THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: What other uses do you guys see for the CGPORTFOLIO?

#3

Taken in order:

  1. Acquiring clients
    For freelancing? Possibly. I worry about the search functions not being varied enough to really support studios who are looking for people, but random people looking for freelancers, maybe. The problem becomes, if you’re, say, looking for a rigger who knows maya, you get 200 guys, and no way to distinguish them other than going through them one by one. You can’t say, “I want a guy within 50 miles of my studio in LA, who’s got 3 years of maya experience, and preferably knows Renderman.”

  2. Abreast of individual projects
    If the “separate project portfolio” idea is implemented, sure. As is, I get the impression one would only upload finished products to the portfolio, so no WIPs.

  3. Personal website
    For many folk, yes. For me personally, I doubt it. I’m a control freak.

  4. Other
    Not really sure.

#4

Good question. I will probably use it as an extra personal gallery (if I ever get my site up to scratch… for now CGportfolio is my primary (and secret) gallery) and as a way of keeping track of what my friends are doing as well as people I admire. If I can get freelance work through it, awesome, but it’s not my primary concern :slight_smile:

#5

I think it could be used as an extention of the cg store. You can click on an artwork, then click a button that says “Send me a shiny hardcopy of this beauty”, pay a fee and zooom! Instant cgprints to your door.

#6

The search function would have different fields and to be able to match each type of fields.

example:

Artist Type : modeller, animator, td
Software : Maya, max, renderman, etc
Experience : x years
Area : Country, suburb
job status : looking for freelance/fulltime/partime job

So let say someone do a search on modeller AND animator, using maya AND renderman, in LA, Who’s looking for freelance job, the result would be precise.

This way if someone who’s only a modeller using maya, wouldn’t appear in the result, as well as anyone who’s not looking for a freelance job.

#7

Do you guys see it as a tool to acquire clients?

Yes…well I’m hopeful.:slight_smile:

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.

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#8

It’s great to see people coming up with ideas for portfolio, keep them coming;

#9

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.

–Duncan

http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

#10

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.

#11

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. :smiley:

#12

Dear Rebecca,

I like you. Do you like me too?

[ ] YES
[ ] NO

I actually sent one of those in like sixth grade. Shut up.

#13

Originally posted by Jason: Dear Rebecca,

I like you. Do you like me too?

[ ] YES
[ ] NO

You forgot the [ ] MAYBE box! :smiley:

Sorry Anton :blush:…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, :slight_smile:

~Rebecca

#14

Guys you forgot

[ ] NO CHANCE IN HELL

-R

#15

[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]

#16

[X] Yes

oh… t’was for Rebecca :frowning:

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 :slight_smile:

#17

Originally posted by Anton: [X] Yes

oh… t’was for Rebecca :frowning:

LMKAO :smiley:

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 :slight_smile:

Ah, I didn’t realize that folks were skipping this bit. :slight_smile: 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? :wink:

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

#18
  • IMHO, the current portfolio has some usability issues, just little details here and there.
  • Possibility of creating categories or sub-galeries in the gallery section (to group differents renders of the same work/ to separate works from different fields)
  • Better integration between gallery and blog.
  • Section for free-downloading Models.
#19

software is automatically added as keywords :slight_smile:

Urm, and from memory so is your name :slight_smile:

#20

Originally posted by Anton: software is automatically added as keywords :slight_smile:

Urm, and from memory so is your name :slight_smile:

Gah!!! :cry: :smiley:

*adds keyword: ‘tard’ :smiley:

#21

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.

#22

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