.
@joseph I just realized something, are people saying that I don’t understand composition because all the characters are facing away from the viewer and/or are small? That is my way of showing distrust toward the viewer, I deliberately don’t want to let the viewer see the face. And by making them small, I intended them to be part of the landscape instead of being the subject. Don’t take this as an excuse, this is purely for your information.
Also, just out of curiosity, you have seen “acceptable” letter language and my actual full story. If I offered the sanitized version, I would have lied by huge omission. Would you prefer the lie or the truth?
@Romanji It’s ok, I faced plenty of hostile people in life. I just wave them goodbye. 
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I know I’m probably wasting my metaphorical breath here, but it’s not lying to not blurt out your entire life story (sanitized or not) when that’s not what the letter calls for. Not even by omission. Did the school ask for that? Because the opening paragraph on your first page makes it sound like they provided you some questions they wanted answered in comic form, and you answered them in a single paragraph and then handed them a whole comic about your life instead.
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But that is not the case here, you want something from other people - an education now, a job/position later.
You are in the weaker negotiation position, you want something from them and they have plenty of options… why give them ammunition that can be used against you?
You want to project a professional aura of competence so that people can trust in your ability; bringing politics, religion and deeply personal problems into this is nothing but self-sabotage.
You’ve got one chance of leaving a great first impression …
That’s a false dilemma. The truth is you want bonus points for being a victim and the lie is that you deserve it.
Injecting this narrative in your letter is transparent and not only does it not work, it works against you.
The letter was a huge fuckup and you are still in the middle of a stupid retreat battle.
Get your ego out of the way and stop playing ego games.
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I’m pretty sure there are no characters in the example Joseph discussed 
Whatever was your intent it got lost in senseless noise.
And before you say that the chaotic nature of these images was somehow intentional - art is communication. If you want to talk only to yourself that’s perfectly fine. But if you want other people to understand your message, you need to put some real effort into it.
Saying this as a complete failure when it comes to social interactions 
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Why did you make this post, @DrPTI ? You pretended to be interested in feedback, but in reality, you’ve rejected all feedback, doubled down on all your positions, and continued to laud yourself as “better” than other 3D artists, despite being nothing of the sort. Were you looking for people to tell you you’re a special, wonderful, artist, being persecuted by this mean school that doesn’t understand you and your life story? Because you’re not going to get that here. I’m moving this to off topic chat- Focused Critique is for people looking for feedback, not people looking for validation of their “woe is me, everyone hates me, no one understands me” mindset
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Oh, I don’t know… the parts of industry you are looking to get into, which you’ve shown in your response here that you know very little about; the requirements of the school itself, things like that. Not everyone who embarks in education for a career path takes the time to learn what they are getting into, but many of those who don’t find it extremely hard or not what they were expecting, and don’t fare too well.
The reason you need to state things clearly to us is because you are saying things that suggest you do not understand what you are trying to get into… unfortunately the more clear you are the more this appears to be true.
I’ve played this game myself. You say it’s context, but it’s really just a way to rebuff harsh truths you don’t want to hear. None of your context matters, not to the school you are applying to, not to the industry you are looking to get work in, not in life. So it cannot matter to us when we try to aid you, because it would be doing you a disservice in the long run. Please understand this.
What do you mean by “cinema companies”? The film/tv industry is massive, with many sub-industries. Do you know what the different moving parts are? If I recall correctly your letter said this was where you wanted to work “for preference”, so you really should know and be able to use more precise language for your chosen area.
There are vfx studios where the film won accolades for visual effects, but have shut down as a direct result of working on those films, because they were pushed too hard by the film studio, asked for quick turnarounds on a new direction after months of work etc. As I said, the vfx industry unionised recently (a few months ago), because of abuses from the film studios who hire them for low money, them demand unreasonable, punishing schedules.
The entirety of this industry is in flux due to a string of box office flops, a move to streaming that isn’t everything that companies thought it would be, and multiple strikes (actors, writers, directors), all forcing other industries in the chain to also down tools and stop work whether they wanted to or not. Content is being cut, which means jobs are going to be increasingly limited. Independent studios are probably going to flourish more in this environment, but their resources are more limited. As someone who says “don’t expect me work above what I am paid for”, are the challenges of working in such a volatile state acceptable to your sensibilities?
Composition is the harmonization of all parts of your scene. Going back to this image:
No people in it. What is the focal point of the scene? Where is our gaze meant to be drawn? How do the other elements within the scene build towards this picture you are trying to paint for us?
- Use of colour has already been brought up. You have several bold colours each vying for attention in different parts of the image, making it hard to take in the piece as a whole.
- You say you tried to light your scenes as naturally as possible, but there still needs to be intent there. Think what your focal point is, it should also be the focal point of your lighting. In an open nature scene this could be achieved by cloud cover, or the sun’s position over the little bank, etc.
- Depth of field. I mentioned focal point a few times. An obvious way to clue us in is DOF. I might royally bungle this point, but you should get the gist. Even if this scene has a large DOF, allowing much of the scenery to stay in focus, the falloff to the blurry mountains in the back looks wrong (read: non existent. Everything is sharp until it isn’t—including the land/ocean where it touches the mountains). But ideally you want the focal point to be whatever the object of interest is in your scene, with the rest slightly out of focus based on distance from that point. Again, this helps draw the eye. Try different things: focus on the pink blossomed tree in the middle distance, for a less immediately obvious example (or the bridge for a more obvious one), and mess about with f-stops. [If you have made an attempt here, the effect is so slight it doesn’t do the job.]
