[Naeem]

http://www.annisnaeem.com/

Hey guys,
I've been pretty silent these days, but it's because I was throwing out all my old stuff, and coming up with a totally new portfolio. I will be submitting this at Art Center tomorrow morning to get more scholarship for next term. *fingers crossed*.

I'm just posting a few things here, because to post everything would be about 30+ images. I'll spare you all. Just go over to http://www.annisnaeem.com/ to check everything out.
First, some professional work for a hollywood movie! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1312257/
I'm very excited to have done work in the past, and some more recently for them. Very, very excited. And if you guys want to show support, go over to http://store.comixpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1200&zenid=fgrjhqqmu5tk0eoib410cf1j60
to buy the comicbook!

This was done mainly for a flash animation on www.preythebeginning.com/ . The site should be up and running soon.


And now some pieces from my new portfolio!

[Vahn]

your portfolio is pretty cool. I like the content and the simple design and layout.

this i noticed in firefox:

the website is really slow. You cant scroll down from top to bottom without a major lag. once the images are loaded, you can scroll fine but when you return from one picture to the overview, it lags a lot when it loads all the images again.

it would also be cool if you could got trough one whole block of the images without having to klick, look at image, return, klick next image. i know a lot of people have it that way in their portfolio ( when they dont have a stupid flash viewer) i just dont know why it makes any sense

if you could tweak that and make it faster to navigate it would be a great portfolio site.

good luck with the scholarship

peace

V

edit: im still testing the site and it doesnt scroll right even after it loaded all the thumbs. it almost crashes firefox.

p.p.s. there are no problems in the internet explorer. it loads fast and navigates fast there.

[Naeem]

vahn> thanks a bunch for testing it out for me. I knew it had problems, but i wasn't sure because i tested it on two different macs with two different IP's, and they didn't show these problems. But... these were the choices made by my webdesigner, which I argued against- however, he felt it best to design the site this way. I think I will be re-doing the website now, for sure- myself.
also, the reloading thing- I only experienced that in Safari. Firefox didn't yield those results.
But, that does sadden me, though. I thought I was done with the setup.

[neff]

nice, is the font karabine?
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[Tzan]

I'm using Firefox 1.0.7, win XP and it worked fine.
Seems to work fine in Safari 3.1.2.

[RasselTassel]

Hey Annis, excellent progress!.. very inspiring to see

Some very nice work. I like the direction you are going into.. youre all over the place with your concepts.. not settling with one niche only which will do you good in the long run.

Im feeling a bit teased though, with the work you show. I feel like the b/w sketches are taking over the portfolio leaving little room for the colored work to shine. Also its interesting to see that the subjects you show are either conservative studies or far out concepts of alien worlds. Perhaps having something in the middle would do you good? But then again it all depends on what kind of work you are looking for.

There are definitely clear weaknesses and strenghts, but Im getting the feeling you are having a good track on them yourselves so I wont go into deep here.

As for the website and porftolio layout. Yeah it would be a good idea to have your strongest eye-candy work right in the beginning. And not have too many b/w sketches inbetween the color-works.. just to keep the viewer entertained. Also I can see that you seem to organize the portfolio jpegs/pages as if it was a printed-folio.. i did the same thing with my first webfolio... but i quickly realized it would be a pain in the ass to update and that the works were often sized too small in its layout going this way. But i dont know.. whatever works for you.

Another thing would perhaps be to cut the "hire me" and "contact me" pages/forms... I really do believe most people would prefer using their email clients for this... (the autosaves, spellchecks and whatnots) Just use your email-address. Unless you have another specific reason for this.

Usually when hiring web-artists to create your portfolio-site they tend to add pages and gadgets just for the sake of adding it... when in reality most clients and art directors just really want to get in, see the best work as quickly as possible, get the email-address and perhaps a CV/resume and then get out. Atleast from my experience.

Anyhow its great to see new work from you... and good to see you setting up a folio.. it will help you alot with self-reflection and with keeping track on the work that is done and needs to be done.
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If u build it, he will come

[Naeem]

Thanks guys. I think I fixed it.

RasselTassel> Thanks for all the input! Yeah, I guess I may have too much work up that's not color. It was the same order in which I showed it to scott for scholarship review, and for that reason, I wanted to show a design process, and a lot of ideation to tell a story on how I arrived at my final color piece. (and yes, these are the jpegs of my printed portfolio ) .
As for the conservative studies vs. far out concepts... The studies are the source of my inspiration for the far out concepts. I'll do studies of mechanics of an old train and so on- then start to abstract it, and convert the shapes to an environment, or a new invention into the future. What exactly do you mean by something in between? Would you say something more present-day? Or something more believable and yet still 'crazy'?

THe other thing about the website is- my friend that's a webdesigner built it for me. SInce I didn't pay him, I couldn't make too many demands. He made my website more of a personal project for himself- and no matter how much I asked for a sectioned off site, he insisted that it would be "cooler" this way. I guess i'll have to build a new one myself when I find time.
I've already asked my friend to take out the hire me/contact me section and simply leave an email, experience and work- as that was the original idea.



P.S. Totally off subject, but anyone watch quantum of solace?! I want to watch it!

[Vahn]

yap works great now

" i am currently taking new project. " <------ S

[RasselTassel]

Thats very cool of your friend to help you out on this.

Showing a design-process is great. But I also think its very important to have an entertaining portfolio with lots of "beats"... with the beats being the stronger works, usually the paintings. I can definitely see where you are coming from as I did the same thing with my first webfolio that was more or less a direct convert of my printed folio. I still have traces of it my current online portfolio but Im working on updating it and going into v2.

Im guessing as with me you will have a problem with consistency when you are updating your folio later with all the new work you will have. And i really think you should show some of your work in higher res and not over-present it with distracting frames. I think a good source when it comes to displaying ideas and having a fun "portfolio" is Ben Mauros blog ( http://benmauro.blogspot.com/ ).. of course the works themselves are excellent, but the presentation is simple and really teases you to want to see more. Its all personal opinions but worth to be considered.

As for the "in between" i guess im refering to something more mainstream. And this is something i feel is a bit dangerous. But in order to have greater chances in getting a job/s its usually a good idea to make things a larger scale can relate to. As an example, one of the more popular approaches in current games being, taking something either contemporary or from history and add a twist in design. Ie Half Life 2(eastern-europe architecture-scifi, Gears of War(renaissance/roman-scifi).. one of the quickest ways to "originality".. taking something people know and can relate to and mixing it with another style or genre. - This is just an example, but in the end its all about being commercial and adapting yourself to the jobs that you would like to do or potentially see yourself doing. I did this some years ago when I painted and shaped my portfolio towards the fastest decent job. It worked. Of course I had fun doing it.. but i think i lost a part of myself in it.. hence the dangerous aspect of it. Now that im secure Im trying to get back to the roots!

Quantum of Solace?... nah.. attractive girl.. but trailers havent really been teasing me so far... I want to see Quentin Tarrantino do bond!
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If u build it, he will come

[Hideyoshi]

sweet page, Annis!
I agree with everyone else. Change it to something more browser friendly. It did actually crash the first time I viewed it... (on Mozilla)
It's got some great content already, very polished, very versatile!
Yup, taking out the rates information was a good move, that should imo only be discussed personally with the client once he gets in touch with you.