Do you guys see it as a tool to acquire clients?
Yes…well I’m hopeful.
Do you guys see it as a tool to keep people abreast of individual projects?
maybe
Do you guys see it personal website?
I would be very interested. If it were more like a personal website I could see having a tutorial area and a place for freebies like photo references, brushes…etc…that people could download.
[i]
[/i]
I’m wondering if the “work in process” idea might be built on/expanded so that the portfolio might have a subsection where the various stages and drawings leading up to the final picture might be shown. Many clients are nebulous as to what it takes to create a picture, and often are horrified when they see preliminary sketches. If the portfolio could “educate the public” some authors and small publishers might gain a better feel for what we’re doing and what goes into that glossy finished cover they want.
Or maybe not :o) Just my two cents worth.
Something that would be useful from an employer’s point of view is an “availability” field. People in this industry are always in or out of jobs. I know you have the employed field, but it would be useful, perhaps, to say, “Available beginning 4/1/06” or somesuch. Having that searchable would be even more useful.
To make this useful for studios, you really do need to have reels available. I know there’s a lot of technical hurdles, but at least allowing us to host it on our own sites and have it embedded would be nice.
Being able to categorize favorites would be good for employers as well. Like, “favorite compositors,” “favorite TDs,” etc. Or at least having a “search within favorites” option.
Some sort of stats tracker (maybe for CGS members) would be cool as well; let us know who’s been looking at our profile, when they viewed it, what pages they looked at, and where they came from.
I’d also like to be able to tell who’s listed me as their favorites. But possibly some people wouldn’t want me to know that (say, studios who are compiling lists of people to keep their eye on), so perhaps have an option for someone to have a secret favorite.
Originally posted by Jason: so perhaps have an option for someone to have a secret favorite.
Perhaps there should be a “Will you go with me?” feature. LMAO. 
Dear Rebecca,
I like you. Do you like me too?
[ ] YES
[ ] NO
I actually sent one of those in like sixth grade. Shut up.
Originally posted by Jason: Dear Rebecca,
I like you. Do you like me too?
[ ] YES
[ ] NO
You forgot the [ ] MAYBE box!
Sorry Anton 
…um…useful suggestion…racks brains…how functional is the Search feature atm? I’ve tried it, and it seems not to come up with specific keywords yet…maybe a set of the most popular search terms on the Search page or something?
Cheers,
~Rebecca
[ul]
[li]It would be nice to see a graph of your most viewed artworks, so you can gauge what impact each work has on a given audience.[/li][li]The ability to convert your web portfolio into a printable document for distribution.[/li][li]The ability to give your network pals gift certificates for the cgstore. There is already a coupon system in place, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to make this a “Give to username” function. Just a “Give this artist a gift” button would be brilliant. Naturally, the artist would be able to respectfully decline the offer if they don’t want to feel in debt or pampered. Imagine being able to send your friend a coupon for a CGPrint or the latest Gnomon?[/li][li]Improvement stars. A rating system that doesn’t show how good the work is, but rather whether or not you have improved since your last update.[/li][/ul]
[X] Yes
oh… t’was for Rebecca 
I’d love to see a gifts system too, even just sponsoring other member’s CGS memberships.
The search function is only as functional as people make it, if you don’t enter keywords, it doesn’t show up, once I’ve got a good collection of keywords, I’ll build something similar to del.icio.us that suggests good words
Originally posted by Anton: [X] Yes
oh… t’was for Rebecca
LMKAO
I’d love to see a gifts system too, even just sponsoring other member’s CGS memberships.
The search function is only as functional as people make it, if you don’t enter keywords, it doesn’t show up, once I’ve got a good collection of keywords, I’ll build something similar to del.icio.us that suggests good words
Ah, I didn’t realize that folks were skipping this bit. I just copy and paste similar keywords as applicable to similar images ~ trying to cast as wide a net as possible while still staying relevant ~
for example, for any image I’ll put my name, my user name, my school / institution name (and I don’t mean the nuthouse :D) the software / media, any applicable thematic words, etc. Hey, you want people to find your work, right? 
I put this for a still from an animation:
Joseph Cornell, Rebecca, Rebeccak, Kimmel, Art Center, Art Center College of Design, ACCD, Utopia Parkway, Animation, Still, 3D, Maya, Personal, Box, Construction, Cabinet, Wonder (etc.)
Dunno if this is good or not, but at least it’s a wide net.
I wonder if maybe a hint should be added to the keywords area to encourage folks to enter keywords ~ maybe a reminder such as “Enter keywords to enable people to locate your work” or something.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
Originally posted by Anton: software is automatically added as keywords
Urm, and from memory so is your name
Gah!!! 
*adds keyword: ‘tard’
I’d like a feature whereby the artist could check a category under which each pic falls, so you could search by ‘genre’, such as
‘humorous’
‘bots’
'landscape ’
‘character concepts.’
Or something like that…
Another thing is an ‘if you like this artist, you’ll love THIS one’ feature. It may be difficult to implement though.
I wish also we could add documents to our porfolios.
PDF Documents like contracts, resumes & shot lists.
Another cool thing it would be to be be able to add animations to the portfolios.
-R
I like Kyena / Natascha’s original idea of adding a section where one can post their own tutorials and the like in a nice, organized fashion. As with the main forums, the issue of “Where can I find tutorials?” is going to pop up. My suggestion is to somehow give any Tutorial posted to a tutorial section some sort of automatic “tutorial” tag if possible and forcing the author of the tutorial to enter keywords / tags before they are able to submit / post their tutorials.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
To add to that.
I would like to see at a quick glance how many tutorials this person has written.
And maybe some feedback on them (maybe with a star system).
I would also add a section called
"The Trophy Room" where a person can post how many awards he/ she has won.
For example:
John Jones:
1 Academy Award
3 CG Spotlight awards
1 Alias Student animation Awards
-R
Dude, the Martian Manhunter really is good at everything.
</geek>
I’d be in favor of an awards system whereby if someone writes a popular tutorial, they get free CGSociety membership, or a discount at the cgstore, or somesuch.
It’s a cool idea to collect that sort of metadata on the person… like, the most popular threads that they have started, their most popular art pieces, etc.
To add to that bonedaddy, I would create a point based system,
where a person can earn point by winning an award/ posting a tutorial.
The points can be used for discounts on certain products.
-R