- Placement and framing. Where in the scene do you want your focal point, how much other “stuff” do you want in the image, and where does it belong to better suit the framing of your main draw. Think rule of thirds, golden ratio, and all those other placement guides: while the different ones might not always serve the particular image, understanding them can help you work out the visual intent behind your placements.
- Structure and cohesion. What is the picture even about anyway? I see a path through a…what? garden? park?… by what might be the sea with a bridge over a river, and mountains in the background. These elements definitely can work together, but I’m struggling to get a sense of them as a whole in this piece. They are just bits of scenery put next to each other.
There are other issues: the river looks fake, the bridge does not fit into the landscape (if it’s been there a while, where are the effects of weathering? If it’s newly placed, how would the disturbed ground around it look? If it’s been there a while but has been newly touched up and painted, again, we need a clue). There really is a lot that goes into a well composed picture, and I’m sure I’ve missed plenty of things just as worthy of consideration.
As far as your images with people go, your intent is not clear. If you have to explain it to us it means you did not capture it in your composition.
We all clearly have a different understanding of what is expected from you here, so it would help if we are all working from the same information.
Could you please post a link to the course and the admission guidelines, including what is expected in the portfolio and letter of intent? Given your letter already names the school as NAD, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It might also help us diagnose the specific points that failed you, rather than just the general issues we have seen from what you’ve provided us. But honestly, I’d be surprised to find any school is looking for your life story, only your (positive) relevant experience, your particular interest within the field, and your aspirations with the school and future career.
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@DrPTI why did you post here? Did you really want honest feedback, or did you want pats on the back, saying you did great? Because right now, all you are doing is defending, if you really want feedback, take it, and find ways to improve, or else you will be here next year, with practically the same post, the same type of work, maybe a couple different additional projects, but the same type of portfolio, so please, do yourself a favor, strip the ego, this isn’t about you, it is about the art, we are never going to pat someone on the back who doesn’t deserve it, we are all trying to help you, so take the feedback, and try to improve, don’t try to defend.
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Yeah it probably not going to be as worse as the factory but it’s always possible to find a middle ground and easier jobs, as said ones probably needs to be passionate about CG/games/movies to really enjoy the ride.
All that said, I realized I didn’t gave feedback on the whole portfolio, it’s more feedback about a professional portfolio as I don’t know the school’s standards. So you probably don’t have to have all these points rights but the more you have the better chances of success you’ll have.
1/ to reiterate, make the intro letter (and the portfolio) be reviewed by some education or CG professionals before submitting.
2/ don’t rush it, you have one year to get prepared now, it can work much better.
3/ What industry and position you want to apply to ?
This is something a bit unclear when looking at your portfolio. First do you prefer to work on video games, vfx, animation… We should be able to answer by looking at your work. Then what position ? Try to think about junior positions ! (maybe you like to tell stories but it’s not what you’re going to be asked to do after school). So pick one simple skill and try to put the emphasis on that.
Here are tree professional portfolio :
https://www.artstation.com/maryia_panfilova
It’s very obvious that this person put the emphasis on character modeling, and given the style, video games might be the best fit. That doesn’t prevent them to work elsewhere but at least they have a specialty and in this area they are really good.
https://www.artstation.com/jronn
Here it’s someone a bit more generalist, but still there is a very strong interest in hard surface modeling and surfacing. It’s pretty cool that there is also a bit of other things demonstrating a broad range of knowledge, but yet very different from the first one.
To me that’s someone that is most likely to work in game or VFX.
https://www.artstation.com/mikel3dm
Another artist more focused on character, but this time it’s much more oriented toward cartonny animation, but it can probably work on some video games too.
As said, you don’t have to be that skilled or things don’t have to be that precise, but if a professional artist can find what kind of industry and position you’re targeting given your portfolio that means you have matured enough to be able to work.
Finally , you might prefer to be some kind of jack of all trades person, more a generalist profile, but it’s best to still have a main skill and a main industry especially when you start. In the end generalists are artists with multiple specialty but still they need to be really good in each of them to be relevant.
4/ Are you more interested in artistic or tech stuff ? it’s a bit sad that it’s buried into your porfolio but the cartonny character of yours are interesting, even more interesting you made a rig for them, that’s cool. If you are interested in rigging, it’s something that much less people do. Artists like rigger, scripter, procedural stuff are harder to find, so if you have some interest in that it might be easier to secure a position later. At least, say you are primarily interested in character modeling, showing that you know some rigging can be a great plus especially if you target smaller studios.
5/ To give an example on how it works, say I’m CG supervisor, or lead modeler on a cartoon series.
I need some artist to be able to model some props. I’m going to look for porfolios with a lot of cartoony props. Maybe someone whose portfolio is filled with realistic character could do that , but I won’t bother. I’ll took what is the closest to my need.
Alright it might be a lot of stuff to process, my advice is to learn about the industry and the positions for junior artists and let your work show that you have a good understanding of that.
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Could you explain this for the benefit of my friend who exists and isn’t me?
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It’s actually you, isn’t it? You’re the one who wants to know.
The only thing I can figure is that the texture is projected on the board head on as one piece, rather than being separated, as it would be on a real door, with the grain always following the length of the individual boards.
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